Today there is an increasing awareness and availability of the sacred writings of the world's religions. This raises important questions about the Christian Scriptures. What is distinctive about these writings? What role do they play in the Christian story? What makes these particular texts "holy"? The modern "battle for the Bible," with its narrow focus on proving (or disproving) biblical inerrancy, has made it difficult to provide sufficient answers. This work of constructive theology rethinks the concepts, categories, and assumptions that have dominated the modern approach to the Bible by returning to the biblical narrative and its focus on the cross. It identifies the Scriptures as the written form of the living and active Word of God, which was spoken by the prophets and apostles and became human in the person of Jesus Christ. This conception of the Bible provides Christians in this postmodern world with a solid ground from which to address pressing questions about canon, authority, and interpretation of their Scriptures.

Illustrates how the Confessions derive from Scripture.

This book is about faithful witnesses -- from the Reformation to South African apartheid to Bonhoeffer -- to the promise of Jesus Christ. Even in the midst of trials, these faithful followers have testified that the gospel is authority enough for the church's life and unity. Significantly, this is the first book in print by the late Robert Bertram, described by Edward Schroeder as “perhaps the most unpublished major Lutheran theologian of the twentieth century.”

Is spiritual warfare real? Is it just a metaphor for social justice? Do territorial spirits have a stranglehold on the planet? What does the Christian do with the rising fascination with the supernatural in Western culture? Does any of this matter for daily life? With meticulous care, Jon Furgeson dives into the sea of perspectives and voices in the church and Western culture, bringing the reader on a journey to gain perspective. After clearing the clutter and the confusion, he presents a bold new, yet faithful, way to understand spiritual warfare, to see how it affects every person to the foundations of who they are and how the Spirit of God in Christ acts in the midst of the fallen powers to take broken sinners and turn them into antifragile saints.

In failing to take the sacramentality of the word of God seriously, the preaching of the church has suffered negative consequences. As a result, preaching has often become, at best, a form of instruction or, at worst, an incantation of sorts rather than an integral part of deepening our relationship with Christ by functioning sacramentally to bring about divine participation with Jesus’ corporeal humanity in his living word. In order to recover this sacramental reality, this volume argues that one should consider the annunciation to Mary where, with the sermon of Gabriel, the corporeal Christ took up residence in the flesh of his hearer, and delivered to her precisely what was contained within his own flesh: the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9). When understood as a biblical paradigm for the church, it becomes clear that what happened to Mary can, indeed, happen to Christians of the present day. Proclamation, thus, delivers the Christ to us.

Many festschrifts are meant to simply highlight the academic accomplishments of the honored recipient and his or her students, but Dr. James A. Nestingen is much more than an academic. Jim's life and career have involved his calling into multiple vocations. He is a dedicated husband and father, acclaimed academic, beloved teacher, preacher of Christ Jesus, and distinguished author, as well as a friend and much-loved mentor to many of us. In some cases, he even serves as a surrogate father figure.The goods being handed over are the Word of Christ Jesus which flows from the lips of one sinner to the ears of another and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, into the heart, thus turning our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. By handing over the goods himself, Jim has influenced many people from a variety of cultural, theological, synodical, and denominational backgrounds. Those who have contributed to this volume represent the diversity of opinions that characterizes Jim's openness, kindness, and willingness to stretch himself while stretching others.