Theology and California


Book Description

Californians Sanders and Sexton assemble leading voices and specialists both from within and without California for engagement with California’s influential culture. Leading theologians and cultural critics are included alongside leading specialists in film studies and cultural critique, theological anthropology, missiology, sociology and history. Exploring California as a theological place, this book renders critical engagement with significant Californian religious and theological phenomena and the inherent theological impulses within major Californian cultural icons.




Fountain of Salvation


Book Description

A trinitarian exposition of Christian soteriology The relation of God and salvation is not primarily a problem to be solved. Rather, it is the blazing core of Christian doctrine, where the triune nature of God and the truth of the gospel come together. Accordingly, a healthy Christian theology must confess the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of salvation as closely related, mutually illuminating, and strictly ordered. When the two doctrines are left unconnected, both suffer. The doctrine of the Trinity begins to seem altogether irrelevant to salvation history and Christian experience, while soteriology meanwhile becomes naturalized, losing its transcendent reference. If they are connected too tightly, on the other hand, human salvation seems inherent to the divine reality itself. Deftly navigating this tension, Fountain of Salvation relates them by expounding the doctrine of eternal processions and temporal missions, ultimately showing how they inherently belong together. The theological vision expounded here by Fred Sanders is one in which the holy Trinity is the source of salvation in a direct and personal way, as the Father sends the Son and the Holy Spirit to enact an economy of revelation and redemption. Individual chapters show how this vision informs the doctrines of atonement, ecclesiology, Christology, and pneumatology—all while directly engaging with major modern interpreters of the doctrine of the Trinity. As Sanders affirms throughout this in-depth theological treatise, the triune God is the fountain from which all other doctrine flows—and no understanding of salvation is complete that does not begin there.




Theology and Down Syndrome


Book Description

"While the struggle for disability rights has transformed secular ethics and public policy, traditional Christian teaching has been slow to account for disability in its theological imagination. Amos Yong crafts both a theology of disability and a theology informed by disability. The result is a Christian theology that not only connects with our present social, medical, and scientific understanding of disability but also one that empowers a set of best practices appropriate to our late modern context"--Publisher description.




Theology and California


Book Description

Exploring California as a theological place, this book renders critical engagement with significant Californian religious and theological phenomena and the inherent theological impulses within major Californian cultural icons. Many are picking up on California literature as a theme that highlights a place of hope, wonder, and cultural innovation, but neglect the significance of theological instincts flowing through the Californian dynamic. Californians Fred Sanders and Jason Sexton assemble leading voices and specialists both from within and without California for engagement with California’s influential culture. Leading theologians and cultural critics such as Richard J. Mouw, Paul Louis Metzger, and Fred Sanders, are included alongside leading specialists in film studies and cultural critique, theological anthropology, missiology, sociology, and history.




Christology, Ancient and Modern


Book Description

A Fresh Look at the Doctrine of Christ. Christology was the central doctrine articulated by the early church councils, and it remains the subject of close theological investigation today. Christology, Ancient and Modern—the first volume in a series of published proceedings from the annual Los Angeles Theology Conference—brings together conference proceedings, surveying the field and articulating the sources, norms, and criteria for constructive theological work in Christology. The ten diverse essays in this collection include discussions on: The types of historical Christologies and evaluations of various approaches to the theology of Christ. A close look at the trajectory and divergence of modern denominational understandings of Christ's work and person. Discussions of implications and challenges to specific Christologies regarding detailed exegetical considerations. Each of the essays collected in this volume engage with Scripture as well as with others in the field—theologians both past and present, from different confessions—in order to provide constructive resources for contemporary systematic theology and to forge a theology for the future.




An Introduction to the Theology of Religions


Book Description

How does Christianity relate to other religions? Beginning with a consideration of the biblical perspective, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen offers a detailed and comprehensive survey of the diverse explanations proposed by teachers of the church down through the ages. This indispensable guide is for anyone seeking to grasp Christianity?s relationship to world religions.




The Task of Dogmatics


Book Description

Defining the Nature, Process, and Mission of Dogmatic Discourse. Theologians often discuss method in a remote and preliminary way that suggests they are not yet speaking theologically when speaking methodologically. But it is also possible to reflect on the work of Christian dogmatics in a way that is self-consciously nourished by biblical reasoning, resourced by tradition, joined up with ecclesial practice, and alert to spiritual dynamics. Bringing together theologians who are actively engaged in the writing and editing of extended dogmatics projects, The Task of Dogmatics represents the proceedings of the 2017 Los Angeles Theology Conference and seeks to provide constructive accounts of the nature of the dogmatic task. The eleven diverse essays in this collection include discussions on: Identifying theology's pattern and norm. The validity and relativity of doctrinal statements. The Apostle Paul and the task of dogmatics. The retrieval of patristic and medieval theology. Each of the essays collected in this volume engage with Scripture as well as with others in the field—theologians both past and present, from different confessions—in order to provide constructive resources for contemporary systematic theology and to forge a theology for the future.




The Triune God


Book Description

A constructive study of Trinitarian theology that aims to clarify our knowledge of the triune God by rightly ordering the theological language we use to praise him. The Triune God reaches its conclusions about how this doctrine should be handled on the basis of the way the Trinity was revealed. As such, theologian Fred Sanders: Invites a doxological invitation to the reader to contemplate the mystery of the Trinity. Establishes the biblical exposition and draws the doctrinal implications from it. Offers dogmatic principles for Trinitarian exegesis. Though Sanders does interact with major voices from the history of doctrine—and his arguments are indebted to and informed by the great tradition of Trinitarianism—he is clear throughout that Trinitarianism is a gift of revelation before it is an achievement of the church. The most patristic way to proceed toward a well-ordered doctrine of the Trinity is, after all, to study Scripture. -ABOUT THE SERIES- New Studies in Dogmatics seeks to retrieve the riches of Christian doctrine for the sake of contemporary theological renewal. Following in the tradition of G. C. Berkouwer's Studies in Dogmatics, this series provides thoughtful, concise, and readable treatments of major theological topics, expressing the biblical, creedal, and confessional shape of Christian doctrine for a contemporary evangelical audience. The editors and contributors share a common conviction that the way forward in constructive systematic theology lies in building upon the foundations laid in the church's historic understanding of the Word of God as professed in its creeds, councils, and confessions, and by its most trusted teachers.




C.S. Lewis


Book Description

In this engaging book David Clark guides the reader through the theology of CS Lewis and illuminates the use and understanding of scripture in the works of this popular author. Examines his life, work, world view, and the implications of his theology in relation to his other writings Looks at Lewis’ beliefs on the topics of redemption, humanity, spiritual growth, purgatory, and resurrection Examines the different perspectives on Lewis and his work: as prophet, evangelist, and as a spiritual mentor Explores the range and influence of Lewis’ work, from the bestselling apologetic, Mere Christianity, to the world-famous Chronicles of Narnia Features specially-commissioned artwork throughout Written in an accessible style for general readers, students, and scholars, and will introduce Lewis’ theology to a wider audience.




St. John the Divine


Book Description

Throughout the Middle Ages, John the Evangelist, identified as the author of both the Book of Revelation and the most profound and theologically informed of the four Gospels, provided monks and nuns with a figure of inspiration and an exemplar of vision and virginity. Rather than the historical apostle, this book's protagonist is a persona of the Evangelist established in theology, the liturgy, and devotional practice: the model mystic, who, by virtue of his penetrating insight, was seen as having become a mirror image of Christ. In St. John the Divine, Jeffrey Hamburger identifies a remarkable set of images from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries that identify the inspired Evangelist so closely with the deity that he appears as his living image and embodiment. Hamburger explores the ways these representations of St. John in the guise of Christ elucidate the significance of images as such in medieval theology and mysticism. Above all, he shows how these artworks, presented together for the first time, epitomize the relationship between the visible and the invisible: between ideas, however abstract, and the concrete images that medieval Christians confronted face-to-face. -- Publisher's description.