Using inside sources and extensive field reporting about the secretive, high-stakes world of international diplomacy, Vatican reporter Victor Gaetan takes readers to the Holy See to explicate Pope Francis's diplomacy, show why it works, and to offer readers a startling contrast to the dangerous inadequacies of recent U.S. international decisions.

For those interested in Christianity in China, the state-church relationship, and the present Communist regime and its attitude towards religion, Sino-Vatican Relations offers a wealth of information and insights. This work traces the tortuous history of the relationship between the Chinese government and the Roman Catholic Church, from denunciation of Communism by the Church, to seeking dialogue by recent pontiffs such as John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. Besides examining the religious policy of China since 1949 and how the Chinese government deals with religious revivals, this work also traces the history of the church regarding the appointment of bishops in Europe from its early days to modern times. Monarchies in Europe have always been involved in the appointment of bishops. Thus, the recent agreement between Pope Francis and the Chinese authorities regarding the appointment of bishops has historical precedents. The overall aim of this work is to help readers to get the right information needed to have a well-informed opinion on the complex matter of the Sino-Vatican Relations, particularly on the agreement signed by Pope Francis with Beijing in 2018.

The Orthodox Christian tradition has all too often been sidelined in conversations around contemporary religion. Despite being distinct from Protestantism and Catholicism in both theology and practice, it remains an underused setting for academic inquiry into current lived religious practice. This collection, therefore, seeks to redress this imbalance by investigating modern manifestations of Orthodox Christianity through an explicitly gender-sensitive gaze. By addressing attitudes to gender in this context, it fills major gaps in the literature on both religion and gender. Starting with the traditional teachings and discourses around gender in the Orthodox Church, the book moves on to demonstrate the diversity of responses to those narratives that can be found among Orthodox populations in Europe and North America. Using case studies from several countries, with both large and small Orthodox populations, contributors use an interdisciplinary approach to address how gender and religion interact in contexts such as, iconography, conversion, social activism and ecumenical relations, among others. From Greece and Russia to Finland and the USA, this volume sheds new light on the myriad ways in which gender is manifested, performed, and engaged within contemporary Orthodoxy. Furthermore, it also demonstrates that employing the analytical lens of gender enables new insights into Orthodox Christianity as a lived tradition. It will, therefore, be of great interest to scholars of both Religious Studies and Gender Studies.

Nicholas Aloysius Gallagher became the third Roman Catholic bishop for the Diocese of Galveston in 1882. During his thirty-six year tenure as bishop, Gallagher made significant contributions to the development of Catholicism in Texas in very challenging and difficult times. Gallagher's episcopacy was marked by the rapid growth of parishes, Catholic schools, and hospitals.Notable for being the first American-born bishop to serve Texas, Gallagher hailed from north of the Mason-Dixon Line, a fact not easily missed in a state still reeling from the Civil War. Remembered for his missionary efforts among African American Catholics, he pushed the church to become more involved in the local community, opening the first school for black children in 1886. He also established the Holy Rosary Parish, one of the first black parishes in Texas. Similar parishes followed in Houston, Beaumont, and Port Arthur. Bishop Gallagher also was instrumental in the rebuilding of churches destroyed by the devastating 1900 hurricane that claimed more than six thousand lives, including ten nuns and more than ninety orphans. In the aftermath of the storm, Gallagher demonstrated a steady hand in the midst of tragedy and was praised for his ability to bring hope and courage to survivors. The Episcopacy of Nicholas Gallagher, Bishop of Galveston, 1882-1918 is a major biography of an important religious figure in Texas during a time of transition. This book will appeal to readers interested in Texas history, Galveston history, and the history of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

The Society of Jesus - the Jesuits - is the largest religious order in the Roman Catholic Church. Distinguished by their obedience and their loyalty to the Holy See, they have never, during nearly five hundred years' history, produced a pope until now: Pope Francis is the first Jesuit Pope. Michael Walsh tells the story of the Society through the stories and exploits of its members over five hundred years, from Ignatius of Loyola to Pope Francis himself. He explores the Jesuits' commitment to humanist philosophy, which over the centuries has set it at odds with the Vatican, as well as the hostility towards the Jesuits both on the part of Protestants and also Roman Catholics - a hostility which led one pope to attempt to suppress the Society worldwide towards the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on the author's extensive inside knowledge, this narrative history traces the Society's founding and growth, its impact on Catholic education, its missions especially in the Far East and Latin America, its progressive theology, its clashes with the Vatican, and the emergence of Jorge Bergoglio, the first Jesuit to become Pope. Finally, it reflects on the Society's present character and contemporary challenges.

The history of the Christian church is a fascinating story. Since the ascension of Jesus and the birth of the church at Pentecost, the followers of Christ have experienced persecution and martyrdom, established orthodoxy and orthopraxy, endured internal division and social upheaval, and sought to proclaim the good news "to the end of the earth." How can we possibly begin to grasp the complexity of the church's story? In this brief volume, historian Jennifer Woodruff Tait provides a primer using seven sentences to introduce readers to the sweeping scope of church history. Among the sentences: "No one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion." -The Edict of Milan (AD 313) "Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance from the Father." -The Nicene Creed (325) "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent,' he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." -Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1517) "The church is confronted today, as in no preceding generation, with a literally worldwide opportunity to make Christ known." -The Edinburgh Conference (1910) Pick up and read. The story continues. The accessible primers in the Introductions in Seven Sentences collection act as brief introductions to an academic field, with simple organization: seven key sentences that give readers a birds-eye view of an entire discipline.

1990 was ’n waterskeidingsjaar in Suid-Afrika se geskiedenis. Sedertdien het die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing, en ook die NG Kerk, baie verander. Neels Jackson bied sy indrukke van die belangrikste tendense wat van 1990 tot 2020 in die NG Kerk plaasgevind het. Die wortel van die kerk word teruggevoer na Jesus toe, en die NG Kerk vandag kan ’n uitdagende toekoms op die spoor van Jesus Christus met vertroue tegemoet gaan.

The development of new forms of ministry, lay and ordained, has included worker-priests, now found in the Anglican Communion in a related form variously called Self-Supporting Ministry (SSM) or Non-Stipendiary Ministry (NSM). This book focuses on one of the most recent developments, the creation of Ordained Local Ministry. After chapters that consider preliminary questions of the nature of ministry, such as authority in the church and Holy Orders, Noel Cox argues that the crucial distinction between these and other forms of ministry is that the Ordained Local Minister (OLM) is overtly ordained specifically for a given locality (variously defined); they are a deacon or priest for a specific church, parish, benefice, or deanery, rather than of the universal church. Their introduction inevitably raises difficult ecclesiological questions, which Cox examines.

Leadership in Small Churches inspires and equips men and women who are called to serve in churches of less than 100 people, which are the majority of churches in the United States. Small churches in the United States suffer from a lack of leadership. On the one hand, there is a shortage of leaders. On the other hand, leaders who serve faithfully sometimes feel ill-equipped to carry out their calling due to inadequate training, especially a lack of training specific to small churches. This volume provides guidance from scholars and practitioners with experience in small churches. Because of their experience in and commitment to ministry in small churches, these writers are well qualified to discuss the breadth of topics in this book. These topics include developing vision, handling conflict, pastoral care, preaching, discipleship, ministry to youth and children, missions, and identifying and training leaders.

Many people believe in Jesus Christ but want nothing to do with the church. Some others who call themselves committed Christians will not commit to a local church. We have to be honest. There is a dearth in the church in many countries. At times the church has been very sick and the illness seemed to be terminal; yet it survives and in many places grows phenomenally. "Dry Bones can Live", addresses this problem and proposes a dynamic remedy; setting out a strategy for local churches to consider. It is full of stories from the pastor's casebook, which illustrate the reality and effectiveness of the Gospel in transforming lives

This book analyses the discourses of Orthodox Christianity in Western Europe to demonstrate the emerging discrepancies between the mother Church in the East and its newer Western congregations. Showing the genesis and development of these discourses over the twentieth century, it examines the challenges the Orthodox Church is facing in the modern world. Organised along four different discursive fields, the book uses these fields to analyse the Orthodox Church in Western Europe during the twentieth century. It explores pastoral, ecclesiological, institutional and ecumenical discourses in order to present a holistic view of how the Church views itself and how it seeks to interact with other denominations. Taken together, these four fields reveal a discursive vitality outside of the traditionally Orthodox societies that is, however, only partly reabsorbed by the church hierarchs in core Orthodox regions, like Southeast Europe and Russia. The Orthodox Church is a complex and multi-faceted global reality.Therefore, this book will be a vital guide to scholars studying the Orthodox Church, ecumenism and religion in Europe, as well as those working in religious studies, sociology of religion, and theology more generally.

This book offers a systematic, chronological analysis of the role played by the human senses in experiencing pilgrimage and sacred places, past and present. It thus addresses two major gaps in the existing literature, by providing a broad historical narrative against which patterns of continuity and change can be more meaningfully discussed, and focusing on the central, but curiously neglected, area of the core dynamics of pilgrim experience. Bringing together the still-developing fields of Pilgrimage Studies and Sensory Studies in a historically framed conversation, this interdisciplinary study traces the dynamics of pilgrimage and engagement with holy places from the beginnings of the Judaeo-Christian tradition to the resurgence of interest evident in twenty-first century England. Perspectives from a wide range of disciplines, from history to neuroscience, are used to examine themes including sacred sites in the Bible and Early Church; pilgrimage and holy places in early and later medieval England; the impact of the English Reformation; revival of pilgrimage and sacred places during the nineteenth and twentieth Centuries; and the emergence of modern place-centred, popular 'spirituality'. Addressing the resurgence of pilgrimage and its persistent link to the attachment of meaning to place, this book will be a key reference for scholars of Pilgrimage Studies, History of Religion, Religious Studies, Sensory Studies, Medieval Studies, and Early Modern Studies.

The Mastering Ministry Series covers the various challenges of a ministry encounters and teaches how to deal with them-one subject at a time. Mastering Ministry is a perfect "survival guide" for today's pastor addressing relevant topics such as worship, preaching, controversies, evangelism, church management, pastoral care, fundraising and personal growth.

When Nazi Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944 violent persecution of the Jews began, including taking hundreds of thousands to concentration camps. It did not help Klara Kardos that she was Catholic: because of her Jewish background, she was also taken to Auschwitz in June of 1944 at the age of 24. At the camp, younger women were not killed; they were taken to ammunition factories to do forced labor. Klara survived the horror of death camps and was liberated in May 1945. Years after her return to Hungary, at the request of her friends, she wrote down her camp experiences in a small book in the Hungarian language. This is her story.

The Early Quakers and 'the Kingdom of God' takes account of the early Quakers in Britain during the middle years of the seventeenth century as nonviolent, spiritual revolutionaries. Theirs was a time of intellectual ferment and socio-political, economic and ecclesiastical upheaval not to mention three horrific and devastating civil wars. The Early Quakers and 'the Kingdom of God' breaks new ground in British theology and ecclesiastical history by investigating the early Quakers' (1647-63) vision of, and intimate relationship with, the Kingdom of God. Like Jesus of Nazareth, they were particularly devoted to the Kingdom, contrasting it to that of the Puritans, Episcopalians and Catholics. The book acknowledges alternative titles for the 'Kingdom' and uses many of them, i.e. the 'Covenant of Peace'. In describing the tortuous relationship between the above ecclesiastical groups and the Quakers in the mid-17th century, the work analyses the Quakers' language use, what they said, did, and wrote in regards to the Kingdom, all of which culminated in a Pentecost-type 'moment' in 1659-61. This 'moment', capturing the essence of their 1650s experience of Kingdom and Testimony (i.e. the well-known peace testimony of the Quakers), has direct import for Quakers and others in the peace movement and conflict resolution networks today, especially those that are church-based. The Early Quakers and 'the Kingdom of God' will be of interest to theologians, historians and those with a deep interest in 17th century religious, political and social movements, including people wishing to understand the roots of today's expression of both evangelical and liberal theology. The book will be a lasting resource for students of history and theology. The reader of The Early Quakers and 'the Kingdom of God' will be aided by footnotes, a glossary, an index and bibliography.

DAVID H. HIGGINS, M.A. (Cambridge), was Head of the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Bristol until retirement in 1995. His main professional field was the cultural and political history of Italy from Late Antiquity, through medieval to the Renaissance, together with comparative philology and linguistics. This was accompanied by an interdisciplinary professional interest in comparative early medieval British and Italian archaeology and history. His major publications include the critical apparatus of Dante's Divine Comedy in the World Classics series, Oxford University Press (1981, 2nd edition 1993, reprinted 2008), and many articles and reviews in journals such as Dante Studies, The Modern Language Review, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History and archaeological serials including the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, The Council for British Archaeology - South West, Bristol and Avon Archaeology and short works for the Bristol branch of the Historical Association.

Why did the medieval West condemn clerical marriage as an abomination while the Byzantine Church affirmed its sanctifying nature? This book brings together ecclesiastical, legal, social, and cultural history in order to examine how Byzantine and Western medieval ecclesiastics made sense of their different rules of clerical continence. Western ecclesiastics condemned clerical marriage for three key reasons: married clerics could alienate ecclesiastical property for the sake of their families; they could secure careers in the Church for their sons, restricting ecclesiastical positions and lands to specific families; and they could pollute the sacred by officiating after having had sex with their wives. A comparative study shows that these offending risk factors were absent in twelfth-century Byzantium: clerics below the episcopate did not have enough access to ecclesiastical resources to put the Church at financial risk; clerical dynasties were understood within a wider frame of valued friendship networks; and sex within clerical marriage was never called impure in canon law, as there was little drive to use pollution discourses to separate clergy and laity. These facts are symptomatic of a much wider difference between West and East, impinging on ideas about social order, moral authority, and reform.

Are there false, fruitless and even deceptive predators in the pulpits of the modern church? If so, are these deceivers leading multitudes to the worship of false gods through their damnable heresies? Are "seeker-friendly" churches creating a new class of "Christians" who have no concept of authentic, Biblical Christianity? Are there leaders who are building their own kingdoms in lieu of God's and doing so on your dime? Are we hearing the full counsel of the LORD from those in leadership, or the psychology and programs of mere men? Are beguiling emissaries in our midst drawing believers away from pure devotion and intimacy with Jesus Christ? Do these things exist within your local fellowship? Are you truly being instructed in the right ways of the LORD? Explore the answers to these and many more questions in this bold, insightful, and resourceful look at the church world today. WHAT YOU WILL GAIN FROM READING THIS BOOK: What specific erroneous teachings are circulating in the church world and how to identify and expose them How to discern the genuine leaders who truly follow the Word and Spirit of God, from the false and fruitless who are using God's money to build their own kingdoms How to please the LORD by positioning and establishing His written revelation as final authority in your personal life How to discern and cease wasting your brief existence on this earth supporting wolves in sheep's clothing How to serve God with a loving and concerned heart from the foundation of divine immutable truth "Todd has addressed the number one issue of today's Christian culture. A subtle enemy has been invading our Christian churches and lulling Christians to sleep. This book is a dynamic toolfor the discerning Christian who wants to be an effective servant of the LORD." Dan White

Collected Studies CS1071 The central figure in this volume is that of Gratian, whose monumental compilation of canon law sparked off the revival of legal studies in the medieval West. In other collections of essays, Stephan Kuttner dealt with the development of canon law in the two centuries that followed the publication of Gratian's Decretum, and the ideas that this engendered; here he is concerned with the foundations upon which all these later efforts were based. The work of Gratian is, of course, the principal focus, but the studies then follow the spread of the teaching of law, from its inception at Bologna in the 1140s to its appearance soon after in other centres of learning in the West especially in France, in the Anglo-Norman schools and in Germany. With a quarter of the volume consisting of additional notes and extensive indexes, it makes a contribution of the greatest importance to the historical study of canon law. For this second edition, a new section of additional notes has been supplied, and the volume is introduced with an essay by Peter Landau; these take account of the important recent work on Gratian and the Decretum and chart the significance of Stephan Kuttner's work.