Религия: прочее
Различные книги в жанре Религия: прочееOur Fractured Wholeness
Born with cerebral palsy, Diana Ventura has known brokenness her entire life. Through telling her story, she shares what it means to live with and overcome brokenness of all kinds.
As she reflects on her own experience and that of others, Diana offers understanding and insight. There is a mystical path through the landscape of suffering, she says, and those who travel it can find God and healing even in the midst of pain and sadness. Readers who join her on this journey of prayer and faith will be better equipped to meet the everyday challenges of living with brokenness with hope, dignity, and true love.
Longing for Spring
Delving into the widespread, contemporary longing for a more serious and communal experience of Christianity, this book provides important theoretical underpinnings and casts a vision for a new monasticism within the Wesleyan tradition. Elaine Heath and Scott Kisker call for the planting of neo-monastic churches which embody the Wesleyan vision of holiness in postmodern contexts. This book also points toward some vital shifts that are necessary in theological education in order to equip pastors to lead such communities. Longing for Spring helps Wesleyans of all stripes understand the theory and praxis necessary for planting neo-monastic communities as a new model of the church that is particularly important in the postmodern context. The authors write in an engaging, conversational style that is conversant with postmodern culture, yet thoroughly informed by critical research. Heath and Kisker boldly challenge the imagination of the church, both within and beyond Wesleyan traditions, to consider the possibility of revitalizing the church through the new monasticism.
Kinderbeten
Research in the roots of evangelicalism and revivalism uncovers its share of peculiarities, but nothing is more unusual than what follows. What we have here is a compelling story touching on the exercise of free religion, the religious wars in Europe, the roots of Evangelicalism, the supernatural, and more, all wrapped up in a religious revival which began not through a charismatic revivalist or any adult at all, but rather found it's origin with children aged four to fourteen. The children became pawns in a controversy between political and religious opponents. Indulge your curiosity and read the remarkable story about the King of Sweden and the 1707-08 Children's Revival in Silesia, a tale of hope and prayer.
Angels, Worms, and Bogeys
Michelle A. Clifton-Soderstrom
From their theological and devotional writings to their social and ecclesial practices, the fathers and mothers of Pietism boldly declared the ethical spirit of the Christian faith. This seventeenth-century renewal movement inspired a simple Christian ethic by connecting Christian character with the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. They sought to cultivate these virtues by reading Scripture together, empowering the common priesthood of believers, and engaging in social and ecclesial reform toward the end of spreading the gospel. Pietism brought together faith and life, Word and deed, and piety and social reform in effort to get back to the basic belief in the power of God's Word to engender faith and to transform human life. This book celebrates Pietism's contribution by telling the stories of three early figures–Philipp Jakob Spener, Johanna Eleonora Petersen, and August Hermann Francke–as they attended to issues of class, gender, poverty, and education through the lens of scripture. In addition to clarifying what historians call «one of the least understood movements in the history of Christianity,» this book challenges a religious culture that juxtaposes faith and social action, and it rehabilitates the Pietist heritage and its central role in the birth of Evangelicalism.
Simple Gold
Gold has always symbolized material riches. It is a simple element that somehow exceeds its intrinsic value. Its pursuit has become, for many, the primary goal of life. What is it that attracts us so about money and the material things it can buy? Is our fear assuaged by the perceived safety from a rainy day or do we believe that enough things will somehow fill the emptiness inside? I would hazard to guess that no amount of money has ever made anyone happy, ever. True happiness comes from finding our center, that place deep within each of us that cries out to be filled, a place that has been empty and found wanting since the beginning of time. No? Then ask yourself why a world founded on materiality is so screwed up and why the coveting of wealth so often lays waste to lives, compassion, and families in the pursuit of such things? The happiest people I know are those who treasure love, peace, and freedom over the chains imposed by the ownership of material things. These truly fortunate few are filled and made happy by the knowledge of a divine presence within, a presence that offers riches that satisfy the soul. They know that everything here is nothing in eternity. They, my friends, are the truly happy ones. So let us abandon our search for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the quest for the fountain of youth, or enlightenment in a capsule. Let us put aside these shallow offerings and pursue instead the divine life: the life that makes pale and lifeless the pursuit of simple gold. Join me here as we un-wrap celestial gifts, not of gold coins, but of joy and freedom.
Parenting by Developmental Design
In this book, Vivian Houk acknowledges that parenting is really hard work. There is no getting around that. It just is! While many books have been written about all major areas of development, she brings light to what may be the least understood and most confusing area of parenting today: the spiritual lives of their children. Parenting by Developmental Design was written for interested and engaged parents who need affirmation and want to know more about the pathway of spiritual formation for their children. For those who don't know how to begin, it offers hope and encouragement. «God has given us some amazing and powerful tools,» writes Houk, «which are useful and effective in providing direction for those of us who suffer from the fear of failure or incompetence. We have the gift of imagination; the use of symbol, ritual, and celebration; and the tools for calming fears and healing wounds. And above all, the gift of the Holy Spirit. You are not alone or incapable.» Anyone who values the stories of both the adult and child who walk with God will find this book enjoyable, engaging, and challenging.
Living Dangerously
Too often, Christ followers are content to live inside the church walls with other Christians. Jesus calls us to shatter our comfort zones and dangerously share the love we have found in him with people whose lives are characterized by brokenness, self-sufficiency, emotional poverty, and rejection. Discipleship is the process of intentionally and thoughtfully introducing the grace of Jesus to these people so that their hearts will bulge with love, their souls will brim with life, and their faces will brighten with light as they come to intimately know him. How is this accomplished? In these pages, unbelievers who became disciples of Christ reveal what factors influenced them to follow Jesus. The research revealed that discipling is an intentional process that is most effective when our lives reflect the character of Jesus. The author explains discipleship as a relational process that can be understood and effectively accomplished by virtually any follower of Jesus.
From Resurrection to New Creation
What is Christianity really all about? Is it-in its essence-about proper religious rituals, or correct religious beliefs, or acceptable moral behavior? What is at the heart of an authentic Christian faith and life?
In From Resurrection to New Creation Michael Pahl provides an introduction to Christian theology which attempts to answer these questions, proposing that the heart of Christianity is not a set of rituals or beliefs or behaviors, but an event-the resurrection of the crucified Jesus from the dead-that prompts a story-the gospel or «good news» of salvation through Jesus. Jesus' resurrection, Pahl claims, is the starting place and the compass in the journey of Christian theology, our journey to understand God, God's work in the world, and how we should live out God's purposes for humanity. Thus, beginning with Jesus' resurrection and using this event as a guide, Pahl surveys the terrain of classic Christian belief and practice. The Trinity, the identity of Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit, the nature of humanity, Christ's atonement for sin, salvation and the gospel, baptism and the Eucharist, the church and the future state-all these landscapes and more are explored in this concise introductory survey of essential Christian theology.
Preaching Master Class
Preachers around the globe have come to rely on Will Willimon for insight and advice on the craft of preaching. For over a decade, Willimon has published his reflections in the «Five-Minute Preaching Workshop,» a quarterly column he writes as editor of Pulpit Resource. Here the best selections from that column have been brought together into a single volume for the first time. Drawing on years of experience, study, and careful observation of the current state of preaching, Willimon offers candid thoughts on a wide range of homiletical issues-from theological to pastoral, cultural, and stylistic. Readers will find challenge and inspiration from a few hours spent in the studio of this master preacher.
The Illusion Warrior
This is not your grandfather's poetry. It is spun for the everyman and woman. It is bred of a spiritual nature, yet it smiles and laughs and screams. Some are funny, some are sad. Some spit in the face of conformity, amused at the absurdity of the world whilst seeking a better way. These odes defy conventional structure and content. They rhyme without embarrassment yet experiment unapologetically with such. They convey messages of hope and love and clearer sight. And they challenge the accepted and popular notions of reality and illusion while offering superior alternatives to both. They will amuse and dismay, provoke and possibly offend, but they will not leave you unchanged. So join me, if you will, as we accompany The Illusion Warrior on his quest to dispel chimera and discover truth.