Download or read book Liberating Christianity written by Thomas C. Sorenson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2008-11-01 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity is in crisis in our North American context, especially among the cultural elite and people with progressive views. The reasons for the faith's loss of credibility have to do, in large part, with the dominant philosophical materialism of our culture and with the understanding of the faith almost universally held by Americans both inside the churches and outside them. In this book, Thomas C. Sorenson calls this understanding "Biblicism," by which he means the belief that the Bible is to be understood only literally and that, in one way or another, its authority comes from its claimed origin with God. Many enlightened people also reject Christianity because the only Christianity they know is the judgmental, socially conservative faith that the most vocal and visible advocates of the faith among us so loudly espouse. This book offers a different understanding of the faith. It begins with a discussion of the universal human experience of the spiritual dimension of reality. It then discusses symbol and myth as the necessary language for communicating that experience. The book shows that all human experience is necessarily subjective and that religious truth is thus also necessarily subjective. Therefore, religious truth is relative, not universal and absolute. The work argues that the Bible is a human work expressing its authors' experience of the divine. The book then discusses other obstacles to faith and offers a different understanding of the issues they raise. The book replaces the classical theory of atonement with a theology of the cross, based mainly on the work of Douglas John Hall. It redefines salvation as having to do with this life, not with the afterlife. It closes with a section that replaces the dominant social conservatism of popular Christianity with Jesus's teachings of nonviolence, economic justice, and radical inclusivity.

Download or read book Liberating Christ written by Lisa Isherwood and published by United Church Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberating Christ examines the various trajectories within the broad liberation framework for understanding the person and work of Jesus. Lisa Isherwood draws out the common themes found in liberation theologies, especially the use of class-race-gender analysis, as well as the distinctive understandings of Jesus within these theologies. In this wonderfully constructed introduction to liberation Christology, Isherwood surveys liberation theologies and the evolution of a Christology for our time -- a Christology that hopes to reclaim Christ from death by doctrinal fossilization.

Download or read book Liberating Jesus written by Roberta Grimes and published by . This book was released on 2021-11-25 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roberta Grimes spent decades studying nearly 200 years of afterlife evidence and forming a detailed picture of what happens at and after death. She then discovered that two thousand years ago Jesus told us things about God, reality, death, the afterlife, human nature, and the nature of reality that perfectly match the afterlife evidence in even small details. She outlines many of these correspondences in appendices to her books The Fun of Dying (2010, 2014) and The Fun of Staying in Touch (2014). In Liberating Jesus Roberta offers compelling evidence that the earliest Christians misunderstood the meaning and the message of Jesus. She demonstrates that all the correspondences between the Gospels and the afterlife evidence amount to nothing less than a new revelation from God. And she shows us that once we put aside the magic-thinking notion that the whole Christian Bible must be the Inspired Word of God just because the earliest Christians said it was, we at last free Jesus to bring to humankind the messages directly from God that long ago were His true life's purpose. His promise remains as fresh today as it was two thousand years ago, and now it is confirmed by the afterlife evidence: if we will live according to the teachings of Jesus, we can create the Kingdom of God on earth.

Download or read book Liberating the Politics of Jesus written by Darryl W. Stephens and published by T&T Clark. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bold, faithful, challenging – this volume uncovers the social and political implications of the gospel message by looking at Anabaptist theology and practice from a female perspective. The contributors approach the gospel from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, liberating the radical political ethic of Jesus Christ from patriarchal distortions and demonstrating that gender justice and peace theology are inseparable. Beautifully illustrated with pen drawings, Liberating the Politics of Jesus recognizes the authority of women to interpret and reconstruct the peace church tradition on issues such as subordination, suffering, atonement, the nature of church, leadership, and discipleship. The contributors confront difficult topics head-on, such as the power structures in South Africa, armed conflict in Colombia, and the sexual violence of John Howard Yoder. The result is a renewed Anabaptist peace theology with the potential to transform the work of theology and ministry in all Christian traditions.

Download or read book Liberating Tradition RenewedMinds written by Kristina LaCelle-Peterson and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kristina LaCelle-Peterson seeks both to affirm the central place of Scripture in the Christian life and to highlight the liberating nature of the gospel for both men and women. To do this the author considers the biblical ideal for human beings and then proceeds to offer a biblical foundation for each of the topics under discussion--identity, body image, personal relationships, marriage, church life, and language for God. Along the way she examines the cultural nature of gender roles and the ways in which they have become entangled with ecclesial expectations. This book will help women better appreciate themselves as women, gain a better understanding of their value in God's eyes, and recognize their potential for meaningful engagement in a variety of relationships and vocational callings.

Download or read book God Race and History written by Matt R. Jantzen and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-02-05 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In crafting racial visions of the modern world, European thinkers appropriated the Christian doctrine of providence, constructing the idea of European humanity’s rule over the globe on the model of God’s rule over the universe. As a powerful ordering theory of the relationship between God and creation, time and space, self and other, the doctrine served as an intellectual framework for the theorization of whiteness, as the male European subject replaced Jesus Christ as the human being at the center of world history. Through an analysis of the work of G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Barth, and James H. Cone, God, Race, and History examines this subversion of the Christian doctrine of providence, as well as subsequent attempts within modern Protestant theology to liberate the doctrine from its captivity to whiteness. It then develops a constructive political theology of providence in conversation with Delores S. Williams and M. Shawn Copeland, discerning Jesus Christ at work through the Holy Spirit in the struggles of ordinary, overlooked, and oppressed human creatures to survive and to carve out a flourishing life for themselves, their communities, and their world.

Download or read book The Liberating Truth written by Danielle Strickland and published by Monarch Books. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Danielle Strickland contends that women everywhere remain subjugated by cultural norms that tell them to conform, hold back, and turn aside from God's call upon their lives. Consequently many women fail to play a full part in the healing and restoration of society. The church should take the lead. In this prophetic book Danielle observes: -We should be the ones who model an alternative approach to leadership. We are the ones with the Bible and the witness of the Holy Spirit who through Scripture, reason, tradition and experience has shown, over and over again His heart for the release of women to exercise their gifts.-The book covers: The current situation (exploitation or subjugation); the historical situation (feminism and the Christian tradition); key biblical material; justice (the feminization of poverty); what does the future offer, and what should the church do?

Download or read book Liberating Black Theology written by Anthony B. Bradley and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2010-02-03 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the beliefs of Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, assumed the spotlight during the 2008 presidential campaign, the influence of black liberation theology became hotly debated not just within theological circles but across cultural lines. How many of today's African-American congregations-and how many Americans in general-have been shaped by its view of blacks as perpetual victims of white oppression? In this interdisciplinary, biblical critique of the black experience in America, Anthony Bradley introduces audiences to black liberation theology and its spiritual and social impact. He starts with James Cone's proposition that the "victim" mind-set is inherent within black consciousness. Bradley then explores how such biblical misinterpretation has historically hindered black churches in addressing the diverse issues of their communities and prevented adherents from experiencing the freedoms of the gospel. Yet Liberating Black Theology does more than consider the ramifications of this belief system; it suggests an alternate approach to the black experience that can truly liberate all Christ-followers.

Download or read book Christ Our Companion written by Roberto S. Goizueta and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the lives of the companions of Jesus become the canvas upon which God paints a picture of liberation. Goizueta unites this book around the disjuncture between the Christian claim that Christ's life, death, and resurrection are the key to universal human meaning and our increased consciousness of the diverse, pluralistic world in which we live. How can a Christian proclaim his message when the rationales for so much of the violence we see around us are gounded in religious principles. The credibility of Christ's claims rests on the evidence presented by those persons who have lived out those claims.

Download or read book The Liberating Mission of Jesus written by Dario Andres Lopez Rodriguez and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-06-14 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Liberating Mission of Jesus deals with the central message of the Gospel of Luke, provocatively arguing that the liberating mission of Jesus has two central themes: the universality of the love of God and the special love God has for the defenseless of society. Both of these pillars form the bedrock of Luke's theological vision, animate his Gospel throughout, and summarize the good news of the reign of God in subversive and radical form. This book shows how the liberating message announced by Jesus, as well as his liberating practice, is manifested throughout the Gospel and its implications for Christian life today. Through this thorough treatment, the full depth of Luke's vision of the liberating mission of Jesus is shown to be a paradigm for the personal and collective witness of believers, regardless of the social, political, cultural, or religious boundaries that try to inhibit them from giving witness to the God of life.

Download or read book The Liberating Image written by J. Richard Middleton and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2005-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a deeply informed take on a key Christian doctrine and its interpretation and relevance today.

Download or read book Liberating Faith written by Geffrey B. Kelly and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2002-12-11 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberating Faith remains an effective introduction to the theology and spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. After a brief biographical portrait of Bonhoeffer’s adult life, Kelly offers a thematic overview of Bonhoeffer’s Christological theology with an emphasis on the sociality of Christ. Other chapters focus on the “liberation of faith,” which is essentially Bonhoeffer’s theology of revelation that emerged from his own existential crisis regarding his own faith and an examination of his theology of the Church. While Kelly draws heavily on Bonhoeffer’s later writings like The Cost of Discipleship, Ethics, and especially Letters and Papers from Prison, he also uses key texts spanning the entirety of Bonhoeffer’s career to develop the critical ideas at the heart of Bonhoeffer’s theology. Therefore, Liberating Faith does very well to set the stage for Bonhoeffer’s overall theology.

Download or read book Tasty Jesus written by Bryan Hurlbutt and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Tasty Jesus deals with key cultural, philosophical, and theological representations of Christ that find expression in the North American church. Each of these respective cameos of Christ has colored the Christological understanding of many believers in the local assembly. We live in a society deeply embedded in a mindless individualism that is more concerned with a malleable Christ that suits their present taste than the Jesus of both the Bible and historic Christian orthodoxy. This book is at once a critique, a call, and a consideration. It is a critique of particular visions of Jesus that are embraced by specific subcultures, philosophical camps, and theological perspectives. It is a call to the local church, both its attendees and leadership, intended to awaken them to the problems with these various portraits in hope of stirring them to respond appropriately. It is a consideration of the primary ideological counterpoints to each view of Jesus, and a postulation of the best manner in which to equip believers in the local assembly to respond to each distortion of Jesus and live under the lordship of the real Christ. It is time to get Jesus out from under the tyranny of our personal tastes!"

Download or read book Liberating Prayer written by Neil T. Anderson and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If prayer is so important, why is it so difficult?" Starting from this universal question, Neil T. Anderson, bestselling author of The Bondage Breaker, explores how readers can intimately connect with their loving heavenly Father, looking at the confidence believers can have in taking their struggles before God—and in interceding for others their release from bondage and the freedom they gain to walk in the Spirit the gracious way God leads them to love Him, not His blessings Liberating Prayer emphasizes the life-changing truth that prayer is relationship, not ritual—and that as already-accepted children, believers are free to be honest with their Father. End–of–chapter questions are ideal for group study and help readers immediately apply what they've learned in their own prayer lives. Based on material previously released in Praying by the Power of the Spirit.

Download or read book In Search of the Christ Sophia written by Jann Aldredge-Clanton and published by . This book was released on 2004-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ?A ground-breaking book that integrates Sophia, the female personification of God, into all aspects of Christian theology and life. . . . a ?must? book for all concerned with an inclusive theology and church.??Rosemary Radford Ruether Georgia Harkness Professor of Theology Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Author of Women and Redemption: A Theological HistoryJann Aldredge-Clanton presents powerful biblical and theological support for a Divine Feminine image buried in Christianity. The popularity of Dan Brown?s The Da Vinci Code demonstrates the widespread hunger for the lost Sacred Feminine. In Search of the Christ-Sophia resurrects Sophia (Wisdom) and connects Her to Jesus Christ.Aldredge-Clanton combines theological scholarship with pastoral sensitivity to demonstrate that a christology inclusive of both female and male, though risky, is vital to liberation and equality. She uncovers the New Testament links between Christ and Wisdom (Sophia), a feminine symbol of deity in the Hebrew Scriptures. She applies the theology of Christ-Sophia to contemporary spirituality, social justice ministry, and the restructuring of the Christian community. This book also contains services, prayers, litanies, reflections, and songs that can be used for personal meditation or communal worship.With a clear and concise style accessible to general readers and theology students, In Search of the Christ-Sophia creates a challenging new agenda for all Christians and their churches.

Download or read book Healer of the Nations written by Gary North and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Jesus Liberation and the Biblical Jubilee written by Sharon H. Ringe and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2004-06-17 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sharon H. Ringe, beginning with this Lukan text, addresses the Jubilee images and traditions in the Synoptic Gospels, especially in Jesus' proclamation of the reign of God. She illuminates how the Jubilee traditions served as a source for early Christian ethics and Christology: to confess Jesus as the Christ - herald of the Jubilee, messenger, and enactor of liberation - is to participate in acts of liberation. Ringe concludes that the agenda of liberation constitutes the very core of both the gospel message and biblical faith: the word of God fulfilled in the presence of Jesus of Nazareth is alive with images of liberation. In the final chapter, In Christ We Are Set Free, she explores further the implications of her findings for contemporary ethical and christological reflection.