Books in the Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies series

This book offers a critical evaluation of the prospects and boundaries of an updated metaphor of the Body of Christ, especially in its cosmic dimension. The body motif in particular contains starting points for current body discourses of gender-sensitive and ecological theologies, especially in their mutual overlaps.

A prolific author and thinker, Stanley J Grenz was a respected and influential figure. This work examines the main traits of postmodern thought that would seem to directly challenge how evangelical theology is traditionally done. It presents an examination of the seminal influences on Grenz.

The anonymous theologian known as Pseudo-Dionysius, who was responsible for arranging the angelic hierarchy into nine orders, had a significant influence on mediaeval European mysticism. This book places him in his religious and political context in 6th century Syria, and uncovers the hidden agenda which lies behind his writings.

Explores the role of altered states of consciousness in the communication of social and emotional energies, both on a societal level and between individual persons. Drawing from an original reading of Durkheimian social theorists and Jungian psychology, this work applies this analysis to tantric Buddhist ritual and biographical material.

Outlines a model for incorporating Nietzschean thought within the structures of a wholly traditional Christological anthropology. This book culminates in a doctrine of reconciliation which is given urgency and coherence through such reinvigoration of traditional accounts using Nietzschean thought.

Headed by an international editorial advisory board of acclaimed scholars spanning the breadth of religious studies, theology and biblical studies, this open-ended monograph series presents cutting- edge research from both established and new authors in the field.

A writer of essays and sermons, Hauerwas is a maverick, more of a preacher than an academic, but his belief in differentiating between sanctification and justification sets him apart from many thinkers in the field of Christian liberation theology apologetics.

What is the nature and function of the Pentecostal/Charismatic gift of speaking in tongues? Drawing on detailed observations and interviews with people who speak in tongues, as well as survey data, Cartledge presents explanations on the meaning of this gift for participants and their churches.

How is God involved with the Bible? And how does God's involvement with the generation of Holy Scripture and its use in the life of the Christian church figure into the human work of Scripture interpretation? This book seeks to address this question. It is eclipsed by the terminal consideration of human realities.

Analyzes the writings of Karl Rahner, Karl Barth, and Vedanta Deshika to disclose how each construes 'piety' and 'responsibility' as integral to each other. This book explores the unity in ecumenical and interreligious frameworks, showing how these authors privilege theology as practice, enactment, or simply as ethical.

Despite the nature worship in India, its natural resources are under heavy pressure with its growing economy and exploding population. Does nature worship inspire Hindus to act in an environmentally conscious way? This book explores the above questions with three communities, the Swadhyaya movement, the Bishnoi, and the Bhil communities.

What is sacrifice? For many people today the word has negative overtones, suggesting loss, or death, or violence. But in religions, ancient and modern, the word is linked primarily to joyous feasting which puts people in touch with the deepest realities. John Dunnill's study brings together insights from social anthropology, biblical studies.

T F Torrance's vision of theosis (deification/divinization) is explored through his doctrine of creation and anthropology, his characterization of the incarnation, his accounts of reconciliation and union with Christ, and his theology of church and sacraments. This book presents a critique of the theology of Torrance to focus on theosis.

Anselm's "Proslogion" has sparked controversy from the time it was written (c 1077) to the present day. This title goes back to basics, to the Latin text of the "Proslogion" with an original parallel English translation, tracing the twists and turns of this controversy.

Advances our understanding of the so-called New Age phenomenon by analysing accounts of insiders' religious experience and orientations. This approach is brought to bear not only on the study of written documents relating to New Age and its putative antecedents, but on the analysis of in-depth interviews with thirty-five spiritual actors.

Emphasizes the integral connections between imagination, creativity, and spirituality and their role in healing. This work highlights the work of a neglected yet important psychoanalyst, Marion Milner - a painter and undeclared mystic - expanding her work on creativity, mysticism, and mental health.

In our post 9/11 world where there is a growing religious fundamentalism, and when both exclusion and easy tolerance are inadequate options, this book offers an alternative arguing that Pentecostalism has the potential to be a peaceful harbinger of plurality. It is suitable for students, pastors, teachers, and theologians.

Comparing Averroes' and Hegel's positions on the relation between philosophy and religion, this book explores the relation between faith and reason in a medieval Islamic and a modern Christian context. Through an in-depth analysis of Averroes' and Hegel's views on philosophical and religious language and method.

Rorty and Lyotard argue that any claim to know God is necessarily tyrannical. This book suggests that our knowedge of God and love of the Other are so intimately connected that we cannot have one without the other. It also proposes that an effective theological response to postmodernity must address knowledge and ethics in an integrated fashion.

A revered instructor of the eremitic monks of Nitria, Sketis and Kellia, Evagrius Ponticus is a fascinating yet enigmatic figure in the history of fourth-century mystical thought. This title offers an historical and theological re-evaluation of the teaching of Evagrius that brings to bear evidence from the Greek and Syriac Evagriana.

Explores the construction of Christian identity in fourth and fifth centuries through inventing, fabricating and sharpening binary oppositions. Discussing the relations and interaction between pagan and Christian cultures, this book examines how the Christian argumentation against pagans was intertwined with self-perception and self-affirmation.

Being divine seems to entail being omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, but the New Testament portrays Jesus as having human properties. It seems logically impossible that any single individual could possess such mutually exclusive sets of properties.

This book advances that history by exploring stories, images and discourses across a worldwide range of geographical, cultural and confessional contexts. Its twelve authors enrich our understanding of the significance of the contextual method and produce a new range of original ways of doing theology in contemporary situations.

This book demonstrates how discussions of Political Theology have been a constant feature throughout philosophical modernity and that they continue to impact contemporary political debates.

Explores the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, tracing their development and their variety. This book shows how these movements of the Holy Spirit, both outside the mainline churches and as renewal currents within the churches, can be understood as mutually challenging and as complementary.

Examines the presuppositions that underlie authority in the five largest Churches in England - the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church and the Baptist Union. This book explores the contributions of Scripture, Roman Legal Theory, and Greek Philosophy.

Explores the recurrent tension between scholarly approaches to the translation and interpretation of the Bible, and the authority of the Church and the place of the Bible in the life of the Church.

Develops an account of the sphere of human moral action in sustained dialogue with Jurgen Moltmann. Examining God's role as promise-giver, particularly in the Christian understanding of resurrection, this work describes the occupancy of both history and space in moral terms.