Christian Belief

McGrath DPhil Alister

Description

In this highly accessible guide a team of expert contributors provide an authoritative and comprehensive survey of Christian belief. After an initial historical overview, six major chapters on Faith, God, Jesus, Salvation, the Church and Christian Hope assess in detail the breadth of Christian teaching and doctrine. Each chapter is interspersed with user-friendly boxed features that focus on key subjects such as Jesus and women and Christian ethics. Culminating with an anthology of extracts from major Christian thinkers, this book provides an ideal overview for scholars at all levels of study seeking to become acquainted with the sweep of Christian teaching.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 24 août 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912552047
• Langue: English

Extrait

CHRISTIAN BELIEF
General Editor
Alister M C Grath
 
General Editor
Alister McGrath
University of Oxford, UK
Associate Editor
J. I. Packer
Formerly Regent College, Vancouver, Canada
Consultant Editors
Atsuyoshi Fujiwara
Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan
Rolf Hille
Freie Theologische Hochschule Giessen, Germany
Stephen Noll
Formerly Uganda Christian University, and Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, USA
Jo Bailey Wells
Bishop of Dorking, UK, formerly Ridley Hall, Cambridge, UK
Carver T. Yu
China Graduate School of Theology, Hong Kong
Core Writing Team
Gerald Bray
Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
John Stackhouse
Crandall University, Canada
Graham Tomlin
President of St Mellitus College and Bishop of Kensington, London
Peter Walker
Formerly Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and Trinity School for Ministry, USA
Christopher Wright
Langham Partnership, London, UK
 
This edition copyright © 2018 Lion Hudson IP Limited
The right of Gerald Bray, Alister McGrath, John Stackhouse, Graham Tomlin, Peter Walker and Christopher Wright to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by
Lion Hudson Limited
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Business Park
Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England
www .lionhudson .com
ISBN 978 1 9125 5203 0
e-ISBN 978 1 9125 5204 7
First hardback edition 2006
Acknowledgments
Scripture quotations are taken from:
Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan and Hodder & Stoughton Limited. All rights reserved. The ‘NIV’ and ‘New International Version’ trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society. UK trademark number 1448790.
New/Revised Standard Version published by HarperCollins Publishers, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Cover image © RomoloTavani/iStock.com
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
 
CONTENTS
Editor’s Introduction
A Very Brief History of Christian Belief
The New Testament
The Early Church
The Middle Ages
The Renaissance
The Reformation
Revival
The Modern World
1   Faith
What is Faith?
The Origin of the Creeds
Faith and Reason
Faith and Philosophy
Faith in Words: Religious Language
Can God’s Existence Be Proved?
Faith and Truth
Science and Religion
Faith and Revelation
The Place of the Bible
The Place of Tradition
Interpreting the Bible
What is Theology?
Religion in Human Life
Christianity and Other Religions
The Human Quest for God
Modernity
The Importance of World-Views
Postmodernity
Islam
2   God
What Do We Mean by ‘God’?
The Mind of God
The Creator and the Creation
The Place of Humanity in Creation
Ways of Thinking About Creation
The Attributes of God
How Can God Be Known Through Nature?
Creation and Evolution
Human Sexuality
The Image of God in Humanity
Humanity as the Steward of Creation
What Do We Mean by an ‘Almighty’ God?
God is Personal
Biblical Images of God
The Doctrine of the Trinity
The Person of the Father
The Person of the Son
The Person of the Holy Spirit
The Charismatic Movement
Models of the Trinity
How Muslims See the Trinity
3   Jesus
New Testament Accounts of Jesus
The Birth of Jesus in Christian Art
The Parables of Jesus
The ‘I am’ Sayings of John’s Gospel
Jesus and the Religious Movements of His Day
The Jewish Background to Jesus
Old Testament Prophecies Concerning Jesus Christ
The Mission and Aims of Jesus
The Quest for the Historical Jesus
Jesus and the Poor
The Ministry and Teachings of Jesus
Jesus and Women
Jesus in John’s Gospel
New Testament Titles for Jesus
Jerusalem and the Crucifixion of Jesus
The Crucifixion in Christian Art
The Resurrection and Kingship of Jesus
The Incarnation and Revelation of Jesus
Jesus in Early Christian Thought
The Virgin Mary in Christian Thought
How Muslims see Jesus
The Uniqueness of Jesus
How Buddhists see Jesus
How Hindus see Jesus
4   Salvation
What is Sin?
The Dawn of a New Age
The Suffering of Christ and the Problem of Pain
The Meaning of the Cross: Atonement
‘Connecting up’ with the Cross
Salvation and the Defeat of Demons
Victory over Death and Satan
The Forgiveness of Sins
What Are the ‘Benefits of Christ’?
Restoration to God
Christ as the Representative of Humanity
Justification
Healing
John Newton and ‘Amazing Grace’
The Concept of Grace
Predestination and Human Freedom
5   The Church
The Origin of the Church
The Church in the Old Testament
The Church in the New Testament
Images of the Church
Christian ethics
Christianity and Social Justice
Identity Marks of the Church
Augustine and the Donatist controversy
Should the Church Baptize Children?
Identity Actions of the Church
Is Christ Present in the Lord’s Supper?
What is Christian Ministry?
Women in Ministry
Should Christians Fight in Wars?
Service in the Church
What Were the Origins of Monasteries?
Billy Graham and Christian Mission
Serving the World: the Church’s Mission
6   The Christian Hope
The Birth of a New Hope
The Crisis of Hope in Modern Western Culture
The Resurrection of Christ
Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead?
The Resurrection Hope of Believers
Christian Attitudes towards Work
The Resurrection and Human Hope
Christian Attitudes Towards Possessions
The Last Things
What Does the Resurrection Body Look Like?
The New Jerusalem
Church Architecture and the Vision of God
Where Was the Garden of Eden?
What is Spirituality?
The Restoration of Creation
Heaven in Christian Art
The Anticipation of Heaven in the Christian Life
The Journey of Faith to Heaven
Charles Wesley and the Hope of Heaven
The Second Coming of Christ
Concise Anthology of Christian Thought
Glossary
Index
 
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
This handbook sets out to introduce basic Christian beliefs simply and clearly. It explores what Christians – the world’s largest religious community – believe, where these beliefs come from, how they have developed over the centuries, and their place in the contemporary church and world. It is designed to help Christians to deepen their knowledge of their faith, and non-Christians to gain a basic understanding of Christian belief, including some of the important debates over matters of doctrine. Above all, it aims to demonstrate how Christian beliefs are grounded in the Bible.
So why study what Christians believe? Why devote an entire book to explaining and exploring these beliefs? Many answers might be given. One of the most important is the deepened appreciation it brings to the life of faith of the believer, and the journey of reflection and personal growth it stimulates. For the great Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo ( AD 354–430), there was a genuine intellectual excitement to wrestling with God. Augustine wrote of an ‘eros of the mind’ – a sense of longing to understand more about God’s nature and ways – and the transformative impact that this could have on people’s lives. Other Christian writers have stressed the practical importance of theology, noting how it is essential for the ministry of the church. Christian preaching, spirituality and pastoral care, many argue, are grounded in basic Christian beliefs. Those not sharing Christianity’s beliefs can still gain something of an understanding of this relationship of theory and practice.
Beliefs, then, are of major significance. They shape our mental world, and provide us with a map of the complex and often baffling world we inhabit. Christians’ beliefs provide them with a fundamental framework for living out their faith. For example, their belief about the future hope of heaven has a huge impact on their attitude to living and dying. It makes a world of difference to the way they behave and the way they think.
Again, Christians don’t just believe in God; they believe certain things about God, which shape their entire outlook on life. Christian faith is not an unstructured assortment of emotions or feelings. Christians believe that God has certain fundamental characteristics – such as holiness, trustworthiness, and graciousness. They believe that he loved the world so much that he sent Christ into the world to redeem humankind. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity tries to summarize an immensely rich and powerful vision of God, as portrayed in Scripture. It is not the easiest of doctrines to understand – but it reminds people of the overwhelming majesty, glory and radiance of God. These fundamental beliefs about God affect the way in which Christians pray, worship, and tell others about this distinctive God.
Christian beliefs about Jesus Christ are also clearly of immense importance. Jesus Christ is the beginning, the centre and the end of the Christian message of hope. It is certainly true that at the heart of the Christian faith there stands a person, not a belief. Yet it is important to appreciate that Jesus is a person who gives rise to beliefs the moment someone begins to wrestle with the question, ‘Who is Jesus Christ?’ or ‘What