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"Rosemary Radford Ruether's authoritative, award-winning critique of women's unequal standing in the church, which explored the complex history of redemption in evaluating conflict over the fundamental meaning of the Christian gospel for gender relations, is now in an updated and expanded edition. Ruether highlights women theologians' work to challenge the patriarchal paradigm of historical theology and to present redemption linked to the liberation of women. Ruether turns her attention to the situation of women globally and how the growing plurality of women's voices from multicultural and multireligious contexts articulates feminist liberation theology today." --Publisher description.

Six lessons on Christian living based on Augustine's life, his Confessions and City of God, and on a variety of passages from Scripture.

This work represents a novel treatment of the mission of the Church fathers, the early Christian ascetics, and their disciples during the turbulent centuries that followed the passing of the apostles. Approaching a normally arcane subject largely through the interplay of character and incident, Outreach and Renewal provides a stirring account of the various ways in which spiritual leaders of the time promoted the Gospel message. Readers experience these leaders as they illuminate, strengthen, restore, or defend the faith, through their words and actions, of fellow Christians. Facilitating fresh insights and thought-provoking conclusions, the theme proceeds through the interaction of a varied cast of vital individuals engaged in lively and sometimes acerbic discourse, which is always aimed at the glory of God. With the careful attention the author gives to the early Irish church and its singular representatives, this work is a unique and valuable contribution to the study of the patristic era.

The idea of a Jewish Church has been banned from the Christian horizon for almost two millennia. But things are changing. Since the middle of the 70s the Messianic Jewish movement has strived to build an ecclesial home for all Jewish believers in Christ. This new phenomenon brings to life issues that had disappeared since the first centuries of the Church. What does it mean to be a Jew in the Church? Should there be a distinction between Jews and non-Jews among believers in Christ? Is such a distinction compatible with the unity of the whole Body of Christ so ardently preached by Paul? What lifestyle should this Church promote? In his various works, Mark Kinzer, a prominent Messianic Jewish theologian, has attempted to provide substantial answers to these questions. Antoine Lévy is a Dominican priest. With Kinzer, Lévy has launched the “Helsinki Consultation”, a cross-denominational gathering of Jewish theologians. In Jewish Church: A Catholic Approach to Messianic Judaism, Lévy examines Kinzer’s positions critically, bringing forward an alternative vision of what a “Jewish Church” could and should be. This is only the beginning of what promises to be a fascinating discussion.

The idea of the soul is one which will not go away. This is despite the fact that traditional dualist understandings of humankind – that we are compound creatures, made up of a material body and a non-material soul – have been widely criticised in recent decades, by scholars from both theological and scientific backgrounds. What are the origins of the centuries-old traditions of dualist thinking? How have they been developed, and what can still be learned from them? What can modern philosophers and theologians say about the concept of the soul from a monist perspective? What light can scientific studies of the brain cast on it? And what perspectives can faiths other than Christianity bring to these issues? These were some of the issues considered at the 2012 conference of the Science and Religion Forum, held at Regents Park College, Oxford. This book presents papers derived from that conference, including contributions from leading scientific and theological scholars. Their very disparate approaches – and very diverse conclusions – will be of interest to a wide readership.

Marriage was ordained by God for the good of spouses and for procreation. But how often does marriage turn out to bring unhappiness to partners! And how often do even happy marriages end up childless! Among the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria, to whom offspring is the chief goal of marriage, childlessness leads often to unhappiness in marriage and not less often to the break-up of marriages or to polygamy. In this work, the author expounds the importance of marriage and its practice among the Igbo. He explains the importance of children in Igbo understanding of marriage and identifies childlessness as the key factor which could endanger (and sometimes do endanger) the Igbo acceptance of the Catholic doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage. Using the relevant clauses of the Code of Canon Law, the author explains in detail the Catholic understanding of marriage and the goals of the catholic doctrine on marriage. He writes of the possibility of marriage impediments due to impotence and sterility (that lead to childlessness) and recommends not only a thorough pre-marriage preparation but also a continual formation of marriage couples as efforts that could check the increasing rate of divorce and polygamy due to childlessness. But the author knows that childlessness can still occur despite all precautions. He therefore recommends adoption (instead of polygamy) as the ultimate panacea to childlessness in marriage. The author condemns in unmistakable terms the mentality among the Igbo which blames and traumatizes the woman in cases of childlessness.

Our culture is not only sex-crazed but also deeply confused about sex and sexual ethics. Unfortunately, Christians seem equally confused, and the church has tended to respond with simplistic answers. The reason for this confusion is that the meaning of sex has been largely lost. Dennis Hollinger argues that there is indeed a God-given meaning to sex. This meaning, found in the Christian worldview, provides a framework for a biblical sexual ethic that adequately addresses the many contemporary moral issues. The Meaning of Sex provides a good balance between accessible theology and engaging discussion of the practical issues Christians are facing, including premarital sex, sex within marriage, homosexuality, reproductive technologies, and faithful living in a sex-obsessed world.

We marry to be happy and have our companions with whom to live the rest of our lives in harmony. We get loved, have fun, children but at times things get bitter, we fail to cope with our partners’ behaviors who are drunkard, quarrelsome, abusive, fighting, and violent, only to hold on because we promised ourselves better and worse. A person meets the other having been from different places with different walks of life, it’s not easy to learn each other very fast especially when love is much at first sight. Couples met, and they, unlike their ancestors, married for love. Men and women were transformed into husbands and wives. Husbands assumed they were legally and culturally assigned the role of provider and protector. In exchange for providing shelter and putting food on the table, they exacted obedience and sexual submission and expected their wives to give birth and nurture children cheerfully. Wives willingly assumed their place in the domestic sphere, submitted to their husbands' rule in exchange for their protection, and ceased having an independent legal identity. But despite these rigid roles, they placed high expectations on the relationship: Wives hoped for a romantic, communicative, and fair-minded protector; husbands for a supportive, gentle, and loving companion. Marriages were fundamentally stable, but as the century progressed, expectations rose, and marital instability increased as those expectations went unfulfilled.