A careful exploration of how the identity and mission of the Holy Spirit have been progressively revealed throughout Holy Scripture and then interpreted by the Church. The Progressive Mystery describes how the Spirit has been revealed, understood, and interpreted throughout the sweep of Holy Scripture and the ways in which the orthodox understanding of the mission of the Holy Spirit has developed. An ideal entrée into the study of pneumatology, it introduces readers to the complex history of the theology of the Holy Spirit. Ideal for students, it takes its place among other introductions to pneumatology, as a readable and reliable guide to an elusive topic.
In a lively challenge to mainstream history, Michael Parenti does battle with a number of mass-marketed historical myths. He shows how history's victors distort and suppress the documentary record in order to perpetuate their power and privilege. And he demonstrates how historians are influenced by the professional and class environment in which they work. Pursuing themes ranging from antiquity to modern times, from the Inquisition and Joan of Arc to the anti-labor bias of present-day history books, History as Mystery demonstrates how past and present can inform each other and how history can be a truly exciting and engaging subject. "Michael Parenti, always provocative and eloquent, gives us a lively as well as valuable critique of orthodoxy posing as 'history.'"—Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States "Deserves to become an instant classic."—Bertell Ollman, author of Dialectical Investigations "Those who keep secret the past, and lie about it, condemn us to repeat it. Michael Parenti unveils the history of falsified history, from the early Christian church to the present: a fascinating, darkly revelatory tale."—Daniel Ellsberg, author of The Pentagon Papers "Solid if surely controversial stuff."—Kirkus
With the recent Sokal hoax--the publication of a prominent physicist's pseudo-article in a leading journal of cultural studies--the status of science moved sharply from debate to dispute. Is science objective, a disinterested reflection of reality, as Karl Popper and his followers believed? Or is it subjective, a social construction, as Thomas Kuhn and his students maintained? Into the fray comes "Mystery of Mysteries," an enlightening inquiry into the nature of science, using evolutionary theory as a case study. Michael Ruse begins with such colorful luminaries as Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) and Julian Huxley (brother of novelist Aldous and grandson of T. H. Huxley, "Darwin's bulldog" ) and ends with the work of the English game theorist Geoffrey Parker--a microevolutionist who made his mark studying the mating strategies of dung flies--and the American paleontologist Jack Sepkoski, whose computer-generated models reconstruct mass extinctions and other macro events in life's history. Along the way Ruse considers two great popularizers of evolution, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, as well as two leaders in the field of evolutionary studies, Richard Lewontin and Edward O. Wilson, paying close attention to these figures' cultural commitments: Gould's transplanted Germanic idealism, Dawkins's male-dominated Oxbridge circle, Lewontin's Jewish background, and Wilson's southern childhood. Ruse explicates the role of metaphor and metavalues in evolutionary thought and draws significant conclusions about the cultural impregnation of science. Identifying strengths and weaknesses on both sides of the "science wars," he demonstrates that a resolution of the objective and subjective debate is nonetheless possible.
You must clear my name -- Full of animal life and spirit -- Sister coming for remains -- We are not sleeping -- That no injustice may be done -- A wider forum -- A serious and grave affair -- An officer said it -- Sutton mystery deeper -- The best of my recollection -- Sacred reputations -- Every scrap of evidence -- The ferocity of a tigress -- The court, the corps and public opinion -- Jimmie Sutton's body and soul -- Politics and the paranormal.
This reassessment of the theology of Karl Barth seeks to make Barth relevant for postmoderns through his suggestion that theology is best seen not as a restating of old orthodoxies but as an ongoing response to the divine mystery.
Third Article Theology (TAT) is the name given to a new movement in constructive theology utilizing a distinctly pneumatological approach to dogmatics. Trinitarian in its foundation, pneumatological in its impetus, and comprehensive in its scope, TAT specifies both a method and a theology. Thinking through the theological loci of the tradition in relation to the Holy Spirit opens up new vistas and a deeper vision of the task of theology, revealing ways of thinking hitherto eclipsed by the tradition. Drawing upon the trinitarianism of the Great Tradition, theologians from across the theological spectrumbring their voices to bear upon central and defining theological issues of today in order to present a new form of systematic theology—a pneumatological dogmatics—capable of representing the faith in a contemporary mode. For students, scholars, and clergy, the volume unfolds the classic articles of systematic theology in this new register. Each doctrinal article is written by a leading theologian in the field, with essays from Amos Yong, Eugene Rogers, Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Joel Green, Marc Cortez, Frank Macchia, Myk Habets, and others.
Since its inception in the early nineteenth century, the basic tenet of dispensationalism (a school of Protestant theology which holds that God deals with humankind in different ways in different periods of time called dispensations) has been that the church and Israel are two sharply distinct peoples of God. The distinction is theological in nature; specifically, anthropological (pertaining to humanity), soteriological (pertaining to salvation), and eschatological (pertaining to last things). The tenet of theological distinctiveness has always been the cornerstone for the dispensationalist's belief in the pretribulation rapture of the church: the belief that at the first stage of Christ's two-stage second advent he will endue all who comprise the true church with a resurrected body like his own, and transport; i.e., rapture, all to heaven before the seven year period of turmoil known as the Tribulation begins on earth. The rapture marks the end of one dispensation when God focused his attention primarily on the church, and the start of another when God will focus his attention primarily on Israel. Today, almost two centuries later, progressive dispensationalists have rejected the view of a sharp theological distinction. From their study of Scripture they observe a soft non-theological distinction. They describe the church and Israel as different redemptive dimensions of the same humanity that share in a holistic and unified eternal salvation. An already and not yet eschatological framework is the cornerstone of their system. This thesis will argue that progressive dispensationalism cannot integrate the pretribulation rapture doctrine into its reconstructed dispensational system on any basis of theological distinctiveness between the church and Israel. This will be accomplished by first setting forth the theological systems of the three major forms of dispensationalism that have existed during its history, namely, classical, revised, and progressive dispensationalism, and second, by showing that each of three kinds of theological distinctiveness, namely, anthropological, soteriological, and eschatological distinctiveness, are present in the classical and revised systems and therefore these systems can support the rapture's integration, but are not present in the progressive system and therefore this system cannot support the rapture's integration. The thesis closes with an explanation as to why progressive dispensationalism is more compatible with amillennialism than with premillennialism.
"The Mystery of Christ is well-written, displays ample knowledge of issues discussed concerning covenant theology by Baptists and paedobaptists, grounds its arguments in scriptural exegesis and theology, recovers old arguments for a new day, presents a cohesive map of the covenants of Scripture, and exalts our Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam, throughout." -- from cover review by Richard C. Barcellos
Fifty years ago, no one could explain mountains. Arguments about their origin were spirited, to say the least. Progressive scientists were ridiculed for their ideas. Most geologists thought the Earth was shrinking. Contracting like a hot ball of iron, shrinking and exposing ridges that became mountains. Others were quite sure the planet was expanding. Growth widened sea basins and raised mountains. There was yet another idea, the theory that the world's crust was broken into big plates that jostled around, drifting until they collided and jarred mountains into existence. That idea was invariably dismissed as pseudo-science. Or "utter damned rot" as one prominent scientist said. But the doubtful theory of plate tectonics prevailed. Mountains, earthquakes, ancient ice ages, even veins of gold and fields of oil are now seen as the offspring of moving tectonic plates. Just half a century ago, most geologists sternly rejected the idea of drifting continents. But a few intrepid champions of plate tectonics dared to differ. The Mountain Mystery tells their story.
There are more than 20,000 islands in the Pacific; fewer than half of them are inhabited. Some are too small or too barren to sustain human life, others are subject to the vagaries of the tides or without fresh water. But many uninhabited Pacific islands have supported life, and been home to Pacific island cultures and societies only to disappear seemingly in an instant--the so-called Mystery Islands. Tom Koppel's personal odyssey across a vast ocean and through time explores new theories and discoveries surrounding life throughout the Pacific. From celestial navigation and the sweep of the ocean currents, the hardships of survival and settlement, to the rich tapestry of Pacific Island customs and traditions, Mystery Islands shows how new archaeological findings have changed our entire of when and how the Pacific islands were first discovered and settled, beginning over 3,000 years ago.
