A Gift of Theology This Christmas

Three Southeastern professors––Bruce Ashford, Jeremy Evans, and Daniel Heimbach––and a previous Southeastern Ph.D. graduate––J.D. Greear––have recently released new publications. If you have last minute Christmas gifts, consider purchasing any or all of these Southeastern-affiliated works. 

Jeremy Evans and Daniel Heimbach

Daniel Heimbach, Senior Professor of Christian Ethics at Southeastern and Jeremy Evans, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern, are, respectively, Series Editor and Editor of Taking Christian Moral Thought Seriously: The Legitimacy of Religious Beliefs in the Marketplace of Ideas. In this edition of B&H Studies in Christian Ethics, a number of authors discuss issues ranging from Pluralism, the Death Penalty, Toleration, Religious Disagreement, Philosophy of Science, Abortion, and Creation Care. Hence, a number of topics are explicitly moral. Evans, in his introduction, states, “Failing to take seriously well-prepared ideas in science, politics, and education shirks our intellectual obligations, even undermines the very idea that we are seeking the truth. This shirking has taken place both among persons of faith and in the secular academy…Given these concerns, we seek to offer cogent insights into a small but important range of issues…We do hope that what we provide will foster fruitful discussion and solidify (even in disagreement) the reasonableness of the Christian worldview.”

Bruce Ashford

The purpose of Theology and Practice of Mission is to provide a biblical-theological framework for understanding the church’s mission to the nations. Toward this end, the book is divided into four parts: God’s Mission, the Church’s Mission, the Church’s Mission to the Nations, and Concluding Challenges.

One notable feature of the book is the unique authorship of the chapters. Several of the contributors are professors, several of them are pastors in the United States, but the majority of the chapters are written by North American or international church planters. The chapters are penned by men and women whose ministry contexts vary geographically, including authors who serve or have served in the United States, South America, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, the Pacific Rim, and Sub-Saharan Africa. All of them, however, share the conviction that Christian Scripture and sound theology must drive our mission, and that theology disconnected from mission is not Christian theology at all.

J.D. Greear

In his book, Gospel: Rediscovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, J.D. Greear invites the reader to ‘rediscover’ the gospel life for which he/she was created. Greear writes, “I want to reacquaint you with the gospel. Not just with the doctrines, but with its power. The gospel is the announcement that God has reconciled us to Himself by sending His Son Jesus to die as a substitute for our sins, and that all who repent and believe have eternal life in Him.” Greear divides the book into two sections: [1] the ‘why’ of the gospel and [2] the invitation to ‘saturate’ oneself in the gospel. Examining topics like “Why Religious Change Doesn’t Work,” “Gospel-Centered Relationships,” and “What is the Right Way to Work for God?,” Greear’s diction is clear and intelligible for all audiences, whether they are new believers to those in the world of scholarship.