A Theology of the Christian Life

A Theology of the Christian Life
Author: Christopher R. J. Holmes
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493433385

This book gets at the heart of the Christian life by considering some of the great truths of God's existence. Christopher Holmes, an expert in contemporary theology, engages with the church fathers along with Augustine and Aquinas to offer a rich, accessible account of the triune God and the divine perfections. Holmes shows how we share in the life of God through imitation and participation and how the doctrines of the triune God and the divine attributes shape our understanding of the Christian life. Throughout, Holmes demonstrates the importance of theology for Christian faith and practice.

Sanctified by Grace

Sanctified by Grace
Author: Kent Eilers
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2014-08-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567632172

Books on the Christian life abound. Some focus on spirituality, others on practices, and others still on doctrines such as justification or forgiveness. Few offer an account of the Christian life that portrays redeemed Christian existence within the multifaceted and beautiful whole of the Christian confession. This book attempts to fill that gap. It provides a constructive, specifically theological interpretation of the Christian life according to the nature of God's grace. This means coordinating the Triune God, his reconciling, justifying, redemptive, restorative, and otherwise transformative action with those practices of the Christian life emerging from it. The doctrine of the Christian life developed here unifies doctrine and life, confession and practice within the divine economy of grace. Drawing together some of the most important theologians in the church today, Sanctified by Grace achieves what no other theological text offers – a shared work of dogmatic theology oriented to redeemed Christian existence.

Spiritual Theology

Spiritual Theology
Author: Simon Chan
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2009-08-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830876995

Simon Chan surveys the little-explored landscape where systematic theology and godly praxis meet, and he highlights the connections between Christian doctrine and Christian living.

The Doctrine of the Christian Life

The Doctrine of the Christian Life
Author: John M. Frame
Publisher: Theology of Lordship
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780875527963

The third volume of Frame's Theology of Lordship series, this book focuses on biblical ethics. In an age of ethical relativism and suspicion of authority, how can we know what is good, virtuous, or just? Frame surveys non-Christian ethical traditions before setting forth a solidly Christian ethical method. By clarifying biblical norms, life situations, and personal dimensions, he presents a model for decision making that honors God in all aspects of life. Discussions range from natural law and conflict of duties to detailed explorations of the Ten Commandments in connection with questions surrounding worship, the Sabbath, church and state, respect for life and truth, sexuality, and the relation of Christ to culture.

Practicing Theology

Practicing Theology
Author: Miroslav Volf
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2001-10-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780802849311

In a time when academic theology often neglects the lived practices of the Christian community, this volume seeks to bring balance to the situation by showing the dynamic link between the task of theology and the practices of the Christian life. The work of thirteen first-rate theologians from several cultural and Christian perspectives, these informed and informative essays explore the relationship between Christian theology and practice in the daily lives of believers, in the ministry of Christian communities, and as a needed focus within Christian education. Contributors: Dorothy C. Bass Nancy Bedford Gilbert Bond Sarah Coakley Craig Dykstra Reinhard Hütter L. Gregory Jones Serene Jones Amy Plantinga Pauw Christine Pohl Kathryn Tanner Miroslav Volf Tammy Williams

Already Sanctified

Already Sanctified
Author: Don J. Payne
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020-06-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493423754

How does the doctrine of sanctification shape the Christian life? Offering a fully developed treatment of "accomplished" sanctification, Don Payne explains that the primary biblical focus in sanctification is not progressive growth but that which has already occurred for Christians to make growth possible, necessary, and grace-driven. As Payne explores the significance Scripture attributes to the accomplished aspect of sanctification, he helps us understand that we are already sanctified. Sanctification is not synonymous with transformation but undergirds strategies and resources related to Christian discipleship and formation.

The True Christian Life

The True Christian Life
Author: Ambroise Gardeil, OP
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2022-01-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0813234530

Although not well-known in the English-speaking world, Fr. Ambroise Gardeil, OP (1859-1931) was a Dominican of significant influence in French Catholic thought at the turn of the 20th century. Conservative theologians like Frs. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, Michel Labourdette, OP, Jean-Hervé Nicolas, OP and many others hailed him as a careful expositor of the supernaturality of faith, a defender of the theological nature of rational apologetics, and a spiritual master. The True Christian Life provides a thorough and stirring introduction to Fr. Gardeil's work in spiritual theology. The volume was originally published posthumously through the collaboration of Fr. Gardeil's nephew, Fr. Henri-Dominique Gardeil, OP and Jacques Maritain. Fr. Ambroise, prior to beginning work on his masterpiece on spiritual experience, La Structure de l'âme et l'expérience mystique, drafted nearly eight-hundred pages that would have set forth a full presentation of moral-ascetical theology. While drafting this massive work, his reflection on the soul's receptive capacity for grace led him to the two-volume study, La Structure, and he never was able to finish his original designs for a comprehensive study of the Christian moral-spiritual life. Soon after his death, his nephew gathered several essays from the Revue thomiste and Revue de Jeunes, along with a complete-but-unpublished study on prayer. Drafting a lengthy introduction on the basis of Fr. Ambroise's unpublished notes, Fr. Henri-Dominique assembled a volume of moral / spiritual theology that sets out the principles of many important themes: divinization through grace, Christian prudence /conscience, the virtue of religion, devotion, and prayer. In this volume, the reader will find a clear and rhetorically striking presentation of the central mysteries of the spiritual life, presented with stirring and beautiful rhetoric by a theological master from the Thomist tradition.

What Is Theology?

What Is Theology?
Author: Adam Kotsko
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0823297837

The secular world may have thought it was done with theology, but theology was not done with it. Recent decades have seen a resurgence of religion on the social and political scene, which have driven thinkers across many disciplines to grapple with the Christian theological inheritance of the modern world. Adam Kotsko provides a unique guide to this fraught terrain. The title essay establishes a fresh and unexpected redefinition of theology and its complex and often polemical relationship with its sister discipline of philosophy. Subsequent essays build on this framework from three different perspectives. In the first part, Kotsko demonstrates the continued vibrancy of Christian theology as a creative and constructive pursuit outside the walls of the church, showing that theological concepts can underwrite a powerful critique of the modern world. The second approaches Christian theology from the perspective of a range of contemporary philosophers, showing how philosophical thought is drawn to theology even despite itself. The concluding section is devoted to the unexpected theological roots of the modern world-system, making a case that the interplay of state and economy and the structure of modern racial oppression both build on theological patterns of thought. Kotsko’s book ultimately shows that theology is not a scholarly game or an edifying spiritual discipline, but a world-shaping force of great power. Lives are at stake when we do theology—and if we don’t do it, someone else will.

Ordinary

Ordinary
Author: Michael Horton
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2014-10-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310517389

Radical. Crazy. Transformative and restless. Every word we read these days seems to suggest there’s a “next-best-thing,” if only we would change our comfortable, compromising lives. In fact, the greatest fear most Christians have is boredom—the sense that they are missing out on the radical life Jesus promised. One thing is certain. No one wants to be “ordinary.” Yet pastor and author Michael Horton believes that our attempts to measure our spiritual growth by our experiences, constantly seeking after the next big breakthrough, have left many Christians disillusioned and disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with an energetic faith; the danger is that we can burn ourselves out on restless anxieties and unrealistic expectations. What’s needed is not another program or a fresh approach to spiritual growth; it’s a renewed appreciation for the commonplace. Far from a call to low expectations and passivity, Horton invites readers to recover their sense of joy in the ordinary. He provides a guide to a sustainable discipleship that happens over the long haul—not a quick fix that leaves readers empty with unfulfilled promises. Convicting and ultimately empowering, Ordinary is not a call to do less; it’s an invitation to experience the elusive joy of the ordinary Christian life.