Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Christian apocrypha has suffered neglect. Living just outside the Christian canon, apocryphal Christian works have been judged deficient, secret, and even heretical. In Reading Christian Apocrypha, Tobias Nicklas and Janet Spittler lavish attention upon these extracanonical texts to demonstrate that, far from being superfluous or fringe, Christian apocrypha plays a crucial role in the history of Christianity.Apocryphal works function as important witnesses for the reception of Jesus, Paul, and other apostolic figures. Beyond the reception of canonical figures, however, they provide foundational stories that fill in the Christian landscape of memories, supplying local and regional Christian communities with narratives that tie their own environment, traditions, and practices to the activities of the apostles and apostolic figures. Reading Christian Apocrypha also explores how apocryphal works adopt and adapt Jewish and Greco-Roman views on the origin of the world, its history, and the world to come, creating new "spaces of interpretation" around biblical texts and traditions.The apocryphal writings reveal that Christianity, from the very beginning, developed a wide variety of theological perspectives within diverse linguistic traditions and geographical areas. Ultimately, Reading Christian Apocrypha demonstrates that the distinction between "canonical" and "apocryphal" tradition is far blurrier than often assumed.

In this book, Raimundo Barreto examines ecumenical initiatives that have emerged from the people--from "the bases"--in conversation with interchurch ecumenical work. Revisiting grassroots developments in Latin America, such as the Church and Society movement of the 1950s and the Base Christian Communities of the 1970s, this book expands the concept of base ecumenism by engaging independent and Pentecostal communities in a religiously pluralistic Latin America. Barreto compares base ecumenism with similar initiatives in the history of the modern ecumenical movement, arguing that base ecumenism contributes fresh and renewing insights to this era of world Christianity. Paying special attention to the Popular Reading of the Bible movement, Barreto highlights the agency of women, racially minoritized groups, and young people.

What is beauty? What is the soul? What facilitates our apprehension of beauty in ourselves, others, and the world, and what impedes it? In The Beauty of Souls, Mark S. M. Scott explores these spiritual questions through a dynamic synthesis of theology, philosophy, and literature. Focusing on Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson''s novels and essays, Scott gleans transformational insights about the life of the soul.Scott argues that Robinson''s writings spiritually sensitize her readers, preparing them for deeper levels of soul-discovery and soul-formation. Excavating Robinson''s conception of beauty and its relation to the soul, Scott traces themes of perception, contemplation, growth, loss, brokenness, wonder, and redemption through Robinson''s writings, particularly her magisterial Gilead saga. The Beauty of Souls guides readers through the complexity of the spiritual life in critical and creative dialogue with Robinson''s signature works. It shows that Robinson''s fiction does more than simply display and evoke beauty; it offers a philosophical-theological framework to discover and express the beauty of our own souls.