Curtis W. Freeman

Between the State and the Eucharist

Theology

“While the passing of state-established churches is reason to celebrate, Christians are facing new challenges as they inhabit cultures that have been inoculated by weakened strains of state-supported religion. With the future of a post-Christendom era now all but certain, Christians must learn anew to practice the faith without privilege. This remarkable collection of essays explores how the Free Churches in Sweden might help the whole church learn anew that the mission of the church is simply to be the church.”

Counter-Cultural Communities

History & Biography

“Baptists emerged four centuries ago as communities of dissent from the culturally and politically established churches of the day. Over the years many of us have learned to make peace with the powers. Yet in so doing we too easily forgot that the best convictions of our heritage are kept alive in struggle. Reading these stories of Baptists in Eastern Europe who contended for the faith may help us rekindle the practice of dissent and thereby become more faithful witnesses to the radical way of Jesus.”

Kingdom Come

Theology

“Far too few beyond the theological academy may recognize the insight or importance of the work of Jonathan R. Wilson, which has charted a way for Christian faithfulness in the midst of cultural fragmentation. Yet if this volume and these contributors are any indication of the significance of his influence as a pastor, teacher, and scholar, then this book and his work surely deserve to be taken very seriously.”

Making Disciples

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Jesus calls the church to ‘make disciples’ by ‘baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that [he] commanded’ (Matt. 28:19–20). Yet discipleship does not just happen. As Tertullian, the second-century African church leader, contended, ‘Christians are made not born.’ Alex Fogleman provides an accessible account of the historic practice of making Christians, or catechesis, which guides new believers in the basic teaching of Christ (Heb. 6:1–2). This book not only offers a rich account of the ancient tradition, but it also shows how to cultivate a robust catechetical practice in our churches today to make disciples.”

On Being the Church

Theology

“W. T. Whitley once observed that the most distinctive feature of the Baptists is their doctrine of the church. Yet surprisingly little has been written to display the substance of his observation. This book is a welcome addition to a growing body of literature that demonstrates Whitley's thesis and so challenges the popular perception that Baptist identity is rooted in modern notions of individualism and independence. The authors provide a rich account of Baptist faith and practice as life together in communion with the triune God. They challenge us to rise above the familiar paths of denominationalism and ask us to imagine what it might mean to live out a theology of baptism, eucharist, and ministry within the one church, holy, catholic, and apostolic.”

Pilgrim Practices

Discipleship & Christian Education

“With the cultural disestablishment of Christianity in America in full swing, churches are being forced to come to terms with what it means to live in a world where they no longer enjoy privileged standing. As Christendom declines Christians have the opportunity to learn apostolic faith and practice anew by identifying with the image of the church as a pilgrim people in a strange land. Yet knowing this new reality and living into it are different matters. This book offers basic training for equipping churches to embrace their identity as a community of pilgrims and to embark on the missional journey.”

Practicing Midrash

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Learning to read like rabbis means not seeking to resolve all the apparent conflicts by reducing divergent texts to a single meaning. Instead, it offers the opportunity to confront a fuller sense of meanings. It is a reminder, as Pilgrim Father John Robinson said, that every time we read, ‘the Lord has more truth and light yet to break forth out of the word.’”

Reclaiming Hospitality

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Tiffani Harris helps us to see that the most basic conviction of the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ is rooted in the historic practice of hospitality from people of Israel and the earliest Christians to the church throughout history. Yet without a vibrant practice of hospitality, we may lose sight of Christ in the stranger among us. This book is essential reading for any and all who desire to meet the Word made flesh today.”

The Limits of Liberal Democracy

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Most Christians in the United States have for some time assumed that being a good Christian is compatible, if not synonymous, with being a good American. This book calls that long-held assumption into question and challenges them to think about an altogether different sort of politics that cultivates the goods, not of the nation-state, but of Christian community. To the extent that Christians embrace this challenge and embody the practices of the extraordinary sort of politics that Moore proposes, they might really have something worth paying attention to in a society that has come to value democracy above all else.”

The Promise of Ecumenical Interpretation

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“If all Christians believe that the Old and New Testaments of Holy Scripture are the authoritative witness to the Word of God, what might happen if they learned to read it with others from whom they are divided in the hope of displaying more visibly the unity for which Christ prayed? The authors suggest that the path toward repairing the divisions of the Great Schism between East and West and the subsequent fragmentation of the Protestant Reformation lies in reading Scripture together. The chapters provide interweaving conversations on scriptural interpretation that are attentive to the deep convictions of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox churches and deeply informed by the most recent European and American biblical scholarship. The explorations of sola scriptura and intratextuality, tradition and ecclesia, reception aesthetics and hermeneutical openness, and much more are a remarkable gift.”