Описание: God and Difference interlaces Christian theology with queer and feminist theory for both critical and constructive ends. Linn Marie Tonstad uses queer theory to show certain failures of Christian thinking about God, gender, and sexuality. She employs queer theory to dissect trinitarian discourse and the resonances found in contemporary Christian thought between sexual difference and difference within the trinity. Tonstad critiques a broad swath of prominent Christian theologians who either use queer theory in their work or affirm the validity of same-sex relationships, arguing that their work inadvertently promotes gendered hierarchy. This volume contributes to central debates in Christianity over divine and human personhood, gendered relationality, and the trinity, and provides original accounts of God, sexual difference, and Christian community that are both theologically rich and thoroughly queer.
Описание: Today the chasm between rich and poor is constantly widening. While the wealthy seem to acquire more and more, the impoverished struggle to survive and thrive. This problem pervades not only the secular world but also modern Christianity. The Western church continues to spend more of its resources on its own needs than on those whom God calls us to see and to serve. Perhaps worse, the wealthiest church in history has often become complicit with systemic structures that perpetuate poverty in their own cities. Author and pastor Jimmy Dorrell explains that Scripture demands a drastically different attitude and approach from the wealthy regarding the poor.In Commonwealth: Transformation through Christian Community Development, Dorrell not only explores the cultural entrapment of the modern church regarding wealth and relationships, but offers practical ways that Christians can serve and empower the poor and marginalized in their own communities. Drawing on experiences from twenty-eight years at Mission Waco | Mission World and Church Under the Bridge, and undergirded by a thorough and holistic engagement with Scripture, Christian history, and effective models, Dorrell's team has restored one of the most underserved neighborhoods in his community with programs for the unemployed, the homeless, the sick, the addicted and struggling children and teens. They even created a non-profit grocery store in the food desert, transformed a pornographic theater, and built an economic center in a former liquor store.Christian community development rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is how we become neighbors in the biblical sense. Beyond handouts and increased donations, it is only when the poor and marginalized of our communities are empowered that the whole city truly prospers. There is a commonwealth of resources and gifts in all classes, and, if we choose to work together, we can change unjust structures of privilege and favoritism. Dorrell challenges us to see that it is only when we understand how financial prosperity often deepens hardheartedness toward Christ and our neighbors that the Christian church can make the good news of Jesus Christ tangible in our communities and world.
Описание: The Kierkegaardian account of becoming a Christian has come to be perceived in radically egocentric terms. Torrance challenges this perception by demonstrating that Kierkegaard was devoted to the idea of Christian conversion as a transformative process of becoming. This process is grounded in an active relationship initiated by the eternal God who has established kinship with us in time. Torrance focuses on 'becoming a Christian' as a particular theological theme that deserves further attention — how 'becoming a Christian' or Christian transformation should be construed in relation to God's initiating and active relationship to the person. Torrance's account of Kierkegaard on human transformation demonstrates in striking ways Kierkegaard's relevance to current issues in systematic theology and philosophical theology around the nature of Christian conversion, particularly how conversion might be re-conceptualized in strong divinely-relational and transformative rather than in progressive self-developmental terms. This study also considers how Kierkegaard was able to negotiate his emphasis on the God-relationship with his emphasis on the importance of individual reflection, decision and action in the Christian life.
Описание: Science fiction imagines a universe teeming with life and thrilling possibility, but also hidden and hideous dangers. Christian theology, often a polemical target for science fiction, reflects on the plenitude out of which and for which the universe exists. In Science Fiction Theology , Alan Gregory investigates the troubled relationship between science fiction and Christianity and, in particular, how both have laid claim to the modern idea of sublimity. To the extent that science fiction has appropriatedaand reveledain the sublime, it has persisted in a sometimes explicit, sometimes subterranean, relationship with Christian theology. From its seventeenth-century beginnings, the sublime, with its representations of immensity, has informed the imagining of God. When science fiction critiques or reinvents religion, its writers have engaged in a literary guerrilla war with Christianity over what is truly sublime and divine. Gregory examines the sublime and its implicit theologies as they appear in early American pulp science fiction, the horror writing of H. P. Lovecraft, science fiction narratives of evolution and apocalypse, and the work of Philip K. Dick. Ironically, science fictions tussle with Christianity hides the extent to which the sublime, especially in popular culture, serves to distort the classical Christian understanding of God, secularizing that God and rendering Gods transcendence finite. But by turning from the sublime to a consideration of the beautiful, Gregory shows that both Christian and science-fictional imaginations may discover a new and surprising conversation.
Uncovers why Catholic organizations fail to foster civic activism
The American Catholic Church boasts a long history of teaching and activism on issues of social justice. In the face of declining religious and community involvement in the twenty-first century, many modern-day Catholic groups aspire to revive the faith as well as their connections to the larger world. Yet while thousands attend weekly meetings designed to instill religiosity and a commitment to civic engagement, these programs often fail to achieve their more large-scale goals.
In Catholic Activism Today, Maureen K. Day sheds light on the impediments to successfully enacting social change. She argues that popular organizations such as JustFaith Ministries have embraced an approach to civic engagement that focuses on mobilizing Catholics as individuals rather than as collectives. There is reason to think this approach is effective--these organizations experience robust participation in their programs and garner reports of having had a transformative effect on their participants' lives. Yet, Day shows that this approach encourages participants to make personal lifestyle changes rather than contend with structural social inequalities, thus failing to make real inroads in the pursuit of social justice. Moreover, the focus on the individual serves to undermine the institutional authority of the Catholic Church itself, shifting American Catholics' perceptions of the Church from a hierarchy that controls the laity to one that simply influences it as they pursue their individual paths.
Drawing on three years of interview, survey, and participant observation data, Catholic Activism Today offers a compelling new take on contemporary dynamics of Catholic civic engagement and its potential effect on the Church at large.
Irreconcilable differences drive the division between progressive and conservative Christians—is there a divorce coming?
Much attention has been paid to political polarization in America, but far less to the growing schism between progressive and conservative Christians. In this groundbreaking new book, George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk offer the provocative contention that progressive and conservative Christianities have diverged so much in their core values that they ought to be thought of as two separate religions.
The authors draw on both quantitative data and interviews to uncover how progressive and conservative Christians determine with whom they align themselves religiously, and how they distinguish themselves from each other. They find that progressive Christians emphasize political agreement relating to social justice issues as they determine who is part of their in-group, and focus less on theological agreement. Among conservative Christians, on the other hand, the major concern is whether one agrees with them on core theological points. Progressive and conservative Christians thus use entirely different factors in determining their social identity and moral values.
In a time when religion and politics have never seemed so intertwined, One Faith No Longer offers a timely and compelling reframing of an age-old conflict.
Irreconcilable differences drive the division between progressive and conservative Christians—is there a divorce coming?
Much attention has been paid to political polarization in America, but far less to the growing schism between progressive and conservative Christians. In this groundbreaking new book, George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk offer the provocative contention that progressive and conservative Christianities have diverged so much in their core values that they ought to be thought of as two separate religions.
The authors draw on both quantitative data and interviews to uncover how progressive and conservative Christians determine with whom they align themselves religiously, and how they distinguish themselves from each other. They find that progressive Christians emphasize political agreement relating to social justice issues as they determine who is part of their in-group, and focus less on theological agreement. Among conservative Christians, on the other hand, the major concern is whether one agrees with them on core theological points. Progressive and conservative Christians thus use entirely different factors in determining their social identity and moral values.
In a time when religion and politics have never seemed so intertwined, One Faith No Longer offers a timely and compelling reframing of an age-old conflict.
Автор: Lucy Bregman Название: Preaching Death: The Transformation of Christian Funeral Sermons ISBN: 1481314939 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781481314930 Издательство: Mare Nostrum (Eurospan) Рейтинг: Цена: 5642.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: Christians traditionally have had something substantive and important to say about death and afterlife. Yet the language and imagery used in sermons about life and death have given way to language designed to comfort and celebrate.
In Preaching Death, Lucy Bregman tracks the changes in Protestant American funerals over the last one hundred years. Early-twentieth-century "natural immortality" doctrinal funeral sermons transitioned to an era of "silence and denial," eventually becoming expressive, biographical tributes to the deceased. The contemporary death awareness movement, with the "death as a natural event" perspective, has widely impacted American culture, affecting health care, education, and psychotherapy and creating new professions such as hospice nurse and grief counselor. Bregman questions whether this transition—which occurred unobserved and without conflict—was inevitable and what alternative paths could have been chosen. In tracing this unique story, she reveals how Americans' comprehension of death shifted in the last century—and why we must find ways to move beyond it.
Описание: Just Revolution focuses on oppressed peoples as agents of social transformation in their own political contexts. Using the South African struggle against apartheid as a case study, this book posits a theory of just revolution that rests upon nonviolent just peacemaking practices and social reconciliation bolstered by restorative justice.
Описание: A Process Spirituality argues for a hopeful and relational vision of the God-world relationship characterized by mutuality, value, change, and transformation, which incorporates a constructive re-imagining of the work of Whitehead and Jung.
Описание: Sometimes it takes a step. When we find ourselves at our lowest, struggling with addiction and broken lives, sometimes it takes one step, and one moment, to begin a journey to recovery. But how do we take that step when we are trapped in a pit of despair and surrounded by a lie, seemingly unable to change, unable to live, and unable to cry out for help? From Basement to Sanctuary is a radical story of conversion and transformation that speaks to how God's strength truly can be made perfect though our weaknesses. Author Holly Christine Hayes spent her teen and young-adult life mired in alcoholism and drug addiction, and she was in the grips of a downward spiral that led to a life of trauma, shame, and eventual homelessness. After an encounter with God in a public bathroom in 2001, her life was forever changed. God miraculously healed her and delivered her from her addiction-but it took years for her to find out who the God was that saved her. Through the telling of her story, Holly takes us on a journey through the surrender of the recovery meetings that gather in church basements, to the wholeness and healing she found in the sanctuary of the church. All the while, she shares lessons she learned in the basement about who God really is and the miraculous ways he wants to heal our hurts, habits, sins, and setbacks.
Описание: Just You and the Lord, 24/7: Most Christians have experienced various times of silence before God. We call it "getting ourselves in the mood for worship," "moments of meditation," or "having our morning quiet time." We might even have "soaked" in God's presence for an extended period. These are spiritually-enriching experiences, but is there a deeper value in silence than we have realized? What would it be like to spend extended time in an environment where you focused solely on God and His Word--just you and the Lord, 24/7, uninterrupted, with no other obligations and nothing to distract you from His loving presence? In Journey into Silence, drawn from his own real-time journal entries, Chaim Bentorah reveals the spiritual blessings of being alone with God as he describes his experiences in three different retreats of silence, each of which lasted a full week. Wrapped in an ever-deepening closeness with the Lord, the layers of his heart were peeled away, bringing healing and filling him with compassion for a world that needs to know the love of Jesus. With his years of research into Jewish literature and study of ancient languages, including Hebrew, Chaim Bentorah was able to dig deep into the very core of key words from Scripture passages that God called to his attention during his times of living in silence. These reflections on the deeper meanings of Hebrew words open the depths of God's Word--drawing us, too, into an intimate relationship with God, and refreshing and challenging us in our spiritual walk. Journey into Silence demonstrates how our lives can be transformed as we enter into times of contemplation, wonder, and worship--and then return to daily life, carrying the compassionate heart of God to the hurting world around us.
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