Download or read book The End of Protestantism written by Peter J. Leithart and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Failure of Denominationalism and the Future of Christian Unity One of the unforeseen results of the Reformation was the shattering fragmentation of the church. Protestant tribalism was and continues to be a major hindrance to any solution to Christian division and its cultural effects. In this book, influential thinker Peter Leithart critiques American denominationalism in the context of global and historic Christianity, calls for an end to Protestant tribalism, and presents a vision for the future church that transcends post-Reformation divisions. Leithart offers pastors and churches a practical agenda, backed by theological arguments, for pursuing local unity now. Unity in the church will not be a matter of drawing all churches into a single, existing denomination, says Leithart. Returning to Catholicism or Orthodoxy is not the solution. But it is possible to move toward church unity without giving up our convictions about truth. This critique and defense of Protestantism urges readers to preserve and celebrate the central truths recovered in the Reformation while working to heal the wounds of the body of Christ.

Download or read book Protestantism in America written by Randall Balmer and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005-11-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As America has become more pluralistic, Protestantism, with its long roots in American history and culture, has hardly remained static. This finely crafted portrait of a remarkably complex group of Christian denominations describes Protestantism's history, constituent subgroups and their activities, and the way in which its dialectic with American culture has shaped such facets of the wider society as healthcare, welfare, labor relations, gender roles, and political discourse. Part I provides an introduction to the religion's essential beliefs, a brief history, and a taxonomy of its primary American varieties. Part II shows the diversity of the tradition with vivid accounts of life and worship in a variety of mainline and evangelical churches. Part III explores the vexed relationship Protestantism maintains with critical social issues, including homosexuality, feminism, and social justice. The appendices include biographical sketches of notable Protestant leaders, a chronology, a glossary, and an annotated list of resources for further study.

Download or read book The Protestant s Dilemma written by Devin Rose and published by Catholic Answers. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if Protestantism were true? What if the Reformers really were heroes, the Bible the sole rule of faith, and Christ's Church just an invisible collection of loosely united believers? As an Evangelical, Devin Rose used to believe all of it. Then one day the nagging questions began. He noticed things about Protestant belief and practice that didn't add up. He began following the logic of Protestant claims to places he never expected it to go -leading to conclusions no Christians would ever admit to holding. In The Protestant's Dilemma, Rose examines over thirty of those conclusions, showing with solid evidence, compelling reason, and gentle humor how the major tenets of Protestantism - if honestly pursued to their furthest extent - wind up in dead ends. The only escape? Catholic truth. Rose patiently unpacks each instance, and shows how Catholicism solves the Protestant's dilemma through the witness of Scripture, Christian history, and the authority with which Christ himself undeniably vested his Church.

Download or read book When God Spoke Greek written by Timothy Michael Law and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most readers do not know about the Bible used almost universally by early Christians, or about how that Bible was birthed, how it grew to prominence, and how it differs from the one used as the basis for most modern translations. Although it was one of the most important events in the history of our civilization, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the third century BCE is an event almost unknown outside of academia. Timothy Michael Law offers the first book to make this topic accessible to a wider audience. Retrospectively, we can hardly imagine the history of Christian thought, and the history of Christianity itself, without the Old Testament. When the Emperor Constantine adopted the Christian faith, his fusion of the Church and the State ensured that the Christian worldview (which by this time had absorbed Jewish ideals that had come to them through the Greek translation) would leave an imprint on subsequent history. This book narrates in a fresh and exciting way the story of the Septuagint, the Greek Scriptures of the ancient Jewish Diaspora that became the first Christian Old Testament.

Download or read book The Unintended Reformation written by Brad S. Gregory and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-16 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a work that is as much about the present as the past, Brad Gregory identifies the unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation and traces the way it shaped the modern condition over the course of the following five centuries. A hyperpluralism of religious and secular beliefs, an absence of any substantive common good, the triumph of capitalism and its driver, consumerism—all these, Gregory argues, were long-term effects of a movement that marked the end of more than a millennium during which Christianity provided a framework for shared intellectual, social, and moral life in the West. Before the Protestant Reformation, Western Christianity was an institutionalized worldview laden with expectations of security for earthly societies and hopes of eternal salvation for individuals. The Reformation’s protagonists sought to advance the realization of this vision, not disrupt it. But a complex web of rejections, retentions, and transformations of medieval Christianity gradually replaced the religious fabric that bound societies together in the West. Today, what we are left with are fragments: intellectual disagreements that splinter into ever finer fractals of specialized discourse; a notion that modern science—as the source of all truth—necessarily undermines religious belief; a pervasive resort to a therapeutic vision of religion; a set of smuggled moral values with which we try to fertilize a sterile liberalism; and the institutionalized assumption that only secular universities can pursue knowledge. The Unintended Reformation asks what propelled the West into this trajectory of pluralism and polarization, and finds answers deep in our medieval Christian past.

Download or read book Practicing Protestants written by Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2006-08-28 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays explores the significance of practice in understanding American Protestant life. The authors are historians of American religion, practical theologians, and pastors and were the twelve principal researchers in a three-year collaborative project sponsored by the Lilly Endowment. Profiling practices that range from Puritan devotional writing to twentieth-century prayer, from missionary tactics to African American ritual performance, these essays provide a unique historical perspective on how Protestants have lived their faith within and outside of the church and how practice has formed their identities and beliefs. Each chapter focuses on a different practice within a particular social and cultural context. The essays explore transformations in American religious culture from Puritan to Evangelical and Enlightenment sensibilities in New England, issues of mission, nationalism, and American empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, devotional practices in the flux of modern intellectual predicaments, and the claims of late-twentieth-century liberal Protestant pluralism. Breaking new ground in ritual studies and cultural history, Practicing Protestants offers a distinctive history of American Protestant practice.

Download or read book The Great Controversy written by Ellen Gould White and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A foundational text in the Seventh Day Adventist church, The Great Controversy is a vision White had of the great battle between Christ and Satan throughout the ages of the early and modern church. Although the book is not held with as high esteem in Protestant circles, it still is able to outline a way of impactful theological thinking.

Download or read book Protestantism A Very Short Introduction written by Mark A. Noll and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-08-25 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mark A. Noll presents a fresh and accessible history of Protestantism from the era of Martin Luther to the present day. Beginning with the founding of Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Anabaptist churches in the sixteenth-century Reformation, he also considers the rise of other important Christian movements like Methodism and Pentecostalism. Focussing on worldwide developments, rather than just the familiar European and American histories, he considers the recent expansion of Protestant movements in Africa, China, India, and Latin America, emphasising the on-going and rapidly expanding story of Protestants worldwide. Noll examines the contributions from well-known figures including Martin Luther and John Calvin, along with many others, and explores why Protestant energies have flagged recently in the Western world yet expanded so dramatically elsewhere. Highlighting the key points of Protestant commonality including the message of Christian salvation, reliance on the Bible, and organization through personal initiative, he also explores the reasons for Protestantism's extraordinary diversity. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Download or read book Jews and Protestants written by Irene Aue-Ben David and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-08-24 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book sheds light on various chapters in the long history of Protestant-Jewish relations, from the Reformation to the present. Going beyond questions of antisemitism and religious animosity, it aims to disentangle some of the intricate perceptions, interpretations, and emotions that have characterized contacts between Protestantism and Judaism, and between Jews and Protestants. While some papers in the book address Luther’s antisemitism and the NS-Zeit, most papers broaden the scope of the investigation: Protestant-Jewish theological encounters shaped not only antisemitism but also the Jewish Reform movement and Protestant philosemitic post-Holocaust theology; interactions between Jews and Protestants took place not only in the German lands but also in the wider Protestant universe; theology was crucial for the articulation of attitudes toward Jews, but music and philosophy were additional spheres of creativity that enabled the process of thinking through the relations between Judaism and Protestantism. By bringing together various contributions on these and other aspects, the book opens up directions for future research on this intricate topic, which bears both historical significance and evident relevance to our own time.

Download or read book The Quiet Hand of God written by Robert Wuthnow and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002-10-21 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For those who thought Mainline Protestantism was well on its way to extinction, this collection provides interesting—possibly even shocking—reading. It points to new life arising out of old structures and changing modes of engagement with the culture. The message the reader takes away is that while the future for this religious tradition will not look like its past, it has a future. The best book written lately on this topic."—Wade Clark Roof, author of Spiritual Marketplace: BabyBoomers and the Remaking of American Religion "An important contribution to our understanding of the public influence of mainline Protestantism. This well-written and expansive book reveals how socially, civically, and politically active mainline Protestantism continues to be in American society, contrary to much conventional wisdom. Yet it shows the mainline influence as having a particular character, different from that of other religious traditions. Mainline Protestantism has, without justification, been understudied lately. This landmark book puts it back on the map and will generate discussion and inquiry for years to come."—Christian Smith, author of The Secular Revolution "This important book provides a balanced, critical, yet genuinely appreciative analysis of the role of mainline Protestantism's public role. It is a stimulating and refreshing change from the mainline Protestant 'bashing' of the past three decades. In a time of increased calls for religious organizations to be involved in public life, readers will be helped to understand both the possibilities and limits of such involvement as the authors examine the practices and policies of the most publicly engaged of America's religious families."—Jackson W. Carroll, coauthor of Bridging Divided Worlds: Congregations and Generational Cultures "An essential book for anyone interested in the public nature and works of the Protestant mainline. The vast majority of American citizens believe that churches have a public role. But they disagree about what that role should be. Help has arrived."—Jean Bethke Elshtain, author of Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy "This book is a comprehensive overview of mainline Protestantism's contribution to the public role of religion during the last three decades of the 20th century. It provides a firm platform from which to guide our vision in the new millennium."—Donald E. Miller, author of Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium

Download or read book American Pope written by Sean Swain Martin and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As arguably the most influential voice in American Catholicism, the vision that Scott Hahn offers in his works, read by millions of Catholics throughout the world, is one of the most formative in American Catholicism. His numerous books and public speaking engagements are shaping the American Catholic Church in a uniquely powerful manner. This work demonstrates that the Catholic vision that Hahn claims to be providing his audience is, in fact, always quite different from the one he actually presents. What he coins as Catholic faithfulness is instead a straightforward and damning Catholic fundamentalism. As this vision is delivered to millions of the faithful who look to Hahn as a trustworthy guide to an authentic life of Catholic faith, American Pope acts as a critical analysis of his work.

Download or read book The Magdalene in the Reformation written by Margaret Arnold and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prostitute, apostle, evangelist—the conversion of Mary Magdalene from sinner to saint is one of the Christian tradition’s most compelling stories, and one of the most controversial. The identity of the woman—or, more likely, women—represented by this iconic figure has been the subject of dispute since the Church’s earliest days. Much less appreciated is the critical role the Magdalene played in remaking modern Christianity. In a vivid recreation of the Catholic and Protestant cultures that emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, The Magdalene in the Reformation reveals that the Magdalene inspired a devoted following among those eager to find new ways to relate to God and the Church. In popular piety, liturgy, and preaching, as well as in education and the arts, the Magdalene tradition provided both Catholics and Protestants with the flexibility to address the growing need for reform. Margaret Arnold shows that as the medieval separation between clergy and laity weakened, the Magdalene represented a new kind of discipleship for men and women and offered alternative paths for practicing a Christian life. Where many have seen two separate religious groups with conflicting preoccupations, Arnold sees Christians who were often engaged in a common dialogue about vocation, framed by the life of Mary Magdalene. Arnold disproves the idea that Protestants removed saints from their theology and teaching under reform. Rather, devotion to Mary Magdalene laid the foundation within Protestantism for the public ministry of women.

Download or read book The Great Controversy written by Ellen G. White and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Protestant Reformers loved their church, but they loved God's Word even more. "The Bible and the Bible only as the rule of law and practice" was their motto. Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, and others pointed people to the Bible, not the church, as the supreme source of truth. Their convictions broght them into heated controversy with the religioius establishment of their day. But their passion for the truths of Scripture led them to stand firm for their convictions despite intense persecution and even death. Five hundred years later, have we forgotten the principles for which these courageous Christians struggled and sacrificed? In too many churchs, members rest their faith on a preacher or a creed rather than on the Holy Scriptures. Most people today are no more eager to follow an unpopular truth than were the church leaders of the sixteenth century ... The experience of the Reformers contains vital lessons for our time. If you've forgotten that history - or perhaps you've never heard it - you need to read this book ..." from the back cover.

Download or read book The Catholic Controversy written by St. Francis de Sales and published by TAN Books. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1594 and 1598, a preacher named Francois converted 72,000 Protestants to the Catholic Faith. These are his words. One of the most remarkable and well-documented events in Catholic history began when a young priest, St. Francis de Sales, volunteered to re-evangelize the Calvinists of the Chablais. Finding his preaching forcefully rejected, St. Francis de Sales shrewdly switched tactics and began a written apologetics campaign, posting pamphlets on walls and slipping them beneath doors under the cover of night. His defense of the Faith was so clear and thorough that at the end of four years nearly the entire population of 72,000 had returned to the Catholic Faith! These powerful little tracts are as relevant today as they were in the late 1500s. St. Francis de Sales draws support from Scripture, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church to address questions still frequently posed by modern Protestants. Revered as some of the most cogent arguments against Protestantism ever penned; they present a defense of the Catholic Faith that has never been equaled. Now with beautiful new cover, easier to read size, updated typesetting, and the original content. 320 pps PB St. Francis de Sales was one of the most effective Catholic apologists and evangelists of the past five centuries. Undoubtedly, he is the most effective apologist to Protestant Calvinists who has ever lived. Steve Wood (Family Life Center International)

Download or read book Against the Protestant Gnostics written by Philip J. Lee and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993-08-19 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this penetrating and provocative assessment of the current state of religion and its effects on society at large, Philip J. Lee criticizes conservatives and liberals alike as he traces gnostic motifs to the very roots of American Protestantism. With references to an extraordinary spectrum of writings from sources as diverse as John Calvin, Martin Buber, Tom Wolfe, Margaret Atwood, and Emily Dickinson, he probes the effects of gnostic thinking on a wide range of issues. Calling for the restoration of a dialectical faith and practice, the book points to positive ways of restoring health to endangered Protestant churches.

Download or read book Protestants written by Alec Ryrie and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the 500th anniversary of Luther’s theses, a landmark history of the revolutionary faith that shaped the modern world. "Ryrie writes that his aim 'is to persuade you that we cannot understand the modern age without understanding the dynamic history of Protestant Christianity.' To which I reply: Mission accomplished." –Jon Meacham, author of American Lion and Thomas Jefferson Five hundred years ago a stubborn German monk challenged the Pope with a radical vision of what Christianity could be. The revolution he set in motion toppled governments, upended social norms and transformed millions of people's understanding of their relationship with God. In this dazzling history, Alec Ryrie makes the case that we owe many of the rights and freedoms we have cause to take for granted--from free speech to limited government--to our Protestant roots. Fired up by their faith, Protestants have embarked on courageous journeys into the unknown like many rebels and refugees who made their way to our shores. Protestants created America and defined its special brand of entrepreneurial diligence. Some turned to their bibles to justify bold acts of political opposition, others to spurn orthodoxies and insight on their God-given rights. Above all Protestants have fought for their beliefs, establishing a tradition of principled opposition and civil disobedience that is as alive today as it was 500 years ago. In this engrossing and magisterial work, Alec Ryrie makes the case that whether or not you are yourself a Protestant, you live in a world shaped by Protestants.

Download or read book Chaucer and Religious Controversies in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras written by Nancy Bradley Warren and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chaucer and Religious Controversies in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras adopts a comparative, boundary-crossing approach to consider one of the most canonical of literary figures, Geoffrey Chaucer. The idea that Chaucer is an international writer raises no eyebrows. Similarly, a claim that Chaucer's writings participate in English confessional controversies in his own day and afterward provokes no surprise. This book breaks new ground by considering Chaucer's Continental interests as they inform his participation in religious debates concerning such subjects as female spirituality and Lollardy. Similarly, this project explores the little-studied ways in which those who took religious vows, especially nuns, engaged with works by Chaucer and in the Chaucerian tradition. Furthermore, while the early modern "Protestant Chaucer" is a familiar figure, this book explores the creation and circulation of an early modern "Catholic Chaucer" that has not received much attention. This study seeks to fill gaps in Chaucer scholarship by situating Chaucer and the Chaucerian tradition in an international textual environment of religious controversy spanning four centuries and crossing both the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. This book presents a nuanced analysis of the high stakes religiopolitical struggle inherent in the creation of the canon of English literature, a struggle that participates in the complex processes of national identity formation in Europe and the New World alike.