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Two Gospels from one : a comprehensive text-critical analysis of the synoptic Gospels
Matthew C. Williams
Two Gospels From One examines the Synoptic Problem by using principles of textual criticism. Widely researched and clearly presented, it promises to be an important contribution to New Testament studies and a major work to be considered by readers interested in the relationship between and origins of the first three Gospels.
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Orienting Virtue: Civic Identity and Orientalism in Britain’s Global Eighteenth Century
Bethany Williamson
What does it mean for a nation and its citizens to be virtuous? The term "virtue" is ubiquitous in eighteenth-century British literature, but its definition is more often assumed than explained. Bringing together two significant threads of eighteenth-century scholarship—one on republican civic identity and the mythic legacy of the freeborn Briton and the other on how England’s global encounters were shaped by orientalist fantasies— Orienting Virtue examines how England’s sense of collective virtue was inflected and informed by Eastern empires.
Bethany Williamson shows how England’s struggle to define and practice national virtue hinged on the difficulty of articulating an absolute concept of moral value amid dynamic global trade networks. As writers framed England’s story of exceptional liberties outside the "rise and fall" narrative they ascribed to other empires, virtue claims encoded anxieties about England’s tenuous position on the global stage, especially in relation to the Ottoman, Mughal, and Far Eastern empires. Tracking valences of virtue across the century’s political crises and diverse literary genres, Williamson demonstrates how writers consistently deployed virtue claims to imagine a "middle way" between conserving ancient ideals and adapting to complex global realities. Orienting Virtue concludes by emphasizing the ongoing urgency, in our own moment, of balancing competing responsibilities and interests as citizens both of nations and of the world.
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Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask About Social Justice
Thaddeus John Williams
God does not suggest, he commands that we do justice.
Social justice is not optional for the Christian. All injustice affects others, so talking about justice that isn't social is like talking about water that isn't wet or a square with no right angles. But the Bible's call to seek justice is not a call to superficial, kneejerk activism. We are not merely commanded to execute justice, but to "truly execute justice." The God who commands us to seek justice is the same God who commands us to "test everything" and "hold fast to what is good."
Drawing from a diverse range of theologians, sociologists, artists, and activists, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth, by Thaddeus Williams, makes the case that we must be discerning if we are to "truly execute justice" as Scripture commands. Not everything called "social justice" today is compatible with a biblical vision of a better world. The Bible offers hopeful and distinctive answers to deep questions of worship, community, salvation, and knowledge that ought to mark a uniquely Christian pursuit of justice. Topics addressed include:
- Racism
- Sexuality
- Socialism
- Culture War
- Abortion
- Tribalism
- Critical Theory
- Identity Politics
Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth also brings in unique voices to talk about their experiences with these various social justice issues, including:
- Michelle-Lee Barnwall
- Suresh Budhaprithi
- Eddie Byun
- Freddie Cardoza
- Becket Cook
- Bella Danusiar
- Monique Duson
- Ojo Okeye
- Edwin Ramirez
- Samuel Sey
- Neil Shenvi
- Walt Sobchak
In Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth, Thaddeus Williams transcends our religious and political tribalism and challenges readers to discover what the Bible and the example of Jesus have to teach us about justice. He presents a compelling vision of justice for all God's image-bearers that offers hopeful answers to life's biggest questions.
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God Reforms Hearts: Rethinking Free Will and the Problem of Evil
Thaddeus John Williams
Must we be free to truly love? Evil is a theological problem for all Christians. When responding to objections that both evil and God can exist, many resort to a "free will defense," where God is not the creator of evil but of human freedom, by which evil is possible. This response is so pervasive that it is just as often assumed as it is defended. But is this answer biblically and philosophically defensible?
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REFLECT: Becoming Yourself by Mirroring the Greatest Person in History
Thaddeus John Williams
What's the most important thing in the universe to you? What, more than anything else, permeates your thought life, pulls your heart strings, and propels your actions? Don't fool yourself. That supreme something-whatever it may be for you-is shaping the person you are becoming, for better or for worse, turning you into someone radiant and full of life, or making you a dim and weightless ghost of yourself. But what if we worshipped Jesus? Not the imaginary Jesus invented by televangelism, consumerism, fundamentalism, mysticism, or some political ism, but the actual Jesus we meet in the New Testament? How can he, unlike any other object of worship, enlarge our intellects, our emotions, our actions, our relationships, our imaginations, our whole selves? Drawing from science, literature, art, theology, history, music, philosophy, pop culture, and more, Thaddeus J. Williams paints a fresh and inspiring vision of how we become most truly ourselves by mirroring the Greatest Person in History.
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A Vindication of Politics: On the Common Good and Human Flourishing
Matthew D. Wright
Is politics strictly a means to an end—something that serves only the interests of individuals and the various associations of civil society such as families and charities? Or is a society’s political common good an end in itself, an essential component of full human flourishing? Responding to recent influential arguments for the instrumentality of the political common good, Matthew D. Wright’s A Vindication of Politics addresses a lacuna in natural law political theory by foregrounding the significance of political culture. Rather than an activity defined by law and government, politics emerges in this account as a cultural enterprise that connects generations and ennobles our common life. The instrumentalist argument, in Wright’s view, does not give a plausible account of, among other things, the value of patriotism—of the way Americans revere the Founders, for instance, or love the Declaration of Independence, or idolize Abraham Lincoln. Such political affections cannot be explained by an instrumental common good. Loyalty to one’s country is not like a commitment to a telephone company. As nasty as politics can be, we hope for more from it than the quid pro quo of a business transaction. To arrive at an adequate theoretical account of why that is, Wright brings historical theory from Aristotle to Burke into conversation with contemporary theorists from John Finnis to Amy Gutmann. In A Vindication of Politics he develops a case for the intrinsic value of politics in a way that underwrites a healthy patriotism—and strongly suggests that the political common good is a critical part of what it means to be fully human. The book offers new insight into the nature of the political common good and human sociability as well as their importance for making sense of the fundamental questions of American constitutional identity, principles, and aspirations.
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How God became king : the forgotten story of the Gospels
Nicholas Thomas Wright
New Testament scholar N.T. Wright reveals how we have been misreading the Gospels for centuries, powerfully restoring the lost central story of the Scripture: that the coronation of God through the acts of Jesus was the climax of human history. Wright fills the gaps that centuries of misdirection have opened up in our collective spiritual story, tracing a narrative from Eden, to Jesus, to today. Wright’s powerful re-reading of the Gospels helps us re-align the focus of our spiritual beliefs, which have for too long been focused on the afterlife. Instead, the forgotten story of the Gospels reveals why we should understand that our real charge is to sustain and cooperating with God's kingdom here and now. Echoing the triumphs of Simply Christian and The Meaning of Jesus, Wright’s How God Became King is required reading for any Christian searching to understand their mission in the world today.
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Expect great things, attempt great things : William Carey and Adoniram Judson, missionary pioneers
Allen L. Yeh
Description: William Carey, often dubbed ""The Father of Modern Missions,"" and Adoniram Judson, America's first intercontinental missionary, were pioneers whose missions overlapped in chronology, geography, and purpose. However, rarely are they both featured in the same volume or compared and contrasted. Here we have unique material by some of the world's leading experts (such as Timothy George and Michael Haykin) on these two giants of missionary history, with perspectives on these men in ways never seen before. Especially relevant to this current age of World Christianity are the perspectives from India and Burma, the lands which received these men for their missionary enterprise.
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Polycentric missiology : twenty first century mission from everyone to everywhere
Allen L. Yeh
The Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference was the most famous missions conference in modern church history. A century later, five conferences on five continents displayed the landscape of global mission at the dawn of the third millennium: Tokyo 2010, Edinburgh 2010, Cape Town 2010, 2010Boston, and CLADE V (San José, 2012). These five events provide a window into the state of world Christianity and contemporary missiology. Missiologist Allen Yeh, the only person to attend all five conferences, chronicles the recent history of world mission through the lenses of these landmark events. He assesses the legacy of Edinburgh 1910 and the development of world Christianity in the following century. Whereas Edinburgh 1910 symbolized Christendom's mission "from the West to the rest," the conferences of 2010-12 demonstrate the new realities of polycentric and polydirectional mission―from everyone to everywhere. Yeh's accounts of the conferences highlight the crucial missiological issues of our era: evangelism, frontier missions, ecumenism, unengaged and post-Christian populations, reconciliation, postmodernities, contextualization, postcolonialism, migration, and more. What emerges is a portrait of a contemporary global Christian mission that encompasses every continent, embodying good news for all nations.
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Routes & radishes : and other things to talk about at the evangelical crossroads
Allen L. Yeh
Self-identifying as “evangelical” is risky business these days. What is Evangelicalism? Is it a historical artifact? A political philosophy? A set of doctrines? A litmus test for genuine faith? Perhaps more important, what will come to mind when future generations hear something described as “evangelical”?The authors of Routes and Radishes approach this issue from various points of influence within evangelical organizations, denominations, and institutions. They believe that the historical distinctive of Evangelicalism is too powerful and too positive to be abandoned. Yet they all desire that the Evangelicalism of the future break away from common pitfalls in the task of loving people toward a vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
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Significance of the California Missions in Californian Theology and Culture
Allen L. Yeh
Part II, Chapter 4
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Performing race, negotiating identity : Asian American professional actors in Hollywood
Nancy Wang Yuen
Chapter 16
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Power women : stories of motherhood, faith & the academy
Nancy Wang Yuen
"The dominant narrative we hear as professor mothers is that motherhood and academia are incompatible."
Two challenging vocations, each filled with complexities and daily ups and downs. Yet more and more women are answering the call to both the academy and motherhood. A growing body of literature addresses parent-professors, but what about the particular needs of Christian women seeking to navigate both callings while living out their faith?
With Power Women, Nancy Wang Yuen and Deshonna Collier-Goubil have curated a unique resource by and for Christian academic mothers. This collection of essays includes the voices of women of different backgrounds, academic disciplines, institutions, and stages of parenting and career. Together contributors provide wisdom, encouragement, and solidarity for women who share a similar vocational journey. Combining research with personal stories, they address topics such as these:
- how parenting and teaching can be mutually enriching
- managing ambition, identity, and time
- addressing misconceptions about motherhood in the academy, church, and society
- navigating gender roles in marriage
- taking maternity leave
- flourishing as an adjunct professor
- mentoring professor moms
- resisting imposter syndrome by finding rest in God
There is no magic formula, but there are many paths to thriving in the call to motherhood and the academy. Christian academic moms will find in this book honest yet uplifting reminders that they are not alone. In addition, administrators, family members, and friends will grow in understanding and appreciation of the power women in their lives.
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Reel inequality : Hollywood actors and racism
Nancy Wang Yuen
Reel Inequality examines the structural barriers minority actors face in Hollywood, while shedding light on how they survive in a racist industry. The book charts how white male gatekeepers dominate Hollywood, breeding a culture of ethnocentric storytelling and casting. Nancy Wang Yuen interviewed nearly a hundred working actors and drew on published interviews with celebrities, such as Viola Davis, Chris Rock, Gina Rodriguez, Oscar Isaac, Lucy Liu, and Ken Jeong, to explore how racial stereotypes categorize and constrain actors. Their stories reveal the day-to-day racism actors of color experience in talent agents’ offices, at auditions, and on sets. Yuen also exposes sexist hiring and programming practices, highlighting the structural inequalities that actors of color, particularly women, continue to face in Hollywood. This book not only conveys the harsh realities of racial inequality in Hollywood, but also provides vital insights from actors who have succeeded on their own terms, whether by sidestepping the system or subverting it from within. Considering how their struggles impact real-world attitudes about race and diversity, Reel Inequality follows actors of color as they suffer, strive, and thrive in Hollywood.
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Without a trace : Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in prime-time television
Nancy Wang Yuen
Chapter 23
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Bible and Immigration: A Critical and Empirical Reassessment
Markus Zehnder
Questions relating to (im)migration are among the most heated topics on both sides of the Atlantic. Western societies have changed dramatically because of large-scale immigration in the last decades. Christians are also engaged in the discussion, attempting to find direction from the biblical texts. Overwhelmingly, persons in leading positions (both in the secular world and in churches and faith-based organizations) support the concept of “welcoming the stranger.” The Bible is seen by them as urging us to open the borders as wide as we can. In the broader population, however, reservations remain. This book, written by a Bible professor who has witnessed mass-migration first-hand, both in Europe and in the U.S., and who has been a migrant himself for over twenty years, attempts to step back and look at the whole of the complex biblical witness, instead of cherry-picking passages that further a specific agenda. It also looks at the salient data on the ground, in the fields of psychology, demography, economy, and security—data that can no longer be ignored when trying to apply the Bible in a responsible way. The book demonstrates the shortcomings of the vast majority of biblical and theological publications on the issue of (im)migration and presents a comprehensive argument for the use of wisdom and caution, and against short-sighted and emotionally driven policies supporting open borders.
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Bible and Money: Economy and Socioeconomic Ethics in the Bible
Markus Zehnder
hat does the Bible say about money? This volume presents the researches of 18 international biblical scholars at Ansgarskolen´s Norwegian Summer Academy for Biblical Studies. Papers include:
- The Prophets on Trade: Did They Consider it a Canaanite Affair?
- Two Categories of Loans in the Old Testament
- Give Willingly and Do Not Expect Anything? A Biblical View on Loans and Interest
- Government and Economy in the Hebrew Bible: Taxes and Related Issues / Markus Zehnder pp. 144-174
- State and Temple Economy in the Levant in the Persian and Hellenistic Periods
- Economics and Poverty: Negotiating the Spectrum of Personal Wealth or Shared Resources
- Proportionate and Sufficient Wealth: Financial Transparency in Paul's Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem
- Engaging the New Testament and the Welfare State
- Divine Plenty, Human Thriftiness: A Canonical Reading of (Un)Limited Resources
This unusual volume is a useful resource for researchers, but also a coursebook to be used in the classroom and a comprehensive introduction to biblical economic ethics in general.
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