Robert D. Cornwall - Böcker

Various ideas float around about the subject of last things, leading many Christians to conclude that they don’t know what to think about the subject. Yet at the core of the Christian doctrine of last things lies two simple and complementary hopes: that God ever and always offers hope for our individual futures and for the future of the whole world.In this helpful book, Allen and Cornwall explain how we don’t have to subscribe to sensationalist theories or sketchy interpretations to believe in Christian hope. They walk the reader through the central biblical teachings on last things and then show the ways the church has interpreted those teachings throughout the centuries. In a respectful way, the authors demonstrate that end-time beliefs centered on the Rapture came into existence only recently, and they then offer several more life-affirming, contemporary interpretations as alternatives.The book includes a study guide and web-based appendixes designed to help pastors develop both topical and lectionary-based sermon series on Christian hope.

As Christians, what should we believe about hell?Instead of offering a prescriptive, one-size-fits-all answer, Ronald Allen and Robert Cornwall guide the reader through the historical interpretation of hell. They begin with the voices of the Hebrew Bible, extrabiblical, and New Testament texts and the voices of the early, medieval, Reformation, and modern church, pointing out the three main Christian views today—literalism (hell exists, and those there will suffer for eternity), annihilationism (the punishment of hell is limited and leads to the extinction of the sufferer), and universalism (everyone is saved, so hell does not exist). They include multiple contemporary theological positions on hell, such as those of liberation theologians and process theologians. The book also takes an ecumenical and interfaith approach to the topic by describing Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, and Muslim perspectives on hell. Through describing and explaining these different points of view, Allen and Cornwall allow the reader to decide what view(s) of hell make the most theological and ethical sense to them, and they conclude by offering their personal thoughts on hell.The book includes a study guide and glossary, making it an excellent resource for group study. An online resource designed for pastors who want to design topical and lectionary-based sermon series on hell is available for download.

The idea of the long eighteenth century (1660-1832) as a period in which religious and political dissent were regarded as antecedents of the Enlightenment has recently been advanced by several scholars. The purpose of this collection is further to explore these connections between religious and political dissent in Enlightenment Britain. Addressing the many and rich connections between political and religious dissent in the long eighteenth century, the volume also acknowledges the work of Professor James E. Bradley in stimulating interest in these issues among scholars. Contributors engage directly with ideas of secularism, radicalism, religious and political dissent and their connections with the Enlightenment, or Enlightenments, together with other important themes including the connections between religious toleration and the rise of the 'enlightenments'. Contributors also address issues of modernity and the ways in which a 'modern' society can draw its inspiration from both religion and secularity, as well as engaging with the seventeenth-century idea of the synthesis of religion and politics and its evolution into a system in which religion and politics were interdependent but separate. Offering a broadly-conceived interpretation of current research from a more comprehensive perspective than is often the case, the historiographical implications of this collection are significant for the development of ideas of the nature of the Enlightenment and for the nature of religion, society and politics in the eighteenth century. By bringing together historians of politics, religion, ideas and society to engage with the central theme of the volume, the collection provides a forum for leading scholars to engage with a significant theme in British history in the 'long eighteenth century'.