Church, State and Public Justice

Church, State and Public Justice
Author: P. C. Kemeny
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2009-09-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830874747

Abortion. Physician-assisted suicide. Same-sex marriages. Embryonic stem-cell research. Poverty. Crime. What is a faithful Christian response? The God of the Bible is unquestionably a God of justice. Yet Christians have had their differences as to how human government and the church should bring about a just social order. Although Christians share many deep and significant theological convictions, differences that threaten to divide them have often surrounded the matter of how the church collectively and Christians individually ought to engage the public square. What is the mission of the church? What is the purpose of human government? How ought they to be related to each other? How should social injustice be redressed? The five noted contributors to this volume answer these questions from within their distinctive Christian theological traditions, as well as responding to the other four positions. Through the presentations and ensuing dialogue we come to see more clearly what the differences are, where their positions overlap and why they diverge. The contributors and the positions taken include Clarke E. Cochran: A Catholic Perspective Derek H. Davis: A Classical Separation Perspective Ronald J. Sider: An Anabaptist Perspective Corwin F. Smidt: A Principled Pluralist Perspective J. Philip Wogaman: A Social Justice Perspective This book will be instructive for anyone seeking to grasp the major Christian alternatives and desiring to pursue a faithful corporate and individual response to the social issues that face us.

Public Church

Public Church
Author: Cynthia Moe-Lobeda
Publisher: Augsburg Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2004
Genre: Church and state
ISBN: 9780806649870

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America professes to be a public church constituted by God for its public vocation. Moe-Lobeda explores what it means for the ELCA to play a role in public life today. Sections focus on what it means to be a public church, obstacles to being a public church in public life, power for being public church, and providing public leadership. For the followers of Jesus, the ''way of living'' in public is a gift of God to the church. It is costly and dangerous, but yet gives life abundant, now and forever.

That Was The Church That Was

That Was The Church That Was
Author: Andrew Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2016-07-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1472921658

The unexpectedly entertaining story of how the Church of England lost its place at the centre of English public life - now updated with new material by the authors including comments on the book's controversial first publication. The Church of England still seemed an essential part of Englishness, and even of the British state, when Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979. The decades which followed saw a seismic shift in the foundations of the C of E, leading to the loss of more than half its members and much of its influence. In England today 'religion' has become a toxic brand, and Anglicanism something done by other people. How did this happen? Is there any way back? This 'relentlessly honest' and surprisingly entertaining book tells the dramatic and contentious story of the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life. The authors – religious correspondent Andrew Brown and academic Linda Woodhead – watched this closely, one from the inside and one from the outside. That Was the Church, That Was shows what happened and explains why.

The Church for the World

The Church for the World
Author: Jennifer McBride
Publisher:
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2014-03-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0199367949

Drawing on the work of German pastor-theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jennifer McBride constructs a new theology of public witness for American Protestant church communities based on the public expression of repentance and redemption.

A Public Faith

A Public Faith
Author: Miroslav Volf
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2011-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441232079

Covering such timely issues as witness in a multifaith society and political engagement in a pluralistic world, this compelling book highlights things Christians can do to serve the common good. Now in paperback. Praise for the cloth edition Named one of the "Top 100 Books" and one of the "Top 10 Religion Books" of 2011 by Publishers Weekly "Accessible, wise guidance for people of all faiths."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Highly original. . . . The book deserves a wide audience and is one that will affect its readers well after they have turned the final page."--Christianity Today (5-star review)

The Church in the Public

The Church in the Public
Author: Ilsup Ahn
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2022-08-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506467970

How should the church relate to the public sphere? The body politic? The state? The economic order? The natural world? For too many Christians and churches, being "in the world but not of it" has resulted in either a theocratic impulse to seize the reins of secular power or a quietistic retreat from the world and its material concerns. The Church in the Public shows how this dualism has corrupted the church's social witness and allowed neoliberal and neocolonial ideas to assert control of public and political life. Dualism has rendered the church not only indifferent to but also complicitous with the state's bio- and power-politics. Because of this outdated framework of the church's political theology, the church has been reluctant to engage in challenging structural and systemic injustice in this world. But rather than counseling despair or making a case for Christendom, Ilsup Ahn argues for a public church, one that collaborates and cooperates with other public actors and entities in the promotion of a just social order. The book traces this "third way" back to the apostolic age and offers practical approaches for enacting it today. Central to this vision is the analogy of the rhizome--that strange, unique form of life that lives underground, grows horizontally, and is capable of regeneration. The Church in the Public draws on this image to develop a political theology for engaging the world, identifying with the oppressed, and binding up the broken.

Jesus Prom

Jesus Prom
Author: Jon Weece
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2014-10-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 140020691X

Jesus loves people. Wouldn't it make sense that those who claim to love Jesus would love the same people Jesus loves? Nouns need verbs, a requirement that's more than just a grammatical truth; it's a spiritual truth. The noun Christian and the noun church require action verbs to fulfill their purpose. That's why Jesus invites Christians and churches everywhere to perform the greatest action of all: loving people. Jesus Prom is an extravagant party that celebrates the very people Jesus died to love. You will laugh and cry as you move through the pages of this book, and by the end of it, you'll want to join the dance.

The Divided Mind of the Black Church

The Divided Mind of the Black Church
Author: Raphael G. Warnock
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2020-11-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1479806005

A revealing look at the identity and mission of the Black church What is the true nature and mission of the church? Is its proper Christian purpose to save souls, or to transform the social order? This question is especially fraught when the church is one built by an enslaved people and formed, from its beginning, at the center of an oppressed community’s fight for personhood and freedom. Such is the central tension in the identity and mission of the Black church in the United States. For decades the Black church and Black theology have held each other at arm’s length. Black theology has emphasized the role of Christian faith in addressing racism and other forms of oppression, arguing that Jesus urged his disciples to seek the freedom of all peoples. Meanwhile, the Black church, even when focused on social concerns, has often emphasized personal piety rather than social protest. With the rising influence of white evangelicalism, biblical fundamentalism, and the prosperity gospel, the divide has become even more pronounced. In The Divided Mind of the Black Church, Raphael G. Warnock, Senior Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., traces the historical significance of the rise and development of Black theology as an important conversation partner for the Black church. Calling for honest dialogue between Black and womanist theologians and Black pastors, this fresh theological treatment demands a new look at the church’s essential mission.