Christian Faith in Contemporary Society is a comprehensive primer on biblical literacy written especially for: Baby Boomers and others who by reason of illness or aging are contemplating their mortality and wish to explore Christian claims of eternal life, Non-believing singles contemplating dating a devout Christian, who wish to know what they may be in for should they fall in love, Mature Christians whose intelligent, highly-educated children or grandchildren are rejecting the faith, Christians who wish to increase their knowledge of the faith for personal spiritual growth and greater effectiveness in presenting the faith to others, and The curious uninitiated who would like in-depth knowledge of what the Christian faith is all about. The author, a Harvard lawyer, has applied his professional skills to conduct a forensic analysis of the most formidable premise of the Christian faith-the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and his ascension into heaven while still alive-and reports on the results of that analysis. Because Christianity has played a key role in the development of Western civilization, a knowledge of Christianity is necessary for a proper understanding of our society. This book can help the reader gain that knowledge.

In today's secular world, the Christian faith is viewed as only one aspect of what could be called "religious life." Acknowledging this, Hendrikus Berkhof begins this thought-provoking study with a sketch of religion and faith in general before narrowing it down to a discussion of the specific place of Christian faith in all of reality.

The first English translation of Troeltsch's Glaubenslehre. The first attempt to do systematic theology from a deep Christian commitment with full awareness of Christianity's social and historical relativity.

What has been the role and understanding of religion in the last hundred years, and what can be the meaning of religion today? There is a well-known ongoing process of secularization in the Western world. Is there also a return of religion? And what does the fate of religion mean for an understanding of the Christian faith? These are topics of this book. The articles originate from the actual fields of research of an interdisciplinary group of scholars, who took part in a symposium held in Bergen Nov. 2019. The contributions relate to specific contexts in the modern history of religion from the perspective of religious studies, theology, philosophy and sociology.

"When you're in New York" the sculptor Louise Nevelson once said, "you're in perpetual resurrection." She might have said the same thing about St. Peter's Lutheran Church, set in the heart of midtown Manhattan. In the 1970s the church made a radical move, scrapping its neo-gothic building for a sleek modern structure in the shadow of a skyscraper. The transformation was not just architectural. Inside, Nevelson created a shimmering chapel, while over the years artists and designers such as Willem de Kooning, Kiki Smith, and Massimo and Lella Vignelli produced works for the sanctuary. This fusion of modern art, architecture, and design was complemented by an innovative jazz ministry, including funerals for Billy Strayhorn and John Coltrane, and performances by Duke Ellington and other jazz legends. For the first time, this volume examines the astounding cultural output of this single church. Just as importantly, the story of St. Peter's serves as a springboard for wider reflections on the challenges and possibilities which arise when religion and art intersect in the modern city. Working from a wide range of disciplines, including art history, theology, musicology, and cultural studies, a distinguished group of scholars demonstrate that this church at the center of New York City deserves an equally central place in contemporary scholarship.

This book enters a lively discussion about religious faith and higher education in America that has been going on for a decade or more. During this time many scholars have joined the debate about how best to understand the role of faith in the academy at large and in the special arena of church-related Christian higher education. The notion of faith-informed scholarship has, of course, figured prominently in this conversation. But, argue Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen, the idea of Christian scholarship itself has been remarkably under-discussed. Most of the literature has assumed a definition of Christian scholarship that is Reformed and evangelical in orientation: a model associated with the phrase "the integration of faith and learning." The authors offer a new definition and analysis of Christian scholarship that respects the insights of different Christian traditions (e.g., Catholic, Lutheran, Anabaptist, Wesleyan, Pentecostal) and that applies to the arts and to professional studies as much as it does to the humanities and the natural and social sciences. The book itself is organized as a conversation. Five chapters by the Jacobsens alternate with four contributed essays that sharpen, illustrate, or complicate the material in the preceding chapters. The goal is both to map the complex terrain of Christian scholarship as it actually exists and to help foster better connections between Christian scholars of differing persuasions and between Christians and the academy as a whole.

A journey in Christian theology through biblical, historical, and thematic perspectives, with special attention to the context of today's world.

Jersild responds to a fundamental issue in the theology of the church: what is the nature of our language in addressing the mysteries of our faith, such as speaking of God, or of the incarnation? Advocating a "modest" theology in facing the mystery of God, and acknowledging the impact of postmodern sensibilities, he lifts up the metaphorical language of Jesus as the key to a responsible theology. Jersild makes his case for a "faith-based imagination" centering on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as God's man who brings a divine, redemptive love to the human story. Theology does not give us a line in the sand that divides the saved from the lost, nor is it the truth that makes all other religions false. This is a book for seekers as well as many church members who harbor questions and doubts about the church's theology.

Christopher Ben Simpson tells the story of modern Christian theology against the backdrop of the history of modernity itself. The book tells the many ways that theology became modern while seeing how modernity arose in no small part from theology. These intertwined stories progress through four parts. In Part I, Emerging Modernity, Simpson goes from the beginnings of modernity in the late Middle Ages through the Protestant Reformation and Renaissance Humanism to the creative tension between Enlightenments and Awakenings of the eighteenth-century. Part II, The Long Nineteenth-Century, presents the great movements and figures arising out of these creative tension - from Romanticism and Schleiermacher to Ritschlianism and Vatican I. Part III, Twentieth-Century Crisis and Modernity, proceeds through the revolutionary theologies of period of the World Wars such as that of Karl Barth or novuelle theologie; this part includes a thorough section on modern Eastern Orthodox theology. Finally, Part IV, The Late Modern Supernova, lays out the diverse panoply of recent theologies - from the various liberation theologies to the revisionist, the secular, the postliberal, and the postsecular. Designed for classroom use, this volume includes the following features: - boxes/chart/diagrams/visual organizations of the information presented included throughout: e.g. lists of key points, visual organizations of systematic ideas in a given thinker, lists of significant works, lists of significant dates, brief outlines of the basic structure of some major theological works - both a one-page chapter title table of the contents and an expanded(multipage) table of contents - chapter at-a-glance overview/outline at the beginning of each chapter - specific references to secondary works and key primary works in Enqlish translation at the end of chapters