In this highly accessible guide a team of expert contributors provide an authoritative and comprehensive survey of Christian belief.

Table of Contents

• About the Editors
• Editor's Introduction
• A Very Brief History of Christian Belief
• The New Testament
• The Early Church
• The Middle Ages
• The Renaissance
• The Reformation
• Revival
• The Modern World
• 1 Faith
• What is Faith?
• The Origin of the Creeds
• Faith and Reason
• Faith and Philosophy
• Faith in Words: Religious Language
• Can God's Existence Be Proved?
• Faith and Truth
• Science and Religion
• Faith and Revelation
• The Place of the Bible
• The Place of Tradition
• Interpreting the Bible
• What is Theology?
• Religion in Human Life
• Christianity and Other Religions
• The Human Quest for God
• Modernity
• The Importance of World-Views
• Postmodernity
• Islam
• 2 God
• What Do We Mean by ‘God’?
• The Mind of God
• The Creator and the Creation
• The Place of Humanity in Creation
• Ways of Thinking About Creation
• The Attributes of God
• How Can God Be Known Through Nature?
• Creation and Evolution
• Human Sexuality
• The Image of God in Humanity
• Humanity as the Steward of Creation
• What Do We Mean by an ‘Almighty’ God?
• God is Personal
• Biblical Images of God
• The Doctrine of the Trinity
• The Person of the Father
• The Person of the Son
• The Person of the Holy Spirit
• The Charismatic Movement
• Models of the Trinity
• How Muslims See the Trinity
• 3 Jesus
• New Testament Accounts of Jesus
• The Birth of Jesus in Christian Art
• The Parables of Jesus
• The ‘I am’ Sayings of John's Gospel
• Jesus and the Religious Movements of His Day
• The Jewish Background to Jesus
• Old Testament Prophecies Concerning Jesus Christ
• The Mission and Aims of Jesus
• The Quest for the Historical Jesus
• Jesus and the Poor
• The Ministry and Teachings of Jesus
• Jesus and Women
• Jesus in John's Gospel
• New Testament Titles for Jesus
• Jerusalem and the Crucifixion of Jesus
• The Crucifixion in Christian Art
• The Resurrection and Kingship of Jesus
• The Incarnation and Revelation of Jesus
• Jesus in Early Christian Thought
• The Virgin Mary in Christian Thought
• How Muslims see Jesus
• The Uniqueness of Jesus
• How Buddhists see Jesus
• How Hindus see Jesus
• 4 Salvation
• What is Sin?
• The Dawn of a New Age
• The Suffering of Christ and the Problem of Pain
• The Meaning of the Cross: Atonement
• ‘Connecting up’ with the Cross
• Salvation and the Defeat of Demons
• Victory over Death and Satan
• The Forgiveness of Sins
• What Are the ‘Benefits of Christ’?
• Restoration to God
• Christ as the Representative of Humanity
• Justification
• Healing
• John Newton and ‘Amazing Grace’
• The Concept of Grace
• Predestination and Human Freedom
• 5 The Church
• The Origin of the Church
• The Church in the Old Testament
• The Church in the New Testament
• Images of the Church
• Christian ethics
• Christianity and Social Justice
• Identity Marks of the Church
• Augustine and the Donatist controversy
• Should the Church Baptize Children?
• Identity Actions of the Church
• Is Christ Present in the Lord's Supper?
• What is Christian Ministry?
• Women in Ministry
• Should Christians Fight in Wars?
• Service in the Church
• What Were the Origins of Monasteries?
• Billy Graham and Christian Mission
• Serving the World: the Church's Mission
• 6 The Christian Hope
• The Birth of a New Hope
• The Crisis of Hope in Modern Western Culture
• The Resurrection of Christ
• Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead?
• The Resurrection Hope of Believers
• Christian Attitudes towards Work
• The Resurrection and Human Hope
• Christian Attitudes Towards Possessions
• The Last Things
• What Does the Resurrection Body Look Like?
• The New Jerusalem
• Church Architecture and the Vision of God
• Where Was the Garden of Eden?
• What is Spirituality?
• The Restoration of Creation
• Heaven in Christian Art
• The Anticipation of Heaven in the Christian Life
• The Journey of Faith to Heaven
• Charles Wesley and the Hope of Heaven
• The Second Coming of Christ
• Concise Anthology of Christian Thought
• Glossary