David Emmanuel Goatley

The triune God of justice has a mission in the world, which we are called to participate and partner in. The awesome nature of that mission and vision inspires and animates this volume, Now to God Who Is Able. An international array of Christian pastors, scholar activists, parachurch ministry leaders, and community organizers reflect critically on the theological, biblical, contextual, and practical dimensions of what it means to bear witness of the gospel orientated and anchored in God's justice. Using a trinitarian framework within the prophetic call to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, this book speaks to the modern challenges and opportunities of the pastoral vocation, ecclesiology, hermeneutics, homiletics, ecumenism, theological education, and missional theology. Each essay and this book honor the more than four decades of ministry of Mark Labberton, who retired as president of Fuller Theological Seminary in 2023.

The triune God of justice has a mission in the world, which we are called to participate and partner in. The awesome nature of that mission and vision inspires and animates this volume, Now to God Who Is Able. An international array of Christian pastors, scholar activists, parachurch ministry leaders, and community organizers reflect critically on the theological, biblical, contextual, and practical dimensions of what it means to bear witness of the gospel orientated and anchored in God's justice. Using a trinitarian framework within the prophetic call to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, this book speaks to the modern challenges and opportunities of the pastoral vocation, ecclesiology, hermeneutics, homiletics, ecumenism, theological education, and missional theology. Each essay and this book honor the more than four decades of ministry of Mark Labberton, who retired as president of Fuller Theological Seminary in 2023.

Contemporary Christian theology continues to struggle with the tragedy of inexplicable human suffering and the endurance of evil. The pressing issue of ""Where is God?"" in seemingly godless situations provides the focus of Were You There? Godforsakenness in Slave Religion. In this book, David Emmanuel Goatley investigates the doctrine of God in relation to the experience of those living under conditions of extreme oppression. In this experience of ""Godforsakenness"" Goatley finds an echo of Jesus' poignant cry from the cross, ""My God, why have you forsaken me?"" Were You There? approaches this question through a narrative methodology, particularly by examining the slave narratives as well as the spirituals that were products of the same era. Both these sources provide important ways of viewing the experience of ""Godforsakenness"" and the problem of God's presence or absence in the extremities and absurdities of human suffering. Using these insights as a hermeneutic, Were You There? then proceeds to an interpretation of Jesus' cry of dereliction in Mark.

Contemporary Christian theology continues to struggle with the tragedy of inexplicable human suffering and the endurance of evil. The pressing issue of ""Where is God?"" in seemingly godless situations provides the focus of Were You There? Godforsakenness in Slave Religion. In this book, David Emmanuel Goatley investigates the doctrine of God in relation to the experience of those living under conditions of extreme oppression. In this experience of ""Godforsakenness"" Goatley finds an echo of Jesus' poignant cry from the cross, ""My God, why have you forsaken me?"" Were You There? approaches this question through a narrative methodology, particularly by examining the slave narratives as well as the spirituals that were products of the same era. Both these sources provide important ways of viewing the experience of ""Godforsakenness"" and the problem of God's presence or absence in the extremities and absurdities of human suffering. Using these insights as a hermeneutic, Were You There? then proceeds to an interpretation of Jesus' cry of dereliction in Mark.