Books published by Cascade Books

The Perfection of Freedom seeks to respond to the impoverished conventional notion of freedom through a recovery of an understanding rich with possibilities yet all but forgotten in contemporary thought. This understanding, developed in different but complementary ways in the German thinkers Schiller, Schelling, and Hegel, connects freedom, not exclusively with power and possibility, but rather most fundamentally with completion, wholeness, and actuality. What is unique here is specifically the interpretation of freedom in terms of form, whether it be aesthetic form (Schiller), organic form (Schelling), or social form (Hegel). Although this book presents serious criticisms of the three philosophers, it shows that they open up new avenues for reflection on the notion of freedom; avenues that promise to overcome many of the dichotomies that continue to haunt contemporary thought--for example, between freedom and order, freedom and nature, and self and other. The Perfection of Freedom offers not only a significantly new interpretation of Schiller, Schelling, and Hegel, it also proposes a modernity more organically rooted in the ancient and classical Christian worlds.

The church has been inundated in recent years with literature emphasizing the relational and the value of community. David Auten provides an alternative perspective and counterbalance, bringing our attention back to the other indispensable side to the communal--the individual and the sacredness of the self.Eccentricity is a sustained meditation on this strange and fundamental fact: there has never been, nor will there ever be, another you. You are inescapably and irrevocably different. But what does your difference mean? And who are ""you"" really? Weaving together insights from Calvin, Caussade, Jung, Derrida, Wolterstorff, and others, Auten guides the reader through a spiritual exploration of the difference implicit in being a self, the divine calling to make a difference, and the interconnectedness of the two. The result is an arresting bricolage reminding us of the wonderfully eccentric nature of human existence.

Telling the Whole Story is both a book about preaching and reading the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. John C. Holbert (PhD in Hebrew Bible) was a longtime teacher of preaching and Hebrew Bible at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, having retired in 2012 after thirty-three years. In this volume he combines his two skills of careful narrative reading and imaginative story preaching to offer the first comprehensive look at this particular kind of sermon proclamation. The reader will also find here an introduction to the long history of story preaching in the history of the church, as well as a primer both in ways to read the narratives more effectively and ways to preach several varieties of story sermons.At the heart of this book four narratives from the Hebrew Bible are exegeted and are accompanied by four story sermons based on those texts: Genesis 2-3; 1 Samuel 15; Judges 4; and Jonah. The goal of the book is to help preachers who are looking for effective ways to proclaim the gospel using narrative texts from the Hebrew Bible to allow the rich stories of the texts to sound their ancient truth to the modern world

Karl Barth's Christology provides a key to out-narrating the Deus absconditus, which, as Rustin Brian contends, is in fact the god of modernity. Included in this is the rejection of the logical and philosophical systems that allow for the modern understanding of God as the Deus absconditus, namely, dialectics and nominalism. This rejection is illustrated, interestingly enough, in Barth's decision to literally cover up, with a rug, Martin Luther's works in his personal library. Surely this was more than a decorative touch.The reading of Barth's works that results from this starting point challenges much of contemporary Barth scholarship and urges readers to reconsider Barth. Through careful examination of a large body of Barth's writings, particularly in regard to the issues of the knowledge or knowability of God, as well as Christology, Brian argues that contemporary Barth scholarship should be done in careful conversation with the finest examples of both Protestant and, especially, Roman Catholic theology. Barth's paradoxical Christology thus becomes the foundation for a dogmatic ecumenicism. Barth's Christology, then, just might be able to open up possibilities for discussion and even convergence, within a church that is anything but one.

This volume brings together for the first time the writings of Charles Wesley on the theme of justice for the poor and marginalized, drawing upon his sermons, manuscript journal, poetry, and a few letters. Most of his poems/hymns that address poverty and justice were left unpublished at his death. The author studies the theology of these texts for the first time in relation to relevant themes in his sermons, manuscript journal, and letters, and evaluates it in the light of its application and implementation in the eighteenth century and its viability for the twenty-first-century church and Christian. Charles's views of how Christians may ""use divine grace divine"" in seeking justice for the poor are indeed radical, for they advocate behavior that is often quite contrary to what is generally accepted as Christian practice. This volume makes clear that the radical grace he espouses is consistent with Holy Scripture and should indeed be practiced by Christians today.The liturgies and musical settings of some of the hymn texts that address the poor and marginalized at the end of the volume provide a pragmatic means for the worshipping community to integrate the principles of radical grace into their theology and praxis.

This ethnographic study focuses on the religious imagery and practices of a sample of Buddhist temples and Muslim mosques in the greater Los Angeles area. As a way of expanding interfaith dialogue, it is framed as a conversation between the largely Christian researchers and the seventy-five respondents, who were asked about the images, space, and practices of their religious experience. From the respondents in their various religious settings, it seeks to distill the specific religious imaginations and aesthetic profiles that might be said to characterize their experience--to discover what might be considered the living images of these faiths. Set in the context of contemporary discussions of the nature of religion and visual culture, this richly textured study of visual and sensory practices in religion raises fundamental questions about the place of belief and ritual practice and the role these play in our increasingly pluralistic religious culture.

In 1958, American historian of religion Morton Smith made an astounding discovery in the Mar Saba monastery in Jerusalem. Copied into the back of a seventeenth-century book was a lost letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215 CE) that contained excerpts from a longer version of the Gospel of Mark written by Mark himself and circulating in Alexandria, Egypt. More than fifty years after its discovery, the origins of this Secret Gospel of Mark remain contentious. Some consider it an authentic witness to an early form of Mark, perhaps even predating canonical Mark. Some claim it is a medieval or premodern forgery created by a monastic scribe. And others argue it is a forgery created by Morton Smith himself. All these positions are addressed in the papers contained in this volume. Nine North American scholars, internationally recognized for their contributions to the study of Secret Mark, met at York University in Toronto, Canada, in April 2011 to examine recent developments in scholarship on the gospel and the letter in which it is found. Their results represent a substantial step forward in determining the origins of this mysterious and controversial text.List of Contributors:Scott G. BrownTony BurkeStephen C. CarlsonBruce ChiltonCraig A. EvansPaul FosterCharles W. HedrickPeter JefferyAllan J. PantuckMarvin Meyer Hershel Shanks

THE OTHER JOURNAL: EVILDescriptionThis world is a fallen place rife with suffering, oppression, and violence, a land of tsunamis and earthquakes, genocide and crime sprees. We are surrounded on all sides by brokenness, yet we have difficulty spotting its source. We see the effects of evil, yet we rarely grasp its true nature and breadth. In issue #20 of The Other Journal, our contributors analyze the haunting opacity of evil and call us to name and resist its insidious influence.The issue features essays and reviews by Brian Bantum, Gregory A. Boyd, Andrew W. E. Carlson, Jacob H. Friesenhahn, David Kline, Agustin Maes, Rebecca Martin, Branson Parler, Anthony B. Pinn, Dan Rhodes, and Lauren Wilford; interviews by Allison Backous, Brandy Daniels, Chris Keller, Ronald A. Kuipers, and David Kline with Richard Beck, J. Kameron Carter, Richard Kearney, C. Melissa Snarr, and Christian Wiman; and fiction and poetry by Mark Fleming, Chad Gusler, Jennifer Strange, and Kali WagnerOther Issues of The Other JournalThe Other Journal: The Food IssueThe Other Journal: The Celebrity IssueOther Books by The Other JournalSects, Love, and Rock & Roll by Joel Heng HartseThe Spirit of Food edited by Leslie Leyland FieldsJesus Girls edited by Hannah Faith Notess""God Is Dead"" and I Don't Feel So Good Myself edited by Andrew David, Christopher J. Keller, Jon StanleyRemembering the Future edited by Chris Keller, Andrew David

First-timeTranslation in English- - - The relationship between Christians and Jews has often been very tense, with misunderstandings of Paul's teachings contributing to the problem. Jacques Ellul's careful exegesis of Romans 9-11 demonstrates how God has not rejected Israel. The title is taken from the verse, ""Is there some injustice in God?"" The answer is a clear ""no."" God's election simply expanded outward beyond Israel to reach all peoples of the earth. In the end, there will be a reconciliation of Jews and Christians within God's plan of salvation.Written in 1991, three years before Ellul died, An Unjust God? brings a new understanding to a section of Scripture known for its conventional and limited interpretations. One significant feature of the book is Ellul's personal experience of the suffering of Jews under the Nazi regime; and this has direct bearing for the way he links the sufferings of Israel with the sufferings of Jesus. Ellul is then bold enough to say that a major reason why the Jewish people have not accepted Jesus as Messiah is because the Christian Church has not done well to emulate the Jewish Savior of the world.

This book synthesizes the diverse reflections on technology by monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton to develop a compelling contemplative critique of the threats and challenges of nuclear war, communication technologies, and biotechnologies that may alter what it means to be human. At the core of his critique, Merton opposes a technological mentality that favors processes of efficiency and utility at the expense of our ultimate purpose, a quest for the wisdom to guide us to the divine source of our being and reality. To counter this modern idolatry, Merton's insights offer a path of reflection, balance, and community. More specifically, Merton offers some constructive approaches and healing possibilities through a balanced approach to work, a careful and intentional managing of technology, and an accessing of the recuperative dimensions of nature. In its conclusion the book brings the insights of these chapters together for a final reflection on how to maintain our humanity and our spiritual integrity in a technological world.

This book attempts a close reading of the fiction of Flannery O'Connor, story by story, with one eye on her use of the Bible, and her view of the Bible in relation to her own work. After introductory chapters on O'Connor's markings in her own Roman Catholic Bible, her book reviews in diocesan newspapers, and her impatience with her wayward readers, Michaels looks first at her two novels, Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away, and then at seventeen of her short stories from her two collections, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must Converge. Michaels takes notice of O'Connor's explicit references to the Bible (or Bibles) in her stories, and looks more particularly to the ways in which the stories are driven at least in part by specific biblical texts. Among the themes that emerge are alienation or displacement, what it means to be "good," the relation between body and spirit and between the Old Testament and the New, issues of race and gender, and above all what O'Connor once called "the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil."

If the Christ-centered college or university did not exist, would it have to be invented? Back in the 1950s, the answer was in doubt. With few exceptions, Christian colleges wallowed in defensive self-doubt and divisive competition while under attack from the rising public sector. Students of American higher education predicted that they would soon become as extinct as the whooping crane.Rather then succumbing to doomsayers, leaders in Christian higher education bonded together around the commanding truth that ""all things come together"" in Jesus Christ. They drove their stake for the future in the integration of faith and learning as the reason for the existence of Christ-centered higher education. Out of this commitment came a renaissance movement of common cause and unprecedented cooperation through the Consortium of Christian Colleges and the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.Will integration continue to be the energizing and all-pervasive influence that gives the Christ-centered institution its reason for existence? Trustees, presidents, deans and faculties in each generation must think and rethink the concept in the light of theological, academic, technological, and cultural change. David McKenna opens the conversation by remembering where we were, confirming who we are, and envisioning what we can be.

Synopsis:Lovescapes introduces the reader to the various meanings and manifestations of love and its many cognates such as compassion, caring, altruism, empathy, and forgiveness. It addresses how love and compassion have been understood in history and the religions of the world. It goes on to explore the ways that our environments and heredity influence our capacity to love and suggests ways to cultivate love and compassion in one's life. The book shows how the values of love and compassion are integral to finding humane solutions to the daunting problems we face as individuals, as a human family, and as an earth community--a world in crisis.Lovescapes has the following features:¿ Describing how love is the essence of the divine, and therefore the ground of reality¿ Understanding the meaning of love and its place in our lives¿ Learning how love and compassion have been understood across history, culture, and tradition¿ Gaining insight about how to increase our capacity to love and show compassion¿ Discerning how love and compassion can be applied in all aspects of our lives, in the regions where we live, and in our global setting.Endorsement:"What is love and how do we distinguish it from infatuation and destructive feelings? Now, in Lovescapes, Duncan Ferguson explores the cultural and historical understandings of love, inviting readers to invest in 'the love-centered life.' Perceiving that 'love and compassion are very complex human experiences,' Ferguson . . . provides us with an extremely important book."--James H. Charlesworth, Director and Editor, Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project"Lovescapes not only provides a lucid and comprehensive account of pertinent literature--from biblical, classical, and Western and Eastern sources, to contemporary studies in psychology, social theory, theology, philosophy, and biology--it is also filled with fresh and important insights as to ways love and compassion can inform and transform both interpersonal relations and our responses to the urgent crises facing our national and global communities today."--Richard H. Hiers, Professor of Religion Emeritus and Affiliate Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Florida"Duncan Ferguson is a wise and creative thinker who has gained profound insight into the meaning of being human through a distinguished career of teaching, writing, and travel. In Lovescapes he gives us his most thoughtful reflection on the fundamental issues of life in our day. It moves beyond platitudes and explores love in its global as well as personal dimensions. This book penetrates the heart of the matter."--Mark Valeri, Professor of Church History, Union Presbyterian Seminary "Lovescapes coordinates several frameworks for understanding the contours and complexities of love. Theologically grounded, sensitively interfaith, and broadly humanist, this book provides a hopeful vision for healing on personal, communal, societal, and global levels through the transformative power of love. The call to maturity offered here makes a significant contribution to people of goodwill who work to make the world a better, more human place."--Gordon S. Mikoski, Associate Professor of Christian Education, Princeton Theological SeminaryAuthor Biography:Duncan S. Ferguson has served in the church and higher education as a chaplain, professor, and senior administrator. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and has published several articles and five books, including Exploring the Spirituality of the World Religions. He was a Visiting Scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary in 2010 during which he worked on Lovescapes. He is currently engaged in several issues related to international peace and justice.

Most studies of Abraham Joshua Heschel approach him as a theologian, whereas this book peers behind the theologian and honors Heschel as the original philosopher that he was. So it unearths Heschel's epistemology, his aesthetic, and his social philosophy, all reinforced by the thirty years of friendship and dialogue that Maurice Friedman shared with him.This book raises significantly critical questions concerning Heschel's philosophy of Judaism while remaining greatly appreciative of the sweep and command of his philosophy that Friedman believes were not sufficiently worked through.

If worship is God centered,and God is the Trinity, then worship should be Trinity centered.Worshipping Trinity explores the meaning and implications of that simple claim. Written for church leaders, worship leaders, and songwriters, as well as for those interested in theology, this volume explains why the Trinity matters so much and explores practical ways our worship can be made more Trinitarian. This second edition is fully updated and expanded.

There is a hunger in the modern world for spirituality. One vast resource of spiritual wisdom comes from the pre-Reformation church--from the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity, through the long tradition of monasticism, to the medieval Christian mystics. These are the deep wells of Christian reflection from persons such as John Chrysostom, Augustine, Benedict, Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure, Bernard of Clairvaux, Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, and Julian of Norwich, to mention just a few. The spiritual insights of over seventy men and women of pre-Reformation Christianity are found in these pages. From these figures we can learn more about the practices of prayer and contemplation, a life of following Christ, the relevance of community, the challenge of asceticism, the movement of withdrawal and engagement, the love of God for God's own sake, living the gospel, sacrificing for the kingdom of God, the longing for union with God, the practices of justice, and a life of prophetic witness. For us, so embedded and shaped by the modern world, this ancient wisdom will come as refreshing water and as a breath of fresh air, with the wings of the Spirit and whispers of angels.