Issue: Religion and philosophy

Galatians Re-imagined: Reading with the Eyes of the Vanquished

Galatians Re-imagined: Reading with the Eyes of the Vanquished

Posted by | Sep 3, 2020 | |

Brigitte Kahl brings to this insightful reading of Galatians a deep knowledge of the classical world and especially of Roman imperial ideology. The first wave of scholarship on the Roman imperial context of Paul’s letters raised important questions that only thorough treatments of individual letters can answer. Kahl sets the letter to the Galatians in the context of Roman perceptions of vanquished peoples as represented in the Great Altar at Pergamum. Beginning with a perceptive discussion of the Great Altar, Kahl describes imperial representations of Roman power as well as the characteristics officially imputed to conquered peoples, including the “savage” Galatians (Gauls)

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Free of Charge: Gi ving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace

Free of Charge: Gi ving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace

Posted by | Sep 3, 2020 | |

We are at our human best when we give and forgive.But we live in a world in which it makes little sense to do either one. In our increasingly graceless culture, where can we find the motivation to give? And how do we learn to forgive when forgiving seems counterintuitive or even futile? A deeply personal yet profoundly thoughtful book, Free of Charge explores these questions¬ – and the further questions to which they give rise – in light of God’s generosity and Christ’s sacrifice for us.

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For the Glory of God: How Monotheism led to Reformations, Science, Witch Hunts and the End of Slavery

For the Glory of God: How Monotheism led to Reformations, Science, Witch Hunts and the End of Slavery

Posted by | Sep 3, 2020 | |

Rodney Stark’s provocative new book argues that, whether we like it or not, people acting for the glory of God have formed our modern culture. Continuing his project of identifying the widespread consequences of monotheism, Stark shows that the Christian conception of God resulted–almost inevitably and for the same reasons–in the Protestant Reformation, the rise of modern science, the European witch-hunts, and the Western abolition of slavery. In the process, he explains why Christian and Islamic images of God yielded such different cultural results, leading Christians but not Muslims to foster science, burn “witches,” and denounce slavery.

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Flourishing

Flourishing

Posted by | Sep 2, 2020 | |

More than almost anything else, globalization and the great world religions are shaping our lives, affecting everything from the public policies of political leaders and the economic decisions of industry bosses and employees, to university curricula, all the way to the inner longings of our hearts. Integral to both globalization and religions are compelling, overlapping, and sometimes competing visions of what it means to live well.

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Exclusion & Embrace

Exclusion & Embrace

Posted by | Sep 2, 2020 | |

Life in the twenty-first century presents a disturbing reality. Otherness, the simple fact of being different in some way, has come to be defined as in and of itself evil. Miroslav Volf contends that if the healing word of the gospel is to be heard today, Christian theology must find ways of speaking that address the hatred of the other. Is there any hope of embracing our enemies? Of opening the door to reconciliation? Reaching back to the New Testament metaphor of salvation as reconciliation, Volf proposes the idea of embrace as a theological response to the problem of exclusion.

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