Liberating the Gospels PDF Download

Author: John Shelby Spong
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061748420
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
In this boldest book since Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Bishop John Shelby Spong offers a compelling view of the Gospels as thoroughly Jewish tests.Spong powerfully argues that many of the key Gospel accounts of events in the life of Jesus—from the stories of his birth to his physical resurrection—are not literally true. He offers convincing evidence that the Gospels are a collection of Jewish midrashic stories written to convey the significance of Jesus. This remarkable discovery brings us closer to how Jesus was really understood in his day and should be in ours.

Author: Anthony B. Bradley
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433523558
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
When the beliefs of Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, assumed the spotlight during the 2008 presidential campaign, the influence of black liberation theology became hotly debated not just within theological circles but across cultural lines. How many of today's African-American congregations-and how many Americans in general-have been shaped by its view of blacks as perpetual victims of white oppression? In this interdisciplinary, biblical critique of the black experience in America, Anthony Bradley introduces audiences to black liberation theology and its spiritual and social impact. He starts with James Cone's proposition that the "victim" mind-set is inherent within black consciousness. Bradley then explores how such biblical misinterpretation has historically hindered black churches in addressing the diverse issues of their communities and prevented adherents from experiencing the freedoms of the gospel. Yet Liberating Black Theology does more than consider the ramifications of this belief system; it suggests an alternate approach to the black experience that can truly liberate all Christ-followers.

Author: Kristina LaCelle-Peterson
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 0801031796
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Offers a clear perspective on the issues Christian women face in the twenty-first century and shows how the Bible is a liberating and enriching book for women.

Author: Tom Hanks
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1606084003
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
What do the New Testament writers actually teach about (1) the poor, (2) women, and (3) sexual minorities? Why do traditional commentaries and introductions so often ignore or treat superficially such burning questions churches grapple with today? Must we seek out specialized monographs to get adequate information and satisfactory answers in each area? At last, in a single volume Tom Hanks brings together the fruit of decades of study, examining each New Testament book in each of these three crucial areas, which often overlap in human experience (Latin American male liberation theologians often forget that the option for the poor may involve solidarity with a lesbian of color who wants to be ordained!). Building on his pioneering study on oppression and poverty in Biblical theology (Orbis 1984; Wipf 2000) and his Anchor Bible Dictionary article on Poverty in the New Testament (which the New York Times review commended for its balance), Hanks analyzes the teaching of each New Testament book regarding the main cause of poverty (oppression) and the variety of liberating Christian responses. Feminist and womanist studies are mined to highlight the presence/absence and role/leadership of women in each New Testament book. The remarkable absence of modern notions of family and family values in the New Testament books is emphasized, along with the prominence of sexual minorities as authors and subjects of the New Testament books. L. William Countryman comments regarding the poor, women and sexual minorities: Tom Hanks has brought these issues to the exegesis of the New Testament in a sustained and orderly fashion. He demonstrates beyond question that most of the New Testament authors were not interested in maintaining the household structures of the ancient Mediterranean and that, indeed, most of the individuals presented in the New Testament documents would not have seemed to be models of 'family values' either in their time or todayÉ.The works of Hanks and [Theodore W.] Jennings, with their detailed and careful argumentation, show that excellent work is being done in this vein. However surprising their conclusions may be to casual readers (or offensive to readers protecting what they conceive as orthodoxy), they are, in fact, deeply grounded in attentive scholarly work (Dirt, Greed & Sex, Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007, p. 251-252).

Author: Darryl W. Stephens
Publisher: T&T Clark
ISBN: 0567692787
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Bold, faithful, challenging – this volume uncovers the social and political implications of the gospel message by looking at Anabaptist theology and practice from a female perspective. The contributors approach the gospel from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, liberating the radical political ethic of Jesus Christ from patriarchal distortions and demonstrating that gender justice and peace theology are inseparable. Beautifully illustrated with pen drawings, Liberating the Politics of Jesus recognizes the authority of women to interpret and reconstruct the peace church tradition on issues such as subordination, suffering, atonement, the nature of church, leadership, and discipleship. The contributors confront difficult topics head-on, such as the power structures in South Africa, armed conflict in Colombia, and the sexual violence of John Howard Yoder. The result is a renewed Anabaptist peace theology with the potential to transform the work of theology and ministry in all Christian traditions.

Author: Danielle Strickland
Publisher: Monarch Books
ISBN: 0857211064
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Danielle Strickland contends that women everywhere remain subjugated by cultural norms that tell them to conform, hold back, and turn aside from God's call upon their lives. Consequently many women fail to play a full part in the healing and restoration of society. The church should take the lead. In this prophetic book Danielle observes: -We should be the ones who model an alternative approach to leadership. We are the ones with the Bible and the witness of the Holy Spirit who through Scripture, reason, tradition and experience has shown, over and over again His heart for the release of women to exercise their gifts.-The book covers: The current situation (exploitation or subjugation); the historical situation (feminism and the Christian tradition); key biblical material; justice (the feminization of poverty); what does the future offer, and what should the church do?

Author: Roberta Grimes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737410720
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Roberta Grimes spent decades studying nearly 200 years of afterlife evidence and forming a detailed picture of what happens at and after death. She then discovered that two thousand years ago Jesus told us things about God, reality, death, the afterlife, human nature, and the nature of reality that perfectly match the afterlife evidence in even small details. She outlines many of these correspondences in appendices to her books The Fun of Dying (2010, 2014) and The Fun of Staying in Touch (2014). In Liberating Jesus Roberta offers compelling evidence that the earliest Christians misunderstood the meaning and the message of Jesus. She demonstrates that all the correspondences between the Gospels and the afterlife evidence amount to nothing less than a new revelation from God. And she shows us that once we put aside the magic-thinking notion that the whole Christian Bible must be the Inspired Word of God just because the earliest Christians said it was, we at last free Jesus to bring to humankind the messages directly from God that long ago were His true life's purpose. His promise remains as fresh today as it was two thousand years ago, and now it is confirmed by the afterlife evidence: if we will live according to the teachings of Jesus, we can create the Kingdom of God on earth.

Author: David Rensberger
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664250416
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Building on recent developments in biblical studies, David Rensberger explores new avenues of interpretation of the Fourth Gospel made possible by the rediscovery of its social and historical settings. He looks to the first generation of readers and considers the range of meanings the Gospel might have held for them. He sees that behind the "spiritual" there is the possibility of social and even political interpretations. He discusses the relation of John's Gospel to liberation theology and to contemporary questions on the role of the church in the world.

Author: Lydia McGrew
Publisher: Deward Publishing
ISBN: 9781947929074
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 582

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Book Description
Did the gospel authors invent stories about Jesus that never happened? Meticulous, well-informed, and accessible, The Mirror or the Mask is an important addition to the libraries of laymen, pastors, apologists, and scholars who want to know whether the Gospels are reliable.

Author: Dario Andres Lopez Rodriguez
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498277055
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
The Liberating Mission of Jesus deals with the central message of the Gospel of Luke, provocatively arguing that the liberating mission of Jesus has two central themes: the universality of the love of God and the special love God has for the defenseless of society. Both of these pillars form the bedrock of Luke's theological vision, animate his Gospel throughout, and summarize the good news of the reign of God in subversive and radical form. This book shows how the liberating message announced by Jesus, as well as his liberating practice, is manifested throughout the Gospel and its implications for Christian life today. Through this thorough treatment, the full depth of Luke's vision of the liberating mission of Jesus is shown to be a paradigm for the personal and collective witness of believers, regardless of the social, political, cultural, or religious boundaries that try to inhibit them from giving witness to the God of life.