Argues that contemporary discussion about God has a mistaken understanding of the classical Christian doctrines of God

"This is a book we urgently need!...Those who cling to the notion that theology is dull and remote must be warned away form Placher's lively prose"......Beverly R. Gaventa, Associate Professor of New Testament, Prinction Theological Seminary

Contemporary scholars aiming to articulate a ‘middle way’ between fundamentalism and liberalism regularly draw upon HansFrei and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, yet they are rarely brought together on this question, if at all. Here, Tim Boniface highlights the promise of reading them together, proposing especially that a discussion of Jesus’ transcendence derived from their responses to modernity is an effective locus for considering their combined contribution to a ‘middle way’ discussion. Having outlined a rationale for a theology of Christological transcendence, this work describes in detail how both Frei and Bonhoeffer point towards a nuanced approach to the transcendence of Jesus—especially in terms of the importance of articulating that transcendence at the level of the ‘unsubstitutable historical particularity’ of Christ in the cultural-linguistic setting of the Christian community (Frei) and the impact of a theologia crucis and a participatory cosmic Christology on such thinking (Bonhoeffer). Offering a unique summary of the key ways in which the two theologians’ works mutually critique and strengthen one another, Boniface then articulates a pneumatological emphasis lacking in both Frei and Bonhoeffer, stressing the supreme generosity of God at the heart of what it means to say that Jesus transcends.

"Explores the nature and function of Biblical authority in Christian feminism. ... Drawing on her personal experiences of an early childhood spent in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands and an adolescence in a faith community with a strong Calvinist cast, the author illustrates the ways in which Biblical authority undergirds and expands feminist perspectives"-- back cover.

Belief in God in the face of suffering is one of the most intractable problems of Christian theology. Many respond to the spiritual challenge of evil by ignoring it, blaming God, or insisting on the inherent meaninglessness of life. In this book, William Greenway contends that we don't have to deny our moral selves by either ignoring evil or abandoning our moral sensibilities toward it. We can open our eyes fully to suffering and evil, and our own complicity in them. We can do so because it is only in this full acceptance of the world's guilt and our own that we make ourselves fully open to agape, to being seized by love of others and God. Inspired by the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and the Christian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Challenge of Evil lovingly explains how we can look squarely at the overwhelming suffering in the world and still, by grace, have faith in a good and loving God.

A modern classic, A History of Christian Theology offers a concise yet complete chronicle of the whole of Christian theology, from its background in the history of Israel to the liberation and postliberal theologies of recent years. This updated 30th anniversary edition includes expanded treatments of theological developments at the end of the 20th century, and preliminary trajectories for theology in the 21st century. It also includes updated bibliographies and revised chapters on important innovations in biblical studies, and their impact on theology. This updated and revised edition will continue to aid the work of both students and faculty for years to come.

This book explores the philosophical/religious thought of Soren Kierkegaard, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Nikos Kazantzakis in relation to the concept of transcendence. Each of these thinkers has made a strong impact on Western religious and philosophical thought, but each from a nearly completely different angle as well as from a different national background. This comparative study therefore crosses both national and perspectival boundaries. Each of the three thinkers struggled with the notion of transcendence but in uniquely distinct fashion. The conclusion offers yet a third model, the author’s, for understanding transcendence focusing on the concept of “mediation”.