Book Description

In this volume some of the outstanding Christian scholars of our day reflect on how their minds have changed, how their academic fields have changed over the course of their careers, and the pressing issues that Christian scholars will need to address in the twenty-first century. This volume offers an accessible portrait of key trends in the world of Christian scholarship today. Christian Thought in the Twenty-First Century features scholars from Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and Switzerland. The contributors represent a wide variety of academic backgrounds--from biblical studies to theology, to religious studies, to history, English literature, philosophy, law, and ethics. This book offers a personal glimpse of Christian scholars in a self-reflective mode, capturing their honest reflections on the changing state of the academy and on changes in their own minds and outlooks. The breadth and depth of insight afforded by these contributions provide rich soil for a reader's own reflections, and an agenda that will occupy Christian thinkers well into the twenty-first century. Content and Contributors: Historical Perspectives on the Christian Tradition 1. Jesus and The Gospels, by Craig A. Evans 2. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs: Medieval Church History Today, by Dennis D. Martin 3. Reflections on Medieval English Literature, by Denis Renevey 4. Reflections of an Historian of Early Modern German Protestantism, by Douglas H. Shantz 5. Making Historical Theology, by Margaret R. Miles 6. Eastern Orthodoxy in the Twenty-First Century, by James R. Payton Jr. 7. Religion's Return, by Lamin Sanneh Philosophical and Theological Issues 8. The Christian Philosopher Today, by Terrence Penelhum 9. Christian Thought: An Agenda for the Future, by Clark H. Pinnock 10. Process Theology in Process, John B. Cobb Jr. 11. Christian Theology in a post-Christendom World, by Douglas John Hall Encounters with Religious Pluralism and the new Science 12. A New Way of Being Christian, by Paul F. Knitter 13. Comparative Theology, Keith Ward 14. Science and Religion in the Twenty-First Century, by John Polkinghorne 15. Bioethics: A Forum for Finding Shared Values in a Twenty-First Century Society, by Margaret Somerville The Academy and the City 16. "But have you kept the faith of your Ancestors?" Musings on the writing and teaching of the history of Christianity in a Secular Canada, by Marguerite Van Die 17. The Spiritual Quest, Christian Thought, and the Academy: Challenges, Commitments, and Considerations, by Charles Nienkirchen 18. Ecstatic Nerve: Fiction, Historical Narrative, and Christian theology in an Academic Setting, by Peter C. Erb 19. Athens and Jerusalem: Facing Both Ways in Calgary, by Alan P. F. Sell 20. The City and the Church, by Wesley A. Kort Approaches to English Literature and Film 21. Reflections on Literary Theory and Criticism, by Susan Felch 22. A Time of Promise and Responsibility: Teaching English Literature in the Christian Academy, by Arlette Zinck 23. Thomas Merton: Retrospect and Prospect, by Bonnie Thurston 24. Thomas Merton's Divinations for a Twenty-First Century Christian Reader, by Lynn Szabo 25. Christianity and the Cinema: An Interreligious Conversation, by Anne Moore Index