Baker Academic Theological Studies Collection (5 vols.)

by Joshua R. Farris; Don Thorsen; Te-Li Lau; Don C. Collett; Mark W. Elliott

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2020

Overview

The Baker Academic Theological Studies Collection contains five volumes of contemporary scholarship. This collection covers wide-ranging topics, among them anthropology, providence, Pauline theology, and Old Testament interpretation. The collection explores recent trends in apologetics and the future of the unevangelized, considers the creaturely and divine nature of humans, and offers a constructive account of the doctrine of providence. Addressing key themes of theology, these resources provide helpful insights for pastors, church leaders, and students.

Key Features

• Surveys the theological views represented within historic Christianity
• Examines the history and theology of the doctrine of providence
• Offers theological readings of several significant Old Testament passages
• Analyzes how Paul uses shame to admonish and to transform the minds of his readers into the mind of Christ

Product Details

• Title: Baker Academic Theological Studies Collection (5 vols.)
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2020
• Volumes: 5
• Pages: 1,584
• Topic: Theology

An Exploration of Christian Theology, 2nd ed.

• Author: Don Thorsen
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 448

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This introduction to Christian theology explores the whole Christian tradition in a simple and straightforward way. Leading Wesleyan theologian Don Thorsen surveys the theological views represented within historic Christianity and discusses the variety of positions held without favoring one over another. The book includes helpful end-of-chapter questions for further reflection and discussion, a convenient glossary of theological terms, and sidebars. The second edition is marked by a thorough updating of the text and the addition of two new chapters on apologetics and the future of the unevangelized.

Thorsen provides a guide through theology that is helpful for those curious about Christianity and those seeking to understand the breadth of the tradition. Insightful and fiercely fair, this book is a model of generosity and faithfulness.

—Vincent Bacote, Wheaton College

Don Thorsen (PhD, Drew University) is professor of theology at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. His previous books include Christian Ethics and Moral Philosophy and What Christians Believe about the Bible.

An Introduction to Theological Anthropology: Humans, Both Creaturely and Divine

• Author: Joshua R. Farris
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 336

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

In this thorough introduction to theological anthropology, Joshua Farris offers an evangelical perspective on the topic. Farris walks the reader through some of the most important issues in traditional approaches to anthropology, such as sexuality, posthumanism, and the image of God. He addresses fundamental questions like, Who am I? and Why do I exist? He also considers the creaturely and divine nature of humans, the body-soul relationship, and the beatific vision.

Joshua R. Farris (PhD, University of Bristol) is assistant professor of theology at Houston Baptist University in Houston, Texas. He is currently a Henry Fellow at the Carl F. H. Henry Center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for The Creation Project (Spring 2019). Farris is also the author of The Soul of Theological Anthropology and the coeditor of several volumes, including Being Saved: Explorations in Human Salvation, New England Dogmatics: A Systematic Collection of Questions and Answers in Divinity by Maltby Gelston, Christian Physicalism?, and The Routledge Companion to Theological Anthropology.

Defending Shame: Its Formative Power in Paul’s Letters

• Author: Te-Li Lau
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 288

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Our culture often views shame in a negative light. However, Paul’s use of shame, when properly understood and applied, has much to teach the contemporary church. Filling a lacuna in Pauline scholarship, this book shows how Paul uses shame to admonish and to transform the minds of his readers into the mind of Christ. The author examines Paul’s use of shame for moral formation within his Jewish and Greco-Roman context, compares and contrasts Paul’s use of shame with other cultural voices, and offers a corrective understanding for today’s church. Foreword by Luke Timothy Johnson.

Simultaneously immersed in the biblical milieu and relevant to our world today, this valuable work displays concrete facility in an astonishing range of disciplines and is in turn relevant to various disciplines. Although its most novel and distinctive contributions are for Pauline ethics and theology, it provides considerations relevant to pastoral counseling, pedagogy, intercultural studies, and even social communications and public policy.

—Craig S. Keener, F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary

Te-Li Lau displays command of Pauline studies, expertise in both Hellenistic and Jewish backgrounds, and intercultural sagacity. How many Pauline scholars can draw on comparisons with writings in Chinese, where some 113 terms for shame are found? Lau can and does. The result is a book that arrives at practical wisdom worked out in shrewd dialogue with the West’s ‘fractured understanding of shame.’ Lau makes possible not only a better understanding of the apostle Paul’s letters but a better application of those letters in personal life, teaching and preaching, and the public sphere. This is a book of rare wisdom and high importance.

—Robert W. Yarbrough, professor of New Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary

Te-Li Lau (PhD, Emory University) is associate professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is also the author of The Politics of Peace: Ephesians, Dio Chrysostom, and the Confucian Four Books.

Figural Reading and the Old Testament: Theology and Practice

• Author: Don C. Collett
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 208

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Don Collett, an experienced Old Testament teacher, offers an account of Old Testament interpretation that capitalizes on recent research in figural exegesis. Collett examines the tension between figural and literal modes of exegesis as they developed in Christian thought, introduces ongoing debates and discussions concerning figural readings of Scripture, and offers theological readings of several significant Old Testament passages. This book will work well as a primer on figural exegesis for seminarians or as a capstone seminary text that ties together themes from courses in Bible, exegesis, and theology.

Don Collett rightly claims that Christ himself is the one who shaped the history of Israel in a figural manner. Squarely grounded in the Yale School’s claim that the Old Testament provides its own distinct witness to Christ, Figural Reading and the Old Testament presents a carefully argued yet bold defense of allegorical exegesis. This book offers a perceptive antidote to the modern occlusion of divine providence from biblical interpretation.

—Hans Boersma, Saint Benedict Servants of Christ Chair in Ascetical Theology, Nashotah House Theological Seminary

Don C. Collett (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is associate professor of Old Testament and director of the MDiv program at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. He is an expert on the Book of the Twelve and on issues relating to the biblical canon.

Providence: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Account

• Author: Mark W. Elliott
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 304

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Addressing a topic of perennial interest in Christian theology, this volume offers a constructive account of the doctrine of providence. Mark Elliott shows that, contrary to received opinion, the Bible has a lot to say about providence as a distinct doctrine within the wider scope of God’s acts of salvation. This book by a leading scholar of Christian theology and exegesis is a capstone of years of research on the history and theology of the doctrine of providence.

Elliott explains that providence operates outside the range of knowledge and full comprehensibility, eluding faith and transcending revelation. Therefore, readers must look for traces of God’s action in the stories and philosophies of the biblical authors, which appear in the biblical corpus in such themes as the hand of God, the face of God, the kingdom, the plan of God, blessing, life, breath, enduring order, judgment, protection, and the hidden God. Elliott explores these themes in such a way that the entirety of the Bible across both Testaments bears witness to the theme of providence. He concludes by showing how the findings of his analysis speak to the concerns of systematic and practical theologians.

Mark Elliott has always championed the bridging of biblical scholarship, church history, and systematic theology, overcoming disciplinary boundaries and facilitating theological discussion between scholars of different disciplines. This remains true for his Providence, which is a fresh approach to a challenging topic. Putting the Bible into conversation with many scholars from the past and present alike, Elliot explains the possible biblical and theological dimensions of what Deus providebit means.

—Konrad Schmid, professor of Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism, University of Zurich

Mark W. Elliott (PhD, University of Cambridge) is professor of divinity and biblical criticism at the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland, and the author or coauthor of several books. He previously taught at the University of St. Andrews, where he directed the Institute for Bible, Theology, and Hermeneutics.