The question, «Are we alone in the cosmos?» has been answered. We are not alone. Geologist-paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, stated, as early as the mid-1920s, that intelligent life likely exists elsewhere and distinguished scientists of today, including Harvard biologist, E. O. Wilson; Cambridge cosmologist, Stephen Hawking; astrophysicist and noted UAP researcher, Jacques Vallee; astronomer, Allen Hynek; and many others c ...
In this new introduction and guide to Paul's Letter to the Philippians, Nijay K. Gupta makes the background, messages, and theological importance of this text understandable and interesting to lay readers and students. Reading Philippians includes Gupta's own English translation of Philippians. In his discussion of the value and significance of this text for Christians todat, he incorporates fascinating historical case studies, modern ...
Renowned New Testament scholar Gordon Fee explores the meaning of Christian witness and service in every area of life. Focusing on the implications of every Christian's calling to belong to Christ, Fee reframes our contemporary quest for a more seamless, integrated faith. His careful examination of the context and message of Paul's letters sheds light on how a Christian identity is lived out in home, workplace, and church. ...
Our sexuality is a key part of who we are and how we live as God's people. Many have yearned for a resource on this matter that is helpful and useful to lay people, seekers, and ministers. The stories included here come from singles, marrieds, gays, lesbians, parents, teens, young adults, and senior citizens, people of faith who struggle with their feelings and behavior around sexual matters. What honors God? What is acceptable to Jesus? Ho ...
Are we Methodists ready for the work of God to be unleashed? Are we ready for Methodism to be the catalyst of yet another New Pentecost? God has decisively acted in Christ, and Christ says, «Do this.» Therefore, there is only one real answer, since «not ready» is not a valid response. For United Methodism to be revived, there can be no more such excuses. Christ showed us his presence and power through Constant Word and Sacrament praxis during th ...
In these short, accessible essays, Alford writes about the personal «Why I Pray,» as well as the political «Simone Weil and Donald Trump.» He makes some difficult theologians, such as Karl Barth and Soren Kierkegaard, accessible, while not hesitating to criticize them. Alford argues the genius of Christianity is in God making himself vulnerable so as to know what it is to be human; otherwise, God stands at a terrible distance from humanity. From ...
Epochal voices in the reception history of 2 Thessalonians: an invective against the proud from the dais of a basilica in Constantinople; an indictment of clerical simony in a Carolingian monastery that nearly faded from historical memory; a theologically integrative vision of the epistle from Reformation Zurich. These readings participate in «beauty» all the while opening up new questions for later readers of Paul's letter, and their «mean ...
James's epistle is usually remembered for being very practical and for inviting its readers to acts of mercy and compassion. And yet, the same letter also claims that it is not possible to love God and to love «the world.» In other words, James encourages his readers to develop two seemingly opposite attitudes at the same time: to reject the world and to be involved in it. Vincent Hirschi shows that James contains crucial insights on how t ...
This volume probes the nature of gratitude as a virtue and identifies its moral value in the Christian life in order to enhance pastoral effectiveness in ministering to those gripped by sins of desire. Such impulses are explored in terms of the seven deadly sins, which this inquiry regards as distorted desires for the good God provides. Utilizing a method of mutual critical correlation, this volume brings philosophical and psychological claims a ...
