Books published by Westminster/John Knox Press,U.S.

To John Buchanan, mainline churches have an obligation to be in the world, and their effectiveness requires that they not abandon their traditions. Churches need to steer a course that allows them to maintain a singular way in the world and to creatively respond to questions of meaning, hope, vocation, and values. In this book, Buchanan...

Aggression is ambiguous in our society, according to Kathleen Greider. While giving us strength to fight the world's social ills or to create vital and powerful lives, aggression can also lead to rage and violence. Thus, society has often viewed aggression as evil or sinful. Greider wants Christians to repair their view of aggression and...

Douglas Ottati presents a "christology of the heart" that is at once informed by classical Christian heritage but relevant to contemporary believers. He argues that discerning the practical significance for what Jesus says, does, and endures will help shape a distinctive and proper way for Christians to be in the world. According to Ottati...

Maria Harris explains the biblical concept of Jubilee and considers the implications of a living Jubilee for today. She offers a compelling argument that a living Jubilee is a comprehensive spirituality that would have a positive political, economic, and moral impact on individuals, families, religious congregations, institutions, and...

During the first half of the twentieth century, John A. Ryan developed and promoted moral arguments for reforming the economy of the United States. He was an advocate of minimum wage legislation and child labor restrictions, and he was very much involved in Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Closely connected with lawmakers, Ryan's influence has...

Robert Dykstra traces the roots of youth's troubles to a despair that reflects hopelessness about a meaningful future. But these sixteen- to twenty-one-year-olds can experience newness, surprise, and hope by drawing on a sound foundation, grounded in the knowledge of God's love and care for them. This valuable resource is ideal for counselors...

Proverbs abound in contemporary culture and in biblical texts. But surprisingly, the use of proverbial wisdom is conspicuously absent in the contemporary pulpit. Alyce McKenzie offers preachers an effective way to reclaim proverbs in preaching, highlights their usefulness in contemporary situations, and demonstrates their ability to confirm (or...

David Penchansky's What Rough Beast? is a study of six Old Testament stories. While many biblical theologies empasize reassuring images of God, Penchansky confronts those biblical passages where God is portrayed as irrational, malevolent, and even abusive, wrestling with the impact of these images on Christian faith. In dealing with these...

Many churches are unprepared to face the challenges inherent in family life today. Others, though, have developed innovative and exciting responses. In this book, case studies provide insights and strategies to help develop a practical theological perspective on family ministry. This new perspective represents a fresh and powerful witness to...

In a prejudiced society, the experiences of lesbians and gays can provide powerful resources for all people to help shape their images of God. Larry Graham has interviewed lesbians and gays across the country and has discovered a new sense of God at work through all people. These insights bring new images of God that are truer, more faithful...

Drawing on years of experience counseling couples and groups, Sandra Bender contends that married people need intentional, focused direction to create the marriage they want. In this companion to the Couple's Guide, Bender provides clear advice for group leaders on helping married couples improve their marriage skills. Bender advises leaders on...

Four respected scholars of the Hebrew Bible and early Judaism provide a clear portrait of the family in ancient Israel. Important theological and ethical implications are made for the family today.The Family, Culture, and Religion series offers informed and responsible analyses of the state of the American family from a religious perspective...

How can Christians bring about peace and justice in the world, when Christianity seems either to claim the absolute truth about God or to dissolve into "disempowering relativism"? James Will seeks an answer for this crucial question in the spiritual and intellectual life of the church. He challenges the traditional western idea of God as...

In this important and timely book, philosopher and theologian Raimon Panikkar deals with the crucial issues of our time--war, religion, and ecology--as he redefines true peace and offers a way to achieve it in the world. Peace, he argues, requires more than nuclear, military, or economic disarmament. Peace can be obtained only by a cultural...

One of the most significant changes in theological education during the past two decades has been a dramatic rise in the enrollment of women in seminaries. In this groundbreaking book, Rebecca S. Chopp explores the impact these new voices have had on theological education. She looks at how women and men are actually forming a new Christian...

All people experience anger at some point in their lives, although the way in which anger is experienced and expressed is often shaped by social context and religious background. Carroll Saussy offers this book to assist people in learning how to evaluate and effectively express authentic anger. She explores the psychology, the ethical...

In this book, Marc Ellis wrestles with some of the critical issues of contemporary Jewish and Christian life, in particular the issues of Jewish and Christian religiosity after Auschwitz and 1492, two events that are historical and contemporary in their relevance. Both mark Jewish and Christian religiosity in deep and compelling ways. Ellis...

Noted social commentator and theologian Dorothee Soelle examines how the power of religion and faith can be used to transform an unjust world. Her discussions cross a broad range of topics. Soelle deals with the freedom bestowed by the Spirit of God, biblical roots of social liberation, and the need for a new religious language. This book will...

This guide to the New Testament, like its companion volume, A Guide Through the Old Testament, combines the background information of a textbook with the format of a workbook to create a unique resource for studying the New Testament. By eliciting as much active response from the reader as possible, Celia Sinclair provides the basis for...

Star Wars, Amadeus, A Separate Place, Tender Mercies, Grand Canyon, Tootsie, Ordinary People, Empire of the Sun, Pale Rider, Red Dawn, and Dead Poets Society--all these movies show concern for deep human issues also treated in the Bible. The films provide evidence that many of the apostle Paul's themes in his New Testament letters are relevant...

Many men define themselves almost exclusively in terms of their work. Often their relationship to work resembles a one-sided love affair: they give their work absolute devotion in the hopes of finding wholeness but find instead only disillusionment. In this book, James Dittes helps men define the proper place of work in life and recognize...

Choices in reproductive technology have multiplied at a staggering rate. Is our society prepared to decide on issues about procreation (artificial insemination and invitro fertilization) or genetic engineering ("designer children" and selective abortion)? How can we protect children--both born and unborn--who are conceived in these ways from...

This book brings together some of the classic spiritual writings from the twentieth century's most inspirational authors. Arranged thematically, this collection is ideal for use in sermon preparation and as a spiritual primer for laity and clergy alike. The nearly twenty subject headings include such topics as "Alienation and Loneliness,"...

In this book, J. Benton White surveys the many Protestant approaches to the Bible and then focuses on the issues raised by modernist and fundamentalists in the twentieth century. He gives special attention to the Protestants' struggle with the question of how the Bible should be understood. By doing this, he helps individuals examine this...

This excellent book offers help to pastors and other caring Christians who must act as "triage officers" on the front lines of congregational and community life and who believe in and want to explore the importance of sexual issues in ministry. William Arnold believes that our sexuality is a defining element for understanding who we are and who...

Because their work focuses primarily on the fields of theology and psychology, pastoral caregivers have often neglected to take into account the social forces that affect both the careseeker and the caregiver. In this groundbreaking book, sociologist and chaplain George Furniss introduces them to a third discipline, sociology, to draw upon in...

Child sexual abuse wounds its victims deeply. Physical wounds can be seen; invisible wounds and scars touch the soul. Catherine Foote offers this book to survivors of abuse, especially survivors of childhood sexual abuse, offering them a way of exploring the impact that abuse has had on their relationship with...

In a manner that is vivid and lively, Robert McAfee Brown explains and illuminates liberation theology for North American readers who may have no previous knowledge of this dynamic Christian movement. Growing out of the experience of oppressed people in Latin America, liberation theology lends a transforming power to both the study of the Bible...

Using five different Old Testament stories as paradigms for correct ethical behavior, Waldemar Janzen provides a comprehensive way of understanding the ethical message in the Old Testament. The five models of the good life he uses are the holy life (the priestly paradigm), the wise life (the sapiential or wisdom paradigm), the just life (the...