Download or read book Political Engagement as Biblical Mandate written by Paul D. Hanson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does the Bible shape the perspective from which Christians view politics, the manner in which they engage in public debate, and the strategies they adopt when they translate faith into action? In Political Engagement as Biblical Mandate, Hanson suggests that many believers give insufficient thought to the basic principles that biblical study contributes to the lives of those who simultaneously seek to live in obedience to the central confessions of the Christian faith and to engage constructively in the life of a nation guided by the First Amendment and populated by an increasingly religiously diverse citizenry.
Download or read book Political Engagement as Biblical Mandate written by Paul Hanson and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2010-12-30 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays that looks at the infusion of public debate and religious arguments with particular focus on American public forum. With the current climate of argument as to the maturing of our culture into a post-Christian secularism and the increase in religious and ideological diversity, the free expression of religious ideas in public debate exacerbates civic tension and undermines a society's ability to solve its most urgent problems. This book seeks to make the case that religiously informed thought has played and can continue to play a constructive role in the public forum over domestic and international issues that are weighted with moral content.
Download or read book Christians and the Common Good written by Charles Gutenson and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christians across the spectrum have soured on religious involvement in politics, tempted either to withdraw or to secularize their public engagement. Yet the kingdom of God is clearly concerned with justice and communal well-being. How can Christians be active in public life without getting mired down in political polarization and controversy? For too long, the question of faith in public life has centered on what the Bible says about government. Charles Gutenson, a theologian respected by both evangelical and mainline Christians, argues that we should first ask how God intends for us to live together before considering the public policies and institutions that would best empower living together in that way. By concentrating on the nature of God, we can move past presuppositions regarding the role of government and engage in healthy discussions about how best to serve the common good. This lucidly written book includes a foreword by bestselling author Jim Wallis.
Download or read book Compassion Conviction written by Justin Giboney and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever felt too progressive for conservatives, but too conservative for progressives? It's easy for faithful Christians to grow disillusioned with civic engagement or fall into tribal extremes. Representing the AND Campaign, the authors of this book lay out the biblical case for political engagement and help Christians navigate the complex world of politics with integrity.
Download or read book Political Visions Illusions written by David T. Koyzis and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this freshly updated, comprehensive study, political scientist David Koyzis surveys the key political ideologies of our era, unpacking the worldview issues inherent to each and pointing out essential strengths and weaknesses. Writing with broad international perspective, Koyzis is a sensible guide for Christians working in the public square, culture watchers, and all students of modern political thought.
Download or read book How Christianity Changed the World written by Alvin J. Schmidt and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-12-15 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western civilization is becoming increasingly pluralistic,secularized, and biblically illiterate. Many people todayhave little sense of how their lives have benefited fromChristianity’s influence, often viewing the church withhostility or resentment.How Christianity Changed the World is a topicallyarranged Christian history for Christians and non-Christians. Grounded in solid research and written in apopular style, this book is both a helpful apologetic toolin talking with unbelievers and a source of evidence forwhy Christianity deserves credit for many of thehumane, social, scientific, and cultural advances in theWestern world in the last two thousand years.Photographs, timelines, and charts enhance eachchapter.This edition features questions for reflection anddiscussion for each chapter.
Download or read book Politics According to the Bible written by Wayne A. Grudem and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2010-09-28 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Should Christians be involved in political issues? This comprehensive and readable book presents a political philosophy from the perspective that the Gospel pertains to all of life, including politics. Politics—According to the Bible is an in-depth analysis of conservative and liberal plans to do good for the nation, evaluated in light of the Bible and common sense. Evangelical Bible professor, and author of the bestselling book Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem unpacks and rejects five common views about Christian influence on politics: "compel religion," "exclude religion," "all government is demonic," "do evangelism, not politics," and "do politics, not evangelism." Instead, he defends a position of "significant Christian influence on government" and explains the Bible's teachings about the purpose of civil government and the characteristics of good or bad governments. Grudem provides a thoughtful analysis of over fifty specific and current political issues dealing with: The protection of life. Marriage, the family, and children. Economic issues and taxation. The environment. National defense Relationships to other nations. Freedom of speech and religion. Quotas. And special interests. Throughout this book, he makes frequent application to the current policies of the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States, but the principles discussed here are relevant for any nation.
Download or read book Scandalous Witness written by Lee C. Camp and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christian identity is in moral and political crisis, scandalized by the many ways in which it has been coopted and misrepresented. Addressing this painful reality, Lee Camp writes that Christianity in America has been made into a bad public joke because of “our failure to rightly understand what Christianity is.” From this provocative claim, Camp’s manifesto makes the convincing case that a renewed Christian politic is more essential than ever, one that is “neither left nor right nor religious,” but a prophetic way of life modeled after Jesus of Nazareth. Camp’s robust vision exposes modern parodies of faith—the American concept of “Christian values,” for one—and challenges Christians to rethink who they are and how they participate in the modern world. Authentic gospel truth is a scandal to the American myth, he argues, and we are called to be scandalous witnesses.
Download or read book Benjamin Franklin written by Thomas S. Kidd and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new biography, illuminating the great mystery of Benjamin Franklin’s faith Renowned as a printer, scientist, and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin also published more works on religious topics than any other eighteenth-century American layperson. Born to Boston Puritans, by his teenage years Franklin had abandoned the exclusive Christian faith of his family and embraced deism. But Franklin, as a man of faith, was far more complex than the “thorough deist” who emerges in his autobiography. As Thomas Kidd reveals, deist writers influenced Franklin’s beliefs, to be sure, but devout Christians in his life—including George Whitefield, the era’s greatest evangelical preacher; his parents; and his beloved sister Jane—kept him tethered to the Calvinist creed of his Puritan upbringing. Based on rigorous research into Franklin’s voluminous correspondence, essays, and almanacs, this fresh assessment of a well-known figure unpacks the contradictions and conundrums faith presented in Franklin’s life.
Download or read book The Bible Justice and Public Theology written by David J. Neville and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-10-09 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public theology is a developing field of discourse concerned to address matters of pressing public concern in theological perspective for the common good. Themes of ecology, poverty, human rights, and especially justice feature prominently in its discourse. Although justice is also a prominent theme in the Bible, there is no single perspective on what constitutes justice in the Bible and no single view on how biblical perspectives on justice should contribute to contemporary discussion regarding the meaning and implementation of justice. Informed and inspired by Christopher Marshall's landmark work on Compassionate Justice (Cascade Books, 2012) in dialogue with Jesus' parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, this collection of studies addresses various interrelations between the Bible, justice, and public theology. Marshall himself proposes that certain parables of Jesus are paradigmatic for public theology, and some contributors respond to different dimensions of his treatment of the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son in terms of restorative justice. Other contributors, by contrast, examine broader related concerns such as justice in biblical, theological, and philosophical perspective, the hermeneutics of engagement for justice, the relation between feminist theology and restorative justice, biblical resources for public theology, and popular culture as both a conversation partner with and a medium for public theology.
Download or read book Politics after Christendom written by David VanDrunen and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a millennium, beginning in the early Middle Ages, most Western Christians lived in societies that sought to be comprehensively Christian--ecclesiastically, economically, legally, and politically. That is to say, most Western Christians lived in Christendom. But in a gradual process beginning a few hundred years ago, Christendom weakened and finally crumbled. Today, most Christians in the world live in pluralistic political communities. And Christians themselves have very different opinions about what to make of the demise of Christendom and how to understand their status and responsibilities in a post-Christendom world. Politics After Christendom argues that Scripture leaves Christians well-equipped for living in a world such as this. Scripture gives no indication that Christians should strive to establish some version of Christendom. Instead, it prepares them to live in societies that are indifferent or hostile to Christianity, societies in which believers must live faithful lives as sojourners and exiles. Politics After Christendom explains what Scripture teaches about political community and about Christians' responsibilities within their own communities. As it pursues this task, Politics After Christendom makes use of several important theological ideas that Christian thinkers have developed over the centuries. These ideas include Augustine's Two-Cities concept, the Reformation Two-Kingdoms category, natural law, and a theology of the biblical covenants. Politics After Christendom brings these ideas together in a distinctive way to present a model for Christian political engagement. In doing so, it interacts with many important thinkers, including older theologians (e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin), recent secular political theorists (e.g., Rawls, Hayek, and Dworkin), contemporary political-theologians (e.g., Hauerwas, O'Donovan, and Wolterstorff), and contemporary Christian cultural commentators (e.g., MacIntyre, Hunter, and Dreher). Part 1 presents a political theology through a careful study of the biblical story, giving special attention to the covenants God has established with his creation and how these covenants inform a proper view of political community. Part 1 argues that civil governments are legitimate but penultimate, and common but not neutral. It concludes that Christians should understand themselves as sojourners and exiles in their political communities. They ought to pursue justice, peace, and excellence in these communities, but remember that these communities are temporary and thus not confuse them with the everlasting kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians' ultimate citizenship is in this new-creation kingdom. Part 2 reflects on how the political theology developed in Part 1 provides Christians with a framework for thinking about perennial issues of political and legal theory. Part 2 does not set out a detailed public policy or promote a particular political ideology. Rather, it suggests how Christians might think about important social issues in a wise and theologically sound way, so that they might be better equipped to respond well to the specific controversies they face today. These issues include race, religious liberty, family, economics, justice, rights, authority, and civil resistance. After considering these matters, Part 2 concludes by reflecting on the classical liberal and conservative traditions, as well as recent challenges to them by nationalist and progressivist movements.
Download or read book Created and Creating written by William Edgar and published by SPCK. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gospel of Jesus Christ is always situated within a particular cultural context: but how should Christians approach the complex relationship between their faith and the surrounding culture? Should we simply retreat from culture? Should we embrace our cultural practices and mindset? How important is it for us to be engaged with our culture and mindset? How might we do that with discernment and faithfulness? William Edgar offers a biblical theology in the light of our contemporary culture that contends that Christians should -- and indeed, must -- engage with the surrounding culture. By exploring what Scripture has to say about the role of culture and gleaning insights from a variety of theologians -- including Abraham Kuyper, T. S. Eliot, H. Richard Niebuhr and C. S. Lewis -- Edgar contends that cultural engagement is a fundamental aspect of human existence. He does not shy away from those passages that emphasize the distinction between Christians and the world. Yet he finds, shining through the biblical witness, evidence that supports a robust defence of the cultural mandate to 'be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it' (Genesis 1:28). With clarity and wisdom, Edgar argues that we are most faithful to our calling as God's creatures when we participate in creating culture. Introduction Part 1: Parameters of culture Part 2: Challenges from Scripture Part 3: The cultural mandate Epilogue
Download or read book Kingdom Politics written by Kristopher Norris and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-04-16 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Christians, weary of decades of entrenched partisan feuding, are increasingly distancing themselves from politics. Some, however, continue to turn toward the state and public policy to find solutions to the world's problems. The problem is that both responses allow a narrow vision of politics to determine the church's mission and ministries, which often ends up separating its commitment to personal faith from the pursuit of social justice--the King from the kingdom. Christians too easily forget that the church is inherently political, a community defined by its allegiance to a King, its citizenship in a new world, and its call to work alongside others in pursuit of a new way of life. The church needs a political vision that is more than blind acceptance or mere rejection of past models. It needs a positive vision that takes its cues about politics not from the nation-state but from another political reality: the kingdom of God. This book tells the stories of the visits of two researchers to five diverse congregations across the United States. From the megachurch energy of Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California, to a young Emergent community in Minneapolis, to the politically active home of Martin Luther King in Atlanta, these stories illuminate the vastly different ways congregations understand and approach politics--and offer a glimpse of a new political imagination for today's church.
Download or read book Baptists and the Christian Tradition written by Matthew Y. Emerson and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Baptists and the Christian Tradition, editors Matthew Emerson, Christopher Morgan and Lucas Stamps compile a series of essays advocating "Baptist catholicity." This approach presupposes a critical, but charitable, engagement with the whole church, both past and present, along with the desire to move beyond the false polarities of an Enlightenment-based individualism on the one hand and a pastiche of postmodern relativism on the other.
Download or read book Deep and Wide written by Evan B. Howard and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-05-02 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commitment to a life of prayer and community can prove to be a great help for those involved in politics. Rather than being distracted away from action, Evan B. Howard argues that committed Christians often find both freedom and empowerment to contribute to the greater good of the world. A review of the history of committed Christian life (monasticism) shows that devout communities have engaged in a wide range of socio-political arenas. We can explore today what nuns and monks have accomplished in the past. We can speak into political conversations. We can care for those in need. We can model new ways of ordering life together. We can take concrete political action in governmental process. We can pray. This book blends examination of history with musings about the Christian life and politics generally. It also offers a collection of monastic practices to equip communities and individuals to embody an appropriate blend of “deep” and “wide” for themselves.
Download or read book I Am Third written by Gale Sayers and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-11-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Gale Sayers' book I Am Third, with Al Silverman, is a stirring, painfully honest account of his struggle to become the greatest running back in history and that agonizing moment between immortality and becoming a cripple." —The New York Times Book Review
Download or read book Missio Politica written by Johannes Reimer and published by Langham Publishing. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evangelical Christians in many countries shy away from politics. And yet, especially with the rise of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, the interest and involvement in political activity is becoming a daily reality in evangelical circles. At the same time, evangelical politicians are not exempt from scandals of corruption and complaints of ineffectiveness. Are Christians unable to do better politics than others? Are they less prepared? Is even the whole political involvement of Christians under question? In this book, Dr Johannes Reimer explores the answers to these questions by articulating a theology of the church’s political mission. The church is not a political party, but as God’s ecclesia, it has a prophetic voice and is called out of the world to take responsibility for the world.
