Preaching The Incarnation

Offers a theological discussion of ten important Bible passages connected with the doctrine of incarnation, bringing historical and literary questions about the text into dialogue with Christian tradition, drawing out the implications of the passage for preaching. --from publisher description.

These ten sermons present the historical, dogmatic, and ecclesiastical sides of the question of the Incarnation. The purpose of the course of sermons is to present biblical text and to then trace the development of the doctrine in the New Testament.

In The Doctrine of the Incarnation Opened, an abridgement of Edward Irving's (1792-1834) sermons, readers have fresh access to and insightful comment on Irving's distinctive views regarding the person of Jesus Christ. The book follows the sermons in a logical progression: the goal and method of the incarnation, the events of the incarnate life and the death of Christ, and the effects of the incarnation. For Irving, God the Son's assumption of a fallen human nature was of the upmost importance, and garnered most attention. This view also dominates Irving's soteriology, according to which the incarnate Son takes over the human will, reforming the very origin of sin, and offers obedience to the Father as a sacrifice of praise. Irving's radical Christological thought informed the thinking of notable theologians such as John McLeod Campbell, Thomas F. Torrance, and Karl Barth. With an introduction by G. McFarlane and a critical response by J.D. Cameron, The Doctrine of the Incarnation Opened provides an accessible format to engage with Irving's influential thoughts and ideas.

Much preaching today begins with the hearer's "felt needs" and then moves to how Christianity can solve those problems. But this approach often results in trite Christologies that merely use Jesus as a means to an end or a vehicle for self-improvement. While preachers might not dispense with Christ altogether, other things subtly take center stage and become more important than Christ himself. Pastoral theologian Stephen Seamands issues a stirring call to rediscover the centrality of Christ in preaching. Deftly blending doctrine and praxis, he revitalizes preaching by focusing on five key dimensions of Jesus' work: his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and return. Seamands highlights how preaching Christ crucified and risen speaks profoundly to the deepest dimensions of human existence. Addressing both the "what" and the "so what," this exposition helps church leaders declare afresh that Christ alone is supremely sufficient for Christian faith and practice. Pastors and preachers will find here significant resources for their churches' worship, life together and mission in the world. Become captivated once again by the glory of Christ, and find yourself compelled to proclaim his work anew.

A new critical text of the “Omnia Opera” of Thomas à Kempis is being edited by Dr. M. Joseph Pohl, of Bonn, in seven volumes, of which four have already appeared, and the remainder are to be issued in the course of 1907. An eighth volume is to contain a life of the author, a dissertation on his various writings, and a vindication of his title to the “Imitation” by the same industrious hand. The publishers, Messrs. Herder, are doing their work in a way worthy of the subject matter, and of the painstaking toil of the editor; their volumes are a pleasure to behold and handle, a masterpiece of the printer’s and the bookbinder’s art, a contrast indeed to the unwieldy tomes and cramped letterpress, to which, apart from the “Imitation,” students of the Ven. à Kempis have hitherto been accustomed. Aeterna Press