Download or read book Holy Communion a Spiritual Agent of Harmonious Diversity in Christ written by Rev. Dr. Kevin Brown and published by Covenant Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2024-06-21 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martin King said that the most segregated hour in America is Sunday morning, alluding to the fractured condition of the universal body of Christ's followers, the Church. From 2002 to 2010, I had the privilege of serving as the Executive Director of a nonprofit called Operation Breaking Through, serving the greater Hampton Roads area. The nonprofit was a network of over one hundred local churches. One of my primary responsibilities was to promote racial reconciliation and harmony between the diverse ethnic churches. In most cases, the demographics of these churches failed to reflect their community. Most congregations were monoethnic. Significant progress was evident after several years of pastoral internal and congregational external panel and group discussions. Church pastors were pulpit swapping, and churches were partnering in community outreach. Up to this point, I realized how much blood, sweat, tears, and time I had spent encouraging pastors and congregations to recognize, promote, and practice fellowship and communal service. Though good and somewhat effective, these efforts were all physical with very little thought of spiritual application. It wasn't until I was required to write a paper for a theology class at North Park that God opened my eyes to a deep understanding of the sacrament of Holy Communion. Realizing that all actual Christian denominations and non-dominations mandate practicing this sacrament, I gleaned from my studies the spiritual connectedness all believers share in this one sacred act and the binding blood ties all believers share with the author of this sacrament. In that one epiphany, the dividing wall of ethnicity, culture, and social Christian norms fell. Had Christ, by instituting this faithful act woven into the DNA of our born-again experience, the ability for His divine love and truth to break the chains we would inevitably erect through the weakness of our humanity, selfishness, and pride. What if this one DNA trait of holy communion could activate the true koinonia, which may lay dormant in believers because of historical traditions and practices erected by human-made religion? What if God allowed us to see and experience the depth of spiritual love for our brothers and sisters despite our differences? What if we saw communion as a remembrance of the greatest act of love known to humanity and allowed that remembrance to kindle and rekindle a spiritual intimacy between believers that overcomes our bias, prejudice, privilege, and any barrier to the believer's oneness in Christ? Holy Communion, a Spiritual Agent of Harmonious Diversity in Christ, explores this more profound understanding and revelatory power to breathe new life into the reading believer.
Download or read book Holy Communion a Spiritual Agent of Harmonious Diversity in Christ written by Kevin Brown and published by . This book was released on 2024-05-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Spirit and the Common Good written by Daniela C. Augustine and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh vision of the common good through pnumatological lenses Daniela C. Augustine, a brilliant emerging scholar, offers a theological ethic for the common good. Augustine develops a public theology from a theological vision of creation as the household of the Triune God, bearing the image of God in a mutual sharing of divine love and justice, and as a sacrament of the divine presence. The Spirit and the Common Good expounds upon the application of this vision not only within the life of the church but also to the realm of politics, economics, and care for creation. The church serves a priestly and prophetic function for society, indeed for all of creation. This renewed vision becomes the foundation for constructing a theological ethic of planetary flourishing in and through commitment to a sustainable communal praxis of a shared future with the other and the different. While emphatically theological in its approach, The Spirit and the Common Good engages readers with insights from political philosophy, sociology of religion, economics, and ecology, as well as forgiveness/reconciliation and peacebuilding studies.
Download or read book The Body of Christ written by Charles Gore and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Image of God in an Image Driven Age written by Beth Felker Jones and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2016-03-18 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humans are created in the image of God, yet by choosing to rebel against God we become unfaithful bearers of his image. But Jesus, who is the image of God, restores the divine image in us. At the intersection of theology and culture, these essays offer a unified vision of what it means to be truly human and created in the divine image in the world today.
Download or read book The Solidarity of Others in a Divided World written by Anselm Kyongsuk Min and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2004-02-03 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the paradigm of "solidarity of others" as the central theme of theology, this book shows that it is possible to renew the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of solidarity and recapture the potential of the "body of Christ" as embodiment of this solidarity.
Download or read book Azusa Rome and Zion written by Peter D. Hocken and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Azusa, Rome, and Zion offers historical, theological, and spiritual reflections on major movements of the Holy Spirit in modern times. The author shows where the lived experience of these movements challenges received theological concepts and categories, and indicates how engagement with these challenges can contribute to Christian reconciliation and Christian unity. Of particular interest are the surprising ways in which what appear at first sight to be new obstacles and points of division can in fact lead into deeper grasp of God's purposes for the body of Christ. Two chapters indicate the immense potential being opened up by the ministry of Pope Francis. The title captures not just the place of Pentecostals, Catholics, and Jews, but a historical dynamic that reverses the original going out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
Download or read book What Is Not Sacred written by Magesa Laurenti and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2014-04-10 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It is not for you to call profane what God counts clean."
Did Christianity replace traditional African religion with the arrival of European missionaries in past centuries? Or did sub-Saharan African cultures persist in maintaining their religious worldviews even after accepting the salvific message of Christianity? In this compelling book, Laurenti Magesa argues that despite missionary Christiaity's refusal to acknowledge the worth of traditional African religious culture. the incarnational spirituality of those cultures remains vibrant and visible today, and has much to offer and teach other cultures, both Christian and not.
Download or read book Engaging Ecclesiology written by A. T. B. McGowan and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference (EDC) takes place every second year. The Rutherford Centre for Reformed Theology, which runs the conference, has a present interest in studying the doctrine of the church (ecclesiology). After two years of pandemic, when most churches began to take new forms or develop new ways of meeting, many questions are being asked: What is the church, and what is it for? Is it a core element of Christianity, or is it an optional extra? Does the doctrine of the church flow out of our understanding of God and the gospel, or is it to be viewed socially and pragmatically? Are the historic marks of the church still relevant to today's discussions? This volume contains the papers given at the 2021 EDC. Here we have eight significant theologians exploring the nature and function of the church in ways that are challenging and thought-provoking. Continuing the study of ecclesiology, the 2023 EDC will address the subject of the Holy Spirit and the church, and in 2025 the subject will be creeds, confessions, and the church.
Download or read book Engaging Latino a x Theologies written by Sharon E. Heaney and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2024-02-26 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sharon E. Heaney describes how the life-giving interruption of Latin American poets, novelists, artists, and theologians changed her life in a conflict-ridden Northern Ireland. An outsider, in this study she provides an engagement with a stream of theology in the United States she takes to be exemplary. Latino/a/x theology is teología en conjunto (collaborative theology). It models ways to examine complicated and contested histories and identities, and it resists dominant assumptions about theological points of departure in favor of also valuing the everyday as locus theologicus. Identifying major themes and foundational thinkers, alongside more recent developments, Heaney offers an overview and invites readers to further reading, study, and formation. Modelling what it esteems, each chapter closes in conversation with a Latino/a/x leader in the church. The conclusion is written by practical theologian, Altagracia Pérez-Bullard. She affirms, this “is not just an intellectual exercise, . . . this engagement . . . is the practice of our lives as we journey with God and as we journey with one another. . . . It is an exciting journey. It changes us.”
Download or read book The Spirit and the Blood written by Joseph Essilfie and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2020-03-07 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is interesting to note that over the years, believers in Jesus Christ have resorted to pick-and-choose when it comes to the gospel.Every believer believes that when we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we receive salvation. We also believe that by our salvation we shall have eternal life.Our basis for believing the above stems from the foundation Jesus laid in John 6, concerning the "eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood," as we celebrate as Communion in our churches.Unfortunately, we have neglected some essential aspects of this ordinance, which has to do with the promises that go with it. The two most important and striking statements He made, I believe most of us have not given a serious thought to are: a)We will not die when we take the communion, andb)He will come and abide in us.We either explain these away, or take that as a simple statement, and not what it is.In The Spirit and the Blood, I take on the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as God, the Word which was with God from the beginning, and explain why we can not take His word for granted.I believe the Holy Spirit will guide you understand what I have put forth, and challenge you to experience the fullness of the benefits of the Holy Communion.
Download or read book Charismatic Christianity written by Helen Collins and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2023-09-26 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the essence of charismatic Christianity, a renewal movement that stresses the Holy Spirit's work, the church's use of spiritual gifts, and the significance of the supernatural? Helen Collins gives a novel summary explanation drawn from the spiritual gifts. Through Scripture and doctrinal reflection, she shows that charismatic spirituality is a coherent, reasonable, and rich tradition with much to offer. Collins demonstrates how practicing spiritual gifts embodies a distinctive theology, making these practices carriers of doctrine. Using the Acts 2 narrative, she summarizes seven key emphases and associated practices: expectancy (prophecy), enchantment (miracles), encounter (healing), expression (testimony), equality (tongues), empowerment (evangelism), and enjoyment (worship). The result is a fresh introduction that is biblical, theologically robust, and practical, helping charismatic students to learn more about themselves and others to understand the movement and what it has to contribute to global theological discussions.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Jonathan Edwards written by Douglas A. Sweeney and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Jonathan Edwards offers a state-of-the-art summary of scholarship on Edwards by a diverse, international, and interdisciplinary group of Edwards scholars, many of whom serve as global leaders in the burgeoning world of research and writing on 'America's theologian'. As an early modern clerical polymath, Edwards is of interest to historians, theologians, and literary scholars. He is also an interlocutor for contemporary clergy and philosophical theologians. All such readers—and many more—will find here an authoritative overview of Edwards' life, ministry, and writings, as well as a representative sampling of cutting-edge scholarship on Edwards from across several disciplines. The volume falls into four sections, which reflect the diversity of Edwards studies today. The first section turns to the historical Edwards and grounds him in his period and the relevant contexts that shaped his life and work. The second section balances the historical reconstruction of Edwards as a theological and philosophical thinker with explorations of his usefulness for constructive theology and the church today. In part three, the focus shifts to the different ways and contexts in which Edwards attempted to realize his ideas and ideals in his personal life, scholarship, and ministry, but also to the ways in which these historical realities stood in tension with, limited, or resisted his aspirations. The final section looks at Edwards' widening renown and influence as well as diverse appropriations. This Handbook serves as an authoritative guide for readers overwhelmed by the enormity of the multi-lingual world of Edwards studies. It will bring readers up to speed on the most important work being done and then serve them as a benchmark in the field of Edwards scholarship for decades to come.
Download or read book Growth in Agreement III written by Jeffrey Gros and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains the official dialogue results and common statements issued between 1998 and 2005 by an astonishingly wide range of Christian churches and communions. Reflected here are the solid advances made by well-established dialogue partners, as well as explorations in dialogue by churches new to the dialogue process at world level. Also included is the ecclesiology text adopted by WCC member churches at their assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Download or read book The Joy of the Gospel written by Pope Francis and published by Image. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect gift! A specially priced, beautifully designed hardcover edition of The Joy of the Gospel with a foreword by Robert Barron and an afterword by James Martin, SJ. “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus… In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.” – Pope Francis This special edition of Pope Francis's popular message of hope explores themes that are important for believers in the 21st century. Examining the many obstacles to faith and what can be done to overcome those hurdles, he emphasizes the importance of service to God and all his creation. Advocating for “the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned,” the Holy Father shows us how to respond to poverty and current economic challenges that affect us locally and globally. Ultimately, Pope Francis demonstrates how to develop a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ, “to recognize the traces of God’s Spirit in events great and small.” Profound in its insight, yet warm and accessible in its tone, The Joy of the Gospel is a call to action to live a life motivated by divine love and, in turn, to experience heaven on earth. Includes a foreword by Robert Barron, author of Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith and James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
Download or read book The Quest for Unity written by John Borelli and published by St Vladimir's Seminary Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1965 Catholics and Orthodox in North America have been engaged in official theological dialogue. This text presents the history and current state of dialogue between the churches, as well as examining what has been accomplished during these decades of dialogue, and which obstacles to full communion still remain.
Download or read book T T Clark Handbook of Pneumatology written by Daniel Castelo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook provides an interdisciplinary and diverse reference work to the Holy Spirit. Daniel Castelo and Kenneth M. Loyer gathered together a wide range of voices that are religiously, geographically, and ethnically diverse, bringing theology into conversation with biblical studies, ethics and morality, and global Christian studies. The T&T Clark Handbook of Pneumatology examines the Holy Spirit in a variety of sources, such as the Synoptic Gospels, the Catholic Epistles, the Old Testament, and the Hebrew Scriptures. It also includes chapters on key concepts in the field, such as mediation and sacramentality, ecology, and creation. This broad scope enables readers to appreciate how nuanced the field of Pneumatology is, and how it can be relevant for other Christian discourses.
