Stephen H. Webb - Böcker

What could Roman Catholicism and Mormonism possibly have to learn from each other? On the surface, they seem to diverge on nearly every point, from their liturgical forms to their understanding of history. With its ancient roots, Catholicism is a continuous tradition, committed to the conservation of the creeds, while Mormonism teaches that the landscape of Christian history is riddled with sin and apostasy and is in need of radical revision and spiritual healing. Moreover, successful proselyting efforts by Mormons in formerly Catholic strongholds have increased opportunities for misunderstanding, polemic, and prejudice. However, in this book a Mormon theologian and a Catholic theologian in conversation address some of the most significant issues that impact Christian identity, including such central doctrines as authority, grace, Jesus, Mary, and revelation, demonstrating that these traditions are much closer to each other than many assume.Both Catholicism and Mormonism have ambitiously universal views of the Christian faith, and readers will be surprised by how close Catholics and Mormons are on a number of topics and how these traditions, probed to their depths, shed light on each other in fascinating and unexpected ways. Catholic-Mormon Dialogue is an invitation to the reader to engage in a discussion that makes understanding the goal, and marks a beginning for a dialogue that will become increasingly important in the years to come.

Theories of generosity, or gift giving, are becoming increasingly important in recent work in philosophy and religion. Stephen Webb seeks to build on this renewed interest by surveying a distinctively modern and postmodern approach to the issue of generosity, and then developing a theological framework for it. He contends that in many ways society has become suspicious of charity and generosity. This cynicism has led to quick and easy judgments, that, in turn, have led to a new orthodoxy with its own troubling consequences. Webb believes that we need to recover the generosity that our culture obscures behind this monologue on self-interest, and that theology, as a form of critical thought, can play a helpful role. Throughout the book, Webb argues for a theory of giving that is other-oriented without being self-negating. He maintains that the generosity of God's grace, properly understood, can reorient our own idea of the gift and must be correlated to our own practices of exchange and reciprocity.

Many of us keep pet animals; we rely on them for companionship and unconditional love. For some people their closest relationships may be with their pets. In the wake of the animal rights movement, some ethicists have started to re-examine this relationship, and to question the rights of humans to "own" other sentient beings in this way. In this engaging and thought-provoking book, Stephen Webb brings a Christian perspective to bear on the subject of our responsibility to animals, looked at through the lens of our relations with pets--especially dogs. Webb argues that the emotional bond with companion animals should play a central role in the way we think about animals in general, and--against the more extreme animal liberationists--defends the intermingling of the human and animal worlds. He tries to imagine what it would be like to treat animals as a gift from God, and indeed argues that not only are animals a gift for us, but they give to us; we need to attend to their giving and return their gifts appropriately. Throughout the book he insists that what Christians call grace is present in our relations with animals just as it is with other humans. Grace is the inclusive and expansive power of God's love to create and sustain relationships of real mutuality and reciprocity, and Webb unfolds the implications of the recognition that animals too participate in God's abundant grace.Webb's thesis affirms and persuasively defends many of the things that pet lovers feel instinctively--that their relationships with their companion animals are meaningful and important, and that their pets have value and worth in themselves in the eyes of God. His book will appeal to a broad audience of thoughtful Christians and animal lovers.

In this groundbreaking study, Stephen H. Webb offers a new theological understanding of the material and spiritual: that, far from being contradictory, they unite in the very stuff of the eternal Jesus Christ. Accepting matter as a perfection (or predicate) of the divine requires a rethinking of the immateriality of God, the doctrine of creation out of nothing, the Chalcedonian formula of the person of Christ, and the analogical nature of religious language. It also requires a careful reconsideration of Augustine's appropriation of the Neo-Platonic understanding of divine incorporeality as well as Origen's rejection of anthropomorphism. Webb locates his position in contrast to evolutionary theories of emergent materialism and the popular idea that the world is God's body. He draws on a little known theological position known as the ''heavenly flesh'' Christology, investigates the many misunderstandings of its origins and relation to the Monophysite movement, and supplements it with retrievals of Duns Scotus, Caspar Scwenckfeld and Eastern Orthodox reflections on the transfiguration. Also included in Webb's study are discussions of classical figures like Barth and Aquinas as well as more recent theological proposals from Bruce McCormack, David Hart, and Colin Gunton. Perhaps most provocatively, the book argues that Mormonism provides the most challenging, urgent, and potentially rewarding source for metaphysical renewal today.Webb's concept of Christian materialism challenges traditional Christian common sense, and aims to show the way to a more metaphysically sound orthodoxy.

Here is a rhetorical treatment of Karl Barth's early theology. Although scholars have long noted the rhetorical power of Barth's work, calling it volcanic and explosive, this book uses rhetoric to illuminate the peculiar nature of his prose. It displays a Barth whose prose is radically unstable and inseparable from his theological arguments.The author connects Barth's early theology to the Expressionism of the Weimar Republic. He develops an original theory of figures of speech, relying on the philosophies of Paul Ricoeur and Hayden White, to delve more deeply into the particular configurations of Barth's writings. Nietzsche's hyperbole and Kierkegaard's irony are examined as rhetorical precedents of Barth's style. The closing chapter surveys Barth's later, realistic theology and then suggests ways in which his earlier tropes, especially the figures of excess and self-negation, can serve to enable theology to speak today.

A bold exploration of how hyperbole—language that exceeds limits—reveals religion as an intensified experience of love, sacrifice, and divine meaning.What if the deepest truths of religion are not found in moderation—but in excess?In Blessed Excess, Stephen H. Webb offers a bold and original vision of religion as an intensification of ordinary experience, arguing that hyperbole—language that goes "too far"—is not merely decorative, but essential to theological thinking. Moving beyond traditional studies of metaphor and analogy, Webb reveals how exaggeration, overflow, and surplus shape the way we speak about God, love, sacrifice, and grace.Engaging a rich and diverse range of voices—from the First Epistle of John to Kierkegaard, from Georges Bataille to Flannery O’Connor and G. K. Chesterton—Webb demonstrates how hyperbolic imagination stretches the limits of reason, inviting readers into a more expansive understanding of faith.With intellectual rigor and creative insight, Blessed Excess opens new pathways for exploring both Christian theology and comparative religion. It challenges readers to reconsider the boundaries between logic and paradox, devotion and excess, the finite and the infinite.Provocative, illuminating, and deeply original, Blessed Excess is essential reading for anyone interested in theology, philosophy, and the power of language to transform belief.

The relationship between America and Christianity has never been so hotly contested as it is today. September 11, 2001 and the war on terror have had an almost schismatic impact on the Church. American Christians have been forced to ask the really hard questions about faith and politics. While some Christians would rather not ask these questions at all, they are unavoidable for a religion that seeks to speak to the whole world, with the expectation of nothing less than global transformation. Like it or not, Christians have to take a stand on the issue of America's alleged imperialism, not only because America is largely a product of the Christian imagination but also because the converse is true - the growth of Christianity worldwide is largely shaped by American values and ideals. American Providence makes the case that American Christianity is not an oxymoron. It also makes the case for a robust doctrine of providence - a doctrine that has been frequently neglected by American theologians due to their reluctance to claim any special status for the United States.Webb goes right to the heart of this reluctance, by defending the idea that American foreign policy should be seen as a vehicle of God's design for history.

Bob Dylan's earth-shattering performance at Newport in 1965 changed the face of rock and roll and the face of folk music forever. Dylan broke the musical equivalent of the sound barrier. He had to teach his audience how to hear sounds that had never before been heard. Dylan did the same for religion when he converted to Christianity in late 1978. Rock and religion have become intertwined in contemporary culture. Does rock gain its power from the decline of religious authority? Is rock a neutral medium that churches can appropriate with little or no danger to spiritual truths? Do rock and religion have the same ancient roots? Or is rock essentially at odds with Christianity? No contemporary musician presents a better test case than Bob Dylan. He played a key role in the fusion of rock and religion when he converted to Christianity. Dylan was ahead of the contemporary Christian music trend. Although he helped legitimize Christian rock in the late seventies, even his early music had deeply spiritual undertones. From the beginning of his career, Dylan talked about his music in terms of a spiritual calling.He imbued rock with something oracular and otherworldly - a supersonic rendition of the supernatural - which gave popular music enough weight to convey something of the mystery of religious ritual. Webb focuses on Dylan's religious period in this book, but convincingly shows that this religious period cannot be understood apart from a rereading of his entire career. Webb reevaluates Dylan's early career in light of Dylan's Christian period and shows that Dylan's Christian period was a natural development in his musical and spiritual journey.