In this new edition of Overcoming America / America Overcoming, Stephen Rowe shows how the COVID-19 pandemic in tandem with Trumpism have brought basic dynamics of the American situation to high relief, and hence provide opportunity to address them - before it is too late. The dynamics he identifies are those of moral disease and political paralysis as symptomatic of the fact that America herself has been overtaken by the modern values which she exported to the rest of the world. He points to a way out of the current and potentially fatal malaise and violence: join other societies which are also struggling to move beyond the modern and consciously reappropriate those elements of tradition which have to do with cultivation of the mature human being. To avoid fundamentalism, Rowe discusses how this reappropriation must be undertaken in dialogue with those who also have come to recognize the unsustainable quality of the modern life, and who have been able to live beyond the nihilistic wish to tear it down. This book supports the call for an emerging global ethic and spirituality, providing resources of articulation and interpretation that allow for an ongoing dialogue between traditional and modern values-both worthy and problematic in their own ways-through which reliable policy and healthy living become possible.

Lutherans often have questions about Lutheran theology and beliefs that are basic to the Christian faith itself. Featuring a unique question-and-answer format, Lutheran Questions, Lutheran Answers is an accessible and concise treatment that provides the most frequently asked questions on important topics and brief but complete answers from a distinguished Lutheran historian and theologian. Contents include questions and answers about: Lutheran History and Heritage Bible God Jesus Christ Humanity Holy Spirit Salvation Church Worship Sacraments Christian Life Reign of God Polity

While television today is taken for granted, Americans in the 1950s faced the challenge of negotiating the new medium's place in the home and in American culture in general. Protestant leaders--both mainstream and evangelical--began to think carefully about what television meant for their communities and its potential impact on their work. Using the American Protestant experience of the introduction of television, Rosenthal illustrates the importance of the interplay between a new medium and its users in an engaging book suitable for general readers and students alike.

Part of a 14-volume work covering writings in American religious history with specific attention to trends in American Protestantism; church and state; theological issues; social Christianity; women in religion; native American religion; regional and black religion; fundamentalism and creationism.

The essays in this book, by distinguished musicologists, teachers, and church musicians, reflect the Lutheran musical heritage of the church and contribute new insights into the vibrant and diverse traditions of twenty-first century church music. Thine the Amen is a practical, instructional, and scholarly book. These essays contain something for everyone interested in sacred music the teacher, the singer, or the listener.

The past few years have seen a growing tendency by political and religious leaders to invent a homogeneous past--a golden age of perfect consensus on values and morals. Martin Marty shows that such a golden age never existed. In his exploration of religious diversity in the United States from the colonial past to the present, Marty takes seriously the fragile character and modest promise of American pluralism. He reveals how the vitality of the American experience has always depended on the fact that values and morals are generated in subcultures and worked out in a common society.

To see baptism as merely a ceremony greatly limits the meanings of Christian baptism, says Martin Marty, in this practical and inspirational new look at baptism. Martin Luther recommended that believers should begin and end their day reminding themselves of their baptism and then go to work joyfully or to sleep cheerfully. Baptism, says Marty, is at the heart of the everyday, life-long spiritual journey as he explores such questions as: ?????? How did early Christians understand and practice baptism? ?????? What difference does baptism make in our daily life? ?????? How does baptism manifest itself in our relationships, our choices, our faith? With great insight and wisdom Marty brings us both the history of baptism and a useful guide to its application for everyday life. The book includes questions for reflection and discussion.

The Christian Heritage: Problems and Prospects delves into the history of the western Christian heritage. Challenges to the Christian heritage, a heritage nourished both by Judaism and by the western classics, have been stimulated by the very success of the way of life that is promoted, a way of life that is somehow responsible for the emergence of modern science with its revolutionary technology. The reader is encouraged to reconsider authors prominent in the religious tradition of the West. Guidance is provided for examinations of the fundamental assumptions and the enduring questions by which Western Civilization has been guided and challenged for millennia. The enduring texts that we in the West repeatedly encounter, especially the most challenging of them, are apt to draw upon, and to illuminate the fundamental assumptions and the enduring questions by which Western Civilization has been guided and challenged for millennia. Vital to Western Civilization has long been the Christian Heritage. That Heritage has been taken for granted in our general education, in something as prosaic as the everyday operations of our legal system, and perhaps even in our economic and other social arrangements.

The Christian Heritage: Problems and Prospects delves into the history of the western Christian heritage. Challenges to the Christian heritage, a heritage nourished both by Judaism and by the western classics, have been stimulated by the very success of the way of life that is promoted, a way of life that is somehow responsible for the emergence of modern science with its revolutionary technology. The reader is encouraged to reconsider authors prominent in the religious tradition of the West. Guidance is provided for examinations of the fundamental assumptions and the enduring questions by which Western Civilization has been guided and challenged for millenniums. The enduring texts that we in the West repeatedly encounter, especially the most challenging of them, are apt to draw upon, and to illuminate the fundamental assumptions and the enduring questions by which Western Civilization has been guided and challenged for millenniums. Vital to Western Civilization has long been the Christian Heritage. That Heritage has been taken for granted in our general education, in something as prosaic as the everyday operations of our legal system, and perhaps even in our economic and other social arrangements.

This prophetic manifesto for the preservation of the world brings together Joan Chittister's most powerful, influential, and celebrated writings. Passionate and provocative, this collection combines the spiritual practices of the Rule of Saint Benedict with the contemporary struggles for social justice, feminism, and ecology. Today's most pressing spiritual, political, social, economical, and environmental questions are addressed and individuals of every religious and political persuasion are challenged to unite under a new and bold vision that honors the earth, its people, and all of life.

The legacy and power of Christian humanism- "True Christian humanism is the full flowering of the theology of the Incarnation. It is rooted in a totally new concept of what it means to be human that grew out of the mystery of the union of God and humanity in Christ." -Thomas Merton From biblical times to the present day, the massively influential and engaging tradition of Christian reflection on the value of being human is presented here. With its primary documents, carefully selected and edited by a team of experts, Readings in Christian Humanism fully represents the variety and vitality of the humanistic tradition found in historic Christianity. Bringing together highlights from the almost unlimited gallery of Christian humanist thinkers as stimulants to our own imaginations, this anthology also boldly sets claim to a ground for Christian humanism today. "An invaluable resource for students concerned with human dignity and sovereignty under God." -George H. Williams, Harvard University "A splendid, wide-ranging, ecumenical collection." -Theodore M. Hesburgh, University of Notre Dame "Christians and non-Christians alike will profit from the stimulus of people who enjoy being part of the race that God honored by choosing to dwell in it." -Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago The research and editorial development of this volume was directed by: Joseph M. Shaw, Saint Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota; R. W. Franklin, Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota; Harris Kaasa, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa; and Charles W. Buzicky, College of Saint Catherine, Saint Paul, Minnesota.

This book enters a lively discussion about religious faith and higher education in America that has been going on for a decade or more. During this time many scholars have joined the debate about how best to understand the role of faith in the academy at large and in the special arena of church-related Christian higher education. The notion of faith-informed scholarship has, of course, figured prominently in this conversation. But, argue Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen, the idea of Christian scholarship itself has been remarkably under-discussed. Most of the literature has assumed a definition of Christian scholarship that is Reformed and evangelical in orientation: a model associated with the phrase "the integration of faith and learning." The authors offer a new definition and analysis of Christian scholarship that respects the insights of different Christian traditions (e.g., Catholic, Lutheran, Anabaptist, Wesleyan, Pentecostal) and that applies to the arts and to professional studies as much as it does to the humanities and the natural and social sciences. The book itself is organized as a conversation. Five chapters by the Jacobsens alternate with four contributed essays that sharpen, illustrate, or complicate the material in the preceding chapters. The goal is both to map the complex terrain of Christian scholarship as it actually exists and to help foster better connections between Christian scholars of differing persuasions and between Christians and the academy as a whole.

By expressing the thoughts of Christians as they prepare for church, listen to the pastor's sermon, and as they receive the sacrament, the author captures the powerful meaning of the Lord's Supper. Through his personal and inviting voice, church historian and Christian writer Martin E. Marty describes the origins of Holy Communion and the important role the sacrament has played throughout the history of the Christian church.

For the non-specialist, Martin Marty traces the church's quest through twenty centuries for unity, sanctity, universality, and authentic witness. He delves into the disparity between the ideals of the church and historical realty in order to provide a brilliant, instructive, and eminently fair statement of the history of Christianity from its founding to the present day. In this second edition, revised and expanded, Marty has added an entirely new section entitled "Postscript and Prescript" in which he discusses the recent past and prospects. Fresh insights and revisions based on the most recent contemporary developments keep this volume abreast of the times, making it an up-to-date survey of the history of Christianity.

The Lutheran Reformation of the early sixteenth century brought about immense and far-reaching change in the structures of church and state, and in religious and secular ideas. This book investigates the relationship between the law and religious ideology in Luther's Germany, showing how they developed in response to the momentum of Lutheran teachings and influence. John Witte, Jr. argues that it is not enough to understand the Reformation in either only theological or legal terms but that a perspective is required which takes proper account of both.

Positive mentoring relationships are essential to the formation of strong Christian leaders. This simple truth is often held as self-evident, but why? How can theological and biblical insights inform mentoring relationships? And what do these vital relationships look like across a range of Christian experience? Opening multiple angles of vision on the practice of mentoring, Dean K. Thompson and D. Cameron Murchison have assembled an eminent group of scholars to reflect on these and other pressing questions. With contributions from twenty-one remarkable writers, this broad-ranging volume explores mentoring in biblical and theological perspective, within the context of diverse national and international communities, and across generations.

Young spiritual leaders are beginning to remove the reasons why so many of us have kept religion at arm's length. "Spiritual sagacity does not belong only to seniors like Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day, Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel, the veteran Desmond Tutu and the aging Dalai Lama. Let's hear from a generation that is marked by new experiences." —from the Preface by Martin E. Marty By transforming our faith traditions in light of today's increasing diversity, the search for community, the Internet and our changing lifestyles, these young, visionary spiritual leaders are helping to create the new spirituality. Ten contributors, most in their mid-thirties, span the spectrum of religious traditions—Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian, Buddhist—and offer their "visions," bold spiritual manifestos, for transforming our faith communities and our lives. Hear how one Catholic priest proclaims "all religion and spirituality ought to be zesty, passionate, rich and deep"; how one rabbi serves a "congregation" on the web for Microsoft and rides in squad cars on drug busts in New York City; how a self-described "Zen priest" is serving an Episcopal church in Alaska; and how a talented young woman lives her "wild and precious life" changing the world as a nun. These stories, and others, will challenge your assumptions about what religion is—and isn't.

Americans in the 1950s faced the challenge of negotiating the new medium's place in the home and in American culture in general. Using the American Protestant experience of the introduction of television, Rosenthal illustrates the importance of the interplay between a new medium and its users.