Mark D. Baker – författare

Because many modern Christians can offer a reasonable explanation of the meaning of Jesus' death on the cross, they find it hard to understand the confusion displayed by the disciples after the events in the last pages of the Gospels. But if Paul were alive today, he would find it inexplicable that we modern believers are not scandalized by the cross.Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross introduces pastors, church leaders, students, and lay readers to the need for contextualized atonement theology, offering creative examples of how the cross can be proclaimed today in culturally relevant and transformative ways. It makes helpful suggestions on how this vision for a culturally relevant message might be developed. The impressive list of contributors includes writings from C. S. Lewis, Rowan Williams, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Brian McLaren, and many more who are actively working out just how to make this life-transforming proclamation.

Christians can be adept at drawing lines, determining what it means to be "a good Christian" and judging those who stray out of bounds. Other times they erase all the lines in favor of a vague and inoffensive faith. Both impulses can come from positive intentions, but either can lead to stunted spiritual life and harmful relationships. Is there another option?The late missionary anthropologist Paul Hiebert famously drew on mathematical theory to deploy the concepts of "bounded," "fuzzy," and "centered" sets to shed light on the nature of Christian community. Now, with Centered-Set Church, Mark D. Baker provides a unique manual for understanding and applying Hiebert''s vision. Drawing on his extensive experience in church, mission, parachurch, and higher education settings, along with interviews and stories gleaned from scores of firsthand interviews, Baker delivers practical guidance for any group that seeks to be truly centered on Jesus.Baker shows how Scripture presents an alternative to either obsessing over boundaries or simply erasing them. Centered churches are able to affirm their beliefs and live out their values without such bitter fruit as gracelessness, shame, and self-righteousness on the one hand, or aimless "whateverism" on the other. While addressing possible concerns and barriers to the centered approach, Baker invites leaders to imagine centered alternatives in such practical areas of ministry as discipleship, church membership, leadership requirements, and evangelism. Centered-Set Church charts new paths to grow in authentic freedom and dynamic movement toward the true center: Jesus himself.

Sodium channels confer excitability on neurons in nociceptive pathways and exhibit neuronal tissue specific and injury regulated expression. This volume provides recent insights into the control of expression, functioning and membrane trafficking of nervous system sodium channels and reviews why sodium channel sub-types are potentially important drug targets in the treatment of pain. The roles of sodium channels in dental and visceral pain are also addressed. The emerging role of sodium channel Nav1.3 in neuropathic states is another important theme. Authors from the pharmaceutical industry discuss pharmacological approaches to the drug targeting of sodium channels, and in particular Nav1.8, exclusively expressed in nociceptive neurons. The final chapter highlights the functional diversity of sodium channels in part provided by post-transcriptional processing and the insights into sodium channel function that are being provided by tissue specific and inducible gene knock-out technology.