If any single word in the Christian vocabulary captures our relationship to--and responsibility for--the environment, that word is stewardship. It is a word that brings into view the relationship between humanity and the natural world of water, land, animals, and fellow human beings. Nevertheless, today, some people think Christianity, especially Calvinism, is largely responsible for many of our environmental problems. The language of exercising dominion, subduing the earth, creation manda...

Original and deeply researched, this book provides a new interpretation of Dutch American slavery which challenges many of the traditional assumptions about slavery in New York. With an emphasis on demography and economics, Michael J. Douma shows that slavery in eighteenth-century New York was mostly rural, heavily Dutch, and generally profitable through the cultivation of wheat. Slavery in Dutch New York ultimately died a political death in the nineteenth century, while resistance from en...

This is the story of Gordon Clark (1902-85), respected philosopher and prolific writer, who held that Christianity, as a logically coherent system, is superior to all other philosophies. Clark fought no wars and conquered no kingdoms. Yet he was a leading figure in many theological wars fought for the Kingdom of God. These battles for the minds and souls of men were every bit as crucial as physical wars between nations. In an age of increasing secularization, he put up an intellectual defe...

What do we mean by liberalism or liberal history? It seems that every scholar in the social sciences would like to define liberalism in their own way. Certainly there is plenty of room for differences of opinion on this matter. But defining any “-ism” requires circumscribing a set of beliefs or drawing lines in such a way as to connect ideas that we believe form a coherent tradition.Liberal history is primarily concerned with ideas and with the reasons why individuals acted as they...

The relation between Jesus Christ and culture should be recognized as a topic of crucial importance in every historical context. It concerns the foundational questions of Christian thought and action. In this book Dr. Klaas Schilder deals with this challenging subject in a bold and incisive manner, thus making his readers aware of the all-embracing significance of Christ for cultural endeavors. The biblical position taken by the author leads him to explore its implications with remarkable ...

Iatrogenesis is the occurrence of untoward effects resulting from actions of health care providers, including medical errors, medical malpractice, practicing beyond one’s expertise, adverse effects of medication, unnecessary treatment, inappropriate screenings, and surgical errors. This is a huge public health issue: tens to hundreds of thousands of deaths are attributed to iatrogenic causes each year in the U.S., and vulnerable populations such as the elderly and minorities are particular...

Common grace has generally been thought of as a doctrine developed and promoted by Abraham Kuyper. However, John Calvin also discussed the concept in some detail. In the 1930s Klaas Schilder began writing about the doctrine and was quite critical of various aspects of Kuyper’s views. In his seminal dissertation, originally published in 1966, Jochem Douma first presents the ideas of Kuyper, Schilder, and Calvin, respectively, and then proceeds to compare and evaluate them. He has objections...

In the Labyrinth of Grief 40 Words of God that Offer Comfort Brief meditations for those in sorrow When death enters our life, a process begins that we refer to as grieving. This is a confusing process that is accompanied by different emotions such as sadness, unbelief, relief, anger, resignation, depression, despair, and even new joy in life. The image of the labyrinth helps us to accept that grieving is a complex process in which we learn to accept the empty place and seek to come to gri...

I would love to look more like Jesus. But I just cant . . . Many Christians are longing for change. They make an intentional effort, but when they realize they are not making any progress, they become frustrated. In this book, the author uses 2 Corinthians 3:18 to point us to a way to expect everything from Jesus and his Spirit. You only need to do one thing: Look to Jesus in faith and enjoy his glorious radiation! Then the Spirit will increasingly reproduce Jesus own glorious beauty in yo...

This text explains in a non-technical way different economic approaches (including game theory, agency theory, transaction costs economics, economics of strategy and evolutionary approaches) using practical real-world examples to aid understanding of how the concepts relate to economic and organisational problems in the world today.This book is unique in the market in its attempt to make the link between management and economics. This text straddles the disciplines of management an...

Creative Historical Thinking offers innovative approaches to thinking and writing about history. Author Michael J. Douma makes the case that history should be recognized as a subject intimately related to individual experience and positions its practice as an inherently creative endeavor. Douma describes the nature of creativity in historical thought, illustrates his points with case studies and examples. He asserts history’s position as a collective and community-building exercis...

The calling of elders is to be "shepherds of God's flock." Yet across the world elders are struggling to do that well. This very practical investigation identifies the obstacles to pastoral care from the side of the clergy, the elders, and the people themselves. A practical way forward is developed using an approach that enables the local elders themselves to find a solution.