Being Faithful: Christian Commitment in Modern Society PDF Download

Author: Judith A. Merkle
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567611507
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 205

View

Book Description
This book explores how the Christian life is lived in a pluralistic situation where different contexts of belonging give rise to different moral challenges. While it is characteristic of modern life to exist in a postmodern situation where there is an erosion of comprehensive systems of meaning, we still live today in contexts of belonging. We still seek to gather out of the fragments of modern life the sustenance of a network of belonging, belief and practice which comprise a faithful life. The construction of such a life, not only for us, but for others, serves as the framework for our moral commitments. Furthermore, sustaining and transforming social frameworks which shape various aspects of human life form the life task of adult Christians.

Author: Marshall Segal
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433555484
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 221

View

Book Description
Life Is Never Mainly About Love and Marriage. So Learn to Live and Date for More. Many of you grew up assuming that marriage would meet all of your needs and unlock God's purposes for you. But God has far more planned for you than your future marriage. Not Yet Married is not about waiting quietly in the corner of the world for God to bring you "the one," but about inspiring you to live and date for more now. If you follow Jesus, the search for a spouse is no longer a pursuit of the perfect person, but a pursuit of more of God. He will likely write a love story for you different than the one you would write for yourself, but that's because he loves you and knows how to write a better story. This book was written to help you find real hope, happiness, and purpose in your not-yet-married life.

Author: David Goetsch
Publisher: Fidelis Books
ISBN: 1642933937
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 234

View

Book Description
The most enduring success principles for the workplace have roots in Scripture. In a world that increasingly endorses moral relativism, secular humanism, political correctness, and anti-Christian bias, employers still cry out for personnel who are honest, dependable, selfless, and diligent—personnel who solve problems rather than cause them, prevent conflict rather than incite it, seek responsibility instead of running from it, work to improve the team rather than pursuing their own agendas, prevent stress rather than instigate it, and win the trust and respect of their coworkers in spite of differences in worldviews. Christian Women on the Job provides twelve specific strategies that will help women excel by overcoming the hindrances they face at work. Karen Moore, bestselling author of devotional and prayer books, shares encouraging words and inspiring prayers and thoughts.

Author: Grace Olmstead
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593084039
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274

View

Book Description
"A superior exploration of the consequences of the hollowing out of our agricultural heartlands."—Kirkus Reviews In the tradition of Wendell Berry, a young writer wrestles with what we owe the places we’ve left behind. In the tiny farm town of Emmett, Idaho, there are two kinds of people: those who leave and those who stay. Those who leave go in search of greener pastures, better jobs, and college. Those who stay are left to contend with thinning communities, punishing government farm policy, and environmental decay. Grace Olmstead, now a journalist in Washington, DC, is one who left, and in Uprooted, she examines the heartbreaking consequences of uprooting—for Emmett, and for the greater heartland America. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Uprooted wrestles with the questions of what we owe the places we come from and what we are willing to sacrifice for profit and progress. As part of her own quest to decide whether or not to return to her roots, Olmstead revisits the stories of those who, like her great-grandparents and grandparents, made Emmett a strong community and her childhood idyllic. She looks at the stark realities of farming life today, identifying the government policies and big agriculture practices that make it almost impossible for such towns to survive. And she explores the ranks of Emmett’s newcomers and what growth means for the area’s farming tradition. Avoiding both sentimental devotion to the past and blind faith in progress, Olmstead uncovers ways modern life attacks all of our roots, both metaphorical and literal. She brings readers face to face with the damage and brain drain left in the wake of our pursuit of self-improvement, economic opportunity, and so-called growth. Ultimately, she comes to an uneasy conclusion for herself: one can cultivate habits and practices that promote rootedness wherever one may be, but: some things, once lost, cannot be recovered.

Author: Judith A. Merkle SNDdeN
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567693430
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 247

View

Book Description
Judith A. Merkle examines the situation of Christian spirituality today, in a secular age, through the images of dance, silence, and music. Drawing on the work of Charles Taylor as well as core aspects of the tradition of Christian theology on discipleship, Merkle asks how these new conditions affect the practice of Christianity as modern discipleship. The author calls God the music maker. She argues that response to the reality of God can be captured through the image of dance. Merkle reminds us that people in secular society connect to God in diverse ways, not in the least through the call of creation and the call of conscience. She explores discipleship as a lens through which we can understand how a community of faith, service, prayer, worship, and sacramentality can be viewed and integrated in daily life. She emphasizes how the interconnection between prayer, Eucharist, and a believing community is inseparable from the dance of discipleship as it can be lived in secular society. The image of dancing to silent music is a powerful symbol of Christian religious experience in modern times.

Author: Judith A. Merkle
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567658244
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252

View

Book Description
"Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying of hands by the council of elders" (1Tim. 4:14). Members of the church today can comprehend Paul's sentiment to Timothy. While not all ordained, all baptized Christians have experienced the laying on of hands in baptism. They have been touched by that mysterious mix of charism, initiated into the Body of Christ through the Holy Spirit, as well as launched into life with Christ through the institution of the Church with all its concreteness, ambiguity, sinfulness and goodness. Through the lens of Christian theology, along with the sociology of Max Weber in his study of charism and institution in modern society, Judith A. Merkle analyzes the interaction and tautness between the concept of powerful grace through baptism and the institution in the life of the modern church. Weber asserts that freedom and creativity in modern society only become manifest within social relations. Since these highly valued modern experiences do not exist outside the institutional framework, they exist in tension with the constrictive and creative aspects of the institution. Judith A. Merkle offers the reader perspective on this contemporary experience in the church.

Author: Judith A. Merkle SNDdeN
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567707016
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

View

Book Description
Drawing on the work of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, this book examines how secular culture affects both the living of Christian discipleship today and impacts how religious congregations engage in their own renewal and future. It argues that religious communities can do more than improve and fix the out of date conditions they met in the renewal after Vatican II. Calling on environmental, sociological and theological insights, this book asks how the ongoing “coming of the Kingdom” in the Spirit brings new gifts for these times and how congregations might respond beyond restorative or post-Christian solutions to new challenges confronting them. This book offers a renewed meaning of religious life in secular life and the gift it offers and receives from every culture in which it is embedded.

Author: Kenneth R. Himes
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626165157
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1015

View

Book Description
Including contributions from twenty-two leading moral theologians, this volume is the most thorough assessment of modern Roman Catholic social teaching available. In addition to interrogations of the major documents, it provides insight into the biblical and philosophical foundations of Catholic social teaching, addresses the doctrinal issues that arise in such a context, and explores the social thought leading up to the "modern" era, which is generally accepted as beginning in 1891 with the publication of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. The book also includes a review of how Catholic social teaching has been received in the United States and offers an informed look at the shortcomings and questions that future generations must address. This second edition includes revised and updated essays as well as two new commentaries: one on Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate and one on Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si'. An outstanding reference work for anyone interested in studying and understanding the key documents that make up the central corpus of modern Catholic social teaching.

Author: Tim Challies
Publisher: Cruciform Quick
ISBN: 9781941114339
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 58

View

Book Description
If you are 16 or 18 or in your 20s, in school or just moving into marriage and career, there are many ways to invest your time. But the Bible is clear that none is better than the pursuit of godliness: in your speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. As Paul told Timothy, set an example, be an example. Make your life a beautiful work of art.

Author: Michael Horton
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310517389
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

View

Book Description
Radical. Crazy. Transformative and restless. Every word we read these days seems to suggest there’s a “next-best-thing,” if only we would change our comfortable, compromising lives. In fact, the greatest fear most Christians have is boredom—the sense that they are missing out on the radical life Jesus promised. One thing is certain. No one wants to be “ordinary.” Yet pastor and author Michael Horton believes that our attempts to measure our spiritual growth by our experiences, constantly seeking after the next big breakthrough, have left many Christians disillusioned and disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with an energetic faith; the danger is that we can burn ourselves out on restless anxieties and unrealistic expectations. What’s needed is not another program or a fresh approach to spiritual growth; it’s a renewed appreciation for the commonplace. Far from a call to low expectations and passivity, Horton invites readers to recover their sense of joy in the ordinary. He provides a guide to a sustainable discipleship that happens over the long haul—not a quick fix that leaves readers empty with unfulfilled promises. Convicting and ultimately empowering, Ordinary is not a call to do less; it’s an invitation to experience the elusive joy of the ordinary Christian life.