Before converting to Christianity, Augustine was at one time a member of a group called the Manichaeans and this collection of works are his attempt to combat the growing threat that this religion caused to the rise and growth of the Christian church. The Manichaeans were a dualistic society that focused on the goodness of the spirit and the evil of the material. While basing their belief structure of Mesopotamian Gnosticism it is hard to say for certain that they were Gnostic themselves. Augustine shows sound arguments to counter the beliefs he reveals in this collection of writings even going so far as to have a verbal parley back and forth with a leading member of the religious movement Fortunatus. Now in larger print!

In the second part of this series, Augustine switches his focus to a group that were also threatening the church of his day in that they believed that the church must be perfect and faultless in all it does. The Donatists, started to refuse to be baptised or taught by anyone that they felt was a traitor to the faith since they were the only true church that was allowed to administer sacraments and teach the ways of God to the world. Augustine quickly fought back against this group bringing all their arguments forward to be thought through and condemned by one of the greatest thinkers and theologians of the early church.

Adam and Eve in Scripture, Theology, and Literature: Sin, Compassion, and Forgiveness is an extended consideration of the narrative of Adam and Eve, first seen in the Hebrew Bible but given new life by St. Paul in the New Testament. Paul’s treatment of Adam and Eve, especially his designation of Christ as a second Adam, has had an enormous influence in Christianity. Peter Ely follows this rich narrative as it develops in history, providing the basis of the doctrine of original sin in Christianity, giving rise in modern times to theological speculation, and entering thematically into mysticism and literature. The power of the adamic narrative can only be realized if one treats it as a true but non-historical myth. The “truth” of the myth lies in its ability to stimulate thinking and so reveal the depths of human experience. Augustine understood that, so did Julian of Norwich, and even the Belgian author of mystery stories, Georges Simenon, who had a deep sense of the universality of human weakness and the possibilities of redeeming what was lost. Simenon’s detective Maigret saw himself as a “mender of destinies.” The doctrine of original sin, the notion that human beings share a common vulnerability, can open the way to compassion and forgiveness. As Shakespeare illustrates in Measure for Measure, the awareness of weakness in ourselves should move us to compassion for others. The recognition of a kind of “democracy of sin” can keep us from considering ourselves better than others, unlike them in their weakness, and entitled to stand in judgment of them. Thus, compassion opens the door to forgiveness. The progress from sin to compassion to forgiveness forms the heart of this work.

In recent years, martyrdom and political violence have been conflated in the public imagination. Rubén Rosario Rodríguez argues that martyr narratives deserve consideration as resources for resisting political violence in contemporary theological reflection. Underlying the three Abrahamic monotheistic traditions is a shared belief that God requires liberation for the oppressed, justice for the victims and, most demanding of all, love for the political enemy. Christian, Jewish and Muslim martyr narratives that condone political violence - whether terrorist or state-sponsored - are examined alongside each religion's canon, in order to evaluate how central or marginalized these discourses are within their respective traditions. Primarily a work of Christian theology in conversation with Judaism and Islam, this book aims to model religious pluralism and cooperation by retrieving distinctly Christian sources that nurture tolerance and facilitate coexistence, while respecting religious difference.

Stanley J. Grenz masterfully leads readers into a theological engagement with moral inquiry that is a first-rate introduction to Christian ethics.