Download or read book Concern for the Church in the World written by Laura Schmidt Roberts and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amid the mid-twentieth-century post-war relief and rebuilding efforts, reconsideration of views on nonviolence and civic engagement was also underway for North American Mennonites. What peace theology was adequate to the task of recasting the church’s role in the world as it was emerging, including its economic and political systems? Essays in this volume explore these questions through intentional dialog across diverse viewpoints, including some in tension with the Mennonite hierarchy and broader Mennonite majority of the time. The writings—both their themes and their approach of intentional conversation across differences—provide a resource for Christians today wrestling anew with such issues amid the unprecedented upheaval marking the first two decades of the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Concern for Anabaptist Renewal written by Virgil Vogt and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-04-22 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What the Kingdom of God requires is a radical Christian movement in our own time which has a vigor and depth that equals that of those radicals who have gone before us.” These words introduce a Radical Reformation Reader, first published in 1971 by a group confident that the past could—and did—offer practical, theological guidance for following Jesus in the contemporary world. What forms of church are appropriate to the ecclesial heirs of such a radical tradition, especially in settings marked by individualism, escalating violence, and growing economic disparity? The essays republished here explore divergent contextual responses and invite readers to do the same.
Download or read book The Anabaptist Vision written by Harold S. Bender and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 1960 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anabaptist Vision, given as a presidential address before the American Society of Church History in 1943, has become a classic essay. In it, Harold S. Bender defines the spirit and purposes of the original Anabaptists. Three major points of emphasis are: the transformation of the entire way of life of the individual to the teachings and example of Christ, voluntary church membership based upon conversion and commitment to holy living, and Christian love and nonresistance applied to all human relationships.
Download or read book Concern for Church Polity and Discipline written by Laura Schmidt Roberts and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-03-30 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CONCERN: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal was born in the 1950s of shared concerns over a gap between an Anabaptist vision and contemporary, North American Mennonite reality. The initial group views the increasingly hierarchical denominational structure, the emergence of centralized, professionalized, pastoral ministry, and the resultant changes in polity and practice as fundamentally incompatible with a Believers' Church ecclesiology. Essays here present that critique and discussion of the reconfiguration of pastoral and communal authority, as well as the assertion that reclamation of a disciplined priesthood of all believers is the path of Christian renewal. Today the question of what institutional forms best structure the leadership, authority, and shared life of congregations persists, marked by particular concern to attend to the exercise of power within actual communities of faith.
Download or read book Concern for Church Mission and Spiritual Gifts written by Laura Schmidt Roberts and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1950s, a conversation among a handful of American graduate students considering the place of Mennonites in the modern world blossomed into a published forum, CONCERN: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal. The CONCERN writings here consider the global, missional, experiential, contextualized realities of such a "place," past and present. The writings explore the role of culture and context in the church's mission, lived faith, and theological articulation through various avenues of approach: the global church and the ecumenical movement, Christendom's legacy of colonialism and cultural accommodation, critique of rigid and outdated ecclesial structures and forms, the complexities of the unavoidably enculturated nature of faith as proclaimed and lived. Two contemporary responses offer postcolonial critique and development, demonstrating that such topics continue to be of critical concern in today's globally interconnected yet fragmented and divided world.
Download or read book Creation and the Environment written by Calvin Redekop and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent years have seen a shift in the belief that a religious world-view, specifically a Christian one, precludes a commitment to environmentalism. Whether as "stewards of God's creation" or champions of "environmental justice," church members have increasingly found that a strong pro-ecology stand on environmental issues is an integral component of their faith. But not all Christian denominations are latecomers to the issue of environmentalism. In Creation and the EnvironmentCalvin W. Redekop and his co-authors explain the unique environmental position of the Anabaptists, in particular the Mennonites. After a brief survey of the major forces contributing to the word's present ecological crisis, Creation and the Environment explores the uniquely Anabaptist view of our relationship to what they see as the created order. In rural Amish and Mennonite communities, they explain, the environment—especially the "land"—is considered part of the Kingdom God plans to establish on earth. In this view, the creation is part of the divine order, with the redemption of humankind inextricably linked to the redemption and restoration of the material world. The well-being a purpose of creation and human history are thus seen as completely interdependent. Contributors: Donovan Ackley III, Claremont Graduate School • Kenton Brubaker, Eastern Mennonite University • Thomas Finger, Claremont Graduate School • Karen Klassen Harder, Bethel College, Kansas • James Harder, Bethel College, Kansas • Lawrence Hart, Cheyenne Cultural Center, Clinton, Oklahoma • Theodore Hiebert, McCormick Theological Seminary • Karl Keener, Pennsylvania State University • Walter Klaassen, Conrad Grebel College • David Kline, Holmes County, Ohio • Calvin W. Redekop, Conrad Grebel College • Mel Schmidt • Dorothy Jean Weaver, Eastern Mennonite University • Michael Yoder, Northwestern College, Iowa.
Download or read book Leaving Silence written by Susannah Larry and published by Herald Press. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #MeToo. #ChurchToo. #GodToo? What if survivors of sexualized violence experience the Bible as a powerful spiritual resource rather than an oppressive tool in the hands of those seeking to dismiss or justify abuse? Bible scholar Susannah Larry leads fellow survivors and those who care for them in a journey toward reclaiming the Bible amid the trauma of sexualized violence. Leaving Silence: Sexualized Violence, the Bible, and Standing with Survivors is an unflinching examination of sexualized violence in the Bible and the God who stands steadfastly with survivors. Larry addresses biblical experiences of coercion, familial betrayal, and self-blame while also illuminating God’s constant care and concern. By centering the experiences of survivors in Scripture, Larry opens new insights into some of the Bible’s most difficult texts and releases its ancient stories to serve as a powerful healing witness to the God who has shared in the experience of sexualized violence. Under Larry’s skillful guidance, readers will rediscover the God who is present in experiences of trauma and who desires ultimate wholeness for survivors.
Download or read book The Heterodox Yoder written by Paul Martens and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Heterodox Yoder provides a critical rereading of Yoder's corpus through his own conviction that discipleship is, most basically, ethics. Tracing the development of Yoder's theological foundations through to their final role in redefining Jewish-Christian and ecumenical relations, this volume explains why the appropriation and use of the language of politics eventually constrains Yoder's ethical vision to the point that it reframes Christianity within the limits of social ethics alone. Because this vision self-consciously excludes or, at best, relativizes many of the claims of orthodox Christianity (including but not limited to the ecumenical creeds), Martens concludes that Yoder's Christian ethic is best described as heterodox.
Download or read book Mennonite Piety Through the Centuries written by Robert Friedmann and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 1999-02-16 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book consists of two studies: ÒAnabaptism and PietismÓ and ÒMennonite Devotional Literature 1600-1800Ó. The first study gives the general historical analysis, the second provides Friedmann's concrete proof of his thesis. The first treatise puts the question of the Holy Spirit into the center of the discussion, as Friedemann believes that this question is more decisive for the pattern of living Christianity than doctrinal issues. The second treatise attempts to depict the spiritual life in its variform expression showing how the Holy Spirit, or that which sometimes is taken for Him, operates.
Download or read book Constantine Revisited written by John D. Roth and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-06-27 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays continues a long and venerable debate in the history of the Christian church regarding the legacy of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. For some, Constantine's conversion to Christianity early in the fourth century set in motion a process that made the church subservient to the civil authority of the state, brought a definitive end to pacifism as a central teaching of the early church, and redefined the character of Christian catechesis and missions. In 2010, Peter J. Leithart published a widely read polemic, Defending Constantine, that vigorously refuted this interpretation. In its place, Leithart offered a thoroughgoing rehabilitation of Constantine and his legacy, while directing a rhetorical fusillade against the pacifist theology and ethics of the Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. The essays gathered here in response to Leithart reflect the insights of eleven leading theologians, historians, and ethicists from a wide range of theological traditions. They engage one of the most contentious issues in Christian church history in irenic fashion and at the highest level of scholarship. In so doing, they help ensure that the "Constantinian Debate" will continue to be lively, substantive, and consequential.
Download or read book Beyond Cutting Edge written by Paul C. Heidebrecht and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A quick scan of any newsstand is enough to confirm the widespread preoccupation with technological change. As a myriad of articles and advertisements demonstrate, not only are we preoccupied with technology, but we are bombarded with numerous reminders that the cutting edge is in constant motion. Most often the underlying assumption of Christians is that we have no choice but to find ways to cope with the latest and greatest. Indeed, it is often assumed that the church has no choice but to find ways to cope with its new technological context. This book does not make the same assumptions. Building on the work of Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, it argues that the practices of the church make it possible for Christians to conscientiously engage technology. This happens when we recognize that marks of the church such as patience, vulnerability, and servanthood can put technological ideals such as speed, control, and efficiency in their proper place. In the course of grappling with three examples of morally formative technologies--automobiles, genetically modified food, and the Internet--this book goes beyond Yoder's thought by emphasizing that the church also plays a crucial role in our moral formation.
Download or read book CONCERN for Education written by Virgil Vogt and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once upon a time a group of young Anabaptist scholars took it upon themselves to convene a series of incisive conversations that addressed questions of Christian renewal. Among other topics that the CONCERN group (1955-1971) took on was the subject of how to think about higher education in the context of Christian renewal. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, "intentional Christian communities" are being created in the context of student leadership development programs, and a new generation of Programs for Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) at church related colleges are providing mini-grants for students involved in the New Monasticism movement. With such endeavors in mind, these essays--by Joanne Zerger Janzen, Walter Klassen, Albert Meyer, John Howard Yoder and company--raise probing questions that remain worth engaging by Christians who are concerned about what it means to seek the renewal of Christian higher education today.
Download or read book Principalities and Powers written by Jamie Pitts and published by Lutterworth Press. This book was released on 2014-08-28 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Principalities and Powers is an ambitious analysis of John Howard Yoder's complex sociological theory. Jamie Pitts' work transcends ideological boundaries, which have perplexed the many writers who have approached the legacy of John Howard Yoder after his death in 1997. Although there is much disagreement, a broad consensus is forming that his theology was, on the one hand, focused on the social and political meaning of the New Testament accounts of Jesus Christ and, on the other hand, sociologically reductive, hermeneutically tendentious and ecclesiologically ambiguous. Principalities and Powers proposes a revision of Yoder's theology that maintains its broadly sociological emphasis but corrects for its apparent methodological, political and metaphysical problems. Specifically, adjustments are made to his social theory to open it to spiritual reality, to hone its analytical approach, and to clarify its political import. To do so his preferred framework for social criticism, the theology of the principalities and powers, is examined in the context of his wider work and its critics, and then synthesized with concepts from Pierre Bourdieu's influential reflexive sociology.
Download or read book Leaning Both Ways at Once written by Jeffrey A. Conklin-Miller and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-08-26 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should the Methodist tradition continue to embody its evangelistic mission? Some believe effective evangelism requires ecclesial adaptation seeking relevance to attract outsiders. But does this strategy result in the church's embrace of consumer market practices, pandering to a world of church shoppers? Others suggest the most evangelistic thing the church can do is to be the church, displaying to the world the attractive beauty of a holy community. But could this ironically distance the church from its context and neglect the many ways the church is called to engage the world? The Wesleys formed a people called Methodist, embodying an evangelistic mission combining commitments to disciplined spiritual life and vital social engagement. In this book, Conklin-Miller suggests faithful (United) Methodist evangelism requires living in the tension between the church and the world, "leaning both ways at once," emphasizing the holiness of the church as a particular people, but at the same time, being a people sent to intercede in the world as servants, advocates, and witnesses. This understanding constitutes not only a broader reframing of evangelistic mission but also a vision for the identity and agency of the church in the Wesleyan tradition: a Methodist missional ecclesiology.
Download or read book Bodies of Peace written by Myles Werntz and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bodies of Peace argues that Christian nonviolence is both formed by and forms ecclesial life, creating an inextricable relationship between church commitment and resistance to war. In this volume, Myles Werntz examines the work of John Howard Yoder, Dorothy Day, William Stringfellow, and Robert McAfee Brown, demonstrating how each thinker's advocacy for nonviolent resistance depends deeply upon the ecclesiology out of which it comes. The volume argues that any account of an ecclesially-informed resistance to war must be open to a multitude of approaches, not as pragmatic concessions, but as a foretaste of ecumenical unity.
Download or read book Daily Demonstrators written by Tobin Miller Shearer and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mennonites, with their long tradition of peaceful protest and commitment to equality, were castigated by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. for not showing up on the streets to support the civil rights movement. Daily Demonstrators shows how the civil rights movement played out in Mennonite homes and churches from the 1940s through the 1960s. In the first book to bring together Mennonite religious history and civil rights movement history, Tobin Miller Shearer discusses how the civil rights movement challenged Mennonites to explore whether they, within their own church, were truly as committed to racial tolerance and equality as they might like to believe. Shearer shows the surprising role of children in overcoming the racial stereotypes of white adults. Reflecting the transformation taking place in the nation as a whole, Mennonites had to go through their own civil rights struggle before they came to accept interracial marriages and integrated congregations. Based on oral history interviews, photographs, letters, minutes, diaries, and journals of white and African-American Mennonites, this fascinating book further illuminates the role of race in modern American religion.
Download or read book Unlearning Protestantism written by Gerald W. Schlabach and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this clearly written and insightful book, Gerald Schlabach addresses the "Protestant dilemma" in ecclesiology: how to build lasting Christian community in a world of individualism and transience. Schlabach, a former Mennonite who is now Catholic, seeks not to encourage readers to abandon Protestant churches but to relearn some of the virtues that all Christian communities need to sustain their communal lives. He offers a vision for the right and faithful roles of authority, stability, and loyal dissent in Christian communal life. The book deals with issues that transcend denominations and will appeal to all readers, both Catholic and Protestant, interested in sustaining Christian tradition and community over time.
