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The following ACT Books are available for purchase from Lulu.com as print-on-demand copies. Each book is sent directly from our printer to our customer as soon as the order is taken. Each book being less than 100 pages long is designed for portability. They are suitable as gifts to family and friends. 

 

Origin of the Universe: Where did the universe come from and has it always been around? To date, classical and quantum physics offer incompatible descriptions for the origin of the universe. The Christian doctrine of creation includes the natural world (universe) and the non-natural realm (supernatural refers only to God). Can inferences from the sciences be reconciled with a theological explanation of a creatio originalis ex nihilo, which undergoes creatio continua, and anticipates a final creatio nova? This is the subject of our inquiry - Whether the science and philosophy of cosmogony render the Christian doctrine of divine creation an incoherent belief? 

Origin of Life: When Charles Darwin published his theory of natural selection in The Origin of Species, he deliberately left out how life came about. Today, this remains a scientific mystery. Describing life in terms of its constituents cannot explain the cause that makes organic stuff sense, react, reproduce, and die. The Christian doctrine of creation teaches that reproductive matter emerged from an intentional divine will. Life is not accidental and its purpose has been declared. The origin of life lies in a creatio continua that anticipates a final creatio nova. This is the subject of our inquiry - Whether the science and philosophy of biogenesis render the Christian doctrine of divine creation an incoherent belief?

Origin of Man: The similitude of our DNA with other life forms shows that our human uniqueness is not physiological, but rather, cognitive. Our symbolic species can pass on information through time (by writing), possess insight (to guess how things work), and contemplate the future (with imagination). The Christian doctrine of creation describes us as made in the image of God. So although we share a biological continuity with the rest of nature, the origin of our humanity calls us into fellowship with our creator as the praying animal. We are self-reflective, morally conscious beings who worship and live in expectation of the creatio nova. This is the subject of our inquiry - Whether the science and philosophy of anthropogenesis render the Christian doctrine of divine creation an incoherent belief?


Greek Philosophy in Christian Doctrines: Greek Philosophy is important to Christianity because it was the interpretative tool used by the New Testament writers to describe their experiences of God, especially with Jesus the Christ. They were mostly Greek-speaking Jewish believers who lived in Latinized Greek-philosophical culture. The writers of the New Testament knew the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) but probably the Greek translation of it. They spoke Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek and very likely Latin as well. Their writings were of the common 'market' variety of Greek. They were the most important witnesses of Jesus' life on earth and their writings were their documentary testimony to the message of God to us. It is therefore not only advantageous, but also necessary to get a basic understanding of Greek philosophy and how they were adapted (not merely adopted) by the earliest Christian thinkers to express what they were taught to believe. The Christian doctrines we inherit were developed through the philosophical lens of the Greeks.

 

Christian Belief In A Postmodern World: The challenge posed by the postmodern world argues that if we must believe in God, why should we choose the Christian God? We answer with an assessment of what we need God for. If sin is acknowledged and the human contingency is recognized, then the god we need is a god who is not part of the created order. This leaves Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Postmodernity heightens the sense of spirituality so that fewer people are asking why believe in God. Rather, more and more are asking, “which god?” Christian belief in a postmodern world is as cogent and meaningful as ever, with the uniqueness of Christ establishing the cure for the universal need of humanity to escape death, despair and an uncertain future, from someone who has been through it all. The paradox of Christian belief in a postmodern age is that the urgency, or rather apparent lack, of Christians to evangelize their friends and loved ones poses a greater challenge to the credibility of the gospel than any ideology can. Lesslie Newbigin boldly asks: “What can we understand about the postmodern world in the light of the Scriptures rather than the Scriptures in the light of the postmodern world?"


The Paradox of Atheism: The philosophical justification of atheism is in fact a theological doctrine that asserts the non-existence of God. We shall explore the challenge of perhaps the most influential atheist of the West, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), who criticized Christianity’s slave morality. To him, life is all about the will to power. What is the Christian response to Nietzsche's charge that “God is Dead”? We shall close with drawing up the convictional and confessional commitments necessary to support a cogent and coherent faith in the non-existence of God. This then is the paradox of atheism – in order to be an unbeliever, one has first to be a believer in unbelief. This demands of the believer of unbelief a belief in something foundational – and if that something is not God, it turns out to be himself. But why do we bother with all this? Is it not enough to sincerely believe? Although it is possible to believe in God without explaining the reason, this is escapism. The Bible teaches that God is love, i.e., God defines the meaning of love. Love ought to motivate all that Christians do. Any claim that we believe to be true (e.g., God exists and Jesus is our savior) demands a reason. True Christian belief is more than mere intellectual assent. It is to be committed to the conviction of the confession that Jesus is our Lord.

 

Why I Am Not An Atheist: The philosophical justification of atheism is in fact a theological doctrine that asserts the non-existence of God. In Russell, we see how an extremely intellectually capable person copes with the demands of unbelief. We shall consider and answer his important criticisms. This will lead me to explain, “Why I am not an atheist.” But why do we bother with all this in the first place? Although it is surely possible to believe in God without explaining the reason to anyone, even to ourselves, this is nothing short of escapism. The Christian faith teaches that God defines the true meaning of love. Love ought to motivate all that Christians do. If we make any claim that we believe to be true (God exists and Jesus is our savior), such rational belief demands a reason. True Christian belief is more than mere intellectual assent. It is to be committed to the conviction of the confession that Jesus is our Lord. We learn to trust what we cannot know directly. This act of trust is not blind – it is measured. It demands the burden of weighing arguments so we may responsibly act out what we believe.

What If They Have Never Heard?: According to traditional Christian belief, only those who call upon the name of the Lord are saved and everyone else will be lost. Our salvation is not the result of our effort, but rather the result of divine grace.  But such grace is only effective when we make a personal response to the gospel. So what happens to those who never had the opportunity to receive it (e.g. babies who die in infancy and the mentally retarded)? This book will introduce some of the contemporary theological models on this topic.

 

Project Timothy Bible Exegesis Guide: The Bible is a collection of materials each with more than one identifiable genre (type of literature). Acknowledging this will help you to read intelligently and with a reasonable expectation of what to look for. The goal of reading to understand the Bible is to obey God’s Word. This however does not mean to merely mimic actions we read about but to understand what each text is trying to teach us to obey. It may be obedience by affirming the actions described or the complete opposite, obedience by avoiding the actions described. It may be obedience by changing the way we think and believe about God, people and things. A responsible reading of the Bible seeks to understand what the text meant when it was written and what it means to us now. Most scholars are interested in what the text meant when it was written while most laypersons are interested in what it means for them today. Both the ‘there and then’ as well as the ‘here and now’ are crucial for the believing scholar like me and the scholarly believer like, perhaps you. Even lay readers ought to appreciate the scholarly effort of writing, editing, copying, translating and interpreting the materials handed down to us. The biblical texts mean what they meant before they can mean what they mean. The Bible student then has the double task of exegesis and hermeneutics. As an exegete, she must infer from the background information about the origin of the text to determine the historical message of the writer. As a hermeneute, she has to rethink the text and apply it faithfully to our own context today, mindful of the original intention. Exegesis begins with asking the right questions rather than necessarily having immense knowledge. Each genre requires us to ask different questions.

 

What Every Christian Ought To Know About Hinduism: In September 1893, the powerful orator Swami (master) Vivekananda (1863-1902) delivered a remarkable speech at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, which was organized by the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic Churches. His speech enlightened nearly 7000 representatives. In the 1960's, the Beatles from Great Britain went to India and were taught transcendental meditation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They brought it to the United States and other Western countries through their music (Click for lyrics to My Sweet Lord). Today, Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world with about one billion believers (about one out of every six people). In the United States, it is the fifth largest religious group with over 1.5 million registered Hindus. This book explores the beliefs, scripture, and practices of this complex world religion.

 

What Every Christian Ought To Know About Islam: Why should Christians study Islam? We learn something about ourselves when we study something that is not about ourselves, because all learning is comparative. In this book, we acknowledge that since the bridge between Islam and Christianity is Christology, it is important to know what Islam says about Jesus. What does it mean when Islam makes religious claims which spill over onto Christianity? How do we understand and deal with interactions between Islam and Christianity and between Islam and the modern West? These are some of the important questions that need an answer. The book also traces Islam's history and its development. It should help us to respect and love those with whom we disagree as well as strengthen the conviction of our personal faith.


What Every Christian Ought To Know About Buddhism: Join us as we explore Buddhism, the first world religion. (Though Hinduism and Judaism are older, Hinduism only became a global religion after the 19th century and Judaism still remains a national religion.  Christianity and Islam appeared much later in history). The history takes us back to 450 BC, to a young Hindu (Siddharta Gautama) who claimed to have been "awakened" and discovered the liberation from the cycle of suffering that we call our existence. The first global religion of the world is now the fourth largest religion in the world. The goal of this walk through history is to understand the main teachings of Buddhism in conversation with Christian beliefs so we can more effective dialogue.

 

 

 

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