LITMIR.BIZ

It is hubris to claim answers to unanswerable questions. Such questions, however–as part of their burden and worth–must still be asked, investigated, and contemplated. How there can be a loving, all-powerful God and a world stymied by suffering and evil is one of the unanswerable questions we must all struggle to answer, even as our responses are closer to gasps, silences, and further questions. More importantly, how and whether one articulates a response will have deep, lasting repercussions for any belief in God and in our judgments upon one another.
Throughout this wide-ranging, interdisciplinary work, Peter Admirand draws upon his extensive research and background in theology and testimonial literature, trauma and genocide studies, cultural studies, philosophy of religion, interreligious studies, and systematic theology. As David Burrell writes in the Foreword: «. . .[T]he work's intricate structure, organization, and development will lead us to appreciate that the best one can settle for is a fractured faith built on a fractured theodicy, expressed in a language explicitly fragmented, pluralist, and broken.»

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How important is childhood in the spiritual formation of a person? How do children experience God in the context of their lives as they grow? What does God do in the lives of children to draw them to himself and help them grow into a vital relationship with him? How can adults who care about children better support their spiritual growth and direct it toward relationship with God through Jesus Christ? These are critical questions that church leaders face as they consider how best to nurture the faith of the children God brings into our lives. In this book, over two dozen Christian scholars and ministry leaders explore important issues about the spiritual life of children and ways parents, church leaders, and others who care about children can promote their spiritual formation.

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How should followers of Christ live in a multi-religious world? This book argues that the example of Jesus has something fresh and helpful to say to those who ponder the question. It takes something old–the example of Jesus–to say something new to our pluralist world. Most of the book examines the meetings of Jesus with Gentiles and Samaritans. These are found in some of the most poignant and dramatic encounters and teaching passages in the Gospels: a synagogue address with near-murderous consequences; the healing of a pagan centurion's servant; the setting free of the afflicted child of a Gentile mother; a moving encounter at a Samaritan well; the unlikely story of a compassionate Samaritan–and more. This is a scholarly but accessible discussion of what it might mean to «have the same attitude of mind that Christ Jesus had» in our contemporary multi-religious world.

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This book proposes a new and comprehensive chiastic structure as well as a new unifying theme for the Letter of James. In accord with this structure that organizes its oral performance, the words «worship to live by» express what the letter as a whole is exhorting its audience to adopt. «Worship» includes not only liturgical worship but also the ethical behavior that complements it, so that the result is a holistic way of worshiping God. And the words «to live by» embrace the worshipful conduct by which to live out presently one's birth to a new life as a believer before the final coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, with a view to the future eternal life to be granted at the last judgment as the outcome of such worship. In short, the Letter of James urges its audience to practice the worship to live by now in order to live eternally.

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In this volume some of the outstanding Christian scholars of our day reflect on how their minds have changed, how their academic fields have changed over the course of their careers, and the pressing issues that Christian scholars will need to address in the twenty-first century. This volume offers an accessible portrait of key trends in the world of Christian scholarship today.
Christian Thought in the Twenty-First Century features scholars from Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and Switzerland. The contributors represent a wide variety of academic backgrounds–from biblical studies to theology, to religious studies, to history, English literature, philosophy, law, and ethics.
This book offers a personal glimpse of Christian scholars in a self-reflective mode, capturing their honest reflections on the changing state of the academy and on changes in their own minds and outlooks. The breadth and depth of insight afforded by these contributions provide rich soil for a reader's own reflections, and an agenda that will occupy Christian thinkers well into the twenty-first century.

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Global Christianity has been experiencing an unprecedented historical transition from the West to the non-Western world. The leadership of global Christianity has taken on a new face since the twentieth century. Christendom in Europe and America has experienced a great decline while there has been a rise in Majority World Christianity. Churches in the Global South have given their voices to global Christianity through their leadership, world mission movements, and theology. The phenomenal church growth has risen from the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement. Pentecostalism has become the dominant force in global Christianity today. The Rise of the Global South examines the significance this shift has had on global Christianity by going through the history of Christianity in the West and the causes of the shift.

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In this innovative work, Mowinckel employs the phenomenology of religion to investigate how religion was lived and experienced in ancient Israel and Judah. Using his considerable expertise, he draws important comparisons between the religious practices in the Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern religions, Christianity, and tribal religions from around the world.

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Here's a different angle on humor–it can be a spiritual practice, an expression of a theology of joy, hope, and grace. Humor is so valuable, for it offers self-care, healing, and renewal, precious gifts in times of pressure and tension. Olson begins by telling of three unforgettable friends who lived their lives with joy and zest–a practice that opened doors and aided their own sense of well-being. Playfully, he continues by exploring the known benefits of humor. Next considered is the amazing variety of humor in the Bible, a basic theology of a laughing God, and the caring ethic of humor that emerges from this theology. Finally, there is a discussion of how this practice of humor enriches worship, caregiving, and administration.
Laughter in a Time of Turmoil draws to a close considering spiritual disciplines/practices and why humor belongs among these practices. Suggestions are then offered on how to grow in this spiritual practice. Discussion questions are provided for each chapter to help groups enjoy their conversations about the book. This book will help you think and laugh, or laugh and think (take your pick) and then be on your way rejoicing.

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Thomas Jefferson and William Wilberforce were born at a time of great, dangerous challenges where unprecedented revolutions in thought, governments, worldview and culture swept in. Their lives, from their beginning tragedies down to their calling and early commitments to end slavery, make their stories even more amazing. Powerfully formed as leaders by exceptional mentors and lifelong supporters, they were sustained in their difficult journeys through several critical forks. While each experienced the early failure to abolish slavery, eventually one man backed away from his responsibility while the other became a globally recognized leader of mercy to the oppressed.
Why the so-called tyrant monarchy, England, was led to dissolve slavery peacefully and why the first democracy formed in liberty wasted six hundred thousand lives for the same end remains a conundrum to this day. Even more puzzling is why, despite fierce opposition, Wilberforce persisted to lead this victory while Jefferson failed to do so. This even deeper question reveals much about the power of purpose, of beliefs, worldviews, and what constitutes true success. In the end, their competing stories produce valuable lessons apt for our equally perplexing times. Whether an aspiring, young leader, one who seeks to shape the next generation, or a student of history, the reader will find here answers to important questions we all share.
For those interested in further resources for leadership development, worldview, history, finishing well and other themes from this book, visit the website at http://crossedlives.org

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"Christianity, as faith centered in Jesus as the Christ came to be called, got a foothold in the world, and for a vital and vocal minority changed the world, because it proclaimed a message that awakened men and women to possibilities for human life that they had either lost or never entertained. That message the first Christian evangelists (and Jesus himself, according to the record) called euangellion–good news, gospel. For its first two or three hundred years, Christianity was largely dependent for its existence upon the new zest for life that was awakened in persons who heard and were, as they felt, transformed, by that gospel; and at various and sundry points in subsequent history the Christian movement has found itself revitalized by the spirit of that same 'good news' in ways that spoke to the specifics of their times and places.
"The lesson of history is clear: the challenge to all serious Christians and Christian bodies today is not whether we can devise yet more novel and promotionally impressive means for the transmission of 'the Christian religion' (let alone this or that denomination); it is whether we are able to hear and to proclaim . . . gospel! We do not need statisticians and sociologists to inform us that religion–and specifically our religion, as the dominant expression of the spiritual impulse of homo sapiens in our geographic context–is in decline. We do not need the sages of the new atheism to announce in learned tomes (and on buses!) that 'God probably does not exist.' The 'sea of faith' has been ebbing for a very long time." –from the Introduction

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