How can believers apply faith doctrines to the experiences of daily life? Examining everything from films, food, and blogs to designer weddings and fantasy funerals, this accessible collection of articles will show you how to understand and respect cultural contexts and societal trends---and bring them into conversation with your Christian faith. 288 pages, softcover from Baker.

Everyday theology is the reflective and practical task of living each day as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. In other words, theology is not just for Sundays, and it's not just for professional theologians. Everyday Theology teaches all Christians how to get the theological lay of the land. It enables them to become more conscious of the culture they inhabit every day so that they can understand how it affects them and how they can affect it. If theology is the ministry of the Word to the world, everyday theologians need to know something about that world, and Everyday Theology shows them how to understand their culture make an impact on it. Engaging and full of fresh young voices, this book is the first in the new Cultural Exegesis series.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD, University of Cambridge) is research professor of systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author or editor of many books, including the award-winning Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible.

Charles A. Anderson is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge.

Michael J. Sleasman (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is managing director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity at Trinity International University.

http://www.christianbook.com/everyday-theology-kevin-vanhoozer/9780801031670/pd/031672

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product_review

__USERID__

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/ask_and_answer

Author: Michael J. Sleasman
Located in: Deerfield, IL
Submitted: January 11, 2007

    Tell us a little about yourself.  Kevin Vanhoozer is Research Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity. Charles Anderson is a PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge. Michael Sleasman is a PhD Candidate at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

    What was your motivation behind this project?  Charles Anderson and I were both using this basic approach to cultural engagement that we learned from Kevin in a number of ministry venues, including Sunday School and the Christian college classroom. We found that both the students and adults easily adapted the approach to their own contexts, which led to stimulating theological interaction with cultural ideas that ranged from the mundane to the highly provocative.

    What do you hope folks will gain from this project?  Generally speaking, students, theologians, pastors, and church leaders are well-trained in the task of biblical exegesis. Where many fall short, however, is in the area of cultural exegesis--reading and interpreting the texts and trends produced by our culture, which can have a profound influence on the way we understand the world and practice our faith. Anyone interested in the intersection of Christianity and culture needs to be able to do "everyday theology," that is, to think theologically about our cultural environment and pass it through the grid of Scripture, in order to respond faithfully as Christian disciples. With an emphasis on both methodology and case study, Everyday Theology is well-suited for classroom use as well as the Adult Sunday school class. A significant introduction by Vanhoozer lays out the hermeneutical method for engaging with culture that carefully balances the impulse of charitably reading the culture and critically sifting it through a theologically interpretation. This is followed by a series of essays from young scholars and church leaders that engage cultural texts and trends, from the music of Eminem to the grocery store checkout lane to the phenomenon of Internet blogs. A concluding chapter walks the reader step-by-step through the interpretation process with an additional case study.

    Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know:  Our goal as editors was to produce a volume on theological engagement that is just as useful in a church-based small group as it is to a Christian college or seminary classroom. Our hope is that readers will walk away not just better interpreters of the world around them, but as wise Christian agents impacting that very world.

• Academic >> Theology >> Culture
• Start A New Christianbook.com Search