For years scholars and others have been trying to out Shakespeare as an ardent Calvinist, a crypto-Catholic, a Puritan-baiter, a secularist, or a devotee of some hybrid faith. In Religion Around Shakespeare, Peter Kaufman sets aside such speculation in favor of considering the historical and religious context surrounding his work. Employing ......
The place and significance of Martin Luther in the long history of Christian anti-Jewish polemic has been and continues to be a contested issue. It is true that Luther's anti-Jewish rhetoric intensified toward the end of his life, but reading Luther with a careful eye toward "the Jewish question," it becomes clear that Luther's theological ......
Religious Freedom, Sexual Freedom, and Public Expressions of Civic Equality
Using the religion clause of the First Amendment as a foundation, the author contends that, just as US law and policy ensure that citizens may express religious beliefs as they see fit, it should also ensure that citizens may marry as they see fit.
Faith, Health, and Why the Church Should Care About Both
Inspiration for churches seeking to develop whole-person ministriesDust and Breath invites the Christian community into an expansive vision of salvation that includes ministries of health and healing. Inspired by the work of a remarkable ministry in Memphis, Tennessee, Kendra Hotz and Matthew Mathews show why the church must care about both faith ......
For over a decade Fuller Seminary president Richard Mouw has participated in Mormon-evangelical dialogue with a view to developing a better understanding between the two groups. His participation in these discussions has drawn severe criticism and even anger from people who believe such talks are pointless or even dangerous. This brief, highly ......
Recent US and UN reports document the startling incidence of human trafficking in the world today. Yet the situation is hardly new. The fact that some early Christians were slaves does not present a moral problem for Christians today. The fact that some early Christians were slaveholders does. Jennifer Glancy tackles questions that continue to ......
Secularization traces the decline of religion and the rise of secular belief systems. But it also touches on the transition from traditional to modern systems of organization, the replacement of metaphysical beliefs with science, the transition from community to association and much more besides. The debate about secularism and secularization has become a central issue in politics, public policy and international affairs. There is a long history of thinking about the religious and the secular, but the modern debate has special features and a great urgency mainly as a result of fears about religious fundamentalism, religious revival, political Islam and religious nationalism. Volume One explores the history and meaning of key terms: secular, secularism, secularity, secularization and laicity. It is primarily concerned with the philosophy and theology of the secular and examines the evolution of the debate from St Augustine's two cities to contemporary writings and is not confined to Christian debate. Volume Two deals with the sociology of secularization and contains the classic statements by sociologists such as Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Bryan Wilson, David Martin, and Thomas Luckmann. Volume Three considers American exceptionalism. Much the debate in sociology has centred on the question of America's differences from secular Europe. Religion and politics have been significantly interconnected in American history. America is a very special but influential case of secularization and merits a separate volume. Volume Four involves the comparative sociology of modern religious revivalism and the notion that we are in a post-secular society. The manifestations of religious revival in post-secular societies are truly global. This volume looks at the revival of world religions and popular religions such as spirit possession in the post-communist societies.
A record of the fifth 'Building Bridges' seminar held in Washington, DC in 2006 (an annual symposium on Muslim-Christian relations cosponsored by Georgetown University and the Church of England). It examines justice and rights from Christian and Muslim perspectives.
The Clash Over the Church's Role in Society During the Modernist Era
How does the Church realize its public mission? How do different theological and philosophical commitments influence the conception of the Church's role in the public square? This work casts light on contemporary arguments over social Catholicism and the believer's role in society by illuminating a similar dispute between French Catholics among ......
