Humility is a central focus of the early church fathers/mothers. Similarly, it is at the heart of Charles Wesley’s thought expressed in his poetry, sermons, and journal. For Wesley, humility plays an active role in the process of salvation. “It can but lead to faith,” he says. For the fathers/mothers of the early church, salvation void of humility is unthinkable. For Wesley the words “humble” and “humility” pervade almost every aspect of Christian character, personality, and experience. A careful examination of Wesley’s writings reveals congruences with and a close relationship to the thought of the early church fathers and mothers on the subject of humility. Throughout this study, examples from witnesses of the Eastern church emphasize the closeness of their thought with that of Charles Wesley. A careful comparative study is made of St. Basil the Great’s “Homily on Humility” and Wesley’s multiple references to humility in prose and poetry. This leads to an interesting response to the question: How does one practice humility? St. Basil says, “Everything that Christ did was a lesson in humility.” This study suggests that in the cycle of the Christian year and the liturgical rehearsal of everything that Christ did, one learns to practice humility.

The Virgin Mary has been idealized as a self-sacrificing mother throughout Christian history, but she is not the only ancient maternal figure whose story is connected to violent loss. This book examines several ancient representations of mothers and children in contexts of sociopolitical violence, demonstrating that notions of early Christian motherhood, as today, are contextual and produced for various political, social, and ethical reasons. In each chapter, the ancient maternal figure is juxtaposed with an example of contemporary maternal activism to show that maternal self-sacrifice can be understood as strategic, varied, politically charged, and rhetorically flexible.

"They bring three charges against us: atheism, Thyestean banquets, and Oedipean unions." So a late second-century Christian Apologist wrote with reference to his critics. Against these and other charges the Apologists rallied. Not so, they maintained. It was not the Christians but their critics who were the atheists and the Christians were the true theists. They were atheists only insofar as they denied the fabricated gods of the cults and the immoral deities of theaters. That, they explained, was why Christians absented themselves, whatever the cost, from the imperial cult, theaters, and amphitheaters. They were not cannibals, as Thyestes was when he ate the flesh of his children. To suggest otherwise was to misunderstand Christians consuming Christ's flesh and blood at the Eucharist. Nor were they imitators of Oedipus, who entered into sexual relations with Jocasta, his Queen and, though he knew it not, also his mother. Christians did exchange the kiss of peace. They did love one another. They were not, however, incestuous. Any promiscuous love on their part extended only to a very practical love of every needy soul. This book explores these arguments, especially noting the Apologists' commitment to God's oneness, to Christians not worshipping anything made, and to humans properly caring for fellow creatures.

The stories of the women have often stayed in the shadows of Canadian Baptist history. The writers of this book have sought out neglected primary source materials to reveal the lives and work of an array of Baptist women in Canada's history. Read here about the Acadian Mary Lore hungrily reading her French Bible and welcoming the message of Baptist missionaries in Lower Canada, Jane Gilmour leaving her home in Britain to minister with her husband in Montreal and the wilds of Upper Canada, a group of remarkable black Baptist women in southern Ontario in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Isabel Crawford from Niagara becoming an advocate for the Kiowa people of Oklahoma, Miriam Ross from Nova Scotia ministering in the Congo, Lois Tupper, pioneer female Baptist theological educator, and, more generally, the work of Baptist women in the Maritimes in the nineteenth century and western Canada in the first half of the twentieth century. Empowered by their Baptist faith, these Canadian women did remarkable things, and their stories deserve to be told and read.

A Protestant pastor and a Catholic writer have collaborated with an American, Kathe Kuhn, by compiling the last words of those who, unwilling to condone or to obey injustice under the Nazi terror, were facing execution. Their letters and messages were addressed to their nearest and dearest, in a situation which calls forth the ultimate truth in each person. This collection is neither a mere historical or political record, but a deeply human one, and its effect on the reader, contrary to expectations, is strengthening rather than depressing. The chief debt of gratitude is owed to the recipients of the letters--the widows, children, parents, friends, and relatives of the writers. They have allowed us to make public what to them was exclusively their own, a sacred possession. Not since the time of the martyrs of the early Church, so it seemed to editor Helmut Gollwitzer, had there been such a wealth of testimonials of a faith triumphant in death. Kathe Kuhn (ADD German oomlaute over the 'a' if possible)

The enneagram has become popular among evangelical Christians as a spiritualized personality typology that claims to help people better understand themselves and others. Several influential evangelical Christian leadership ministries have promoted the enneagram as a tool in forming and maintaining effective ministry teams, and the personality typology is now taught and embraced at several Christian universities. But uncertainty exists about the appropriateness of referring to the Enneagram as a Christian tool. Are pastors and Christian institutional leaders aware of the theology associated with the Enneagram? Enneagram Theology: Is It Christian? provides a biblical critique of the Enneagram’s underlying theology and exposes not only its foundational theological contradictions with orthodox evangelical theology but also some potential dangers to the church.