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In this fully expanded and updated new edition, leading theologian Alister E. McGrath brings together key theological readings to provide a concise and balanced introduction to the Christian faith. Readings are drawn from a broad theological spectrum and includes both historical and contemporary, mainstream and cutting-edge approaches.
Once in a generation, a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read or heard - a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Breathtaking in ambition, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith.
Missionary, theologian, and religious genius, Paul is one of the most powerful human personalities in the history of the Church. E.P. Sanders, an influential Pauline scholar, analyzes the fundamental beliefs and vigorous contradictions in Paul's thought, discovering a philosophy that is less of a monolithic system than the apostle's convictions would seem to suggest. This volume offers an incisive summation of Paul's career, as well as his role in the development of early Christianity.
This lively and accessible introduction to the social, moral, and cultural foundations of law takes a broad scope - spanning philosophy, law, politics, and economics, and discussing a range of topics including women's rights, racism, the environment, and recent international issues such as the war in Iraq and the treatment of terror suspects. Revealing the intriguing and challenging nature of legal philosophy with clarity and enthusiasm, Raymond Wacks explores the notion of law and its role in our lives.
Full of sensitive pastoral advice and shot through with arresting and illuminating theological insights, Rowan Williams’ new book explores the meaning and practice of four essential components of the Christian life: baptism, Bible, Eucharist and prayer. This book is an invitation to everyone to think through the essentials of the faith and how to live it, making it an ideal gift for anyone at the start of their spiritual journey or thinking about confirmation.
Whether taken as a book of faith or a cultural artifact, the New Testament is among the most significant writings the world has ever known, its web of meaning relied upon by virtually every major writer in the last 2,000 years. Yet the New Testament is not only one of Western civilization’s most believed books, but also one of its most widely disputed, often maligned, and least clearly understood, with a vast number of people unaware of how it was written and transmitted.
In this fully expanded and updated new edition, leading theologian Alister E. McGrath brings together key theological readings to provide a concise and balanced introduction to the Christian faith. Readings are drawn from a broad theological spectrum and includes both historical and contemporary, mainstream and cutting-edge approaches.
Once in a generation, a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read or heard - a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Breathtaking in ambition, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith.
Missionary, theologian, and religious genius, Paul is one of the most powerful human personalities in the history of the Church. E.P. Sanders, an influential Pauline scholar, analyzes the fundamental beliefs and vigorous contradictions in Paul's thought, discovering a philosophy that is less of a monolithic system than the apostle's convictions would seem to suggest. This volume offers an incisive summation of Paul's career, as well as his role in the development of early Christianity.
This lively and accessible introduction to the social, moral, and cultural foundations of law takes a broad scope - spanning philosophy, law, politics, and economics, and discussing a range of topics including women's rights, racism, the environment, and recent international issues such as the war in Iraq and the treatment of terror suspects. Revealing the intriguing and challenging nature of legal philosophy with clarity and enthusiasm, Raymond Wacks explores the notion of law and its role in our lives.
Full of sensitive pastoral advice and shot through with arresting and illuminating theological insights, Rowan Williams’ new book explores the meaning and practice of four essential components of the Christian life: baptism, Bible, Eucharist and prayer. This book is an invitation to everyone to think through the essentials of the faith and how to live it, making it an ideal gift for anyone at the start of their spiritual journey or thinking about confirmation.
Whether taken as a book of faith or a cultural artifact, the New Testament is among the most significant writings the world has ever known, its web of meaning relied upon by virtually every major writer in the last 2,000 years. Yet the New Testament is not only one of Western civilization’s most believed books, but also one of its most widely disputed, often maligned, and least clearly understood, with a vast number of people unaware of how it was written and transmitted.
Simon Critchley's Very Short Introduction shows that Continental philosophy encompasses a distinct set of philosophical traditions and practices, with a compelling range of problems all too often ignored by the analytic tradition. He discusses the ideas and approaches of philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida, and introduces key concepts such as existentialism, nihilism, and phenomenology by explaining their place in the Continental tradition.
A great deal of the world's history is the history of empires. Indeed it could be said that all history is colonial history, if one takes a broad enough definition and goes far enough back. Stephen Howe interprets the meaning of the idea of "empire" through the ages, disentangling the multiple uses and abuses of the labels "empire" and "colonialism", etc., and examines the aftermath of imperialism on the contemporary world.
New York pastor and acclaimed author Timothy Keller is widely known and respected for his compelling preaching, described by The New York Times as what has 'helped turn Dr. Keller...into the pastor many call Manhattan's leading evangelist'. In this book he shares his wisdom on communicating the Christian faith from the pulpit as well as from the coffee shop.
In Marx: A Very Short Introduction, Peter Singer identifies the central vision that unifies Marx's thought, enabling us to grasp Marx's views as a whole. He sees him as a philosopher primarily concerned with human freedom, rather than as an economist or a social scientist. In plain English, he explains alienation, historical materialism, the economic theory of Capital, and Marx's ideas of communism, and concludes with an assessment of Marx's legacy.
Since his retirement as Archbishop of Canterbury and his return to academic life (Master of Magdalene College Cambridge), Rowan Williams has demonstrated a massive new surge of intellectual energy. In this new audiobook, he turns his attention to St Augustine. St Augustine not only shaped the development of Western theology, he also made a major contribution to political theory (The City of God) and, through his Confessions, to the understanding of human psychology.
In the good old days, magic was powerful, unregulated by government, and even the largest spell could be woven without filling in magic release form B1-7g.Then the magic started fading away.Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for soothsayers and sorcerers. But work is drying up. Drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and even magic carpets are reduced to pizza delivery.So it's a surprise when the visions start.
This audiobook offers a concise and original introduction to the whole of the theological discipline. Writing with a focus on Christianity, David Ford provides a trenchant and balanced discussion of the study of faith and religion. He describes the development of the field of theology, and explores such issues as knowledge, community, worship, salvation, God, prayer, and evil. Ford also weaves the idea of the quest for wisdom into the entire fabric of his discussion, and concludes with a look ahead to the theology of the next century. Theology: A Very Short Introduction tackles the questions raised by and about religion in a thought-provoking and engaging manner.
i found it a little patronising at times as an intermediate but it doesn't hurt to go over the basics!!
"Theology deals with questions of meaning, truth, beauty, and practice raised in relation to religions and pursued through a range of academic disciplines."
--David F. Ford, Theology: A Very Short Introduction
David Ford's Very Short Introduction (VSI #9) to Theology is my sixth selection of Oxford's Very Short Introduction series. I liked it enough. Not much new, but I enjoyed a couple highlights. I really enjoyed the discussion of religion's place in the modern age with our multiple overwhelming. The idea of God as an overwhelming wasn't exactly revelatory, but it also was new and expansive, so perhaps there was a bit of revelation going on.
As a theologian Ford seems like a collector. A categorizer. He would have been just as happy, I think to have worked in the Smithsonian labeling and putting caterpillar pupal casings into multiple, thin boxes, arranged from 1 to 5. His scaling of theology was certainly useful as an introduction, but it almost became predictable that in each chapter he would present a scale of 1 to 5, and ignore the edges and focus on 2-4, the center three. Always.
The basic framework of the book:
I. Describing the Field
II. Theological Explorations
III. Skills, Disciplines, and Methods
Anyway, as a short introduction the other critique was Ford's focus on Christian theology (especially dominant in Part II). I get that is a Western theologian teaching at Cambridge, so his perspective on theology was going to rely heavily on Christian beliefs given his background and his studies. However, the book would probably have been better titled 'Christian Theology: A Very Short Introduction Utilizing Scales from 1 to 5, but focusing only on 2-4'
13 of 17 people found this review helpful
Ford’s short theology harnesses an interesting combination of academic rigor and activist fervor and he whips up just enough tension in his implied “what does the future hold?” that the last chapter left me wanting more.
This is a comprehensive survey of theology over the centuries and leading up to the present day. For a lay reader (like myself), it may seem tedious in parts where it explains how theology has been done in the past.But Ford sets out the practical implications of all the major concepts in Christian History, and in doing so, acknowledges the good, the bad and the ugly. The relevance of this to us today is that it opens the way for much broader discussions about God across different belief systems or lack there of. It sets the stage for future conversations among faith communities of all kinds with each other and with all those that are not in a faith community, but who are members of the community all the same.
The book poses more questions than answers, but that is alright, because it asks relevant questions and focuses on issues that we in the 21st century must address. Any discussions about community must be open to being local (on the street where we live), global (international) and in between.
Ford acknowledges that Christianity is most fruitful when it is lived out in practice, not simply sold as an ideology or part of a social clique. He talks about the changing perceptions of God and how that changes how Christians view themselves and the church in the world.
Ford comprehensively covers a spectrum of world views that can account for the views of everyone on earth in different combinations.
I think that what inspires me most about this book is that it covers the history of Christian theology and then makes Christian thought truly contemporary by placing it in amongst other systems of meaning and belief, acknowledging the value other systems bring to the world. But rather than stopping there, he points out that Christianity is more than a belief system that you can agree with or refute. It is also a lifestyle practice and a mindset.
I believe Ford’s question to his readers is not
“How do we make the world Christian?”
but rather
“What is a Christian response to the world? irrespective of how our beliefs, social status, ethnicity, creed, political opinions and affiliations differ from those we meet?
Or
“How do we respond (optimally) as humans to other humans?, given that Christianity’s founder, Jesus Christ, was human.
It is good to learn and remember where we have been so we can reconcile with all our shortcomings before we embark on tomorrow with a deeper appreciation and understanding of our world. Ford’s short introduction helps us do that.
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
A devoted Christian
What was most disappointing about David F. Ford’s story?
It engaged in a great deal of gobbledygook! Intellectualized nonsense.
What didn’t you like about Robert Blumenfeld’s performance?
Pretentious reading, and a bit over-bearing.
Any additional comments?
Not to my liking