Postcolonial Politics and Theology seeks to reform and reimagine the field of political theology—uprooting it from the colonial soil—using the comparative lenses of postcolonial politics and theology to bring attention to the realities of the Global South. Kwok Pui-lan traces the history of the political impacts of Western theological development, especially developments in the U.S. context, and the need to shift these interlocking fields toward non-Western traditions in theory and practice. &nb...
Written primarily for undergraduate classes in American religious history and organized chronologically, this new textbook presents the broad scope of the story of religion in the American colonies and the United States. While following certain central narratives, including the long shadow of Puritanism, the competition between revival and reason, and the defining role of racial and ethnic diversity, the book tells the story of American religion in all its historical and moral complexity. To app...
Named one of the Top 10 Books of the Year in 2020 by the Academy of Parish Clergy
For a long time, American Christians have been hearing a story about Islam. It's a story about conflict and hostility, about foreigners and strangers. At the heart of this story is a fundamental incompatibility between the two religions going all the way back to their original encounters. According to that story, the only valid Christian response to Islam is resistance.But it's time to tell a different—and truer—s...
The current social and political climate makes it easy to benefit from religious misunderstanding. Political and religious leaders create fear of the religious other in order to drum up support for themselves. But the best way to combat deliberate misrepresentation is to provide accurate, timely information about the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Originally published in 2007, What Do Our Neighbors Believe? Second Edition organizes the three belief sys...
Questions and fears about Islam have proliferated American life for decades, from the Iranian Revolution in 1979 to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Yet more recent history has seen a new development in the tangle of Christian-Muslim relations: the mainstreaming of Islamophobia as a path to political and societal power at the highest level. Politicians and religious leaders now routinely spread fear and confusion about Muslim beliefs and practice in order to bolster their own positions.Many reco...
Why do certain groups and individuals seek to do harm in the name of God? While studies often claim to hold the key to this frightening phenomenon, they seldom account for the crucial role that religious conviction plays, not just in radical Islam, but also in the fundamentalist branches of the world's two other largest religions: Christianity and Hinduism. As the first book to examine violent extremism in all three religions together, Competing Fundamentalisms draws on studies in s...
We live in a world driven by fear. But should we allow fear to play such a large role in our lives? According to the religions of the world, the answer is no.In this helpful and illuminating book, Michael Kinnamon challenges readers to consider why we find ourselves in this age of fear and what we can do about it. Drawing on support from a diversity of religious traditions and teachers, Kinnamon argues that religious faith is the best way to combat a culture of fear. He explores fea...
Sneaking out of the Vatican at night, washing the feet of inmates, and taking selfies with young fans is certainly unlike any religious leader we've seen in a while, and some of the religious establishment is uneasy about it. The revitalization Pope Francis is bringing to the Catholic Church is not without precedent, however. Jesus had a similar effect in his day, drawing crowds with his humility, kindness, and wisdom-even as he drew the disapproval of established religious leader...
Examining other religions provides Christians the opportunity to more deeply understand their own beliefs. Learning about other religions is not the same as learning from other religions, which can have great value to Christians who wish to strengthen their faith. In this book's ten easy-to-read chapters, Wogaman shows readers what Christians can learn from different religions, such as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even from atheism. From these religions, Christians can a...
< p>When author and theologian John P. Burgess first travelled to Russia, he was hoping to expand his theological horizons and explore the rebirth of the Orthodox Church since the fall of Communism. But what he found changed some fundamental assumptions about his own tradition of North American Protestantism. In this book, Burgess looks to Orthodoxy to help the North American Protestant church—which has seen membership decline to below 50% of the population for the first t...
Are Muslims infiltrating American society? What does Islam really teach about women's roles? Does the Qur'an condone violence? Presbyterian pastor Ben Daniel tackles common stereotypes and misconceptions that tend to define Islam in the popular imagination. Daniel also looks at Christianity's own history of violence and explores what he calls "the American cult of fear," particularly as it relates to the rise of Islamophobia in the United States. Blending travel narrative, inte...
This book presents three different, influential and representative theological approaches towards the world religions. Students are not only introduced to the field, but get three passionate and intelligent 'takes' on what is at stake. By means of a response to each of the primary essays, the authors are put into interaction with each other, and are also engaged with the most contemporary scholarship in the field of theology of religions. This sustained and high level critical inte...
The fourth edition of World Religions in America continues its lauded tradition of providing students with reliable and nuanced information about America's religious diversity, while also reflecting new developments and ideas. Each chapter was updated to reflect important changes and events, and current statistics and information. New features include a timeline of key events and people for each tradition, sidebars on major movements or controversies, personal stories from members...
In this engaging and important book, Old Testament scholar W. Eugene March develops a theology of land, contending that since the world belongs to God, we do not "own" land. Rather, land is a loan from God, and we must use it responsibly and justly. March goes on to examine in some detail the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian people, discussing both the history of that relationship and how it has led to today's conflict.
In A Multitude of Blessings, Cynthia Campbell clearly and engagingly explores the ancient but timely issue of religious diversity, drawing on both biblical and theological sources. Analyzing Old Testament texts, she provides a close reading of several key passages that express God's steadfast love for humankind and show that diversity is part of God's overall plan for human culture. In the New Testament, she turns to several influential texts and familiar passages to which Christian...
In this insightful and accessible book, religion journalist Mark Pinsky takes the curious reader on a tour of the fascinating world of Sun Belt evangelicalism. Pinsky, religion reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, uses his unique position as a Jew covering evangelical Christianity to help nonevangelicals understand the hopes, fears, and motivations of this growing subculture and breaks down some of the stereotypes of evangelicalism.
A groundbreaking scholarly work, Deep Religious Pluralism is based on the conviction that the philosophy articulated by Alfred North Whitehead encourages not only religious diversity but deep religious pluralism. Arising from a 2003 Center for Process Studies conference at Claremont Graduate University, this book offers an alternative to the version of religious pluralism that has dominated the recent discussion, especially among Christian thinkers in the West, which has evoked a gr...
This introductory textbook on the history of Judaism, written by one of the foremost scholars in the field, is ideal for college freshmen and high school seniors. The book includes chapters on the Pentateuch and the definition of Israel, the Torah and the Mishnah and Judaism's way of life, the Talmud and Judaism's worldview, and the definition and nature of God in Judaism. The book concludes with a discussion of why Judaism has succeeded through centuries of competition with Christi...
In the last decade, Eastern Orthodoxy has moved from being virtually unknown to Western Christians to being a significant presence on the religious scene in North America and Great Britain. In light of Orthodoxy's growing presence, this book will introduce Western Christians to the Eastern Orthodox vision of the Christian life by examining Orthodox theology and worship and will also alert readers to the cultural and historical factors that shape any interpretation of the Christian f...
This wide-ranging and highly readable introduction focuses on the contemporary fascination with the big questions about God and the supernatural, setting out clearly and fairly what people believe and their reasons for believing it. All the major faiths are covered, along with new and alternative movements, neo-pagan and New Age thought, and spiritualities of human potential and self-enhancement. Offering a wealth of information on key concepts, movements, and thinkers, A Brief Guid...
Jewish mysticism can be quite a puzzle to the uninitiated. For example, does the term "mysticism" mean the same thing here as in other contexts? Also, in what sense are the various phenomena that come under this heading really "Jewish"? In a thorough historical overview of the movements and trends in Jewish mysticism, Dutch scholar J.H. Laenen takes us step by step through the centuries of development to the present day, explaining how the various currents of tradition are related. ...
In this companion to the best-selling World Religions in America: An Introduction, renowned contributors explore the importance of religion in the lives of people, communities, and nations. Their concern is not with particular doctrines within the various religious traditions, but with how real people live these traditions today and the impact this has on the larger social order.
Renowned theologian and philosopher of religion John Hick takes a hard look at an important intellectual problem facing Christians today: where exactly does Christianity fit into the scheme of the world in light of other world religions? And is it possible to remain Christian while accepting the truth of other beliefs? Offering good reasons for why the traditional stance that Christianity is the only true religion is no longer workable, Hick puts forth a cogent defense of Christianit...
In this thought provoking book, Stephen Haynes takes a hard look at contemporary Christian theology as he explores the pervasive Christian "witness-people" myth that dominates much Christian thinking about the Jews in both Christian and Jewish minds. This myth, an ancient theological construct that has put Jews in the role of living symbols of God's dealings with the world, has for centuries, according to Haynes, created ambivalence toward the Jews in the Christian mind with often d...
In order to understand the faith of Judaism, according to Jacob Neusner, one must look at the very foundation of that faith: the Torah. To believers, this act of studying the Torah provides a direct and immediate link to the living God and forms the very basis of a faithful Jewish life. In this book, Jacob Neusner introduces the reader to selections from all the documents of the Torah, in addition to Scripture, that define the canon of Judaism in its formative age. The Classics of J...
