Books published by William B Eerdmans Publishing Co

For more than thirty years, Douglas Laycock has been studying, defending, and writing about religious liberty. In this second volume of the comprehensive collection of his writings on the subject, he has compiled articles, amicus briefs, and actual court documents relating to regulatory exemptions under the Constitution, the right to church autonomy, and the rights of non-mainstream religions. This collection -- which deals with religious schools and colleges, sex abuse cases, the rights of Hare Krishnas and Scientologists, the landmark decision Employment Division v. Smith, and more -- will be a valuable reference for churches, schools, and other religious organizations as they exercise their Constitutionally protected freedom of religion.

Testifies to the presence of God as both our post-earthly hope and our present-world existence. These thought-provoking sermons by Ralph Wood, a layman who has taught religion and literature for many years, seek to till new soil in the fertile field of Christian faith and life. They draw on a wide range of reading not only in Christian theology but also in both classical and contemporary literature and culture. And they also mine Wood's own professorial and personal experience in dealing with both the old and the young amid "the chances and changes of life." Wood squarely engages the American "culture of death" by wrestling with such vexing questions as sexuality and marriage, war and peace, abortion, racial injustice, and abuse of the elderly. By grounding his homilies in specific times, places, and quandaries, Wood demonstrates that Christianity remains a vigorous set of doctrines and morals precisely as preaching and ethics give shape to our worship and living in the here and now. Focusing not so much on our "getting to heaven," Wood's Preaching and Professing shows concretely how the gospel "gets heaven into us."

A distinguished group of scholars here introduces and illustrates the array of strategies and methods used in New Testament study today. Standard approaches -- text criticism, historical methods, etc. -- appear side by side with newer approaches -- narrative criticism, Latino-Latina hermeneutics, theological interpretation of the New Testament, and more. First published in 1995, Hearing the New Testament is now revised and updated, including rewritten chapters, new chapters, and new suggestions for further reading. Contributors: Efrain AgostoLoveday C. A. AlexanderJames L. BaileyStephen C. BartonRichard BauckhamC. Clifton BlackHolly J. CareyBart D. EhrmanStephen E. FowlJoel B. GreenRichard B. HaysMark Allan PowellEmerson B. PoweryF. Scott SpencerMax TurnerKevin J. VanhoozerRobert W. Wall

In this book, Benne describes and analyzes the wrong ways to relate religion and politics and offers a better way. Benne calls the two main bad ways of relating religion and politics "separationism" and "fusionism." Secular separationists decry all involvement of religion in politics; religious separationists, on the other hand, advocate abstaining from politics in the name of religious purity. Fusionism comes in many types, but the type that most concerns Benne is the use of religion--in this case Christianity--for political ends, which turns religion into an instrument for purposes other than its own main reason for being. Rejecting these bad ways of relating religion and politics, Benne offers a better way that he calls critical engagement which derives from the Lutheran tradition, with a few tweaks to adapt the tradition to deal well with the new challenges of our present situation. As Benne points out, "The question is not so much whether American religion will have political effects. It most definitely will. The more serious questions are: Should it? How should it?" In this book, Benne offers a clear and useful guide to a subject too often characterized by confusion and loud rhetoric.

Attempts the task of reintegrating Reformed Protestant theology with natural law by appealing to Reformation-era theologians such as John Calvin, Peter Martyr Vermigli and others who refined the traditional understanding of this key doctrine. This book asks Christian ethicists, theologians and laypersons to take another look at this vital element.

In this groundbreaking study of Paul's soteriology, Michael Gorman builds on his influentialCruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross to argue that cruciformity is, at its heart, theoformity -- what the Christian tradition has called theosis or participation in the life of God. "A richly synthetic reading of Paul. . . . Gorman deftly integrates the results of recent debates about Pauline theology into a powerful constructive account that overcomes unfruitful dichotomies and transcends recent controversies between the 'New Perspective on Paul' and its traditionalist critics. Gorman's important book points the way forward for understanding the nonviolent, world-transforming character of Paul's gospel." -- Richard B. Hays, Duke Divinity School