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Christian Missionaries, Ethnicity, and State Control in Globalized Yunnan (World Christianity)
by Gideon ElazarFollowing the Communist Revolution of 1949, missionaries were kicked out of China and proselytizing was outlawed. However, since the beginning of the reform era, China has witnessed a massive return of missionary workers. Today there are more Christians in church on a given Sunday in China than anywhere else on the globe.This book investigates the interaction of Western missionaries, ethnic minorities, and Han Chinese converts with the Chinese state in an increasingly globalized China. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Yunnan, it tries to make sense of the disparity between official state rhetoric and everyday reality. Examining morality in the context of the free-market system, spatial practices, linguistic activity, and Christian welfare organizations, Gideon Elazar reveals the ways in which the previously conflicting Communist Party and Christian “civilizing projects” have reached a measure of convergence, enabling local authorities to treat missionaries with a degree of tolerance. Elazar shows how this unofficial arrangement relates to the social realities and challenges of the reform era, including ethnic culture and identity, Yunnan’s many social problems, and the integration of ethnic minorities into the state system.By exploring the continuously shifting social and religious borders negotiated by converts, missionaries, and state authorities in Southwest China, this book sheds light on the larger issue of contemporary religion in China’s global era. It will be of interest to researchers of religion, Christianity, and minority groups in the People’s Republic of China.
Christian Missionary Engagement in Central Nigeria, 1857–1891: The Church Missionary Society's All-African Mission on the Upper Niger (African Histories and Modernities)
by Femi J. KolapoIn the decades before colonial partition in Africa, the Church Missionary Society embarked on the first serious effort to evangelize in an independent Muslim state. Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther led an all-African field staff to convert the people of the Upper Niger and Confluence area, whose communities were threatened or already conquered by an expanding jihadist Nupe state. In this book, Femi J. Kolapo examines the significance of the mission as an African—rather than European—undertaking, assessing its impact on missionary practice, local engagement, and Christian conversion prospects. By offering a fuller history of this overlooked mission in the history of Christianity in Nigeria, this book reaffirms indigenous agency and rethinks the mission as an experiment ahead of its time.
Christian Missions: Their Place in India
by M. K. GandhiI hold that it is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others’ religions as we would have them to respect our own, a friendly study of the world’s religions is a sacred duty. We need not dread, upon our grown up children, the influence of scriptures other than our own. We liberalize their outlook upon life by encouraging them to study freely all that is clean. Fear there would be when someone reads his own scriptures to young people with intention secretly or openly of converting them. He must then be biassed in favour of his own scriptures. …My respectful study of other religions has not abated my reverence for or my faith in the Hindu scriptures. They have indeed left their deep mark upon my understanding of the Hindu scriptures. They have broadened my view of life. They have enabled me to understand more clearly many an obscure passage in the Hindu scriptures.— By Gandhiji
Christian Moderns
by Webb KeaneAcross much of the postcolonial world, Christianity has often become inseparable from ideas and practices linking the concept of modernity to that of human emancipation. To explore these links, Webb Keane undertakes a rich ethnographic study of the century-long encounter, from the colonial Dutch East Indies to post-independence Indonesia, among Calvinist missionaries, their converts, and those who resist conversion. Keane's analysis of their struggles over such things as prayers, offerings, and the value of money challenges familiar notions about agency. Through its exploration of language, materiality, and morality, this book illuminates a wide range of debates in social and cultural theory. It demonstrates the crucial place of Christianity in semiotic ideologies of modernity and sheds new light on the importance of religion in colonial and postcolonial histories.
Christian Moral Theology in the Emerging Technoculture: From Posthuman Back to Human (Routledge Science and Religion Series)
by Brent WatersWe are living in an emerging technoculture. Machines and gadgets not only weave the fabric of daily life, but more importantly embody philosophical and religious values which shape the contemporary moral vision-a vision that is often at odds with Christian convictions. This book critically examines those values, and offers a framework for how Christian moral theology should be formed and lived-out within the emerging technoculture. Brent Waters argues that technology represents the principal cultural background against which contemporary Christian moral life is formed. Addressing contemporary ethical and religious issues, this book will be of particular interest to students and scholars exploring the ideas of Heidegger, Nietzsche, Grant, Arendt, and Borgmann.
Christian Morality: Our Response to God's Love
by Brian Singer-Towns**Christian Morality: Our Response to God's Love has been submitted to the Subcommittee on the Catechism, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Declarations of conformity with both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age are pending. Christian Morality: Our Response to God's Love Students face countless choices and challenges in their daily lives. This course addresses how a relationship with Christ and the Church can lead to choices that are in accord with God's plan. The students learn what it means to live as a disciple of Christ and how the Church strengthens this discipleship. The Living in Christ Series * Makes the most of the wisdom and experience of Catholic high school teachers as they empower and guide students to participate in their own learning. * Engages students' intellect and responds to their natural desire to know God. * Encourages faith in action through carefully-crafted learning objectives, lessons, activities, active learning, and summative projects that address multiple learning styles. What you will find . . . * Each Living in Christ student book is developed in line with the U. S. Bishops' High School Curriculum Framework and provides key doctrine essential to the course in a clear and accessible way, making it relevant to the students and how they live their lives. * Each Living in Christ teacher guide carefully crafts the lessons, based on the key principles of Understanding by Design, to guide the students' understanding of key concepts. * Living in Christ offers an innovative, online learning environment featuring flexible and customizable resources to enrich and empower the teacher to respond to the diverse learning needs of the students. * The Living in Christ series is available to you in traditional full-color text and in digital textbook format, offering you options to meet your preferences and needs.
Christian Mountain Man Survivalist Evangelist
by Rockey SmithYour life is at stake, worse than that your soul is in jeopardy. A New World Order has been established taking control of food, finance, politics, and religions. Those who refuse to obey not taking the Mark of the Beast. The chip in their forehead or hand is hunted. If caught, they are put in concentration camps to re-indoctrinate them. Still, if they do not comply, they are tortured and, in time, beheaded. History has a way of repeating itself, especially when the world does not learn the lessons it teaches.&“There is peace in our time, no major wars in over twenty-one months. Israel and the Arab nations are working together, the Jewish Temple is being rebuilt, a red heifer has been located for temple sacrifice. I as your world leader, I will ensure stability throughout the world as it has never been before. Commerce will continue to grow, topping all trade records larger merchant ships will be built to supply the world and feed the hungry. Babylon will become a great world trade center. I Noyllopa will make this happen. You have seen my supernatural powers at work, I call fire down from Heaven, and it comes, I heal the masses of diseases and bring back the dead. I am your savior, show your loyalty to me, and all will be well.&”Chris and his friends know who this charismatic leader really is, his real name is Apollyon, the destroyer, also known as an anti-Christ. Chris and many other faithful, true Christians are learning how to evade the evil forces and survive in the mountains. They are bringing lost souls to Christ, making disciples and teaching them to become self-reliant.As an evangelist doing street ministry, I am limited to how many I can reach and disciple. Yet, as an author, It is my hope. and with the inspiration of our Creator, thousands, perhaps millions can be reached, turned from their selfish ways, take up their cross and follow our Saviour. &“Thy kingdom come. they will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven.&” Matthew 6:10 KJVIf you are a voracious reader as I am, I hope you will devour this book, chew on the words, digest them and assimilate them into every fiber of your soul. Your epicurean cuisine will taste of humor, romance, adventure, thunderbolt miracles, fighting evil, hope, faith, enduring love, and perseverance. Developing compassion and passion for the saving grace of lost souls. Join me on this adventure into the near future, learning how to witness and survive in the days ahead. Failure is not an option, we do the difficult today, the impossible in due time. &“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 KJV
Christian Music: A Global History
by Tim DowleyTim Dowley's popular history of Christian music is the first to encompass all eras, regions, and varieties of this rich and vast treasure. From its Jewish origins, through medieval chant and hymns, to gospel and rock, Christian music around the world is harmonized beautifully in this colorfully illustrated survey. Dowley travels beneath the plurality of forms and styles to pose questions about the meaning of diverse traditions. His skillful narrative and fascinating insights from specialists combine for a truly global history of Christianity's musical culture.
Christian Mystery (Academic Paperback Ser.)
by Louis BouyerOne of the most gifted and internationally renowned theologians of our time here explores the importance of mystery and mysticism in the Christian tradition. He begins with a historical look at myth and mystery in pagan, Hellenistic and Classical cults, and the subsequent development in Christian mysticism and spirituality. From myth and mystery he moved to mysticism in the Christian West up to the present. Christian tradition is compared to Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist mystic experiences. Throughout, Bouyer seeks to focus on the power and meaning of these phenomena in their place in the modern Church. Here the reader will find a new way of reading the Bible and a firmer meaning of what it is to be a Christian. Translated from the French by Illtyd Trethowan.
Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence (Contemporary Theological Explorations in Mysticism)
by Simon D. Podmore Louise NelstropThis book examines the relationship between transcendence and immanence within Christian mystical and apophatic writings. Original essays from a range of leading, established, and emerging scholars in the field focus on the roles of language, signs, and images, and consider how mystical theology might contribute to contemporary reflection on the Word incarnate. This collection of essays re-examines works from such canonical figures as Eckhart, Augustine, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, Nicolas of Cusa, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, along with the philosophical thought of Iris Murdoch, Jacques Lacan, and Martin Heidegger, and the contemporary phenomena of the Emerging Church. Presenting new readings of key ideas in mystical theology, and renewed engagement with the visionary and the everyday, the therapeutic and the transformative, these essays question how we might think about what may lie between transcendence and immanence.
Christian Mysticism: An Introduction to Contemporary Theoretical Approaches (Contemporary Theological Explorations In Christian Mysticism Ser.)
by Louise Nelstrop Kevin MagillThis book introduces students to Christian mysticism and modern critical responses to it. Christianity has a rich tradition of mystical theology that first emerged in the writings of the early church fathers, and flourished during the Middle Ages. Today Christian mysticism is increasingly recognised as an important Christian heritage relevant to today's spiritual seekers. The book sets out to provide students and other interested readers with access to the main theoretical approaches to Christian mysticism - including those propounded by William James, Steven Katz, Bernard McGinn, Michael Sells, Denys Turner and Caroline Walker-Bynum. It also explores postmodern re-readings of Christian mysticism by authors such as Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Marion and Jean-François Lyotard. The book first introduces students to the main themes that underpin Christian mysticism. It then reflects on how modern critics have understood each of them, demonstrating that stark delineation between the different theoretical approaches eventually collapses under the weight of the complex interaction between experience and knowledge that lies at the heart of Christian mysticism. In doing so, the book presents a deliberate challenge to a strictly perennialist reading of Christian mysticism. Anyone even remotely familiar with Christian mysticism will know that renewed interest in Christian mystical writers has created a huge array of scholarship with which students of mysticism need to familiarise themselves. This book outlines the various modern theoretical approaches in a manner easily accessible to a reader with little or no previous knowledge of this area, and offers a philosophical/theological introduction to Christian mystical writers beyond the patristic period important for the Latin Western Tradition.
Christian Mysticism’s Queer Flame: Spirituality in the Lives of Contemporary Gay Men (Routledge Studies in Religion)
by Michael Bernard KellyIs the Christian mystical tradition a relic of another time, shaped by celibates for celibates, unable to engage meaningfully with people of our time who embrace their corporeality and sexuality as crucial aspects of their journey towards union with God? This book reflects in serious theological depth and detail on the spiritual and sexual journeys of gay men of mature and committed Christian faith, employing the Christian mystical tradition as the lens and the interlocutor in this process. This study examines the major themes and stages of the mystical tradition as outlined by Evelyn Underhill, but also including more recent work by Ruth Burrows, Thomas Merton and Constance Fitzgerald. Using methods of qualitative research, it then considers the texts of in-depth interviews conducted with men, most of whom are theologians or spiritual leaders with a deep Catholic faith, and all of whom are openly, self-affirmingly gay. Finally, it employs Ricoeur’s hermeneutical theory to engage in a creative theological conversation between the traditional mystical stages and themes and these men’s lives, as described in their interviews. This is a unique study that brings together ancient spirituality with contemporary lived religion. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of religious studies, theology, Christian mysticism and spirituality, and queer studies. It will be of particular interest to those teach spiritual direction and to all who seek new ways to engage with the spiritual lives of LGBTIQ+ people.
Christian Mystics of the Middle Ages: An Anthology of Writings
by Donald Attwater Paul De JaegherReflections by 13 men and women, conveniently gathered into one volume, encompass the works of Angela of Foligno, John Ruysbroeck, Henry Suso, Richard Rolle, John Tauler, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, Walter Hilton, Catherine of Genoa, St. Teresa, John of the Cross, and Francis de Sales.
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations
by Matthew FoxAs Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. Fox is uniquely qualified to comment on these profound, sometimes startling, often denounced insights. In 1998, this longtime member of the Dominican Order was silenced by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, for his Creation Spirituality, an ecumenical teaching that embraces gender justice, social justice, and eco-justice. The daily readings he shares here speak to the sacredness of the earth, awe and gratitude, darkness and shadow, compassion and creativity, sacred sexuality, and peacemaking.
Christian Mythology: Revelations of Pagan Origins
by Claude Lecouteux Philippe WalterReveals how Christian mythology has more to do with long-standing pagan traditions than the Bible • Explains how the church fathers knowingly incorporated pagan elements into the Christian faith to ease the transition to the new religion • Identifies pagan deities that were incorporated into each of the saints • Shows how all the major holidays in the Christian calendar are modeled on pagan rituals and myths, including Easter and Christmas In this extensive study of the Christian mythology that animated Europe in the Middle Ages, author Philippe Walter reveals how these stories and the holiday traditions connected with them are based on long-standing pagan rituals and myths and have very little connection to the Bible. The author explains how the church fathers knowingly incorporated pagan elements into the Christian faith to ease the transition to the new religion. Rather than tear down the pagan temples in Britain, Pope Gregory the Great advised Saint Augustine of Canterbury to add the pagan rituals into the mix of Christian practices and transform the pagan temples into churches. Instead of religious conversion, it was simply a matter of convincing the populace to include Jesus in their current religious practices. Providing extensive documentation, Walter shows which major calendar days of the Christian year are founded on pagan rituals and myths, including the high holidays of Easter and Christmas. Examining hagiographic accounts of the saints, he reveals the origin of these symbolic figures in the deities worshipped in pagan Europe for centuries. He also explores how the identities of saints and pagan figures became so intermingled that some saints were transformed into pagan incarnations, such as Mary Magdalene’s conversion into one of the Celtic Ladies of the Lake. In revealing the pagan roots of many Christian figures, stories, and rituals, Walter provides a new understanding of the evolution of religious belief.
Christian Names in Local and Family History
by George RedmondsSurnames have always provided key links in historical research. This groundbreaking new work shows that first names can also be highly significant for those tracing genealogies or studying communities. Standard works on first names have always concentrated on etymology. George Redmonds goes much further: he believes that every name has a precise origin and history of expansion, which can be regional or even local; up to c. 1700 it may even have centred on one family. This text fully explores the implications of this belief for local and family history, and challenges many published assumptions on the historical frequency of first names.
Christian Nationalism and Democracy in Ghana (Routledge Studies on Religion in Africa and the Diaspora)
by Jeffrey HaynesThis book investigates the impact of Christian nationalism on democracy in Ghana, arguing that proponents of a specific Christian worldview seek to remake the country according to their values and beliefs.Christian nationalism is a significant religious and political ideology in several African countries, not only Ghana, but also Zambia and Nigeria. In Ghana, prominent Christian nationalists, encouraged by sections of the American Christian Right, cultivate political influence with powerful political elites and by developing a high media profile to promote their views and increase their numbers of followers. The book examines specific examples of Christian nationalism’s impact on Ghana’s democracy: the national cathedral as a symbol of national unity and social cohesion, anti-Muslim pronouncements threatening inter-faith harmony, and attacks on Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community. Overall, the book argues that Christian nationalism is a specific threat to Ghana’s three decade-long liberal democracy, with the aim of undermining the constitutional equality and human rights of some Ghanaians in favour of a specific Christian worldview.This book will be of interest to researchers of religion and politics in Africa, with Ghana serving as an important case study for those interested in the regional impact of Christian nationalism.
Christian Nationalism and the Birth of the War on Drugs
by Andrew MonteithRecovers the religious origins of the War on DrugsMany people view the War on Drugs as a contemporary phenomenon invented by the Nixon administration. But as this new book shows, the conflict actually began more than a century before, when American Protestants began the temperance movement and linked drug use with immorality.Christian Nationalism and the Birth of the War on Drugs argues that this early drug war was deeply rooted in Christian impulses. While many scholars understand Prohibition to have been a Protestant undertaking, it is considerably less common to consider the War on Drugs this way, in part because racism has understandably been the focal point of discussions of the drug war. Antidrug activists expressed—and still do express--blatant white supremacist and nativist motives. Yet this book argues that that racism was intertwined with religious impulses. Reformers pursued the “civilizing mission,” a wide-ranging project that sought to protect “child races” from harmful influences while remodeling their cultures to look like Europe and the United States. Most reformers saw Christianity as essential to civilization and missionaries felt that banning drugs would encourage religious conversion and progress. This compelling work of scholarship radically reshapes our understanding of one of the longest and most damaging conflicts in modern American history, making the case that we cannot understand the War on Drugs unless we understand its religious origins.
Christian Natural Law and Religious Freedom: A Foundation Based on Love, the True, and the Good
by Alex DeagonDeagon addresses the need for a robust theoretical foundation for religious freedom that accounts for its transcendent nature.What is the idea of religious freedom? Where does it come from? Why should it be protected? These important questions for understanding religious freedom are usually addressed through secular and immanent foundations which are unable to sufficiently grapple with the religious nature of religious freedom – its connection with the divine. Deagon proposes an alternative approach rooted in Christian Natural Law. In Part I of the book, Deagon defines and develops Christian Natural Law, identifying three consistent themes: Love, the True and the Good. In Part II, Deagon deploys Christian Natural Law to articulate a theological framework for religious freedom which shows that religious freedom is an individual and social good, is oriented to the true and is grounded in love. In doing so, Deagon offers a new foundation for religious freedom which properly considers it as a matter of both human and divine action.This book will be of interest to those engaged in law and religion studies, in particular scholars of religious freedom, theology and jurisprudence and human rights.
Christian No More: On Leaving Christianity, Debunking Christianity, And Embracing Atheism And Freethinking
by Jeffrey MarkThis book is for everyone: Atheists will find excellent arguments to help them defend their positions; Agnostics will appreciate the clarification it brings; Christians who are struggling will find this book a great help in breaking free from their shackles as they learn exactly why there's no possible way Christianity is true and why they don't have to worry ever again. The Bible says that the world's languages began with the Tower of Babel. Today we know better. But how could the Bible contain stories that aren't true? Author Jeffrey Mark was a devout Christian throughout his life until, during his early 30s, he began studying the Bible more seriously than he ever had. And that's when he made the disturbing realization that so many stories were simply untrue. For him, this realization started with the Tower of Babel. That in turn launched a series of events that eventually led him to abandon his long-held beliefs. Go into the mind of a former Christian. Understand why he believed what he did, why it was so hard to let go, and why, after understanding the truth about the Bible, he ultimately had no choice but to stop believing. Travel with him as you see how Christianity and Judaism rehash older beliefs that have long been written off as mythical. Find out how the Bible in its original form spoke of multiple gods creating the Earth, and how the dearly-held beliefs of today's Christians bear no resemblance to the Bible's stories in their original form. As you take a journey into reason and the scientific method, find out why there is simply no possible way Christianity's teachings can be true, and why we live in a universe that is guided by science--not by a god and his mythical son who rose from the dead.
Christian Orthodox Migrants in Western Europe: Secularization and Modernity through the Lens of the Gift Paradigm (Routledge Studies in Religion)
by Maria HämmerliChristian Orthodox Migrants in Western Europe: Secularization and Modernity through the Lens of the Gift Paradigm explores a religious community that has been getting increasing scholarly attention. While most of the literature in the field looks at this religious tradition in terms of its alleged inability to come to terms with modernity – due to its specific religious institutions, practices and dogma – this book takes a step back from such Western-centered and Protestant-biased analysis of religion. It addresses Orthodoxy’s recent encounter with the West, modernity and secularization in the process of post-communist migrations from Eastern Europe, revealing the complicated identity redefinition and re-compositions of a religious group that highly values continuity, tradition, and ethnic/national belonging. Using socio-anthropological qualitative research on Romanian, Russian, Greek and Serbian Orthodox migrants in Western Europe in a comparative perspective, this volume grasps the interplay between the institutional and the individually lived aspects of religion in their relation to the increasingly secular "conditions of belief" in Western European host countries. This book is important for those studying or researching Orthodox Christianity, religion and migration, secularization and modernity, as well as those in related disciplines such as sociology, anthropology of religion, religious studies, political science, migration studies, cultural studies.
Christian Outdoor Leadership: Theology, Theory, and Practice
by Ashley DentonAshley Denton’s book on Christian outdoor leadership is the first of its kind. Christian Outdoor Leadership: Theology, Theory, and Practice offers a relevant and innovative approach to leadership development, evangelism, discipleship, and spiritual formation through outdoor adventure. People today are eager for more experiential approaches to learning. This book re-asserts Jesus’ experiential apprenticeship strategy by incorporating outdoor adventure into ministry like he did. Few books on evangelism or discipleship probe the outdoor dimension of Jesus’ apprenticeship methods, and this book fills that gap. <p><p>This book builds on Dr. Robert Coleman’s classic Master Plan of Evangelism by addressing an element of Jesus’ apprenticeship strategy that has been given too little attention: The outdoor setting and timing were often the crucial elements of His teaching that fueled radical change of heart. Jesus often coupled his teaching with adventurous outdoor experiences to facilitate experiential learning. This is exactly what many people are hungry for today. Let Christian Outdoor Leadership: Theology, Theory, and Practice introduce you to a new way of making disciples that are profoundly anchored in Jesus ancient style of apprenticeship, utilizing experiential learning and outdoor adventure as a catalyst for transformation.
Christian Pacifism for an Environmental Age
by Mark DouglasIn this volume, Mark Douglas offers a new vision of the history of Christian pacifism within the context of a warming world. He narrates this story in a way that recognizes the complexities of the tradition and aligns it with a coherent theological vision, one that shapes the tradition to encompass the new causes and types of wars fought during the Anthropocene. Along the way, Douglas draws from research in historical climatology to recover the overlooked role that climate changes have always played in shaping not only the Christian pacifist tradition but also the movement of traditions through western history. Scholars across a range of disciplines - peace studies, Christian theology and history, environmentalism, and environmental conflict studies - will benefit from this model of critical and charitable engagement with the complex history of Christian pacifism, the resources of which will be important for addressing wars in a warming world.
Christian Parenting: Wisdom and Perspectives from American History
by David P. SetranWhat can the past teach us about what it means to be a &“good&” Christian parent today? Today&’s parenting guidance can sometimes feel timeless and inviolable—especially when it comes to the spiritual formation of children in Christian households. But even in the recent past, parenting philosophies have differed widely among Christians in ways that reflect the contexts from which they emerged. In this illuminating historical study, David Setran catalogs the varying ways American Protestants envisioned the task of childrearing in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Comparing two main historical time periods—the colonial era and the Victorian era—Setran uncovers common threads, opposing viewpoints, and the cultural and religious influences behind the dominant parenting &“postures&” of each era. The implications of his findings matter for today&’s big questions about parenting:Should children be viewed as basically good, in need of protection from corruption, or as fundamentally sinful, in need of moral correction?How should parents address misbehavior?Should a parent&’s primary role be that of teacher, disciplinarian, or nurturer?What importance should be attributed to devotions and prayer, church involvement, Sabbath-keeping, home decorating, and fun family activities?What consideration should be given to gender? Should boys and girls be raised differently? Do mothers and fathers have essentially different responsibilities?As he surveys these historical perspectives, Setran reflects on the legacy and future of Christian parenting, concluding that the Protestant heritage encourages the importance of intentional devotional practices, the development of close parent-child bonds, and the creation of godly household environments. In the end, he argues that all of these historical values are critical to the full expression of Christian parental love. This is a love that teaches because it wants to help children understand true goodness; that admonishes and restrains because it wants to protect children from whatever keeps them from true pleasure and joy; that fosters strong relationships so children might experience the lavishness of God&’s love; that models Christlike sacrifice and guides children into the arms of their Creator.
Christian Participant's Guide: It's Not What You Think
by Andy StanleyWhat does it mean to be a Christian? Ask 100 people that question and you are likely to get 100 different answers. One reason people have such difficulty defining what a Christian should be is that the Bible never gives a definition. The followers of Jesus did not defer to themselves as Christians, it was a label placed on them from the outside. The early believers called themselves disciples, and the Bible is very clear in defining what a disciple looks like. Jesus gave his disciples one word that should define them. What if we as his followers embodied this one word? What if our behavior was so consistent with this word that folks around us were drawn to us - and to God? In Christian, you will learn: What one word should be descriptive of every disciple How Jesus followers should treat those who are outside the faith Why people love Jesus but can’t stand his followers This participant’s guide with help you engage the teaching from Andy Stanley on the corresponding DVD and includes discussion questions for individuals and/or small groups, between-session devotions, DVD teaching overviews, and a leader’s guide. In this eight-session small group study, Andy challenges us to change the name and reputation of Christianity by becoming a group of followers characterized by one thing — Love.