The timeless human desire to be more beautiful, intelligent, healthy, athletic, or young has given rise in our time to technologies of human enhancement. Athletes use drugs to increase their strength or stamina; cosmetic surgery is widely used to improve physical appearance; millions of men take drugs like Viagra to enhance sexual performance. And today researchers are exploring technologies such as cell regeneration and implantable devices that interact directly with the brain. Some conde...

Batman is one of the most recognized and popular pop culture icons. Appearing on the page of Detective Comics #27 in 1939, the character has inspired numerous characters, franchises, and spin-offs over his 80+ year history. The character has displayed versatility, appearing in stories from multiple genres, including science fiction, noir, and fantasy and mediums far beyond his comic book origins. While there are volumes analyzing Batman through literary, philosophical, and psychological le...

What thresholds of theology would we cross if we engage the aches and despairs, wisdoms, and hopes in and of Aotearoa New Zealand and the neighboring sea of islands? What thresholds need to be jarred or moved (threshold as opening), probed and raised (threshold as limit)? This book engages these questions in two parts: “(re)Locating Theological Studies” contains essays that interrogate the purposes of theological studies (locally and globally), identify gaps due to the Western heritage and...

Sport is a major preoccupation of the modern world. It consumes the time and energies of millions of people around the globe. In fact, for many participants, it operates much like a functional equivalent of religion, giving them a way to interpret and understand the world. Sports stadiums are the cathedrals of our time. Sports stars are the saints or demi-gods through whom we access the transcendent. Members of the sports media serve as religious scribes, and sports fans are the worshiping...

The human body is the primary lens through which we view, encounter and engage the world around us. It is no surprise then to find a wide range of theological reflection upon the human body, from those that affirm the human body as something very good, through to other more negative views where the body is something to be marginalised or escaped from. The body and theology also meet in conversations over body, mind and soul; gender; disability; eschatology; race and culture; sexuality; Chr...

2018 Clifford G. Christians Ethics Research AwardThis informed theology of communication and media analyzes how we consume new media and technologies and discusses the impact on our social and religious lives. Combining expertise in religion online, theology, and technology, the authors synthesize scholarly work on religion and the internet for a nonspecialist audience. They show that both media studies and theology offer important resources for helping Christians ...

Our globalized world increasingly brings together people of many different cultures, though not always harmoniously. In recent decades, multinational companies have sought more efficient strategies for authentic intercultural collaboration. But in today's multicultural world-church, faith communities too—from local parishes to international religious communities—are faced with the challenge of intercultural living. The social sciences have developed some constructive appr...

Communication, Media, and Identity: A Christian Theory of Communication is the first comprehensive theoretical look at the nature of communication from a biblical Christian perspective. This groundbreaking new work discusses the implications of such a theory for interpersonal relations, use of media, and the development of digital culture in the wake of the computer. It also draws widely from the literature of the secular world, critiquing perspectives where necessary and adopting...

Close to 60 percent of young people who went to church as teens drop out after high school. Now the bestselling author of unChristian trains his researcher's eye on these young believers. Where Kinnaman's first book unChristian showed the world what outsiders aged 16-29 think of Christianity, You Lost Me shows why younger Christians aged 16-29 are leaving the church and rethinking their faith.Based on new research, You Lost Me shows pastors, chur...

Whatever else one might say about Emergence Christianity, says Phyllis Tickle, one must agree it is shifting and re-configuring itself in such a prodigious way as to defy any final assessments or absolute pronouncements. Yet the insightful and well-read Tickle offers us a dispatch from the field to keep us informed of where Emergence Christianity now stands, where it may be going, and how it is aligning itself with other parts of God's church. Through her careful study and culture-watching...

If homosexual behavior is an aberration from the standpoint of reproduction, why is it widespread among humans, primates, and a myriad of other animal species, and why has it been favored by evolution? And if homosexuality is considered a moral problem based on religious beliefs, why were more homosexuals exterminated under the brief reigns of such secular regimes as the Communists and the Nazis than during the entire Christian Inquisition. Why is everything about homosexuality always a pa...

Even the least technical among us are being pressed from all sides by advances in digital technology. We rely upon computers, cell phones, and the Internet for communication, commerce, and entertainment. Yet even though we live in this “instant message” culture, many of us feel disconnected, and we question if all this technology is really good for our souls. In a manner that’s accessible, thoughtful, and biblical, author Tim Challies addresses questions such as: • How has life—and faith—c...