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.

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.

All eucharistic readings edited for liturgical use from the Revised Standard Version translation of the Bible. The paper-bound pew edition fits easily into the standard pew rack. (320 pp) You may also like:

""What I particularly appreciated as I read through these texts is that each one is an engaging meditation that combines sound theology with poetic skill. I think they would be an enrichment to any worshiping community and certainly food for personal reflection and prayer."" The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Before Michael Hudson was ordained, he was a successful songwriter in the Contemporary Christian field with 75 hymns to his credit. As his journey led him to become a liberal Anglican, he turned his considerable skill at matching text and tune to writing hymn texts. He began a spiritual discipline of writing a text for each of the gospels of the three-year cycle of Scripture readings. The result is a collection of 153 beautiful, evocative, and very singable poetic hymn texts. Each text can be sung to at least one familiar hymn tune, making the material easily accessible to congregations. A hymn tune index and a thematic index provide additional planning possibilities. Based on the Episcopal lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer, hymn tunes are suggested for each text and are indexed metrically so that substitutions may be made when necessary. Songs may be reproduced for congregational use.

Reading hymns as poetry for meditation and understanding has long been an Anglican practice. Some hymnals in England print one stanza with music and the rest as poetry. Americans have preferred that texts be interlined with music for ease and instruction in singing. This text-only edition of The Hymnal 1982 brings out the beauty and meaning of the poetry that has moved Christians to ministry for hundreds of years. This handsome red book is a companion to the study edition of the Book of Common Prayer and is an ideal accompaniment to A Closer Walk: Meditating on Hymns for Year A and Awake, My Soul: Meditating on Hymns for Year B by Nancy Roth.

Clouds and Glory is the final volume in a three-volume collection of prayers and other resources based on the New Common Worship Lectionary used widely around the world. Written in the Celtic style for which David Adam is well-known, and linked to the Sunday readings, these prayers and intercessions may be used by congregations for the Prayers of the People, as well as by individuals seeking to supplement their personal devotions.

What is a religion? That is the question that Richard Kent Evans attempts to answer in this book. He does so through the story of MOVE, a little-known group with a fascinating story. MOVE emerged in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. It was a small, mostly African American group devoted to the teachings of John Africa. In 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department - working in concert with federal and state law enforcement - attacked a home that "MOVE people" as they preferred to be known, shared in West Philadelphia. Hundreds of police officers and firefighters laid siege to the building using tear gas, ten thousand rounds of ammunition, and improvised explosives. Most infamously, a police officer riding in a helicopter dropped a bomb containing C-4 explosives, which he had acquired from the FBI, onto the roof of the MOVE house. The bomb started a fire, which officials allowed to spread in hopes of chasing the MOVE people out of the house. Police officers fired upon those who tried to escape the flames. Eleven MOVE people died in the attack, including John Africa. Five of those who died were children. In this book, Richard Kent Evans tells the story of MOVE - a story that has been virtually lost outside of Philadelphia. What was MOVE? Many MOVE members thought of themselves as belonging to a religion, and they sought legal recognition. But to others, including other religious groups like the Quakers and, more importantly, the courts, MOVE was anything but a religion. Evans dives deep into how we decide what constitutes a genuine religious tradition, and the enormous consequences of that decision.

Warm and Welcoming: How the Jewish Community Can Become Truly Diverse and Inclusive in the 21st Century is the first book to tackle institutionalized biases and barriers to inclusion, offering not only stories and context about the issues facing Jews of all backgrounds, but more importantly offering practical and concrete advice that Jewish institutions can implement right away to change how they engage with diverse populations. The book will feature 17 chapters written by some of the most knowledgeable individuals in the Jewish community around the areas of diversity and inclusion. From senior leaders in the field to young innovators who are helping the change the ways that Jewish institutions create community, Warm and Welcoming will offer fresh perspectives, best practices, and new ideas to transform Jewish institutions regardless of their size, resources, or number of years in existence.

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.

Eros and the Pearl is the first monograph devoted to the Yezidi cosmogonic myth. It is based on the author’s field research among the Yezidi people in Iraq, Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia. The author focuses on the analysis of the cosmogonic motif of Pearl and Love and, referring to various source materials, traces the presence of analogous threads in other religious traditions, esp. Yarsanism, Mandaeism, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, as well as the Greek philosophical concepts of Eros and the primordial One that influenced Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Early Christianity, and Sufism. Demonstrating the complexity of the Yezidi tradition, the author also points to Harranian ‘Sabians’ as those who may have contributed to its beliefs at the beginning of the formation of the Yezidi religion.

Honorable Mention, Theology and Religious Studies PROSE Award A powerful insight into the historical and cultural roles of the black church If we are in a post-racial era, then what is the future of the Black Church? If the US will at some time in the future be free from discrimination and prejudices that are based on race how will that affect the church's very identity? In The Ground Has Shifted, Walter Earl Fluker passionately and thoroughly discusses the historical and current role of the black church and argues that the older race-based language and metaphors of religious discourse have outlived their utility. He offers instead a larger, global vision for the black church that focuses on young black men and other disenfranchised groups who have been left behind in a world of globalized capital. Lyrically written with an emphasis on the dynamic and fluid movement of life itself, Fluker argues that the church must find new ways to use race as an emancipatory instrument if it is to remain central in black life, and he points the way for a new generation of church leaders, scholars and activists to reclaim the black church's historical identity and to turn to the task of infusing character, civility, and a sense of community among its congregants.

A remarkable history of the powerful and influential social gospel movement. The global crises of child labor, alcoholism and poverty were all brought to our attention through the social gospel movement. Its impact on American society makes it one of the most influential developments in American religious history. Christopher H. Evans traces the development of the social gospel in American Protestantism, and illustrates how the religious idealism of the movement also rose up within Judaism and Catholicism. Contrary to the works of previous historians, Evans demonstrates how the presence of the social gospel continued in American culture long after its alleged demise following World War I. Evans reveals the many aspects of the social gospel and their influence on a range of social movements during the twentieth century, culminating with the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. It also explores the relationship between the liberal social gospel of the early twentieth century and later iterations of social reform in late twentieth century evangelicalism. The Social Gospel in American Religion considers an impressive array of historical figures including Washington Gladden, Emil Hirsch, Frances Willard, Reverdy Ransom, Walter Rauschenbusch, Stephen Wise, John Ryan, Harry Emerson Fosdick, A.J. Muste, Georgia Harkness, and Benjamin Mays. It demonstrates how these figures contributed to the shape of the social gospel in America, while arguing that the movement's legacy lies in its profound influence on broader traditions of liberal-progressive political reform in American history.

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.

The present volume, based on a related conference in Erfurt, offers interdisciplinary insights on the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church or the Pan-Orthodox Council, convened on the island of Crete in June 2016. Although some Orthodox Churches finally declined to participate - the most prominent being the Russian one -, the Council was a most significant development. It brought a considerable number of Orthodox Churches together and discussed crucial issues pertaining to today's Orthodox world. However, it also vividly revealed existing serious problems of inter-Orthodox communication and collaboration. The contributions in this volume shed light on main issues related to this Council and their multiple repercussions for Pan-Orthodox unity and the future of the Orthodox world.

The book deals with the philosophy of the human person as worked out by Karol Wojtyla. It presents a number of fundamental issues necessary to understand Karol Wojtyla's personalism. Thus, first it undertakes Wojtyla's move from the philosophy of the human being to the philosophy of the human person; second, it presents Wojtyla's epistemological approach to the person against the background of other philosophies concerned with the human person; third, it describes the metaphysical structure of the person; four, it analyses the person's selected faculties (consciousness, emotions); five, it presents some aspects of the action of the person (a person's causation, or their role in dialogue); and finally, it tries to sketch the problem of personal dignity.

A scholarly edition of works by John Donne. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Modern church leaders need to cultivate innovative and creative leadership skills, as they navigate today s post-Christian world, and as their congregations look to them for insight and guidance. Gil Stafford takes a fresh look at this vital need, drawing upon his experience as a college coach, university president, and parish priest, and interweaving them with ancient spiritual practices found within the discipline of spiritual direction. Personal anecdotes help the reader envision their own life-transforming pilgrimage, as they develop into the type of adaptive leader that churches need in today s rapidly changing world. This book challenges church leaders to foster sacred safe space, holy listening, silence, and wisdom storytelling, in order to create a discerning church community. These techniques of spiritual direction can be applied to every aspect of the church, from small group studies to conducting parish business. Gradually the leader will be able to delegate some of his responsibilities to the congregation, liberating them to be leaders, and rescuing him from trying to be all things to all people."