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With a newly written preface relating his theology to the current global situation, The Future of Love contains revised versions of eighteen of John Milbank's essays on theology, politics, religion, and culture–ranging from the onset of neoliberalism to its current crisis, and from the British to the global context. Many of the essays first appeared in obscure places and are thus not widely known. Also included are Milbank's most important responses to critiques of his seminal work, Theology and Social Theory. Taken together, the collection amounts to a «political theology» arrived at from diverse angles. This work is essential reading for all concerned with the current situation of religion in the era of globalization and with the future development of Radical Orthodoxy.

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Even though Jonathan Edwards is arguably America's greatest theologian, the content and value of his work remains a mystery to most. Stahle systematizes and summarizes Edwards's biblically grounded thought in contemporary language and makes Edwards accessible to pastors, students, and church study groups. Edwards's conceptions of the Trinity are explained in detail and shown to be the basis for the rest of his theology, including his ideas about sin, salvation, holiness, the purpose of history, Scripture, revivals of religion, heaven and hell, and the church. Reflection and study questions are provided to enrich comprehension and demonstrate the relevance of Edwards's theology for contemporary life. The wealth of this Puritan's personal piety and intellectual brilliance is no longer beyond the reach of twenty-first century Christians.

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Theologian, poet, public intellectual, and clergyman, Rowan Williams is one of the leading lights of contemporary British theology. He has published over twenty books and one hundred scholarly essays in a distinguished career as an academic theologian that culminated in his appointment as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford University. Williams left this post to serve in the Anglican Church, first as Bishop of Monmouth, then Archbishop of Wales, before finally being enthroned in 2003 as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.
In this collection of essays, a talented younger generation of Australian theologians critically analyzes the themes that bind together Williams's theology. These sympathetic yet probing essays traverse the full breadth of Williams's work, from his studies on Arius, the Desert Fathers, Hegel, and Trinitarian theology to his more pastoral writings on spirituality, sexuality, politics, and the Anglican Church.

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Anglicans around the world have responded to the gospel in many different cultural contexts. This has produced different customs and different ways of thinking about church issues. In the process of enculturation Anglicans have found themselves encountering social and political realities as malign forces against which they have had to struggle. As a consequence, the personal and local dynamic in Anglicanism has created not just diversity of custom and mental habits, but it has done so at points that have been vital to the way Anglicans have been committed to the gospel.
Conflict and the Practice of Christian Faith looks at the process by which local traditions developed in Christianity and how these traditions have related to other sub-traditions of the universal church. It assesses some specifics of the Anglican experience and argues for a significant re-casting of some prominent elements of that tradition, at the same time clarifying some of the distinctive elements in the Anglican tradition. This leads to a more nuanced appreciation of the force of the social and political framework within which Anglicans have had to work out their salvation and of the different forms of secular society and different understandings of plurality and diversity. It also entails showing how the imperial route to catholicity took no firm root in Anglicanism. Going global has been a significant experiment in Anglican ecclesiology that is by no means over yet. The terms of that experiment lie at the heart of the current Anglican debates.
The book will be of interest to Christians generally who belong to faith traditions spread across different cultures. It is also a case study of the issues of global reach and local tradition.

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Education is about learning to think. Much of what we call thinking, however, is a hodge-podge of repetitious self-talk, opinion, and cutting and pasting of second-hand ideas. Moreover, thinking in the present has often been alien to scholars who were tempted to think abstractly. But life and thought belong together and require each other, as Plotinus pointed out many centuries ago: «[T]he object of contemplation is living and life, and the two together are one» (Ennead 3.8.8). Presently, many women and men in the academic world are thinking concretely within the context of their own lives and with acknowledged accountability to broader communities with whom they think and to whom they are answerable. The essays in this volume consider Christianity as an aspect of North American culture, bringing the critical tools of the academy to thinking about some of the perplexing and pressing problems of contemporary public life.
Three interactive and interdependent themes traverse these essays: gender, the effects of media culture, and institutions. Each of these themes has been central to Margaret Miles's work for thirty years. Each understands corporeality as fundamental both to subjectivity and society. Miles finds that Christianity, critically appropriated, provides ideas and methods for thinking concretely about life in North American society.

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Approaching us in sovereign freedom, God comes alive to us, we come alive to God, and all creation comes alive as a sign pointing to God. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, God gives and discloses himself in this immediate way as our ultimate context and host, within the provisional medium of creation.
This life-giving gospel is met by blindness, however, among those who live today in a collapsing Western culture. This is because their imaginative world is shaped by habitual assumptions and practices that lie–largely unacknowledged–deep within that culture, and that preclude openness to the gospel. Moreover, Western Christians themselves widely share these assumptions, betraying the gospel into cultural captivity.
God calls for the conversion of Western culture to the living gospel. Crucially this must include, as Lesslie Newbigin recognized, a repentance from modern Western assumptions about knowledge.
Part One explores seeking, knowing, and serving God, as providing a true paradigm for understanding all human enquiry, knowledge, and action. Part Two examines ten resulting «hot spots» where conversion from prevailing cultural assumptions is vital for authentic mission to Western culture.

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Apostolic and Prophetic promotes a vision of the church as apostolic, ecumenical, and radical. It explores the meaning of each of these ecclesial marks and their intrinsic connections. The volume thus draws a wide span between the apostolic past (tradition) and a radical perspective on the present and future ecumenical church. The book considers the concept of apostolicity emerging in patristic theology, and it examines this concept as it has been developed in some select Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Anglican ecumenical documents. Unresolved ecumenical questions concerning ecumenical method and church ministry are frankly discussed, including critical observations on ecumenical praxis. The modern notion of churches as denominations is examined in detail, especially in the Lutheran context. The author also offers a critical assessment of an important ecumenical event, the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The notion of a radical church–aware of its roots and prophetically committed to faith in the kingdom of God seeking freedom and justice–is explored through an extensive analysis and discussion of the work of Dorothee Solle and Terry Eagleton, two seminal thinkers of our time.

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Talk about chaos is pervasive. Biblical scholars, theologians, and scientists have been using the word chaos for some time, occasionally mingling ideas across disciplines around the shared word. Quite often, discussions of chaos center on the issues of creation's origin and nature, as well as on God's creative methods and relationship to creation. Eric M. Vail investigates the current uses of the word chaos in those areas. A new way of articulating creation out of nothing is offered as both helpful and appropriate in our current milieu. He suggests where we ought to focus our use of the word chaos in Christian discourse and argues that chaos is more fitting for naming where creation has gone awry rather than for naming that state out of which creation comes to be.

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"I remember more hymns than I do sermons." That's the verdict of nearly everyone, including preachers. This is a book for people who love hymns. In this book about twenty-eight of the classic and most cherished hymns, you'll find the stories behind the hymns and meditations on their meaning. You'll discover new spiritual insights into your faith and what it means to follow Christ in your daily life. Many of the greatest hymn writers in history are here–for example, Martin Luther («A Mighty Fortress Is Our God»), Isaac Watts («Our God, Our Help in Ages Past»), Charles Wesley («O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing»), and John Newton («Amazing Grace»). The names of some composers are forgotten, but their hymns live forever: «Now Thank We All Our God,» «Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah,» «How Firm a Foundation,» «Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us,» «Just as I Am,» «Abide with Me,» «The Church's One Foundation.» This is a book for your devotional reading or for group study. It will open your mind, inspire your heart, and change your life.

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With the subject of the atonement of Christ attracting such a lot of polemical work at this time, it is easy to conclude that the current debate is generating more heat than light. Atonement Theories presents the beginning student, pastor, or researcher with an accessible and fair treatment of every school of thought on this subject. Atonement Theories significantly updates previous histories of the doctrine, providing analysis of some fascinating and highly significant recent developments. It also intriguingly highlights at various points where aspects of this central message of Christianity might find a connection within contemporary culture. This book will empower the reader to quickly gain a working knowledge of current debates and the history behind them.

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