Books published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers

James Childs's concise and compelling introduction is based on twenty years of teaching and writing in Christian ethics.Illuminating his case with examples from business, medicine, and public policy dilemmas, Childs constructs an original and comprehensive proposal for Christian ethics"dialogical ethics"one that resonates well with contemporary concern for character and virtue but is also animated and informed by Christian faith.

Two times govern Paul's thought world: the death and resurrection of Jesus, marking the origin of the believer's life; and Christ's return or parousia, culminating God's purposes with this world. Between these two times Paul is concerned about how believers behave-how they walk. J. Paul Sampley provides a guidebook for all who want to understand Paul's thought world, his moral reasoning, and the resources for deliberation that Paul considers available to believers.

Drawing on specific texts that speak to cosmic hurt and personal possibility, Walter Brueggemann demonstrates the essential connection between faithful reading of the biblical text and faithful living in a world of banal, yet threatening values. He assesses the nature of obedience today in such areas as ministry, justice, the land, education, hospitality, and the contemporary imagination.

Intertwined with Luke's story of Jesus are two other story lines - the story of the authorities, who come into conflict with Jesus over the crucial issue of whom God has chosen to rule Israel, and the story of the disciples, who are both loyal and uncomprehending. Kingsbury leads the reader into the dramatic narrative of Luke's Gospel by tracing and interpreting all three stories. An introductory chapter provides orientation to basic features of literary analysis.

Utilizing archeological evidence and an analysis of two earlyChristian texts related to the church at Rome, James S. Jeffers offersa penetrating glimpse into the economic, social, and theologicaltensions of early Roman Christianity. Clement and the Shepherd ofHermas are shown to represent two decidedly conflicting conceptions ofChristianity and hierarchy: Clement represents the social elite and amore structured approach to church organization, and Hermas displays atendency toward sectarianism. Photographs and line drawings illustratearcheological evidence.

Aside from the fact that it is perhaps the single most discussed and controversial theological writing of the century, no one knowledgeable of Bultmann's work could doubt its basic importance for his entire contribution. Although the position is for which it argues was hardly new, having already taken shape in several of his theological essays written during the 1920s, it is nevertheless the classic formulation of this position and as such incomparable in the Bultmann corpus.

Johnson believes Christian spirituality needs an intellectual recasting that takes seriously the life of ordinary people in a world shaped by modernity rather than the monastery by discerning the narrative of God's action in their midst.

"I have read Professor Capp's Reframing with great interest. Since my colleagues and I have long thought of our concepts and practices as broad and general--as potentially applicable beyond our clinical sphere of psychotherapy--it is very satisfying to see this solid and skillful extension of our work into the very wide and important field of pastoral care." -- John H. Weakland, Brief Therapy Center Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, California

"Freed from contemporary theological categories that have been informed by ideological and psychological issues, but ever mindful of the social location of gender analysis, these essays provide fresh and exciting looks at otherwise unfamiliar texts. They jar our minds and our biases.... This book is a valuable contribution to gender-oriented biblical scholarship. Its content is accessible to both the scholarly and the less technically trained reader. All will be well served by this important collection of essays." - Naomi Steinberg, DePaul University "This book is a credit to the quality and breadth of feminine biblical scholarship and presents some creative interpretations of the texts and a wealth of Ancient Near Eastern material." - J. Massyngbaerde Ford, University of Notre Dame

The Christian gospel, says Brueggemann, is too easily preached and heard. Too often technical reason and excessive religious certitude reduce the gospel to coercive, debilitating pietisms that mask the text's meaning and freeze the hearers heart. With skill and imagination, Brueggemann demonstrates how the preacher can engage in daring speech-differently voiced and therefore differently heard. This speech, as suggested by the Bible itself, is "poetic" speech, enabling the preacher to forge communion in the midst of alienation, bring healing out of guilt, and empower the hearer for "missional imagination." As an alternative to theological/homiletical discourse that is moralistic, pietistic or scholastic, Brueggemann proposes preaching that is artistic, poetic, and dramatic. The basis for the 1989 Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale Divinity School, Finally Comes the Poet is a unique and transforming guide for powerful preaching.

Intertwined with Mark's story of Jesus are two other story lines: those of the religious authorities (without real authority), and those of the disciples (loyal and uncomprehending.) In this signal effort, Kingsbury traces and interprets all three story lines as found in Mark, chapters 2-4.

The Pauline Parallels has been redesigned and revised in order to provide an improved practical tool for students seeking to understand the Pauline corpus of letters. In his letters, Paul echoes the structure of the common letter, he employs rhetorical devices, and he often repeats themes and images. The Pauline Parallels provides a ready, efficient, comprehensive way to study the letters structurally, formally, and thematically by gathering relevant passages from all the letters onto the page or folio for immediate comparison. The Pauline Parallels is the analog for the Pauline letters of a gospel parallels.The Pauline Parallels is a sequential presentation of each of the ten chief letters attributed to Paul: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Philemon. Each letter is divided into sense units or paragraphs of discourse; these paragraphs, as they are designated, are numbered consecutively from the salutation of Romans to the closing remarks of Philemon. Paragraph numbers are then used as the basis of the presentation of the materials in the Pauline Parallels and function effectively in a system of cross-referencing.

This book is an attempt to make some initial tracing of what the gospel looks like through the lens of "secular" literary criticism. As an interdisciplinary study, the work is an effort to contribute to that dialogue by studying the narrative elements of the Fourth Gospel while interacting occasionally with current Johannine research. It is intended not as a challenge to historical criticism or the results of previous research but as an alternative by means of which new data may be collected and readers may be helped to read the gospel more perceptively by looking at certain features of the gospel. This process is to be distinguished from reading the gospel looking for particular kinds of historical evidence.Our aim is to contribute to understanding the gospel as a narrative text, what it is, and how it works. The emphasis will be upon the construction of hypotheses or critique of methods. The gospel as it stands rather than its sources, historical background, or themes is the subject of this study.

This is Tshenuwani Simon Farisani's harrowing account of the suffering inflicted on a single human being by the brutalities of apartheid. Farisani shows us the terror of torture, the fear of death, and the eventual victory of faith.

Can practical theology be truly practical?The answer is yes. This collection brings together top scholars in the fields of pastoral care, systematic theology, and biblical hermeneutics to offer a coherent practical theology for the pastoral mission of the church. As Christians around the world practice their faith, this important scholarly book highlights the salient struggles in contemporary Christian thought and seeks to bring together the best of the church and academy for the greater good.