Download or read book Performing the Faith written by Stanley Hauerwas and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-03-11 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Folksy, eclectic, disarmingly humble, and astonishingly wide-ranging, Hauerwas offers us a provocative reading of Bonhoeffer that, not surprisingly, assimilates him closely to John Howard Yoder. At the same time, Hauerwas replies to recent criticisms of his work by Jeffrey Stout. Contending that truth depends on performance far more than on theory, Hauerwas steps forward as a pacifist gadfly for a more truly faithful church and a more recognizably democratic society." --George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary "This book shows how lively and fecund Hauerwas's thought remains. A dazzling performance, capable of entertaining and instructing professional theologians as much as those who think the world might be a better place without theologians in it." --Paul J. Griffiths, University of Illinois at Chicago "Stan Hauerwas has done it again! He is able skillfully to blend into his book the passion for truth and justice of two of his greatest influences, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Howard Yoder. He takes these heroic advocates for peace into his own present-day struggle for the soul of the American nation. Hauerwas, an admirable Christian pacifist himself, dares Christians to be the 'Jesus people' they claim to be and to follow Jesus into the gospel path of nonviolence." --Geffrey B. Kelly, author of Liberating Faith: Bonhoeffer's Message for Today "Never totally predictable. Always a fresh perspective. And yet once again in these essays--on narrative, politics, Bonhoeffer, and the church--we hear the engaging, discerning, and brilliant voice we have come to know as Stanley Hauerwas." --Mark Thiessen Nation, Eastern Mennonite Seminary "Contending with and learning from the witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose life is often thought to provide a Christian alternative to pacifism, Hauerwas deepens the account of Christian nonviolence he has been articulating for decades. His theology is strengthened and clarified by his encounter with the exemplary figure of Bonhoeffer." --Alan Jacobs, Wheaton College "Without loss of the provocative edge that has made him a vital and distinctive Christian voice, Hauerwas's Performing the Faith allows him to cast a retrospective eye on his work. At the same time, in a brilliant essay under the title of the book, he develops a profoundly important description of faithfulness." --Dennis O'Brien, University of Rochester

Download or read book Faith Speaking Understanding written by Kevin J. Vanhoozer and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, highly esteemed scholar Kevin Vanhoozer introduces readers to a way of thinking about Christian theology that takes the work he began in the groundbreaking 2005 book, The Drama of Doctrine, to its next level. Vanhoozer argues that theology is not merely a set of cognitive beliefs, but is also something we do that involves speech and action alike. He uses a theatrical model to explain the ways in which doctrine shapes Christian understanding and forms disciples. The church, Vanhoozer posits, is the preeminent theater where the gospel is "performed," with doctrine directing this performance. Doctrines are not simply truths to be stored, shelved, and stacked, but indications and directions to be followed, practiced, and enacted. In "performing" doctrine, Christians are shaped into active disciples of Jesus Christ. He goes on to examine the state of the church in today's world and explores how disciples can do or perform doctrine. Written in an accessible and engaging style, Faith Speaking Understanding sets forth a compelling vision of what the church is and what it should be doing, and demonstrates the importance of Christian doctrine for this mission. Disciples who want to follow Christ in all situations need doctrinal direction as they walk onto the social stage in the great theater of the world. The Christian faith is about acknowledging, and participating in, the great thing God is doing in our world: making all things new in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Doctrine ministers understanding: of God, of the drama of redemption, of the church as a company of faithful players, and of individual actors, all of whom have important roles to play. In an age where things fall apart and centers fail to hold, doctrine centers us in Jesus Christ, in whom all things hold together.

Download or read book Performing Faith written by Marzanna Poplawska and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-02-10 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a study of music inculturation in Indonesia. It shows how religious expression can be made relevant in an indigenous context and how grassroots Christianity is being realized by means of music. Through the discussion of indigenous expressions of Christianity, the book presents multiple ways in which Indonesians reiterate their identity through music by creatively forging Christian and indigenous elements. This study moves beyond the discussion (and charge) of syncretism, showing that the inclusion of local cultural manifestations is an answer to creating a truly indigenous Christian expression. Marzanna Poplawska, while telling the story of Indonesian Christians and the multiple ways in which they live Christianity through music, emphasizes the creative energy and agency of local people. In their practices she finds optimism for the continuing existence of many traditional genres and styles. Indonesian Christians perform their Christian faith through music, dance, and theater, generating innovative cultural products that enrich the global Christian heritage. The book is addressed to a broad spectrum of readers: scholars from a variety of disciplines – music, religion, anthropology, especially those interested in interactions between Christianity and indigenous cultures; general music lovers and World Music enthusiasts eager to discover musics outside of European realm; as well as Christian believers, church musicians, and choir directors curious to learn about Christian music beyond Euro-American context. Students of religion, sacred music, (ethno)musicology, theater, and dance will also benefit from learning about a variety of indigenous arts employed in Christian churches in Indonesia.

Download or read book Religion Theatre and Performance written by Lance Gharavi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-12-21 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intersections of religion, politics, and performance form the loci of many of the most serious issues facing the world today, sites where some of the world’s most pressing and momentous events are contested and played out. That this circumstance warrants continued, thoughtful, and imaginative engagement from those within the fields of theatre and performance is one of the guiding principles of this volume. This collection features a diverse set of perspectives, written by some of the top scholars in the relevant fields, on the many modern intersections of religion with theatre and performance. Contributors argue that religion can no longer be conceived of as a cultural phenomenon that is safely sequestered in the "private sphere." It is instead an explicitly public force that stimulates and complicates public actions, and thus a crucial component of much performance. From mystic theologies of acting to the neuroscience of spirituality in rituals to the performance of secularism, these essays address a broad variety of religious traditions, sharing a common conception of religion as a crucial object of discourse—one that is formed by, and significantly formative of, performance.

Download or read book The Silent Killers of the Faith written by Stephen Crosby and published by Destiny Image Publishers. This book was released on 2005 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like poor driving, legalism is the 'other guy's' problem -- the idiot is always in the other car. Crosby delivers a powerful punch in this expose on legalism as he shows that is a problem for all of us. It is a silent killer and the author seeks to expose all of its treacherous tentacles. Legal and performance-based religion is the most prevalent, unrecognized, and deleterious malady affecting the individual believer and the Church universal.

Download or read book Fearless Faith written by John Fischer and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identifying a "safety zone" of Christian-sanctified schools, television, radio, and activism, a call to greater action urges Christians to break away from easier practices to reconnect with non-believers, engage in acts of love and compassion, and build a greater dependence on Christ. Original.

Download or read book Irresistible Faith written by Scott Sauls and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2019-01-22 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I love everything that Scott Sauls writes." -- Christine Caine What if Christians became the best advertisement for Jesus? Jesus said his followers would be a light to the world and a city on a hill--a warmly inviting, neighbor-loving, grace- and truth-filled destination for all. He envisioned his followers as life-giving neighbors, bosses, employees, and friends, the kind of people who return insults with kindness and persecution with prayers. Rooted in biblical convictions, they would extend love, empathy, and care to one another as well as to those who don't share their beliefs. Over time their movement would become irresistible to every nation, tribe, and tongue. Irresistible Faith is a blueprint for pursuing this vision in our current moment, of redeemed individuals and a renewed community working for a restored world. This is a way of being that gives a tired, cynical world good reason to pause and reconsider Christianity--and to start wishing it was true. "I miss the kind of church Scott describes in this book, and I don’t think I am alone." -- Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz and Building a StoryBrand "An important call to resist the urge to lobby and position ourselves, but rather to be driven by gospel-powered love." -- Raechel Myers, founder and CEO of She Reads Truth "An antidote to much that is wrong with our Western, American version of Christianity. " -- Gabe and Rebekah Lyons, authors and founders of Q

Download or read book Theatrical Theology written by Wesley Vander Lugt and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theology is inherently theatrical, rooted in God's performance on the world stage and oriented toward faith seeking performative understanding in the theatre of everyday life. Following Hans Urs von Balthasar's magisterial, five-volume Theo-Drama, a growing number of theologians and pastors have been engaging more widely with theatre and drama, producing what has been recognized as a "theatrical turn" in theology. This volume includes thirteen essays from theologians and pastors who have contributed in distinct ways to this theatrical turn and who desire to deepen interdisciplinary dialogue between theology and theatre. The result is an unprecedented collection of essays that embodies and advances theatrical theology for the purpose of enriching theological reflection and edifying the church.

Download or read book Keeping Faith written by Jodi Picoult and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A triumph. This novel’s haunting strength will hold the reader until the very end and make Faith and her story impossible to forget.” —Richmond Times Dispatch “Extraordinary.” —Orlando Sentinel From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, Handle with Care) comes Keeping Faith: an “addictively readable” (Entertainment Weekly) novel that “makes you wonder about God. And that is a rare moment, indeed, in modern fiction” (USA Today).

Download or read book My Faith Book written by Shanna Noel and published by Dayspring. This book was released on 2020-08-03 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capture your favorite God moments in your very own My Faith Book! Glue in a picture of your small group or youth group, write down your answered prayers, tape in your concert tickets, list the top ten things you are thankful for-after all, there's no wrong way to fill it! It's supposed to be messy and maybe even a little chaotic. With a few, fun prompts and plenty of space to document your faith journey, you'll unleash the creative within and create a legacy piece you can look back upon or even share with others.

Download or read book The End of Reason written by Ravi Zacharias and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2008-09-09 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When you pray, are you talking to a God who exists? Or is God nothing more than your "imaginary friend," like a playmate contrived by a lonely and imaginative child? When author Sam Harris attacked Christianity in Letter to a Christian Nation, reviewers called the book "marvelous" and a generation of readers--hundreds of thousands of them--were drawn to his message. Deeply troubled, Dr. Ravi Zacharias knew that he had to respond. In The End of Reason, Zacharias underscores the dependability of the Bible along with his belief in the power and goodness of God. He confidently refutes Harris's claims that God is nothing more than a figment of one's imagination and that Christians regularly practice intolerance and hatred around the globe. If you found Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation compelling, the book you are holding is exactly what you need. Dr. Zacharias exposes "the utter bankruptcy of this worldview." And if you haven't read Harris's book, Ravi's response remains a powerful, passionate, irrefutably sound set of arguments for Christian thought. The clarity and hope in these pages reach out to readers who know and follow God as well as to those who reject God.

Download or read book Making Sense of God written by Timothy Keller and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

Download or read book Faith written by Theo Hobson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Faith", the theologian Theo Hobson explores the notion of faith and the role it plays in our lives. He unpacks the concept to ask whether faith is dependent on religion or whether it is also a general secular phenomenon. In exploring this question Hobson ranges widely over theology, philosophy, politics and psychology and engages with the writings of Christian and atheist thinkers alike. The book begins by considering attitudes to faith in recent works of atheism. Hobson shows how Richard Dawkins and other writers, while attacking faith in one sense, have exhibited faith in another. The book goes on to explore the wider meaning of faith, including our faith in free-market capitalism, the part faith plays in democratic politics and the role faith has in our psychological well-being. To understand the role of faith in modernity, Hobson argues, we must attend to the specifically Christian concept of faith. Hobson then returns to the religious meaning of faith by exploring the account of faith in the Bible and charting the tension between faith and reason in Christian thought. The final chapter takes an autobiographical turn and relates how the author came to take faith seriously and to question what Christians are meant to have faith in. From the Old Testament story of Abraham to the visionary poetry of W. B. Yeats, from the polemics of Luther to the rhetoric of Barack Obama, the author presents us with a fresh and illuminating meditation on the nature of faith. In doing so, he reveals how trust and faith, the religious and secular, are utterly entwined and how the attraction of religious faith outweighs the intellectual difficulties it presents.

Download or read book Secret Faith in the Public Square written by Jonathan Malesic and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking and provocative book, Jonathan Malesic argues that the best way for Christians to be caretakers of their tradition and to love their neighbors selflessly is to conceal their religious identity in American public life. The alternative--insisting on Christianity's public visibility in politics, the marketplace, and the workplace--risks severely compromising the distinctiveness of Christian identity. Delving deep into the Christian tradition, Malesic explains that keeping Christian identity secret means living fully in the world while maintaining Christian language, prayer, and liturgy in reserve. He shows how major thinkers--Cyril of Jerusalem, Søren Kierkegaard, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer--sought to protect Christian identity from being compromised by the public sphere. He then shows that Christians' dual responsibilities for the tradition and for the neighbor must be kept secret.

Download or read book The Faith Zone written by Steve Long and published by . This book was released on 2016-05-09 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If only I had a little more faith. / Have you ever thought that before? Most of us have thought it, or even heard it from others, at some point in our lives. But what exactly is faith anyway? And how do we get more of it? And if we did get more of it, could we actually move mountains into the sea? / In The Faith Zone, Steve Long tackles the subject of faith with his trademark practicality, simplicity and wit. Steve argues that faith is very simply acting on thoughts from God. To have faith then, we need to actually listen when God is speaking to us, and we need to do something about what we hear. When we do, we can expect the rewards of a life filled with faith, and we will see God perform impossible miracles all around us. Join the journey of faith as Steve Long boldly leads the way for the rest of us to follow.

Download or read book Keeping Faith in an Age of Reason written by Jason Lisle and published by New Leaf Publishing Group. This book was released on 2017-10-26 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “You can’t trust the Bible — it’s full of hundreds of contradictions.” Really? Just because the critic mindlessly declares it so? Don’t be so fast to believe everything you hear! In this book Dr. Jason Lisle examines 420 claims of Bible contradictions and sets the record straight. Contradiction #139 Was Abraham justified by faith or by works? Romans 4:2 - says by faith VS. James 2:21 - says by works Bifurcation fallacy. Abraham was justified both by faith and by works (James 2:24, 26). To “justify” means either to be in right moral standing or to show that one is (morally) in right standing. Abraham was justified by faith before God since God knows all things — including Abraham’s faith (James 2:23). God sees our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7), so we are justified before God by our faith alone, which God can see. But men cannot see another man’s faith. They only see the outward works that follow from inward faith. Therefore, Abraham was justified before men by the works that followed from his faith, since men cannot see faith but can see works. James explicitly teaches this (James 2:18–26).

Download or read book Radical written by David Platt and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHAT IS JESUS WORTH TO YOU? It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily... BUT WHO DO YOU KNOW WHO LIVES LIKE THAT? DO YOU? In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus. Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment -- a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring. (From the 2010 edition)"