Download or read book To Loose the Bonds of Injustice written by Marcia A. Murphy and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is the first to address the living conditions of the mentally ill from the standpoint of social justice. It is the first for religion to partner with the psychiatric field from a spiritual vantage point to improve the lives of those afflicted with medical, social, and spiritual maladies. It is written by someone who has lived with the challenges of a marginalized human being, someone who has insights that no one in the mainstream has experienced. Professionals often write from the viewpoint of someone observing their patients from the outside. Instead, Ms. Murphy tells what it feels like from the inside—to be afflicted with emotional, physical, and social challenges that hinder development and success. This project offers solutions on many levels, unique by virtue of who and what the author is: someone that has been in the darkest depths of severe distress and who found that Christ is the only hope for the mentally afflicted; and the church as Christ’s body, though imperfect, has a vital role in healing and restoration.
Download or read book Let Justice Roll Down written by Bruce C. Birch and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Connecting the Old Testament with the modern church, this book relates the testimonies and stories of Israel's faith in the Hebrew canon to the character and conduct of Christians and the Christian community today. By opening up the moral resources available in the Old Testament, this book will spur discussion of both the character of those moral resources and their pertinence to ethical issues in a complex and challenging time.
Download or read book Abusing Scripture written by Manfred Brauch and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2009-09-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtually all Christians recognize the centrality of the Bible to their faith. Yet many Christians misquote and misapply Scripture regularly. Often those who are most passionate about the authority of the Bible are at the greatest loss when it comes to understanding its message clearly and applying it faithfully. Professor Manfred Brauch believes this kind of mistaken interpretation and application of Scripture is a detriment to the integrity of our Christian witness and contributes to profound misunderstandings in Christian belief and practice. In this practical book written with the non-specialist in mind, Manfred Brauch identifies and corrects a number of basic errors that interpret and apply biblical texts in ways that distort their meaning and message. Chapters explore issues of context, genre, consistency, author intent and other important considerations, addressing not just the act of interpretation, but also the attitudes behind the ways we choose to apply Scripture. Whether you lead a Bible study or small group, are a pastor or Sunday school teacher, are engaged in biblical study at a college or seminary, or are just an everyday Christian who wants to understand how to interpret God's Word well and recognize good interpretation (or the lack therof) when you encounter it, this important book will be an invaluable guide.
Download or read book Jewish Concepts of Scripture written by Benjamin D. Sommer and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do Jews think scripture is? How do the People of the Book conceive of the Book of Books? In what ways is it authoritative? Who has the right to interpret it? Is it divinely or humanly written? And have Jews always thought about the Bible in the same way? In seventeen cohesive and rigorously researched essays, this volume traces the way some of the most important Jewish thinkers throughout history have addressed these questions from the rabbinic era through the medieval Islamic world to modern Jewish scholarship. They address why different Jewish thinkers, writers, and communities have turned to the Bible—and what they expect to get from it. Ultimately, argues editor Benjamin D. Sommer, in understanding the ways Jews construct scripture, we begin to understand the ways Jews construct themselves.
Download or read book The Blacklisted Bible written by Daniel L. Smith-Christopher and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-03-24 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Choosing ten films that were considered “suspicious,” “un-American,” or even “dangerous” by the conservative media, and especially the infamous “House Un-American Affairs Committee” (HUAC) between 1947–1953, each chapter briefly outlines how progressive Christians should have supported the message of the film rather than condemned it. Each chapter explains why the film was considered controversial, and then proposes a number of arguments drawing heavily on Scripture, arguing that Christians should have, and still should, consider these films about social justice issues to be deeply biblical, and not “un-American.” Intended for an adult education series, this book can serve as a kind of “handbook” for a church or parish “Film Series” that raises serious questions of social justice and Christian response.
Download or read book God s Politics written by Jim Wallis and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2006-08-29 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestseller God's Politics struck a chord with Americans disenchanted with how the Right had co-opted all talk about integrating religious values into our politics, and with the Left, who were mute on the subject. Jim Wallis argues that America's separation of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from the public square. God's Politics offers a vision for how to convert spiritual values into real social change and has started a grassroots movement to hold our political leaders accountable by incorporating our deepest convictions about war, poverty, racism, abortion, capital punishment, and other moral issues into our nation's public life. Who can change the political wind? Only we can.
Download or read book Truth and Hope written by Walter Brueggemann and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this varied collection of essays, Walter Brueggemann provides a lens into biblical teachings concerning the present age of fake news, lies, and alternate realities. Compiled and edited by Louis Stulman, professor of religion at the University of Findlay, these essays carry a common theme of truth and hope. As Brueggemann writes in the preface, there is no doubt that the prophetic tradition regularly engages in truth-telling in order to expose social reality as a systemic act of falseness that contradicts the purposes of God. The prophetic tradition of Jeremiah, for instance, is preoccupied with truth-telling that exposes falseness. The prophet exposes the deceit of dominant culture. That same prophetic tradition (like many others) turns eventually to the work of hope-telling. Such hope does not doubt that the faithful God can create futures, a way out of no way. The sequence from truth to hope in the book of Jeremiah is characteristic of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. These several prophetic voices (that gave canonical shape to the prophetic books) knew that this sequence is definingly important. There can be no hope until truth is told. Our temptation, of course, is to do the work of hope without the prior work of truth. Readers will find this collection of essays to be theologically rooted in the concept of prophetic tradition as a means of truth-telling. Brueggemann explores that, without God, truth-telling is nothing more than harping, and hope-telling is only wishful thinking.
Download or read book Still Hungry at the Feast written by Samuel Torvend and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Still Hungry at the Feast, Episcopal priest and professor Samuel Torvend invites readers to expand their experience and understanding of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, as more than a personal encounter with the risen Christ. Drawing on recent Jesus research, the long history of eucharistic reflection among Christians, and contemporary commitments to economic justice, Still Hungry at the Feast invokes the integral relationship between eucharistic practice and eucharistic mission. Here the ecumenical pattern and meaning of the Mass opens toward care for our wounded creation, solidarity with the poor and outcast, keeping the fast, and recovering a eucharistic economy. Lectionary references will assist those charged with liturgical preparation, while preachers and catechists will find guidance in the eucharistic homilies that conclude the book.
Download or read book Be the Brave One written by Ann Kansfield and published by Broadleaf Books. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On September 11, 2001, Ann Kansfield, a successful Wall Street broker who had spent years laying a path of achievements, stood on the doorstep of profound change. The city she loved was in turmoil, and a calling to help others was emerging from deep within her. Part memoir and part spiritual formation guide, Kansfield's Be the Brave One relays her stunning transformation from a "run-of-the-mill capitalist jerk" into a wife, mother, and pastor committed to feeding the poor at her church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The first female and openly gay chaplain at the New York Fire Department, and voted the inaugural New York Times New Yorker of the Year, Kansfield uses her characteristic wit and knack for accessible storytelling to reveal how an adventurous faith rooted in living out your convictions can bring about radical change in the world. From authenticity and courage, to perseverance and gratitude, in Kansfield's journey you will find the insight and tools to name and claim your own core spiritual values. Ultimately, Kansfield's story will leave readers both comforted and challenged to discover and live out their own faith rooted in open-hearted conviction.
Download or read book Your Jesus Is too Small written by Douglas J. Miller and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We can make Jesus look very small if we are not careful. Your Jesus Is Too Small explores how a trivialized Jesus contributes to a collapsed Christian moral character. The 2016 election exposed the truth that for many Christians character does not count, or is a very low priority. Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for President Trump, not known as a man of high moral character. This collapse of character is especially troubling since Christians claim to seek after the mind and character of Jesus Christ. What's more, the ingrained and unrelenting cultural values--combined with our inescapable self-centered pursuits--bombard us every moment and blight our character. After noting how we belittle Jesus, this book explores ways we can exalt him, allowing his character traits to inform and then transform our hearts and minds. A credible Jesus also means that more tongues will confess him and more knees bow before him and that more people will desire his compassionate character. Then we will be morally equipped to address the great crises of our day: persistent poverty, the marginalizing of out-groups, raging violence, and our planet's lingering woes.
Download or read book Justice written by Nicholas Wolterstorff and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-02 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wide-ranging and ambitious, Justice combines moral philosophy and Christian ethics to develop an important theory of rights and of justice as grounded in rights. Nicholas Wolterstorff discusses what it is to have a right, and he locates rights in the respect due the worth of the rights-holder. After contending that socially-conferred rights require the existence of natural rights, he argues that no secular account of natural human rights is successful; he offers instead a theistic account. Wolterstorff prefaces his systematic account of justice as grounded in rights with an exploration of the common claim that rights-talk is inherently individualistic and possessive. He demonstrates that the idea of natural rights originated neither in the Enlightenment nor in the individualistic philosophy of the late Middle Ages, but was already employed by the canon lawyers of the twelfth century. He traces our intuitions about rights and justice back even further, to Hebrew and Christian scriptures. After extensively discussing justice in the Old Testament and the New, he goes on to show why ancient Greek and Roman philosophy could not serve as a framework for a theory of rights. Connecting rights and wrongs to God's relationship with humankind, Justice not only offers a rich and compelling philosophical account of justice, but also makes an important contribution to overcoming the present-day divide between religious discourse and human rights.
Download or read book Beyond Homelessness written by Steven Bouma-Prediger and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2008-06-03 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a brilliant use of metaphor that makes clear why the world leaves us feeling so uneasy!
Download or read book The Future of Christian Theology written by David F. Ford and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-02-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Future of Christian Theology represents a personal manifesto from one of the world's leading theologians, exploring the ways Christian theology in the twenty-first century has been, and can now continue to be, both creative and wise. Represents an outstanding and engaging account of the task of theology today Offers an insightful description of what makes for discerning and creative theology. Written from the perspective of decades of experience, and in close dialogue with theologians of other faiths Features a strong interfaith and public theology dimension, and a contemporary portrait of the field from the inside A hopeful and illuminating search for wisdom and understanding in the increasingly complex religious and secular world of the twenty-first century.
Download or read book The Just Church written by Jim Martin and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-09-21 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you ready for a new way to seek justice – an ancient way to know God? Finally, a practical guide on how to do justice and grow in discipleship —from those on the frontlines of the battle in the world’s darkest and most dangerous places. Jim Martin and International Justice Mission are experts not only at bringing rescue to victims of violence, sex trafficking, slavery, and oppression, but also, at bringing churches into the fight, through concrete steps that actually make a difference. Learn how to carry out one of the Bible’s core commands—to seek justice—in a way that amounts to more than mere words and good intentions. In the process, you’ll discover one of the most powerful tools to grow faith and deepen discipleship. In The Just Church, Martin shares tangible, accessible strategies to respond to God’s call to seek justice, defend the widow and orphan, and rescue the oppressed . . . whether in far-off places or right in your own community
Download or read book Beyond Homelessness 15th Anniversary Edition written by Steven Bouma-Prediger and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2023-09-12 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would the world look like if everyone had a home? The rise in homeless encampments. The destruction of our planet. The disconnection from place caused by capitalism and technology. Beyond the unavailability of housing, our culture is experiencing a devastating loss of home. In Beyond Homelessness, Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian Walsh explore the relationship between socioeconomic, ecological, and cultural homelessness. Bouma-Prediger and Walsh blend groundbreaking scholarship with stirring biblical meditations, while enriching their discussion with literature, music, and art. Offering practical solutions and a hope-filled vision of home, they show how to heal the deep dislocations in our society. In this fifteenth-anniversary edition, the authors return to their work with a new postscript, in which they discuss the evolution of their ideas and share true stories of home and community built anew. This revitalized classic is a must-read for any Christian committed to social justice—and anyone longing for home.
Download or read book Justice as a Basic Human Need written by Antony James William Taylor and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychologists in different tributaries of the discipline have long been preoccupied with aspects of 'Justice', but none previously has addressed the essential question raised in this book - namely of justice being as vital to the essentials of life and to the flowering of the human spirit as other basic needs. The same can be said for academics and practitioners in other disciplines in social science, as well as those in mental health and psychiatry. Although lawyers might come close to accepting the proposition, it seems to me that in the main their professional expertise is directed to the superficial maintenance of systems of justice rather than to the underlying reasons for doing so. This book, arising from academic, clinical, empirical, and theoretical studies, goes the further mile by giving justice its proper place in the hierarchy of basic human needs. It is designed in accord with a general systems theory in which contributions are welcomed from international scholars and researchers in different domains of knowledge. Above all, it is written in the hope of inducing others to share a commitment to justice and do their utmost to prevent injustice.
Download or read book A Devotional for Progressive Christians written by Lon B. Chesnutt and published by LifeRich Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-22 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Devotional for Progressive Christians , author Lon Chesnutt is speaking to and for self-exiles from the church who claim to be spiritual but not religious in our times. During a time of intense searching over what it means to be religious, this short book offers some hope. In a practical waywith stories and experiencethe author demonstrates how to move from personal reflection to trusting your judgment and engaging the world. It can change your journey in prayer from wondering whos listening into new insights on personal responsibility.
