The Other Side Of Salvation

During the 1850s, a surprising number of Americans believed that the spirits of the deceased could be contacted through trance mediums and seances. Many of the radical leaders of the anti-slavery movement, women's rights, the temperance movement, prison reform and labor reform were involved in spiritualism. Among the liberal religious denominations, Universalism was the one most affected by this movement. This amazing chapter in American religious history present a vast array of characters -- visionaries; prophets and inventors; pioneers in psychic healing and public lecturers who took to the podium, while in trance, to deliver communications from the spirits and to simultaneously agitate for reforms in society. Drawing from journals, newspapers, manuscripts and the personal papers of spiritualists and their opponents, The Other Side of Salvation is a fascinating read for anyone interested in America's religious history. Book jacket.

After his older brother is killed, David turns to anger and his parents to religion, but just as David's life is beginning to make sense again his parents press him and his sister to join them in cutting worldly ties to prepare for the Rush, when the faithful will be whisked off to heaven.

This major contribution to Pauline scholarship by a widely-respected New Testament scholar is the culmination of over forty years of teaching on Paul. Brendan Byrne demonstrates that topics often discussed in Pauline studies and Christian theology go astray when the significance of the last judgment falls from view. Offering a fresh Catholic perspective that engages with centuries of Protestant interpretation, this book recaptures the significance of the motif of the last judgment for the interpretation of Paul.

In Salvation and Sovereignty, Kenneth Keathley asks, “What shall a Christian do who is convinced of certain central tenets of Calvinism but not its corollaries?” He then writes, “I see salvation as a sovereign work of grace but suspect that the usual Calvinist understanding of sovereignty (that God is the cause of all things) is not sustained by the biblical witness as a whole.” Aiming to resolve this matter, the author argues that just three of Calvinism’s five TULIP points can be defended scripturally and instead builds on the ROSES acronym first presented by Timothy George (Radical depravity, Overcoming grace, Sovereign election, Eternal life, Singular redemption). In relation, Keathley looks at salvation and sovereignty through the lens of Molinism, a doctrine named after Luis Molina (1535-1600) that is based on a strong notion of God’s control and an equally firm affirmation of human freedom.

This is a case study of one pietist religious group, the Bruderhof. A Christian brotherhood founded on Anabaptist and evangelical pietist doctrine, they practice community of goods, seeking to emulate the vision of the Apostolic church and fulfill the ethic of brotherhood taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Rubin offers compelling accounts of the lives of Bruderhof apostates who foundered over issues of faith, and relates these crises to the central tenets of Bruderhof theology, their spirituality, and community life.

The good news of Jesus Christ is for both sinners and the sinned-against. For the past two thousand years, Christian theologians have focused on the experience of sinners, but treated their victims inadequately. To counterbalance this perspective, a diverse group of Christian scholars consider sin "from the other side." To make sense of Christianity from this standpoint, they offer a more complex and comprehensive analysis of human participation in evil and its reconciliation than the simple formula of sin and repentance. The Other Side of Sin is an original, fresh, and exciting adventure into one of the most needed areas of theological thinking.