Ian McFarland

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  Hope Of Glory

  $40.00

  The Hope of Glory affirms a Christian hope for life in glory to be conceived as the renewal of this world as opposed to leaving this world behind: it is the same creation that God made “in the beginning” that God glorifies and redeems at the end.

  When speaking of the redemption of all things, theology finds itself confronted by various pitfalls. On the one hand, this-worldly eschatologies that define Christian hope in terms of transforming the conditions of human existence in the present pay insufficient attention to the possibility of a wholly new creation. On the other hand, eschatologies that focus solely on the world to come fail to attend how Christian hope is a promise for the present as much as it is for the future.

  To avoid these pitfalls, says Ian McFarland, we need to seek the balance struck by Paul in the phrase “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Hope is always grounded in present reality; we hope for that which is not yet, but if that hope has no connection to our current experience, it is not hope at all, just wishful thinking. Yet glory is different; it refers to the displacement of the suffering and mortality of present experience with incorruption and immortality-a displacement that transcends every possibility of present existence because it is the utterly gracious gift of eschatological consummation.

  Drawing on his previous work on creation (From Nothing) and incarnation (The Word Made Flesh), McFarland demonstrates how, in the resurrection, we see the promise of a final redemption grounded in this-worldly hope yet realized in the glory of a new heaven and new earth.

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  Word Made Flesh

  $45.00

  Most theologians believe that in the human life of Jesus of Nazareth, we encounter God. Yet how the divine and human come together in the life of Jesus still remains a question needing exploring. The Council of Chalcedon sought to answer the question by speaking of “one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in divinity and also perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly a human being.” But ever since Chalcedon, the theological conversation on Christology has implicitly put Christ’s divinity and humanity in competition. While ancient (and not-so-ancient) Christologies “from above” focus on Christ’s divinity at the expense of his humanity, modern Christologies “from below” subsume his divinity into his humanity. What is needed, says Ian A. McFarland, is a “Chalcedonianism without reserve,” which not only affirms the humanity and divinity of Christ but also treats them as equal in theological significance. To do so, he draws on the ancient christological language that points to Christ’s nature, on the one hand, and his hypostasis, or personhood, on the other. And with this, McFarland begins one of the most creative and groundbreaking theological explorations into the mystery of the incarnation undertaken in recent memory.

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  From Nothing : A Theology Of Creation

  $42.00

  Too often the doctrine of creation has been made to serve limited or pointless ends, like the well-worn arguments between science and faith over the question of human and cosmic origins. Given this history, some might be tempted to ignore the theology of creation, thinking it has nothing new or substantive to say. They would be wrong.

  In this stimulating volume, Ian A. McFarland shows that at the heart of the doctrine of creation lies an essential truth about humanity: we are completely dependent on God. Apart from this realization, little else about us makes sense.

  McFarland demonstrates that this radical dependence is a consequence of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, creation from nothing. Taking up the theological consequences of creation-theodicy and Providence-the author provides a detailed and innovative constructive theology of creation. Drawing on the biblical text, classical sources, and contemporary thought, From Nothing proves that a robust theology of creation is a necessary correlate to the Christian confession of redemption in Jesus Christ.

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  Divine Image : Envisioning The Invisible God

  $29.00

  1.The Image Of God As A Theological Problem
  2.The Ambiguity Of Images
  3.The Image Of God In Christ
  4.The Image Of God In Human Beings: Developing Protocols Of Discernment
  5.Discernment As Communal Discipline: The Protocols Of Service
  6.Discernment As Personal Discipline: The Protocols Of Chastity
  7.Discernment In Ecclesial Formation: The Sacraments As Protocols
  8.Seeing The Divine Image

  Additional Info
  Theologian Ian McFarland claims that Christians have mainly misappropriated the “image of God” language for 2000 years and thereby missed a rich resource for our knowledge of God.

  Rather than referring to some germinal divine element in humans, such as reason, McFarland claims that the image of God in us tells us something about God and how we know God. It tells us that God, though not identical with us, communicates Godself to us in creative love, in a way that offers precious clues about God’s transcendence, immanence, triune life, self-disclosure, incarnation, and intentions for human life. McFarland’s careful and exacting work builds from this kernel a powerful Christian vision of God’s life and our own destiny in Christ.

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