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Helps readers understand the imaging of the church as a woman and mother in its beginnings and the implications for the contemporary church.
In the era of 'post-Christendom', how can church as a sociological reality be switched on to the destructive dangers, yet constructive possibilities, of 'power' flowing in and around its community? Attuned to the current distrust of church power, this book creatively works out responses that could turn painful censure into a re-visioning of church power relations, helped by neglected critical studies. The approach exposes a complexity to power, and filters that insight into a theology of church. The book shows how lessons are available for a religious community from post-modern philosopher Michel Foucault and from recent feminism. The topic of power has universal importance in the study of religion, though the response to analysis and critique in this book is drawn specifically from Christian sources. Kearsley concludes with an exploration for a future renovated, self-critical, authentic and growing community, sensitive to power while remaining in line with classic Christianity.
Is authority reserved for those with a specific calling to leadership? Who holds power in the church? Does authority have limits? Are teaching and preaching the most important practices of authority? Our understanding--and misunderstanding--of authority has significant implications for our individual and corporate flourishing. In A Theology of Authority, Christa McKirland challenges our assumptions about authority, power, and leadership. With a focus on low-church traditions, she examines authority through the lens of analytic philosophy and biblical theology to offer a theological definition of authority. She also tackles questions related to divine and human authority, Scripture, and practices typically related to ordination: preaching, teaching, serving communion, baptizing, church discipline, and vision casting. A Theology of Authority expands our understanding of authority, recognizing the Spirit's enablement of each member to fulfill their calling to spiritual maturity. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of authority and power and how we relate to one another as siblings in Christ.
When it comes to talking about the activity of directing the church, the language of leadership and leaders is increasingly popular. Yet what is leadership – and how might theological narratives better resource the discourse and practice of leadership in ecclesial contexts? In identifying and critiquing managerialism as a dominant narrative of leadership in the Western church, this book calls for an alternative approach founded on the concept of friendship. Engaging with the wider field of leadership studies, the book establishes an understanding of leadership activity and brings it into conversation with an incarnational ecclesiology. The result is a prophetic reimagining of ecclesial lea...
The teaching that God is one was paramount in Old Testament theology, since the introduction of the New Testament the concept of one God continued and was expanded by and through Jesus in Second Temple Monotheism. With this in mind, the Bible does not teach the concept of the Trinitarian doctrine. The Apostles, including the New Testament Church, were pure monotheistic and oneness believers knowing and understanding that God is one and not one substance and three persons. Therefore, this book has addressed a variety of issues and provided a body of literature and authority supporting the position that God is numerically one and that the Trinitarian doctrine is a human construct and product that is unscriptural and unbiblical, which evolved over the centuries being fueled by man made creeds and ideologies. It is not surprising then that even Trinitarians struggle to define the Trinitarian doctrine suggesting it is a mystical revelation, when in fact, others have argued that it is incomprehensible.
Early Christian theologian Novatian’s (c. 200-258) work begins with the topic of the unique and supreme Father. The categories he uses to describe the Father include both traditions from Christian sources and articulations of negative theology, especially as seen in Middle Platonism. After establishing the limitations set by philosophical and theological language, Daniel Lloyd turns to the positive categories Novatian chooses for describing the Father, highlighting Novatian’s emphasis on revelation, evaluating the parameters of the uniqueness of the Father, and showing that his theology presents the Father as distinct in attributes such as incomprehensibility, eternality, and inability t...
In The Christology of Karl Barth and Matta al-Miskin, Hani Hanna argues that two of the most renowned theologians of the twentieth century, Karl Barth and Matta al-Miskin (Matthew the Poor), redefine the reality of God and humanity christologically in similar ways. Both theologians achieve this redefinition using historical rubrics that are closer to Scripture than the traditional metaphysical categories borrowed from Greek philosophy. Rooted in their respective Reformed and Coptic Orthodox traditions, their works can be placed in a dialogue that takes into account modern concerns about history, revelation, and human agency. By providing an in-depth analysis of both men’s christologies, Hanna also finds that Barth and Matta’s christological view of reality has implications for interfaith and intercultural dialogues today.