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Books > Christianity > Christian institutions & organizations > Christian social thought & activity
What happens when prophets are wrong?
In 2020, many Christians claiming to be prophets said that God told them that Donald Trump would be re-elected as president, which did not happen. What happens when prophets get it wrong? Are there consequences for misleading God's people?
In recent years, gross misjudgments among Charismatic Christians claiming to speak for God and moral failures within Evangelicalism have resulted in a crisis of belief. In Prophetic Integrity, bestselling author and speaker, R.T. Kendall gives a warning to those speaking in God's name and offers a way forward in trusting God despite the failures of the church.
Includes:
- Personal accounts of visions and supernatural experiences
- Good, bad, and ugly examples of modern-day prophecy
- Seven levels of prophetic gifting
- Examples of false teachings within open theism
- Relevant Bible verses and meaningful quotes
- Thought-provoking questions
- A call for honesty, vulnerability, and repentance
Prophetic Integrity is a book for those who believe that God still speaks today but have serious questions about those within the church that identify as prophets.
Evangelicals are increasingly turning their attention toward issues
such as the environment, international human rights, economic
development, racial reconciliation, and urban renewal. This marks
an expansion of the social agenda advanced by the Religious Right
over the past few decades. For outsiders to evangelical culture,
this trend complicates simplistic stereotypes. For insiders, it
brings contention over what "true" evangelicalism means today. The
New Evangelical Social Engagement brings together an impressive
interdisciplinary team of scholars to map this new religious
terrain and spell out its significance. The volume's introduction
describes the broad outlines of this "new evangelicalism." The
editors identify its key elements, trace its historical lineage,
account for the recent changes taking place within evangelicalism,
and highlight the implications of these changes for politics, civic
engagement, and American religion. Part One of the book discusses
important groups and trends: emerging evangelicals, the New
Monastics, an emphasis on social justice, Catholic influences,
gender dynamics and the desire to rehabilitate the evangelical
identity, and evangelical attitudes toward the new social agenda.
Part Two focuses on specific issues: the environment, racial
reconciliation, abortion, international human rights, and global
poverty. Part Three contains reflections on the new evangelical
social engagement by three leading scholars in the fields of
American religious history, sociology of religion, and Christian
ethics.
What will the future of work, social freedom, and employment look
like? In an era of increased job insecurity and social dislocation,
is it possible to reshape economics along democratic lines in a way
that genuinely serves the interests of the community? Of Labour and
Liberty arises from Race Mathews's half-century and more of
political and public policy involvement. It responds to evidence of
a precipitous decline in active citizenship, resulting from a loss
of confidence in politics, politicians, parties, and parliamentary
democracy; the rise of "lying for hire" lobbyism; increasing
concentration of capital in the hands of a wealthy few; and
corporate wrongdoing and criminality. It also questions whether
political democracy can survive indefinitely in the absence of
economic democracy-of labor hiring capital rather than capital
labor. It highlights the potential of the social teachings of the
Catholic Church and the now largely forgotten Distributist
political philosophy and program that originated from them as a
means of bringing about a more equal, just, and genuinely
democratic social order. It describes and evaluates Australian
attempts to give effect to Distributism, with special reference to
Victoria. And with an optimistic view to future possibilities it
documents the support and advocacy of Pope Francis, and ownership
by some 83,000 workers of the Mondragon cooperatives in Spain. This
book will interest scholars and students of Catholic social
teaching, history, economics, industrial relations, and business
and management.
What if sex, gender, and sexuality were designed to tell a much greater story than we could ever imagine? What if we had a part to play in that story? With gentle compassion and steadfast truth, Ryan Andrew Smith explores what the Bible says about sex, gender, marriage, and sexuality in a way that will appeal to Christians and non-Christians alike. A great resource for individuals, groups, and churches, Trust the Circle also presents ways that Christians can engage our sexually evolving culture with grace, love, and truth. Regardless of your views regarding sex and sexuality, you will find this resource helpful in understanding what the Bible says about these important and timely topics.
Managing As If Faith Mattered, the inaugural volume in the Catholic
Social Tradition series, defines the proposed thrust of the new
series: to study the very best of what the Catholic social
tradition has to offer in response to the pressing issues and
problems of our times. Challenging the often-held double standard
of private and public moralities, authors Helen Alford and Michael
Naughton bridge the fault line between work and faith by engaging
current management issues with that tradition. Alford and Naughton
address issues essential to the interface between enterprise and
ethics: integrity, personal responsibility, and human solidarity.
They consider the practical realities of managers within their
economic and human resource environments, and discuss such concrete
management issues as job design, just wages, corporate ownership
structures, marketing communication, and product development. In
their hands, economic and social challenges become opportunities to
integrate their beliefs and to make decisions based on the tenets
of Catholic social tradition. Undergraduate and graduate students
and faculty in management, business, theology, and ethics will find
it an excellent text, and real-life managers will benefit from the
practical wisdom it contains.
As Dr. Wenham states early in his introduction, "The story of
Jesus' resurrection is told by five different writers, whose
accounts differ from each other to an astonishing degree." Wenham
begins by setting the scene of Jerusalem and its environs, going on
to describe the main actors in the events with particular attention
to Mary Magdalene and the five writers themselves, and then
examining in detail all the biblical narratives from Good Friday
through Easter Day to the Ascension. He concludes that the various
accounts as they stand can be satisfactorily reconciled to provide
a trustworthy record for the church. Valuable appendices elucidate
Wenham's response to the technicalities of gospel criticism.
The U.S. Catholic Press On Central America traces the remarkable
transformation in reporting on Central America by popular Catholic
periodicals in the second half of the twentieth century. In the
1950s writers for these periodicals vigorously opposed the Arbenz
government in Guatemala. Influenced by McCarthyism, secular media
coverage, and reports from the archdiocese of Guatemala City, they
called on the U.S. government to overthrow the Arbenz regime before
its communism infected the Americas. Just fifteen years later,
these same writers were lamenting the collapse of the reformist
Arbenz government and calling for the U.S. to reassess its policies
toward the entire Central American isthmus. What caused such a
dramatic shift? In the first half of his compelling study, Edward
T. Brett emphasizes the importance of U.S. missionaries in this
evolutionary process. He carefully explains the effect of the
murders of Archbishop Romero, the four U.S. churchwomen, and the
six Jesuits and their housekeepers in El Salvador on reporting in
Catholic journals. The second half of the book details the
responses of the transformed U.S. Catholic press to the crises
arising in Central America in
Passing the Plate shows that few American Christians donate
generously to religious and charitable causes -- a parsimony that
seriously undermines the work of churches and ministries. Far from
the 10 percent of one's income that tithing requires, American
Christians' financial giving typically amounts, by some measures,
to less than one percent of annual earnings. And a startling one
out of five self-identified Christians gives nothing at all.
This eye-opening book explores the reasons behind such ungenerous
giving, the potential world-changing benefits of greater financial
giving, and what can be done to improve matters. If American
Christians gave more generously, say the authors, any number of
worthy projects -- from the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS to
the promotion of inter-religious understanding to the upgrading of
world missions -- could be funded at astounding levels. Analyzing a
wide range of social surveys and government and denominational
statistical datasets and drawing on in-depth interviews with
Christian pastors and church members in seven different states, the
book identifies a crucial set of factors that appear to depress
religious financial support -- among them the powerful allure of a
mass-consumerist culture and its impact on Americans' priorities,
parishioners' suspicions of waste and abuse by nonprofit
administrators, clergy's hesitations to boldly ask for money, and
the lack of structure and routine in the way most American
Christians give away money. In their conclusion, the authors
suggest practical steps that clergy and lay leaders might take to
counteract these tendencies and better educate their congregations
about the transformative effects of generous giving.
By illuminating the social and psychological forces that shape
charitable giving, Passing the Plate is sure to spark a much-needed
debate on a critical issue that is of much interest to
church-goers, religious leaders, philanthropists, and social
scientists.
Reclaiming an Evangelical History of Activism In recent years,
there has been renewed interest by evangelicals in the topic of
biblical social justice. Younger evangelicals and millennials, in
particular, have shown increased concern for social issues. But
this is not a recent development. Following World War II, a new
movement of American evangelicals emerged who gradually increased
their efforts on behalf of justice. This work explains the
important historical context for evangelical reengagement with
social justice issues. The authors provide an overview of
post-World War II evangelical social justice and compassion
ministries, introducing key figures and seminal organizations that
propelled the rediscovery of biblical justice. They explore
historical and theological lessons learned and offer a way forward
for contemporary Christians.
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