Books published by William B Eerdmans Publishing Co

One of the most respected and influential scholars of religious liberty in our time, Douglas Laycock has argued many crucial religious-liberty cases in the United States Supreme Court. His noteworthy scholarly and popular writings are being collected in five comprehensive volumes under the title Religious Liberty.This fourth volume presents a documentary history of the effort to replace the Religious Freedom Restoration Act with the Religious Liberty Protection Act, an effort that failed but led to narrower legislation protecting churches from hostile zoning and protecting the religious rights of prisoners. Documenting culture-war battles over religious liberty and abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage, this volume includes journal articles, testimony to Congress, shorter popular writings, and letters to such political figures as Congressman Bobby Scott and President Barack Obama.

One of the most respected and influential scholars of religious liberty in our time, Douglas Laycock has argued many crucial religious-liberty cases in the United States Supreme Court. His noteworthy scholarly and popular writings are being collected in five comprehensive volumes under the title Religious Liberty.This third volume presents a documentary history of efforts to enact and implement state and federal Religious Freedom Resto-ration Acts, to include religious-liberty protections in same-sex marriage legislation, and to protect the rights of both sides in the culture wars. It contains articles in scholarly journals, op-eds for popular audiences, and oral and written arguments.

A progressive Christian parenting book with a social-justice orientationHow do we build a better world? One key way, says Cindy Wang Brandt, is by learning to raise our children with justice, mercy, and kindness.In Parenting Forward Brandt equips Christian parents to model a way of following Jesus that has an outward focus, putting priority on loving others, avoiding judgment, and helping those in need. She shows how parents must work on dismantling their own racial, cultural, gender, economic, and religious biases in order to avoid passing them on to their children. "By becoming aware of the complex ways we participate in systems of inequal­ity or hierarchy," she says, "we begin to resist systemic injustice ourselves, empower our children, and change our communities."

This multivolume work is still proving to be as fundamental to Old Testament studies as its companion set, the Kittel-Friedrich Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, has been to New Testament studies.Beginning with '¿bh ('¿b), -father, - and continuing through the alphabet, the TDOT volumes present in-depth discussions of the key Hebrew and Aramaic words in the Old Testament. Leading scholars of various religious traditions (including Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish) and from many parts of the world (Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States) have been carefully selected for each article by editors Botterweck, Ringgren, and Fabry and their consultants, George W. Anderson, Henri Cazelles, David Noel Freedman, Shemaryahu Talmon, and Gerhard Wallis.The intention of the writers is to concentrate on meaning, starting from the more general, everyday senses and building to an understanding of theologically significant concepts. To avoid artificially restricting the focus of the articles, TDOT considers under each keyword the larger groups of words that are related linguistically or semantically. The lexical work includes detailed surveys of a word's occurrences, not only in biblical material but also in other ancient Near Eastern writings. Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Ethiopic, Ugaritic, and Northwest Semitic sources are surveyed, among others, as well as the Qumran texts and the Septuagint; and in cultures where no cognate word exists, the authors often consider cognate ideas.TDOT's emphasis, though, is on Hebrew terminology and on biblical usage. The contributors employ philology as well as form-critical and traditio-historical methods, with the aim of understanding the religious statements in the Old Testament. Extensive bibliographical information adds to the value of this reference work.This English edition attempts to serve the needs of Old Testament students without the linguistic background of more advanced scholars; it does so, however, without sacrificing the needs of the latter. Ancient scripts (Hebrew, Greek, etc.) are regularly transliterated in a readable way, and meanings of foreign words are given in many cases where the meanings might be obvious to advanced scholars. Where the Hebrew text versification differs from that of English Bibles, the English verse appears in parentheses. Such features will help all earnest students of the Bible to avail themselves of the manifold theological insights contained in this monumental work.

The complete, authoritative study guide to one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time--the Dead Sea Scrolls. This indispensable two-volume compendium of the Dead Sea Scrolls contains newly edited English translations and summaries of all the biblical and nonbiblical scrolls found at Qumran. Designed as a practical reference tool to facilitate study of the Scrolls, these volumes will be an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls--from serious scholars to general readers seeking reliable translations of these invaluable ancient texts.

This popular book by N. T. Wright offers thirteen powerful meditations and sermons that challenge readers to assess anew the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection and the life of the Spirit in Jesus' followers today.In Part One, -The Crown of Thorns, - Wright considers not the customary seven last words that Jesus spoke from the cross but, rather, seven words that various people spoke to Jesus on the cross -- people like Mary and the Roman centurion, who witnessed the crucifixion, and Pontius Pilate, who helped to instigate it. Part Two, -The Fire of Love, - contains five sermons and one biblical exposition on such themes as the new creation, the call of God, and the nature of Christ's presence in the Eucharist.

For nearly 2,000 years the New Testament has been loved, hated, treasured, criticized, believed, derided, read and studied, sometimes even died for. Few believers would ever question its importance as the authoritative documentary basis for the Christian faith. Yet the message of the New Testament has not always been clearly understood, even by those who have read and reread it.In this book -- now a modern classic -- the most respected evangelical scholar of the past generation guides readers to a clearer understanding of the New Testament's message. Beginning with Mark and proceeding through Paul's epistles, Luke and Acts, Matthew, Hebrews, the general epistles and gospel, F. F. Bruce looks at the individuality of the New Testament writers and explains the distinctive contribution their book or group of books makes to the overall message of the New Testament.By concentrating on major themes and not fine detail, Bruce succeeds in presenting the central teachings of the New Testament in a compact way. As his profound yet highly accessible scholarship demonstrates, though the New Testament is diverse in both form and content, it nevertheless communicates powerfully the unified witness that Jesus Christ is Lord.

This multivolume work is still proving to be as fundamental to Old Testament studies as its companion set, the Kittel-Friedrich Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, has been to New Testament studies.Beginning with '¿bh ('¿b), -father, - and continuing through the alphabet, the TDOT volumes present in-depth discussions of the key Hebrew and Aramaic words in the Old Testament. Leading scholars of various religious traditions (including Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish) and from many parts of the world (Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States) have been carefully selected for each article by editors Botterweck, Ringgren, and Fabry and their consultants, George W. Anderson, Henri Cazelles, David Noel Freedman, Shemaryahu Talmon, and Gerhard Wallis.The intention of the writers is to concentrate on meaning, starting from the more general, everyday senses and building to an understanding of theologically significant concepts. To avoid artificially restricting the focus of the articles, TDOT considers under each keyword the larger groups of words that are related linguistically or semantically. The lexical work includes detailed surveys of a word's occurrences, not only in biblical material but also in other ancient Near Eastern writings. Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Ethiopic, Ugaritic, and Northwest Semitic sources are surveyed, among others, as well as the Qumran texts and the Septuagint; and in cultures where no cognate word exists, the authors often consider cognate ideas.TDOT's emphasis, though, is on Hebrew terminology and on biblical usage. The contributors employ philology as well as form-critical and traditio-historical methods, with the aim of understanding the religious statements in the Old Testament. Extensive bibliographical information adds to the value of this reference work.This English edition attempts to serve the needs of Old Testament students without the linguistic background of more advanced scholars; it does so, however, without sacrificing the needs of the latter. Ancient scripts (Hebrew, Greek, etc.) are regularly transliterated in a readable way, and meanings of foreign words are given in many cases where the meanings might be obvious to advanced scholars. Where the Hebrew text versification differs from that of English Bibles, the English verse appears in parentheses. Such features will help all earnest students of the Bible to avail themselves of the manifold theological insights contained in this monumental work.

One of the world's foremost experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran community that produced them provides an authoritative new English translation of the two hundred longest and most important nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, along with an introduction to the history of the discovery and publication of each manuscript and the background necessary for placing each manuscript in its actual historical context.

Foreword by Gabriel FackreWill God one day save all people through Christ's atoning work? That is the question at the heart of the debate in this volume -- a debate sure to challenge readers, whatever their current perspective.Featuring evangelical writers of exceptional insight and sensitivity, Universal Salvation? offers a conversation worth everyone's attention. The volume opens with a rigorous three-part defense of Christian universalism by philosopher Thomas Talbott, who argues that Scripture teaches the ultimate salvation of all people, including those in hell. Gabriel Fackre in his foreword calls Talbott's work -the most thoughtfully wrought argument for universalism to date from within the contemporary evangelical community.- The rest of the book gathers incisive responses to Talbott by Christian scholars from different disciplines, who evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Talbott's arguments, take his thought in new directions, or explain why they think he is mistaken. Talbott then responds to his critics.The aim of this volume is not to persuade people that universalism is true but to open up a fairer debate on a controversial subject of continuing importance to theologians and nontheologians alike. By exploring universal salvation from biblical, philosophical, theological, and historical perspectives, the book helps readers think through the issues more carefully than has been possible with resources previously available.