This book explores some of the central issues confronting Seventh-day Adventist universities-institutions that, whatever their formal names and titles, foster innovation, value research, deliver graduate programs, and nurture students as persons and leaders. Gary Chartier invites faculty members, staff members, students, alums, donors, community partners, and church leaders to reflect on why Adventists should proudly nourish institutions of higher education, how those institutions can flourish, and what they can offer to Adventism and the rest of God's creation. The Idea of an Adventist University is a thoughtful call for Adventist universities to share God's grace and make God's love real-through their courses and curricula, the scholarship they encourage, their treatment of students and workers, their organizational structures, their campus climates, and their service to their communities.

The Idea of an Adventist University

Religion & Spirituality

Chartier, Gary

Religious Studies

Griffin & Lash

A begging bowl symbolizes a monk’s dependence on others. Few nonprofits practice poverty like monks. But begging has been institutionalized in the form of reliance on charitable giving instead of self sustaining entrepreneurial economic strategies. The begging bowl does not solve societal problems: it compounds them. We need to crush the begging bowl—to find alternate ways of meeting the challenges nonprofits confront. In Crushing the Begging Bowl, nonprofit chief executive Dom Betro and academics John Thomas and Gary Chartier explain how one organization transformed itself and became self-sustaining and financially secure. They invite readers to join an exciting movement committed to empowering nonprofits by enabling them to think like for-profit businesses. “Dom Betro and his team at FSA are the most enterprising organization I have ever seen. They address every societal problem through the lens of possibility and unstoppable creativity. From revenue generating strategies and disruptive partnerships to capital leveraging approaches, they are focused on the pursuit of their mission and achieving big results to what often feel like intractable social problems. This is the model of a twenty-first century social sector organization for others to learn from and emulate.” —Susan N. Dreyfus, President and Chief Executive Officer Alliance for Strong Families and Communities “The whole notion of ‘non-profit’ has led too many organizations to ignore the importance of well-funded infrastructures to assure quality services and even to ignore the potential for embracing commercial activities to serve altruistic missions. The concepts and examples in this book demonstrate how social enterprise initiatives can empower nonprofit mission while assuring financial sustainability.” —Thomas Harvey, Director Emeritus, Nonprofit Excellence Program, University of Notre Dame “Crushing the Begging Bowl is a valuable and creative vision of how social enterprise skills help social service agencies model positive behavior for its clients, while teaching how challenges can be turned into opportunities, so that valuable social services are provided in today's complex world.” —Reverend Monsignor Alfred P. LoPinto, Executive Director Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens

Crushing the Begging Bowl: How Entrepreneurial Nonprofits Can Empower Themselves and Their Customers

Business & Money

Thomas, John.

Betro, Dom

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

The Future of Adventism offers a stimulating introduction to the cutting edge of Seventh-day Adventist thought. Authored by leading scholars from multiple strands of the Adventist community, the essays that make up this collection are rooted in an understanding of Adventist history and the Christian heritage while simultaneously attuned to vital contemporary issues. Non-dogmatic and reflective, they are designed to prompt ongoing conversation about possible directions Adventist faith and life might take in the new millennium."On the basis of this volume, the future of Seventh-day Adventist theology—rather than mere doctrine—looks bright indeed. As these theological thinkers make clear, Seventh-day Adventism has much to contribute to wider conversations on topics like eschatology, anthropology, the doctrine of God, and hope. This volume will serve as an essential touchstone for new generations of Seventh-day Adventist theological thinkers."
—Linn Tonstad, Yale University
"Based on an insightful re-reading of Adventist history and a careful description of current spiritual and existential trends, this collection delineates reasonable and meaningful potential horizons for Adventism. While remaining loyal to our church, these heterogeneous and complementary essays encourage an honest dialogue with the rest of God’s world and welcome—with fidelity and clarity, realism and creativity—some pressing questions posed by that world as sources of opportunity for tomorrow."
—Hanz Gutierrez, Adventist Theological School, Florence, Italy
"On the 150th anniversary of their forbears’ Great Disappointment in October 1844, a group of male Seventh-day Adventist scholars gathered at La Sierra University to present and discuss essays that predicted and prescribed the future of Adventist faith and practice in the context of its history. Twenty years later this volume makes those essays available to a wider public. Although a generation of change has significantly altered both Adventism and the world in which its believers live, the historical and theological trajectories mapped in this volume offer unique and revealing insights into the movement’s shifting identities. Both insiders and outsiders seeking to understand contemporary Adventism will find much to ponder in this fine volume—both what it does and what it does not include."
—Rennie B. Schoepflin, California State University, Los Angeles
"This volume offers carefully-crafted lectures delivered by some of Adventism’s best minds, presenting fascinating evidence that the tradition of affectionate self-critical examination continues in the Church. It supplies some important pieces in the puzzle of Adventist self-understanding, and so aids the community’s maturing process. It poses the question which is crucial to the prospering of the Church in the future: Is the Adventist imagination alive and well?"
—Michael Pearson, Newbold College
"This book is exceptional. It will undoubtedly contribute to the future of Adventism as it is received with concern and assessed with sympathy. It examines crucial traditional and present positions with great care. That does not mean all problems are solved. The achievement is that they are here recognized and competently discussed. We have waited for this a very long time. It provides the needed opportunity for honest discussion, inviting participation in the renewal of Adventist theology."
—Edward W. H. Vick, author of From Inspiration to Understanding and Philosophy for Believers

The Future of Adventism: Theology, Society, Experience

This book challenges the assumption that the Constitution was a landmark in the struggle for liberty. Instead, Sheldon Richman argues, it was the product of a counter-revolution, a setback for the radicalism represented by America’s break with the British empire. Drawing on careful, credible historical scholarship and contemporary political analysis, Richman suggests that this counter-revolution was the work of conservatives who sought a nation of “power, consequence, and grandeur.” America’s Counter-Revolution makes a persuasive case that the Constitution was a victory not for liberty but for the agendas and interests of a militaristic, aristocratic, privilege-seeking ruling class. The Anti-Federalists were right: The pursuit of "national greatness" inevitably diminishes liberty and centralizes government. The U.S. Constitution did both, as Sheldon Richman demonstrates in this powerfully argued anarchist case against the blueprint for empire known as the U.S. Constitution. --Bill Kauffman, author, Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin The libertarian movement has long suffered from a constitutional fetishism that embraces an ahistorical reverence for the U.S. Constitution. Far too many are unaware of the extent to which the framing and adoption of the Constitution was in fact a setback for the cause of liberty. Sheldon Richman, in a compilation of readable, well researched, and compelling essays, exposes the historical, theoretical, and strategic errors in the widespread reification of a purely political document. With no single correct interpretation, the Constitution has been predictably unable to halt the growth of the modern welfare-warfare American State. I urge all proponents of a free society to give his book their diligent attention. --Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Professor, San Jose State University; author, Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War "No state or government can limit itself through a written constitution, no matter how fine the words or how noble the sentiments they express. It is one of the many virtues of Sheldon Richman's book that it shows how this is true even of the American Constitution, which despite the promises of its designers and the insistence of its defenders down the years, made limited government less and not more likely." --Chandran Kukathas, London School of Economics “Richman delivers an accessible, incisive, and well-grounded argument that the Constitution centralized power and undid some of the Revolution’s liberating gains. He rebuts patriotic platitudes but avoids the crude contrarianism so common in libertarian revisionism written for popular consumption. He does not romanticize America’s past or overstate his case. Radical and nuanced, deferential to freedom and historical truth, Richman rises above hagiography or demonization of either the Federalists or anti-Federalists to produce an unsurpassed libertarian exploration of the subject.” — Anthony Gregory, Independent Institute “[A]fter reading this book, you will never think about the U.S. Constitution and America’s founding the same way again. Sheldon Richman’s revealing and remarkably well-argued narrative will permanently change your outlook. . . . Richman . . . [is] one of this country’s most treasured thinkers and writers . . . . [H]e draws on the most contemporary and important scholarly research, while putting the evidence in prose that is accessible and compelling.” — Jeffrey A. Tucker, Liberty.me and Foundation for Economic Education

America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited

History

Richman, Sheldon

Americas

This book advances a persuasive account of Christian belief organized around the theme of love while also employing love as a constraint on theological formulation. Throughout, Gary Chartier seeks to understand divine action in ways that make it possible to affirm divine love in the face of evil. The Analogy of Love offers a stimulating model for thinking about God and the world.“Christian theology needs continually to be rethought as the world and human understanding change. This book offers a critical and constructive reorganization of theology around the central theme of the ultimacy of Love. While some (including myself) will not agree with all of its conclusions, I have no hesitation in recommending it to shoe in search of a more thoughtful and intellectually responsible way of doing theology.”—John Hick, University of Birmingham“[This book] is certainly an impressive achievement. . . . It is an exercise in patient explanation, often conversational . . . . [It] could confidently be used as a starting point for conversation with undergraduates and ministerial training courses. Despite its wide breadth of reading it does not parade its erudition and in my view it is consistently on the side of the angels.”—Tim Gorringe, University of Exeter“This is a rare treat. It is a systematic theology which makes the ‘love of God’ absolutely center-stage. Compelling, well-argued, crystal clear and deeply creative, Chartier explores the nature and character of God’s love and transforms our understanding of theology. Not since Moltmann’s Theology of Hope has a theologian offered a transformative and unifying theme around which Christian theology can explain itself. An absolute must-read.”—Ian S. Markham, Virginia Theological Seminary“The text of this remarkable book sparkles with lucid, graceful prose even as the notes reveal a deep knowledge of the Bible and philosophical theology. Immensely readable and consummately practical, it will be of the greatest interest and value to theologians and laypersons alike. It deserves a broad audience.”—Stephen R. Munzer, University of California at Los Angeles“Creatively and persuasively argued and instructive. It is amazing the difference it makes when the primacy of love is insisted on! Nearly every page of this elegantly written book contains fresh insights, any one of which makes the reading of the book worthwhile. A masterful education in systematic Christian theology. Accessible and important for scholar and neophyte alike.”—Lawrence T. Geraty, La Sierra University“. . . [A] rich, sensitive and insightful presentation of Christian believing. . . . [Chartier’s] style of presentation . . . is remarkably lucid and jargon free. . . . The style is spare, simple, direct and logical, cutting to the heart of a discussion. . . . A great deal is packed into a single volume . . . . [A]nyone seeking to begin to enquire deeply into the meaning faith could well start here. It provides a comprehensive guide to orthodox Christian belief.”—Paul Ballard, Cardiff University“Despite the impressive command of the relevant theological and philosophical literature the book exhibits, Chartier has been able, with sure judgement, to distil and present the essence of Christian faith and Christian ethics, not in the technical language of theology, but in non-technical, non-denominational, everyday speech. His sure judgment is well exemplified by what he says about the way in which we love God in and through our love for God’s good creation. Chartier has made a positive and convincing contribution to the discernment and articulation of the heart of Christianity as consisting in the love of God and of God’s good creation.”—Brian Hebblethwaite, University of Cambridge

The Analogy of Love: Divine and Human Love at the Center of Christian Theology

Christian Books & Bibles