The nature of the Church and the authority of the pope explained. With clarity and verve, Msgr. Ronald Knox shows that the Catholic Church is not just an assembly of Christians, but is directly the handiwork of God, deliberately designed by Him as a hierarchical institution headed by the Pope.

What is the church? In a day when people increasingly view the church as a relic of the past, this may be the most important question Christians can ask themselves. The logical starting point is Scripture. In this thorough and engaging study of the church in the New Testament, Kevin Giles concludes that the church is first and foremost a Christian community. No other category offers greater breadth and depth of insight into its nature. No other category offers such a challenge to Western individualism, nor such promise for the revitalization of the church in the postmodern world. 'What on Earth Is the Church?' is an exploration in New Testament theology, a careful study of the ecclesial community from Jesus to Paul and on through to Revelation. Each category of New Testament writings is carefully assessed, with attention given to the early, middle, and late Pauline letters, and to the theology of each Gospel. Giles finds in the New Testament a community in transition -- never perfect, always provisional, and forever living in the tension between its present imperfection and its eschatological ideal. The New Testament does not promise an original community to be recaptured but a variety of perspectives on being the community of God in changing social environments.

Have Christians misunderstood what it means to be in the world but not of it? Has the church, in a sense, neglected the world to the detriment of all? Michael S. Horton has written Where in the World Is the Church? for "those Christians who struggle with a subculture that stifles rather than encourages their divinely given impulses and ambitions." He does so "with the hope that theologians will learn more about other disciplines and that Christians in those other disciplines will anchor themselves more firmly in biblical theology before they attempt to 'integrate' their faith and life."

There is today a dramatic reexamination of structure, authority, dogma -- indeed, every aspect of the life of the Church is held up to scrutiny. Welcoming this as a sign of vitality, Avery Dulles has carefully studied the writings of contemporary Protestant and Catholic ecclesiologists and sifted out six major approaches, or "models," through which the Church's character can be understood: as Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, Servant, and, in a recent addition to the book, as Community of Disciples. A balanced theology, he concludes, must incorporate the major affirmations of each. "The method of models or types," observes Cardinal Dulles, "can have great value in helping people to get beyond the limitations of their own particular outlook and to enter into fruitful conversation with others... Such conversation is obviously essential if ecumenism is to get beyond its present impasses." This new edition includes a new Appendix and Preface by the author.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

Drawing on the work of German pastor-theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jennifer McBride constructs a new theology of public witness for American Protestant church communities based on the public expression of repentance and redemption.