Rediscovering Christianity: Origins and a New Era PDF Download

Author: Patricia Budd Kepler
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 308

View

Book Description
With humanity on the cusp of a dramatic new era, Patricia Kepler invites us to reexamine the foundations of Christian faith that mainstream expressions of Christianity share. “Rediscovering Christianity” explores basic beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and the early church. It goes on to explore the theological and ethical questions essential to moving toward the new creation of which Jesus speaks. In that creation, heart and mind come together in search of God’s Realm on earth. This book is for people who never learned much about their faith and those Christians who are asking questions in these changing times. Kepler sees faith as evolving and has great hope for the future. Given that humanity now has the power to destroy its world, Kepler sees that we have, as never before, responsibility with God, for saving it: holding fast to the sanctity of life, reclaiming the importance of community, pursuing peace with justice, and revering the earth. It is time for Christianity to come of age. What we believe about God and humanity matters. Theology and Ethics matter. The new era opens a door to new creativity and spiritual depth in the power of the Spirit.

Author: Patricia Budd Kepler
Publisher: Xlibris Us
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
With humanity on the cusp of a dramatic new era, Patricia Kepler invites us to reexamine the foundations of Christian faith shared by all mainstream expressions of Christianity. She guides us through theological and ethical issues essential to a faith that is relevant now and for the future. Rediscovering Christianity explores the origins of faith in God, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the development of Scripture, and the early Church and current churches. Kepler sees faith evolving and identifies new questions the church needs to address in these pivotal times. She sees hope in moving beyond patriarchy, nationalism, militarism, and economic disenfranchisement. The future, set in a secular, technological age holds promise for current and new generations to accelerate the building of a new creation built on Jesus' call for us to respect and love one another, relying on the love of God and the power of the Spirit. Given that humanity now has power to destroy its world, Kepler argues that humanity must accept responsibility for embracing the sacredness of life now, and, in harmony with what has come before, pursue the common good for the salvation of the world. What we believe about God and humanity matters. Ethics matter. The new era opens the door to a creativity and spirituality that coming generations of Christians can claim and develop.

Author: Michael A. G. Haykin
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433523574
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178

View

Book Description
While the church today looks quite different than it did two thousand years ago, Christians share the same faith with the church fathers. Although separated by time and culture, we have much to learn from their lives and teaching. This book is an organized and convenient introduction to how to read the church fathers from AD 100 to 500. Michael Haykin surveys the lives and teachings of seven of the Fathers, looking at their role in such issues as baptism, martyrdom, and the relationship between church and state. Ignatius, Cyprian, Basil of Caesarea, and Ambrose and others were foundational in the growth and purity of early Christianity, and their impact continues to shape the church today. Evangelical readers interested in the historical roots of Christianity will find this to be a helpful introductory volume.

Author: Michael Gerson
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 1575679280
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 141

View

Book Description
An era has ended. The political expression that most galvanized evangelicals during the past quarter-century, the Religious Right, is fading. What's ahead is unclear. Millions of faith-based voters still exist, and they continue to care deeply about hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage, but the shape of their future political engagement remains to be formed. Into this uncertainty, former White House insiders Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner seek to call evangelicals toward a new kind of political engagement -- a kind that is better both for the church and the country, a kind that cannot be co-opted by either political party, a kind that avoids the historic mistakes of both the Religious Left and the Religious Right. Incisive, bold, and marked equally by pragmatism and idealism, Gerson and Wehner's new book has the potential to chart a new political future not just for values voters, but for the nation as a whole.

Author: Martin Palmer
Publisher: Piatkus Books
ISBN: 9780749922658
Category : Christianity
Languages : en
Pages : 270

View

Book Description
In 1907, in a remote region of China, explorers discovered a vast treasure trove of ancient scrolls. Dating from the 5th to 11th centuries AD, they recounted a Taoist interpretation of Jesus's life and teachings. In this volume, theologist Martin Palmer provides a history and translation of these sacred texts.

Author: Thomas Cathcart
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506474179
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 171

View

Book Description
Is the Western world really post-Christian, or does Christianity simply need a reinterpretation? What did Dietrich Bonhoeffer mean by "religionless Christianity"? Is it passŽ? Or was it perhaps ahead of its time? In an era of dramatically increased religious pluralism and the emergence of large numbers of people identifying as "spiritual but not religious," so-called "religionless Christianity" can speak to those who find both biblicism and "belief-based" religion irrelevant. In this personal, witty, and timely book, New York Times bestselling author Thomas Cathcart takes readers on a journey into belief and unbelief and leads them through to the other side. Drawing from deep philosophical and theological wells, There Is No God and Mary Is His Mother demonstrates the meaningfulness of being a Christian in a secular age. Cathcart shows that, even absent traditional theological formulas and doctrines, Christianity can be a credible, meaningful, and practical means of negotiating worldly existence and experience. For Christians, There Is No God and Mary Is His Mother offers encouragement. For ex-Christians, it presents a different way of being a Christian than the one they've rejected. For atheists, it shows how Christianity can be an ally in affirming the here and now. Religionless Christianity is possible and desirable wherever and whenever it awakens personal and social transformation.

Author: Thomas C. Oden
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830837051
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 205

View

Book Description
Thomas C. Oden surveys the decisive role of African Christians and theologians in shaping the doctrines and practices of the church of the first five centuries, and makes an impassioned plea for the rediscovery of that heritage. Christians throughout the world will benefit from this reclaiming of an important heritage.

Author: Gene Wesley Marshall
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532695225
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 398

View

Book Description
The practice of Christianity is going through a transition that is deeper than the Reformation. The Thinking Christian explores two main questions: (1) What is “religion” as a general social process that can link humans to Profound Reality, and (2) what is a meaningful and appropriate mode of Christian theologizing, communal life, and mission to this planet for a viable and vital next Christian practice? These are profound probes, and they are communal and activist guidelines for general readers. Such union of the profound and the practical pertains to the needs of scholars as well.

Author: John Shelby Spong
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061756121
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

View

Book Description
An important and respected voice for liberal American Christianity for the past twenty years, Bishop John Shelby Spong integrates his often controversial stands on the Bible, Jesus, theism, and morality into an intelligible creed that speaks to today's thinking Christian. In this compelling and heartfelt book, he sounds a rousing call for a Christianity based on critical thought rather than blind faith, on love rather than judgment, and that focuses on life more than religion.

Author: F. Stanley Jones
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
ISBN: 1589836472
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 261

View

Book Description
This focused collection of essays by international scholars first uncovers the roots of the study of ancient Jewish Christianity in the Enlightenment in early eighteenth-century England, then explores why and how this rediscovery of Jewish Christianity set off the entire modern historical debate over Christian origins. Finally, it examines in detail how this critical impulse made its way to Germany, eventually to flourish in the nineteenth century under F. C. Baur and the Tübingen School. Included is a facsimile reproduction of John Toland’s seminal Nazarenus (1718), which launched the modern study of Jewish Christianity. The contributors are F. Stanley Jones, David Lincicum, Pierre Lurbe, Matt Jackson-McCabe, and Matti Myllykoski.