We Have Plenty : a womanist theology of communal abundance for the Black Church (2025)
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The Black church often maintains an allegiance to white, Western approaches to wealth and material acquisition. In doing so, it can ignore Jesus's teachings on poverty, wealth, and materialism. The church's ambivalence toward Jesus's understandings of poverty and wealth uniquely impacts the spiritual and material well-being of Black women and the Black community. As a womanist theologian, Lorena Parrish argues that the Black church needs a new, liberative way forward. In We Have Plenty, Parrish traces the history of theologies of prosperity to help scholars and practitioners understand the long-standing appearance of prosperity gospels in the Western church. In doing so, she explores selected sermons and writings of St. Augustine, John Calvin, John Wesley, and Walter Rauschenbusch to show how theologies of prosperity have long been embedded in mainline Christianity, sometimes imperceptibly so. Parrish argues that recognizing these trajectories is critical for the Black church's capacity to foster pathways toward communal liberation and wholeness. Parrish offers a womanist theology that hearkens to the liberative work of Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm Collective and illumines contemporary initiatives that cultivate pathways toward Black communal abundance. Parrish shows how equipping Black church pastors and community leaders with tools to build similar strategies better positions the church and community, in turn, to promote more equitable human relations and communal asset-building and sharing. We Have Plentyoffers a moral imagination for theologians, church leaders, and community activists to envision Black communal abundance and thriving in light of Jesus's teachings.
Making Places Sacred : new articulations of place and power
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Although claims to sacredness are often linked to the power of a distant past, the work of making places sacred is creative, novel, renewable, and reversible. This Element highlights how sacred space is newly made. It is often associated with blood, death, and geographic anomalies, yet no single feature determines sacred associations. People make space sacred by connecting with 'extrahuman' figures - the ancestors, spirits, and gods that people attempt to interact with in every society. These connections can be concentrated in people's bodies, yet bodies are particularly vulnerable to loss. The Element also examines the multidimensional and multisensory dimensions of sacred space, which can be made almost anywhere, including online, but can also be unmade. Unmaking sacred space can entail new sacralization. New and minority religions in particular provide excellent sites for studying sacredness as a value, raising the reliably productive question: sacred for whom?
Lower Than the Angels: a history of sex and Christianity
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"A magisterial new history."--The New York Times "Endlessly fascinating."--Slate A groundbreaking history of sexual emotion, sexual activity, gender relations, marriage and the family--and how Christianity has interacted with this panorama of human concerns Few matters produce more public interest and public anxiety than sex and religion. Much of the political contention and division in societies across the world centres on sexual topics, and one-third of the global population is Christian in background or outlook. The issue goes to the heart of present-day religion. This book seeks to calm fears and encourage understanding through telling a three-thousand-year-long tale of Christians encountering sex, gender, and the family. The message of Lower than the Angels is simple, necessary and timely: to pay attention to the complexity and contradictions in the history of Christianity. The reader can decide from the story told here whether there is a single Christian theology of sex, or many contending voices in a symphony that is not at all complete. Oxford's Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church introduces an epic of ordinary and extraordinary Christians trying to make sense of themselves and of humanity's deepest desires, fears and hopes.
The Treachery of Realities: safeguarding truth in the age of scienc (2025)
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This volume targets the contemporary atmosphere of lies, post-truths, and alternative facts. Previously, we had no reason to think humanity was about to have its dinosaur moment; we could be confident of surviving for millennia. It now seems that humanity's future might be a matter of decades, given the variety of existential threats we face, from climate change and asteroids to robots and AI. We are not going to save ourselves driven by faith, belief, hopes, prayers, and wishes in an atmosphere of science deniers. What is required is an investment in a renewed and re-energized secular worldview, guided by the sociological imagination and opposed to conventional reasoning and action.
Theology, Religion, and Dungeons and Dragons: explorations of the sacred through fantasy worlds(2025)
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On its 50th anniversary, the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has found renewed popularity and a generally positive representation in popular culture. Reflecting on these fifty years of development and history, and looking forward to D&D's bright future, Theology, Religion, and Dungeons & Dragons: Explorations of the Sacred through Fantasy Worlds explores the intersection of D&D with the academic disciplines of Theology and Religious Studies. From Tolkien's notion of sub-creation to pedagogical ponderings on hell, readers will uncover deeply theological and religious aspects of Dungeons & Dragons in this volume. Unlike some during the so-called Satanic Panic, the authors of this volume embrace D&D as spiritually and theologically formative. Discussions on alignment and campaign settings like Dark Sun and Ravenloft foreground notions of interrelating and wellbeing, and reflections on communal conceptions of canon and spiritual formation chart paths forward by understanding historical realities. This volume responds to growing interest in the academic study of tabletop role-playing games in general and D&D in specific, and it addresses pressing issues in the academic disciplines of Theology and Religious Studies.
Science and the Sacred: beyond the gods in our image (2025)
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Religious Belief and Science: a reference handbook (2025)
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"Scholarly resource to help readers navigate and better understand the religious, cultural, and political impact of American views of religious faith and scientific inquiry"
Augustine and Frontiers of Pluralism (2025)
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"This book focuses on St. Augustine as a worthwhile resource for thinking through the challenges and prospects of pluralism. The contributors speak to several dimensions of this organizing concept, understanding of which is advanced by engagement with Augustine. The volume brings together scholars from different disciplines, faith traditions, and political commitments, all of whom have deemed it worthwhile to return to Augustine to learn about a signature theme of common life in the twenty-first century. The chapters address a variety of topics including civic engagement, feminism, Black religious thought, domination, liberalism, and time. In an age of pluralism, the hope is to access the insights of the thinker who struggled with a plurality of desires, motivations, and political-theological imaginations, and to benefit from his thoughts. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of theology, philosophy, and political science"-
I Am a Part of Infinity: the spiritual journey of Albert Einstein (2025)
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"Nearly everyone is familiar with Einstein's scientific accomplishments-but few know the truth of how spiritual philosophies shaped his life and work. Scientists and biographers have treated Einstein's views on the eternal as vague and metaphorical. For Einstein, however, spirituality and science were a vital pairing. In I Am a Part of Infinity, Kieran Fox examines for the first time the strength and the subtlety of Einstein's spirituality. Revealing the Greek philosophies and East Asian religious teachings that Einstein revered, Fox traces, for example, how Pythagoras and Democritus allowed Einstein to conceptualize mathematical simplicity and the power of the mind, and how the Upanishads and Jainism shaped his views on the nature of the universe and morality. Fox shows how Einstein melded those ideas with his science to create one all-encompassing philosophy, in which the cosmic oneness of his work in physics was inextricably linked to his pacificism and his moral commitments to all life. Drawing on little-known conversations, recently published letters, and new archival research, I Am a Part of Infinity shows, for the first time, what Einstein really believed, and why his perspective still matters today"-- Provided by publisher.
Relation Without Relation: intercultural theology as decolonizing mission practice (2025)
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"Who is the 'Other'? In a culturally and religiously diverse world, how can the church build just relationships with the 'Other' without compromising each party's unique identity? In Relation without Relation, the author presents intercultural theology as a decolonizing approach to mission practice. He employs key concepts from Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, and Homi Bhabha to provide a philosophical foundation. He advocates for an 'Altruistic Model' of interfaith dialogue, which enriches missiology and mission practices, aiming to cultivate an intercultural church. Relation without Relation offers valuable resources for churches seeking to become intercultural and to practice mission alongside others, whether they are people of faith or not. While sustaining identities, participants create a welcoming third space where genuine dialogue occurs, fostering shared concern for justice."
Imitating Abraham : ritual and exemplarity in Jewish and Christian contexts (2025)
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"Imitating Abraham provides exciting glimpses into the reception history of the character Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, illuminating the manifold ways in which interpreters draw upon his legacy to authorize practices like sacrifice, circumcision, hospitality, feasting, prayer, and personal and corporate piety. Abraham holds surprises: his name is used in magical amulets-some published here for the first time-to ward off demons, protect cattle from illness, and even to round up runaway slaves. Researchers, students, and all interested in Biblical, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Studies, as well as ritual and exemplarity will want to read this book"-- Provided by publisher.
A Theology of Traumatic Affect: a political and religious engagement
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A Theology of Traumatic Affect offers theological tools, language, and framework to victims/survivors of trauma and their communities. Seen through the lens of affect theory, the social dimensions of trauma emerge even for individual trauma. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Alice Kim argues that due to interconnectedness of individuals, a communal effort is necessary for trauma work. Living in a different world as imagined by public imagination is possible now with collective planetary engagement of all creatures participating in co-creation.
A Nondualistic Pentecostal Theology: exploring dialectics and becoming through Amos Yong and Slavoj Žižek
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"This work examines the contradiction between Amos Yong's philosophical nondualism and theological dualism and Slavoj Žižek's Hegelian dialectics. What emerges is a nondualistic pentecostal theology that identifies the God-World relationship as inextricable, dialectics being driven by negativity, and transcendence as the creative act"
Antisemitism in America : a warning (2025)
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In an urgent and personal new book, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sheds light on the Jewish American experience and sounds the alarm about the troubling resurgence of antisemitism. When it comes to the history of the Jewish people, there is a national and global crisis of misunderstanding. This lack of knowledge feeds demons of ignorance, hatred, and violence. ANTISEMITISM IN AMERICA: A WARNING is an urgent work of nonfiction that illuminates the Jewish experience and the prejudices both hidden and overt that have led to the chronic persecution of the Jewish people. By placing antisemitism in its proper historical context, and drawing from Senator Schumer's own life, the book informs Americans' understanding of the causes of the recent swell of antisemitic rhetoric and violence in our country. In very personal terms, it will engage with debates over the purpose and meaning of Israel and help draw a line between legitimate criticism of its government and when criticism of Israel as a Jewish homeland verges into antisemitism. This book is a warning, informed by the lessons of history, about what can happen when the "world's oldest hatred" is allowed to rise, unchecked"-
Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza : a reckoning
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A bold, urgent appeal from the acclaimed columnist and political commentator, addressing one of the most important issues of our time "At this painful moment, Peter Beinart's voice is more vital than ever. His reach is broad--from the tragedy of today's Middle East to the South Africa he knows well to events centuries ago--his scholarship is deep, and his heart is big. This book is not just about being Jewish in the shadow of today's war, but about being a person who cares for justice." --Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight and King Leopold's Ghost In Peter Beinart's view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, Beinart argues, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must do nothing less than offer a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew? Beinart imagines an alternate narrative, which would draw on other nations' efforts at moral reconstruction and a different reading of Jewish tradition. A story in which Israeli Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy, and in which Jewish and Palestinian safety are not mutually exclusive but intertwined. One that recognizes the danger of venerating states at the expense of human life. Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza is a provocative argument that will expand and inform one of the defining conversations of our time. It is a book that only Peter Beinart could write: a passionate yet measured work that brings together his personal experience, his commanding grasp of history, his keen understanding of political and moral dilemmas, and a clear vision for the future.
Christian America and the Kingdom of God: White Christian nationalism from the Puritans through January 6, 2021 (2025)
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The myth of a Christian America fuels a powerful political force sure of its moral superiority and intent on implementing a Christian nationalist agenda. Richard T. Hughes and Christina Littlefield draw on discussions of civil religion and forms of nationalism to explore the complex legal and cultural arguments for a Christian America. The authors also provide an in-depth examination of the Bible's words on the "chosen nation" and "kingdom of God" that Christian nationalists quote to support the idea of the US as a Christian nation. A timely new edition of the acclaimed work, Christian America and the Kingdom of God spotlights how the centuries-long pursuit of a Christian America has bred an aggressive white Christian nationalism that twists faith, unleashes unchristian behavior, and threatens the nation.
Deifying Vision : reclaiming an anagogical imagination (2025)
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The anagogical sense of Scripture is that which identifies the ways in which the church's participation in its heavenly existence is expressed and taught. Anagogical interpretation highlights the eschatological tension between the "now and not yet" of the experience of redemption but gives this tension an unapologetic priority over the way it is too often relegated to the backroom of "last things." The book introduces and explores the anagogical imagination as the capacity to live in this tension while appropriating more consciously the fullness of one's ascended identity in Christ.
Everything Must Go : the stories we tell about the end of the world
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A rich, captivating, and darkly humorous look into the evolution of apocalyptic thought, exploring how film and literature interact with developments in science, politics, and culture, and what factors drive our perennial obsession with the end of the world. As Dorian Lynskey writes, "People have been contemplating the end of the world for millennia." In this immersive and compelling cultural history, Lynskey reveals how religious prophecies of the apocalypse were secularized in the early 19th century by Lord Byron and Mary Shelley in a time of dramatic social upheaval and temporary climate change, inciting a long tradition of visions of the end without gods. With a discerning eye and acerbic wit, Lynskey examines how various doomsday tropes and predictions in literature, art, music, and film have arisen from contemporary anxieties, whether they be comets, pandemics, world wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Y2K, or the climate emergency. Far from being grim, Lynskey guides readers through a rich array of fascinating stories and surprising facts, allowing us to keep company with celebrated works of art and the people who made them, from H.G. Wells, Jack London, W.B. Yeats and J.G. Ballard to The Twilight Zone, Dr. Strangelove, Mad Max and The Terminator. Prescient and original, Everything Must Go is a brilliant, sweeping work of history that provides many astute insights for our times and speaks to our urgent concerns for the future.
Prophet, Priest, and King : Christology in global perspective (2025)
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How might different voices from the global church help all Christians understand the person and work of Jesus Christ better Written by a team of leading Majority World scholars, this joint project explores and articulates a doctrine of Christ by appealing to his threefold office as prophet, priest, and king. Thus, it considers Christology not only as a central tenet of the Christian faith but, by drawing from a variety of voices throughout the worldwide church, it also points to the unified testimony of the global, catholic church. This is the first volume in the Theology Together series, which highlights the voices of Majority World scholars, each of whom brings insights from a particular context, and places them in conversation with one another to contribute to a richer, deeper understanding of a shared faith in Christ.
Barth and Ecotheology : the electing God and the community of creation
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Barth and Ecotheology offers a critical and constructive reading of Karl Barth's theology in the context of the Anthropocene. It reflects on how a contemporary doctrine of creation must be broad enough to address issues such as climate change, colonialism and racism, sexism, as well as integrating modern science.
An Analogy of Grace
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An Analogy of Grace proposes a deeply grounded investigation of grace and a robustly balanced impetus for advancing the gospel in the twenty-first century. Amid the present decline in religious affiliation, a pervasive question for many is "why bother" with faith and its practices. An Analogy of Grace engages this question in the context of grace, or our participation in the life and love of God, and investigates the difference made by the diverse ways in which the self-communication of God is received and participated. Shea begins with the contrasting models provided by twentieth-century theologians Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Rahner focused on how grace is universally accessible within the heart, while Balthasar envisioned grace as found principally through an encounter with the incarnate Word. Henry Shea charts a course within and beyond this difference, bolstered by fresh and insightful analysis of the work of Erich Przywara, Henri de Lubac, and other major theologians. An Analogy of Grace posits that grace is best understood as a moving Trinitarian analogy that begins in the heart and advances through the incarnate Word in the Spirit toward the whole Christ. This new analogy of grace is radically universal and inclusive while also wholly informed by the distinct form of Jesus Christ.
Everyday Encounters: humanizing dialogue in theory and practice
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There is an alarming trend to disassociate from family, friends, and neighbors with differing and diverse worldviews from one's own. In the absence of dialogue, trust weakens, relationships dissolve, everything humans cherish becomes susceptible to collapse, and societies become more likely to resort to destructive tactics. Everyday Encountersintroduces the importance of dialogue to humanize others in healthy ways. Dialogue is a crucial tool in navigating encounters across difference, promoting attentive listening and sensitivity for constructive human engagement in various settings like family, leadership, and the workplace. Hans Gustafson presents dialogue as a versatile and vital tool for communication across diverse contexts, from personal interactions to geopolitical negotiations. The book condenses practical insights about the theory and practice of dialogue and human engagement across difference into five short chapters. Gustafson's language employs jargon-free clarity with a goal of accessibility. Dialogue is a fundamental means of communication at the core of human interaction, crucial for healthy relationships, effective leadership, and fostering honesty and empathy--two foundational virtues for human flourishing.
Cross Purposes : Christianity's broken bargain with democracy
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Why the crisis of Christianity has become a crisis for democracy; "Concise and elegant. . . . Rauch applies careful research and incisive prose to examine, diagnose, and prescribe a cure for the maladies afflicting contemporary religious-political dynamics."--Michael M. Rosen, Commentary; What happens to American democracy if Christianity is no longer able, or no longer willing, to perform the functions on which our constitutional order depends? In this provocative book, the award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch--a lifelong atheist--reckons candidly with both the shortcomings of secularism and the corrosion of Christianity; Thin Christianity, as Rauch calls the mainline church, has been unable to inspire and retain believers. Worse, a Church of Fear has distorted white evangelicalism in ways that violate the tenets of both Jesus and James Madison. What to do? For answers, Rauch looks to a new generation of religious thinkers, as well as to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has placed the Constitution at the heart of its spiritual teachings; In this timely critique Rauch addresses secular Americans who think Christianity can be abandoned, and Christian Americans who blame secular culture for their grievances. The two must work together, he argues, to confront our present crisis. He calls on Christians to recommit to the teachings of their faith that align with Madison, not MAGA, and to understand that liberal democracy, far from being oppressive, is uniquely protective of religious freedom. At the same time, he calls on secular liberals to understand that healthy religious institutions are crucial to the survival of the liberal state.
Negative Natural Theology : God and the limits of reason
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How can we live in harmony with the universe, and not just in it? What is it to feel at home in the world? Some thinkers who feel the force of these questions reach for the concept of God. Others do not. This book asks what might be at stake in the choice of whether or not to speak about God: not just in terms of abstract reasoning or arguments about God, but in relation to deeper undercurrents of motivation and yearning. The book is interested in sites in contemporary thinking, where the concept of the divine beckons, or looms, but also, perhaps, repels, or hides. It asks 'what is at stake' in the decision (if it is that) to talk about God and the divine, or not to do so, with a wide and deep curiosity about what this might include: reasons and arguments, certainly, but also more biographical, intuitive, and affective dimensions, including imagination, and feelings about what is valuable. Also relevant are unconscious drives and factors. Concepts can convince, or fail to convince, but, also, they can attract and repel. The book draws on both analytical and continental post-Kantian sources, treating individual thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, William James, Carl Jung, Karl Rahner, Albert Camus, Saul Kripke, Thomas Nagel, Derek Parfit, Karen Kilby, and Janet Soskice, as well as cultural movements such as modern paganism, new atheism, and humanism. 'Natural theology' involves speaking about God without reference to revelation, tradition, or sources of authority, using the resources of 'reason alone'. 'Negative theology' is concerned with the way in which a type of abstract reasoning and rational argument run out, without this necessarily being an ending: other types of speech and communication may become possible and essential. Speaking into this space, the book draws on philosophy, theology, anthropology, literature, and psychology.
Evolving Grace : the spiritual history of a Christian doctrine
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Evolving Grace: The Spiritual History of a Christian Doctrine seeks to bring out the personal living significance and transformative power of the Christian faith throughout the ages. This book spans from Patristic foundations, through the elaborated systematic constructions of the Middle Ages, to the profound transformation induced by the Protestant Reformation and Roman Catholic responses to it, to twentieth century de- and reconstructions. This theological history, grounded in and reflective of the spiritual experience and development of real Christians in and from the past, contributes to the production and nurturing of a living theology in and for the present.
Also see our LibGuide on Global Theologies
Perplexed about Theology or Philosophy? See our series of books, "Guide for the Perplexed" and its original author, Maimonides
A Liberation Theology of the Brain: neuroscience, theology, and decolonizing emotions (2025)
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"Using insights from neuroscience, theology, and experiences as pastor, professor, and activist, Santos explores how science and theology illuminate God's decolonizing effects on the brain and nervous system. Structures of injustice in the world must also be dismantled in us--and the future that God is birthing is taking shape within us"
The Wider Work of the Holy Spirit : an Indian theology of religious experience (2024)
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If all beauty, truth, and goodness come from God through the Spirit, then how should we understand God's presence within other religions and human-made cultures that display these qualities? Christian theology needs to better understand how different religions, together with their cultural practices, can function as a channel through which the one, true God can reveal himself. In this erudite and thought-provoking work, Dr. Jalal S. L. delves into the revelatory presence of the invisible God, which manifests itself in diverse ways across cultures, traditions, and religions. Exploring biblical passages affirming the work and presence of the Spirit outside the church, this study provides a theologically informed perspective on religious experiences in the Indian context. Through examining how the omnipresent work of the Spirit may lead religious adherents to a deeper, contextual appreciation of God's character, the potential for diverse faiths to reveal the divine presence is uncovered. Scholars and theologians alike will find illuminating insights for recognizing and fostering the unrestricted work of the Spirit's inside and outside the church.
Arianism Revisited: an introduction to non-Nicene theologies (2025)
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Joining Creation's Praise: a theological ethic of creatureliness (2025)
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"In this major statement, a leading Christian ethicist shows how confessing we are creatures deeply reshapes every aspect of Christian thinking and living because we were made to embody Christ's image in the world-not as dominators but as conduits of divine life"
Theology and the Blues (2025)
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"Theology and the Blues showcases theological themes inherent within the organic and expressive genre of the blues. The blues offers safe space to explore the raw material of our fallen condition, urging our voices to join the universal, primal cry for new creation"-
Providence in the Story of Scripture : the work of God through creation, fall, redemption, and new creation
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The doctrine of providence is often too abstract, complex, or detached from real-life situations for introductory students. Drawing on years of experience in the classroom and the church, Adamson Co offers an introductory guide that uses the creation motif of the Bible to highlight the importance of providence for the Christian life. Co begins with a brief introduction to providence to give students the "state of the question." He then explores the classical theme of the seventh and eighth days of creation as a helpful way to understand providence. He sets providence and human existence within the metanarrative of the Bible while explicating the doctrine in an overview fashion. Co demonstrates how the seventh and eighth days of creation bring clarity to traditional issues raised in systematic theology, such as preservation, governance, and concurrence; the problem of evil; and divine sovereignty and human free will. Providence in the Story of Scripture challenges readers to live out a life of partnership with God in his providence and shows how the blessed hope of the Christian faith is God's life-transforming providence for today. The book includes a foreword by Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
Theological Hermeneutics and Mary Daly's Verification Process (2025)
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"Theological Hermeneutics and Daly's verification process offers an original overview of Mary Dalys inputs to the theological hermeneutics from the feminist perspective. In the context of multiple theological methodologies and a growing interest for gender and feminist studies, it provides keys to design relevant approach to theology as a method. This book shows how gender bias affects theological discourses and how gender discourse oriented to the good of women, can be a paradigm of theology and a criterion of the most effective transmission of faith and social transformation. This book is an important read for scholars working in the intersection of theology, gender and feminism, and a great addition to Antonina Wozna's book on Mary Dalys (1928-2010) Theological Method of Ontolinguistic Hermeneutics." -- Provided by publisher.
Reformed Social Ethics : perspectives on society, culture, state, church, and the kingdom of God
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In the process of translating Herman Bavinck's Reformed Ethics, John Bolt and his editorial colleagues discovered that the social ethics portion was unfinished. The first section will now be published as Reformed Ethics, vol. 3. The other five sections were outlined by Bavinck, but not completed. Following Bavinck's outline, John Bolt has reconstructed those last five sections on the basis of his extensive knowledge of Bavinck's work, culling Bavinck's other writings, in both Dutch and English, to summarize his teachings. This companion to Reformed Ethics offers readers Bavinck's main convictions and perspectives on critical topics of social ethics: society, art, scholarship, education, the state, the church, humanity, and the kingdom of God. Reformed Social Ethics completes the Reformed Ethics project and provides readers with a fuller picture of Bavinck's ethics. It will also be packaged with Bavinck's Reformed Ethics in a specially priced four-volume set.
Jesus and the Genome : the intersection of Christology and biology
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Is a coherent worldview that embraces both classical Christology and modern evolutionary biology possible? This volume explores this fundamental question through an engaged inquiry into key topics, including the Incarnation, the process of evolution, modes of divine action, the nature of rationality, morality, chance and love, and even the meaning of life. Grounded alike in the history and philosophy of science, Christian theology, and the scientific basis for evolutionary biology and genetics, the volume discusses diverse thinkers, both medieval and modern, ranging from Augustine and Aquinas to contemporary voices like Richard Dawkins and Michael Ruse. Aiming to show how a biologically informed Christian worldview is scientifically, theologically, and philosophically viable, it offers important perspectives on the worldview of evolutionary naturalism, a prominent perspective in current science-religion discussions. The authors argue for the intellectual plausibility of a comprehensive worldview perspective that embraces both Christology and evolution biology in intimate relationship.
Mystery Manifest: the triune God, figuratively speaking
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Renowned liturgist and scholar Gail Ramshaw mines the treasures of the Bible, patristic sermons, theological treatises, mystical reveries, liturgical texts, hymns, and poetry to craft a richly textured collection and framework for thinking about the language Christians use to address and describe the triune God. More than a compilation, yet more practical than a purely theological treatise, Mystery Manifestis a volume that liturgists, ministers, and theologians will return to again and again seeking wisdom and insight into the figures of speech humans have developed to express the ineffable. With astute analysis and an eye for the creativity of our language over time, Ramshaw grounds readers in the realm of metaphor as practice before presenting an example--the metaphor of God the Fire--as finely layered illustration. She then covers each of the Persons of the Trinity in turn before culminating with Trinitarian and extended metaphors for God. Readers will find in these pages a wealth of resources for liturgical study, homiletical preparation, worship preparation, and theological reflection. Scholars and ministers alike will want to keep a copy readily available on their shelves.
Here's a selection of the latest (Summer/Fall 2024) full-text journal articles in Church History from a variety of history journals:
Recent (Fall 2024) articles on Church History--ATLA Religion, including ATLA Root Review of "Church in a Secular Age"
Here are some other recent (Spring 2024) full-text journal articles in Church History from these journals, Themelios, European Journal of Theology, Concordia Theological Quarterly, and Christian Century:
Additional recent full-text articles on church history from ATLA (2023)
"Recontextualising theology: A challenge for theological training" by J. Beyers. Open access in Verbum et Ecclesia, May 2025
"A Study of Natural Theology from a Lutheran Perspective" by T. Pandiangan, in RERUM: Journal of Biblical Perspective (5.1: April 2025)
Enjoy the latest articles (some by Luther Sem's own Faculty), from Word & World recent issues (44.4), accessed via Luther Library's subscription to ATLA -Religion Database. This issue also includes the 1960 sermon by Gerhardt von Rad, Jacob Wrestles at Peniel: A Sermon on Genesis 32:22-31b. (translated by Luther Sem Emeritus Prof. F. Gaiser). See this PDF for full-text links: Word and World , Fall, 2024 . For the latest Word & World, Spring 2025, on the 'Care of Creation' (not yet indexed in the Atla Religion Database) see this link.
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Browse this partial list of currently received print journals in church history or theology (linked to their online version); you'll find the most recent Print version in the Reading Room at Luther Library.
Provoking religion : sex, art, and the culture wars (2025)
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"In the 1980s and 1990s, leaders of the Christian Right became obsessed with feminist and queer art, which they attacked as sacrilegious or pornographic-and sometimes both. Tracing the history of these public debates, this book provides a new interpretation of the politics of the culture wars that avoids simply pitting religious conservatives against secular progressives. It reveals both how conservative Christians read art through a literalist lens-an "aesthetics of literalism-and why so many feminist and queer artists-including Marlon Riggs, Bob Flanagan, Sheree Rose, Judy Chicago, David Wojnarowicz, and Renee Cox-were drawn to religious imagery in their creative work, often casting their own religious and theological visions"-
Music and Monotheism (2024)
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What connects the phenomenon of music as an art with the belief in one indivisible God? What has music, a non-linguistic medium, to say about the personal, loving, communicative God of Scripture and the Prophets, or the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, transcendent God of the Philosophers and can it bring these 'concepts of God' together? To answer these questions, this book takes divine Creation as its starting point, that the God of monotheism must be the Creator of all that is. It thus argues that anything which instantiates and facilitates communication within the created realm has been enabled to do so by a God who communicates with His Creation, and who wishes that His Creation be communicative. Indeed, it will argue that the communication allowed by music, and aesthetic experience in general, is the very raison d'être of Abrahamic monotheism and might thus allow an opportunity for dialogue between monotheistic faiths.
Why religion went obsolete : the demise of traditional faith in America
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The Oxford handbook of Friedrich Schleiermacher (2024 EBOOK)
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The Pop Theology of Videogames:Producing and Playing with Religion
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Young people in the West are more likely to encounter religion in videogames than in places of worship like churches, mosques or temples. Lars de Wildt interviews developers and players of games such as Assassin's Creed to find out how and why the Pop Theology of Videogames is so appealing to modern audiences. Based on extensive fieldwork, this book argues that developers of videogames and their players engage in a 'Pop Theology' through which laymen reconsider traditional questions of religion by playing with them. Games allow us to play with religious questions and identities in the same way that children play at being a soldier, or choose to 'play house.' This requires a radical rethinking of religious questions as no longer just questions of belief or disbelief; but as truths to be tried on, compared, and discarded at will.
The Routledge Companion to Christian Ethics
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The Routledge Companion to Christian Ethics brings together two different but related disciplines; the first is contemplative or theoretical, asking what are the beliefs or doctrines that characterize Christianity, whilst the second is practical, asking what are the ethical practices that attend its teachings. The movement between the theoretical and practical aspects is not, however, one way, as doctrine and life are mutually informing. In this comprehensive volume, leading scholars address key topics, problems and debates in this hotly debated topic within a truly global context. Comprising over 35 chapters by a team of international contributors, the handbook is divided into three parts based on the three persons of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Within these sections, cutting-edge issues are examined, including: God and genetics War, peace, and violence White supremacy Creation and sexuality Digital ethics Transgender studies Climate change Immigration and refugees Adopting a practical approach that must consider new concerns that have arisen with recent social, political, and cultural shifts, The Routledge Companion to Christian Ethics is essential reading for students and researchers in Christian ethics, religious ethics and Christianity studies. The handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields such as ethics and philosophy.
An Asian American theology of liberation (2023)
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