Bøger udgivet af James Clarke & Co Ltd

A theological exploration of ecological issues based on the understanding that humans are a physical part of God's early creation.

A comparative study of the lives and thought of four of the greatest sages in history, and how their legacies shape the world in which we live.

Andrew Young was one of the most original, inventive and paradoxical poets of the twentieth-century. C.S. Lewis called him, ‘A modern Marvell and a modern marvel’, and Philip Larkin remarked that, ‘His works are in no danger of being forgotten’. Regarded as ‘a major poet’ by academic scholars, Young’s prestige in this critical biography is taken one step further and declared a ‘great’ poet. Dr Richard Ormrod criticises and analyses Andrew Young’s poetry to establish this greatness, especially in his lengthy masterpiece, Out of the World and Back. It also explores his fascinating life and personality: a wry, whimsical, erudite, complex man; a theist and a pantheist; an ironist and wordsmith; and a fervent naturalist, less at ease with people. Anyone interested in, or studying twentieth-century poetry at any level, will find this book invaluable and its claims challenging. Lovers of plants, birds and animals will be stunned by Young’s deeply observant, unsentimental nature poetry, and by the two witty and engaging prose ‘flower’ books, A Prospect of Flowers and A Retrospect of Flowers - both hardy perennials.

The Final Days of Jesus is not only a book about religion, but also of Roman history. The events which took place during the Passover of 33 AD may have changed the course of the entire western world, but it is important to recognise that our understanding of them have been shaped by almost two thousand years of faith, studies and oral and written tradition. For the people of the time however, the significance of Jesus's final days remained largely unacknowledged. Mark Smith, a classical historian and an expert storyteller, vividly depicts the final days of Jesus, writing with a keen focus on historical fact: what really happened, and who was involved? Pontius Pilatus is typically considered to be one of the most justly hated men of Christian history, but was he really a despicable tyrant, or was he just a man with a lack of foresight, constrained in a difficult situation, trapped between the Roman law and higher political powers? Who were Annas and Caiaphas, High Priests of Jerusalem, and how did they become embroiled in the decision to crucify an obscure teacher from Nazareth? This book compellingly explores the role which politics played in the execution of the "e;King of the Jews"e;.

True Myth examines the meaning and significance of myth as understood by C.S. Lewis and Joseph Campbell and its place in the Christian faith in a technological society. C.S. Lewis defined Christianity, and being truly human, as a relationship between the personal Creator and his creation mediated through faith in his son, Jesus. The influential writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell had a different perspective, understanding Christianity as composed of mythical themes similar to those in other religious and secular myths. While accepting certain portions of the biblical record as historical, Campbell taught the theological and miraculous aspects as symbolic - as stories in which the reader discovers what it means to be human today. In contrast, Lewis presented the theological and the miraculous in a literal way. Although Lewis understood how one could see symbolism and lessons for life in miraculous events, he believed they were more than symbolic and indeed took place in human history. In True Myth, James W. Menzies skilfully balances the two writers' differing approaches to guide the reader through a complex interaction of myth with philosophy, media, ethics, history, literature, art, music and religion in a contemporary world.

A new study of two New England preachers often portrayed as radical thinkers, revealing a traditionalist side to their theological and political beliefs.

A collection of exegetical essays by the biblical scholar J. Gerald Janzen, exploring how the activity of prayer is presented in scripture.

Christos Yannaras (born 1935 in Athens, Greece) has been proclaimed 'without doubt the most important living Greek Orthodox theologian' (Andrew Louth), 'contemporary Greece's greatest thinker' (Olivier Clement), 'one of the most significant Christian philosophers in Europe' (Rowan Williams). However, until recently the English-speaking scholar did not have first-hand access to the main bulk of his work: in spite of the relatively early English translation of his The Freedom of Morality (1984), most of his books appeared in English fairly recently - such as Person and Eros (2007), Orthodoxy and the West (2006), Relational Ontology (2011) or The Schism in Philosophy (2015). In this volume, chapters shall examine numerous aspects of Yannaras' contributions to Orthodox theology, philosophy and political thought, based on his relational ontology of the person, later popularised in the Anglophone sphere by John Zizioulas. From political theology to Heidegger and the philosophy of language, from Yannaras' critique of religion to the patristic grounding of the theology of the person and from Orthodoxy to the West, this volume comprises a panorama of Christos Yannaras' transdisciplinary contributions.

A study of the Catholic Epistles that views them not as isolated texts but as a collection unified by their canonical context within the New Testament.

The definitive survey of martyrdom and persecution during the first four centuries of the Church.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in one of his last prison letters that he had "e;come to know and understand more and more the profound this-worldliness of Christianity"e;. In Taking Hold of the Real, Barry Harvey engages in constructive conversation with Bonhoeffer, contending that the "e;shallow and banal this-worldliness"e; of modern society is ordered to a significant degree around the social technologies of religion, culture, and race. These mechanisms displace human beings from their traditional connections with particular locales, and relocate them in their "e;proper places"e; as determined by the nation-state and capitalist markets. Christians are called to participate in the profound this-worldliness that breaks into the world in the apocalyptic action of Jesus Christ, a form of life that requires discipline and an understanding of death and resurrection. The church is a sacrament of this new humanity, performing for all to hear the polyphony of life that was prefigured in the Old Testament and now is realised in Christ. Unable to find a faithful form of this-worldliness in wartime Germany, Bonhoeffer joined the conspiracy against Hitler, a decision aptly contrasted with a small French church that, prepared by its life together over many generations, saved thousands of Jewish lives.

A major and original account of the theological importance of the father of the English Bible.

The diarist Francis Kilvert is known for his evocative depictions of Victorian country life. This significant study of Kilvert's writings delves into his background and influences to present new insights into the writer, and the culture in which he wrote.

The first biography to open up areas of work related to the life and times of Alexander von Humboldt, considered the father of the Natural Sciences, which were previously inaccessible to those without knowledge of Spanish, German and French.

A stimulating and enticing selection of the writings and witticisms of the early 19th century liberal cleric and founder of 'The Edinburgh Review', arranged thematically along with biographical extracts written by his daughter.

A re-interpretation of the writings of C.S. Lewis as exemplifying not merely a conservative antimodernism but also a sophisticated postmodern sensibility.

In our troubled world, protective hospitality is tragically necessary and requires informed shared action and belief on behalf of the threatened other. In Safeguarding the Stranger, Jayme R. Reaves argues that protective hospitality and its faith-based foundations, as seen in the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, merit greater theological attention. Reaves shows that the practice of protective hospitality in Christianity can be enhanced by a better understanding of Jewish and Muslim practices of hospitality, as well as of their codes and etiquettes related to honour. Safeguarding the Stranger draws on a contextual and political theological approach, informed by liberation and feminist theologies as viewed through the lens of a co-operative and complementary theological view, which is influenced by inter-religious, Abrahamic, and hospitable approaches to dialogue, forecasting the positive role that religions can play in resolving conflicts.

The first fruits of the literary career of St Augustine, the great theologian and Christian philosopher par excellence, are the dialogues he wrote at Cassiciacum in Italy following his famous conversion in Milan in AD 386. These four little books, largely neglected by scholars, take up the ancient philosophical project of identifying the principles and practices that heal human desires in order to attain happiness, renewing this philosophical endeavour with insights from Christian theology. Augustine's later books, such as the Confessions, would continue this project of healing desire, as would the writings of others including Boethius, Anselm, and Aquinas. Mark J. Boone's The Conversion and Therapy of Desire investigates the roots of this project at Cassiciacum, where Augustine is developing a Christian theology of desire, informed by Neoplatonism but transformed by Christian teaching and practices.

A collection of essays introducing the reader to the work of the celebrated Spanish theologian Raimon Panikkar and his vision of cosmic harmony.

A collection of essays introducing the reader to the work of the celebrated Spanish theologian Raimon Panikkar and his vision of cosmic harmony.

An imaginative engagement with Thomas Merton's view of childhood spirituality, suggesting that a rediscovery of the 'child mind' is the route to a mature relationship with God.

Why should Christians care about animals? Is there a biblical basis for abstaining from eating animals? Is avoiding companies that use (and misuse) animals a viable way for Christians to live out the message of God? Sarah Withrow King makes the argument that care for all of creation is no 'far-fetched' idea that only radical people would consider, but rather a faithful witness of the peaceful kingdom God desires and Jesus modelled. This includes all living and breathing creatures that share this earth with us. King uses her decade-plus of experience as a vegan, her seminary education, her evangelical Christian faith, and her years working with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to call Christians to examine how we treat and view the nonhuman animals with whom we share a finite planet.

Liu Zhi (c.1662-c.1730), a well-known Muslim scholar writing in Chinese, published outstanding theological works, short treatises, and short poems on Islam. While traditional Arabic and Persian Islamic texts used unfamiliar concepts to explain Islam, Liu Zhi translated both text and concepts into Chinese culture. In this erudite volume, David Lee examines how Liu Zhi integrated the basic religious living of the monotheistic Hui Muslims into their pluralistic Chinese culture. Liu Zhi discussed the Prophet Muhammad in Confucian terms, and his work served as a bridge between peoples. This book is an in-depth study of Liu Zhi's contextualization of Islam within Chinese scholarship that argues his merging of the two never deviated from the basic principles of Islamic belief.

A series of essays exploring the issues of change and reform in the modern Scandinavian churches, and the attendant challenges to church leadership and organisation.

Shakespeare and the Bible are titans of English-speaking culture: their images are endlessly cited and recycled, and their language permeates everything from our public ceremonies to our private jokes. In Words of Power, Jem Bloomfield explores the cultural reverberations of these two collections of books, and how each era finds new meanings as they encounter works such as Hamlet or the Gospel of Mark.Beginning with a shrewd examination of how we have codified and standardised their canons, deciding which books and which words are included in the official collections and which are excluded, Bloomfield charts the ways in which every generation grapples with these enigmatic and complex texts. He explores the way they are read and performedin public, the institutions that use their names to legitimise their own activities, and how the texts are quoted by politicians, lords and rappers. Words of Power throws modern ideas about Shakespeare and the Bible into sharp relief by contrasting them with those of our ancestors, showing how our engagements with these texts reveal as much about ourselves as their actual meanings.

The conviction that Jesus is the restorative Christ demands a commitment to the justice he articulated. The justice of the restorative Christ is justice with reconciliation, justice with repentance, justice with repair, and justice without retaliation. The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts portray the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the radical concept of "e;enemy-love."e; In conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Jesus-for-others), John Howard Yoder (a nonviolent Jesus), Miroslav Volf (an embracing Jesus), and Chris Marshall (a compassionate Jesus), Broughton demonstrates what the restorative Christ means for us today. Following the restorative Christ faithfully involves imaginative disciplines (seeing, remembering, and desiring), conversational disciplines (naming, questioning, and forgiving), and embodied disciplines (absorbing, repairing, and embracing).

The cosmology of Jacob Boehme, 'The Cobbler of Goerlitz', one of the great mystics of the Reformation era, who influenced such diverse figures as the Cambridge Platonists and the Quaker George Fox.

If we see ourselves as Earth, rather than Earth as existing for us, our perspective is transformed. A variety of religious, philosophical, cultural, and political self-perceptions that dominate our sense of human identity are deeply challenged by this shift in perspective. John Locke's doctrine of Earth as human 'property' has been central to current presuppositions about our selves: justified on the grounds of our possessing unique, divinely bestowed, rational abilities. But today, the effects of that doctrine on Earth's resource base and on its other-than-human creatures directly challenge such assumptions. At the same time contemporary scientific findings about the evolution of Earthly life demonstrate that while we belong to Earth and nowhere else, Earth does not belong to us. Exploring this role reversal raises fundamental questions about current theological, philosophical, scientific, and economic presuppositions that underpin the 'business as usual' viewpoint and human-centered aims of contemporary policies and lifestyles. It takes us beyond hierarchical Christian and philosophical doctrines toward a deeper, Earth-focused and peace-based understanding of what it means to be human today.

A series of multidisciplinary essays examining the parallels between religious doctrines and narratives and the science fiction genre, revealing their thematic links and commonalities.

A collection of essays exploring issues of identity and the global church in the post-colonial era from the perspectives of Chinese and American evangelicals.