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  Introduction to Philosophy

  Paul D. Spears

  This book focuses on the philosophical, psychological, social, and cultural foundations of Christian school education, emphasizing the biblical and educational principles that are the basis for Christian schools.

  Ch. 1

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  Luther, Protestantism, and Education

  Paul D. Spears

  Since their earliest days, institutions providing a Protestant education have always been respected and sought-after for their rigor and relative freedom from dogma―and despite today’s secularism and plurality, they remain so. This international handbook is the ultimate companion to protestant schooling worldwide. Its 39 chapters form the most comprehensive and wide-ranging treatment of the subject yet available, addressing Protestant education on all six inhabited continents and featuring the perspectives of leading authorities and public figures.

  The contributions cover in detail not only the facts and features of Protestant schooling in sundry nations, but also integrate a range of themes common to them all, themes so vital that they are of central concern to Christians around the world and of whatever denomination. Some of these topics are school choice, globalization, Bible pedagogy and character education, the fine arts, parental involvement, and the rise of Christianity in previously inaccessible locations such as China.

  Ch. 14

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  Africans in Pursuit of a Theological Doctorate : Doctoral Program Design in a Non-Western Context

  Richard L. Starcher

  Within the milieu of African higher theological education there is a great demand for highly educated nationals to staff a growing number of theological colleges and seminaries. Due largely to a dearth of other opportunities, many Africans desiring theological doctorates have undertaken higher studies in Europe and North America. The same pattern is common in other non-Western contexts. However, this practice is perceived as producing certain undesirable 'side effects' (e.g., brain-drain, reintegration difficulties, contextually inappropriate training). This book explores doctoral program design for a non-Western context with a view to attenuating these side effects. It articulates a grounded theory, namely 'Contextual Pragmatism,' that proposes the ideal theological doctoral program for 'black Africa' has practical value in and for the African context while acknowledging the importance of international credibility.

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  Textbooks for theological education in Africa : an annotated bibliography

  Richard L. Starcher

  An annotated bibliography listing over 700 books for teachers, students, and researchers in Africa. A one-of-a-kind exhaustive resource for the church in Africa. Indexed by subject matter and course relevance find just the book you need for what you are studying or teaching.

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  Business As Mission: From Impoverished to Empowered

  Tom Steffen

  "To put it bluntly, business as mission (BAM) is a work in progress. It is a field that needs definition, theological clarity, and missiological focus. Our call for papers for our regional conferences is timely...to make a pivotal contribution in a sea of some confusion and even controversy." (Doug Pennoyer, Dean of SIS, Biola University and President of EMS) This volume will provide some definition and precision while identifying areas that demand further discussion.

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  Business As Usual in the Mission's Enterprise?

  Tom Steffen

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  Encountering Missionary Life and Work: Preparing for Intercultural Ministry

  Tom Steffen

  his new volume in the award-winning Encountering Mission series is for current and future missionaries. It provides practical guidance regarding getting ready for the mission field and the realities of life on the field. The authors are well qualified to write such a manual, each having served as a missionary for more than twenty years and each having taught missions in seminary. The authors begin by examining the contemporary context for missions, including the recognition that the world's mission fields are in constant and often rapid change. They then discuss aspects of preparing oneself for the mission field, beginning with home-front preparations and moving to on-the-field preparations. The final section deals with practical issues and challenges of missionary life.

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  Facilitator Era: Beyond Pioneer Church Multiplication

  Tom Steffen

  Some time ago, Ralph Winter brilliantly identified three eras of modern missions: Era 1: William Carey focused on the coastlands; Era 2: Hudson Taylor focused on the inlands; Era 3: Donald McGavran and Cameron Townsend focused on unreached peoples. With all the fast and furious changes swirling around us today in twenty-first century missions, have we entered a Fourth Era? If so, who are the people primarily involved? How are they selected? How are they trained? How long do they serve? Has the Third Era ministry focus-reaching the unreached-changed? If so, to what? Are there any successful case studies out there? Have McGavran and Townsend passed the baton to a new leaders? If so, to whom? This book seeks to answer these and related questions. Contributors include: Dr. Ben Beckner Dr. Monroe Brewer Dr. Don Finley Mike Griffis Dr. Gary Hipp, MD Jerry Hogshead Kaikou Maisu Judy Manna Kenn Oke Dr. A. Sue Russell Dr. Robert Strauss Peter Swann Bryan Thomas Diane Thomas Dr. Mike Wilson Dr. Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

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  New and Old Horizons in the Orality Movement: Expanding the Firm Foundations

  Tom Steffen

  Orality formed us. Orality forms us. Orality will forever form us. Orality is a central theme of our lives. In this fast-paced world, few Christian workers take the time to look back to learn and build on the lessons of the past. Wise Christian workers, however, do not forge ahead into new horizons without first investigating past horizons. They understand in this complex world there are too many strong shoulders of the past to be overlooked. The dozen practiced researchers contributing to New and Old Horizons in the Orality Movement offer such inquirers wisdom from the past that can boldly and boundlessly improve the future of the modern-day orality movement.

  Tom Steffen is professor emeritus of intercultural studies at the Cook School of Intercultural Studies, Biola University.

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  Passing the Baton (Revised ed.)

  Tom Steffen

  Passing the Baton" not only zeros in on the central task of Christian missions, it does so in a way that is creative and engaging.

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  Reconnecting God's Story to Ministry: Cross-cultural Storytelling at Home and Abroad

  Tom Steffen

  We often think stories are for children. But using the Bible as evidence, we see that God communicated His truth to men and women of all cultures, time, and places by way of many small stories forming one large story. While possessing a rich heritage of storytelling, too many evangelicals have forfeited this vital skill. Tom Steffen's aim is to help readers recapture the most natural, universal, and effective means of evangelism-discipleship that exists―storytelling. This book is not just theory―it provides practical help by identifying the roles and tasks that are necessary to become an effective storyteller in another culture. Steffen offers creative tools and introduces practical ways to increase many of the storytelling skills for evangelism-discipleship. He moves us beyond linear gospel outlines, Western logic and organization, and individual responses to traditional evangelism rituals, to a mode of communication that respects the audience, making it easy for them to grasp what they have heard and to pass it on to others with minimal loss of content. By reconnecting storytelling to ministry, readers will be more comfortable in sharing the gospel, both at home and abroad.

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  Return of Oral Hermeneutics: As Good Today as It Was for the Hebrew Bible and First-Century Christianity

  Tom Steffen

  Have Western exegetes turned an Eastern book into a Western one? Has our fondness for a fixed printed text capable of being analyzed with precision and exactitude blinded us to other hermeneutic possibilities? Does God require all people to be able to analyze grammar to interpret Scripture? Does God assume all people can interpret Scripture through oral means? The authors recognize the effects of centuries of literacy socialization that produced a blind spot in the Western Christian world—the neglect by most in the academies, agencies, and assemblies of the foundational and forceful role orality had on the biblical text and teaching. From the inspired spoken word of the prophets, including Jesus (pre-text), to the elite literate scribes who painstakingly hand-printed the sacred text, to post-text interpretation and teaching, the footprint of orality throughout the entire process is acutely visible to those having the oral-aural influenced eyes of the Mediterranean ancients.Could oral hermeneutics be the “mother of relational theology”? Dr. Steffen is professor emeritus of intercultural studies at Biola University.

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  Worldview-based Storying: The Integration of Symbol, Story, and Ritual in the Orality Movement

  Tom Steffen

  This book is dedicated to the present global generation of Bible storytellers. It will challenge you to learn from the rich history of the Orality Movement, do your cultural homework related to the integration of symbol, story and ritual, and tell the greatest story ever told with cultural and pedagogical clarity so that individual, communal, and national transformation can result, creating generations of like-minded Bible storytellers.

  Dr. Steffen is emeritus professor, Biola University

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  Caring For The Harvest Force

  Tom Steffen and Douglas P. Pennoyer

  This volume continues the EMS Series with selected presentations from the November 2000 annual meeting. Caring for the Harvest Force in the New Millennium presents the theological foundations, challenges, and contexts for caring for those in full-time Christian service.

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  How to Read Theology for All Its Worth : A Guide for Students

  Karin Spiecker Stetina

  Too many Christians avoid reading theology for fear they won't understand it or out of a misconception that it's only meant for the academic elite. Similarly, students in introductory theology classes can feel overwhelmed by the concepts and terminology they encounter.

  Yet theology can be read with enjoyment and discernment. In How to Read Theology for All Its Worth, professor, author, and devoted reader Karin Stetina introduces students to the basic skills of intelligent reading, applied especially to theological works. Anyone who'd like to read theology well, whether a formal student or interested layperson, will benefit from the simple steps Stetina outlines.

  Steps include:

  • Identifying genre
  • Becoming acquainted with the author and the context out of which he or she wrote
  • Determining a thesis and main arguments

  How to Read Theology for All Its Worth will equip readers not only to understand theology but also to insightfully engage authors' ideas. With the basic tools in hand, everyone can read with confidence and enjoy "conversations" with theological works.

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  Atoning Wisdom : The Wisdom of God in the Way of Salvation

  Kyle Strobel

  Ch. 4

  The proceedings of the third annual Los Angeles Theology Conference seek to identify the place of the doctrine of atonement in systematic theology. Locating Atonement: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics intentionally excludes discussion of theories of atonement, typologies of those theories, and contests among various theories. Instead, it undertakes the question: What else is there to do in atonement theology besides rehashing types and theories?

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  Being Holy and The Nature of the Spiritual Disciplines

  Kyle Strobel

  Chapter 6
  

  Know. Be. Live.® is a groundbreaking work that addresses cultural challenges and potential solutions to making disciples in Gen Z. Over the last few years, the literature on Generation Z has grown rapidly. However, there is little that directly addresses the destructive cultural challenges to proactive disciplemaking in this generation. Know. Be. Live.® offers a holistic 360-degree approach to discipleship in a post-Christian era. It combines expert thought on faith and culture to equip Christ-following parents of teenagers, college students, campus ministers, and pastors. Addressing the obstacles to deep discipleship and spiritual formation within Gen Z, Know. Be. Live.® approaches this subject matter from a comprehensive biblical perspective that ties together the intellectual (Know), character (Be), and calling (Live) elements of discipleship. Contributors: Philip Alsup, John Basie, Hunter Baker, Ed and Dana Bort, Stephanie Shackelford, Gene Fant, Nathan Finn, Melissa Pellew, Sean McDowell, J. P. Moreland, Jonathan Morrow, Jacob Shatzer, John Stonestreet, Kyle Strobel, and John W. White III.

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  Being Seen and Being Known : Jonathan Edwards’s Theological Anthropology

  Kyle Strobel

  In a globalized world, networks are key, whether they are networks of people, ideas, or interests. In this volume of essays on the texts and teachings of Jonathan Edwards, contributors from each continent ask questions about how the world of Edwards explains or illuminates the world of today, whether in the area of systematics, missions, historiography, politics, church-planting, or biblical studies. Such diverse discourses enrich the networks of scholarship that the contributors represent, and provide a global snapshot of contemporary research in Edwards studies. These papers were presented in August 2015 at the Jonathan Edwards Congress held at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia, where personal engagement with the topics at hand made the worldwide network of Edwards aficionados and scholars not merely a virtual aspiration but an experience in time and space. This book will not only inform its readers but surprise them as well, as they track the power of eighteenth century theological ideas in the late modern world. ""This is a superb collection of essays, which goes further than any volume on Edwards to date to underscore his truly international reach. Featuring chapters on Edwards' legacies in Britain and North America, Eastern Europe, southern Africa, and the land down under, along with interpretations of Edwards' thought by first-rate scholars from every continent on the globe (except Antarctica, of course), it represents the first fruits of the global Edwards Centers and, more importantly, the up-and-coming scholarship on Edwards by many working outside of Western Europe and North America.

  Ch. 9

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  Beloved dust : drawing close to God by discovering the truth about yourself

  Kyle Strobel

  We were formed from the dust, but we were made for life with God. We often accept less. We make promises and set goals to try and grow, but holiness seems impossible. But the Christian life is not about looking or feeling like a Christian. It’s about abiding in God.

  If communion with God is your goal, self-help strategies and personal resolutions will fail you. But Jesus Christ will not.

  Drawing deeply from Scripture and narrating their own experiences, Pastor Jamin Goggin and theology professor Kyle Strobel wrote this book to be a companion for your journey with Jesus in the truth of yourself – as his beloved dust. This is not weighing tasks and rewards, but is a process of patience, prayer, and openheartedness.

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  Ecumenical Edwards : Jonathan Edwards and the theologians

  Kyle Strobel

  Jonathan Edwards is considered by many to be America’s greatest theologian. Many have lauded him as one of the great theologians in church history. This book brings together major Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant theologians to assess Edwards’s theological acumen. Each chapter places Edwards in conversation with a thinker or a tradition over a specific theological issue.

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  Jonathan Edwards : an introduction to his thought

  Kyle Strobel

  Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) has long been recognized as one of the preeminent thinkers in the early Enlightenment and a major figure in the history of American Christianity. In this accessible one-volume text, leading Edwards experts Oliver Crisp and Kyle Strobel introduce readers to the fascinating and formidable mind of Jonathan Edwards as they survey key theological and philosophical themes in his thought, including his doctrine of the Trinity, his philosophical theology of God and creation, and his understanding of the atonement and salvation. More than two centuries after his death, theologians and historians alike are finding the larger-than-life Edwards more interesting than ever. Crisp and Strobel’s concise yet comprehensive guide will help students of this influential eighteenth-century revivalist preacher to understand why.

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  Jonathan Edwards' A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections"

  Kyle Strobel

  The Oxford Handbook of Reformed Theology looks back to past resources that have informed Reformed theology and surveys present conversations among those engaged in Reformed theology today. First, the volume offers accounts of the major historical contexts of reformed theology, the various relationships (ancient and modern) which it maintains and from which it derives. Recent research has shown the intricate ties between the patristic and medieval heritage of the church and the work of the reformed movement in the sixteenth century. The past century has also witnessed an explosion of reformed theology outside the Western world, prompting a need for attention not only to these global voices but also to the unique (and contingent) history of reformed theology in the West (hence reflecting on its relationship to intellectual developments like scholastic method or the critical approaches of modern biblical studies). Second, the volume assesses some of the classic, representative texts of the reformed tradition, observing also their reception history. The reformed movement is not dominated by a single figure, but it does contain a host of paradigmatic texts that demonstrate the range and vitality of reformed thought on politics, piety, biblical commentary, dogmatic reflection, and social engagement. Third, the volume turns to key doctrines and topics that continue to receive attention by reformed theologians today. Contributors who are themselves making cutting edge contributions to constructive theology today reflect on the state of the question and offer their own proposals regarding a host of doctrinal topics and themes

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  The ecumenical Edwards : Jonathan Edwards and the theologians

  Kyle Strobel

  Jonathan Edwards is considered by many to be America’s greatest theologian. Many have lauded him as one of the great theologians in church history. This book brings together major Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant theologians to assess Edwards’s theological acumen. Each chapter places Edwards in conversation with a thinker or a tradition over a specific theological issue.

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  Theology in the Gaze of the Father: Retrieving Jonathan Edwards’s Trinitarian Aesthetics

  Kyle Strobel

  Ch. 8

  The second annual Los Angeles Theology Conference sought to make constructive progress in the doctrine of the Trinity by highlighting the counter-revolutionary trends in the most recent trinitarian thought, and aligning the trinitarian revival with the ongoing task of retrieving the classical doctrine of the Trinity.

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  Way of the dragon or the way of the lamb : searching for Jesus' path of power in a church that has abandoned it

  Kyle Strobel

  Why do so many rock-star pastors implode under the spotlight? Why do modern-day churches become so entangled in growing their brand that they lose sight of their true purpose? Because, according to Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel, Christians have succumbed to the temptations of power and forgotten Jesus’ seemingly contradictory path to power—first giving it up.

  In The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb, Goggin and Strobel paint a richly biblical vision of power through weakness. They invite readers to join them on an adventure around the world, seeking out great sages of the faith with uncommon wisdom to offer those traveling the path of Christian life. As readers eavesdrop on the authors’ conversations with people such as J. I. Packer, Dallas Willard, Marva Dawn, John Perkins, Jean Vanier, James Houston, and Eugene Peterson, they begin to piece together the new-old reality of following Jesus today. In the end, The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb offers a compelling vision of the way of Jesus that will challenge both individual believers and the church as a whole.