LITMIR.BIZ

Christian teaching and modern sensibilities both eschew «nationalism» as an extreme, fanatical form of patriotism, an excessive or disordered form of an otherwise healthy and proper national identity. But what if the problem of nationalism is something much more fundamental? What if nationalism is actually the process leading to national identity in the first place? And what happens when this process entails selectively appropriating and reinterpreting the Christian tradition for the sake of the envisioned nation?
This book takes up these questions within the context of American Christian nationalism. Here, the process of interweaving the Christian narrative with American history and myth is examined in depth through a thorough engagement with scholarship on nationalism and within a framework shaped by contemporary theopolitical studies and the biblical narrative. The study aims to discern how the Christian Scriptures and theological tradition have been used by Christians themselves to further what amounts to an alternative gospel. In so doing this book charts a path for the church to evaluate itself honestly in light of Christ's lordship, repent, and learn to tell its story more truly.

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Paul L. Holmer (1916-2004) was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota (1946-1960) and Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School (1960-1987). Among his many acomplishments, Holmer was one of the most significant American students of Kierkegaard of his generation. Although written in the 1950s and 1960s, Holmer's theological and philosophical engagement with Kierkegaard challenges much in the contemporary scholarly discussions of this important thinker. Unlike many, Holmer refuses reductionist readings that tie Kierkegaard to any particular «school.» He likewise criticizes biographical readings of Kierkegaard, much in vogue recently, seeing Kierkegaard rather as an indirect communicator aiming at his reader's own ethical and religious capacities. Holmer also rejects popular existentialist readings of Kierkegaard, seeing him as an analyzer of concepts, while at the same time denying that he is a «crypto-analyst.» Holmer criticizes the attempt to construe Kierkegaard as a didactic religious thinker, appreciating Kierkegaard's «cool» descriptive objectivity and his ironic and stylistic virtuosity. In his important reading of Kierkegaard on «truth,» Holmer pits Kierkegaard against those who see «truth» empirically, idealistically, or relativistically. Holmer's carefully textured account of Kierkegaard's conceptual grammar of «truth» in ethical and religious contexts, fifty years after it was penned, addresses immediately current discussions of truth, meaning, reference, and realism versus antirealism, relativism, and hermeneutics. It will be of great interest to all interested in Kierkegaard and his importance for contemporary theology and philosophy.
This is the first volume of The Paul L. Holmer Papers, which includes also volume 2, Thinking the Faith with Passion: Selected Essays, and volume 3, Communicating the Faith Indirectly: Selected Sermons, Addresses, and Prayers.

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Conditional Futurism introduces a new perspective of end-time theology (eschatology). The book holds to Christian futurism while integrating the Apocalypse of John with the conditional dynamics of prophecy taught in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and various other books throughout the Old Testament. The new paradigm concludes that the final antichrist (also known as the man of lawlessness, the beast, and the eighth king) may read the apocalyptic prophecy of his doom while deciding instead to repent of evil and turn to the Lord, which is a biblical option that would fulfill the divine purposes of the apocalypse. This cutting-edge scholarship also develops new biblical models of angels appearing as humans, the descent of Christ into hell, and the kings in Revelation that incorporate with this end-time theology that encourages hope in all circumstances.

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In 1967 Karl Rahner famously wrote: «The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and vice versa.» From that time onwards, Rahner's Rule has become the norm for conceiving the relationship between the Trinity in the economy of salvation and God's eternal inner life.
Evangelical theologians currently employ Rahner's Rule in a variety of ways. One of the most popular is the «Strict Realist Reading» whereby trinitarian relationships in salvation history are taken to mirror eternal relationships within God. This book brings this norm into conversation with the witness of Scripture in order to assess its viability. In doing so, it highlights troubling issues that arise from the application of the Strict Realist Reading of Rahner's Rule to the narrative of Luke-Acts. This book suggests that the Strict Realist Reading can be shown to be a questionable basis for our doctrine of God's inner life.

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Critical Conversations provides a series of theological engagements with the work of Michael Polanyi, one of the twentieth century's most profound philosophers of science.
Polanyi's sustained explorations of the nature of human knowing open a range of questions and themes of profound importance for theology. He insists on the need to recover the categories of faith and belief in accounting for the way we know and points to the importance of tradition and the necessity sometimes of conversion in order to learn the truth of things. These themes are explored along with Polanyi's social and political thought, his anthropology, his hermeneutics, and his conception of truth. Several of the essays set Polanyi alongside the work of other thinkers, particularly Karl Barth, Lesslie Newbigin, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Rene Girard, and they discuss points of comparison and contrast between the respective figures. While all the essays are appreciative of Polanyi's contribution, they do not shy away from critical analysis–and take further, therefore, the critical appreciation of Polanyi's work.

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Every human being is a theologian. We have a curiosity about the ultimate context in which we exist. Theologians help us spell that out, and examine what faith is all about. The wide-ranging issues and questions this book addresses begin with the differences between Christianity and other religions, examine the relation between the Bible, science, and evolution, explore the role of religious experience in the birth of faith, and consider the contribution theologians like Paul Tillich, Friedrich Gogarten, Teilhard de Chardin, Jurgen Moltmann, and John Wesley can make to our thought today.

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Silencing Satan: A Handbook of Biblical Demonology is about the nature and strategies of Satan and the demons, and their defeat through the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The book is for Christians in ministry, whether seminarians, pastors, Bible teachers, Christian counselors, or lay leaders. It is for all who desire an informed faith relevant to supernatural evil and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each chapter reflects extensive research and is succinctly written to enable believers to quickly grasp biblical truths that expose the lies and half-truths propagated by popular culture, within and outside the church. The authors teach that when face to face with supernatural evil in its various guises–apparitions, voices, sensations, false doctrine, and immoral temptations–believers resist the devil and reflexively turn to Jesus and Scripture. They fight by living a radical life of faith, expressed through love and obedience to Christ. As they do, God himself redeems the evil that Satan intends for his vainglory. God is building his church, and the gates of hades will not prevail against her (Matt 16:18)!

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Path of the Purified Heart traces the classic Christian spiritual journey toward transformation into the likeness of Christ in a unique, fascinating way. Drawing on the voices of wise elders from the past and present, Dunham illumines the common path all Christians and spiritual seekers may take toward union with God. Through the motifs of the liturgical year and the labyrinth, the author weaves in her own journey on this path during her «year of purification.»

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There is a lot of talk these days about how churches need to become more «missional» and «Kingdom-focused»–but what about the families that make up our churches and often reflect the surrounding culture more than the Kingdom of God? Christian families know that God has a better purpose for marriage and family but often don't have the slightest idea how to get there. And while many books on Christian marriage and family are inwardly focused on simply getting along «better,» this book addresses the cultural influences that have taken our focus away from God's intended purpose for marriage and family and, through analysis and practical suggestions, recalls marriages and families to the purpose for which God intended them in the first place–namely, to serve God's Kingdom as witnesses to a world desperately seeking deeper purpose and authenticity.

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Shame has many faces. From the pressing need to avoid «losing face» to the urge to scapegoat and blame, from the desire to exclude those who are different to the horrors of ethnic cleansing, from the obsession with body image to the abiding terrors of the abused, shame is a universal phenomenon. It transcends boundaries of time and is evident in diverse cultures across the world. It is, furthermore, found throughout the pages of Scripture, yet in modern theology shame is conspicuous by its absence. This book attempts to redress the balance by exploring the theology of shame, from its inception in the garden of Eden, to the final triumph over shame on the cross. Restoring the Shamed will offer readers the opportunity to think theologically about one of the most urgent, yet strangely secret, issues of contemporary society.

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