Books published by SCM Press

Takes us through a daringly comprehensiveargument ... the simplicity and sheer readability of his writing and the lucidity and humaneness of his overall position deserve, and will attract, one hopes, a wide readership. For Wren, education in justice consists in the development of a critical awareness of ourselves as oppressor or oppressed in the unjust society . He shows us something of what justicemight be and why we should aspire to it. He also offers vivid illustration of what injustice and cultural oppression mean in the contemporary world' (Epworth Review).It is a measure of Brian Wren's achievement that he has caused at least one world-weary reader to think again about the possibility of radical and effective political change. His analysis of contemporary institutional oppression and our implication in it, particularly in its damaging effect upon the Third World, is a well-stated repetition of the socialist critique of the use and abuse of power. The new thing here, however, is the tone of the book: there is a calm and loving but utterly piercing description of the pathology of power and the lengths to which we'll all go to justify our share in it' (Church Times)

Why is it that after several thousand million years of evolving life on the planet earth, our species- in our generation - has brought this life to the verge of extinction through thermonuclear war? This, Jim Garrison argues, is the single greatest question of our age. The dangers need no emphasizing, and have already been starkly portrayed in his From Hiroshima to Harrisburg. Here the foCus shifts from scientific and political questions to the theological dimension. God, Dr Garrison argues, is in Hiroshima as he is in other saving events in history. The development symbolized by Hiroshima directs our attention beyond narrow sectional interest to the source of life which creates and sustains us all. God is at work even in the atom bomb, calling us to a transformation of consciousness and understanding. Hiroshima confronts us as never before with the demand that we should take the wrath of God seriously. God is the Go,d of all possibilities. And at the same time, we have taken upon ourselves that which the traditional view left in God's hands alone: the determination of apocalyptic judgment. This means that we must internalize theologically both the terror and the salvation of the traditional Judaeo-Christian concept of apocalypse as something that will not be done to us by divine fiat alone, but as something that might well be done by us through our own decision, God working divine wrath through our arrogance. ¿ How Hiroshima, apocalyptic, and the darkness of God at work in Christ crucified are related together form the theme of one of the most powerful pieces of theology of our time.

This title explores Christian doctrine as a dynamic teaching process or communicative practice. It incorporates a running dialogue with modern European philosophy, and contains a discussion of the cultural context of Christian teaching, with references to the visual arts and film.

Dr Bultmann makes his position sharply clear in response to criticism that he is abandoning the essence of Christianity. For all who ask how Christianity can be restated without the 'myths' of the first century, the appearance of this short book is a help and an encouragement.

I wanted my sermons to bring lifht into darkened lives. I often had specific people and problems in view. I was happy when I suspected that a spark had leapt across. For me "light" is and image of enlightenment. There is "light" in any constructuve thinking on basic questions of life. Emotional impulses pass, thoughts remain. They are teh presupposition for positive feelings and moods. "Traces of Light" is a good description of these sermons and Bible studies. Their metaphors and images are open, ambiguous, flexible. - Gerd thiessen

This short book arose out of four talks given by John Macquarrie to the congregation of his parish church in Oxford in Lent 1994. They were asking questions which concern many people today - questions about science and religion, omnipotence and infinity, the God of the Old Testament, the continuity of fathe and how far one faith can be universal, Christ's humanity and the purpose of the creeds. Professor Macquarrie responded by discussing four major issues: 'Why Believe?', 'Believing in God', 'What about Jesus Christ?', 'Do We Need the Church?'

Focussing on texts in the Hebrew Bible, and using feminist hermeneutics, Phyllis Trible brings out what she considers to be neglected themes and counter literature.

This new book takes forward Professor Moltmann's thought on the Trinity during the 1980s, following the publication of his classic study 'The Trinity and the Kingdom of God'. It begins with a survey of the doctrine of the Trinity today, which sees the main issues as being the social doctrine of the Trinity, gender and the Trinity, and the Trinity and the cross, and ends with a fascinating retrospect, 'my theological career'.

The image used of God here, is as one whose job it is to evoke talents, skills and capabilities people did not know they had. God is given a supremely active and creative role, and one which does not destroy, or manipulate, human autonomy. And in this perspective, men and women are given hope, that they will not find love's labours lost.

This is a book about Jewish prayers; prayers used by Jews in the privacy of their homes and in the public worship of the synagogue; prayers which have been in use from before the time of Jesus; prayers which could enrich the life of Christians as they have enriched the lives of innumerable Jews down the ages.

Paul Tournier argues that women have for a century struggled to take their places in civilization. In order to do so however, they have had to adapt to fit a masculine society. They have proved capable of that, but could they not go on from there to cure our civilization of its malaise and introduce what is missing, a sense of the person?

This book does what its title indicates. It discusses and makes as clear as possible what the church is, what are its limits, what should be its doctrine, what is the status of its ministry and the nature of its sacraments, and how in the present state of disunion, confusion and uncertainty we can conceive that the church of Christ exists.

This book is about decision making. The subjects discussed include the development of social ethics in the Church of England, the future of Protestant ethics, the end of the Protestant work ethic, the New Right, political theology, liberation theology, penal theory and practice and the demoralization of modern society.

All the writings which come to us from antiquity, including the writings of the Old and New Testaments, have suffered from misadventures. The interpreter of these materials cannot proceed from assumptions which would be accepted without question in the study ofa modern book. The text to be interpreted must first be established-it is not already defined. The available witnesses to the text must first be examined in order to reconstruct a single form of the text which we can assert with confidence to be as close to the form of the autographs as scientific principles can Lead us, if not (ideally) identical with them. The work of textual criticism is both a preliminary and an integral part of the task of interpretation; its role may once have been overrated, just as now it tends to be overlooked, yet its service remains indispensable. The purpose and goal of our critical editions of the Bible is to assist in achieving an objective understanding of the text. They bring together in a convenient form a vast array of material, well beyond the capacity of individual scholars to assemble for themselves, to provide the first requirements for a systematic study of the text. But to deal with all this material and use it effectively we must understand its peculiarities and the value of its various elements. When faced with a difficult passage we cannot simply gather together the various readings and select the one which seems to offer the simplest solution, at times preferring the Hebrew text, at other times the Septuagint, and yet other times the Aramaic Targum. Textual witnesses are not all equally reliable. Each has its own character and its own peculiar history. We must be familiar with these if we hope to avoid inadequate or false solutions.