John McConnell Jr. was the famed founder and visionary of Earth Day. McConnell's vision was one of creating a day of remembrance, solitude, and action to restore the broken human relationship to the land. Little acknowledged are McConnell's religious convictions or background. McConnell grew up in a Pentecostal home. In fact, McConnell's parents were both founding charter members of the Assemblies of God in 1914. His own grandfather had an even greater connection to the origins of Pentecostalism by being a personal participant at the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906. Earth Day, thus, began with strong religious convictions. McConnell, seeing the ecological demise through his religious background, envisioned a day where Christians could «show the power of prayer, the validity of their charity, and their practical concern for Earth's life and people.»
In the spirit of McConnell, today's Pentecostal and Charismatic theology has something to say about the earth. Blood Cries Out is a unique contribution by Pentecostal and Charismatic theologians and practitioners to the global conversation concerning ecological degradation, climate change, and ecological justice.
In 1965, the Second Vatican Council formally issued a historic document titled Nostra Aetate (In Our Time). It was an attempt to frame the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish people. Never before had an ecumenical council attempted such a task. The landmark document issued by the Council and proclaimed by Pope Paul VI precipitated a Copernican revolution in Catholic-Jewish relations and started a process that has spread to the Protestant and Orthodox worlds as well.
This volume, consisting of essays and reflections by Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Jewish scholars and theologians, by pastors and professors from the United States, Canada, Ireland, Great Britain, and Israel, is an evaluation of what Nostra Aetate has accomplished thus far and how Christian-Jewish relations must proceed in building bridges of respect, understanding, and trust between the faith groups.
A Jubilee for All Times serves as a source of discussion, learning, and dialogue for scholars, students and intelligent laypersons who believe that we must create a positive relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
On the highways and byways of every continent, hundreds of millions of immigrants are constantly on the move. Because of growing inequalities of wealth caused by unregulated economic globalization, political and ethnic conflicts, environmental degradation, instant communication, and viable means of transportation, more and more people are migrating than ever before. Crossing international borders, whether compelled or voluntarily, is a major characteristic of our present epoch. No countries or regions are immune from this reality. Facing the growing scope, complexity and impact of the current worldwide phenomenon, God's People on the Move seeks to develop appropriate biblical and missiological responses to the issue of human migration and dislocation. The book is divided into two major sections. Part one, «Biblical Perspectives on Migration and Mission,» contains six essays that focus on various biblical themes or texts that deal with migration and mission. Part two, «Contemporary Issues of Migration and Mission,» contains six essays that address different immigration issues around the world. The contributors to this volume are women and men from different ethnic backgrounds, working and living on five continents. The internationality of the contributors gives this volume a unique global perspective on migration and mission.
In little over a century, the Pentecostal movement has emerged from small bands of revival seekers to become one of the largest Christian groups in the world. Primarily a movement within Western Christianity for much of its brief history, it is increasingly characterized as a global movement. Pentecostal theology and ministry in a Western context must engage global Pentecostalism and be willing to rethink its traditional patterns of thought and practice in light of the evolving nature of the movement. The essays in this book come mainly from the McMaster Divinity College 2008 Pentecostal Forum: «The Many Faces of Pentecostalism: Pentecostalism and Globalization.» The first section outlines the nature of globalization and establishes it as the context for contemporary Pentecostal theology and ministry. The other contributions explore the impact of globalization on traditional areas of Pentecostal theology, such as Spirit baptism and speaking in tongues, and twenty-first-century Pentecostal ministry.
Is the Old Testament still relevant for Christians today? Which fountains of wisdom, which never-failing streams, which wells of joy-filled salvation are we missing out on, if we neglect the Old Testament (Prov 18:4; Amos 5:24; Isa 12:3)? In this celebratory volume, fifteen scholars collaborate to explain and expound diverse aspects of the Christian life, with a special focus on drawing lines from the Old Testament through the New Testament toward the daily reality of living together as pilgrims in the church of Christ. This book commemorates the retirement of Dr. Cornelis Van Dam, professor of Old Testament, from the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. For three decades, Dr. Van Dam taught seminary students to draw living water from the wells of salvation. All the contributors to this book have benefited in one way or another from his knowledge and instruction.
This volume brings together twelve scholars from a variety of scholarly fields including biblical studies, history, theology, sociology, anthropology, and missiology in a multi-disciplinary exploration of themes related to women's leadership within the three branches of the renewal movement: Holiness, Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions. These scholars – women and men – from both within and outside the traditions, draw on various methodologies including hermeneutics, ethnography, critical theory, and historical analysis to explore the experiences and contributions of women from the movement's inception to the present. They keep before us the challenges that still impact women's full participation as equal partners in ministry and leadership on both the American and global scene. The volume looks at the multiple roots of women's marginalization within the renewal movement while suggesting progressive solutions that take seriously the social locations of Pentecostal and Charismatic congregations and the theological foundations on which the movement has been built. At the same time, it locates these discussions within the broader postmodern realities facing the church as it attempts to faithfully live out its witness to the biblical truth that both male and female are created in the God's image and endowed with the capacity to work creatively toward the unfolding of the Kingdom.
This collection of essays was first presented at the 37th annual meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, held jointly with the Wesleyan Theological Society at Duke University in March 2008, under the conference theme, «Signs, Sighs, and Significance: Pentecostal and Wesleyan Explorations of Science and Creation.» Along with a companion volume of Wesleyan essays published also by Pickwick Publications, the twelve chapters here represent both Pentecostal reflections/responses to the science-religion discussion and Pentecostal contributions to the ongoing exchange by biblical studies specialists, historians, and theologians, among those trained in other disciplines. Together the essayists model an actual dialogue in which Pentecostal scholarly reflection is impacted by science-religion discourses on the one hand, while Pentecostals reach deep into their own tradition to explore how their pre-understandings and commitments might enable them to speak with their own voice into pre-existing conversations on the other hand. This volume thus represents one of the first-hopefully the first of many-in which Pentecostals register their perspectives on a major issue of our time. In a world dominated by science, and at a time when theologies of creation that encourage and require care for creation and the environment are proliferating, The Spirit Renews the Face of the Earth provides a set of Pentecostal perspectives on these important matters.
To be a follower of Jesus means to bear witness to the truth of God. In an age when so many contemporary voices portray faith as a form of personal therapy, Gene L. Davenport, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Lambuth University, has consistently reminded us in his own witness that the truth of the Gospel entails confrontation with the world that dwells in darkness. These essays in honor of Davenport address the meaning of witness in the face of racism, sexism, and religious bigotry, to name but some of the forms this darkness takes. The topics range from emerging forms of prayer to religious themes in cowboy music, from the work of white pastors in Mississippi during the growing Civil Rights Movement to the meaning of the Righteous Gentile in Jewish-Christian friendship.
Contributors: D. Brent Laytham Randy Cooper Stanley Hauerwas Billy Vaughan James T. Laney Kenneth L. Carder M. Douglas Meeks Phyllis Tickle L. Edward Phillips Tex Sample Cindy Wesley Joseph T. Reiff Margaret J. Meyer Charles Mayo
Philosophy begins with wonder, according to Plato and Aristotle. Yet Plato and Aristotle did not expand a great deal on what precisely wonder is. Does this fact alone not raise curiosity in us as to why this passion or concept is important? What is wonder's role in science, philosophy, or theology except to end thinking or theorizing as soon as one begins? The primary purpose of this book is to show how seventeenth- and eighteenth-century developments in natural theology, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and the philosophy of science resulted in a complex history of the passion of wonder-a history in which the elements of continuation, criticism, and reformulation are equally present. Philosophy Begins in Wonder provides the first historical overview of wonder and changes the way we see early modern Europe. It is intended for readers who are curious-who wonder-about how modern philosophy and science were born. The book is for scholars and educated readers alike.
This volume poses the question of the relationship between the two main influences on the thought of John D. Caputo, one of the most well-known philosophers of religion working in North America today: Jacques Derrida and Jesus Christ. Given the seemingly abstract character of Derrida's account of the messianic, how can one reconcile deconstruction and the «concrete messianism» of Christianity, as Caputo tries to do over and over again? How can one hold together the love of a God willing to be crucified and the dry, desert khora, which doesn't care?
This collection of essays from world-renowned scholars seeks to illuminate the difficulties inherent in this seemingly contradictory pair of influences. With his trademark wit and humor, Caputo responds to his interlocutors while clarifying his position on numerous matters of interest to the church and in the academy. In addition to dealing with the concern for issues of hermeneutics, phenomenology, and negative theology for which Caputo has become famous, these essays also evaluate Caputo's legacy in fields previously not thought to be affected by his «deconstructive» version of religion: feminism, sacramental theology, Analytic philosophy of religion, and Christology.