Recommendations based on "The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 9, World Christianities C.1914-c.2000"

Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial made a spectacle of Christian fundamentalism and brought national attention to her hometown, Rachel Held Evans faced a trial of her own when she began to have doubts about her faith. Growing up in a culture obsessed with apologetics, Evans asks questions she never thought she would ask. She learns that in order for her faith to survive in a postmodern context, it must adapt to change and evolve. Using as an illustration her own spiritual journey from certainty, through doubt, to faith, Evans adds a unique perspective to the ongoing dialogue about postmodernism and the church that has so captivated the Christian community in recent years. In a changing cultural environment where new ideas threaten the safety and security of the faith, Evolving in Monkey Town is a fearlessly honest story of survival.

A new edition of the study of Syriac Christianity up to the early fifth century CE: its beliefs and worship; its life and art. In this classic work, Robert Murray offers the fullest and most vivid picture yet available of the development and characte

A considerable amount of public debate and media print has been devoted to the “war between science and religion.” In his accessible and eminently readable new book, Stephen M. Barr demonstrates that what is really at war with religion is not science itself, but a philosophy called scientific materialism. Modern Physics and Ancient Faith argues that the great discoveries of modern physics are more compatible with the central teachings of Christianity and Judaism about God, the cosmos, and the human soul than with the atheistic viewpoint of scientific materialism. Scientific materialism grew out of scientific discoveries made from the time of Copernicus up to the beginning of the twentieth century. These discoveries led many thoughtful people to the conclusion that the universe has no cause or purpose, that the human race is an accidental by-product of blind material forces, and that the ultimate reality is matter itself. Barr contends that the revolutionary discoveries of the twentieth century run counter to this line of thought. He uses five of these discoveries―the Big Bang theory, unified field theories, anthropic coincidences, Gödel’s Theorem in mathematics, and quantum theory―to cast serious doubt on the materialist’s view of the world and to give greater credence to Judeo-Christian claims about God and the universe. Written in clear language, Barr’s rigorous and fair text explains modern physics to general readers without oversimplification. Using the insights of modern physics, he reveals that modern scientific discoveries and religious faith are deeply consonant. Anyone with an interest in science and religion will find Modern Physics and Ancient Faith invaluable.

Evolution--or the broader topic of origins--has enormous relevance to how we understand the Christian faith and how we interpret Scripture.Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design presents the current "state of the conversation" about origins among evangelicals representing four key positions: Young Earth Creationism - Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis) Old Earth (Progressive) Creationism - Hugh Ross (Reasons to Believe) Evolutionary Creation - Deborah B. Haarsma (BioLogos) Intelligent Design - Stephen C. Meyer (The Discovery Institute)The contributors offer their best defense of their position addressing questions such as: What is your position on origins - understood broadly to include the physical universe, life, and human beings in particular? What do you take to be the most persuasive arguments in defense of your position? How do you demarcate and correlate evidence about origins from current science and from divine revelation? What hinges on answering these questions correctly?This book allows each contributor to not only present the case for his or her view, but also to critique and respond to the critiques of the other contributors, allowing you to compare their beliefs in an open forum setting to see where they overlap and where they differ.

Through a discussion of Biblical texts, this book presents four perspectives on the role of works at the final judgment.The final judgment is the last and final act before God dwells with his people forever. Scripture makes that clear, but what function do our actions play in the final assessment of our souls--especially those of professing Christians?The contributors each state their case for one of four prominent views on the effect of works at the end of time: Robert N. Wilkin: Works will determine rewards but not salvation Thomas R. Schreiner: Works will provide evidence that one actually has been saved James D. G. Dunn: Works will provide the criterion by which Christ will determine eternal destiny of his people Michael P. Barber: Works will merit eternal lifeThis book allows each contributor to not only present the case for his view, but also to critique and respond to the critiques of the other contributors, allowing you to compare their beliefs in an open forum setting to see where they overlap and where they differ.The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.

In a new paperback edition of a classic work, T. F. Torrance aims to clarify understanding of that most profound article of the Christian faith, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.Adopting a holistic approach, he explains the inter-relatedness of the three Persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--and their dynamic Communion with the Being and Nature of God.Combining immense academic range with new theological perspectives, Professor Torrance builds a significant theological bridge between ancient and modern, and Roman and Protestant theology.

America's Book shows how the Bible decisively shaped American national history even as that history influenced the use of Scripture. It explores the rise of a strongly Protestant Bible civilization in the early United States that was then fractured by debates over slavery, contested by growing numbers of non-Protestant Americans (Catholics, Jews, agnostics), and torn apart by the Civil War.This first comprehensive history of the Bible in America explains why Tom Paine's anti-biblical tract The Age of Reason (1794) precipitated such dramatic effects, how innovations in printing by the American Bible Society created the nation's publishing industry, why Nat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831 and the bitter election of 1844 marked turning points in the nation's engagement with Scripture, and why Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were so eager to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible.Noll's magisterial work highlights not only the centrality of the Bible for the nation's most influential religious figures (Methodist Francis Asbury, Richard Allen of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Catholic Bishop Francis Kenrick, Jewish scholar Solomon Schechter, agnostic Robert Ingersoll), but also why it was important for presidents like Abraham Lincoln; notable American women like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frances Willard; dedicated campaigners for civil rights like Frederick Douglass and Francis Grimké; lesser-known figures like Black authors Maria Stewart and Harriet Jacobs; and a host of others of high estate and low. The book also illustrates how the more religiously plural period from Reconstruction to the early twentieth century saw Scripture become a much more fragmented, though still significant, force in American culture, particularly as a source of hope and moral authority for Americans on both sides of the battle over white supremacy-both for those hoping to fight it, and for others seeking to justify it.

A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story. The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike. Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story: LISTEN to the Story: Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story. EXPLAIN the Story: Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting. LIVE the Story: Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students.   —Genesis— The book of Genesis is, as the name implies, a book of beginnings: the beginning of the cosmos, the beginning of humanity, the beginning of Israel, a prequel to the main story of the Pentateuch. In narrative terms a beginning leads to a middle and to an end. The book, in other words, is ultimately not to be read isolated from the rest of the Pentateuch, the Old Testament, or finally the Christian canon as a whole. Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.

In this engaging introduction to the New Testament, Professor Dale B. Martin presents a historical study of the origins of Christianity by analyzing the literature of the earliest Christian movements. Focusing mainly on the New Testament, he also considers nonbiblical Christian writings of the era. Martin begins by making a powerful case for the study of the New Testament. He next sets the Greco-Roman world in historical context and explains the place of Judaism within it. In the discussion of each New Testament book that follows, the author addresses theological themes, then emphasizes the significance of the writings as ancient literature and as sources for historical study. Throughout the volume, Martin introduces various early Christian groups and highlights the surprising variations among their versions of Christianity.

This is the first examination of the whole range of the thought of John Damascene, one-time Arab civil servant, later a Palestinian monk, who thought of himself as a Byzantine churchman. He was one of the most influential of Byzantine theologians, whose work came to provide an essential resource for later Western theology. Many will be surprised by his subtle theology of images, defended against iconoclasts, and manifest in his sermons and sacred poetry. - ;John Damascene, one-time senior civil servant in the Umayyad Arab Empire, became a monk near Jerusalem in the early years of the eighth century. He never set foot in the Byzantine Empire, yet his influence on Byzantine theology was ultimately determinative, and beyond that his theological work became a key resource for Western theology from Scholasticism to Romanticism. His searching criticism of Imperial Byzantine iconoclasm earned him harsh condemnation from the Byzantine iconoclasts. This is the first book to present an overall account of John's life and work; it makes use of recent scholarship about the transformation of the former Byzantine territories of the Middle East after the seventh-century Arab Conquest, and the new critical edition of the Damascene's prose works. It sets John's theological work in the context of the process of preserving, defining, defending, and also celebrating the Christian faith of the early synods of the Church that took place in the Palestinian monasteries during the first century of Arab rule. John's own contribution is explored in detail: his amazing three-part Fountain Head of Knowledge, which provided the logical tools for arguing theologically, outlined the multifarious forms of heresy, and set out with clarity and learning the fundamental doctrines of Orthodox Christianity; as well as his treatises against iconoclasm, his preaching, for which he was famous in his lifetime, and, the work for which he is most renowned in the Orthodox world, his sacred poetry that still graces the liturgy of the Orthodox Church. The life and thought of this subject of the Arab Caliphs, a Christian monk who thought of himself as a Byzantine, poses intriguing questions about identity in a rapidly changing world, and the deeply traditional nature of his presentation of Christian theology calls for reflection about the relationship between tradition and originality in theology. - ;Any new publication by Andrew Louth is bound to be welcome to readers interested in thoughtful, literate, historically grounded theology ... In this new book, Louth offers us a comprehensive, detailed survey of the achievement of St John of Damascus. - The Way;... the first serious general monograph on the Damascene's work in at least forty years, and probably the first ever in English; but the book's importance and value as a theological study go far beyond the simple fact that it fills a gaping scholarly hole. - The Way;Andrew Louth's study brilliantly covers the whole of John's literary and theological achievement ... Abundantly furnished with scholarly detail and a rich bibliography, the book is also an admirable introduction to John's thought for those who have litte acquaintance with patristic studies. - The Way;It is written with elegance, unfailing clarity, and thought-provoking theological depth, and is carefully and beautifully produced by the Oxford University Press. Louth's work seems destined to be the standard general treatment of John Damascene, in any language, for decades to come, and should fill that role with distinction. - The Way;... a superb study of all major aspects of the saint, locating him firmly in his Byzantine context, yet without in any way minimizing his impact on the Western theological world as well. - Irish Theological Quarterly;... offers a careful analysis of John's theology, cosmology, anthropology, and defence of orthodoxy against various heresies. - Irish Theological Quarterly;... written with elegance as well as erudition. - Irish Theological Quarterly;Students of patrology, Byzantine studies, Church history, spirituality and liturgy, will all gain much from Louth's book. It is set to become an indispensable introduction, not only to the Saint of Damascus, but to the history of middle-Byzantine theology. - Irish Theological Quarterly;The strength of this book is the way in which the author is able to illustrate the varied influences which are discernible in the writings of John. - The Journal of Theological Studies;... very learned work. - The Journal of Theological Studies;With this study Andrew Louth comes to the climax of his trilogy of Byzantine theologians ... Louth's scholarly manner combines the historical analysis of literary connexions with the exposition of the ideas content of the texts and demonstrates an enviable familiarity with the entire range of Greek patristic literature ... a wonderful book. - Journal of Ecclesiastical History;... a remarkable combination of theology and scholarship, a fit monument to one who, as the final chapter demonstrates, has come as close to the first rank in theology as anyone ever did while being also a first-rate poet. - Mark Edwards, Times Literary Supplement;... the first definitive work on John in English. - Mark Edwards, Times Literary Supplement;... an attractive thesis, argued with extraordinary lucidity and an impressive grasp of the relevant primary and secondary literature. - The Catholic Historical Review;There is much to stretch and expand our theological understanding in this fine book ... a clear introduction to an important and too little known writer. - Church Times;While being rigourous and detailed, the author is careful to write in an accessible and clear way, so that a reasonably well-informed reader can easily follow the argument. - Church Times;Louth's work is a monument of Patristic scholarship. - 8th Day Books catalog