with a Postcript coauthored by Michael W. Goheen In print for two decades and translated into eight languages, Albert Wolters's classic formulation of an integrated Christian worldview has been revised and expanded to reach new readers beyond the generation that has already benefited from this clear, concise proposal for transcending the false dichotomy between sacred and secular. Wolters begins by defining the nature and scope of a worldview, distinguishing it from philosophy and theology. He then outlines a Reformed analysis of the three basic categories in human history -- creation, fall, and redemption -- arguing that while the fall reaches into every corner of the world, Christians are called to participate in Christ's redemption of all creation. This Twentieth Anniversary edition features a new concluding chapter, coauthored with Michael Goheen, that helpfully places the discussion of worldview in a broader narrative and missional context.
All too often, the Christian understanding of salvation has been one-dimensional, reducing all that God has done for us to a single conception or idea. Tom Greggs, one of today's leading theologians, offers a brief, accessibly written, but theologically substantive treatment of the doctrine of salvation. Drawing on the broad tradition of the church and the Christian faith in explaining the Christian understandings of salvation, Greggs challenges the contemporary church to be captured afresh by the immeasurable height, depth, and breadth of God's saving actions.
The predominant “stewardship model” of creation is the result of an intentional effort to correct approaches that reinforce human sovereignty and the resulting environmental degradation. However, as All God’s Creatures argues, the stewardship model actually does not offer a correction but rather reinscribes many of the very same pitfalls. After close analysis of the stewardship model, this book identifies scriptural, theological, and philosophical sources to support the adoption of a “community of creation” paradigm. Drawing on postcolonial theory, this book proposes the concept of “planetarity” as a framework for conceiving the relationship between human and nonhuman creation, and the Creator, in a new way. This theoretical framework is grounded by a retrieval of the medieval Franciscan theological and philosophical tradition. The result is what can be called a postcolonial Franciscan theology of creation imagined in terms of planetarity, providing a constructive and nonanthropocentric response to the need for a new conceptualization of the doctrine of creation.
Atonement. For some this word is the heart of the Christian faith. For others, it is irrelevant for Christianity and how they live their Christian lives. Often we do not see "the breadth and depth" of the atonement in the gospel. Christian D. Kettler, in his fourth book on "the vicarious humanity of Christ," suggests that we consider that the atonement is not only a vicarious death in our place and on our behalf--whether in the form of a "penal substitute" or a "moral example"--but also his vicarious humanity, having atoning significance for all of our lives, indeed, all of reality: the church, the world, and the self. These essays are collected from several years of Kettler's thought on the doctrine of the vicarious humanity of Christ and its implications for all of life and reality, seeking to demonstrate that the doctrine of the atonement is not to be restricted to one small part of the doctrinal agenda, but has profound implications that theology sometimes does not explore. These issues include the nature of culture, aesthetics, creation out of nothing, spiritual formation, emotional weakness, the priesthood of Christ and creation, genetic engineering, and trusting in the "ideal" self.
DIV“A fresh, revelatory, golden eagle’s eye-view of western literature.” —Financial Times/divDIV Early in Grammars of Creation, George Steiner references Plato’s maxim that in “all things natural and human, the origin is the most excellent.” Creation, he argues, is linguistically fundamental in theology, philosophy, art, music, literature—central, in fact, to our very humanity. Since the Holocaust, however, art has shown a tendency to linger on endings—on sundown instead of sunrise. Asserting that every use of the future tense of the verb “to be” is a negation of mortality, Steiner draws on everything from world wars and the Nazis to religion and the word of God to demonstrate how our grammar reveals our perceptions, reflections, and experiences. His study shows the twentieth century to be largely a failed one, but also offers a glimpse of hope for Western civilization, a new light peeking just over the horizon./div
I first started writing this book two years ago from a vision given to me by God. I am a Baptist preacher now and was a former A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal), Spiritualist, and Holiness preacher. I have also studied Catholicism, Seven day Adventist, Moslem, Buddhist, and Jehovah Witness religions for experience in the gospel. I consider myself to be a Christian, who believes totally in the Holy Bible by King James Version, and I believe all others are just translations from the King James. I have been baptized in the Holiness church in Jacksonville, North Carolina in the early 80s. Although I was baptized in the early 80s, I started my ministry in 1981, while attending Walker Chapel A. M. E. church in California, under the leadership of Rev. Carlyle. I was in the United States Marine Corps, in which, I traveled the world twice and enjoying every moment of it. I always went to church; because that is the way I was raised. I was taught at an early age how to pray to Jesus Christ for whatever I needed. My father was a Spiritualist pastor for as long as I knew of him, and that is where my Spiritualist background derived. I learned the spiritual aspect of the Lord and how to live according to the spirits that exist all around us, but cannot always be seen. While my tenor in the Marines, I had became an alcoholic and was headed down a path in life that brought me to a halt, and caused me to make the best decision in my life. I was celebrating my twenty-second birthday when I got intoxicated by drinking a gallon of Brandy when stationed in Okinawa, Japan. I was at the pool celebrating, when I fell in the water and not knowing how to swim, I began to sink. If it had not been for the other guys (Leroy Young, Henry Gates, Calvin Holder, and King) there with me I would not have been here now. I want to thank those guys again for saving my life, by pulling me out the pool and caring me to my barracks and putting me to bed. I didnt know when they pulled me out the pool, or put me to bed, but Im glad that they did. I had to report to the mess hall at fi ve oclock that morning, and it was already three oclock and I had a hang over already. I remember praying to God with a promise, that if he would deliver me from drinking, I would serve him for the rest of my life. Well! I must have dropped off to sleep, but when I woke up my hang over was gone, and I havent taken a drink of liquor since and I didnt have to go to AA either. I dont advice this for anyone else unless they believe that Jesus Christ will deliver them from that habit without aide. I was falsely accused in the Marine Corps by some staff ncos who didnt want me to make them look bad, by their lack of leadership, so they lied about me saying things I didnt say and caused me to not receive my promotion, and stop my advancement in the Marines. I was injured in the Marines and got out in 1990. God put this title of the book in my mind to write for others so that there belief may gain strength through the truth in the gospel. Believe it or not, it has been a long time working on this book, which started about fi ve years ago. I believe this book will be a blessing to whomever read it, and will give a better understanding of who actually created this world and all who live in it. May God Bless the reader
There is a broad consensus among biblical scholars that creation ex nihilo (from nothing) is a late Hellenistic concept with little inherent connection to Genesis 1 and other biblical creation texts. In this book, Nathan J. Chambers forces us to reconsider the question, arguing in favor of reading this chapter of the Bible in terms of ex nihilo creation and demonstrating that there is a sound basis for the early Christian development of the doctrine. Drawing on the theology of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, Chambers considers what the ex nihilo doctrine means and does in classical Christian dogma. He examines ancient Near Eastern cosmological texts that provide a potential context for reading Genesis 1. Recognizing the distance between the possible historical and theological frameworks for interpreting the text, he illuminates how this doctrine developed within early Christian thought as a consequence of the church’s commitment to reading Genesis 1 as part of Christian Scripture. Through original close readings of the chapter that engage critically with the work of Jon Levenson, Hermann Gunkel, and Brevard Childs, Chambers demonstrates that, far from precluding interpretive possibilities, reading Genesis 1 in terms of creation from nothing opens up a variety of interpretive avenues that have largely been overlooked in contemporary biblical scholarship. Timely and innovative, this book makes the case for a new (or recovered) framework for reading Genesis 1 that will appeal to biblical studies scholars and seminarians.
