World Theology

Christianity didn't have to become the dominant religion in the West. It easily could have remained a sect of Judaism fated to have the historical importance of the Sadducees or the Essenes. In The Triumph of Christianity, Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, shows how a religion whose first believers were 20 or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some 30 million people in just four centuries.

In Counter Culture, New York Times best-selling author David Platt shows Christians how to actively take a stand on such issues as poverty, sex trafficking, marriage, abortion, racism, and religious liberty—and challenges us to become passionate, unwavering voices for Christ. Drawing on compelling personal accounts from around the world, Platt presents an unapologetic yet winsome call for Christians to faithfully follow Christ into the cultural battlefield in ways that will prove both costly and rewarding.

American culture focuses on letting go of grudges and redemption narratives instead of the perpetrator’s obligations or recompense for harmed parties. As survivor communities have pointed out, these emphases have too often only caused more harm. But Danya Ruttenberg knew there was a better model, rooted in the work of the medieval philosopher Maimonides. For Maimonides, upon whose work Ruttenberg elaborates, forgiveness is much less important than the repair work to which the person who caused harm is obligated.

Africa has played a decisive role in the formation of Christian culture from its infancy. Some of the most decisive intellectual achievements of Christianity were explored and understood in Africa before they were in Europe. If this is so, why is Christianity so often perceived in Africa as a Western colonial import? How can Christians in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, indeed, how can Christians throughout the world, rediscover and learn from this ancient heritage?

Can the truth about Jesus be uncovered - even without a body or a crime scene? Join cold-case detective and best-selling author J. Warner Wallace as he investigates Jesus using an innovative and unique approach he employs to solve real missing person murder cases. In Person of Interest, Wallace carefully sifts through the evidence from history alone, without relying on the New Testament. You'll understand like never before how Jesus, the most significant person in history, changed the world.

This is the finger of God! You’ve heard the biblical story of Moses and Pharaoh, the 10 plagues, the exodus, and the parting of the Red Sea. Now discover the spiritual world behind the story. It’s even more supernatural than you first thought. Written by respected Christian author Brian Godawa, known for his popular book When Giants Were Upon the Earth, About Nephilim Giants, Watchers, Angels, Demons, Pagan Gods, and Other Supernatural Oddities in the Bible and the Unseen Realm.

In his most important book yet, widely acclaimed author and speaker Brian McLaren proposes a new faith alternative, one built on "benevolence and solidarity rather than rivalry and hostility." This way of being Christian is strong but doesn't strong-arm anyone, going beyond mere tolerance to vigorous hospitality toward, interest in, and collaboration with the other. Blending history, narrative, and brilliant insight, McLaren shows readers step-by-step how to reclaim this strong-benevolent faith.

Philip Yancey investigates the natural world and discovers the supernatural hiding in plain view. He grapples with why God made the world and what our role truly is, and seeks to answer the question, "How do I live in the natural world while expressing the values of the supernatural?"

Best-selling author John Ortberg shares how Jesus' influence has swept over history and how his vision of life continues to impact humanity today. Jesus' impact on our world is highly unlikely, widely inescapable, largely unknown, and decidedly double-edged. It is unlikely in light of the severe limitations of his earthly life; it is inescapable because of the range of impact; it is unknown because history doesn't connect dots; and it is doubled-edged because his followers have wreaked so much havoc, often in his name.

Written by a preeminent religious historian, this book provides an introduction to early Christian thought. Focusing on major figures such as St. Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa, as well as s host of less well known thinkers, Robert Wilken chronicles the emergence of a specifically Christian intellectual tradition.

In this challenging yet compelling book, John MacArthur encourages you to confront the culture's flight from moral responsibility. With sound biblical truth, this book shows how and why sin must be dealt with if you are to live in a way that pleases God. With clarity and insight, John MacArthur provides you with solutions for attaining a personal holiness that can take you from living a life of blame and denial to one of peace and freedom.

According to the headlines, the world is falling apart! Where's God in all of the change, conflict, and chaos? Pastor David Jeremiah offers culturally relevant and biblically accurate insights on terrorism, radicalized Islam, the new Russia, the debt crisis, and more to reveal how God's hand is at work in his unfolding plan for humanity. No one can afford to ignore these warnings. From prophetic clues in Scripture to an understanding of the power of Christ in all believers, this book directs us on a clear path forward.

Pornography may seem inescapable, but God can free us from its destructive power. The gospel replaces the dehumanizing lies of pornography with this surprising truth: God created us as royalty. How then can we reclaim our God-given identity to take a stand against - and ultimately starve - the predatory porn industry? In The Death of Porn, Ray Ortlund writes six personal letters, as from a father to his son.

Millions of lives have been changed by award-winning author Philip Yancey's startling exploration of grace at street level. Grace is the one thing the world can't duplicate, the healing force we need, and the key to transforming a broken world. In this revised and updated edition of his personal and provocative book, Yancey offers true portraits of grace's life-changing power.

Knowledge of God in the World and the Word is a clear and succinct introduction to classical Christian apologetics that also addresses the most common objections to natural theology. Amid the crisis of authority in our modern and postmodern era, Christians need to be able to point to God's revelation in the natural world in addition to defending God's unique revelation in the Bible and in the person of Jesus Christ.

"Our Father, who art in heaven...." The opening words of the Lord's Prayer have become so familiar that we often speak them without a thought, sometimes without any awareness that we are speaking at all. But to the disciples who first heard these words from Jesus, the prayer was a thunderbolt, a radical new way to pray that changed them and the course of history. Far from a safe series of comforting words, the Lord's Prayer makes extraordinary claims, topples every earthly power, and announces God's reign over all things in heaven and on earth.

In Twisted Unto Destruction, Donald J. Johnson (Convinced, Unprotected) shows how ditching the Church in favor of private Bible interpretation has also enabled some of the modern world’s worst crimes and vices. Once an Evangelical Protestant who took sola scriptura for granted, Johnson came to realize that setting ourselves up as little Magisteriums—whose opinions on the Bible’s meaning have to be as valid as anyone else’s—not only leads to endless splintering, but makes it possible to use Scripture to justify anything.

Clarence Larkin was an important scholar of prophecy. In The Spirit World", published in 1921, he discusses the inhabitants of the spiritual world according to the Bible. Explaining the qualities of angels, he makes a distinction between the “fallen angels” and Satan’s demons and the realms which they inhabit. Larkin’s treatment of Satan and the Underworld, in the form of hell, Gehenna and Tartarus is thorough and vivid, and he explains issues like the state of the soul in death and the principles of resurrection.

Malls, stadiums, and universities are actually liturgical structures that influence and shape our thoughts and affections. Humans - as Augustine noted - are "desiring agents", full of longings and passions; in brief, we are what we love. James K. A. Smith focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire in Desiring the Kingdom, the first book in a three-volume set on the theology of culture. He redirects our yearnings to focus on the greatest good: God.

It used to be that Christians conceived of the world as a battleground. They believed in sin and the devil and hell as constituting one force and in God and righteousness and heaven constituting the other. How different it is today. People think of the world not as a battleground but as a playground. In This World: Playground or Battleground?, Tozer calls us to see the real world of the spiritual realm that lies beyond the physical that so ensnares us. The audio is short and to the point, abrupt but full of vigor, profound, and downright relevant today.