Аннотация

"If only we were a Christian country again!" Christians, particularly those in the West, often lament their loss of influence in modern politics and culture. It seems that everywhere one turns, Christendom in the West is dealt another blow, with Christian reactions ranging from withdrawal and entrenchment, to cries of persecution and talks of organized resistance.
Pentecostalism, Secularism, and Post Christendom seeks to address these concerns via an examination of Classical North American Pentecostalism as it wrestles with the very real challenges posed by the increasing post-Christian ethos of Western culture. In addition to providing a number of concrete steps, Pentecostals may take in their efforts to better understand and connect with modern culture, this work will argue that counter-intuitively, the death of Christendom (if properly addressed), may in fact herald the arrival of the Church's finest hour.

Аннотация

The Beach Boys are one of rock's most enduring and enigmatic groups, and while the band has been the subject of numerous biographies and other in-depth studies, there has been no focused evaluation of the religious and spiritual themes in their work. Spiritual and theological themes are present in much of their work, and when this realization is coupled with Brian Wilson's mission «to spread the gospel of love through records,» and his sense of music as spiritual–of thinking «pop music is going to be spiritual . . . that's the direction I want to go»–this is a striking way to explore the band's music. In God Only Knows, the contributors attempt to come to grips with just a small amount of this band's massive output–by circling around its theological virtues. Each section of the book is a loose investigation of the guiding topics of faith, hope, and love. Each essay is a free exploration of theological and spiritual themes from the contributor's own perspectives.