In this comparative study of three modern religious movements, Lawrence A. Babb argues that thematic continuities exist between traditional Hinduism and its widely divergent modern expressions.

This is a book about the need for redemptive narratives to ward off despair and the dangers these same narratives create by raising expectations that are seldom fulfilled. The quasi-messianic expectations produced by the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, and their diminution, were stark reminders of an ongoing struggle between ideals and political realities. Redemptive Hope begins by tracing the tension between theistic thinkers, for whom hope is transcendental, and intellectuals, who have striven to link hopes for redemption to our intersubjective interactions with other human beings. Lerner argues that a vibrant democracy must draw on the best of both religious thought and secular liberal political philosophy. By bringing Richard Rorty’s pragmatism into conversation with early-twentieth-century Jewish thinkers, including Martin Buber and Ernst Bloch, Lerner begins the work of building bridges, while insisting on holding crucial differences in dialectical tension. Only such a dialogue, he argues, can prepare the foundations for modes of redemptive thought fit for the twenty-first century.

Honorable Mention for the 2019 American Association for Italian American Book Prize (20-21st Centuries) Allied Encounters uniquely explores Anglo-American and Italian literary, cinematic, and military representations of World War II Italy in order to trace, critique, and move beyond the gendered paradigm of redemption that has conditioned understandings of the Allied–Italian encounter. The arrival of the Allies’ global forces in an Italy torn by civil war brought together populations that had long mythologized one another, yet “liberation” did not prove to be the happy ending touted by official rhetoric. Instead of a “honeymoon,” the Allied–Italian encounter in cities such as Naples and Rome appeared to be a lurid affair, where the black market reigned supreme and prostitution was the norm. Informed by the historical context as well as by their respective traditions, these texts become more than mirrors of the encounter or generic allegories. Instead, they are sites in which to explore repressed traumas that inform how the occupation unfolded and is remembered, including the Holocaust, the American Civil War, and European colonialism, as well as individual traumatic events like the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine and the mass civilian rape near Rome by colonial soldiers

Conflict resolution experts provide leaders and lay people a biblical road map for navigating and redeeming church conflicts.

God is at work in the city. And he invites his people to join him. But the city is not merely a mission field for Christians to target. The city is also the environment where Christians are discipled and lives are forged into the image of Jesus. Urban ministry veteran Randy White shows how God transforms you when you answer God's call to the city. Urban life peels away your sin and self-deception and challenges your unexamined assumptions about privilege, race, class and power. Experiential discipleship moves you from abstract theory to hands-on learning and on-the-ground action, revolutionizing your perspective and making a difference in local neighborhoods and beyond. Passionate and practical, White's vivid narratives of experiencing God in the city show you how your spiritual health is intertwined with the health of the metropolis. Seek the welfare of the city, and both you and the city will be transformed.

Scripting Pentecost explores and develops an analysis of worship and liturgy in Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions. Organized into three main sections, history, theology, and contemporary practice, the first section quarries the historical trajectories of classic Pentecostalism, the Charismatic movement, Third-Wave, and Oneness Pentecostalism. Particular attention is given to the liturgical approaches of some of the earliest leaders, including William J. Seymour, Alexander Boddy, and Aimee Semple McPherson. The second section, constructive theology, offers theological approaches to liturgical studies from Pentecostal and Charismatic perspectives. In this section the Pentecostal and Charismatic tradition is advanced and extended by an interaction with ecumenical sources. The third section, case studies in contemporary worship theology and practice, examines the actual performance of liturgy through selected global case studies chosen to reflect a diversity of ecclesial practice in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America and Oceania.