The Alleluia Community is a unique Christian community of over three hundred committed charismatic Christians in Augusta, Georgia, who live a covenant and ecumenical lifestyle. Emerging from the Charismatic Renewal Movement of the 1960s, members of Alleluia have maintained a lively charismatic dimension of the Christian tradition with a willingness to make a life-time covenant commitment to each other. Since 1973, this group of people has exhibited heroic virtue, self-sacrifice, humility, deference for one another, and service to others outside their boundaries. They claim to be guided by the Holy Spirit in their daily lives. Their leaders lead with a strong sense of service and Christian love and a willingness to lay down their own agendas. A major feature of these covenant makers is that they strive for daily Christian unity while being committed to one of the twelve-plus various denominations and fellowships. Swenson had the opportunity of living among these people for twenty months. During this time, he used a mixed method approach involving over one hundred interviews and three hundred instruments to create both qualitative and quantitative measures of the lives of these people. To structure their story, he used the dilemmas of the institutionalization of religion from the scholarship of Thomas O'Dea and secularization theory. The data gathered give abundant evidence that these Alleluia faithful have substantively resisted the secular influence so common in Western culture.

You work hard planning mission trips. Now make mission trips work for you and your group. Headed to inner-city America? Appalachia? A border shantytown? Overseas? Wherever your destination, the MISSION TRIP PREP KIT contains all you need to prepare your students for an unforgettable cross-cultural experience---and tools to debrief them after they ve returned to their worlds. Use this kit--- To get on-site impact as well as long-term spiritual change in your kids. Whether you re a mission-trip novice or a savvy traveler outside your comfort zones. Whether your group s trip is geared toward reaching others with the gospel or to disciple your young missionaries. In several sessions spread over a month or two---or in an intensive, two-day training session or retreat. IN THIS LEADER S GUIDE: You ll receive not only the rationale, the how, and the logistics of planning and pulling off a missions trip, but---and this is the genius of the leader s guide---4 PRE-TRIP TEACHING SESSIONS that will help your students--- .Assess their EXPECTATIONS, their fears, their motivations. .Adjust their PERCEPTIONS of the culture they ll be working in. .Improve their emotional and spiritual STAMINA for living for a week or a month in a very different world from their own. .Practice the skills and ATTITUDES (teamwork, servanthood, Christ-centeredness) they ll need for a missions trip. And to make sure your trip s goals are accomplished and the benefits stick around for the long haul, you ll also receive 2 POST-TRIP SESSIONS that will help you DEBRIEF your students, ease them back into their own worlds, CELEBRATE with them, and make missions and ministry part of their EVERYDAY LIVES WITH JESUS. What s more, in these pre- and post-trip teaching sessions are a variety of ACTIVITIES processing points creative PRAYER IDEAS take-home applications BIBLE STUDIES relevant to mission tripping TALK OUTLINES that both instruct and inspire and lots of sessions options you can tailor to your own HIGH SCHOOLERS OR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS."

Stepping Out of the Brain Drain is an important contribution to the intensifying debate about highly skilled migration from developing to developed countries. Addressing the issue from the perspective of Catholic social thought, the authors demonstrate that both the economic and ethical rationales for the teaching's opposition to 'brain drain' have been undermined in recent years and show how the adoption of a less critical policy could provide enhanced opportunities for poor countries to accelerate their economic development.

This is the first Polish ethnological monograph to present how biblical themes function in folk culture in the context of rituals, customs and iconographic records and is based on ethnographic sources collected in Polish rural communities from central Poland to diasporas in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine in 1989-96. It shows how biblical plots used to undergo interpretation, at the same time, infiltrating common sense knowledge. The novelty here is the joint analysis of themes from both Testaments, presenting the narrations in accordance to the way the local community perceived its identity. The biblical typology, influencing culture through tradition and liturgy, inspired a symbolic order adjusted to cyclic conceptions of time and space, characteristic of rural culture

In The Weary Leader's Guide to Burnout, Sean Nemecek takes Christian leaders on a journey from burnout through recovery and on to spiritual transformation. By understanding the causes and symptoms of their burnout, these leaders will be ready to take practical, actionable steps toward wholeness. Then, if they choose, they will be poised to do the inner work of spiritual transformation by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the end, these leaders will emerge from burnout more confident in Christ, more connected with others, and with greater purpose, courage, and grace in their leadership. This book integrates biblical interpretation, theology, psychology, and contemplative spirituality into a holistic approach to recovery. It is filled with relatable stories of church leaders who have walked this path and includes discussion questions for personal contemplation or group discussion. The Weary Leader's Guide to Burnout will help pastors and Christian leaders develop an integrated approach to life, work, and ministry through healing and spiritual transformation.

This book takes a new look at one of the most contentious periods in American history. The battles over schools that surrounded the famous Scopes "monkey" trial in 1925 were about much more than evolution. Fundamentalists fought to maintain cultural control of education. As this book reveals for the first time, the successes and the failures of these fundamentalist campaigns transformed both the fundamentalist movement and the nature of education in America. In turn, those transformations determined many of the positions of the "culture wars" that raged throughout the twentieth century.

Louise Omer was a Pentecostal preacher and faithful wife. But when her marriage crumbled, so did her beliefs. Haunted by questions about what it means to be female in religion that worships a male God, she left behind a church and home to ask women around the world: how can we exist in a patriarchal religion? And can a woman be holy? With less than GBP300 in her pocket and the conviction that she was following a divine path, Louise began a pilgrimage that has taken her to Mexican basilicas, Swedish cathedrals, Bulgarian mountains, and Moroccan mosques. Holy woman combines travel writing, feminist theology, and confessional memoir to interrogate modern religion and give a raw and personal exploration of spiritual life under patriarchy.

Stepping Out of the Brain Drain is an important contribution to the intensifying debate about highly skilled migration from developing to developed countries. Addressing the issue from the perspective of Catholic social thought, the authors demonstrate that both the economic and ethical rationales for the teaching's opposition to 'brain drain' have been undermined in recent years and show how the adoption of a less critical policy could provide enhanced opportunities for poor countries to accelerate their economic development.

Exploring the subjectivity of the Qur'an's meaning in the world, this book analyses Qur'anic referencing in Muslim political rhetoric. Informed by classical Arabic-Islamic rhetorical theory, the author examines Arabic documents attributed to the 'Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813-833), whose rule coincided with the maturation of classical Islamic political thought and literary culture. She demonstrates how Qur'anic referencing functions as tropological exegesis, whereby verses in the Qur'an are reinterpreted through the lens of subjective experience. At the same time socio-historical experiences are understood in terms of the Qur'an's moral typology, which consists of interrelated polarities that define good and bad moral characters in mutual orientation. Through strategic deployment of scriptural references within the logical scheme of rhetorical argument, the Caliph constructs moral analogies between paradigmatic characters in the Qur'an and people in his social milieu, and situates himself as moral reformer and guide, in order to persuade his audiences of the necessity of the Caliphate and the religio-moral imperative of obedience to his authority. The Ma'munid case study is indicative of the nature and function of Qur'anic referencing across historical periods, and thus contributes to broader conversations about the impact of the Qur'an on the shaping of Islamic civilization. This book is an invaluable resource for those with an interest in Early Islamic History, Islam and the rhetoric of contemporary Middle East regional and global Islamic politics.

Christianity Today 2020 Book of the Year Award, Missions/Global Church Women have advanced God's mission throughout history and around the world. But women often face particular obstacles in ministry. What do we need to know about how women thrive? Mission researcher Mary Lederleitner interviewed and surveyed ninety-five respected women in mission leadership from thirty countries to gather their insights, expertise, and best practices. She unveils how women serve in distinctive ways and identifies key traits of faithful connected leaders. When women face opposition based on their gender, they employ various strategies to carry on with resilience and hope. Real-life stories and case studies shed light on dynamics that inhibit women and also give testimony to God's grace and empowerment in the midst of challenges. Women and men will find resources here for partnering together in effective ministry and mission. Organizations can help women flourish through advocacy, mentoring, and addressing structural issues. Wherever God has invited you to serve and lead, discover that you are not alone as you answer the call.

In these essays, Donald Wiebe unveils a significant problem in the academic study of religion in colleges and universities in North America and Europe - that studies almost always exhibit a religious bias. To explore this issue, Wiebe looks at the religious and moral agendas behind the study of religion, showing that the boundaries between the objective study of religion and religious education as a tool for bettering society have become blurred. As a result, he argues, religious studies departments have fostered an environment where religion has become a learned or scholarly practice, rather than the object of academic scrutiny. This book provides a critical history of the failure of 20th- and 21st-century scholars to follow through on the 19th-century ideal of an objective scientific study of religious thought and behaviour. Although emancipated from direct ecclesiastical control and, to some extent, from sectarian theologizing, Wiebe argues that research and scholarship in the academic department of religious studies has failed to break free from religious constraints. He shows that an objective scientific study of religious thought and practice is not only possible, but the only appropriate approach to the study of religious phenomena.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was the charismatic leader of the Chabad Hasidic movement and its designated Messiah. Yet when he died in 1994, the messianic fervor he inspired did not subside. Through traditional means and digital technologies, a group of radical Hasidim, the Meshichistim, still keep the Rebbe palpably close-engaging in ongoing dialogue, participating in specific rituals, and developing an ever-expanding visual culture of portraits and videos. With Us More Than Ever focuses on this group to explore how religious practice can sustain the belief that a messianic figure is both present and accessible. Yoram Bilu documents a unique religious experience that is distinctly modern. The rallying point of the Meshichistim-that the Rebbe is "with us more than ever"-is sustained through an elaborate system that creates the sense of his constant and pervasive presence in the lives of his followers. The virtual Rebbe that emerges is multiple, visible, accessible, and highly decentralized, the epicenter of a truly messianic movement in the twenty-first century. Combining ethnographic fieldwork and cognitive science with nuanced analysis, Bilu documents the birth and development of a new religious faith, describing the emergence of new spiritual horizons, a process common to various religious movements old and new.

This book traces the journey of Mahatma Gandhi, from being a simple and truth-seeking human being, a satyarthi, to a committed, conscious and social human being, a satyagrahi. It specifically looks at this critical transformation during the time Gandhi was in South Africa. The central argument of the book is that Gandhi evolved from being a satyarthi to a satyagrahi in South Africa. Subsequently in India, he consolidated his orientation with an emphasis on praxis, by developing his ideas as instruments for social and individual struggles. Marked by a series of events, this period was an intense quest of self-realization and understanding, and shows his journey from being Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to being Mahatma Gandhi. The book discusses various elements of Gandhian thought and praxis - morality, wisdom, non-violence, truth, social justice, dharma, trusteeship, education, sarvodaya, Hind Swaraj, swadeshi, and social service - and interprets the relevance of Gandhi's thought in the modern world by highlighting its unique significance for social transformation and change. Lucid and accessible, the book will be useful to scholars and researchers of Gandhi studies, Indian political thought, modern Indian history, and political studies.

What started as an impossible dream-to build a cafe that employs women recovering from prostitution and addiction-is helping to fuel an astonishing movement to bring freedom and fair wages to women producers worldwide where tea and trafficking are linked by oppression and the opiate wars. Becca Stevens started the Thistle Stop Cafe to empower women survivors. But when she discovered a connection between cafe workers and tea laborers overseas, she embarked on a global mission called "Shared Trade" to increase the value of women survivors and producers across the globe. As she recounts the victories and unexpected challenges of building the cafe, Becca also sweeps the reader into the world of tea, where timeless rituals transport to an era of beauty and the challenging truths about tea's darker, more violent history. She offers moving reflections of the meaning of tea in our lives, plus recipes for tea blends that readers can make themselves. In this journey of triumph for impoverished tea laborers, hope for cafe workers, and insight into the history of tea, Becca sets out to defy the odds and prove that love is the most powerful force for transformation on earth.

From 1642 to 1654 Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was the hakham (Torah scholar) and spiritual leader of the oldest Jewish community in the New World. As a Hebrew grammarian, a poet, and a mystic, as well as an excellent and very popular preacher, Aboab da Fonseca (born 1605) was not only one of the most interesting Jewish personalities of the seventeenth century, but his writings are an invaluable historical resource with regard to many aspects of Jewish life in Dutch Colonial Brazil, the local attitudes towards Jews, and corroboration of events outlined in contemporary literary sources. His forebears were so-called New Christians, having undergone compulsory conversion to Catholicism in Portugal. In order to be able to live freely as professing Jews, the family moved in about 1612 to Amsterdam. There, Hakham Isaac Uziel of Fez became his Talmud teacher; among his colleagues was Menasseh Ben Israel. In 1638 he was confirmed as one of the four hakhamim of the new congregation Talmud Torah of Amsterdam. In 1641/42 he accepted the nomination for hakham of the growing Jewish community in Recife, Brazil, where he was in charge of all rabbinical functions and gave lectures in Talmud and Hebrew. In the interim he wrote the Hebrew grammar Melekhet ha-Dikduk, published here in translation for the first time. Aboab da Fonseca enjoyed a few prosperous years until the Portuguese rebellion caused the economic ruin of the Jews of Dutch Brazil. His salary much reduced, he nevertheless remained to lead and help his people until the occupation of Recife by Brazilian-Portuguese troops on January 26, 1654. Upon returning to Amsterdam, his inclination toward mysticism made him one of the leading believers in the false messiah Shabbetai Zvi. But his writing and scholarship remained undiminished: In 1646 he wrote Zekher asiti leniflaot El, in which he described events in Dutch Brazil after the outbreak of the war; he also published a Hebrew translation of the Spanish cabbalistic works of Abraham Cohen Herrera, Casa de Dios y Puerta del Cielo, under the title Shaar ha-Shamayim (The Gate of Heaven). This first scholarly monograph on Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and his intellectual and spiritual contributions, includes discussion of his commentary on the Pentateuch entitled Parafrasis Comentada sobre el Pentateuco, as well as a consideration of Aboab's involvement in the ban of Spinoza.

Sowohl in der biblischen Traditionals auch im Bereich der Neurowissenschaften steht die "Leiblichkeit" des Menschen im Zentrum der Wahrnehmung. Dies darf als gemeinsamer Ausgangspunkt fur ein konstruktives Gesprach zwischen biblischer Theologie und gegenwartiger Neurowissenschaft festgehalten werden. Der Blick richtet sich auch auf die "Dimension der' Geschichtlichkeit', die fur das alttestamentliche Verstandnis des Menschen von fundamentaler Bedeutung ist, aber auch den neurowissenschaftlichen Blick auf den Menschen sehr stark pragt. Die "Identitat" eines Menschen begegnet uns als eine "narrative Konstruktion". Die' Seele' wird dazu aufgefordert, nicht zu vergessen, was ihr an Gutem widerfahren ist. Dabei begegnet uns die biblische Tradition als grosse Hoffnungsg schichte.

The first state-of-the-art, comprehensive resource to encompass the wide breadth of the rapidly growing field of Judaism and health.

For Jews, religion and medicine (and science) are not inherently in conflict, even within the Torah-observant community, but rather can be friendly partners in the pursuit of wholesome ends, such as truth, healing and the advancement of humankind. from the Introduction

This authoritative volume part professional handbook, part scholarly resource and part source of practical information for laypeople melds the seemingly disparate elements of Judaism and health into a truly multidisciplinary collective, enhancing the work within each area and creating new possibilities for synergy across disciplines. It is ideal for medical and healthcare providers, rabbis, educators, academic scholars, healthcare researchers and caregivers, congregational leaders and laypeople with an interest in the most recent and most exciting developments in this new, important field."

Monastic Bodies Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe Caroline T. Schroeder "Caroline Schroeder presents the first analysis of the ascetic ideology of one of the most important figures in early Egyptian monasticism, Shenoute of Atripe."--David Brakke, Indiana University "This remarkable study focuses on the leadership style . . . developed by Shenoute of Atripe, the third leader of the elaborate complexes for men and women monastics established in the mid-fourth century in Upper Egypt."--"Journal of Religion" Shenoute of Atripe led the White Monastery, a community of several thousand male and female Coptic monks in Upper Egypt, between approximately 395 and 465 C.E. Shenoute's letters, sermons, and treatises--one of the most detailed bodies of writing to survive from any early monastery--provide an unparalleled resource for the study of early Christian monasticism and asceticism. In "Monastic Bodies," Caroline Schroeder offers an in-depth examination of the asceticism practiced at the White Monastery using diverse sources, including monastic rules, theological treatises, sermons, and material culture. Schroeder details Shenoute's arduous disciplinary code and philosophical structure, including the belief that individual sin corrupted not only the individual body but the entire "corporate body" of the community. Thus the purity of the community ultimately depended upon the integrity of each individual monk. Shenoute's ascetic discourse focused on purity of the body, but he categorized as impure not only activities such as sex but any disobedience and other more general transgressions. Shenoute emphasized the important practices of discipline, or askesis, in achieving this purity. Contextualizing Shenoute within the wider debates about asceticism, sexuality, and heresy that characterized late antiquity, Schroeder compares his views on bodily discipline, monastic punishments, the resurrection of the body, the incarnation of Christ, and monastic authority with those of figures such as Cyril of Alexandria, Paulinus of Nola, and Pachomius. Caroline T. Schroeder teaches at the University of the Pacific. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion 2007 248 pages 6 x 9 5 illus. ISBN 978-0-8122-3990-4 Cloth $79.95s 52.00 ISBN 978-0-8122-0338-7 Ebook $79.95s 52.00 World Rights Religion, Biography Short copy: An in-depth examination of the asceticism practiced at the White Monastery in Upper Egypt in the fifth century, using diverse sources, including monastic rules, theological treatises, sermons, letters, and material culture.

The NASB Pew and Worship Bible is perfect for any church pew or classroom and matches page-for-page with the NASB Preacher's Bible. While both Bibles retain their own distinct page layout and font size, they were skillfully designed so that the pages of these two different Bibles begin and end with the same word. This will allow pastors and congregations to literally be on the same page during sermons. Universally recognized as the gold standard among word-for-word translations, the beloved New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition, is now easier to read with Zondervan's exclusive NASB Comfort Print (R) typeface. Features The full text of the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition Matches page-for-page with the NASB Preacher's Bible Premium, durable hardcover binding High-quality paper Double-column, verse-by-verse format Exclusive Zondervan NASB Comfort Print typeface 9-point print size

Sociology has taken a recent and unexpected theological turn that has radical implications for reflexivity. This original study explores these in four areas: visual aspects of reflexivity and theology; Simmel and Mauss on prayer as a form of spiritual capital; identity and the constitution of character; and finally, and most controversially, a reflection on sociological expectations of theology. This is one of the few works that explores a new terrain with profound implications for sociology and theology.