Wesleyan Perspectives on Human Flourishing PDF Download

Author: Dean G. Smith
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532699190
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Human flourishing is an ever-expanding concept that crosses geographic, ethnic, cultural, and religious lines as persons, both individually and corporately, seek to find happiness, fulfillment, and purpose. This book brings together well-established and burgeoning Wesleyan scholars to consider not only John and Charles Wesley’s understanding of human flourishing but the broader Wesleyan perspectives on contemporary issues such as calling, creation care, healthcare, education, technological enhancements, death and dying, and more. Throughout these chapters the complexities and challenges of life, both past and present, are explored and grappled with, and we are reminded over and again that God is the ultimate source of flourishing.

Author: Dean G. Smith
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532699212
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Human flourishing is an ever-expanding concept that crosses geographic, ethnic, cultural, and religious lines as persons, both individually and corporately, seek to find happiness, fulfillment, and purpose. This book brings together well-established and burgeoning Wesleyan scholars to consider not only John and Charles Wesley's understanding of human flourishing but the broader Wesleyan perspectives on contemporary issues such as calling, creation care, healthcare, education, technological enhancements, death and dying, and more. Throughout these chapters the complexities and challenges of life, both past and present, are explored and grappled with, and we are reminded over and again that God is the ultimate source of flourishing.

Author: M. Kathryn Armistead
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443818410
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Science and religion are living, organic, and creative traditions. Both see humans as profoundly interconnected and in some way responsible for our environs. This worldview is especially true for social science and Wesleyan religious tradition. While the dance between science and religion will always be complex, it can also be enjoyable and mutually satisfying. However when couples dance only one at a time can lead and both have to acknowledge the importance of the other. This book is written with the conviction that theology and science can have a beneficial relationship if only both recognize their mutual value to the lives of persons. The Methodist tradition links the welfare of the body with care for the soul. Historically, ministry involved tending to physical and psychological needs of the Methodist band members but also to non-churched poor and imprisoned. Thus Methodists built places of worship, schools, orphanages, and hospitals. For John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, practical divinity always involved attention to whole persons including their living conditions and basic physical needs. He sought to improve life for all. Therefore throughout his life, Wesley was interested in theology but also scientific discovery as paths toward a better future. He believed that both were of value to help people move toward “perfection.” He even attended lectures and offered medical treatment in the first Methodist meeting hall in Bristol, England. As a scientific practitioner Wesley wrote the best selling book, Primitive Physic or An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases using the cutting edge science of his day. Packed next to the Bible, this book traveled with countless pioneers as they settled the territories that became the United States. Methodism has a long tradition of using science and religion to carry out the biblical mandate to go into the world and make disciples for Jesus Christ. This book seeks to continue that legacy by bringing current trends in psychology into conversation with Wesleyan theology. Composed of essays that represent different psychologies and theological traditions, which trace their roots to Wesley, this book aims at creating a space where science and theology can partner and dance. In the book readers will find positive psychology, self psychology, object relations, family systems, moral psychology, and neuroscience in conversation with various theologies. Under this canopy, the contributors see themselves as “people called Methodists” seeking to follow the example of Wesley to use all available tools to enable persons to live fully and well.

Author: Nadia Marais
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666767115
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
What does it mean to flourish? Human flourishing lies at the heart of the good news of the gospel, and yet contemporary theologies know not only one way of speaking about what it means to flourish. If we embed our theological grammars of flourishing in the doctrine of salvation, as the doctrine in which theological flourishing talk is arguably rooted and from which rich fruit may be borne, there is not one but various ways in which to speak about what it means to flourish. Yet what governs our speaking? Why do we speak of flourishing as we do? The various conceptions of human flourishing that are outlined in this book – piety, joy, and comfort; being fully alive, healing, and dignity; grace, happiness, and blessing – represent a collection of attempts not only to imagine human flourishing, but also to imagine ways of speaking about human flourishing. Perhaps what theology could offer to the vibrant and robust conversations on human flourishing lies exactly in the reminder to take care about how we speak about that which is truly and deeply human: our longing to flourish.

Author: M. Douglas Meeks
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780687038855
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
The opening years of the third Christian millennium are an appropriate time to explore Christian hope as it relates to God's purpose in creation, salvation, and redemption of the universe. Those who stand in the theological tradition of John and Charles Wesley are particularly well placed by their heritage to explore its theme from biblical, historical, theological, ethical, political, psychological, liturgical, and devotional angles.

Author: Steve Harper
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1791033083
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
A powerful guide for new and longtime United Methodists. Upward! is a simple but brilliant course on Wesleyanism for regular people. It thoroughly and methodically guides readers through the distinctive qualities of the Wesleyan way—the theology, practices, habits, and attitudes that characterize Methodist people. Paul W. Chilcote and Steve Harper, two of Methodism’s most beloved teachers, offer this extraordinary book as an invitation to a life of wisdom and wonder in our current world. It is a book of both instruction and celebration, teaching (or reminding) us what makes the Wesleyan way most gracious and lovely. Pastors and other leaders will use Upward as their primary resource for sharing the Wesleyan approach. It can be used in a wide variety of ways and settings—as a sermon series, congregation-wide study, or for new member classes, to name a few. Individuals will use the book as a personal study, ideally in connection with others. Upward! helps leaders and readers to: - correct misconceptions about Wesleyan theology - clarify and reclaim Wesleyan theology - gain a new framework for understanding Wesleyan theology and sharing it with others

Author: Robert A. Derrenbacker
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666799815
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
The Reverend Professor Dorothy A. Lee FAHA is well-known as a New Testament scholar not only in Australia but around the world. An Anglican priest, her ministry, particularly as a preacher and retreat director, is highly regarded and highly sought after, not only in her home city of Melbourne, but in many parts of the country. This Festschrift volume honors her contributions and ministry on the occasion of her seventieth birthday. An interdisciplinary collection of twenty-one essays, it offers two biographical contributions, several essays on New Testament themes, essays on women, feminism, and the church, and cross-disciplinary essays focused on the biblical text. Contributors to the volume come from Australian theological education centers and Australian churches.

Author: Sean McGever
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 151400416X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
Setting Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, and George Whitfield into their own contexts, Sean McGever tells the true story of these men's deeply compromised relationship to slavery. More than just a history, this book is an invitation to examine our own legacies and to take ownership of our heritage and our own part in the story.

Author: Arseny Ermakov
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 166676261X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
In his sermon “What Is Man?,” John Wesley spoke of the human being as a “curious machine,” reflecting the eighteenth-century view of the person as a set of complex mechanisms animated by the soul. The rapid rate of technological development in recent decades is opening toward a future in which the centrality and uniqueness of human beings is undergoing a shift. Developments in robotics, artificial intelligence, surveillance, autonomous weapons, human enhancement, and genetic modification raise an array of questions for the Christian tradition. The awareness of the negative impact of human activity on the natural environment is challenging the traditional view of humanity as having a uniquely privileged role at the heart of creation. This collection of essays addresses Wesleyan and broadly Christian voices that explore the theological, philosophical, biblical, ethical, and practical implications of emerging technologies, their impact upon different aspects of human life, and the possibilities that are opening up toward a posthuman future.

Author: Elaine A Heath
Publisher: Lutterworth Press
ISBN: 0718842979
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
Delving into the widespread, contemporary longing for a more serious and communal experience of Christianity, this book provides important theoretical underpinnings and casts a vision for a new monasticism within the Wesleyan tradition. Elaine Heathand Scott Kisker call for the planting of neo-monastic churches which embody the Wesleyan vision of holiness in postmodern contexts. This book also points toward some vital shifts that are necessary in theological education in order to equip pastorsto lead such communities. Longing for Spring helps Wesleyans of all stripes understand the theory and praxis necessary for planting neo-monastic communities as a new model of the church that is particularly important in the postmodern context. The authors write in an engaging, conversational style that is conversant with postmodern culture, yet thoroughly informed by critical research. Heath and Kisker boldly challenge the imagination of the church, both within and beyond Wesleyan traditions, to consider the possibility of revitalizing the church through the new monasticism.