Social Theology

Today's status quo Christianity has bred isolated, comfortable Christians. Many have little in the way of a prayer life. As we know from the people who come to us for help, many know plenty of Bible verses and doctrine but are empty inside; they lack an intimate heart-relationship with the Lord. Many churches avoid the hard topics, or if they do broach the tough subjects they give little in the way of biblical answers on how to overcome those issues. We teach the Bible but aren't showing people how to live it.

After her brother died unexpectedly and her mother moved into a dementia-care facility, spiritual travel writer and Episcopal deacon Lori Erickson felt called to a new quest: to face death head-on, with the eye of a tourist and the heart of a pastor. Blending memoir, spirituality, and travel, Near the Exit examines how cultures confront and have confronted death by investigating Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Mayan temples, Colorado cremation pyres, Day of the Dead celebrations, Maori settlements, and tourist-destination graveyards.

In Killing Jesus, New York Times best-selling author Stephen Mansfield masterfully recounts the corrupt trial and grisly execution of Jesus more than 2,000 years ago. Approaching the story at its most human level, Mansfield uses both secular sources and biblical accounts to bring fresh perspective to the human drama, political intrigue, and criminal network behind the killing of the world's most famous man.

Ever since Jesus' commission to make disciples in his name, Christianity has transformed lives and the world at large. To those watching, it must have looked like an upstart religion led by a group of men, most of whom were martyred for their beliefs. The voice of secular culture today is no louder and no more indulgent than it was in those days. And yet much of the Western church has settled for becoming just another mass media market that's adding to the noise, instead of a movement that continues to turn the world upside down.

Rob Bell's book, Love Wins, has generated a national conversation about ultimate issues, such as the nature of hell, heaven, and the ultimate destiny of humankind. Yet, the book has also created unnecessary confusion. God Wins is a response to the provocative questions Love Wins has raised. In God Wins, Mark Galli explores the important questions that are left unasked and the issues left uncharted.

A popular survey of how we can think Christianly, see clearly, and respond as Christ would to contemporary ethical issues such as crime, rehabilitation, consumerism, war, euthanasia, same sex relationships, and other complex issues that confront us in the 21st century....

Stem-cell research. Cloning. Genetic engineering. Today, discoveries in biotechnology are occurring so rapidly that we can barely begin to address one ethical debate before another looms overhead. This brave new world we've entered is a daunting one as well, with disturbing implications for the sanctity of life and for human nature itself. How should we respond as Christians?

It's difficult to hear the growing daily reports of evil in our society without a degree of fear. Seen from a human perspective, things appear hopeless. But as we consider the spiritual perspective of those same events, we can - and will - see what purpose those struggles serve in God's plan. In this book, pastor and author Phil Hotsenpiller will help you begin to connect the dots between biblical prophecies about lawlessness with current events.

Consumerism is everywhere. It shapes the way we eat, shop, rest, think, love and believe. We can't escape it, but how can we live well in the midst of it? We are daily seduced by a 250 billion dollar marketing machine. But how often do we consider how this might influence us? The current prevailing orthodoxy is that life should be lived to the max. By contrast, Jesus modeled a life of joyful limitation - free to do; free not to do. Consumer Detox, complete with the Detox Diary in the back of the book with suggestions for each chapter, encouraging stories, and space for writing personal reflections....

Finding Me: A Woman's Theology of Self-Identification was written in partial fulfillment for my Master of Sacred Theology Degree from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. The premise for this book is to take a specific look at women of faith who have had the eyes of their understanding opened as they read, reflected, and reassessed how they understand the Bible along with how they understand themselves in God's eyes.

In the United States, to be a Black American is to be a Black Christian. And there’s something to this assumption in that the vast majority of African Americans are Christian. However, in recent years a growing number of African Americans have said they claim no particular religious affiliation—they are Black “nones.” And of these Black “nones,” the most public and vocal are those who claim to be humanists.

A cross-section of five frontline leaders in the controversial emerging church movement shed informative light on their beliefs and basic message to help us understand whether it’s all about new methods or a new message or both.

Facet by facet this internationally acclaimed Christian thinker examines life and the universal search for its meaning. What is "the call"? Far bigger than our jobs, deeper than our personal accomplishments, higher than our wildest ideas of self-fulfillment, our "calling" addresses the very essence of our existence. Discovering it in times past has changed whole nations and cultures. It could do the same to ours. A classic reflective work in the tradition of C. S. Lewis and Oswald Chambers, now ready to challenge the latest generation of high school and college graduates.

Not long ago, most White American Christians believed that Jesus blessed slavery. God wasn't bothered by Jim Crow. Baby Jesus had white skin. Meet Plantation Jesus: a god who is comfortable with bigotry and an idol that distorts the message of the real Savior. That false image of God is dead, right? Wrong, argue the authors of Plantation Jesus, an authoritative new book on one of the most urgent issues of our day.

The African-American community represents a paradox of sorts. While collective success has been achieved in many areas, African-Americans still disproportionately suffer from a variety of social ills. The residual impact of years of slavery and exclusion from the major institutions of American life are still trenchant. Yet there is hope. As we move forward into a new millennium, our greatest answers can be found by exploring the past.

Many believers accept traditional Christian sexual morality but have very little idea why it matters for the Christian life. In Faithful, author Beth Felker Jones sketches a theology of sexuality that demonstrates sex is not about legalistic morals with no basis in reality, but rather about the God who is faithful to us.

In St. Augustine in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of St. Augustine's life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from St. Augustine's work, a brief list of suggested readings for those who wish to delve deeper, and chronologies that place St. Augustine within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

Advances in technology offer couples wanting to have children more options than ever before - fertility treatment methods; prefertilization genetic screening; and embryo adoption. With all of these options available, plus the blessing of adoption, it can be difficult for Christian couples to determine which to consider when the Bible doesn’t give explicit direction.

Hurt with Fetters reveals a fundamental problem associated with current practices of criminal justice. The problem is essentially one of narrative, and is built into how the story of criminal justice is told. Christians have adopted narrative understandings of justice that run contrary to the contours of the Christian story.

Aimee Byrd explores the theological meaning behind our sexes, helping Christians to understand our sexuality as gift and to grasp the story our bodies tell of Christ’s love for his church. She calls the church to the recovery of God’s true design of man and woman that unfolds through Scripture—indeed to a sexual reformation.