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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Christian institutions & organizations
According to George Barna, uncovering God's vision for your
ministry is not an option. It's essential for the most productive
ministry that will accomplish God's goals for building his kingdom.
Ministry leaders with a clear picture from God of where they are
headed are much more likely to experience a successful journey. In
this book, Barna uncovers how God has shared his vision throughout
history, how vision is different from mission, common practices and
beliefs that inhibit true vision, practical steps toward
experiencing and carrying out God's unique vision for them, and
ways to share and promote congregational ownership of the vision.
Addresses the nature of the influence of the European Enlightenment
on the beliefs and practice of the Protestant missionaries who went
to Asia and Africa from the mid-eighteenth century onwards,
particularly British missions and the formative role of the
Scottish Enlightenment on their thinking.
First published in 1926. 'These documents are full of intimate
interest' Times Literary Supplement 'A serious and intensely
interesting piece of work' The Guardian The Jesuit missionaries
were some of the earliest Europeans to find their way into the
Mogul empire in the sixteenth century. Spending more years at
Akbar's court than others did months, and traversing his dominions
from Lahore to Kabul, and from Kashmir to the Deccan, they
undoubtedly sowed the seeds of British influence in the East.
Reproducing, or summarizing the most valuable of the missionaries'
letters written prior to 1610, this volume makes available the
illegible and scattered primary sources on the reign of the Emperor
Akbar, and as such, forms the earliest European description of the
Mogul Empire.
Where can you see an effigy of a Templar? What prompted King John
to hand England over to an Italian? Who worked for the Templars in
Yorkshire? The Knights Templar in Yorkshire answers all these
questions and many more. This new book explores what medieval life
was like during the Templars' stay in Yorkshire. Not only was it
the biggest county in Britain, but in Templar terms it was also the
richest. They owned more land, property and people in Yorkshire
than in any other county in England. This fascinating volume takes
the reader on an intimate tour of the ten major Templar sites
established in Yorkshire, and reveals what life was like for their
inhabitants - how the land was farmed, what the population ate, how
they were taxed and local legends. Illustrated with an intriguing
collection of photographs and specially commissioned maps, this
book is sure to appeal to anyone interested in medieval history.
You can serve God and his people for a lifetime and do it with
passion and joy. You do not have to become another casualty in the
growing number of leaders who have compromised their integrity,
character, and ministry because they failed to lead an examined and
accountable life. The road forward is clearly marked. Leaders must
make a decision to humbly and consistently examine their inner
lives and identify areas of needed change and growth. Also, wise
leaders commit to listen to the voices of those who will love them
enough to speak the truth and point out problems and potential
pitfalls. Kevin Harney writes, "The vision of this book is to
assist leaders as they discover the health, wisdom, and joy of
living an examined life. It is also to give practical tools for
self-examination." Sharing stories and wisdom from his years in
ministry, Harney shows you how to maintain the most powerful tool
in your leadership toolbox: YOU. Your heart, so you can love well.
Your mind, so you can continue to learn and grow. Your ears, your
eyes, your mouth ... consider this your essential guide to
conducting your own complete interior health exam, so you can spot
and fix any problems, preserve the things that matter most, and
grow as a source of vision, strength, and hope to others.
With so many injustices, small and great, across the world and
right at our doorstep, what are people of faith to do? Since the
1930s, organizing movements for social justice in the U.S. have
largely been built on assumptions that are secular origin--such as
reliance on self-interest and having a common enemy as a motivator
for change. But what if Christians were to shape their organizing
around the implications of the truth that God is real and Jesus is
risen? Alexia Salvatierra has developed a model of social action
that is rooted in the values and convictions born of faith.
Together with theologian Peter Heltzel, this model of "faith-rooted
organizing" offers a path to meaningful social change that takes
seriously the command to love God and to love our neighbor as
ourself.
Christian Book Award (R) program Foreword INDIES Book of the Year
Finalist Outreach Resources of the Year Christianity Today Book
Award The Gospel Coalition Book Award Emerging Public Intellectual
Award Growing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew
firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks
the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in
the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of
Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional
Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or
viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but
it has something vital to say. Reading While Black is a personal
and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical
interpretation. At a time in which some within the African American
community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the
struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that
reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is
invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing
the urgent issues of our times. He advocates for a model of
interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the
collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular
questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place
and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging,
and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. McCaulley demonstrates
this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often
overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political
protest, policing, and slavery. Ultimately McCaulley calls the
church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which
Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social
location as well as the cultures of others. Reading While Black
moves the conversation forward.
2011 Outreach Magazine Book Award winner The world is becoming
increasingly diverse. More and more of our neighbors are from a
variety of cultures, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. But most
churches are still culturally homogenous and do not represent every
tribe and tongue. What can we do to minister more effectively to
our multicultural society? David Anderson and Margarita Cabellon
bring together an experienced team of practitioners to share best
practices for multicultural ministry. First they lay out the
biblical rationale for multicultural community as God's vision for
his people. Then key leaders share personal journeys and practical
ideas for multicultural leadership development, worship, children's
ministry, outreach and much more. Drawing on the pioneering
expertise of Bridgeway Community Church and BridgeLeader Network,
the contributors present a holistic and multifaceted portrait of
what a dynamic, grace-filled and diverse ministry can look like.
Our tribalized world is crying out for healing. Discover how you
can minister to others as agents of God's reconciliation and hope.
The most popular source of theological hope for modern Christians
is that of Jurgen Moltmann. Preachers, teachers, and lay people
reflect Moltmann's influence, with their hope in a this-worldly
eschatology and suffering God. However, an exclusive reliance on
that hope deprives the church of crucial resources in the face of
global economic, environmental, and military crises. Our Only Hope
explores Moltmannian hope and considers its costs before looking
elsewhere for additional contributions, from Thomas Aquinas'
theological virtue of hope to nihilism and beyond, in order to
encourage the church to sustain and practise hope in Jesus Christ,
our only hope.
A full and comprehensive survey of the development of the
Cistercian Order which emerged from the tumultuous intellectual and
religious fervour of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The
Cistercians (White Monks) were the most successful monastic
experiment to emerge from the tumultuous intellectual and religious
fervour of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. By around 1150 they
had established houses the length and breadth of Western
Christendom and were internationally renowned. They sought to
return to a simple form of monastic life, as set down in the Rule
of St Benedict, and preferred rural locations "far from the haunts
of men".But, as recent research has shown, they were by no means
isolated from society but influenced, and were influenced by, the
world around them; they moved with the times. This book explores
the phenomenon that was the Cistercian Order, drawing on recent
research from various disciplines to consider what it was that made
the Cistercians distinctive and how they responded to developments.
The book addresses current debates regarding the origins and
evolution of the Order; discusses the key primary sources for
knowledge; and covers architecture, administration, daily life,
spirituality, the economy and the monks' ties with the world.
Professor Janet Burton teaches at theSchool of Archaeology, History
and Anthropology, University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Dr Julie
Kerr is Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History,
University of St Andrews.
The Society of Jesus was founded by Ignatius Loyola on a principal
of strict obedience to papal and superiors' authorities, yet the
nature of the Jesuits's work and the turbulent political
circumstances in which they operated, inevitably brought them into
conflict with the Catholic hierarchy. In order to better understand
and contextualise the debates concerning obedience, this book
examines the Jesuits of south-western Europe during the generalate
of Claudio Acquaviva. Acquaviva's thirty year generalate
(1581-1615) marked a challenging time for the Jesuits, during which
their very system of government was called into doubt. The need for
obedience and the limits of that obedience posed a question of
fundamental importance both to debates taking place within the
Society, and to the definition of a collective Jesuit identity. At
the same time, struggles for jurisdiction between political states
and the papacy, as well as the difficulties raised by the
Protestant Reformation, all called for matters to be rethought.
Divided into four chapters, the book begins with an analysis of the
texts and contexts in which Jesuits reflected on obedience at the
turn of the seventeenth century. The three following chapters then
explore the various Ignatian sources that discussed obedience,
placing them within their specific contexts. In so doing the book
provides fascinating insights into how the Jesuits under Acquaviva
approached the concept of obedience from theological and practical
standpoints.
Adam Smith wrote in a Scotland where Calvinism, Continental natural
law theory, Stoic philosophy, and the Newtonian tradition of
scientific natural theology were key to the intellectual lives of
his contemporaries. But what impact did these ideas have on Smith's
system? What was Smith's understanding of nature, divine
providence, and theodicy? How was the new discourse of political
economy positioned in relation to moral philosophy and theology? In
this volume a team of distinguished contributors consider Smith's
work in relation to its Scottish Enlightenment religious
background, and offer stimulating theological interpretations of
his account of fallible human nature, his providential account of
markets, and his invisible hand metaphor. Adam Smith as Theologian
it is a pioneering study which will alter our view of Smith and
open up new lines of thinking about contemporary economics.
Nationhood, Providence, and Witness argues that problems with
recognizing the State of Israel lie at the heart of approaches to
nationhood and unease over nationalism in modern Protestant
theology, as well as modern social theory. Three interrelated
themes are explored. The first is the connection between a
theologian's attitude to recognizing Israel and their approach to
the providential place of nations in the divine economy. Following
from this, the argument is made that theologians' handling of both
modern and ancient Israel are mirrored profoundly in the question
of recognition and ethical treatment of the nations to which they
belong, along with neighboring nations. The third theme is how
social theory, represented by certain key figures, has handled the
same issues. Four major theologians are discussed: Reinhold
Niebuhr, Rowan Williams, John Milbank, and Karl Barth. Alongside
them are placed social theorists and scholars of religion and
nationalism, including Mark Juergensmeyer, Philip Jenkins, Anthony
Smith, and Adrian Hastings. In the process, debates over the
relationship between theology and social theory are reconfigured in
concrete terms around the challenge of recognition of the State of
Israel as well as stateless nations. Carys Moseley studied Classics
and Theology at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and
Edinburgh, and has taught Theology and Christian Ethics at the
University of Edinburgh. She is the author of Nations and
Nationalism in the Theology of Karl Barth (2013). 'Here is a lively
study of nationhood . . . that] will undoubtedly raise hackles,
provoke discussion and dissent. . . . Here is swashbuckling,
stimulating theology, which should be carefully studied not only by
theologians, but by people of many faiths, political and social
theorists, and ethicists. Alan P.F. Sell, author of 'Philosophy,
Dissent and Nonconformity' (2003) and 'Confessing the Faith
Yesterday and Today' (2013). Nationalism and the concept of
nationhood is something Christian theologians have shied away from.
The tragedy of the Holocaust, the European experience during the
twentieth century, and the fractious state of the Middle East
during the twenty-first have given us all pause for thought. On the
basis of a fresh understanding of Israel, Moseley tackles negative
attitudes toward the integrity of stateless nations and suggests
creative ways in which current missiology and theological ethics
can respond positively. D. Densil Morgan, Professor of Theology,
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Winner of the Michael Ramsay Prize 2016 Dementia is one of the most
feared diseases in Western society today. Some have even gone so
far as to suggest euthanasia as a solution to the perceived
indignity of memory loss and the disorientation that accompanies
it. In this book John Swinton develops a practical theology of
dementia for caregivers, people with dementia, ministers, hospital
chaplains, and medical practitioners as he explores two primary
questions: * Who am I when I've forgotten who I am? * What does it
mean to love God and be loved by God when I have forgotten who God
is? Offering compassionate and carefully considered theological and
pastoral responses to dementia and forgetfulness, Swinton's
Dementia: Living in the Memories of God redefines dementia in light
of the transformative counter story that is the gospel.
This book offers the first comprehensive systematic theological
reflection on arguably the most serious issue facing humanity and
other creatures today. Responding to climate change is often left
to scientists, policy makers and activists, but what understanding
does theology have to offer? In this collection, the authors
demonstrate that there is vital cultural and intellectual work for
theologians to perform in responding to climate science and in
commending a habitable way forward. Written from a range of
denominations and traditions yet with ecumenical intent, the
authors explore key Christian doctrines and engage with some of the
profound issues raised by climate change. Key questions considered
include: What may be said about the goodness of creation in the
face of anthropogenic climate change? And how does theology handle
a projected future without the human? The volume provides students
and scholars with fascinating theological insight into the
complexity of climate change.
Frederich Stanley Arnot was among the first of the Plymouth
Brethren to take the gospel to Africa in the late 19th-century
missionary expansion across the Kalahari desert, opening Protestant
missions in Barotseland, Angola and Katanga in the 1880s.
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