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The Rhetoric of the Pulpit treats the sermon as the single most important factor in evangelism for a parish, and also the most important factor in the spiritual growth of both the congregation and the pastor. With emphasis on the Word as the foundation, the author adds music and liturgy to the sermon's structure to build a unified worship experience. Recognizing that the Word is truth, but that the truth needs to be made to seem true, the book offers sound, practical advice on sermon preparation based on both classical and contemporary communication theory.
Sermon preparation is viewed as a process that begins with downloading the Word, followed by productive meditation. The process then moves through the rhetorical steps, from a search for content to the sermon's delivery.
Throughout the book, the rhetorical principles are treated as a subordinate element to the Word, a means of giving effectiveness to the truth. The Rhetoric of the Pulpit aims to reflect the spirit of Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Paul, and Kenneth Burke.

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This book challenges a popular and influential thesis in Lukan scholarship presented by the Tubingen School: Paul is a rival of Peter and Paul is an anti-Jewish apostle. Consequently, he is solely an apostle to Gentiles in Acts.
Through a narrative-critical method, Wenxi Zhang studies Paul's inaugural speech in Antioch of Pisidia and its literary function in relation to Paul's missionary activity among Jews in Acts. He concludes (1) that this inaugural sermon functions as an interpretative key to understand the narrative of Paul's missionary activity among his fellow Jews; and (2) that Paul is not anti-Jewish. He remains a faithful Jew who proclaims to his fellow Jews the fulfillment of God's promise to David in Jesus' resurrection. Consequently, Acts is not anti-Jewish document.

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One of the vital issues in contemporary Christian theology is the problem of a renewed understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time. This is not merely a peripheral doctrinal issue, but lies at the heart of our understanding of God and humanity, and contributes to our entire worldview. This study focuses on a long-standing debate between two competing views on God's eternity: one focused on God's absolute timelessness in classical theism, and the other on God's temporal everlastingness in contemporary panentheism. In contrast to both of these well-worn options, this book presents an alternative Trinitarian analogical understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time, especially through a critical reflection on Karl Barth's and Hans Urs von Balthasar's engagement of the issue. This analogical approach, based on the dynamic and dramatic concepts of God's being-in-relation and of the Triune God's communicative action in eternity and time, has the potential to resolve the debate between absolute timeless eternity and temporal everlasting duration.

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Do you consume God's blessings, or do you share them? Most Christians are consumers. We are obsessed with knowing the right theology and following the right set of rules in hopes that God will bless us. Yet, no matter how much God blesses us, we are still looking for more. James says our faith is dead. But there is another type of Christian, one who craves being put to work as the servant of God to share God's blessings with others. Their faith spurs them on to become the hands and feet of Christ. James says their faith is alive. James in the Suburbs is far more than your ordinary Bible study guide. It is also a parable–an energizing story of the lives of six men and women–that wraps itself around the Epistle of James, making its teachings immediately applicable to modern life. You will walk away with not only a thorough understanding of the epistle, but also the unforgettable story of people just like you, whose lives the Holy Spirit turned upside down. This book can be read casually by an individual or studied within a group. The final chapter provides everything readers need for a guided twelve-week study.

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In this pertinent and engaging volume leading Christian philosophers, theologians, and writers from all over the denominational map explode the black-and-white binaries that characterize both sides of the New Atheism debate. They transcend the self-assured shouting matches of this latest expression of the culture wars by engaging in rigorous, polychromatic Christian reflection that considers the extent to which the atheistic critique-both new and old-might help the church move toward a more mature faith, authentic spirituality, charitable witness, and peaceable practice. With generous openness and ferocious wit, this collection of essays, interviews, memoir, poetry, and visual art-including contributions from leading intellectuals, activists, and artists such as Stanley Hauerwas, Charles Taylor, John Milbank, Stanley Fish, Luci Shaw, Paul Roorda, Merold Westphal, and D. Stephen Long-provides substantive analysis, incisive critique, and a hopeful way forward for Christian dialog with atheist voices.

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Muslim communities throughout the Indian Ocean have long questioned what it means to be a “good Muslim.” Much recent scholarship on Islam in the Indian Ocean considers debates among Muslims about authenticity, authority, and propriety. Despite the centrality of this topic within studies of Indian Ocean, African, and other Muslim communities, little of the existing scholarship has addressed such debates in relation to women, gender, or sexuality. Yet women are deeply involved with ideas about what it means to be a “good Muslim.” In Gendered Lives in the Western Indian Ocean, anthropologists, historians, linguists, and gender studies scholars examine Islam, sexuality, gender, and marriage on the Swahili coast and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean. The book examines diverse sites of empowerment, contradiction, and resistance affecting cultural norms, Islam and ideas of Islamic authenticity, gender expectations, ideologies of modernity, and British education. The book’s attention to both masculinity and femininity, broad examination of the transnational space of the Swahili coast, and inclusion of research on non-Swahili groups on the East African coast makes it a unique and indispensable resource. Contributors: Nadine Beckmann, Pat Caplan, Corrie Decker, Rebecca Gearhart, Linda Giles, Meghan Halley, Susan Hirsch, Susi Keefe, Kjersti Larsen, Elisabeth McMahon, Erin Stiles, and Katrina Daly Thompson

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This book provides an in-depth deliberation upon the now unsettled relationship between religion and politics in contemporary Britain, with some emphasis upon the case of Islam, which is now at the centre of the debate. Combining theological reflections and academic and policy perspectives, this topical collection includes contributions from Ted Cantle, Sunder Katwala, Maleiha Malik and Tariq Modood, among others.

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An immense understanding of the Qur’an is offered here, a vast treasure of knowledge and deep insight and a valuable exposition of some social, political, economic and legal teachings of the Qur’an. But what makes this work unique is that it presents the Qur’an as a book to be lived by. With thousands of notes, an introduction and comprehensive index.

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Translations of verses from the Qur'an thematically divided, offering the reader a snapshot of its teachings on a range of subjects.The range of topics is diverse and extensive, including: politics, economy, creation, the idea of God, the Prophets, and much more.Translations are by the first Muslim American to translate the Qur'an, T.B. Irving.Includes a detailed glossary, in addition to an index of Qur'anic verses and an introduction.

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