Серия "Australian College of Theology Monograph Series"

Since the rise of the «New Homiletic» a generation ago, it has been recognized that sermons not only say something to listeners, they also do something. A truly expository sermon will seek not merely to say what the biblical text said, but also to do what the biblical text did in the lives of its original audience. In Preaching the New Testament as Rhetoric, MacBride looks how at the discipline of rhetorical criticism can help preachers discern the function of a New Testament text in its...

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.

By grasping how the church of a particular time period reads the Scriptures, we can understand much of the Christianity of that age. This volume examines how the Gospel accounts at the heart of the Christian faith, the passion and resurrection of Christ, were interpreted by four key authors from late antiquity. In analyzing the readings and methods of Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, this work advocates for a reshaping of the categories commonly used to understand Latin...

This book follows the journey of ten churches who underwent church consultancies, and explores in depth both the consultancy and its outcomes. Pre-consultancy and post-consultancy «snapshots,» four to five years apart, of vitality indicators and attendance figures (using National Church Life Survey and other data) are used to compare these with churches that have not undertaken church consultancies. Theologies of church consultancy, church health, and church growth are also developed and...

John McIntosh attempts to describe more accurately and completely the spectrum of Evangelicalism (Anglican) that three successive principals of Moore Theological College appropriated and taught in the period. Each was an outstanding graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, respectively. The study traces the circumstances of their appointment and seeks to define the convictions they held–against the background of challenges and changes to their Christian faith they faced in their day. A close...

The congruence of the theology of Paul and Luke is a matter of debate. In particular, according to many scholars, the soteriologies of Paul and Luke are divergent. This volume argues that the usage of καλέω language by both Paul and Luke suggests that it may be a common element in their soteriologies. The author demonstrates that καλέω language is an important concept in the soteriologies of Luke and Paul and that although there are contrasts, there are a number of points of comparison. Crucial...

In a globalized world, networks are key, whether they are networks of people, ideas, or interests. In this volume of essays on the texts and teachings of Jonathan Edwards, contributors from each continent ask questions about how the world of Edwards explains or illuminates the world of today, whether in the area of systematics, missions, historiography, politics, church-planting, or biblical studies. Such diverse discourses enrich the networks of scholarship that the contributors represent, and...

There has been heightened interest and prolific publication by missiologists about contextualization since the term was first coined in 1972. There has been ongoing debate, particularly amongst evangelicals themselves regarding which of these meanings, methods, and models of contextualization are acceptable to use. Much of the debate has been carried out by academics and practitioners whose observations and conclusions have been largely shaped by the social sciences and practical theology. In...

The thesis shows that the Song of Songs can be read as a circular sequence of sub-poems, that follow logically from one another if they are understood as contributing to two main points, made in a woman's voice. The woman urges men to take romantic initiative to be committed exclusively and for life, and urges women three times to wait until they are approached by such men. If this reading is the best explanation of the text of the Song, then the Song is a unified work centered on a woman...

The brokenness of this world inevitably invades our lives. But how do you maintain faith when overwhelmed by grief? When prayer goes unanswered? When all you have are questions, not answers? What do you say to God when you know he is in control but the suffering continues unabated? Is there any alternative to remaining speechless in the midst of pain and heartbreak? This book is about finding words to use when life is hard. These words are not new. They are modes of expression that the...

Son of Mary offers new solutions to some persistent exegetical problems in the interpretation of three of the most puzzling passages in the Gospel of John, and does so in a way that illuminates the social-cultural context to the New Testament world. Old Testament resonances are heard here afresh: The miracle at Cana is seen in the light of God's people living without the wine of God's blessing, and Jesus' interaction with his brothers is placed alongside the story of Joseph. ...

The church today is in many places «on the nose.» For many people, it stinks. It has passed its «use-by» date and should be relegated to the dustbins of history, and the sooner, the better. Nevertheless, the contributors to this volume believe that the church, in spite of its somewhat checkered history and its many present failures, remains an integral part of God's redemptive purposes being worked out in the world, and that God's call to the church is now what it has always been: to...