2021–22 New Title Catalog

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS 2021–2022

The Politics of Persecution Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire

Mitri Raheb Persecution of Christians in the Middle East has been a recurring theme since the middle of the nineteenth century. The topic has experienced a resurgence in the last few years, especially during the Trump era. Middle Eastern Christians are often portrayed as a homogeneous, helpless group ever at the mercy of their Muslim enemies, a situation that only Western powers can remedy. The Politics of Persecution revisits this narrative with a critical eye.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1440-4 $24.99 | Cloth 215 pages 5.5 x 8.5 SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

“A must-read for anyone wanting to delve into the multifaceted history, appreciate the depth of coverage, and engage Middle Eastern Christians.”

—HATEM BAZIAN, Zaytuna College

Mitri Raheb charts the plight of Christians in the Middle East from the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 to the so-called Arab Spring. The book analyzes the diverse socioeconomic and political factors that led to the diminishing role and numbers of Christians in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan during the eras of Ottoman, French, and British Empires, through the eras of independence, Pan-Arabism, and Pan-Islamism, and into the current era of American empire. With an incisive exposé of the politics that lie behind alleged concerns for these persecuted Christians—and how the concept of persecution has been a tool of public diplomacy and international politics—Raheb reveals that Middle Eastern Christians have been repeatedly sacrificed on the altar of Western national interests. The West has been part of the problem for Middle Eastern Christianity and not part of the solution, from the massacre on Mount Lebanon to the rise of ISIS. The Politics of Persecution, written by a well-known Palestinian Christian theologian, provides an insider perspective on this contested region. Middle Eastern Christians survived successive empires by developing great elasticity in adjusting to changing contexts; they learned how to survive atrocities and how to resist creatively while maintaining a dynamic identity. In this light, Raheb casts the history of Middle Eastern Christians not so much as one of persecution but as one of resilience.

“A timely, concise, and accessible volume that should be widely read by those concerned with ‘religious freedom’ in the MENA region.”

—DIANE L. MOORE, Harvard Divinity School

MITRI RAHEB is founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. The most widely published Palestinian theologian to date, Raheb is the author of more than forty books.

CONTENTS Introduction 1 Under Ottoman Rule 2 Religious Mobility 3 A Massacre on Mount Lebanon 4 Agents of Renaissance 5 Christian Zionism 6 The Road to Genocide 7 Minorities in Nation-States 8 A Catastrophe 9 Arab and Christian 10 A Turning Point 11 Petrodollars 12 Challenging Times Epilogue

“A trove of information and analysis”

“A compelling testimony of resilience”

—PHILIP JENKINS, Baylor University

—M. CRAIG BARNES, Princeton Theological Seminary

“A dialogue with my very being”

“Raheb touches upon a critical theme in the geopolitics of the Middle East: the persecution of Christians”

—MICHEL E. ABS, The Middle East Council of Churches

“An outstanding demystification of the history of Middle East Christians under imperialism”

—RAFAEL MALPICA PADILLA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

—SANTIAGO SLABODSKY, Hofstra University–New York

“An urgently needed challenge to portrayals of Middle Eastern Christians” —DEANNA FERREE WOMACK, Candler School of Theology

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“Wolfram Kinzig combines great learning and critical rigor with a sensitivity to the cruelty and fascination of ancient persecutions of Christians. The result is a compact and lively study that provides crisp presentations of individual accounts of Christian persecutions and substantive analyses of the historical contexts that brought them about.”

—WAYNE COPPINS, P rofessor of Re lig io n , Th e Un ive rsity of Ge o rg ia

“Was the persecution of ancient Christians only a myth? In this timely intervention in a fraught debate, Kinzig replies with a clear ‘No.’ On the basis of a wide range of historical sources, he traces a concise outline of the history of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire before Constantine. Thanks to Markus Bockmuehl, this sobering scholarship is now mediated for Anglophone readers in fluid English prose.”

—JANE HEATH, A sso c i ate P rofessor i n the D e p ar t me n t of Th e o lo g y an d Re lig io n , Du r h am Un i ve rs i ty

“Kinzig doesn’t get bogged down in scholarly minutiae, but his reconstruction is informed by an excellent grasp of the sources and by their critical evaluation. There is not, to my knowledge, a book of this character available in English.”

—JOHANNES ZACHHUBER, P rofessor of H i stori cal an d Syste mat ic Th e o lo g y, Un ive rsity of Ox ford

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WOLFRAM KINZIG is Professor of Church History at the University of Bonn.

MARKUS BOCKMUEHL is Dean Ireland’s Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford.

CONTENTS Introduction: The Cruelty and Fascination of Ancient Persecutions of Christians 1 The Marginalization of Christianity within Judaism 2 Christianity’s Offensiveness: Ideological Parameters of the Ancient Conflicts 3 Legal Procedures and Punishments 4 Persecutions in Rome under Nero and Domitian 5 Christians as Victims of Local Police Actions (111–249) 6 A Decade of Persecution: From Decius to Valerian (249–260) 7 The Fiercest Attack on Ancient Christianity: The ‘Great Persecution’ under Diocletian and Its Aftermath 8 Later Repressions of Christians in the Roman Empire 9 Late Antique Persecutions outside the Roman Empire 10 The Dispute about Repentance after Apostasy Concluding Observations

Christian Persecution in Antiquity Wolfram Kinzig translated by Markus Bockmuehl For centuries into the Common Era, Christians faced social ostracism and suspicion from neighbors and authorities alike. At times, this antipathy erupted into violence.

Following Christ was a risky allegiance: to be a Christian in the Roman Empire carried with it the implicit risk of being branded a traitor to cultural and imperial sensibilities. The prolonged experience of distrust, oppression, and outright persecution helped shape the ethos of the Christian faith and produced a wealth of literature commemorating those who gave their lives in witness to the gospel.

Wolfram Kinzig, in Christian Persecution in Antiquity, examines the motivations and legal mechanisms behind the various outbursts of violence against Christians, and chronologically tracks the course of Roman oppression of this new religion to the time of Constantine. Brief consideration is also given to persecutions of Christians outside the borders of the Roman Empire. Kinzig analyzes martyrdom accounts of the early church, cautiously drawing on these ancient voices alongside contemporary non-Christian evidence to reconstruct the church’s experience as a minority sect. In doing so, Kinzig challenges recent reductionist attempts to dismantle the idea that Christians were ever serious targets of intentional violence. While martyrdom accounts and their glorification of self-sacrifice seem strange to modern eyes, they should still be given credence as historical artifacts indicative of actual events, despite them being embellished by sanctified memory.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1388-9 $29.99 | Cloth 181 pages 5.5 x 8.5 SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

Newly translated from the German original by Markus Bockmuehl and featuring an additional chapter and concise notes, Christian Persecution in Antiquity fills a gap in English scholarship on early Christianity and offers a helpful introduction to this era for nonspecialists. Kinzig makes clear the critical role played by the experience of persecution in the development of the church’s identity and sense of belonging in the ancient world.

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The Good Shepherd Image, Meaning, and Power

Jennifer Awes Freeman A statuette of Egyptian King Pepi formidably wielding a shepherd’s crook stands in stark contrast to a fresco of an unassuming Orpheus-like youth gently hoisting a sheep around his shoulders. Both images, however, occupy an extensive tradition of shepherding motifs.

In the transition from ancient Near Eastern depictions of the keeper of flocks as one holding great power to the more “pastoral” scenes of early Christian art, it might appear that connotations of rulership were divested from the image of the shepherd. The reality, however, presents a much more complex tapestry.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1537-1 $39.99 | Cloth 205 pages 6x9 25 b&w photos | 6 b&w illus. | 8 color plates SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

“With striking originality and sympathetic insight, The Good Shepherd traces a compelling history of this haunting figure from ancient Mesopotamia through the Middle Ages. . . Beautifully illustrated, The Good Shepherd weaves a poignant story of beauty, mystery, and compassion through the ages.”

—INGRID ROWLAND, Professor in the Department of History and the School of Architecture, University of Notre Dame

The Good Shepherd: Image, Meaning, and Power traces the visual and textual depictions of the Good Shepherd motif from its early iterations as a potent symbol of kingship, through its reimagining in biblical figures, such as the shepherd-king David, and onward to the shepherds of Greco-Roman literature. Jennifer Awes Freeman reveals that the figure of the Good Shepherd never became humble or docile but always carried connotations of empire, divinity, and defensive violence even within varied sociopolitical contexts. The early Christian invocation of the Good Shepherd was not simply anti-imperial but relied on a complex set of associations that included king, priest, pastor, and sacrificial victim—even as it subverted those meanings in the figure of Jesus, both shepherd and sacrificial lamb.

The concept of the Good Shepherd continued to prove useful for early medieval rulers, such as Charlemagne, but its imperial references waned in the later Middle Ages as it became more exclusively applied to church leaders.

Drawing on a range of sources including literature, theological treatises, and political texts, as well as sculpture, mosaics, and manuscript illuminations, The Good Shepherd offers a significant contribution as the first comprehensive study of the long history of the Good Shepherd motif. It also engages the flexible and multivalent abilities of visual and textual symbols to convey multiple meanings in religious and political contexts.

“Awes Freeman examines the earliest antecedents of the shepherd motif and allows her audience to realize how early Christians synthesized and reimagined existing conceptions of the Good Shepherd, weaving them into the uniquely Christian trope it is today. . . . Her work on the Good Shepherd proves how valuable her methodology is, and she provides a lasting testament to this pivotal motif in early Christianity and beyond.”

—LEE JEFFERSON, Nelson D. and Mary McDowell Rodes Associate Professor of Religion, Centre College

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JENNIFER AWES FREEMAN is Assistant Professor and Program Director of Theology and the Arts at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

CONTENTS Introduction 1 “The Shepherd Who Brings Peace”: Shepherd-Kingship in the Ancient Near East 2 “Shepherd of the People”: Divinity and Violence in the Greco-Roman World 3 The Shepherd-Victim as Lawgiver: The Good Shepherd in the Early Church 4 Pastor Francorum: Church and State in the Early Middle Ages Conclusion

“Jennifer Awes Freeman’s study takes a fresh look at an iconography that has been so long defined in art history that it is hardly questioned, proving that Early Christian subjects with established meanings can indeed be fruitfully re-examined.”

—KATHERINE MARSENGILL, Independent Scholar, Brooklyn, New York

NATHAN L. SHEDD (PhD St. Mary’s University, Twickenham) is an adjunct instructor at William Jessup University and Johnson University.

CONTENTS Introduction: A History of Violence 1 Violence Exposed: Social Memory Theory and the Negotiation of Trauma 2 Cultures of Violence: Beheading in the Ancient World 3 Contesting Violence: John’s Beheading and Degradation in the Gospel of Mark 4 The Violence of Memory: Christian Identity via Anti-Jewish Polemic Conclusion: Reading beyond Violence

“This ambitious study considers memories of John the Baptist’s violent beheading, as found both in the New Testament and in other early Christian literature. It uses social memory theory to reflect how John’s death would have been understood among other beheadings in the Roman world. It reflects on changes of interpretations in the light of different cultural circumstances and debates, particularly with Judaism. As such, it makes a solid contribution to understanding the reception of John in the early centuries.”

—JOAN TAYLOR, Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism, King’s College London

A Dangerous Parting The Beheading of John the Baptist in Early Christian Memory

Nathan L. Shedd Execution by beheading is a highly symbolic act. The grisly image of the severed head evokes a particular social and cultural location, functioning as a channel of figurative discourse specific to a place and time—dissuading nonideal behavior as well as expressing and reinforcing group boundary demarcations and ideological assumptions. In short, a bodiless head serves as a discursive vehicle of communication: though silenced, it speaks.

Employing social memory theory and insights from a thorough analysis of ancient ideology concerning beheading, A Dangerous Parting explores the communicative impact of the tradition of John the Baptist’s decapitation in the first three centuries of the Common Era. Nathan Shedd argues that the early memory of the Immerser’s death is characterized by a dangerous synchroneity. On the one hand, John’s beheading, associated as it was with Jesus’ crucifixion, served as the locus of destabilizing and redistributing the degradation of a victim who undergoes bodily violence; both John and Jesus were mutually vindicated as victims of somatic violence. On the other hand, as John’s head was remembered in the second and third century, localized expressions of the “Parting of the Ways” were inscribed onto that parted head with dangerous anti-Jewish implications. Justin Martyr and Origen represent an attempt to align John’s beheading and Jesus’ crucifixion along a cultural schematic that asserted the destitution of non-Christ-following Jews and, simultaneously, alleged Christians’ ethical, ideological, and spiritual supremacy.

A Dangerous Parting uncovers interpretive possibilities of John’s beheading, especially regarding the deep-rooted patterns of thinking that have animated indifference to acts of physical violence against Jews throughout history. With this work, Shedd not only pushes John the Baptist research forward to consider the impact of this figure in early expressions of Jewish and Christian distinction, but also urges scholars and students alike to contemplate the ethics of reading ancient texts.

“Severed heads are surprisingly loquacious. Decapitation—an unnatural event freighted with cultural intention—is a communicative act that violently inscribes its own words into the mouths of its victims. In A Dangerous Parting, Nathan Shedd listens as the disembodied head of John the Baptist speaks across the first three Christian centuries.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1522-7 $44.99 | Cloth 221 pages 6x9 NOVEMBER 1, 2021

“In A Dangerous Parting, Nathan L. Shedd tracks the journey of John the Baptist’s decapitated head first through the space of its story world and then through its reception over time. By considering the head to be a vehicle for meaning that is activated in different contexts, this sharply focused book exemplifies the responsible use of social memory theory.”

—SARAH E. ROLLENS, R.A. Webb Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes College

—RAFAEL RODRÍGUEZ, Professor of New Testament, Johnson University

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John and the Others

ANDREW J. BYERS is Tutor in New Testament at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

Jewish Relations, Christian Origins, and the Sectarian Hermeneutic

Andrew J. Byers The Johannine literature has inspired the Church’s christological creeds, prompted its Trinitarian formulations, and resourced its ecumenical and social movements.

However, while confessional readers find in these texts a divine love for “the world,” biblical scholars often detect a dangerous program of harsh polemics arrayed against “the other.” In this frame, the Johannine writings are products of an anti-society with its own anti-language articulating a worldview that is anti-ecclesiastical, antihierarchical, and, more seriously, anti-Jewish and even anti-Semitic. In New Testament studies, the prefix “anti-” has become almost Johannine.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1590-6 $39.99 | Cloth 255 pages 5.5 x 8.5 SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

“John and the Others: Jewish Relations, Christian Origins, and the Secretarian Heremenuetic challenges our reading of John and the language of otherness. Andrew Byers provides a sensitive and readable up-to-date discussion and points to the complexities in the Johannine texts. The book points to the remedy of inclusion in the Johannine texts as provided by the ideas of incarnation, love, and mission.”

—JÖRG FREY, Professor of New Testament Studies, University of Zurich

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In John and the Others, Andrew Byers challenges the “sectarian hermeneutic” that has shaped much of the interpretation of the Gospel and Letters of John. Rather than “anti-Jewish,” we should understand John as opposed to the exclusionary positioning of ethnicity as a soteriological category. Neither is this stream of early Christianity antagonistic towards the wider Christian movement. The Fourth Evangelist openly situates his work in a crowded field of alternative narratives about Jesus without seeking to supplant prior works. Though John is often regarded as a “low-church” theologian, Byers shows that the episcopal ecclesiology of Ignatius of Antioch is compatible with Johannine theology. John does not locate revelation solely within the personal authority of each believer under the power of the Spirit, and so does not undercut hierarchical leadership.

Byers demonstrates that the “Other Disciple” is actually a salutary resource for a contemporary world steeped in the negative discourse of othering. Though John’s social vision entails othering, the negative “other” in John is ultimately cosmic evil, and his theological convictions are grounded in the most sweeping act of “de-othering” in history, when the divine Other “became flesh and dwelled among us.” This early Christian tradition certainly erected boundaries, but all Johannine walls have a “Gate”—Jesus, the Lamb of God slain for the sin of the world that God loves.

“In this timely and thought-provoking study, Andrew Byers argues that the core of Johannine theology is found in an ultimate act of de-othering: the incarnation. In a new turn in Johannine studies, he further claims this theological heart has the potential for ameliorating division and marginalization.”

—SHERRI BROWN, Associate Professor of Theology, Creighton University

CONTENTS Introduction: The Other Who Became Flesh 1 Diversity as Enmity: The Sectarian Hermeneutic in Johannine Studies 2 John and Other Jews: Competing Visions of “Israel” 3 John and Other Christians I: Evangelists, Schismatics, Secessionists, and Strangers 4 John and Other Christians II: Ecclesiology and Pneumatology 5 The Other Disciple’s Theology of the “Other” Conclusion: The Johannine Voice: Sectarian or Prophetic?

“Andrew Byers is a gifted communicator whose scholarly achievement in this book is committed to challenging stereotypical perceptions of ‘the other’ that fracture social interactions today. In a welcome departure from the sectarian outlook often attributed to the Gospel and Epistles of John, Byers argues that their focus is on ‘oneness’ that recognizes difference, a process of ‘de-othering’ that begins with the Gospel’s declaration that the divine ‘Other’ became flesh.”

—WENDY E. S. NORTH, Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham

RUBEN A. BÜHNER is a postdoctoral researcher for New Testament Studies at the University of Zurich and at the University of Tübingen. He received the 2021 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise for his dissertation entitled “High Messianology.” The prize is awarded by the Heidelberg Research Center for International and Interdisciplinary Theology (FIIT). He was also awarded the 2020 Young Scientist Prize from the Zurich Center for the Study of Antiquity.

CONTENTS Introduction 1 The Exaltation of Christ: Philippians 2:6-11 and Messianic Exaltation Texts 2 The Heavenly Christ: Mark 14:61-65 and Celestial Messianic Figures 3 The Virginal Conception of Christ: Luke 1:26-38, Divine Sonship, and Miraculous Births 4 Christ the Enthroned Lamb: Revelation 4—5 and the Son of Man Seated on the Throne of Glory 5 Christ the Divine Word: John’s Prologue and the Destructive Power of Messiah’s Utterance 6 Paths Not Taken: Angelic Messianism and Angelomorphic Christology 7 High Christology: A Contested Variant of Second Temple Messianism Conclusion “Research on early Christology has often been hamstrung by dogmatic, binary categories (God or not God?). But in his excellent Messianic High Christology, Ruben Bühner demonstrates how many ‘high,’ superhuman, even divine categories were available within the rich tradition of ancient Jewish messianism.”

—MATTHEW NOVENSON, Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins, University of Edinburgh

Messianic High Christology New Testament Variants of Second Temple Judaism

Ruben A. Bühner The depiction of Christ as divine is often assumed to be the categorical difference between early Jewish messianism and New Testament Christology. Despite the prolific accomplishments of recent scholarship on Second Temple messianism and on the origin and development of “high” Christology, research has largely treated these as two separate lines of inquiry. As an unintended result, earliest Christianity appears not as an organic outgrowth of ancient Judaism, but as something of an anomaly. Ruben A. Bühner calls this line of thinking into question in Messianic High Christology.

Through a curated set of exegetical comparisons, each between a christological text and one or two messianic texts, Bühner reveals to what extent Second Temple messianism is indeed the primary context for the high Christologies of the New Testament: most New Testament concepts of Christ’s divinity are to be understood precisely as part of contemporary discourse within early Jewish messianism. While early understandings of Christ are not simply identical with some other Jewish messianic expectations, they should be understood as deliberate developments in acceptance of and in dialogue with the wider Jewish discourse produced by some Jewish subgroups. As Bühner argues, it was not until the second and subsequent centuries that Jews as well as non-Jewish followers of Christ began to consider the divinity of the messiah as the decisive criterion by which to distinguish between what later would develop into two separate religions.

With Messianic High Christology, Bühner brings the New Testament Christologies closer to their first-century Jewish context. In doing so, he augments our understanding of the correlation between early devotion to Christ and early Jewish thought and practice more broadly, and challenges current historical reconstructions.

“There is a resistance among scholars of both Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity to acknowledge that some traditions within the complex mix of Jewish Messianism that was present before the time of Jesus included characteristics of a divine messiah. Ruben Bühner not only identifies examples in Second Temple Jewish messianic texts but also demonstrates how some New Testament writers expressed their understanding of Jesus as divine in a manner similar to these already existing strands of Jewish Messianism. The result is an important contribution to the integrative study of Jewish Messianism and early (high) Christology.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1540-1 $49.99 | Cloth 244 pages 6x9 SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

“Ruben Bühner offers a fresh perspective on Christology in the New Testament. By closely comparing early Christian and Jewish beliefs, Bühner makes a strong case for understanding various Christologies in the New Testament as part of Second Temple messianic discourse. Thereby the study will make an important contribution to the discussion of the ‘Parting of the Ways’ of Judaism and Christianity.”

—CECILIA WASSÉN, Associate Professor, Department of Theology, Uppsala University

—CHARLES A. GIESCHEN, Professor of Exegetical Theology, Concordia Theological Seminary

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Love as Agape The Early Christian Concept and Modern Discourse

ODA WISCHMEYER is Professor Emerita of Ancient Judaism and New Testament at University of Erlangen.

BAYLOR–MOHR SIEBECK STUDIES IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY

Oda Wischmeyer translated by Wayne Coppins In our fraught global environment, when political and ideological lines are drawn ever sharper and old allegiances are increasingly strained, love for neighbor as both individual and societal obligation needs to be thematized and justified anew. At the same time, the New Testament call to love one’s enemies forms a sharp point of contrast to the current non-culture of hatred for all things different and foreign.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1574-6 $69.99 | Cloth 335 pages 6x9 AUGUST 15, 2021

“Oda Wischmeyer has produced an impressive study of love in early Christian thought and expression. Love is more than an ethical value, she argues. It was foundational to their conception of God and a major catalyst for community formation. She has made a convincing case that one cannot describe the identity of the early Jesus people without this five-letter Greek word: agape.”

—NIJAY K. GUPTA, Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary

Oda Wischmeyer’s Love as Agape: The Early Christian Concept and Modern Discourse, the ninth volume in the Baylor–Mohr Siebeck Studies in Early Christianity series, aims to bring the New Testament concept of love into conversation with the current discussion about love. Wischmeyer investigates the commandment tradition of love for God and for neighbor, the ways in which the Septuagint and Plutarch speak of love, and the innovative concepts of love developed by Paul and John. She also presents an exegetically informed construction of the New Testament concept of love that is sharpened through a penetrating comparison with counter-, parallel, and alternative concepts from the ancient world. The book brings this holistic biblical vision forward into critical and constructive dialogue with key contemporary visions of love, including those of Julia Kristeva, Martha Nussbaum, Pope Benedict XVI, and Simon May. The tension that emerges stresses the need for fresh conceptualizations of ancient Jewish-Christian understandings, giving rise to the concluding question of the profile, limits, and impulses of the agape concept for present challenges.

Through this academically rigorous and pastorally sensitive exploration, Wischmeyer points to the great love story between God and humanity, which realizes itself in the figure of Jesus Christ. This divine romance places love as the most intense, affirming, and life-creating relationship in God’s own self, a relationship into which human beings are drawn and by which they obtain special dignity when God’s love becomes their life.

“In this brilliant book, Wischmeyer revitalizes a central New Testament theme: the transcendent yet socially embodied love of God in Christ. Situating her analysis in the historical context of ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman discourses on love, Wischmeyer critically engages with current post-religious theorists on love. The result is a bracing and constructive restoration to public discourse of the Christian conception of love. Thorough, passionate, and hugely relevant, Love as Agape is a must-read.”

—SUSAN EASTMAN, Associate Research Professor of New Testament, Duke Divinity School

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CONTENTS Introduction: From Commandment to Concept 1 The Love Commandment in the New Testament 2 Historical Contexts 3 ἀγάπη in the Texts of the New Testament 4 The Concept of Love (ἀγάπη/ἀγαπᾷν) in the Writings of the New Testament 5 Alternative and Counter-Conceptions in the Early Jewish and Early Christian World 6 The Concept of Agape and Current Conceptions of Love Looking Forward: The New Testament Concept of Love

“Oda Wischmeyer’s study of love in early Christianity is a tour de force. Wischmeyer shows how the Christian concept of love is rooted in Israel’s scriptures, relates to ancient philosophical discourse, and came to have a definitive impact on western civilization. In addition, Wischmeyer puts the Christian notion of love into fruitful dialogue with modern philosophical accounts of love. A must-have volume for anyone interested in Christian ethics and cultural engagement.”

—MICHAEL F. BIRD, Academic Dean and Lecturer in Theology, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

STEPHEN E. YOUNG serves as Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Perth Bible College in Perth, Australia.

CONTENTS Introduction: Paul’s Letter to Philemon and Slaveries Past and Present 1 The Need for a New Reading of Paul’s Letter to Philemon 2 Reading in Search of Social Impact: A New Approach to Paul’s Letter to Philemon 3 Rereading Paul’s Letter to Philemon: Positioning Brother Onesimus within the Christian Community 4 Welcoming Brother Onesimus: Becoming a Community of Deliverance Excursus: Would It Have Been Too Problematic for Philemon to Manumit Onesimus?

“Young’s erudite study departs from previous offerings, on the one hand, by significantly widening the interpretive circle, inviting the voices and concerns of feminists and minoritized biblical interpreters. At the same time, he mines traditional methods and scholarship on the text. But he also, on the other hand, deftly weaves together these various methodological approaches, the most important of which for his study is Positioning Theory, into a fresh interpretive tour de force.”

—DEMETRIUS K. WILLIAMS, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Our Brother Beloved Purpose and Community in Paul’s Letter to Philemon

Stephen E. Young The Letter to Philemon has been read by generations of interpreters, including towering figures such as John Chrysostom, as having to do with Paul returning the fugitive slave Onesimus to his master. Hence the letter, at best, was made complicit in the institution of slavery and, at worst, was foundational for the view that slavery was God ordained. This oppressive interpretation still holds sway in the academy and church alike.

In his interdisciplinary study, Stephen E. Young sets a new trajectory for understanding this unassuming epistle. Our Brother Beloved: Purpose and Community in Paul’s Letter to Philemon opens with a case study on the use of the Letter to Philemon in the debates surrounding slavery and fugitive slaves in antebellum America. The book then analyzes the major background stories that have been used as keys to interpret the letter, showing that past and present oppressive uses of the Letter to Philemon are due not to the letter’s contents but to the persistence of erroneous readings. Young provides a new interpretation that accounts for every element of the Letter to Philemon while also addressing many shortcomings of previous interpretations. In so doing he pioneers the use of Positioning Theory, from the field of social psychology, as an analytical approach, opening up a new avenue for the study of ancient texts.

That texts shape the identity of readers is widely recognized, but biblical scholars tend to disregard the process by which that influence unfolds. Young demonstrates how the Letter to Philemon sought to shape the identity of its readers within their sociocultural context by molding them into a community of deliverance, one that could receive Onesimus no longer as a slave but as a brother and fellow worker in the gospel. Such a fresh reading carries strong implications for the ongoing cause of social justice.

“Stephen E. Young convincingly interprets Paul’s letter to Philemon as creating an alternative Christian moral order that challenges the very foundation of slavery. The book is characterized by a compelling combination of the fresh perspective of Positioning Theory and the most meticulous exegesis. It is a model of social-scientific interpretation and of its capacity to free Philemon from its pro-slavery misinterpretations in the past and to provoke liberative and inclusive understanding in the present.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1531-9 $44.99 | Cloth 256 pages 6x9 1 b&w illus.

AUGUST 15, 2021

“Paul’s letter to Philemon has long been a troublesome reminder of social inequities and yet the possibility of transformed relationships. With careful review of a text fraught with ambiguities and a long history of interpretation, Stephen E. Young weaves his way deftly through multiple and multivalent interpretations. In search of a responsible way to make the text meaningful in the contemporary context, he employs Positioning Theory to demonstrate anew the power of the text for the challenge of resetting relationships.”

—CAROLYN OSIEK, Professor of New Testament Emerita, Brite Divinity School

—PHILIP ESLER, Portland Chair in New Testament Studies, University of Gloucestershire

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King of Kings

JUSTIN L. PANNKUK is Instructor of Humanities at Culver Academies.

God and the Foreign Emperor in the Hebrew Bible

Justin L. Pannkuk From the eighth to second centuries BCE, ancient Israel and Judah were threatened and dominated by a series of foreign empires. This traumatic history prompted serious theological reflection and recalibration, specifically to address the relationship between God and foreign kings. This relationship provided a crucial locus for thinking theologically about empire, for if the rival sovereignty possessed and expressed by kings such as Sennacherib of Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Cyrus of Persia, and Antiochus IV Epiphanes was to be rendered meaningful, it somehow had to be assimilated into a Yahwistic theological framework.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1406-0 $59.99 | Cloth 304 pages 6x9 5 b&w photos | 17 b&w illus.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 “In very readable and accessible prose, King of Kings examines the Hebrew Bible’s theological responses to the imperial violence faced by ancient Israel and Judah over the course of more than half a millennium.”

—DAVID JANZEN, Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Durham University

In King of Kings, Justin Pannkuk tells the stories of how the biblical texts modeled the relationship between God and foreign kings at critical junctures in the history of Judah and the development of this discourse across nearly six centuries. Pannkuk finds that the biblical authors consistently assimilated the power and activities of the foreign kings into exclusively Yahwistic interpretive frameworks by constructing hierarchies of agency and sovereignty that reaffirmed YHWH’s position of ultimate supremacy over the kings. These acts of assimilation performed powerful symbolic work on the problems presented by empire by framing them as expressions of YHWH’s own power and activity.

This strategy had the capacity to render imperial domination theologically meaningful, but it also came with theological consequences: with each imperial encounter, the ideologies of rule and political aggression to which the biblical texts responded actually shaped the biblical discourse about YHWH. With its broad historical sweep, engagement with important theological themes, and accessible prose, King of Kings provides a rich resource for students and scholars working in biblical studies, theology, and ancient history. It is an important resource for understanding how the vagaries of history inform our ongoing negotiations with concepts of the divine.

“Justin Pannkuk’s book is a compelling combination of serious scholarship and riveting narration. Seldom has anyone made the history of ancient Israel’s confrontation with a succession of Gentile empires so vivid and the complex strategies of its ideological engagement so compelling. This is the perfect book to put in the hands of students who wonder why ancient history matters. But scholars will also find it perceptive and nuanced in its analyses of the complicated theological innovations to which these circumstances gave rise.”

—CAROL A. NEWSOM, C. H. Candler Professor Emerita of Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible, Emory University

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CONTENTS Introduction: Imperial Encounters 1 Woe, Assyria—The Rod of My Anger!

God and the Gentile Emperor in First Isaiah 2 Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, My Servant: God and the Gentile Emperor in Jeremiah 3 Cyrus, YHWH’s Anointed One: God and the Gentile Emperor at the Dawn of the Persian Period 4 In the Court of the King: God and the Gentile Emperor in Daniel 1–6 5 Ruled and Yet Unruly: God and the Gentile Emperor in Daniel 7 Conclusion: The Chapters and the Story

“From the very first sentence of this book, Justin Pannkuk treats his readers to a theological-historical feast offering us a comprehensive study of the various and varied biblical models for making sense of Gentile imperialism amidst development and change. Pannkuk proves himself a meticulous researcher and a careful sifter of the relevant sources from Assyria and First Isaiah to Daniel and Antiochus IV Epiphanes. And his prose is simply beautiful. This is a stunning first outing for Pannkuk: a profound and mature work, both theoretically and theologically sophisticated, which leaves me eager to see what he writes next.”

—BRENT A. STRAWN, Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law, Duke University

DANIEL DALEY is Fellow in the Department of Biblical Studies at Australian Catholic University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

CONTENTS 1 Introduction: Matthew and Jewish Tradition 2 Inheritance in the Hebrew Bible 3 Inheritance in the Second Temple Period: Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha 4 Inheritance in the Second Temple Period: The Qumran Literature 5 Inheritance in the Gospel of Matthew 6 Conclusion: Matthew and the Promise of Discipleship

“This careful and thought-provoking study deserves to be widely read and pondered by students, pastors, and scholars alike.”

—BEN WITHERINGTON III, Amos Professor of NT for Doctoral Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary

“An informative study of a neglected theme and a formidable contribution to Matthean scholarship.”

—MICHAEL F. BIRD, Academic Dean and Lecturer in Theology, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

God’s Will and Testament Inheritance in the Gospel of Matthew and Jewish Tradition

Daniel Daley The Hebrew Bible expresses the Israelite belief that the Israelites were the people of God uniquely chosen from among all peoples of the earth, and that this status as elected people guaranteed them certain privileges not granted to other peoples. One of these privileges was the right to an inheritance granted by God himself— a birthright that provided a sense of God’s protection and an awareness of Israel’s relationship to God as a special nation.

Details regarding the nature of that inheritance—what it is, who receives it, and how inheritance is obtained—appear in every strata and section of the Hebrew Scriptures, and this trajectory continues across many Second Temple Jewish texts. Yet surprisingly little scholarly attention has been focused on inheritance as a unique and crucial concept for Israelite and Jewish religious life and belief. This paucity of attention to inheritance concepts also extends to Matthew’s Gospel, where inheritance terms appear on four occasions. With God’s Will and Testament, Daniel Daley argues that these passages play a vital role in Matthew’s overall narrative, especially concerning Matthew’s depiction of true discipleship and relations between Jew and Gentile. Daley further demonstrates that numerous Jewish traditions antecedent to Matthew’s Gospel influenced the writer’s theology and linguistic choices, often in ways not previously appreciated by interpreters.

As a relational term, inheritance signifies the beneficiary’s relationship with God: because God is a father, he gives an inheritance, and because he is an eternal father, the inheritance takes on eschatological connotations to provide a hope for his children into the future. This concept is a thread that binds Matthew and his community to a wider Jewish discourse about what it means to be the people of God. In Matthew’s Gospel, this inheritance, this identity as God’s elect, belongs to “the ideal disciple,” who commits to Jesus and his vision for “greater righteousness.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1552-4 $69.99 | Cloth 413 pages 6x9 SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

“This is a most welcome addition to recent debates on the Gospel of Matthew and its place in relation to Judaism.”

—CATRIN H. WILLIAMS, Professor of New Testament Studies, University of Wales Trinity Saint David

“Daniel Daley’s important study offers the first in-depth analysis of the inheritance motif in the Gospel of Matthew. By reflecting on the aspect of Gentile inclusion in the inheritance, he addresses one of the major topics of the First Gospel from a new perspective. On the basis of his broad consideration of Old Testament and Early Jewish writings, he also deepens the insight into the embeddedness of the Gospel of Matthew within Early Judaism. Overall, the book is full of good observations and fresh insights.”

—MATTHIAS KONRADT, Professor of New Testament, Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg

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In a Vision of the Night Job, Cormac McCarthy, and the Challenge of Chaos

PHILIP S. THOMAS is Training Coordinator at the George Müller Charitable Trust.

Philip S. Thomas How is life possible in a world of evil, suffering, and chaos? Christians have historically been inept at offering adequate answers as to why people’s lives are derailed by sudden chaos and, even worse, at equipping people to live in the throes, or aftermath, of that same chaos. Underlying this confusion is an assumption that evil is a formidable chink in the armor of God’s creation. The book of Job challenges such thinking, but its meaning often remains hidden because of a long-standing belief in Christian hermeneutics that the book is about why bad things happen to good people, or about why suffering happens. This is not the case.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1598-2 $39.99 | Cloth 240 pages 5.5 x 8.5 NOVEMBER 1, 2021

“Readers disturbed by the dark matters of the biblical book of Job and the novels of Cormac McCarthy will be grateful to Philip Thomas for his penetrating study. Careful to respect the integrity of both ancient scripture and recent fiction, Thomas interrogates one by means of the other.”

—JOHN SYKES, Professor of English and Religion, Wingate University

With In a Vision of the Night Philip Thomas offers a fresh perspective into the book of Job by reading it alongside the fiction of Cormac McCarthy. While some critics have previously identified Joban overtones in McCarthy’s work, Thomas argues for something far stronger: a recurrent Joban resonance throughout McCarthy’s works. McCarthy’s rejection of philosophical theodicy, his anti-anthropocentric vision of the world, his assumed presence of chaotic figures, and the quietly persistent note of hope that runs throughout his books reveal the Joban influence. Thomas contends that knowledge of the book of Job gives insight into McCarthy’s literary output; conversely, reading Job through a McCarthyite lens enables proper apprehension of the scriptural text.

Through a thematically based theological reading of McCarthy and Job, In a Vision of the Night draws out often overlooked aspects of the book of Job. Further, it reveals that McCarthy, like the Joban author, constructs a theodicy that both rejects the easy stance of a detached and generalized answer to the question of why chaos comes and advances the more pressing question of how life continues in the face of chaos.

“This profoundly thoughtful book moves between theology and the searing visions of Cormac McCarthy with grace, curiosity, and a genuine invitation to readers to explore the deep rewards of thinking theologically about literature, and literarily about theology, positing that each may be enriched by open dialog with the other.”

—SARA L. SPURGEON, Professor of American Literature, Texas Tech University

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CONTENTS Introduction: True Words in Literature 1 Of Darkness and Definition: Not the Why but the How 2 The Fruitlessness of Philosophical Theodicy: An Untamable God 3 The Decentering of the Human Subject: Anthropocentric Impotence 4 The Looming Threat of Chaos: An Unpredictable Creation 5 The Possibility of Hope: Between the Idealized and the Real 6 Of Theodicy and Transformation: McCarthy as Theologian

“Mixing McCarthy’s mud-and-bloodspattered world with Job’s spittle-frothed laments, Thomas enables readers to see reality more clearly and appreciate the theological contributions of these works more fully.”

—WILL KYNES, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University

2 Maccabees 8–15

Amos

A Handbook on the Greek Text

A Handbook on the Greek Text

BAYLOR HANDBOOK ON THE SEPTUAGINT

BAYLOR HANDBOOK ON THE SEPTUAGINT

Seth M. Ehorn

W. Edward Glenny

SETH M. EHORN is Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College.

W. EDWARD GLENNY is Professor of New Testament Studies and Greek at the University of Northwestern.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1602-6 $39.99 | Paper 315 pages 5.25 x 8 APRIL 1, 2022

ISBN 978-1-4813-1670-5 $49.99 | Paper 381 pages 5.25 x 8 MARCH 15, 2022

“For too long, a full analysis of the complex grammar and style of 2 Maccabees, one of the most fascinating early Jewish writings in the Greek language, has been neglected. Seth Ehorn’s splendid book fills this desideratum. This volume is full of insights which will be indispensable for my own future work on 2 Maccabees.”

“This handbook is an excellent help for understanding the Greek text, the textual history, and the questions of interpretation for the book of Amos. Edward Glenny’s explanations allow easy access to the Greek text as well as carrying on to deeper questions of the meaning and understanding of this important prophetical book.”

—TOBIAS NICKLAS, Chair for Exegesis and Hermeneutics of the New Testament, Universität Regensburg, Germany

—SIEGFRIED KREUZER, Professor of Old Testament, Protestant University Wuppertal/Bethel

In 2 Maccabees 8–15 and Amos, Seth M. Ehorn and W. Edward Glenny, respectively, provide foundational analyses of the Greek texts of 2 Maccabees and Amos. These analyses are distinguished by the detailed yet comprehensive attention paid to the texts. Their analyses are convenient pedagogical and reference tools that explain the form and syntax of the biblical texts, offer guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engage important text-critical debates, and address questions relating to the Greek texts that are frequently overlooked by standard commentaries. Beyond serving as succinct and accessible analytic keys, 2 Maccabees 8–15 and Amos also reflect recent advances in scholarship on Greek grammar and linguistics and are informed by current discussions within Septuagint and New Testament studies. These handbooks prove themselves indispensable tools for anyone committed to a deep reading of these biblical texts in Greek.

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Believing into Christ Relational Faith and Human Flourishing

NATALYA A. CHERRY is Assistant Professor in Methodist Studies and Theology at Brite Divinity School.

Natalya A. Cherry Across lines of tradition and denomination, many Christians express a purely propositional sense of belief, focused primarily on the existence of God and facts about Christ, contributing to a transactional approach to salvation. But belief is about more than the simple fact of God’s existence. Augustine provides a starting point for restoring the relational sense of belief encapsulated in the phrase “believing into Christ.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1543-2 $39.99 | Cloth 212 pages 5.5 x 8.5 OCTOBER 1, 2021

“Engaging in skillful analysis of Latin and Greek grammar, Natalya Cherry shows in this book that, properly translated and used, the phrase ‘believing into Christ’ is at the heart of the early creeds and of Augustine’s theology.

She argues that the phrase illuminates the Augustinian concept of deification which coincides with the flourishing of human life, and consists in the believer’s movement into union with Christ, in partial symmetry to the movement of God to become human.”

—NATALIA MARANDIUC, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

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In Believing into Christ, Natalya Cherry explores this unique, grammatically awkward phrase that Augustine recognized and identified in his preaching as describing Christianity’s distinct contribution to human flourishing. Around this idea, Augustine established and systematized a three-part formula for belief, one which his theological successors treated as defining Christian faith. Cherry tracks the origins of “believing into Christ” and its loss in translation. She then crafts a constructive theology that addresses how to restore the phrase and all it entails. Such a view of belief involves transforming catechesis and sacramental practices that can equip believers to overcome oppression and social barriers in contemporary ecclesial communities and the world they inhabit.

Questions regularly arise about how one can believe in a loving God while being complicit with, or actively participating in, systems of violence and oppression. Christian faith informs our resistance against those systems when we practice the bold surrender engendered by believing into Christ. In this way, Cherry challenges us to consider the relational sense of belief, clinging to Christ by means of the Holy Spirit in a way that directs every relationship toward human flourishing, as the heart of Christian faith.

“Some of the oldest and most familiar words of Christian faith become new and surprising in this joyful book by Natalya A. Cherry. Proving once again that ‘God is in the details,’ Cherry shows how the proper understanding of a single preposition can sweep away centuries of mental cobwebs and cast fresh light on what it means to believe. This is not just a good book to read, it is a book to take to heart.”

—R. KENDALL SOULEN, Professor of Systematic Theology, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

CONTENTS Introduction 1 Faith and Flourishing 2 The Formula in Augustine: Exegeted and Established 3 The Formula after Augustine: Systematized, Reduced, Faded 4 Restoring the Relational Sense 5 Flourishing Praxis: Catechesis, Sacraments, Creeds Conclusion

DREW COLLINS is Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer for the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School. He is also the editor of The Joy of Humility: The Beginning and End of the Virtues.

CONTENTS 1 Introduction: What Is the Christian Theology of Religions?

2 Alan Race’s Threefold Typology 3 Hans Frei, Christian Theology, and the Question of Authority 4 Frei’s Typology and the TwentiethCentury Ecumenical Movement 5 Conclusion: Unique Faith and the Hope of Universal Belonging

“Collins carefully shows how Hans Frei can help rethink the entire theology of religions project. With The Unique and Universal Christ, the post-liberal agenda is moved one step forward in a most helpful and constructive manner.”

—GAVIN D'COSTA, Professor of Catholic Theology, University of Bristol

The Unique and Universal Christ Refiguring the Theology of Religions

Drew Collins From the early days of the Christian faith, the relationship between the twin realities of Jesus’ historical particularity and universal presence has been a theological puzzle. The apparent dichotomy of the two leads Christ-followers to ponder some difficult questions: Who is Jesus to those who do not know him? Who are those who do not know him to those who do? Do “we” who follow Jesus meet him in “those” who do not?

Contemporary debates concerning Christian theology of religions have been profoundly shaped by Alan Race’s threefold typology of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. Scholars increasingly recognize the insufficiency of this typology, and a consensus about how to replace it remains elusive. With The Unique and Universal Christ, Drew Collins argues that an alternative theological approach to the relation between the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the universality of God’s presence can be gleaned from the theology of Hans Frei and his fivefold typology of Christian theology. With Frei’s model as an interpretive lens, Collins examines the various ecumenical movements of the twentieth century and their conversations around theological authority in connection to Christianity’s relationship with other faith traditions. A new paradigm emerges for conceptualizing Christian faith amid the rich diversity of our world.

Reconsidered in this light, the Christian theology of religions ceases to be a combative venture that pits a Christian faith committed to the scandalous particularity of Jesus Christ’s identity as the Son of God against a faith open to the possibility of encountering the divine presence in the world at large. Instead, it becomes a mode of exploration, hoping for such encounters with the universal presence of Christ because of the uniqueness of Jesus.

“In the theology of religions there have been many attempts to critique and move beyond the typology of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. Here at last is a thoroughly convincing alternative paradigm, creatively developing the categories of Hans Frei. Collins does even more: he shows how his approach both illuminates the Christian ecumenical movement’s significant engagements with other religions during the past century, and also opens up constructive, generous, and humble ways in which Christians can both be true to Jesus Christ and also relate wisely to those in other religious traditions.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1549-4 $49.99 | Cloth 254 pages 6x9 OCTOBER 1, 2021

“This is the most compelling analysis and refutation yet of the famous typology of stances toward other religions (exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism). Collins points impressively to a new theology of religions that affirms both the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the importance of interfaith learning. A must-read for anyone interested in interfaith dialogue.”

—MIROSLAV VOLF, Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology, Yale Divinity School and author of Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World

—DAVID F. FORD, Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus, University of Cambridge

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A Post-Christendom Faith Volume I The Long Battle for the Human Soul

Philip A. Rolnick Confronted by multiple religious possibilities, the rise of atheistic naturalism, and moral relativism, one can easily become perplexed about what matters most—or be tempted to conclude that nothing could matter most. As the first volume of A Post-Christendom Faith, a set of three interrelated theological works, The Long Battle for the Human Soul examines major historical developments that have led to our contemporary confusion— so that we might chart a way forward.

ISBN 978-1-4813-0892-2 $29.99 | Cloth 181 pages 5.5 x 8.5 NOW AVAILABLE

“In this thought-provoking first volume, the author takes a long, hard, and critical look at the dark side of post-Enlightenment Western culture.

He offers an in-depth philosophical and cultural analysis of the last five hundred years and then turns to positivism, Nietzsche’s attack on faith, and the rise of humanism.”

—CELIA DEANE-DRUMMOND, Director, Laudato Si’ Research Institute, Campion Hall, University of Oxford

Philip Rolnick begins with a theological assessment of the Reformation, Enlightenment, and French Revolution, three movements that attempted, and to some degree accomplished, basic reformulations of humanity. After the shock of the Reformation, with its faith-based criticism, the Enlightenment’s reason-based criticism more or less set faith aside. The radical nature of Enlightenment criticism in turn led to the radical anthropological reformulations of the French Revolution—and then devolved into the Terror. Separated from Christian faith, and oftentimes fiercely opposing it, early forms of secular humanism poured their energies into reshaping social and political structures, while the crescendo of critique profoundly altered the spiritual landscape of the West.

With foundational certainties shattered, new movements arose that pulled in different directions, some of them dangerous and deadly. Rolnick maps this fracturing through Feuerbach’s atheism, the excesses of Romantic literature, the rise of nihilism, the “moral inversion” of Marxism, Comte’s positivism, and Nietzsche’s all-out war against Christianity.

In this story of broken foundations, Rolnick is careful to show that the church and the gospel have never ceased to offer a very different foundation—trustworthy and eternally enduring. This first volume ends on a hopeful note, turning from the problematic humanism of recent centuries to a humanism grounded in incarnational faith. Its christological reflection looks beyond brokenness and toward the one who has never ceased restoring human wholeness.

“Why would atheism—a belief system that teaches that human life is a cosmic blip and that death means eternal annihilation—be attractive to young people? In this concise and richly insightful work of diagnostics, Rolnick pinpoints a notable reason: the rise of ideas promoted by Europe’s elite, promising freedom and happiness, but ending in violence and despair.”

—MATTHEW LEVERING, James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary

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PHILIP A. ROLNICK is Professor of Theology and Chair of the Science and Theology Network at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. He is also the author of Origins: God, Evolution, and the Question of the Cosmos.

CONTENTS Introduction: A House-to-House Battle 1 Critical Turns: Reformation, Enlightenment, and Revolution 2 Descent into Darkness: Romanticism, Atheism, Nihilism, Marxism 3 Endeavors in Darkness I: Auguste Comte and Positivism 4 Endeavors in Darkness II: Nietzsche’s War on Christian Faith Conclusion: The Broken and the Whole

“If you think you know the story of modernity, think again. Philip Rolnick’s theological recounting of the story is a clearer, deeper, and more illuminating telling of the story than any other.”

—JONATHAN R. WILSON, Senior Consultant for Theological Integration, Canadian Baptist Ministries

PAUL J. DEHART is Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Unspeakable Cults An Essay in Christology

CONTENTS Introduction: Lagging Epiphany I Cultic Speech: Catachresis or Recognition?

1 Ernst Troeltsch and the Cult of NeoProtestantism 2 The Weight of Historical Consciousness and the Disintegration of Christology 3 Return of the Sorcerer: The Comparative Jesus (A ThoughtExperiment) II The Cult of Jesus: Historical Matter and Pneumatic Form 4 The Risen Lord: Frampton Comes Alive (An Allegory) 5 The Absolute Fact: Strauss’ Triumph and Schleiermacher’s Revenge 6 Aquinas as Dogmatician of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule III Cult of the Unspeakable: From Aretalogy to Teratology 7 Perils of Recognition: Occluded Claritas and Surreal Testimony 8 The Sign of Offense: Miracle as Fact and as Trial 9 Campus Crusade for Cthulhu: Modernity and Monstrosity “Insightful, probing, and daring—DeHart has provided a strikingly original exploration of Christology that is grounded in tradition and attuned to the present.”

—ARISTOTLE PAPANIKOLAOU, Professor of Theology and Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture, Fordham University

Paul J. DeHart The incarnation of God in Jesus poses numerous challenges for the historical consciousness. How does a particular human at a particular time embody the eternal? And how does that embodiment work itself out in faith across the centuries?

A gulf would appear to stand between what Christians say about Christ and the historical event of the man Jesus; indeed, the true reality of the incarnation seems unspeakable.

Unspeakable Cults considers the nature and potential resolution of the conflict between the relativistic assumptions of the modern historical worldview and the classical Christian assertion of the absolute status of Jesus of Nazareth as God’s saving incarnation in history. Paul DeHart contends that an understanding of Jesus’ history is possible, proposing a model of the relation of divine causation to historical causation that allows the affirmation of Jesus’ divinity without a miraculous rupture of the world’s immanent causal patterns. The book first identifies classic articulations of the conflict in nineteenth-century German thought (Troeltsch, D. F. Strauss), and then draws on the history of religions to suggest possible relevant motifs in first-century culture that mitigate the axiomatic “tension” between Jesus’ humanity and his deified status in early Christianity. With a creative appropriation of Thomas Aquinas, the heart of the argument aims to understand the eternal Word’s presence in a human being as a thoroughly cultural event, but one dependent on divine power conceived as quasi-formal rather than merely efficient cause.

Such an approach undercuts any opposition between the absoluteness of Jesus and the relativism of historicism. DeHart ultimately confronts the resulting challenges to traditional belief resulting from this proposed model, including the irremediable ambiguity of Jesus’ “miraculous” performances and the constitutively unfinished nature of his human identity. Rather than treating these as scandals of modern consciousness, Unspeakable Cults vindicates them as necessary aspects of the “offense” perennially confronting faith in the incarnation.

“A brilliantly original, profound, witty, provocative book inviting us to look again at the connections between a full-blooded traditional Christology and the work of critical historical scholarship. It is one of the freshest and most stimulating works of theology I have read for a long time. Whether you agree or not, it will make you think harder about the need to see belief in the incarnation of the Word as more than just some kind of judgment on an individual human life.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1555-5 $39.99 | Cloth 271 pages 6x9 NOW AVAILABLE

“In this highly original and theologically challenging volume, Paul DeHart returns afresh to an issue that no thinking Christian can afford to ignore: what exactly is the relation between critical historical scholarship about Jesus and the later, conciliar, ‘orthodox’ claims made about the incarnation and the ‘hypostatic union’? . . .

This is a remarkably rich, wise, and demanding book, full of surprising novelties right to the end.”

—SARAH COAKLEY, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, Emerita, University of Cambridge, and Senior Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University

—ROWAN WILLIAMS, former Archbishop of Canterbury

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“Postliberal Christian thinking goes Continental? Only James K. A. Smith could do it. Marion, Scripture, and intersubjectivity yields a postliberal Christian philosophy of religion. Come, read!”

—PETER OCHS, Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of Virginia

“The intellectual labor of translating big ideas—and thereby being accountable to them—involves a special form of rigor and originality.

James K. A. Smith is in the middle of a career showing how beautiful, and beautifully impactful, such work can be.”

—JONATHAN TRAN, Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology, Baylor University

“James K. A. Smith offers a lucid defense of the view that religion has never been ‘modern,’ that is, has never been anything other than embodied and liturgical, without the intellectual purity to which modernity aspires.”

—KEVIN HART, Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, University of Virginia

“In this lucidly written book James K. A. Smith reminds us that religion is always embodied and expressed in concrete practices, not just abstract belief statements.”

—CHRISTINA M. GSCHWANDTNER, Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University 18

JAMES K. A. SMITH is Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University and serves as editor in chief of Image, a literary quarterly at the intersection of art, faith, and mystery. He is the award-winning author of more than twenty books, including Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?, How (Not) to Be Secular, You Are What You Love, and On the Road with Saint Augustine.

CONTENTS Introduction: God on the Left Bank? Prospects for a Continental Philosophy of Religion I Outline of an Incarnational Continental Philosophy of Religion 1 The Philosophy of Religion Takes Practice: A Methodological Manifesto 2 Secular Liturgies: Prospects for a “PostSecular” Study of Religion 3 Continental Philosophy of Religion: Prescriptions for a Healthy Subdiscipline 4 A Logic of Incarnation: The Nicene Option in Continental Philosophy of Religion II Derrida, Marion, and the Possibility of a Christian Phenomenology 5 Determined Violence: Derrida’s Structural Religion 6 Re-Kanting Postmodernism? Derrida’s Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone 7 Determined Hope: A Phenomenology of Christian Expectation 8 Beyond Epistemology: Derrida and the Limits of the “Limits of Knowledge” 9 A Principle of Incarnation in Derrida’s (Theologische?) Jugendschriften: Towards a Confessional Theology 10 Deconstruction—an Augustinian Science?

11 Picturing Revelation: Idolatry and the Aesthetic in Marion and Rosenzweig 12 The Call as Gift: The Subject’s Donation in Marion and Levinas Afterword: An Incarnational Phenomenology

The Nicene Option An Incarnational Phenomenology

James K. A. Smith Christian philosophy and philosophy of religion tend to be dominated by analytic approaches, which have brought a valuable logical rigor to the discussion of matters of belief. However, the perspectives of continental philosophy—in particular, the continental emphasis on embodied forms of knowing—still have much to offer to the conversation and our understanding of what it means to be both rational and faithful in a postmodern world.

The Nicene Option represents the full sweep of James K. A. Smith’s work in continental philosophy of religion over the past twenty years. Animated by the conviction that a philosophy of religion needs to be philosophical reflection on the practice of religion, as a “form of life” (as Wittgenstein would say), this book makes the case for the distinct contribution that phenomenology—as a philosophy of experience—can make to philosophy of religion and Christian philosophy. Engaging a range of philosophers in this tradition, including Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Luc Marion, Richard Rorty, and Charles Taylor, Smith’s constructive proposal coheres around what he describes as “the logic of incarnation,” a “Nicene option” in contemporary philosophy of religion. By grounding philosophy of religion in the doctrinal heart of Christian confession, Smith gestures toward a uniquely robust Christian philosophy.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1372-8 $39.99 | Cloth 253 pages 6x9 1 b&w illus.

AUGUST 15, 2021

Besides issuing a clarion call for the renaissance of continental philosophy of religion, The Nicene Option also offers a glimpse behind the scholarly curtain for a wider audience of readers familiar with Smith’s popular works such as Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?, Desiring the Kingdom, Imagining the Kingdom, and You Are What You Love—all of which are tacitly informed by the phenomenological approach articulated in this book. As an extended footnote to those works—which for many readers have been gateways to philosophy—The Nicene Option presents an invitation to a new depth of reflection.

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All Things Beautiful

CHRIS E. W. GREEN is Professor of Public Theology at Southeastern University.

An Aesthetic Christology

Chris E. W. Green God calls humans to be creative. The human drive to represent transcendent truths witnesses to the fact that we are destined to be transfigured and to transfigure the world. It is worth asking, then, what truthful representations, whether in art, spirituality, or theology, teach us about the one who is our truth, the one who made us and the one in whose image we are made.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1558-6 $39.99 | Cloth 220 pages 5.5 x 8.5 SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

“A thoughtful, gracious, and stimulating book. All Things Beautiful will be a source of considerable encouragement to many who live (and struggle) in the borderlands of Christian faith and art.”

—JEREMY BEGBIE, Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Professor of Theology, Duke University

All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology is an experimental and constructive aesthetic Christology sourced by close readings of a wide array of artistic works, canonical and popular—including poems, films, essays, novels, plays, short stories, sculptures, icons, and paintings—as well as art criticism and passages from the Christian Scriptures. From first to last, these readings engage in conversation with the deep, broad wisdom of the Christian theological tradition. The liturgical calendar guides the themes of the book, beginning with Advent and Christmas; carrying through Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, and Ascension; and ending with Pentecost and Ordinary Time.

Chris Green brings together these readings to create a mosaic-like impression of Jesus as the one through whom God graces and gives nature to all things, his life and death redeeming the whole creation, including human creativity and artistic endeavor, and transfiguring it into the full, free flourishing that God has purposed. This vision of Christ holds promise for artists and theologians, as well as preachers and teachers, revealing how our compulsions to create—and the meanings with which we endow our creations— become a site of the Spirit’s presence, opening us to the goodness and wildness of God.

“‘Lovers are the ones who know most about God,’ Hans Urs von Balthasar said; ‘the theologian must listen to them.’ But it’s artists who write our love songs. Chris Green’s marvelous book creatively extends this intuition. If Christ is the ikon of the invisible God, we do well to attend to those arts that paint pictures of the invisible—whether in pigment or poetry, on screen or on canvas. This book is ultimately an invitation, not only to see afresh but to be seen anew.”

—JAMES K. A. SMITH, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin University

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CONTENTS Introduction 1 Painting a True Christ: Advent 2 All Things Beautiful in His Time: Christmas 3 The Name above All Names: Epiphany 4 God’s Scars: Ash Wednesday 5 Beauty Will Not Save the World: Lent 6 A Most Unspectacular Passion: Good Friday 7 The End of All Endings: Easter 8 The Creative Gaze: Ascension 9 Fire and Ashes: Pentecost 10 More Than Many Sparrows: Ordinary Time Conclusion

“Organized by the feasts and seasons of the church and teeming with vivid descriptions of art, All Things Beautiful is crafted with care and thought, more akin to a work of art than to the typical work of theology. An inviting and immensely rewarding read.”

—NATALIE CARNES, Associate Professor of Theology, Baylor University

PETER J. BELLINI is Associate Professor of Evangelization in the Heisel Chair and Director of Non-Degree Programs at United Theological Seminary.

CONTENTS I Introduction to Melancholia 1 Introduction 2 Ontology of Melancholia: Definitions, Ontologies, and Anthropological Problems II Theological Anthropology 3 Models of Theological Anthropology and Depression 4 The Relational Image of God III Etiology of Mental Disorder: The Theological Types 5 Theological Type 1—The Natural 6 Theological Type 2—The Consequential 7 Theological Type 3—The Purgative IV A Trinitarian Theology of Melancholia 8 The Melancholic God: Does God Get Depressed?

9 Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Depression

“Dr. Bellini’s text provides nuanced insights about many interdisciplinary issues which emerge at the intersection of scholarship regarding Christian theology, human nature, and mental disorder. Supported by philosophical, historical, psychological, and theological insight, he offers a unique conceptual framework by which to understand mental health conditions, informed by relational and Christocentric explorations of the imago Dei.” —MARCIA WEBB, Department of Psychology, Seattle Pacific University

The Cerulean Soul A Relational Theology of Depression STUDIES IN RELIGION, THEOLOGY, AND DISABILITY

Peter J. Bellini Depression is difficult to define. It is commonly described as a chemical imbalance, a subjective experience of despondency, or even a semiotic construct. The various theories of depression—biochemical, psychological, cultural—often reflect one’s philosophical anthropology. How one defines the human person is telling in how one defines mental disorder. Philosophy and the sciences tend to offer reductive explanations of what it means to be human, and such approaches rarely consider that we may be spiritual beings and so fail to entertain a theological approach.

Peter J. Bellini invites us to reimagine the person in light of the image of God in Christ, the divine enfleshed in human weakness. The Cerulean Soul responds to real challenges in the sciences and philosophy and offers a relational theological anthropology shaped by a cruciform framework that assumes and affirms human contingency, limitation, and fallenness. With reference to Christ’s incarnation, Bellini reveals how depression is inexorably tied to our relationship with God as his created beings: original, fallen, and renewed.

Despondency serves as a biosocial and spiritual marker for our human weakness, brokenness, and spiritual struggle for meaning and wholeness.

Further, it is a call to grow, to be restored, and to be made holy in the image of God in Christ. What emerges is a therapeia of the imago for depression that fills the gaps in our present attempts to determine the malady’s etiology and treatment.

Taking the missio Dei of union with the risen Christ as its goal, The Cerulean Soul opens up the perennial problem of human despondency to an eschatological trajectory of hope and peace, redemption and transformation, given freely in Christ through the healing and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Christoformity, informed by the subversive kingdom of God, gives new form to all persons, “abled” and “disabled.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1093-2 $49.99 | Cloth 309 pages 6x9 AUGUST 15, 2021

“Bellini is honest, clear, insightful, informed, and pastorally sensitive. This deserves not just one, but several, readings, and it opens up a whole new line of invaluable investigation.”

—WILLIAM J. ABRAHAM, Outler Professor of Wesley Studies, Southern Methodist University and Director of the Wesley House of Studies at Baylor University

“As well as providing a comfort to those afflicted with mood disorders and their incumbent disabilities, The Cerulean Soul will prove a scholarly resource and treasure for believers and non-believers alike.”

—JENNIFER RADDEN, Emerita Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Boston

21

Leaving Emmaus A New Departure in Christian Theology

Anthony D. Baker The theological enterprise in the West finds itself in a critical moment. Traditional models have failed to supply the church with the proper tools for engaging the hard, persistent realities of injustice. This is primarily because the models propose a language of faith that does not begin from the part of life where faith begins: namely, the testimonies we encounter along the way.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1604-0 $34.99 | Paper 212 pages 6x9 OCTOBER 1, 2021

“The humane breadth of Christian belief has rarely been displayed better than in Leaving Emmaus. Deeply grounded in the historical tradition, the concerns of human life are never far away, both encountered in literature and the arts and seen in compassionate attention to some of the most pressing social challenges of our day.”

—ANDREW DAVISON, Starbridge Senior Lecturer in Theology and Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge, and Fellow and Dean of Chapel, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

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Leaving Emmaus conceives of theology as “thinking with testimonies of Christian faith,” offering new students and seasoned practitioners alike a “new departure” for Christian discourse. The book restructures the sources of theology (Scripture, tradition, reason, experience) to make space for the integration of new voices alongside a thoughtful reading of Scripture and classic texts of the tradition. Discussing and interpreting our encounters with the risen Christ becomes a way of “leaving our home” of personal experience or faith conviction. In company with Alice Walker, Gregory of Nyssa, Rowan Williams, and Eve Sedgwick, Anthony Baker unfolds this integrative language and initiates a new departure into classical themes of theology, gathered around the central image of the Emmaus encounter. The “burning hearts” of that pericope become a periperformative encounter with the Word, issuing in the Spirit’s internal witnesses to the calling of all creation by the Father to find itself in the risen Christ.

In this way the act of testimony itself becomes a repetition of the trinitarian God. This repetition carries through each loci of theology, from theological anthropology to eschatology. Noteworthy among the new insights this brings are a thoughtfully structured understanding of sin, a bold recovery of sacrifice, and an integrated theology of prayer. Baker equips us with a fresh map for navigating the peculiar demands of our cultural moment through resourcing the heritage of our shared faith for a theology that witnesses to the fullness of life and extends welcome to all.

“Like the two traveling companions walking on the road to Emmaus, leading them from a well-known path to an unfamiliar realm in which they encounter the Risen Christ in a communal breaking and sharing of bread, Anthony Baker invites theologians and communities of faith to ‘leave home’ and undergo a process of metanoia in order to realize together who God is.”

—ÁNGEL F. MÉNDEZ-MONTOYA, Full-Time Professor and Researcher, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City

ANTHONY D. BAKER is Professor in Constructive Theology at Seminary of the Southwest.

CONTENTS Introduction: Thinking with the Witnesses 1 Theology 2 Spirit 3 Trinity 4 Creation 5 Human Beings 6 The God-Human 7 Sin 8 Sacrifice 9 Church 10 Prayer 11 Last Things “Engaging categories of theology, spirit, Trinity, creation, human beings, the God-human, sin, sacrifice, church, prayer, and last things, Leaving Emmaus challenges readers to an inspiring encounter from an interdisciplinary perspective. Such an encounter involves retelling testimonies that move one toward freedom, hope, and transcendent love. This text is a must-read for those interested in thinking in new ways about theology as prophetic praxis and pragmatic pedagogy.”

—THE REV. CHERYL A. KIRK-DUGGAN, Scholar, Consultant, Poet, and Performer

MANUEL SCHMID is a Swiss Reformed Theologian. He is known, among other things, for his work that can be seen on RefLab (www. reflab.ch), an online community that embraces pop culture and engages with unchurched people in Germanspeaking Europe.

CONTENTS 1 Introduction: Open Theism as a Biblical-Theological Reform Movement 2 Exegetical Traces: The Biblical Motif of the “Openness of God” 3 Theological Interpretations: Controversies Surrounding the “Openness of God” 4 Systematic Classifications: From Biblical to Systematic Theology 5 Concluding Reflections: Open Theism as a Biblical-Theological Reform Movement 6 Postscript: On the Culture of Dispute in Evangelicalism “The breadth of research Manuel Schmid brings to this project is impressive. Schmid weaves together material drawn from historical-critical biblical studies, systematic theology, philosophy, cognitive linguistic studies, early Christian theologians, ancient Greek philosophers, and Germanspeaking scholars. Schmid brilliantly pioneers a way forward by demonstrating that open theism can be brought into a mutually beneficial and mutually critical dialogue with Germany’s premier theologians, especially as it concerns the analogical nature of all God-talk.”

God in Motion A Critical Exploration of the Open Theism Debate

Manuel Schmid translated by Alex Englander Open theism paints the picture of a flexible God who engages in a dynamic history with his free creatures, a history in which the future is not yet definitely known to God but rather unfolds as a range of open possibilities. As one might expect, this position has proven fractious. Though much of the noise surrounding the issue of God’s predestination and humanity’s freedom has quieted in recent years, the conversation is ongoing and a continual source of contention in evangelical circles.

God in Motion is the first in-depth analysis of the biblical-hermeneutical questions driving the heated open theism debate. Unlike previous books on the open view of God, Manuel Schmid’s work does not take sides. Rather, God in Motion offers a qualified and critical look at the standard arguments of both the proponents and critics of open theism and suggests new perspectives.

Schmid proposes an alternate path to understanding what is at stake in this debate, bringing open theism into conversation with weighty representatives of Germanlanguage theology such as Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Jürgen Moltmann. God in Motion shows ways out of the theological dead ends that have characterized the debate, especially regarding the biblical grounding of open theism, by giving careful consideration to lessons learned from the controversies of current theological discourse. In all of this analysis, Schmid conveys a passion for serious pursuit of a biblically, theologically, and philosophically coherent Christian doctrine of God for the twenty-first century.

Those wrestling with questions about biblical theology and eager to gain a more nuanced conception of God out of the richness of biblical texts and traditions will greatly benefit from God in Motion, as they follow Schmid past the polemics of theological controversy to fresh and challenging insights.

“Manuel Schmid writes an excellent book which shows how open theism functions as a reform movement in contemporary theology. He identifies the core issues in the debate and raises insightful questions about the key claims made by open theists. The book examines the key claims that open theism is more faithful to biblical teaching while much of traditional theology was shaped through Hellenistic impulses.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1408-4 $54.99 | Cloth 284 pages 6x9 NOW AVAILABLE

“God in Motion offers a balanced appraisal of primary ideas and figures at the heart of open theology. The book describes the strengths and deficiencies in how open theists have interpreted Scripture, interacted with classic figures, and influenced Christian tradition (especially Hellenism) and philosophical issues.”

—THOMAS JAY OORD, Professor, Northwind Theological Seminary, and Director of the Center for Open and Relational Theology

—JOHN SANDERS, Professor of Religious Studies, Hendrix College

—GREGORY BOYD, Senior Pastor, Woodland Hills Church

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Playing as Others Theology and Ethical Responsibility in Video Games

Benjamin J. Chicka No contemporary form of pop culture has as large a social impact as video games, an entertainment industry whose yearly revenues continue to rise. Gamergate rocked the gaming industry when isolated incidents of male gamers threatening female game developers and critics grew into a sustained campaign of harassment against minorities and the historically marginalized. These events negatively revealed the political, ethical, and theological meaning latent within video games and gaming communities, but constructive reactions to the situation showed that video game creators and consumers were interested in thinking about games differently. In the wake of Gamergate, the voices of those marginalized and ignored as the “other” became louder, and alternative gaming experiences reflecting their perspectives more commonplace.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1546-3 $44.99 | Cloth 235 pages 6x9 6 b&w photos OCTOBER 15, 2021

“Playing as Others: Theology and Ethical Responsibility in Video Games offered me an entirely new look at the power of games as a medium, from a vector that is both intensely familiar to me as a person, but also commonly foreign to the industry at large. In an inspired exploration of how theology and games do and might interact, Benjamin Chicka taught me one more value of this medium I love.”

—RAMI ISMAIL, Independent Game Developer & Industry Ambassador

Playing as Others traces the development of video game culture in response to marginalization and explores the ways in which the content of video games can generate theological insight and positive ethical impact. Benjamin Chicka shows how the interactivity and compelling narratives provided by emerging styles of video games can provide powerful lessons in listening to, accepting, and helping those often harmed or outright neglected by society. Bringing Paul Tillich’s theology of culture into conversation with Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical concept of responsibility toward the other, Chicka shows that video games as art form aid in the overcoming of estrangement.

If culture, art, and technology have the power to reveal divine depth, video games offer a unique opportunity to foster redemptive face-to-face encounters in a way that is impossible for even the most practical discussions of philosophy and theology. With their fully formed characters and morally challenging stories, the games considered here, such as Gone Home; Papers, Please; and 1979 Revolution: Black Friday, can become a means to personal fulfillment and a desire for justice. For nonmarginalized players, virtual encounters are opportunities to listen to the call of the other and carry that lesson into the real world.

“Benjamin Chicka takes theology of culture a lot more seriously than most, and he shows how deep the culture of video games goes. Read this book to find out where ultimate concerns and ethical principles are explored in video games. Read to find out what Paul Tillich and Emmanuel Levinas have in common. This book will forcefully remind you that theology is profoundly connected to every aspect of our lives.”

—WESLEY J. WILDMAN, Professor of Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics, Boston University School of Theology

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BENJAMIN J. CHICKA is Lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Curry College.

CONTENTS Tutorial 1 Tillich and a Theology of Pop Culture 2 Turning to the Other in Video Games 3 Boss Fight: Philosophical Theology and Science 4 Nontraditional Video Games and LGBTQ+ Others 5 Face to Face with Immigrant Others 6 Other Races and Religions in Protest 7 Economic and Social Polarities Remaining Missions

JOSH A. REEVES is Assistant Professor of Science and Religion and Director of the Samford Center for Science and Religion at Samford University.

CONTENTS Introduction: Christianity and the Mistrust of Experts 1 The Science of Science Skepticism: Three Explanations for Christian Mistrust 2 Christian Skepticism toward Experts: A Brief History 3 Blinded by Naturalism: Can Secular Science Be Trusted?

4 Science and the Holy Spirit: The Relevance of Christianity to Technical Knowledge 5 Against Common Sense: The Limits of “Thinking for Yourself” 6 Why Christians Need Experts: Between Blind Trust and Populist Skepticism 7 Different Types of Expertise: Science Compared to Other Kinds of Knowledge 8 What Scientific Experts Cannot Tell Us: The Goals and Boundaries of Science 9 Communities of Critical Thinking: A Christian Defense of Institutions for Knowledge 10 Against the Conspiratorial Frame: Scientific Trust and the Future of the Church “In a bewildering era of anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers, climate change deniers, and their ilk, this book is the perfect antidote to science skepticism among Christians. ” —HANS MADUEME, Associate Professor of Theological Studies, Covenant College

Redeeming Expertise Scientific Trust and the Future of the Church

Josh A. Reeves Recently the scholarly community and popular media have highlighted the denial of science by conservative Christians, linking a low view of scientific expertise to the United States’ current cultural turmoil. Various theories are offered to explain such Christians’ persistent denialism: cognitive mechanisms that short-circuit human reasoning, manipulation by media companies for profit, or a cult-like willingness of believers to accept whatever their faith leaders assert. Critics contend that the religious impulse to believe blindly without evidence is the main obstacle to a more just and sustainable world.

Redeeming Expertise: Scientific Trust and the Future of the Church argues against this diagnosis, suggesting that however misguided individual conclusions about science may be, most Christians reason their way to those conclusions in the same way that non-Christians do: they rely upon trusted sources of information to guide them through an overwhelmingly expansive information landscape. Rather than heaping derision on the uneducated or unenlightened believer, Josh Reeves offers a sympathetic account of the average Christian in the pew and explains the reasons why skepticism toward mainstream science is compelling to many conservative Christians. The second part of the book then proposes a uniquely Christian defense of taking scientific expertise “seriously.” Trusting experts plays an important role in a healthy intellectual life, and believers must learn how to make discerning choices.

Redeeming Expertise presents a middle-ground that avoids the extremes of allowing “experts to rule” or of foregrounding populist positions that champion the intellectual superiority of laypersons. Christians who dismiss what communities of experts have discovered about our universe do so at their own peril. Unless the church can trust the best knowledge of the modern world, that same modern world will not trust the church.

“My father was an English teacher and my mother a musician. I learned by the time I was a grade schooler to ask my dad questions about grammar and my mother about music. It not only worked, but it was wise. There are, however, people today—call them populists—who choose their own authorities and too often resort to thinking they can think adequately for themselves on all matters. Eschewing expertise is the game of fools and it has become a commonplace among too many evangelicals. Redeeming Expertise patiently listens to such eschew-ments and to irrationalities and to conspiratorialists, challenges them with robust arguments, and then calls us to a wise trusting of experts. Reeves’ study of science experts is an example of expertise guiding us to wisdom.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1615-6 $39.99 | Paper 264 pages 6x9 1 b&w illus.

OCTOBER 1, 2021

“The American public is in the midst of an epistemological crisis. Josh Reeves provides one extremely important sector of that public—practicing Christians—with the theological, philosophical, and historical tools necessary to wrestle with and address that crisis in a thoughtful and intelligent way.”

—ELAINE HOWARD ECKLUND, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Rice University

—SCOT MCKNIGHT, Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary, and Co-author, Adam and the Genome

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Disordered The Holy Icon and Racial Myths

JESSICA WAI-FONG WONG is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Azusa Pacific University.

Jessica Wai-Fong Wong Archetypes of race loom large within the Western imagination. The Black population, in particular, has often been pictured as inherently disordered, and their presence thought to have a disordering effect—indeed, their presence has been seen as a threat to civilized society. It is this perceived threat of blackness that has fueled America’s long history of discrimination and oppression.

ISBN 978-1-4813-0833-5 $49.99 | Cloth 234 pages 6x9 2 b&w photos | 5 b&w illus.

AUGUST 15, 2021

At the heart of this racialized way of seeing is a significant theological assertion: that one’s internal state can be discerned through the external attributes of the body. In the Byzantine era, the holy icon was thought to reflect the proper order of God; those who rejected the icon rejected God’s order. The supposedly deficient bodies of those who rejected the holy order of God functioned as a warning sign. Using the framework of icon theology, Disordered explores the relationship between non-white, as well as non-masculine, bodies and civilized society at key moments in the development of modernity. Jessica Wai-Fong Wong demonstrates how the archetype of (male) whiteness has come to define proper social order. The veneration of the white man as holy ideal wields significant power over the formation of subjects and the shaping of society. In this case, worship of whiteness in general, and white masculinity in particular, functions as the sacred ground upon which the oppressive structures of Western society are built.

The iconic reading of race offered here not only creates an opportunity for analysis but also opens up a space for constructive christological intervention that confronts the troubled practices at the heart of racialized sight. Jesus invites all people into a different way of seeing, one that shatters the distorting and destructive assumptions embedded within the dominant racial logic. By learning to see Jesus, the true icon of God, we learn to see rightly.. And, when we see rightly, the order defining our identity and relationality is redeemed.

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CONTENTS Introduction 1 Troubled Sight: Anatomy of the Modern Racial Optic 2 Sacred Sight: Anatomy of the Icon 3 Iconic Saint, Anti-Iconic Jew 4 Colonialism and the Making of New Christendom 5 Making Americans: Reading, Reforming, and Redeeming the Immigrant Body 6 Jesus: Icon of God Conclusion

“Wong’s groundbreaking text offers an honest examination of how Christian (iconic) theology provides the underpinnings for modern racial myths and imaginaries, but this book also reads theology against itself to find resources for alternative modes of vision, relation, and participation. For those interested in race, coloniality, and theology, this is a must-read.”

WINTERS,, Alexander F. Hehmeyer —JOSEPH WINTERS Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African & African American Studies, Duke University

“For Christians interested in racial formations, redemption, and the problematic dialectic of the self over and against the racialized other, this is a must-read.”

WONHEE ANNE JOH, Professor of Theology and Culture, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

“Naming and challenging the worship of whiteness, Wong offers an important contribution to the theology of race that speaks to anti-Blackness, anti-Asian racism, and anti-indigenous racism today.”

VINCENT LLOYD, Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies and Director of the Africana Studies Program, Villanova University

“This book is masterfully written, and very timely.”

REGGIE L. WILLIAMS, Professor of Christian Ethics, McCormick Theological Seminary

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Bonhoeffer’s America A Land without Reformation

Joel Looper In the 1930s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to Union Theological Seminary looking for a “cloud of witnesses.” What he found instead disturbed, angered, and perplexed him.

“There is no theology here,” he wrote to a German colleague. The New York churches, if possible, were even worse: “They preach about virtually everything; only one thing is not addressed . . . namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross, sin and forgiveness, death and life.” Bonhoeffer acts for American Protestantism as an Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America, a cultural and political analysis of the new republic, appeared a century prior. But what the Berlin theologian found was, if possible, more significant than the observations of the French aristocrat: Protestantism in America was a “Protestantism without Reformation.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1451-0 $49.99 | Cloth 272 pages 6x9 NOW AVAILABLE

“Joel Looper’s book—a careful study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s critique of American Protestantism—fills an important gap in Bonhoeffer studies.”

—LORI BRANDT HALE, Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy, Augsburg University

Bonhoeffer’s America explicates these criticisms, then turns to consider what they tell us about Bonhoeffer’s own theological commitments and whether, in fact, his judgments about America were accurate. Joel Looper first brings Bonhoeffer’s reformational and Barthian commitments into relief against the work of several Union theologians and the broader American theological milieu. He then turns to Bonhoeffer’s own genealogy of American Protestantism to explore why it developed as it did: steeped in dissenting influences, the American church became one that resisted critique by the word of God. American Protestantism is not Protestant, Bonhoeffer shows us, not like the churches that emerged from the Continental Reformation. This difference gave rise to the secularization of the American church.

Bonhoeffer’s claims against the church in the United States, Looper contends, hold strong, even after considering objections to this narrative—Bonhoeffer’s experience with Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, and the possibility that Bonhoeffer, during his time in Tegel Prison, abandoned the theological commitments that undergirded his critique. Bonhoeffer’s America concludes that what Bonhoeffer saw in America, the twenty-first-century American church should strive to see for itself.

“Historians and theologians have known about the two trips that Dietrich Bonhoeffer made to the United States in the 1930s, but no one has examined what he said about American Christianity and American church life as insightfully as Joel Looper in this book.”

—MARK A. NOLL, author of A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada

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JOEL LOOPER is Adjunct Faculty for the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core and Coordinator for Shalom Mission Communities.

CONTENTS Introduction I What Bonhoeffer Saw in America 1 “There Is No Theology Here”: Bonhoeffer and American Christianity 2 Coursework: Bonhoeffer at Union Theological Seminary II Renarrating the Story of American Protestantism 3 “Protestantism without Reformation”: An American Genealogy of Dissent 4 The Eclipse of the Word: An American Narrative of Secularization III Objections 5 A Gospel Community: Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem 6 The Word Still Reigns: Tegel Prison, Berlin Conclusion “Bonhoeffer—martyred by Hitler and so all-too-readily taken by Americans to be ‘on our side’—may have missed what an outsider would miss during his American sojourn, but he saw with incisive and sometimes harsh clarity what only an outsider could see. Looper captures the overall encounter with a perfect blend of candor, sympathy, and richly informed context.”

—JACK MILES, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning God: A Biography and Religion as We Know It: An Origin Story

REVISED EDITION

Foreword to the Revised Edition (Ferdinand Schlingensiepen) Preface to the Revised Edition Introduction 1 To Harlem and Back: Seeing Jesus with New Eyes 2 A Theology of Resistance in the Harlem Renaissance 3 Bonhoeffer in the Veiled Corner: Jesus in the Harlem Renaissance 4 Christ, Empathy, and Confrontation at Abyssinian Baptist Church 5 Christ-Centered Empathic Resistance: Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus in Germany Conclusion

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION:

Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance

Revised Edition with foreword by

FERDINAND SCHLINGENSIEPEN “Reggie Williams’ Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus fundamentally disrupted Bonhoeffer studies for the better, breathing new life into conversations too long caught in an endless feedback loop.”

Reggie L. Williams foreword by Ferdinand Schlingensiepen

—WILLIE JAMES JENNINGS, Associate Professor of Theology and Africana Studies, Yale University

“This book is required reading for all who desire a more expansive treatment of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life, and who want to know how Black lives matter then and now for his enduring legacy.”

—EBONI MARSHALL TURMAN, Associate Professor of Theology and African American Religion, Yale Divinity School

Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus follows Dietrich Bonhoeffer as he defies Germany with Harlem’s black Jesus. The Christology Bonhoeffer learned in Harlem’s churches featured a black Christ who suffered with African Americans in their struggle against systemic injustice and racial violence—and then resisted. In the pews of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, under the leadership of Adam Clayton Powell Sr., Bonhoeffer absorbed the Christianity of the Harlem Renaissance. This Christianity included a Jesus who stands with the oppressed rather than joins the oppressors and a theology that challenges the way God can be used to underwrite a union of race and religion. Now featuring a foreword from world-renowned Bonhoeffer scholar Ferdinand Schlingensiepen as well as multiple updates and additions, Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus argues that the black American narrative led Dietrich Bonhoeffer to the truth that obedience to Jesus requires concrete historical action. This ethic of resistance not only indicted the church of the German Volk, but also continues to shape the nature of Christian discipleship today.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer publicly confronted Nazism and anti-Semitic racism in Hitler’s Germany. The Reich’s political ideology, when mixed with theology of the German Christian movement, turned Jesus into a divine representation of the ideal, racially pure Aryan and allowed race-hate to become part of Germany’s religious life.

Bonhoeffer provided a Christian response to Nazi atrocities.

REGGIE L. WILLIAMS is Professor of Christian Ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary. He is a member of the International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society, as well as the Society for the Study of Black Religion, and a founding member of the Society for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Religion.

Ethics/Theology

I S B N 978-1-4813-1585-2

In this book author Reggie L. Williams follows Dietrich Bonhoeffer as he encounters Harlem’s black Jesus. The Christology Bonhoeffer learned in Harlem’s churches featured a black Christ who suffered with African Americans in their struggle against systemic injustice and racial violence—and then resisted. In the pews of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, under the leadership of Adam Clayton Powell Sr., Bonhoeffer was captivated by Christianity in the Harlem Renaissance. This Christianity included a Jesus who stands with the oppressed, against oppressors, and a theology that challenges the way God is often used to underwrite harmful unions of race and religion.

9

“A turning point in Bonhoeffer scholarship.”

—TIMOTHY DWIGHT DAVIS, Anglican Theological Review “Required reading for anyone seeking a more complex, constructive, and provocative view of Bonhoeffer.”

Bonhoeffer’s

BLACK JESUS HARLEM

RENAISSANCE

THEOLOGY ETHIC

OF

AND

AN

R E S I S TA N C E

Foreword by FERDINAND SCHLINGENSIEPEN

REGGIE L. WILLIAMS

781481 315852

Now featuring a foreword from world-renowned Bonhoeffer scholar Ferdinand Schlingensiepen as well as multiple updates and additions. Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s immersion within the black American narrative was a turning point for him, causing him to see anew the meaning of his claim that obedience to Jesus requires concrete historical action. This ethic of resistance not only indicted the church of the German Volk, but also continues to shape the nature of Christian discipleship today.

“Williams is wholly at home with Bonhoeffer’s life and thought.”

—LARRY RASMUSSEN, International Bonhoeffer Society Newsletter

Bonhoeffer’s BLACK JESUS

CONTENTS

Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus

WILLIAMS

REGGIE L. WILLIAMS is Professor of Christian Ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary. He is a member of the International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society, as well as the Society for the Study of Black Religion, and a founding member of the Society for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Religion.

“Reggie Williams’ Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus fundamentally disrupted Bonhoeffer studies for the better, breathing new life into conversations too long caught in an endless feedback loop. Now with this second edition which includes an extraordinary foreword from Ferdinand Schlingensiepen, arguably the world’s leading Bonhoeffer scholar, we see even more clearly the path Williams has laid for us to move Bonhoeffer from Eurocentric intellectual isolationism toward a Bonhoeffer listening and learning from the black diaspora—would that others could follow his example and Williams’ insights.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1585-2 $34.99 | Paper 205 pages 6x9 3 b&w photos SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

“In Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus, Reggie Williams does what no other Bonhoeffer scholar has done in the history of the guild. His turn to interrogate Harlem, its historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, and the significance of Black life and resistance for Bonhoeffer’s theological vision and ethical formation is groundbreaking and field-shifting.”

—EBONI MARSHALL TURMAN, Associate Professor of Theology and African American Religion, Yale Divinity School

—WILLIE JAMES JENNINGS, Associate Professor of Theology and Africana Studies, Yale Divinity School

—JAMES S. LOGAN, Modern Theology

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One Nation under Graham Apocalyptic Rhetoric and American Exceptionalism

JONATHAN D. REDDING is Assistant Professor of Religion at Nebraska Wesleyan University.

Jonathan D. Redding For centuries, particular readings of the biblical text have shaped the course of Western history. Scripture, used as a political totem for those in power, gives divine weight to political agendas. This trajectory is particularly evident in the fiery career of Billy Graham, “America’s evangelist.” Graham’s rhetoric, steeped in his political appropriation of Scripture, ultimately motivated the insertion of “under God” into the pledge of allegiance: his message of national repentance made its way to President Dwight Eisenhower, who converted it into legislation and changed history. America became self-consciously a nation under God, over against the world.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1519-7 $34.99 | Cloth 192 pages 5.5 x 8.5 2 b&w photos SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

“Timely and thoughtful, Redding’s One Nation under Graham explores the roots and branches of American apocalyptic thinking through the work of Billy Graham, often imagined as ‘America’s Pastor.’”

—LYNN R. HUBER, Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Honors Program, Elon University

One Nation under Graham investigates how one man’s interpretation of the biblical books of Daniel and Revelation has impacted how the United States sees itself on a global and cosmic scale. Jonathan Redding argues that Graham rode the wave of American xenophobia to rebrand evangelical patriotism as essential to national stability and cosmic balance. A survey of Graham’s influences reveals that, while Graham was far from the only Christian leader to preach gloom and doom, he was one of the first to make the theme publicly and profoundly American. Graham’s influence and drive to make America a nation “under God” ensured that, with the recitation of the American pledge, his reading of Scripture would endure. Redding further shows the continued capacity of “under God” to equip contemporary leadership to leverage Christian faith for personal gain with a political base.

Graham’s response to major political and global events created a thoroughly American apocalyptic lens that continues to be used to give life and potency to biblical interpretations. In the same way that Daniel and Revelation warned of the dangers of unchecked political power and misplaced priorities, One Nation under Graham uses Graham’s interpretations to urge all of us to consider under whom we serve and under what flag we kneel.

“In this intriguing study, Jonathan Redding explores various ways in which famed evangelist Billy Graham linked biblical apocalypticism with American chosenness and exceptionalism, and the impact of those issues in presidential administrations from Eisenhower to Trump. His work offers insights into the evolution of a particular type of Christian Nationalism that is increasing within and threatening to American democracy. A timely study.”

—BILL J. LEONARD, Professor of Divinity Emeritus, Wake Forest University

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CONTENTS Introduction: Blood, Faith, and Country 1 Anything but Extraordinary: A Brief History of Apocalyptic Reception 2 The Roots of Graham’s Apocalyptic Nationalism 3 Billy Graham’s Apocalyptic Worldview 4 Preacher, Pastor, and President 5 Evangelical Nationalism after Eisenhower: From John F. Kennedy to Donald J. Trump Conclusion: With Liberty and Justice for Some

“In his careful reading of historical data, Redding offers insight not only into the political aspirations of Billy Graham, the man once deemed ‘the greatest preacher since Jesus,’ but also into the heart of American nationalism. This is an essential book for anyone interested in American evangelicalism, biblical reception, and intersections between politics, faith, and governmentality.”

—REBEKKA KING, Associate Professor, Middle Tennessee State University

JOÃO B. CHAVES is Assistant Director for Programming at the Hispanic Theological Initiative at Princeton Theological Seminary.

CONTENTS 1 Framing: Diasporic Networks and Immigrant Christianity 2 Reversing: The United States in the Latin American Evangelical Story 3 Growing: Histories of Immigrant Churches 4 Connecting: Unbelonging and the Creation of Ethnic Denominationalism 5 Wrestling: The Crisis of Undocumented Presence 6 Morphing: Pentecostalization and Women’s Leadership 7 Mapping: Migration Experiences and Incipient Immigrant Theologies

“Close study of a range of Brazilian Baptist churches in the United States has enabled João Chaves to demonstrate that the experience of immigration has shaped their identity. They wrestle with the problem of undocumented members being technically in breach of the law; and they accept charismatic practices and female ordination because of influences from Brazil. Chaves successfully shows that the Brazilian Baptists of America have created a form of ethnic denominationalism.”

—DAVID BEBBINGTON, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Stirling

Migrational Religion Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora

João B. Chaves Many scholars have documented how migration from Latin America to the United States shapes the interconnected spheres of religious participation, political engagement, and civic formation in host countries. What has largely gone unexplored is how the experiences of migration and adaptation to the host country also shape the ecclesiological arrangements, theological imagination, and communal strategies of immigrant religious networks. These communities maintain close ties with their home countries while simultaneously developing a religious life that distinguishes them both from their home countries and from faith communities of the dominant culture in their host countries.

João Chaves offers an account of the dynamics that shape the role of immigrant churches in the United States. Migrational Religion acts as a case study of a network formed by communities of Brazilian immigrants who, although affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, formed a distinctive ethnic association. Their churches began to appear in the United States in the 1980s due to Brazilian Baptist missionary activity. As Brazilian migration increased in the last decades of the twentieth century, hundreds of Brazilian evangelical churches were founded to cater to first-generation immigrants. Initially their leaders conceived of these churches as extensions of their denomination in Brazil. However, these church communities were under constant pressure to adapt to their rapidly changing context, and the challenges of immigrant living pushed them in exciting new directions.

Brazilian churches in the United States faced a number of issues peculiar to their nature as diasporic communities: undocumented parishioners, membership fluctuation caused by national and international migration patterns, anti-immigrant prejudice, and more. Based on six years of ethnographic work in eleven congregations across the United States, dozens of interviews with Brazilian pastors, and extensive archival history in English and Portuguese, Migrational Religion documents how such churches adapted to unique challenges, and reveals how the diasporic experience fosters incipient theologies in churches of the Latinx diaspora.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1594-4 $39.99 | Cloth 213 pages 6x9 2 b&w figures SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

“For those with ears to hear, João Chaves’ account helps us anticipate not just the ongoing ‘browning’ of the North American church but also its transnationalization, pentecostalization, and hybridization.”

—AMOS YONG, Professor of Theology & Mission and Dean of the School of Mission & Theology, Fuller Seminary

“This volume is not just another study on global-South migratory religion. In fact, it shows the significance of faith in the experience of migration through new and provocative lenses, drawing attention in particular to the often-underestimated reach of transnational religious networks and the rise of influential transnational religious leaders who have become powerbrokers uniquely skilled to navigate a complex web that includes undocumented immigrants, educators, business owners, and politicians.”

—RAIMUNDO C. BARRETO, Associate Professor of World Christianity, Princeton Theological Seminary

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The Evangelical Quadrilateral (Volume I) Characterizing the British Gospel Movement

David W. Bebbington ISBN 978-1-4813-1378-0 $39.99 | Paper ISBN 978-1-4813-1443-5 $49.99 | Printed Case 392 pages 6x9 NOW AVAILABLE

The Evangelical Quadrilateral (Volume II) The Denominational Mosaic of the British Gospel Movement

David W. Bebbington ISBN 978-1-4813-1379-7 $39.99 | Paper ISBN 978-1-4813-1447-3 $49.99 | Printed Case 368 pages 6x9 NOW AVAILABLE

David Bebbington is well known for his characterization of the Evangelical movement in terms of the four leading emphases of Bible, cross, conversion, and activism. This quadrilateral was expounded in his classic 1989 book Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s. Bebbington developed many of the themes in that book in articles published from the 1980s to the present, but until now most of those articles have remained little known. The present collection of thirty-two essays makes readily available these important explorations of key aspects in the history of Evangelicalism.

The two volumes of The Evangelical Quadrilateral address different aspects of the Evangelical movement. The first volume deals with issues in the movement as a whole, and the second volume examines features of particular denominational bodies within Evangelicalism. Each volume contains an introductory essay reviewing recent literature in the field, and then a series of related essays.

DAVID W. BEBBINGTON is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Stirling. His works include Baptists through the Centuries: A History of a Global People (second edition) and Patterns in History: A Christian Perspective on Historical Thought (fourth edition).

“David Bebbington’s important scholarship has shaped an entire field. I am delighted to see his classic essays gathered in one place and made readily available to a new generation. Eminently readable and always insightful, these essays represent Bebbington at his best. They belong on the shelf of every serious scholar of evangelical history.”

—DANA L. ROBERT, Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of Mission, Boston University

“In this superb collection, Professor Bebbington, one of our foremost historians of modern Christianity, investigates the history, character, outreach, and diversification of British Evangelicalism from the eighteenth century to the present. He shows that far from being opposed to our modernising world, British Evangelicalism has been dynamic, socially concerned, and often progressive— and very much engaged with broader cultural movements, including the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Modernism. Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, Bebbington’s essays explore Evangelical identity in its widest sense, and will be savoured by all those with interests in the history of Christianity in Britain, and the larger world.”

—STEWART J. BROWN, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Edinburgh

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BYRON R. JOHNSON Is Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University and the founding director of the Institute for Studies of Religion.

CONTENTS Foreword (Rodney Stark) I The Economics of Religion 1 Conversion to Latin American Protestantism and the Case for Religious Motivation (Rodney Stark and Buster G. Smith) 2 Religious Competition and Revival in Italy (Massimo Introvigne and Rodney Stark) 3 Religious Monopolies, Religious Pluralism, and Secularization (Eva M. Hamberg) 4 Folk Temples and the Chinese Religious Economy (Graeme Lang, Selina Ching Chan, and Lars Ragvald) 5 The Effect of Religious Affiliation and Religious Markets on Islamophobia in Four European Nations (Linda A. Lockett and Ted G. Jelen) II Religion and Tension 6 Retention Strategies and Religious Success (Michael K. Abel) 7 Explaining Atheism (Laura A. Hunter) 8 Consensus and Conflict (Sabrina Danielsen) 9 Whom Do People Dislike More? (Ryan T. Cragun, Patrick Henry, Casey P. Homan, and Joseph Hammer) III The Persistence of Religion 10 Neighbors in the Pews (Philip Schwadel) 11 Estimating the Global Muslim Population: (Brian J. Grim and Becky Hsu) 12 The Collapse of Secular Social Capital and Religious Revival in Rural China (Xiuhua Wang) 13 Family Networks and the Growth of The Church of Almighty God (Massimo Introvigne) 14 Heads Down, Hearts Up (Gregory S. Morrow and Mary E. Grigsby)

Objective Religion (Volume I) Competition, Tension, Perseverance

edited by Byron R. Johnson Though many scholars and commentators have predicted the death of religion, the world is more religious today than ever before. And yet, despite the persistence of religion, it remains a woefully understudied phenomenon. With Objective Religion, Baylor University Press and Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion have combined forces to gather select articles from the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion that not only highlight the journal’s wide-ranging and diverse scope, but also advance the field through a careful arrangement of topics with ongoing relevance, all treated with scientific objectivity and the respect warranted by matters of faith. This multivolume project seeks to advance our understanding of religion and spirituality in general as well as particular religious beliefs and practices. The volume thereby serves as a catalyst for future studies of religion from diverse disciplines and fields of inquiry including sociology, psychology, political science, demography, economics, philosophy, ethics, history, medicine, population health, epidemiology, and theology.

The articles in this volume, Competition, Tension, Perseverance, document the pervasiveness of religion and demonstrate the complex ways faith, spirituality, and religious matters are consequential for individuals as well as societies across the world. Together these essays demonstrate the resilience of religion.

“This volume does a fabulous job of staying honest with the facts and interpreting them without the assumptions of neo-atheism or rampant secularism that are found in less scholarly works. Rodney Stark remains the premier sociologist of religion in the United States, and Byron Johnson deserves equal seating. Together at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, they have changed our thinking for the better.”

—STEPHEN G. POST, Professor of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University “This is an intriguing set of papers from numerous scholars of religion with exceptional expertise, shedding light on the dynamics, practice, persistence, and societal effects of religion, both past and present. They together make a case for religion’s enduring importance.”

ISBN 978-1-4813-1364-3 $29.99 | Paper ISBN 978-1-4813-1426-8 $39.99 | Printed Case 392 pages 6x9 56 tables | 7 b&w figures NOW AVAILABLE “This is an essential resource on the myriad ways that faith, spirituality, and religion continue to matter to both individuals and societies. It is a wonderful resource for scholars in a wide variety of social science disciplines.”

—MATTHEW T. LEE, Director of Empirical Research, Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University

—TYLER J. VANDERWEELE, John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Director, Human Flourishing Program, Harvard University “This comprehensive contribution is absolutely mandatory reading for academic scholars, graduate students, the educated public, and anyone else who recognizes that in order to understand the world in which we live, we must understand religion.”

—ROBERT EMMONS, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis

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NEW TEXTBOOKS

Guía básica de la critica literaria y el trabajo de investigación Frieda H. Blackwell and Paul E. Larson

Great Ideas in History, Politics, and Philosophy A Reader

edited by J. Caleb Clanton and Richard C. Goode

illustrated by Frederick A. Marchman

Begin or refine your journey to master Spanish-language literature with this revised and expanded edition of Guía básica de la critica literaria y el trabajo de investigación. This focused and comprehensible guide empowers students to become better readers and, thus, better writers by focusing on the practice of literary theory, the application of literary criticism, and the structuring of literary essays. With a variety of excerpts from both Spanish and Latin American literature, examples of actual student essays, and a glossary of literary terms in Spanish with their English equivalents, Guía básica provides students with the tools needed to succeed, whether they are beginning their literary studies or progressing to more advanced literature classes.

With the world at our fingertips through the internet, it can be paralyzing and overwhelming to take in all the information available. What’s needed is a way to tune out the noise and home in on foundational ideas that can help us better navigate the complexities of our highly interconnected age. Great Ideas in History, Politics, and Philosophy offers a preliminary exposure to the intellectual resources—the great ideas— that have influenced and enriched human experience, cultures, and civilizations for centuries. Here readers can acquaint themselves with towering perspectives, meditations, arguments, and documents in the academic disciplines of history, political science, and philosophy. Great Ideas in History, Politics, and Philosophy invites readers to enter into conversations that are both timely and timeless.

FRIEDA H. BLACKWELL is Professor of Spanish and Associate Dean for Humanities in the College of Arts & Sciences at Baylor University. PAUL E. LARSON is Professor of Spanish at Baylor University.

J. CALEB CLANTON is University Research Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Lipscomb University. RICHARD C. GOODE is Professor of History at Lipscomb University.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1534-0 / $29.99 / Paper / 126 pages / 6 x 9 / 5 b&w illus. / NOW AVAILABLE

“A quality education must take on the big questions, and Caleb Clanton and Richard Goode have provided students and instructors a vital tool for the task. This extensive anthology includes a wide range of short, accessible selections taken from ancient global civilizations to the modern world, and they address numerous still-relevant issues in religion, ethics, politics, and civic responsibility. Ably edited with clear, informative comments preceding each excerpt, this book will stimulate hours of rewarding discussion both in and out of the classroom.”

—JONATHAN M. ATKINS, Professor of History, Berry College

ISBN 978-1-4813-1618-7 / $59.99 / Paper / 704 pages / 6 x 9 / NOW AVAILABLE

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KAREN O’DELL BULLOCK is Distinguished Professor of Christian Heritage and Director of the PhD Program at BH Carroll Theological Institute.

“Dr. Karen Bullock’s biography of Paul Newport comes when the Baptist family is more fractured and polarized than ever before. In her welldocumented account of Paul Newport’s life, his voice reverberates clearly through these pages, calling us back to be true Baptist ‘reconciler[s] of conflicting opinions on points of doctrine between faith traditions.’ . . .

This book is a must-read for all who want to be Baptist and relevant to our immediate polarized context.”

—GODFREY HAROLD, Principal and CEO, Cape Town Baptist Seminary

Like a River Glorious The Biography of John Paul Newport 1845 BOOKS

Karen O’Dell Bullock John Paul Newport was perhaps the most influential American Baptist philosopher and apologist of the twentieth century. He became legendary as a Baptist statesman, scholar, peacemaker, and transformational professor, who supervised more than fifty PhD students in philosophy, apologetics, theology, biblical studies, and world religions. Written from the unpublished autobiographical papers of John Newport, this official biography, Like a River Glorious, examines the life and legacy of one of America’s premier Baptist scholars.

Newport studied with the best minds of his day and taught for more than fifty years in Baptist colleges and seminaries, as well as at Rice University. He was also a churchman in pulpits across the South, serving as interim pastor in more than 150 churches in four states. His best-known book, Life’s Ultimate Questions, synthesized the most-asked questions about what it means to live as a human being, and anchored his responses in a reasoned, philosophical, and biblical worldview. Newport spent most of his career at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he chaired the philosophy department and served as vice president of academic affairs and provost. He was also the special consultant to then-president Russell Dilday and helped to lead the institution through some of its most difficult days.

Newport was an open, approachable, and eminently constructive Christian in his day, inviting his audiences to engage with the world of ideas, other Christians, and people of non-Christian faiths. The story of his unparalleled and remarkable journey unfolds in these pages, a testament to his legacy and an invitation for future Christian leaders to follow in his wake.

“Dr. Karen O’Dell Bullock achieves the impossible—a biography displaying excellent scholarship that is readable and inspiring. Bullock’s gifts of storytelling and of presenting a topic in its broader context lead the reader to turn page after page, and even read endnotes.”

—ROSALIE BECK, Associate Professor of Religion, Emerita, Baylor University

ISBN 978-1-4813-1606-4 $39.99 | Paper ISBN 978-1-4813-1614-9 $49.99 | Printed Case 270 pages 6x9 27 b&w photos APRIL 15, 2022

“In the tradition of great Baptist church historians like A. H. Newman, W. W. Barnes, Robert Baker, W. R. Estep, and H. Leon McBeth, Karen O’Dell Bullock has emerged as one of Baptists’ greatest storytellers. Bullock, already recognized as the outstanding biographer of Baptist legend Robert C. Buckner, has added another great biography to Baptist studies with this excellent volume on arguably Southern Baptists’ greatest philosopher, John Newport.”

—MICHAEL E. WILLIAMS SR., Professor of History, Dallas Baptist University

1845 books 35

Empowering Charity

Goodnight Waco

A New Narrative of Philanthropy

1845 BOOKS

1845 BOOKS

presented by the Junior League of Waco Illustrated by Dirk Fowler

Froswa’ Booker-Drew ISBN 978-1-4813-1609-5 $19.99 | Paper 155 pages 6x9 2 b&w photos and 11 diagrams APRIL 1, 2022

Our faith is centered around giving and offering support, yet our belief about those who need “help” must be reexamined. Philanthropy is steeped in myths that hurt communities of color rather than help them. Froswa’ Booker-Drew offers a solution that transforms philanthropy at individual and collective levels. Eliminating common myths and misinterpretations can bring about a more effective model of philanthropy—one that relies on a community’s social, human, and cultural capital and champions the insights and strengths of those being served. In addition, the voices of those most impacted by philanthropy must be included in board membership, program development, leadership in nonprofits, and charitable giving.

Empowering Charity serves as catalyst and conversation starter for tolerance and authentic inclusion in our workplaces, organizations, and communities.

DR. FROSWA’ BOOKER-DREW serves as Vice President of Community Affairs for the State Fair of Texas, co-founder of HERitage Giving Circle, DiversityCrew partner, and adjunct professor at Tulane University. In addition, she is the author of three books, provides consulting for national nonprofits and has addressed audiences around the world.

1845 books

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ISBN 978-1-4813-1714-6 $17.99 T | Printed Case 36 pages 8.5 x 11 Fully illustrated in color OCTOBER 15, 2021

Written in the style of the children’s classic Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Waco highlights all the exciting and enchanting landmarks of the sweetest little town on the “banks of the Brazos.” Within these pages, children can learn about Waco’s charms and all its wonderful offerings. Young readers will love discovering the memorable sites and iconic locations this diverse city has to share. Authored by four women from the Junior League of Waco, Goodnight Waco originated as a labor of love for students across the Greater Waco area and is a unique keepsake for visitors and anyone with connections to this vibrant Texas city.

THE JUNIOR LEAGUE OF WACO is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving our community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Since 1935, the Junior League of Waco has donated millions of volunteer service hours and gifted more than $2 million in direct funding to community involvement projects. The Junior League of Waco celebrates its 85th anniversary with the publication of Goodnight Waco, which will be donated to prekindergarten students around the city.

1845 books

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