Download or read book Why Study History written by John Fea and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the purpose of studying history? How do we reflect on contemporary life from a historical perspective, and can such reflection help us better understand ourselves, the world around us, and the God we worship and serve? Written by an accomplished historian, award-winning author, public evangelical spokesman, and respected teacher, this introductory textbook shows why Christians should study history, how faith is brought to bear on our understanding of the past, and how studying the past can help us more effectively love God and others. John Fea shows that deep historical thinking can relieve us of our narcissism; cultivate humility, hospitality, and love; and transform our lives more fully into the image of Jesus Christ. The first edition of this book has been used widely in Christian colleges across the country. The second edition provides an updated introduction to the study of history and the historian's vocation. The book has also been revised throughout and incorporates Fea's reflections on this topic from throughout the past 10 years.
Download or read book Global Citizenship in the 21st Century A Leap of Faith to a Better World Celebrating Diversity Inter Racial Inter Faith and Inter Cultural Harmon written by David J. Newing and published by . This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past two decades, two opposing currents have been building. On the one hand a resurgence of jingoistic nationalism, racial intolerance, violent and distorted radicalized extremism, Xenophobia and Islam phobia. On the other hand, there is a growing recognition that in a globalized world of instant information and social communication, old prejudices and outdated nationalistic sentiments must give way to a new era of pluralism and well informed global citizenship shaped by universal humanitarian values and ethics The purpose of this book is to promote, through education and dialogue, global citizenship, multi-culturalism, and mutual understanding and harmony among the people of all races, cultures, religions, and alternative belief systems. Global citizenship education, including learning about and respecting each other's cultures and faiths, leads to harmony, cohesion and mutual understanding within often increasingly diverse communities and also to the wider, interdependent global community, of which we are all members. A Leap of Faith to a Better World
Download or read book The Next Mormons written by Jana Riess and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Millennials--the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s--have been leaving organized religion in unprecedented numbers. For a long time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an exception: nearly three-quarters of people who grew up Mormon stayed that way into adulthood. In The Next Mormons, Jana Riess demonstrates that things are starting to change. Drawing on a large-scale national study of four generations of current and former Mormons as well as dozens of in-depth personal interviews, Riess explores the religious beliefs and behaviors of young adult Mormons, finding that while their levels of belief remain strong, their institutional loyalties are less certain than their parents' and grandparents'. For a growing number of Millennials, the tensions between the Church's conservative ideals and their generation's commitment to individualism and pluralism prove too high, causing them to leave the faith-often experiencing deep personal anguish in the process. Those who remain within the fold are attempting to carefully balance the Church's strong emphasis on the traditional family with their generation's more inclusive definition that celebrates same-sex couples and women's equality. Mormon families are changing too. More Mormons are remaining single, parents are having fewer children, and more women are working outside the home than a generation ago. The Next Mormons offers a portrait of a generation navigating between traditional religion and a rapidly changing culture.
Download or read book Native written by Kaitlin B. Curtice and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Native is about identity, soul-searching, and the never-ending journey of finding ourselves and finding God. As both a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and a Christian, Kaitlin Curtice offers a unique perspective on these topics. In this book, she shows how reconnecting with her Potawatomi identity both informs and challenges her faith. Curtice draws on her personal journey, poetry, imagery, and stories of the Potawatomi people to address themes at the forefront of today's discussions of faith and culture in a positive and constructive way. She encourages us to embrace our own origins and to share and listen to each other's stories so we can build a more inclusive and diverse future. Each of our stories matters for the church to be truly whole. As Curtice shares what it means to experience her faith through the lens of her Indigenous heritage, she reveals that a vibrant spirituality has its origins in identity, belonging, and a sense of place.
Download or read book Jesus according to the New Testament written by James D. G. Dunn and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-03 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New Testament scholar James D. G. Dunn has published his research on Christian origins in numerous commentaries, books, and essays. In this small, straightforward book designed especially for a lay audience, Dunn focuses his fifty-plus years of scholarship on elucidating the New Testament witness to Jesus, from Matthew to Revelation. Dunn’s Jesus according to the New Testament constantly points back to the wonder of those first witnesses and greatly enriches our understanding of Jesus.
Download or read book Stranger God written by Richard Beck and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2017-10-18 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accessible, challenging, funny, and one of the best reads on how to love others in any situation. Love and hospitality can change the way you see the world and others. That's exactly what modern-day theologian, Richard Beck, experienced when he first led a Bible study at a local maximum security prison. Beck believed the promise of Matthew 25 that states when we visit the prisoner, we encounter Jesus. Sure enough, God met Beck in prison. With his signature combination of biblical reflection, theological reasoning, and psychological insight, Beck shows how God always meets us when we entertain the marginalized, the oppressed, and the refugee. Stories from Beck's own life illustrate this truth -- God comes to him in the poor, the crippled, the smelly. Psychological experiments show how we are predisposed to appreciate those who are similar to us and avoid those who are unlike us. The call of the gospel, however, is to override those impulses with compassion, to "widen the circle of our affection." In the end, Beck turns to the Little Way of St. Thérèse of Lisieux for guidance in doing even the smallest acts with kindness, and he lays out a path that any of us can follow.
Download or read book The Rule of Faith written by Everett Ferguson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rule of faith was a summary of apostolic preaching and teaching made by writers of the early Christian centuries. As such it carries great importance for what the early church considered basic to its being and identity. It was not a fixed text, like a creed, but varied in wording and content according to circumstances. Yet, despite this flexibility and diversity, there is a clear Christ-centered, Trinitarian core at the heart of the rule shared by the early apostolic churches. In this short guide, Everett Ferguson introduces readers to the primary sources of our knowledge of the rule, the variety of ways in which ancient Christian authors spoke of the rule, and different scholarly attempts to interpret this ancient evidence. Ferguson argues that statements of the rule of faith were used to instruct new or potential converts, to combat false teachings, and to provide a framework for interpreting the Scriptures. He maintains that the rule retains considerable importance for churches of the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Being Disciples written by Rowan Williams and published by SPCK. This book was released on 2016-07-21 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If discipleship is a journey, this book belongs in the rucksack. . . Like the scriptures on which it is based, it deserves repeated reading." Stephen Cherry, Dean of Kings College, Cambridge This fresh and inspiring look at the meaning of discipleship covers the essentials of the christian life, including: faith, hope and love; forgiveness; holiness; social action; life in the Spirit. Written for the general reader by one of our greatest living theologians, this book will help you to see more clearly, love more dearly and follow more nearly the way of Jesus Christ.
Download or read book The Lynching of Cleo Wright written by Dominic J. CapeciJr. and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January 20, 1942, black oil mill worker Cleo Wright assaulted a white woman in her home and nearly killed the first police officer who tried to arrest him. An angry mob then hauled Wright out of jail and dragged him through the streets of Sikeston, Missouri, before burning him alive. Wright's death was, unfortunately, not unique in American history, but what his death meant in the larger context of life in the United States in the twentieth-century is an important and compelling story. After the lynching, the U.S. Justice Department was forced to become involved in civil rights concerns for the first time, provoking a national reaction to violence on the home front at a time when the country was battling for democracy in Europe. Dominic Capeci unravels the tragic story of Wright's life on several stages, showing how these acts of violence were indicative not only of racial tension but the clash of the traditional and the modern brought about by the war. Capeci draws from a wide range of archival sources and personal interviews with the participants and spectators to draw vivid portraits of Wright, his victims, law-enforcement officials, and members of the lynch mob. He places Wright in the larger context of southern racial violence and shows the significance of his death in local, state, and national history during the most important crisis of the twentieth-century.
Download or read book The Universal Christ written by Richard Rohr and published by Convergent Books. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives. “Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center. Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet. Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.
Download or read book Unbelievable written by John Shelby Spong and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five hundred years after Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses ushered in the Reformation, bestselling author and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong delivers twelve forward-thinking theses to spark a new reformation to reinvigorate Christianity and ensure its future. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Christianity was in crisis—a state of conflict that gave birth to the Reformation in 1517. Enduring for more than 200 years, Luther’s movement was then followed by a "revolutionary time of human knowledge." Yet these advances in our thinking had little impact on Christians’ adherence to doctrine—which has led the faith to a critical point once again. Bible scholar and Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong contends that there is mounting pressure among Christians for a radically new kind of Christianity—a faith deeply connected to the human experience instead of outdated dogma. To keep Christianity vital, he urges modern Christians to update their faith in light of these advances in our knowledge, and to challenge the rigid and problematic Church teachings that emerged with the Reformation. There is a disconnect, he argues, between the language of traditional worship and the language of the twenty-first century. Bridging this divide requires us to rethink and reformulate our basic understanding of God. With its revolutionary resistance to the authority of the Church in the sixteenth century, Spong sees in Luther’s movement a model for today’s discontented Christians. In fact, the questions they raise resonate with those contemplated by our ancestors. Does the idea of God still have meaning? Can we still follow historic creeds with integrity? Are not such claims as an infallible Pope or an inerrant Bible ridiculous in today’s world? In Unbelievable, Spong outlines twelve "theses" to help today’s believers more deeply contemplate and reshape their faith. As an educator, clergyman, and writer who has devoted his life to his faith, Spong has enlightened Christians and challenged them to explore their beliefs in new and meaningful ways. In this, his final book, he continues that rigorous tradition, once again offering a revisionist approach that strengthens Christianity and secures its relevance for generations to come.
Download or read book The New Testament written by and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book On Being a Christian written by Hans Küng and published by Continuum. This book was released on 2008-01-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why should one be a Christian? Is there something more to being a Christian than to being human? Just what does it mean to be a Christian, especially in today's modern world? Hans Küng, one of the greatest theologians of this century, ponders these questions and, from a lifetime of study, suggests the answers. He looks carefully at the evidence in the Bible, at the challenges of modern humanisms and of the world-religions, at the questions concerning death, at the local and the universal church, at the individual's own personal decisions, and at the freedom that Christianity brings, including the freedom to serve.On Being a Christian is a vital and important statement about what it means to be a Christian. Hans Küng has himself said of the book, which he regards as his magnum opus, that it intends to "clarify and challenge Christian faith and life at a time when the churches have unfortunately lost rather than gained in credibility. It seeks to bring to light for this present time the original Christian message and particularly the figure of Jesus of Nazareth." The book continues to offer a strong message to today's Christians. As Küng says in the closing of the book, "By following Jesus Christ, people in the world today can live, act, suffer and die in a truly human way; in happiness and unhappiness, life and death, sustained by God and helpful to fellow men and women."
Download or read book FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM written by JOHN HOPE. FRANKLIN and published by . This book was released on 1950 with total page 622 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Character Gap written by Christian B. Miller and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We like to think of ourselves and our friends and families as pretty good people. The more we put our characters to the test, however, the more we see that we are decidedly a mixed bag. Fortunately there are some promising strategies - both secular and religious - for developing better characters.
Download or read book The Bible in the Early Church written by Justo L. González and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2022-03-08 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise history of the Bible: its creation, use, and interpretation. What is the Bible? To answer this question we must understand the Bible’s origins in the early church. In this book, celebrated church historian Justo González introduces the reader to some important features of the earliest Bibles—for instance, the Bible’s original languages, its division into chapters and verses, and even its physical appearance in its first forms. González also explores the use of the Bible in the early church (such as in worship or in private reading) and the interpretation of the Bible throughout the ensuing centuries, giving readers a holistic sense of the Bible’s emergence as the keystone of Christian life, from its beginnings to present times.
Download or read book Understanding Human Differences written by Kent L. Koppelman and published by Pearson. This book was released on 2016-01-11 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. This well-written, accessible, widely popular resource uses a stimulating inquiry approach to engage readers in discussion and debate around the most critical issues of diversity in America. Grounded in research from behavioral and social sciences–including education, psychology, history, sociology, biology, anthropology, women’s studies, and ethnic studies–the book uses the question and answer format to bring real meaning and understanding to the topics. The book’s conceptual framework focuses on culture, the individual, and institutions. The first section examines individual concerns, the second section describes the cultural/historical context, and the third section explores racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism by addressing all three areas such as historical biases based on cultural norms, individual prejudices based on myths, misconceptions, and stereotypes about diverse groups, and how institutional discrimination advantages dominant group members and disadvantages oppressed groups. The last section focuses on changes already achieved or that need to be implemented in schools and other areas of society to create a more just society.
