Download or read book The Fine Print of Christianity written by Nathan Shane Miller and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-11-11 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just as the commercial market is full of lofty promises and glossed over particulars, so it is with the marketplace of ideas. Too often the church itself resorts to catchphrases and slogans, to elementary truths over spiritually mature ones, to rhetoric over reason, and concise responses instead of complete answers. The danger of this is that the church may become nothing more than a peddler of platitudes and its followers may become disillusioned. This book aims to help uncover the real deal behind common Christian bywords, and the real truth underlining prevalent Christian truisms, in the hope that we might know God better, and discover the richness and fullness that is in Christianity.
Download or read book The Fine Print of Christianity written by Nathan Shane Miller and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-11-11 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just as the commercial market is full of lofty promises and glossed over particulars, so it is with the marketplace of ideas. Too often the church itself resorts to catchphrases and slogans, to elementary truths over spiritually mature ones, to rhetoric over reason, and concise responses instead of complete answers. The danger of this is that the church may become nothing more than a peddler of platitudes and its followers may become disillusioned. This book aims to help uncover the real deal behind common Christian bywords, and the real truth underlining prevalent Christian truisms, in the hope that we might know God better, and discover the richness and fullness that is in Christianity.
Download or read book A New Christian Identity written by Amy B. Voorhees and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2021-02-10 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study of Christian Science and the culture in which it arose, Amy B. Voorhees emphasizes Mary Baker Eddy's foundational religious text, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Assessing the experiences of everyday adherents after Science and Health's appearance in 1875, Voorhees shows how Christian Science developed a dialogue with both mainstream and alternative Christian theologies. Viewing God's benevolent allness as able to heal human afflictions through prayer, Christian Science emerged as an anti-mesmeric, restorationist form of Christianity that interpreted the Bible and approached emerging modern medicine on its own terms. Voorhees traces a surprising story of religious origins, cultural conversations, and controversies. She contextualizes Christian Science within a wide swath of cultural and religious movements, showing how Eddy and her followers interacted regularly with Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, Catholics, Jews, New Thought adherents, agnostics, and Theosophists. Influences flowed in both directions, but Voorhees argues that Christian Science was distinct not only organizationally, as scholars have long viewed it, but also theologically, a singular expression of Christianity engaging modernity with an innovative, healing rationale.
Download or read book Christianity and Contemporary Politics written by Luke Bretherton and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congratulations to Luke Bretherton on winning the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing for Christianity and Contemporary Politics! Relations between religious and political spheres continue to stir passionate debates on both sides of the Atlantic. Through a combination of theological reflection and empirical case studies, Bretherton succeeds in offering timely and invaluable insights into these crucial issues facing 21st century societies. Explores the relationship between Christianity and contemporary politics through case studies of faith-based organizations, Christian political activism and welfare provision in the West; these case studies assess initiatives including community organizing, fair trade, and the sanctuary movement Offers an insightful, informative account of how Christians can engage politically in a multi-faith, liberal democracy Integrates debates in political theology with inter-disciplinary analysis of policy and practice regarding religious social, political and economic engagement in the USA, UK, and continental Europe Reveals how Christians can help prevent the subversion of the church – and even of politics itself – by legal, bureaucratic, and market mechanisms, rather than advocating withdrawal or assimilation Engages with the intricacies of contemporary politics whilst integrating systematic and historical theological reflection on political and economic life
Download or read book Claiming Christ in the 21st Century written by Kevin Graham and published by Tate Publishing. This book was released on 2012-04 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is little wonder that many denounce believers in Jesus as hypocritical. Even within the Christian community itself, there exists a potpourri of conflicting definitions as well as comfortable traditions. In today's world, claiming Christianity is not a guarantee that one is Christian. InClaiming Christ in the 21st Century, author Kevin Graham would like to invite you back to biblical foundations to see what God records about true followers of Jesus. Genuine identity is confirmed by the fruitful evidence of Jesus living throughout a person. Come verify your own claims and bask in freedom from common religious scarecrows. By the grace of God,Claiming Christ in the 21st Century: Finding Identity in the Fine Printwill erase any vestige of spiritual uncertainty in how the Word of God applies to you today. Filter out the stigmatism of what Bonhoeffer denounced as 'cheap grace' and step into the light of what Scripture confirms as the meaning of Christians dwelling in him.
Download or read book The End of Christianity written by John W. Loftus and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this successor to his critically acclaimed anthology, The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, a former minister and now leading atheist spokesperson has assembled a stellar group of respected scholars to continue the critique of Christianity begun in the first volume. Contributors include Victor Stenger, Robert Price, Hector Avalos, Richard Carrier, Keith Parsons, David Eller, and Taner Edis. Loftus is also the author of the best-selling Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity. Taken together, the Loftus trilogy poses formidable challenges to claims for the rationality of the Christian faith. Anyone with an interest in the philosophy of religion will find this compilation to be intellectually stimulating and deeply thought provoking.
Download or read book Wonder Beyond Belief written by Navid Kermani and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when one of Germany's most important writers, himself a Muslim, immerses himself in the world of Christian art? In this book, Navid Kermani is awestruck by a religion full of sacrifice and lamentation, love and wonder, the irrational and the unfathomable, the deeply human and the divine – a Christianity that today’s Christians rarely speak of so earnestly, boldly and enthusiastically. With the open-minded curiosity of a non-believer – or rather a believer in another faith – Kermani engages with Christian art in its great richness and diversity. The result is an enchanting reflection which reinvests in Christianity both its spectacular beauty and its terror. Kermani struggles with the cross, falls in love at the sight of Mary, experiences the Orthodox Mass and appreciates the greatness of St Francis. He teaches us to see the questions of our present-day lives in the pictures of old masters such as Botticelli, Caravaggio and Rembrandt – not with lectures on art history or theology, but with an intelligent eye for the essential details and the underlying relations to seemingly remote worlds, to literature and to mystical Islam. Kermani's poetic school of seeing draws us in as we are carried along by his unique perspective on Christianity, rekindling our interest in great art at the same time. We are captivated by his unique and brilliant Islamic reading of the West.
Download or read book Christianity and the Constitution written by John Eidsmoe and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 1995-08-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the writings of the founders and records of their conversations and activities, John Eidsmoe demonstrates the influence of Christianity on the political convictions of the founding fathers.
Download or read book A New Kind of Christianity written by Brian D. McLaren and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-02-09 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Some books provide us with information about the world, but every once in a while a book appears that enables us to imagine new, more wonderful worlds. [A New Kind of Christianity] is one of these.” —Peter Rollins, Ikon A New Kind of Christianity is Brian D. McLaren’s much anticipated follow-up to his breakthrough work of the emergent-church movement, A New Kind of Christian. Named by Time magazine as one of America’s top 25 evangelicals, McLaren, along with such contemporaries as N.T. Wright, Jim Wallis, and Rob Bell, is one of the acknowledged leaders of a new generation of Christians who want to update their faith for current times while remaining true to the core message of Jesus. In this controversial and thought-provoking book, McLaren explores the questions that will determine the shape of Christianity for the next 500 years.
Download or read book Christianity at the Crossroads written by Michael J. Kruger and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gospel Coalition Book of the Year Biblical Foundations Award Winner Christianity in the twenty-first century is a global phenomenon. But in the second century, its future was not at all certain. Initially Christianity possessed little social or cultural influence and found itself fighting for its life. While apostolic tradition was emerging as a "rule of faith," factions contested the nature of the gospel, and pagan philosophers found its claims scandalous. And while its pathway was tenuous, Christianity was forming structures of leadership and worship, and a core of apostolic texts was emerging as authoritative. But it was the challenges, obstacles, and transitions faced by Christians in the second century that, in many ways, would determine the future of the church for the next two millennia. It was a time when Christianity stood at a crossroads. Michael Kruger's introductory survey examines how Christianity took root in the second century, how it battled to stay true to the vision of the apostles, and how it developed in ways that would shape both the church and Western culture over the next two thousand years. Christianity at the Crossroads provides an accessible and informative look at the complex and foundational issues faced by an infant church still trying to determine its identity. The church's response to the issues of heresy and orthodoxy, the development of the canon, and the transmission of the Christian Scriptures not only determined its survival, but determined the kind of church it would be for generations to come.
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 A Philosophy of the Christian Religion written by Edward J. Carnell and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing the Edward Carnell Library (Nine Titles Listed Inside) A Philosophy of the Christian Religion is not a defense of the Christian faith in the conventional sense. The gamut of contending values and the systems of thought preoccupying the contemporary mind are analyzed here with admirable comprehension and lucidity. These competing philosophies are severally evaluated by the whole perspective of the Christian system and demonstrated as partial, here-and-now values, incapable of satisfying the demands of the whole man. Christianity is a coherent religion. It never asks the heart to trust values which the reason is obliged to discard as contradictory. No value commitment is completely satisfying until the complete man is satisfied. --from the preface
Download or read book Christianity written by David Chidester and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2001-11-27 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Chidester, one of the world's foremost scholars of religion, traces Christianity's growth and development from the time of Jesus to the dawn of the third millennium, revealing its rich diversity through the deeds and beliefs of heretics and saints, witches and healers, preachers and inquisitors. Chidester explores the emergence of the major streams of Christian thought and practice, distilling the cultural history of the Church and its impact on the world into this superbly readable book. Alongside this broad panorama is a richly human story that the author brilliantly encapsulates in incisive character sketches and historical vignettes. Christianity, in all its many facets, has been and continues to be one of the most influential forces in history. Chidester shows that this religion, with its roots deep in the ancient world, has always been in a constant state of evolution, affecting and affected by the religions and societies around it. At times Christianity has coexisted peacefully with other forms of belief, exchanging ideas and practices with them. At other times profound, even violent, conflict has arisen. In this book David Chidester intelligently and objectively portrays Christians in different times and places, as a minority and as the majority group, a religion both absorbing and resisting the world around it. Christianity reveals the religion as it was and is lived in the life of everyday people rather than focusing on the dry dogmas and beliefs that fill most histories. Chidester's accomplishment is to capture the complexity and grand sweep of this story in one remarkable volume that is destined to take its place as a classic of religious history.
Download or read book I m Fine with God It s Christians I Can t Stand written by Bruce Bickel and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A refreshingly honest and often humorous look at some believers' outlandish behaviors helps bridge the communication gap between Christians and non-Christians, helping Christians share their beliefs more freely without judgmental attitudes, hypocrisy, and condemnation. Original.
Download or read book The Lost History of Christianity written by John Philip Jenkins and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2008-10-28 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking book, renowned religion scholar Philip Jenkins offers a lost history, revealing that, for centuries, Christianity's center was actually in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, with significant communities extending as far as China. The Lost History of Christianity unveils a vast and forgotten network of the world's largest and most influential Christian churches that existed to the east of the Roman Empire. These churches and their leaders ruled the Middle East for centuries and became the chief administrators and academics in the new Muslim empire. The author recounts the shocking history of how these churches—those that had the closest link to Jesus and the early church—died. Jenkins takes a stand against current scholars who assert that variant, alternative Christianities disappeared in the fourth and fifth centuries on the heels of a newly formed hierarchy under Constantine, intent on crushing unorthodox views. In reality, Jenkins says, the largest churches in the world were the “heretics” who lost the orthodoxy battles. These so-called heretics were in fact the most influential Christian groups throughout Asia, and their influence lasted an additional one thousand years beyond their supposed demise. Jenkins offers a new lens through which to view our world today, including the current conflicts in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Without this lost history, we lack an important element for understanding our collective religious past. By understanding the forgotten catastrophe that befell Christianity, we can appreciate the surprising new births that are occurring in our own time, once again making Christianity a true world religion.
Download or read book Lit written by Tony Reinke and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2011-09-09 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I love to read. I hate to read. I don't have time to read. I only read Christian books. I'm not good at reading. There's too much to read. Chances are, you've thought or said one of these exact phrases before because reading is important and in many ways unavoidable. Learn how to better read, what to read, when to read, and why you should read with this helpful guide from accomplished reader Tony Reinke. Offered here is a theology for reading and practical suggestions for reading widely, reading well, and for making it all worthwhile.
Download or read book Seven Principles of Ministry for the Average Radical Christian written by James Cunneen and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Go and make disciples . . ." It's one of the most familiar phrases in the Bible, but one of the most puzzling and challenging to see fulfilled. How does one "make" a disciple? What's the cost? What's the reward? Why do so many Christians struggle with this Great Commission directive from the Lord? This book presents seven clear, biblical principles of ministry for serious Christians who want to have significant personal ministries. It gives encouragement, motivation, and practical instruction for success in making disciples for Jesus Christ. These are principles such as "Be what you want others to be," "Give your life to people, not just your knowledge," and "Don't use people to build your ministry; use your ministry to build people." This book will deepen your appreciation for the power of lay ministry and help you be a disciple-maker for Christ, right where you are.
