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This book explores the art and craft of delivering Islamic sermons, while also providing a model of spiritual formation for those serving Muslim communities of faith in positions of religious leadership. Special attention is paid to the American Muslim context in which these faith leaders regularly live, operate, and faithfully engage.

Esta segunda edición, corregida y aumentada, recorre temas centrales - como la trinidad, cristología, escatología, y pneumatología - entrelazándolos con toques específicos de la tradición protestante desde una perspectiva latina atenta al estado actual de nuestras sociedades y culturas.

Challenging other narratives of mission history, Skreslet offers a new speech-act theory approach to the modern roots of World Christianity that differentiates between what a missionary might intend to communicate and the effects of what has been said or actions taken both in the moment and over time.

Understanding Zionism introduces the rise and development of the Zionist movement, its various streams, and the impact of Zionism on government and society in Israel. The book examines special topics, such as the phenomenon of Christian Zionism, movements of opposition to Zionism, and frameworks regarding the future direction(s) of Zionism.

This volume develops robust, constructive, practical ethics of corpse care that address economic, environmental, and pastoral concerns for caring for the dead.

The Habit of Poetry brings together the work of mid-20th century American nuns to reveal a notable Catholic literary renaissance of women religious poets. It is a case study of how women negotiate tradition and individual creativity.

In The Visual Preacher: Proclaiming an Embodied Word, Steve Thomason's winsomely illustrated text shows preachers basic principles and visual techniques to create and use images that will make them even more effective communicators than they already are. Preachers need not be skilled artists or technological wizards to apply Thomason's ideas.

"How should the church relate to the public sphere? The body politic? The state? The economic order? The natural world? For too many Christians and churches, being 'in the world but not of it' has resulted in either a theocratic impulse to seize the reins of secular power or a quietistic retreat from the world and its material concerns. The church in the public shows how this dualism has corrupted the church's social witness and allowed neoliberal and neocolonial ideas to assert control of public and political life. Dualism has rendered the church not only indifferent to but also complicitous with the state's bio- and power-politics. Because of this outdated framework of the church's political theology, the church has been reluctant to engage in challenging structural and systemic injustice in this world. But rather than counseling despair or making a case for Christendom, Ilsup Ahn argues for a public church, one that collaborates and cooperates with other public actors and entities in the promotion of a just social order. The book traces this 'third way' back to the apostolic age and offers practical approaches for enacting it today. Central to this vision is the analogy of the rhizome--that strange, unique form of life that lives underground, grows horizontally, and is capable of regeneration. The church in the public draws on this image to develop a political theology for engaging the world, identifying with the oppressed, and binding up the broken." --

One Life to Give explores the spiritual origins of the American Revolution: martyrdom. John Fanestil traces the deep history of the tradition of martyrdom from its classical and Christian origins to the onset of the Revolutionary War. Ultimately, he articulates how the tradition of American martyrdom animated countless personal commitments to American independence, and thereby to the war. Only by understanding the inextricable role played by martyrdom can we fully grasp the origins of the American Revolution.

Drawing on recent philosophical developments in hermeneutics and poststructuralism, The Fragility of Language and the Encounter with God offers a theological account of the contingency of language and perception and of how acknowledging that contingency transforms the perennial theological question of the development of doctrine. Klug applies this account to humanity's encounter with God and its translation into language. Because there exists no neutral epistemological standpoint, Klug integrates contemporary insights on the theory of the subject (especially those of Zizek and Badiou) and presents humanity as a subject that transforms its experience of and with God into language and places it in a shared space for reception. But can the speaking subject have authority and legitimacy in making statements about the Absolute? What role do the Christian faithful play in evaluating that authority? These questions are addressed both to biblical texts and doctrinal statements. Crucial is the Catholic perspective that legitimate statements of faith and insights are only possible through the Holy Spirit. However, humanity cannot command or control the Holy Spirit but can only show its influence indirectly through the receptive tradition of the universal church. The Fragility of Language and the Encounter with God argues that statements of faith cannot overcome contingency. Instead, the Catholic notion of receptive tradition attempts to cope rationally with the fragility of perception and language in humanity's orientation toward God.

Just Traveling celebrates overcoming distance and seeking difference as defining human traits. Following the scriptural witness of God as the Earthroamer, the book explores the liminal qualities of traveling through six movements: anticipating, leaving, surrendering, meeting, caring, and returning. To travel is to move at the speed of being present to one's experiences, bridging distance and difference through acts of care. Drawing on personal experience as well as the wisdom of theology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and cultural studies, Hamman reimagines travel in a welcoming and beautiful, yet also complex and troubled world. Whether leaving home serves our wanderlust and curiosity or has personal or spiritual purposes; whether we travel a few miles or cover vast distances, we travel best when we contribute to human flourishing. Care--the compassionate reaching out to someone or something--is the practice that allows one to travel differently. The spirituality of roads is filled with hopeful restorative potential, and life is best lived with the Earthroamer.

In Managing Congregations in a Virtual Age, John W. Wimberly Jr. draws on the experience of the business community, and on a diverse group of skilled pastors and rabbis, as he lays out the opportunities and challenges of working from home for congregations and staff, offering principles and best practices for successfully managing remote workers and ministries. The move toward working from home is part of a rapidly changing work environment for employers and employees alike. Large parts of the business world have mastered managing their staff, located around the country and the world, virtually. For many faith communities, however, the sudden move to working from home amid the Covid-19 pandemic involved significant upheaval. Fortunately, various forms of technology and productivity tools can make this shift easier. Wimberly focuses on how congregational leaders can ensure accountability and productivity, create a sense of staff as a team, help older staff members learn how to work from home, and determine what hardware and software staff members and the congregation need to support effective communication. This comprehensive guide will serve congregations well into the future, even as technology and circumstances change.

Throughout its history, America has been confronted with two alternative views of its identity. Is it, according to one argument, a deeply Christian nation called to purity and uniformity in the face of a challenging world? Or is it, according to the other argument, a beacon of hope and openness, a land in which a variety of people can work side by side in justice and for a common good? In this timely and needed book, the authors challenge readers--especially readers in Christian communities--to step up to the promise of an America that works for the good of everyone who calls this nation home. Certainly, part of that challenge is recognizing where America has failed, and the authors do not step back from that challenge. But a tone of hope prevails throughout as a gracious and compelling case is made that America's better angels exist and can motivate us to create a more just society. --

Dutiful Love explores the distinctive relationship between self-sacrificial love and caregiving when that duty to care extends over a lifetime due to social limitations on those with severe mental illness. The author draws upon her experiences as the sibling of someone with mental illness. Includes discussion questions for individuals and groups.

The headlines are where daily life meets the public square--be it through social-media feeds, news outlets, or daily chatter. Preachers often feel stuck when met with quickly shifting and dense media topics. If and when preachers determine it is appropriate to address issues that arise in the news cycle, they are often at a loss for how to speak about these issues from the pulpit. When preachers understand that a responsibility to sustain life is embedded in the purposes of preaching, they discover greater fluidity between the everyday world, the biblical text, and preaching itself. Preaching the Headlines engages the intersections of social and religious discourse for the purpose of helping communities attend to everyday issues as matters of faith and faith as a practical, everyday aspect of life.This book reframes preaching as an ongoing conversation between the modern world and the world of the text, exploring where the divides between the two may be less rigid than we acknowledge. In preaching, the preacher uses what they know about life as a bridge to the text, while life in the text provides the bridge back to faith in the contemporary world.

Based on the latest current scholarship, Atlas of the Biblical World features striking full-color maps and insightful commentary to make the ancient biblical world come alive. The complexities and questions that accompany the responsible study of the ancient world and its intersection with the biblical narrative are addressed through innovative map design and analysis. Sharp commentary that accompanies each map provides factual data, addresses questions of interpretation, and locates the biblical narrative in its wider historical and cultural context, making this particular atlas an ideal introduction for students of biblical studies. The atlas will feature over 60 full-color maps, illuminating commentary, full-color photographs of key historical artifacts, timelines, charts, and an index to the maps and content.

The delay of the Parousiathe anticipated return of Christis an issue that has troubled theology since the late writings of the New Testament. This volume, arising from the Oxford Postdoctoral Colloquium on Eschatology, offers a constructive proposal on this issue in a truly interdisciplinary manner. Collaboratively written by a cohort of ecumenical scholars in systematics, historical theology, and biblical studies, the project engages in careful, critical biblical exegesis and offers an apophatic and constructive theological account of the deferral and certainty of Christs second coming.

Despite Dietrich Bonhoeffers earlier theological achievements and writings, it was his correspondence and notes from prison that electrified the postwar world. The materials gathered and selected by his friend Eberhard Bethge in Letters and Papers from Prison not only brought Bonhoeffer to a wide and appreciative readership, especially in North America, they also introduced to a broad readership his novel and exciting ideas of religionless Christianity, his open and honest theological appraisal of Christian doctrines, and his sturdy, if sorely tried, faith in face of uncertainty and doubt.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer bequeathed to humanity a legacy of theological creativity and spirituality that continues to intrigue people from a variety of backgrounds. Life Together gathers Bonhoeffers 1938 reflections on the character of Christian community, based on the common life that he and his seminarians experienced at the Finkenwalde Seminary. Using the acclaimed DBWE translation, adapted to a more accessible format, this new edition features supplemental material from Victoria J. Barnett and an insightful introduction by Geffrey B. Kelly to clarify the theological meaning and social importance of Bonhoeffers work.

Cynthia Bourgeault describes the foundations of her theology: a cosmological seeing with the eye of the heart, Benedictine daily rule informed by wisdom from the Asian traditions. She explains the influence of philosophers built on the cornerstones of the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery, tied by the Trinity as a cosmogonic principle.

Careful moral reflection and action are important across all of modern life, but they are especially critical when it comes to our place as individuals and communities in matters of economics. We know intuitively that our daily decisions about money and markets have a deep impact on others, but it is easy to become overwhelmed and confused or, worse, to feel as if our actions don't make a difference. Faithful Economics is the ideal guide for navigating this complex arena and coming to a deeper understanding of how our faith and our economic lives intersect. In twenty-five short lessons, each digestible in one brief sitting, the author explores a wide range of topics from lobbying and just wages to globalization and Catholic social teaching. Each section illuminates the issues, explains the questions, and leaves the reader with clarity and understanding. An ideal book for students, curious readers, and all who want to understand their place as a faithful participant in economic life.

Our days are filled with a variety of known and lurking fears. Christians who name Jesus as Lord on Sundays are inundated with stories (real and imagined) inducing fear and caution throughout the week: random violence, health concerns, the perceived threat of people different from us, and economic worries, to name a few. News sources and national political leaders manipulate these fears in a fashion that threatens (and sometimes usurps) the church's ultimate trust in Christ. A pastoral assumption: at the core of this national anxiety is the looming fear of death, spawning various supplemental protections that have little to do with the promises of Christ. This fear of death (and the false promises claiming to shield us from such) may prompt us to nudge the One we call Lord to the margins of daily life, or even solely to the afterlife--a savior we'll all meet in heaven one day but whose quaint teachings have little to do with problems we're now facing. In this book, gifted storyteller Frank G. Honeycutt calls on his many years of pastoral experience to examine one of the most stunning (and overlooked) theological claims of the New Testament: how baptism radically unites followers of Christ in his death and resurrection. In baptism, we have already died (Romans 6). Disciples commence life in the kingdom on this side of the grave. Believing this with theological rigor and trust relieves personal (and corporate) anxiety about any day in the future when a believer stops breathing.

Only through learning to hear with our hearts tuned closely to God can we discern how we should find our way through the crowded and confusing thickets of our lives. In Hearing with the Heart, popular writer and retreat leader Debra K. Farrington leads you through a gentle process for discovering how to invite God's presence into every aspect of your daily life. Her story-filled discussions of key practices such as prayer, meditation, reading and reflection, and attentiveness to your body, your studies, and your relationships with your friends and family, help you discover how to be open to discerning God's will. Filled with a wealth of exercises, guidelines, and tools, Hearing with the Heart gives you the practical help you need to bring you closer to God. As you put these suggestions into practice you will find yourself opening more and more to God's infinite possibilities for you.

"Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth explores how Christian spirituality and practice must adapt to prepare for life on a climate-altered planet. Refugia (reh-FU-jee-ah) is a biological term describing places of shelter where life endures in times of crisis, such as a volcanic eruption, fire, or stressed climate. Ideally, these refugia endure, expand, and connect so that new life emerges. Debra Rienstra applies this concept to human culture and faith, asking, In this era of ecological devastation, how can Christians become people of refugia? How can we find and nurture these refugia, not only in the biomes of the earth, but in our human cultural systems and in our spiritual lives? How can we apply all our love and creativity to this task as never before? Rienstra recounts her own process of reeducation--beginning not as a scientist or an outdoors enthusiast but by examining the wisdom of theologians and philosophers, farmers and nature writers, scientists and activists, and especially people on the margins. By weaving nature writing, personal narrative, and theological reflection, Rienstra grapples honestly with her own fears and longings and points toward a way forward--a way to transform Christian spirituality and practice, become a healer on a damaged earth, and inspire others to do the same. Refugia Faith speaks to people securely within the faith as well as to those on the edge, providing a suitable entry for those who sense that this era of upheaval requires a transformed faith but who don't quite know where to begin." --

This book deals with Christian lament in the late Reformation by exploring the efforts of a talented yet little-known layman to cope with the death of his beloved wife. A work of haunting candor and searching faith, The Pious Meditations furnishes insight into life in the past as well as resources for life in the present.

Susan J. Dunlap offers the theological fruits of time spent working as a chaplain with people without homes. After depicting the local history of her small southern city, she describes the prayer service she co-leads in a homeless shelter. Clients offer words of faith and encouragement that take the form of prayer, sayings, testimony, song, and short sermons. Dunlap describes both these forms of expression and their theological content. She asserts that these forms and beliefs are a means of survival and resistance in a hostile world. The ways they serve these purposes are further demonstrated in life stories told as testimonies, incorporating scripture, sayings, oral tradition, and popular culture. Dunlap concludes that white supremacy and neoliberalism have produced the problem of homelessness in America and are forms of idolatry. The faith and practices shared at the shelter are spiritual and theological resources for people in the grip of and seeking freedom from this idolatry. Claiming that only God can free us from bondage to idolatry and that to draw close to the poor is to draw close to God, Dunlap calls for proximity to people living without homes who are practicing their faith amid poverty.

This book is an attempt to contribute to interfaith-dialogue initiatives spearheaded by the Catholic Church with Zen, one of the major and fast-growing spiritual traditions in East Asia. In recent years, the Catholic Church has emphasized the importance of interfaith dialogue in its missionary activities and has encouraged all to take part actively. The number of conferences organized, discussions held, and articles written on interfaith dialogue has escalated. However, interfaith dialogue remains mostly in the realm of specialists. The majority of ordinary believers/laity have not yet become part of interfaith-dialogue activities. Many are unaware of such activities because often they don't take place where ordinary people spend their daily lives. Others shy away because interfaith-dialogue activities are too specialized. But Joseph's experience growing up in a multireligious context in India taught him that the participation of ordinary believers is necessary if interfaith dialogue is to achieve its intended results. Christian - Zen Dialogue focuses on narratives of faith in Christianity and Zen. Can these sacred stories--gospel stories of Jesus and Chan/Zen stories (Kōans)--be a starting point for dialogue between the two faiths? The book focuses on two aspects: First, what model of interfaith dialogue can help Catholics and Zen followers of all walks of life engage in faith dialogue while remaining in their own life situations? Second, how can they make use of the common elements found in their narratives of faith as the most appropriate starting point for dialogue between them? To achieve the intended results, Joseph applies the hermeneutic phenomenological approach of Paul Ricoeur.

"This book presents the theological contributions of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC), a transnational body comprising fifteen Asian Catholic bishops' conferences as full members and ten associate members. The book introduces the contemporary context of Asia and represents a complete reworking of the author's approach to the FABC's way of being church and doing theology in Asia. The emphasis of the book is on the postcolonial dimensions of Asia and the challenges and implications of decolonization for shaping a postcolonial Asian church and way of theologizing. The book also addresses the challenges of religious pluralism for the FABC and the FABC's prophetic response--seeking to be a sacrament of unity and harmony amid much strife, violence, and conflict. Finally, the book discusses new challenges and possibilities for the FABC as it looks ahead. Tan explores the challenges and implications of migration, transient migration, online and virtual communities, and insider movements for shaping the future of the FABC's approach to theology." --