This book concerns the missionary philanthropic movement which burst onto the social scene in early nineteenth century in England, becoming a popular provincial movement which sought no less than national and global reformation. It central concerns are: the significance of the civilizing mission for the English middle class, from the domestic lives of individual families, through local and regional networks, to high political campaigns; the relationships between missionary men and women, and the importance of "domestic reform" within the movement; and the relationship between missions at home and overseas and their significance for changing understandings of class and cultural difference.

While atheists and religious liberals purport themselves to be enlightened intellectuals, what we find, upon deeper exploration, is that their "intellectualism" is simply a facade. Conversely, many believers are unable to defend their faith and shrink back when confronted with tough questions, particularly those concerning Jesus being the only way to Heaven. Whether out of fear, lack of knowledge, or a spirit of compromise, the ability to express the idea of one true Holy Book, and one way true way to Heaven, seems to escape far too many Christians. Common Sense Apologetics will inspire Christians to drop this spirit of timidity, while gaining confidence and loving boldness when sharing the faith. Foundational, is the fact that God has not called Christians to believe what is not believable nor defend what is indefensible. The evidence for God's existence and the truth of His Word is abundant and accessible. Christians have Biblical directives to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and lovingly contend for the faith when it is perverted from within and attacked from without. This book is uniquely constructed to present a practical approach to learning why the Christian faith is true, and a better method for defending that truth.

What is the value of medical research? With contributions from anthropologists, sociologists and activists, this approach brings into focus the forms of value - social, epistemic, and economic - that are involved in medical research practices and how these values intersect with everyday living. Though their work covers wide empirical ground -from HIV trials in Kenya and drug donation programs in Tanzania to industry-academic collaborations in the British National Health Service - the authors share a commitment to understanding the practices of medical research as embedded in both local social worlds and global markets. Their collective concern is to rethink the conventional ethical demarcations betwweenpaid and unpaid research services in light of the social and material organisation of medical research practices. . Rather than warn against economic incursions into medical knowledge and health practice, or, alternatively, the reduction of local experience to the standards of bioethics, we hope to illuminate the array of practices, knowledges, and techniques through which the value of medical research is brought into being. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Cultural Economy.

There is nothing traditional about the typical family of the twenty-first century, and so it follows that ministering to today's families presents an assortment of new challenges. Rainey believes that the resources needed by the church to confront and combat family problems do exist, and "Ministering to Twenty-First Century Families" is a user-friendly guide to combating the destruction of the family unit. Offering practical solutions and encouraging action, Rainey calls for a "roll-up-your-sleeves" approach to healing weary families.

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aA thorough ethnography that sweeps the reader into the world of Marian visionary Estela Ruiz, her family and followers, and the evangelizing ministries they have created in South Phoenix. . . . Fascinating.a
--Timothy Matovina, Director, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame

"This wonderfully written study, one of the most comprehensive and insightful books about modern Marian apparitions in North America, takes the story from the Virgin's first appearance to a feminist professional woman distressed by family burdens, through the widening sphere of the apparitions' impact on family and community, to the cult's ultimate role as a national and international vehicle for Catholic evangelizing, especially among Hispanics."
--"CHOICE," highly recommended

"This book stands as an intimate portrait of the visionary; 'a woman torn between the individualism she enjoyed in the 'Anglo world' and her familial commitments in her Mexican-American home.'"
--"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion"

"This is a respectful, sensitive, clearly written book in which the author seeks to resolve the alien ethnographer's dilemma by 'writing like a relative.' The reader's reward is a rich sense of the circumstances and struggles of at least some Mexican Americans in South Phoenix to make a good life in the contemporary United States that balances faith and family with education, material strivings, professional growth, discrimination, and personal suffering in ways that begin to bridge the conceptual divide between offical and popular religion."
--"American Ethnologist"

aA compellingaccount of Marian devotion as alived religionaa
--"Sociology of Religion"

In 1998, a Mexican American woman named Estela Ruiz began seeing visions of the Virgin Mary in south Phoenix. The apparitions and messages spurred the creation of Maryas Ministries, a Catholic evangelizing group, and its sister organization, ESPIRITU, which focuses on community-based initiatives and social justice for Latinos/as.

Based on ten years of participant observation and in-depth interviews, The Virgin of El Barrio traces the spiritual transformation of Ruiz, the development of the community that has sprung up around her, and the international expansion of their message. Their organizations blend popular and official Catholicism as well as evangelical Protestant styles of praise and worship, shedding light on Catholic responses to the tensions between popular and official piety and the needs of Mexican Americans.

Jim Elliot was a missionary--and then a martyr at the hands of the Auca Indians to whom he was witnessing. At the age of 28, he left behind a young wife, a baby daughter, and an incredible legacy of faith. Jim's volumes of personal journals, written over many years, reveal the inner struggles and victories that he experienced before his untimely death. In The Journals of Jim Elliot, you'll come to know this intelligent and articulate man who yearns to know God's plan for his life, details his fascinating missions work, and reveals his love for Elisabeth--first as a single man, then as a happily married one. Edited by his widow, Jim's personal yet universal musings about faith, love, and work will show you how to apply the Bible to the situations you face every day. They will inspire you to lead a life of obedience, regardless of the cost, and delight you with an amazing story of courage and determination.

This book provides a compelling narrative history of the experiences and achievements of female British missionaries in China, India, and Africa during the 19th century and first half of the 20th century-the first such account available. Despite the fact that by the early 20th century female missionaries began to outnumber their male counterparts, there are few publications that document the contributions of women to the missionary movement against a backdrop of civil unrest, famine, and war. Western Daughters in Eastern Lands: British Missionary Women in Asia provides accurate and insightful information to rectify this glaring omission. In this book, author Rosemary Seton draws upon memoirs, letters, diaries, and mission records to create a unique and fascinating history of the British women whose sense of vocation took them to the East. As most British missionary women of this period were Anglicans, Baptists, Congregationalists, and Methodists, the focus is upon Protestant missionaries; Catholics are also included, however. Through these sources, a clear picture of women missionaries emerges: their social background and motivation; their lives on the mission-field and their place in mission hierarchies; their selection and training; and their educational, evangelical, and medical work. The book concludes with an assessment of their achievements and impact on foreign societies. Original documents include materials extracted from letters, diaries, and memoirs of and about British women missionaries Photographs from the rich archives of British missionary societies and from private collections

This is a progressive Christian approach to soteriology and missiology in a global, postcolonial context. Much of the history of mission has been interlaced with imperial structures. Often the colonial and economic impulses of the colonial powers overshadow some of the counter-imperial tendencies of biblical texts and ecclesial communities. Evangelical missionary theologies have led to cultural genocide. These missionary practices have been heavily critiqued in the last few decades. Christian progressives have been in the forefront of the critique of mission, but have often responded in ways that reject the of mission of the word, instead highlighting a mission focused on developmental concerns that obscures the Christian content but continues to push Western capitalist structures into 'developing' postcolonial societies. Instead, this book proposes an integration of gospel and culture. It aims to steer a third course towards an integration of the knowledge and treasures, the losses and laments of Christianities forged in colonizing and colonized societies. Proposing that these Christianities are more alike than different, and in need of each other for reconciliation of communities facing the ecological and economic collapse at the limits of what the planet can carry.

A fervant millennial hope has often existed at the heart of Protestant evangelicalism. Varieties of eschatology have exercised a profound impact on the movement's theology and history. Although millennialism had a respected lineage within conservative Protestantism, it flourished with enormous energy in the early nineteenth century as evangelicals responded to the threat of the American and European revolutions and the cultural pessimism of the Romantic movement. By mid-century, the millennialism which had first been articulated for the defence of Protestant conservatism had paved the way for the subversion of historic theology and church practice, as a growing confidence in biblical inerrancy and the 'literal' hermeneutic challenged many of the historical assumptions of the evangelical faith. This volume of essays expands on neglected aspects of the impact of the evangelical millennialism in Britain and Ireland between 1800 and 1880 and includes an essay charting recent trends in the study of millennialism.

This comprehensive guide will facilitate scholarly research concerning the history of Christianity in China as well as the wider Sino-Western cultural encounter. It will assist scholars in their search for material on the anthropological, educational, medical, scientific, social, political, and religious dimensions of the missionary presence in China prior to 1950.The guide contains nearly five hundred entries identifying both Roman Catholic and Protestant missionary sending agencies and related religious congregations. Each entry includes the organization's name in English, followed by its Chinese name, country of origin, and denominational affiliation. Special attention has been paid to identifying the many small, lesser-known groups that arrived in China during the early decades of the twentieth century. In addition, a special category of the as yet little-studied indigenous communities of Chinese women has also been included. Multiple indexes enhance the guide's accessibility.