Books published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers

In Wide Welcome, Jessicah Krey Duckworth presents the stark differences between the established congregation, which cares for current members and congregational identity, and the disestablished one, intentionally equipped to facilitate the encounter between new and established members.The disestablished congregations, she says, gains purpose and

Acts of the Apostles helps the preacher identify possibilities for sermons based on texts and themes in the book of Acts. While offering a basic exegetical framework for interpreting passages in Acts in their historical, literary, rhetorical, and theological contexts, this volume also suggests ways in which the preacher can relate passages and motifs from Acts to the congregation and world today. It also is useful in classes that seek to link text and sermon, and for congregational Bible study.

Drawing on Dr. King's personal prayers, award-winning historian Baldwin explains how King turned to both private prayer and meditation for his own spiritual fulfillment, and to public prayer as a way of moving, inspiring, and reaffirming people in the context of a crusade for equal rights, social justice, and peace.

From biblical times to the present day, the massively influential and engaging tradition of Christian reflection on the value of being human is presented here. With its primary documents, carefully selected and edited by a team of experts, Readings in Christian Humanism fully represents the variety and vitality of the humanistic tradition found in historic Christianity. Bringing together highlights from the almost unlimited gallery of Christian humanist thinkers as stimulants to our own imaginations, this anthology also boldly sets claim to a ground for Christian humanism today.

We live in a leadership crisis. In an age when incompatible worlds collide and when scandals rock formerly stable institutions, says Walter Fluker, what counts most is ethical leadership and the qualities of personal integrity, spiritual discipline, intellectual openness, and moral anchoring that Fluker finds exemplified in the work and thought of black-church giants Martin Luther King Jr. and Howard Thurman.

* The first book to analyze America's religious battles aover the interpretation of Genesis * A clearly written account of the present understanding of Genesis among scholars * Examines the core of concern that animates both sides of these controversies

* Fresh insights into the power of New testament imagery to promote life as well as to perpetuate suffering * Close readings of New Testament narratives and metaphors for the suffering of Jesus

With clarity and passion, Franklin calls for practical and comprehensive action for change from within the African American community--within families, churches, colleges and universities, and civil rights organizations--in this provocative analysis of the state of black America.

Even as theologians have become more critical of classic theories of atonement, biblical scholars have continued to rely upon such theories as a basis for interpreting Paul's teaching regarding salvation and the cross. In this vital volume, Brondos looks to the recent advances in New Testament scholarship to argue for an alternative understanding of Paul's doctrine of salvation and the cross.Paul, says Brondos, understood Jesus' death primarily as the consequence of his mission: to serve as God's instrument to bring about the long-awaited redemption of Israel, in which Gentiles throughout the world would also be included. For Paul, Jesus' death is salvific not because it satisfies some necessary condition for human salvation, as most doctrines of the atonement have traditionally maintained, nor because it effects some change in the situation of human beings or the world in general. Rather, Jesus' God responded to Jesus' faithfulness unto death by raising him, thereby ensuring that all the divine promises of salvation would be fulfilled through him.Jesus' death forms part of an overarching story culminating in the redemption of Israel and the world. It is this story, and in particular what preceded and followed Jesus' death on the cross, that makes that death redemptive for Paul.

Theologian Ian McFarland claims that Christians have mainly misappropriated the "image of God" language for 2000 years and thereby missed a rich resource for our knowledge of God. Rather than referring to some germinal divine element in humans, such as reason, McFarland claims that the image of God in us tells us something about God and how we know God. It tells us that God, though not identical with us, communicates Godself to us in creative love, in a way that offers precious clues about God's transcendence, immanence, triune life, self-disclosure, incarnation, and intentions for human life. McFarland's careful and exacting work builds from this kernel a powerful Christian vision of God's life and our own destiny in Christ.

Scientist and theologian Sjoerd Bonting offers a new overarching framework for thinking about issues in religion and science. He looks at the creation controversy itself, including biblical perspectives, tradtional doctrines, and the particular potential contribution of chaos theory. Finally, Bonting extends this perspective, a combination of chaos theory and chaos theology he calls "double-chaos," into a framework that addresses traditional questions about evil, divine agency, soteriology, the understanding of disease, possible extraterrestrial life, and the future.

The essence of spirituality is loving God, says Powell. The Bible, the Talmud, and the Qu'ran all direct their followers not merely to believe in God, to trust God, to obey God, and to serve God but to love God. Can we learn to love God?In this biblical spirituality for today, Powell's earnest plea is for Christians to revisit their faith not by blazing in religious enthusiasm but by harboring a steadier flame and deeper commitment. Living at the poetic heart of faith, he argues, entails seeing the coordinates of religious life in a new way. Powell espouses the old-fashioned idea of piety. Drawing on his wide knowledge of the Bible and Christian tradition, as well as insights from his own journey, he shows how simple religious practices move us beyond the old certitudes of a nave and youthful faith into the less certain but more bracing terrain of a second navet, a closer walk with Jesus.