Social Theology

This is a book about hope in the midst of a polarized culture. Camosy begins with a hopeful starting point in the midst of a crumbling US political culture: two of every three Americans constitute an “exhausted majority” who reject right/left polarization and are open to alternative viewpoints.

Racism. Immigration. Gun violence. Sexuality. Health care. The number of ethical issues that demand a response from Christians today is almost dizzying. How can Christians navigate such matters? What are faithful responses to these questions? Edited by two theologians with pastoral experience, this volume invites engagement with these issues and more by drawing on real-life experiences and offering a range of responses to some of the most challenging moral questions confronting the church today.

How have Christian theologies of religious superiority underwritten ideologies of white supremacy in the United States? According to author Hill Fletcher, the tendency of Christians to view themselves as the "chosen ones" has often been translated into racial categories as well. In other words, Christian supremacy has historically lent itself to white supremacy, with disastrous consequences. Fletcher proposes strategies that will help foster racial healing in America.

History tells us that all civilizations progress through a sequence of nine distinct phases that begin and end with bondage. America is hardly immune to this progression. Michael Abbott, Jr. explores the collapsing cultural institutions that have ushered America within one short step of this final, tragic phase. History and human nature suggest that our fate has already been sealed, but Abbott charts a clear path to breaking free.

Charles E. Curran explores the social mission of the U.S. Catholic Church from a theological perspective, analyzing and assessing four aspects: the importance of social mission, who carries it out, how it is carried out, and the roles that the Church and individual Catholics play in supporting these efforts. In the early and mid-twentieth century the Catholic Church in the United States tended to focus its social mission on its own charities, hospitals, and schools.

Remarriage after Divorce? A Biblical Defense of the Traditional Christian View delivers a compelling and deeply scriptural exploration of one of Christianity's most controversial topics. Author C.A. White defends the historical Christian view that while divorce may be permissible in some cases, remarriage while the original spouse is still alive constitutes adultery—without exceptions. White argues that repentance from such situations requires extraordinary steps, including separation or celibacy, as continuing in unrepentant adultery jeopardizes one's eternal soul.

Our economy is hanging on to a thread printing trillions of paper dollars while the "value" of bitcoin exceeds $50,000. People are burning their cities and inciting riots while government officials do nothing and even more ridiculously, voting to remove their police departments. The threat of COVID-19 has closed economies, government offices, airports, and schools around the world. It's obvious we are living in treacherous times.

America is on the brink of collapse. What will you do to save your country? America has suffered some big losses - eroding morals, a Godless culture, and a declining national spirit. These losses have corrupted the very fabric of our once-stalwart nation, coalescing into social and political overthrow with anarchy raging in the streets. Many wonder, Is this the end of America?

Financial crisis, political crisis, environmental crisis - the list goes on. We’re confronted with calamity every time we read the headlines. But behind each of these lurks another kind of crisis, one we find harder to define: a moral crisis. In this wise and practical audiobook, Pastor Jonathan Dodson takes us back to the Beatitudes, the centerpiece of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. Dodson examines each of the Beatitudes in the context of the new morality that buffets our society today, presenting a compelling portrait of the truly good life, both personal and social.

This book contains a collection of academic articles ranging from African-American history, Jewish history, early Christian history, the New Testament, Patristic history, medieval history, and the history of the Reformation. This academic work is a bold quest to capture the essence of history and canon as phenomenalized in the human experience. Scholars and students of history, religion, literary criticism, sociology, anthropology, humanities, and theology will surely benefit from reading this book.

Digital innovation has rapidly changed the landscape of sexual experience in the 21st century. Rules-based sexual ethics, subscribed to by many Christians, are unable to keep up with new developments and, more often than not, seem effective at little other than generating shame.

In the 21st century the basic questions of ethics are no longer the abstract terms of ethical theory, but the concrete and burning issues related to the influence of life sciences, the impact of a globalized economy, and the consequences of present decisions for the future of humankind.

The church today faces great challenges, from outside and from within. Popular culture tempts Christians to compromise truth in the name of relevance and to ignore sin under the guise of tolerance. At the same time, serious doctrinal errors threaten to undermine the authority of God's word, leading to all sorts of unbiblical practices. Right Thinking in a Church Gone Astray offers responses from trusted evangelical voices on 15 timely issues.

The idea of moral evil has always held a special place in philosophy and theology because the existence of evil has implications for the dignity of the human and the limits of human action. Andrew Michael Flescher proposes four interpretations of evil, drawing on philosophical and theological sources and using them to trace through history the moral traditions that are associated with them.

While teaching ethics is universally applauded, how one goes about it is much more difficult and contested than is often recognized. On Teaching and Learning Christian Ethics addresses what it means to teach and learn ethics through a thorough comparison of two ethicists, Henry Sidgwick and F. D. Maurice. Where Sidgwick understood ethics as developing a method for guiding voluntary action to what is right, Maurice maintained that ethics concerns life as a whole, and that requires placing it within a metaphysical and theological realm in which the good is much more definitive than right.

The Bible is filled with stories of people who walked away from face-to-face encounters with Jesus thinking he was a total jerk. This book explores the premise that if Jesus were to return today as he did two thousand years ago, he (or she!) would meet the same fate. That is, his own people would fail to recognize who he is, they would argue with him incessantly, and seek to have him destroyed. Written by a seasoned atheist turned Christian, this book seeks to help non-Christians have a better understanding of Christianity, including why we don't always do as we should.

A revealing memoir about the complicated truths of surviving a suicide attempt and rethinking the concept of “suicide prevention” to create a world that people want to live in Madeline Vosch did everything she was supposed to do when the suicidal thoughts started. Or she tried. Between...

Even a cursory scrolling of social media may lead you to the conclusion that you have to be angry to do theology. Sadly, our day is characterized by theological fighting—complete with harsh words, exaggeration, biting sarcasm, and the spirit of tearing down our brothers and sisters in Christ. But it does not have to be this way. In fact, it should not be this way. Ronni Kurtz swims upstream to counter this prevailing problem. Instead of theology leading to anger, division, and discord, this book shows that the life of the mind can actually lead to the fruit of the Spirit

In this searing and personal book, intellectual activist and theologian Robyn Henderson-Espinoza bridges the gap between academia and activism, bringing the wisdom of the streets to the work of scholarship, all for the sake of political liberation and social change for marginalized communities. This is an invitation - a powerful and provocative call-to-action--to academic theologians to the work of social activism through movement building.

With the troubling and painful events of the last several years - from the shooting of numerous unarmed black men at the hands of police to the rallying of white supremacists in Charlottesville - it is clearer than ever that the reconciliation paradigm, long favored by white Christians, has failed to heal the deep racial wounds in the church and American society. In this provocative audiobook, originally published in 2014, Jennifer Harvey argues for a radical shift away from the well-meaning but feeble longing for reconciliation toward a robustly biblical call for reparations.