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....

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's election as Pope Benedict XVI brought a world-class biblical theologian to the papacy. There is an intensely biblical quality to his pastoral teaching and he has demonstrated a keen concern for the authentic interpretation of sacred Scripture.Here a foremost interpreter of Catholic thought and life offers a probing look at Benedict's biblical theology and provides a clear and concise introduction to his life and work. Bestselling author and theologian Sc...

There is today a dramatic reexamination of structure, authority, dogma -- indeed, every aspect of the life of the Church is held up to scrutiny. Welcoming this as a sign of vitality, Avery Dulles has carefully studied the writings of contemporary Protestant and Catholic ecclesiologists and sifted out six major approaches, or "models," through which the Church's character can be understood: as Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, Servant, and, in a recent addition to the book...

Broken families, abortion, AIDS, Internet pornography, sexual abuse scandals, homosexual marriage, our Church and our world are in the midst of a profound sexual crisis. Is there a way out? For such a time as this have we been given St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Based on the words of Jesus, St. John Paul II’s famous reflections on the body and sex take us to the root of the modern crisis and chart the path to an authentic sexual liberation. Yet the late Pope’s d...

Who would have guessed that something as austere as Calvinism would become a hot topic in today's postmodern culture? At the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, new generations have discovered and embraced a "New Calvinism," finding in the Reformed tradition a rich theological vision. In fact, Time cited New Calvinism as one of "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now." This book provides pastoral and theological counsel, inviting converts to this tradition to find in Calvin a...

The sexual revolution brought a terribly distorted vision of the body and sex into the mainstream. How should Christians respond? With his illuminating Theology of the Body, Pope John Paul II challenged the modern world not to stop at the surface, but to enter the depth of the “great mystery” that the body and sex reveal: a mystery that lies at the heart of the Gospel itself.Since he first discovered John Paul II’s teaching in 1993, Christopher West has devoted himself to s...

"The first thing to say in our exploration of priesthood is this: priesthood is a fundamental and inescapable part of being human. All human beings, knowingly or not, minister as priests to one another. All of us, knowingly or not, receive priestly ministrations from one another. Unless we begin here, we are not likely to understand the confusions and uncertainties and opportunities we have been encountering in the life of the church itself in recent years. We shall be in danger, in fact, ...

The Bible’s command to “rejoice continually” seems impossible and, frankly, unreasonable. Yet despite the apparent difficulty in fulfilling this commandment, Gregory Forster argues that Calvinism holds the key—namely that “real Calvinism is all about joy.”Forster passionately holds to this belief, and systematically demonstrates it by addressing popular misconceptions of what Calvinism is and is not. Dismantling negative expressions of Calvinist theology, Forster positively reitera...

Christianity Today Book Award WinnerA Jesus Creed Church History Book of the YearIn recent years, notable scholars have argued that the Protestant Reformation unleashed interpretive anarchy on the church. Is it time to consider the Reformation to be a 500-year experiment gone wrong?World-renowned evangelical theologian Kevin Vanhoozer thinks not. While he sees recent critiques as le...

This volume creatively explores the history of Christian thought by imagining a series of twenty-nine dialogues and debates among key figures throughout church history. It traces the history of theology via such conversation partners as Augustine and Pelagius, Calvin and Arminius, Barth and Brunner, and Bultmann and Pannenberg. Each imagined dialogue includes a brief summary that introduces the figures under consideration, a more detailed assessment of the thinkers and theological issues p...

This volume by a respected theologian offers fresh consideration of the work of famous fourth-century church father Athanasius, giving specific attention to his use of Scripture, his deployment of metaphysical categories, and the intersection between the two. Peter Leithart not only introduces Athanasius and his biblical theology but also puts Athanasius into dialogue with contemporary theologians.This volume launches the series Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spi...

Basic Biblical theology with critical examinations of its history. See also the more philosophical companion volume, Christianity Down To Earth.