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The church today is in many places ""on the nose."" For many people, it stinks. It has passed its ""use-by"" date and should be relegated to the dustbins of history, and the sooner, the better. Nevertheless, the contributors to this volume believe that the church, in spite of its somewhat checkered history and its many present failures, remains an integral part of God''s redemptive purposes being worked out in the world, and that God''s call to the church is now what it has always been: to be the faithful people of God, bearing joy-filled witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ in word, worship, and work, in its corporate life, and in the lives of each of its members. Each chapter in this book explores an aspect of what it means to be the church, both with respect to its own life, and with an eye to its presence and mission in the world.

Making the Word of God Fully Known is a collection of essays on church, culture, and mission relevant for the Australian church in honor of the sixty-fifth birthday of Archbishop Philip Freier, archbishop of Melbourne. The essays cover aspects of mission strategy, ministry of women, ministry to Australian indigenous people, responding to past history of child sexual abuse, and issues of liturgy and ecclesiology. The target is Australian ministers and laypeople. The essays largely come from Melbourne, a richly diverse Anglican diocese and reflect the priorities and strategies of Archbishop Freier''s thirteen years as archbishop.

Holding Forth the Word of Life is a collection of essays offered to honor Tim Meadowcroft on his retirement from Laidlaw College. An international authority on Daniel, over the last twenty-five years Tim has established himself as one of New Zealand''s leading biblical scholars. While specializing in Old Testament, Tim has taught and published in New Testament as well as hermeneutics and theological interpretation of Scripture. Beyond academic work he has also remained committed to the church and its voice in wider society. This collection of essays, written by leading scholars from New Zealand and beyond, covers all of these areas--Old Testament, New Testament, intertestamental texts, hermeneutics, theological interpretation of Scripture, reception history, and theological reflection on pressing issues facing society.

Christians in Australia are facing serious ethical issues. Contentious topics, such as same-sex marriage, the assisted-dying bill, gender fluidity, and attempts to censor Jesus-talk in the schoolyard, present serious challenges and require us to think more deeply about how we are to live in a strange new world. This volume presents papers from the 2018 Paradosis Conference at Melbourne School of Theology and brings together a number of voices to explore doctrinal foundations and their practical outworkings in the fields of biblical studies, systematic and practical theology, Islamic studies, and medical ethics. Contributors examine questions of contemporary interest as they pertain to both the Christian community itself and to Christian engagement with wider society. Part 1 comprises papers examining ethics in the Old Testament wisdom books, decision-making according to an early church model, the theological history of ethics, and the pastoral implications of Jonathan Edwards's reflections on beauty. Part 2 investigates the ramifications for Christian social ethics of the paradox of Jesus's stringent moral commands and his inclusive lifestyle, Islam's approach to homosexuality, virtue ethics as an alternative narrative within the "assisted-dying" debate, and the role of docility as a virtue in teaching, pastoral theology, and mission.

Christians in Australia are facing serious ethical issues. Contentious topics, such as same-sex marriage, the assisted-dying bill, gender fluidity, and attempts to censor Jesus-talk in the schoolyard, present serious challenges and require us to think more deeply about how we are to live in a strange new world. This volume presents papers from the 2018 Paradosis Conference at Melbourne School of Theology and brings together a number of voices to explore doctrinal foundations and their practical outworkings in the fields of biblical studies, systematic and practical theology, Islamic studies, and medical ethics. Contributors examine questions of contemporary interest as they pertain to both the Christian community itself and to Christian engagement with wider society. Part 1 comprises papers examining ethics in the Old Testament wisdom books, decision-making according to an early church model, the theological history of ethics, and the pastoral implications of Jonathan Edwards''s reflections on beauty. Part 2 investigates the ramifications for Christian social ethics of the paradox of Jesus''s stringent moral commands and his inclusive lifestyle, Islam''s approach to homosexuality, virtue ethics as an alternative narrative within the ""assisted-dying"" debate, and the role of docility as a virtue in teaching, pastoral theology, and mission. ""Brautigam and Asquith have put together an insightful and informative set of perspectives on how we might live well in the strange and shifting moral landscape of the late modern world. It is a wide-ranging, even disparate collection, which moves from the light OT wisdom can shed on the terrain, through to how a willingness to listen and learn may foster more fruitful conversations. This is a volume well worth listening to and learning from.""--Andrew Sloane, Morling College""Brautigam and Asquith''s edited book speaks thoughtfully through a range of Australian multicultural accents across a vast landscape of issues: from beauty in Edwards, homosexuality in Islam, to assisted dying legislation in Victoria for starters. It unpacks biblical resources from wisdom to Jesus, to a more virtue-based approach. Such rich resources are applied in creative ways, of interest not only for Australians, but for a secular pluralist world.""--Gordon Preece, University of DivinityMichael Brautigam studied psychology in Germany (University of Trier) and theology in Scotland (University of Edinburgh). He teaches in both disciplines at Melbourne School of Theology. His doctoral dissertation focuses on the Christology of Swiss theologian Adolf Schlatter (1852-1938), published as Union with Christ: Adolf Schlatter''s Relational Christology (Pickwick, 2015). His current research focuses on the integration of theology and psychology with a particular emphasis on Christian identity.Gillian Asquith studied Oriental Studies (Chinese) at the University of Oxford. After gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from the University of Bristol, Gillian worked in government and private schools in England and Australia. Gillian undertook her theological education at Melbourne School of Theology and is now on faculty there, teaching Koine Greek and New Testament. She is also engaged in doctoral research in the field of biblical lexicography at the Australian Catholic University.

The brokenness of this world inevitably invades our lives. But how do you maintain faith when overwhelmed by grief? When prayer goes unanswered? When all you have are questions, not answers? What do you say to God when you know he is in control but the suffering continues unabated? Is there any alternative to remaining speechless in the midst of pain and heartbreak? This book is about finding words to use when life is hard. These words are not new. They are modes of expression that the church has drawn on in times of grief throughout most of its history. Yet, the church in the West has largely abandoned these words--the psalms of lament. The result is that believers often struggle to know what to do or say when faced with distress, anxiety, and loss. Whether you are in Christian leadership, training for ministry, or simply struggling to reconcile experience with biblical convictions, Finding Lost Words will help you consider how these ancient words can become your own.""As the contributors to Finding Lost Words so insightfully point out, the Psalms offer us a robust invitation to express our honest feelings before God. I found this volume utterly compelling and encourage everyone to read this book and let the laments of the Psalms teach you how to pray."" --Tremper Longman III, Westmont College""This book is a work the church needs. Lament is a missing practice in the praying life of too many Christians in a broken world. It needs to be recovered. After all we find it in psalm after psalm. . . . Scripture not only gives us a language for our joys, it also gives us a language for our confusions, disappointments, and even anger towards God. In this work, a constellation of careful thinkers and practitioners serve us so very well. I commend it without reservation."" --Graham A. Cole, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School""There is a level of superficiality in the spiritual experience of today's church that needs to be challenged. . . . Finding Lost Words is an excellent set of readable essays dealing with the theology and practice of lament from an exegetical, historical, and pastoral perspective. I don't want to overstate things but, if we really hear the message of this book, it will change the way we do church.""--Jamie A. Grant, Highland Theological College UHI""Like a well-cut diamond, this collection of essays radiates light in many directions, helping readers to see the biblical concept of lament from different perspectives with greater clarity. . . . This timely volume offers a much needed rebalance to Christian theology that often appears to have lost sight of the pain and suffering caused by the reality of evil in our broken world.""--T. Desmond Alexander, Union Theological College, BelfastG. Geoffrey Harper is Lecturer in Old Testament at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. He has written several essays and articles on intertextuality in the Old Testament.Kit Barker is Lecturer in Old Testament at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. He is the author of Imprecation as Divine Discourse (2016).

In a globalized world, networks are key, whether they are networks of people, ideas, or interests. In this volume of essays on the texts and teachings of Jonathan Edwards, contributors from each continent ask questions about how the world of Edwards explains or illuminates the world of today, whether in the area of systematics, missions, historiography, politics, church-planting, or biblical studies. Such diverse discourses enrich the networks of scholarship that the contributors represent, and provide a global snapshot of contemporary research in Edwards studies. These papers were presented in August 2015 at the Jonathan Edwards Congress held at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia, where personal engagement with the topics at hand made the worldwide network of Edwards aficionados and scholars not merely a virtual aspiration but an experience in time and space. This book will not only inform its readers but surprise them as well, as they track the power of eighteenth century theological ideas in the late modern world.""This is a superb collection of essays, which goes further than any volume on Edwards to date to underscore his truly international reach. Featuring chapters on Edwards' legacies in Britain and North America, Eastern Europe, southern Africa, and the land down under, along with interpretations of Edwards' thought by first-rate scholars from every continent on the globe (except Antarctica, of course), it represents the first fruits of the global Edwards Centers and, more importantly, the up-and-coming scholarship on Edwards by many working outside of Western Europe and North America.""--Douglas A. Sweeney, Director, Jonathan Edwards Center, Midwest, Trinity Evangelical Divinity SchoolRhys Bezzant is Dean of Missional Leadership and Lecturer in Christian Thought at Ridley College, in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Jonathan Edwards and the Church (2014) and Standing on Their Shoulders: Heroes of the Faith for Today (2015).

The thesis shows that the Song of Songs can be read as a circular sequence of sub-poems, that follow logically from one another if they are understood as contributing to two main points, made in a woman''s voice. The woman urges men to take romantic initiative to be committed exclusively and for life, and urges women three times to wait until they are approached by such men. If this reading is the best explanation of the text of the Song, then the Song is a unified work centered on a woman singing about human romantic love from a woman''s perspective.""Alastair Haines presents a masterful examination of the purpose and function of Song of Songs within the biblical canon. Through in-depth analysis of the literary structure of the book, character presentation, and the kind of language utilized, he brings a fresh appreciation of the rich textures within the book and its enduring importance within the biblical canon.""--David J. Cohen, Head of Biblical Studies and Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and Language, Vose Seminary, Australian College of TheologyAlastair Ian Haines is an independent researcher in the theology of gender. He has also had articles published in other areas of interest. He lives in Sydney with his wife and son and attends church with an ethnically Indonesian congregation.