This collection of essays provides samplings of a theological engagement of culture that Paul Louis Metzger has been developing over the years in his work as founder and director of The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins at Multnomah Biblical Seminary of Multnomah University. Metzger espouses an incarnational over against a predominantly worldview-oriented or market-driven theological approach to engaging culture, and situates his work in Trinitarian communal and co-missional thought forms. This volume of biblically and theologically framed and compassion-driven essays addresses such themes as postmodernity, structural evil, cultural genocide, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, the prison system, the global slave trade, and the arts. It will be welcomed by those analyzing and developing theological-cultural paradigms and engaging key issues in the contemporary setting.

Dr. Paul Louis Metzger is the founderand director of the Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins, and Professor of Christian Theology and Theology of Culture at Multnomah University and Seminary. Dr. Metzger is also the editor of New Wines journalCultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture. Integrating theology and spirituality with cultural sensitivity stands at the center of Dr. Metzgers ministry vision. He and his wife, Mariko, a native of Japan, have been active in intercultural ministry in churches in the United States, Japan, and England.



Dr. Metzger is the author ofBeatitudes, Not Platitudes: Jesus' Invitation to the Good Life (Cascade, 2018);Evangelical Zen: A Christians Spiritual Travels With a Buddhist Friend (2015);Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths (2012);The Gospel of John: When Love Comes to Town (2010);Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction (co-authored with Brad Harper; 2009); andConsuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church (2007). He is co-editor ofA World for All?: Global Civil Society in Political Theory and Trinitarian Theology (co-edited with William F. Storrar and Peter J. Casarella; 2011); and editor ofTrinitarian Soundings in Systematic Theology (2005). Dr. Metzger is a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey, and Senior Mission Scholar in Residence, Spring 2018, at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut. The Metzgers have two children and one grandchild. He has a keen interest in the art of Katsushika Hokusai and Georges Rouault, the writings of John Steinbeck, and the music of Johnny Cash, The Doors, and Nirvana. Dr. Metzger blogs frequently at "Uncommon God, Common Good." Dr. Metzgers present research projects include a forthcoming volume on social ethics inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s personalist philosophy and public theology, most notably Dr. Kings prophetic critique of the Vietnam War.