The Space Between The Divine and The Unholy


Book Description

After forging a deal, the only path forward is the one for which you bargained; ensure it is what you genuinely wish it to be, because not even death will release you. Drucilla Blackwood is an unassuming, average woman who stumbles upon a unique and Divine relic. A relic that will immutably change her life and subsequently all the souls of those around her. She develops unlikely friendships among those considered Divine and Unholy—angels, devils, and those who reside in between. Drucilla learns that the ones who support her are the only ones she can depend on to be there for her when the world explodes...and it will explode spectacularly. The Space Between The Divine and The Unholy is the first volume in a series of celestial urban fantasy novels by author Michelle Morningstar.




One of the Trinity Has Suffered: Balthasar’s Theology of Divine Suffering in Dialogue


Book Description

Hans Urs von Balthasar’s discourse on the descent of Christ into hell and its implications for the Triune God have been disputed for half a century. One of the Trinity has Suffered evaluates and revises von Balthasar’s theology of divine suffering in a way that interacts with and significantly enriches contemporary Catholic theology. In this book, Joshua R. Brotherton engages twentieth-century Thomistic theology, as well as the thought of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) and Pope St. John Paul II. Drawing from the vast secondary literature on von Balthasar, Brotherton offers a balanced assessment of his work on the topic of divine suffering, both critical and appreciative. Recognizing von Balthasar’s laudable attempt to integrate mystical spirituality and systematic theology, Brotherton seeks to distinguish valid insights from confused mixtures of metaphorical, meta-symbolic, and philosophical (metaphysical) discourse on God, particularly with respect to the classical problem of how the Creator who willed to become incarnate may be said to suffer. Truly, “One of the Trinity has suffered,” and yet this mystery of faith must be carefully explained and understood in conformity with sustained Catholic reflection on divine immutability and simplicity, the dual nature and unique personhood of Christ, the Trinity of divine subsistent relations, the freedom of God in creating and becoming man, the analogy of being, the problem of evil, and the immensity and infinite value of Christ’s redemptive suffering.




The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs Von Balthasar


Book Description

Publisher's description: Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) is one of the most prolific, creative and wide-ranging theologians of the twentieth century who is just now coming to prominence. But because of his own daring speculations about the meaning of Christ's descent into hell after the crucifixion, about the uniqueness of Christ as savior of a pluralistic world, and because he draws so many of his resources for his theology from literature, drama, and philosophy, Balthasar has never been an easily-categorized theologian. He is neither liberal nor conservative, neither Thomist nor modernist and he seems to elude all attempts to capture the exact way he creatively reinterprets the tradition of Christian thought. For that reason, this Companion is singularly welcome bringing together a wide range of theologians both to outline and to assess the work of someone whom history will surely rank someday with Origen, John Calvin, and Karl Barth.




An Unholy Alliance


Book Description

An Unholy Alliance offers a dissenting view to the claim by a growing number of scholars that Sports are a new religion. The last few years have seen a spate of books that might be classified by a genre called "Sports Apologetics," that is, arguments defending or celebrating in one way or another the familiar and ongoing alliance in America between sports and religion. Recently, claims have been made by scholars that sports are an authentic religion in and of themselves. They make this startling assertion not by showing connections with the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, or Moses, but by parallels between the rites of modern games and those of preliterate man that were "religious" in nature because they were designed to propitiate powers and to ward off evil for the tribes employing them. In this evocative book, Higgs and Braswell suggest that while sports may often be good things, they are not inherently divine. They do not focus on wide-spread abuse in sports as evidence for their counterargument. Rather, they question the use of mythological parallels from prehistory as justification for viewing sports as a religion.




Luther's Outlaw God


Book Description

In this third of three volumes addressing Luther's outlaw God, Steven D. Paulson says that readers will embark on the deepest, hardest, and most glorious of all God's ways of hiding: God hiding a third time in the preached word or sacraments. The third time is the charm, not because humans finally awaken and "get" the essence of God. God's preached word is not an act of human understanding. It is a purely passive experience of receiving God wholly and completely in the absolving word that comes through the lowliest means of a sinful preacher. Not only does this word come through a creature to a creature, but through a sinner to a sinner. The difficulty with grasping all of this is that God works entirely outside his divine law--an outlaw God. Luther is the one who saw this more clearly than any other, because it happened to him just this way. The preacher got a preacher, and the sacraments that had once been organized by a legal scheme were set free to reveal and bestow God in the most hidden place of all. How much more hidden could God be than in water, bread, wine, and the mouth of a preacher? Paulson's grasp of historical, theological, and hermeneutical scholarship is on full display in this volume, but always in service of proclamation of the gospel. Readers and proclaimers: prepare to be provoked, enlightened, and inspired.




Enter at Your Own Risk


Book Description

Dennis Cooper has been both praised and censured as the most controversial writer working today for his creation of a searing, outlaw textuality that charts psychosexual terrain uncensored by desire police. This volume is the first to explore Cooper's significance as a pioneering literary artist who illuminates the hidden or repressed extremities of the fin de millennium American zeitgeist. Leora Lev has assembled a roster of internationally acclaimed scholars, fiction writers, filmmakers, and artists who conjure a provocative encounter between Cooper's fiction, European transgressive literature and philosophy (e.g., Sade, Rimbaud, Bataille, Bresson), and American psychocultural topographies.




Living in Christ


Book Description

Our journey in Christian ethics starts with God in whose image we are created. Creation begins with birth and continues as we mature. Our character matures, shaped by the example of Christ under the mentorship of the Holy Spirit through the family and the church. Christian leaders reach full maturity once they able to mentor others—we are blessed to be a blessing. Living in Christ focuses on explaining, not justifying, Christian ethics. At a time and in a place where people scoff at developing a theological understanding of their faith and refuse to teach Christian morality, ethics is almost a lost art. At the heart of the ethical dilemma is a tension between theological principles that can only be resolved the guidance of the Holy Spirit. How do you practice forgiveness for sinners who refuse to confess their sin and force you to bear its consequences? In this context, ethics is less a philosophical discipline that a recognition of our own limitations as Christians and the need for divine intervention. Ethical thought and action always involve interpretation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is thus ironic that a book on Christian living should have an outward focus on God rather than an inward focus on what to do and not do. This interpretative element colors how we view character formation, the community of faith, leadership, and the many special issues that arise in daily life. Hear the words; walk the steps; experience the joy!




God and the Between


Book Description

An original work which rethinks the question of God in a constructive spirit, drawing its conclusions by considering ideas received from both philosophy and religion. Makes an important new contribution to the ongoing scholarly debates surrounding the intersection of philosophy and religion Suggests that this junction is not just dictated by religion having to prove its credentials to rational philosophy, but that it is also a matter of philosophy wondering if religion is the ultimate partner in dialogue Includes discussion of a wide range of significant thinkers, both traditional and contemporary, such as Plotinus, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche and his successors Completes a trilogy of works by William Desmond, complementing its companion volumes, Being and the Between and Ethics and the Between.




1 and 2 Chronicles


Book Description

Continuing a Gold Medallion Award-winning legacy, the completely revised Expositor's Bible Commentary puts world-class biblical scholarship in your hands. A staple for students, teachers, and pastors worldwide, The Expositor's Bible Commentary (EBC) offers comprehensive yet succinct commentary from scholars committed to the authority of the Holy Scriptures. The EBC uses the New International Version of the Bible, but the contributors work from the original Hebrew and Greek languages and refer to other translations when useful. Each section of the commentary includes: An introduction: background information, a short bibliography, and an outline An overview of Scripture to illuminate the big picture The complete NIV text Extensive commentary Notes on textual questions, key words, and concepts Reflections to give expanded thoughts on important issues The series features 56 contributors, who: Believe in the divine inspiration, complete trustworthiness, and full authority of the Bible Have demonstrated proficiency in the biblical book that is their specialty Are committed to the church and the pastoral dimension of biblical interpretation Represent geographical and denominational diversity Use a balanced and respectful approach toward marked differences of opinion Write from an evangelical viewpoint For insightful exposition, thoughtful discussion, and ease of use—look no further than The Expositor's Bible Commentary.




Dark Ages Clan Novel Assamite - Book 2 of the Dark Ages Clan Novel Saga


Book Description

The Dark Ages Clan Novel Saga is a 13-volume series of novels set in the world of Dark Ages: Vampire, released by White Wolf from 2002 to the end of 2004. The series begins with Dark Ages Clan Novel 1: Nosferatu and ends with Dark Ages Clan Novel 13: Tzimisce. Inspired by the original modern-day Clan Novel Saga for Vampire: The Masquerade, this series begins with the end of the original Vampire: The Dark Ages era and continued into the time-frame of Dark Ages: Vampire. The 13 novels are written from the POV of one clan each during the turbulence that swept through the mortal and Cainite societies of Europe following the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. These novels, unlike the original Clan Novel Series, are chronological, happening one after the other rather than overlapping. Dark Ages Clan Novel #2 Assamite: The Highest Stakes For the Children of Haqim, the Middle-Eastern vampires Europeans call Assamites, there can be no more important battle. Christian crusaders are amassed in Constantinople threatening the Muslim Egypt and the Holy Land. Harnessing their zeal is a powerful vampiric Templar who dreams of taking Jerusalem and destroying Clan Assamite. Standing against him is Amala, a skilled Child of Haqim who finds herself drawn to the Templar and his pronouncements of divine sanction. Can one woman stop a crusade? Does she even want to? Dark Ages: Assamite continues the epic thirteen part series of Dark Ages Clan Novels, chronicling a vast conflict among the vampires of the Middle Ages. The War of Princes rages.