Anna Case-Winters - Böcker

With this book, Anna Case-Winters provides a reconstruction of the doctrine of God based on process theology and feminist thought. She takes a fresh approach to the problem of theodicy (the justification of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil) and contends that traditional attempts to address this problem are unsuccessful because they do not discuss the meaning of omnipotence. Once the dispute is recast, it is not a question of how much power is attributed to God, but what kind. Case-Winters provides a coherent and theologically viable doctrine of omnipotence that avoids the pitfalls of traditional beliefs.

One of the most beloved books of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew speaks with eloquence and power. Among the Gospels, Matthew paints a fuller picture of the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus. Anna Case-Winters's incisive commentary reveals that Matthew is clearly a theological book. It is about God's saving work in Jesus Christ. Moreover, it is presented in a way that easily lends itself to the task of teaching and preaching. Case-Winters highlights five themes that shape the distinctive portrait of Jesus this Gospel offers. Here we see Jesus facing up to conflict and controversy, ministering at the margins, overturning presuppositions about insiders and outsiders, privileging the powerless, demonstrating the authority of ethical leadership, challenging allegiance to empire, and pointing the way to a wider divine embrace than many dared imagine. Case-Winters captures the core of Matthew's unique Gospel, which speaks powerfully to the life of Christian faith today in the midst of our own issues and struggles.

The early Christians saw in Jesus the focus and fulfillment of the conviction that God is with us. Over time, they learned to speak of that presence in terms of divine incarnation. That one theological affirmation raises questions for practically all other Christian beliefs. If God is incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, how does that change our understanding of God's presence in all things? What does it mean to be human if the life of God has been so intimately joined to human life? How can we say "God is with us" when there is so much suffering and evil in the world? What do we mean by “us”? Just us Christians or all of us? Just human beings or also the whole creation? If we find life in the wider cosmos, is God with them too? Looking through the lens of the incarnation, how wide is the divine embrace?In this volume, Anna Case-Winters demonstrates that the doctrine of the incarnation of God in Christ is not simply one belief among others; it is the cornerstone on which all other Christian convictions are built. Throughout, she carefully lays out the consequences for Christian belief and Christian life of the ancient confession that in Christ, “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

In the present ecological crisis, it is imperative that human beings reconsider their place within nature and find new, more responsible and sustainable ways of living. Assumptions about the nature of God, the world, and the human being, shape our thinking and, consequently, our acting. Some have charged that the Christian tradition has been more a hindrance than a help because its theology of nature has unwittingly legitimated the exploitation of nature. This book takes the current criticism of Christian tradition to heart and invites a reconsideration of the problematic elements: its desacralization of nature; its preoccupation with the human being to the neglect of the rest of nature; its dualisms and elevation of the spiritual over material reality, and its habit of ignoring or resisting scientific understandings of the natural world. Anna Case-Winters argues that Christian tradition has a more viable theology of nature to offer. She takes a look at some particulars in Christian tradition as a way to illustrate the undeniable problems and to uncover the untapped possibilities. In the process, she engages conversation partners that have been sharply critical and particularly insightful (feminist theology, process thought, and the religion and science dialogue). The criticisms and insights of these partners help to shape a proposal for a reconstructed theology of nature that can more effectively fund our struggle for the fate of the earth.