The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the best-attested facts of history. But believing in the resurrection is one thing. Knowing what it means is another. Although much has been written about the apologetics of the resurrection, little has been written about its theological meaning. This book reveals the hidden depths of the theological significance and ongoing relevance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for our being, our salvation, Christian life, ethics, and our future hope.
Building on the works of David Bosch, Lesslie Newbigin and others, Ross Hastings delivers a comprehensive theology of mission founded on the trinitarian doctrine of God and a great optimism about the possible re-evangelization of the Western world.
Total Atonement re-imagines the “apprehended mystery” of the atonement in light of the triune nature of God and the person and work of the incarnate Christ. W. Ross Hastings proposes participation as a theory or framework of atonement that holds all other models within it. He argues that God’s participation in humanity in order that humans might participate in God invites a total approach to the mystery of the atonement, that is, one that involves the whole Trinity, the whole person and history of Christ, and all the biblical motifs and theological models of atonement–– including penal substitution (properly nuanced to overcome its caricatures), Christus victor, satisfaction, vicarious life, and moral exemplar. Hastings re-examines the scope of the atonement in light of these Trinitarian, incarnational realities.
Grounded in the narrative of the loss of his own wife, Ross Hastings seeks to provide insight into the universal human condition of loss and grief . . . and speaks comfort. All kinds of losses produce grief--loss of jobs, homes, friendships, health, losses through divorce, and loss through death of parents, children, and spouses--and we are often unprepared for it. Applicable to all who go through loss, this book will also offer skills for pastors, pastors-in-training, and friends seeking to offer comfort to grieving people. It will weave together first-order theological, as well as integrated psychological insights that relate to loss and grieving, interspersed with personal stories. The ultimately redemptive nature of grief is highlighted, with sensitivity to the grieving process. It offers comfort for the grieving found in fresh awareness of the orientation and action of the triune God who is for us, who invites us to participate in his life and love, and gathers up our grief, and in Christ, suffers with us. It beckons us towards spiritual attentiveness, permission for emotional honesty, normalization of the grief process, practices that enable coping and redemptive transformation in the present, and hope grounded in future resurrection reality.
This book re-imagines the universe (and the scientific study of it) through the lens of a triune Creator, three persons of irreducible identity in a perichoretic or coinherent communion. It modestly proposes that Trinitarian theology, and especially the coinherent natures of the Son in the incarnation, provides the metaphysic or “theory of everything” that manifests itself in the subject matter of science. The presence of the image of the triune God in humanity and of traces of this God in the non-human creation are discussed, highlighting ontological resonances between God and creation (resonances between the being of God and his creation), such as goodness, immensity-yet-particularity, intelligibility, agency, relationality, and beauty. This Trinitarian reality suggests there should be a similarity also with respect to how we know in theology and science (critical realism), something reflected in the history of ideas in each. These resonances lead to the conclusion that the disciplines of theology and science are, in fact, coinherent, not conflicted. This involves recognition of both the mutuality of these vocations and also, importantly, their particularity. Science, its own distinct guild, yet finds its place ensconced within an encyclopedic theology, and subject to first-order, credal theology.
Jonathan Edwards and the Life of God aims to offer a retrieval of Edwards's theology of participation for contemporary evangelical theology. It critically expounds and elucidates the concept of participation in God, or theosis, in Edwards's Trinitarian theology as it relates to around three unions: the three persons of the Trinity, the hypostatic union of the divine and human in Christ, and that of believers with Christ. This volume brings Edwards's rich theological work into conversation with the patristic (Augustine and the Cappadocians) and Reformed traditions (Calvin and, especially, Barth), in order to construct with Edwards a more hopeful, liberating, and truly human version of Christian life. Consideration of the life of God in Edwards thus moves "beyond" in two senses: first, perspectives on participation beyond those of Edwards from Barth, Volf, the Cappadocian Fathers, and others in the tradition, are engaged in order to locate and critique and enhance it; and secondly, in the sense that, as Hastings argues, participation leads, for Edwards and others, into the "beyond" of the beatific vision--the glory of God, which is the hope that, amongst other things, motivates the Christian life.
Be Prepared to Think Theologically through Today's Most Pressing Ethical and Moral Issues In Theological Ethics theologian, pastor, and ethicist W. Ross Hastings gives pastors, ministry leaders, and students a guide designed to equip them to think deeply and theologically about the moral formation of persons in our communities, about ethical inquiry and action, and about the tone and content of our engagement in the public square. The book presents a biblical perspective and a gospel-centered framework for thinking about complex contemporary issues in ways are life-giving and that will lead readers into greater flourishing as human persons in community. This book is distinctive in presenting: A framework for theological ethics that is robustly theological and Trinitarian. Ethics isolated from the gospel and theology becomes bad news, but when it is informed by and empowered by participation in the triune God of grace, it is part of the good news of the gospel. An approach to theology and theological ethics that makes the Word of God the ultimate authority and it is therefore grounded in the biblical narrative and texts. An understanding that theological ethics are inherently missional. The church as the image of the triune God makes it the home of ethics, but in light of its missional identity, it will reverberate outwards to engage the world in ways that are humble and not power-mongering, that are gospel-based and shalom-evoking. Theological Ethics is for those who lead churches or ministries (or someday will) and who urgently need deep theological grounding as they daily encounter ethical and moral issues where they need to provide a gracious, truthful, and gospel-directed response. X
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