This book diligently examines the threefold nature of man -- spirit, soul, and body.

One Step at a Time shows readers how God has a way of throwing responsibilities at people that are far too big for them, but never too big for him. Elmer and Eileen Lehman's story describes how God took two quite ordinary people and led them on a missionary pilgrimage for more than sixty years of marriage. God's path led them from a rural farm in northern New York State to a children's home in Puerto Rico, then to academic study in Virginia followed by twenty-two years in Costa Rica, and then further study in Virginia, culminating with a ministry of teaching, Missions administration, church planting, and retirement in Ohio. One Step at a Time includes eight key lessons they learned along the way that speak to others' journeys as well. Their prayer is that others would be encouraged to step out and respond to God's call upon their lives and risk their future for Him.

One of the most pertinent questions facing students of Mormon Studies is gaining further understanding of the function the Bible played in the composition of Joseph Smith's primary compositions, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. With a few notable exceptions, such as Philip Barlow's Mormons and the Bible and Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon, full-length monographs devoted to this topic have been lacking. This manuscript attempts to remedy this through a close analysis of how Mormon scripture, specifically the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, integrates the writings of New Testament into its own text. This manuscript takes up the argument that through the rhetoric of allusivity (the allusion to one text by another) Joseph Smith was able to bestow upon his works an authority they would have lacked without the incorporation of biblical language. In order to provide a thorough analysis focused on how Smith incorporated the biblical text into his own texts, this work will limit itself only to those passages in Mormon scripture that allude to the Prologue of John's gospel (John 1:1-18). The choice of the Prologue of John is due to its frequent appearance throughout Smith's corpus as well as its recognizable language. This study further argues that the manner in which Smith incorporates the Johannine Prologue is by no means uniform but actually quite creative, taking (at least) four different forms: Echo, Allusion, Expansion, and Inversion. The methodology used in this work is based primarily upon recent developments in intertextual studies of the Bible, an analytical method that has proved to be quite effective in studying later author's use of earlier texts.

Originally published in 1920, this book presents an account of the Brownist movement in Norwich and Norfolk at around 1580. Notes are incorporated throughout and previously unseen historical sources are discussed. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the Brownists and sixteenth-century religious history.

This book shows that new centers of Christianity have taken root in the global south. Although these communities were previously poor and marginalized, Stephen Offutt illustrates that they are now socioeconomically diverse, internationally well connected, and socially engaged. Offutt argues that local and global religious social forces, as opposed to other social, economic, or political forces, are primarily responsible for these changes.

Conservative Protestants are mentioned repeatedly in the ongoing conversation about social capital, individualism, and community in the United States. As John Wilson notes in his introduction, evangelicals are frequently discussed either as a threat to civil society or as apparent counterexamples to the prevailing view of American society's fragmentation. The essays in this volume take another look at the role of evangelicals in American civic life. The prominent contributors examine evangelicals' beliefs and activity on topics ranging from bioethics to race relations and welfare reform to international human rights. Taken together, the essays show that, contrary to what critics have proclaimed, the social commitment of evangelicals extends considerably beyond family-related issues, and that their activity in the public sphere makes an essential contribution to the public good. Clearly written and persuasively argued, A Public Faith: Evangelicals and Civic Engagement is a powerful correction to the misconceptions about evangelicals that abound in the current civil-society debate. Co-published with the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Foundational Teaching from Bestselling Author John Eckhardt We are currently experiencing the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit the world has ever known. God is raising up a new generation of people willing to move in kingdom authority--and you can be part of it! Join bestselling author John Eckhardt, world-renowned apostle and teacher, as he clarifies the gift and functions of apostolic ministry. Observing the roots of our biblical heritage, Eckhardt explores the function of an apostle--both the office and also the gifting every believer carries. With keen insight he reveals how the apostolic dimension affects all aspects of the local church and how apostolic leadership points the way toward fulfillment of the Great Commission. Now is the time to respond to the call. Receive your apostolic commissioning and watch for breakthrough in the hearts around you.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), a church of Brazilian origin, has been enormously successful in establishing branches and attracting followers in post-apartheid South Africa. Unlike other Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (PCC), the UCKG insists that relationships with God be devoid of 'emotions', that socialisation between members be kept to a minimum and that charity and fellowship are 'useless' in materialising God's blessings. Instead, the UCKG urges members to sacrifice large sums of money to God for delivering wealth, health, social harmony and happiness. While outsiders condemn these rituals as empty or manipulative, this book shows that they are locally meaningful, demand sincerity to work, have limits and are informed by local ideas about human bodies, agency and ontological balance. As an ethnography of people rather than of institutions, this book offers fresh insights into the mass PCC movement that has swept across Africa since the early 1990s.

This book extrapolates a uniquely Pentecostal and incarnational Spirit Christology, inspired by piqued interest in the Holy Spirit and for the purpose of ecumenical dialogue. The method employed is Pentecostal in its emphasis on the Spirit, incarnational in its consideration of the life of Jesus, and Spirit Christological in its uniting of the two. The aim is to supersede the five-fold gospel model by systematizing Pentecostal praxis into a cohesive and identity-giving Spirit Christology. The book distinguishes the components of Pentecostal identity through an investigation of past and current Pentecostal voices, juxtaposes them against secular and other denominational categories, and ultimately arrives at a distinctly Pentecostal conceptualization of Spirit Christology that translates ecumenically and generationally. In fact, this project is the first constructive Spirit Christological endeavor developed by a Pentecostal and dedicated to the specific, Pentecostal issue of fusing holiness for living and power for witness. It is solidly ecumenical, utilizing the theology of Edward Irving, James D. G. Dunn, Karl Barth, Colin Gunton, and David Coffey, and it is the only text that brings these voices together in one volume. A Spirit Christology will be beneficial to a diverse audience of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as academic professionals. The development and explanation of a Pentecostal and incarnational Spirit Christology will be a unique and valuable addition to a variety of classes, including courses on the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, contemporary theology, and recent Pentecostal theology. Furthermore, the content draws from Pentecostal, Reformed, and Catholic traditions, a conglomerate that will appeal to an ecumenical audience.

Explores the role of race and consumer culture in attracting urban congregants to an evangelical church The Urban Church Imagined illuminates the dynamics surrounding white urban evangelical congregations' approaches to organizational vitality and diversifying membership. Many evangelical churches are moving to urban, downtown areas to build their congregations and attract younger, millennial members. The urban environment fosters two expectations. First, a deep familiarity and reverence for popular consumer culture, and second, the presence of racial diversity. Church leaders use these ideas when they imagine what a "city church" should look like, but they must balance that with what it actually takes to make this happen. In part, racial diversity is seen as key to urban churches presenting themselves as "in touch" and "authentic." Yet, in an effort to seduce religious consumers, church leaders often and inadvertently end up reproducing racial and economic inequality, an unexpected contradiction to their goal of inclusivity. Drawing on several years of research, Jessica M. Barron and Rhys H. Williams explore the cultural contours of one such church in downtown Chicago. They show that church leaders and congregants' understandings of the connections between race, consumer culture, and the city is a motivating factor for many members who value interracial interactions as a part of their worship experience. But these explorations often unintentionally exclude members along racial and classed lines. Indeed, religious organizations' efforts to engage urban environments and foster integrated congregations produce complex and dynamic relationships between their racially diverse memberships and the cultivation of a safe haven in which white, middle-class leaders can feel as though they are being a positive force in the fight for religious vitality and racial diversity. The book adds to the growing constellation of studies on urban religious organizations, as well as emerging scholarship on intersectionality and congregational characteristics in American religious life. In so doing, it offers important insights into racially diverse congregations in urban areas, a growing trend among evangelical churches. This work is an important case study on the challenges faced by modern churches and urban institutions in general.

James Dobson, founder of the conservative Christian foundation Focus on the Family, is well-known to the secular world as a crusader for the Christian right. But within Christian circles he is known primarily as a childrearing expert. Millions of American children have been raised on his message, disseminated through books, videos, radio programs, magazines, and other media. While evangelical Christians have always placed great importance on familial responsibilities, Dobson placed the family at the center of Christian life. Only by sticking to proper family roles can we achieve salvation. Women, for instance, only come to know God fully by submitting to their husbands and nurturing their children. Such uniting of family life and religion has drawn people to the organization, just as it has forced them to wrestle with what it meant to be a Christian wife, husband, mother, father, son, or daughter. Adapting theories from developmental psychology that melded parental modeling with a conservative Christian theology of sinfulness, salvation, and a living relationship with Jesus, Dobson created a new model for the Christian family. But what does that model look like in real life? Drawing on interviews with mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters, Practicing What the Doctor Preached explores how actual families put Dobson's principles into practice. To what extent does Focus shape the practices of its audience to its own ends, and to what extent does Focus' understanding of its members' practices and needs shape the organization? Susan B. Ridgely shows that, while Dobson is known for being rigid and dogmatic, his followers show surprising flexibility in the way they actually use his materials. She examines Focus's listeners and their changing needs over the organization's first thirty years, a span that saw the organization expand from centering itself on childrearing to entrenching itself in public debates over sexuality, education, and national politics.

In the first critical study of the major theologians of pentecostalism, one of the fastest growing and most influential religious traditions in the world, Christopher A. Stephenson establishes four original categories to classify pentecostal theologians' methodologies in systematic/constructive theology. The four categories are based respectively on: the arrangement of biblical texts; the relationship between theology and Christian spirituality; doctrine concerning the kingdom of God; and pneumatology as a basis for philosophical and fundamental theology. Stephenson analyzes each methodological type and suggests a pentecostal theological method that builds on the strengths of each. He then offers his own, original contribution, arguing for a reciprocal relationship between pentecostal spirituality and doctrine that follows the pattern of lex orandi, lex credendi, and develops a doctrine of the Lord's supper as a demonstration of this reciprocal relationship. Types of Pentecostal Theology provides critical insight into such fundamental issues as the relationship between theology and philosophy, the dynamic between scripture and tradition, and the similarities and differences between recent pentecostal theology and other currents in contemporary theology.

"A revelatory A-to-Z teaching on the prophetic gift."--Dr. James W. Goll For more than four decades Cindy Jacobs has delivered penetrating, accurate prophetic words to the Church. Now she delivers a powerful, practical, and hands-on training resource for this much-needed spiritual gift. Discover how to hear God's words correctly and accurately, how to follow the protocols--and avoid the pitfalls--of delivering a prophetic word, and how to use your gift with wisdom, maturity, and love. You will be challenged, changed, and ready to become a resilient, life-giving conduit of God's transforming love. "I encourage you to study this book, learn how to exercise your gift, and become an integral part of God's solution to healing our world."-- Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president, NHCLC; author, Persevere with Power "The Holy Spirit will leap off the page to quicken the essentials for hearing the voice of God in your life."--Dr. Chuck D. Pierce, president, Global Spheres and Glory of Zion International Ministries

Pentecostalism is one of the fastest-growing religious movements in the world. Groups in the United States dominated early Pentecostal histories, but recent global manifestations have expanded and complicated the definition of Pentecostalism. This volume provides a nuanced overview of Pentecostalism's various manifestations and explores what it means to be Pentecostal from the perspectives of both insiders and outsiders. Leading scholars in the field use a multidisciplinary approach to analyze the historical, economic, political, anthropological, sociological, and theological aspects of the movement. They address controversies, such as the Oneness-Trinity controversy; introduce new theories; and chart trajectories for future research. The Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism will enable beginners to familiarize themselves with the important issues and debates surrounding the global movement, while also offering experienced scholars a valuable handbook for reference.

In the years since 1945, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has grown rapidly in terms of both numbers and public prominence. Mormonism is no longer merely a home-grown American religion, confined to the Intermountain West; instead, it has captured the attention of political pundits, Broadway audiences, and prospective converts around the world. While most scholarship on Mormonism concerns its colorful but now well-known early history, the essays in this collection assess recent developments, such as the LDS Church's international growth and acculturation; its intersection with conservative politics in recent decades; its stances on same-sex marriage and the role of women; and its ongoing struggle to interpret its own tumultuous history. The scholars draw on a wide variety of Mormon voices as well as those of outsiders, from Latter-day Saints in Hyderabad, India, to "Mormon Mommy blogs," to evangelical "countercult" ministries. Out of Obscurity brings the story of Mormonism since the Second World War into sharp relief, explaining the ways in which a church very much rooted in its nineteenth-century prophetic and pioneering past achieved unprecedented influence in the realms of American politics and international business.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), a church of Brazilian origin, has been enormously successful in establishing branches and attracting followers in post-apartheid South Africa. Unlike other Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (PCC), the UCKG insists that relationships with God be devoid of 'emotions', that socialisation between members be kept to a minimum and that charity and fellowship are 'useless' in materialising God's blessings. Instead, the UCKG urges members to sacrifice large sums of money to God for delivering wealth, health, social harmony and happiness. While outsiders condemn these rituals as empty or manipulative, this book shows that they are locally meaningful, demand sincerity to work, have limits and are informed by local ideas about human bodies, agency and ontological balance. As an ethnography of people rather than of institutions, this book offers fresh insights into the mass PCC movement that has swept across Africa since the early 1990s.

With your mouth you are either going to give God dominion over you, or you're goint to give Satan dominion over you. Quit talking the devil's language and start talking God's language.

Pentecostalism has become the fastest growing Christian movement, particularly outside Europe, and Allan Heaton Anderson is one of the foremost scholars of this phenomenon. His innovative interpretation of Pentecostalism focuses on the serious contribution made by both western and Majority World participants in its development. In this second edition of his leading introductory course book, Anderson presents an updated global history of the movement, which addresses significant events and changes in recent years, and surveys important theoretical issues such as gender and society, as well as politics and economics. The book also offers a comprehensive explanation of the significance of Charismatic Christianity throughout the world, plus its effect upon the globalisation of religion and its transformation in the present century. This new edition will be an important resource for those studying Pentecostalism, Charismatic Christianity, theology and sociology of religion.

A captivating first-person look at one of the world's most powerful prosperity dynasties that offers a unique perspective on greed, the Church, and the journey toward Truth. Millions desperate for hope and solutions are enticed by the promise of the prosperity gospel--that God will do whatever they need with just a little faith and a financial gift. All the while, prosperity preachers exploit the poor and needy to stockpile their riches. What can followers of the true gospel do to combat the deception? Through a remarkable and fascinating journey, Costi Hinn went from a next-generation prosperity preacher to the first to abandon the family faith and share the true gospel. Nephew of the world-famous televangelist, Benny Hinn, Costi had a front-row seat to the inner workings and theology of the prosperity gospel. But as Costi's faith deepened, so did his questions about prosperity teaching. As the deceptions in his past were exposed, Costi came face to face with the hypocrisy and devastation caused by his belief system, and the overwhelming truth about the real Jesus Christ. This captivating look into the daily lives of one of the world's leading prosperity dynasties offers a thoughtful perspective on the perils of greed, the power of the true gospel, and hope for the future of the global church. Through real-life stories, Costi challenges and equips readers to be living lights pointing the way to the true gospel and the saving grace of Christ. God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel will bolster your faith and encourage your own journey toward the Truth. Spanish edition also available.

Emily B. Baran offers a gripping history of how a small, American-based religious community, the Jehovah's Witnesses, found its way into the Soviet Union after World War II, survived decades of brutal persecution, and emerged as one of the region's fastest growing religions after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. In telling the story of this often misunderstood faith, Baran explores the shifting boundaries of religious dissent, non-conformity, and human rights in the Soviet Union and its successor states. Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses are a fascinating case study of dissent beyond urban, intellectual nonconformists. Witnesses, who were generally rural, poorly educated, and utterly marginalized from society, resisted state pressure to conform. They instead constructed alternative communities based on adherence to religious principles established by the Witnesses' international center in Brooklyn, New York. The Soviet state considered Witnesses to be the most reactionary of all underground religious movements, and used extraordinary measures to try to eliminate this threat. Yet Witnesses survived, while the Soviet system did not. After 1991, they faced continuing challenges to their right to practice their faith in post-Soviet states, as these states struggled to reconcile the proper limits on freedom of conscience with European norms and domestic concerns. Dissent on the Margins provides a new and important perspective on one of America's most understudied religious movements.