Social Theology

Today's status quo Christianity has bred isolated, comfortable Christians. Many have little in the way of a prayer life. As we know from the people who come to us for help, many know plenty of Bible verses and doctrine but are empty inside; they lack an intimate heart-relationship with the Lord. Many churches avoid the hard topics, or if they do broach the tough subjects they give little in the way of biblical answers on how to overcome those issues. We teach the Bible but aren't showing people how to live it.

Whether you read the open chapters of Genesis, or reflect on the discipline of therapy, or simply listen deeply to someone in deep pain, you will discover that when your world seems to be in deep chaos, the capturing that chaos in words can enable you to discover meaning and hope. A Star and a Tear is a fictional attempt to tell the story of racism in our country. In listening to the story and sharing your thoughts with others, you can discover meaningful ways to respond in a way that offers healing and hope.

Charles E. Curran explores the social mission of the U.S. Catholic Church from a theological perspective, analyzing and assessing four aspects: the importance of social mission, who carries it out, how it is carried out, and the roles that the Church and individual Catholics play in supporting these efforts. In the early and mid-twentieth century the Catholic Church in the United States tended to focus its social mission on its own charities, hospitals, and schools.

While teaching ethics is universally applauded, how one goes about it is much more difficult and contested than is often recognized. On Teaching and Learning Christian Ethics addresses what it means to teach and learn ethics through a thorough comparison of two ethicists, Henry Sidgwick and F. D. Maurice. Where Sidgwick understood ethics as developing a method for guiding voluntary action to what is right, Maurice maintained that ethics concerns life as a whole, and that requires placing it within a metaphysical and theological realm in which the good is much more definitive than right.

What is the true nature and mission of the church? Is its proper Christian purpose to save souls, or to transform the social order? This question is especially fraught when the church is one built by an enslaved people and formed, from its beginning, at the center of an oppressed community's fight for personhood and freedom. Such is the central tension in the identity and mission of the Black church in the United States.

Teaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist-Educators, and Radical Social Change interrogates the stories of African American activist-educators whose faith convictions inspired them to educate in radical and transformative ways. Almeda M. Wright explores the connections between religion, education, and struggles for freedom within twentieth-century African American communities by telling the stories of key African American teachers.

In our increasingly secular world, many claim that Christianity is oppressive and toxic. Christians are accused of standing on the wrong side of history, failing to accept human dignity, freedom, and progress. Are these accusations valid? Is Christianity actually causing more harm than good in the world? In this concise booklet, author Sharon James shows that through history and across the globe, true followers of Christ have challenged injustice and abuse, and provided care for the needy.

Gut zu sein in einem tieferen Sinn ist die beste Therapie gegen innere Leere, Antriebslosigkeit und Depression. Es hält jung und gesund. Andersherum rächen sich böse Taten nicht erst im nächsten Leben, sondern bereits in diesem. Faszinierende neue Studien aus der Medizin und der Biologie belegen das. Doch wie erschließen wir diese Kraftquelle für uns? Wie werden wir zu den guten Menschen, für die wir uns vielleicht schon halten? Und was heißt es eigentlich, gut zu sein?

In this searing and personal book, intellectual activist and theologian Robyn Henderson-Espinoza bridges the gap between academia and activism, bringing the wisdom of the streets to the work of scholarship, all for the sake of political liberation and social change for marginalized communities. This is an invitation - a powerful and provocative call-to-action--to academic theologians to the work of social activism through movement building.

Radical theology and political theology are terms that have gained a lot of currency among philosophers of religion today. In this visionary new book, Jeffrey W. Robbins explores the contemporary direction of these movements as he charts a course for their future. Robbins claims that radical theology is no longer bound by earlier thinking about God and that it must be conceived of as post-secular and post-liberal.

Nothing that God created is the source of our human temptation. To the contrary! The human body is the crown of God's creation—consummated by his declaration that it was good. That God's people are unable to view the body without sinning is not an indictment of the body itself, but of the immaturity of the post-modern evangelical mind.

Ben Lindsay offers eye-opening insights into the black religious experience, challenging the status quo in white majority churches. Filled with examples from real-life stories, including his own, and insightful questions, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of race relations in the Church in the UK and shows us how we can work together to create a truly inclusive church community.

You've seen the headlines. You've watched the TV footage. People around the world are in dire situations and on the move. Current estimates suggest over 100 million people are forcibly displaced from their homes and seeking refuge in other countries. It seems as if everyone wants to come to the U.S., and if we're honest, that gives many of us pause.

Digital innovation has rapidly changed the landscape of sexual experience in the 21st century. Rules-based sexual ethics, subscribed to by many Christians, are unable to keep up with new developments and, more often than not, seem effective at little other than generating shame.

Es casi imposible no hacerse la pregunta: ¿Dónde está Dios en esta pandemia? Esa es la pregunta que John Lennox trata en este nuevo libro escrito desde la sala—¡ahora dónde más!—de su casa en Oxford, Inglaterra. Recordando el estilo conversacional del autor C.S. Lewis en Mero Cristianismo (escrito durante la segunda guerra mundial), este es un libro para el tiempo más desafiante de nuestra generación. Siéntate y acompaña a John Lennox en ¿Dónde está Dios en un mundo con Coronavirus?.

In the United States, to be a Black American is to be a Black Christian. And there’s something to this assumption in that the vast majority of African Americans are Christian. However, in recent years a growing number of African Americans have said they claim no particular religious affiliation—they are Black “nones.” And of these Black “nones,” the most public and vocal are those who claim to be humanists.

Has America entered a prophetic time of judgment? Is the division, political instability, reliance on government, inflation, and increased crime a sign of more to come? Author Carmelita Greco sees the current national unrest as a sign of judgment upon the nation and a call to return to the American motto, “In God we trust.” A series of prophetic encounters, a previous run for Congress, and an inner spiritual urgency to release a call to repentance to a nation that has replaced the historical biblical God with gods of prosperity and self-reliance.

In the 21st century the basic questions of ethics are no longer the abstract terms of ethical theory, but the concrete and burning issues related to the influence of life sciences, the impact of a globalized economy, and the consequences of present decisions for the future of humankind.

Is it possible the United States, a superpower without peer in history, might not be a key player as the world makes its way down the road to the Battle of Armageddon?

The United States stands as the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the face of the earth. But now, in the midst of skyrocketing federal debt, severe economic troubles, political uncertainty, declining morality, a weak church, growing spiritual apathy and apostasy, historic natural disasters, and a myriad of other daunting challenges, many wonder if America’s best days are behind her. Will history’s greatest democracy stage a miraculous comeback, returning to the forefront of the world’s economic and spiritual stage?