This book has served the missiological community for twenty-five years as a resource for understanding human spirituality in any context. Thousands of students have incorporated the principles of this book into ministry around the globe. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition seeks to enable those who now bring their passion for mission to contemporary contexts affected by globalization, climate change, and political perspectives unimagined when this book originally appeared. Every community, wherever it is on earth, has its share of beliefs and values that manifest themselves in practices that reflect spiritual engagement. Those engaged in mission need to appreciate how underlying beliefs and values are reflected in handling spiritual power, worship and blessing, and interaction with others. Gospel communicators must account for these elements as they seek to make God’s intentions known to people who are searching for God. The models presented early in the book are essential for establishing what people consider spiritually critical. Applying these models in any religious environment will enable message-bearers to engage with beliefs and practices that promote a gospel presentation that makes sense. To that end, we commend this book for effective missional engagement.

A psychiatrist suggests ways in which confronting and resolving problems, a painful process most people try to avoid, can lead to greater self-understanding and spiritual growth.

A prize-winning, five-decade history of the evangelical movement in Southern California that explains a sweeping realignment of American politics. From Bible Belt to Sun Belt tells the dramatic and largely unknown story of “plain-folk” religious migrants: hardworking men and women from Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas who fled the Depression and came to California for military jobs during World War II. Investigating this fiercely pious community at a grassroots level, Darren Dochuk uses the stories of religious leaders, including Billy Graham, as well as many colorful, lesser-known figures to explain how evangelicals organized a powerful political machine. This machine made its mark with Barry Goldwater, inspired Richard Nixon’s “Southern Solution,” and achieved its greatest triumph with the victories of Ronald Reagan. Based on entirely new research, the manuscript has already won the prestigious Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians. The judges wrote, “Dochuk offers a rich and multidimensional perspective on the origins of one of the most far-ranging developments of the second half of the twentieth century: the rise of the New Right and modern conservatism.”

The Nature of Doctrine, originally published in 1984, is one of the most influential works of academic theology in the past fifty years. A true classic, this book sets forth the central tenets of a post-liberal approach to theology, emphasizing a cultural-linguistic approach to religion and a rule theory of doctrine. In addition to his account of the nature of religion, George Lindbeck also addresses the relationship between Christianity and other religions, the resolution of historic doctrinal conflict among Christian communities, and the nature and task of theology itself. This is a work that all theologians and advanced students should know. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition includes an English translation of the foreword to the German edition and a complete bibliography of Lindbeck's work.

Taiwan is a nation with religious freedom and a long history of missionary activity. Yet, the Christian population has steadily remained as a minority religious affiliation. In this important missiological work, Dr. Chuang seeks to find out why this is the case, and what lessons can be learnt for mission and evangelism in Taiwan. From his in-depth interviews, Dr. Chuang explores the interplay of folk religions and Christianity in Taiwanese attitudes and lived reality regarding religiosity. Focusing on theoretical and theological issues, this work is unique in providing clarity around the nuances of how the people of Taipei conceptualize religion and the unseen realm. Dr. Chuang skilfully demonstrates that to better contextualize the gospel among Han Chinese in Taipei, Christians need to ask the questions that the people are asking to other deities in daily life and frame an exclusive Jesus in an inclusive way. Missiologists, practitioners, and pastors will all benefit from this practical, contextualized approach to gospel transmission in Taipei.

The field of ecclesiology is rapidly expanding as new material, theories, methods, and approaches are being explored. This raises important and challenging questions concerning ecclesiology as an academic discipline. This book takes the reader into the trenches of ecclesiological research where the actual work of reading, writing, interpreting, and analyzing is being done. The authors reflect on fundamental questions concerning theory and method in ecclesiology in relation to concrete and actual research projects. Ecclesiology is dealt with as a systematic, empirical, historical, and liturgical discipline. Essays explore theology in South Africa as shaped by apartheid, liturgical theology, the diaconate in an ecumenical context, Free Church preachership, suburban ecclesial identity, medieval church practices, liturgical texts, church floor plans, and ecclesiology as a gendered discipline. Ecclesiology in the Trenches is a book for anyone who is interested and involved in ecclesiological research. It is also an example of a reflective approach to academic work. The book can be read as an overall argument for ecclesiology as a theological discipline with great potential for studying the church as a theologically defined empirical phenomenon.

This book examines the complex and multifaceted nature of African Pentecostal engagements with genders and sexualities. In the last three decades, African Pentecostalism has emerged as one the most visible and profound aspects of religious change on the continent, and is a social force that straddles cultural, economic, and political spheres. Its conventional and selective literal interpretations of the Bible with respect to gender and sexualities are increasingly perceived as exhibiting a strong influence on many aspects of social and public institutions and their moral orientations. This collection features articles which examine sexualities and genders in African Pentecostalism using interdisciplinary methodological and theoretical approaches grounded within traditional African thought systems, with the goal of enabling a broader understanding of Pentecostalism and sexualities in Africa.

Studies of African-derived religious traditions have generally focused on their retention of African elements. This emphasis, says Dianne Stewart, slights the ways in which communities in the African diaspora have created and formed new religious meaning. In this fieldwork-based study Stewart shows that African people have been agents of their own religious, ritual, and theological formation. She examines the African-derived and African-centered traditions in historical and contemporary Jamaica: Myal, Obeah, Native Baptist, Revival/Zion, Kumina, and Rastafari, and draws on them to forge a new womanist liberation theology for the Caribbean.