This book is an autobiographical memoir. It tells the story of how God prepared me for the work of theology during childhood and during my schooling at Princeton, Westminster, and Yale. It focuses on those events that shaped my theological convictions and led me to develop my distinctive emphases in theology, apologetics, and philosophy. It seeks to honor God's providence in leading me from one point to another in my life as a son, husband, father, theologian, apologist, and churchman. My goal in the book is to show how one's theological convictions are products, not only of logic and reasoning, but also of the events of one's life and the people one interacts with.

This book is an invitation to envision an experiential theology that interconnects the personal, the interpersonal, the communal, the societal, and the creational, held together by a God who is not removed from creation but who is infused in the very life of all beings and things of the created world. Since God has created and continues to create life that is good, this prompts us to apply a consistently for-life ethic to the issues which confront them in the present day. Our for-life faith commitments include our personal challenges with alienation, fear, and forgiveness; how we can live a consistently for-life ethic in the face of social challenges such as poverty, abortion, violence, racism, and the “othering” of those who are “different;” the climate crisis; and the dangers posed today by imperialism, war, and contemporary forms of colonialism. This attempt to weave together a for-life ethic for the whole of life is especially influenced by non-Western and indigenous theologies, in particular the relational theology that has emerged from Pacific Islander theologians.

Here is a concise, inviting introduction to the greatest of the early Christian missionaries, the Apostle Paul--his life, his letters, his thinking--and the life-transforming gospel he proclaimed. Readers will find this book academically stimulating, theologically rich, and personally challenging. It highlights the ways Paul's life and thinking differ from--and challenge--the life and thinking of Christians today. Written in nontechnical language for both Christian students and general Christian readers, this book--the result of a lifetime of studying and teaching Paul's letters--will be helpful to all students and teachers of the Bible who want a deeper understanding of Paul, his theology, and the implications of his powerful letters for Christians today.

»What Does Theology Do, Actually? Observing Theology and the Transcultural« is to be the first in a series of 5 books, each presented under the same question – »What Does Theology Do, Actually?«, with vols. 2–5 focusing on one of the theological subdisciplines. This first volume proceeds from the observation of a need for a highly inflected »trans-cultural«, and not simply »inter-cultural«, set of perspectives in theological work and training. The revolution brought about across the humanities disciplines through globalization and the recognition of »multiple modernities« has introduced a diversity of overlapping cultural content and multiple cultural and religious belongings not only into academic work in the humanities and social sciences, but into the Christian churches as well.

This study is an introduction to Catholic theology designed both for the theological student and for the general reader willing to make a certain effort. After introducing the idea of theology adn the virtues desirable in the budding theologian, the bulk of the book falls intro the five sections: (1) the tole of philosophy in theology; (2) the use of the Bible in theology; (3) the resources of tradition, liturgy and sacred art; Fathers, Councils and Creeds; the sense of the faithful; (4) two 'aids to discernment in short history of Catholic theology from the New Testament to the present day. The conclusion considers the features of pluralism and unity which should typify Catholic theology as a whole and suggests how unity may avoid becoming uniformity without pluralism becoming anarchy.

This revealing collection presents a selection of twenty poets, prophets, and preachers who share their understandings of what makes a "good spiritual life." They draw on their professional experiences and, as important, grace us with their personal thoughts. The result is essentially a textbook for spirituality courses, exposing readers to the spiritual lives of a wonderfully diverse group of people with a wide range of Christian experiences. Every reader is sure to find a perspective with which he or she can identify.

Throughout the history of Christianity, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT” or“queer”) people have been condemned as unrepentant sinners who are in dire need of God’s saving grace. As a result of this condemnation, LGBT people have been subjected to great spiritual, emotional and physical abuse and violence. This issue takes on a particular urgency in light of the ongoing harassment and bullying of LGBT young people by their classmates. Cheng argues that people need to be liberated from the traditional legal model of thinking about sin and grace as a violation of divine and natural laws in which grace is understood as the strength to refrain from violating such laws. Rather Cheng proposes a Christological model based upon the theologies of Irenaeus, Bonaventure and Barth, in which sin and grace are defined in terms of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. This book serves as a useful resource for all people who struggle to make sense of the traditional Christian doctrines of sin and grace in the context of the 21st century.