Challenging a widespread belief that religious people are politically intolerant, Marie Ann Eisenstein offers compelling evidence to the contrary. In this surprising and significant book, she thoroughly re-examines previous studies and presents new research to support her argument that there is, in fact, a positive correlation between religious belief and practice and political tolerance in the United States. Eisenstein utilizes sophisticated new analytical tools to re-evaluate earlier data and offers persuasive new statistical evidence to support her claim that religiousness and political tolerance do, indeed, mixaand that religiosity is not the threat to liberal democracy that it is often made out to be.

Look for Dr. David Jeremiah's new book A Life Beyond Amazing fall of 2017 The world seems more fractured each day. People are asking, "Is this the End?" Never have the headlines been this jarring, the cultural changes this rapid, or the moral decay this pronounced. What on earth is happening? After each new occurrence, the most oft-heard questions are, "Will the world ever be the same again?" and "Where is God in all of this?" Over the last few decades, Dr. David Jeremiah has become one of the world's most sought-after Christian leaders on topics that deal with biblical application and modern culture. And few would dispute that the pace at which things are currently changing is unprecedented. The time has come to accept this new normal, Jeremiah says, and understand how God's hand is still at work on His eternal plan for mankind. No one can afford to ignore these warnings, but all can better understand the greater story and the role we each play in this changing world. From prophetic clues in Scripture to an understanding of the power of Christ in all believers, this book directs us on a clear path forward. The book is split into two sections, each covering items surrounding two important questions. Is This the End of America? and Is This the End of the World? Includes detailed chapters on: Terrorism ISIS and Radicalized Islam The New Russia The Bleeding of America's Borders The "Anything Goes" Society Polarization and Divisiveness The Coming of Christ and many more

What does Jesus have to say about violence, just war, and killing? Does Jesus ever want his disciples to kill in order to resist evil and promote peace and justice? This book by noted theologian and bestselling author Ronald J. Sider provides a career capstone statement on biblical peacemaking. Sider makes a strong case for the view that Jesus calls his disciples to love, and never kill, their enemies. He explains that there are never only two options: to kill or to do nothing in the face of tyranny and brutality. There is always a third possibility: vigorous, nonviolent resistance. If we believe that Jesus is Lord, then we disobey him when we set aside what he taught about killing and ignore his command to love our enemies. This thorough, comprehensive treatment of a topic of perennial concern vigorously engages with the just war tradition and issues a challenge to all Christians, especially evangelicals, to engage in biblical peacemaking. The book includes a foreword by Stanley Hauerwas.

The Christian Right is arguably the most significant social movement in the United States today. In recent years, these religious conservatives have loudly protested a public education system they believe no longer represents their interests or values.

Educators often dismiss critiques based on religious values as irrational or flimsy, failing to appreciate the coherence of these criticisms from the Christian Right's own perspective. While the Christian Right has become ever more sophisticated in its lobbying and powerful in its influence, educators and parents find themselves lacking the background knowledge necessary to respond effectively to its efforts.

Standing on the Premises of God speaks directly to this dilemma, explaining current incarnations of the Christian Right, its leadership, its intellectual and theological foundations, and its tactics, so that those interested in the debates over education will be better prepared to engage them constructively.

Taking the novel approach of framing the Christian Right as a revitalization movement, Detwiler shows how it seeks to effect cultural transformation in order to bring public education-and our society more generally-in line with its worldview. His theoretical model provides insights into why education is so pivotal to the Christian Right and also assesses the religious viability of the Christian Right as a social movement.

The 2014 Christianity Today Book Award Winner (Christian Living) Food is the source of endless angst and anxiety. We struggle with obesity and eating disorders. Reports of agricultural horror stories give us worries about whether our food is healthy, nutritious or justly produced. It's hard to know if our food is really good for us or for society. Our relationship with food is complicated to say the least. But God intended for us to delight in our food. Rachel Stone calls us to rediscover joyful eating by receiving food as God's good gift of provision and care for us. She shows us how God intends for us to relate to him and each other through food, and how our meals can become expressions of generosity, community and love of neighbor. Eating together can bring healing to those with eating disorders, and we can make wise choices for sustainable agriculture. Ultimately, redemptive eating is a sacramental act of culture making through which we gratefully herald the feast of the kingdom of God. Filled with practical insights and some tasty recipes, this book provides a Christian journey into the delight of eating. Come to the table, partake of the Bread of Life--and eat with joy.

Offering dramatic evidence of the transformative power of forgiveness, No Enemy to Conquer shares the stories of people of diverse faiths and cultures who, despite all odds, found the courage to reconcile with their enemies. Gathering the voices of Desmond Tutu, Benazir Bhutto, Rajmohan Gandhi, Jonathan Sacks, the Dalai Lama, and others, Henderson's masterful anthology is an inspiring step toward a geopolitics of mercy.

The battle lines have been drawn. Many Christians have fallen into the trap of proclaiming "Peace Peace " when there is no peace. Hiding their eyes from the pressing issues of the day, they believe that resistance to the prevailing culture is useless. At the same time, other Christians have been too quick to declare war, mistaking battlefield casualties as enemies rather than victims. In How to Win the Culture War Peter Kreeft issues a rousing call to arms. Christians must understand the true nature of the culture war--a war between the culture of life and the culture of death. Kreeft identifies the real enemies facing the church today and maps out key battlefields. He then issues a strategy for engagement and equips Christians with the weapons needed for a successful campaign. Above all, Kreeft assures us that the war can be won--in fact, it will be won. For those who hope in Christ, victory is assured, because good triumphs over evil and life conquers death. Love never gives up. Neither must we.

Ben Cooley was just 26 years old when he booked Birmingham's NEC Arena. He didn't have the first idea about putting on a major event. He didn't have a strategy, he didn't have the funds. But he did a have vision; a vision to live in a world free from slavery. This is a story of passion turned into action. In this book Ben shares the journey of Hope for Justice, from one man with a wobbly desk to an international organisation now rescuing victims in the UK, US, Cambodia and Norway. Featuring real-life rescues and the voices of Rend Collective's Patrick Thompson, Rob and Marion White, actor Tom Lister, Athena Pond and many others involved in the story so far, this book is about more than fighting slavery. Impossible is a Dare is a challenge. What are you passionate about? What would you like to build or break or change? This book will inspire all readers to find and fight for their own vision and see the impossible for what it really is; nothing but a dare.

Dirty Workprofiles a number of occupations that society deems tainted. The volume's vivid, ethnographic reports focus on the communication that helps workers manage the moral, social, and physical "stains" that derive from engaging in such occupations. The creative ways that those who perform such dirty work learn to communicate with each other - and with outsiders - regulate the negative aspects of the work itself and emphasize the positives so that workers can maintain a sense of self-value even while performing devalued occupations.

Spiritual disciplines are often viewed primarily as a means to draw us closer to God. While these practices do deepen and enrich our "vertical" relationship with God, Kyle David Bennett argues that they were originally designed to positively impact our "horizontal" relationships--with neighbors, strangers, enemies, friends, family, animals, and even the earth. Bennett explains that this "horizontal" dimension has often been overlooked or forgotten in contemporary discussions of the spiritual disciplines. This book offers an alternative way of understanding the classic spiritual disciplines that makes them relevant, doable, and meaningful for everyday Christians. Bennett shows how the disciplines are remedial practices that correct the malformed ways we do everyday things, such as think, eat, talk, own, work, and rest. Through personal anecdotes, engagement with Scripture, and vivid cultural references, he invites us to practice the spiritual disciplines wholesale and shows how changing the way we do basic human activities can bring healing, renewal, and transformation to our day-to-day lives and the world around us.

Christianity Today Book Award Winner OutreachResource of the Year (Multicultural) ASM (American Society of Missiology) Book of the Year Award Globalization is speeding up our world, extending our relationships globally and bringing us closer together in positive and not-so-positive ways. The church and many Christians, however, remain largely unaware of its seductive power, resulting in a failure of vision for mission in today's world. This up-to-date resource by a veteran leader in global development work with World Vision orients readers to the history of globalization and to a Christian theological perspective on it, explores concrete realities by focusing on global poverty, and helps readers reimagine Christian mission in ways that announce the truly good news of Christ and God's kingdom. Diagrams and sidebars that incorporate the voices of global partners are included. This is the second book in a new series that reframes missiological themes and studies for students using/featuring the common theme of mission as partnership with Christians.

What is materiality? Jesus practiced materiality when he healed the bodies of the sick, proclaimed Jubilee to the poor, and fed the five thousand. He practiced materiality over materialism. In Materiality as Resistance, Walter Brueggemann defines materiality as the use of the material aspects of the Christian faith, as opposed to materialism, which places possessions and physical comfort over spiritual values. In this concise volume, Brueggemann lays out how we as Christians may reengage our materiality for the common good. How does materiality inform our faith when it comes to food, money, the body, time, and place? How does it force us to act? Likewise, how is the church obligated to use its time, money, abundance of food, the care and use of our bodies, observance of Sabbath, and stewardship of our world and those with whom we share it? With a foreword from Jim Wallis, Materiality as Resistance serves as a manifesto of Walter Brueggemanns most important work and as an engaging call to action. It is suited for group or individual study.

Is business just a way to make money? Or can the marketplace a venue for service to others? Scott B. Rae and Kenman L. Wong seek to explore this and other critical business issues from a uniquely Christian perspective, offering up a vision for work and service that is theologically grounded and practically oriented. Among the specific questions they address along the way are these: What implications does the Christian story have for the vision, mission or sense of purpose that shapes business engagement? What parts of business can be affirmed and practiced "as is" and what parts need to be rejected or transformed? What challenges exist as attempts are made to live out Christian ideals in a broken world characterized by tight margins, fierce competition and short-term investor pressures? How do Christian values inform specific functional areas of business such as the management of people, marketing and environmental sustainability? Business can be even more than an environment through which individual Christians grow in Christlikeness. In this book you'll discover how it can also be a means toward serving the common good.

Madness is a sin. Those with emotional disabilities are shunned. Mental illness is not the church's problem. All three claims are wrong. In Madness , Heather H. Vacek traces the history of Protestant reactions to mental illness in America. She reveals how two distinct forces combined to thwart Christian care for the whole person. The professionalization of medicine worked to restrict the sphere of Christian authority to the private and spiritual realms, consigning healing and careaboth physical and mentalato secular, medical specialists. Equally influential, a theological legacy that linked illness with sin deepened the social stigma surrounding people with a mental illness. The Protestant church, reluctant to engage sufferers lest it, too, be tainted by association, willingly abdicated care for people with a mental illness to secular professionals. While inattention formed the general rule, five historical exceptions to the pattern of benign neglect exemplify Protestant efforts to claim a distinctly Christian response. A close examination of the lives and work of colonial clergyman Cotton Mather, Revolutionary era physician Benjamin Rush, nineteenth-century activist Dorothea Dix, pastor and patient Anton Boisen, and psychiatrist Karl Menninger maps both the range and the progression of attentive Protestant care. Vacek chronicles Protestant attempts to make theological sense of sickness (Mather), to craft care as Christian vocation (Rush), to advocate for the helpless (Dix), to reclaim religious authority (Boisen), and to plead for people with a mental illness (Menninger). Vacek's historical narrative forms the basis for her theological reflection about contemporary Christian care of people with a mental illness and Christian understanding of mental illness. By demonstrating the gravity of what appearedaand failed to appearaon clerical and congregational agendas, Vacek explores how Christians should navigate the ever-shifting lines of cultural authority as they care for those who suffer.

Stay up-to-date with the latest innovative methods of meeting the spiritual needs of the elderly Spiritual Assessment and Intervention: Current Directions and Applications examines current state-of-the-art efforts in the development and implementation of spiritual interventions for older adults. Academics and practitioners working in social work, social welfare, medicine, and mental health and aging present innovative approaches to meeting major challenges in the field of gerontology, including elder abuse, dementia, care giving, palliative care, and intergenerational relationships. The book provides practical methods for dealing with the problems and pitfalls of starting and evaluating interventions of a spiritual nature in a variety of community-based and institutional settings. Spiritual Assessment and Intervention: Current Directions and Applications provides you with an overview of current and future methods and means of providing spiritual support to the elderly as they struggle with the problems and possibilities of aging in today's complex world. Growing interest in the positive effects that religiousness and spirituality can have on life stress has created a growing need for research and practice models that strengthen, reinforce, or promote the spiritual well-being of older adults. This collection first presented in 2003 at the 56th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America addresses the important care giving and practice issues involving the physical and psychological health of older adults. Spiritual Assessment and Intervention: Current Directions and Applications examines: how older adults use narrative therapy to manage adversity and maintain self-efficacy how faith-based communities can be enlisted as important social resources a pilot government-funded project to raise awareness of elder abuse in faith communities an intergenerational project involving a preschool and a retirement community spiritual activities for adults with Alzheimer's disease the Creating Alternative Relaxing Environment (CARE) Cabinet intervention Spiritual Assessment and Intervention: Current Directions and Applications is an essential resource for gerontological practitioners from the biological, clinical (including physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and dentists), behavioral and social sciences (including anthropologists, psychologists, social workers, sociologists, and researchers), and for health care administrators.

Gain an understanding of the increased role religious congregations now play in providing social support to the elderly Religious congregations and faith-based organizations (FBO) from the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions have worked on behalf of older adults for centuries. But the initiation of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives has raised many questions from both the traditional secular and sectarian services as well as many nontraditional services found in each community. Faith-Based Initiatives and Aging Services addresses the issues of the separation of church and state, the concerns involved in developing social services in religious congregations, and the larger public policy implications of this office. This unique book offers perspectives from traditional and nontraditional faith-based groups, as well as experts in volunteerism. The enactment by Congress of the Charitable Choice section of the federal welfare reform law combined with the creation of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the United States Department of Health and Human Services to signal a high-level of interest in supporting faith-based organizations. Faith-Based Initiatives and Aging Services focuses on the specific applications of services provided by religious congregations. Editors F. Ellen Netting and James W. Ellor conducted an in-depth interview with Elizabeth Seal-Scott, then Director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (an edited transcript of the interview is included in the book) to help promote understanding of the development and implementation of faith-based, grass roots programs. Faith-Based Initiatives and Aging Services examines: the separation of church and state Baptist perspectives on faith-based initiatives and religious liberty managing older volunteers faith organizations and ethnically diverse elders the heritage of religion and spirituality in the field of gerontology faith-related agencies and their implications for aging services the role of religious congregations in the social service system Faith-Based Initiatives and Aging Services is an essential resource for anyone interested in developing programs for older adults in religious congregations, for human services staffs seeking to work with faith-based initiatives, and for government workers in need of a better understanding of faith-based services in their community.