In an age of family breakdown, loneliness, and insecurity, we need more than ever to grasp the meaning of being sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. Surprisingly, theologians have devoted little attention to the biblical teaching on adoption. This book views the many facets of God's saving grace through the lens of the Bible's family imagery. Combining careful exegesis with gripping personal stories of father-child relationships, Robert A. Peterson brings home the warmth and wonder of biblical adoption.

Race and the Assemblies of God Church chronicles the treatment of African Americans by the largest, predominantly white, Pentecostal denomination in the United States. The formation of the Assemblies of God in 1914, brought an end to the interracial focus of the Pentecostal movement that characterized the revival from its inception in Los Angeles, California, at an abandoned warehouse on Azusa Street in 1906. Dr. Newman utilizes the extensive archival holdings of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, housed in the international headquarters of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri, to support his contention that Assemblies of God leaders deliberately engaged in racist efforts to prevent African American participation in Assemblies of God activities because the denominational leaders feared the reaction of its ministers and congregations in the American South. In addition, a concerted effort to refer African Americans interested in the Assemblies of God to African American groups, such as the Church of God in Christ, was approved at the highest levels of Assemblies of God leadership. Ultimately, efforts to exclude African Americans from the denomination led to official decisions to refuse them ordination and approved resolutions to support the establishment of a separate, unrelated Pentecostal denomination specifically for African Americans. Assemblies of God attitudes regarding racial issues changed only as a result of the civil rights movement and its effect upon American society during the 1960s and 1970s. The treatment of race in church groups with European origins was compared to that of the Assemblies of God and the influence of African and slave religions upon the rise of the Pentecostal movement. Finally, the author provides an analysis of the 1994 event known as the "Miracle of Memphis" in which white Pentecostal denominations dissolved the racially segregated Pentecostal Fellowship of North America in favor of a new organization, the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America. The book concludes that although current Assemblies of God leaders have embraced the concept of an integrated church fellowship that no longer excludes African Americans, there is virtually no evidence of wide acceptance of this concept at the local church level in the denomination.

What is the right way to worship? Right worship does not require a return to the identical forms found in the early church or later in Rome or after that in Westminster. What it calls for is a faithful response today to the God of our salvation in light of those biblically ordered and historically informed patterns. In this study Robbie Castleman uncovers the fundamental shape of worship. What she finds--outlined in Scripture, enacted in Israel, refocused in the New Testament community, guarded by the apostolic fathers, and recovered in the Reformation--is a grand narrative of redemption offering order and meaning to all worshiping communities down to the present day.

Biblical Christianity In African Perspective is a survey of the major truths of the Christian faith as seen from the perspective of the African world view.

The book addresses the major tenets of the Christian faith together with some of the most important moral and spiritual issues of African life. Unlike most theology books, this book has been purposely written in readable everyday language, including many true African stories. The book was written by a person with 50 years of study in the Word of God, who has spent over 40 of those years relating the Bible to African life and issues.

It is the result of five years of graduate research and evaluation in consultation with more than 300 African theological students and faculty in various schools.

In this book, Frances Courtney Kneupper examines the apocalyptic prophecies of the late medieval Empire, which even within the sensational genre of eschatological prophecy stand out for their bitter and violent nature. In addition to depicting the savage chastisement of the clergy and the forcible restructuring of the Church, these prophecies also infuse the apocalyptic narrative with explicitly German elements-in fact, German speakers are frequently cast as the agents of these stirring events in which the clergy suffer tribulations and the Church hierarchy is torn down. These prophecies were widely circulated throughout late medieval German-speaking Europe. Kneupper explores their significance for members of the Empire from 1380 to 1480, arguing that increased literacy, the development of strong urban centers, the drive for reform, and a connection to the imperial crown were behind their popularity. Offering detailed accounts of the most significant prophecies, Kneupper shows how they fit into currents of thought and sentiment in the late medieval Empire. In particular, she considers the relationships of German prophecy to contemporary discourses on Church reform and political identity. She finds that eschatological thought was considered neither marginal nor heretical, but was embraced by a significant, orthodox population of German laypeople and clerics, demonstrating the importance of popular eschatological thought to the development of a self-conscious, reform-minded, German-identified Empire on the Eve of the Reformation.

Church leadership is a demanding and challenging role. There are many responsibilities involved in leading a church, which can be difficult to maneuver without the proper tools and resources.Written with Bible-based truths and helpful insights, Foundations of Church Administration is both an exploration of those responsibilities and a practical guide to navigating through them. Each chapter is authored by a notable expert in the field who, with sound experience and effective steps, helps church leaders efficiently succeed in the many facets of their responsibilities.In this honest exploration, church leaders will find a new perspective on church administration that will help them dig deeper and develop a long-lasting and effective practice of leading and administrating a church.

This study of recruitment to the ministry of the Church of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries overturns many long-standing assumptions about the education and backgrounds of the clergy in late HanoverianEngland and Wales. This study of recruitment to the ministry of the Church of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries overturns many long-standing assumptions about the education and backgrounds of the clergy in late HanoverianEngland and Wales. It offers insights into the nature and development of the profession generally and into the role that individual bishops played in shaping the staffing of their dioceses. In its exploration of how it was possible for boys of relatively humble social origins to be promoted into the pulpits of the established Church, it throws light on mechanisms of social mobility and shows how aspirant clergy went about fashioning a credible social andprofessional identity. By examining how would be clergymen were educated and professionally formed, the book shows that, alongside the well-known route through the universities, there was an alternative route via specialist grammar schools. Prospective ordinands might also seek out clerical tutors to help them to study for the academic parts of ordination exams and to prepare for the spiritual and pastoral aspects of their role. These alternativemethods of ordination preparation were sometimes under the cognizance of bishops, and occasionally under their control, but they were generally authored by parish clergy and were small-scale, self-supporting, bottom-up solutions to the needs of upcoming generations of clergy. This book has much to interest historians of religion, culture, class and education, and illustrates how in-depth prosopographical study can offer fresh perspectives. SARA SLINN is Research Fellow at the School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln.

John Barton and Peter Groves present a range of chapters by leading scholarly voices from the worlds of biblical studies and the Church, looking at the study of the New Testament within and around the Church and the impact it has had and can have on Christian theology. The essays in the volume adopt a style of critical engagement with biblical texts, through the prism of a modern and living Church. The focus of the volume is thus not only upon the New Testament itself, but upon how reading the New Testament is important for dialogue within the Church and within Christian denominations. Among the highly distinguished contributors are John Barton, Eric Eve, Mark Goodacre, Christopher Rowland, and Rowan Williams.