Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions 1857-1957: Conversion in Theory and Practice uses historical perspective to explore strategies and methods of the Protestant and the Roman Catholic missionaries in Igboland and the Igbo response during the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The subtitle of this book points out the objective, premises, and thrust to the reader. Using oral traditions, primary sources, and the present writer's own life experience both as a Christian convert and a missionary co-partner in the evangelization enterprise, the text examines the missions' programs and missteps, as well as their impact on the people. Appropriate for both specific and generalized audiences, this book will appeal to readers interested in cultural sublimation and in the overall Christianization efforts in Africa.

This unique collaboration by academic historians, Oneida elders, and Episcopal clergy tells the fascinating story of how the oldest Protestant mission and house of worship in the upper Midwest took root in the Oneida community. Personal bonds that developed between the Episcopal clergy and the Wisconsin Oneidas proved more important than theology in allowing the community to accept the Christian message brought by outsiders. Episcopal bishops and missionaries in Wisconsin were at times defenders of the Oneidas against outside whites attempting to get at their lands and resources. At other times, these clergy initiated projects that the Oneidas saw as beneficial-a school, a hospital, or a lace-making program for Oneida women that provided a source of income and national recognition for their artistry. The clergy incorporated the Episcopal faith into an Iroquoian cultural and religious framework-the Condolence Council ritual-that had a longstanding history among the Six Nations. In turn, the Oneidas modified the very form of the Episcopal faith by using their own language in the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum as well as by employing Oneida in their singing of Christian hymns. Christianity continues to have real meaning for many American Indians. The Wisconsin Oneidas and the Episcopal Church testifies to the power and legacy of that relationship.

A practical, road-tested vision and process to equip church leaders to reinvigorate their church How can churches stay healthy and dynamic over the long-term? What's needed to avoid or reverse church stagnation and decline? While some churches are vibrant and growing, many more are struggling, especially after Covid. The congregation might be declining and ageing, there's little success in reaching out to with the gospel, and more time is spent on inward facing problems than loving God and loving others. But the potential that could be released is huge. David Brown draws on his experience revitalising a church in central Paris to offer a vision and a process for church revitalisation, with a focus on UK and European contexts. Whether you are church planting, in a well-established and thriving church, or looking to turn around a church in decline, Brown provides biblically grounded wisdom along with change management principles for long-term health. When we reapply God's priorities to the church, we unleash new life and energy in following Christ in community.

If God is in control of everything, can Christians sit back and not bother to evangelize? Or does active evangelism imply that God is not really sovereign at all? In this classic study, J. I. Packer shows how false both these attitudes are. In a careful review of the biblical evidence, he demonstrates how a right understanding of God's sovereignty is not so much a barrier to evangelism as an incentive and powerful support for it.

The Emerging Church movement developed in the mid-1990s among primarily white, urban, middle-class pastors and laity who were disenchanted with America's conservative Evangelical sub-culture. It is a response to the increasing divide between conservative Evangelicals and concerned critics who strongly oppose what they consider overly slick, corporate, and consumerist versions of faith. A core feature of their response is a challenge to traditional congregational models, often focusing on new church plants and creating networks of related house churches. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork, James S. Bielo explores the impact of the Emerging Church movement on American Evangelicals. He combines ethnographic analysis with discussions of the movement's history, discursive contours, defining practices, cultural logics, and contentious interactions with conservative Evangelical critics to rethink the boundaries of "Evangelical" as a category. Ultimately, Bielo makes a novel contribution to our understanding of the important changes at work among American Protestants, and illuminates how Emerging Evangelicals interact with the cultural conditions of modernity, late modernity, and visions of "postmodern" Christianity.

In the past decades historians have interpreted early modern Christian missions not simply as an adjunct to Western imperialism, but a privileged field for cross-cultural encounters. Placing the Jesuit missions into a global phenomenon that emphasizes economic and cultural relations between Europe and the East, this book analyzes the possibilities and limitations of the religious conversion in the Micronesian islands of Guahan (or Guam) and the Northern Marianas. Frontiers are not rigid spatial lines separating culturally different groups of people, but rather active agents in the transformation of cultures. By bringing this local dimension to the fore, the book adheres to a process of missionary "glocalization" which allowed Chamorros to enter the international community as members of Spain's regional empire and the global communion of the Roman Catholic Church.

This book demonstrates that the encounter between Christianity and various African cultures gives rise to a number of problems for Africans who become Christians. It draws attention to certain traditional African beliefs and practices that seem to be incompatible with Christianity and create problems for Africans who embrace Christianity. Against this background it argues for the need to inculturate Christianity. It contends that in this exercise African Christianity can learn from the attempts at inculturation found in the New Testament times and in the early church. It offers examples of how the early church sought to make use of non-Christian categories of thought and elements in its articulation of the Christian message and in worship. It suggests a few areas of Ghanaian and African life where inculturation could and should take place. These include funeral rites, widowhood rites, child-naming rites, the rites of marriage, libation and christology. It concludes by offering some guidelines for use in the process of the inculturation of Christianity in Africa today.

This book explores the vital role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in compensating for the market's and government's inability to provide vital services. Its key theoretical contribution is the notion that poverty is the result of a triadic failure-when markets, government, and civil society become dysfunctional at the same time. Using data on Catholic missionaries' development work, this study presents the various ways by which FBOs mitigate market and government failures in healthcare, education, and social services, and in the process build and strengthen civil society. This study has two main objectives. First, it aims to present an overview of missionaries' development work, evaluating the socioeconomic significance of their faith-based development work. In addition, various comparative advantages and disadvantages have been imputed to FBOs in the religion-development literature, and we assess to what extent missionaries actually exhibit these posited qualities in practice. Second, the groundwork is laid for future religion-development scholars by presenting a theoretical framework and a method for evaluating the role and contributions of FBOs in the larger community. This is an important investigation of contemporary worldwide Christianity and its relationship with development. As such, it will interest scholars of religious studies and missiology, as well as development economics, public service and the political economy.

Amy Carmichael was a remarkable leader. She lived her life out of a strong belief in a God who is real, all powerful and who provides for all our needs. She had a deep love for people and a determination to help them. She provided a home, an education and health care for hundreds of girls and boys whom she rescued from the jaws of an evil Indian practice of selling children to temple prostitution. When Amy Carmichael first arrived in Dohnavur, India, it was a barren plain; she transformed it into a valley of springs. The Dohnavur Fellowship she established survived the turbulent times of two World Wars, regular outbreaks of disease and persistent spiritual attack. Amy authored nearly forty books that continue to inspire and challenge many all around the world. "Joanna Williamson is a gifted storyteller who is able to weave together the narrative of Amy Carmichael's life with excerpts from her writings which draw the reader intimately into one of the most well-known missionaries to ever enter India. This story is filled with life, conviction, pathos and poignancy and is engagingly presented." Dr Timothy C. Tennent - President, Asbury Theological Seminary and Professor of World Christianity

So you have a problem with evangelical Christians? Which ones? These are the provocative questions Tom Krattenmaker poses to his fellow progressives in The Evangelicals You Don't Know. He challenges stereotypes about evangelical Christians and introduces readers to a movement of "new evangelicals" who are bringing forth a non-partisan expression of evangelicalism and creating opportunities for alliances and partnerships to advance the common good. Krattenmaker argues that cultural fault lines no longer divide the religious from the secular, or the evangelicals from "everyone else." Rather, the lines that matter now run between the fundamentalist culture warriors of both the left and right on one side, and, on the other, the good-doers of any faith, or none, who want to work together to solve our society's problems and introduce a new civility and decency to our shared national life. Krattenmaker is one of the best-informed non-evangelicals writing about evangelicalism in American public life. He offers interesting stories, intriguing character sketches, and incisive writing in his readable and engaging book. Recounting the findings and insights gleaned from his many years of engagement with evangelical America, he draws conclusions sure to surprise, challenge, and even inspire non-evangelicals who had written off this controversial and influential faith movement. The Evangelicals You Don't Know offers a refreshing alternative to narratives that pay attention only to aspects of evangelicalism that are most distasteful and threatening to secular-progressives and liberal religionists - providing instead a hopeful introduction to promising new currents rising among theologically conservative Christians.

An analysis of African American televangelists as cultural icons Through their constant television broadcasts, mass video distributions, and printed publications, African American religious broadcasters have a seemingly ubiquitous presence in popular culture. They are on par with popular entertainers and athletes in the African American community as cultural icons even as they are criticized by others for taking advantage of the devout in order to subsidize their lavish lifestyles. For these reasons questions abound. Do televangelists proclaim the message of the gospel or a message of greed? Do they represent the "authentic" voice of the black church or the Christian Right in blackface? Does the phenomenon reflect orthodox "Christianity" or ethnocentric "Americaninity" wrapped in religious language? Watch This! seeks to move beyond such polarizing debates by critically delving into the dominant messages and aesthetic styles of African American televangelists and evaluating their ethical implications.

aA great service for all of us who teach undergraduate and graduate courses in U.S. religious history. This fine historian has provided us with a representative collection of primary texts, in the process allowing our students the opportunity to encounter the diversity of evangelicals and evangelical ideas in twentieth-century America.a
--William Vance Trollinger, author of "Godas Empire: William Bell Riley and Midwestern Fundamentalism"

Evangelicalism retains the doctrine of biblical authority that developed during the Protestant Reformation as well as the sense that each individual stands in need of a life transforming experience of forgiveness of sins that can only come through faith in Christ.

With the rise of the Christian Right in American politics over the past quarter-century, there has been renewed interest in Protestant evangelicalism and fundamentalism and their roles in American culture. Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism is a collection of key primary readings tracing the history and development of this religious movement and its intersections with American life and politics, spanning the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first centuries.

The documents deal with issues such as biblical criticism, theology, revivalist preaching, religion and science, religion and politics, and social concerns such as gender and race. Countering notions among some that evangelicalism is monolithic, the diversity of the movement is made evident in texts from the evangelical left as well as the Christian Right.

Each section and many individual texts are prefaced by a brief editoras introduction explaining their background and context. During the period the book covers, evangelicalism went from being the dominant form of religion in America, then to the fringes, then back into the mainstream. These texts provide the reader with a sense of the central core as well as the range of evangelical thinking in the past century.

Each one of us knows the frustration of seeing people we know going down the wrong path or living beneath their purpose. Many of us have reached out, encouraged, even argued with people we care about, on how to live a better life. If we are honest, we may even be frustrated at ourselves, or at least in our ability to make a difference in their lives. In Let Your Voice Be Heard, Jack Redmond shares how anyone who follows Christ can help others connect with Jesus. When this happens, true life transformation can begin to take place. When you share God's love story with others, you not only speak life into people but also invite God's Power into their lives. You were made to win souls! Let Your Voice Be Heard will teach you to walk in new vision and power. It will inspire you to know it's time to end excuses and to share your life! By reading Let Your Voice Be Heard, you will learn: that walking in relationship over time can help people move closer to Jesus. how to share your faith. how to overcome fear. that winning people to Jesus is a process that you can help people with. that God's will is for people all around you to come to know Him. Jesus gave up His life so that others could gain theirs. Each day we are surrounded by people who need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. The only question is, "Will you Let Your Voice Be Heard?"

What was once taboo - faith at work - is increasingly accepted in corporate America. From secretaries to CEOs, growing numbers of businesspeople today want to bring their faith to work. Yet they wrestle with how to do this effectively and appropriately in a pluralistic corporate setting. For help they turn not to their clergy, but to their peers and to a burgeoning cottage industry on spirituality at work. They attend conferences and seminars, participate in Bible study and prayer groups, and read books, blogs, and eNewsletters. They see their faith as a resource for ethical guidance and to help find meaning and purpose in their work.
In God at Work, David W. Miller looks at how this Faith at Work movement developed and considers its potential value for business and society. Done well, the integration of faith and work has positive implications at the personal level, as well as for corporate ethics and the broader economic sphere. At the same time, increasing expressions of religion and spiritual practices at work also present the threat of divisiveness and discrimination.
Drawing on the insights of theological ethics as well as the sociology of religion, Miller analyzes the history of the modern day Faith at Work movement from its roots in the late 19th century to its modern formulation and trajectory. He examines the diversity of its members and modes of expression, and constructs a new framework for understanding, interpreting, and critiquing the movement and its future. Miller concludes that workers and professionals have a deep and lasting desire to live a holistic life, to integrate the claims of their faith with the demands of their work. He documents the surprisingabdication of this field by church and theological academy and its embrace, ironically, by the management academy.
Offering compelling new evidence of the depth and breadth of spirituality at work, Miller concludes that faith at work is a bona fide social movement and here to stay. He establishes the importance of this movement, identifies the possibilities and problems, and points toward future research questions. God at Work is essential reading for business scholars and leaders, theologians and clergy, and anyone interested in the integration of faith and work.

Religion has always played an important, if often contested, role in the public domain. This book focuses on how faith-based organisations (FBOs) interact with the public sphere, showing how faith-based actors are themselves shaped by wider processes and global forces such as globalisation, migration, foreign policy and neoliberal markets. Focusing on a case study of an FBO in Morocco which gives aid to sub-Saharan African irregular migrants, the book reveals some of the challenges the organisation faces as it tries to negotiate at once local, national and international contexts through their particular Christian values. This book contends that the contradictions, tensions and ambiguities that arise are primarily a result of the organisation having to negotiate a normative global secular liberalism which requires a strict demarcation between religion and politics, and religion and the secular. Faith-based actors, particularly within humanitarianism, have to constantly navigate this divide and in examining the question of how religious values translate into humanitarian and development practices, categories such as religion, the secular and politics and the boundaries between them will need to be interrogated. This book explores the diversity and complexity of the work of FBOs and will be of great interest to students and researchers working at the intersections of humanitarianism and development studies, politics and religion.

Jose de Acosta's De procuranda Indorum salute: A Call for Evangelical Reforms in Colonial Peru contextualizes and analyzes the deployment of Catholic missionary forces in the Andes. Its exhaustive approach to the ecclesiastic and political reforms of late-sixteenth-century Peru exposes the philosophical and legal underpinnings of Spain's colonial policies. As this book analyzes Jose de Acosta's De procuranda Indorum salute, one of the most important treatises of the colonial period, it explores influences and intentions and reveals context and subtext. Comprehensive in its appraisal of Acosta's intellectual achievement, this book is essential for scholars and students of this early period of Christian and European expansion in the Americas. Not only does Gregory J. Shepherd examine Acosta's missionary manual against the controversial backdrop of Las Casas and Sepulveda, but he also reconstructs the political atmosphere surrounding Toledo's massive and intrusive transformation of Andean life. Most importantly, this text carries out a thorough study of the ideologies - Christian, Jesuit, and European - underlying Acosta's appeal for political, social, and ecclesiastic reform.

There is a deepening crisis in mission as practiced by North American congregations. Many mission activities are more effective at satisfying church members than making a lasting difference, producing what's too often consumer-oriented "selfie mission." Too much effort is based on colonial-era assumptions of mission launched from a position of power. These practices are not just ineffective-they deviate from mission in the way of Jesus. Hunter Farrell and Bala Khyllep want to help free congregational mission from harmful cultural forces so churches can better partner with God's work in the world. They invite leaders to lay the foundation for more faithful and effective missions with three core elements: a Christ-centered theology of mission rooted in companionship an appetite and competence to engage across differences with cultural humility insights and strategies to accompany local and global neighbors in co-development Farrell and Khyllep deliver key takeaways from the latest mission research, inspiring examples from innovative congregations, and a set of step-by-step tools for churches to discern and implement sound practices that will work for them. The local church community is well-positioned to build a spreading circle of relationships centered in Jesus Christ. With this book, congregations of every Christian tradition will find practical help to direct their resources in truly life-giving ways as they seek the mission of God.

You ve heard the overwhelming statistics. You ve probably felt compassion, guilt, powerlessness, hopelessness. You might have given money, food, clothes, or even some of your time to help a few of the billions of people living in destitution in our world. But have you actually engaged with someone, another human being created in the image of God, who is dying in the arms of poverty?Andy Matheson, Oasis International Director, argues that we can only begin to understand poverty, its effects, and possible solutions when we focus on the truth that all people are made in God?'s image. God calls us to meet with the poor not primarily to offer services or to develop programs, but to developrelationships and to show God?'s love.

The present volume, based on a related conference in Erfurt, offers interdisciplinary insights on the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church or the Pan-Orthodox Council, convened on the island of Crete in June 2016. Although some Orthodox Churches finally declined to participate - the most prominent being the Russian one -, the Council was a most significant development. It brought a considerable number of Orthodox Churches together and discussed crucial issues pertaining to today's Orthodox world. However, it also vividly revealed existing serious problems of inter-Orthodox communication and collaboration. The contributions in this volume shed light on main issues related to this Council and their multiple repercussions for Pan-Orthodox unity and the future of the Orthodox world.