Social Theology

What can zombies teach us about the gospel? The hit show The Walking Dead is set in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by mindless zombies. The characters have one goal: survive at all costs. At first glance there doesn't seem to be much the show can teach us about God or ourselves. Or is there? Author and speaker Danielle Strickland didn't expect to be drawn to a show about zombies, but she was surprised by the spiritual themes the show considers.

Financial crisis, political crisis, environmental crisis - the list goes on. We’re confronted with calamity every time we read the headlines. But behind each of these lurks another kind of crisis, one we find harder to define: a moral crisis. In this wise and practical audiobook, Pastor Jonathan Dodson takes us back to the Beatitudes, the centerpiece of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. Dodson examines each of the Beatitudes in the context of the new morality that buffets our society today, presenting a compelling portrait of the truly good life, both personal and social.

This book fundamentally changes the game for the Church of the Nazarene. A growing number of people are calling for fresh conversations about sexuality and gender. And many want fundamental change. This book gives voice to those people. There are strong reasons the Church of the Nazarene should become fully LGBTQ+ affirming. The writers of these essays – whether queer or straight – lay out those reasons, share their experiences, and explain why change is needed. Love rests at the heart of the denomination’s view of God. And yet its statement about human sexuality does not support the ...

For C. S. Lewis, reason and logic are the sensible way to approach faith and ethics. Much of the 20th century's ills are caused by ill-founded beliefs and opinions. Lewis' original approach remains as vital today as ever. He is able to take the most convoluted subject, turn it side on and shed bright illumination on it. To be able to see along things rather than at them - just like a beam of sunlight that invades the darkness of a toolshed - is, to Lewis, the way to understanding.

What will you do? Christians need to think about the seriousness, the risks, and the righteous duty for civil disobedience before the time comes to act. In this timely yet timeless book, you will be invited to think critically about your decisions to act or remain silent in the face of unjust policies. With powerful examples from history and a careful eye to Scripture, Peter Demos presents a solid case for when Christians ought to stand down and when we ought to rise up. Every Christian needs to consider the possible cost of our action or inaction. Are you ready for the days ahead?

A gifted communicator gives practical and biblical guidance to women of all ages in how to choose their words wisely and use their influence for the good of others. Women have a way with words. A woman’s strength, influence, and ability to change the world for better—in every season and in every relationship—lies in the words she speaks each day. But with that God-given power comes the need to use it wisely, and this book provides both biblical and practical guidance to that end.

The deeper I grow in my own faith as a Christian, the greater my desire to explore. My faith whets my appetite for discovering what God is doing in and through the world each and every day. This book is a chronicle of some of the most important lessons I have learned thus far. I write to encourage my fellow nomads who, like me, so often feel alone in their wanderings yet are a part of a much larger caravan of fellow wanderers seeking to discover for ourselves the meaning and mysteries of life.

In our increasingly secular world, many claim that Christianity is oppressive and toxic. Christians are accused of standing on the wrong side of history, failing to accept human dignity, freedom, and progress. Are these accusations valid? Is Christianity actually causing more harm than good in the world? In this concise booklet, author Sharon James shows that through history and across the globe, true followers of Christ have challenged injustice and abuse, and provided care for the needy.

Rarely are human dilemmas out of the news. And what medical science can do and ought to do—or ought not to do—impinges on our personal lives, families and societies. John Wyatt examines the issues surrounding the beginning and end of life against the background of current medical-ethical thought. Writing out of a deep conviction that the Bible's view of our humanness points a way forward, he suggests how Christian healthcare professionals, churches and individuals can respond to today's challenges and opportunities.

Throughout history, many people have rejected God because they wanted to act immorally - why does it seem like those walking away from God today believe God is the immoral one? There are so many competing visions of morality. One's culture, background, political affiliation, and religious beliefs (or lack thereof) have profound impacts on our moral thought. What one person says is right another says is wrong, and vice versa, leading to much debate and confusion.

As the pressures of health warnings, economic turmoil, and partisan politics continue to rise, the influence of gospel-focused Christians seems to be waning. In the public square and popular opinion, we are losing our voice right when it’s needed most for Christ’s glory and the common good. But there’s another story unfolding too - if you know where to look. In Gospelbound, Collin Hansen and Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra counter these growing fears with a robust message of resolute hope for anyone hungry for good news.

In Holy Disunity: How What Separates Us Can Save Us, Layton E. Williams proposes that our primary calling as humans is not to create unity but rather to seek authentic relationship with God, ourselves, one another, and the world around us. And that means actively engaging those with whom we disagree. Our religious, political, social, and cultural differences can create doubt and tension, but disunity also provides surprising gifts of perspective and grace.

After her brother died unexpectedly and her mother moved into a dementia-care facility, spiritual travel writer and Episcopal deacon Lori Erickson felt called to a new quest: to face death head-on, with the eye of a tourist and the heart of a pastor. Blending memoir, spirituality, and travel, Near the Exit examines how cultures confront and have confronted death by investigating Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Mayan temples, Colorado cremation pyres, Day of the Dead celebrations, Maori settlements, and tourist-destination graveyards.

A compilation of narratives and histories based on the largely unheard or ignored perspectives of Scientologists themselves, Among the Scientologists draws on six years of interviews, fieldwork, and research conducted among members of the Church of Scientology. This groundbreaking work examines features of the new religion's history, theology, and praxis in ways that move discussion beyond apostate-driven and expose accounts.

California wildfires and mudslides, a false ballistic-missile alert, record-shattering hurricanes hammer the East Coast, vehicles plow into crowds, mass shootings, the opiate drug crisis, over 60 million babies aborted, the fatherlessness epidemic, the sexual-identity crisis. The list of alarming headlines goes on and on. The hour is late. Darkness is blatant. The American norm has changed. Lisa Bickle Stribling's audiobook is an urgent call to know the hour we live in. To understand the signs of Jesus' majestic return.

History's final chapter will be written in Jerusalem. When an Iranian president thunders a murderous threat or an obscure Turkish drunkard has a dream in Mecca or a Jewish couple from Brooklyn lands at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, these events might seem disconnected. But they’re not. In Dateline Jerusalem, CBN News correspondent Chris Mitchell connects the dots and unveils Jerusalem as the epicenter and crossroads of the spiritual, political, and, yes, supernatural worlds. Jerusalem’s powerful draw has always transcended simple economics, military strategy, and religious affiliation.

This book offers a close reading of Romans that treats Paul as a radical political thinker by showing the relationship between Paul's perspective and that of secular political theorists. Turning to both ancient political philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero) and contemporary post-Marxists (Agamben, Badiou, Derrida, and Žižek),

The African-American community represents a paradox of sorts. While collective success has been achieved in many areas, African-Americans still disproportionately suffer from a variety of social ills. The residual impact of years of slavery and exclusion from the major institutions of American life are still trenchant. Yet there is hope. As we move forward into a new millennium, our greatest answers can be found by exploring the past.

In Green Like God, Jonathan Merritt gently and insightfully observes that the Creator has a lot to say about environmental problems like unclean water, mindless materialism, wastefulness, over consumption, and pollution. In fact, Jonathan writes that "in the book of Genesis, God went green and never looked back." Relying heavily on the Scriptures, Jonathan gives the case for green living, but not because it's trendy and hip.

While teaching ethics is universally applauded, how one goes about it is much more difficult and contested than is often recognized. On Teaching and Learning Christian Ethics addresses what it means to teach and learn ethics through a thorough comparison of two ethicists, Henry Sidgwick and F. D. Maurice. Where Sidgwick understood ethics as developing a method for guiding voluntary action to what is right, Maurice maintained that ethics concerns life as a whole, and that requires placing it within a metaphysical and theological realm in which the good is much more definitive than right.