Theology and the New Histories explores how Christianity, as an historical religion, is responding to the challenge of multiple readings of history—women’s history, history written from the perspective of minority groups, new sources of history, including those that are non-Western, and deconstructionist history. These new histories pose challenges to the assumptions of traditional theology. They also affect our understanding of the history of Christianity and of the development of Christian doctrine. Contributors include: Terrence W. Tilley, Justo L. González, Michael Horace Barnes, Vincent J. Miller, Elizabeth A. Clark, Barbara Green, O.P., Ann R. Riggs, Donna Teevan, James T. Fisher, Pamela Kirk, Ann Coble, Franklin H. Littell, Brian F. Linnane, and Margaret R. Pfeil.

"A Sheed & Ward book." Includes bibliographical references and index. A society of their own (1953-1964) -- College theology as academic discipline (1923-1964) -- The CTS (1965-1974) -- Theology as liberation, revolution, freedom (1965-1974) -- Defining membership, defending members of the college theology society (1975-1984) -- The hermeneutical circle : location! location! location! (1975-1984) -- Maintaining identity; drawing boundaries; fighting battles (1985-1994) -- Theology in local and global perspective (1985-1994) -- Negotiating the golden years (1995-2004) -- Nos quedamos (1995-2004).

This richly illustrated, non-technical reconstruction of "folk religion" in ancient Israel is based largely on recent archaeological evidence, but also incorporates biblical texts where possible.

Postcolonial Vietnam has an urgent need for contextualized theology of mission, God, Christ, and the church that is rooted in indigenous cultural traditions and the dual Vietnamese spirit of resistance and assimilation. Dr KimSon Nguyen navigates the religio-cultural dimensions of Vietnamese spirituality and Daoism that have hindered the assimilation of the Christian faith in the Vietnamese context and explores a fresh approach to missiology in Vietnam. Dr Nguyen draws upon his deep knowledge of Vietnamese evangelical history to analyze contextualization and mission theology in Vietnam. He proposes an evangelical theology of God as Ðạo (way / 道), the centrality of the Vietnamese home as the “house of the Lord,” and ancestor veneration as a theological framework for an indigenous theology of the family. Narrowing the gap between culturally removed evangelical missionary practice and widespread syncretistic spirituality in Vietnam, Nguyen calls for a paradigm shift in Vietnamese mission theology that is both robustly evangelical and authentically Vietnamese.

Judaism Since Gender offers a radically new concept of Jewish Studies, staking out new intellectual terrain and redefining the discipline as an intrinsically feminist practice. The question of how knowledge is gendered has been discussed by philosophers and feminists for years, yet is still new to many scholars of Judaism. Judaism Since Gender illuminates a crucial debate among intellectuals both within and outside the academy, and ultimately overturns the belief that scholars of Judaism are still largely oblivious of recent developments in the study of gender. Offering a range of provocations--Jewish men as sissies, Jesus as transvestite, the problem of eroticizing Holocaust narratives--this timely collection pits the joys of transgression against desires for cultural wholeness.

This book provides an indispensable voice in the scholarly conversation on migration. It shows how migration has shaped and has been shaped by the three Abrahamic religions - -Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. No theory of migration will be complete unless the theological insights of these religions are seriously taken into account.

Heralded as the exponents of a 'new atheism', critics of religion are highly visible in today's media, and include the household names of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris. David Fergusson explains their work in its historical perspective, drawing comparisons with earlier forms of atheism. Responding to the critics through conversations on the credibility of religious belief, Darwinism, morality, fundamentalism, and our approach to reading sacred texts, he establishes a compelling case for the practical and theoretical validity of faith in the contemporary world. An invitation to engage in a rich dialogue, Faith and Its Critics supports an informed and constructive exchange of ideas rather than a contest between two sides of the debate. Fergusson encourages faith communities to undertake patient engagement with their critics, to acknowledge the place for change and development in their self-understanding whilst resisting the reductive explanations of the new atheism.

Original essays demonstrate that sociology, history, anthropology, and psychology all leave their mark on theology and open new paths to understanding, and that theology in turn provides significant questions and perspectives for the social sciences. By providing archeological data, sociological theory, demographics and economic data, psychological insights, and new methods of historical interpretation, the social sciences can open the way for a more sophisticated understanding of the social nature of human existence. Theology challenges the social sciences through moral and transcendental questions as well as informs the social sciences through its larger and deeper perspectives. The symbiotic nature of this relationship is described in the lead-off essays by John Coleman and Gregory Baum. The rich conversation between theologians and sociologists that follows moves from Von Balthasar’s use of the social sciences and Rahner’s approach to ecumenism to the roles of psychology and neuropsychology in understanding religious events.

Christian responses to global migration are as loud as they are numerous. With voices evoking either the injunction to love the stranger or a commitment to the rule of law, this polarized cacophony has become yet another theater in the culture war. But migration is not an idea. It is not an abstraction. Migration is about people, present in our midst or encountered at our edges. Their presence at our borders forces us to consider the core values we want most to uphold, and the stories that taught us those values in the first place. In the United States, our most popular origin stories tell of a nation that fought off tyranny and committed itself to liberty, democracy, and the dream of an unencumbered pursuit of happiness, of a life lived on one's own terms. But is this the whole story? Whose perspectives have shaped the stories we tell, and which perspectives have been ignored? Theology in Motion tracks the story of the United States--how it formed and how it came to dominate the land that now rests between its borders--to consider more fully what type of nation the US has been and the type of global neighbor it has chosen to be. From a Christian moral perspective, this history helps us look to the future by analyzing how our past choices have left us with present responsibilities. Taking these responsibilities seriously and pursuing more just global relationships provides a way forward in which all people might participate and to which Christians are called.

The Reformation Theologians is the ideal introduction to the study of the sixteenth-century Reformations. It introduces the theological context, though, and contributions of theologians from this period, offering students and scholars an essential resource and insight. This comprehensive and lively book discusses all the major strands of Reformation thought and explores the work of a range of influential figures, including theologians and non-theologians, humanists, clergy and laity, men and women. The contributors to this volume are leading scholars in the field of historical and systematic theology. Accessibly structured, it covers the Humanist, Lutheran, Reformed, Roman Catholic, and "Radical" Theologians. An introductory chapter explores the interpretations of the Reformation and a concluding chapter explains the influence of Reformation theologies on the modern period. The text also includes useful bibliographies and a glossary of theological terms.