Baptists in the nineteenth century grew from a small, struggling denomination to the second-largest Protestant denomination in America. They constructed conventions, schools, churches, and benevolent works. American Baptists transformed from cultural outsiders to insiders. Despite this growth in size, organization, and influence, there is surprisingly few attempts to understand them historically. This is even more true for Northern Baptists as opposed to their Southern counterparts, despite the fact that Northern Baptists, in many respects, were the theological leaders of the denomination. This raises questions about what their theology was, what it was rooted in, and how well it could handle the surplus of challenges that nineteenth-century religion threw at it. Chief among these were the challenges toward biblical and theological authority. Perhaps the brightest star of the Northern Baptist constellation, and doubtless the most well-connected, was Alvah Hovey from Newton Theological Institute in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. This book, the first book-length treatment of this Baptist giant since Hovey's son published a biography in 1929, chronicles Hovey's life and career focusing on how he coped with the challenges of biblical criticism and a rapidly changing theological context. Hovey produced a theology he understood as thoughtful Christianity.

In this work, Dan Jensen offers the conservative Evangelical community a no-nonsense assessment of the growing and aggressive progressive Christian movement. Jensen provides two chapters of personal testimony, a short overview of the history behind the progressive Christian movement, a brief summary of the teachings of the movement, and then he clearly elucidates the fact that the progressive Christian possesses absolutely no biblical foundation. Jensen makes it clear why this movement must be countered by conservative Evangelicals.

Groundbreaking author Brian McLaren, voice of the Christian emergent movement and author of the 'New Kind of Christian' series, poses ten controversial questions that could lead to a radical redefinition of the Christian faith. What is the overarching storyline of the Bible? What is the Gospel? Why is sexuality such a divisive issue among Christians? How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions? McLaren gives his own responses to these questions, inviting the reader to a new and generous way of thinking about Christianity.

“RELOVUTIONARY’ clearly demonstrates that Jonny King has something of value to say to the church in these days. I commend his book to you.” —Jeff Crosby, Publisher, InterVarsity Press/USA PHILOSOPHY FOR TRUE HUMAN FLOURISHING Each person without exception is desperate for flourishing. Every individual hungers and aches to live an expression of the good life. This compulsion inside is as automatic as it is intuitive. This general human longing reflects a common drive for meaning, and not just for the Christian. Still, most intimately know they can't entirely do life their way. Whilst the majority readily confess, they haven't the sufficient means, or even the necessary power. After all, look at what happens when a global pandemic shuts down life?! The fact we rarely arrive at contented satisfaction becomes life's own rolling stone. Do you have a present vision? Are you confident of the process? What about any worthwhile or ultimate goal? This living challenge becomes even more practically specific for the Christian. What if someone asked you for the content of a faithful and fruitful life for Christ? What would you say? Now factor in these challenging and confronting cultural times. How would you reply? After all, you sincerely love Jesus, and passionately want to live for Him, which means you're entirely motivated to offer something not only realistic, but true. But can you? The good news is that in your hands contain the opening lines, where RELOVUTIONARY intends to be your own personal guide. Volume One introduces this idea, setting the coordinates for the reader's unfolding navigation. The context is huge, only increasing any anticipation on this series' comprehensive value. This Is Your Life has been genuinely engineered for any curious reader wanting an answer to the absurdity of existence, and for every genuine follower of Jesus Christ, determined to live a life worthy of His calling. There is no greater promise or purpose than living for Jesus-no matter age, stage, time, or place-which means there should be no further reading delay. WELCOME TO THE LIFE: RELOVUXIONARY

Making clear the Christian position that God's self-revelation is through human nature, the author gives an account of the way a person is formed as an individual in community from the moment of conception onward. The research and teaching of Dr Frank Lake are explained, drawing out the distinction between Lake's kind of psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalytical practices, whether Freudian or Jungian. The book is aimed at showing that Christian living and spirituality are properly focused on the non-religious activity of God in the world, and that the Church's mission requires the formation of worshipping congregations that are increasingly free of the defensive behaviours commonly encouraged by religion. In Personhood and Christianity Forshaw makes a three-fold approach: - Arguing that many of the practices and attitudes of the divided churches still make it difficult for people to understand Christianity; - Taking up proposals of leading theologians and therapists he discusses the kind of holiness in the midst of ordinary life that can lead to practical reform in parishes, and contribute towards radical change in community life more widely. The discussion focuses on emotional healing as a primary element in the Church's work, and on the New Testament theology of the corporate Christ as key to the recovery of faith in the 21st century; - Stress is laid on the world-directed purpose of the Eucharist through the ascended Jesus who is present everywhere. Personhood and Christianity will be of great interest to all involved in Christian leadership and in the caring services of Church and society generally, to those training for ministry and to everyone engaged in pastoral counselling and therapy.

Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and adherents of other non-Western religions have become a significant presence in the United States in recent years. Yet many Americans continue to regard the United States as a Christian society. How are we adapting to the new diversity? Are we willing to do the hard work required to achieve genuine religious pluralism? Award-winning author Robert Wuthnow tackles these and other difficult questions surrounding religious diversity. Wuthnow contends that responses to religious diversity are fundamentally deeper than polite discussions about civil liberties and tolerance would suggest. Rather, he writes, religious diversity strikes at the very core of our personal and national theologies. Only by understanding this important dimension of our culture will we be able to move toward a more reflective religious pluralism. -- From publisher's description.

The metaphor of a “wall of separation” between church and state obscures the substantial connection that exists between the Christian religion and American liberalism. The central thesis of this work challenges the legitimacy of this metaphor as it appears in Supreme Court decisions and in the thought of the philosopher John Rawls. The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality provides a provocative interpretation of the nature of Christian and liberal principles, suggesting that the principles of individual freedom and equality were forged even within the conservative elements of Calvinism and Puritanism. Recognition of this substantial intellectual connection has the potential to help reshape our conception of the separation of church and state by tempering the opposition between religious and political concepts and values. The purpose of The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality then, is to contribute to an understanding of public reason that is more open to the contributions of religious perspectives. The work attempts to show how religious doctrines, currently obscured by historical context and hermeneutical dogmatism, have nonetheless played a formative role in the evolution of the freedom and equality that is foundational to contemporary liberalism. Understanding the genesis of the concepts of freedom and equality tempers the conceptual opposition between church and state and allows a clearer more inclusive interpretation of the nature of their separation. The originality of the work is fourfold: (1) the challenge its central thesis poses to dominant constructions of public reason, freedom, and equality; (2) the interdisciplinary method through which it brings the findings of a variety of disciplines to bear on a central issues in political philosophy; (3) the challenge it brings to the analytic and pragmatic approach of contemporary liberalism through its assertion of the importance of historical context to contemporary ideas; and (4) the degree to which it engages theology in its relation to contemporary questions.

Alister Chapman chronicles Stott's rise to global Christian stardom. The story begins in England with an exploration of Stott's conversion and education, then his ministry to students, his work at All Souls Langham Place, London, and his attempts to increase evangelical influence in the Church of England. By the mid-1970s, Stott had an international presence, leading the evangelical Lausanne movement that attracted evangelicals from almost every country in the world. Chapman recounts how Stott challenged evangelicals' habitual conservatism and anti-intellectualism, showing his role in a movement that was as dysfunctional as it was dynamic. --from publisher description.

This book re-imagines the universe (and the scientific study of it) through the lens of a triune Creator, three persons of irreducible identity in a perichoretic or coinherent communion. It modestly proposes that Trinitarian theology, and especially the coinherent natures of the Son in the incarnation, provides the metaphysic or “theory of everything” that manifests itself in the subject matter of science. The presence of the image of the triune God in humanity and of traces of this God in the non-human creation are discussed, highlighting ontological resonances between God and creation (resonances between the being of God and his creation), such as goodness, immensity-yet-particularity, intelligibility, agency, relationality, and beauty. This Trinitarian reality suggests there should be a similarity also with respect to how we know in theology and science (critical realism), something reflected in the history of ideas in each. These resonances lead to the conclusion that the disciplines of theology and science are, in fact, coinherent, not conflicted. This involves recognition of both the mutuality of these vocations and also, importantly, their particularity. Science, its own distinct guild, yet finds its place ensconced within an encyclopedic theology, and subject to first-order, credal theology.