Publisher: Mercer University Press
Product Code: P474
ISBN: 9780881464627
Product Format: Paperback
Price: $30.00
In recent decades, many moral philosophers have begun to think more carefully about the significance of our inveterate story-telling habits for moral reflection. For some time those who promoted narrative’s central role for ethics on a variety of levels seemed to be commanding the field; but more recently skeptics of narrative’s relevance have begun to mount a vigorous resistance. Some of these struggles have played out on the terrain of Kierkegaard studies, and this book seeks to move the battle lines forward, both with respect to the significance of narrative more generally and to its place in Kierkegaard’s authorship.
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Publisher: Mercer University Press
Product Code: P475
ISBN: 9780881464634
Product Format: Paperback
Price: $30.00
Kierkegaard argued that Christianity is a lived religion, not a set of doctrines to be cognitively affirmed. This means theology’s proper focus is reflection on revelation within the God-human relationship, and human existence—always in process and shaped by different communities, relationships, and contexts—is significant to theological construction. As Christian knowledge is a relationship that cannot be communicated directly, theology is never concluded and cannot adequately function within totalizing systems.
The writings of seventeenth-century Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, provide an exemplary direction for contemporary theologies mindful of this need for indirect communication. Her writings show a respect of others’ cognitive freedom and their differing contexts and perspectives. Utilizing the religious work of this woman from Mexico’s colonial past, Powell builds a theological case for the inclusion of literary genres in the theological discipline, a move that resists western philosophy’s dominance of form and opens the theological canon.
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Publisher: Mercer University Press
Product Code: P479
ISBN: 9780881464689
Product Format: Paperback
Price: $30.00
As the Twenty-First century muddles along, perhaps the phrase “Can I get a witness?” will sharpen our thinking about the current state of religion in American culture, particularly for Protestants. Indeed, the permanent transition that characterizes American religious life offers an opportunity to revisit the word “witness” and its meaning for the future.
The materials in this volume survey issues in American religious communities developed through academic research, classroom teaching, sermons, and years of working with ministerial students. A final section is a collection of representative columns written for Associated Baptist Press, addressing questions in American religio-cultural life, past, and present.
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Product Code: H884
ISBN: 9780881464771
Product Format: Hardback
Price: $29.00
Frank Lambert tackles the central claims of the Religious Right "historians" who insist that America was conceived as a "Christian State," that modern-day "liberals" and "secularists" have distorted and/or ignored the place of religion in American history, and that the phrase "the separation of church and state" does not appear in any of the founding documents and is, therefore, a myth created by the Left. He discusses what separates "bad" history from "good" history, and concludes that the self-styled "historians" of the Religious Right create a "useful past" that enlists the nation's founders on behalf of present-day conservative religious and political causes.
The result exposes the Religious Right "history" as fabrications and half-truths. In fact, one of the foundational principles of the Constitution is that of separation as the key to safeguarding freedom: separation of powers, separation of federal and state governments, and separation of church and state.
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Product Code: P488
ISBN: 9780881464863
Product Format: Paperback
Price: $35.00
Scholarship in the area of Chinese Bible translation history has been devoted primarily to the production of the UNION VERSION. This book will examine a significant, yet much overlooked Chinese Bible translation project produced by William Dean (1807–1895), an American Baptist missionary to the Chinese people in Siam and China.
This study utilizes extensive primary sources in both the English and Chinese language from the American Baptist Historical Society Archives and the Bible Society Library at the Cambridge University Library.
Published jointly with the Acadia Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies.
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Product Code: P489
ISBN: 9780881464870
Product Format: Paperback
Price: $30.00
Most environmental theologians focus their efforts on inspiring a love for the natural world. They seek out metaphors and images from the world’s scriptures to create an ethical revolution so that people will begin to passionately care for the earth. The problem with this approach is that most people already appreciate nature. However, the values that direct their lives at work and as consumers are more important to them. They are more likely to derive their sense of meaning and articulate their goals using the symbols and methodologies of economics.
This book brings together insights from three fields: economics, ecology, and theology in order to construct a more healthy and productive picture of human wellbeing. Economic ideas have a theological history that needs to be addressed if we are to begin healing the world.
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Product Code: H889
ISBN: 9780881464986
Price: $50.00
Volume 7: Words of Grace is the last volume of letters rounding out Anne Dutton's correspondence as a significant spiritual writer and encourager of revival and growth in holiness.
Particularly important is the precious treasure of her seventeen letters sent to the Rev. George Whitefield and his friends and acquaintances in 1745 to encourage his work and ministry in England and in the colonies, as well as his orphanage in Bethesda. Also included are two additional 1745 letters—one on the being and working of sin and the other on the duty and privilege of a believer—sent to Whitefield's Society at the Tabernacle in London.
Three collections of Dutton's letters—Volumes I (1740), IV (1746), and VIII (1750)—on spiritual subjects addressed to relations and friends also appear in this volume. These letters show her to be a spiritual director, guide, and voice of holiness in evangelical revival in England in the eighteenth century.
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Product Code: H890
ISBN: 9780881465006
Price: $35.00
This study of church discipline cases describes a system of subjection with obligations for all--men, women, parents, children, masters, and servants. Although many historians have mistaken this for "oppression," most Southerners accepted the idea of "subjection," regarding it as a divinely ordained system for their mutual governance and benefit.
Complete with a map and statistical tables, this book argues that church discipline bound everyone together in mutual subjection to a shared code of conduct rather than empowering white men exclusively with a position of authority over others.
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Product Code: P499
ISBN: 9780881465174
Price: $15.00
Surviving the Stained-Glass Jungle is a compelling and positive look at the parish ministry through the eyes of a veteran pastor of more than fifty-three years. The book directly confronts the issues of burnout, conflict, stress, and social concerns. It gives strategy and practical help in navigating through these difficult currents. Self addresses the usual themes of preaching, administration, and pastoral care, but also gives practical help with the issues of the pastor's own mental health and self-care. This material is written for parish leaders of all mainline denominations and will become a standard for the practice of ministry. The general theme of the book is that the church is worth the effort. The target audience is seminarians and veteran pastors alike in order to encourage them in the task. Laymen would also benefit significantly by reading this book, gaining a better understanding of the ministry. Self has a national reputation as a gifted preacher, pastor, author, lecturer, motivational speaker for corporate America, and innovator in church growth.
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Publisher: Mercer University Press
Product Code: H906
ISBN: 9780881465402
Price: $35.00
The essays in BETWEEN FETTERS AND FREEDOM explore a number of issues bearing on post-Civil War African American Baptists. With limited resources at their disposal, precisely what did freedom mean? Would African American Baptist organizations be recognized as legitimate by white peer organizations? What sort of internal stress would African American organizations face as they gained traction in the black community, and what sort of stress would a rapidly changing culture place on those organizations and the people who made them what they were? Through it all, preachers and lay people alike wondered how their voices would be heard above the din.
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Publisher: Mercer University Press
Product Code: P516
ISBN: 9780881465433
Price: $30.00
The ethics debate about the use of enhancements in elite sport is becoming increasingly complex. Yet we are not asking what relevance sports’ religious dimension has to this debate.Through an examination of literature on the relationship between sport, religion and spirituality, hope emerges as a compelling feature of sport and a significant part of what makes sport meaningful. Trothen explores four main locations of hope in sport: winning, losing, and anticipation; star athletes; perfect moments; and relational embodiment, and examines how these locations intersect with the enhancement debate.
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Product Code: H909
ISBN: 9780881465457
Product Format: Book
Price: $35.00
Houston Hartsfield Holloway (1844–1917) was born enslaved in upcountry Georgia, taught himself to read and write, learned the blacksmith trade, was emancipated by Union victory in 1865, and served as an ordained traveling preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church from 1870 to 1883. He devoted the remainder of his life to his family, his blacksmith trade, and his local church. Holloway’s 24,000-word autobiography offers a rare working-class perspective on life during some of the most transformative years of US history.
Footnotes provide supplementary biographical information for nearly two hundred relatives, neighbors, friends, and coworkers named in Holloway’s narrative. An appendix includes nineteen extended biographical sketches. The book is illustrated with photographs and three detailed maps of Holloway’s home neighborhoods and preaching assignments.
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