LITMIR.BIZ

A spectacular stretch of earth, the Eastern Sierra region of California reveals volcanic reefs, desert sand dunes, majestic mountains, and snow-fed lakes and rivers. Drawing on forty years of college teaching on the world's religions, Professor Brad Karelius is your guide, uncovering deep spiritual dimensions in this achingly beautiful place. This book shares crystallizations of religious wisdom collected through the ages, and finely tuned descriptions of holy sites, which you may visit, that will draw you deeper in your personal encounters with world spiritualities.

Подробнее

Over the past several decades, Reformed theologian and biblical scholar James B. Jordan has produced a unique body of work. His electrifying commentaries and essays on Scripture, along with his penetrating writings on Trinitarian theology, liturgics, music, and culture have inspired a growing number of pastors and theologians. In this Festschrift, Jordan's friends and associates celebrate his contributions by applying his methods and insights to a range of biblical, theological, liturgical, and cultural questions. The Glory of Kings aims to bring Jordan's work to the attention of a wider audience and to introduce the work of a scholar that R. R. Reno has called «one of the most important Christian intellectuals of our day.»

Подробнее

In Forensic Scriptures Brian Arthur Brown presents a long overdue Diagram of Sources of the Pentateuch from Hebrew Scriptures, a new perspective on authorship of the document known as "Q" in the Christian Scriptures, an acceptable entree into particular disciplines of scriptural criticism for Muslims, and an exciting new paradigm from Islam identifying the role women may have played in production of the Qur'an and the Bible.

Подробнее

The Earth's thin crust of organic matter and the still thinner crust of the spirit is the most concentrated, the most suggestive part of the cosmos. It in every way exceeds itself by pointing above its horizontal surface towards vertical transcendence. However, it can never leave itself behind and always carries itself with itself in every ascent. Poetry attends to the resultant human diagonal. –from the preface to the first sequence, «On the Diagonal: Metaphysical Landscapes»

Подробнее

Senses of the Soul explores the way art and visual elements are incorporated into Christian worship. It incorporates research conducted in Los Angeles congregations. Through extensive interviews in a sample of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox congregations it looks into the way visual elements actually become part of the experience of worship. By looking at attitudes and experiences of beauty, art, and memories, it suggests that believers appropriate images and aesthetic encounters in terms of imaginative structures that have been formed through worship practices over time. By comparing responses across denominations, the book proposes that people receive visual elements in ways that have been shaped by long traditions and specific background beliefs. In addition to discussions of the differences between the major Christian traditions, the book also examines the relation of art and beauty to worship, the role of memories and everyday life, and the power of images in spirituality and worship.
By its focus on the worshiper, the book seeks to make a contribution to the growing conversation between the arts and Christian worship and to the process of worship renewal.

Подробнее

Along with the churches located in large Greek cities of the East, the church of Carthage was particularly significant in the early centuries of Christian history. Initially, the Carthaginian church became known for its martyrs. Later, the North African church became further established and unified through the regular councils of its bishops. Finally, the church gained a reputation for its outstanding leaders–Tertullian of Carthage (c. 140-220), Cyprian of Carthage (195-258), and Augustine of Hippo (354-430)–African leaders who continued to be celebrated and remembered today.

Подробнее

In this creative contribution to the doctrine of revelation, Clark seeks to develop and articulate an understanding of God's self-disclosure located in the participation of the ecclesial community in the trinitarian life of God. Clark takes as his point of departure Karl Barth's doctrine of the Word of God. Barth has impressed upon theology that revelation is primarily an event in which God establishes relationship with humanity in an act of his sovereign freedom. But what is the role of human participation in this revelatory event? It is here that Barth's account is less than satisfactory, and this shortcoming points to the principal theme of the book. Addressing this theme, Clark engages with the work of Michael Polanyi, whose philosophy provides a potent resource for the task. One profoundly innovative aspect of Polanyi's work is his theory of tacit knowledge, which demonstrates how articulate knowledge (conceptual understanding) arises out of knowledge established through practical and intrinsically imaginative participation in particular practices or «life-ways.» Although we depend upon such knowledge, we can articulate it only in part. We know more than we can tell. This insight has profound implications for the doctrine of revelation. It suggests that knowledge of God is necessarily bound up with the various practices of the church in which Christians are imaginatively engaged and through which God makes himself known. It also suggests that such knowledge cannot be fully articulated. Clark does not deny the possibility or the importance of doctrinal formulation, but he does issue a reminder that theological statements are only possible because God gives himself to be known in the life and practices of the church. This substantial work provides important and original proposals for rearticulating the doctrine of revelation.

Подробнее

Working within two popular genres, gardening books and biblical meditations, God Gardened East offers a meditation on the first twenty-five chapters of Genesis, emphasizing the tropes of cultivation, wandering, and «the east.» Reconceived in a post-9/11 environment, Ruprecht wrestles with difficult questions about the violent legacy of monotheism and traces some of this violence back to the foundational story of Abraham and his dislocation from his homeland.

Подробнее

The Ten Commandments belong to the «classics» of Western culture. They are an authoritative part of the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures. Since they come to us from an ancient past, it is both necessary and worthwhile to inquire what they may mean for us today. Thorwald Lorenzen contends it is important to hear God's invitation to an alternative lifestyle: «you shall not kill,» «you shall not commit adultery,» «you shall not covet.» His thoughtful reflections on the commandments for today's tumultuous world begin with the God who «speaks» ten word to liberate God's people from oppression. Grounded in God's liberating «yes,» the «ten words» are neither laws nor rules. They are elements for a culture of freedom in which people are invited to celebrate life.

Подробнее

"There are no words foul and filthy enough to describe war." So declared Geoffrey «Woodbine Willie» Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), a decorated frontline chaplain whose battlefield experiences in World War I transformed him into his generation's most eloquent defender of Christian pacificism. Studdert Kennedy was also a tireless champion of the social gospel who wrote a dozen books, scores of articles, hundreds of poems, and preached countless sermons in both the UK and the US promoting economic justice.
Studdert Kennedy's writing and preaching influenced an entire generation. William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, described him as a «true prophet.» Even though he's fallen into obscurity with the passage of years, Studdert Kennedy's message still inspires the likes of Desmond Tutu and Jurgen Moltmann.
This collection of Studdert Kennedy's work, the first in sixty years, seeks to introduce this most relevant of thinkers to our troubled times. The book pulls together Studdert Kennedy's most important writings on war and peace, poverty, the problem of evil, the church's role in the world, sin and atonement, the suffering God, love versus force as world powers, and the beloved community. Editor Kerry Walters introduces the texts with a biographical and thematic essay.

Подробнее