Download or read book Faith Challenges Culture written by Paul O'Callaghan and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-10-25 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern culture we live off and take for granted is an elevated, sophisticated one, containing a great variety of precious anthropological insights and strengths, with a surprising adaptability and openness to absorb, to clarify and to unite. However, in the present moment it comes across, in many cases, as a culture detached from the faith that gave life to it in the first place, and without which it may simply not survive. In fact it has become, of late, a fragile culture, a culture less and less capable of adapting and absorbing and uniting. This may be seen in the way many aspects of modern culture and public life have fallen into a pathology of rationalism, individualism, inequality, discord, ingratitude. This may be seen in our attempt to live in isolation from our fellow humans, unwilling to recognize the world we live in and the privileges we enjoy as God’s gifts. Faith Challenges Culture: A Reflection of the Dynamics of Modernity describes the process in two directions: how culture challenges faith to provide answers that have not been previously given, and how faith challenges culture not only by showing modern culture’s fragility and ambivalence, but also by posing new questions.
Download or read book A Faith of Our Own written by Jonathan Merritt and published by FaithWords. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every day, major headlines tell the story of how Christianity is attempting to influence American culture and politics. But statistics show that young Americans are disenchanted with a faith that has become culturally antagonistic and too closely aligned with partisan politics. In this personal yet practical work, Jonathan Merritt uncovers the changing face of American Christianity by uniquely examining the coming of age of a new generation of Christians. Jonathan Merritt illuminates the spiritual ethos of this new generation of believers who engage the world with Christ-centered faith but an un-polarized political perspective. Through personal stories and biblically rooted commentary this scion of a leading evangelical family takes a close, thoughtful look at the changing religious and political environment, addressing such divisive issues as abortion, gay marriage, environmental use and care, race, war, poverty, and the imbalance of world wealth. Through Scripture, the examples of Jesus, and personal defining faith experiences, he distills the essential truths at the core of a Christian faith that is now just coming of age.
Download or read book Christ and Culture written by H. Richard Niebuhr and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1956-09-05 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 50th-anniversary edition, with a new foreword by the distinguished historian Martin E. Marty, who regards this book as one of the most vital books of our time, as well as an introduction by the author never before included in the book, and a new preface by James Gustafson, the premier Christian ethicist who is considered Niebuhr’s contemporary successor, poses the challenge of being true to Christ in a materialistic age to an entirely new generation of Christian readers.
Download or read book Faith and Culture written by Kelly Monroe Kullberg and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2011-04-19 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For those who want to love God with their hearts and minds, editors Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington weave together both inspiration and illumination throughout this collection of daily readings. Faith and Culture: A Guide to a Culture Shaped by Faith translates the ideas of today’s Christian thought leaders, delivering them in accessible portions that fit into anyone’s busy schedule. Each chapter interacts with one of seven recurring themes: the Bible and theology, literature, history, contemporary culture, the arts, science and math, and philosophy. Along the way, Kullberg and Arrington explore significant ideas, people, and events from a distinctly Christian worldview. Some of the readings in this book include: Thee Secret Gospels (the Bible and theology), Slavery (history), A Response to God’s Beauty (art), Globalization (contemporary culture), and more Each day spent with this illuminating guide will inspire readers to wonder at the genius, power, and beauty of Jesus.
Download or read book Future Faith written by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2018-03-23 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Future Faith: Ten Challenges Reshaping the Practice of Christianity, author Wesley Granberg-Michaelson provides a lucid view of how the top ten winds of change blowing through global Christian faith are reshaping the practice of Christianity today. He is uniquely qualified to identify and interpret connection points between global Christian trends and the American church. Drawing on the stories, examples, and personalities of pastors and congregations from throughout the U.S. as well as those from Africa, Asia, Latin America, who are the faces of Christianity's future, Future Faith is designed to inform and empower followers of Jesus to seek new ways of becoming the face of Christ to a rapidly changing world. Leaders and practitioners in church growth, renewal, and planting will be a primary audience for this book. Students of religion from Catholic, evangelical, Pentecostal, and historic Protestant streams will find this book an informative and stimulating resource for pondering together the future of their faith. Small groups engaged in congregational nurture and growth will find in the author a welcome companion for guiding them through the multi-cultural landscape of contemporary faith.
Download or read book God s Image and Global Cultures written by Kenneth Nehrbass and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-08-26 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globalization has raised numerous questions about theology and culture for Christians. How should we respond to outsourcing and immigration? How does anti-Western sentiment affect the proclamation of the gospel? What is the role of the church in society? This book argues that Christians will be most fulfilled and most effective if they embrace their cultural activity rather than feel ambivalent about it. The central question of this book is, how does bearing God's image relate to cultural activity? Nehrbass explains that "spheres of culture," such as political, technological, and social structures, are systems that God has instilled in humans as his image bearers, so that they can glorify and enjoy him forever. Therefore, a theology of culture involves recognizing that the kingdom of God encompasses heaven and Earth, rather than pitting heaven against Earth. The text surveys anthropological explanations for humanity's dependence on culture, and shows that each explanation provides only partial explanatory scope. The most satisfying explanation is that a major functional aspect of bearing God's image is engaging in culture, since the Trinity has been eternally engaged in cultural functions like ruling, communicating, and creating. Each chapter contains a summary and questions about what it means to be a world-changer in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Think Christianly written by Jonathan Morrow and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Think Christianly is about seizing the opportunities we have every day to speak the life Jesus offers into our culture. Tragically, many such opportunities pass us by unclaimed—either because we don’t notice them or we have not prepared ourselves to enter into them. And those around us seem to grow increasingly unwilling to hear anything the church has to say. Jonathan Morrow helps church leaders envision and implement ways for their congregations to “think Christianly” about contemporary questions and to speak in informed, engaging ways. Morrow explores many of the important issues that Christians often hear raised with regard to faith—questions about who Jesus was, the good and bad of religion, pain and evil in the world, the reliability of the Bible, sexuality and intimate relationships, and hope for change, among others. The life and faith issues that Think Christianly addresses lead to cultural moments where Christianity and contemporary culture intersect. This book will help churches take vital steps toward cultivating compassion and competence in speaking faithfully to a questioning world.
Download or read book America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity written by Robert Wuthnow and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and adherents of other non-Western religions have become a significant presence in the United States in recent years. Yet many Americans continue to regard the United States as a Christian society. How are we adapting to the new diversity? Do we casually announce that we "respect" the faiths of non-Christians without understanding much about those faiths? Are we willing to do the hard work required to achieve genuine religious pluralism? Award-winning author Robert Wuthnow tackles these and other difficult questions surrounding religious diversity and does so with his characteristic rigor and style. America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity looks not only at how we have adapted to diversity in the past, but at the ways rank-and-file Americans, clergy, and other community leaders are responding today. Drawing from a new national survey and hundreds of in-depth qualitative interviews, this book is the first systematic effort to assess how well the nation is meeting the current challenges of religious and cultural diversity. The results, Wuthnow argues, are both encouraging and sobering--encouraging because most Americans do recognize the right of diverse groups to worship freely, but sobering because few Americans have bothered to learn much about religions other than their own or to engage in constructive interreligious dialogue. Wuthnow contends that responses to religious diversity are fundamentally deeper than polite discussions about civil liberties and tolerance would suggest. Rather, he writes, religious diversity strikes us at the very core of our personal and national theologies. Only by understanding this important dimension of our culture will we be able to move toward a more reflective approach to religious pluralism.
Download or read book Clashing Symbols written by Michael Paul Gallagher and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition provides a guide to the relationship between faith and culture. Providing an introduction to all the major figures, issues and debates, this guide is useful for students and those wishing to unlock the realities of contemporary culture.
Download or read book Consuming Religion written by Vincent J. Miller and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-08-18 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary theology, argues Miller, is silent on what is unquestionably one of the most important cultural issues it faces: consumerism or "consumer culture." While there is no shortage of expressions of concern about the corrosive effects of consumerism from the standpoint of economic justice or environmental ethics, there is a surprising paucity of theoretically sophisticated works on the topic, for consumerism, argues Miller, is not just about behavioral "excesses"; rather, it is a pervasive worldview that affects our construction as persons-what motivates us, how we relate to others, to culture, and to religion. Consuming Religion surveys almost a century of scholarly literature on consumerism and the commodification of culture and charts the ways in which religious belief and practice have been transformed by the dominant consumer culture of the West. It demonstrates the significance of this seismic cultural shift for theological method, doctrine, belief, community, and theological anthropology. Like more popular texts, the book takes a critical stand against the deleterious effects of consumerism. However, its analytical complexity provides the basis for developing more sophisticated tactics for addressing these problems.
Download or read book Before You Lose Your Faith written by Ivan Mesa and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jude Leader Kit written by Jackie Hill Perry and published by . This book was released on 2019-10 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While often overlooked, the Book of Jude remains as relevant today as the time it was written. God has commanded His beloved church to do the necessary work of contending for the faith in a world of unbelief, and as we do, He will keep us from falling into the same deception. In this 7-session study from Jackie Hill Perry, dive into themes of being called, loved, and kept, and learn how to point others to Jesus in grace and truth. We serve others well when we share the whole gospel with them, not just the parts deemed attractive by our culture. Features: Leader helps to guide questions and discussions within small groups Personal study segments to complete between 7 weeks of group sessions Verse-by-verse study for comprehension and application Interactive teaching videos, approximately 8-20 minutes per session WordSearch digital library and extra leader resources Benefits: Recognize God's Word as an anchor in the ever-shifting cultural climate. Discover your God-given identity in a world of deception. See how this small, obscure book in Scripture still speaks to the church today. Video Session Titles and Run Times: Session 1: Jude 1-2 (15:22) Session 2: Jude 3-4 (15:31) Session 3: Jude 5-11 (17:10) Session 4: Jude 14-15 (19:08) Session 5: Jude 20-23 (13:45) Session 6: Jude 24-25 (20:21) Session 7: Wrap-up (8:06)
Download or read book Secular Faith written by Mark A. Smith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-09-11 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Pope Francis recently answered “Who am I to judge?” when asked about homosexuality, he ushered in a new era for the Catholic church. A decade ago, it would have been unthinkable for a pope to express tolerance for homosexuality. Yet shifts of this kind are actually common in the history of Christian groups. Within the United States, Christian leaders have regularly revised their teachings to match the beliefs and opinions gaining support among their members and larger society. Mark A. Smith provocatively argues that religion is not nearly the unchanging conservative influence in American politics that we have come to think it is. In fact, in the long run, religion is best understood as responding to changing political and cultural values rather than shaping them. Smith makes his case by charting five contentious issues in America’s history: slavery, divorce, homosexuality, abortion, and women’s rights. For each, he shows how the political views of even the most conservative Christians evolved in the same direction as the rest of society—perhaps not as swiftly, but always on the same arc. During periods of cultural transition, Christian leaders do resist prevailing values and behaviors, but those same leaders inevitably acquiesce—often by reinterpreting the Bible—if their positions become no longer tenable. Secular ideas and influences thereby shape the ways Christians read and interpret their scriptures. So powerful are the cultural and societal norms surrounding us that Christians in America today hold more in common morally and politically with their atheist neighbors than with the Christians of earlier centuries. In fact, the strongest predictors of people’s moral beliefs are not their religious commitments or lack thereof but rather when and where they were born. A thoroughly researched and ultimately hopeful book on the prospects for political harmony, Secular Faith demonstrates how, over the long run, boundaries of secular and religious cultures converge.
Download or read book Faith in the Market written by John Michael Giggie and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the many ways in which religious groups actually embraced commercial culture to establish an urban presence. [back cover].
Download or read book Pop Goes Religion written by Terry Mattingly and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2005-11-13 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Johnny Cash, Harry Potter, the Simpsons, and John Grisham. What do all of these icons in pop culture have to do with faith? Find the answer in Pop Goes Religion; relevant insight into the world of today's entertainment. In this collection of essays, popular American journalist, Terry Mattingly teaches readers how to identify elements of faith in today's pop culture. Topics include: God & Popular Music Faith & the Big Screen God on TV Ink, Paper, and God Politics and Current Events From music to movies, politics to the pope, Mattingly explores the matters of the heart with a fresh and relevant perspective.
Download or read book Truth in a Culture of Doubt written by Andreas J. Köstenberger and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2014-09 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Truth in a Culture of Doubt takes readers on a journey to explain topics such as the Bible’s origins, the copying of the Bible, alleged contradictions in Scripture, and the relationship between God and evil. Responding to skeptical scholars such as Bart Ehrman —professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and author of four New York Times bestsellers—this book is written for all serious students of Scripture and will enable you to know how to respond to a wide variety of critical arguments raised against the reliability of Scripture and the truthfulness of Christianity.
Download or read book Visual Faith written by William A. Dyrness and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2001-11 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intriguing, substantive look into the relationship between the church and the world of art.
