The perfect combination of scholarship and accessible presentation for Christians who desire to know how to better understand and defend their faith.Bestselling authors Ed Hindson and Ergun Caner have brought together a who's who of apologetic experts—including Lee Strobel, Norm Geisler, Josh McDowell, and John Ankerberg—to produce a resource that's both easy to understand and comprehensive in scope.Every entry provides a biblical perspective and mentions the key essentials that believers need to know about a wide variety of apologetic concerns, including...issues concerning God, Christ, and the Biblescientific and historical controversiesethical matters (genetic engineering, homosexuality, ecology, feminism)a Christian response to world religions and cultsa Christian response to the major worldviews and philosophies of our dayIncluded with each entry are practical applications for approaching or defending the issue at hand, along with recommendations for additional reading on the subject.

    The Penseés is a collection of philosohical fragments, notes and essays in which Pascal explores the contradictions of human nature in pscyhological, social, metaphysical and - above all - theological terms. Mankind emerges from Pascal's analysis as a wretched and desolate creature within an impersonal universe, but who can be transformed through faith in God's grace.

    Pastor Mike Slaughter even says that these can stand in the way of the church's mission of social and personal holiness. But most people do not adopt a theology on purpose, mostly they merely breathe in the prevailing cultural air. The theology "de jour" seems to be Calvinist, with its emphasis on "the elect" and "other worldly salvation." In fact, there is so much Calvinism saturating the culture, that some do not even know there is an alternative way of thinking about their faith. They don't know where to go to find a viable option; they don't even know the key words to search Google. So people are left thinking like Calvinists but living with a desire to change the world, offering grace and hope to hurting people in mission and ministry--loving the least, the last, and the lost. In other words, they are living like Wesleyans. This book shows what Calvinist and Wesleyans actually believe about human responsibility, salvation, the universality of God's grace, holy living through service, and the benefits of small group accountability--and how that connects to how people can live. Calvinists and Wesleyans are different, and by knowing the difference, people will not only see the other benefits of Wesleyan theology but will be inspired to learn more. By knowing who they are as faithful people of God, they will be motivated to reach out in mission with renewed vigor. And they won't be obstacles to grace and holiness, but they can be better disciples and advocates for Christ through service in this world.

    Here he examines the attributes, acts, and names of God in connection with a full spectrum of relevant theological, ethical, spiritual truths.

    Using everyday language to explain difficult theological concepts, Teresa of Avila compares the contemplative life to a castle with seven chambers. Tracing the passage of the soul through each successive chamber, she draws a powerful picture of the path toward spiritual perfection. It is the most sublime and mature of Teresa's works, offering profound and inspiring reflections on such subjects as self-knowledge, humility, detachment, and suffering.One of the most celebrated works on mystical theology in existence, as timely today as when St. Teresa of Avila wrote it centuries ago, this is a treasury of unforgettable maxims on self-knowledge and fulfillment.

    However, despite the recent surge of scholarship related to his life and theology, few books offer an accessible introduction to his understanding of the Christian life. In the latest addition to the Theologians on the Christian Life series, readers are invited to explore Edwards's vision of what it means to be a Christian. Whether it's Edwards's understanding of love, Scripture, the soul, or the natural world, Dane Ortlund shows how the concept of beauty serves as the integrating motif underlying every aspect of his thinking. Clear, concise, and engaging, this book will help readers embrace the great eighteenth-century pastor's definition of authentic Christianity: the enjoyment and reflection of the beauty of God.

    Through these 'showings', Christ's sufferings were revealed to her with extraordinary intensity, but she also received assurance of God's unwavering love for man and his infinite capacity for forgiveness. Written in a vigorous English vernacular, the Revelations are one of the most original works of medieval mysticism and have had a lasting influence on Christian thought. This edition of the Revelations contains both the short text, which is mainly an account of the 'showings' themselves and Julian's initial interpretation of their meaning, and the long text, completed some twenty years later, which moves from vision to a daringly speculative theology. Elizabeth Spearing's translation preserves Julian's directness of expression and the rich complexity of her thought. An introduction, notes and appendices help to place the works in context for modern readers.

    If, as the apostle Paul says, salvation is by grace and the law cannot save, what relevance does the law have for Christians today?By revisiting the Marrow Controversy—a famous but largely forgotten eighteenth-century debate related to the proper relationship between God's grace and our works—Sinclair B. Ferguson sheds light on this central issue and why it still matters today. In doing so, he explains how our understanding of the relationship between law and gospel determines our approach to evangelism, our pursuit of sanctification, and even our understanding of God himself.Ferguson shows us that the antidote to the poison of legalism on the one hand and antinomianism on the other is one and the same: the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ, in whom we are simultaneously justified by faith, freed for good works, and assured of salvation.

    Introductions and bibliographies are generous and up to date. In the textual apparatus, existing notes have been revised and expanded, and well over 200 new notes have been added. This handsome and handy one-volume, thin-paper edition will be an essential resource for students and scholars and a joy to book lovers.

    Any theology that is indifferent to the theme of liberation is not Christian theology."With the publication of his two early works, Black Theology & Black Power (1969) and A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), James Cone emerged as one of the most creative and provocative theological voices in North America. These books, which offered a searing indictment of white theology and society, introduced a radical reappraisal of the Christian message for our time.Here, combining the visions of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., Cone radically reappraises Christianity from the perspective of the oppressed black community in North America. Forty years later after its first publication, his work retains its original power, enhanced now by reflections on the evolution of his own thinking and of black theology and on the needs of the present moment.Offers a radical reappraisal of Christianity from the perspective of an oppressed Black North American community.

    Of particular interest is their attempt to show how twentieth-century theology has moved back and forth between two basic concepts: God's immanence and God's transcendence. Their survey profiles such towering figures in contemporary theology as Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, Jurgen Moltmann and Wolfhart Pannenberg. It critiques significant movements like neo-orthodoxy, process theology, liberation theology and theology of hope. And it assesses recent developments in feminist theology, black theology, new Catholic theology, narrative theology and evangelical theology. An indispensable handbook for anybody interested in today's theological landscape.

    Working closely together, Ravi Zacharias and Managing Editors Jill and Kevin Rische (daughter of Dr. Martin) have updated and augmented the work with new material. This book will continue as a crucial tool in countercult ministry and in evangelism for years to come. Among cults and religions included are: Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, New Age Cults, the Unification Church, Baha'i Faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and more.

    With magisterial learning and the elan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan's story into an audacious exploration of Christianity's shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike.

    The remarkable discovery recently of a considerable number of letters and sermons by Augustine has thrown fresh light on the first and last decades of his experience as a bishop. These circumstantial texts have led Peter Brown to reconsider some of his judgments on Augustine, both as the author of the Confessions and as the elderly bishop preaching and writing in the last years of Roman rule in north Africa. Brown's reflections on the significance of these exciting new documents are contained in two chapters of a substantial Epilogue to his biography (the text of which is unaltered). He also reviews the changes in scholarship about Augustine since the 1960s. A personal as well as a scholarly fascination infuse the book-length epilogue and notes that Brown has added to his acclaimed portrait of the bishop of Hippo.

    It may seem unlikely that any new arguments or insights could be raised, but the twentieth century managed to produce two brilliant men with two diametrically opposed views about the question of God: Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. They never had an actual meeting, but in The Question of God, their arguments are placed side by side for the very first time. For more than twenty-five years, Armand Nicholi has taught a course at Harvard that compares the philosophical arguments of both men. In The Question of God, Dr. Nicholi presents the writings and letters of Lewis and Freud, allowing them to "speak" for themselves on the subject of belief and disbelief. Both men considered the problem of pain and suffering, the nature of love and sex, and the ultimate meaning of life and death -- and each of them thought carefully about the alternatives to their positions. The inspiration for the PBS series of the same name, The Question of God does not presuppose which man -- Freud the devout atheist or Lewis the atheist-turned-believer -- is correct in his views. Rather, readers are urged to join Nicholi and his students and decide for themselves which path to follow.