Liberating Faith

Table of contents

Liberating Faith remains an effective introduction to the theology and spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. After a brief biographical portrait of Bonhoeffer's adult life, Kelly offers a thematic overview of Bonhoeffer's Christological theology with an emphasis on the sociality of Christ. Other chapters focus on the "liberation of faith," which is essentially Bonhoeffer's theology of revelation that emerged from his own existential crisis regarding his own faith and an examination of his theology of the Church. While Kelly draws heavily on Bonhoeffer's later writings like The Cost of Discipleship, Ethics, and especially Letters and Papers from Prison, he also uses key texts spanning the entirety of Bonhoeffer's career to develop the critical ideas at the heart of Bonhoeffer's theology. Therefore, Liberating Faith does very well to set the stage for Bonhoeffer's overall theology.

Until his untimely death in 2018, Vitor Westhelle's incisive and probing thought on the church, Luther, and theology shaped a generation. As a continuation of that rich legacy, presented here for the first time in English, is a collection of Westhelle's finest Portuguese-language essays. As a dedicated theologian of the cross, he was committed to saying things as they are, and that meant fearlessly cutting to the heart of complex matters. In this collection, Westhelle addresses important issues such as the cross of Jesus and its relation to death today; the difficulty (even impossibility) of human communication; the ecological crisis as a fundamentally religious problem; the ecumenical movement and its complicity with class interests; the church's misuse of mission and power; Lutheranism's misunderstanding of Lutherås law-gospel dialectic; and the role of European theology in making the conquest of the Americas such a disaster.

Building on recent developments in biblical studies, David Rensberger explores new avenues of interpretation of the Fourth Gospel made possible by the rediscovery of its social and historical settings. He looks to the first generation of readers and considers the range of meanings the Gospel might have held for them. He sees that behind the "spiritual" there is the possibility of social and even political interpretations. He discusses the relation of John's Gospel to liberation theology and to contemporary questions on the role of the church in the world.

This book advances that history by exploring stories, images and discourses across a worldwide range of geographical, cultural and confessional contexts. Its twelve authors not only enrich our understanding of the significance of the contextual method, but also produce a new range of original ways of doing theology in contemporary situations. The authors discuss some prioritised thematic perspectives with an emphasis on liberating paths, and expand the ongoing discussion on the methodology of theology into new areas. Themes such as interreligious plurality, global capitalism, ecumenical liberation theology, eco-anxiety and the anthropocene, postcolonialism, gender, neo-pentecostalism, world theology, and reconciliation are examined in situated depth. Additionally, voices from Indigenous lands, Latin America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe and North America enter into a dialogue on what it means to contextualise theology in an increasingly globalised and ever-changing world. Such a comprehensive discussion of new ways of thinking about and doing contextual theology will be of great use to scholars in Theology, Religious Studies, Cultural Studies, Political Science, Gender Studies, Environmental Humanities, and Global Studies.

Every year thousands of God's servants leave the ministry convinced they are failures. Years ago, in the midst of a crisis of faith, Kent Hughes almost became one of them. But instead he and his wife Barbara turned to God's Word, determined to learn what God had to say about success and to evaluate their ministry from a biblical point of view. This book describes their journey and their liberation from the "success syndrome"-the misguided belief that success in ministry means increased numbers. In today's world it is easy to be seduced by the secular thinking that places a number on everything. But the authors teach that true success in ministry lies not in numbers but in several key areas: faithfulness, serving, loving, believing, prayer, holiness, and a Christlike attitude. Their thoughts will encourage readers who grapple with feelings of failure and lead them to a deeper, fuller understanding of success in Christian ministry. This book was originally published by Tyndale in 1987 and includes a new preface.

"Sharon D. Welch boldly continues to be a crucial liberative voice who refuses to embrace simplistic truth claims or gloss over Christian-based violence which leads many to hopelessness. She critically analyzes what it means to be a scholar-activist, forcing the rest of us who use such a label to question what our faith and actions rests upon. Cognizant of her privileges, she nevertheless focuses on the particular and moves forward in constructing a liberationist response attuned to a critical thinking paradigm which remains rooted in praxis. Maybe this theological shift might just save liberal Christianity? Regardless if it does, such a move positions Welch, and those who take her work seriously, to authentically stand in solidarity with different marginalized communities in resistance to social structures responsible for so much of today's global oppression." --Miguel De La Torre

Offers a clear perspective on the issues Christian women face in the twenty-first century and shows how the Bible is a liberating and enriching book for women.