MISSIONS STRATEGIES OF KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARIES IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES is the most important book on Presbyterian missions in the Philippines to be published in this century. Historians of Asia and scholars of Christian history interested in learning about the planting of the Presbyterian movement in the Philippines cannot ignore this book. This book describes the origin and growth of the Presbyterian Church of the Philippines (PCP), a major Presbyterian denomination in the Philippines, and it explains the strategies used by Presbyterian missionaries to accomplish Presbyterianism in the Philippines. Written by the current director of the main missionary training agency of the Korean Presbyterian Church (Ko-Shin), one of the biggest Korean Presbyterian denominations with thousands of churches throughout the world and dozens of co-operative "daughter" Korean Presbyterian denominations worldwide - in the USA, Australia, the European Union, Indonesia, etc. - this book provides a picture into the secrets of success behind Korean Presbyterian missions work. This book is written by Rev. Dr. Hoo-Soo Jose Nam who has served as the President of Cebu Bible College in the Philippines for over a decade and trained hundreds of Christian clergy and leaders. Rev. Dr. Nam is not only an academic but personally founded or help found over 10 Filipino Presbyterian churches in the Philippines. This book is an authoritative book on Presbyterian missionary activity in the Philippines by one who was an important part of that history.

While the defense of public image in political, corporate, and celebrity rhetoric has been widely studied, religious image repair has been largely ignored. "Divine Apology" considers the unique circumstances facing religious figures in need of restoring their reputations by examining a blend of historical and contemporary defenses offered by various figures and groups. The author covers apologia as advanced by the Apostle Paul, Justin Martyr, Martin Luther, Jimmy Swaggart, evangelical opponents of the Jesus Seminar, and conservative leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention. He concludes that strategies used for religious image repair often differ significantly from those employed by politicians, corporations, and other public figures.

In this unique volume, Miller demonstrates that religious groups and individuals are as motivated as anyone else to purify their public images. The issues prompting defenses, however, are more likely to focus on epistemological conflicts and clashes of worldviews than on inappropriate behaviors. As a consequence, religious apologists are more likely to associate attacks against their beliefs as assaults against their characters. This causes religious image restoration discourse to manifest itself as more transcendent than defenses in traditional situations involving laypeople. Miller posits that the presence of God and religious antecedents as salient audiences, as well as other factors concerning audience and context, work to shape a form of apology that is characteristically religious.

Since its announcement by Xi Jinping in 2015, "Sinicization" has become the slogan that guides Chinese official policy towards religion. What does it mean? What effects is it having on Chinese religions? Where will it lead? This book, with contributions from experts in the major religious traditions in China, is one of the first in English that answers these questions. From the top down, Sinicization is a project to control all forms of religion in China, even ancient indigenous forms, to make them conform to the demands of its Party-State. From the bottom up, however, religious believers are using the slogan either to sincerely attempt to adapt traditional practices to their modern cultural context or to protect their faith by offering lip service to government demands - or some combination of the two.

This book takes a new look at one of the most contentious periods in American history. The battles over schools that surrounded the famous Scopes "monkey" trial in 1925 were about much more than evolution. Fundamentalists fought to maintain cultural control of education. As this book reveals for the first time, the successes and the failures of these fundamentalist campaigns transformed both the fundamentalist movement and the nature of education in America. In turn, those transformations determined many of the positions of the "culture wars" that raged throughout the twentieth century.

"The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921-1969: In Love with the Chinese "describes the adaptation of American women to cross-cultural situations in Hong Kong from 1921 to 1969. The Maryknoll Sisters were the first American Catholic community of women founded for overseas missionary work, and were the first American Sisters in Hong Kong. Maryknollers were independent, outgoing, and joyful women who were highly educated, and acted in professional capacities as teachers, social workers, and medical personnel. The assertion of this book is that the mission provided Maryknollers what they had long desired--equal employment opportunities--which were only later emphasized in the women's liberation movement of the 1960s.

While television today is taken for granted, Americans in the 1950s faced the challenge of negotiating the new medium's place in the home and in American culture in general. Protestant leaders--both mainstream and evangelical--began to think carefully about what television meant for their communities and its potential impact on their work. Using the American Protestant experience of the introduction of television, Rosenthal illustrates the importance of the interplay between a new medium and its users in an engaging book suitable for general readers and students alike.

Names and explains the various objects found in a Catholic Church, how they are used in the celebration of the Mass and other events, the clergy and lay people who use them, and the meaning behind them.

This book explains the concept of Islamic "da'wah," or missionary activity, as it has developed in contemporary Western contexts. Poston traces the transition from the early "external-institutional" missionary approach impracticable in modern Western society, to an "internal-personal" approach which aims at the conversion of individuals and seeks to influence society from the bottom upwards. Poston also combines the results of a questionnaire-survey with an analysis of published testimonies to identify significant traits that distinguish converts to Islam.

Discover the marketing basics to draw new membersand more fundsto your church! Though more and more religious organizations increasingly attempt to use marketing techniques to improve response, little literature exists to explain crucial concepts, terms, and strategies. The Concise Encyclopedia of Church and Religious Organization Marketing fills this gap by providing novice marketers with basic theories and terms in easy-to-understand language. This A-to-Z reference presents the essential concepts and techniques, such as benefits to constituents, target markets, market research, and advertising, all with plain and concise explanations to apply to your situation, all aimed to effectively increase the numbers and resources of your faith-based organization. As people become increasingly inundated with advertising and given more choices, the need for a religious organization to cut through this informational clutter to present its own positive features to the right audience becomes vital. From social cause marketing to measuring attitudes of respondents and constituent analysis, the Concise Encyclopedia of Church and Religious Organization Marketing details the tools needed to measure and increase positive response to allow your organization to effectively compete in today's world. Numerous figures and tables clearly illustrate more complex concepts and terms to make comprehension fast and easy. An appendix has been included that provides a complete review of the early and contemporary literature applicable to marketing and religion as well as the origins of religious organizational marketing. The Concise Encyclopedia of Church and Religious Organization Marketing clarifies foundational marketing concepts and terms as they relate to church and religious organizations. Entries include: benefits brand equity cause-related marketing communication methods competition competitive advantage constituent analysis and behavior controlling marketing activities data collection and analysis demographics quantitative research directive marketing focus groups geodemographics marketing planning and research new program development performance evaluation and control publicity SWOT analysisStrengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of an organization target audience and so much more! The Concise Encyclopedia of Church and Religious Organization Marketing is the perfect source for marketing beginners looking for the basic knowledge needed to market their church or organization, as well as being a quick bookshelf reference for more experienced religious marketers.

Lectionary studies were almost abandoned after the mid-twentieth century, and the recent revival of interest in the Greek Lectionary has concentrated exclusively on the Gospel Lectionary. Gibson reintroduces the value of the Apostolos yet incorporates modern methodology in order to build upon the work of recent Lectionary scholarship, analysing New Testament and liturgical textual traditions together, both compilation and continuous text. Through this process, it is shown that the Apostolos witness is not usually copied to another and that consequently there is no 'Lectionary text' of Acts and Paul. Instead, Apostolos copies reflect textual variation in the evolving Byzantine tradition. This study concentrates on the Apostolos in its scribal, monastic, liturgical, and theological context as well as in light of other manuscript traditions.

Stewardship: The Proven Path: Fund-raising Principles for Church Capital Campaigns is the first book by the national fund raising specialist James D. Klote. After years of educating churches one at a time, he felt called to put his experience and educational information into an easy to read, simple to follow format. He wants churches to achieve their goals in mission in ministry This inside look at the complexities of a Capital Campaign offers the unique perspective of his 20 years of experience with churches. The anecdotes throughout the book highlight the lessons he has learned along the way so you don't have to learn them. This easy to understand description of his practical and straightforward approach to a Capital Campaign will make you wonder why it is not the most common approach to fund raising. He describes in detail the process of conducting the campaign, complete with sample campaign prayers. However, he offers a warning to not attempt a campaign on your own if you have needs greater than one times your annual giving. Outlined are the most common mistakes made by churches attempting campaigns on their own and those made by part-time fund raising consulting firms. You will be convinced that there is more to a Capital Campaign than you might imagine and the guidance of a full time consultant is the key to Capital Campaign success.

Nineteen ninety-five is the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps and of the martyrdom of the Protestant theologian and resistance leader, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The author weaves together the stories of his studies at the Shoah archives and former death camps in Central and Eastern Europe and at the Israeli Holocaust memorial. Following the reflections and narratives there is a lengthy compilation of resources for worship services, interfaith observances, and both study and dialogue programs. The unique section on liturgical resources includes models for seasonal services, historical background, sermons and sermon outlines, prayers, readings, hymns, litanies, other resources, and an annotated bibliography.

Just as Christianity has its Vatican in Rome, modern Daoism boasts of a unique center of religious authority and administration: the Temple of the White Clouds (Baiyun guan) in Beijing, seat of the general headquarters of the Chinese Daoist Association. This temple complex in Beijing, called by Dr Esposito "modern Daoism's Vatican," houses the grave of the mythical founder of Daoism's Quanzhen tradition and celebrates the patriarchs of its Longmen ("Dragon Gate") branch as his legitimate heirs. Monica Esposito describes in this book how Daoist masters and historiographers in China, much like their Catholic counterparts in Europe, invented a glorious patriarchal lineage as well as a system of ordination designed to perpetuate orthodox transmission and central control. They also created a kind of New Testament: a new canonical collection of scriptures entitled "The Gist of the Daoist Canon" (Daozang jiyao). It contains hundreds of texts including the Daoist classic The Secret of the Golden Flower which achieved fame through the commentary by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. A classic study on the invention of religious traditions, the four parts of Creative Daoism describe in detail the construction of the Daoist Vatican's lineage of patriarchs, system of ordination, canon of sacred scriptures, and doctrine of universal salvation.

Though much has been written about Charles Finney, The Father of Modern Revivalism, most works have concentrated on his roles as an educator and political reformer. In this new study, Chesebrough examines the rhetorical skills and techniques that made Finney the first contemporary evangelist, one whose methods are still practiced today. A major force in many social reform movements of his time, most notably abolitionism, Finney introduced techniques to revivalist preaching that he used toward politically sophisticated ends. Chesebrough explores both his rhetoric and the effect it had on Finney's audiences, as well as the controversy this major figure often provoked.

Following a survey of Finney's life, with special attention given to those aspects pertaining to the development of his oratory, Chesebrough considers the themes of Finney's sermons and lectures on both religious and political subjects. A third section details the rhetorical devices he introduced and employed, and the volume concludes with three of Finney's actual sermons, which reveal the ways in which this speaker commanded the attention of his audiences.

This book pays homage to the work of a scholar who has substantially advanced knowledge and understanding of the medieval military-religious orders. Alan J. Forey has published over seventy meticulously researched articles on every aspect of the military-religious orders, two books on the Templars in the Corona de Aragon, and a wide-ranging survey of the military-religious orders from the twelfth to the early fourteenth centuries. His archival research has been especially significant in opening up the history of the military orders in the Iberian Peninsula. This volume comprises an appreciation of Forey's work and a range of research that has been inspired by his scholarship or develops themes that run through his work. Articles reflect Forey's detailed research into and analysis of primary sources, as well as his work on the military orders, the crusades, the eastern Mediterranean, and the trial of the Templars. Further papers move beyond the geographical and chronological bounds of Forey's research, while still exploring his themes of the military-religious orders' relations with the Church and State.