Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God PDF Download

Author: Steven M. Bryan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781433569746
Category : Christianity and culture
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"The purpose of God in Scripture is to form one people whose devotion to God does not displace or obscure particular cultural identities but incorporates, connects, and renews them, thereby generating a rich variety of practices that constitute the total way of life of the one people of God"--

Author: Steven M. Bryan
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433569760
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Understanding God's Design for Cultural Diversity Humanity's diverse nationalities, ethnicities, and races were intended to be a blessing from God. However, due to sin and rebellion, these differences often result in alienation, hatred, and even violence, becoming one of the most urgent problems facing the world. Cultural divisions are unfortunately common in the church, too. How can Christians embrace God's purposes for diversity and experience renewal and unity as his people? Steven Bryan presents a biblical framework for thinking about cultural identity and experiencing cultural diversity as a positive good that God intended. Writing from more than 20 years of experience in cross-cultural mission work in Ethiopia, Bryan examines historical and political aspects of nationality, ethnicity, and race. This practical examination of cultural ideologies—including multiculturalism, nationalism, and intersectionality—helps readers move from asking, Who am I? to Who are we? as God's people. Timely and Applicable: Equips readers to understand God's purposes for their cultural identity and bridge divides inside and outside of the church Comprehensive: Explores contemporary issues including ethnocentrism, globalization, multiculturalism, and collective identity Theological: Explores the story of Scripture from creation to new creation to show how cultural identity is an important part of God's design Accessible: Written for pastors, ministry leaders, lay people, missionaries, and anyone who is grappling with the relationship between cultural identity and Christian identity

Author: Chandra Crane
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830848061
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award "So what are you?" Chandra Crane knows what it's like to get that question. She has a Thai birth father, a European American mother, and an African American father who adopted her when she was five. With this mixed multiethnic and multicultural background, she has keenly felt the otherness of never quite fitting in. Where do people of mixed ethnicity belong? Those of us with multiethnic backgrounds may have pain surrounding our mixed heritage. But we also have the privilege and potential to serve the Lord through our unique experiences. Crane explores what Scripture and history teach us about ethnicity and how we can bring all of ourselves to our sense of identity and calling. Discover the fullness of who you are. Find out how your mixed identity can be a blessing to yourself and to the world around you.

Author: Dziedzorm Reuben Asafo
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443892890
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
This collection brings together a number of very carefully authored articles that outline practical approaches to three of theology’s most intriguing subjects, namely The Bible, Cultural Identity, and Mission. Each of these subjects is indispensable to both the astute Christian theologian and Christian since they form the very core of what Christians believe. Each contributor explores a unique theme, and carefully, through academic exactness and contextual experience, communicates this without forgetting to employ very basic and familiar cultural analogies to drive home the missionary imperative of the Christian faith.

Author: Terry Lee Johnson
Publisher: Banner of Truth
ISBN: 9781848718548
Category : God (Christianity)
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
The problem identified by the prophet Hosea in his day is still with us today - 'There is no...knowledge of God in the land' (Hos. 4:1). We were made to know God. We were saved to know God. Jesus said, 'This is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent' (John 17:3). Our chief end and purpose is to know God and thereby to honour and enjoy him. These pages explore God's identity. The God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is also Creator, Governor, and Redeemer. This one true God is infinitely and unchangingly holy, just, good, and loving. This work is offered with the hope that it might promote the true knowledge of the true God. As Matthew Henry said, 'To know the perfections of the divine nature, the unsearchable riches of divine grace, to be led into the mystery of our redemption and reconciliation by Christ, this is food; such knowledge as this is a feast to the soul.'

Author: William Dyrness
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725211424
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Noting that Christians in the 20th century have not been able to make up their minds whether God and our corporate lives have anything to do with each other, Dyrness explores the century's theological trends. Citing the impact of contemporary hermeneutics, Dyrness shows how the Bible still functions as a master narrative wherein Christians can find themselves. Dyrness addresses various aspects of contemporary culture, constructing a theology of embodiment that connects culture and worship in concrete ways. For all those concerned with issues of religion and culture, particularly of the raging Culture Wars, 'The Earth is God's' offers an informed Evangelical view that is at once balanced and hopeful.

Author: Chris Bail
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691203423
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This book explains why stepping outside of our echo chambers can make us more polarized, not less. Bail takes you inside the minds of online extremists through vivid narratives that trace their lives on the platforms and offdetailing how they dominate public discourse at the expense of the moderate majority. --

Author: J.W. Buck
Publisher: Herald Press
ISBN: 9781513813677
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Cultural identity matters—to us and to Jesus. Culture—that nebulous and easily tossed-around term—is all around us. Nothing we think, do, or say is outside of it. For people of faith, experiences around cultural identity can lead to confusion and conflict, hurt and harm, even as we seek to follow Christ together. ​ But the story of God is clear: We are all made in God’s good image, and God’s people are meant to be a diverse community. No matter where you come from and no matter how complex our cultural narratives, the Scriptures point to the One who embodied a particular identity—of a Jewish man in first-century Palestine—in order to shape our own. God dignifies our culture and wants us to shape it to look more like Jesus. Looking to the example of Jesus, author J. W. Buck offers practical insights into how cultural identity fits into our walk as Christians. Jesus teaches those formed by majority culture to humbly embrace their own identity as they foster space for others. And he empowers those from minority cultures to resist unhealthy assimilation pressures and live into their God-given identity. We are meant to be like Jesus in our home culture, in our heart language, and throughout our collective journey to understand how our diversity of cultures points us to a better expression of God’s good image.

Author: Curtiss Paul DeYoung
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1451403305
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Highlighting the role of cultures in both the development of the Bible and in its subsequent reception around the world, The Peoples' Companion to the Bible enables students to see how social location-including gender, ethnicity, social class, and cultural pluralism-has figured in the ways particular peoples have understood the biblical text. But it also helps students formulate their own social location and biblical horizon as a key to understanding the Bible and its import for them.

Author: Dr. Theodore Hiebert
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 150187103X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Difference can enrich us or tear us apart. Difference can make our lives stronger, fuller, and richer or it can destroy them. Therefore, how we engage difference matters. Conflicts between different peoples around the world, the movement of refugees from nation to nation, tensions over immigration, and growing diversity within our society bring difference to our doorstep daily. We can engage people who are different constructively and compassionately, or we can allow the fear of difference to distance us from others and to demonize them. At a time when racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious differences have created heightened tensions, we need more than ever to find our bearings. We need to re-examine what we think about difference. Author Theodore “Ted” Hiebert re-examines the Bible’s stories explaining difference and its beginnings in the book of Genesis, exposing the inclination to interpret these stories as a negative view of difference. These stories recognize difference as God’s intention for the world, providing us with constructive resources of living with difference today. Hiebert starts with the story of “The Tower of Babel” and moves beyond it to examine how Genesis’s writers saw their unique identity and role in the world not as separate from all others but as members of the human family of which they were a part. He presents how biblical characters lived with difference and how the first Christians embraced difference. Finally, he invites the reader into new conversations about our biblical traditions that reveal a respect for difference, a generosity toward others, a desire to include rather than exclude, and a continuing interest in negotiating difference in ways that build relationships rather than destroy them.