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Showing 8681 - 8700 of 18370 items
By Archie J. Spencer. 2015
If God is transcendent, how can human beings speak meaningfully about him? For centuries philosophers and theologians have asked whether…
and how it is possible to talk about God. The shared answer to this question goes by the name of "analogy," which recognizes both similarity and difference between the divine being and human language. In the twentieth century, Karl Barth, Erich Przywara, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Eberhard Jüngel explored this question in new and controversial ways that continue to shape contemporary debates in theology. In The Analogy of Faith: The Quest for God's Speakability, Archie Spencer examines the problem of analogy in its ancient, medieval and modern forms. He argues for a Christological version of Barth?s analogy of faith, informed by Jüngel's analogy of advent, as the way forward for Protestant theology in answering the problem of God's speakability.By Scott A. Bessenecker. 2014
By Rodney Reeves, E. Randolph Richards, David B. Capes. 2015
By Billy Hallowell. 2021
Cuando jugamos con fuego explora los fundamentos teológicos que rodean a las fuerzas demoníacas. Basándose en relatos de primera mano, reportes…
de periódicos y expertos cristianos, Billy Hallowell llevará a los lectores a través de los diversos puntos de vista y perspectivas que rodean a la actividad sobrenatural.Los temas de la posesión demoníaca han superado a Hollywood con innumerables películas y programas de televisión que profundizan en la lucha secular contra el mal. Sin embargo, con tanto enfoque en el tema parece haber muy poco conocimiento público y discusión sobre la naturaleza de la vida real y la realidad de los demonios.En muchos países extranjeros, la actividad sobrenatural es a menudo documentada y discutidaLos oficiales del gobierno ven a un niño de nueve años subir una paredUn sheriff escucha una voz demoníaca en su radioLos doctores son testigos de que un niño exhibe una fuerza sobre humanaNo es sorprendente que los medios internacionales hayan tomado nota. Sin embargo, muy a menudo, muchas personas se mantienen en silencio sobre sus experiencias o recurren a rumores silenciosos sobre lo que han visto, oído o sentido por miedo a que los etiqueten como locos o dementes.La verdad es que incluso los pastores, sacerdotes y clérigos que han observado de primera mano los relatos de posesión y liberación pueden sucumbir a los extraños y aterradores efectos de la intensa guerra espiritual.Para la gente de fe, Cuando jugamos con fuego abordará estas preguntas centrales:¿Siguen los demonios activos hoy en día?Si existen, en efecto, ¿qué son? ¿Son ángeles caídos? ¿Nefilim?¿Pueden los demonios habitar en los seres humanos?Si existen, ¿qué se puede hacer para detenerlos?Únete al periodista investigador Billy Hallowell mientras profundiza en los extraños fenómenos de la actividad sobrenatural.Playing with FirePlaying with Fire explores the theological underpinnings surrounding demonic forces. Relying on firsthand accounts, newspaper reports, and Christian experts, Billy Hallowell will take readers through the various views and perspectives surrounding supernatural activity.Themes of demonic possession have overtaken Hollywood, with countless films and TV shows delving into the age-old struggle against evil. Yet, with so much focus on the topic, there seems to be very little public knowledge and discussion about the real-life nature and reality of demons.In many foreign countries, supernatural activity is often recorded and discussedGovernment officials watch a nine-year-old boy walk up a wallA sheriff hears a demonic voice over his radioDoctors witness a child exhibit extra-human strengthIt&’s no surprise international media took note. Quite often, though, many people remain silent about their experiences or resort to quietly whispering about what they&’ve seen, heard, or felt for fear of being labeled insane or crazy.For people of faith, Playing with Fire will address these core questions:Are demons active today?If they do, indeed, exist, what are they? Are they fallen angels? Nephilim?Can demons inhabit human beings?If they exist, what can be done to stop them?By Mark Batterson. 2021
Do you need a shot of joy or a boost of holy optimism in your life? Join pastor Mark Batterson…
in this video Bible study of Paul's most emotional letter that will help you fix your eyes on Jesus and know that you can do all things through Christ because the tomb is empty!This Study Guide includes:Individual access to 6 streaming video sessionsPersonal study between sessions40 Day reading plan through PhilippiansLeader&’s GuideIn this 40 Days Through the Book video Bible study, Mark Batterson serves as a tour guide on Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul, writing from a jail cell, speaks of joy, gratitude, unity, and purpose. Learn both the content and the context of the letter and then how you can directly apply the message to your daily life.Join Mark on a journey through Paul's letters to the Philippians that connects the dots between this letter filled with joy and your Christian walk by...Having a vision for the future and offering praise before it happensPraying like the answer depends on God to follow-throughHow to initiate heaven invading earthStanding together as a Church in one Spirit and one purpose, andFinding out what we really sign-up for when we follow JesusThe 40 Days Through the Book series is designed to help you actively engage with God's Word. Each study encourages you to read through selected books in the New Testament at least once during the course of the study. As. You do, you will gain (1) an understanding of the background and culture of the book or letter, (2) insights into key passages that you might have overlooked before, and (3) clear takeaways that you can apply today to your life.Sessions include:A Love Letter (Philippians 1:1-8)There You Are (Philippians 1:9-26The Creative Minority (Philippians 1:27-30)Attitude Check (Philippians 2:1-30)Live Not by Lies (Philippians3:1-21)The Focusing Illusion (Philippians 4:1-23)Designed for use with the 40 Days Through the Book: Philippians Video Study (sold separately).*Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2026. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Eligible only on retail purchases inside the United States. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.By Elizabeth Conde-Frazier. 2021
Decolonizing theological education and restoring agency to the people Latinx Protestantism is a rapidly growing element of American Christianity. How should…
institutions of theological education in the United States welcome and incorporate the gifts of these populations into their work? This is an especially difficult question considering the painful history of colonization in Latin America and the Caribbean, an agenda in which theological education was long complicit. In this book, Elizabeth Conde-Frazier takes stock of the cabos sueltos—loose ends—left over from the history of Latinx Christianity, including the ways the rise of Pentecostalism disrupted existing power structures and opened up new ways for Latinx people to assert agency. Then, atando cabos—tying these loose ends together—she reflects on how a new paradigm, centered on the work of the Holy Spirit, can serve to decolonize theological education going forward, bringing about an in-breaking of the kingdom of God. Conde-Frazier illustrates how this in-breaking would bring changes in epistemology, curriculum, pedagogy, and models for financial sustainability. Atando Cabos explores each of these topics and proposes a collaborative ecology that stresses the connections between theological education and wider communities of faith and practice. Far from taking a position of insularity, Atando Cabos works from the particularities of the Latinx Protestant context outward to other communities that are wrestling with similar issues so that, by the end, it is a call for transformation—a new reformation—for the entire Christian church.By Nicholas Orme. 2021
An engaging, richly illustrated account of parish churches and churchgoers in England, from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-sixteenth century Parish…
churches were at the heart of English religious and social life in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. In this comprehensive study, Nicholas Orme shows how they came into existence, who staffed them, and how their buildings were used. He explains who went to church, who did not attend, how people behaved there, and how they—not merely the clergy—affected how worship was staged. The book provides an accessible account of what happened in the daily and weekly services, and how churches marked the seasons of Christmas, Lent, Easter, and summer. It describes how they celebrated the great events of life: birth, coming of age, and marriage, and gave comfort in sickness and death. A final chapter covers the English Reformation in the sixteenth century and shows how, alongside its changes, much that went on in parish churches remained as before.By Jonathan Z. Smith. 1990
In this major theoretical and methodological statement on the history of religions, Jonathan Z. Smith shows how convert apologetic agendas…
can dictate the course of comparative religious studies. As his example, Smith reviews four centuries of scholarship comparing early Christianities with religions of late Antiquity (especially the so-called mystery cults) and shows how this scholarship has been based upon an underlying Protestant-Catholic polemic. The result is a devastating critique of traditional New Testament scholarship, a redescription of early Christianities as religious traditions amenable to comparison, and a milestone in Smith's controversial approach to comparative religious studies. "An important book, and certainly one of the most significant in the career of Jonathan Z. Smith, whom one may venture to call the greatest pathologist in the history of religions. As in many precedent cases, Smith follows a standard procedure: he carefully selects his victim, and then dissects with artistic finesse and unequaled acumen. The operation is always necessary, and a deconstructor of Smith's caliber is hard to find."—Ioan P. Coulianu, Journal of ReligionBy Kathleen A. Mahoney. 2004
Winner of the 2005 New Scholar Book Award given by Division F: History and Historiography of the American Educational Research…
AssociationIn 1893 Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot, the father of the modern university, helped implement a policy that, in effect, barred graduates of Jesuit colleges from regular admission to Harvard Law School. The resulting controversy—bitterly contentious and widely publicized—was a defining moment in the history of American Catholic education, illuminating on whose terms and on what basis Catholics and Catholic colleges would participate in higher education in the twentieth century.In Catholic Higher Education in Protestant America, Kathleen Mahoney considers the challenges faced by Catholics as the age of the university opened. She describes how liberal Protestant educators such as Eliot linked the modern university with the cause of a Protestant America and how Catholic students and educators variously resisted, accommodated, or embraced Protestant-inspired educational reforms. Drawing on social theories of cultural hegemony and insider-outsider roles, Mahoney traces the rise of the Law School controversy to the interplay of three powerful forces: the emergence of the liberal, nonsectarian research university; the development of a Catholic middle class whose aspirations included attendance at such institutions; and the Catholic church's increasingly strident campaign against modernism and, by extension, the intellectual foundations of modern academic life.By Benjamin W. Redekop and Calvin W. Redekop. 2003
Founded in part on a rejection of "worldly" power and the use of force, Anabaptism carried with it the promise…
of redemptive power. Yet the attempt to banish worldly power to the margins of the Christian community has been fraught with dilemmas, contradictions, and, at times, blatant abuses of authority. In this groundbreaking book, Benjamin W. Redekop, Calvin W. Redekop, and their coauthors draw on classic and contemporary thinking to confront the issue of power and authority in the Anabaptist-Mennonite community. From the power relationships of the sixteenth-century Peasants' War to issues of contemporary sexuality, the topics of Power, Authority, and the Anabaptist Tradition are sure to interest a wide audience.Contributors: Stephen C. Ainlay, College of the Holy Cross • J. Lawrence Burkholder, President Emeritus, Goshen College • Lydia Neufeld Harder, Toronto School of Theology • Joel Hartman, University of Missouri • Jacob A. Loewen, missionary, retired • Dorothy Yoder Nyce, Writer and former Assistant Professor, Goshen College • Lynda Nyce, Bluffton College • Wesley Prieb (deceased), former dean, Tabor College • Benjamin W. Redekop, Kettering University • Calvin W. Redekop, Conrad Grebel College, emeritus • James M. Stayer, Queen's University, OntarioBy Donald B. Kraybill. 2003
Revised edition of this classic work brings the story of the Amish into the 21st century.Since its publication in 1989,…
The Riddle of Amish Culture has become recognized as a classic work on one of America's most distinctive religious communities. But many changes have occurred within Amish society over the past decade, from westward migrations and a greater familiarity with technology to the dramatic shift away from farming into small business which is transforming Amish culture. For this revised edition, Donald B. Kraybill has taken these recent changes into account, incorporating new demographic research and new interviews he has conducted among the Amish. In addition, he includes a new chapter describing Amish recreation and social gatherings, and he applies the concept of "social capital" to his sensitive and penetrating interpretation of how the Amish have preserved their social networks and the solidarity of their community.By Rennie B. Schoepflin. 2003
In Christian Science on Trial, historian Rennie B. Schoepflin shows how Christian Science healing became a viable alternative to medicine…
at the end of the nineteenth century. Christian Scientists did not simply evangelize for their religious beliefs; they engaged in a healing business that offered a therapeutic alternative to many patients for whom medicine had proven unsatisfactory. Tracing the evolution of Christian Science during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Christian Science on Trial illuminates the movement's struggle for existence against the efforts of organized American medicine to curtail its activities.Physicians exhibited an anxiety and tenacity to trivialize and control Christian Scientists which indicates a lack of confidence among the turn-of-the-century medical profession about who controlled American health care. The limited authority of the medical community becomes even clearer through Schoepflin's examination of the pitched battles fought by physicians and Christian Scientists in America's courtrooms and legislative halls over the legality of Christian Science healing. While the issues of medical licensing, the meaning of medical practice, and the supposed right of Americans to therapeutic choice dominated early debates, later confrontations saw the legal issues shift to matters of contagious disease, public safety, and children's rights. Throughout, Christian Scientists revealed their ambiguous status as medical practitioners and religious healers. The 1920s witnessed an unsteady truce between American medicine and Christian Science. The ambivalence of many Americans about the practice of religious healing persisted, however. In Christian Science on Trial we gain a helpful historical context for understanding late–twentieth-century public debates over children's rights, parental responsibility, and the authority of modern medicine.Recent years have seen a shift in the belief that a religious world-view, specifically a Christian one, precludes a commitment…
to environmentalism. Whether as "stewards of God's creation" or champions of "environmental justice," church members have increasingly found that a strong pro-ecology stand on environmental issues is an integral component of their faith. But not all Christian denominations are latecomers to the issue of environmentalism. In Creation and the EnvironmentCalvin W. Redekop and his co-authors explain the unique environmental position of the Anabaptists, in particular the Mennonites.After a brief survey of the major forces contributing to the word's present ecological crisis, Creation and the Environment explores the uniquely Anabaptist view of our relationship to what they see as the created order. In rural Amish and Mennonite communities, they explain, the environment—especially the "land"—is considered part of the Kingdom God plans to establish on earth. In this view, the creation is part of the divine order, with the redemption of humankind inextricably linked to the redemption and restoration of the material world. The well-being a purpose of creation and human history are thus seen as completely interdependent.Contributors: Donovan Ackley III, Claremont Graduate School • Kenton Brubaker, Eastern Mennonite University • Thomas Finger, Claremont Graduate School • Karen Klassen Harder, Bethel College, Kansas • James Harder, Bethel College, Kansas • Lawrence Hart, Cheyenne Cultural Center, Clinton, Oklahoma • Theodore Hiebert, McCormick Theological Seminary • Karl Keener, Pennsylvania State University • Walter Klaassen, Conrad Grebel College • David Kline, Holmes County, Ohio • Calvin W. Redekop, Conrad Grebel College • Mel Schmidt • Dorothy Jean Weaver, Eastern Mennonite University • Michael Yoder, Northwestern College, Iowa.By Mary Keller. 2003
Award for the Best First Book in the History of Religions from the American Academy of ReligionFeminist theory and postcolonial…
theory share an interest in developing theoretical frameworks for describing and evaluating subjectivity comparatively, especially with regard to non-autonomous models of agency. As a historian of religions, Mary Keller uses the figure of the "possessed woman" to analyze a subject that is spoken-through rather than speaking and whose will is the will of the ancestor, deity or spirit that wields her to engage the question of agency in a culturally and historically comparative study that recognizes the prominent role possessed women play in their respective traditions. Drawing from the fields of anthropology and comparative psychology, Keller brings the figure of the possessed woman into the heart of contemporary argument as an exemplary model that challenges many Western and feminist assumptions regarding agency. Proposing a new theoretical framework that re-orients scholarship, Keller argues that the subject who is wielded or played, the hammer or the flute, exercises a paradoxical authority—"instrumental agency"—born of their radical receptivity: their power derives from the communities' assessment that they no longer exist as autonomous agents. For Keller, the possessed woman is at once "hammer" and "flute," paradoxically powerful because she has become an instrument of the overpowering will of an ancestor, deity, or spirit. Keller applies the concept of instrumental agency to case studies, providing a new interpretation of each. She begins with contemporary possessions in Malaysia, where women in manufacturing plants were seized by spirits seeking to resacralize the territory. She next looks to wartime Zimbabwe, where female spirit mediums, the Nehanda mhondoro, declared the ancestors' will to fight against colonialism. Finally she provides an imaginative rereading of the performative power of possession by interpreting two plays, Euripides' Bacchae and S. Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk, which feature possessed women as central characters. This book can serve as an excellent introduction to postcolonial and feminist theory for graduate students, while grounding its theory in the analysis of regionally and historically specific moments of time that will be of interest to specialists. It also provides an argument for the evaluation of religious lives and their struggles for meaning and power in the contemporary landscape of critical theory.By Thomas L. Pangle. 2003
In this book noted scholar Thomas L. Pangle brings back a lost and crucial dimension of political theory: the mutually…
illuminating encounter between skeptically rationalist political philosophy and faith-based political theology guided ultimately by the authority of the Bible. Focusing on the chapters of Genesis in which the foundation of the Bible is laid, Pangle provides an interpretive reading illuminated by the questions and concerns of the Socratic tradition and its medieval heirs in the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic worlds. He brings into contrast the rival interpretive framework set by the biblical criticism of the modern rationalists Hobbes and Spinoza, along with their heirs from Locke to Hegel. The full meaning of these diverse philosophic responses to the Bible is clarified through a dialogue with hermeneutic discussions by leading political theologians in the Judaic, Muslim, and Christian traditions, from Josephus and Augustine to our day. Profound and subtle in its argument, this book will be of interest not only to students and scholars of politics, philosophy, and religion but also to thoughtful readers in every walk of life who seek to deepen their understanding of the perplexing relationship between religious faith and philosophic reason.By Kimberly D. Schmidt, Diane Zimmerman Umble, Steven D. Reschly. 2003
This collection of original essays focuses on the rich, historically diverse, and often misunderstood experiences of Amish, Mennonite, and other…
women of Anabaptist traditions across 400 years. Equal parts sociology, religious history, and gender studies, the book explores the changing roles and issues surrounding Anabaptist women in communities ranging from sixteenth-century Europe to contemporary North America. Gathered under the overarching theme of the insider/outsider distinction, the essays discuss, among other topics: •How womanhood was defined in early Anabaptist societies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and how women served as central figures by convening meetings across class boundaries or becoming religious leaders •How nineteenth-century Amish tightened the connections among the individual, the family, the household, and the community by linking them into a shared framework with the father figure at the helm •The changing work world and domestic life of Mennonite women in the three decades following World War II •The recent ascendency of antimodernism and plain dress among the Amish •The special difficulties faced by scholars who try to apply a historical or sociological method to the very same cultural subgroups from which they derive The essays in this collection follow a fascinating journey through time and place to give voice to women who are often characterized as the "quiet in the land." Their voices and their experiences demonstrate the power of religion to shape identity and social practice.By Mark D. Baker. 2005
Too many Christians are religious - their faith is more a human endeavor than a response to God's loving initiative.…
Such religion assumes that our value comes not from God but from what we do. It absorbs principles and postulates from the surrounding society, leading to further misconceptions about God and our relation to our Creator. All this hinders people from experiencing vibrant Christian community, where they could freely love and be loved. The author suggests that just as car companies test automobiles under severe conditions to uncover weaknesses, North American Christians may detect fallacies in their gospel by examining how it plays out under the challenges of poverty, injustice, and entrenched religiosity. His test case is drawn from his ten-year missionary experience in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, at churches born out of North American mission work. He observes Honduran church life, draws parallels to the dangers of religion in the North American church and mines from Galatians exciting possibilities of robust Christian grace and freedom. The result is a bracing and refreshing approach to Christian community for laypersons, pastors, missionaries, and mission strategists.By Tracy Schier and Cynthia Russett. 2003
More than 150 colleges in the United States were founded by nuns, and over time they have served many constituencies,…
setting some educational trends while reflecting others. In Catholic Women's Colleges in America, Tracy Schier, Cynthia Russett, and their coauthors provide a comprehensive history of these institutions and how they met the challenges of broader educational change. The authors explore how and for whom the colleges were founded and the role of Catholic nuns in their founding and development. They examine the roots of the founders' spirituality and education; they discuss curricula, administration, and student life. And they describe the changes prompted by both the church and society beginning in the 1960s, when decreasing enrollments led some colleges to opt for coeducation, while others restructured their curricula, partnered with other Catholic colleges, developed specialized programs, or sought to broaden their base of funding.Contributors: Dorothy M. Brown, Georgetown University; David R. Contosta, Chestnut Hill College; Jill Ker Conway, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Carol Hurd Green, Boston College; Monika K. Hellwig, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities; Karen Kennelly, president emerita of Mount Saint Mary's College, Los Angeles; Jeanne Knoerle, president emerita of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College; Thomas M. Landy, College of the Holy Cross; Kathleen A. Mahoney, Humanitas Foundation; Melanie M. Morey, Leadership and Legacy Associates, Boston; Mary J. Oates, Regis College; Jane C. Redmont, Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley; Cynthia Russett, Yale University; Tracy Schier, Boston College.By Torquato Tasso. 2003
Late in the eleventh century the First Crusade culminated in the conquest of Jerusalem by Christian armies. Five centuries later,…
when Torquato Tasso began to search for a subject worthy of an epic, Jerusalem was governed by a sultan, Europe was in the crisis of religious division, and the Crusades were a nostalgic memory. Tasso turned to the First Crusade both as a subject that would test his poetic ambition and as a reflection on the quandaries of his own time. He sought to create a masterpiece that would deserve comparison with the great epics of the past.Gerusalemme liberata became one of the most widely read and cherished books of the Renaissance. First published in 1581, it was translated into English by Edward Fairfax in 1600. That translation has been the standard, even though Fairfax was only a good, not a great, poet. Fairfax tried to fit Tasso's verse into Spenserian stanzas, adding to and subtracting from the original and often changing Tasso's meaning.Anthony Esolen's new translation captures the delight of Tasso's descriptions, the different voices of its cast of characters, the shadings between glory and tragedy—and it does all this in an English as powerful and clear as Tasso's Italian. Tasso's masterpiece finally emerges as an English masterpiece.By Bryan Chapell. 2009
The church's worship has always been shaped by its understanding of the gospel. Here the bestselling author of Christ-Centered Preaching brings biblical…
and historical perspective to discussions about worship, demonstrating that the gospel has shaped key worship traditions and should shape today's worship as well. This accessible and engaging book provides the church with a Christ-centered understanding of worship to help it transcend the traditional/contemporary worship debate and unite in ministry and mission priorities. Contemporary believers will learn how to shape their worship based on Christ's ministry to and through them. The book's insights and practical resources for worship planning will be useful to pastors, worship leaders, worship planning committees, missionaries, and worship and ministry students.