Being Christian in the Twenty-first Century was written to help struggling and doubting Christians develop an understanding of Christianity that avoids literalism, creeds, and doctrines--all factors which seem to be driving people away from the church. The book is well suited for individual or group study, complete with a study guide and sample lesson plans. It responds to the call for theological reform advocated by many contemporary clergy and religious leaders. Being Christian does not restate orthodox positions or drift into fundamentalism or sentimentalism. Instead it draws from a broad base of historical, theological, archaeological, and sociological scholarship to place Scripture within its original context, yet present it within a perspective suitable for the twenty-first-century mind. Being Christian is scholarly, yet readable, interesting, and often provocative. One reviewer put it this way, "the book reminds me of a baseball pitcher with a long wind up and a hard fastball getting better in every inning." By building upon progressive thought available today and throughout history, it offers an important resource for Christians and would-be Christians seeking a more fulfilling and thoughtful faith journey.

Description: In this volume some of the outstanding Christian scholars of our day reflect on how their minds have changed, how their academic fields have changed over the course of their careers, and the pressing issues that Christian scholars will need to address in the twenty-first century. This volume offers an accessible portrait of key trends in the world of Christian scholarship today. Christian Thought in the Twenty-First Century features scholars from Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and Switzerland. The contributors represent a wide variety of academic backgrounds--from biblical studies to theology, to religious studies, to history, English literature, philosophy, law, and ethics. This book offers a personal glimpse of Christian scholars in a self-reflective mode, capturing their honest reflections on the changing state of the academy and on changes in their own minds and outlooks. The breadth and depth of insight afforded by these contributions provide rich soil for a reader's own reflections, and an agenda that will occupy Christian thinkers well into the twenty-first century. Endorsements: "I heard many of the lecturers whose essays appear in this book when they were guests of the Chair of Christian Thought at the University of Calgary. Now they reappear to reflect personally on how their minds and academic fields have changed over the course of their careers. They tackle key issues in their disciplines needing future attention and present their views as authentic humans, not only as respected academics." --Wayne Holst University of Calgary and St. David's United Church, Calgary About the Contributor(s): Douglas H. Shantz is Professor of Christian Thought at the University of Calgary. His recent books are Between Sardis and Philadelphia (2008), and A New Introduction to German Pietism (2012). Tinu Ruparell is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. He is coeditor, with Ian S. Markham, of Encountering Religion (2000). His current work centers on idealism in Ramanuja and Leibniz as well as on science and religion.

"The history of Christian theology can be a daunting, even forbidding field for the novice, who sees neither the need for nor pertinence of rummaging around dusty old texts. This people-friendly volume, a full-scale reader in the history of Christian theology, offers an easy, non-threatening, occasionally humorous yet quite thorough entry into Christianity's central texts from the Apostolic Fathers to Mary Daly. It is also enlivened by dozens of cartoons by Rich Diesslin. Highly accessible introductions to five periods precede brief introductions to and texts from more than fifty key thinkers. The texts highlight perennial themes and questions in Christian tradition, especially the meaning and importance of Jesus, challenges to the institutional church, tensions of faith and reason, spirituality, and the Christian quest for social justice. The new edition, half again as large as the original, adds significant work from the Cappadocian Fathers and the Christological controversialists, the Franciscan tradition, the Radical and English reforms, and deeper coverage of twentieth-century theologians. With learning aids, research-paper suggestions and guide, and glossary" -- Publisher description.

In this volume some of the outstanding Christian scholars of our day reflect on how their minds have changed, how their academic fields have changed over the course of their careers, and the pressing issues that Christian scholars will need to address in the twenty-first century. This volume offers an accessible portrait of key trends in the world of Christian scholarship today. Christian Thought in the Twenty-First Century features scholars from Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and Switzerland. The contributors represent a wide variety of academic backgrounds--from biblical studies to theology, to religious studies, to history, English literature, philosophy, law, and ethics. This book offers a personal glimpse of Christian scholars in a self-reflective mode, capturing their honest reflections on the changing state of the academy and on changes in their own minds and outlooks. The breadth and depth of insight afforded by these contributions provide rich soil for a reader's own reflections, and an agenda that will occupy Christian thinkers well into the twenty-first century. Content and Contributors: Historical Perspectives on the Christian Tradition 1. Jesus and The Gospels, by Craig A. Evans 2. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs: Medieval Church History Today, by Dennis D. Martin 3. Reflections on Medieval English Literature, by Denis Renevey 4. Reflections of an Historian of Early Modern German Protestantism, by Douglas H. Shantz 5. Making Historical Theology, by Margaret R. Miles 6. Eastern Orthodoxy in the Twenty-First Century, by James R. Payton Jr. 7. Religion's Return, by Lamin Sanneh Philosophical and Theological Issues 8. The Christian Philosopher Today, by Terrence Penelhum 9. Christian Thought: An Agenda for the Future, by Clark H. Pinnock 10. Process Theology in Process, John B. Cobb Jr. 11. Christian Theology in a post-Christendom World, by Douglas John Hall Encounters with Religious Pluralism and the new Science 12. A New Way of Being Christian, by Paul F. Knitter 13. Comparative Theology, Keith Ward 14. Science and Religion in the Twenty-First Century, by John Polkinghorne 15. Bioethics: A Forum for Finding Shared Values in a Twenty-First Century Society, by Margaret Somerville The Academy and the City 16. "But have you kept the faith of your Ancestors?" Musings on the writing and teaching of the history of Christianity in a Secular Canada, by Marguerite Van Die 17. The Spiritual Quest, Christian Thought, and the Academy: Challenges, Commitments, and Considerations, by Charles Nienkirchen 18. Ecstatic Nerve: Fiction, Historical Narrative, and Christian theology in an Academic Setting, by Peter C. Erb 19. Athens and Jerusalem: Facing Both Ways in Calgary, by Alan P. F. Sell 20. The City and the Church, by Wesley A. Kort Approaches to English Literature and Film 21. Reflections on Literary Theory and Criticism, by Susan Felch 22. A Time of Promise and Responsibility: Teaching English Literature in the Christian Academy, by Arlette Zinck 23. Thomas Merton: Retrospect and Prospect, by Bonnie Thurston 24. Thomas Merton's Divinations for a Twenty-First Century Christian Reader, by Lynn Szabo 25. Christianity and the Cinema: An Interreligious Conversation, by Anne Moore Index

Christianity in the United States is in crisis. Liberalism is declining, evangelicalism is splintering, increasing numbers of Christians are slipping away from churches, and more and more young people are for various reasons finding Christianity as they conceive it (a metaphysical thought system, or society of science-deniers, or an ideology for oppressors) not just implausible but repellent. At the same time, Christians across denominational and ideological divides are rediscovering a moral core, especially in the Jesus of the Gospels, that reactivates and unites them, and this kind of faith appeals to many who consider themselves averse to all traditional organized religion. But any revitalized Christian faith is going to need to understand its rootedness in, and interpretation of, Christianity’s foundational texts and traditions. Noted theologian Douglas F. Ottati steps in to offer a theology for this new era. Combining deep learning in texts and traditions with astute awareness of contemporary questions and patterns of thought and life, he asks: what does it mean, in our time, to understand the God of the Bible as Creator and Redeemer? Distilling the content of Christian faith into seventy concise propositions, he explains each in lucid, cogent prose. A Theology for the Twenty-First Century will be an essential textbook for those training for ministry in our current climate, a wise guide for contemporary believers who wonder how best to understand and communicate their faith, and an inviting and intelligent resource for serious inquirers who wonder whether the way of Jesus might help them grasp the real world while remaining open to the transcendent.

Building on the success of his 1992 collection Foundations of Ministry (over 17,000 sold), Michael Anthony offers Introducing Christian Education to fill the need in the C.E. curriculum for an introductory foundations textbook--one that provides an overview and understanding of the broad range of subjects included in C.E.--for college and seminary use. Thirty-one chapters are offered under the following sections: 1) Foundations of C.E.; 2) Developmental Perspectives of C.E.; 3) Educational Implications of C.E.; 4) Organization, Administration, and Leadership; 5) C.E. Applied to the Family; and 6) Specialized Ministries. Contributors include Robert Pazmiño, Jim Wilhoit, Julie Gorman, Klaus Issler, and Ted Ward. FROM THE FOREWORD BY LESTER C. BLANK JR. Introducing Christian Education will become a major resource text for church leaders and Christian education leaders who are professors of Christian education. It will be a valuable resource in my personal library. The desired outcome will be Psalm 78:72: "He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands."

In this book Alvin Padilla, Roberto Goizueta, and Eldin Villafa e bring together an impressive array of Hispanic scholars from across the theological disciplines to articulate just such a comprehensive construction of Hispanic theology. Their purpose is to delineate the common elements in Hispanic biblical studies, theology, and ethics and to draw these together into a statement of what Hispanic theology has to say to the larger theological community, and to the church. To do so they organize their presentation around four theological streams that run through Hispanic theology: * Reading Scripture from the Margins: The contributors will present a reading of the biblical text that incorporates into its interpretative methodology the experience of alienation and marginalization, the central feature of Hispanic sociohistorical reality. * Subversive and Liberating Memories: The contributors discover the subversive and liberating stories and voices within the Christian tradition and demonstrate how the memory of these "liberate" Hispanics and others from contemporary oppression. * Liberating Truth: The authors offer fresh perspective on theological truth, incorporating the distinctive Hispanic sources, locus, and expressions. * Liberating Praxis: Drawing on current Hispanic religious experience (for example, spirituality, church life, and ministry), the authors reflect on the way Hispanic religious experience is changing and how it will change the landscape of Western Christianity in the 21st century.