Compassion, humility, faith, perseverance. We long for the beauty of Christ to be reflected in our lives. Such character comes only as the Spirit of God transforms us through the Word of God. These Bible studies will help you become the person God wants you to be. The top-selling LifeBuilder Bible Studies have helped millions of people dig deeper into the Bible, individually and in groups. This revised edition features additional questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, together with expanded leader's notes and an extra 'Now or Later' section in each study.

More. Better. Quicker. Richer. Are the values of our consumer society invading the church? Are we looking for overnight success in following Jesus? For instant godliness? Discipline is not a popular word today, but the disciplined Christian life produces a depth that is life-enhancing, bringing joy and freedom. Christian Disciplines looks not only at the foundational disciplines of the Christian life - the 'quiet time', prayer, worship and Bible study - but other crucial disciplines such as evangelism, giving, social justice, managing time and gifts, mission.

Depth. Strength. Wisdom. Maturity. We long to be people who exhibit such qualities. We want to strengthen our character and deepen our relationship with Christ. But spiritual depth requires spiritual discipline. These Bible studies by Andrea Sterk and Peter Scazzero are designed to help us learn how God intends for us to live and show us how God helps us grow to maturity. Now available in IVP's revised LifeGuide Bible Study format, Christian Disciplines features questions for starting group discussions and for personal reflection, as well as a new "Now or Later" section following each session.

Long a bestseller, this updated study guide on compassion, humility, faith, perseverance and other key traits will help a new generation of Christians develop the kind of character God desires.

This companion to "History of the World Christian Movement explores how varied and multi-cultural Christian origins and history really are.

Historians of religion face complex interpretive issues when examining religious texts, practices, and experiences. Faithful Narratives presents the work of twelve eminent scholars whose research has exemplified compelling strategies for negotiating the difficulties inherent in this increasingly important area of historical inquiry. The chapters range chronologically from Late Antiquity to modern America and thematically from the spirituality of near eastern monks to women s agency in religion, considering familiar religious communities alongside those on the margins and bringing a range of spiritual and religious practices into historical focus.

Focusing on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the essays address matters central to the study of religion in history, in particular texts and traditions of authority, interreligious discourse, and religious practice and experience. Some examine mainstream communities and traditions, others explore individuals who crossed religious or confessional boundaries, and still others study the peripheries of what is considered orthodox religious tradition. Encompassing a wide geographical as well as chronological scope, Faithful Narratives illustrates the persistence of central themes and common analytical challenges for historians working in all periods.

Contributors: Peter Brown, Princeton University; Nina Caputo, University of Florida; Carlos Eire, Yale University; Susanna Elm, University of California, Berkeley; Anthony Grafton, Princeton University; Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College; Phyllis Mack, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Kenneth Mills, University of Toronto; David Nirenberg, University of Chicago; Mark A. Noll, University of Notre Dame; David B. Ruderman, University of Pennsylvania; Lamin Sanneh, Yale University; Andrea Sterk, University of Florida; John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame."

Historians of religion face complex interpretive issues when examining religious texts, practices, and experiences. Faithful Narratives presents the work of twelve eminent scholars whose research has exemplified compelling strategies for negotiating the difficulties inherent in this increasingly important area of historical inquiry. The chapters range chronologically from Late Antiquity to modern America and thematically from the spirituality of near eastern monks to women s agency in religion, considering familiar religious communities alongside those on the margins and bringing a range of spiritual and religious practices into historical focus.

Focusing on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the essays address matters central to the study of religion in history, in particular texts and traditions of authority, interreligious discourse, and religious practice and experience. Some examine mainstream communities and traditions, others explore individuals who crossed religious or confessional boundaries, and still others study the peripheries of what is considered orthodox religious tradition. Encompassing a wide geographical as well as chronological scope, Faithful Narratives illustrates the persistence of central themes and common analytical challenges for historians working in all periods.

Contributors: Peter Brown, Princeton University; Nina Caputo, University of Florida; Carlos Eire, Yale University; Susanna Elm, University of California, Berkeley; Anthony Grafton, Princeton University; Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College; Phyllis Mack, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Kenneth Mills, University of Toronto; David Nirenberg, University of Chicago; Mark A. Noll, University of Notre Dame; David B. Ruderman, University of Pennsylvania; Lamin Sanneh, Yale University; Andrea Sterk, University of Florida; John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame."

Religion, Scholarship, and Higher Education explores foundational issues surrounding the interaction of religion and the academy in the twenty-first century. Featuring the work of eighteen scholars from diverse institutional, disciplinary, and religious backgrounds, this outstanding collection of essays issues from a three-year Lilly Seminar on Religion and Higher Education. Reflecting the diversity of the seminar participants, this insightful volume presents a wide variety of viewpoints on the role of religion in higher education and different approaches to religiously informed scholarship and teaching.

Religion, Scholarship, and Higher Education is distinctive in its orientation toward the personal and the practical. Contributors use personal examples to demonstrate how individual religious beliefs and backgrounds shape the way an educator approaches research and teaching.

The first part of the book addresses foundational issues, offering a range of perspectives on the current state of affairs and future prospects for the interrelation of religion and academic endeavor. Part II treats specific academic disciplines as they relate to religion and research and provides several models of scholarship grounded in or informed by religious traditions. The final section of the volume presents five different approaches to teaching. Contributors reflect on how religious perspectives or commitments influence the way in which they understand their role as university or college teachers and carry out their responsibilities in the classroom.

Although an ascetic ideal of leadership had both classical and biblical roots, it found particularly fertile soil in the monastic fervor of the fourth through sixth centuries. Church officials were increasingly recruited from monastic communities, and the monk-bishop became the dominant model of ecclesiastical leadership in the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium. In an interesting paradox, Andrea Sterk explains that "from the world-rejecting monasteries and desert hermitages of the east came many of the most powerful leaders in the church and civil society as a whole."

Sterk explores the social, political, intellectual, and theological grounding for this development. Focusing on four foundational figures--Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom--she traces the emergence of a new ideal of ecclesiastical leadership: the merging of ascetic and episcopal authority embodied in the monk-bishop. She also studies church histories, legislation, and popular ascetic and hagiographical literature to show how the ideal spread and why it eventually triumphed. The image of a monastic bishop became the convention in the Christian east.

"Renouncing the World Yet Leading the Church" brings new understanding of asceticism, leadership, and the church in late antiquity.

Religion, Scholarship, and Higher Education explores foundational issues surrounding the interaction of religion and the academy in the twenty-first century. Featuring the work of eighteen scholars from diverse institutional, disciplinary, and religious backgrounds, this outstanding collection of essays issues from a three-year Lilly Seminar on Religion and Higher Education. Reflecting the diversity of the seminar participants, this insightful volume presents a wide variety of viewpoints on the role of religion in higher education and different approaches to religiously informed scholarship and teaching.

Religion, Scholarship, and Higher Education is distinctive in its orientation toward the personal and the practical. Contributors use personal examples to demonstrate how individual religious beliefs and backgrounds shape the way an educator approaches research and teaching.

The first part of the book addresses foundational issues, offering a range of perspectives on the current state of affairs and future prospects for the interrelation of religion and academic endeavor. Part II treats specific academic disciplines as they relate to religion and research and provides several models of scholarship grounded in or informed by religious traditions. The final section of the volume presents five different approaches to teaching. Contributors reflect on how religious perspectives or commitments influence the way in which they understand their role as university or college teachers and carry out their responsibilities in the classroom.