In The God Strategy, David Domke and Kevin Coe offer a timely and dynamic study of the rise of religion in American politics, examining the public messages of political leaders over the past seventy-five years--from the 1932 election of Franklin Roosevelt to the early stages of the 2008 presidential race. They conclude that U.S. politics today is defined by a calculated, deliberate, and partisan use of faith that is unprecedented in modern politics.
Sectarian influences and expressions of faith have always been part of American politics, the authors observe, but a profound change occurred beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. What has developed since is a no-holds-barred religious politics that seeks to attract voters, identify and attack enemies, and solidify power. Domke and Coe identify a set of religious signals sent by both Republicans and Democrats in speeches, party platforms, proclamations, visits to audiences of faith, and even celebrations of Christmas. Sometimes these signals are intended for the eyes and ears of all Americans, and other times they are distinctly targeted to specific segments of the population. It's an approach that has been remarkably successful, utilized first and most extensively by the Republican Party to capture unprecedented power and then adopted by the Democratic Party, most notably by Bill Clinton in the 1990s and by a wide range of Democrats in the 2006 elections.
"For U.S. politicians today, having faith isn't enough; it must be displayed, carefully and publicly. This is a stark transformation in recent decades," write Domke and Coe. With innovative, accessible research and analytical verve, they document how this hasoccurred, who has done it and why, and what it means for the American experiment in democracy.

The magnificent series of biblical commentaries known as Black's New Testament Commentaries (BNTC) under the General Editorship of Professor Morna Hooker has had a gap for far too long - it has lacked an up to date commentary on the Fourth Gospel.
Professor Andrew Lincoln now fills this gap with his excellent new commentary. The key questions for scholars are gone into thoroughly- questions of historicity, the use of historical traditions and sources, relationship to the Synoptics, authorship, setting, first readers and Professor Lincoln makes his own position on these issues abundantly clear.
The Fourth Gospel raises a number of problems generally known as The Johannine Question. According to tradition the Gospel was written by St John the Apostle. The authenticity of the tradition is examined in the introduction but the textual issues are examined within the commentary itself. For example one problem is that Chapters 15 and 16 seem in early versions to have preceded chapter 14. Chapter 21 must have been a later addition. The purpose of the Gospel as stated in Chapter 20 v 31 is to strenghten the reader's faith in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God. But even the celebrated prologue has given rise to much speculation, whereas most commentators believe it is the key to the Gospel as a whole.
These issues are meat and drink to scholars but in Professor Lincoln's expert hands they are extremely interesting and highly pertinent to our contemporary understanding of the Gospel.

Adapted from their book True Beauty, mother/daughter authors Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre expose the lies of our culture-defined sense of beauty.

God's Word provides us with a path to freedom when we look to the source, the Beautiful One who is eternal. We reject conformity with the world's standards to be transformed Christ-like character.

Uses the ESV Bible translation in Scripture references. Pack of 25 tracts (pamphlets).

The Body of Christ is a traumatised body because it is constituted of traumatised bodies. This monograph explores the nature of that trauma and examines the implications of identifying the trauma of this body. Constructing new ways of thinking about the narratives at the heart of the Christian faith, 'Broken Bodies' offers a fresh perspective on Christian theology, in particular the Eucharist, and presents a call to love the body in all its guises. It offers new pathways for considering what it means to 'be Christian' and explores the impact that the experience of trauma has on Christian doctrine.

God, God Almighty, God the Creator of the heavens and the earth, God the Beginning and the End, God the Source of all that is, God the Creator of man—the same God, in all His power and all His majesty, stops and listens when you pray. God has given humanity the ability to bring heaven to earth.

Whether you know it or not, you have the authority to change the world through prayer. When God said, “Let mankind rule over all the earth,” He was arranging the dominion of the world so that the partnership of mankind was essential for the accomplishment of His purposes. Through his unique perspective on this often-misunderstood subject, best-selling author Dr. Myles Munroe takes the mystery out of prayer, providing practical answers for difficult questions about communicating with God.

All that God is—and all that God has—may be received through prayer. Everything you need to fulfill your purpose on earth is available to you through prayer. The biblically based, time-tested principles in this book will ignite and transform the way you pray. Be prepared to enter into a new dimension of faith, a deeper revelation of God’s love, and a renewed understanding that your prayers can truly move the hand of God.

This expanded edition includes study questions for individual or small group use.

The NIV Giant Print Bibles, with their modern and bright linen textured (PU) cover style and luxurious design, are a timeless choice for any Bible reader.

The giant, 14-point font size reduces strain on the eyes and is perfect for spending many hours reading the Word of God. A thumb index provides an easy reference to the Books of the Holy Bible. The durable PU cover is soft to the touch and the Bible lays flat when open.

The New International Version (NIV) is the world’s most widely read contemporary English Bible translation.

Features:

• Luxurious linen textured PU cover
• Silver text foiling on cover
• Silver gilded edge
• Giant 14-point text size
• Size: 239 x 154 mm
• 1920 pages
• Thumb index
• Footnotes

The KJV Gift and Award Bible is available in a wide variety of colors, priced for bulk buying, and makes the perfect achievement award for church or school programs. Available in black, burgundy, white, blue, and purple imitation leather covers. Features include: Presentation page, words of Christ in red, 7.75-point type, topical page headings, concordance, and full-color maps. The KJV Gift and Award Bible features the authorized version of the King James (KJV) translation. The KJV is one of the best-selling translations of all time and captures the beauty and majesty of God's Word for those who love the rich heritage and reverent language of this rendering of the Holy Bible.

Die wêreld het meer sonneblommense nodig mense wat hulle koppe na die Son toe draai, mense wat meer en meer soos die Son wil wees eerder as giftige ivies, stink Afrikaners, stekelrige kaktusse, knieserige rosies of klaende hangkop wilgers.

Transformasie begin as ons ons deel begin doen en verantwoordelikheid aanvaar om ons negatiewe gedagtes elke dag bewustelik by die alomteenwoordige Son te vernuwe. Ons moet onsself daagliks toewy in die bestudering van die Meester Sonneblom se lieflike kwaliteite en meer van die vrug van sy liefdevolle genadige gees te kweek deur ons gedagtes by hom te vernuwe. Om ou negatiewe gewoontes en denke af te breek vra baie herhaling en volharding.

Kom ons maak dit ons doel om elke dag 'n rapsie meer na Jesus se voorbeeld van christenskap en menswees te lyk. Met hierdie 260 sonneblom dagstukkies nooi Susan jou uit na 'n avontuur van sonsoek al agter die Son aan.

Geniet die sonneblomreis.

Karl Barth (1886-1968) was a prolific theologian of the 20th century. Dr Gorringe places the theology in its social and political context, from World War I through to the Cold War by following Barth's intellectual development through the years that saw the rise of national socialism and the development of communism. Barth initiated a theological revolution in his two "Commentaries on Romans", begun during World War I. His attempt to deepen this during the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic made him a focus of theological resistance to Hitler after the rise to power of the Nazi party. Expelled from Germany, he continued to defy fashionable opinion by refusing to condemn communism after World War II. Drawing on a German debate largely ignored by Anglo-Saxon theology, Dr Gorringe shows that Barth responds to the events of his time not just in his occasional writings, but in his magnum opus, the "Church Dogmatics". In conclusion Dr Gorringe asks what this admittedly patriarchal author still has to contribute to contemporary theology, and in particular human liberation. This book is intended for undergraduate courses in theology and history of doctrine.

In Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth, Corinne Dempsey offers a comparative study of Hindu and Christian, Indian and Euro/American earthbound religious expressions. She argues that official religious, political, and epistemological systems tend to deny sacred access and expression to the general populace, and are abstracted and disembodied in ways that make them irrelevant to if not neglectful of earthly realities. Working at cross purposes with these systems, attending to material needs, conferring sacred access to a wider public, and imbuing land and bodies with sacred meaning and power, are religious frameworks featuring folklore figures, democratizing theologies, newly sanctified land, and extraordinary human abilities. Some scholars will see Dempsey's juxtapositions of Hindu and Christian religious dynamics, many of which exist on opposite sides of the globe, as a leap into a disciplinary minefield. Many have argued for decades that comparison is an outmoded, politically troubled approach to the human sciences. More recently opponents, represented by a growing number of religion scholars, are ''writing back'' in comparison's defense, asserting the merits of a readjusted, carefully contextualized, new comparativism. But, says Dempsey, the inestimable advantages of the comparative method described by religion scholars and performed in this book are disciplinary as well as ethical. As demonstrated in this stimulating book, the process of comparison can shed light on angles and contours otherwise obscured and perform the important work of bridging human contingencies and perception across religious, cultural, and disciplinary divides.

Official badge / pin of the Women's Manyano organisation pack of 25

Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Our thoughts have consequences. Most people would agree that positive thoughts generate positive actions. Negative thoughts activate negative behaviour. But do we understand that we can manage our lives by managing our thoughts? Not only does neuroscience back this concept, but the idea is also embedded throughout Scripture. "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom.12:2 ESV). Tame your thoughts and transform your life!

In Tame Your Thoughts, Max explores three key thought-management tools and then applies them to the most common thought problems: worry, guilt, anxiety, and other types of mental quicksand that threaten to trap us. God loves us too much to let us lead a life marked by poor thinking. He made our brains; he can retrain our brains. God has not left us alone in this battle of the mind.

Stuck in your head? Hounded by regrets? Weighed down by worry? Change is possible! The thoughts that have characterized your past need not characterize the rest of your life. Readers will learn to

• Take thoughts captive,
• Test each message against the truth of Scripture,
• Interrupt poisonous thought threads, and
• Think and act like Jesus.

If God can resurrect the dead, can he not resurrect hope? Defy depression? Clarify confusion? Silence shame? Destroy doubt? Banish bitterness?

Take God at his word. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7 NKJV, emphasis added). With God as their helper, the reader will discover a new way of thinking and a better way of living. A new person will begin to emerge.

The History of the Church of Abingdon is one of the most valuable local histories produced in the twelfth century. It provides a wealth of information about, and great insight into, the legal, economic, and ecclesiastical affairs of a major monastery. Charters and narrative combine to provide a vital resource for historians. The present edition, unlike its Victorian predecessor, is based on the earliest manuscript of the text. A modern English translation is provided on facing pages, together with extensive introductory material and historical notes.
This volume covers the period from the reputed foundation of the abbey and its estates to c.1071. Volume II, already published, covers from c.1071- c.1164.

This is a beautifully crafted and clearly written introduction to Christianity over its 2000 year history, concentrating on the interaction between the sacred and the secular. This book is a practical response to the experience of teaching in a variety of different settings from university undergraduates, through WEA, to parish groups. This book will thus adopt an approach radically different to that of many general Church histories in terms of length, structure and presentation. The broad underlying theme of the book will be the interaction between Christianity and the secular world, exploring how one has shaped and been shaped by the other, reflecting the title of the book. In order to achieve this, the book will not attempt to cover the whole of Christian history (this has been done frequently by others), but rather it will focus on a number of specific themes and chronological periods. The four themes will be Belief, Practice, Organisation and Propagation. There will be four chronological divisions, chosen as pivotal in the development of Christianity, and reflecting the conventional divisions of history into ancient, medieval, early and later modern. This will enable the book to be used as either a general introduction to Christian history or as a starting point for further investigation of one or more periods. The periods are: The Imperial Church (300-500) The Medieval Church (1050-1250), The Reformation Church (1450-1650) The Modern Church (1800-2000). There will be included maps, timelines, quotations from primary source material, a glossary and a further reading section.