For millennia, messianic visions of redemption have inspired men and women to turn against unjust and oppressive orders. Yet these very same traditions are regularly decried as antecedents to the violent and authoritarian ideologies of modernity. Informed in equal parts by theology and historical theory, this book offers a provocative exploration of this double-edged legacy. Author Jayne Svenungsson rigorously pursues a middle path between utopian arrogance and an enervated postmodernism, assessing the impact of Jewish and Christian theologies of history on subsequent thinkers, and in the process identifying a web of spiritual and intellectual motifs extending from ancient Jewish prophets to contemporary radicals such as Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj Zizek.

A compelling exploration of one of the central issues - if not 'the' central issue - facing theology in our time: the relation between transcendent salvation and temporal liberation. What does the salvation that the church proclaims mean for the poor of the world? In 'Divine Revolution', Dean Brackley presents in a comprehensive yet manageable way what Catholic theology has to say about this complex and urgent topic. He addresses the historical as well as the systematic dimensions of the question, providing insights that point toward an understanding of the issues that challenge conservative and liberal interpretations alike. In a work of great daring and clarity, Brackley surveys the confusion surrounding the social-historical dimension of salvation in Catholic thought. He shows the irony of the fact that, after 2,000 years, what salvation means for the poor in relationship to their concrete plight remains a 'quaestio disputata' for official, Magisterial teaching. Going deeply into the relationship of salvation and liberation, Brackley explores the thought of Maritain, Rahner, and Gutierrez to demonstrate how the 'synbolon' of the Reign of God that Jesus announces transcends the tired theological distinctions of all sides in the debate. Drawing from developments in feminist and Protestant theology, as well as contemporary social theory, 'Divine Revolution' offers a fresh understanding of what it means to participate in God's revolutionary reign. Catholic tradition, Brackley argues, has great potential to articulate a hope which responds to the suffering of the poor in our time. When conventional wisdom says compassion-fatigued Americans are tired of hearing about the poor, Brackley responds, The poor are far more tired of being poor. They, too, would like to move on to other things, but they cannot.

Gives a complete and accurate account of the teaching of the Old Testament on God¿s Providence, contrasting it with the over-reaction of St. Augustine to the errors of the Pelagians.

This new edition of A Window to the Divine presents a summary of developments on a number of basic questions pertaining to creation theology and what a synthesis might look like at this time. It is based on the premise that contemporary believers can sense a remarkably rich communication of the divine mystery through the insights of science, and that the sciences may open even richer and more challenging possibilities to the understanding of our tradition. "Our tradition is rooted in the belief that however the universe may look empirically, it is precisely this universe described to us at the empirical level by the sciences that our faith holds to be the fruit of God's creative knowledge and love. It is my hope that these reflections may help us discover in what sense this universe may truly be seen as a window to the mystery of the divine." --from the preface to A Window to the Divine

Dante's Divine Comedy can compel and shock readers: it combines intense emotion and psychological insight with medieval theology and philosophy. This volume will help instructors lead their students through the many dimensions--historical, literary, religious, and ethical--that make the work so rewarding and enduringly relevant yet so difficult. Part 1, "Materials," gives instructors an overview of the important scholarship on the Divine Comedy. The essays of part 2, "Approaches," describe ways to teach the work in the light of its contemporary culture and ours. Various teaching situations (a first-year seminar, a creative writing class, high school, a prison) are considered, and the many available translations are discussed.

Explores how natural theology features in both early Victorian natural histories and English provincial realist novels of the same period.

A discussion of election in a perspective and spirit that will be quite novel to most theologians and ministers. The author contends that election can be understood only within faith, and within a spirit of doxology, for election takes place 'in Christ'. Hence election must be understood and employed in terms of the Gospel. He then repudiates theological usage which employs election and reprobation as a principle of interpretation for theology with the usual consequence of deducing from this truth a nice logical system of theology. Another powerful feature of this book is its criticism of the conception of the sovereignty of God and then makes it into a mere principle of naked 'abosolute power', and ethically neutral principle of brute force. [Book jacket].