This book explores the vital role of the imagination in today's complex climates--cultural, environmental, political, racial, religious, spiritual, intellectual, etc. It asks: What contribution do the arts make in a world facing the impacts of globalism, climate change, pandemics, and losses of culture? What wisdom and insight, and orientation for birthing hope and action in the world, do the arts offer to religious faith and to theological reflection? These essays, poems, and short reflec...

The Holy Spirit has become a greater focus for attention in Trinitarian theology and in the life of the western church since the rise of Pentecostalism at the beginning of the twentieth century. Different understandings of the Holy Spirit have impacted worship in a variety of ways. This book looks at look at surprising overlaps in the thinking about relationship between the Holy Spirit and worship between two radically different traditions of the church, represented by John Owen, from the ...

The Judeo-Christian scriptures understand humans as being made in the image of God. What exactly does this mean? Basic agreement is that it means humans can only know and understand themselves in relation to God. If, however, this God is pure uncreated spirit, where does human embodiment fit in? Is it an obstacle to understanding? Or is it in some way instructive? John Paul II comes down decisively in favor of the body's value and importance. In his catechetical series, widely known as the...

"Can poetry matter to Christian theology?" David Mahan asks in the introduction to this interdisciplinary work. Does the study of poetry represent a serious theological project? What does poetry have to contribute to the public tasks of theology and the Church? How can theologians, clergy and other ministry professionals, and Christian laypeople benefit from an earnest study of poetry? A growing number of professional theologians today seek to push theological inquiry beyond the relative s...

Found Theology is a book about how theology deals with newly-encountered (of 'found') material in time, and about the role of imagination in these encounters. The book is unusual and ground-breaking exercise in the interdisciplinary discussion of theology and the arts.Ben Quash brings together elements of doctrine, scripture, the fine arts and the experiences of everyday life. He looks closely at Christian artistic traditions via a number of case studies that represent a r...

Introducing Christian Ethics 2e, now thoroughly revised and updated, offers an unparalleled introduction to the study of Christian Ethics, mapping and exploring all the major ethical approaches, and offering thoughtful insights into the complex moral challenges facing people today.This highly successful text has been thoughtfully updated, based on considerable feedback, to include increased material on Catholic perspectives, further case studies and the augmented use...

Taking seriously the practice and not just the theory of music, this ground-breaking collection of essays establishes a new standard for the interdisciplinary conversation between theology, musicology, and liturgical studies. The public making of music in our society happens more often in the context of chapels, churches, and cathedrals than anywhere else. The command to sing and make music to God makes music an essential part of the DNA of Christian worship.The book’s three main p...

'Abide in me as I abide in you... As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.'Abiding is not a word we have much use for in everyday conversation. Yet Ben Quash shows that this one concept is central to the Christian life.Abiding, as Quash demonstrates, has the sense of full personal commitment, a quality of solidarity that 'waiting' just cannot convey. It speaks of the centrality of order, consistency and continuity in the C...

William Blake famously imagined 'Jerusalem builded here' in London. But Blake was not the first or the last to visualise a shimmering new metropolis on the banks of the River Thames. For example, the Romans erected a temple to Mithras in their ancient city of Londinium; medieval Londoners created Temple Church in memory of the Holy Sepulchre in which Jesus was buried; and Christopher Wren reshaped the skyline of the entire city with his visionary dome and spires after the Great Fire of Lon...

WINNER OF THE MICHAEL RAMSEY PRIZE FOR THE BEST IN THEOLOGICAL WRITINGWinner of the Michael Ramsey prize for the best in theological writing. Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe is in demand the world over with Bishops, priests, lay people and above all young people. This book is his response.What is the Point of being a Christian? One is pointed to God, who is the point of everything. If one thinks of religion as just 'useful' then one has reduced it to another con...

One of the biggest legacies Pope St John Paul II left behind was his Theology of the Body. This revolutionary teaching on love, sexuality, and the meaning of our human bodies, was given over 15 years during his Wednesday audiences in St Peter's Square. Rather than being a dry, theoretical theology, it is meant to be lived. This momentous body of work deals with the deepest yearnings of the human soul and conveys a message that is positive, profound, surprising and also intensely practical....

In a consumer-driven and technologized world, can we still experience the mystery of God? This book answers yes by exploring the rich resources of the Christian tradition of thinking and speaking about God. Focusing on God’s dialectical character—divine availability (“presence”) and divine excess (“absence”)—and the belief that “God is love” (1 John 4:16), professor Anthony J. Godzieba tracks how God became a problem in Western culture, then responds by showing how human experience is open...