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Books > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Baptist Churches
'For anyone who enjoyed Hillbilly Elegy or Educated, Unfollow is an
essential text' - Louis Theroux 'Such a moving, redemptive,
clear-eyed account of religious indoctrination' - Pandora Sykes 'A
nuanced portrait of the lure and pain of zealotry' New York Times
'Unfolds like a suspense novel . . . A brave, unsettling, and
fascinating memoir about the damage done by religious
fundamentalism' NPR A Radio Four Book of the Week Pick for June
2021 As featured on the BBC documentaries, 'The Most Hated Family
in America' and 'Surviving America's Most Hated Family' It was an
upbringing in many ways normal. A loving home, shared with
squabbling siblings, overseen by devoted parents. Yet in other ways
it was the precise opposite: a revolving door of TV camera crews
and documentary makers, a world of extreme discipline, of siblings
vanishing in the night. Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the
Westboro Baptist Church - the fire-and-brimstone religious sect at
once aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic, rejoiceful for AIDS
and natural disasters, and notorious for its picketing the funerals
of American soldiers. From her first public protest, aged five, to
her instrumental role in spreading the church's invective via
social media, her formative years brought their difficulties. But
being reviled was not one of them. She was preaching God's truth.
She was, in her words, 'all in'. In November 2012, at the age of
twenty-six, she left the church, her family, and her life behind.
Unfollow is a story about the rarest thing of all: a person
changing their mind. It is a fascinating insight into a closed
world of extreme belief, a biography of a complex family, and a
hope-inspiring memoir of a young woman finding the courage to find
compassion for others, as well as herself. --- More praise for
Unfollow 'A beautiful, gripping book about a singular soul, and an
unexpected redemption' - Nick Hornby 'A modern-day parable for how
we should speak and listen to each other' - Dolly Alderton 'Her
journey - from Westboro to becoming one of the most empathetic,
thoughtful, humanistic writers around - is exceptional and
inspiring' - Jon Ronson 'A gripping story, beautifully told . . .
It takes real talent to produce a book like this. Its message could
not be more urgent' Sunday Times
A veteran Baptist pastor and ministry professor offers a
distinctive free church vision for pastoral leadership, attending
to voices from the past four centuries as they speak about the
practice of ministry. The book contains theological reflection on
current ministry issues among Baptists based on biblical and
historical foundations and reflects a diversity of Baptist life
across time and around the world, including many different voices.
Each chapter contains reflection questions to help readers consider
the implications of Baptist thinking.
This study describes the creation of the Primitive Baptist movement
and discusses the main outlines of their thought. It also weaves
the story of the Primitive Baptists with other developments in
American Christianity in the Early Republic.
The revised edition of "A Theology for the Church" retains its
original structure, organized under these traditional theological
categories: revelation, God, humanity, Christ, the Holy Spirit,
salvation, the church, and last things.
Each chapter within these sections contains answers to the
following four questions: What does the Bible say? What has the
church believed? How does it all fit together? How does this
doctrine impact the church today?
Contributions from leading Baptist thinkers R. Albert Mohler, Jr.,
Paige Patterson, and Mark Dever among others will also appeal to
the broader evangelical community. Included in this revision are
new chapters on theological method from a missional perspective
(Bruce Ashford and Keith Whitfield) and theology of creation,
providence, and Sabbath that engages current research in science
and philosophy (Chad Owen Brand). Chapters on special revelation
(David Dockery) and human nature (John Hammett) have also been
updated.
This study describes the creation of the Primitive Baptist movement
and discusses the main outlines of their thought. It also weaves
the story of the Primitive Baptists with other developments in
American Christianity in the Early Republic.
"Clarence Jordan spoke with an unwavering prophetic voice. He
firmly rejected materialism, militarism, and racism as obstacles to
authentic faith... He was a fearless and innovative defender of
human rights." -President Jimmy Carter On 440 depleted acres in
Sumter County, Georgia, a young Baptist preacher and farmer named
Clarence Jordan gathered a few families and set out to show that
Jesus intended more than spiritual fellowship. Like the first
Christians, they would share their land, money, and possessions.
Working together to rejuvenate the soil and the local economy, they
would demonstrate racial and social justice with their lives. Black
and white community members eating together at the same table
scandalized local Christians, drew the ire of the KKK, and led to
drive-by shootings, a firebombing, and an economic boycott. This
bold experiment in nonviolence, economic justice, and sustainable
agriculture was deeply rooted in Clarence Jordan's understanding of
the person and teachings of Jesus, which stood in stark contrast to
the hypocrisy of churches that blessed wars, justified wealth
disparity, and enforced racial segregation. "You can't put
Christianity into practice," Jordan wrote, "You can't make it work.
As desperately as it is needed in this poor, broken world, it is
not a philosophy of life to be 'tried.' Nor is it a social or
ethical ideal which has tantalized humankind with the possibility
of attainment. For Christianity is not a system you work - it is a
Person who works you." This selection from his talks and writings
introduces Clarence Jordan's radically biblical vision to a new
generation of peacemakers, community builders, and activists.
C H Spurgeon said of this great Confession - "Here the youngest
members of our church will have a body of Truth in small compass,
and by means of the scriptural proofs, will be able to give a
reason of the hope that is in them." This brilliant summary of
doctrine (in the same family as the Westminster Confession), with
its invaluable proof texts, is here gently modernised in
punctuation, with archaic words replaced. Explanations of difficult
phrases have been added in italic brackets. A brief history of the
Confession, with an index, is included.
This volume makes a significant contribution to the 'history of
ecclesiastical histories', with a fresh analysis of historians of
evangelicalism from the eighteenth century to the present. It
explores the ways in which their scholarly methods and theological
agendas shaped their writings. Each chapter presents a case study
in evangelical historiography. Some of the historians and
biographers examined here were ministers and missionaries, while
others were university scholars. They are drawn from Anglican,
Baptist, Congregationalist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Fundamentalist
and Pentecostal denominations. Their histories cover not only
transatlantic evangelicalism, but also the spread of the movement
across China, Africa, and indeed the whole globe. Some wrote for a
popular Christian readership, emphasising edification and
evangelical hagiography; others have produced weighty monographs
for the academy. These case studies shed light on the way the
discipline has developed, and also the heated controversies over
whether one approach to evangelical history is more legitimate than
the rest. As a result, this book will be of considerable interest
to historians of religion.
Originally published in 1988 Religious Higher Education in the
United States is a selected bibliography of sources addressing how
religion has changed and affected education in the United States.
This volume attempts to address the problems currently facing
religious institutions of higher education, covering government aid
and the regulation of religious colleges and universities in the
US.
Originally published in 1996 Religious Higher Education in the
United States looks at the issue of higher education and a lack of
a clearly articulated purpose, an issue particularly challenging to
religiously-affiliated institutions. This volume attempts to
address the problems currently facing denomination-affiliated
institutions of higher education, beginning with an introduction to
government aid and the regulation of religious colleges and
universities in the US. The greater part of the volume consists of
24 chapters, each of which begins with a historical essay followed
by annotated bibliographical entries covering primary and secondary
sources dating back to 1986 on various denomination-connected
institutions.
Originally published in 1988 Religious Higher Education in the
United States is a selected bibliography of sources addressing how
religion has changed and affected education in the United States.
This volume attempts to address the problems currently facing
religious institutions of higher education, covering government aid
and the regulation of religious colleges and universities in the
US.
While Baptists through the years have been certain that "war is
hell", they have not always been able to agree on how to respond to
it. This book traces much of this troubled relationship from the
days of Baptist origins with close ties to pacifist Anabaptists to
the responses of Baptists in America to the Vietnam War. Essays
also include discussions of the English Baptist Andrew Fuller's
response to the threat of Napoleon, how Baptists in America dealt
with the War of 1812, the support of Canadian Baptists for
Britain's war in Sudan and Abyssinia in the 1880s, the decisive
effect of the First World War on Canada's T.T. Shields, the
response of Australian Baptists to the Second World War, and how
Russian Baptists dealt with the Cold War. These chapters provide
important analyses of Baptist reactions to various manifestations
of one of society's most intractable problems.
Although literary-historical studies have often focused on the
range of dissenting religious groups and writers that flourished
during the English Revolution, they have rarely had much to say
about seventeenth-century Baptists, or, indeed, Baptist women.
Baptist Women's Writings in Revolutionary Culture, 1640-1680 fills
that gap, exploring how female Baptists played a crucial role in
the group's formation and growth during the 1640s and 50s, by their
active participation in religious and political debate, and their
desire to evangelise their followers. The study significantly
challenges the idea that women, as members of these congregations,
were unable to write with any kind of textual authority because
they were often prevented from speaking aloud in church meetings.
On the contrary, Adcock shows that Baptist women found their way
into print to debate points of church organisation and doctrine, to
defend themselves and their congregations, to evangelise others by
example and by teaching, and to prophesy, and discusses the
rhetorical tactics they utilised in order to demonstrate the value
of women's contributions. In the course of the study, Adcock
considers and analyses the writings of little-studied Baptist
women, Deborah Huish, Katherine Sutton, and Jane Turner, as well as
separatist writers Sara Jones, Susanna Parr, and Anne Venn. She
also makes due connection to the more familiar work of Agnes
Beaumont, Anna Trapnel, and Anne Wentworth, enabling a reassessment
of the significance of those writings by placing them in this wider
context. Writings by these female Baptists attracted serious
attention, and, as Adcock discusses, some even found a
trans-national audience.
Christ declares, "Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye,
except ye abide in me" ( John 15:4). A branch derives life from the
vine by virtue of its union with the vine. Similarly, Christ is the
vine, and we are the branches. There is a vital, organic union
between us. We draw on Christ's life through the Holy Spirit, who
dwells in us. We must, therefore, abide in Christ by cultivating
close and constant communion with him. We must continually look
"unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith" (Hebrews 12:2). The
present work seeks to explain what this looking implies. It does so
by turning to the writings of two largely forgotten Puritans and
Baptists from the seventeenth century - Thomas Wilcox and Vavasor
Powell. Together, they teach us that to abide in Christ is to
behold him in his manifold roles and relations. As we do so, Christ
becomes our all in all.
The author provides a detailed portrait of the Spiritual Baptist
Faith and Orisha Work, two religions that share a common basis in
the traditional religion of the Yoruba in West Africa.
Specifically, the author studies the phenomenon of spirit
possession, an integral aspect of worship in both religions. In the
Spiritual Baptist Faith, a person who is possessed by the Holy
Spirit retains his or her own identity, while in Orisha Work, those
who are possessed by the orishas (spirits), become the spirits.
Both types of possession are based on the Yoruba concept of self in
which identity is dependent on the spirit which animates a physical
body. This common basis of religions enables the respective
populations to interact extensively and explains why an individual
can experience both types of spiritual possession.
Everyday Christians need practical and accessible theology. In this
handbook first published in 1890, Charles Octavius Boothe simply
and beautifully lays out the basics of theology for common people.
"Before the charge 'know thyself,'" Boothe wrote, "ought to come
the far greater charge, 'know thy God.'" He brought the heights of
academic theology down to everyday language, and he helps us do the
same today. Plain Theology for Plain People shows that
evangelicalism needs the wisdom and experience of African-American
Christians. Walter R. Strickland II reintroduces this forgotten
masterpiece for today. Lexham Classics are beautifully typeset new
editions of classic works. Each book has been carefully transcribed
from the original texts, ensuring an accurate representation of the
writing as the author intended it to be read.
Barry Harvey provides a doctrine of the church that combines
Baptist distinctives and origins with an unbending commitment to
the visible church as the social body of Christ. Speaking to the
broader Christian community, Harvey updates, streamlines, and
recontextualizes the arguments he made in an earlier edition of
this book (Can These Bones Live?). This new edition offers a style
of ecclesial witness that can help Christian churches engage
culture. The author suggests new ways Baptists can engage
ecumenically with Catholics and other Protestants, offers insights
for Christian worship and practice, and shows how the fragmented
body of Christ can be re-membered after Christendom.
Originally published in 1996 Religious Higher Education in the
United States looks at the issue of higher education and a lack of
a clearly articulated purpose, an issue particularly challenging to
religiously-affiliated institutions. This volume attempts to
address the problems currently facing denomination-affiliated
institutions of higher education, beginning with an introduction to
government aid and the regulation of religious colleges and
universities in the US. The greater part of the volume consists of
24 chapters, each of which begins with a historical essay followed
by annotated bibliographical entries covering primary and secondary
sources dating back to 1986 on various denomination-connected
institutions.
Malkhaz Songulashvili, former Archbishop of the Evangelical Baptist
Church of Georgia (EBCG), provides a pioneering, exacting, and
sweeping history of Georgian Baptists. Utilizing archival sources
in Georgian, Russian, German, and Englishatranslating many of these
crucial documents for the first time into Englishahe recounts the
history of the EBCG from its formation in 1867 to the present.
While the particular story of Georgian Baptists merits telling in
its own right, and not simply as a feature of Russian religious
life, Songulashvili employs Georgian Baptists as a sustained case
study on the convergence of religion and culture. The interaction
of Eastern Orthodox, Western Protestant, and Russian dissenting
religious traditionsamixed into the political cauldron of Russian
occupation of a formerly distinct eastern European culturealed to a
remarkable experiment in Christian free-church identity.
Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia allows readers to peer
through the lens of intercultural studies to see the powerful
relationships among politics, religion, and culture in the
formation of Georgian Baptists, and their blending of Orthodox
tradition into Baptist life to craft a unique ecclesiology,
liturgy, and aesthetics.
Four hundred seventy years ago the Anabaptist movement was launched
with the inauguration of believers' baptism and the formation of
the first congregation of the Swiss Brethren in Zurich,
Switzerland. This standard introduction to the history of
Anabaptism by noted church historian William R. Estep offers a
vivid chronicle of the rise and spread of the teachings and
heritage of this vigorous, important stream in Christianity. In
this third edition, The Anabaptist Story has been substantially
revised and enlarged to take into account the numerous Anabaptist
sources that have come to light in the last half-century as well as
the significant number of monographs and other scholarly research
on Anabaptist themes that have recently appeared. In interacting
with these materials, Estep challenges a number of assumptions held
by contemporary historians of sixteenth-century Anabaptism and
offers fresh insights into the historical movement to which we owe
the notion of religious liberty that prevails today.
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