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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Christian institutions & organizations > Christian social thought & activity
How can the church be a healing force in the world? In this
longtime bestseller, now revised and updated, authors Jerry Cook
and Stanley C. Baldwin suggest that it is only when believers admit
their own brokenness that they can love, accept, and forgive those
who are hurting around them and put out the welcome mat to their
community. They offer clear teaching about the church in a hurting
world. As veteran leaders who practice these principles, they speak
from experience, not theory. Through touching true stories and
practical guidelines for connecting with fallen, sinful people,
Cook and Baldwin announce the good news. The church is not broken,
and it is the broken people who can change the world.
"Our God is a God of surprises... Am I open to the God of
surprises?"-Pope Francis, 2014 Responding to this challenge,
Surprised by God explores what it means to reflect on life and how
we reflect theologically about our journey of faith.Theological
reflection has been primarily used in academic training for
ministry preparation, but it is a tool that is critical for any
person pondering Pope Francis' questions. Christina Zaker provides
an in depth look at the foundational elements of theological
reflection including definitions and guidance through various
methods. Offering a lens for reflection based on the unique way
Jesus' parables surprise and invite listeners to collaborate in the
kingdom of God, the book foregrounds the importance of honest
spiritual reflection. Reveling in the many ways God surprises us,
we learn how to respond to the invitation of faith with open minds
and hearts.
Volatile social dissonance in America's urban landscape is the
backdrop as Valerie A. Miles-Tribble examines tensions in
ecclesiology and public theology, focusing on theoethical dilemmas
that complicate churches' public justice witness as prophetic
change agents. She attributes churches' reticence to confront
unjust disparities to conflicting views, for example, of Black
Lives Matter protests as "mere politics," and disparities in leader
and congregant preparation for public justice roles. As a practical
theologian with experience in organizational leadership,
Miles-Tribble applies adaptive change theory, public justice
theory, and a womanist communitarian perspective, engaging Emilie
Townes's construct of cultural evil as she presents a model of
social reform activism re-envisioned as public discipleship. She
contends that urban churches are urgently needed to embrace active
prophetic roles and thus increase public justice witness. "Black
Lives Matter times" compel churches to connect faith with public
roles as spiritual catalysts of change.
Christians are often portrayed as sharing the same political
opinions and the same theological foundations for their actions.
Yet, from the time of the early church, believers have held a
variety of perspectives on the relationship between church and
state and what constitutes legitimate political behavior for
Christian citizens. Thoroughly Christian political beliefs run the
gamut from disavowal of any political responsibility to a complete
endorsement of government policies and the belief that the state
has been divinely appointed.
In Church, State, and Citizen, Sandra F. Joireman has gathered
political scientists to examine the relationship between religion
and politics as seen from within seven Christian traditions:
Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, Anglican, Evangelical and
Pentecostal. In each chapter the historical and theological
foundations of the tradition are described along with the beliefs
regarding the appropriate role of the state and citizen. While all
Christian traditions share certain beliefs about faith (e.g., human
sin, salvation, Christ's atonement) and political life (e.g.
limited government, human rights, the incompleteness and partiality
of all political action) there are also profound differences. The
authors discuss the contemporary implications of these beliefs both
in the United States and in other areas of the world where
Christianity is showing increasing vigor.
This volume helps ministerial leadership students engage the tools
of discernment while introducing the various roles that seminarians
may pursue, including pastors, varieties of chaplaincy, clinical
pastoral educators, academics, and nonprofit leaders. It is an
ideal resource for seminarians, particularly during theological
field education.
This volume helps ministerial leadership students engage the tools
of discernment while introducing the various roles that seminarians
may pursue, including pastors, varieties of chaplaincy, clinical
pastoral educators, academics, and nonprofit leaders. It is an
ideal resource for seminarians, particularly during theological
field education.
For four years, John Bell has been a contributor to Radio 4's
"Thought for the Day", attempting - as the project demands - to
offer a religious perspective on matters of current social and
international importance. Sometimes affirming, sometimes
controversial but always contemporary, these short reflections
represent the prickly interface between faith and politics from the
perspective of a Christian believer.
Is your church prepared to care for individuals who have
experienced various forms of abuse? As we continue to learn of more
individuals experiencing sexual abuse, domestic violence, and other
forms of abuse, it's clear that resources are needed to help
ministries and leaders care for these individuals with love,
support, and in cooperation with civil authorities. This handbook
seeks to help the church take a significant step forward in its
care for those who have been abused. Working in tandem with the
resources and videos found at churchcares.com, this handbook brings
together leading evangelical trauma counselors, victim advocates,
social workers, attorneys, batterer interventionists, and survivors
to equip pastors and ministry leaders for the appropriate initial
responses to a variety of abuse scenarios in churches, schools, or
ministries. Though the most comprehensive training is experienced
by using this handbook and the videos together, readers who may be
unable to access the videos can use this handbook as a stand-alone
resource.
Investigating Vatican II is a collection of Fr. Jared Wicks' recent
articles on Vatican II, and presents the Second Vatican Council as
an event to which theologians contributed in major ways and from
which Catholic theology can gain enormous insights. Taken as a
whole, the articles take the reader into the theological dynamics
of Vatican II at key moments in the Council's historical unfolding.
Wicks promotes a contemporary re-reception of Vatican II's
theologically profound documents, especially as they featured God's
incarnate and saving Word, laid down principles of Catholic
ecumenical engagement, and articulated the church's turn to the
modern world with a new "face" of respect and dedication to
service. From the original motivations of Pope John XXIII in
convoking the Council, Investigating Vatican II goes on to
highlight the profound insights offered by theologians who served
behind the scenes as Council experts. In its chapters, the book
moves through the Council's working periods, drawing on the
published and non-published records, with attention to the
Council's dramas, crises, and breakthroughs. It brings to light the
bases of Pope Francis's call for synodality in a listening church,
while highlighting Vatican II's mandate to all of prayerful
biblical reading, for fostering a vibrant "joy in the Gospel."
Many pilgrims on spiritual journeys since John Woolman's time have
been drawn toward the irenic virtues and steadfast faith
illuminating the pages of his Journal. This work collects the body
of Woolman's general writings (other than the Journal) so that the
record will be made more complete as to his concerns and thoughts,
his experiences and prophetic witness, 'in the affairs of
Truth'.Today, his thought and influence chiefly come to us from the
Journal while the main body of his lifetime writings!scattered and
for the most part unknown!remain outside our ken. This edition
gathers into one convenient volume and in chronological order all
of the known essays, epistles, and other works which Woolman
intended for general readers. The editor's introduction to each of
the texts is intended to explain the context for each work in its
historical moment.
The topic of immigration is at the center of contemporary politics
and, from a scholarly perspective, existing studies have documented
that attitudes towards immigration have brought about changes in
both partisanship and voting behavior. However, many scholars have
missed or misconstrued the role of religion in this transformation,
particularly evangelical Protestant Christianity. This book
examines the historical and contemporary relationships between
religion and immigration politics, with a particularly in-depth
analysis of the fault lines within evangelicalism-divisions not
only between whites and non-whites, but also the increasingly
consequential disconnect between elites and laity within white
evangelicalism. The book's empirical analysis relies on original
interviews with Christian leaders, data from original church
surveys conducted by the authors, and secondary analysis of several
national public opinion surveys. It concludes with suggestions for
bridging the elite/laity and racial divides. Ruth M.
Melkonian-Hoover: (Ph.D., Emory University) is Chair and Professor
of Political Science at Gordon College, Massachusetts. She has
contributed chapters to Faith in a Pluralist Age (2018) and Is the
Good Book Good Enough? (2011). She has published in a wide range of
journals including Social Science Quarterly, The Review of Faith
& International Affairs, Latin American Perspectives, Political
Research Quarterly, Comment, and Capital Commentary. Lyman A.
Kellstedt: (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is Professor of
Political Science (emeritus) at Wheaton College, Illinois. He has
authored or coauthored numerous articles, book chapters, and books
in religion and politics, including Religion and the Culture Wars
(1996), The Bully Pulpit (1997), and The Oxford Handbook of
Religion and American Politics (2009).
Najm al-Din al-Tufi's (d. 716/1316) extraordinary commentary on the
Christian scriptures has not received the scholarly attention it
deserves. Illustrating the way in which the Bible was read,
interpreted and used as a proof-text in the construction of early
14th century Muslim views of Christianity, his al-Ta'liq 'ala
al-Anajil al-arba'a wa-al-ta'liq 'ala al-Tawrah wa-'ala ghayriha
min kutub al-anbiya' (Critical Commentary on the Four Gospels, the
Torah and other Books of the Prophets) is an invaluable treasure
for the study of Muslim-Christian dialogue and its history. In
Muslim Exegesis of the Bible in Medieval Cairo, Lejla Demiri makes
this important and unusual work available for the first time in a
scholarly edition and English translation, with a full introduction
that places Tufi in his intellectual context.
Elizabeth Freeman, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Maria Fearing, Charlotte
Forten Grimke, Sarah Mapps Douglass, Sara Griffith Stanley, Amanda
Berry Smith, Lucy Craft Laney, Maria Stewart, and Frances Ellen
Watkins Harper These names may not be familiar, but each one of
these women was a shining beacon of devotion in a world that did
not value their lives. They worked to change laws, built schools,
spoke to thousands, shared the Gospel around the world. And while
history books may have forgotten them, their stories can teach us
so much about what it means to be modern women of faith. Through
the research and reflections of author Jasmine Holmes, you will be
inspired by what each of these exceptional women can teach us about
the intersections of faith and education, birth, privilege,
opportunity, and so much more. Carved in Ebony will take you past
the predominantly white, male contributions that seemingly dominate
history books and church history to discover how Black women have
been some of the main figures in defining the landscape of American
history and faith. Join Jasmine on this journey of illuminating
these women--God's image-bearers, carved in ebony.
The outbreak of the First World War saw an upsurge of patriotism.
The Church generally saw the war as justified, and many clergy
encouraged the men in their congregations to join the army. There
was, however, already a strong strand of anti-war sentiment,
opposed to the dominant theology of the Establishment. This was
partly based on traditional Christian pacifism, but included other
religious, social and political influences. Campaigners and
conscientious objectors voiced a growing concern about the huge
human cost of a conflict seemingly endlessly bogged down in the mud
of the Flanders poppy fields. 'Subversive Peacemakers' recounts the
stories of a strong and increasingly organised opposition to war,
from peace groups to poets, from preachers to politicians, from
women to working men, all of whom struggled to secure peace in a
militarised and fragmenting society. Clive Barrett demonstrates
that the Church of England provided an unlikely setting for much of
this war resistance. Barrett masterfully narrates the story of the
peace movement, bringing together stories of war-resistance until
now lost, disregarded or undervalued. The people involved, as well
as the dramatic events of the conflict themselves, are seen in a
new light.
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