Alan G. Padgett

Just as God loves creation, so are Christians called to care for it. Now, amid the accelerating degradation of our global environment, that task has taken on greater urgency than ever. How should Christians respond to the climate crisis and widespread pollution of earth's shared commons, water and air? How might Christian communities think about human responsibility to other living creatures? In roundtable format, Richard Bauckham, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Steven Bouma-Prediger, and John F. Haught navigate the layers of what it means for humans to live in right relationship with earth's lifesystems. After each contributor's essay, the other three contributors issue a response--including points of disagreement and questions--thereby modeling for readers productive and respectful dialogue. The ecumenical conversations in Ecotheology represent the diverse viewpoints of contributors' theological and practical commitments, exploring creation care through a variety of frameworks, including natural science, biblical studies, systematic theology, and Christian ethics.

Asking ""big questions"" is fundamental to our humanity. What is the meaning and purpose of life? What is truth? How do we know what we claim to know? What is justice? What happens after death? Veteran teachers Steve Wilkens and Alan Padgett guide readers to wrestle with twelve of the most foundational, philosophical questions facing humanity, and they reflect on these big questions with a lens rooted in faith. Christians, according to Wilkens and Padgett, should embrace their ability to probe these questions that have occupied some of the most brilliant minds in history. Instead of avoiding hard questions, a Christian approach to philosophy begins with the conviction that God invested humanity with a restless mind. From an early age, we are riddled with curiosity about the world, our place in it, and how the whole of it fits together. As Wilkens and Padgett show, questions about the inner world of our being are tied to the outer world that includes the entire created cosmos and God. Like all good gifts, the gift of questions comes with a challenge - of responsibility and hard thinking. We have a spiritual duty to pursue life's deepest queries with virtue, fairness, reason, and, above all, a sense of worship and gratitude. Introduction to Philosophy: Christianity and the Big Questions is a perfect primer for students of philosophy and anyone interested in a Christian perspective on the timeless and universal perplexities of human existence.

Asking ""big questions"" is fundamental to our humanity. What is the meaning and purpose of life? What is truth? How do we know what we claim to know? What is justice? What happens after death? Veteran teachers Steve Wilkens and Alan Padgett guide readers to wrestle with twelve of the most foundational, philosophical questions facing humanity, and they reflect on these big questions with a lens rooted in faith. Christians, according to Wilkens and Padgett, should embrace their ability to probe these questions that have occupied some of the most brilliant minds in history. Instead of avoiding hard questions, a Christian approach to philosophy begins with the conviction that God invested humanity with a restless mind. From an early age, we are riddled with curiosity about the world, our place in it, and how the whole of it fits together. As Wilkens and Padgett show, questions about the inner world of our being are tied to the outer world that includes the entire created cosmos and God. Like all good gifts, the gift of questions comes with a challenge - of responsibility and hard thinking. We have a spiritual duty to pursue life's deepest queries with virtue, fairness, reason, and, above all, a sense of worship and gratitude. Introduction to Philosophy: Christianity and the Big Questions is a perfect primer for students of philosophy and anyone interested in a Christian perspective on the timeless and universal perplexities of human existence.

This, the third and final volume, also by Wilkens and Padgett, examines philosophers, ideas and movements in the twentieth century and how they have influenced Christian thought. Students, pastors and thoughtful Christians will benefit from this volume which, when combined with the previous two, completes an authoritative history of Western thought since the birth of Christianity.

What does the Bible really say about gender, the ethics of submission, and male-female roles? In this book, well-regarded theologian Alan Padgett offers a fresh approach to the debate. Through his careful interpretation of Paul's letters and broader New Testament teaching, the author shows how Christ's submission to the church models an appropriate understanding of gender roles and servant leadership. As Christ submits to the church, so all Christians must submit to, serve, and care for one another. Padgett articulates a creative approach to mutual submission and explores its practical outworking in the church today, providing biblical and ethical affirmation for equality in leadership.

Marx, Mill, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Emerson, Darwin, Freud and Weber brought to the nineteenth century new realms of thought, which still continue to wield substantial influence today. As a result, the study of history, science, psychology, philosophy, sociology and religion have never been the same.These heirs to rationalism began to explore the full range of human experience--which became a matter of philosophical and theological interest, and even authority. Romanticism flourished in the arts and literature as Idealism, Transcendentalism, Pragmatism and other movements developed. All had a profound effect on religion and how it was viewed.In this second of three volumes which survey the dynamic interplay of Christianity and Western thought from the earliest centuries through the twentieth century, Steve Wilkens and Alan Padgett tell the story of the monumental changes of the nineteenth century.

Religion and science today are often seen as enemies battling for human hearts and minds. In this new book Alan Padgett takes a postmodern turn, arguing that they can and should work together collegially, developing a worldview that is at once spiritually meaningful and scientifically sound. Pursuing a perspective that he calls the mutuality model, Padgett highlights the contributions that both religion and science make to a full understanding of the world and our place in it. He argues convincingly that the natural sciences and theology, even though they have their own domain as disciplines, can rationally influence each other without giving up their distinctive methods. The book explores the nature of informal reason and worldviews, the character of theology as a spiritual and academic discipline, and the question of what counts as natural science. Along the way, Padgett discusses such topics as thermodynamics, time, resurrection, and the historical Jesus to illustrate his powerful mutuality model.

Introducing Christianity offers a window into the nature of Christian sacred time and space, to Jesus is as a historical and religious figure, the Jewish world in which he lived, the formation of the Scriptures, the birth of Christianity and its growth into several branches and sects.