Bøger udgivet af William B Eerdmans Publishing Co

The rediscovery of Enochic Judaism as an ancient movement of dissent within Second Temple Judaism, a movement centered on neither temple nor torah, is a major achievement of contemporary research. After being marginalized, ancient Enoch texts have reemerged as a significant component of the Dead Sea Scrolls library unearthed at Qumran.Enoch and Qumran Origins is the first comprehensive treatment of the complex and forgotten relations between the Qumran community and the Jewish group behind the pseudepigraphal literature of Enoch. The contributors demonstrate that the roots of the Qumran community are to be found in the tradition of the Enoch group rather than that of the Jerusalem priesthood.Framed by Gabriele Boccaccini's introduction and James Charlesworth's conclusion, this book examines the hypotheses of five particularly eminent scholars, resulting in an engaging and substantive discussion among forty-seven specialists from nine countries. The exceptional array of essays from leading international scholars in Second Temple Judaism and Christian origins makes Enoch and Qumran Origins a sine qua non for serious students of this period.

The Nicene Creed's powerful summary of Christian faith has stood the test of time, embodying core truths and distinguishing essential Christian teachings from those of lesser importance. As respected thinker and educator David Willis explores the Nicene Creed in this new book, he provides clues for meaningfully interpreting this most ecumenical of church creeds in the twenty-first century.Writing especially for educated laypeople, advanced students, and theological educators, Willis eloquently links the ancient creed to life today. As he points out, faith is constantly taking different shapes within broad boundaries like the creed's perennial truths, and even these truths need to be reinterpreted in each age to keep them intelligible and compelling. Willis admirably achieves this task for our day by elucidating the creed's statement of faith with analogies drawn from such diverse areas as architecture, graphic art, poetry, sculpture, and psychological theory.Those seeking to delve into the creed or to deepen a lifelong encounter with it will be enriched by Willis's reflections.

In 1848, the second year of the new Dutch kolonie in West Michigan's Ottawa County, a much-needed brick manufacturing industry was begun in the rich clay fields between Groningen and Zeeland. From humble beginnings that included digging barefoot in the clay, the company created by Dutch immigrant Jan Hendrik Veneklasen and his son Berend flourished for more than seventy-five years and contributed to a unique architectural legacy.While Veneklasen Brick Co. (later Zeeland Brick Co.) remained in the family, success demanded that it expand beyond the Zeeland area. Strengthened by the purchase of clay pits elsewhere in West Michigan and benefiting from the arrival of railroad lines, Veneklasen eventually became one of the largest brick companies in the state. Veneklasen's bricks were used in commercial, industrial, and public settings, but their residential application has drawn the most attention. Mixing traditional Dutch patterns and constantly changing American housing styles, local brick masons left behind a prime example of nineteenth-century Dutch-American material culture.Drawing from untapped primary sources, Michael Douma's work traces the history of the Veneklasen family, the development of the Veneklasen company, and the impact of its products on local construction. The first-ever book-length analysis of West Michigan Dutch contributions to architecture, Veneklasen Brick also addresses issues of conservation and preservation. The volume contains numerous illustrations, graphs, maps, and a comprehensive listing of nineteenth-century brick houses in southern Ottawa and northern Allegan counties.

Abraham's Promise presents a selection of important writings by noted Jewish philosopher-theologian Michael Wyschogrod, who is widely admired for his singular contributions to Jewish-Christian relations. Including several pieces never published before, this reader aptly captures the broad scope of Wyschogrod's work on Judaism and the Jewish-Christian encounter, collecting seminal essays, articles, and reviews that address such topics as the God of Abraham and the God of philosophy, sin and atonement, Judaism and the land, the Six Day War, Paul on Jews and Gentiles, and the theology of Karl Barth. An introductory essay by editor R. Kendall Soulen sets Wyschogrod's career and writings in context.

Completed shortly before Manning's recent death, this book lays out a month of honest prayers to God -- whom Manning affectionately calls "Abba" -- in a devotional format designed to guide and inspire the reader's own prayers. The morning and evening entries each present a Scripture passage, a select excerpt from Manning's contemporary spiritual classics, and a concluding "Dear Abba" prayer.

This book explores anew the theme of creation in Scripture, tradition, and contemporary theology. David Fergusson defends the classical account of creation out of nothing but gives more sustained attention than the Christian tradition typically has given to the holistic significance of the created world. Offering both doctrinal exposition and apologetic argument, Fergusson discusses creation in relation to the problem of evil and the fall, divine providence, deism, Darwinian evolution, environmental ethics, animal rights, and other matters. Unusually, the book also touches on the topic of extraterrestrial intelligence. Concise and accessible, Fergusson''s Creation will be particularly useful to students and others seeking a well-informed overview of this important subject.

This is the second of three volumes in Oliver O'Donovan's masterful "Ethics as Theology" project. In his first volume -- Self, World, and Time -- O'Donovan discusses Christian ethics as an intellectual discipline in relation to the humanities, especially philosophy, theology, and behavioral studies, and in relation to the Christian gospel.In Finding and Seeking O'Donovan traces the logic of moral thought from self-awareness to decision through the virtues of faith, hope, and love. Blending biblical, historico-theological, and contemporary ideas in its comprehensive survey, this second volume continues O'Donovan's splendid study in ethics as theology and adds significantly to his previous theoretical reflection on Christian ethics.

How are we to proclaim Christ in different cultures? This question was central to a landmark study on worship and culture conducted by the Lutheran World Federation between 1992 and 1999. Much has changed in the years since then: the world today more than ever is a multicultural global village. Worship and Culture revisits that LWF study and publication, shedding new light on the question from recent theological and sociological scholarship to expand and enrich the texts in the original three-volume work. This book includes texts from the main statements that came out of the original project as well as updated essays from some of the original contributors. It also adds new essays, prayers, and hymns to the conversation, inviting readers to consider what the life of the church should look like in today''s hybrid, multicultural world.ContributorsJulio Cezar AdamScott AndersonMark P. BangertThomas F. BestStephen BurnsAnscar J. Chupungco, OSBJoseph A. Donnella IINorman A. HjelmMargaret Mary Kelleher, OSUDirk G. LangeGordon W. LathropAnita MonroMartha Moore-KeishMelinda A. QuivikGail RamshawS. Anita StaufferBenjamin M. StewartGlaucia Vasconcelos WilkeyJoyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS

A discerning study of a slice of modern Indian Christianity and Christian-Hindu encounter This book revisits South Indian Christian communities that were studied in 1959 and written about in Village Christians and Hindu Culture (1968). In 1959 the future of these village congregations was uncertain. Would they grow through conversions or slowly dissolve into the larger Hindu society around them? John Carman and Chilkuri Vasantha Rao's carefully gathered research fifty years later reveals both the decline of many older congregations and the surprising emergence of new Pentecostal and Baptist churches that emphasize the healing power of Christ. Significantly, the new congregations largely cut across caste lines, including both high castes and outcastes (Dalits). Carman and Vasantha Rao pay particular attention to the social, political, and religious environment of these Indian village Christians, including their adaptation of indigenous Hindu practices into their Christian faith and observances.

A longtime friend and student of the late Pope John Paul II, Stanislaw Grygiel in this book reflects on the life and thought of this extraordinary pope, giving new insight into his character and his vision of beauty as the path that leads us to God.More than simply biographical information about John Paul II -- who was Bishop Karol Wojtyla before he became pope -- or a dry academic analysis of his teaching, Discovering the Human Person derives from Grygiel's extensive firsthand interaction with Wojtyla. Grygiel reflects on the importance of Christian personalism, or communion, as the ground of John Paul II's life, particularly in response to the communist environment that surrounded him in Poland. Grygiel also addresses the pope's call for a new evangelization, his understanding of marriage and family, and the relationship of those to a genuine, healthy understanding of nation and state.

All historical work on Paul presupposes a story concerning the composition of his letters -- which ones he actually wrote, how many pieces they might originally have consisted of, when he wrote them, where from, and why. But the answers given to these questions are often derived in dubious ways.In Framing Paul Douglas Campbell reappraises all these issues in rigorous fashion, appealing only to Paul's own epistolary data in order to derive a basic "frame" for the letters on which all subsequent interpretation can be built. Though figuring out the authorship and order of Paul's letters has been thought to be impossible, Campbell's Framing Paul presents a cogent solution to the puzzle. 

The Christian tradition provides a wealth of insight into perennial human questions about the shape of the good life, human happiness, virtue, justice, wealth and poverty, spiritual growth, and much else besides -- and Christian scholars can do great good by bringing that rich tradition into conversation with the broader culture. But what is the nature and purpose of distinctively Christian scholarship, and what does that imply for the life and calling of the Christian scholar? What is it about Christian scholarship that makes it Christian? Ten eminent scholars grapple with such questions in this volume. They offer deep and thought-provoking discussions of the habits and commitments of the Christian scholar, the methodology and pedagogy of Christian scholarship, the role of the Holy Spirit in education, Christian approaches to art and literature, and more. CONTRIBUTORS Jonathan A. Anderson Dariusz M. Brycko Natasha Duquette M. Elizabeth Lewis Hall George Hunsinger Paul K. Moser Alvin Plantinga Craig J. Slane Nicholas Wolterstorff Amos Yong

Radical, comprehensive vision of the kingdom of God in light of the new creationTwentieth-century Dutch missiologist and prolific author J. H. Bavinck was committed to confronting the world with the saving message of Christ. In this first English translation of the Dutch work published in 1946, Bavinck presents a cosmic kingdom vision and champions the coming of the kingdom of Christ as the basic message of the gospel.Bavinck eloquently challenges believers to live as kingdom people as he expresses a uniquely Reformed perspective on the eternal significance of our temporal world. His eschatological vision, which permeates the book, is now more relevant than ever as climate change, resource depletion, financial turmoil, and other issues increasingly threaten our world.With Bert Hielema's skillful translation capturing the beauty and power of Bavinck's original text, Between the Beginning and the End calls all Christians to consider anew the entire scope of the church and Christ's kingdom.

Julia Roberts on the red carpet at the Oscars. Lady Gaga singing "Applause" to worshipful fans at one of her sold-out concerts. And you and me in our Sunday best in the front row at church. What do we have in common?Chances are, says Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, that we all suffer from vainglory -- a keen desire for attention and approval. Although contemporary culture has largely forgotten about vainglory, it was on the original list of seven capital vices and is perhaps more dangerous than ever today.In Vainglory: The Forgotten Vice DeYoung tells the story of this vice, moving from its ancient origins to its modern expressions. She defines vainglory, gives examples from popular culture, explores motivational sources, and discusses other vices associated with it such as hypocrisy and boasting. After exposing the many ways in which vainglory can rear its ugly head, she explores personal spiritual practices that can help us resist it and community practices that can help us handle glory well.