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In this fascinating spiritual-theological autobiography, Robert Rakestraw tells of his lifelong, unceasing search for God. After a troubled and unconventional childhood, he came to know the grace and freedom of God in a personal way during his college years. He then embarked on an unwavering intellectual and spiritual quest for truth and meaning in life. Without technical language, Rakestraw highlights significant developments and revisions in his understanding of God and God's ways of interacting with the world. In striking and sometimes intimate detail he relates compellingly his experiences as a student, pastor, professor, sufferer, heart-transplant recipient, and above all, seeker of God. Dr. Rakestraw's gripping portrayal of his difficulties and sufferings, especially with regard to health issues, does not come across as depressing. Rather, it presents the sustaining love and goodness of God in such a way that will pull readers in to investigate the remarkable and freely-offered grace of God extolled by the author.

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This book proposes that participation in «God's Project of Reconciliation» is the «Center» that can hold evangelical Christians together in the midst of great diversity in belief and ecclesiastical practices. The author envisions a vibrant future for the Evangelical movement if professing evangelicals can model that rare combination of deep commitment to their own beliefs; openness to listening to the beliefs of others; and willingness to engage in respectful conversation with those who disagree with them in place of the combativeness that has characterized too much of Evangelicalism in the recent past. The book models this type of conversation on such controversial issues as the exclusivity of Christianity, the inerrancy of the bible, Evangelicalism and morality, Evangelicalism and politics, scientific models on humanity, cosmic and human origins, and the future of evangelical higher education.

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This collection of essays is drawn from a series of previous collections to which the author has contributed that were designed to honor senior scholars in the discipline of Old Testament study. Each of these essays reflects a distinct intention depending on the nature of the original collection in which they appeared and the scholar who was being honored. Taken together, however, this collection amounts to an articulation of Brueggemann's distinctive approach to theological interpretation of the Old Testament. Already in his major volume on Old Testament theology, Brueggemann proposed a dynamism of tension, dispute, and contradiction as the text of ancient Israel sought to give voice to the mystery of God as a sustaining and disruptive agent in the life of the world. Over a long period of time, this collection reflects the author's growing clarity about the task of Old Testament theology. It further reflects on the nature of the biblical text and the way in which the God who inhabits the text runs beyond all of our attempts to define and explain. These essays reflect not so much on methodological issues, but take up the substantive questions that regularly occupied these ancient text-makers.

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Most academic and therapeutic programs do not include spirituality and God as essential components of health and treatment. Dr. William Kraft gives God a principal place in the house of psychology. He shows how and why God experiences are paramount in helping us live a healthy and happy life. He describes and analyzes what are healthy and unhealthy experiences of God and how activities, including religion, can help and hinder our coming to God. In short, this book is about how and why we come or do not come to God, and what difference it makes.

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James, Brother of Jesus, and the Jerusalem Church opens fresh ground in our understanding of Christian origins through an exploration of the role of James in the founding of the church. Based on the author's doctoral research, that first Christian church, with its roots in the Baptist movement, is shown to be part of the broad contemporary Judaic movement for the restoration of Israel. The events surrounding the death of Jesus (their leader's brother) both confirmed their commitment to Judaic reform and transformed their understanding of it. Despite the impact of that experience, they seem to have had neither knowledge nor interest in the teaching and ministry of Jesus in Galilee. Set in the world of James, this careful study of the difficulties and opportunities facing Judaic peasants in first-century Palestine proposes that James and his other brothers moved to Jerusalem (where work was available) several years before the final visit of Jesus and, under James's leadership, became the kernel of a growing group of followers of the Baptist that would later emerge onto the page of history as the Jerusalem Church.

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Does the Bible allow us to deceive? Is it ever right to lie? These are perennial questions that have been discussed and debated by theologians for centuries with little consensus. Entering this conversation, Just Deceivers provides a fresh analysis of this important topic through a comprehensive examination of the motif of deception in the books of Samuel. While many studies have explored deception in other Old Testament texts–especially the patriarchal narratives of Genesis–and a few articles have initiated examination of this motif in Samuel, Just Deceivers builds upon this groundwork and offers an exhaustive treatment of this theme in this important portion of the Hebrew Bible. Newkirk takes the reader through the books of Samuel, investigating every occurrence of deception in the narrative, exploring how the author depicts these various acts of deception, and then synthesizing the results to offer an exegetically based theology of deception. In so doing, this study both challenges commonly held views concerning the Bible's stance on falsehood and illustrates the importance of attending to the sophisticated literary character of biblical narrative.

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Is it possible for orthodox, creedal Christianity to change its views on matters of sexuality and gender? In order to do so, must it simply incorporate elements of the secular world that are foreign to it? In That We Might Become God, Andy Buechel argues that many of the basic insights of queer theory are not only deeply amenable to the wider Christian tradition, but that they allow us to see that tradition with fresh eyes. The churches that are most concerned with maintaining theological tradition can, in fact, develop on these matters and, in so doing, deepen some of the most fundamental insights they cherish. Looking specifically at Christian teaching surrounding the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the sacraments, and eschatology, Andy Buechel shows how deeply queer these areas are already. The insistence of too many churches to clinging to modern notions of sexuality and gender impede the proclamation of the good news, and this is needless. By attending to the ancient tradition in contemporary ways, this text demonstrates the coherence of that heritage today, as well as its capacity to develop to encompass all those whom God has created.

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But will it teach? The only good answer to this question often asked about a Christian theology is to teach it, which is to say, to teach according to it, to what it indicates, reflectively and critically, valid Christian teaching ought to be.
This volume of selected courses and seminars documents a career-long attempt to do exactly that. Concerned at once to be faithful to the Christian witness and to speak intelligibly and credibly to women and men here and now, it represents the way of doing church teaching, and so clarifying the meaning of the Christian commitment, that is of a piece with the distinctive way of doing Christian theology set forth and argued for in Schubert Ogden's other books and articles. This is why the courses and seminars seek to address the real questions of persons about being a Christian today and include extended treatment of such basic issues as the authority of Scripture and the credibility of the Apostles' Creed. It is also why each of them, in its way, indirectly calls for a Christian decision. Thus, together with its companion volume, To Preach the Truth, this book offers a model for bearing witness to the truth as Christians understand it.

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In this mature work of scholarship, Edwin Good brings his capable talents to translating, interpreting, and commenting on the rich work of the Song of Songs. Known as one of the earliest biblical exegetes to have opened the door to sophisticated literary criticism, he brings this decades-long praxis to opening the great poem's depth. The volume is concluded by an Afterword by Anita Sullivan, the author's wife, who is a poet and translator. Her reflections on the Song's character and importance as poetry provide another dimension to the discussion.

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Secular assumptions underlie much formal communication between the West and Africa, and even intra-Africa. Secularism is dualistic by nature, but thinking in Africa is mostly monistic. This book suggests that it is better to be rooted in faith in Christ than in so-called secularism. The great respect given to the Bible in much of Africa verifies this idea. Communication of and through Christ is a bridge that can enable indigenous sustainable development. The same gospel is the bridge over which the West itself passes. Maintaining supposedly secular presuppositions may be denying sub-Saharan African people the means for self-initiated sustainable progress.
This books draws on anthropology, linguistics, and theology, as well as the author's experience of living in Africa. Harries shares an autobiographical account of personal long-term grassroots ministry, and proposes a revision of widely held understandings of linguistics pertaining especially to the relationship between the West and Africa. He also looks at Bible teaching ministry in light of contemporary African contexts.

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