Books in the T&T Clark Cornerstones series

In Sanctify them in the Truth Stanley Hauerwas provides an overview of the development of theology and ethics. He considers how the two disciplines interrelate, discusses the nature of sin, how any account of sin requires a more determinative account of moral law, the nature of sanctification, the body as a subject for Christian holiness, and the relationship between sanctification and truthfulness. The volume ends with sermons - Hauerwas emphasizes the freedom the sermons create, as they remind us that the words we use are not our words. The inclusion of sermons also underlines Hauerwas' point that the truth of the gospel cannot be discovered apart from its embodiment in specific communities of faith. The Christian life, he argues, is not about being in possession of "the truth," defined as a set of timeless and universal principles of belief and action. Rather, it is about learning and living the life of truthfulness toward God and one another.For this Cornerstones edition Hauerwas has provided a new preface that places the work in the present debate and brings this remarkable work to a new audience.

Originally published in German in 1938, this highly acclaimed volume presents more than one thousand selections from the various extant writings of Origen, the great Alexandrian theologian. Robert J. Daly, S.J., has re-translated the majority of these texts from the original Greek and Latin, added the scriptural references in the translated texts and an index, and included updated bibliographical information.This volume comprises thoughts of one of the greatest of ancient theologians as seen through the eyes of an almost equally prolific successor in the same central Christian enterprise. The book remains a great resource for anyone interested in patristic theology, early Christian mysticism, and early interpretation of Scripture. This Cornerstones edition has a new introduction written by Robert J. Daly, S.J.

In Word and Church readers are treated to chapters that examine the field of Christian Dogmatics, presenting a clear trajectory in the work of John Webster, that moves from interpretation of 20th-century Protestant theology to doctrinal construction. Webster addresses the modern traditions of Christian divinity, and the topics which come to the fore in making sense of these traditions: the nature of the Bible and its interpretation; the place of Jesus Christ in modern theological culture; and the basis and shape of human agency. As a whole the book boldly indicates how dilemmas or inadequacies in modern treatments of these topics might be clarified by more direct employment of language about God and the gospel.The classic chapters present the work of one of the world''s leading contemporary theologians at his creative best. For this Cornerstones edition the author has provided a new preface in which he contextualizes the work within his current theology.

A ground-breaking study in the formation of early Christian identity, by one of the world's leading scholars.In Neither Jew Nor Greek, Judith Lieu explores the formation and shaping of early Christian identity within Judaism and within the wider Graeco-Roman world in the period before 200 C.E. Lieu particularly examines the way that literary texts presented early Christianity. She combines this with interdisciplinary historical investigation and interaction with scholarship on Judaism in late Antiquity and on the Graeco-Roman world.The result is a highly significant contribution to four of the key questions in current New Testament scholarship: how did early Christian identity come to be formed? How should we best describe and understand the processes by which the Christian movement became separate from its Jewish origins? Was there anything special or different about the way women entered Judaism and early Christianity? How did martyrdom contribute to the construction of early Christian identity? The chapters in this volume have become classics in the study of the New Testament and for this Cornerstones edition Lieu provides a new introduction placing them within the academic debate as it is now.

Written by one of the twentieth-century's foremost modern Trinitarian theologians The Christian Doctrine of God remains a classic ground work for scholars and students alike.In the book Thomas F. Torrance offers a detailed study of the most profound article of the Christian faith - the Holy Trinity. Torrance adopts a holistic approach when examining the inter-relatedness of the three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and their dynamic Communion with the Being and Nature of God. Combining immense academic range with his characteristically fresh theological perspectives, Torrance builds a significant theological bridge between ancient and modern, as well as between the Roman and Protestant theology; he engages deeply with the Church Fathers and discusses the ontological nature of God. Here Torrance conveys a simple message - the doctrine of the Trinity is the doctrine of God.This Cornerstones edition includes a new introduction written by Professor Paul D. Molnar, in which Molnar sets Torrance's classic work in its modern context and considers how it continues to influence the way we think about the Trinity today.

Cutting across the divide between East and West and between Catholic and Evangelical, Thomas F. Torrance illuminates our understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Torrance combines here the Gospel and a theology shaped by Karl Barth and the Church Fathers, and offers his readers a unique synthesis of the Nicene Creed. This volume remains a tremendously helpful resource on the doctrine of the Trinity and the Nicene Creed. The new introduction for this Cornerstones edition is written by Myk Habets, the leading Thomas F. Torrance scholar today.

In this magisterial overview of the Pentateuch John Van Seters reviews the various historical-critical attempts to read it that arise from notions about the social evolution of Israel's religion and culture. Is the Pentateuch an accumulation of folk traditions, a work of ancient historiography, a document legitimizing religious reform? In dialogue with competing views, Van Seters advocates a compositional model that recognizes the social and historical diversity of the literary strata. Van Seters argues that a proto-Pentateuchal author created a comprehensive history from Genesis to Numbers that was written as a prologue to the Deuteronomistic History (Deuteronomy to 2 Kings) in the exilic period and later expanded by a Priestly writer to make it the foundational document of the Jerusalem temple community.This social-science commentary on the Pentateuch is renowned as one of the most influential volumes on this group of texts. For the new edition Van Seters has revised several sections of the text, updating and integrating new bibliographical items, and refining the text where necessary. A reflective preface summarizes these changes and developments for the reader's convenience.

Put together as a companion volume to his earlier volume, Word and Church, in this book John Webster begins to give voice to a reordered conception of the substance of Christian teaching, at the heart of which lies a discovery of the content and consequences of Christian teaching about God''s perfection.Webster gives the readers a worked example of ''theological theology'', that is, Christian theology which takes its rise in the Christian confession of the gospel which seeks to hear, celebrate and commend. This classic volume from one of the leading theologians in the world remains an important contribution to the field of systematic theology. For this Cornerstones edition Webster has written a new preface in which he sets the work against the current debate and his own current theology.

In the first edition of The Israelite Woman Athalya Brenner-Idan provided the first book-length treatment by a feminist biblical scholar of the female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Now, thirty years later, Brenner provides a fresh take on this ground-breaking work, considering how scholarly observation of female biblical characters has changed and how it has not. Brenner-Idan also provides a new and highly personal introduction to the book, which details, perhaps surprisingly to present readers, what was at stake for female biblical scholars looking to engage honestly in the academic debate at the time in which the book was first written. This will make difficult reading for some, particularly those whose own views have not changed.The main part of the book presents Brenner-Idans''s now classic examination of the roles of women in the society of ancient Israel, and the roles they play in the biblical narratives. In Part I Brenner-Idan surveys what can be known about the roles of queens, wise women, women poets and authors, prophetesses, magicians, sorcerers and witches and female prostitutes in Israelite society. In Part II the focus is on the typical roles in which Hebrew women appear in biblical stories, as mother of the hero, as temptress, as foreigner, and as ancestress. In these narratives, for which there are standard plots and structures and characterizations readily available, women play a generally domestic role.Not only is the book a highly valuable resource detailing the social role of women in ancient Israel, and showing how the interpretation of women in the bible has been influenced by convention, but it is also a challenging reminder of how outdated attitudes can still prevail.

David G. Horrell presents a study of Pauline ethics, examining how Paul's moral discourse envisages and constructs communities in which there is a strong sense of solidarity but also legitimate difference in various aspects of ethical practice. Horrell reads New Testament texts with an explicit awareness of contemporary ethical theory, and assesses Paul's contribution as a moral thinker in the context of modern debate. Using a framework indebted to the social sciences, as well as to contemporary ethical theory, Horrell examines the construction of community in Paul's letters, the notions of purity, boundaries and identity, Paul's attempts to deal with diversity in his churches, the role of imitating Christ in Paul's ethics, and the ethic Paul develops for interaction with 'outsiders'. Finally, the pattern of Paul's moral thinking is considered in relation to the liberal-communitarian debate, with explicit consideration given to the central moral norms of Pauline thought, and the prospects for, and problems with, appropriating these in the contemporary world. This Cornerstones edition includes an extended reflective introduction and a substantial foreword from N.T. Wright.