Faithful In The Meantime

Barry Callen is a "church theologian" in the finest sense. In this book he once again brings the commitments nurtured by Pietist, Anabaptist, and Wesleyan theological streams into conversation with the issues and debates in contemporary church life and with the most formative voices in contemporary theology. The result is a convincing reminder that Christian teachings about "ultimate things" (eschatology) are much more concerned with providing hope and direction for living faithfully in our present settings than they are with providing timetables for the future. His exposition of the role of the church and sacrament in nurturing such hope is particularly helpful. Randy L. Maddox, Professor of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies, Duke University Divinity School In a day when fanciful end-times speculations abound, the church does well to give heed to voices that call us back to the fundamentals of biblical eschatology. Barry Callen is such a voice. As he so forcefully declares, rather than focusing on dates and times, God calls us to be "faithful in the meantime." Stanley J. Grenz, Professor Emeritus of Theology, Ethics, Baptist Heritage, Carey Theological College and Regent College The doctrine of last things is important because faith would be empty if it could not hope for the coming of the kingdom of God. What we have in eschatology are not so much secrets about the future as images of God's final purposes which are meant to impact our every action and judgment. Here we have, thanks to Barry Callen, a responsible, informed, interesting, and up-to-date account of our blessed hope. Clark H. Pinnock, Professor Emeritus of Theology, McMaster Divinity College

Islam in Historical Perspective integrates history of Islamic societies with discussion of how Muslim scriptures, laws, moral values and myths have shaped lives and thought of individual Muslims and various Muslim communities from the rise of Islam until today. It provides carefully selected historical and scriptural evidence that enables readers to form a comprehensive balanced vision of Islam's evolution. Author Alexander Knysh shows Muslims have made sense of their life experiences by constantly interpreting and re-interpreting Islam's foundational ideas in accordance with ever-changing social and political conditions. In addition to the combined historical and chronological approach, the author offers in-depth discussions of intellectual dialogues and struggles within Islamic tradition. He shows Islam to be a social and political force, while addressing Muslim devotional practices, artistic creativity and structures of everyday life and provides a wealth of historical anecdotes and quotations from original sources that are designed to illustrate principal points.

Like many other denominations, seventeenth-century Quakers were keen to ensure that members married within their own religious community. In order to properly understand the ramification of such a policy, this book explores the early Quaker marriage approbation process and discipline as demonstrated through the works and marriage of the movement’s leaders, George Fox and Margaret Fell. The book begins with an introduction that briefly summarises the historical context of the early Quaker movement, the ministry of Fox and Fell, and importance they laid upon the marriage approbation discipline. The remainder of the book is divided into three broad chapters. Chapter one examines the practical aspects of the early Quaker marriage approbation discipline, including a summary of seventeenth-century courtship and marriage practice, and an analysis of early Quaker Meeting Minutes. Chapter two then looks at the theological foundations of the marriage approbation process, and the Quaker emphasis on ’Good Order’ and their desire to return to the primitive Christianity of the apostolic church. Chapter three examines the marriage between Fox and Fell, which they presented as a testimony of the union of Christ and his Church. Their married life is analysed through their correspondence to discover whether or not the marriage did indeed exemplify the spiritual gravity originally bestowed upon it by Fox, Fell and some in the Quaker community. Through this close investigation of Quaker marriage approbation, the book offers fascinating insights into early modern English society, attitudes to gender and the early Quakers’ self-perception of themselves as the one and only True Church.

Barry Callen is a ""church theologian"" in the finest sense. In this book he once again brings the commitments nurtured by Pietist, Anabaptist, and Wesleyan theological streams into conversation with the issues and debates in contemporary church life and with the most formative voices in contemporary theology. The result is a convincing reminder that Christian teachings about ""ultimate things"" (eschatology) are much more concerned with providing hope and direction for living faithfully in our present settings than they are with providing timetables for the future. His exposition of the role of the church and sacrament in nurturing such hope is particularly helpful. Randy L. Maddox, Professor of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies, Duke University Divinity School In a day when fanciful end-times speculations abound, the church does well to give heed to voices that call us back to the fundamentals of biblical eschatology. Barry Callen is such a voice. As he so forcefully declares, rather than focusing on dates and times, God calls us to be ""faithful in the meantime."" Stanley J. Grenz, Professor Emeritus of Theology, Ethics, Baptist Heritage, Carey Theological College and Regent College The doctrine of last things is important because faith would be empty if it could not hope for the coming of the kingdom of God. What we have in eschatology are not so much secrets about the future as images of God's final purposes which are meant to impact our every action and judgment. Here we have, thanks to Barry Callen, a responsible, informed, interesting, and up-to-date account of our blessed hope. Clark H. Pinnock, Professor Emeritus of Theology, McMaster Divinity College Barry L. Callen is University Professor and Vice President of Academic Affairs Emeritus, Anderson University, Editor of Aldersgate Press, author of Radical Christianity (1999), Approaching Theology (2015), Heart of the Matter (2016), and Bible Stories for Strong Stomachs (2017).

This book gathers together twenty-two separate essays, presented originally at the thirteenth Believers Church conference, Bluffton, Ohio, in August of 1999. The essays analyze the phenomena of apocalypticism and millennialism in the Christian tradition from a wide variety of disciplines and approaches: biblical, historical, theological, and contemporary.

This book presents the first large overview of late Soviet religiosity across several confessions and Soviet republics, from the 1960s to the 1980s. Based on a broad range of new sources on the daily life of religious communities, including material from regional archives and oral history, it shows that religion not only survived Soviet anti-religious repression, but also adapted to new conditions. Going beyond traditional views about a mere "returned of the repressed", the book shows how new forms of religiosity and religious socialisation emerged, as new generations born into atheist families turned to religion in search of new meaning, long before perestroika facilitated this process. In addition, the book examines anew religious activism and transnational networks between Soviet believers and Western organisations during the Cold War, explores the religious dimension of Soviet female activism, and shifts the focus away from the non-religious human rights movement and from religious institutions to ordinary believers.

Lamentations is a book that has never had a place of honor at the table of Christian spirituality. This is an unfortunate state of affairs because its challenging poetry has much to offer. This volume explores the how the biblical book of Lamentations may be engaged afresh so that it can function as Holy Scripture for the ekklesia. Four main chapters consider issues in hermeneutics, exegesis, the use of Lamentations in worship, and pastoral reflections. These chapters have been supplemented by seventeen reception history studies written by an international team of Jewish and Christian scholars. These studies introduce a wide range of interpretations and uses of the book of Lamentations from throughout the history of Judaism and Christianity. They include examinations of the use of Lamentations in Isaiah 40-55, the Targum, Rashi, and contemporary Jewish thought, the Patristic period, Calvin, Jewish and Christian worship, music, Rembrandt, and psychological and feminist interpretation. Appendices include new English translations of LXX Lamentations and Targum Lamentations.

How can we reconcile the ideal church described by theology with the broken church that we see in the world? In this book Joseph Small argues that the church’s true identity is known somewhere in the tension between the two. Small revisits familiar ecclesiological concepts—people of God, the body of Christ, the communion of the Holy Spirit—but rather than focusing on theological abstractions or worldly cynicism, he carefully evaluates the church in its scriptural, historical, theological, and social contexts. Both sociologically honest and theologically discerning, Flawed Church, Faithful God offers a constructive Reformed yet ecumenical ecclesiology for the real world.