Credo Magazine Book of the Year 2023 - Illumination Book Awards 2024 Gold Medal Winner for Theology

Understand and celebrate what we believe

For centuries, the Nicene Creed has been central to the church's confession. The Nicene Creed: An Introduction by Phillip Cary explores the Creed's riches with simplicity and clarity. Cary explains the history of the Creed and walks through its meaning line by line. Far from being abstract or irrelevant, the words of the Creed carefully express what God has done in Christ and through the Spirit. The Nicene Creed gives us the gospel. It gives biblical Christians the words for what we already believe. And when we profess the Creed, we join the global church throughout history in declaring the name and work of the one God--Father, Son, and Spirit. Gain a fresh appreciation for the ancient confession with Phillip Cary's help!

A talented teacher unpacks the riches of traditional Christian spirituality for Christians burdened by the guilt and anxiety of introspective, in-my-heart spiritual techniques. Phillip Cary explains that knowing God is a gradual, long-term process that comes through the gospel experienced in Christian community. The first edition has sold over 17,000 copies. The expanded edition includes a new afterword that offers further insights since the first edition was published over ten years ago.

This book offers a creative and illuminating discussion of Protestant theology. Veteran teacher Phillip Cary explains how Luther's theology arose from the Christian tradition, particularly from the spirituality of Augustine. Luther departed from the Augustinian tradition and inaugurated distinctively Protestant theology when he identified the gospel that gives us Christ as its key concept. More than any other theologian, Luther succeeds in carrying out the Protestant intention of putting faith in the gospel of Christ alone. Cary also explores the consequences of Luther's teachings as they unfold in the history of Protestantism.

In this book, Phillip Cary argues that Augustine invented the concept of the self as a private inner space-a space into which one can enter and in which one can find God. Although it has often been suggested that Augustine in some way inaugurated the Western tradition of inwardness, this is the first study to pinpoint what was new about Augustine's philosophy of inwardness and situate it within a narrative of his intellectual development and his relationship to the Platonist tradition.
Augustine invents the inner self, Cary argues, in order to solve a particular conceptual problem. Augustine is attracted to the Neoplatonist inward turn, which located God within the soul, yet remains loyal to the orthodox Catholic teaching that the soul is not divine. He combines the two emphases by urging us to turn in then up--to enter the inner world of the self before gazing at the divine Light above the human mind.
Cary situates Augustine's idea of the self historically in both the Platonist and the Christian traditions. The concept of private inner self, he shows, is a development within the history of the Platonist concept of intelligibility or intellectual vision, which establishes a kind of kinship between the human intellect and the divine things it sees. Though not the only Platonist in the Christian tradition, Augustine stands out for his devotion to this concept of intelligibility and his willingness to apply it even to God. This leads him to downplay the doctrine that God is incomprehensible, as he is convinced that it is natural for the mind's eye, when cleansed of sin, to see and understand God.
In describing Augustine's invention of the inner self, Cary's fascinating book sheds new light on Augustine's life and thought, and shows how Augustine's position developed into the more orthodox Augustine we know from his later writings.

Pastors and leaders of the classical church--such as Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and Wesley--interpreted the Bible theologically, believing Scripture as a whole witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Modern interpreters of the Bible questioned this premise. But in recent decades, a critical mass of theologians and biblical scholars has begun to reassert the priority of a theological reading of Scripture.

The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible enlists leading theologians to read and interpret Scripture for the twenty-first century, just as the church fathers, the Reformers, and other orthodox Christians did for their times and places. In the sixth volume in the series, Phillip Cary presents a theological exegesis of Jonah.

This book offers a creative and illuminating discussion of Protestant theology. Veteran teacher Phillip Cary explains how Luther's theology arose from the Christian tradition, particularly from the spirituality of Augustine. Luther departed from the Augustinian tradition and inaugurated distinctively Protestant theology when he identified the gospel that gives us Christ as its key concept. More than any other theologian, Luther succeeds in carrying out the Protestant intention of putting faith in the gospel of Christ alone. Cary also explores the consequences of Luther's teachings as they unfold in the history of Protestantism.

Augustine of Hippo was a philosopher as well as theologian, bishop and saint. He aimed to practice philosophy not simply as an academic discipline but as a love for divine wisdom pervading everything in his life and work. To inquire into Augustine and philosophy is thus to get to the heart of his concerns as a Christian writer and uncover some of the reasons for his vast influence on Western thought. This volume, containing essays by leading Augustine scholars, includes a variety of inquiries into Augustine's philosophy in theory and practice, as well as his relation to philosophers before and after him. It opens up a variety of perspectives into the heart of Augustine's thought.
He frequently reminds his readers, philosophy means love of wisdom, and in that sense he expects that every worthy impulse in human life will have something philosophical about it, something directed toward the attainment of wisdom.

In Augustine's own writing we find this expectation put into practice in a stunning variety of ways, as keys themes of Western philosophy and intricate forms of philosophical argument turn up everywhere. The collection of essays in this book examines just a few aspects of the relation of Augustine and philosophy, both in Augustine's own practice as a philosopher and in his interaction with others. The result is not one picture of the relation of Augustine and philosophy but many, as the authors of these essays ask many different questions about Augustine and his influence, and bring a large diversity of interests and expertise to their task. Thus the collection shows that Augustine's philosophy remains an influence and a provocation in a wide variety of settings today.

Augustine of Hippo was a philosopher as well as theologian, bishop and saint. He aimed to practice philosophy not simply as an academic discipline but as a love for divine wisdom pervading everything in his life and work. To inquire into Augustine and philosophy is thus to get to the heart of his concerns as a Christian writer and uncover some of the reasons for his vast influence on Western thought. This volume, containing essays by leading Augustine scholars, includes a variety of inquiries into Augustine's philosophy in theory and practice, as well as his relation to philosophers before and after him. It opens up a variety of perspectives into the heart of Augustine's thought. He frequently reminds his readers, 'philosophy' means love of wisdom, and in that sense he expects that every worthy impulse in human life will have something philosophical about it, something directed toward the attainment of wisdom. In Augustine's own writing we find this expectation put into practice in a stunning variety of ways, as keys themes of Western philosophy and intricate forms of philosophical argument turn up everywhere. The collection of essays in this book examines just a few aspects of the relation of Augustine and philosophy, both in Augustine's own practice as a philosopher and in his interaction with others. The result is not one picture of the relation of Augustine and philosophy but many, as the authors of these essays ask many different questions about Augustine and his influence, and bring a large diversity of interests and expertise to their task. Thus the collection shows that Augustine's philosophy remains an influence and a provocation in a wide variety of settings today.

A philosopher and a business leader have a friendly debate about whether it makes sense to speak of God having a strategy for the human race. What might a divine strategy look like, in light of the biblical portrait of God and the historical record of religions that claim to carry out God's strategy? With so much violence in our religious history, can there be a divine strategy of peace rather than war--where our religions do not strategize to defeat their enemies but to bless them? In other words, could God have a strategy that overcomes rather than continues the legacy of Cain and Abel? If so, to what future might it point us?

A philosopher and a business leader have a friendly debate about whether it makes sense to speak of God having a strategy for the human race. What might a divine strategy look like, in light of the biblical portrait of God and the historical record of religions that claim to carry out God's strategy? With so much violence in our religious history, can there be a divine strategy of peace rather than war--where our religions do not strategize to defeat their enemies but to bless them? In other words, could God have a strategy that overcomes rather than continues the legacy of Cain and Abel? If so, to what future might it point us?

In this book, Phillip Cary argues that Augustine invented the concept of the self as a private inner space-a space into which one can enter and in which one can find God. Although it has often been suggested that Augustine in some way inaugurated the Western tradition of inwardness, this is the first study to pinpoint what was new about Augustine's philosophy of inwardness and situate it within a narrative of his intellectual development and his relationship to the Platonist tradition.
Augustine invents the inner self, Cary argues, in order to solve a particular conceptual problem. Augustine is attracted to the Neoplatonist inward turn, which located God within the soul, yet remains loyal to the orthodox Catholic teaching that the soul is not divine. He combines the two emphases by urging us to turn in then up--to enter the inner world of the self before gazing at the divine Light above the human mind.
Cary situates Augustine's idea of the self historically in both the Platonist and the Christian traditions. The concept of private inner self, he shows, is a development within the history of the Platonist concept of intelligibility or intellectual vision, which establishes a kind of kinship between the human intellect and the divine things it sees. Though not the only Platonist in the Christian tradition, Augustine stands out for his devotion to this concept of intelligibility and his willingness to apply it even to God. This leads him to downplay the doctrine that God is incomprehensible, as he is convinced that it is natural for the mind's eye, when cleansed of sin, to see and understand God.
In describing Augustine's invention of the inner self, Cary's fascinating book sheds new light on Augustine's life and thought, and shows how Augustine's position developed into the more orthodox Augustine we know from his later writings.

This book is, along with Inner Grace (OUP 2008), a sequel to Phillip Cary's Augustine and the Invention of the Inner Self (OUP 2000). In this work, Cary argues that Augustine invented the expressionist type of semiotics widely taken for granted in modernity, where words are outward signs giving inadequate expression to what lies within the soul. Augustine uses this new semiotics to explain why the authority of external teaching, including Biblical authority, is useful but temporary, designed to lead to a more permanent Platonist vision granted by the inner teacher, Christ, who is the eternal Wisdom of God. In fact, for Augustine we literally learn nothing from words or other outward signs, which are useful only as admonitions or reminders pointing out the right direction for us to look in order to see for ourselves, with the inner eye of our own mind. Even our knowledge of other people is ultimately a matter of seeing what is in their souls, not putting faith in their words.
Cary argues that for Augustine outward signs cannot give us knowledge because all bodily things are fundamentally powerless, incapable of conveying an inner good to the soul. This also leaves no room for a concept of efficacious external means of grace not even the flesh of Christ. The sacraments, which Augustine was the first to describe as outward signs of inner grace, signify what is necessary for salvation but do not confer it. Baptism, for example, is necessary for salvation, but its power is found not in water or word but in the inner unity, charity, and peace of the church.
Along with its companion work, Inner Grace, this careful and insightful book breaks new ground in the study of Augustine's theology of grace and sacraments.

El Credo Niceno. Una introducción de Phillip Cary se erige como un recurso esencial para aquellos que buscan comprender la esencia de la fe cristiana y su historia.

El Credo Niceno ha sido una piedra angular en la confesión de la fe cristiana a lo largo de los siglos. Comprender este contexto histórico es vital para apreciar la profundidad y la necesidad de un credo que defina claramente quién es Dios, quién es Jesucristo y la función del Espíritu Santo. En esta obra introductoria comprenderás de la mano del autor los siguientes elementos que son fundamentales para la fe cristiana:

• El fundamento de la fe cristiana: a los 1,700 años de su celebración, explora el contexto histórico del credo, su origen en el Concilio de Nicea (325 d. C.) y su defensa de la divinidad de Cristo ante las enseñanzas de Arrio, además de otras afirmaciones cristológicas y trinitarias fundamentales para la fe cristiana.
• Más que un análisis, una exploración: no solamente explica cada afirmación del credo, sino que revela los debates teológicos que dieron forma a esta confesión esencial.
• Una guía imprescindible para líderes y creyentes: explica el credo de una manera que desafía a escépticos y cristianos a reconsiderar su significado en el mundo actual.
• Lenguaje claro y atractivo: Cary convierte un tema teológico profundo en una lectura dinámica y accesible, ideal para fortalecer la fe y el entendimiento cristiano.
• Unidad en la fe cristiana: un recurso clave para pastores, maestros y creyentes en general que buscan comprender y compartir una confesión común más allá de denominaciones.

El Credo Niceno no es solo un comentario, sino una invitación a profundizar en la comprensión de la fe cristiana. Explora junto con el Dr. Phillip Cary todos los elementos que te ayudarán a recordar nuestra herencia y te desafiarán a vivir en la plenitud de la verdad que el credo representa.

The Nicene Creed. An Introduction by Phillip Cary stands as an essential resource for those seeking to understand the essence of the Christian faith and its history.

The Nicene Creed has been a cornerstone in the Christian confession of faith throughout the centuries, and understanding this historical context is vital to appreciating the depth and necessity of a creed that clearly defines who God is, who Jesus Christ is, and the role of the Holy Spirit. In this introductory work you will understand from the author's guide the following elements that are fundamental to Christian faith:

• The substance of the Christian faith: 1,700 years after its celebration, it explores the historical context of the creed, its origin at the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and its defense of the divinity of Christ in the face of Arius' teachings in addition to other Christological and Trinitarian affirmations that are crucial to the Christian faith.
• More than an analysis, an -exploration: it not only explains each creedal affirmation but reveals the theological debates that shaped this foundational confession.
• A must-have guide for leaders and -believers: it explains the creed in a way that challenges skeptics and Christians alike to reconsider its meaning in the contemporary world.
• Clear and engaging -language: Cary turns a deep theological topic into a dynamic and easy-to-read resource, ideal for strengthening one's faith and Christian understanding.
• Unity in the Christian -faith: a key resource for pastors, teachers, and believers in general who seek to understand and share a common confession that transcends denominations.