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Books > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches
From the 1920s on, Karl Barth's thought was received with great
interest not only by Protestants but also by Catholic theologians,
who analyzed it in detail. This study outlines how and why this
happened, especially in the period leading up to Vatican II. Dahlke
shows how the preoccupation with Barth's 'Epistle to the Romans'
and the Church Dogmatics' triggered a theological renewal among
Catholic theologians. In addition to Hans Urs von Balthasar's
critical appropriation of Barth's thought the the controversy about
the issue of analogia entis with Erich Przywara is also dealt with.
Luthers transformational idea of justification by faith alone was
often misunderstood and misrepresented in the early years of the
Reformation. In 1520, with his Wittenberg congregation in mind,
Luther set out to clarify the biblical foundation of good works. In
doing so he recast the very definitions of sacred and secular both
for his own generation and ours.
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.
The Bohemian preacher and religious reformer Jan Hus has been
celebrated as a de facto saint since being burned at the stake as a
heretic in 1415. Patron Saint and Prophet analyzes Hus's
commemoration from the time of his death until the middle of the
following century, tracing the ways in which both his supporters
and his most outspoken opponents sought to determine whether he
would be remembered as a heretic or saint. Phillip Haberkern
examines how specific historical conflicts and exigencies affected
the evolution of Hus's memoryawithin the militant Hussite movement
that flourished until the mid-1430s, within the Czech Utraquist
church that succeeded it, and among sixteenth-century Lutherans who
viewed Hus as a forerunner and even prophet of their reform. Using
close readings of written sources such as sermons and church
histories, visual media including manuscript illuminations and
monumental art, and oral forms of discourse such as vernacular
songs and liturgical prayers, this book offers a fascinating
account of how changes in media technology complemented the
shifting theology of the cult of saints in order to shape early
modern commemorative practices. By focusing on the ways in which
the invocation of Hus catalyzed religious dissent within two
distinct historical contexts, Haberkern compares the role of memory
in late medieval Bohemia with the emergence of history as a
constitutive religious discourse in the early modern German land.
In this way, he also provides a detailed analysis of the ways in
which Bohemian and German religious reformers justified their
dissent from the Roman Church by invoking the past.
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