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Widely heralded for his bold and prophetic ethical thought, Maguire urges that Christianity's real relevance for the renewal of American public life lies not in the myopic morality of the Christian Right nor in any particular program of the Left but in the enduring relevance of Jesus and biblical Christianity. His new work builds on his earlier volume, The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity, with the benefit of a new generation of social studies of the New Testament and a keen appreciation for the radically changed situation Christians confront today. Daniel C. Maguire is Professor of Ethics at Marquette University, a past president of the Society of Christian Ethics, and president of the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics. A frequent lecturer and media commentator, Maguire is author of many influential works in ethics, such as Death by Choice (1974), The Moral Choice (1975), The Moral Revolution (1986), Sacred Energies (Fortress Press 2000), and Sacred Choices (Fortress Press 2001).

Based on her twenty years of teaching and on her own experience in pastoral care, Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner has written a basic pastoral-care text to assist in the emotional and spiritual preparation of pastoral caregivers. Stevenson-Moessner sees pastoral care as the interconnection and interplay of love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self. Her brief book engenders confidence and caring in the initiate, and assuages the fear and anxiety that naturally occur when one accompanies people in life-changing pain and travail. Through bibical parables - especially the Good Samaritan and the Good Shepherd - and stories from her own experience, Stevenson-Moessner imparts genuine wisdom and meaningful support to those who courageously dare to offer caregiving ministry in whatever situation or through whatever method or paradigm.

Dwight Hopkins, whose important work in Black Theology has mediated class theological concerns through the prism of African American culture, here offers a fresh take on theological anthropology. Rather than defined "the human" as one eternal or inviolable essence, however, Hopkins looks to the multiple and conflicting notions of the human in contemporary thought, and particularly three key variables: culture, self, and race. Hopkins' critical reframing of these concepts firmly locates human endeavor, development, transcendence, and liberation in the particular messiness of struggle and strife.

In this important contribution to the scholarly study of Egyptian Gnosticism, Pearson situates Gnosticism in its historical context and describes its manifold relationships to Judaism, early Christianity, and ancient Platonism. Birger Pearson gives special attention to the controversial issue of the impact of Gnosticism on early Egyptian Christianity up to the Muslim conquest of the seventh century.

Keller traces America's response to the current national, international, and religious situation to the deeply fraught legacy of Christian apocalypticism. After diving deeply into the multiple and conflicting political and religious meanings of the Book of Revelation, she proposes a counter-apocalypse, an anti-imperial political theology of love.

Wallace retrieves a central but often neglected biblical theme--the idea of God as carnal Spirit who indwells all things--as the basis for constructing a "green spirituality" responsive to the environmental needs of our time. In the biblical tradition, he writes, God as Spirit is a presence that shows itself to us daily by living in and through the earth. One message of Christianity is therefore celebration of the bodily, material world--ancient redwoods, vernal springs, broad-winged hawks, everyday pigweed--as the place that God indwells and cares for in order to maintain the well being of the earth. Wallace's bold yet careful work reawakens our sense of the sacrality of the earth and the life that the trinitarian God creates there.

A diverse group of New Testament scholars and theologians offer myriad paths to a better understanding of the Book of Revelation. They discuss topics such as Hispanic / Cuban American and African American perspectives, ecological issues, postcolonial themes, and liberation theology. The book also provides a set of guidelines for intercultural Bible study. The volume's contributors include: Brian K. Blount Justo Gonzlez Harry O. Maier Clarice J. Martin James Okoye Tina Pippin Pablo Richard Barbara R. Rossing Vtor Westhelle Khiok-Khng Yeo

This volume contains some of the most important and enduring work of Gerhard von Rad, the most influential Old Testament theologian of the twentieth century. The chapters cover a broad range of topics, including the doctrine of creation, memory and tradition in Deuteronomy, historical writing in ancient Israel, cultic language in the Psalms, and the Old Testament worldview.

In this informative and keen look at contemporary trends in Old Testament theology, Perdue builds on his earlier volume The Collapse of History (1994). He investigates how a variety of perspectives and methodologies have impacted how the Old Testament is read in the twenty-first century including: literary criticism; rhetorical criticism, feminist, womanist, and mujerista theologies, liberation theology; Jewish theology; postmodernism; and postcolonialism. Perdue provides a sensitive reading of the aims of these approaches as well as providing critique and setting them in their various cultural contexts. In his conclusion, the author provides a look at the future and how these various voices and approaches will continue to impact how we carry out Old Testament theology.

Stiller argues that Jesus' parables, through their narrative, personal, and oral dimensions and reversal of expectations, provide unique access to Christianity for those whose experience and hopes we label "postmodern." Aligning contemporary scholarship with today's cultural assumptions, Stiller offers preachers a working knowledge of postmodern sensibilities, an understanding of the parable genre, an analysis of ten parables, and a sample of how one might preach them effectively.

This volume's contributors--dynamic and progressive African-American church leaders--advocate the prophetic powers of black theology, preaching, and evangelism in support of community and economic development, ministerial and lay leadership, and enhancement of church life.

Mannermaa's revisionist work on justification in Luther's theology--a notable contribution from one of the most influential Finnish scholars of Luther studies-- is now available in English. His book opens up new interpretive questions for historical theology with striking implications for ecumenism, ethics, and spirituality. He writes, "the idea of the divine life in Christ which is present in faith lies at the very center of the theology of the Reformer." He argues that later Lutheran interpretation of this teaching has portrayed justification as more mechanical and forensic than Luther did, underestimated the extent to which God's righteousness is also ours, and obscured the radical personal transformation that Luther attributed to justification.

Callahan suggests that scholars have wrongly placed the sequence and therefore the importance of the works collectively known as the Johannine tradition - the Gospel of John and the Johannine Epistles. His proposal includes literary, theological, and historical analysis as he argues for the reevaluation of a significant part of the biblical canon.

Lanzetta illuminates the transformative potential of the classical tradition of women mystics, especially in light of contemporary violence against women around the world. Focusing on the contemplative process as women's journey from oppression to liberation, Lanzetta draws especially on the mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila. She lays out the contemplative techniques used by mystics to achieve their highest spiritual potential and also investigates how unjust social and political conditions afflict women's souls. Lanzetta identifies a specific historical female mystical path (the via feminina) and draws contemporary conclusions for how women might understand their bodies, their rights, and their ethics.

Two of the most vocal activists on racial issues in the church seek nothing less than a conversion of American Christianity. They directly challenge the churches to resume leadership in overcoming and redressing America's legacy of racial segregation.

- Proposes a new model of preaching- Specifically exemplifies the model in sample sermons and a chapter of instructions.

This landmark volume, the first of two, assesses the prospects and promise of Lutheran theology at the opening of a new millennium. From four continents, the thirty noted and respected contributors not only gauge how such classic themes as grace, the cross, and justification wear today but also look to key issues of ecumenism, social justice, global religious life, and the impact of contemporary science on Christian belief.

- Important contemporary articulation of the concept of God by a leading theologian- Helpful as a sketch of the development of and problems with the traditional idea of God

In recent decades economic dislocation, immigration, new architecture, and other forces have transformed the physical, social, and even religious landscape of large cities. There gleaming skyscrapers tower over struggling ghettos, abandoned businesses mar upscale shopping areas, and tall-steeple churches sometimes languish where storefront mosques thrive. Exploring the religious significance of this new urban landscape, a group of theologians, members of the Workgroup on Constructive Christian Theology, traveled to select cities and found an exciting, vibrant, and multivoiced religious spirit at work. In these essays five leading American theologians delve deeply into the contemporary spiritual geographies of five cities, capturing, through a mix of personal and historical narrative, political analysis, and theological rumination, a sense of this new sacred space and the spirit aborning there.

Writing from a Native American perspective, theologian Tinker probes American Indian culture, its vast religious and cultural legacy, and its ambiguous relationship to the tradition--historic Christianity--that colonized and converted it. He offers novel proposals about cultural survival and identity, sustainability, and the endangered health of Native Americans.

Examining how God and eventually Christ are portrayed in early Christian art, Jensen explores questions of the relationship between art and theology, conflicts over idolatry and iconography, and how the Christological controversies affected the portrayals of Christ. Since much of this art comes from ancient Rome, she places her analysis in the context of the history of Roman portraiture. One hundred photographs enhance the discussion.

For most Christian believers, what is truly remarkable and important about Jesus is not his life, but his resurrection from the dead. They may believe that Jesus' death is significant not as the end of Jesus' life, but as the first half of the saving event that comprises the Christian gospel: the death and resurrection of Jesus. For Christians, this great divine cosmic event, around which all of human history pivots, is what saves us from our sins. Apart from this, the death of Jesus would simply be the meaningless end to an interesting but insignificant life. In this lively and provocative work, Patterson reconstructs early Christian assessments of Jesus' significance and also questions basic assumptions about modern interpretations of Jesus' death. He emphasizes the importance of Jesus' life in relation to his death and resurrection. And he challenges individualistic notions of how Jesus' death relates to Christian ethics.

- Covers the primary pre-exilic prophets- Introduces the student to the critical issues of prophecy

Athalya Brenner presents fictionalized "autobiographies" of a dozen women and women groups in the Hebrew Bible, and also lets them share a conversation session. This allows her to include how these women have been interpreted - not only in the Bible itself, but also in Jewish and Christian traditions and by modern commentators. The result is a thoroughly engaging and insightful look at women, from a leading biblical interpreter who has a very creative edge to all her work.

Patrick Miller looks to the First Commandment in the fight against the misappropriation of theological themes for political ends.

This brief volume is excerpted from Peter Paris's popular and influential work The Spirituality of African Peoples on African and African American Spirituality. Paris shows how the religious and moral values of Africa have pervaded African American life and thought. Focusing on six particular virtues, he explores how the African worldview enriched and ennobled African American notions of morality and values, public virtue, and meaningful life.

What is "church"? What makes the church one? While these questions may seem innocuous, church has become conflicted territory recently, with internal factions, external pressures, and ecumenical turmoil all calling for a more positive, studier, more resilient notion of Christian community. Wengert approaches the questions as a Reformation historian. He shows how the New Testament notion of "marks" of the church was taken up by Luther and developed by Melanchthon not as descriptive tag but as a criterion for authenticity in Christian community. Lathrop, the liturgical theologian, shows concretely how those marks can stamp the worship life of a congregation as well as the evaluative work of congregations with their pastors, bishops, superintendents, and conference ministers. Only with a sturdy sense of their own identity--as a holy people, grounded in common practices and commitments--can Christian assemblies truly engage and even transform today's cultural context. This volume originated as six lectures jointly presented to the Academy of Bishops of the ELCA in 2001.

The first edition of this book pioneered a broader and deeper critique of psychological theories and practices. Informed by hermeneutical theory, Browning's widely acclaimed work drew attention to the ethical and even religious assumptions underlying psychology and has been deeply influential in psychology, pastoral counseling, and practical theology.In this edition, Browning and his new co-author show how the field of social science has indeed grasped and appropriated the hermeneutical approach, though with only slight appreciation of the religious dimensions of the social-scientific endeavor. The new first chapter situates the discussion, and the core chapters of the book are updated. Two other new chapters include dialogue with psychotherapeutic theorists and evangelical writers on the relation of theology and psychology. This work will set the stage for the religion-psychology conversation for years to come.