A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in which Edwards was reared—a frontier civilization at the center of a conflict between Native Americans, French Catholics, and English Protestants. Drawing on newly available sources, Marsden demonstrates how these cultural and religious battles shaped Edwards’s life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwards’s life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture.Meticulously researched and beautifully composed, this biography offers a compelling portrait of an eminent American.

    I think he will be a most interesting tutor to have.Interesting? Yes, he's certainly that, said the man, who I later learned was J. R. R. Tolkien. You'll never get to the bottom of him.Over the next twenty-nine years, author George Sayer's first impression about C. S. Lewis proved true. He was interesting; but he was more than just that. He was a devout Christian, gifted literary scholar, best-selling author, and brilliant apologist. Sayer draws from a variety of sources, including his close friendship with Lewis and the million-word diary of Lewis's brother, to paint a portrait of the man whose friends knew him as Jack.Offering glimpses into Lewis's extraordinary relationships and experiences, Jack details the great scholar's life at the Kilns; days at Magdalen College; meetings with the Inklings; marriage to Joy Davidman Gresham; and the creative process that produced such world-famous works as the classic Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, and The Screwtape Letters.This book is an intimate account of the man who helped--and through his works, continues to help--generations hear and understand the heart of Christianity.

    His words are still frequently quoted in devotions today and his key themes retain a striking contemporary relevance--what is the place of the Church in the world? What is the relation between nature and grace? In Augustine of Hippo, the late Henry Chadwick--a renowned authority on Augustine--describes with clarity and warmth the intellectual development of this key Father of the Church. In his characteristically rigorous yet sympathetic style, Chadwick traces Augustine's intellectual journey from schoolboy and student to Bishop and champion of Christendom in a period of intense political upheaval, providing valuable insight into the progression of Augustine's ideas. With a foreword reflecting on Chadwick's distinctive approach to Augustine by Peter Brown, and a further reading list on Augustine compiled by Gillian Clark, this volume is both an essential assessment of Augustine and a final tribute to one of the great church historians of the twentieth century.

    According to Leonard Verduin, the American formula of a society in which no religion is designated as the right religion, is the result of pioneering done by the "stepchildren" of the Reformation. To them, rather than to the Reformers, do we owe the concept of separation of church and state. Taking the several terms of opprobrium that the Reformers hurled at these stepchildren, Verduin gives a penetrating historical analysis of each and shows how each term sets in focus an important phase of the master struggle, the struggle regarding the delineation of the church.

    The common denominator in all of this is a persistent undermining of the authority of Scripture in our lives. Grudem's conclusion is that we must choose either evangelical feminism or biblical truth. We can't have it both ways!

    In this introduction to biblical interpretation, Craig Carter evaluates the problems of post-Enlightenment hermeneutics and offers an alternative approach: exegesis in harmony with the Great Tradition. Carter argues for the validity of patristic christological exegesis, showing that we must recover the Nicene theological tradition as the context for contemporary exegesis, and seeks to root both the nature and interpretation of Scripture firmly in trinitarian orthodoxy.

    – Matthew 20:27 You cannot have Christ if you will not serve Him. If you take Christ, you must take Him in all His qualities. You must not simply take Him as a Friend, but you must also take Him as your Master. If you are to become His disciple, you must also become His servant. God-forbid that anyone fights against that truth. It is certainly one of our greatest delights on earth to serve our Lord, and this is to be our joyful vocation even in heaven itself: His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face (Revelation 22:3-4). Charles H. Spurgeon originally wrote this book for members of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. Spurgeon's heartfelt writing style makes this book one that today still encourages believers to move into Christian action. He emphasizes simply moving forward, using the talents and resources you already have at your disposal, for the Lord's service and your own eternal reward. The concepts presented are easy to understand and straight-forward, if only you are ready to lay down your life to follow Christ. Table of Contents Ch. 1: The Necessity of Following Christ Ch. 2: How to Go Ch. 3: The Help of the Holy Spirit Ch. 4: Only Christ Ch. 5: Great Faith and Great Works Ch. 6: Being Faithful with the Talents He Already Gave Us Ch. 7: The Joy of the Lord's Harvest Ch. 8: The Body Works Together Ch. 9: Merely a Servant Ch. 10: With God Nothing is Impossible Ch. 11: We Must Bear Fruit Ch. 12: Solely for His Glory Ch. 13: Fire and A Hammer Ch. 14: Beware of Foxes Ch. 15: Good Things Take Time Ch. 16: The Urgency of Today Ch. 17: Open Your Mouth Ch. 18: God's Limitless Providence Ch. 19: Our Meager Loaves in Christ’s Hands Original Title: We Endeavor About the Author Charles Haddon (C. H.) Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a British Baptist preacher. He started preaching at age 17 and quickly became famous. He is still known as the “Prince of Preachers” and frequently had more than 10,000 people present to hear him preach at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. His sermons were printed in newspapers, translated into many languages, and published in many books.

    Herbert experimented brilliantly with a remarkable variety of forms, from hymns and sonnets to "pattern poems", the shapes of which reveal their subjects. Such technical agility never seems ostentatious, however, for precision of language and expression of genuine feeling were his primary concerns. Herbert is one of the finest religious poets in any language, though even secular readers respond to his quiet intensity and exuberant inventiveness. The poems he made achieve a perfection of form and feeling, a luminosity and a metaphysical grandeur unexcelled in the history of English writing.Though long overshadowed by Donne and Milton, Herbert has come to be one of the most admired of the metaphysical poets. In this new edition of Herbert's works, the distinguished scholar and translator Ann Pasternak Slater shows through detailed textual notes, a reordering of the poems, and an extensive introduction just how great a writer Herbert is.

    S. Lewis have influenced countless Christians over the course of many decades, offering readers intellectually satisfying answers to life's biggest questions and challenging them to walk in faith and obedience. Mining popular titles such as Mere Christianity and the Chronicles of Narnia, as well as lesser-known works such as Till We Have Faces, The Great Divorce, and the space trilogy, professor Joe Rigney reveals the undercurrents of Lewis's insights that have shaped how his readers view spirituality, sin, and sanctification. Exploring key themes that run throughout Lewis's diverse literary corpus, Rigney offers readers a deeper understanding of how Lewis's fascinating insights on the Christian life can lead them to a deeper awareness of God's presence and work in their own lives.

    It's a situation that's fraught both for Christians and our wider society, where the moral certainties that were the foundation of our institutions and laws are no longer held by the majority.At this point of crisis for faith, God is Good for You shows us why Christianity is so vital for our personal and social well-being, and how modern Christians have never worked so hard to make the world a better place at a time when their faith has never been less valued. It carries a vital torch for Christianity in a way that's closely argued, warmly human, good humoured yet passionate, and, above all, convincing.

    In this book Pastor Chuck teaches the call to the ministry, church government, the rapture of the church and the priority of studying the Word of God.

    Yet his theological views are complex and presume acquaintance with technical philosophical language. Now Timothy Renick has produced an attractive and accessible account of Aquinas's life and thought that will make his views clear to nonspecialists. The topics dealt with include God, angels, evil, metaphysics, morality, sex, war, abortion, and politics. Illustrations are interspersed throughout the text and humorously illuminate key points providing an engaging introduction to an all-important theologian.Written by experts but designed for the novice, the Armchair series provides accurate, concise, and witty overviews of some of the most profound moments and theologians in Christian history. These books are essential supplements for first-time encounters with primary texts, lucid refreshers for scholars and clergy, and enjoyable reads for the theologically curious.

    Watson was one of the most concise, racy, illustrative, and suggestive of those eminent divines who made the Puritan age the Augustan period of evangelical literature. There is a happy union of sound doctrine, heart-searching experience and practical wisdom throughout all his works, and his Body of Divinity is, beyond all the rest, useful to the student and the minister.

    Yet this doctrine is under assault today as never before, both from outside and and inside the church. In manifold ways, both blatant and subtle, the idea is being put forth that the Bible is inadequate for the needs of modern man. Such suggestions represent an attack on the very foundations of the Christian faith. In this book, several leading Reformed pastors and scholars, including Joel Beeke, Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Ray Lanning, John MacArthur, R. C. Sproul, Derek W. H. Thomas, and James White, unpack the meaning of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura ("Scripture alone"). They also explain where the attacks on the Bible are coming from and show how those who accept the Bible as God's inspired Word should respond. Sola Scriptura: The Protestant Position on the Bible is a treasure trove of information and a comfort to those who grieve to see the twenty-first-century church wandering away from the safe harbor of the Bible.

    Hughes chronicles the history of Churches of Christ in America from their inception in the early nineteenth century to the 1990s, taking full account of the complexity of their origins, the mainstream of their heritage for almost two hundred years, and their voices of protest and dissent, especially in the twentieth century. From The Critics "Hughes...here provides the definitive history of the Churches of Christ from their beginnings in the Stone-Campbell movement of the early 19th century through the split with the Disciples of Christ at the turn of the century and all the way into the 1990s. Central to this richly detailed and highly readable narrative is Hughes's assertion that this religious movement has evolved from a 19th-century sect into a 20th-century denomination." - Choice "Because of Hughes's elegant writing and his awareness of the social history surrounding the developing denomination, this study transcends mere denominational history and should be read as cultural history. It should remain the standard volume on the subject for years to come." - Publishers Weekly "Hughes provides a clear, balanced account of an American religious movement that has heretofore received insufficient scholarly attention." - Journal of American History "An excellent denominational history of Churches of Christ.... Richard T. Hughes, who admirably balances an empathy born of his lifelong membership in the denomination with the standards of a professional historian, labored on this book for a decade and a half, and the result is a study both thoroughly researched and clearly written." - American Historical Review "Hughes is the foremost interpreter today ofthe Churches of Christ, as this book illustrates.... Well written and meticulously documented, this book could serve as the definitive history of this movement for a generation." - Religious Studies Review