Global Christian Library

In today's world, when Christians think about other religions, numerous questions and issues arise - and their convictions about Christ and about other religions can have a significant influence on their understanding of how God relates to people, and what their own conduct towards them should be. From her wealth of inter-cultural and inter-faith experience, Ida Glaser believes that the most urgent questions for Christians focus on their own responsibilities and other peoples' welfare. Responding to Micah 6:8 - 'And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God' - Dr Glaser explores biblical perspectives on other faiths and their adherents, with clarity, sensitivity and challenging insights for all Christians.

The Seed and the Soil explores the power of the Bible that brings about God's transforming and liberating purposes, as well as its power as an often oppressively misused text. Characterized by a wide variety of storytelling, this book is accessible to all that read it.

More than half the people in the world live in cities, including a growing number of megacities with populations exceeding ten million people. This trend means that an understanding of urbanization must be an urgent priority for Christian theology and mission across the globe. This updated edition of Seeking a City with Foundations, with an additional chapter, explores Christian responses to the city, ranging from rejecting the urban as evil, to embracing it as being central to God's redemptive purposes. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including history, social science, urban planning, and the history of art, readers are given a detailed text which confronts the challenges that contemporary urbanization presents to world Christianity. Looking at urbanism as a theme throughout Scripture, culminating with the great vision of the New Jerusalem, David Smith explains that God's own future is revealed as urban, highlighting the need to identify modern-day idols as we share the gospel in cities and acknowledge the impact of global economic forces. The book also explores the causes of what has been called the divided city and traces the urban theme through the Bible to present an alternative vision of the urban future – a future in which the injustices in ever-growing slums and a crisis of meaning among the privileged might be overcome through the power of the reconciling message of the cross. This timely book proposes a way forward for urban mission, highlighting that transformation of our cities must be the focal point of Christian mission and hope.

It is impossible to love God and at the same time be dispassionate about the study of God. Deep devotion to Jesus and an all-consuming desire to see his glory fill the earth should fuel the passion of anyone who ventures to write about God and help illuminate other people's understanding of God and his ways. Few themes call for as much of a blending of mind and heart as that of the Holy Spirit. The global spread of Pentecostal Christianity, often in context of urban poverty, has attracted much attention. The movement highlights a hunger for the experience of God in our world and provides millions of poor believers with hope for social transformation. Yet spiritual experience needs a fully biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit with which its claims can be properly assessed. Ivan Satyavrata provides an introduction to the Bible's teaching on vital issues and questions, many of which have been, and continue to be, a source of confusion and controversy amongst Christians. Combining scholarly enquiry with accessibility, his deep theological reflections and passion for unity will contribute to constructive dialogue and appeal to a wide readership.

Hope is essential to human life. Without hope, humanity plunges into despair, and life can lose all purpose and meaning. Hope energizes people and communities, and also produces forbearance and patience. In this clear and accessible survey, which incorporates Asian perspectives, Roland Chia shows how Christian hope presses beyond the limits of both secular and religious world-views and confronts the reality of pain, suffering and death in the light of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is hope for God, and in God.

Christopher Wright uses this verse as a lens through which he surveys the Bible's teaching on 'salvation'. Every phrase in the verse resonates with significant themes in the Old and New Testaments, all of which combine to show that the Bible tells the story of God's salvation very broadly indeed, in relation to the character and purposes of God, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the redemption of all creation, the joy of Christian experience, and the responsibility of Christian mission. This clear, deep and warm-hearted exposition enriches our grasp of the Bible's multi-faceted teaching about salvation.

John Stott's masterly distillation of sixty years' reflection on Christian discipleship ranges over the history of the church and its formative teachings, as well as the world-wide church today. He expounds the trinitarian character of the evangelical faith: the gracious initiative of God the Father in revealing himself to us, of Jesus Christ in redeeming us through the cross, and of the indwelling Holy Spirit in transforming us. This is why the three-fold emphasis of evangelical faith is upon the Word of God, the once-for-all nature of the work of Christ and the active, continuing work of the Spirit. This edition of Evangelical Truth contains The Cape Town Commitment, a document produced by The Lausanne Movement faithfully reflecting the proceedings of The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization.

Human beings are complex. For all our contemporary knowledge and ability, however wonderful and widely available, people around the world face a crisis of human identity that calls into question the meaning of existence and the basis of moral behaviour. Responding to these challenges, Joe Kapolyo recognizes both the authority of the Bible, which teaches that people are created in the image of God but also corrupted by rebellion and sin, and the relevance of distinctly African perspectives on what it means to be human. Although he reads these perspectives critically, they lead him to reaffirm the biblical vision of redeemed human life in community in Christ. This vision offers a solution to the crisis of identity experienced by people who have forgotten who they are - and whose they are.

Christian mission in the twenty-first century has become the responsibility of a global church. The heart of 'mission' is the drive to cross geographical, cultural and social barriers in order to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all peoples. Drawing on his involvement in missionary work over many years, Samuel Escobar explores how the church spreads the Christian faith. God's Word forms the foundation for his reflections, while he uses insights from theological and historical studies as well as from the social sciences to gain a clearer understanding of the church's missionary calling. His stimulating and challenging analysis contributes significantly to a global evangelical dialogue on mission today and in the future.