Rediscovering Christian Realism


Book Description

What if there were more helpful ways to deal with the increasing polarization and division within our society? What if we could finally overcome the warring between fundamentalists and liberals? In Rediscovering Christian Realism, James Hassell highlights some time-tested and proven methods for Christians both to develop and utilize consecrated common sense. Christian realism is not so much of a program as it is both a way of accepting our sinful humanity and highlighting the Spirit-led way of Jesus. Hassell therefore describes ways to temper our idealism without giving into cynicism, outlining what he calls “The Balanced Approach.” The Balanced Approach comes from a synthesis of the best work of past Christian realists such as Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr, Emil Brunner, Paul Tillich, John C. Bennet, and others. Hassell has researched and described their insights especially for contemporary application in the real-world events of the twenty-first century. This book is designed especially for those Christians who may find themselves stuck in how to live out their faith more boldly both in the church fellowship and in the public square.




Rediscovering Christian Realism


Book Description

What if there were more helpful ways to deal with the increasing polarization and division within our society? What if we could finally overcome the warring between fundamentalists and liberals? In Rediscovering Christian Realism, James Hassell highlights some time-tested and proven methods for Christians both to develop and utilize consecrated common sense. Christian realism is not so much of a program as it is both a way of accepting our sinful humanity and highlighting the Spirit-led way of Jesus. Hassell therefore describes ways to temper our idealism without giving into cynicism, outlining what he calls "The Balanced Approach." The Balanced Approach comes from a synthesis of the best work of past Christian realists such as Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr, Emil Brunner, Paul Tillich, John C. Bennet, and others. Hassell has researched and described their insights especially for contemporary application in the real-world events of the twenty-first century. This book is designed especially for those Christians who may find themselves stuck in how to live out their faith more boldly both in the church fellowship and in the public square.




Christian Realism and the New Realities


Book Description

Robin W. Lovin argues that the integration of religion and public life will benefit society more than their separation.




Rediscover Church


Book Description

"A Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble." Since a global pandemic abruptly closed places of worship, many Christians have skipped church life, even neglecting virtual services. But this was a trend even before COVID-19. Polarizing issues, including political and racial strife, convinced some people to pull away from the church and one another. Now it's time to recommit to gathering as brothers and sisters in Christ. In Rediscover Church, Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman discuss why church is essential for believers and God's mission. Through biblical references and personal stories, they show readers God's true intention for corporate gathering: to spiritually strengthen members as individuals and the body of Christ. In an age of church-shopping and livestreamed services, rediscover why the future of the church relies on believers gathering regularly as the family of God. Published in partnership with the Gospel Coalition and 9Marks.




Getting Involved with God


Book Description

"This is a book about getting, and staying, involved with God--what it takes, what it costs, what it looks and feels like, why anyone would want to do it anyway. It is at the same time a book about reading the Old Testament as a source of Good News and guidance for our life with God. The key piece of Good News that the Old Testament communicates over and over again is that God is involved with us, deeply and irrevocably so." --from the Introduction With sound scholarship and her own vivid translations from the Hebrew, Old Testament professor Ellen Davis teaches us a spiritually engaged method of reading scripture. Beginning with the psalms, whose frank prayers can be a model for our own, Davis reflects on the stories of the patriarchs and the pastoral wisdom of the book of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs in helping us cultivate those habits of the heart that lead to a rich relationship with God.




How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind


Book Description

Thomas C. Oden surveys the decisive role of African Christians and theologians in shaping the doctrines and practices of the church of the first five centuries, and makes an impassioned plea for the rediscovery of that heritage. Christians throughout the world will benefit from this reclaiming of an important heritage.




Christian Realism and Liberation Theology


Book Description

Christian Realism and Liberation Theology provides the best interpretation and critique we have of liberation theology. Equally important, however, is McCann's interpretation of Reinhold Niebuhr. For it is McCann's contention that Niebuhr is best appreciated as attempting to provide a form of spirituality sufficient to sustain the frustrations of political struggle. By bringing Niebuhr and liberation theology into creative contrast McCann not only illuminates the contributions and shortcomings of each but helps us better understand the issues confronting the development of an adequate Christian social ethic. This is a book that has needed writing for some time. We are in McCann's debt. -- Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics Divinity School, Duke University




Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism


Book Description

A new and penetrating assessment of the work of the twentieth century's best known public theologian.




Christian Fiction and Religious Realism in the Novels of Dostoevsky


Book Description

This study offers a literary analysis and theological evaluation of the Christian themes in the five great novels of Dostoevsky - 'Crime and Punishment', 'The Idiot', 'The Adolescent', 'The Devils' and 'The Brothers Karamazov'. Dostoevsky's ambiguous treatment of religious issues in his literary works strongly differs from the slavophile Orthodoxy of his journalistic writings. In the novels Dostoevsky deals with Christian basic values, which are presented via a unique tension between the fictionality of the Christian characters and the readers' experience of the existential reality of their religious problems.




Religion and the Liberal State in Niebuhr's Christian Realism


Book Description

This book intends to analyze Reinhold Niebuhr's understanding of the state in his Christian Realism. Although his overall notion was thoroughly analyzed in different disciplines and respects, this specific focus can be diagnosed as a lacuna. The task of this book is to develop a hypothesis in terms of under what political, social, organizational or intellectual context Niebuhr made use of what definition of the state. When did he support the extension of state power (e. g. in war times, during economic crisis) and when did he criticize tendencies toward autocratic structures inside Western style democracies?