This is the successor to A Handbook of Christian Theology, edited by Marvin Halverson and Arthur A. Cohen, and published in 1958. That book went through twenty printings, and served admirably to introduce students and interested laity to a basic understanding of theological terms, concepts and trends. However, more than three decades have passed since the initial publication of Halverson and Cohen's Handbook, and the theological landscape is much changed. This new handbook provides an expanded and updated account, with 148 fresh articles on important themes and movements in modern Christian theology, and the editors have furthermore endeavoured to encompass a much wider spectrum of thought than the original volume. Thematic entries vary from traditional concerns such as Faith, Missiology, Revelation, Sin, the Trinity and Death and Eternal Life, to more modern concerns such as Alienation, Autonomy, Pluralism, Secularism, and the role of Metaphor and Narrative.
Also included are concise and balanced accounts of the teaching and development of many contemporary theological movements both radical and conservative, from Liberation Theology and Feminist and Postmodernist thought, to modern Fundamentalism and 'Creation Science'.