In this gripping story of a historic clash between repressive government forces and individuals seeking freedom, we'll explore the reasons that led students in China to defy authority. We'll learn the details of their demands and of the shattering events that followed when they took to the streets to press for their civil rights. "In the blink of an eye, the tank was approaching the sidewalk and closing in on me. It seemed as if the barrel of its gun was inches from my face. I could not dodge it in time."―Fang Zheng, a student demonstrator at Tiananmen Square In the spring of 1989, university students in Beijing grabbed world headlines with a courageous stand against decades of Communist authoritarian rule in China. Thousands and then millions of students and workers from all over China gathered on the city's Tiananmen Square to support demands for democracy, clean government, and increased personal freedoms. China's premier, Li Peng, and his supporters wanted to crush the demonstration, and the government declared martial law on May 12. The world watched as army tanks and troops reached the city center on June 2. Soldiers fired their guns as students struggled to flee. A single demonstrator captured international attention as viewers around the globe watched him face off against encroaching military tanks. The army was in control of Beijing, and thousands of demonstrators were killed, wounded, or arrested.

The present volume is the fifth in a five-volume study of church doctrine. The multivolume set covers the major parts of church doctrine: Canon, God, Creation, Reconciliation, and Redemption. The first volume begins with an introduction to the entire project on why doctrine matters, which stresses the ecumenical, global, and above all biblical horizons of church doctrine as a primary expression of Christian witness. The purpose of this fifth volume is to explicate the full reality of God’s redeeming love for the whole creation. In the doctrine of redemption, the church looks forward in hope. Through the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost the church is gathered out of all nations and peoples of the earth, and looks forward to the coming day of final redemption for the whole cosmos. Yet even now, the promise of God’s coming is active in the world, rendering the church into a new humanity, establishing a new society, calling every individual to a new life of joy in discipleship. Church doctrine is not a luxury, but a necessity for the living community of faith, by which its witness in word and deed is tested against the one true measure of Christ the risen Lord.