LITMIR.BIZ

An increase in secularization throughout the Western world has resulted in Christian communities finding themselves in a new context: emerging as a minority group. What does this changing landscape mean for existing Christian communities? Are there biblical or historical precedents for this situation? What should we expect in the future? These were the issues taken up by the speakers at the 2016 conference, «The Emerging Christian Minority,» sponsored by the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.
Contributors
David Novak William T. Cavanaugh Paige Hochschild David Novak Kathryn Schifferdecker Anton Vrame Joseph Small

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Hymns and songs have long been the most frequent and characteristic expression of communal beliefs, particularly among faith traditions that lack authoritarian or rigidly codified doctrinal statements. Even among Christian traditions that do include a strong focus on creeds, catechism and liturgy, it is hymnody, more than anything else, that sustains their lay theology. The hymns of Moshe Walsalam Sastriyar (1847-1916) and Sadhu Kochukunju Upadeshi (1883-1945)–both from the Kingdom of Travancore in southwest India–transcend denominational boundaries and have been embraced far beyond their historical communities of origin as a means of articulating faith and spirituality. Against a missionizing backdrop of western-dominated hymnody and theology, these songs and writings from the fringes of colonialism were embraced by local communities and became their chosen expression of faith. As such, they evoked a lay consciousness quite distinct from official theologies of the church. In Walsalam and Kochukunju, along with other Christian writers of their period and culture, we see a unique inter-weaving of local traditions and the global Christian message–one that transformed social and spiritual relationships for individuals and their communities alike.

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Since the 1980s, renewal scholars have given considerable attention to the role of the believing community in the interpretive process. A broad consensus has emerged that a triad involving Scripture, the Spirit, and the believing community forms a cooperative relationship resulting in theological development, followed by commensurate action–identified in this research as theological creativity. In the context of this research, to be creative with theology is to take an existing theological assumption and broaden or adapt it to current circumstances, given the Spirit's evidential work and a consensual understanding of Scripture. But how does the community negotiate between Spirit and Scripture without subsuming either into its own predilections? For Luke, the first-century community of believers in Acts functions as an indispensable character in the formation of theological creativity. This work will demonstrate how Luke positions the community as a character in story form, between Spirit and Scripture, functioning as a bridge through which its testimony of the Spirit's evidential work and its application of Scripture interact. In order to illustrate this balancing act, we will use a modified configuration of the triadic notion: Spirit-Community-Scripture.

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The publication of William J. Abraham's The Logic of Evangelism in 1989 marked a turning point in the field and practice of evangelism. Almost thirty years later the book still provokes discussion as it stimulates both theorists and practitioners to comprehend evangelism as initiation into God's reign. Combining theological insight and historical analysis, Abraham's groundbreaking work remains the primary text to set the stage for how evangelism may be conceived. In these timely essays written by both theologians and church leaders, The Logic of Evangelism Revisited takes a critical and yet appreciative look into the ways Abraham's work still speaks to the church in today's world. The authors, coming from a wide array of backgrounds, show how The Logic of Evangelism remains a key text into the twenty-first century.

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Secularization, as a movement away from a religious orientation to life, is strong in Canada and has influence worldwide. In this volume, missiologists and practitioners across Canada consider how an agenda of Christian mission and evangelism can be advanced in a secularizing environment. How can believers be «curious and engaged rather than defensive and fearful»? What changes are required from the evangelical community so that there is productive dialogue and action in ways that maintain faithfulness to the cause of Christ? What should the approach of mission be to a new generation steeped in secular narratives? How do we answer negative caricatures of Christian mission in light of the history of Residential Schools? What examples from the past teach us about developing an irenic approach? What positive trends are currently evident in Canada and around the world that counter the secularizing narrative?
These questions and more are considered in this volume by Canadian scholars who recognize the importance of being relevant to society while maintaining integrity with the Gospel message. The essays address secularism in Canadian and worldwide contexts with seriousness, insight, and an underlying theme of hope, recognizing that «God's mission has been accomplished, is being accomplished, and will be accomplished.»

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Christian high school and college students have inadvertently been led to believe that working in non-Christian settings is the preferred way of making the world a better place. This book takes the opposite view. Anthony Bradley argues that it is perfectly honorable and praiseworthy for Christians to work within Christian contexts to add value to the world. Faith In Society profiles thirteen different explicitly Christian contexts that are already serving the common good.

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This work examines the development of a «dissenting» perspective on the emerging doctrine of the Holy Spirit in Post-Reformation Protestant thought. By «dissenting,» the author means «beyond the mainstream of thought, sometimes affirming but expanding orthodox positions, but at other times pursuing new directions and images of the Spirit.» A new look is offered at the Puritan-Separatist era in English dissenting traditions, as well as organized dissenters in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Of particular interest are the applications of current philosophic and scientific writers. There are sections on major German thinkers of the nineteenth century and major influential theologians of the last century who laid new foundations in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Readers will be interested in the inclusion of new religious movements in two eras, and creative contemporary ideas of the Spirit. How an ongoing «dissenting» perspective contrasts with mainstream thinking is woven through four centuries of literature on the Spirit. The author contends that we have learned much from the «dissenting» perspective, and he offers seven constructive affirmations of the Spirit of God drawn from his survey and analyses of the previous four centuries. The bibliography is comprehensive of major works on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, plus unusual sources of dissenting thought.

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In Greek, the language of the New Testament, there are four words for love–agape, philia, storge, and eros–but no matter what the Greek word is, the English equivalent is always love. The most used Greek word for love in the NT is agape, the noblest word for self-sacrificial love. The second-most used word for love in the NT is philia, brotherly or sisterly affectionate love between equals. The third word for love in Greek is storge, which refers to love that is based in one's nature, such as the natural affection of parents toward children. The fourth Greek word for love is eros, which does not appear in the NT. It is the love of sexual passion, intimate love, and romantic love. Each entry in all six chapters of this book follows a five-part exercise: (1) title; (2) a short quotation from Scripture; (3) a two-paragraph reflection on the use of love in the quotation; (4) a journal/meditation question to help the reader connect the reflection to his or her own life; and (5) a short prayer. The process is an exercise in spirituality–that is, the way one is in the divine's presence.

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Hymns and the music the church sings are tangible means of expressing worship. And while worship is one of, if not the, central functions of the church along with mission, service, education, justice, and compassion, and occupies a prime focus of our churches, a renewed sense of awareness to our theological presuppositions and cultural cues must be maintained to ensure a proper focus in worship.
Hymns and Hymnody: Historical and Theological Introductions is a 60-chapter, three-volume introductory textbook describing the most influential hymnists, liturgists, and musical movements of the church. This academically grounded resource evaluates both the historical and theological perspectives of the major hymnists and composers that have impacted the church over the course of twenty centuries. Volume 1 explores the early church and concludes with the Renaissance era hymnists. Volume 2 begins with the Reformation and extends to the eighteenth-century hymnists and liturgists. Volume 3 engages nineteenth century hymnists to the contemporary movements of the twenty-first century.
Each chapter contains these five elements: historical background, theological perspectives communicated in their hymns/compositions, contribution to liturgy and worship, notable hymns, and bibliography. The mission of Hymns and Hymnody is (1) to provide biographical data on influential hymn writers for students and interested laypeople, and (2) to provide a theological analysis of what these composers have communicated in the theology of their hymns. We believe it is vital for those involved in leading the worship of the church to recognize that what they communicate is in fact theology. This latter aspect, we contend, is missing–yet important–in accessible formats for the current literature.

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This book presents two new proposals regarding Paul's letter to the Galatians. First, it demonstrates an entirely new chiastic structure embracing the entire letter, based on strict linguistic and textual criteria rather than on conceptual or theological themes. This chiastic structure accords with the view that Galatians was originally performed orally in a setting of communal worship. Secondly, it offers a new proposal for a key theme that runs throughout Galatians, as expressed by the subtitle of this book–"Worship for Life by Faith in the Crucified and Risen Lord." It considers «worship» to be a comprehensive concept that includes liturgical, cultic, or ritual worship as well as the moral behavior that is to complement it as ethical worship in accord with the biblical tradition. «Life» refers both to the present way of living as well as to future eternal life. «Faith» refers to the acceptance of divine grace available to the believer because of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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