Books in the Current Issues in Theology series

This book is the first thoroughly Reformed version of kenotic Christology. It has the virtue of overcoming from within the logical aporia created by the Chalcedonian Definition without abandoning that Definition.

In this book, Edwin van Driel analyzes contemporary Pauline exegesis and its implications for Protestant theology. Over the last several decades, scholars have offered fresh interpretations of the apostle, including the New Perspective on and the apocalyptic reading of Paul. Van Driel juxtaposes these proposals with traditional Protestant understandings of Paul and argues that the crucial difference between these two readings lies not in how one understands isolated Pauline notions but in different assumed narrative substructures of the apostle's writings. He explores how these new exegetical proposals deepen, broaden, enrich, and challenge traditional Protestant theological paradigms, as well as how they are situated alongside current contextual conversations on theological anthropology, social imagination, and the church's mission. Van Driel's volume opens up new avenues for interdisciplinary exploration and cooperation between biblical scholarship and theology.

Some Christians are anxious and uncomfortable about gender diversity and transition. Sometimes, they understand these issues as a rejection of God's intention for creation. Gender diversity has also been assumed to entail self-deception, mental ill-health, and dysphoria. Yet, humans are inherently transformative creatures with a vocation to shape their own worlds and traditions. Transformative creaturely theology recognizes the capacity of gender to shape humans even as we also question it. In this book, Susannah Cornwall reframes the issues of gender diversity and transition in constructive Christian theological terms. Resisting deficit-based discourses, she presents gender diversity in a way that is positive and non-oppositional. Her volume explores questions of the licit limits of technological interventions for human bodies, how gender diversity maps onto understandings of health, and the ethics of disclosure of gender diversity. It also brings these topics into critical conversation with constructive Christian theologies of creation, theological anthropology, Christology, and eschatology.

Unites eschatologically charged biblical Christology with metaphysical and dogmatic Thomistic Christology. 'Eschatology' describes not simply the final judgment, but also the inauguration of the kingdom of God by the Messiah, who mission included fulfilling God's covenants, restoring God's people, and renewing God's Temple.

This book examines Augustine and Spinoza, as well as today's theologians and biblical scholars, and explores the difference it makes to give explicit focus to the place of the theological reader. It will be of interest to students and scholars of theological and religious studies disciplines, as well as to some in Christian ministry.

This is a critical exploration of the theology of providence in the history of the church. Particular attention is devoted to the practical contexts of providentialism in politics, science and spirituality in the modern era. While critical of traditional formulations and uses, the volume aims to offer a chastened but constructive account.

Young offers a systematic theology with contemporary coherence, a method that engages in conversation with the fathers of the church and explores how their teachings can be applied today, despite the differences in our intellectual and ecclesial environments. The book covers key topics including Creation, Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology and Mariology.

Places John Calvin in conversation with theologians such as Pascal, Kierkegaard, Barth, Ezra the Scribe and Julian of Norwich to examine our place in the immensity of the universe, our love of enemies, God's love for the Jews and our contemplation of the love and wrath of God.

Drawing on recent work in theology and philosophy of language, Hector develops an alternative account of language and its relation to God, demonstrating that one need not choose between fitting God into a metaphysical framework, on the one hand, and keeping God at a distance from language, on the other.

The theology of the Eucharist has long been the subject of heated debate; particularly since the Reformation. In this book, George Hunsinger explores ways in which Christians might resolve their differences in this area. He tackles three issues dividing the churches about the Eucharist: real presence, Eucharistic sacrifice, and ministry.

The doctrine of the Incarnation lies at the heart of Christianity. But the idea that 'God was in Christ' has become a much-debated topic in modern theology. Oliver Crisp addresses six key issues in the Incarnation defending a robust version of the doctrine, in keeping with classical Christology.

Who would the Saviour have to be, what would the Saviour have to do to rescue human beings from the meaning-destroying experiences of their lives such as permanent pain or sadistic abuse? This book offers a systematic Christology that is at once biblical and philosophical, focusing on Christ as horror-defeater.

Are humans composed of a body and a nonmaterial mind or soul, or are we purely physical beings? In this clear and concise book, Nancey Murphy argues for a physicalist account, but one that does not diminish traditional views of humans as rational, moral, and capable of relating to God.

This 2003 book is a loud reaffirmation of the triune God at the heart of a scripture-based Christianity, but it is written with intellectual rigour by a theologian who understands the currents of modern secular thought, and is able to work from them towards a constructive position on biblical authority.

Leading political theologian Oliver O'Donovan takes a fresh look at some traditional moral arguments about war. Christians differ widely on this issue. The book re-examines questions of contemporary urgency, including the use of biological and nuclear weapons, military intervention, economic sanctions, war-crimes trials, and the role of the UN.

Through the intensely intimate relationship that arises between God and humans in the incarnation of the Word in Christ, God gives us the gift of God's own life. This simple claim provides the basis for Kathryn Tanner's powerful study of the centrality of Jesus Christ for all Christian thought and life: if the divine and the human are united in Christ, then Jesus can be seen as key to the pattern that organizes the whole, even while God's ways remain beyond our grasp. Drawing on the history of Christian thought to develop an innovative Christ-centered theology, this book sheds fresh light on major theological issues such as the imago dei, the relationship between nature and grace, the Trinity's implications for human community, and the Spirit's manner of working in human lives. Originally delivered as Warfield Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary, it offers a creative and compelling contribution to contemporary theology.