Digital Verbum Edition
Enhance your knowledge of theological topics with these works from Baker Academic. Offering commentary on hot issues in Christian doctrine, this collection provides new perspectives on justification, general revelation, and other subjects in Christian theology. This collection also contains works from highly regarded theologians, such as Matthew Levering and Robert K. Johnston.
With Logos, these resources are made to work for you. Scripture references are tagged, allowing you to view your favorite Bible translations while reading along. Important theological concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other information. Do better Bible study with Logos.
For more theological resources from Baker Academic, be sure to check out the Baker Academic Theological Studies Collection (18 vols.)
Tackling an issue of perennial interest in the Christian academy, Adonis Vidu provides a critical reading of the history of major atonement theories by exploring selected patterns, recurrent concepts, and attempts to discern broader themes. Vidu also offers an in-depth analysis of the legal and political contexts within which these atonement theories arose. The book engages the latest work in atonement theory and serves as a helpful resource for contemporary discussions.
Vidu suggests that the history of atonement thinking can be read as an ongoing conversation with the history of thinking about justice and the law. This is the only book that explores the impact of theories of law and justice on major historical atonement theories. Understanding this relationship yields a better understanding of atonement thinkers by situating them in their intellectual contexts. The book also explores the relevance of the doctrine of divine simplicity for atonement theory.
Students and scholars interested in understanding historic views of the atonement and their relation to theories of law and justice will value this work. It will also work well as a textbook for graduate courses in theology, ethics, and law.
Adonis Vidu has written a learned, thoughtful, and intriguing study of the history of atonement as it relates to concepts of law and justice. Of particular interest in the current context of wider discussions of the doctrine of God is Vidu’s articulate exposition and defense of atonement in relation to divine simplicity. This is a fascinating and significant book that repays careful reading.
—Carl R. Trueman, Paul Woolley Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania
Adonis Vidu does much more than provide a meticulous and perceptive overview of the history of atonement theology. He argues that we understand this history properly only by tracing the medieval interlacing of justice and law and their disentanglement in the modern period. And by linking the doctrine of divine simplicity to God’s agency in the crucifixion, Vidu presents a nuanced plea for the inclusion of the role of punishment in a fully-orbed understanding of the death of Christ.
—Hans Boersma, J. I. Packer Professor of Theology, Regent College, Vancouver; author, Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross
The story of how the Christian doctrine of the atonement developed is both fascinating and important. Too often, however, it is told without proper attention to the importance of various intellectual contexts. In this work, Vidu calls clichés into question and works to show how different models of the atonement are related to varied notions of justice and law in the Western intellectual tradition. It is a work that will open further inquiry, and it will repay careful study.
—Thomas H. McCall, associate professor of biblical and systematic theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Adonis Vidu is associate professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, and is the author of several books, including Theology after Neo-Pragmatism. He previously taught at Emmanuel University and at the University of Bucharest in his home country of Romania.
This reader-friendly primer offers a concise yet thorough overview of the Christian faith. Hans Schwarz, one of the major Lutheran theologians of the last half-century, covers the Christian faith from creation to the final fulfillment of life. He gives his account of the major points of Christian doctrine, always moving from the biblical text to the unfolding of the faith through the centuries to contemporary significance. This brief systematic theology will appeal to professors, students, pastors, and educated lay readers who want a quick but profound and biblically grounded overview of the Christian faith.
Without any reduction of the scholarly acumen of his earlier writings, Hans Schwarz sets out a clear and accessible account of the Christian faith that will surely be of benefit to a wide audience. Drawing especially from the riches of his own Lutheran tradition, Schwarz penetrates to the heart of the gospel and offers an engaging account of what Christian faith is all about. I commend it highly.
—Murray Rae, professor, University of Otago, New Zealand
With skills honed by decades of teaching and writing theology, Hans Schwarz combines admirable clarity with deep learning in this fine summary of Christian doctrine. Deeply evangelical and always in conversation with Luther, Schwarz is careful to include relevant reflections on Scripture, science, and philosophy in each chapter. This up-to-date invitation to begin the wonderful task of thinking God should be helpful to students, teachers, and pastors alike.
—Alan G. Padgett, professor of systematic theology and coordinator for Methodist studies, Luther Seminary
The Christian Faith is a coherent handbook of systematic theology grounded in the biblical narrative and guided by the Reformational insights of Martin Luther. It is ecumenical in scope and evangelical in orientation. Schwarz attends to the historical dimensions of Christian doctrine, engaging other contemporary theologians and entering into apologetic conversation with scientific and philosophical disciplines. The book is reflective of Schwarz’s rich global experience and his wide-ranging theological interests. It will serve as a helpful primer for beginning students of theology and will be a welcome companion for pastors and missionaries seeking to articulate the trinitarian faith with clarity in the midst of the spiritual and intellectual challenges of the twenty-first century.
—John T. Pless, assistant professor of pastoral ministry and missions, Concordia Theological Seminary
Hans Schwarz one of the major Lutheran theologians of the last half-century, is the author or editor of more than fifty books, including a critically acclaimed series of texts in systematic theology. He is professor of systematic theology and contemporary theological issues at the University of Regensburg and previously taught at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Ohio. He is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
What are we to make of those occasional yet illuminating experiences of God’s presence that occur outside both church and Scripture? We may encounter God’s revelatory presence as we experience a beautiful sunset, the birth of a child, or a work of art, music, or literature. While theologians have tended to describe such experiences abstractly as mere traces or echoes, those involved often recognize such moments of transcendence as transformative.
Here senior theologian Robert Johnston explores how Christians should think theologically about God’s wider revelatory presence that is mediated outside the church through creation, conscience, and culture. The book offers a robust, constructive biblical theology of general revelation, rooting its insights in the broader trinitarian work of the Spirit. Drawing in part from the author’s theological engagement with film and the arts, the book helps Christians understand personal moments of experiencing God’s transcendence and accounts for revelatory experiences of those outside the believing community. It also shows how God’s revelatory presence can impact our interaction with nonbelievers and those of other faiths.
From one of the world’s leading scholars on theology and film comes something new and thought provoking: a lucid and insightful exploration of God’s wider presence. Rob Johnston offers the reader an engaging, rich, and thoughtful account of discovering the transcendent in unexpected places. Bringing together historical, biblical, and contemporary examples, this book provides a significant contribution to a wide range of discussions about discerning the divine throughout the world.
—Jolyon Mitchell, professor, University of Edinburgh
Robert Johnston’s reconsideration of general revelation moves the discussion light years beyond the sterile binaries—objective/subjective, propositional/experiential, salvific/damning, and the like—that have debilitated constructive thinking in this arena over the last hundred years. God’s Wider Presence is not an anthropocentric reduction of divine activity but a pneumatological dynamic that transfigures the spaces and times within which all creatures live, move, and have their being. This is a new starting point for twenty-first-century theological reflection on important matters regarding the human experience of and encounter with God.
—Amos Yong, author, The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh; professor of theology and mission, Fuller Theological Seminary
Johnston’s book brokers important, fresh theological conversations. Grounded in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, his argument for a more expansive understanding of revelation will get Christians of many traditions thinking and talking together in new ways: about the arts, about their cultural habits and the significance of those habits, and about their approach to other religious traditions. It deserves a wide readership.
—Clive Marsh, director, Vaughan Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester (UK)
Robert K. Johnston is professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, where he has taught for over twenty years. He is the coeditor of both the Engaging and Exegeting Culture and the Cultural Exegesis series and is the author or coauthor of several books, including Reel Spirituality, Reframing Theology and Film, and Finding God in the Movies.
Today’s church finds itself in a new world, one in which climate change and ecological degradation are front-page news. In the eyes of many, the evangelical community has been slow to take up a call to creation care. How do Christians address this issue in a faithful way?
This evangelically centered but ecumenically informed introduction to ecological theology (ecotheology) explores the global dimensions of creation care, calling Christians to meet contemporary ecological challenges with courage and hope. The book provides a biblical, theological, ecological, and historical rationale for earthcare as well as specific practices to engage both individuals and churches. Drawing from a variety of Christian traditions, the book promotes a spirit of hospitality, civility, honesty, and partnership. It includes a foreword by Bill McKibben and an afterword by Matthew Sleeth.
Introducing Evangelical Ecotheology is a wonderful new addition to the field. Combining scientific data, personal stories, and careful theological analysis, the authors draw readers into the goodness and pain of God’s world and invite them to develop a wholesome response as an act of Christian discipleship. Christians and congregations will learn much and benefit greatly from this book.
—Norman Wirzba, professor of theology and ecology, Duke Divinity School
Introducing Evangelical Ecotheology is an excellent addition to the literature on Christians and creation care. This book provides a biblically rooted and historically informed discussion of important theological and ethical issues, from a distinctly evangelical point of view, with an illuminating discussion of embodied down-to-earth living (to use the title of one of the last chapters). It is thorough, well-organized, and well-written. Moreover, it exhibits wide reading and is chock-full of wisdom. With many poignant stories to match the depth and breadth of its theology, the book makes for pleasurable as well as valuable reading. My thanks to the authors for this fine volume. I pray many will take up and read this book and in so doing be inspired to bear witness to God’s good future of shalom.
—Leonard Sweet, bestselling author, professor, Drew University; chief contributor, Sermons.com
Vital and timely. Meets a clear need. Deepens the church’s witness on behalf of creation. One could use all of these phrases to describe this important book. But even more important are the clarity, conviction, and passionate engagement with the Bible, the church, and their relationship with the earth that Brunner, Butler, and Swoboda bring to this emerging priority for Christians. This volume will equip and empower pastors and lay leaders alike to develop a faithful ecotheology and to put belief into action.
—Fletcher Harper, executive director, GreenFaith
Daniel L. Brunner is professor of Christian history and formation at George Fox Evangelical Seminary where he founded and directs the Christian earthkeeping program.
Jennifer L. Butler is associate minister at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Corvallis, Oregon, and an adjunct instructor in the Christian earthkeeping program at George Fox Evangelical Seminary.
A. J. Swoboda is an adjunct professor of biblical studies, theology, and church history at George Fox Evangelical Seminary. He also teaches at LIFE Pacific College and New Hope Christian College and serves as a pastor.
How do human beings today receive divine revelation? Where and in what ways is it mediated so that all generations can hear the fullness of the gospel? In this volume, distinguished theologian Matthew Levering shows that divine revelation has been truthfully mediated through the church, the gospel, and Scripture so that we can receive it in its fullness today. Levering engages past and present approaches to revelation across a variety of traditions, offering a comprehensive, historical study of all the key figures and perspectives. His thorough analysis results in an alternative approach to prevailing views of the doctrine and points to its significance for the entire church.
Engaging the Doctrine of Revelation possesses all of the qualities that readers have come to expect from the work of one of the liveliest contemporary theologians: wide historical learning, theological discrimination, clarity of thought, and spiritual vigor.
—John Webster, professor of divinity, St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews
Revelation first arrives as our liturgical response to it. By articulating so well this paradox, Matthew Levering undercuts sterile arguments as to the respective weight to be given to revelation or tradition, pure doctrine or cultural mediation in Christian theology. The ‘liturgical turn’ suggests rather that tradition and mediation were strangely there from the very outset. Since God is not just another creature speaking to us but the transcendent Creator of all things and all utterances, he can only be heard through our invocation and replies, if we take these as participations in the Trinitarian Word that belongs to God himself and the Trinitarian Spirit of his own eternal self-interpretation. Levering both articulates and performs in writing this liturgical reality.
—John Milbank, research professor in religion, politics, and ethics and director of the Centre of Theology, University of Nottingham
Matthew Levering’s latest book is an extended argument against the thesis of the ‘ecclesiastical fall’, according to which the pristine revelation offered in Jesus Christ has been distorted by an all-too-human church incapable of bearing it. His trenchant observation is that such a thesis amounts to a rejection of the missions of both the Son and the Holy Spirit. Anyone interested in the issues of revelation, inspiration, ecclesiology, biblical hermeneutics, and Trinitarian theology ought to read this searching, thoroughly researched, and beautifully written study.
—Fr. Robert Barron, Mundelein Seminary, University of St. Mary of the Lake; author, Catholicism and The Priority of Christ
Matthew Levering is the Perry Family Foundation Professor of Theology at Mundelein Seminary, University of Saint Mary of the Lake, in Mundelein, Illinois. He previously taught at the University of Dayton. Levering is the author of numerous books, including The Theology of Augustine and Ezra & Nehemiah in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. He is the coauthor of Holy People, Holy Land. He serves as coeditor of the journals Nova et Vetera and the International Journal of Systematic Theology and has served as chair of the board of the Academy of Catholic Theology since 2007.