The Unrelieved Paradox

Franz Bibfeldt's famously flexible theology comes to life for a new generation of readers in this revised and expanded edition of The Unrelieved Paradox, which, besides completely reproducing the original 1994 volume, contains these noteworthy added features: A new preface by Martin Marty ("Not a classic!" he says) Previously unpublished essays by William Schweiker, Jean-Luc Marion, James T. Robinson, and Arthur Callaham Much more recent toasts to Bibfeldt by Ian Gerdon and Emanuelle Burton New artwork by David Morgan

How does God manifest himself in the world? Through the righteous lives of his holy people (the saints). As a religion of witnesses, Christianity is dependent upon its saints (defined as activated disciples) to "testify" to the grace of Christ and the kingdom of God. Their lives are walking billboards of the value of Jesus' teaching and authenticity of Christianity as an ancient spiritual pathway. This is a book about saints who are alive now, and whose everyday acts of kindness and goodness announce that God is at work in the world. Like Jesus, their Master, they are the message, the messenger, and the working model of the kingdom of God, in a lesser key. In following Jesus, ordinary saints are willing to give away their lives in order to convey the substance of their faith to a watching world. If ever there was a time when saints need to live courageously for Christ in the world, it is now. But it will take conviction, credibility, and a great deal of audacity. Ordinary Saints explores what it means to be a saint in the twenty-first century, by exploring the depth-dimensions of saints' lives, bodies, emotions, values, and relationships.

The stuff that comes after modernism isn't all bad. Postmodernism, not needing everything to be buttoned up, can leave things dangling; it can pay attention to the obscure, marginal, and particular. The postmodern dynamic invites one to revisit biblical texts that do not fit into tidy, cherished theological constructs: I call these texts the "minority reports." Popular theology infers that God is just pretending when he changes his mind or gets frustrated, saddened, and affected by humans--this understanding is guided by concepts of God's omni-attributes. But these wise and well-intentioned concepts fail to portray a God who will not be domesticated. Certain biblical narratives trace YHWH's hiddenness, suffering, changeability, and "hostility"--this awkward "shadow side" of YHWH is sometimes selectively overlooked. The fear of God is gone. Instead we have the ever-tolerant, universal God who is in danger of evaporating into "spirit," "light," and "love." As a theologian I use Hebrew block logic: competing truths in the Bible are kept intact; synthesis isn't necessarily sought. God chooses us and we choose God; God is self-sufficient, all-powerful, and all-knowing, needing no creature. Yet he chooses to limit his "omni-ness" in the human arena and makes himself vulnerable to humans. He hyphenates his name with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob--and the church--at a risk.

Paradox in the Contrivance of Human Development This book crosses disciplinary boundaries in a way that few books on human development do. Its strengths come from the fresh perspectives which emerge from the diverse fields that the author draws upon (e.g. Central Banking; Child Protection; Environment; Extension; Food Security; SMEs; Water and Sanitation to name a few). It is an anthology of the author's recently published works with a leavening of contemporary material. The objective is to draw this rich material into a coherent whole that will meet the needs and interests of professionals, students and lay-enthusiasts alike. The author's insights come from his extensive experience juxtaposed with an academic perspective and educative engagement. This experience has been gained over many years working with various international development agencies from multilateral and bilateral donors to International Financial Institutions, UN agencies, non-government organisations, national and local institutions. The supportive, underpinning scholarship is both eclectic and thoroughgoing, augmenting essays on anthropology, economics, environment, management, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. The end result is a unique exploration of the issues that confront the theory and practice of human development.

Scot McKnight here explains the Letter of James both in its own context and as it may be seen in light of ancient Judaism, the Graeco-Roman world, and emerging earliest Christianity. From beginning to end, the book is shaped for pastors, teachers, and scholars. McKnight is less interested in shedding new light on James than on providing a commentary for those who want to explain the letter and its significance to congregations and classes. This commentary is accessible to a broad readership, at once full of insight and of good sense and wit that makes for good reading. The Letter of James is an especially helpful source for consultation as to what James is about.

First published in 1960, this book studies Wordsworth’s ‘simple’ poems, such as the Lyrical Ballads, as products of a sophisticated and powerfully successful literary genius. The author aims to approach the poems as perhaps Wordsworth expected his first readers to; but as they have never been in fact. The result of this approach is to discover a Wordsworth far different to that which he has previously been presented as — the ‘Sage of Rydal’ at one extreme and a naïve perpetrator of poetical blunders at the other — and, the author argues, a far more exciting one. This book will be of interest to students of literature.

The history of American evangelicalism is perhaps best understood by examining its turning points - those moments when it took on a new scope, challenge, or influence. The Great Awakening, the rise of fundamentalism and Pentecostalism, the emergence of Billy Graham?all these developments and many more have given shape to one of the most dynamic movements in American religious history. Taken together, these turning points serve as a clear and helpful roadmap for understanding how evangelicalism has become what it is today. Each chapter in this book has been written by one of the world's top experts in American religious history, and together they form a single narrative of evangelicalism's remarkable development. Here is an engaging, balanced, coherent history of American evangelicalism from its origins as a small movement to its status as a central player in the American religious story. - from publisher.