Paul Metzger
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More Than Things
$48.99Add to cartWe live in a culture of commodification.
People are too often defined by what they do or own; they’re treated as means to an end or cogs in a machine. What goes missing is a deep sense of personhood–the belief that all humans are unique subjects with inherent worth and the right to self-determination in authentic communion with others.
In a world dominated by things, Paul Louis Metzger argues, we must work hard to account for one another’s personhood. We need to cultivate relational structures that honor every human’s dignity in vital interpersonal community. The theological and philosophical framework known as personalism can help guide us toward such a culture. Drawing from a wide range of thought leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope John Paul II, Metzger presents a personalist moral vision founded on the Christian ideals of faith, hope, and love. He demonstrates how this moral compass can help us navigate a pluralistic world by applying it to a variety of pressing ethical issues, including abortion, genetic engineering, immigration, drone warfare, and more.
Ultimately human personhood begins with the personal, triune God, who invites us to live more fully as human beings. When we refuse to reduce our fellow humans–and ourselves–to mere abstractions or objects, we follow the example of Jesus in honoring the value of every person and of creaturely life as a whole.
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Beatitudes Not Platitudes
$39.00Add to cartBeatitudes, Not Platitudes shows that the Beatitudes are not overused, well-worn answers to the question, “”What would Jesus do?”” Rather, they are undervalued and hardly touched claims that transform our destinies. More than spiritual nuggets for personal devotion, practical advice, or propositions to be believed, the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 envision and entail a reorientation of the good life in view of Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus’ teachings reveal to us that living our best purpose-driven life now involves dying to self and the world system, and dying for our enemies. Ideal for group study, this series of meditations on each of the Beatitudes, followed by cultural reflections and study questions, helps to bridge the gaps between personal devotion and societal revolution, the academic and the practical, the ancient and the contemporary. All of us want to be happy, to be well and blessed, and esteemed with honor. However, we look for happiness, wellness, blessing, and honor in different places and with mixed results. This book helps us reimagine the good life by taking a fresh look at the Beatitudes as citizens of Jesus’ ever-new kingdom order.
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Beatitudes Not Platitudes
$19.00Add to cartBeatitudes, Not Platitudes shows that the Beatitudes are not overused, well-worn answers to the question, “”What would Jesus do?”” Rather, they are undervalued and hardly touched claims that transform our destinies. More than spiritual nuggets for personal devotion, practical advice, or propositions to be believed, the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 envision and entail a reorientation of the good life in view of Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus’ teachings reveal to us that living our best purpose-driven life now involves dying to self and the world system, and dying for our enemies. Ideal for group study, this series of meditations on each of the Beatitudes, followed by cultural reflections and study questions, helps to bridge the gaps between personal devotion and societal revolution, the academic and the practical, the ancient and the contemporary. All of us want to be happy, to be well and blessed, and esteemed with honor. However, we look for happiness, wellness, blessing, and honor in different places and with mixed results. This book helps us reimagine the good life by taking a fresh look at the Beatitudes as citizens of Jesus’ ever-new kingdom order.
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Connecting Christ : How To Discuss Jesus In A World Of Diverse Paths
$16.99Add to cartWhat does Christian witness look like in post-Christendom?
While it is more important than ever to preach the Word of God, as Scripture exhorts us, it is also important that we dialogue with people from diverse perspectives. Unfortunately, too often the evangelical movement has been guilty of monologue in its engagement (or, more often, its disengagement) of people from other religious traditions and worldviews.
This book is designed to help evangelical Christ-followers remain orthodox while entering into meaningful discussions with people from other faith walks. We live in an age of extremes, where people tend toward monologue or dialogue: a cold turkey, drive-by-shooting evangelistic approach or a lifestyle, relational approach that avoids verbal witness. This book promotes evangelism and dialogue, not one to the exclusion of the other. And as such it also promotes the need for thoughtful, sensitive communication during a time when our nation is reeling from the onslaught of the culture wars.
The problem has not been our God or the Bible, but our approach to God and the Bible. As a result of our inauthentic witness, our God has looked all too common rather than as the uncommon God revealed as Jesus Christ.
In light of this spiritual and biblical gut check, our witness in the twenty-first century will likely look very different.As Metzger says, “I want Jesus to be the stumbling block to faith, not me.”