Download or read book Hopeful Realism written by Douglas F. Ottati and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For those in the church and alongside it who remain dissatisfied with simplistic language and shallow spirituality, Hopeful Realism, reclaims the poetry of theology while skillfully addressing the religious and social concerns of the Christian faith.

Download or read book Hopeful Realism in Urban Ministry written by Barry K. Morris and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-05-20 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What, pray tell, does a faithful urban ministry require if not a triadic relationship of prayer, justice, and hope? Could such a theologically conjunctive relationship of prayer, justice, and hope fortify urban ministry and challenge students and practitioners to ponder and practice beyond the box? Frequently, justice is collapsed to charity, hope into wishful thinking or temporarily arrested despair, and prayer a grasp at quick-fix interventions. An urban ministry's steadfast public and prophetic witness longs for the depth and width of this triad. Via three countries' decades of endeavors, one chapter brainstorms urban ministry practices while another's literature survey signals crucial convictions. Amid many, seminal theologians are summoned to ground urban ministry intimations and implications: Niebuhr on justice, Moltmann on hope, and Merton on contemplative prayer. Evident is passion that fuels compassion in the service of justice, hope that engages despair, and prayer that draws from the contemplative center of it all--thankful resources for long haul ministry. The triad presses to illumine a concrete ministry's engagement of relentless, forced option issues yet with significant networks resourcing. Contrast-awareness animates endurance. The summary exegetes the original grace-based serenity prayer. Hence, hope vitally balances realism's temptation to cynicism. Realism saves hope from irrelevancy.

Download or read book The Future of Christian Realism written by Dallas Gingles and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-04-15 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the world’s most developed democracies, anxiety about the future of democracy is palpable. The tension between moral aspiration and moral despair has reached a point of crisis. Christian realism arose during a similar time of crisis, when Reinhold Niebuhr used the insights of the Christian tradition to interpret the clash between democracy and totalitarianism. Beginning with Robin Lovin’s account of Christian realism as a nuanced blend of theological, moral, and political realisms, The Future of Christian Realism addresses fundamental topics in theology, ethics, and politics. The contributors come from different traditions, span five continents, and together present a case for the continuing relevance of Christian realism. By paying close attention to many of the most pressing moral challenges facing societies today, the authors illustrate and evaluate the enduring relevance of Christian realism.

Download or read book Strength of Mind written by Jacob L. Goodson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-09-19 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Higher education in the twenty-first century should bring together freedom and knowledge with courage and hope. Why these four concepts? As Goodson argues in Strength of Mind, higher education in the twenty-first century offers preparation for ordinary life. Freedom and knowledge serve as the conditions for cultivating courage and hope within one's ordinary life. More specifically, courage and hope ought to be understood as the virtues required for enjoying ordinary life. If college-educated citizens wish to hold onto the concepts of courage and hope, however, then both courage and hope need to be understood as intellectual virtues. As a moral virtue, courage has become outdated. As a theological virtue, hope violates the logic of the golden mean. Focusing on intellectual virtues also requires shifting from moral perfectionism to rational perfectionism. Rational perfectionism involves keeping impossible demands in view for oneself while constantly and continually striving for one's "unattained but attainable self." Goodson defends these arguments by learning from the bits of wisdom found within American Transcendentalism (Emerson, Cavell), German Idealism (Kant, Hegel), Jewish philosophy (Maimonides, Spinoza, Putnam), neo-pragmatism (Putnam, Rorty, West), post-modern theories about pedagogy (Nietzsche, Foucault, Rorty), and secular accounts of perfectionism (Murdoch, Cavell).

Download or read book Reinhold Niebuhr written by Robin W. Lovin and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2007-09-01 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abingdon Pillars of Theology is a series for the college and seminary classroom designed to help students grasp the basic and necessary facts, influence, and significance of major theologians. Written by major scholars, these books will outline the context, methodology, organizing principles, primary contributions, and major writings of people who have shaped theology as we know it today.Reinhold Niebuhr understood the tensions and complexities of the Christian Life. His approach became to theology became known as "Christian realism." Through his life and work we can see the importance of paying attention to what is really happening and the witness we can make when we look at events with a wisdom shaped by a biblical understanding of history and human nature. An excerpt from the Circuit Rider review: "In the face of recession and a troubled economy, global warming and environmental peril, war and the AIDS pandemic, contemporary Christians would be well served to ponder again the work and witness of Reinhold Niebuhr. His work urges Christians and the church to define and claim our voice in the public arena. Faithful and prophetic witness rooted and grounded in true Christian hope are needed now more than ever. We are grateful to Prof. Lovin for this important contribution to the life of thoughtful faith and faithful living." (Click here to read the entire review.)

Download or read book Exploring Leadership written by Susan R. Komives and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-09-25 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the thoroughly revised and updated second edition of the best-selling book Exploring Leadership. The book is designed to help college students understand that they are capable of being effective leaders and to guide them in developing their leadership potential. Exploring Leadership incorporates new insights and material developed in the course of the authors’ work in the field. The second edition contains expanded and new chapters and also includes the relational leadership model, uses a more global context and examples that relate to a wide variety of disciplines, contains a new section which emphasizes ways to work to accomplish change, and concludes with concrete strategies for activism.

Download or read book Hoping for Happiness written by Barnabas Piper and published by The Good Book Company. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone wants to be happy, and we all pursue happiness in different ways. Some people are thrill-seekers; others are homebodies. Some people are loners; others love big families or communities. Some people express things creatively; others consume what is created. Some sing; others listen to music. Whatever we find happiness in, we are united by our desire for work that matters and relationships that fulfil. As Christians, we often fall into the trap of basing our hopes on earthly things, even when we know they only make us happy for a short time. But how are we to experience happiness in this life? How do we avoid expecting too much of earthly things and being disappointed, or expecting too little and becoming cynics? In this book, recovering cynic Barnabas Piper helps us to throw off both the unrealistic expectations that end in disappointment and the guilty sense that Christians are not meant to have fun. He shows how having a clear view of the reality of the fall and the promise of redemption frees us to live a life that's grounded, hopeful and genuinely happy.

Download or read book Ethical Realism written by Anatol Lieven and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-03-12 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America today faces a world more complicated than ever before, but our politicians have failed to envision a foreign policy that addresses our greatest threats. Ethical Realism shows how the United States can successfully combine genuine morality with tough and practical common sense. By outlining core principles and a set of concrete proposals for tackling the terrorist threat and contend with Iran, Russia, the Middle East, and China, Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman show us how to strengthen our security, pursue our national interests, and restore American leadership in the world.

Download or read book Faith Without Illusions written by Andrew Byers and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2011-02-28 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cynicism has become almost a cliché. It pervades the culture and defines the age--and threatens to derail faith. Andrew Byers identifies the primary factors in the church that inspire disillusionment rather than faith, but he goes beyond that to help struggling cynics channel their frustrations into the redemptive vocations found in the Bible: the prophet, the sage, the tragic poet. These all find their fulfillment in Jesus, and he in turn inspires cynics from the apostle Paul to you and me to embrace our saintly calling--hopeful realism.

Download or read book In Need of a Master written by Dominik Finkelde and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-05-10 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume In Need of a Master: Politics, Theology, and Radical Democracy discusses how our so-called "postmodern age" of widespread ideological critique paves the way for reactionary and conservative political movements. At center stage is the question of whether these movements can and must be – contrary to widespread beliefs among liberal elites – interpreted both as a symptom of a political awakening in the horizon of political theology in our era of immanence, as well as perhaps the perilous end of democracy as we know it. The book brings to the fore political theology as the hidden agenda of politics and presents at the same time Christian and Jewish theological traditions as an antidote to a global empire with its often unacknowledged rule of immanence.

Download or read book Maintenance Management in Network Utilities written by Juan F Gómez Fernández and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-02-22 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to satisfy the needs of their customers, network utilities require specially developed maintenance management capabilities. Maintenance Management information systems are essential to ensure control, gain knowledge and improve-decision making in companies dealing with network infrastructure, such as distribution of gas, water, electricity and telecommunications. Maintenance Management in Network Utilities studies specified characteristics of maintenance management in this sector to offer a practical approach to defining and implementing the best management practices and suitable frameworks. Divided into three major sections, Maintenance Management in Network Utilities defines a series of stages which can be followed to manage maintenance frameworks properly. Different case studies provide detailed descriptions which illustrate the experience in real company situations. An introduction to the concepts is followed by main sections including: • A Literature Review: covering the basic concepts and models needed for framework design, development and implementation. • Framework Design and Definition: developing the basic pillars of network utilities maintenance management framework. • Performance Evaluation & Maturity: focusing on the reliability concept and maturity models from different viewpoints. By establishing basic foundations for creating and maintaining maintenance managements strategies, Maintenance Management in Network Utilities acts a practical handbook for all professionals in these companies and across areas such as network development, operations management and marketing.

Download or read book Discerning Critical Hope in Educational Practices written by Vivienne Bozalek and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can discerning critical hope enable us to develop innovative forms of teaching, learning and social practices that begin to address issues of marginalization, privilege and access across different contexts? At this millennial point in history, questions of cynicism, despair and hope arise at every turn, especially within areas of research into social justice and the struggle for transformation in education. While a sense of fatalism and despair is easily recognizable, establishing compelling bases for hope is more difficult. This book addresses the absence of sustained analyses of hope that simultaneously recognize the hard edges of why we despair. The volume posits the notion of critical hope not only as conceptual and theoretical, but also as an action-oriented response to despair. Our notion of critical hope is used in two ways: it is used firstly as a unitary concept which cannot be disaggregated into either hopefulness or criticality, and secondly, as an analytical concept, where critical hope is engaged and diversely theorized in ways that recognize aspects of individual and collective directions of critical hope. The book is divided into four sub-sections: Critical Hope in Education Critical Hope and a Critique of Neoliberalism Critical Race Theory/Postcolonial Perspectives on Critical Hope Philosophical Overviews of Critical Hope. Education can be a purveyor of critical hope, but it also requires critical hope so that it, as a sector itself, can be transformative. With contributions from international experts in the field, the book will be of value to all academics and practitioners working in the field of education.

Download or read book Beyond Idealism written by Santa Ana and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Has the ecumenical movement lost its way? Does the prophetic voice of the churches gathered together still influence our societies? This text answers these questions and others, pointing to a new orientation in the field of ecumenical social thought at a time of crisis in the ecumenical movement.

Download or read book A Commonwealth of Hope written by Michael Lamb and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold new interpretation of Augustine’s virtue of hope and its place in political life When it comes to politics, Augustine of Hippo is renowned as one of history’s great pessimists, with his sights set firmly on the heavenly city rather than the public square. Many have enlisted him to chasten political hopes, highlighting the realities of evil and encouraging citizens instead to cast their hopes on heaven. A Commonwealth of Hope challenges prevailing interpretations of Augustinian pessimism, offering a new vision of his political thought that can also help today’s citizens sustain hope in the face of despair. Amid rising inequality, injustice, and political division, many citizens wonder what to hope for in politics and whether it is possible to forge common hopes in a deeply polarized society. Michael Lamb takes up this challenge, offering the first in-depth analysis of Augustine’s virtue of hope and its profound implications for political life. He draws on a wide range of Augustine’s writings—including neglected sermons, letters, and treatises—and integrates insights from political theory, religious studies, theology, and philosophy. Lamb shows how diverse citizens, both religious and secular, can unite around common hopes for the commonwealth. Recovering this understudied virtue and situating Augustine within his political, rhetorical, and religious contexts, A Commonwealth of Hope reveals how Augustine’s virtue of hope can help us resist the politics of presumption and despair and confront the challenges of our time.

Download or read book A Theology for the Twenty First Century written by Douglas F. Ottati and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 1221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity in the United States is in crisis. Liberalism is declining, evangelicalism is splintering, increasing numbers of Christians are slipping away from churches, and more and more young people are for various reasons finding Christianity as they conceive it (a metaphysical thought system, or society of science-deniers, or an ideology for oppressors) not just implausible but repellent. At the same time, Christians across denominational and ideological divides are rediscovering a moral core, especially in the Jesus of the Gospels, that reactivates and unites them, and this kind of faith appeals to many who consider themselves averse to all traditional organized religion. But any revitalized Christian faith is going to need to understand its rootedness in, and interpretation of, Christianity’s foundational texts and traditions. Noted theologian Douglas F. Ottati steps in to offer a theology for this new era. Combining deep learning in texts and traditions with astute awareness of contemporary questions and patterns of thought and life, he asks: what does it mean, in our time, to understand the God of the Bible as Creator and Redeemer? Distilling the content of Christian faith into seventy concise propositions, he explains each in lucid, cogent prose. A Theology for the Twenty-First Century will be an essential textbook for those training for ministry in our current climate, a wise guide for contemporary believers who wonder how best to understand and communicate their faith, and an inviting and intelligent resource for serious inquirers who wonder whether the way of Jesus might help them grasp the real world while remaining open to the transcendent.

Download or read book Reimagining The Moral Life written by Choi, Ki Joo and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2020-09-16 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume honors Lisa Cahill's 45 years of teaching Christian ethics at Boston College. With contributions from most of the doctoral students she directed during her career, it provides an interpretive overview of Cahill's specific contributions to Christian ethics"--

Download or read book Letters to a Young Theologian written by Henco van der Westhuizen and published by African Sun Media. This book was released on 2022-02-25 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theology is, for many, far more than a profession. It is an identity, a passion, a way of life. While books on theology are countless, books on the identity of the theologian are all too rare. In this helpful volume, Henco van der Westhuizen has assembled an outstanding and diverse array of theologians who each offer their wisdom and reflection on what it means to be a theologian through a letter written to someone considering the field. Each letter is as unique as its author, and together they form a rich symphony on the art and craft of being a theologian.