What does Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition really want? What secret agenda lies behind radio counselor James Dobson's Focus on the Family? Who are the Promise Keepers and what are their ultimate goals? Why do so many leaders of the religious right engage in gay bashing? What would these groups do to our public school system, or to our government, if they were in power? Close Encounters with the Religious Right takes you behind the scenes to answer these questions and gives the reader a rare glimpse of a world the average American may not even realize exists.
Author Robert Boston, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has spent the past twelve years doggedly tracking the religious right. As a "permanent resident alien" he has attended their meetings, read their publications, watched their videos, and debated their leaders in the national media. Boston contends that despite claims to the contrary, the religious right is not dead as a political force and may be stronger than ever. Backed by millions of dollars, powerful television and radio ministries that reach every corner of the nation, and slick magazines, zealous right-wing groups are still very much involved in politics and are determined to convert America into a fundamentalist "Christian" nation that conforms to their narrow definition of Christianity. The next few years, says Boston, could determine the fate of traditional American liberties like separation of church and state and freedom of the press.
Close Encounters with the Religious Right is an eye-opening expose, revealing a sometimes funny but more often disturbing world of fanaticism and extremism.

Of the making of many denominations there is no end, or so it seems in North America. Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Schwenkfelders--how do you keep track of them all? What are their differences? Are there similarities? Where do they each belong on the Christian family tree? Editors Drew Blankman and Todd Augustine have designed the Pocket Dictionary of North American Denominations as a quick reference guide to orthodox and not-so-orthodox church groups in the United States and Canada. Among the denominations and groups examined are Bible churches African American denominations confessional churches mainline denominations churches in the evangelical tradition Pentecostal churches groups on the Christian fringe Based on the award-winningDictionary of Christianity in America, this pocket dictionary is an affordable and easily accessible "help key" for understanding the Christian traditions of your North American neighbors.

When the church began, an amazing diversity of people from different geographic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds gathered together to confess a common faith in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul cast a vision of one body where Jew and Gentile would worship together in unity. The Revelation to John likewise foreshadows an eternal future where all nations will join together at the throne of the Lamb. Sadly, Christianity has not often lived up to this ideal. The history of the church has been marked by continued segregation, ethnic strife and racial division. But at the dawn of a new millennium, hopeful signs of change are emerging. As society diversifies, local churches find themselves interacting with people from every tribe and tongue. But not every church is equipped to handle the realities of ethnic and racial diversity in their congregational life. Sociologist George Yancey's groundbreaking research on multiracial churches offers key principles for church leaders who want to minister to people from a variety of racial and cultural backgrounds. Insights from real-life congregations provide concrete examples of how churches can welcome those who have been marginalized, giving people of all heritages a sense of ownership and partnership in the life of the church. Based on data from a landmark Lilly Endowment study of multiracial churches across America, this volume offers insights and implications for church leadership, worship styles, conflict resolution and much more. Here is an essential resource for pastors and church leaders committed to cultural, ethnic and racial reconciliation in their congregations.

Possidius, the bishop of Calama, was a life-long friend of St. Augustine's and best known for writing a biography of the bishop of Hippo, the Vita Augustini. Hermanowicz analyzes both the biography and the legally-oriented career of Possidius to illustrate how active Augustine's colleagues were in soliciting imperial support against their religious competitors and to show just how often Augustine's close friends disagreed with him on important matters of law, coercion and diplomacy. It is still widely asserted by scholars that St. Augustine dominated the theological landscape of North Africa, but this engaging study demonstrates how often he was, in fact, singular and isolated in his beliefs.

While concentrated on the famous Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis, this book focuses on an area that has so far been somewhat marginalized or even overlooked by modern interpreters: the recontextualizing of the Passio Perpetuae in the subsequent reception of this text in the literature of the early Church. Since its composition in the early decades of the 3rd century, the Passio Perpetuae was enjoying an extraordinary authority and popularity. However, it contained a number of revolutionary and innovative features that were in conflict with existing social and theological conventions. This book analyses all relevant texts from the 3rd to 5th centuries in which Perpetua and her comrades are mentioned, and demonstrates the ways in which these texts strive to normalize the innovative aspects of the Passio Perpetuae. These efforts, visible as they are already on careful examination of the passages of the editor of the passio, continue from Tertullian to Augustine and his followers. The normalization of the narrative reaches its peak in the so-called Acta Perpetuae which represent a radical rewriting of the original and an attempt to replace it by a purified text, more compliant with the changed socio-theological hierarchies.