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Books > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches
"Nine Days in Heaven" relates the vision of twenty-five-year-old
Marietta Davis more than 150 years ago, where she was shown the
beauties of heaven and the horrors of hell. Told in modern
language, the book contains poignant quotes from the original
vision, as well as biblical teaching points and testimonials from
individuals whose lives have been impacted with this vision during
the past 150 years. Pull-out quotes from the original vision are
included, as are short testimonials from readers whose lives have
been impacted by this vision. Teaching points and biblical comments
appear throughout the chapters.
This critique provides a framework for understanding and interpreting the widespread but little-known New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement.
As the authors state in the preface: "We write this book with two major goals in mind. First, to give people an idea of the sheer size and reach of the NAR movement. And second, to systematize its key teachings and practices and evaluate them on the basis of Scripture and careful reasoning . . In our judgment, the NAR perspective crosses these boundaries [that is, certain broad parameters, revealed in Scripture and practiced in the historical orthodox church], and it does so in part because of flawed theology rooted in a flawed understanding of Scripture. We wish to warn readers about a possible confusion: Some critics have linked the NAR movement with mainstream Pentecostalism and charismatics. We do not do this. In fact, it is our contention that the NAR movement deviates from classical Pentecostal and charismatic teachings. This movement has emerged out of independent charismatic churches and, thus, has gained a foothold in many of those churches in varying degrees."
Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose
impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith.
He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts
for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than fifty
women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision
of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have
been distorted by hagiography or polemical expose, John Turner
provides a fully realized portrait of a colossal figure in American
religion, politics, and westward expansion.
After the 1844 murder of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Young
gathered those Latter-day Saints who would follow him and led them
over the Rocky Mountains. In Utah, he styled himself after the
patriarchs, judges, and prophets of ancient Israel. As charismatic
as he was autocratic, he was viewed by his followers as an
indispensable protector and by his opponents as a theocratic,
treasonous heretic.
Under his fiery tutelage, the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints defended plural marriage, restricted the place of
African Americans within the church, fought the U.S. Army in 1857,
and obstructed federal efforts to prosecute perpetrators of the
Mountain Meadows Massacre. At the same time, Young's tenacity and
faith brought tens of thousands of Mormons to the American West,
imbued their everyday lives with sacred purpose, and sustained his
church against adversity. Turner reveals the complexity of this
spiritual prophet, whose commitment made a deep imprint on his
church and the American Mountain West."
This book examines the current law on the employment status of
ministers of religion together with religious workers and
volunteers and suggests reforms in this area of the law to meet the
need for ministers to be given a degree of employment protection.
It also considers the constant theme in Christian history that the
clergy should not be subject to the ordinary courts and asks
whether this is justified with the growth of areas such as
employment law. The work questions whether it is possible to arrive
at a satisfactory definition of who is a minister of religion and,
along with this, who would be the employer of the minister if there
was a contract of employment. Taking a comparative perspective, it
evaluates the case law on the employment status of Christian and
non-Christian clergy and assesses whether this shows any coherent
theme or line of development. The work also considers the issue of
ministerial employment status against the background of the
autonomy of churches and other religious bodies from the State,
together with their ecclesiology. The book will be of interest to
academics and researchers working in the areas of law and religion,
employment law and religious studies, together with both legal
practitioners and human resources practitioners in these areas.
Child Protection in the Church investigates whether, amidst
publicised promises of change from church institutions and the
introduction of "safe church" policies and procedures, reform is
actually occurring within Christian churches towards safeguarding,
using a case study of the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania, Australia.
Through the use of interviews and document analysis, the book
provides an insight into the attitudes and practices of "ordinary
clergypersons" towards child sexual abuse and safeguarding to
understand how safe ministry is understood and executed in everyday
life in the Church, and to what extent it aligns with policy
requirements and criminological best practice. It adopts
organisational culture theory, the perspective used to explain how
clerical culture enabled and concealed child sexual abuse in the
Church to the present, in order to understand how clerical
attitudes (cognition) and practice (conduct) today is being shaped
by some of the same negative cultures. Underlying these cultures is
misunderstandings of abuse causation, which are shown here to
negatively shape clerical practice and, at times, compromise policy
and procedural requirements. Providing an insight into the lived
reality of safeguarding within churches, and highlighting the
ongoing complexities of safe ministry, the book is a useful
companion to students, academics, and practitioners of child
protection and organisational studies, alongside clergy, church
leaders, and those training for the ministry.
It is hard to comprehend the last 500 years of England's history
without understanding the Church of England. From its roots in
Catholicism through to the present day, this is the extraordinary
history of a familiar but much-misunderstood institution. The
Church has frequently been divided between high and low,
Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic. For its first 150 years people
sacrificed their lives to defend it; the Anglican Church is and has
always been defined by its complicated relationship to the state
and power. As Jeremy Morris shows, the story of the Church -
central to British life - has never been straightforward. Weaving
social, political and religious context together with the
significance of its music and architecture, A People's Church
skilfully illuminates a complex and pre-eminent institution.
Originally published in 1988, and the companion book to The Puritan
Gentry, covering the period of the Civil War, the English republic
and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, this book gives an
account of how the godly interest of the Puritans dissolved into
faction and impotence. The fissures among the Puritan gentry
stemmed, as the book shows, from a conflict between their zeal in
religion and the conservative instincts which owed much to their
wealth and status.
This book explores the ways in which modern Hindu identities were
constructed in the early nineteenth century. It draws parallels
between sixteenth and eventeenth Cecntury Protestantism and the
rise of modernity in the West, and the Hindu reformation in the
nineteenth century which contributed to the rise of Vedantic Hindu
modernity discourse in India. The nineteenth century Hindu
modernity, it is argued, sought both individual flourishing and
collective emancipation from Western domination. For the first time
Hinduism began to be constructed as a religion of sacred texts. In
particular, texts belonging to what could be loosely called
Vedanta: Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. In this way, the main
protagonists of this Vedantist modernity were imitating Western
Protestantism, but at the same time also inventing totally novel
interpretations of what it meant to be Hindu. The book traces the
major ideological paths taken in this cultural-religious
reformation from its originator Rammohun Roy up to its last major
influence, Rabindranath Tagore. Bringing these two versions of
modernity into conversation brings a unique view on the formation
of modern Hindu identities. It will, therefore, be of great
interest to scholars of religious, Hindu and South Asian studies,
as well as religious istory and interreligious dialogue.
This book treads new ground by bringing the Evangelical and
Dissenting movements within Christianity into close engagement with
one another. While Evangelicalism and Dissent both have well
established historiographies, there are few books that specifically
explore the relationship between the two. Thus, this complex
relationship is often overlooked and underemphasised. The volume is
organised chronologically, covering the period from the late
seventeenth century to the closing decades of the twentieth
century. Some chapters deal with specific centuries but others
chart developments across the whole period covered by the book.
Chapters are balanced between those that concentrate on an
individual, such as George Whitefield or John Stott, and those that
focus on particular denominational groups like Wesleyan Methodism,
Congregationalism or the 'Black Majority Churches'. The result is a
new insight into the cross pollination of these movements that will
help the reader to understand modern Christianity in England and
Wales more fully. Offering a fresh look at the development of
Evangelicalism and Dissent, this volume will be of keen interest to
any scholar of Religious Studies, Church History, Theology or
modern Britain.
Originally published in 1967, this book is a history of church
puritanism as a movement and as a political and ecclesiastical
organism; of its membership structure and internal contradictions;
of the quest for 'a further reformation'. It tells the fascinating
story of the rise of a revolutionary moment and its ultimate
destruction.
In 1598, the English clergyman John Darrell was brought before the
High Commission at Lambeth Palace to face charges of fraud and
counterfeiting. The ecclesiastical authorities alleged that he had
"taught 4. to counterfeite" demonic possession over a ten-year
period, fashioning himself into a miracle worker. Coming to the
attention of the public through his dramatic and successful role as
an exorcist in the late sixteenth century, Darrell became a symbol
of Puritan spirituality and the subject of fierce ecclesiastical
persecution. The High Commission of John Darrell became a
flashpoint for theological and demonological debate, functioning as
a catalyst for spiritual reform in the early seventeenth-century
English Church. John Darrell has long been maligned by scholars; a
historiographical perception that this book challenges. The English
Exorcist is the first study to provide an in-depth scholarly
treatment of Darrell's exorcism ministry and his demonology. It
shines new light on the corpus of theological treatises that
emerged from the Darrell Controversy, thereby illustrating the
profound impact of Darrell's exorcism ministry on early modern
Reformed English Protestant demonology. The book establishes an
intellectual biography of this figure and sketches out the full
compelling story of the Darrell Controversy.
"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
A comprehensive and contemporary statement of classic Reformed
faith A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith expresses a
fully biblical Reformed faith, showing its enduring appeal,
coherence, and truthfulness. This standard of Reformed theology is
saturated with Scripture, performing more exegesis and quoting more
Scripture than other one-volume theologies and always encouraging
the reader to measure theological assertions by the ultimate
standard of Scripture itself. The result is theology that is
God-centered. Other important features include: A truly systematic
theology: comprehensive--covering all the main teachings of
Scripture; coherent--showing how these teachings interrelate;
contextual--relating biblical teachings to current issues; and
conversational--engaging biblical, historical, and contemporary
points of view Distinctively biblical perspectives on matters such
as a presuppositional approaches to Scripture, the use of
traditional arguments for God's existence, the description and
classification of God's attributes, the view of the Trinity freed
from medieval embellishments; and much more Upholds classic
Calvinist positions on baptism, the Trinity, church government, and
much more Interacts with contemporary issues, the work of other
theologians, and important contemporary theological documents,
including Catechism of the Catholic Church and "Evangelicals and
Catholics Together" Terms from biblical languages appear in Hebrew
or Greek and in transliteration, allowing English-only readers full
access. Numerous appendices covering special topics Abundant
resources for further study through footnotes, and a carefully
compiled theological bibliography The book captures the author's
warmth and sensitivity born of more than twenty-five years as a
professor at leading Reformed seminaries Theology students,
preachers, teachers, and professional theologians alike will
benefit from A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith,
finding it to be a rich resource for study and reference as they
seek to understand and communicate about God and his ways.
Early modern Protestant scholars closely engaged with Islamic
thought in more ways than is usually recognized. Among Protestants,
Lutheran scholars distinguished themselves as the most invested in
the study of Islam and Muslim culture. Mehmet Karabela brings the
neglected voices of post-Reformation theologians, primarily German
Lutherans, into focus and reveals their rigorous engagement with
Islamic thought. Inspired by a global history approach to religious
thought, Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes offers new sources
to broaden the conventional interpretation of the Reformation
beyond a solely European Christian phenomenon. Based on previously
unstudied dissertations, disputations, and academic works written
in Latin in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Karabela
analyzes three themes: Islam as theology and religion; Islamic
philosophy and liberal arts; and Muslim sects (Sunni and Shi'a).
This book provides analyses and translations of the Latin texts as
well as brief biographies of the authors. These texts offer insight
into the Protestant perception of Islamic thought for scholars of
religious studies and Islamic studies as well as for general
readers. Examining the influence of Islamic thought on the
construction of the Protestant identity after the Reformation helps
us to understand the role of Islam in the evolution of
Christianity.
For John Newton, one of Christendom's greatest hymn writers and
writer of "Amazing Grace," God's matchless grace was intensely
personal. Saved from a life of slave trading, John Newton was fully
aware of the "depths from which he was pulled."
In this autobiography, revised and updated for today's readers
by Dennis Hillman, Newton relates the events that led him from
unimaginable sin and spiritual bondage to a life of ministry and
renewal--transformed by God's amazing and inexhaustible grace.
Discover the timeless story of John Newton's conversion and the
true meaning of the familiar words, "Amazing grace! How sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am
found; was blind, but now I see."
This is the first full-length detailed survey and critique of
modern Jerome scholarship, covering the crucial period 1880-2014.
At one level, the author ably argues that, despite Jerome's faults,
his work holds many important insights into the Early Church's
formation of Christian identity and Christian orthodoxy. On another
level, by examining aspects of Jerome's writing through the lens of
modern scholarship, the study also illumines the changing
directions and perspectives of Jerome studies. As such, it is a
valuable and unique account of the scholarly representation of
Jerome's oeuvre. Christopher Knight's work will continue to have a
respected place amongst Jerome studies for years to come. Content
1. Introduction 2. Jerome and Biblical Interpretation in the Early
Church 3. Early Modern Jerome Scholarship: 1880-1965 4. Later
Modern Jerome Scholarship: 1966-2012 5. Present Jerome Scholarship:
2013-2015 6. The Future of Jerome Studies 7. Conclusion
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