Download or read book Church of the Wild written by Victoria Loorz and published by Broadleaf Books . This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2024 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner in "Religion / Spirituality of Western Thought" CategoryWinner of the Living Now Book Award, Church of the Wild reminds us that once upon a time, humans lived in an intimate relationship with nature. Whether disillusioned by the dominant church or unfulfilled by traditional expressions of faith, many of us long for a deeper spirituality. Victoria Loorz certainly did. Coping with an unraveling vocation, identity, and planet, Loorz turned to the wanderings of spiritual leaders and the sanctuary of the natural world, eventually cofounding the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild. With an ecospiritual lens on biblical narratives and a fresh look at a community larger than our own species, Church of the Wild uncovers the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it--and calling it church. Through mystical encounters with wild deer, whispers from a scrubby oak tree, wordless conversation with a cougar, and more, Loorz helps us connect to a love that literally holds the world together--a love that calls us into communion with all creatures.
Download or read book Catechism of the Catholic Church written by U.S. Catholic Church and published by Image. This book was released on 2012-11-28 with total page 849 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 3 million copies sold! Essential reading for Catholics of all walks of life. Here it is - the first new Catechism of the Catholic Church in more than 400 years, a complete summary of what Catholics around the world commonly believe. The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. The word catechism means "instruction" - this book will serve as the standard for all future catechisms. Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.
Download or read book Notes and Queries written by and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Calling of the Church in Times of Polarization written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-10-31 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many societies all over the world, an increasing polarization between contrasting groups can be observed. Polarization arises when a fear born of difference turns into ‘us-versus-them’ thinking and rules out any form of compromise. This volume addresses polarizations within societies as well as within churches, and asks the question: given these dynamics, what may be the calling of the church? The authors offer new approaches to polarizing debates on topics such as racism, social justice, sexuality and gender, euthanasia, and ecology and agriculture in various contexts. They engage in profound theological and ecclesiological reflection, in particular from the Reformed tradition. Contributors to this volume are: Najib George Awad, Henk van den Belt, Nadine Bowers Du Toit, Jaeseung Cha, David Daniels, David Fergusson, Jan Jorrit Hasselaar, Jozef Hehanussa, Allan Janssen, Klaas-Willem de Jong, Viktória Kóczián, Philipp Pattberg, Louise Prideaux, Emanuel Gerrit Singgih, Peter-Ben Smit, Thandi Soko-de Jong, Wim van Vlastuin, Jan Dirk Wassenaar, Elizabeth Welch, Annemarieke van der Woude, and Heleen Zorgdrager.
Download or read book When the Church Woke written by William B. Lawrence and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-10-21 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most divisive and damaging aspect of the church in America is the combination of racism and white supremacy that has been woven into the fabric of the church to the degree that one cannot discuss the church in America apart from this sin. Nowhere is this clearer than in American Methodism, including The United Methodist Church. That denomination, which has been divided for decades over issues regarding human sexuality and homosexuality, is a product of a long history of racism and white supremacy. While initiatives have been taken to address these matters, there has not been any effort to help the church focus on being anti-racist in its practices or public witness at every level, including local church levels. This is a book that identifies this sin and offers an innovative look at the mission of the church, based on biblical witnesses to new life with the resurrection. It offers proposals for reparations and renewal that will come when the church woke.
Download or read book The United Church of Canada written by Don Schweitzer and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its inception in the early 1900s, The United Church of Canada set out to become the national church of Canada. This book recounts and analyzes the history of the church of Canada’s largest Protestant denomination and its engagement with issues of social and private morality, evangelistic campaigns, and its response to the restructuring of religion in the 1960s. A chronological history is followed by chapters on the United Church’s worship, theology, understanding of ministry, relationships with the Canadian Jewish community, Israel, and Palestinians, changing mission goals in relation to First Nations peoples, and changing social imaginary. The result is an original, accessible, and engaging account of The United Church of Canada’s pilgrimage that will be useful for students, historians, and general readers. From this account there emerges a complex portrait of the United Church as a distinctly Canadian Protestant church shaped by both its Christian faith and its engagement with the changing society of which it is a part.
Download or read book The Church in the Nineteenth Century written by Frances Knight and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-04-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nineteenth century was one of the most fascinating and volatile periods in Christian history. It was during this time that Christianity evolved into a truly global religion, which led to an ever greater variety of ways for Christians to express and profess their faith. Frances Knight addresses the crucial question of how Christianity contributed to individual identity in a context of widespread urbanisation and modernisation. She explores important topics such as the Evangelical revival led by the likes of the founder of the Christian Mission - later the Salvation Army - William Booth; the Oxford Movement under Newman, Keble and Pusey; Mormonism and Protestant revivalism in the USA; socialism and the impacts of Karl Marx and anarchism; continuing theological divisions between Protestants and Catholics; and the development of pilgrimage and devotion at places like Lourdes and Knock. Her book also examines the most significant intellectual trends, such as the rise of critical approaches to the Bible, and the different directions that these took in Britain and America. The author's unique emphasis on the 'ordinary' experience of Christians worldwide makes her volume indispensable for students and general readers who will be fascinated by this sensitive twenty-first century perspective on the nineteenth century.
Download or read book Rewilding the Church written by Steve Aisthorpe and published by Saint Andrew Press. This book was released on 2020-07-30 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on from his bestselling The Invisible Church, Steve Aisthorpe finds inspiration for his new book in the ecological concept of rewilding, an approach to the environment that allows nature to break free from the dulling effects of strategic control and bring wonder back into our lives. Applying this thinking to the Church, Steve Aisthorpe imagines what might happen if we put less faith in our strategies and plans, which inevitably depend on our own capabilities and resources, and allow the Spirit to lead us beyond our capacity to imagine. Rewilding the Church explores afresh the compelling invitation of Jesus to ‘Follow me’ and the call to ‘throw off everything that hinders and entangles’. It poses provocative questions and issues a call to contribute to the great rewilding of the Church – and to be rewilded ourselves. The same human instincts that have disrupted our natural environment have also constrained and domesticated the Church and Rewilding the Church commends a rediscovery of the adventure of faith. Steve Aisthorpe is one the freshest and most original voices in the church today.
Download or read book Catechism on the Principles and Constitution of the Free Church of Scotland written by Andrew Gray and published by . This book was released on 1845 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Church Folk Lore written by James Edward Vaux and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of the Christian Church written by Lars P. Qualben and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Being the Church written by Edward Rommen and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-07-18 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the divine liturgy really is as beautiful as we claim, wouldn’t more people attend? Wouldn’t the church grow? Driven by our desire for growth, we count, we analyze, we make charts, and we strategize, but often with few discernible results. That is probably the result of focusing on secondary aspects of church life. As we know, the very existence of a church is a gift of God’s presence and not the result of any particular actions taken by human beings. For that reason, church is primarily about being something rather than doing or achieving something. So the growth of the church is not reflected in ever-increasing numbers, dollars, and activities, but rather in steadily growing conformity to the divine ideal. So in order to evaluate ecclesial growth, we will first have to ask what the church is supposed to be. One answer to that question is captured in the four marks of the church given in the creed: Oneness, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity. These four characteristics serve as a matrix or framework within which we can focus on the primary aspects of ecclesial being and help it grow and become what it was intended to be.
Download or read book The Church as the Image of the Trinity written by Kevin J. Bidwell and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-06-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A resurgence of Trinitarian interest gained momentum in the twentieth century and it is showing little sign of abating in the twenty-first century. This research endeavors to critically evaluate Miroslav Volf's ecclesial model for "the church as the image of the Trinity," one that he presents with the English title, After Our Likeness. Volf proposes a social doctrine of the Trinity, one that is heavily influenced by the theological writings of Jurgen Moltmann, and he puts forward that this nonhierarchical Trinity should be reflected in the structures and theology of the church. If Volf is correct, then a radical reshaping is needed for the church to conform to an egalitarian pattern, one that is "after the likeness" (Gen 1:26) of an egalitarian God. In this critical examination, Kevin J. Bidwell begins by stating the theological influences that are pertinent to Volf's thesis in After Our Likeness and the assumptions that undergird and inform his whole theological paradigm. An important theological excursus is offered to assess the theology of John Smyth, the first English Baptist, who is Volf's representative figure for the location of his own ecclesiology, the Free Church. A critical analysis follows of Volf's engagement with his two chosen dialogue partners who represent both Western and Eastern theological traditions: Joseph Ratzinger and John D. Zizioulas. Volf presents five theses for "the church as the image of the Trinity," which could be labeled as Volf's Free Church in the image of Volf's revised doctrine of the Trinity. This monograph offers extensive insight into the contemporary debate on the doctrine of the Trinity, but it also assesses many aspects of ecclesiology from both Eastern and Western perspectives.
Download or read book Church Invisible written by Andrew Gamman and published by Kereru Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2013-11-16 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are living in a time in which we are seeing a rapid unravelling of institutional structures in Western society and a re-alignment of values. The church is not faring well in this process. This book takes the form of an earthed and practical theology and asks the question ‘what is the church?’ Rather than a purely theoretical, or a purely pragmatic approach, it looks to the radical Reformers of the sixteenth century and finds there an emphasis on the church’s invisible realities and on community both of which have a relevance to the twenty-first century.
Download or read book The Storied Church written by Matthew Gorkos and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Matthew Gorkos begins The Storied Church with this compelling statement: "I believe in the church--in the power of faithful people serving a good and gracious God--and I believe in the power of a good story. Moreover, I believe, as this book will argue, that church and story--harnessed together--could be an even more powerful force for goodness in our world." Neuroscientists, anthropologists, archeologists, and psychologists all agree. Story is how our brains and our communities make sense of things. Storytelling helps us cope with change and loss. Storytelling helps us transmit lessons and life-skills to the next generation. As human beings, it seems we can't do without story. This book--indeed, this whole idea of story-centered church renewal--was born of a suspicion that the restorative, transformative, life-giving function that stories have for us as individuals may serve communities of faithful people as well. If stories help us survive as human creatures, why can't they help churches survive? The problem that story-centered renewal seeks to remedy has only become more prevalent and urgent in the age of Covid-19. Our churches need hope now more than ever. Writing from a pastor's perspective, Gorkos hopes to encourage and empower other pastors and lay leaders with both the hope and the tools they need to effect revitalizing change in their faith communities. Each chapter includes questions for reflection to help readers listen to and tell the stories that will lead to renewal and transformation.
Download or read book Strategies for Church Growth written by C. Peter Wagner and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Plan Strategy? Is church growth theory incompatible with belief in the sovereignty of God? Does adherence to church growth principles leave out dependency upon the work of the Holy Spirit? C. Peter Wagner answers no to both questions. He further believes that no task could be more crucial than fulfilling the Great Commission in our generation, and how to approach and plan for the execution of this task is the questions of the day. Strategies for Church Growth addresses this key issue in a biblically pragmatic way. It brings together for the first time many principles of evangelism and missions which have proved, through recent research and experience, to be effective in implementing the Great Commission. It also unifies, in concise form, the latest research of the Church Growth Movement, the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization, the U.S. Center for World Mission and numerous other key contributors to the recent explosion of evangelistic technology. Among the topics explored are: - the major components of strategy - choosing the appropriate strategy - advantages of having a strategy - the theology of church growth - the harvest principle and soil testing - why you should aim for church growth - characteristics of good goals - the meaning of mission and evangelism - how to target your outreach
Download or read book Towards a Theology of Church Growth written by Dr David Goodhew and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-05-28 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concern about church growth and decline is widespread and contentious, yet theological reflection on church growth is scarce. Leading international scholars, including Alister McGrath, Benedicta Ward and C. Kavin Rowe, provide rich resources from scripture, doctrine and tradition, to underpin action to promote church growth and to stimulate further theological reflection on the subject.
