Born Again and Again

Born Again and Again
Author: Megan K. Westra
Publisher: MennoMedia, Inc.
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2020-08-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1513806769

Got salvation? What if salvation is not one more thing to acquire but an invitation to radical transformation? Christians often turn life—and faith—into one big quest for the good life. We expect to “get” a good job, loving spouse, a life of comfort, personal satisfaction—oh, and salvation with a cherry on top. Our acquisitive impulses aren’t limited to lattes and designer jeans; Christians in power throughout history have focused on getting people saved, possessing the land, and gaining dominance in government. But what if Christianity isn’t about striving for something more, but about renouncing the power and privilege that prevent us from receiving God’s abundant life? What if we are called not to treat salvation as one more thing to pursue but as an invitation to conform to Christ? Born Again and Again is the story of how a religion birthed on the margins of the Roman Empire became functionally the official religion of today’s largest military superpower. Pastor and blogger Megan K. Westra takes on the self-serving form of Christianity that has birthed the doctrine of discovery, planet-killing lifestyles, and civil religion. She leads readers into an encounter with the Jesus who gave up everything to come to us and invites us to give up everything to come to him. Conforming to Christ radically reorients our lives, priorities, and faith away from the pursuit of our own interests and toward a pattern of discipleship, setting us free from fear-based consumption and creating new possibilities for connection and belonging within the community of God’s people.

Transformation after Lausanne

Transformation after Lausanne
Author: Al Tizon
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2008-07-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1606081098

Lausanne '74 inspired evangelicals around the world to take seriously the full implications of the Gospel for mission. This was especially true of a worldwide network of radical evangelical mission theologians and practitioners, whose post-Lausanne reflections found harbour in the notion of Mission as Transformation. This missiology integrated evangelism and social concern like no other, and it lifted up theological voices coming from the Two-thirds World to places of prominence. This book documents the definitive gatherings, theological tensions, and social forces within and without evangelicalism that led up to Mission as Transformation. And it does so through a global-local grid that points the way toward greater holistic mission in the twenty-first century.

Religion and the Populist Radical Right: Secular Christianism and Populism in Western Europe

Religion and the Populist Radical Right: Secular Christianism and Populism in Western Europe
Author: Nicholas Morieson
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2021-07-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1648892175

In Western Europe, populist radical right parties are calling for a return to Christian or Judeo-Christian values and identity. The growing electoral success of many of these parties may suggest that, after decades of secularisation, Western Europeans are returning to religion. Yet these parties do not tell their supporters to go to church, believe in God, or practise traditional Christian values. Instead, they claim that their respective national identities and cultures are the product of a Christian or Judeo-Christian tradition which either encompasses—or has produced—secular modernity. This book poses the question: if Western European politics is secular, why has religious identity become a core element of populist radical right discourse? To answer this question, Morieson examines the discursive use of religion by two of the most powerful and influential populist radical right parties: The French National Front and the Dutch Party for Freedom. Based on this examination, he argues that the populist radical right has capitalised on a cultural shift engendered by the increasing visibility of Islam in Europe. Western Europeans’ encounter with Islam has revealed the non-universal nature of Western European secularism to Europeans, and demonstrated the secularisation of Christianity into Western European ‘culture.’ This, in turn, has allowed secular French and Dutch citizens to identify themselves—as well as their nation and, ultimately, Western civilisation—as Christian or Judeo-Christian. Seizing on this cultural shift, the author contends that the National Front and Party for Freedom have built successful and similar brands of reactionary politics based on the notion that contemporary secularism is a product of Europe’s Christian heritage and values, and that therefore Muslim immigration is an existential threat to the core values of European politics, including the differentiation of politics and religion, and of church and state. ‘Religion and the Populist Radical Right: Secular Christianism and Populism in Western Europe’ will be of interest to scholars and researchers working on the intersections of Political Science, Sociology, and Religion. It will also appeal to the general audience interested in the relationship between populism in Western Europe and religious identity as it is written in an accessible style.

Fertility and Faith

Fertility and Faith
Author: Philip Jenkins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2020
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781481312608

Demography drives religious change. High-fertility societies, like most of contemporary Africa, tend to be fervent and devout. The lower a population's fertility rates, the greater the tendency for people to detach from organized or institutional religion. Thus, fertility rates supply an effective gauge of secularization trends. In Fertility and Faith, Philip Jenkins maps the demographic revolution that has taken hold of many countries around the globe in recent decades and explores the implications for the future development of the world's religions. Demographic change has driven the secularization of contemporary Western Europe, where the revolution began. Jenkins shows how the European trajectory of rapid declines in fertility is now affecting much of the globe. The implications are clear: the religious character of many non-European areas is highly likely to move in the direction of sweeping secularization. And this is now reshaping the United States itself. This demographic revolution is reshaping Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. In order to accommodate the new social trends, these religions must adapt to situations where large families are no longer the norm. Each religious tradition will develop distinctive emphases concerning morality, gender, and sexuality, as well as the roles of clergy and laity in the faith's institutional structures. Radical change follows great upheaval. The tidal shift is well underway. With Fertility and Faith, Philip Jenkins describes this ongoing phenomenon and envisions our collective religious future.

Talking with the Children of God

Talking with the Children of God
Author: Gordon Shepherd
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2010
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0252077210

Grounded in direct, systematic observation by neutral observers, Talking with the Children of God is a unique study of the radical religious movement now known as The Family International. The book draws on extraordinarily candid interviews with the group's leaders and administrative staff. In revealing new information about the organization's history, beliefs, and use of prophecy, Gordon Shepherd and Gary Shepherd offer a highly detailed case study that is both an antidote to sensationalized coverage of the group and a means for understanding the transformational practices of new religious movements in general. One of the most controversial groups emerging from the Jesus People movement of the 1960s, the Family originally was known as The Children of God. Under leader David Berg, members proclaimed an apocalyptic "Endtime," shunned secular occupations, lived communally, and adopted unusual sexual practices that led to abuse scandals in the 1970s and 1980s. Following Berg's death in 1994, the organization began to dramatically alter its evangelization efforts and decision-making processes. Talking with the Children of God builds a picture of a complex organization with ten thousand core members worldwide, including details on the lives, careers, and responsibilities of the second generation and their efforts to defend their faith. The authors summarize the Family's history and beliefs as well as its controversial past. In particular, they analyze the organization's use of prophecy--or channeled revelations from Jesus and other spiritual beings--for making decisions and setting policy, revealing how this essentially democratic process works and how it shapes Family life and culture. These remarkable insights are the result of sixteen years of surveys and field observations conducted in Family member homes in sixteen countries, plus four days of face-to-face interviews with Family leaders and organizational staff. The volume also includes condensed transcripts of the interviews with analysis by Shepherd and Shepherd.

The Transformation of American Religion

The Transformation of American Religion
Author: Alan Wolfe
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2003-08-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780743228398

American religion - like talk of God - is omnipresent. Popular culture is awash in religious messages, from the singing cucumbers and tomatoes of the animated VeggieTales series to the bestselling "Left Behind" books to the multiplex sensation The Passion of the Christ. In The Transformation of American Religion, sociologist Alan Wolfe argues that the popularity of these cartoons, books, and movies is proof that religion has become increasingly mainstream. In fact, Wolfe argues, American culture has come to dominate American religion to such a point that, as Wolfe writes, "We are all mainstream now." The Transformation of American Religion represents the first systematic effort in more than fifty years to bring together a wide body of literature about worship, fellowship, doctrine, tradition, identity, and sin to examine how Americans actually live their faith. Emphasizing personal stories, Wolfe takes readers to religious services across the nation-an Episcopal congregation in Massachusetts, a Catholic Mass in a suburb of Detroit, an Orthodox Jewish temple in Boston-to show that the stereotype of religion as a fire-and-brimstone affair is obsolete. Gone is the language of sin and damnation, and forgotten are the clear delineations between denominations; they have been replaced with a friendly God and a trend towards sampling new creeds and doctrines. Overall, Wolfe reveals American religion as less radical, less contentious, and less dangerous than it is generally perceived to be.