Amid the ferment of dissent and the protests of heretics, the church developed most significantly. This guide introduces that history by looking at those periods.A variety of questions have preoccupied Christian communities throughout history. Christians have attempted to determine who Jesus is and whether his life and teaching have global significance. They've battled over the nature of salvation and the sources of authority for Christian belief and practice. They've argued about the nature and purpose of the Christian church and how is it to be organized. They've drawn swords over the relationship between church and state. And they've taken votes on who should be sainted and who should be expelled.Focusing on sources of unity and division within the church throughout its history, and some of the most and least savory characters in the history, this guide provides an overview of Christian responses to those and other formative questions, all with the trademark Homebrewed Christianity wit and wisdom.

This is a training manual that will equip you with all the necessary tools you need to help you become a bold and powerful witness for Christ in easy steps. This book is for you if: You are someone with absolutely no confidence when it comes to sharing your faith and would love to learn how to do so with total confidence, and to win souls for the kingdom of God; You are a church leader keen to equip your congregation in fulfilling the great commission, or; You are simply someone seeking to improve your skills to become more effective in the winning of souls If you are like most Christians, you've never won a single soul for Christ. But it doesn't have to be this way. Using the straight-forward principles inside this book, you can master the art of finding converts and saving lives-and lots of them. You'll learn; PRINCIPLES for approaching and talking to anyone without fear or intimidation and with total confidence; STRATEGIES to approach and talk to people about God even if you don't have a philosophical, psychological or even a formal theological background; TECHNIQUES for answering difficult questions, and; PROVEN OUTREACH METHODS for how to share the gospel with anyone-from Muslims to Atheist, from Scientists to even your neighbors.

Focusing on the theory and practice of Cistercian persuasion, the articles gathered in this volume offer historical, literary critical and anthropological perspectives on Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus Miraculorum (thirteenth century), the context of its production and other texts directly or indirectly inspired by it. The exempla inserted by Caesarius into a didactic dialogue between a monk and a novice survived for many centuries and travelled across the seas thanks to rewritings and translations into vernacular languages. An accomplished example of the art of persuasion -medieval and early modern- the Dialogus Miraculorum establishes a link not only between the monasteries, the mendicant circles and other religious congregations but also between the Middle Ages and Modernity, the Old and the New World. Contributors are: Jacques Berlioz, Elisa Brilli, Daniele Dehouve, Pierre-Antoine Fabre, Marie Formarier, Jasmin Margarete Hlatky, Elena Koroleva, Nathalie Luca, Brian Patrick McGuire, Stefano Mula, Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu, Victoria Smirnova, and Anne-Marie Turcan-Verkerk.