We are constantly engaged in processing data and sensory inputs all around us, even when we are not conscious of the many neural pathways our minds are traveling. So taking a step back to ponder the dimensions and practices of a particular way of thinking is a challenge. Even more important, however, is cultivating the habits of mind necessary in a life of ministry. This book, therefore, will grapple with the particular ways that the theological disciplines invite students to think but also the ways in which thinking theologically shapes a student’s sense of self and his or her role in a wider community of belief and thought. Thinking theologically is not just a cerebral matter; thinking theologically invokes an embodied set of practices and values that shape individuals and communities alike. Thinking theologically demands both intellect and emotion, logic and compassion, mind and body. In fact, this book—as part of the Foundations for Learning series—will contend that these binaries are actually integrated wholes, not mutually exclusive options.

Reading Theologically brings together eight seminary educators from various backgrounds to explore reading in a seminary context—reading theologically. Reading theologically is not just about academic skill building but about the formation of a ministerial leader who can engage scholarship critically, interpret Scripture and tradition faithfully, welcome different perspectives, and help lead others to do the same. This volume emphasizes the vital skills, habits, practices, and values involved in reading theologically and is a vital resource for students beginning the seminary process and professors of introductory level seminary courses.

Decades of use and refinement have solidified the place of How to Think Theologically as the indispensable guide to helping students of theology realize their call to be theologians. By focusing not on thinkers or thoughts, but on thinking, Stone and Duke induct readers into those habits of mind that lead to understanding all things--social, cultural, and personal--in relation to God. The new edition includes: Expansions of existing chapters An annotated bibliography of recommended reading An appendix of theological labels An expanded glossary Key points highlighted in call-outs throughout Updated case studies Discussion questions Both experienced teachers and beginning students will benefit from Stone and Duke's latest revision of their classic text.

"Religious commitment is a motivation, not a substitute, for careful thinking." So writes Fritz Guy in Thinking Theologically: Adventist Christianity and the Interpretation of Faith, a new release from Andrews University Press and a work long awaited by his colleagues and students. Guy offers his philosophy of how North American Seventh-day Adventists ought to go about the business of "doing theology." The work is addressed to theological students, pastors, and serious general readers who are interested in what theological thinking is, why it is important, who needs to be doing it, and how it should be done. - Preface -- What Theological Thinking Actually Is; Basic vocabulary; Basic characteristics; More vocabulary -- Why Everyone Should Think Theologically; An essential task; An inclusive task; A parable -- How Theological Thinking Should Begin; Audiences and motivations; Moral principles; Methodological principles -- Why Theological Thinking is Open-Ended; Limitations and change; Continuing discovery; Kinds of development -- How to Think with Intellectual Integrity; Criteria; Application; Theological fallacies -- Examining the ingredients -- How Scripture Should Function; Priority over subsequent theological tradition; Ellen White as an agent of scripture; Scripture as a whole; Theological Christocentricity; Existential perspective -- What Else Is Involved; Relation to scripture; Varieties of ingredients -- How Culture Makes a Difference; Secularity and secularism; Underlying intuitions; Theological implications -- Envisioning the work -- What Logical Presuppositions Need to Be Identified; Meaning and validity; Belief and trust; Evidence and demonstration -- What Forms Theological Thinking Can Take; Traditional systematic form; Bibliographical excursus:twentieth-century systematic theology; Other ways of organizing theology; Components and dangers -- Why Tripolar Thinking is Essential; Christian gospel; Cultural context; Adventist heritage; The challenge of tripolarity

Starting Right: Thinking Theologically About Youth Ministry is the first academic textbook that introduces youth ministry students (whether undergraduate or graduate level) to a marriage of solid research, real life, and accessible design. Whereas most college-level texts may reflect a thorough (though impenetrable) mastery of the field, they tend to expect readers to plow through unnecessarily thick prose and bland design because “it’s good for them.” Youth Specialties doesn’t agree. In this debut title to a continuing academic book line, college and seminary students will be introduced to real-life research, real-life youth ministry dilemmas, and real-life solutions.Contributing writers represent a spectrum of Christian Education thought and practice, as well as widespread recognition in their field...transdenominational, yet the perfect background to ministry in any denomination or ministry organizationThis text includes thorough indexes, design, and graphics that compel readers from page to page (now that’s a first for a college text!); organization that permits professors to use any part of the text, in any order, rather than plod through the entire book from beginning to end; a perfect primary text that gives students a rich, academic, and readable (though not “popular”) grasp of every aspect of youth ministry a typical Intro course touches, while also serving as an ideal secondary text.

* An excellent introductory text, this is the first volume in the new Elements of Preaching series * Helps preachers discern their own "working theology" as it is expressed in their sermon * Brief bibliographies accompany each chapter

The intention of Trauma Sensitive Theology is to help theologians, professors, clergy, spiritual care givers, and therapists speak well of God and faith without further wounding survivors of trauma. It explores the nature of traumatic exposure, response, processing, and recovery and its impact on constructive theology and pastoral leadership and care. Through the lenses of contemporary traumatology, somatics, and the Internal Family Systems model of psychotherapy, the text offers a framework for seeing trauma and its impact in the lives of individuals, communities, society, and within our own sacred texts. It argues that care of traumatic wounding must include all dimensions of the human person, including our spiritual practices, religious rituals and community participation, and theological thinking. As such, clergy and spiritual care professionals have an important role to play in the recovery of traumatic wounding and fostering of resiliency. This book explores how trauma-informed congregational leaders can facilitate resiliency and offers one way of thinking theologically in response to traumatizing abuses of relational power and our resources for restoration.

One day, Matthew Eaton was walking through an impromptu animal shelter display at his local pet store when suddenly an eight-month-old kitten dug his claws into Eaton's flesh. Eaton recognized that the "eyes of this cat and the curve of his claw" compelled a response analogous to those found in the writings of Buber, Levinas, and Derrida. And not just Eaton but a whole community of theologians have found themselves in an encounter with particular places and animals that demands rich theological reflection. Eaton enlisted fellow editors Harvie and Bechtel to collect the essays in this volume, in which theologians listen to horses, rats, snakes, cats, dogs, and the earth itself, who become new theological voices demanding a response. In this volume, the voice of the more-than-human world is heard as making theology possible. These essays suggest that what we say theologically represents not simply ideas of our own making subsequently superimposed onto the natural world through our own discovery, but rather flow from an expressive Earth.

This book is the fruit of a multi-year dialogue among Christian churches in the United States, addressing—from theological perspectives—mass incarceration as an issue in need of radical reform.

Kierkegaard was a Christian thinker perhaps best known for his devastating attack upon Christendom or the established order of his time. Sylvia Walsh explores his understanding of Christianity and the existential mode of thinking theologically appropriate to it in the context of the intellectual, cultural, and socio-political milieu of his time.