Shekhinah/Spirit is a daring rediscovery of the role of the Spirit of God that runs through both Judaism and Christianity. It explores the rich and diverse history of Jewish interpretations of the divine presence and shows how many profound Jewish insights impact or relate to Christian understanding of the Holy Spirit. The author argues for the viability of a "Spirit Christology" that can be understood from within the covenant relationship and points to the exciting implications such directions will have for the doctrine of the Trinity among Christians. At the same time it links Judaism and Christianity in dialogue to a common ground in the saving activity of the God of Israel.Shekhinah/Spirit is a provocative attempt to deepen the grounds of discussion in the Jewish-Christian dialogue. It moves beyond the sticking point of christological disputes to consider broader aspects of the questions of God's plan. It explores three important areas in depth: the question of exclusivism in election, evil, and eschatology. The author works with a series of major problem areas in order to help bridge misunderstandings and roadblocks by using a process of relational theology.This book is full of rich insights into the spirituality of both God's presence and God's spirit in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Efforts to construct a Christian theology of religions have inevitably stumbled on the Christian scandal of particularity—the historical Jesus of Nazareth. What, however, if we began by focusing on the universal presence and activity of God in the world as symbolized by the Holy Spirit? Yong develops just such a pneumatological approach to religions, drawing, by way of resource, on the Pentecostal-charismatic experience of the Spirit. This book thus invites Pentecostals, charismatics, and other Christians to conceive of how a pneumatological approach to religions can invigorate the wider ecumenical conversation. At the same time, it also brings recent Pentecostal-charismatic scholarship into dialogue with a broader audience, including those interested in philosophical theology, world religions, global spiritualities, and comparative religion and theology.

The first full-length feminist dialogue with Holocaust theory, theology and social history. Considers women's reactions to the holy in the camps at Auschwitz.

In this book Kurt Buhring explores concepts of spirit(s) within various Black religions as a means to make a constructive theological contribution to contemporary Black theology in regard to ideas of the Holy Spirit, or pneumatology. He argues that there are rich resources within African and African-based religions to develop a more robust notion of the Holy Spirit for contemporary Black liberation theology. In so doing, Buhring offers a pneumatology that understands divine power and presence within humanity and through human action. The theology offered maintains the fundamental claim that God acts as liberator of the oppressed, while also calling for greater human responsibility and capability for bringing about liberation.

"The theme of revealed heavenly mysteries was a commonplace in Judaism, from which it passed on to Christianity. Markus Bockmuehl outlines how this theme developed, by showing where ideas of revelation and mystery coalesce. . . . An interesting and very thorough study."--Journal of Biblical Literature"A thoughtful and illuminating study of a subject which, rather surprisingly in the light of its centrality to the question of Christian origins, has not hitherto been investigated in detail. Whereas both 'revelation' and 'mystery' have been studied separately in the context of early Jewish and Christian literature, Bockmuehl's original contribution is to examine the interconnectedness of the two ideas."--Journal of Jewish Studies"This book is an excellent contribution to biblical scholarship. It synthesizes the light that a biblically based mystery sheds on revelation and revelation sheds on mystery. . . . Bockmuehl treats admirably many difficult passages and scholarly disputes. . . . He develops the progress of biblical understanding regarding revelation and mystery, carefully balancing analysis with synthesis--a talent that is somewhat rare of late." --Journal of Ecumenical Studies"A most useful study. . . . Bockmuehl has brought together material from an enormously wide range of primary and secondary literature, for which we are greatly in his debt." --Journal of Theological Studies"For single authors like Philo, Josephus, and especially Paul, Bockmuehl's studies significantly add to the discussion." --Religious Studies Review"Bockmuehl examines the concepts of revelation and mystery, not as distinct entities, but in their theological interplay: the revelation of heavenly mysteries. . . . This book's breadth and depth will repay the attentive reader." --Journal for the Study of the New Testament

This monograph focuses on "Christian Goddess Spirituality" (CGS), the phenomenon of (mostly) women who combine Christianity and Goddess Spirituality, including Wicca/Witchcraft. Mary Ann Beavis’s study provides ethnographic data and analysis on the lived religious experience of CGS practitioners, drawing on interviews of over 100 women who self-identify as combining Christianity and Goddess spirituality. Although CGS also has implications for Goddess Spirituality and related traditions (e.g., Neopaganism, Wicca), here, CGS is considered primarily as a phenomenon within Christianity. However, the study also shows that the fusion of Christian and Goddess spiritualties has had an impact on non-Christian feminist spirituality, since Goddess-worshippers have often constructed Christianity as the diametrical opposite and enemy of the Goddess, to the point that some refuse to admit the possibility that CGS is a valid spiritual path, or that it is even possible. In addition, biblical, Jewish and Christian images of the divine such as Sophia, Shekhinah, the Virgin Mary, and even Mary Magdalene, have found their way into the "Pagan" Goddess pantheon. The main themes of the study include: overlaps and differences between Christian feminist theology and CGS; the routes to CGS for individual practitioners, and their beliefs, practices and experiences; proto-denominational classifications ("spiritual paths") within CGS; CGS thealogy (Christian discourse about the female divine); and the future of CGS in social scientific and ecclesiological context. Christian Goddess Spirituality will be of interest to scholars of religion, especially those with interests in women and religion, feminist spiritualities, feminist theology/thealogy, alternative spiritualities, New Religious Movements, and emergent Christianities.

Exegesis - interpretation and explanation of sacred texts - is the quintessence of rabinic thought. This volume delineates the connections between biblical interpretation and Jewish religious thought.