New
Introducing Kairos/Conversations
“The community of faith in which and from which we live finds its self-awareness in changing situations only through our speaking with each other. Our community of faith is a community of communication. It is a community of dialogue, or perhaps we should say, of multilogue. Something very important for religious faith is implied by the very existence and possibility of communication.”
~ James Luther Adams, “In the Beginning Is the Word”
Where today do we turn to find probing discussion on matters of religious and ethical concern to our communities of faith? The late David B. Parke last carried this torch as Editor of the lively journal, Kairos (Greek, “the right time”). We seek to open such a space again for timely contributions by Authors, Respondents, and others wishing to comment.
In keeping with the virtually unlimited in range of Adams’s concerns, topics of these Kairos/Conversations may be as various as our own ultimate and proximate concerns. If those who take part gain new self-awareness and consensus, so much the more will JLA’s vision of a “community of communication” be sustained.
Read Kairos/Conversation One by George Kimmich Beach:
The Prophetic Theology of James Luther Adams
New: Reverend Dr. Jerome C. Ross responds to Beach’s essay:
Ross: Is Such a “Prophetic Theology” What We Need Today?
New: Read a response to this essay by Dr. Norman Faramelli and a response to Faramelli by the author.
The faith of a church or of a nation is an adequate faith only when it inspires and enables people to give of their time and energy to shape the various institutions — social, economic, and political — of the common life.”
James Luther Adams
WHAT'S NEW
William Everett, who was James Luther Adams’s teaching assistant in his final year at Harvard and is a member of the Board of James Luther Adams Foundation, now brings a number of his essays into a volume that lifts up the many strands of covenantal thought in his work. A
Newly Republished Edition: (San Diego: Reader’s Magnet Press, 2021, 381 pages) In this book Adams’s leading editor and interpreter provides a comprehensive synthesis of his thought. The book is organized around Adams’s major themes, giving theological context to the numerous anecdotes that made his rhetoric irresistible. This new edition is
The 2020/2021 James Luther Adams Forum was a success! After more than a yearlong delay due to Covid-19, the Forum was held on October 29, 2021 at the University of Virginia. You can read and/or watch below Charles Mathewes’ timely and deeply probing lecture “The Future of American Christianity after
Based on newly processed home movies by James Luther Adams, never shown before, of Germany’s most prominent Christian leaders of the 1930s. A film about the church and the Nazis. James Luther Adams, professor emeritus of Christian ethics, and George Huntston Williams, professor emeritus of church history, recount their personal remembrances
“An unexamined faith is not worth having,” said James Luther Adams. What, then, is a faith worth having? The essay below links three sermons on transcendence, a foundational element in any faith tradition and for this reason, central to theology—that is, critical and creative reflection on religion. This work had
Who was James Luther Adams and why is he important for those who care about the fate of liberalism—liberal religion and liberal democracy alike—in this age of anxiety? For an answer there is no better place to begin than Adams’s own dialogues at a gathering of the Collegium Association, at
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