In Plantation Church, Noel Leo Erskine investigates the history of the Black Church as it developed both in the United States and the Caribbean after the arrival of enslaved Africans. Typically, when people talk about the "Black Church" they are referring to African-American churches in the U.S., but in fact, the majority of African slaves were brought to the Caribbean. It was there, Erskine argues, that the Black religious experience was born. The massive Afro-Caribbean population was able to establish a form of Christianity that preserved African Gods and practices, but fused them with Christian teachings, resulting in religions such as Cuba's Santeria. Despite their common ancestry, the Black religious experience in the U.S. was markedly different because African Americans were a political and cultural minority. The Plantation Church became a place of solace and resistance that provided its members with a sense of kinship, not only to each other but also to their ancestral past. Despite their common origins, the Caribbean and African American Church are almost never studied together. This book investigates the parallel histories of these two strands of the Black Church, showing where their historical ties remain strong and where different circumstances have led them down unexpectedly divergent paths. The result will be a work that illuminates the histories, theologies, politics, and practices of both branches of the Black Church. This project presses beyond the nation state framework and raises intercultural and interregional questions with implications for gender, race and class. Noel Leo Erskine employs a comparative method that opens up the possibility of rethinking the language and grammar of how Black churches have been understood in the Americas and extends the notion of church beyond the United States. The forging of a Black Christianity from sources African and European, allows for an examination of the meaning of church when people of African descent are culturally and politically in the majority. Erskine also asks the pertinent question of what meaning the church holds when the converse is true: when African Americans are a cultural and political minority.

Internationally renowned Bible teacher Joyce Meyer draws on her own history of abuse to show women how Christ's redeeming love heals emotional wounds and brings joy to life.

Can a woman who has been deeply hurt by life's circumstances be healed, heart and soul? If she has been wounded by a man she loved and trusted, can she love and trust again? As a woman who endured years of abuse, abandonment, and betrayal by those closest to her, Joyce Meyer can answer with a resounding "yes!"

Meyer's positivity comes from living her own journey, and from seeing so many women who don't believe they can fully overcome their pain--or even know where to begin--find the guidance they need in the life-changing wisdom of the Bible.

Meyer's bestseller Beauty for Ashes told of her personal story of healing. Now, with the passage of more time, HEALING THE SOUL OF A WOMAN delves deeper into Joyce's story and the journey of healing for all women. Each chapter guides you through whatever obstacles may be holding you back to find your true destiny as God's beloved. God can heal all pain, and He wants to do this in you. Let HEALING THE SOUL OF A WOMAN be the first step toward the wonderful, joyful future God intends for you.

"It is a rare thing for me to stand with a book, explicitly about race and equity, that is written by a white person. Why? Because it is a rare thing to encounter a white person who has followed the lead of people of color into their own transformation so deeply that I trust the message coming from their white body. Idelette McVicker has done the work."--Lisa Sharon Harper (from the foreword) As a white Afrikaner woman growing up in South Africa during apartheid, Idelette McVicker was steeped in a community and a church that reinforced racism and shielded her from seeing her neighbors' oppression. But a series of circumstances led her to begin questioning everything she thought was true about her identity, her country, and her faith. Recovering Racists shares McVicker's journey over thirty years and across three continents to shatter the lies of white supremacy embedded deep within her soul. She helps us realize that grappling with the legacy of white supremacy and recovering from racism is lifelong work that requires both inner transformation and societal change. It is for those of us who have hit rock bottom in the human story of race, says McVicker. We must acknowledge our internalized racism, repent of our complicity, and learn new ways of being human. This book invites us on the long, slow journey of healing the past, making things right, changing old stories, and becoming human together. As we work for the liberation of everyone, we also find liberation for ourselves. Each chapter ends with discussion questions.

A lovely introduction to the life of Jesus for children. Who was born in Bethlehem? Who calmed a storm on the lake? Who taught us that God loves us? Find out the answers by reading these timeless stories from the Bible, and learn about the God who made you and me and all the world.

Across the 30,000 or so varieties of Christianity, believers universally love Jesus. They have no trouble accepting his humanity and his divinity. Many express intimations of his close presence in their lives; a fear of his judgment and wrath as well as a love of his compassion; a justification for their worldviews and politics (of all persuasions), and firm convictions about his atonement for their sins and thus his centrality in their personal salvation.

But who is Christ?

Is Christ simply Jesus's last name, denoting his role as saviour of humanity, as messiah? What is Christ? How is his function or role different from Jesus's? Are we missing something fundamental because of our overwhelming emphasis on Jesus to the exclusion of the Christ, or our misunderstanding of what it means that Jesus was `the Christ'? Could it be that such limited views are contributing to the slow and painful erosion of Christianity in western culture, to its insularity and insistence on purity and exclusion?

These are questions Fr Richard Rohr has been pondering for many years. In his ecumenical and scripturally grounded books on contemplation, mysticism and many more topics, he has emphasized the importance of a large framework for understanding the nature of 'what is' and what lasts, of unity and the ultimate reality of God's presence in all of creation-Christian and non-Christian, human and non-human.

Could it be that Jesus, who is the Christ, is offering us a model and example on how to live inside `this Big Frame?'

From beloved spiritual writer and Catholic leader Gregory Floyd comes a moving meditation on the power of memory and how God is often more clearly seen when we look back. This is a book about memory, about what stays in the mind, and why. It is a book about the presence of God in our lives and the sights, sounds, words, and experiences that become unforgettable. Beginning with a single word he heard in the middle of the night-one that changed his life-this powerful memoir by Gregory Floyd asks the question: without memory, who are we? It is a meditation on beauty, marriage, family, and prayer, asking of the memories that each implants: what do they reveal? Where do they lead? -and witnessing to their potential to draw us to God.

This work presents a sustained reflection on the New Testament vision of God's revelation of his glory in Christ. This divine "appearing" is grounded in the self-emptying of the eternal Logos in the incarnation, cross and descent into hell, yet this is the means whereby his glory is manifested and enriches all who are seized by its beauty.

Concordance. Bible Notes. High quality Bible paper. Premium quality binding. 8 Point Font Size.

Chapters 22 and 23 of 2 Kings tell the story of the religious reforms of the Judean King Josiah, who systematically destroyed the cult places and installations where his own people worshipped in order to purify Israelite religion and consolidate religious authority in the hands of the Jerusalem temple priests. This violent assertion of Israelite identity is portrayed as a pivotal moment in the development of monotheistic Judaism. Monroe argues that the use of cultic and ritual language in the account of the reform is key to understanding the history of the text's composition, and illuminates the essential, interrelated processes of textual growth and identity construction in ancient Israel. Until now, however, none of the scholarship on 2 Kings 22-23 has explicitly addressed the ritual dimensions of the text. By attending to the specific acts of defilement attributed to Josiah as they resonate within the larger framework of Israelite ritual, Monroe's work illuminates aspects of the text's language and fundamental interests that have their closest parallels in the priestly legal corpus known as the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26), as well as in other priestly texts that describe methods of eliminating contamination. She argues that these priestly-holiness elements reflect an early literary substratum that was generated close in time to the reign of Josiah, from within the same priestly circles that produced the Holiness Code. The priestly composition was reshaped in the hands of a post-Josianic, exilic or post-exilic Deuteronomistic historian who transformed his source material to suit his own ideological interests. The account of Josiah's reform is thus imprinted with the cultural and religious attitudes of two different sets of authors. Teasing these apart reveals a dialogue on sacred space, sanctified violence and the nature of Israelite religion that was formative in the development not only of 2 Kings 23, but of the historical books of the Bible more broadly.

Latter-day Saints have a paradoxical relationship to the past; even as they invest their own history with sacred meaning, celebrating the restoration of ancient truths and the fulfillment of biblical prophecies, they repudiate the eighteen centuries of Christianity preceding the founding of their church as apostate distortions of the truth. Since the early days of Mormonism, Latter-day Saints (LDS) have used the paradigm of apostasy and restoration in their narratives about the origin of their church. This has generated a powerful and enduring binary of categorization that has profoundly impacted Mormon self-perception and relations with others. Standing Apart explores how the idea of apostasy has functioned as a category to mark, define, and set apart "the other" in Mormon historical consciousness and in the construction of Mormon narrative identity. The volume's fifteen contributors trace the development of LDS narratives of apostasy within the context of both Mormon history and American Protestant historiography. They suggest ways in which these narratives might be reformulated to engage with the past, as well as offering new models for interfaith relations. This volume provides a novel approach for understanding and resolving some of the challenges the LDS church faces in the twenty-first century.

This timely and up to date new edition of Biomedicine and Beatitude features an entirely new chapter on the ethics of bodily modification. It is also updated throughout to reflect the pontificate of Pope Francis, recent concerns including ethical issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, and feedback from the many instructors who used the first edition in the classroom

A coming-of-age travel memoir that probes thorny spiritual questions while taking the reader on a wild ride from the deep American South to the Middle East, Europe, and the Far East. Once the golden girl of her Arkansas town, Natalie finds herself squeezed under small town shame and rejection after being kicked out of church for getting a divorce. It's a hard fall off of a sanctimonious high horse, and religious fundamentalism has left her feeling broken and stuck. But she can't shake the 'wanderlust woes' that have plagued her since childhood, so she runs away to the Middle East. As a mostly-sheltered Southerner, she struggles to adapt but is determined to be 'at home' in the world. Her journey is more than a pilgrimage, it's a peregrination: a one-way ticket to elsewhere in search of the place of her own resurrection. Within these pages is a suspenseful adventure filled with love, loss, laughter, tears, and a little bit of scandalous behavior, but at the heart of it, Natalie walks squarely into the unknown to confront the secret matters of the soul that we wrestle with at night.

Is Heaven on Earth Really Possible?

When we struggle with defeat and discouragement, the Holy Spirit is the key to victory and peace. Best-selling author Dr. Myles Munroe shows how to bring order to the chaos in your life, receive God’s power to heal and deliver, fulfill your true purpose with joy, be a leader in your sphere of influence, and be part of God’s government on earth. We have access to the unseen world of the Spirit and can bring heavenly influence to earth. When you receive God’s Spirit into your life, you will find that His gifts are your birthright. Receive the fullness of God’s Spirit and start living in the spiritual power that God has promised you. “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7 NKJV).

Serena Fass has attempted to illustrate Jesus' Great Commission: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved." (Mark 16: 15 - 16) and has presented a balance between the many different strands of the Christian faith, for each century, from the earliest Christians in Pompeii until today, and criss-crossing the globe from North to South: from Norway to Mozambique - and West to East: from Peru to Australia. Categories include architecture, painting, sculpture, ivories, textiles, metalwork, jewellery and portraits of people wearing crosses, as well as examples of the cross in nature.