Theology

Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Intermediate Christology

Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective features six highly respected scholars from schools such as Erskine Theological Seminary, Talbot School of Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. These scholars address an issue that has a significant impact on the way Christians should approach everyday evangelism but is often ignored: the fundamental fact that the Savior who died on the cross and rose from the dead is the eternal second person of the Trinity. This introductory Christology book is written for advanced undergraduates and entry-level seminary students.

Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus

Jesus Under Fire challenges the methodology and findings of the Jesus Seminar, which generally clash with the biblical records. It examines the authenticity of the words, actions, miracles, and resurrection of Jesus, and presents compelling evidence for the traditional biblical teachings. Combining accessibility with scholarly depth, Jesus Under Fire helps readers judge for themselves whether the Jesus of the Bible is the Jesus of history, and whether the gospels’ claim is valid that he is the only way to God.

Jonathan Edwards (Classics of Western Spirituality)

Interest in Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards has increased markedly over the last several decades. As more and more people become interested in Edwards as a theologian, exegete, and even political theorist, there is a major lacuna in both the primary and secondary literature. Edwards’s spirituality, a central facet of his life and work, remains unexplored. Jonathan Edwards: Spiritual Writings addresses this neglect by compiling material from across Edwards’s corpus that outlines the breadth of his spiritual thought. Drawing primarily from sermons, letters, and notes, this volume showcases Edwards’s spiritual theology.

Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to His Thought

In this accessible one-volume text, leading Edwards experts Oliver Crisp and Kyle Strobel introduce readers to the fascinating and formidable mind of Jonathan Edwards as they survey key theological and philosophical themes in his thought, including his doctrine of the Trinity, his philosophical theology of God and creation, and his understanding of the atonement and salvation. More than two centuries after his death, theologians and historians alike are finding the larger-than-life Edwards more interesting than ever. Crisp and Strobel’s concise yet comprehensive guide will help students of this influential eighteenth-century revivalist preacher to understand why. Student-friendly intro to one of America’s most fascinating theological minds

Jonathan Edwards’ Early Understanding of Religious Experience: His New York Sermons, 1720-1723

The significance of Scripture and piety had on Jonathan Edwards’ theology has often been obscured by his innovative use of secular though and reformed theology in his public writings. This study focuses on his earliest sermons and personal writings, which stand [prior to his study of Locke and use of the technical term sense of the heart. In looking at Edwards’ background, faith, and early sermons, this study presents an account of the emergence and expression of his early understanding of religious experience. True religion Edwards discovered, consists of the knowledge of God’s glory, love and grace made manifest by Jesus Christ and supernaturally imparted to the soul of mankind.

Kingdom of God and the Teaching of Jesus: In 20th Century Theology

Is the Kingdom already realized when people live in the Christian ethic, or does it await fulfillment in the Second Coming? In this penetrating analysis, Dr. Mark Saucy shows that how we answer such questions is far from being merely an academic issue. He holds that emphasizing the “already” or social aspect of the Kingdom over the “not yet” or apocalyptic aspect results in failed utopianism and devaluation of the Church as the contemporary expression of the Kingdom.

Letters of the Divine Word: The Perfections of God in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics

The Christian doctrine of God has traditionally been presented in two parts: an account of the existence and attributes of God on the one hand, and an account of God’s triunity on the other. The present study is an analysis of Karl Barth’s doctrine of the divine attributes (or ‘perfections’), as it appears in his “Church Dogmatics II/1”. Barth’s doctrine of the divine perfections has received comparatively little attention, and what attention it has received is typically very selective. Authors unaware of larger, structural themes in Barth’s account often misconstrue significant details of Barth’s text. Others wrongly discount the implications of Barth’s doctrine of the perfections for his theology as a whole. The aim of this study is primarily to clarify what Barth says about the perfections and secondarily to relate this to broader themes in Barth’s theology.

Love, Freedom, and Evil: Does Authentic Love Require Free Will?

The defining premise of the Relational Free Will Defense is the claim that authentic love requires free will. Many scholars, including Gregory Boyd and Vincent Brümmer, champion this claim. Best-selling books, such as Rob Bell’s Love Wins, echo that love “cannot be forced, manipulated, or coerced. It always leaves room for the other to decide.” The claim that love requires free will has even found expression in mainstream Hollywood films, including Frailty, Bruce Almighty, and The Adjustment Bureau.

The analysis shows convincingly that the claim that authentic love requires free will, does not meet the criteria of consistency, compatibility with Scriptural sources, and the demands of concrete encounter with problems of moral evil.

Metaethics: A Short Companion (Essentials in Christian Ethics)

In Metaethics: A Short Companion, David A. Horner and J. P. Moreland provide a primer on how to think about questions surrounding the concept of morality—its nature, status, grounding, underlying presuppositions, and philosophical commitments. From a stance rooted in moral realism, Horner and Moreland explore and evaluate the major metaethical positions on offer in the field, including expressivism, error theory, relativism, constructivism, ethical naturalism, and ethical nonnaturalism. They conclude by arguing for the rationality of a Christian worldview as a guiding metaethical position. Metaethics: A Short Companion offers a clear and concise introduction to the key concepts and debates in metaethics, providing readers with a foundation for reflecting on their own ethical beliefs and practices.

Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

With its unique union of theory and application and its well-organized, easy-to-use design, Moral Choices has earned its place as the standard text for college ethics courses. This fourth edition offers extensive updates, revisions, and three brand new chapters all designed to help students develop a sound and current basis for making ethical decisions in today’s complex postmodern culture.

Mos Christianorum: The Roman Discourse of Exemplarity and the Jewish and Christian Language of Leadership

James Petitfils explores Jewish and Christian participation in this widespread pedagogical practice. After surveying Roman discourse on exemplary leadership, the author consults several texts, written in significantly Romanized environments, celebrating Jewish or Christian ancestral leaders (Josephus’ Antiquities 2-4, Philo’s Mosis 1-2, 1 Clement, and The Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons ). He highlights their respective appropriation, adaptation, and redeployment of the Roman moral idiom on exemplary leadership in the promotion of self-consciously non-Roman ancestral exempla and languages of leadership.

Naturalism and Our Knowledge of Reality: Testing Religious Truth-claims

R. Scott Smith argues in a fresh way that we cannot know reality on the basis of naturalism. Moreover, the “fact-value” split has failed to serve our interests of wanting to know reality. The author provocatively argues that since we can know reality, it must be due to a non-naturalistic ontology, best explained by the fact that human knowers are made and designed by God. The book offers fresh implications for the testing of religious truth-claims, science, ethics, education, and public policy. Consequently, naturalism and the fact-value split are shown to be false, and Christian theism is shown to be true.

Neuroscience and the Soul: The Human Person in Philosophy, Science, and Theology

It is a widely held belief that human beings are both body and soul, that our immaterial soul is distinct from our material body. But that traditional idea has been seriously questioned by much recent research in the brain sciences. In Neuroscience and the Soul fourteen distinguished scholars grapple with current debates about the existence and nature of the soul. Featuring a dialogical format, the book presents state-of-the-art work by leading philosophers and theologians—some arguing for the existence of the soul, others arguing against it—and then puts those scholars into conversation with critics of their views. Bringing philosophy, theology, and science together in this way brings to light new perspectives and advances the ongoing debate over body and soul.

Passionate Conviction: Contemporary Discourses on Christian Apologetics

Passionate Conviction brings together the most popular and heart-stirring presentations in defense of Christianity from the annual fall conference on apologetics held in association with the Evangelical Philosophical Society, the C. S. Lewis Institute, and the Christian Apologetics program at Biola University. Applicable to pastors, serious-minded lay people, and university and high school students, these twenty essays are grouped into six dynamic categories: (1) Why Apologetics? (2) God (3) Jesus (4) Comparative Religions (5) Postmodernism and Relativism (6) Practical Application.

Paul and the Giants of Philosophy: Reading the Apostle in Greco-Roman Context

What forces shaped the intellectual world of the apostle Paul? How familiar was he with the great philosophers of his age, and to what extent was he influenced by them? When he quoted Greco-Roman sources, what was his aim? Pauline scholars wrestle with such questions in journal articles and technical monographs, but now Paul and the Giants of Philosophy brings the conversation into the college classroom and the church. Each essay addresses Paul’s interaction with Greco-Roman philosophical thinking on a particular topic, such as faith, slavery, gift-giving, and the afterlife. And each chapter includes discussion questions and reading lists to help readers engage the material further. Dodson and Briones have gathered contributors with diverse views from various traditions who are united in the desire to make Paul’s engagement with ancient philosophy accessible to many readers.

Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh: New Clues for an Old Problem

Paul’s enigmatic “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians has baffled interpreters for centuries. Many offer suggestions as to the identity of Satan’s messenger; others despair that the puzzle is unsolvable. In Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh: New Clues for an Old Problem, Kenneth Berding reopens the case. He follows a trail of clues that includes ancient beliefs about curses, hints in Paul’s letters, similarities with Jesus’s suffering, and the attempts of the earliest Christian interpreters. Berding offers twenty criteria—some familiar, others neglected—that any proposals must explain.

Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation

This book discusses various aspects of God’s causal activity. Traditional theology has long held that God acts in the world and interrupts the normal course of events by performing special acts. Although the tradition is unified in affirming that God does create, conserve, and act, there is much disagreement about the details of divine activity. The chapters in this book fruitfully explore these disagreements about divine causation.

Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide

This important new volume is a combined anthology and guide intended for use as a textbook in courses on the philosophy of religion. It aims to bring to the student the very best current work on important topics in the field. The anthology is comprised of six sections, each of which opens with a substantive introductory essay followed by a selection of influential writings by prominent philosophers of religion. Philosophy of Religion provides an ideal resource for studying the central questions raised by religious belief.

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