Download or read book Caesar and the Sacrament written by R. Alan Streett and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-01-24 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the earliest Christ-followers were baptized they participated in a politically subversive act. Rejecting the Empire’s claim that it had a divine right to rule the world, they pledged their allegiance to a kingdom other than Rome and a king other than Caesar (Acts 17:7). Many books explore baptism from doctrinal or theological perspectives, and focus on issues such as the correct mode of baptism, the proper candidate for baptism, who has the authority to baptize, and whether or not baptism is a symbol or means of grace. By contrast, Caesar and the Sacrament investigates the political nature of baptism. Very few contemporary Christians consider baptism’s original purpose or political significance. Only by studying baptism in its historical context, can we discover its impact on first-century believers and the adverse reaction it engendered among Roman and Jewish officials. Since baptism was initially a rite of non-violent resistance, what should its function be today?

Download or read book God and Caesar written by George Pell and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2007-10 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a deep knowledge of history and human affairs, the essays pinpoint the key issues facing Christians and non-believers in determining the future of modern democratic life

Download or read book Render Unto Caesar written by Charles J. Chaput and published by Image. This book was released on 2009-08-04 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “People who take God seriously will not remain silent about their faith. They will often disagree about doctrine or policy, but they won’t be quiet. They can’t be. They’ll act on what they believe, sometimes at the cost of their reputations and careers. Obviously the common good demands a respect for other people with different beliefs and a willingness to compromise whenever possible. But for Catholics, the common good can never mean muting themselves in public debate on foundational issues of human dignity. Christian faith is always personal but never private. This is why any notion of tolerance that tries to reduce faith to private idiosyncrasy, or a set of opinions that we can indulge at home but need to be quiet about in public, will always fail.” —From the Introduction Few topics in recent years have ignited as much public debate as the balance between religion and politics. Does religious thought have any place in political discourse? Do religious believers have the right to turn their values into political action? What does it truly mean to have a separation of church and state? The very heart of these important questions is here addressed by one of the leading voices on the topic, Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia. While American society has ample room for believers and nonbelievers alike, Chaput argues, our public life must be considered within the context of its Christian roots. American democracy does not ask its citizens to put aside their deeply held moral and religious beliefs for the sake of public policy. In fact, it requires exactly the opposite. As the nation’s founders knew very well, people are fallible. The majority of voters, as history has shown again and again, can be uninformed, misinformed, biased, or simply wrong. Thus, to survive, American democracy depends on an engaged citizenry —people of character, including religious believers, fighting for their beliefs in the public square—respectfully but vigorously, and without apology. Anything less is bad citizenship and a form of theft from the nation’s health. Or as the author suggests: Good manners are not an excuse for political cowardice. American Catholics and other persons of goodwill are part of a struggle for our nation’s future, says Charles J. Chaput. Our choices, including our political choices, matter. Catholics need to take an active, vocal, and morally consistent role in public debate. We can’t claim to personally believe in the sanctity of the human person, and then act in our public policies as if we don’t. We can’t separate our private convictions from our public actions without diminishing both. In the words of the author, “How we act works backward on our convictions, making them stronger or smothering them under a snowfall of alibis.” Vivid, provocative, clear, and compelling, Render unto Caesar is a call to American Catholics to serve the highest ideals of their nation by first living their Catholic faith deeply, authentically.

Download or read book The Atheism of the Early Church written by R. J. Rushdoony and published by Chalcedon Foundation. This book was released on 2009-11-16 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Christians were called "heretics" and "atheists" when they denied the gods of Rome, in particular the divinity of the emperor and the statism he embodied in his personality cult. These Christians knew that Jesus Christ, not the state, was their Lord and that this faith required a different kind of relationship to the state than the state demanded. Because Jesus Christ was their acknowledged Sovereign, they consciously denied such esteem to all other claimants. Today the church must take a similar stand before the modern state.

Download or read book Confessing Christ written by Keith S. Whitfield and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2024-11-01 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edited by Baptist scholars Steven A. McKinion, Christine E. Thornton, and Keith S. Whitfield, Confessing Christ: An Introduction to Baptist Dogmatics offers a unique and comprehensive exploration of Baptist theology. Grounded in the belief that theology is both exploratory and explanatory, the book introduces a historical, covenantal, ecclesial, and confessional approach to Baptist Dogmatics. Each essay delves into a specific area of dogmatic theology, covering essential topics such as God, Scripture, anthropology, Christology, salvation, ecclesiology, the sacraments, the Christian life, and eschatology. The volume editors emphasize the importance of renewing Baptist life and mission through a rediscovery of the rich theological heritage. By understanding and engaging with this tradition, Baptist Christians can express their faith more authentically in the contemporary context and future endeavors. The book's four key elements—historical, covenantal, ecclesial, and confessional—provide a structured framework for exploring core Christian doctrines within the context of Baptist dogmatics. Each chapter incorporates biblical exegesis and dialogue with at least one historical Baptist theologian. Confessing Christ stands as a significant contribution to the field of Baptist dogmatics, serving as essential reading for Baptist scholars, pastors, and church leaders seeking a deeper understanding of the Baptist theological tradition and its contemporary relevance.

Download or read book Theological quarterly written by and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Christianity and the Laws of Conscience written by Jeffrey B. Hammond and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-24 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conscience has long been a foundational theme in Christian ethics, but it is a notoriously slippery and contested term. This volume works to define conscience and reveal the similarities and differences between different Christian traditions' thinking on the subject. In a thorough and scholarly manner, the authors explore Christian theological, legal, constitutional, historical, and philosophical meanings of conscience. Covering a range of historical periods, major figures in the development of conscience, and contemporary applications, this book is a vital source for scholars from a wide variety of disciplines seeking to understand conscience from a range of perspectives.

Download or read book The Evangelical Herald written by and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book What Belongs to Caesar written by Donald Kaufman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2006-01-25 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even before American soldiers were involved in fighting in the war in Vietnam, someone observed that the United States government was spending money Òlike a drunken sailor. The years since then have substantiated the truth of that observation. The exorbitant cost of war production and the fantastic waste involved in military spending has prompted more and more citizens to inquire as to just what tax funds are being spent on. Disgruntled taxpayers discover that wars and taxes invariably go together. When governments engage in wars, they immediately levy taxes on the citizens to pay for them. This pattern of taxation is firmly grounded in historical experience. In an effort to see the parallels between our times and earlier times, the author begins his study of the war tax problem by taking a brief look at the history of taxation (both ancient and modern). With this background for perspective he moves on to examine several biblical passages like ÒRender to Caesar . . ., which are often used to justify an absolute, unquestioning obedience to governmental demands. Here is a Òhang-up that frequently paralyzes Christian social concern into helpless indifference. A third section of the book explores three basic arguments against the voluntary payment of war taxes. The appeal and power of these arguments are then demonstrated by reviewing only a few of the ways in which people have attempted to resolve this painful ethical dilemma. The author makes a strong case for a more radical Christian application of what it means to be a conscientious objector to war. He claims that those who are willing to refuse the government their Òwarm bodies but nevertheless volunteer (however reluctantly) their Òcold cash for war taxes, are failing to make the choice of discipleship where it counts. Instead, the Christian must find in his commitment to God the kind of courage which enables him to say a decisive No! to the unreasonable demands of government, regardless of the consequences to his own life. Nothing less than this will be adequate to confront the evil and potential destructiveness of our giant Òmilitary-industrial complex.

Download or read book A Documentary History of Religion in America to 1877 written by Edwin S. Gaustad and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2003-09-19 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A richly variegated selection of short documents illustrative of the history of religion in America. The best source-book available to contemporary students and general readers.

Download or read book The University of Newcastle Historical Journal written by University of Newcastle (Australia) and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Common Good Uncommon Questions written by and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Politics Law and Morality written by Vladimir Soloviev and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considered one of Russia’s greatest philosophers, Vladimir Soloviev (1853–1900) was also a theologian, historian, poet, and social and political critic. His works have emerged to enjoy renewed attention in post–Soviet Russia, and his concerns echo in contemporary discussions of politics, law, and morality. In this collection of Soloviev’s essays—many translated into English for the first time—the philosopher explores an array of social issues, from the death penalty to nationalism to women’s rights. Soloviev reacts against the tradition of European rationalist thought and seeks to synthesize religious philosophy, science, and ethics in the context of a universal Christianity. In these writings he reveals the centrality of human rights in his Christian worldview, not only as an abstract theory but also as an inspiration in everyday life. In a substantive introduction and copious annotations to the essays, Vladimir Wozniuk points out distinctive and often overlooked features of Soloviev’s works while illuminating his place within both the Russian and Western intellectual traditions.

Download or read book Herald of Gospel Liberty written by Elias Smith and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 852 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sentinel of Christian Liberty written by and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 880 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Christian Origins of Tolerance written by Jed W. Atkins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-07-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tolerance is usually regarded as a quintessential liberal value. This position is supported by a standard liberal history that views religious toleration as emerging from the post-Reformation wars of religion as the solution to the problem of religious violence. Requiring the separation of church from state, tolerance was secured by giving the state the sole authority to punish religious violence and to protect the individual freedoms of conscience and religion. Commitment to tolerance is independent of judgements about justice and the common good. This standard liberal history exerts a powerful hold on the modern imagination: it undergirds several important recent accounts of liberal tolerance and virtually every major study of tolerance in the ancient world. Nevertheless, this familiar narrative distorts our understanding of tolerance's premodern origins and impoverishes present-day debates when many members of Christianity and Islam, the two largest global religions, have reservations about liberal tolerance. Setting aside the standard liberal history, The Christian Origins of Tolerance recovers tolerance's beginnings in a forgotten tradition forged by North African Christian thinkers of the first five centuries CE in critical conversation with one another, St. Paul, the rival tradition of Stoicism, and the political and legal thought of the wider Roman world. This North African Christian tradition conceives of tolerance as patience within plurality. This tradition does not require the separation of religion and the secular state as a prerequisite for tolerance and embeds individual rights and the freedoms of conscience and religion within a wider theoretical framework that derives accounts of political judgement and patience from theological reflection on God's roles as a patient father and just judge. By recovering this forgotten tradition, we can better understand and assess the choices made by leading theorists of liberal tolerance, and as a result, think better about how to achieve peaceful coexistence within and beyond liberal democracies in a world in which many Christians and Muslims are sceptical of liberalism.

Download or read book Abortion Conscience and Democracy written by Mark R. MacGuigan and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 1994-01-10 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few issues have polarized Canadians and Americans as much as the abortion debate. In this thoughtful and thought-provoking reflection on the implications the law on abortion has on democracy, Mark MacGuigan brings a much-needed perspective to this controversial subject. Few people are as well qualified to do so: MacGuigan is a former law professor, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, a Catholic, and a federal appellate-court judge. Distinguishing carefully between morality and the law, MacGuigan includes a history of the criminal law, the Catholic Church’s views, and the often-ignored roles of individual conscience, freedom and responsibility in democracy. He reviews the essential debate, important case histories, and the evolving social perspectives that have attached themselves to discussions of abortion. he also includes chapters on the related issues of contraception and euthanasia. MacGuigan refers to a wide range of influential and international documents and judgements: papal encyclicals, the Wolfenden Report, Roe vs. Wade, a ruling in a case that involved Dr. Henry Morgentaler, and numerous other sources. With great candour, MacGuigan also explores how his own attitude and position have changed to the point where he now opposes any legislation limiting abortion before viability. Those who are seeking clarity of the issues and those who want to uncloud the rhetoric and the arguments should not miss reading this important work.