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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Christian life & practice > Christian sacraments
Nellie McClung. Her story was her faith. Her work, as politician,
author and feminist reformer of the first half of this century,
makes this a compelling and inspiring biography.
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Table Talk
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Mike Graves
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In Finding All Things In God, Hans Gustafson proposes
pansacramentalism as holding the potential to find the divine in
all things and all things in the divine. Such a proposition carries
significant interreligious implications, particularly in the
practice of theology. Presupposing theological practice as divorced
from spirituality (lived religious experience), Gustafson presents
pansacramentalism as a bridge between the two. In so doing,
Gustafson offers a history of spirituality, sketching the
foundations of a classical approach to sacramentality (through
Aquinas) as well as a contemporary approach to the same (through
Rahner and Chauvet). Through three fascinating case studies, this
book presents particular instances of sacramentality in lived
religious experience. Gustafson offers an exciting method of 'doing
theology', one which is entirely compatible with the
interdisciplinary field of interreligious studies.
Sophie is a curious little girl, as little children tend to be. She
talks with her mom and others about the sacraments and helps
children to glimpse the sacraments through the girl's sense of
wonder. When Sophie asks about the photo of her baptism, she learns
about her Christian family, and how her parents made a promise to
teach her how to live like Jesus.
Theology after Heidegger must take into account history and
language as elements in the pursuit of meaning. Quite often, this
prompts a hurried flight from metaphysics to an embrace of an
absence at the centre of Christian narrativity. Conor Sweeney here
explores the 'postmodern' critique of presence in the context of
sacramental theology, engaging the thought of Louis-Marie Chauvet
and Lieven Boeve. Chauvet is an influential postmodern theologian
whose critique of the perceived onto-theological constitution of
presence in traditional sacramental theology has made big waves,
while Boeve is part of a more recent generation of theologians who
even more wholeheartedly embrace postmodern consequences for
theology. Sweeney considers the extent to which postmodernism a la
Heidegger upsets the hermeneutics of sacramentality, asking whether
this requires us to renounce the search for a presence that by
definition transcends us. Against both the fetishisation of
presence and absence, Sweeney argues that metaphysics has a
properly sacramental basis, and that it is only through this
reality that the dialectic of presence and absence can be
transcended. The case is made for the full but restless
signification of the mother's smile as the paradigm for genuine
sacramental presence.
The sacrament par excellence, the Eucharist, has been upheld as the
foundational sacrament of Christ's Body called church, yet it has
confounded Christian thinking and practice throughout history. Its
symbolism points to the paradox of the incarnation, death, and
resurrection of God in Jesus of Nazareth, which St Paul describes
as a stumbling block (skandalon). Yet the scandal of
sacramentality, not only illustrated by but enacted in the
Eucharist, has not been sufficiently accounted for in the
ecclesiologies and sacramental theologies of the Christian
tradition. Despite what appears to be an increasingly
post-ecclesial world, sacrament remains a persistent theme in
contemporary culture, often in places least expected. Drawing upon
the biblical image of 'the Word made flesh', this interdisciplinary
study examines the scandal of sacramentality along the twofold
thematic of the scandal of language (word) and the scandal of the
body (flesh).While sacred theology can think through this scandal
only at significant risk to its own stability, the fictional
discourses of literature and the arts are free to explore this
scandal in a manner that simultaneously augments and challenges
traditional notions of sacrament and sacramentality, and by
extension, what it means to describe the church as a 'eucharistic
community'.
This book is about that treasured doctrine of Pentecostalism:
baptism in the Holy Spirit, understood as a work subsequent to
conversion to Christ. Since the British theologian James Dunn's
publication of his influential work Baptism in the Holy Spirit,
there has been heated response from Pentecostals in defense of the
doctrine. Key players are Roger Stronstad, Howard Ervin, David
Petts, James Shelton, Robert Menzies, and ex-Pentecostal Max
Turner. This book reviews Pentecostal criticisms of Dunn with
respect to Luke-Acts, concluding that Pentecostals are right: for
Luke, receiving the Spirit was not the inception of new covenant
life. It was a powerful enabling for prophecy and miracles; for the
church's outward mission and its internal life. After placing
Luke-Acts in a wider canonical context, the book closes with some
practical lessons from Luke-Acts for today's Pentecostal churches.
This publication is a useful confirmation register for use in
churches around the UK.
This is a highly original study of demon possession and the ritual
of exorcism, both of which were rife in early modern times, and
which reached epidemic proportions in France.
Catholics at the time believed that the Devil was everywhere
present, in the rise of the heretics, in the activities of witches,
and even in the bodies of pious young women. The rite of exorcism
was intended to heal the possessed and show the power of the Church
- but it generated as many problems as it resolved. Possessed nuns
endured frequently violent exorcisms, exorcists were suspected of
conjuring devils, and possession itself came to be seen as a form
of holiness, elevating several women to the status of living
saints.
Sarah Ferber offers a challenging study of one of the most
intriguing phenomena of early modern Europe. Looking towards the
present day, the book also argues that early modern conflicts over
the Devil still carry an unexpected force and significance for
Western Christianity.
This is a highly original study of demon possession and the ritual
of exorcism, both of which were rife in early modern times, and
which reached epidemic proportions in France.
Catholics at the time believed that the Devil was everywhere
present, in the rise of the heretics, in the activities of witches,
and even in the bodies of pious young women. The rite of exorcism
was intended to heal the possessed and show the power of the Church
- but it generated as many problems as it resolved. Possessed nuns
endured frequently violent exorcisms, exorcists were suspected of
conjuring devils, and possession itself came to be seen as a form
of holiness, elevating several women to the status of living
saints.
Sarah Ferber offers a challenging study of one of the most
intriguing phenomena of early modern Europe. Looking towards the
present day, the book also argues that early modern conflicts over
the Devil still carry an unexpected force and significance for
Western Christianity.
A critical analysis of the eucharistic, baptismal and confirmation
rites in the Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish liturgies, showing
how all Reformed worship rests upon the Christian doctrine of God,
centred in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In this sense he
claims that to be Reformed, or Presbyterian, it is essential to be
Christian, Catholic and Calvinist not only in doctrine but in
worship.
This lively study of the problems of Christian baptism traces
issues arising from the New Testament in the traditions of the
churches and provides an ecumenical conspectus of the continuous
debate on Christian baptism. Wainwright surveys the positions of
different churches on baptism and confirmation, and relates them to
the New Testament treatment. He shows that the New Testament's
apparent favouring of different views of the relation between grace
and faith in baptism gives a basis for an ecumenical pattern of
Christian initiation.
Treating a subject frequently discussed without a full
understanding of its biblical background, Marcel treats baptism
within the broad context of the theology of justification and grace
without ever losing sight of the biblical evidence. It is only when
he has shown, after a careful study of both Old and New Testaments,
the position of a child within the covenant of grace that he turns
his attention to the specific subject of baptism. The author's
vindication of the doctrine of infant baptism does not rely upon
archaeological or patristic evidence about the practice of the
early Church - convincing as that evidence may be - but on the
evidence of Scripture.
This book presents a unique effort to create a new understanding of
the Christian sign of the cross. At its core, it traces the
conscious and unconscious influence of this visual symbol through
time. What began as the crucifixion of a Jewish troublemaker in
Roman-occupied Judea in the first century eventually gave rise to a
broad spectrum of readings of the instrument used to accomplish
such a punishment, a cross. The author argues that Jesus was a
provocative, grandiose masochist whose suffering and death
initially signified redemption for believers. This idea gradually
morphed into a Christian sense of freedom to persecute and wage war
against non-believers, however, as can be seen in the Crusades
("wars of the cross"). Many believers even construed the murder of
their savior as a crime perpetrated by "the Jews," and this
paranoid notion culminated in the mass murder of European Jews
under the sign of the Nazi hooked cross (Hakenkreuz).
Rancour-Laferriere's book is expertly written and argued; it will
be readable to a large audience because it touches on many areas of
controversy, interest, and scholarship. The work is critical, but
not unfair; it employs psychoanalysis, art history (the study of
the symbol of the cross in works of art), religion and religious
texts, and world history generally. The interweaving of these
various themes is what gives this work its ability to draw in
readers and will ultimately be what keeps the reader interested
through the conclusion.
Baptism is a public sign that a Christian has been brought from
death to life. This volume in the 9Marks Church Questions series
unpacks Scripture's teaching on the necessity of baptism for the
life and growth of the local church body.
Despite the importance of the subject to contemporaries, this is
the first monograph to look at the institution of godparenthood in
early modern English society. Utilising a wealth of hitherto
largely neglected primary source data, this work explores
godparenthood, using it as a framework to illuminate wider issues
of spiritual kinship and theological change. It has become
increasingly common for general studies of family and religious
life in pre-industrial England to make reference to the spiritual
kinship evident in the institution of godparenthood. However,
although there have been a number of important studies of the
impact of the institution in other periods, this is the first
detailed monograph devoted to the subject in early modern England.
This study is possible due to the survival, contrary to many
expectations, of relatively large numbers of parish registers that
recorded the identities of godparents in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. By utilising this hitherto largely neglected
data, in conjunction with evidence gleaned from over 20,000 Wills
and numerous other biographical, legal and theological sources,
Coster has been able to explore fully the institution of
godparenthood and the role it played in society. This book takes
the opportunity to study an institution which interacted with a
range of social and cultural factors, and to assess the nature of
these elements within early modern English society. It also allows
the findings of such an investigation to be compared with the
assumptions that have been made about the fortunes of the
institution in the context of a changing European society. The
recent historiography of religion in this period has focused
attention on popular elements of religious practice, and stressed
the conservatism of a society faced with dramatic theological and
ritual change. In this context a study of godparenthood can make a
contribution to understanding how religious change occurred and the
ways in which popular religious practice was affected.
The Bible and the sacraments go together as the cornerstone of
Christian identity. Wherever Christianity is practised in
traditional ways, converts are baptised and bread is broken
together. Countless books have been written about the theological
significance these events, but their strictly human meaning and
value as ways of helping people to make sense of themselves and
enjoy their lives together has sometimes been overlooked. The
sacraments are first and foremost signs of belonging, to God and
with one another. They are sacramental not only because of the
circumstances surrounding their origin, but also because of their
function in incorporating the personal belonging to which they
point. Roger Grainger explores the human side of sacrament -- the
emotional hunger which it addresses, and what this means from a
theological point of view; and what it still means for us today,
despite all the changes which have taken place over the ages in the
world in which we live. By looking at the way human beings relate
to one another we can begin to see the amazing relevance of these
traditional ceremonies -- their God given ability to heal our
personal woundedness and bring to the forefront the reality of
belonging together in community. The significance of sacramental
worship for human growth and development is examined in some depth,
using the insights to be gained from the anthropological study of
religion, while its contribution to psychological health and the
establishment of individual identity through personal relationship
is identified as the basis of our sense of belonging. This book
proceeds from its author's conviction that a better understanding
of the dynamics of our belonging would contribute to the Church's
mission within a fragmented society.
A leading expert shares important benchmarks for leading liturgy.
Grounded in Christian liturgical theology and how ritual forms the
people who practice it, this book offers the principles at work in
good liturgical practice, guidance for making liturgical choices,
and best practices in leading and presiding over liturgical
worship. Topics include curating liturgy and leading with
excellence, principles for liturgical planning and presiding, and
best practices for the Eucharist and Baptism. The author draws on
his wide-ranging work in ritual theory to provide a practical guide
that clergy and lay leaders in the Episcopal Church will find to be
an essential resource. Those in other denominations will also find
this book to be a useful reference in standard setting.
A short, attractive, full-colour guide to the Anglican wedding
service aimed at couples planning to get married. It uses the words
and the actions of the marriage service to enable couples to
explore the big questions of life, relationships, commitment, God,
family and more.
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