Sales

A brilliant painter of society portraits, John Singer Sargent also devoted many years at the height of his career to a project of an entirely different order: an ambitious, multi-media decoration titled Triumph of Religion (1890-1919) for the Boston Public Library. The library cycle Sargent imagined as his most important work, however, would ultimately remain unfinished, quietly abandoned in the face of religious opposition, one critical painting short of completion. Truncation dramatically altered possible readings of Triumph, redirecting its narrative energies and generating new meanings in tension with the idea Sargent had proposed. In Painting Religion in Public, Sally Promey tells the story of an artist of international stature and the complex and consuming pictorial program he pursued in Boston. Highly celebrated in its day, with individual panels retaining immense popularity even in the years of discord, this artistic project and its constituent images tell us much about broad cultural and political exchanges concerning the public representation of religious content in the United States.

Sargent's library decoration attracted the attention of multiple audiences and engaged concurrent debates about class, race, art, and religion. Representatives of various religious and cultural backgrounds hailed portions of the cycle as indicative of the strength of their own positions, and reproductions of the images appeared in everything from books and encyclopedias to stained glass and public pageantry. Promey analyzes the conception and production of the cycle, persuasively demonstrating that Triumph of Religion, far from promoting a narrowly sectarian version of religious practice, represented instead Sargent's public recommendation of the privacy of modern belief. The artist recast contemporary religion as spirituality, she argues, linking it not with institutions and dogma but with personal subjectivity. For Sargent, this ideal was a sign of Western, especially American, progress. Carefully reconstructing patterns of reception in an increasingly diverse religious climate, and exploring the extent and character of Sargent's personal and artistic investment, Promey boldly illuminates the work Sargent hoped to make his masterpiece. At the same time, she enriches understanding of religious images in public places and popular imagination.

Ordained ministry, says Willimon, is a gift of God to the church--but that doesn't mean that it is easy. Always a difficult vocation, changes in society and the church in recent years have made the ordained life all the more complex and challenging. Is the pastor primarily a preacher, a professional caregiver, an administrator? Given the call of all Christians to be ministers to the world, what is the distinctive ministry of the ordained? When does one's ministry take on the character of prophet, and when does it become that of priest? What are the special ethical obligations and disciplines of the ordained? In this book, Willimon explores these and other central questions about the vocation of ordained ministry.

He begins with a discussion of who pastors are, asking about the theological underpinnings of ordained ministry, and then moves on to what pastors do, looking at the distinctive roles the pastor must fulfill. The book also draws on great teachers of the Christian tradition to demonstrate that, while much about Christian ministry has changed, its core concerns--preaching the word, the care of souls, the sacramental life of congregations--remains the same.

Ordained ministry is a vocation to which we are called, not a profession that we choose. To answer that call is to open oneself to heartache and sometimes hardship; yet, given the one who calls, it is to make oneself available to deep and profound joy as well.

Pastoral care in rural communities is different from care in other locales. Despite these differences, rural churches and communities also hold a particular wisdom from which the rest of the church might benefit. Small towns and rural areas have particular challenges, and in seeking to live out the Christian life in the midst of those challenges, local churches have unique and useful insights into what it means to care for one another.

John McClure's Preaching Words highlights the most important ideas in homiletics and preaching, offering short explanations of these ideas, what scholars of preaching are saying about them, and how they can help in today's preaching. Topics range from elements of the sermon (introduction, body, and conclusion) to aspects of delivery, types of preaching in different Christian traditions, and theories of preaching.

2011 Winner of the Book Awards Contest in the Discipline of Theology Presented by Alpha Sigma Nu

The apostle Paul wrote that "All of you are one in Christ Jesus." Given Paul's vision of God's kingdom defined by the breakdown of all distinctions and relationships of domination--no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female--how do we make sense of ethnic particularity within the church's theological formulations?

Racism and God-Talk explores the biblical and religious dimensions of North American racism while highlighting examples of resistance within the Christian religious tradition. Social historians have seldom analyzed the problematic of race from a primarily theological perspective. This volume undertakes a critical examination of explicitly theological and confessional perspectives for understanding and transforming North American racism.

Rosario Rodriguez offers insights from Latino/a theology for broader scholarly and social discussions concerning racism, borders, and immigration. The first to analyze race and racism from a Latino/a theological perspective, the volume makes use of a broadened conceptualization of "mestizaje," or mutual cultural exchange, to challenge the church to recognize the effects of racial and ethnic particularity in all theological construction.

What can atheists tell us about religious life? Russian archives contain a wealth of information on religiosity during the Soviet era, but most of it is written from the hostile perspective of officials and scholars charged with promoting atheism. Based on archival research in locations as diverse as the multi-religious Volga region, Moscow, and Texas, Sonja Luehrmann argues that we can learn a great deal about Soviet religiosity when we focus not just on what documents say but also on what they did. Especially during the post-war decades (1950s-1970s), the puzzle of religious persistence under socialism challenged atheists to develop new approaches to studying and theorizing religion while also trying to control it. Taking into account the logic of filing systems as well as the content of documents, the book shows how documentary action made religious believers firmly a part of Soviet society while simultaneously casting them as ideologically alien. When juxtaposed with oral, printed, and samizdat sources, the records of institutions such as the Council of Religious Affairs and the Communist Party take on a dialogical quality. In distanced and carefully circumscribed form, they preserve traces of encounters with religious believers. By contrast, collections compiled by western supporters during the Cold War sometimes lack this ideological friction, recruiting Soviet believers into a deceptively simple binary of religion versus communism. Through careful readings and comparisons of different documentary genres and depositories, this book opens up a difficult set of sources to students of religion and secularism.

In this profound and provocative book, acclaimed authors Maria Harris and Gabriel Moran challenge the religious education community to risk change. Writing in the form of a give-and-take conversation, a conversation that includes Jewish educator Sherry Blumberg and European educator Friedrich Schweitzer: the authors incorporate ecumenical and international perspectives into their analysis of the state of contemporary religious education - and its future.

With the help of a wide variety of source material, particularly legal documents and inscriptions, some of it made available for the first time in English, this book illustrates the activities associated with the household, demonstrating the different and frequently conflicting roles and moral values expected from its various members: male and female, old and young, freedman and slave.

Regarded as the most personal of Paul's weighty and strong" (10:10) letters, the Second Letter to the Corinthians continues to contribute toward the *building up - (13:10) of its readers.

The Second Letter to the Corinthians is an implicit yet undeniable plea that Paul addresses to the Christians of Corinth and is impressive above all for its exposition of the apostle's identity. In this letter Paul more than once fiercely counters the attacks of his opponents. He extensively describes both the quality and circumstances of his apostolic existence: the sufferings he endures, the opposition he encounters, and his continual care for the Churches. Second Corinthians is, therefore, highly significant theologically as well as autobiographically.

Not an easy letter to follow, the emotional language used in 2 Corinthians, the question of the integrity of 2 Corinthians as a letter, and inadequate information about the concrete situation at Corinth and the identity of Paul's opponents make following the flow of Paul's argument difficult at times. Yet 2 Corinthians is an especially important document because of Paul's ongoing reflection on his ministry. It is both profound in its content and style for its original audience as well as for today's readers.

Chapters are *Corinth and Paul's Visits, - *Paul's Corinthian Correspondence, - *Christianity in Corinth, - *The Events Between 1 and 2 Corinthians, - *Paul's Opponents, - *One Integral Letter? - *A Structured Survey of the Letter, - *The Theological Significance of the Letter. -

No two works in the Pauline Epistles resemble each other as closely as Colossians and Ephesians. Often recognized for their majestic tone and powerful theological statement, Colossians and Ephesians also present many challenges of interpretation. Most commentaries on these letters seem preoccupied with the same few issues, particularly the question of authorship. As MacDonald addresses these classic questions, she offers a fresh perspective on Colossians and Ephesians by making use of insights from the social sciences. Moreover, by paying attention to subtle differences between the two letters, she brings their distinct perspectives into sharp relief.

MacDonald highlights the interplay between Colossians and Ephesians and the social life of New Testament communities. She illustrates how the texts reflect ancient cultural values and are influenced by particular aspects of community life such as worship and household existence. In particular, she reflects on the issues faced by these communities as they formed institutions and interacted with the society around them. She shows the struggles of the New Testament communities to survive and maintain a distinct identity in first-century society.

Chapters under Colossians are Greeting (1:1-2), Thanksgiving for the Colossians (1:3-8), Prayer on Behalf of the Colossians (1:9-14, ) The Christ-Hymn (1:15-20), Application of Hymn to the Situation in Colossae (1:21-23), Paul's Authority in Colossae and Laodicea (1:24-2:7), Debate with the Opponents: The Power of the Risen Christ (2:8-15), Debate with the Opponents: Warnings Against Ascetic Practices (2:16-23), New Life in Light of the Resurrection (3:1-4), Ethical Guidelines for a New Life (3:5-17), The Households of Believers(3:18-4:1), Prayer, Mission, and Contact with Outsiders (4:2-6), Conclusion: Personal Notes and Greetings (4:7-18).

Chapters under Ephesians are Greeting (1:1-2), Blessing (1:3-14), Thanksgiving and Prayer (1:15-23), The Consequences of Life Together with Christ (2:1-10), The Unity of Jews and Gentiles Created by Christ (2:11-22), The Apostle as Interpreter of the Divine Mystery (3:1-13), Prayer and Doxology (3:14-21), The Unity of the Spirit (4:1-16), The Sons of Disobedience and the Children of Light (4:17-5:20), The Households of Believers (5:21-6:9), Doing Battle with Evil (6:10-20), Conclusion: Personal Matters and Final Blessing (6:21-24).

Margaret Y. MacDonald is a professor in the department of religious studies at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.

This volume presents texts selected from the full range of John Calvin's writings, including excerpts from commentaries, sermons, letters, catechisms, tracts, broad-based theological works.

Description: In this thoroughly revised edition of his classic work, James A. Sanders introduces the reader to canonical criticism. Tracking the various developments of biblical literature and their acceptance by the communities of faith, Sanders tackles the tough questions. He discusses the differences between the parts of the canon, the editing of the texts by later generations, the diversity of canons used in different communities, how the Dead Sea Scrolls raise new questions for canonicity, and the differences between how Jews and Christians have interacted with their canons. In addition to all the updates and revisions, Sanders provides a new introduction and bibliography. Endorsements: Praise for the first edition: "Sanders does not give excessive or privileged stress to the final form of the canon. What interests him is the canonical process operative through all the stages of Israel's literary history. The canonical process was a trend toward repeating communal values and resignifying them in textual form. Furthermore, the various ways in which biblical writers repeated and resignified these values along the trajectory toward the final canon provides us appropriate canonical hermeneutics for our own reading of the Bible. Scripture is seen as 'adaptable for life' throughout its entire course from initial composition and collection down to its present appropriation." --Norman K. Gottwald author of The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction "Professor Sanders has written a highly important and penetrating inquiry into the formation, structure, and use of the Old Testament as canon. . . . The author is to be commended for injecting a new element into the growing dialogue between Judaism and Christianity." --Review and Expositor About the Contributor(s): James A. Sanders is President Emeritus of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont, California. From 1977 to 1997, he served as Elizabeth Hay Bechtel Professor of Intertestamental and Biblical Studies at Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate School. Among his many publications are Canon and Community and From Sacred Story to Sacred Text.