{"title":"George R Sumner","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"first-and-the-last-book-george-r-sumner-9780802824981","title":"The First and the Last","description":"As Christians become more engaged with the reality of religious pluralism, many find themselves torn between two worthy goals - to be faithful to the lordship of Jesus Christ and to be open generously to possible truths found in other religions. In The First and the Last George Sumner offers a constructive way forward, showing how Christian theology can bring these two goals together. At stake in the current debate over religious pluralism is the issue not only of evangelism and mission but also of the Christian claim to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. Sumner leads readers through the challenges and possibilities raised by this debate, and he outlines a distinctive new method for assessing from a Christian standpoint the claims and practices of neighboring faiths. The crux of Sumner's approach is what he calls final primacy, a position that (1) sets non-Christian religions in relation to the unique mediating role of Jesus Christ and (2) relates the truth claims of other religions to the overall scheme of grace. Sumner goes on to demonstrate the effectiveness of this position in practical terms, using final primacy as a frame of reference for a number of twentieth-century theologies - namely, those of Barth, Rahner, and Pannenberg - and as a way of examining both Indian and African theologies against their respective backgrounds of Hinduism and tribal practices. Additionally, the book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of interfaith thought: Sumner both surveys how religious pluralism has been handled in the past and illustrates how the position of final primacy at once redefines and promotes its most pressing issue - interreligious dialogue. A provocative approach to religious pluralism sure to stir widespread discussion, The First and the Last provides valuable reading for anyone interested in theology, interfaith dialogue, and missions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49592588894481,"sku":"GOR007835073","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50003121275153,"sku":"CIN0802824986G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51695195160849,"sku":"CIN0802824986VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52812466684177,"sku":"CIN0802824986A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53176919064849,"sku":"GOR008582909","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0802824986.jpg?v=1750946393"},{"product_id":"being-salt-book-george-r-sumner-9781498210539","title":"Being Salt","description":"Being Salt addresses both ordination and leadership by taking as its point of departure the most distinctive yet often overlooked feature of ordination: indelibility--being ordained for life. Sumner wholeheartedly agrees with the Reformation emphasis on the ministry of the whole people of God. Still, he argues that we can only understand priesthood if we understand what one is ordained for. Indelibility--lifetime ordination--provides an entree to the question of what sets the ordained apart. In sum, Being Salt offers an evangelical argument for a catholic practice and so goes to the heart of what Anglicanism understands itself to be. This gem of a book shimmers with the practical and spiritual insights we would hope to find in a good discussion of the ordained ministry. . . . Readable, eloquent, informative, and passionately acute in its encouragement of the ordained minister's calling, Being Salt should be read by every pastor and priest, and should shape every congregation's discernment of its common vocation. --Ephraim Radner, rector of Ascension Episcopal Church in Pueblo, Colorado Being Salt offers a Christocentric-semiotic understanding of the priesthood, a splash of cold water on the face of a languishing church . . . Sumner writes in an engaging and colorful style which will delight the reader. This is a 'must' for pastoral theologians and seminarians: Being Salt will energize you and make you rejoice in your vocation as priest of the Church. --Kathryn Greene-McCreight, assistant rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in New Haven, Connecticut George Sumner begins with a question that at first glance seems of importance only to a few. If one is ordained to the Christian Ministry, is it for life? However, in Sumner's hands the question opens into one of central importance for all Christians. Just how is the Church to understand the significance of its own life and that of its Lord? And how is it to order that life so that it expresses truly what the church is called to be? George Sumner has written a book that is must reading for all clergy, seminarians, seminary faculty, and the congregations they are called upon to serve. --Philip Turner, Interim Dean and President, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, and retired Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale George R. Sumner is Principal of Wycliffe College, Toronto. He is the author of The First and the Last: The Claim of Jesus Christ and the Claims of Other Religious Traditions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51030546940177,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030548775185,"sku":"NIN9781498210539","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52476460859665,"sku":"NLS9781498210539","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1498210538.jpg?v=1751085776"},{"product_id":"first-and-the-last-book-george-r-sumner-9780802863348","title":"The First and the Last","description":"As Christians become more engaged with the reality of religious pluralism, many find themselves torn between two worthy goals - to be faithful to the lordship of Jesus Christ and to be open generously to possible truths found in other religions. 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Sumner goes on to demonstrate the effectiveness of this position in practical terms, using final primacy as a frame of reference for a number of twentieth-century theologies - namely, those of Barth, Rahner, and Pannenberg - and as a way of examining both Indian and African theologies against their respective backgrounds of Hinduism and tribal practices. Additionally, the book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of interfaith thought: Sumner both surveys how religious pluralism has been handled in the past and illustrates how the position of final primacy at once redefines and promotes its most pressing issue - interreligious dialogue. A provocative approach to religious pluralism sure to stir widespread discussion, The First and the Last provides valuable reading for anyone interested in theology, interfaith dialogue, and missions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51179846140177,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51179848073489,"sku":"NIN9780802863348","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52128563921169,"sku":"NLS9780802863348","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0802863345.jpg?v=1751233030"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-george-r-sumner.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}