Download or read book Experiential Christianity written by Ray Morose and published by Books by Ray Morose. This book was released on 2011 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experiential Christianity The main objective of this book is to illuminate the experiential arm of Christianity, and by doing so, redefine its devotional arm. The devotional arm may guide but it takes the experiential arm to confirm. By its nature, experiential Christianity can bypass religious borders as it is not a dogma, theology, or a belief, but a state of experiential being. Hence, can connect with, and be beneficial to, everyone regardless of his or her religious affiliation. In this reevaluation of Christianity its ‘living’ essence is revealed. That exposure reveals an experiential pathway that unveils a practical foundation for a moral compass to steer one through the various hazards of daily living. By learning to avoid those hazards your one and only purpose in life is revealed, which is to discover the experiential reality of the statement made by Jesus, that ‘God is within you’. Everything else is secondary. Meaning, that experience is primary as it is used to define ‘how’ one lives, acts, and thinks. Based upon that experience a moral foundation naturally arises providing a cornerstone for ethical stances that cannot be manipulated or twisted by the many and varied seductive ‘playthings’ engendered by self-interest. The depth of understanding released by the actual experiential discovery that ‘God is within you’ changes your life forever: you are truly reborn. However, that experience is not achievable by belief alone. You must be willing to experientially delve into the core of your existence to discover the reality of that statement by Jesus. Meaning, you must experience it and not just believe it. For that journey you will require intellectual knowledge of ‘how’ all the internal components of your existence function and interrelate. Without that knowledge you would easily become bewildered and distressed by the confusing quantity of ambiguous information that can block your pathway, and in despair claim that experience is impossible. Hence, this book outlines all the ‘tools’ you need to survive that internal journey and provides a ‘map’ to begin your search. Using both the ‘tools’ and ‘map’ is a personal decision that another cannot make for you. You either do or do not. There is no in-between. Does a non-material entity, referred to as God, exist? Yes. Is it possible to logically confirm that assertion? Yes. Is a personal connection to that entity possible? Absolutely. That personal connection is not hiding. You are hiding from it. This book provides all the necessary information to realize that connection. When that realization is a ‘living’ reality it transforms belief into actuality, establishing the cornerstone of an indestructible faith, that underpins every thought and action in your life. That experience adds experiential authenticity to your life confirming your eternal career has begun: and that beginning has no end.
Download or read book The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience written by Simeon Zahl and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-11 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience, Simeon Zahl presents a fresh vision for Christian theology that foregrounds the relationship between theological ideas and the experiences of Christians. He argues that theology is always operating in a vibrant landscape of feeling and desiring, and shows that contemporary theology has often operated in problematic isolation from these experiential dynamics. He then argues that a theologically serious doctrine of the Holy Spirit not only authorizes but requires attention to Christian experience. Against this background, Zahl outlines a new methodological approach to Christian theology that attends to the emotional and experiential power of theological ideas. This methodology draws on recent interdisciplinary work on affect and emotion, which has shown that affects are powerful motivating realities that saturate all dimensions of human thinking and acting. In the process, Zahl also explains why contemporary theology has often been ambivalent about subjective experience, and demonstrates that current discourse about God's activity in the world is often artificially abstracted from experience and embodiment. At the heart of the book, Zahl proposes a new account of the theology of grace from this experiential and pneumatological perspective. Focusing on the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation and sanctification, he retrieves insights from Augustine, Luther, and Philip Melanchthon to present an affective and Augustinian vision of salvation as a pedagogy of desire. In articulating this vision, Zahl engages critically with recent emphasis on participation and theosis in Christian soteriology, and charts a new path forward for Protestant theology in a landscape hitherto dominated by the theological visions of Barth and Aquinas.
Download or read book The Things of Earth written by Joe Rigney and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2014-12-31 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God’s world is full of good things. Ice-cold lemonade. The laughter of children. College football. Scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. A late night with old friends around a blazing campfire. God certainly knows how to give good gifts to his children. But where is the line when it comes to enjoying all the pleasurable things our world affords? In The Things of Earth, professor Joe Rigney offers perplexed Christians a breath of fresh air by lifting the burden of false standards and impossible expectations related to the Christian life—freeing readers to gratefully embrace every good thing we receive from the hand of God. Helping us avoid our tendency to forget the Giver on the one hand and neglect his gifts on the other, this much-needed book reminds us that God’s blessings should drive us to worship and that a passion for God’s glory can be as wide as the world itself.
Download or read book When God Talks Back written by T.M. Luhrmann and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012 A bold approach to understanding the American evangelical experience from an anthropological and psychological perspective by one of the country's most prominent anthropologists. Through a series of intimate, illuminating interviews with various members of the Vineyard, an evangelical church with hundreds of congregations across the country, Tanya Luhrmann leaps into the heart of evangelical faith. Combined with scientific research that studies the effect that intensely practiced prayer can have on the mind, When God Talks Back examines how normal, sensible people—from college students to accountants to housewives, all functioning perfectly well within our society—can attest to having the signs and wonders of the supernatural become as quotidian and as ordinary as laundry. Astute, sensitive, and extraordinarily measured in its approach to the interface between science and religion, Luhrmann's book is sure to generate as much conversation as it will praise.
Download or read book The American Church Experience written by Thomas A. Askew and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2008-08-06 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A welcome addition to the ongoing reflection on the meaning of religion in America. The authors are both responsible as scholars and accessible as writers. Teachers, students, clergy, and laity will find this book worthwhile. It deserves a wide reading." -- Ronald A. Wells, Professor of History, Calvin College; editor, Fides et Historia "This is a most welcome update of the first textbook survey of American church history. The American Church Experience retains all the virtues of the original--brevity, clarity, and evenhandedness--while incorporating recent historical developments and contemporary historical scholarship." --Michael S. Hamilton, Associate Professor of History, Seattle Pacific University "Specialists and general readers alike should welcome this valuable new resource in American religious history. I certainly plan to recommend it to my students." --Garth M. Rosell, Professor of Church History and Director of the Ockenga Institute at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary "Captures the ebb and flow of religious history in a scholarly and precise way while retaining a highly readable quality. Students will be challenged and laypeople will be informed about America's fascinating religious heritage. This book is a must for the pastor's study and for the church library." --Ruth A. Tucker, author of From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions "Tom Askew and Dick Pierard provide a lively and succinct account of the origins, expansion, and struggles of the faith in America. Their analyses are enhanced by commendable balance and a healthy global perspective. This volume will prove to be an excellent resource for church study groups as well as for undergraduate and seminary classes." --James A. Patterson, Professor of Christian Studies, Union University
Download or read book Religious Melancholy and Protestant Experience in America written by Julius H. Rubin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1994-01-06 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This original examination of the spiritual narratives of conversion in the history of American Protestant evangelical religion reveals an interesting paradox. Fervent believers who devoted themselves completely to the challenges of making a Christian life, who longed to know God's rapturous love, all too often languished in despair, feeling forsaken by God. Ironically, those most devoted to fostering the soul's maturation neglected the well-being of the psyche. Drawing upon many sources, including unpublished diaries and case studies of patients treated in nineteenth-century asylums, Julius Rubin's fascinating study thoroughly explores religious melancholy--as a distinctive stance toward life, a grieving over the loss of God's love, and an obsession and psychopathology associated with the spiritual itinerary of conversion. The varieties of this spiritual sickness include sinners who would fast unto death ("evangelical anorexia nervosa"), religious suicides, and those obsessed with unpardonable sin. From colonial Puritans like Michael Wigglesworth to contemporary evangelicals like Billy Graham, among those who directed the course of evangelical religion and of their followers, Rubin shows that religious melancholy has shaped the experience of self and identity for those who sought rebirth as children of God.
Download or read book Religious Experience Reconsidered written by Ann Taves and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-28 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the sciences of the mind can advance the study of religion The essence of religion was once widely thought to be a unique form of experience that could not be explained in neurological, psychological, or sociological terms. In recent decades scholars have questioned the privileging of the idea of religious experience in the study of religion, an approach that effectively isolated the study of religion from the social and natural sciences. Religious Experience Reconsidered lays out a framework for research into religious phenomena that reclaims experience as a central concept while bridging the divide between religious studies and the sciences. Ann Taves shifts the focus from "religious experience," conceived as a fixed and stable thing, to an examination of the processes by which people attribute meaning to their experiences. She proposes a new approach that unites the study of religion with fields as diverse as neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, and psychology to better understand how these processes are incorporated into the broader cultural formations we think of as religious or spiritual. Taves addresses a series of key questions: how can we set up studies without obscuring contestations over meaning and value? What is the relationship between experience and consciousness? How can research into consciousness help us access and interpret the experiences of others? Why do people individually or collectively explain their experiences in religious terms? How can we set up studies that allow us to compare experiences across times and cultures? Religious Experience Reconsidered demonstrates how methods from the sciences can be combined with those from the humanities to advance a naturalistic understanding of the experiences that people deem religious.
Download or read book Revelation written by and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.
Download or read book Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G White written by Ellen G. White and published by . This book was released on 2018-08-25 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ellen Gould White (née Ellen Gould Harmon; November 26, 1827 - July 16, 1915) was an author and an American Christian pioneer. Along with other Sabbatarian Adventist leaders such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, she formed what became known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Smithsonian magazine named Ellen G. White among the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time.
Download or read book Christianity written by Sandra Sizer Frankiel and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 2011-08-18 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity has a deceptively simple core, but is an extremely diverse religion. Frankiel approaches that diversity by a historical study that traces the contours of development and identifies some of the major different religious styles, worldviews, and directions within the religion. She then examines the characteristics of Christianity that endure over timethose that make it distinct from other religions. This multidimensional approach provides a rich picture of Christianity by utilizing a variety of perspectives, bringing some material into view more than once to reinforce learning and provoke questions.
Download or read book Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God written by Harold A. Netland and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many Christians, personal experiences of God provide an important ground or justification for accepting the truth of the gospel. But we are sometimes mistaken about our experiences, and followers of other religions also provide impressive testimonies to support their religious beliefs. This book explores from a philosophical and theological perspective the viability of divine encounters as support for belief in God, arguing that some religious experiences can be accepted as genuine experiences of God and can provide evidence for Christian beliefs.
Download or read book Religious Experience of the Pneuma written by Clint Tibbs and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the Christian religious experience of the pneuma given in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. The experience Paul mentions in these texts, as well as the mention of "spirits" in three different places, suggest that Paul was actually writing about communicating with the spirit world.
Download or read book Christianity and the University Experience written by Mathew Guest and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What impact does the experience of university have on Christian students? Are universities a force for secularisation? Is student faith enduring, or a passing phase? Universities are often associated with a sceptical attitude towards religion. Many assume that academic study leads students away from any existing religious convictions, heightening the appeal of a rationalist secularism increasingly dominant in wider society. And yet Christianity remains highly visible on university campuses and continues to be a prominent identity marker in the lives of many students. Analysing over 4,000 responses to a national survey of students and nearly 100 interviews with students and those working with them, this book examines Christianity in universities across England. It explores the beliefs, values and practices of Christian students. It reveals how the university experience influences their Christian identities, and the influence Christian students have upon university life. Christianity and the University Experience makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the survival and evolution of religion in the contemporary world. It offers fresh insights relevant to those working with Christian students, including churches, chaplaincies and student organisations, as well as policy-makers and university managers interested in the significance of religion for education, social responsibility and social cohesion.
Download or read book An Introduction to Christianity written by Linda Woodhead and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-02 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Introduction to Christianity examines the key figures, events and ideas of two thousand years of Christian history and places them in context. It considers the religion in its material as well as its spiritual dimensions and explores its interactions with wider society such as money, politics, force, gender and the family, and non-Christian cultures and societies. This Introduction places particular focus on the ways in which Christianity has understood, embodied and related to power. Comprehensive and accessible, this book will appeal to the student and general reader.
Download or read book Pentecost Today written by Iain Hamish Murray and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emphasis of this book is on the Holy Spirit's role in evangelism and revival. It is not on the manifestation of the Spiritual Gifts.
Download or read book The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology written by Roger E. Olson and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology is a comprehensive critical survey of the main persons, events, controversies, concepts, and institutions of twentieth-century evangelical theology. It will introduce readers to and be a reference work for the study of evangelicalism's distinctive theological vision in its unity and diversity. Roger Olson explores evangelical theology through five lenses: The Story of Evangelical Theology, Movements and Organizations Related to Evangelical Theology, Key Figures in Evangelical Theology, Traditional Doctrines in Evangelical Theology, and Issues in Evangelical Theology. The Westminster Handbook to Christian Theology series provides a set of resources for the study of historic and contemporary theological movements and Christian theologians. These books are intended to help students and scholars find concise and accurate treatments of important theological terms.
Download or read book Blaming the Brain written by Elliot Valenstein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-02 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Blaming the Brain Elliott Valenstein exposes the many weaknesses inherent in the scientific arguments supporting the widely accepted theory that biochemical imbalances are the main cause of mental illness. He lays bare the commercial motives of drug companies and their huge stake in expanding their markets. This provocative book will force patients, practitioners, and prescribers alike to rethink the causes of mental illness and the methods by which we treat it.
