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Central to the Christian life is the practice of prayer. But what, theologically speaking, is going on when we pray? What does prayer have to do with religious belief and action? Does prayer make a difference? Prayer: A Guide for the Perplexed addresses these and other key questions regarding the Christian theology of prayer. Beginning with Evagrius of Ponticus's 'On Prayer', Ashley Cocksworth finds in this early document a profound expression of the 'integrity' of the experience of prayer and theological thought. Seeking throughout to integrate systematic theology and the spirituality of prayer, individual chapters explore the meaning of some of the core doctrines of lived Christian faith – the Trinity, creation, providence, and the Christian life – as they relate to the practice of prayer. Complete with an annotated bibliography of sources on prayer to promote further reading, this volume appeals to academics and general readers alike.
A selection, with introduction and commentary, of spiritual writings by one the most significant Protestant theologians of the twentieth century.
Obedience from First to Last explores the theological significance of the obedience of Jesus Christ in Karl Barth's theology. It does this via a threefold consideration of, first, the nature of Jesus' incarnate obedience; second, the relation of that obedience to the obedience of the second triune person of the eternal Son; and third, the effects Jesus' obedience has on our own obedience. Barth not only affirms the pivotal role Jesus' obedience has within the economy of salvation, but by equating that obedience with that of the eternal Son's, Barth gives Jesus' obedience a pre-eminent place within the immanent being of Godself. The obedience of Jesus Christ is seen to have a co-participatory role in God's determination of his own divine being that arises from the primordial act of divine election. This notion bears on our understanding of freedom and obedience: as divine freedom is expressed in divine obedience, so it is with human freedom and human obedience.
The liberating work of God calls the oppressed out of oppression and the oppressor out of oppressing. The challenge in seeking a thorough liberation of oppressors is to help them understand their need for freedom and how to seek this freedom in their own contexts. Patrick Oden provides a holistic biblical, historical, and theological analysis that diagnoses the underlying motivations and inclinations that lead to oppression. Part one addresses the context of oppression, in which most participants in oppression do not actively seek to harm others but are caught up in systems that tend toward the diminishment of others. Part two examines the biblical and early Christian response to oppression,...
Ecclesial Futures publishes original research and theological reflection on the development and transformation of local Christian communities and the systems that support them as they join in the mission of God in the world. We understand local Christian communities broadly to include traditional "parish" churches and independent local churches, religious communities and congregations, new church plants, so-called "fresh expressions" of church, "emergent" churches, and "new monastic" communities. We are an international and ecumenical journal with an interdisciplinary understanding of our approach to theological research and reflection; the core disciplines being theology, missiology, and ec...
In The LORD Who Listens, Charles C. Helmer IV draws on Holy Scripture and the theology of Karl Barth to offer a theological intepretation of God's hearing. Prioritizing this neglected biblical theme, Helmer develops a theological grammar for speaking of God's hearing that maintains a strong creator-creature distinction and then proceeds to demonstrate the profound implications God's hearing has for the doctrines of anthropology, Christology and, thus, for understandings of the gospel. In contrast to passibilist-liberationist strategies, God's hearing is argued to furnish existentially and theologically superior resources for those who cry out to be heard by God.
In the well-worn debates about religious pluralism and the theology of religions there have been many different rubrics used to account for, comprehend, or engage with the religious other. This book is chiefly a work of Christian theology and seeks to bring the doctrine of creation and the theology of religions into dialogue and in so doing it comes at things from a different direction than other works. It contains an extensive exploration of the doctrine of creation and asks how it might intervene distinctively in these discourses to produce a new conceptual and practical topography. It will consider inter-religious engagement from the perspective of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo that f...
“Seeing Mad” is an illustrated volume of scholarly essays about the popular and influential humor magazine Mad, with topics ranging across its 65-year history—up to last summer’s downsizing announcement that Mad will publish less new material and will be sold only in comic book shops. Mad magazine stands near the heart of post-WWII American humor, but at the periphery in scholarly recognition from American cultural historians, including humor specialists. This book fills that gap, with perceptive, informed, engaging, but also funny essays by a variety of scholars. The chapters, written by experts on humor, comics, and popular culture, cover the genesis of Mad; its editors and prominent contributors; its regular features and departments and standout examples of their contents; perspectives on its cultural and political significance; and its enduring legacy in American culture.
Freedom is vital both to Karl Barth's theology and to modern religion, politics, and culture. Leigh describes how Barth's lifelong fascination by freedom culminated in a fresh, daring engagement with it in his last completed book, volume IV/3 of the massive Church Dogmatics--which is probably the most important work of Christian theology in the twentieth century. That volume builds on Barth's earlier work but also goes beyond it in ways that have not yet been appreciated. Leigh shows how this mature theology of Barth not only responds profoundly to key questions about freedom, both in philosophy and theology, but also opens up a rich, habitable understanding of Jesus Christ, and of life in r...
This book examines the doctrines of election and atonement in Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics, taking up Barth's own challenge to his reader to surpass his argument and offer a better typological interpretation of the cultic texts. Barth's radical re-working of Calvin's doctrine of election is one of the most important developments in twentieth-century theology. Christ synthesizes for Barth a particular dialectic: the binary structure of God's Yes of election and God's No of rejection. The book's central question--how can Jesus simultaneously be both the elected and the rejected (CD II/2), acting as both the judge and the judged (CD IV/1)?--is followed by an exploration of the roles of the Hol...