With over 550 entries ranging from Abba to Zwingli composed by leading contemporary theologians from around the world, The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology represents a fresh, ecumenical approach to theological reference. Written with an emphasis on clarity and concision, all entries are designed to help the reader understand and assess the specifically theological significance of the most important concepts. Clearly structured, the volume is organized around a small number of 'core entries' which focus on key topics to provide a general overview of major subject areas, while making use of related shorter entries to impart a more detailed knowledge of technical terms. The work as a whole provides an introduction to the defining topics in Christian thought and is an essential reference point for student and scholars.
Focusing solely on well-known religions is an approach that impoverishes religious studies. Rather, this book introduces the diverse religious experience of Africans, Native Americans, and the indigenous peoples of Australia, providing a comprehensive introduction to the study of religion and broadening the horizons of religious studies students.
Offering a wealth of reliable information, The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible provides more than 300 articles that cover everyone from Adam and Eve to Jesus Christ and everywhere from the Garden of Eden to Golgotha and Gethsemane. Readers will find fascinating, informative entries on virtually every major figure who walked across the biblical stage.
Religion Today introduces students to key concepts in religious studies through a compelling problem-solving framework. Each chapter opens with a contemporary case study that helps students engage in current religious issues, explore possible solutions to difficult religious problems today, and learn key themes and concepts in religious studies.To enhance student learning, a free Student Study Guide is available for download from Rowman & Littlefield. The Study Guide features chapter summaries, definition quizzes for students to test themselves on key terms, and possible learning activities.
This Very Short Introduction/offers a clear, accessible, and concise account of the apocryphal gospels - exploring their origins, their discovery, and discussing how the various texts have been interpreted both by the Church and beyond.Looking at texts from the iGospels from Nag Hammadi/i to the iDialogues with the Risen Saviour/i, Paul Foster shows how the apocryphal gospels reflect the diversity that existed within early Christianity, and examines the extent to which they can be used to reconstruct an accurate portrait of the historical Jesus. Including discussions of controversies and case-studies such as the alleged hoax surrounding the discovery of Secret Mark/, Foster concludes that the non-canonical texts, considered in the correct context, offer us an important window on the vibrant and multi-faceted face of early Christianity.
Public interest in biblical archaeology is at an all-time high, as television documentaries pull in millions of viewers to watch shows on the Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant, and the so-called Lost Tomb of Jesus. Important discoveries with relevance to the Bible are made virtually every year--during 2007 and 2008 alone researchers announced at least seven major discoveries in Israel, five of them in or near Jerusalem. Biblical Archaeology offers a passport into this fascinating realm, where ancient religion and modern science meet, and where tomorrow's discovery may answer a riddle that has lasted a thousand years.
Judaism and Christianity meet in scripture, which they share and about which they contend. In Common Ground Father Andrew Greeley and Rabbi Jacob Neusner present their characteristically candid - and often provocative - interpretations of the history, context, and meaning of scripture. Written in alternating chapters, Common Ground reveals how a rabbi understands Christ, Mary, and St Paul, and how a priest views creation, Abraham and Sarah, and the prophets. Neusner calls upon the ancient Rabbinic approach to scripture - the conversational dialogue of "Midrash" - while Greeley creatively renews the narrative tradition of Christianity.Together they show that differences in responses to scripture enrich the possibilities of biblical renewal.
This volume, the first of its sort, takes issue with scholars who believe that the terms biblical theology and Jews contradict rather than approximate each other. Without saying so, they automatically confirm Otto Procksch's assertion that "alle Theologie ist Christologie." In recent decades, however, there is increasing interest in earlier and current Jewish biblical theologies. A new generation of Jewish scholars demonstrate great interest in and actively engage in Hebrew Bible theology. They strive to make Jewish biblical theology a legitimate subdiscipline of biblical studies and develop it separately and independently from the Christian theology. Also, many Christian scholars are interested in understanding the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and its various themes from Jewish theological perspectives. Thus, in response to continual interest from all sides, Isaac Kalimi presents this volume for the benefit of all. Jewish Bible Theology comprises a number of essays that raise substantial, methodological, and historical questions, while others focus on particular topics from the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Altogether, they reflect fresh and current thinking on important issues in Jewish religious and intellectual world views.
Eminent biblical scholar Michael D. Coogan offers here a wide-ranging and stimulating exploration of the Old Testament, illuminating its importance as history, literature, and sacred text. Coogan explains the differences between the Bible of Jewish tradition (the "Hebrew Bible") and the Old Testament of Christianity, and also examines the different contents of the Bibles used by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Protestants. He looks at the rise of modern biblical scholarship as well as the recovery of ancient Near Eastern literatures and their significance for biblical interpretation. Coogan explores the use of invented dialogue and historical fiction in the Old Testament, the presence of mythic elements in apparently historical accounts, and the relationship of ancient Israelite myths to those of their neighbors.
The burgeoning "theological interpretation of Scripture" movement has gained much notoriety, but it has yet to demonstrate consistently that dogmatic reflection both aids and flows from exegesis of biblical texts. This volume includes essays on critical passages related to a number of key doctrinal loci (e.g. Genesis 1, Exodus 3, Proverbs 8, John 1). It also intentionally offers examples of theological commentary on various genres of Scripture (on biblical narrative, poetry, wisdom, gospels, and epistles), showing how the whole Bible can be read theologically for the church. The volume includes essays by notable scholars conversing with the canon, the creed, and our contemporary culture: including Kevin Vanhoozer, Michael Horton, Henri Blocher, R. W. L. Moberly, and D. A. Carson.
Popular narratives cite religion as the driving force behind homophobia in Africa, portraying Christianity and LGBT expression as incompatible. Without denying Christianity's contribution to the stigma, discrimination, and exclusion of same-sex-attracted and gender-variant people on the continent, Adriaan van Klinken presents an alternative narrative, foregrounding the ways in which religion also appears as a critical site of LGBT activism.
In this fresh and fascinating chronicle of Christianity in the contemporary South, historian and minister James Hudnut-Beumler draws on extensive interviews and his own personal journeys throughout the region over the past decade to present a comprehensive portrait of the South's long-dominant religion. Hudnut-Beumler traveled to both rural and urban communities, listening to the faithful talk about their lives and beliefs. What he heard pushes hard against prevailing notions of southern Christianity as an evangelical Protestant monolith so predominant as to be unremarkable.
Belgium was the second country in the world to introduce same-sex marriage. It has an elaborate legal system for protecting the rights of LGBT individuals in general and LGBT asylum seekers in particular. At the same time, since 2015 the country has become known as the `jihadi centre of Europe' and criticized for its `homonationalism' where some queer subjects - such as ethnic, racial and religious minorities, or those with a migrant background - are excluded from the dominant discourse on LGBT rights. Queer Muslims living in the country exist in this complex context and their identities are often disregarded as implausible. This book foregrounds the lived experiences of queer Muslims who migrated to Belgium because of their sexuality and queer Muslims who are the children of economic migrants. Based on extensive fieldwork, Wim Peumans examines how these Muslims negotiate silence and disclosure around their sexuality and understand their religious beliefs.
The Future of Liberation Theology envisions a radical new direction for Latin American liberation theology. One of a new generation of Latin American theologians, Ivan Petrella shows that despite the current dominance of 'end of history' ideology, liberation theologians need not abandon their belief that the theological rereading of Christianity must be linked to the development of 'historical projects' - models of political and economic organization that would replace an unjust status quo. In the absence of historical projects, liberation theology currently finds itself unable to move beyond merely talking about liberation toward actually enacting it in society.
Beyond the Altar illustrates how women religious overcome sexist subjugation by side-stepping the patriarchal power of the Roman Catholic Church. This book counters the stereotypical image of Catholic nuns as being loyally compliant with their church by showing how a number of current and former women religious in Canada challenge their institutional religion's precepts and engage in transformative strategies to effect change both within and outside the Roman Catholic Church.
In Charles E. Curran's latest book, Diverse Voices in Modern US Moral Theology, he presents the diverse voices of US Catholic moral theologians from the mid-twentieth century to the present. The book discusses eleven key individuals in the development and evolution of moral theology as well as the New Wine, New Wineskins movement. This diversity, which differs from the monolithic understanding of moral theology that prevailed until recently, comes from the diverse historical circumstances or Sitz im Leben of the authors. Each of these theologians developed her or his approach in light of these circumstances and in response to shifts in the three audiences of moral theology: the Church, the academy, and the broader society.
We are living in an emerging technoculture. Machines and gadgets not only weave the fabric of daily life, but more importantly embody philosophical and religious values which shape the contemporary moral vision-a vision that is often at odds with Christian convictions. This book critically examines those values, and offers a framework for how Christian moral theology should be formed and lived-out within the emerging technoculture. Brent Waters argues that technology represents the principal cultural background against which contemporary Christian moral life is formed.
Charles E. Curran presents the first in-depth analysis of the origins of Catholic moral theology in the United States, focusing on three significant figures in the late nineteenth century and demonstrating that methodological pluralism and theological diversity existed in the Church even then. Curran begins by tracing the historical development of moral theology, especially as presented in nineteenth-century manuals of moral theology, which offered a legal model of morality including a heavy emphasis on canon law.
The encyclical "Veritatis splendour" established certain authoritative directions for doing Christian ethics from a Catholic perspective. The "Moral Thought" presents the foundations of moral theology and sets out parameters for the discipline that will continue to shape how the Church teaches about both the good of the human person and the norms that guide human action. This text explores the basic and central elements of the theological thinking behind the encyclical. It considers the principal methodological issues and substantive questions that must shape any adequate moral theology in the post-Veritatus period.
Servais Pinckaers, O.P., is one of the preeminent Catholic moral theologians of his generation. His highly acclaimed works, among them The Sources of Christian Ethics, offer a thoroughly Thomistic and contemporary vision of the Christian moral life. They reflect the philosophical and spiritual prowess of a moral theologian who is estranged neither from philosophical ethics nor from dogmatic theology, neither from Scripture nor from spirituality. The first collection of its kind available in any language, this volume features the twenty most significant essays written by Pinckaers since his highly praised Sources. The essays offer profound reflections that are only possible by a contemporary moral theologian who knows the thought of Aquinas from lifelong study. Rather than taking a simply historical approach to Aquinas, Pinckaers seeks the basis of the intelligibility of the moral life, providing rich spiritual and theological insights along the way. He plumbs the depths of fundamental moral theology in these essays, where he treats Thomistic method and the renewal of moral theology, beatitude and Christian anthropology, moral agency, and passions and virtues, as well as law and grace.
Islam: An American Religion demonstrates how Islam as formed in the United States has become an American religion in a double sense--first through the strategies of recognition adopted by Muslims and second through the performance of Islam as a faith. Nadia Marzouki investigates how Islam has become so contentious in American politics. Focusing on the period from 2008 to 2013, she revisits the uproar over the construction of mosques, legal disputes around the prohibition of Islamic law, and the overseas promotion of religious freedom. She argues that public controversies over Islam in the United States primarily reflect the American public's profound divisions and ambivalence toward freedom of speech and the legitimacy of liberal secular democracy.
This landmark collection of newly commissioned essays explores how diverse women of African descent have practiced religion as part of the work of their ordinary and sometimes extraordinary lives. By examining women from North America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Africa, the contributors identify the patterns that emerge as women, religion, and diaspora intersect, mapping fresh approaches to this emergent field of inquiry. The volume focuses on issues of history, tradition, and the authenticity of African-derived spiritual practices in a variety of contexts, including those where memories of suffering remain fresh and powerful. The contributors discuss matters of power and leadership and of religious expressions outside of institutional settings.
The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed a growing interest in Buddhism, and it continues to capture the imagination of many in the West who see it as either an alternative or a supplement to their own religious beliefs. Numerous introductory books have appeared in recent years tocater for this growing interest, but almost none devotes attention to the specifically ethical dimension of the tradition.
This title looks at Islam's role in the modern world, doing so in the context of the religion's history and development over the last 13 centuries. Containing thematic articles, biographies of key figures, definitions, illustrations, maps and more, this new encyclopedia fills a need in this key area of religious studies.
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