This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the internal arrangement of church buildings in Western Europe between 1500 and 2000, showing how these arrangements have met the liturgical needs of their respective denominations, Catholic and Protestant, over this period. In addition to a chapter looking at the general impact of the Reformation on church buildings, there are separate chapters on the churches of the Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions between the mid-sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, and on the ecclesiological movement of the nineteenth century and the liturgical movement of the twentieth century, both of which have impacted on all the churches of Western Europe over the past 150 years. The book is extensively illustrated with figures in the text and a series of plates and also contains comprehensive guides to both further reading and buildings to visit throughout Western Europe.

As you read this powerful booklet during the Lenten season, you will experience spiritual growth through interaction with Scripture from both the Old and New Testaments. The readings culminate in the Passion Week and Easter Sunday, and you will gain a greater understanding of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as you examine critical passion narratives in the Gospels. Through your interaction with these Lenten readings, you will be a joyful witness of God s carefully orchestrated plan to redeem the world through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. These 40 devotions will allow you to gain a more complete perspective on your personal relationship with Jesus and the power of his work in your life today. Written by Dr. Kenneth Boa, president of Reflections Ministries, each devotion provides thoughts for meditation along with a prayer for each day, making this the perfect devotional for personal, family or small-group use. Features: * 40 daily devotions with multiple Scripture readings * A meditation that amplifies the Scripture passages* Each daily reading ends with a prayer* Scripture text from the clear, accessible New International Version (NIV) Bible"

Will the Christian church live or die? What is the way ahead? Answering these questions, this book challenges all people of God to seek unity in and beyond the norms of dogma and hierarchy.

Sacrifice dominated the religious landscape of the ancient Mediterranean world for millennia, but its role and meaning changed dramatically in the fourth and fifth centuries with the rise of Christianity. Daniel Ullucci offers a new explanation of this remarkable transformation, in the process demonstrating the complexity of the concept of sacrifice in Roman, Greek, and Jewish religion.
The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice challenges the predominant scholarly model, which posits a connection between so-called critiques of sacrifice in non-Christian Greek, Latin, and Hebrew texts and the Christian rejection of animal sacrifice. According to this model, pre-Christian authors attacked the propriety of animal sacrifice as a religious practice, and Christians responded by replacing animal sacrifice with a pure, ''spiritual'' 'worship. This historical construction influences prevailing views of animal sacrifice even today, casting it as barbaric, backward, and primitive despite the fact that it is still practiced in such contemporary religions as Islam and Santeria.
Rather than interpret the entire history of animal sacrifice through the lens of the Christian master narrative, Ullucci shows that the ancient texts must be seen not simply as critiques but as part of an ongoing competition between elite cultural producers to define the meaning and purpose of sacrifice. He reveals that Christian authors were not merely purveyors of pure spiritual religion, but a cultural elite vying for legitimacy and influence in societies that long predated them. The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice is a crucial reinterpretation of the history of one of humanity's oldest and most fascinating rituals.

In Christmas as Religion, Christopher Deacy explores the premise that religion plays an elementary role in our understanding of the Christmas festival, but takes issue with much of the existing literature which is inclined to limit the contours and parameters of 'religion' to particular representations and manifestations of institutional forms of Christianity. 'Religion' is often tacitly identified as having an ecclesiastical frame of reference, so that if the Church is not deemed to play a central role in the practice of Christmas for many people today then it can legitimately be side-lined and relegated to the periphery of any discussion relating to what Christmas 'means'. Deacy argues that such approaches fail to take adequate stock of the manifold ways in which people's beliefs and values take shape in modern society. For example, Christmas films or radio programmes may comprise a non-specifically Christian, but nonetheless religiously rich, repository of beliefs, values, sentiments and aspirations. Therefore, this book makes the case for laying to rest the secularization thesis, with its simplistic assumption that religion in Western society is undergoing a period of escalating and irrevocable erosion, and to see instead that the secular may itself be a repository of the religious. Rather than see Christmas as comprising alternative or analogous forms of religious expression, or dependent on any causal relationship to the Christian tradition, Deacy maintains that it is religious per se, and, moreover, it is its very secularity that makes Christmas such a compelling, and even transcendent, religious holiday.

""Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world "" (John 1:29)
No work of modern literature can usher you so powerfully and intimately into the Savior's heart like "The Day I Was Crucified."
Master storyteller, Gene Edwards (author of Divine Romance) recounts the harrowing scene of Calvary as if the crucifixion narrative was being told by Jesus Himself.
In this book, you will... Encounter the depths of God's unfathomable love as you walk side by side with Jesus during His final moments on Earth. Live in new levels of thankfulness as you come face to face with the full measure of what Jesus carried to the Cross on your behalf. Take an unforgettable journey, where the heartache of the Cross and victory of the Resurrection have never been more real to you. Step into history's most powerful and defining moment as you gaze upon the Lamb of God with new eyes.

'This book is simply written and will be of much help to new converts and defeated Christians in starting them off to a victorious spiritual life.' -- Bibliotheca Sacra 'Major Thomas points out how many dedicated people, ministers, Sunday school teachers, and the like, have come out of the old life but never gone on to the full, joyous life in Christ. He writes with fresh insight into many Bible passages, and challenges Christians to walk on and take the victory that is already won.' -- Faith at Work '. . . a very inspiring and helpful book.' -- Baptist Standard 'This is one of the most helpful treatments of a neglected subject which has come to this reviewer s attention.' --The Baptist Bulletin '. . . the author evidences keen insight into the definition and activity of the two natures of the believer and the path to victory. This path is explained with refreshing theological objectivity.' --The Sunday School Times 'A deeply spiritual study of the doctrine of the indwelling Christ. . . . Complete surrender is our need that Christ may live through us. We found the book helpful and enriching.' -- The Southern Baptist S.S. Board"

How can children 'develop' spiritually and how do their teachers know when 'development' has occurred? This volume traces the roots and growth of school worship and spiritual development from Victorian times and earlier through the 1960s and beyond in order to see how we have reached the present situation. The subject is examined in various contexts: its historical and cultural background; politics and legislation; philosophy and values; curriculum development. The book addresses the problem of how to define spiritual development and the contentious issue of compulsory school worship. It offers new insights and a thesis for the way forward.

This omnibus edition brings together Phillip Keller's three devotional classics, A Shepherd Looks and the 23rd Psalm, A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd, and A Shepherd Looks at the Lamb of God. As a shepherd, Phillip Keller knew what it was to protect a vulnerable flock on a daily basis. The special skills of a shepherd demanded compassion, care, and guidance. His practical experience provides a wellspring of profound spiritual insight, reflected in these timeless meditations on the most famous psalm of all, on the relationship between the Good Shepherd and his sheep, and on the sacrificial role of Christ the Lamb of God.

An ideal book to read with children to wonder and learn about baptism, with illustrations that reflect the diversity of God's people. Grounded in the Episcopal liturgical tradition, it is an accessible and inviting introduction to baptism for children and families of many Christian traditions. While learning what occurs during a baptism service, the reader (both child and parent) will be guided through the sacramental and communal aspects of the celebration. Beautifully illustrated in full color, a dedication page encourages personalization of the book, making it a perfect baptism gift. A family section offers questions and suggests ways to go deeper in conversation about baptism, making it a resource that families will use again and again with their children.

This book delineates the individualist "interpretation problem" that has long beset Protestant biblical interpretation, and engages theological resources that could serve to move beyond it. Lauren Smelser White argues that readers of Scripture-specifically those who long to submit their lives to God's transforming Word, which they believe the Bible discloses-ought to reckon with the participatory role that human bodies (corporeal and corporate) play in producing revelation's norms. Such a reckoning need not entail giving up on Scripture delivering the life-changing address of a divine Other. In support of that claim, White distills a picture of revelation as a divine-human discursive encounter: a process wherein our hermeneutic constructions are incorporated into the Word's self-disclosure, and whereby interpreters who embrace this venture in vulnerability may experience graced transformation. The work concludes by proposing that this "Christomorphic" interpretation process is analogous to a mother's embodied responsiveness in caring for her child. Such a hermeneutic paradigm suggests distinctive commitments from communities who desire to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in interpretive acts.

This book, in traditional English, provides the complete text for the service of Holy Baptism in the Orthodox Church. Included are the Prayer at the Making of a Catechumen, The Order of Holy Baptism, and the Prayer for Holy Baptism, Briefly, How to Baptize a Child Because of Fear of Death.

The services and prayer texts of the Orthodox Church are ancient and inspirational, and this invaluable reference guides priests, deacons, servers, readers, and singers in the customs and practices of the church. Including serving the altar and offering worship services, the handbook explains to all laity who desire a further understanding of the church's Typicon--the rule that governs how divine worship is offered--touching upon a variety of topics, including the Hours, Vespers, Vigil, Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and the Presanctified Liturgy. Drawn from Russian resources, this guide also explores the differences found in Greek usage.

Christians sing because we are people of hope. Yet our hope is unlike other kinds of hope. We are not optimists; nor are we escapists. Christian hope is uniquely shaped by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and by the promise of our own future resurrection. How is that hope both expressed and experienced in contemporary worship? In this volume in the Dynamics of Christian Worship series, pastor, theologian, and songwriter Glenn Packiam explores what Christians sing about when they sing about hope and what kind of hope they experience when they worship together. Through his analysis and reflection, we find that Christian worship is crucial to both the proclamation and the formation of Christian hope. The Dynamics of Christian Worship series draws from a wide range of worshiping contexts and denominational backgrounds to unpack the many dynamics of Christian worship-including prayer, reading the Bible, preaching, baptism, the Lord's Supper, music, visual art, architecture, and more-to deepen both the theology and practice of Christian worship for the life of the church.

This collection of essays examines how the paratextual apparatus of medieval manuscripts both inscribes and expresses power relations between the producers and consumers of knowledge in this important period of intellectual history. It seeks to define which paratextual features - annotations, commentaries, corrections, glosses, images, prologues, rubrics, and titles - are common to manuscripts from different branches of medieval knowledge and how they function in any particular discipline. It reveals how these visual expressions of power that organize and compile thought on the written page are consciously applied, negotiated or resisted by authors, scribes, artists, patrons and readers. This collection, which brings together scholars from the history of the book, law, science, medicine, literature, art, philosophy and music, interrogates the role played by paratexts in establishing authority, constructing bodies of knowledge, promoting education, shaping reader response, and preserving or subverting tradition in medieval manuscript culture.

The subject of this volume is that of the establishment and embedding in the Tuscan countryside, and especially round Florence, of the new forms of piety propagated above all by the Mendicant orders. The volume brings together Professor de La Ronciere's major articles on this topic, both detailed research studies and syntheses. Against the background of existing religious attitudes, he aims to describe the many new forms of pastoral activity and structures that were instituted, and to provide a picture of what the religious side of their life really meant to these communities. The final articles extend this analysis to include the city of Florence itself, examining the role of the confraternities there and the religious views of its merchants, its socio-economic elite. Ce volume a pour sujet l'etablissement et l'enracinement de nouvelles formes de piete propagees surtout par les ordres mendiants en pays toscan et, plus particulierement, aux alentours de Florence. Le volume rassemble les articles les plus importants du professeur de La Ronciere sur ce sujet; A la fois etudes de recherches detaillees et de synthese. C'est sur cet arriere-plan d'attitudes religieuses en existence, qu'il tente de decrire les nombreuses formes nouvelles d'activites et de structures pastorales qui furent instaurees dans ces communautes et ce que signifiait pour elles le cAte religieux de leurs vies. Les derniers articles etendent cette analyse A la ville de Florence elle-mAme, en y examinant le rAle des confreries et le point de vue religieux de l'elite socio-economique qu'etaient ses marchands.

The studies by Cyrille Vogel (1919-1982) collected here provide a detailed exposition of the penitential system of the Latin Church and its evolution during the Middle Ages. They complement in this way the general treatment of his books and document the stages of the system's development - from the early forms of Late Antiquity, to the tariffed system that emerged in the early Middle Ages, and its eventual replacement by the practices of modern times. The work is based on the systematic exploitation and analysis of all available sources, archeological as well as literary and hagiographic, and on careful attention to their dating; access to this store of material will now be facilitated by the detailed indexes to the present volume. Les etudes de Cyrille Vogel (1919-1982) rassemblees ici, sont un expose detaille du systeme penitenciaire de l'Eglise Latine et de son evolution au cours du moyen Acge. Elles viennent ainsi en complement de ses ouvrages et documentent les differents stades du developpement de ce systeme - des premieres formes de penitence non-reiterable durant l'antiquite tardive, au systeme tarifaire qui fit surface au debut du moyan-Acge, jusqu'aux pratiques modernes qui finirent par le remplacer. Cet ouvrage repose sur l'exploitation et l'analyse systematique de l'ensemble des sources disponibles, archeologiques ainsi que litteraires et hagiographiques, et sur une attention minutieuse quand aux dates qui leur ont ete assignees; l'acces A cette source de documentation sera dorenavant facilite par les indexes detailles contenus dans le present volume.

Ritual Practices in Congregational Identity Formation investigates the educational roles of ritual practices in the process of congregational identity formation. Son identifies and analyzes various kinds of Christian rituals with respect to how rituals influence the formational processes of a congregation's identity. Based on Victor Turner's ritual theory, this book also investigates the pedagogical and transformative efficacies of ritual practices within the dynamics of congregational education.

Music can either Connect You to God or Drive You to the Devil.

It is time for Christians to recover the full potential of anointed music—in our assemblies and in society, in our services and on the streets, in studios and in schools. Today’s Jesus revolution may only succeed with the help of Holy Spirit– inspired music and an encounter with God.

After reading this book, you will never again listen to a song the same. Discover how you can use music to release the sounds of heaven and change the world.

In the year 726 C.E., the Byzantine emperor Leo III issued an edict declaring images to be idols, forbidden by Exodus, and ordering all such images in churches to be destroyed. Thus commenced the first wave of Byzantine iconoclasm, which ran its violent course until 787, when the underlying issues were temporarily resolved at the Second Council of Nicaea. In 815, a second great wave of iconoclasm was set off, only to end in 842 when the icons were restored to the churches of the East and the iconoclasts excommunicated. The iconoclast controversies have long been understood as marking major fissures between the Western and Eastern churches. Thomas F. X. Noble reveals that the lines of division were not so clear. It is traditionally maintained that the Carolingians in the 790s did not understand the basic issues involved in the Byzantine dispute. Noble contends that there was, in fact, a significant Carolingian controversy about visual art and, if its ties to Byzantine iconoclasm were tenuous, they were also complex and deeply rooted in central concerns of the Carolingian court. Furthermore, he asserts that the Carolingians made distinctive and original contributions to the whole debate over religious art. Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians is the first book to provide a comprehensive study of the Western response to Byzantine iconoclasm. By comparing art-texts with laws, letters, poems, and other sources, Noble reveals the power and magnitude of the key discourses of the Carolingian world during its most dynamic and creative decades.

In this volume, T.C. Schmidt offers a new perspective on the formation of the New Testament by examining it simply as a Greco-Roman 'testament', a legal document of great authority in the ancient world. His work considers previously unexamined parallels between Greco-Roman juristic standards and the authorization of Christianity's holy texts. Recapitulating how Greco-Roman testaments were created and certified, he argues that the book of Revelation possessed many testamentary characteristics that were crucial for lending validity to the New Testament. Even so, Schmidt shows how Revelation fell out of favor amongst most Eastern Christian communities for over a thousand years until commentators rehabilitated its status and reintegrated it into the New Testament. Schmidt uncovers why so many Eastern churches neglected Revelation during this period, and then draws from Greco-Roman legal practice to describe how Eastern commentators successfully argued for Revelation's inclusion in the New Testaments of their Churches.