The philosophy and theology of David Novak, one of the most prominent and creative contemporary Jewish thinkers, grapples with Judaism, Christian theology, the tradition of natural law, and the Western philosophical canon. Never shying away from contested ethical and religious themes, Novak’s original insights and intellectual spirit have spanned voluminous publications and inspired Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinkers to engage concepts such as religious liberty, covenantal morality, and the importance of theological reasoning. Written primarily by scholars in the field of Jewish thought, Covenantal Thinking is a collection of essays dedicated to Novak’s work. The book examines topics such as election, natural law, Jewish political thought, Zionism, and the relation between reason and revelation. This collection is unique because it includes Novak’s replies to his critics, including his clarifications of his philosophical and theological positions. Offering a vital contribution to contemporary Jewish thought, Covenantal Thinking illuminates Novak’s contributions as a scholar who trained, conversed with, and inspired the next generation of philosophical theologians.

Set aside the frustrations of your past and step into a new level of victory and favor with this spiritually powerful guide from #1 bestselling author and Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen. We all have things that are trying to hold us back: guilt from past mistakes, temptations that we can't seem to overcome, or dysfunctions that have been passed down. It's easy to learn to live with these problems and accept them as who we are. We can all find a reason to live like we're at a disadvantage and become negative and bitter-we came down with an illness, somebody walked out of a relationship, our boss overlooked us. But we have to say, "I'm done making excuses. I'm not going to let the past keep me from moving forward and benefitting from the good things God has in store." It is time to say, "It is finished." In Next Level Thinking, Joel Osteen writes that we weren't created to go through life weighed down by addictions, dysfunction, guilt, or the past. God created us to be free. Joel encourages readers to leave behind the negative mindsets, the scarcity mentality, and the limitations others have put on us, and shows us how to step into new levels of victory, new levels of favor.

Unity and Continuity in Covenantal Thought examines the historiographical problems related to the interpretation of the Westminster Standards, delving into the issue of covenantal thought in the Westminster Standards, followed by an exhaustive analysis of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship on covenant.

This book offers the first large-scale investigation into the attitude of the historical Jesus towards covenant belief, the dominant theme of the Judaism of Jesus' day. The book, intended as part one of a two-volume investigation, takes its point of departure in a simple question which nevertheless integrally reflects the covenant thinking of the time: Was Jesus engaged in trying to find out how to remain faithful to the covenant? Current scholarship underlines both the importance of the covenant belief for early Judaism and the need for considering Jesus as being within Judaism. Studying how Jesus viewed the covenant leads right to the heart of the matter, both illuminating his relation to Judaism and providing a significant, still unexamined vantage point for his proclamation.

The essence of the covenant tradition is the idea of human beings freely associating for common purposes through pacts of mutual commitment. In the political realm, the idea of covenant has been particularly influential in frontierlands. Reinformed by the idea of the federated commonwealth that emerged out of the Protestant Reformation, covenant eventually fostered the establishment of the United States of America and our modern idea of federalism. More recently, these great products of the covenant tradition helped to bring about the collapse of twentieth-century totalitarianism and fueled a new spirit in contemporary political life throughout the world. A return to political covenantalism seems to be an appropriate response to the crisis of modern civilization and the new epoch after World War II. Covenant and Civil Society is the final volume in Elazar's monumental series The Covenant Tradition in Politics. In it, he traces the tradition's rebirth and development in the modern epoch.Covenant and Civil Society also considers issues of communal solidarity on a postmodern basis. Elazar traces the transition from the covenanted commonwealth of the Protestant Reformation to the civil society of the modern epoch, and explores the covenant's role in the modern statist era and the development of modern democracy. Scandiriavia, and the Latin-Germanic borderlands, many of which are typically thought of as examples of organic or hierarchical models. Elazar argues that a covenantal model is more appropriate and is part of the Western tradition as such.The book concludes with examination of the present and future of covenantal thought. Today, the global spread of federalism, most clearly seen in the formation of the European Union, is also seen in local and private arenas. Elazar considers the benefits of covenantal thought while balancing such optimism with a realistic sense of its limits. As a prescription for change, Covenant and Civil Society is a fundamental and original contribution. Along with the previous volumes in this series, all available from Transaction, it will be of deep interest to historians, social scientists, political theorists, and theologians of all persuasions.

A new paradigm for relations between religions, one of acceptance and collaboration, requires not only a willingness to move beyond a tradition of hostility and competition but also significant theological rethinking. Within Jewish Orthodoxy there have been very few voices that have advanced and justified a vision of other faiths in this light: to this day, the reigning paradigm is one of practical collaboration while avoiding theologically based engagement or reflection. Two of the most important Orthodox Jewish voices advocating change have been those of Irving Yitz Greenberg and Jonathan Sacks. This book presents the theological, moral, and social views of these two leading rabbis. It focuses on the significance of covenant for both, and how they adapt this concept to enable the development of a Jewish view of other religions. In considering how they may have influenced each other, it also studies the limitations and internal contradictions that characterize their work as they attempt to point the way forward, in a spirit of dialogue, to continuing theological reflection on Judaism’s approach to world religions.

In this first volume of a trilogy, Daniel J. Elazar addresses political uses of the idea of covenant, the tradition that has adhered to that idea, and the political arrangements that flow from it, Among the topics covered are covenant as a political concept, the Bible as a political commentary, the post-biblical tradition, medieval covenant theory, and Jewish political culture.

This volume traces the trends and the developing relationships of constitutionalism and covenant that ultimately led to the transformation of the latter into the former. Elazar explores the paths that emerged out of the constitutionalized covenantal tradition in Europe such as federalism, communitarianism, and the cooperative movement.

Tocqueville, Covenant, and the Democratic Revolution examines the intellectual and institutional context in which Alexis de Tocqueville developed his understanding of American political culture, with its profound influence on his democratic theory. This book also examines Tocqueville's claim that religious beliefs are among the most important determinants of a people's social structure and political institutions.

In this book Ralph Smith delves deeper into the discussion at the intersection of covenant and trinitarian theology that he began with 'Paradox and Truth.' Though many Reformed theologians have recognized an agreement between the Father and the Son for the salvation of the human race, few have explored the vast theological possibilities of an eternal covenant that involves all three persons of the Trinity. Instead, covenantal soteriology has focused on the so-called covenant of works between God and Adam, which turns out to be problematic both biblically and theologically. Smith places the eternal covenant in the position it deserves - the keystone of biblical and systematic theology - with profound consequences for the Christian worldview.