Theology Study

What comes to mind when you think of the word church? In this volume, Gregg R. Allison helps define the church and its mission by presenting an overview of the specific doctrines and practices of different churches and denominations. He lays a basic foundation for better understanding the common practices among local church communities (“mere ecclesiology”) and the ways that they diverge from one another (“more ecclesiology”).

As the Church has become increasingly entangled in the pursuit of politics, the Gospel has become tarnished and often abandoned as the primary focus of the Body of Christ. Jesus Untangled is a prophetic call for the Church to awaken from the "American Dream" and to return to her first love. Because, as the author powerfully demonstrates, you can't convert a culture that has already converted you.

Best known for its interpersonal, emotionally raw, and pastorally distressed tone, 2 Corinthians is one of Paul’s most distinctive epistles. In this letter to his complicated church in Corinth, Paul aims to expand on the deeply paradoxical nature of the Christian life. The importance of understanding this key doctrine makes 2 Corinthians an ideal study for believers today. In this volume of the New Testament Theology series, bestselling author Dane Ortlund explores 2 Corinthians to reveal the core arguments presented by Paul.

The Bible’s last book is God’s final word to mankind—and the breathtaking revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though this letter describes depravity, devils, and destruction, it also provides an incredible portrait of our almighty God, delivering profound insights into who he really is. God’s Grand Finale examines the thirteen characteristics of God that Revelation uniquely and vividly illustrates through its foretelling of earth’s last days.

Do you value reason, science, and independent thinking? Are you skeptical of beliefs that people maintain merely "on faith," yet you remain interested in the big questions of life? Do you hope there could be a greater purpose to the universe, if only that were realistic? If so, then philosopher Joshua Rasmussen can encourage you in your journey. Beginning with his own story of losing faith and the belief in any ultimate purpose in life, he then builds a bridge to a series of universal truths about ultimate reality.

The most important question a grieving parent can ask is "is my baby in heaven?" With scriptural authority and the warmth of a pastor's heart, bestselling author John MacArthur examines the breadth of the entire Bible and reveals in this compelling book the Heavenly Father's care for every life...

In order to be a people of grace, we have to understand the story of grace...and how grace transforms us. Grace is more story than doctrine. It's more than forgiveness or compassion. It's undeserved by definition, essential to salvation. And it turns out that God's grace—though it's the only...

Transform your year in just fifteen minutes a day by unlocking biblical wisdom for modern life through the ancient words of Proverbs—from the bestselling author of Core 52. “Mark Moore’s gift for weaving timeless biblical wisdom with contemporary insights makes this a life-changing road...

"God is love." It's the most basic definition of God in Scriptures, but so profound that it's often misunderstood. In this probing book, a brilliant Bible expositor brings us into the very heart of God by answering such questions as: If God is love, how could He send anyone to hell? What's the...

Zealous faith can have a dangerous, dark side. While recent calls for radical Christians have challenged many to be more passionate about their faith, the down side can be a budding arrogance and self-righteousness that “accidentally” sneaks into our outlook. In Accidental Pharisees...

From Gene Robinson, the Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church, the first openly gay person elected (in 2003) to the historic episcopate and the world's leading religious spokesperson for gay rights and gay marriage, comes a groundbreaking book that lovingly and persuasively makes the case for same-sex marriage. It establishes a commonsense, reasoned, religious argument, made by someone who holds the religious text of the Bible to be holy and sacred.

For many young adults, the college years are an exciting period of self-discovery, full of new relationships, new independence, and new experiences. Yet college can also be a time of personal testing and intense questioning - especially for Christian students confronted with various challenges to Christianity and the Bible for the first time. Drawing on years of experience as a biblical scholar, Michael Kruger addresses common objections to the Christian faith.

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.

Anne Catherine Emmerich was born in Germany in 1774. As a child she believed that angels, saints, and the Holy Family visited and talked with her as she worked in the fields. At twenty-four, she had her first mystic vision of the sufferings of Christ, accompanied by stigmata and bleeding as if from the crown of thorns. At twenty-nine, she became an Augustinian nun and continued to have visions and stigmata. In her visions, she recounted scenes from the life of Christ, which she seemed to have witnessed.

In Corrupting the Image, Dr. Douglas Hamp traces one prophetic thread from Eden to the End: the “two seeds” promise of Genesis 3:15. One line leads to the Messiah. The other points to a coming counterfeit, a final attempt to corrupt the image of God and replace redemption with a substitute salvation.

There are so many Christians teaching outrageous speculation about End Times Bible prophecy these days. It’s enough to frustrate the serious Bible student. What if you found out most of it is simply mistaken? What if you found out that everything that modern prophecy pundits are looking for—the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Antichrist, The Beast—was not what they told you it was, but something different?

What does Plato have to do with the Christian faith? Quite a bit, it turns out. In ways that might surprise us, Christians throughout the history of the church and even today have inherited aspects of the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato, who was both Socrates's student and Aristotle's teacher. To help us understand the influence of Platonic thought on the Christian faith, Louis Markos offers careful readings of some of Plato's best-known texts and then traces the ways that his work shaped the faith of some of Christianity's most beloved theologians.

The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry? And how might Christians in the twenty-first century live in ways that have integrity with their traditions and are more truly transformative? In To Change the World, James Davison Hunter offers persuasive answers to these questions.

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, Biblical Critical Theory Audio Lectures, Part 1 includes high-quality live recordings of college-level lectures that cover the...

In the sixth volume of the Swans Are Not Silent series, John Piper celebrates the importance of poetic effort by looking at three influential Christians whose words magnificently display a commitment to truth and a love of beauty. Examining the lives of George Herbert, George Whitefield, and C. S. Lewis, Piper helps us appreciate the importance of carefully crafted words by exploring how Christians can use them to testify to God's glory, wonder at his grace, and rejoice in his salvation.