St. Augustine’s Press’ 2020 book, Contemplation and Kingdom by Kevin Hart, seeks to extend the work of Richard of St. Victor in important ways. Kevin Hart is the Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.
From the publisher’s description of Contemplation and Kingdom:
Contemplation and Kingdom seeks to retrieve aspects of Richard of St. Victor’s treatment of contemplation, principally in De arca mystica, and does so by weighing Thomas Aquinas’s reservations about this treatment in the Summa theologiæ. Is Aquinas right to object, as Augustine does in De Doctrina Christiana, that our contemplation should go directly to God and not be stalled in the consideration of the natural world? What relation is there between Jesus’s preaching of the Kingdom and the contemplation of God? Is the contemplative life consistent with Jesus’s injunction to love both God and neighbor? These are the principal questions considered in the book.
Readers may also find interesting Kevin Hart’s 2014 book, Kingdoms of God.
From the publisher’s description of Atonement and the Death of Christ:
Through his death on the cross, Christ atoned for sin and so reconciled people to God. New Testament authors drew upon a range of metaphors and motifs to describe this salvific act, and down through history Christian thinkers have tried to articulate various theories to explain the atonement. While Christ’s sacrifice serves as a central tenet of the Christian faith, the mechanism of atonement―exactly how Christ effects our salvation―remains controversial and ambiguous to many Christians.
In Atonement and the Death of Christ, William Lane Craig conducts an interdisciplinary investigation of this crucial Christian doctrine, drawing upon Old and New Testament studies, historical theology, and analytic philosophy. The study unfolds in three discrete parts: Craig first explores the biblical basis of atonement and unfolds the wide variety of motifs used to characterize this doctrine. Craig then highlights some of the principal alternative theories of the atonement offered by great Christian thinkers of the premodern era. Lastly, Craig’s exploration delves into a constructive and innovative engagement with philosophy of law, which allows an understanding of atonement that moves beyond mystery and into the coherent mechanism of penal substitution.
Along the way, Craig enters into conversation with contemporary systematic theories of atonement as he seeks to establish a position that is scripturally faithful and philosophically sound. The result is a multifaceted perspective that upholds the suffering of Christ as a substitutionary, representational, and redemptive act that satisfies divine justice. In addition, this carefully reasoned approach addresses the rich tapestry of Old Testament imagery upon which the first Christians drew to explain how the sinless Christ saved his people from the guilt of their sins.
Prior to Atonement and the Death of Christ, Craig published The Atonement(2018, part of the “Cambridge Elements” series).
In a recent exchange (for Unbelievable radio) with theologian and pastor Gregory Boyd, Craig defends his account of penal substitutionary atonement, and discusses Boyd’s objections in light of Boyd’s defense of a more Christus Victor view of the atonement.
In 2017, IVP Academic published An Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God’s Perspective in a Pluralistic World by Tawa J. Anderson, W. Michael Clark, David K. Naugle. Tawa J. Anderson is assistant professor of philosophy and director of the honor program at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. W. Michael Clark is a law clerk at the Arizona Court of Appeals. He previously taught at Oklahoma Baptist University for three years before entering law school. David K. Naugle is chair and professor of philosophy at Dallas Baptist University, where he has worked for over two decades.
From the publisher’s description of An Introduction to Christian Worldview:
Everyone has a worldview. A worldview is the lens through which we interpret the cosmos and our lives in it. A worldview answers the big questions of life: What is our nature? What is our world? What is our problem? What is our End? As Anderson, Clark, and Naugle point out, our worldview cannot simply be reduced to a series of rational beliefs. We are creatures of story, and the kinds of stories we tell reveal important things about our worldview. Part of being a thoughtful Christian means being able to understand and express the Christian worldview as well as developing an awareness of the variety of worldviews. An Introduction to Christian Worldview takes you further into answering questions such as Why do worldviews matter? What characterizes a Christian worldview? How can we analyze and describe a worldview? What are the most common secular and religious worldviews? Well organized, clearly written, and featuring aids for learning, An Introduction to Christian Worldview is the essential text for either the classroom or for self-study.
Enjoy this EPS interview with Tawa about how he became interested in philosophy.
In 2017, IVP Academic published 