Book Searches to Get You Started (Print and eBooks)
Having a hard time using the library catalog? You might want to take a look at the guide on finding resources by subject, or you might want to try the links below. These will take you into the library catalog right to a list of print and/or eBook resources. Below are a selection of topics relevant to CLFM.
Official Denominational Positional Statements
Additional insight into doing the analysis and evaluation of cultural and public policy issues and the drawing of declarative conclusions from particular Christian worldviews can be learned by consulting official denominational positional statements. They are also useful resources of information for your research. These differ from doctrinal statements aka statements of faith, although they are informed by doctrine. (You can Google to find them.) Here's a sampling:
For example, this page presents several such statements published by the United Methodist Church, termed "Social Principles": Social Principles of the United Methodist Church and they have also published several pages of responses to Social Issues.
The page linked here has "Position Statements" by The Wesleyan Church.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) agency Presbyterian Mission presents "What We Believe" on a list of "Specific Social Issues."
Select Relevant Reference and Stacks (Circulating) Books
Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics by
This one-stop reference book on the vital relationship between Scripture and ethics offers needed orientation and perspective for students, pastors, and scholars. Written to respond to the movement among biblical scholars and ethicists to recover the Bible for moral formation, it is the best reference work available on the intersection of these two fields. The volume shows how Christian Scripture and Christian ethics are necessarily intertwined and offers up-to-date treatment of five hundred biblical, traditional, and contemporary topics, ranging from adultery, bioethics, and Colossians to vegetarianism, work, and Zephaniah. The stellar ecumenical list of contributors consists of more than two hundred leading scholars from the fields of biblical studies and ethics, including Darrell Bock, David Gushee, Amy Laura Hall, Daniel Harrington, Dennis Olson, Christine Pohl, Glen Stassen, and Max Stackhouse.
Call Number: Stamps Reference Floor BS680.E84 D53 2011ISBN: 9780801034060Publication Date: 2011-11-01
Hidden Worldviews by
Why do we buy what we buy, vote the way we vote, eat what we eat and say what we say? Why do we have the friends we have, and work and play as we do? It's our choice? Yes, but there are forces, often unseen, that shape every decision we make and every action we take.These hidden, life-shaping values and ideas are not promoted through organized religions or rival philosophies but fostered by cultural habits, lifestyles and the institutional structures of society. Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford shine a spotlight on the profound challenges to Christianity and faithful Christian living that come from worldviews that comprise the cultural soup we swim in.The authors show how to detect the individualism, consumerism, nationalism, moral relativism, scientific naturalism, New Age thinking, postmodern tribalism and salvation as therapy that fly under our radar. Building on the work of worldview thinkers like James Sire, this book helps those committed to the gospel story recognize those rival cultural stories that compete for our hearts and minds.
Call Number: Stamps Stacks BR115.C8 W543 2009ISBN: 9780830838547Publication Date: 2009-09-22
Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology by
Offers a comprehensive survey and interpretation of contemporary Christian political theology in a newly revised and expanded edition This book presents the latest thinking on the topic of contemporary Christian political theology, with original and constructive essays that represent a range of opinions on various topics. With contributions from expert scholars in the field, it reflects a broad range of methodologies, ecclesial traditions, and geographic and social locations, and provides a sense of the diversity of political theologies. It also addresses the primary resources of the Christian tradition, which theologians draw on when constructing political theologies, and surveys some of the most important figures and movements in political theology. This revised and expanded edition provides the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to this lively and growing area of Christian theology. Organized into five sections, Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, Second Edition addresses the many changes that have occurred over the last 15 years within the field of political theology. It features new essays that address social developments and movements, such as Anglican Social Thought, John Milbank, Anabaptist Political Theologies, African Political Theologies, Postcolonialism, Political Economy, Technology and Virtuality, and Grass-roots Movements. The book also includes a new essay on the reception of Liberation Theology. Offers essays on topics such as the Trinity, atonement, and eschatology Features contributions from leading voices in the field of political theology Includes all-new entries covering fresh developments and movements like the urgency of climate change, virtuality and the digital age, the economic crisis of 2008, the discourse of religion and violence, and new modalities of war Addresses some important social movements from a theological point of view including postmodernism, grass-roots movements, and more Provides both Islamic and Jewish responses to political theology Written for academics and students of political theology, Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, 2nd Edition is an enlightening read that offers a wide range of authoritative essays from some of the most notable scholars in the field.
ISBN: 9781119133735Publication Date: 2018-12-07
Consulting Bible dictionaries/encyclopedias can also be useful to aid you in thinking about your topic biblically, guiding you in identifying where your topic might be present in the biblical text (even when it is not explicitly addressed -- in that case, a little research and/or help is necessary to lead you there, e.g., for "ecology," NIDB suggests one topic to enter into that topic biblically is "creation," while for some topics you will be led to useful topical entries by discovering language and themes discussed in your initial reading). This work will help you to not misappropriate, nor be unsoundly selective of, the biblical text.
Bible Commentaries
Some professors teaching this course require you to use Bible commentaries. Consult the requirements for your assignment, including information about what kinds of commentaries are acceptable for this course. Your theological librarians are happy to provide recommendations in accordance with your professor's requirements.
Commentaries are books written to explain the meaning of the biblical book. Most commentaries will have an introductory section that will discuss who wrote the book, when, and to whom, like an introduction /survey. After an introductory section, most commentaries will then go about explaining the meaning of the text; some, phrase by phrase; others, passage by passage. Different commentaries serve different purposes. Some "critical/exegetical" commentaries set about to explain the text phrase by phrase (or verse by verse) and will focus on the meaning of the text for its original audience and address difficult or theologically significant words in the original languages of the text (Hebrew/Aramaic for the Hebrew Bible and Greek for the New Testament). In most cases they will also include summary sections to explain how a single passage fits into its context. Others set about to explain the text theologically. Their interest is not verse by verse or even section by section, but the eternal meaning that God intended for its audience. A third type of commentary is geared toward teaching or application, how are the readers to apply the message of the text.
On our "Commentaries" miniguide linked above, we tried to put the commentaries with the "exegetical" or "critical" commentaries at the top, followed by theological commentaries (if there are any for a particular book) and then list some of the application commentaries. At the bottom of a list were denominational or theological specific commentaries, e.g. a Roman Catholic commentary series or a Wesleyan commentary series.
Now that our lists on the Commentaries tab are arranged in sections indicating availability between "eBook and Print," "Print," and "eBook only" versions of the book, the original listing by type is present only loosely as you move down the page, with this order retained within each of those distinguishing sections.
Get Help From a Theological Librarian
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