Life Amid the Principalities

Life Amid the Principalities
Author: Michael Root
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 127
Release: 2016-09-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498237215

"We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness" (Eph 6:12). So Paul warns his Ephesian readers. And yet Paul also says that these principalities and powers were created in and for Christ (Col 1:16) and cannot separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:38). What are the principalities and powers of our time? How do we understand them as created, fallen, and disarmed? How does the Christian today engage these powers? These are the questions speakers and participants addressed at the 2014 Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.

Constancy Amid Change, Radio Addresses Delivered Over Station KSL From the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah

Constancy Amid Change, Radio Addresses Delivered Over Station KSL From the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah
Author: Albert E (Albert Ernest) 187 Bowen
Publisher: Hassell Street Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2021-09-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9781013865749

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Freedom to Choose Life

The Freedom to Choose Life
Author: Scott W. Gustafson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2024-05-28
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

In The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky proposes ministry as the way to resist and overcome the world’s evil. He employs two plotlines to do so. The action plot concerns the events surrounding the murder of Fyodor Karamazov. All evidence points to Dmitri Karamazov. Rational, circumstantial evidence convicts him; yet the reader knows he is innocent. The ministry plot occurs in this dark context where “small acts of love” are performed by The Elder Zosima, Alyosha Karamazov, and many others. These acts of love all answer this unspoken question, “What can be said and done in Jesus’ name that opens the future to new possibilities in contexts heretofore deemed closed and without hope?” Asking and answering this question is the essence of ministry, and since the question can be asked in any context, ministry is possible anywhere. Dostoevsky’s unabashed antisemitism, however, undermines his brilliant analysis. The concluding chapters document how unconfessed sins like antisemitism exert a death-dealing power that undermines our cultures, our communities, and our ministries. The Freedom to Choose Life shows how ministry resists and overcomes evil by these small acts of love and by the global effects of repenting of humanity’s unconfessed sins.

Leaning Both Ways at Once

Leaning Both Ways at Once
Author: Jeffrey A. Conklin-Miller
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2020-08-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498291473

How should the Methodist tradition continue to embody its evangelistic mission? Some believe effective evangelism requires ecclesial adaptation seeking relevance to attract outsiders. But does this strategy result in the church's embrace of consumer market practices, pandering to a world of church shoppers? Others suggest the most evangelistic thing the church can do is to be the church, displaying to the world the attractive beauty of a holy community. But could this ironically distance the church from its context and neglect the many ways the church is called to engage the world? The Wesleys formed a people called Methodist, embodying an evangelistic mission combining commitments to disciplined spiritual life and vital social engagement. In this book, Conklin-Miller suggests faithful (United) Methodist evangelism requires living in the tension between the church and the world, "leaning both ways at once," emphasizing the holiness of the church as a particular people, but at the same time, being a people sent to intercede in the world as servants, advocates, and witnesses. This understanding constitutes not only a broader reframing of evangelistic mission but also a vision for the identity and agency of the church in the Wesleyan tradition: a Methodist missional ecclesiology.

Emotions, Moral Formation, and Christian Politics

Emotions, Moral Formation, and Christian Politics
Author: Jonathan M. Cahill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2024-08-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567713482

This volume addresses the social-relational nature of moral formation, emotions, and moral agency. Drawing on Barth's theological anthropology and his relational conception of the self, Cahill argues that Barth envisions moral progress as rooted in the growth of the community. Cahill also explores Barth's view of emotion in conversation with the study of emotions in psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and philosophy. Building on Barth and these other disciplines Cahill argues for a relational and cognitive conception of emotions while highlighting emotions' critical role in regulating group and social relations. Emotions are fundamental to interpersonal interactions, to group relations, and for the reinforcement and disruption of social structures. This account of moral formation and emotion is illustrated through the example of climate change. A community shaped by love for God, solidarity with other creatures, and a concern for all of creation leads to an awareness of hegemonic forces and fosters emotions shaped by the kingdom of God that enables the struggle for climate justice.

The Beasts, the Graves, and the Ghosts

The Beasts, the Graves, and the Ghosts
Author: Hann Tzuu Joey Tan
Publisher: Langham Monographs
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2020-05-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1839730277

At the heart of the gospel is the message of the incarnation: God translating himself into the context of human culture and language so we might know him. Far from coming to an end with Christ’s life on earth, this process of contextualization is ongoing, reoccurring every time the gospel encounters the particularities of society and culture. In this book, Hann Tzuu Tan explores the significance of contextualized preaching within the Chinese context. Against the backdrop of three major festivals – the Spring Festival, the Qing Ming Festival, and the Hungry Ghost Festival – Tan examines the practices of six experienced Chinese preachers in order to demonstrate the theological and practical importance of contextualized preaching. As a result of his research, Tan suggests six main principles for contextual preaching – principles that are rooted within a Chinese context, yet applicable to anyone seeking to express the gospel’s relevance within a particular cultural setting. Combining insights from biblical studies, applied theology, and ethnography, this interdisciplinary study will enrich one’s understanding of Chinese culture, the gospel, and the important and necessary work of contextualization.

Justice and the Way of Jesus

Justice and the Way of Jesus
Author: Gushee, David P.
Publisher: Orbis Books
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2020-06-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1608338304

"Eighteen Christian theologians and ethicists offer a rich engagement with the theological ethics of Glen Stassen (1936-2014)"--

Hope Today

Hope Today
Author: Matthew E. Burdette
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2023-04-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725271125

Hope is not about uncertain possibility. There is a robust sense of hope: something has happened, and it has happened in a certain way. This volume addresses the question: What is the way of Christian hope? What does it mean to act with hope? And in particular, what does it mean to act, to live, with hope in our churches and in society today?

What’s the Good of Humanity?

What’s the Good of Humanity?
Author: Victor Lee Austin
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2021-09-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725255227

From a Christian perspective, it could well be said that humanity, a good gift of God, is being undermined by the technology and thought-patterns and practices of contemporary Western culture. In response to what is seen as an attack, many books have been written on the harm of these technologically driven practices. These articles and books focus on what is wrong: with euthanasia, with surrogate motherhood, with the denial of the male-female difference, and so forth. Yet to make a compelling cultural witness, it is more important for Christians to know what is right, and essential that they be able to articulate the positive. Why do babies matter? What is the goodness embedded in being made male and female? How can one approach death in a godly manner? We need, in other words, to be able to give an account of God’s “Yes” (2 Cor 1:20), the hope that is within us (1 Peter 3:15). In this collection of essays, an ecumenical group of scholars, of diverse perspectives, discuss these and other important questions, in order to help discern what is good for humanity. With contributions by: Phillip Cary Donna Freitas Paul Hinlicky Edith M. Humphrey Patrick Lee Gilbert Meilaender Nancey Murphy