A ground-breaking account of the potential and failures of Christianity since the colonialist period--winner of the 2015 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion and of an American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence

"Detailing the nooks and crannies of white supremacist Christianity, The Christian Imagination allows not only for greater sophistication when considering race and theology. It also points to possible cures to the disease so elegantly diagnosed."--Edward J. Blum,

Journal of Religion

"[A] theological masterpiece."--Chris Smith, Englewood Review of Books

Why has Christianity, a religion premised upon neighborly love, failed in its attempts to heal social divisions? In this ambitious and wide-ranging work, Willie James Jennings delves deep into the late medieval soil in which the modern Christian imagination grew, to reveal how Christianity's highly refined process of socialization has inadvertently created and maintained segregated societies. A probing study of the cultural fragmentation--social, spatial, and racial--that took root in the Western mind, this book shows how Christianity has consistently forged Christian nations rather than encouraging genuine communion between disparate groups and individuals.

Weaving together the stories of Zurara, the royal chronicler of Prince Henry, the Jesuit theologian Jose de Acosta, the famed Anglican Bishop John William Colenso, and the former slave writer Olaudah Equiano, Jennings narrates a tale of loss, forgetfulness, and missed opportunities for the transformation of Christian communities. Touching on issues of slavery, geography, Native American history, Jewish-Christian relations, literacy, and translation, he brilliantly exposes how the loss of land and the supersessionist ideas behind the Christian missionary movement are both deeply implicated in the invention of race.

Using his bold, creative, and courageous critique to imagine a truly cosmopolitan citizenship that transcends geopolitical, nationalist, ethnic, and racial boundaries, Jennings charts, with great vision, new ways of imagining ourselves, our communities, and the landscapes we inhabit.

How can we grow closer to God? Is there a secret to spriritual life? Do we need a second blessing? Is sanctification God's work or ours? Is it instantaneous or is it a process? The nature of Christian spirituality has been widely debated throughout the history of the church. The doctrine of sanctification was one of the main fissures separating Luther from the Catholic Church. Even today different groups of Protestants disagree on how we draw closer to God. What distinguishes the different poisitions and what exactly is at stake in these recurring debates? To answer these questions Donald L. Alexander, professor of biblical theology at Bethel College, has brought together five scholars that represent each of the main historical Protestant traditions:

Gerhard O. Forde on the Lutheran vew

Sinclair B. Ferguson on the Reformed view

Laurence W. Wood on the Wesleyan view

Russell P. Spittler on the Pentecostal view

E. Glenn Hinson on the Contemplative view

With an introduction by Alexander and responses to each of the main essays by the other contributors, this book provides a helpful and stimulating introduction to an important doctrine of the church.

Leading evangelical scholar Millard Erickson offers a new edition of his bestselling textbook, now substantially updated and revised throughout. This edition takes into account feedback from professors and students and reflects current theological conversations, with added material on the atonement, justification, and divine foreknowledge. Erickson's comprehensive introduction is biblical, contemporary, moderate, and fair to various positions, and it applies doctrine to Christian life and ministry.

For many of us, the whole concept of Christology is as mystifying as a foreign language, yet Christians down the ages have fought to defend the person and work of Christ - seeing him and what he did quite rightly as a vital element of how we are saved. If we are to understand this subject we need to know the person of Christ; not just what he did (his work) but who he is (his person). Through this book we get to know the Son of God who indeed is God and not just a superman! He is the one who came from above and became fully human having a human body and soul. Being God enabled him to pay the debt owed for sin and being man enabled him to stand on man's behalf for their sin. In straightforward and simple layman terms this book will explain the interconnectivity of the work and person of Jesus Christ and dispel any misconceptions you may have.