What motivates the centuries old human endeavour to impose moral standards of behaviour on the gods? James Crenshaw offers a synthesis of his ideas on the subject of theodicy & the struggle to absolve the deity of responsibility for injustice.
"A deep, fascinating dive into a uniquely American brand of religious zealotry that poses a grave threat to our national parks, wilderness areas, wildlife sanctuaries, and other public lands. It also happens to be a delight to read." —JON KRAKAUER American Zion is the story of the Bundy family, famous for their armed conflicts in the West. With an antagonism that goes back to the very first Mormons who fled the Midwest for the Great Basin, they hold a sense of entitlement that confronts both law and democracy. Today their cowboy confrontations threaten public lands, wild species, and American heritage. BETSY GAINES QUAMMEN is a historian and conservationist. She received a doctorate in Environmental History from Montana State University in 2017, her dissertation focusing on Mormon settlement and public land conflicts. After college in Colorado, caretaking for a bed and breakfast in Mosier, Oregon, and serving breakfasts at a cafe in Kanab, Utah, Betsy has settled in Bozeman, Montana, where she now lives with her husband, writer David Quammen, three huge dogs, an overweight cat, and a pretty big python named Boots.
Until recently, most scholarly work on Chinese music in both Chinese and Western languages has focused on genres, musical structure, and general history and concepts, rather than on the musicians themselves. This volume breaks new ground by focusing on individual musicians active in different amateur and professional music scenes in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Chinese communities in Europe. Using biography to deepen understanding of Chinese music, contributors present contextualized portraits of rural folk singers, urban opera singers, literati, and musicians on both geographic and cultural frontiers. Contributors are Nimrod Baranovitch, Rachel Harris, Frank Kouwenhoven, Tong Soon Lee, Peter Micic, Helen Rees, Antoinet Schimmelpenninck, Shao Binsun, Jonathan P. J. Stock, and Bell Yung.
Has God brought the Jewish people back to Palestine? How can both Jews and Christians be God's chosen people? How many covenants are there in the Bible? Do all Christian Zionists accept dispensational teaching? Does the God of Israel ever change his promises? These are some of the questions that must be faced in the light of current attacks on Christian Zionism by some evangelical writers. David Pawson believes that Christians need very clear biblical understanding before making political pronouncements about conflict in the Middle East.
Imagine what might happen if the solid foundation of what you believe suddenly begins to shake... That’s exactly what happened to Lisa Brockman, a six-generation Mormon with lineage tracing back to the early church. In college, Lisa found herself challenged to defend her faith, and the beliefs she knew to be true began to unravel. In Out of Zion, Lisa shares her journey of discovering the biblical Jesus and the key conversations that led her from the faith of her ancestors to conversion to Christianity. If you have reached a place of questioning what you believe, or you long for confidence to share your faith with others, Lisa provides the framework you need to… understand the nuances of the history and evolution of Mormon culture learn to identify the vital differences between the Mormon and biblical plans of salvation compassionately engage in conversation with your Mormon friends and neighbors As you follow the evolution of Lisa’s faith, you will face the same challenge to defend what you believe and, ultimately, learn to share the gospel effectively with others.
There has been widespread neglect by scholars of deuterocanonical books, especially those (e.g., Baruch) that are thought to lack originality. This book seeks to address this lacuna by investigating some of the major interpretive issues in Baruchan scholarship. The volume comprises a collection of essays from an international team of scholars who specialise in Second Temple Judaism and Old Testament pseudepigrapha. Topics covered include: historical issues (the person of Baruch), literary structure, intertextual relationships between Baruch and the OT (Jeremiah, Isaiah), reception history (Christian and Jewish), and modern translation challenges. This is the first volume of essays that exclusively focus on Baruch and one that seeks to provide a foundation for future investigations.
Building on recent developments in biblical studies, this book introduces the prophetic literature of the Old Testament against the background of today's postmodern context and crisis of meaning. Pulsating with anxiety over the empire--Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian--the prophet corpus is a disturbing cultural expression of lament and chaos. Danger, disjunction, and disaster bubble beneath the surface of virtually every prophetic text. Sometimes in denial, sometimes in despair, and sometimes in defiance, the readers of this literature find themselves living at the edge of time, immediately before, during, or after the collapse of longstanding symbolic, cultural, and geo-political structures. These written prophecies not only reflect the social location of trauma, but are also a complex response. More specifically, prophetic texts are thick meaning-making maps, tapestries of hope that help at-risk communities survive.