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Something Old, Something New
Marriage and Family Ministry in a Postmodern Culture
Ray S. Anderson Collection
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
THE RAY S. ANDERSON COLLECTION by WIPF & STOCK PUBLISHERS
Ray Sherman Anderson (1925-2009) worked the soil and tended the animals of a South Dakota farm, planted and pastored a church in Southern California, and completed a PhD degree in theology with Thomas F. Torrance in New College Edinburgh. He began his professional teaching career at Westmont College, and then taught and served in various administrative capacities at Fuller Theological Seminary for thirty-three years (retiring as Professor Emeritus of Theology and Ministry). While teaching at Fuller, he served as a parish pastor, always insisting that theology and ministry go hand-in-hand.
The pastoral theologian who began his teaching career in middle age penned twenty-seven books. Like Karl Barth, Prof. Anderson articulated a theology of and for the church based on God's own ministry of revelation and reconciliation in the world. As professor and pastor, he modeled an incarnational, evangelical passion for the healing of humanity by Jesus Christ, who is both God's self- revelation to us and the reconciliation of our broken humanity to the triune God. His gift of relating suffering and alienated humans to Christ existing as community (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) is a recurrent motif throughout his life, ministry, and works.
The Ray S. Anderson Collection comprises books by Ray Anderson, an introductory text to his theology by Christian D. Kettler, two edited volumes that celebrate his distinguished academic career (????ncarnational ????inistr????: The Presence of Christ in Church, Society, and Family and On Being Christian . . . and Human), and a reprint of an E????ification volume that focuses on Ray Anderson's contributions to the field of Christian Psychology. A word of gratitude is due to The Society of Christian Psychology and its parent organization, The American Association for Christian Counselors, for their permission to make the E????ification issue available in book form. Jim Tedrick of Wipf and Stock Publishers deserves a special word of thanks for publishing many of Ray Anderson's books and commissioning this collection of works to continue his legacy.
Todd H. Speidell, General Editor
Ray Anderson, (1925-2009) was Senior Professor of Theology and Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary and served on the faculty of the School of Theology since 1976. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Spiritual Caregiving as Secular Sacrament, The Soul of Ministry, Self Care, Living the Spiritually Balanced Life, and Dancing with Wolves While Feeding the Sheep: The Musings of a Maverick Theologian.
"No one has contributed more substantially to creative, orthodox Christian thinking about human nature, pastoral theology, and counseling over the past 30 years than Ray Anderson. His latest book is most welcomed, particularly given its focus on the family, a pivotal cultural institution of obvious developmental importance, which radical postmodernism has attempted to radically redefine, but which always warrants a fresh, practical, Christian approach and critique."
--Eric L. Johnson, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
"Combining the wisdom accumulated in his years as a seminary professor and scholar, pastor, and counselor, Ray Anderson has given us an outstanding book on marriage and family ministry in contemporary culture. Even more than this, it is the best statement I know of on a theology of the family, including the place of family in the church and wider society. . . . [H]ard issues in family life such as violence and abuse, homosexuality, care for the elderly, and death are addressed with a combination of biblical truth and grace. Something Old, Something New is must reading for all persons involved in ministry today!"
--Jack Balswick, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology
"For a Church often despairing of biblically based resources in ministering to the family in our postmodern culture, Ray Anderson's twenty-fifth book focuses on recovering a theology of the family. His seminal volume (written with Dennis Guernsey), 'On Being Family: Toward a Social Theology of the Family' (1985), virtually created the new genre of the 'theology of the family.' In 'Something Old, Something New: Marriage and Family Ministry in a Postmodern Culture', we find the fruit of Anderson's mature reflections that will give hope and guidance to the Church of the twenty-first century. He discusses marriage and parenting, divorce and remarriage, singleness and cohabitation, and other issues within the diversity and relativity characterized by our postmodern context. His decades of experience as a seminary professor and church pastor enable him to articulate a theology of family ministry that offers concrete help for families, churches, and pastors based on the healing ministry of Christ in today's society."
--Chris Kettler, Friends University, and
Todd Speidell, Webb School of Knoxville