The Dangers of Christian Practice

The Dangers of Christian Practice
Author: Lauren F. Winner
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2018-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300215827

Challenging the central place that "practices" have recently held in Christian theology, Lauren Winner explores the damages these practices have inflicted over the centuries Sometimes, beloved and treasured Christian practices go horrifyingly wrong, extending violence rather than promoting its healing. In this bracing book, Lauren Winner provocatively challenges the assumption that the church possesses a set of immaculate practices that will definitionally train Christians in virtue and that can't be answerable to their histories. Is there, for instance, an account of prayer that has anything useful to say about a slave-owning woman's praying for her slaves' obedience? Is there a robustly theological account of the Eucharist that connects the Eucharist's goods to the sacrament's central role in medieval Christian murder of Jews? Arguing that practices are deformed in ways that are characteristic of and intrinsic to the practices themselves, Winner proposes that the register in which Christians might best think about the Eucharist, prayer, and baptism is that of "damaged gift." Christians go on with these practices because, though blighted by sin, they remain gifts from God.

Christ-Centered Worship

Christ-Centered Worship
Author: Bryan Chapell
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2009-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0801036402

The bestselling author of Christ-Centered Preaching provides a useful and accessible resource that traces the history of Christian worship and calls contemporary congregations to gospel faithfulness.

The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ

The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1901
Genre: Love
ISBN: 9780764862625

This inspiring book, reissued in a new translation for the modern reader, is considered to be Saint Alphonsus Liguori's best devotional work. Divided into seventeen small chapters, each preceded by prayers and intercessions, it offers practical prescriptions for living a holy life.

How the Body of Christ Talks

How the Body of Christ Talks
Author: C. Christopher Smith
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2019-04-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493417053

In today's highly charged social and political environment, we often don't know how to talk well with others--especially with people whose backgrounds differ from our own. C. Christopher Smith, coauthor of the critically acclaimed and influential Slow Church, addresses why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century and argues that it is perhaps the most-needed spiritual practice of our individualistic age. Smith likens practicing conversation to the working of the human body. Bodies are wondrous symphonies of diverse, intricate parts striving for our health, and our health suffers when these parts fail to converse effectively. Likewise, we must learn to converse effectively with those who differ from us in the body of Christ so we can embody Christ together in the world. In community, we learn what it means to belong to others and to a story that is bigger than ourselves. Smith shows how church communities can be training hubs where we learn to talk with and listen to one another with kindness and compassion. The book explores how churches can initiate and sustain conversation, offers advice for working through seasons of conflict, suggests spiritual practices and dispositions that can foster conversation, and features stories from several congregations that are learning to practice conversation.

Teaching and Christian Practices

Teaching and Christian Practices
Author: David Smith
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2011-10-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0802866859

In Teaching and Christian Practices several university professors describe and reflect on their efforts to allow historic Christian practices to reshape and redirect their pedagogical strategies. Whether allowing spiritually formative reading to enhance a literature course, employing table fellowship and shared meals to reinforce concepts in a pre-nursing nutrition course, or using Christian hermeneutical practices to interpret data in an economics course, these teacher-authors envision ways of teaching and learning that are rooted in the rich tradition of Christian practices, as together they reconceive classrooms and laboratories as vital arenas for faith and spiritual growth.

Yours Are the Hands of Christ

Yours Are the Hands of Christ
Author: James C. Howell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 130
Release: 1999-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780835808675

Take spirituality into the real world. Jesus didn't "become flesh" so we could feel different. He came to this world so we will be different. Often our spirituality seems invisible and mute to a hurting world. Many of us simply internalize faith out of fear, feelings of inadequacy, or choice. A faithful response to discipleship's call, however, is both inward and outward. Through Howell's study, you'll find ways to apply faith to your daily life and make evident your commitment to Christ. By considering all that Jesus did with his hands as a teacher, a healer, and a compassionate servant, Howell challenges readers to be the hands and feet and love of Christ in the world. "Christianity must become something real, tangible, something that pervades all that we are," writes Howell. "It must become something we do. In our culture, for Christianity to have any meaningful future, we must get serious about a genuine lifestyle that is holy without being elitist, engaged with the world without being jaded or self-righteous, active and busy yet prepared to cope with failure." Howell's inspiration for this work comes from a poetic meditation written by Teresa of Avila, a Spanish nun who lived in the 16th century. The poem begins: "Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours." Howell connects these words with the apostle Paul, who wrote in 1 Corinthians 12: "Now you are the body of Christ." Express your faith through action. Be the hands of Christ today to a hurting world.

Practicing Christian Doctrine

Practicing Christian Doctrine
Author: Beth Felker Jones
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2023-07-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 149344008X

This introductory theology text helps students articulate basic Christian doctrines, think theologically so they can act Christianly in a diverse world, and connect Christian thought to their everyday lives of faith. Written from a solidly evangelical yet ecumenically aware perspective, this book models a way of doing theology that is generous and charitable. It attends to history and contemporary debates and features voices from the global church. Sidebars made up of illustrative quotations, key Scripture passages, classic hymn texts, and devotional poetry punctuate the chapters. The first edition of this book has been well received (over 25,000 copies sold). Updated and revised throughout, this second edition also includes a new section on gender and race as well as new end-of-chapter material connecting each doctrine to a spiritual discipline.

Life in Christ

Life in Christ
Author: Julia Gatta
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2018-07-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0819233110

Explore how Anglican traditions enrich Episcopal worship. With its great heritage from English mystics, the Episcopal Church has been “spiritual” since before it was trendy, and modern Episcopalians have been in the forefront of exploring practices beyond Anglican boundaries. Yet, perhaps only rarely do they grasp the implications of the theology embedded in these practices or in the liturgies of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, which has shaped Episcopalians in this country with its emphasis on baptismal spirituality and the centrality of the Eucharist. Julia Gatta wants to change that with her book, Life in Christ. Applying her years of experience as pastor and spiritual director combined with her study of the spiritual wisdom of the past, she explores common Christian practices and their underlying theology through an Episcopal lens. In the tradition of Esther de Waal, Martin Smith, and Martin Thornton, with particular reference to scripture, the Book of Common Prayer, and the wisdom of the Christian spiritual tradition, she illuminates methods readers may already be practicing and provides insight and guidance to ones that may be new to them.

On Christian Teaching

On Christian Teaching
Author: David I. Smith
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2018-05-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467450642

Christian teachers have long been thinking about what content to teach, but little scholarship has been devoted to how faith forms the actual process of teaching. Is there a way to go beyond Christian perspectives on the subject matter and think about the teaching itself as Christian? In this book David I. Smith shows how faith can and should play a critical role in shaping pedagogy and the learning experience.