Download or read book Subversive Jesus Radical Grace written by Robert Thornton Henderson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-04-29 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THEY'RE BRIGHT. THEY CAN BE BRUTALLY HONEST. THEY CAN BE CYNICAL. THEY'RE SPIRITUALLY HUNGRY. HOW WILL YOU TELL THEM ABOUT JESUS?There is a new, "postmodern" generation with a vast, unmet spiritual hunger. They don't know Jesus. In fact, they don't know much "about" Jesus. They need someone who can relate the truth of the gospel to them in terms they understand. But how does one communicate this transforming truth to a generation increasingly suspicious of religious words and cynical about religious claims?Robert Henderson invites you to look over his shoulder as he addresses the brutally honest questions of faith posed by a young postmodern man named Chip. Chip's questions echo those of a spiritually hungry generation uncertain of where to look for answers--and totally unimpressed with what they see as powerless religion that offers no hope for change. Discover how to introduce the next generation of seekers to the radical grace of Jesus--grace that will make a difference in their lives.

Download or read book Subversive Jesus written by Craig Warren Greenfield and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Jesus left the most exclusive gated community in the universe to come live with the people he loved and gave his life for, he turned everything we know and believe about life on its head. Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor, but most Western Christians remain disconnected and isolated from the poor and their contexts of injustice. Even our churches echo society’s pressure to isolate ourselves from the margins (e.g. by moving to a better suburb) and instead teach us how to be “nice people” who worship a “nice Jesus” and don’t disrupt the status quo. Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ’s footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again. This is the story of how Jesus led them to the margins: initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world’s most vulnerable children. This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens—reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.

Download or read book The Subversion of Christianity written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-06-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pointing to the many contradictions between the Bible and the practice of the church, Jacques Ellul asserts in this provocative and stimulating book that what we today call Christianity is actually far removed from the revelation of God. Successive generations have reinterpreted Scripture and modeled it after their own cultures, thus moving society further from the truth of the original gospel. The church also perverted the gospel message, for instead of simply doing away with pagan practice and belief, it reconstituted the sacred, set up its own religious forms, and thus resacralized the world. Ellul develops several areas in which this perversion is most obvious, including the church's emphasis on moralism and its teaching in the political sphere. The heart of the problem, he says, is that we have not accepted the fact that Christianity is a scandal; we attempt to make it acceptable and easy--and thus pervert its true message. Ultimately, however, Ellul remains hopeful. For, in spite of all that has been done to subvert the message of God, the Holy Spirit continues to move in the world. Christianity, writes Ellul, never carries the day decisively against Christ.

Download or read book A Subversive Gospel written by Michael Mears Bruner and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The good news of Jesus Christ is a subversive gospel, and following Jesus is a subversive act. Exploring the theological aesthetic of American author Flannery O'Connor, Michael Bruner argues that her fiction reveals what discipleship to Jesus Christ entails by subverting the traditional understandings of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Download or read book Jesus Outside the Lines written by Scott Sauls and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-03-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether the issue of the day on Twitter, Facebook, or cable news is our sexuality, political divides, or the perceived conflict between faith and science, today’s media pushes each one of us into a frustrating clash between two opposing sides. Polarizing, us-against-them discussions divide us and distract us from thinking clearly and communicating lovingly with others. Scott Sauls, like many of us, is weary of the bickering and is seeking a way of truth and beauty through the conflicts. Jesus Outside the Lines presents Jesus as this way. Scott shows us how the words and actions of Jesus reveal a response that does not perpetuate the destructive fray. Jesus offers us a way forward—away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes. In Jesus Outside the Lines, you will experience a fresh perspective of Jesus, who will not (and should not) fit into the sides.

Download or read book Eternal Living written by Gary W. Moon and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Curated by Dallas Willard's long-time colleague and friend Gary Moon, this medley of images, snapshots and "Dallas-isms" moves readers toward deeper experiences of God. Whether influenced by him as a family member, friend, professor, philosopher or reformer, contributors bring refreshing insight into his ideas, what shaped him and also his contagious theology of grace and joy.

Download or read book Hipster Christianity written by Brett McCracken and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2010-08-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insider twentysomething Christian journalist Brett McCracken has grown up in the evangelical Christian subculture and observed the recent shift away from the "stained glass and steeples" old guard of traditional Christianity to a more unorthodox, stylized 21st-century church. This change raises a big issue for the church in our postmodern world: the question of cool. The question is whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This probing book is about an emerging category of Christians McCracken calls "Christian hipsters"--the unlikely fusion of the American obsessions with worldly "cool" and otherworldly religion--an analysis of what they're about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the church's relevancy and hipness in today's youth-oriented culture.

Download or read book The Limits of Forgiveness written by Maria Mayo and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-05-06 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demystifying an unrealistic ideal Maria Mayo questions the contemporary idealization of unconditional forgiveness in three areas of contemporary life: so-called Victim-Offender Mediation involving cases of criminal injury, the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-apartheid South Africa, and the pastoral care of victims of domestic violence. She shows that an emphasis on unilateral and unconditional forgiveness puts disproportionate pressure on the victims of injustice or violence and misconstrues the very biblical passages—especially in Jesus’ teaching and actions—on which advocates of unconditional forgiveness rely.

Download or read book Subversive Sabbath written by A. J. Swoboda and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in a 24/7 culture of endless productivity, workaholism, distraction, burnout, and anxiety--a way of life to which we've sadly grown accustomed. This tired system of "life" ultimately destroys our souls, our bodies, our relationships, our society, and the rest of God's creation. The whole world grows exhausted because humanity has forgotten to enter into God's rest. This book pioneers a creative path to an alternative way of existing. Combining creative storytelling, pastoral sensitivity, practical insight, and relevant academic research, Subversive Sabbath offers a unique invitation to personal Sabbath-keeping that leads to fuller and more joyful lives. A. J. Swoboda demonstrates that Sabbath is both a spiritual discipline and a form of social justice, connects Sabbath-keeping to local communities, and explains how God may actually do more when we do less. He shows that the biblical practice of Sabbath-keeping is God's plan for the restoration and healing of all creation. The book includes a foreword by Matthew Sleeth.

Download or read book Subversive Spirituality written by Eugene H. Peterson and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1997-06-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Subversive Spirituality Peterson has gathered together a host of writings penned over the past twenty-five years that reflect on the overlooked facets of the spiritual life. Comprising occasional pieces, short biblical studies, poetry, pastoral readings, and interviews, this work captures the epiphanies of life with the pleasing pastoral style and inspiring depth of insight for which Peterson is well known. Peterson describes his book this way: "This gathering of articles and essays, poems and conversations, is a kind of kitchen midden of my noticings of the obvious in the course of living out the Christian life in the vocational context of pastor, writer, and professor. The randomness and repetitions and false starts are rough edges that I am leaving as is in the interests of honesty. Spirituality is not, by and large, smooth. I do hope, however, that these pieces will be found to be freshly phrased".

Download or read book Idol and Grace written by Orlando E. Espin and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proposes a theology that draws out the subversive hope of the gospels and the role of the marginalized in passing along the Christian message.

Download or read book The End of Religion written by Bruxy Cavey and published by Tyndale House. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The End of Religion, Bruxy Cavey shares that relationship has no room for religion. Believers and seekers alike will discover anew the wondrous promise found in our savior. And Christ’s eternal call to walk in love and freedom will resonate with readers of all ages and denominations.

Download or read book Enchanted Community written by Robert Thornton Henderson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2006-08-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Henderson has done in 'Enchanted Community' is force us to confront the questions of why the church is, and what it has to do with the good news of God in Jesus Christ. He takes us on a fascinating journey into the mystery of the church, and in the process, challenges our understanding of what it means to be the authentic body of Christ. For Henderson, the church should not be identified with its institutional forms, but rather in the authentic communities inhabited by the Holy Spirit that are part of God's missional movement. We, as believers, are in a very real sense Òcalled out to be part of this New Creation community to lead transformed lives as a witness to God's revelation. The journey leads us back to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as the only (and ultimate) source of enchantment in a disenchanted world. As Henderson makes clear, this journey is anything but non-controversial, harmless, and Òspiritual, but is in fact radical and subversive in its very essence. This book offers to all of us--from the pragmatic, the idealistic, and the honest, to the slightly cynical and almost-jaded--practical steps to maintaining the integrity of our discipleship and the authenticity of our relationships as we struggle to live out our calling to be an enchanted people, bearers of God's authentic New Creation humanity in the church and in our daily ministry as salt and light where we live and work.

Download or read book Stories with Intent written by Klyne R. Snodgrass and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2018-02-16 with total page 917 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2009 Christianity Today Award for Biblical Studies, Stories with Intent offers pastors and students a comprehensive and accessible guide to Jesus' parables. Klyne Snodgrass explores in vivid detail the historical context in which these stories were told, the part they played in Jesus' overall message, and the ways in which they have been interpreted in the church and the academy. Snodgrass begins by surveying the primary issues in parables interpretation and providing an overview of other parables—often neglected in the discussion—from the Old Testament, Jewish writings, and the Greco-Roman world. He then groups the more important parables of Jesus thematically and offers a comprehensive treatment of each, exploring both background and significance for today. This tenth anniversary edition includes a substantial new chapter that surveys developments in the interpretation of parables since the book's original 2008 publication.

Download or read book Subversive Spirituality written by L. Paul Jensen and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Subversive Spirituality links the practice and study of Christian spirituality with Christian mission. It develops a twofold thesis: grace, spiritual disciplines, and mission practices are inseparably linked in the mission of Jesus, of the early church, and of several historical renewal movements, as well as in a contemporary field research sample; and amidst the collapse of space and time evidenced by our culture's increasingly hurried pace of life, more time and space are needed for regular solitary and communal spiritual practices in church, mission, and leadership structures if Christian mission is to transform people and culture in our time. This requires a subversion of the collapsed spatial and temporal codes that have infected our Christian institutions. Jensen employs methods and approaches from a variety of academic disciplines to explore both spirituality in terms of space and time and mission in terms of deed and word. Specifically, Jensen examines the spirituality and mission of Jesus, the early church, the apostolic fathers, Origen, the Devotio Moderna, the early Jesuits, David Brainerd, and several women in 19th century Protestant missions. He considers the spirituality and mission that have arisen within the postmodern generations born after 1960. Based on the theological, historical, cultural, and field analyses of this study, a model for spirituality and mission is proposed. The model addresses the contemporary collapse of space and time and appears to have widespread applicability to diverse cultures and eras. Jensen's model is applied to the pluralistic and postmodern milieu of North America with recommendations for spirituality and mission in church, mission, and educational structures. A derivative model for teaching and practicing spirituality and mission in the academy, which also has application for non-formal leadership development structures, is also proposed.

Download or read book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time written by Marcus J. Borg and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of the many recent books on the historical Jesus, none has explored what the latest biblical scholarship means for personal faith. Now, in Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg addresses the yearnings of those who want a fully contemporary faith that welcomes rather than oppresses our critical intelligence and openness to the best of historical scholarship. Borg shows how a rigorous examination of historical findings can lead to a new faith in Christ, one that is critical and, at the same time, sustaining. "Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him," Borg writes. "Rather, it means to give one's heart, one's self at its deepest level, to . . . the living Lord." Drawing on his own journey from a naive, unquestioning belief in Christ through collegiate skepticism to a mature and contemporary Christian faith, Borg illustrates how an understanding of the historical Jesus can actually lead to a more authentic Christian life—one not rooted in creeds or dogma, but in a life of spiritual challenge, compassion, and community. In straightforward, accessible prose, Borg looks at the major findings of modern Jesus scholarship from the perspective of faith, bringing alive the many levels of Jesus' character: spirit person, teacher of alternative wisdom, social prophet, and movement founder. He also reexamines the major stories of the Old Testament vital to an authentic understanding of Jesus, showing how an enriched understanding of these stories can uncover new truths and new pathways to faith. For questioning believers, doubters, and reluctant unbelievers alike, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time frees our understanding of Jesus' life and message from popular misconceptions and outlines the way to a sound and contemporary faith: "For ultimately, Jesus is not simply a figure of the past, but a figure of the present. Meeting that Jesus—the living one who comes to us even now—will be like meeting Jesus again for the first time."

Download or read book Healing the Gospel written by Derek Flood and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why did Jesus have to die? Was it to appease a wrathful God's demand for punishment? Does that mean Jesus died to save us from God? How could someone ever truly love or trust a God like that? How can that ever be called "Good News"? It's questions like these that make so many people want to have nothing to do with Christianity. Healing the Gospel challenges the assumption that the Christian understanding of justice is rooted in a demand for violent punishment, and instead offers a radically different understanding of the gospel based on God's restorative justice. Connecting our own experiences of faith with the New Testament narrative, author Derek Flood shows us an understanding of the cross that not only reveals God's heart of grace, but also models our own way of Christ-like love. It's a vision of the gospel that exposes violence, rather than supporting it--a gospel rooted in love of enemies, rather than retribution. The result is a nonviolent understanding of the atonement that is not only thoroughly biblical, but will help people struggling with their faith to encounter grace.