Download or read book American Gospel written by Jon Meacham and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham reveals how the Founding Fathers viewed faith—and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice. At a time when our country seems divided by extremism, American Gospel draws on the past to offer a new perspective. Meacham re-creates the fascinating history of a nation grappling with religion and politics–from John Winthrop’s “city on a hill” sermon to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence; from the Revolution to the Civil War; from a proposed nineteenth-century Christian Amendment to the Constitution to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for civil rights; from George Washington to Ronald Reagan. Debates about religion and politics are often more divisive than illuminating. Secularists point to a “wall of separation between church and state,” while many conservatives act as though the Founding Fathers were apostles in knee britches. As Meacham shows in this brisk narrative, neither extreme has it right. At the heart of the American experiment lies the God of what Benjamin Franklin called “public religion,” a God who invests all human beings with inalienable rights while protecting private religion from government interference. It is a great American balancing act, and it has served us well. Meacham has written and spoken extensively about religion and politics, and he brings historical authority and a sense of hope to the issue. American Gospel makes it compellingly clear that the nation’s best chance of summoning what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature” lies in recovering the spirit and sense of the Founding. In looking back, we may find the light to lead us forward. Praise for American Gospel “In his American Gospel, Jon Meacham provides a refreshingly clear, balanced, and wise historical portrait of religion and American politics at exactly the moment when such fairness and understanding are much needed. Anyone who doubts the relevance of history to our own time has only to read this exceptional book.”—David McCullough, author of 1776 “Jon Meacham has given us an insightful and eloquent account of the spiritual foundation of the early days of the American republic. It is especially instructive reading at a time when the nation is at once engaged in and deeply divided on the question of religion and its place in public life.”—Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation

Download or read book American Gospel written by Jon Meacham and published by Random House. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham reveals how the Founding Fathers viewed faith—and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice. At a time when our country seems divided by extremism, American Gospel draws on the past to offer a new perspective. Meacham re-creates the fascinating history of a nation grappling with religion and politics–from John Winthrop’s “city on a hill” sermon to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence; from the Revolution to the Civil War; from a proposed nineteenth-century Christian Amendment to the Constitution to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for civil rights; from George Washington to Ronald Reagan. Debates about religion and politics are often more divisive than illuminating. Secularists point to a “wall of separation between church and state,” while many conservatives act as though the Founding Fathers were apostles in knee britches. As Meacham shows in this brisk narrative, neither extreme has it right. At the heart of the American experiment lies the God of what Benjamin Franklin called “public religion,” a God who invests all human beings with inalienable rights while protecting private religion from government interference. It is a great American balancing act, and it has served us well. Meacham has written and spoken extensively about religion and politics, and he brings historical authority and a sense of hope to the issue. American Gospel makes it compellingly clear that the nation’s best chance of summoning what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature” lies in recovering the spirit and sense of the Founding. In looking back, we may find the light to lead us forward. Praise for American Gospel “In his American Gospel, Jon Meacham provides a refreshingly clear, balanced, and wise historical portrait of religion and American politics at exactly the moment when such fairness and understanding are much needed. Anyone who doubts the relevance of history to our own time has only to read this exceptional book.”—David McCullough, author of 1776 “Jon Meacham has given us an insightful and eloquent account of the spiritual foundation of the early days of the American republic. It is especially instructive reading at a time when the nation is at once engaged in and deeply divided on the question of religion and its place in public life.”—Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation

Download or read book An American Gospel written by Erik Reece and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-04-02 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of Lost Mountain, a stirring work of memoir, spiritual journey, and historical inquiry. At the age of thirty-three, Erik Reece's father, a Baptist minister, took his own life, leaving Erik in the care of his grandmother and his grandfather-also a fundamentalist Baptist preacher, and a pillar of his rural Virginia community. While Erik grew up with a conflicted relationship with Christianity, he unexpectedly found comfort in the Jefferson Bible. Inspired by the text, he undertook what would become a spiritual and literary quest to identify an "American gospel" coursing through the work of both great and forgotten American geniuses, from William Byrd to Walt Whitman to William James to Lynn Margulis. The result of Reece's journey is a deeply intimate, stirring book about personal, political, and historical demons-and the geniuses we must call upon to combat them.

Download or read book Blessed written by Kate Bowler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gospels -- Faith -- Wealth -- Health -- Victory -- American blessing -- Megachurch table -- Naming names.

Download or read book American Gospel written by Lin Enger and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Radically personal and quintessentially American, an intimate drama at the heart of an apocalyptic vision On a small farm beside a lake in Minnesota’s north woods an old man is waiting for the Rapture, which God has told him will happen in two weeks, on August 19, 1974. When word gets out, Last Days Ranch becomes ground zero for The End, drawing zealots, curiosity seekers, and reporters—among them the prophet’s son, a skeptical New York writer suddenly caught between his overbearing father and the news story of a lifetime. Into the mix comes Melanie Magnus, a glamorous actress who has old allegiances to both father and son. Meanwhile, Nixon’s resignation has transfixed the nation. Writing with clear compassion and gentle wit, Lin Enger draws us into these disparate yet inextricably linked lives, each enacting a part in a drama forever being replayed and together moving toward a conclusion that will take all of them—and us—by surprise. Set during a time that resonates with our own tension-filled moment, American Gospel cuts close to the battles occurring within ourselves and for the soul of the nation, and in doing so radiates light on a dark strain in America’s psyche, when the false security of dogma competes with the risky tumult of freedom.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music written by W. K. McNeil and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music is the first comprehensive reference to cover this important American musical form. Coverage includes all aspects of both African-American and white gospel from history and performers to recording techniques and styles as well as the influence of gospel on different musical genres and cultural trends.

Download or read book Exporting the American Gospel written by Steve Brouwer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the pressures of globalization are crushing local traditions, millions of uprooted people are buying into a new American salvation product. This fundamentalist Christianity, a fusion of American popular religion and politics, is one of the most significant cultural influences exported from the United States. With illuminating case studies based on extensive field research, Exporting the American Gospel demonstrates how Christian fundamentalism has taken hold in many nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Download or read book The Hole in Our Gospel written by Richard E. Stearns and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A CBA Bestseller -- Two thousand years ago, twelve people changed the world. Stearns believes it can happen again. It's 1998 and Richard Stearns' heart is breaking as he sits in a mud hut and listens to the story Rakai, Uganda. His journey to this place took more than a long flight from the United States to Africa. It took answering God's call on his life, a call that hurtled him out of the presidential corner office at Lenox -- America's finest tableware company -- to this humble corner of Uganda. This is a story of how a corporate CEO faced his own struggle to obey God whatever the cost, and his passionate call for Christians to change the world by actively living out their faith.Richard Stearns has served as President of World Vision U.S. since 1998, having formerly been the CEO of Parker Bros. Games and Lenox, Inc. He and his wife, Renee, have five children of their own and millions more around the world.

Download or read book Prosperity Gospel Latinos and Their American Dream written by Tony Tian-Ren Lin and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this immersive ethnography, Tony Tian-Ren Lin explores the reasons that Latin American immigrants across the United States are increasingly drawn to Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism, a strand of Protestantism gaining popularity around the world. Lin contends that Latinos embrace Prosperity Gospel, which teaches that believers may achieve both divine salvation and worldly success, because it helps them account for the contradictions of their lives as immigrants. Weaving together his informants' firsthand accounts of their religious experiences and everyday lives, Lin offers poignant insight into how they see their faith transforming them both as individuals and as communities. The theology fuses salvation with material goods so that as these immigrants pursue spiritual rewards they are also, perhaps paradoxically, striving for the American dream. But after all, Lin observes, prosperity is the gospel of the American dream. In this way, while becoming better Prosperity Gospel Pentecostals they are also adopting traditional white American norms. Yet this is not a story of smooth assimilation as most of these immigrants must deal with the immensity of the broader cultural and political resistance to their actually becoming Americans. Rather, Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism gives Latinos the logic and understanding of themselves as those who belong in this country yet remain perpetual outsiders.

Download or read book God Doesn t Whisper written by Jim Osman and published by . This book was released on 2020-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In God Doesn't Whisper, Pastor Jim Osman examines the assumptions, practices, and Scriptural citations of those who promote Hearing the Voice of God theology. This book provides a thorough examination of the Scriptures often used to promote the practice of listening for the voice of God. What is the still small voice? Does God speak through signs? What about open doors, dreams, and "feeling led"? What is the biblical model for decision-making? Scripture is clear: God Doesn't Whisper.

Download or read book Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys written by Richard Twiss and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2015-06-09 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gospel of Jesus has not always been good news for Native Americans. But despite the far-reaching effects of colonialism, some Natives have forged culturally authentic ways to follow Jesus. In his final work, Richard Twiss surveys the complicated history of Christian missions among Indigenous peoples and voices a hopeful vision of contextual Native Christian faith.

Download or read book Truth Or Territory written by Jim Osman and published by . This book was released on 2015-09-11 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a critique of common spiritual warfare practices including binding Satan, renouncing curses, spiritual mapping and exorcisms. Using Scripture, and Scripture alone, Pastor Jim Osman shows that true spiritual warfare is not a battle over territory, but a battle for the truth. The book is divided into four sections: Establishing Biblical Principles, Exposing Unbiblical Practices, Explaining Biblical Perspectives and Examining a Biblical Passage. A biblical approach to spiritual warfare recognizes the Bible as the sole authority, rejects unbiblical and man-made methods, and rests in Christ and His finished work for victory. Many in the modern spiritual warfare movement teach a methodology of spiritual warfare that is more akin to something you would find in a Harry Potter novel (renouncing curses and using prayer mantras to seize territory) than anything described in Scripture. Many of these practices reflect a theology built on anecdotes, experience, and interviews with demons rather than a sound exegesis of Scripture. Footnoted quotations of authors like Mark Bubeck, Neil T. Anderson, and others are compared against Scripture to show that modern spiritual warfare "experts" have abandoned the authority of Scripture and opted for man-made methods to wage spiritual battle. The chapters include a study of the three enemies that every Christian faces: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Pastor Osman answers from Scripture the questions: Can a Christian be demon-possessed? Is Christ's authority ours? and, What about exorcisms? One chapter includes a helpful discussion of the link between spiritual warfare and a believer's sanctification. The foreword is written by international conference speaker Justin Peters (justinpeters.org). This book is being published as an e-book as a fundraiser to finish the new church building of Kootenai Community Church (www.kootenaichurch.org) of which Jim is one of the pastors. All the proceeds go the building fund for the completion of that project. You can see regular updates at http: //www.truthorterritory.com .

Download or read book The Last Reformation written by Torben Sondergaard and published by . This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of what we see expressed in the church today is built on more than just the New Testament. It's built mostly on the Old Testament, Church culture, and Paganism. If we are to succeed in making disciples of all nations then we must go back to the "template" we find in the Bible. Let the reformation begin!

Download or read book Christless Christianity written by Michael Horton and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2008-11-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible that we have left Christ out of Christianity? Is the faith and practice of American Christians today more American than Christian? These are the provocative questions Michael Horton addresses in this thoughtful, insightful book. He argues that while we invoke the name of Christ, too often Christ and the Christ-centered gospel are pushed aside. The result is a message and a faith that are, in Horton's words, "trivial, sentimental, affirming, and irrelevant." This alternative "gospel" is a message of moralism, personal comfort, self-help, self-improvement, and individualistic religion. It trivializes God, making him a means to our selfish ends. Horton skillfully diagnoses the problem and points to the solution: a return to the unadulterated gospel of salvation.

Download or read book Lamb of God New American Gospel written by Chris Adler and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-01-22 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Making of the album New American Gospel by Lamb of God. Written by the bands drummer, Chris Adler, this book is a first hand look into the formation and the history of this world renowned metal band through the recording process of their landmark first album. The book also includes drum tablature, transcribed by Chris, himself, to ensure accuracy for students and teachers alike. The drum tabs are intended for all levels of drum players. A tab key and methodology is included for new players and non-music reading students. The author reflects not only on the many difficult hurdles involved in writing and recording the album, but also breaks the album down song by song and gives his perspective on how each came to be. The stories included share a candid and unexpected insight into the creation of this historic album. Chris details the artistic difficulties and disappointments, the successes and the critical decisions made along the way that helped build the bands prolific career.

Download or read book Singing in My Soul written by Jerma A. Jackson and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2005-12-15 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black gospel music grew from obscure nineteenth-century beginnings to become the leading style of sacred music in black American communities after World War II. Jerma A. Jackson traces the music's unique history, profiling the careers of several singers--particularly Sister Rosetta Tharpe--and demonstrating the important role women played in popularizing gospel. Female gospel singers initially developed their musical abilities in churches where gospel prevailed as a mode of worship. Few, however, stayed exclusively in the religious realm. As recordings and sheet music pushed gospel into the commercial arena, gospel began to develop a life beyond the church, spreading first among a broad spectrum of African Americans and then to white middle-class audiences. Retail outlets, recording companies, and booking agencies turned gospel into big business, and local church singers emerged as national and international celebrities. Amid these changes, the music acquired increasing significance as a source of black identity. These successes, however, generated fierce controversy. As gospel gained public visibility and broad commercial appeal, debates broke out over the meaning of the music and its message, raising questions about the virtues of commercialism and material values, the contours of racial identity, and the nature of the sacred. Jackson engages these debates to explore how race, faith, and identity became central questions in twentieth-century African American life.

Download or read book The Social Gospel written by Ronald Cedric White and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1976 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author note: Ronald C. White, Jr. is Chaplain and Assistant Professor of Religion at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. >P>C. Howard Hopkins is Professor of History Emeritus at Rider College and Director of the John R. Mott Biography Project. He is the author of The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism.