Hopeful Message for the Days Ahead from a Bestselling Author The future of this planet has never looked bleaker . . . or brighter. The darkest time in all of history, as well as the most brilliant for the people of God, lies before us. Jesus' own words about the wheat and the weeds warn us of this: "Let both grow together until the harvest." In a hopeful, inspiring call to action, bestselling author and pastor Don Finto challenges believers the world over to become radical, God-empowering, miracle-working, people-rescuing followers of Jesus as the final harvest nears. Delving into Scripture, he shows how we can prepare for the exciting possibilities of the days ahead, including how to press into the light, shine more brightly in the deepening darkness, protect ourselves during the ultimate Passover, watch for the signs of Jesus' return, wrestle for victory, and more! Evil may be on the rise. But even greater is God's army--and our best days lie ahead.

In the contemporary United States, there are hundreds of thousands of Protestant churches whose members habitually carry their Bibles with them. These churches - often referred to as evangelical or fundamentalist - play a crucial role in shaping American society. In this book, David Watt draws on years of fieldwork to present an elegant reinterpretation of the way that conservative Protestants influence American politics and culture. At the heart of the book is a sympathetic, but far from uncritical, analysis of those forms of social power that are assumed to be natural among Bible-carrying Christians. While outsiders often presuppose that evangelical Christians take for granted the authority of certain institutions (among them the American state, corporations, ministers, men, and heterosexuals), Watt argues that the reality is far more complex. This is a concise and lively book that sheds new light on the way that Bible-carrying Christians influence the way that people in America think - and avoid thinking - about social power.

A radical new interpretation of the political and intellectual history of Puritan Massachusetts, The Making of an American Thinking Class envisions the Bay colony as a seventeenth century one-party state, where congregations served as ideological 'cells' and authority was restricted to an educated elite of ministers and magistrates. From there Staloff offers a broadened conception of the interstices of political, social, and intellectual authority in Puritan Massachusetts and beyond, arguing that ideologies, as well as ideological politics, are produced by self-conscious, and often class-conscious, thinkers.

Americans love to eat. They are also deeply religious. So it’s no surprise that food has an important place in the religious lives of Americans.. They eat in worship services. They drink coffeein church basements. They feed neighbors and strangers in the name of their god. For countless American Protestants, food and church are inseparable. From dry cookies and punch at coffee hour to potlucks and spaghetti dinners, Whitebread Protestants looks at the role food plays in the daily life of white mainline Protestant congregations.

Walk in the Power of Your New Covenant Inheritance!

Even though many Christ followers claim to have received the New Covenant—salvation in Jesus—they are not yet experiencing the fullness of their New Covenant identity. In New Covenant Culture, Jonathan Welton presents a Kingdom manifesto, calling every follower of Jesus into the deeply fulfilling and supernaturally empowered Christian life that the Bible makes available.

Jonathan Welton calls all believers to embrace their full New Covenant identity:

• Stop Waiting for Revival. Experience the signs, wonders and miracles of Scripture right now!

• Stand Firm in Your Identity. Fully embrace your unconditional acceptance into God's family!

• Walk in Total Freedom. Discover the liberating truth of how completely Jesus has set you free!

• Pray Bold Prayers. Make powerful declarations that bring circumstances into alignment with Heaven's perfect will!

• Live With Radical Hope. Receive an optimistic vision of the future that overcomes fear associated with the "end-times."

Discover what this supernatural lifestyle looks like and Access Your Inheritance Today!

Philip Jenkins looks at how the image of the cult evolved and why panics about such groups occur at certain times. He examines the deep roots of cult scares in American history, offering the first-ever history and analysis of cults and their critics fromthe 19th century to the present day. Contrary to popular belief, Jenkins shows, cults and anti-cult movements were not an invention of the 1960's, but in fact are traceable to the mid-19th century, when Catholics, Mormons and Freemasons were equally denounced for violence, fraud and licentiousness. He finds that, although there are genuine instances of aberrant behavior, a foundation of truth about fringe religious movements is all but obscured by a vast edifice of myth, distortion and hype.

Groundbreaking Book Now Revised and Updated A witch's coven in Argentina became a lighthouse of prayer in less than 60 minutes. A prodigal son returned to the Lord in California. An adopted son and the father who had cast him out years before were reunited in Christ. These are real stories of real lives and cities being transformed through the power of prayer evangelism. In this revised and updated edition of a watershed book, bestselling author Ed Silvoso shows that when you change a city's spiritual climate, everything--and everybody--is transformed. It was something the early church knew innately, and here Ed shares a proven, biblical, and practical plan to help you change the spiritual climate of your city. Fulfilling the Great Commission is no longer a distant hope; it is a fast-approaching reality that we may see in our own lifetime. What better time to join the effort?

"This colection brings together two generations of scholarship on many important topics in African-American religious history. . . . A useful and judiciously chosen compilation that should serve well in the classroom."
-- "Religious Studies Review"

"It serves as a smorgasbord of the study of black spirituality."
-- "Black Issues Book Review"

Down by the Riverside provides an expansive introduction to the development of African American religion and theology. Spanning the time of slavery up to the present, the volume moves beyond Protestant Christianity to address a broad diversity of African American religion from Conjure, Orisa, and Black Judaism to Islam, African American Catholicism, and humanism.

This accessible historical overview begins with African religious heritages and traces the transition to various forms of Christianity, as well as the maintenance of African and Islamic traditions in antebellum America. Preeminent contributors include Charles Long, Gayraud Wilmore, Albert Raboteau, Manning Marable, M. Shawn Copeland, Vincent Harding, Mary Sawyer, Toinette Eugene, Anthony Pinn, and C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya. They consider the varieties of religious expression emerging from migration from the rural South to urban areas, African American women's participation in Christian missions, Black religious nationalism, and the development of Black Theology from its nineteenth-century precursors to its formulation by James Cone and later articulations by black feminist and womanist theologians. They also draw on case studies to provide a profile of the Black Christian church today.

This thematic history of the unfolding of religious life in AfricanAmerica provides a window onto a rich array of African American people, practices, and theological positions.

This book isn't just about discovering our spiritual gifts, or even receiving them-it's about releasing them! God wants you to experience the great wonder of moving in and through His graceAnd#8212;on a daily basis.As you read, you'll first gain an overview of spiritual gifts and be introduced to the way the Holy Spirit moves and operates within them. Then you'll explore the nine most widely recognized spiritual gifts. These are not the only gifts God gives His children, but they are vital to understand and then activate according to His leading.Releasing Spiritual Gifts Today is filled with many examples of how the gifts have been used in action, both within the pages of the Bible and in the present day. God desires to pour out His gifts on His people with even greater degrees of impact and authority. This is your opportunity to find out what the Lord can do for you and through you as you release His spiritual gifts today in an outpouring of His love, grace, and power.

This book offers the first comprehensive examination of the role of religion in the proceedings, theories, ideas and goals of the Continental Congress. Those who argue that the U.S. was founded as a "Christian Nation" have made much of the religiosity of the founders, particularly as it was manifested in ritual invocations of a clearly Christian God. Congress's religious activities, Davis shows, expressed an unreflective popular piety, and by no means a determination of the revolutionaries to entrench religion in the federal state.

This book presents writings produced by the Muggletonians---an unusual seventeenth-century English sect founded in 1652 by John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton. The volume draws on documents from a recently discovered Muggleton archive and rare seventeenth-century tracts. Among those included are Muggleton's autobiography, excerpts from works co-written by Muggleton and Reeve, letters, songs (including ones composed to celebrate Muggleton's release from prison), and miscellany.

"On the Backroad to Heaven" is a unique guidebook to the world of Old Order Anabaptist groups. Focusing on four Old Order communities--the Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren--Donald B. Kraybill and Carl Desportes Bowman provide a fascinating overview of their culture, growth, and distinctive way of life. Following a general introduction to Old Order culture, they show how each group uses a different strategy to create and sustain its identity. The Hutterites, for example, keep themselves geographically segregated from the larger society, whereas the Brethren interact more freely with it. The Amish and Mennonites are more alike in how they engage the outside world, adopting a complex but flexible strategy of compromise that produces an evolving canon of social and religious rules. This first comparative study sketches the differences as well as the common threads that bind these groups together.

The South has been the standard focus of Reconstruction, but reconstruction following the Civil War was not a distinctly Southern experience. In the post-Civil War West, American Indians also experienced reconstruction through removal to reservations and assimilation to Christianity, and Latter-day Saints - Mormons - saw government actions to force the end of polygamy under threat of disestablishing the church. These efforts to bring nonconformist Mormons into the American mainstream figure in the more familiar scheme of the federal government's reconstruction - aimed at rebellious white Southerners and uncontrolled American Indians. In this volume, more than a dozen contributors look anew at the scope of the reconstruction narrative and offer a unique perspective on the history of the Latter-day Saints. Marshaled by editors Clyde A. Milner II and Brian Q. Cannon, these writers explore why the federal government wanted to reconstruct Latter-day Saints, when such efforts began, and how the initiatives compare with what happened with white Southerners and American Indians. Other contributions examine the effect of the government's policies on Mormon identity and sense of history. Why, for example, do Latter-day Saints not have a Lost Cause? Do they share a resentment with American Indians over the loss of sovereignty? And were nineteenth-century Mormons considered to be on the ""wrong"" side of a religious line, but not a ""race line""? The authors consider these and other vital questions and topics here. Together, and in dialogue with one another, their work suggests a new way of understanding the regional, racial, and religious dynamics of reconstruction - and, within this framework, a new way of thinking about the creation of a Mormon historical identity.

Women of Principle deals with the struggles of contemporary Mormon polygynous women in their efforts to sustain their families in the prolonged absence of their husbands. Janet Bennion shows how women, through their networks with other women, are able to gain economic security and social autonomy. The book includes narratives from the lives of these women - narratives that clearly reveal why many mainstream Mormon women are viewing polygyny as a viable alternative to the difficulties of single-motherhood, "spinsterhood", poverty, and emotional deprivation.

Victoria Barnett describes the dramatic struggle between Nazism and the German Confessing Church --- a group of outraged Christians who sought to establish a church untainted by Nazi ideology. For this remarkable book, Barnett interviewed more than sixty Germans who were active in the Confessing Church. She quotes liberally from their frank, unvarnished testimony, using rich historical and archival material to frame their stories. For the Soul of the People vividly portrays a church divided between those who compromised with Nazism and those who eventually tried to overthrow it.

The relationship between the Adventist church and society at large has always been ambiguous. One reason for this has been the church's inarticulate social ethics. While the church upheld the concept of human dignity, promoted religious liberty and sided with the poor, nationalism and racism developed among its members. Women in the church were also unfairly treated. Zdravko Plantak confronts this problem head-on. He begins by looking at the church's history, theology and ethics in order to discover reasons for the inconsistencies in its approach to human rights, and then moves on to propose a more comprehensive approach to its social ethics.

Unique, Powerful Call to the Front Lines of Prayer From bestselling author James W. Goll, a strategic prophetic leader in global intercessory prayer, comes an in-depth journey into the heart of what it means to be a "watchman on the wall." Designed for serious worshipers and intercessors, this unique 21-day journey will help you move to the front lines of prayer--becoming more alert to the presence of God and praying his will with confidence. With reflection questions, devotional prayers, and practical application, this book will help you * discern the specific spiritual atmosphere around you * discover the strategies of God for certain times * pray more effectively for others * understand how to intercede for current events Walking in the lifestyle of a watchman means that you can be the sentinel that God is calling his mature intercessors to be. Learn to partner with the strategies of heaven and step boldly into your calling.

Practical Insight on Praying for the Sick from Two Bestselling Authors If you could sit down and talk privately with two world-renowned leaders in healing ministry--away from the spotlights, stages, and eager crowds--this is the conversation you would have! Bestselling authors Randy Clark and Bill Johnson witness the miraculous regularly and see thousands touched by God each year. Now, in a rare behind-the-scenes format, these close friends interview each other, sharing with you the heartbreaks and victories, the failures and successes, the personal and candid insights into their extraordinary journeys. With honesty and humor, Clark and Johnson reveal * how they first heard God's call * the hard-learned lessons that propelled them forward * the most amazing miracles each has witnessed * detailed strategies for more effective ministry * and much more These real-life reflections from two soldiers on the front lines of healing ministry will inspire your own obedience to God's voice, your deeper faith that God is at work, and your trust in his power to bring the answers you need.

In Conjuring culture, Theophus H. Smith attempts to construct a more adequate analysis of African-American culture by using concepts derived from that culture. He bases his critique on the central concept of "conjure", and contends that Biblically-based themes, stories, and especially typology have crucially formed African-American culture as they have been simultaneously reformed and deployed by African-Americans.

The complex and sometimes contradictory articulation of ethnicity, religion and gender informs this book on the cultural construction of identity for Jamaican migrants in Britain. The author argues that religion -- in this case Pentecostalism -- cannot be understood simply as a means of spiritual compensation for the economically disadvantaged. Rather, in the New Testament Church of God, one of Britain's largest African Caribbean churches, the cosmology of the church resolves the questions surrounding identity as well as suffering. Religious participation is one way in which African Caribbean people negotiate the terms of representation and interaction in British society.

Today over forty million Latin Americans classify themselves as Protestant, of which the overwhelming majority belong to some form of Pentecostalism. The rapid dissemination of Pentecostal beliefs has produced vibrant alternatives to traditional dominant culture and changed relations within the family, locality, and workplace. This volume introduces broad issues in the Pentecostal movement, including gender relations, political power and organization, and inter-Pentecostal and ecumenical relations. These themes are then examined more specifically in the country case studies, which address the historical foundations of the Pentecostal movement, patterns of and explanation for its growth, and the consequences of its expanding presence, including increased political influence.

By closely examining four television programs--Falwell's "The Old-Time Gospel Hour," Robertson's "700 Club," the Bakkers' "PTL Club," and the telecasts of Jimmy Swaggart--this work considers the attraction of televangelism for its conservative Christian audience. It argues that televangelism, as ritual performance, both legitimates the beliefs of viewers and at the same time adapts other beliefs of its viewers to the broader culture.