LITMIR.BIZ

Among the dizzying array of approaches to reading the Bible, the oldest, most revered interpretive tool rises above the rest: the Rule of Faith. Faithful interpretation of Scripture in the postmodern context has much to learn from this ancient principle. Deeper engagement with the sacred text flourishes with the assistance of the Rule of Faith. That engagement in turn renews the Body of Christ. This book explores the interpretive practices of great reformers and renewers of the church, including Luther, Calvin, and Wesley, who kept up a lively dialogue with the ancient authors of the Christian movement. In that dialogue, they discovered a dynamic guide to better exegesis. Robert C. Fennell provides a compelling account of faithful interpreters from the past whose example inspires contemporary readers as they seek to understand the Bible.

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Out on the barren margins of Babylonian exile, the great Psalmist suggests their captors are actually asking for a song of joy. Imagine that. Is it possible to sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? Christians today find themselves caught up in the massive sweep of secularizing culture. Do we have a joyful song to sing anymore? Do we know what our song has been throughout history? Could we possibly sing as a mighty choir, just perhaps igniting spiritual renewal for our world–and for each one of us as well? This book proposes the possibility of finding a new song for our time.

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We can make Jesus look very small if we are not careful. Your Jesus Is Too Small explores how a trivialized Jesus contributes to a collapsed Christian moral character. The 2016 election exposed the truth that for many Christians character does not count, or is a very low priority. Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for President Trump, not known as a man of high moral character. This collapse of character is especially troubling since Christians claim to seek after the mind and character of Jesus Christ. What's more, the ingrained and unrelenting cultural values–combined with our inescapable self-centered pursuits–bombard us every moment and blight our character. After noting how we belittle Jesus, this book explores ways we can exalt him, allowing his character traits to inform and then transform our hearts and minds. A credible Jesus also means that more tongues will confess him and more knees bow before him and that more people will desire his compassionate character. Then we will be morally equipped to address the great crises of our day: persistent poverty, the marginalizing of out-groups, raging violence, and our planet's lingering woes.

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This book is for both evangelicals and ecumenicals interested in a holistic approach to the Christian vision of social transformation. The author compares Richard Mouw's Reformed political theology and Nam-dong Suh's Minjung theology to suggest a vision of transformation that is theologically more cogent and politically more engaged. In general, Minjung theology understands transformation in terms of political liberation and Reformed theology in terms of spiritual redemption, and theologians of the two theologies have criticized the other's approach as theologically inadequate. However, Suh's formulation of Minjung theology and Mouw's Reformed political theology based on the neo-Calvinist worldview show significant affinities with each other in their understanding of transformation in Christ. Both Suh and Mouw show a broad understanding of liberation and redemption. They develop their theologies in an inclusive both/and way of thinking, and their holistic approach is contrasted with the exclusive either/or way of thinking in the Minjung theology of Byung-mu Ahn and the Reformed theology of David VanDrunen. The book concludes that redemption in Christ aims at an all-encompassing transformation that includes not only spiritual renewal but also liberation from social alienation, economic inequality, and political oppression.

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Some reputable sociological research indicates that a surprising number of evangelical churchgoers are living out a version of the Christian life that's more informed by the values of the surrounding culture than by the discipleship teachings of Jesus and his apostles. Viewing the cause of this disturbing trend in the church to be a «discipleship deficit» that's exacerbated by a «pneumatological deficit,» Gary Tyra has written a book that addresses both. In this work, Tyra encourages evangelical Christians of all stripes to become more fully aware of the tremendous difference it makes when the Holy Spirit is experienced in ways that are real and existentially impactful, rather than merely theoretical, conceptual, and/or ritualistic. Intended to be read by church leaders as well as by students in Christian colleges and seminaries, the message here is that the cure for the ministry malady currently confronting us is the recovery of a robust, fully Trinitarian doctrine of the Spirit. A pneumatological realism, says Tyra, combined with an understanding of just how important a spiritual, moral, and missional faithfulness is to a genuine Christian discipleship, can revitalize the lives of individual Christians and churches, making it possible for them to reach their post-Christian peers for Christ!

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The Reverend Stirling McCutcheon is a Scottish Presbyterian minister who has been called to serve as senior pastor at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in Albany, New York. As one who has placed in juxtaposition Dostoyevsky's notion that «there is nothing lovelier than the Savior» alongside Grunewald's grotesque portrayal of the Crucified Christ, McCutcheon defines his own identity as a devotee of fractured beauty, an identity that rivets him to the beauty of his parishioners fractured by misfortune and tragedy. A variety of crosses–icons that come to him in various ways–represents the suffering of his people, each cross possessing its unique story. In addition to dealing with the age-old question of a loving God that allows inexplicable suffering in his beautiful world, McCutcheon wrestles with the unnerving query of whether God is expendable.
McCutcheon's predecessor apparently hanged himself in front of his congregation during a Good Friday dramatic presentation of Paul Claudel's Death of Judas. Was it an accident, or did his disillusionment cause him to identify too closely with Judas? In contrast to his predecessor, McCutcheon holds fast to his ordination vows as a shepherd of his flock, even at his own personal expense and that of his family.

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Is the Christian concept of grace anathema to the social structure of merit-making found in Buddhist karmic communities? Are all Buddhist forms of merit-making purely for religious purposes to assuage cosmic consequences or are there other reasons? Are there not Christian churches who operate under a legalistic view of God's divine wrath and are in essence living as karmic communities of the Christian type? The result of discussions about these and other questions is the volume you now hold in your hand. SEANET proudly presents what is number 14 in its series of missiological reference texts, Gift and Duty: Where Grace and Merit Meet. Each of the ten authors presented here represent a particular perspective, both Christian and Buddhist, that can inform the other. The goal of this volume is to lead to a deeper understanding of the significance of diverse religious and cultural perspectives.

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This work seeks to delineate a theological framework into which biblically informed imagery and language of children in relation to God can be placed. McNeill's aim is to offer a work of positive construction within the general Reformed tradition. The book shows that John Calvin has much to offer in this respect, but by examining the imagery and language of children in his works it is shown that Calvin is not adequately biblically informed in this area. McNeill argues that Jonathan Edwards provides a theological tool that enables a construal of children more in keeping with biblical language and imagery. The book then offers a general critique of current child development theories in which providential activity in child development is more or less ignored. By adopting Calvin's theological framework to understand children before God, it is argued that the integration of child development and divine providence becomes a distinct possibility. This work should be of interest to those working in biblical, childhood, Calvin, and Edwards studies, as well as to the more general practitioner working with children in church and society.

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Love is one, and love is «all we need.» This book argues against the traditional theological view that God's love differs from human love. If God is love and love is one, we will find God embodied in all kinds of genuine love experiences. By analyzing Karl Rahner's theology of love, the author explores how God penetrates and embraces the whole of reality, suggesting implications for Christian spirituality and spiritual direction.

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One of the most interesting voices in the Academy and the Church today is Martyn Percy. Percy, the Dean of Christ Church Oxford and a leading voice in the Anglican Communion, is both theologically orthodox, yet deeply unconventional. While remaining engaged in the scholarly community, Percy writes with clarity and passion on topics that range from ecclesiology to music, from sexuality to the Trinity, from advertising to ministerial training–he is a polymath. This book is two books in one. The first half contains a series of articles (written both by church leaders and academics) that serve as substantial, critical introductions to Percy's thought. In the second half, the reader gets to hear from Percy himself in a collection of wide-ranging material from his corpus. While producing a dialectical engagement of some depth (as Percy offers written responses to his interlocutors), this volume should prove useful for a variety of communities beyond academic circles, especially ones engaged with contemporary issues facing ecclesiology, churches, and the wider Anglican Communion.

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