Vulnerable Communion

Vulnerable Communion
Author: Thomas E. Reynolds
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2008-04-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441202633

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As parents of a son with disabilities, Thomas E. Reynolds and his wife know what it's like to be misunderstood by a church community. In Vulnerable Communion, Reynolds draws upon that personal experience and a diverse body of literature to empower churches and individuals to foster deeper hospitality toward persons with disabilities. Reynolds argues that the Christian story is one of strength coming from weakness, of wholeness emerging from brokenness, and of power in vulnerability. He offers valuable biblical, theological, and pastoral tools to understand and welcome those with disabilities. Vulnerable Communion will be a useful resource for any student, theologian, church leader, or lay person seeking to discover the power of God revealed through weakness.

The People of God's Presence

The People of God's Presence
Author: Terry L. Cross
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493417967

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In an age when the church is sometimes viewed as irrelevant and inauthentic, leading Pentecostal theologian Terry Cross calls the people of God to a radical change of structure and mission based on theological principles. Cross, whose work is respected by scholars from across the ecumenical landscape, offers an introduction to ecclesiology that demonstrates how Pentecostals can contribute to and learn from the church catholic. A forthcoming volume by the author, Serving the People of God's Presence, will focus on the role of leadership in the church.

Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil

Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil
Author: Safaruk Chowdhury
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2021-04-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 164903055X

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A rigorous study of the problem of evil in Islamic theology Like their Jewish and Christian co-religionists, Muslims have grappled with how God, who is perfectly good, compassionate, merciful, powerful, and wise permits intense and profuse evil and suffering in the world. At its core, Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil explores four different problems of evil: human disability, animal suffering, evolutionary natural selection, and Hell. Each study argues in favor of a particular kind of explanation or justification (theodicy) for the respective evil. Safaruk Chowdhury unpacks the notion of evil and its conceptualization within the mainstream Sunni theological tradition, and the various ways in which theologians and philosophers within that tradition have advanced different types of theodicies. He not only builds on previous works on the topic, but also looks at kinds of theodicies previously unexplored within Islamic theology, such as an evolutionary theodicy. Distinguished by its application of an analytic-theology approach to the subject and drawing on insights from works of both medieval Muslim theologians and philosophers and contemporary philosophers of religion, this novel and highly systematic study will appeal to students and scholars, not only of theology but of philosophy as well.

Experiments in Love

Experiments in Love
Author: Emily Ralph Servant
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2021-03-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725260069

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Could it be that the stories we tell in our churches weaken our efforts to be congregations who take risks in mission for the sake of love? In this thought-provoking book, Emily Ralph Servant suggests that the work of today's leaders is to explore new stories, listen to new voices, and open ourselves up to the Spirit's work of transformation. Experiments in Love engages in a three-way dialogue with feminist and liberation theologians, the social and behavioral sciences, and the Anabaptist tradition. Out of this vibrant conversation emerges the story of a God who takes the risk of being radically present to a vulnerable world. Because of God's courageous presence with us, we can also take the risk of being vulnerably present to others as God invites us all to participate in God's community of life, love, and flourishing.

Health, Healing and the Church's Mission

Health, Healing and the Church's Mission
Author: Willard M. Swartley
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2012-08-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830863303

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Does the Christian community have the resources to develop a coherent response to today?s health care challenges? In a comprehensive survey covering the full scope of the Bible and three millennia of Christian belief and practice, Willard Swartley fleshes out the central place of health care in the church?s mission.

When Christ's Body Is Broken

When Christ's Body Is Broken
Author: Leanna K. Fuller
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2016-03-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 149820337X

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When Christ's Body Is Broken tells the stories of two congregations in conflict. Although these churches had very different problems, they faced similar struggles: to articulate a faithful response to their concerns and to cope with the discord that threatened to tear their communities apart. Pastoral theologian Leanna K. Fuller shares these stories as a way of exploring the sources and dynamics of conflict in congregations. She argues that at the heart of such conflict lies anxiety triggered by encounters with difference. Bringing together resources from pastoral theology, psychodynamic theory, and social psychology, Fuller offers a theological reframing of conflict through categories of diversity, vulnerability, and hospitality--categories that, she argues, can encourage human beings to sit with the anxiety stirred by communal life and remain connected across differences. This reframing provides fertile ground out of which Fuller imagines concrete practices designed for conflicted communities and their leaders.

Colin Gunton’s Trinitarian Theology of Culture

Colin Gunton’s Trinitarian Theology of Culture
Author: Andrew Picard
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2024-06-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567712303

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Whilst upholding some of the criticisms of Colin Gunton's work, this incisive book argues that there is a Hauptbriefe in Gunton reception that assumes his early classic works, The One, the Three and the Many and The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (1st ed), are definitive of his project and fail to engage adequately with the progressions in Gunton's later thought. Instead, this book offers a fresh reading of Gunton by giving greater prominence to his later writings, which are centred in the mediation of the Son and the Spirit in creation. Andrew Picard argues that Gunton's trinitarian theology of culture emerges from his later trinitarian theology of mediation, creation, Christology, pneumatology, and ecclesiology. Exploring these doctrinal foci enables an understanding of Gunton's account of faithful human culture as embodied worship; a living sacrifice of praise which contributes to the divine redemption and perfection of creation. It is the church's particular calling to embody such praise through its visible life in community. The study concludes by intersecting Gunton's theology with the social sciences to critique ableism and consider the politics of the church's belonging in community.

Kinship in the Household of God

Kinship in the Household of God
Author: Cynthia Tam
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2021-10-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725274434

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This unique volume contributes a profound-autism perspective to the ongoing discussion of belonging in the church. By taking readers into two church communities, the author explores the issues of belonging from those least welcomed by the church and consider what the church should do differently. Adopting a “we” approach, she emphasizes the unity of different members in Christ. As one body in Christ, all believers share Christ’s sonship and become children of God. The household concept invites readers to reconceptualize Christian relationships as covenantal kinship. The kinship relationship is established by God’s covenantal commitment fulfilled in Christ. With or without autism, any person who obeys God’s summons is incorporated into Christ’s body by the Spirit to become God’s child. Believers are thus siblings to one another. Viewing each person this way enables us to see beyond human differences and welcome one another as God’s gifts and indispensable members of the community.

Rhythms of Faithfulness

Rhythms of Faithfulness
Author: Andy Goodliff
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2018-10-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532633505

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This collection of essays by British Baptists honors the work of John Colwell amongst the Baptist community, recognizing in particular the contribution he has made to Christian doctrine and ethics and more recently his involvement in the formation of The Order for Baptist Ministry (OBM). The book explores what we are doing in morning prayer and what it is to allow the seasons and festivals of the Christian year to shape our lives.

The Disabled God Revisited

The Disabled God Revisited
Author: Lisa D. Powell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2023-05-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567694356

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Lisa D. Powell strengthens and amplifies the claim that God is disabled, made by Nancy Eiesland in her ground breaking book The Disabled God (1994). She offers an alternative understanding of the doctrine of God and the Trinity, resulting in a God who is not autonomous and utterly independent. According to this view, God's triune identity is established in God's decision for covenant, and thus creation is a requirement for the fulfillment of God's nature - not only is the Son always anticipating full embodiment and human nature, but more specifically is eternally anticipating an impaired body. Powell argues that God is not only interdependent within the immanent Trinity, but God experiences real dependency, risk and vulnerability from God's “original” self-determination. Powell revisits Eiesland's claim about Christ's resurrected body and her conclusions about eschatological embodiment, arguing that it is the able-body that does not persist eschatologically, but all humanity journeys toward ever more transparency, vulnerability and interdependency as the Body of Christ.