As the modern world crumbles, Christians scramble for answers. The solution is right in front of us - the Christian church, an outpost of the heavenly city among the cities of men. The Theopolitan Vision explains what the church is, and how the Spirit empowers the church's world-transforming mission through Word and worship, Scripture and liturgy. It shows how the church can be a city of light in a dark age.
We learn to read because we're taught by people who can read. We learn to read well because good readers model good reading and guide us as mentors. For Christians reading the Bible, Jesus is the Model reader, and we learn to read well by following His example and submitting to the mentors He gives. Reading well is an act of discipleship.
Worship isn't a retreat from the political and cultural clashes of our time or preparation for culture-transforming work. Culture is transformed in church liturgy. By working out a biblical theology of worship, Peter J. Leithart shows how the church's liturgy Christianizes culture, moving creation toward its consummation in the new creation.
In Theopolitan Mission, Peter J. Leithart explores the meaning of human "making" and the model of two biblical makers, Noah and Jesus, to identify the church's mission as the calling of man: to build God's temple in the world, then to remodel the world after the pattern of the sanctuary. Jesus is the Carpenter of Nazareth, the new and greater Noah, who builds a living ark from the crooked timber of humanity. Through us, the remade humanity, Jesus fulfills His second task, remaking the creation. Like the first godly maker in Scripture, Jesus builds an ark to preserve the treasure of the old world, which are materials for a new world. Theopolitan Mission concludes its meditation on making, mis-making, and right-making by attending to the book of Acts, the great missionary narrative of Scripture. Theopolitan Mission is a companion to Leithart's Theopolitan Liturgy, part of a meditation on the relationship between liturgy and culture. The Theopolis Fundamentals Series introduces the Biblical Horizons / Theopolis outlook and agenda to a new generation. The early volumes of the series summarize our convictions about biblical interpretation, liturgical theology and practice, and the church's cultural and political mission. The Fundamentals will be followed by a collection of Theopolis Explorations volumes that will examine Scripture, liturgy, and culture in more depth and detail.
The heavenly city of God resurrects the cities of men. On Earth as in Heaven calls the church to embrace her identity and mission as one shaped by biblical theology and liturgy. The world grows increasingly polarized and politicized, but the church's commission remains unchanged. Christians carry out Jesus's mission by being the church. To change the world, the church needs only to be what she is—the bride of Christ—and to do what she does—teach, preach, sing, pray, break bread. Cultural and political mission and individual witness and service all spring from the church's liturgical life. As the church proclaims God's word and practices vibrant liturgy, she is God's heavenly city, shining as a light to the world.
How could a conservative Christian-an ordained minister with a beard, no less-be against not only Christianity, but theology, sacraments, and ethics as well? Yet that is the stance Peter Leithart takes in this provocative "theological bricolage." Seeking to rethink evangelical notions of culture, church, and state, Leithart offers a series of short essays, aphorisms, and parables that challenge the current dichotomies that govern both Christian and non- Christian thinking about church and state, the secular and the religious. But his argument isn't limited to being merely "against." Leithart reveals a much larger vision of Christian society, defined by the stories, symbols, rituals, and rules of a renewed community-the city of God.
In this probing book Oliver O'Donovan extends the exploration into the correspondence between theology and politics that he began in The Desire of the Nations. While that earlier work took as its starting point the biblical proclamation of God's authority, The Ways of Judgment approaches political theology from the political side. Responsive to developments such as the uncertain role of the United Nations after the Cold War and the expansion of the European Union, O'Donovan also draws on the extensive tradition of Christian political thought and a range of contemporary theologians. Rather than supposing, as does some political theology, that the right political orientations are well understood and that theological beliefs should be renegotiated to fit them, O'Donovan considers contemporary social and political realities to be impenetrably obscure and elusive. Finding the gospel proclamation luminous by contrast, O'Donovan sheds light from the Christian faith upon the intricate challenge of seeking the good in late-modern Western society. Pursuing his analysis in three movements, O'Donovan first considers the paradigmatic political act, the act of judgment, and then takes up the question of forming political institutions through representation. Finally, he tackles the opposition between political institutions and the church, provocatively investigating how Christians can be the community instructed by Jesus to "judge not."
Your special Annotated edition:+Over 1600 pages reduced into 1 volume!+Book Club questions+A full exclusive Biography of Ven. Mary of AgredaIn the 16th Century, at a time of Protestant persecution, The Blessed Virgin spoke to Ven. Mary of Agreda Mystical City of God is an amazing collection of four books of revelations about the life of Mary and the divine plan for creation and the salvation of souls that has been enthralling readers for centuries.The complete collection includes the Conception, Incarnation, Transfixion and Coronation. You will be taken on a journey like no other through through life of the Holy Virgin Mother of God and her Son our Saviour.(If you need a larger font size please search for our Kindle Version which is due to be published April 2014!)
The Language of Creation is a commentary on the primeval stories from the book of Genesis. It is often difficult to recognize the spiritual wisdom contained in these narratives because the current scientific worldview is deeply rooted in materialism. Therefore, instead of looking at these stories through the lens of modern academic disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, or the physical sciences, this commentary attempts to interpret the Bible from its own cosmological perspective.By contemplating the ancient biblical model of the universe, The Language of Creation demonstrates why these stories are foundational to western science and civilization. It rediscovers the archaic cosmic patterns of heaven, earth, time, and space, and sees them repeated at different levels of reality. These fractal-like structures are first encountered in the narrative of creation and then in the stories of the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, and the flood. The same patterns are also revealed in the visions of Ezekiel, the book of Daniel, and the miracles of Moses. The final result of this contemplation is a vision of the cosmos centered on the role of human consciousness in creation.
