Freedom of Belief and Christian Mission
Freedom of Belief and Christian Mission

Author: Hans Aage Gravaas

Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781498237055

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Christian mission takes place in a world with increasing interreligious tensions, including violence and persecution. Politics, economics, religion, ethnicity and other factors play a role in these tensions. Christians too are involved in such conflicts, sometimes as those who are persecuted and sometimes as those participating in violence. 'Freedom of religion and belief' is a core value in the UN Human Rights Declaration. At the same time it is a core biblical value. Obstacles to and attacks on freedom of belief are therefore a central concern for witnessing to Christ. The purpose of this volume on Freedom of Belief and Christian Mission is to bring to public attention a broad overview on the history, development and perspectives on the role of mission and freedom of belief and to reflect on these issues within a context of authentic witness in mission. Timely, enlightening and encouraging. This volume comes at a time when the Churches are faced with new challenges to religious freedom. Their response however needs to be grounded in an objective study of what is at stake, as well as of why and where these difficulties are arising. The present collection of essays offers a very useful reflection on the entire question. And it does so in a way that invites Christians to courageous witness to the Gospel with respect for the dignity and freedom of all. Bishop Brian Farrell, Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Vatican City Some of the best minds in the church, including some outstanding grassroots workers, have joined to present not only the challenges facing the church on the religious freedom issue but also guidelines to how respond wisely to it. The challenges are complex and call for serious thought. This book will serve the church well by pointing to informed, wise and bold responses. Ajith Fernando, Teaching Director, Youth for Christ, Sri Lanka Without reservation I commend this vital resource to global reflective practitioners engaged in missional issues of religious freedom of belief and persecution. It reflects depth (from foundational chapters to thoughtful case studies to missiological responses), breadth (writers reflecting the worldwide orthodox Christian community church) and relevance to both Global South (the obvious), but also the Global North (where the attacks come from militant secularism and politics, the courts and education, popular culture and media). This seminal work equips us all for the future. William D. Taylor, Senior Mentor of Mission Commission, World Evangelical Alliance and lead editor of Sorrow and Blood: Christian Mission in Contexts of Suffering, Persecution and Martyrdom, 2012 Tormod Engelsviken is Professor Emeritus at MF Norwegian School of Theology Hans Aage Gravaas is Secretary General of Stefanus Alliance International, Oslo. Knud Jorgensen is Adjunct Professor at the MF Norwegian School of Theology. Maqsood Kamil is Professor of Theology and Vice Principal at the Gujranwala Theological Seminary, Pakistan.

Liberty for All
Liberty for All

Author: Andrew T. Walker

Publisher: Brazos Press

Published: 2021-05-04

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1493431153

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Christians are often thought of as defending only their own religious interests in the public square. They are viewed as worrying exclusively about the erosion of their freedom to assemble and to follow their convictions, while not seeming as concerned about publicly defending the rights of Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and atheists to do the same. Andrew T. Walker, an emerging Southern Baptist public theologian, argues for a robust Christian ethic of religious liberty that helps the church defend religious freedom for everyone in a pluralistic society. Whether explicitly religious or not, says Walker, every person is striving to make sense of his or her life. The Christian foundations of religious freedom provide a framework for how Christians can navigate deep religious difference in a secular age. As we practice religious liberty for our neighbors, we can find civility and commonality amid disagreement, further the church's engagement in the public square, and become the strongest defenders of religious liberty for all. Foreword by noted Princeton scholar Robert P. George.

The Impossibility of Religious Freedom
The Impossibility of Religious Freedom

Author: Winnifred Fallers Sullivan

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-04-24

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0691180954

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The Constitution may guarantee it. But religious freedom in America is, in fact, impossible. So argues this timely and iconoclastic work by law and religion scholar Winnifred Sullivan. Sullivan uses as the backdrop for the book the trial of Warner vs. Boca Raton, a recent case concerning the laws that protect the free exercise of religion in America. The trial, for which the author served as an expert witness, concerned regulations banning certain memorials from a multiconfessional nondenominational cemetery in Boca Raton, Florida. The book portrays the unsuccessful struggle of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish families in Boca Raton to preserve the practice of placing such religious artifacts as crosses and stars of David on the graves of the city-owned burial ground. Sullivan demonstrates how, during the course of the proceeding, citizens from all walks of life and religious backgrounds were harassed to define just what their religion is. She argues that their plight points up a shocking truth: religion cannot be coherently defined for the purposes of American law, because everyone has different definitions of what religion is. Indeed, while religious freedom as a political idea was arguably once a force for tolerance, it has now become a force for intolerance, she maintains. A clear-eyed look at the laws created to protect religious freedom, this vigorously argued book offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society. It will have broad appeal not only for religion scholars, but also for anyone interested in law and the Constitution. Featuring a new preface by the author, The Impossibility of Religious Freedom offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society.

The Global Public Square
The Global Public Square

Author: Os Guinness

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2013-08-01

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0830837671

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Recognizing that tyranny takes on secular as well as traditional guises, Os Guinness seeks a return to the first principles of religious and political freedom. Hearkening back to the "soul liberty" of English Puritan Roger Williams, Guinness argues that a society's greatest bulwark against abuse lies in its people's freedom of conscience.

Endowed by Our Creator
Endowed by Our Creator

Author: Michael I. Meyerson

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2012-06-05

Total Pages: 477

ISBN-13: 0300183496

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The debate over the framers' concept of freedom of religion has become heated and divisive. This scrupulously researched book sets aside the half-truths, omissions, and partisan arguments, and instead focuses on the actual writings and actions of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and others. Legal scholar Michael I. Meyerson investigates how the framers of the Constitution envisioned religious freedom and how they intended it to operate in the new republic. Endowed by Our Creator shows that the framers understood that the American government should not acknowledge religion in a way that favors any particular creed or denomination. Nevertheless, the framers believed that religion could instill virtue and help to unify a diverse nation. They created a spiritual public vocabulary, one that could communicate to all—including agnostics and atheists—that they were valued members of the political community. Through their writings and their decisions, the framers affirmed that respect for religious differences is a fundamental American value, Meyerson concludes. Now it is for us to determine whether religion will be used to alienate and divide or to inspire and unify our religiously diverse nation.

Free to Serve
Free to Serve

Author: Stephen V. Monsma

Publisher: Brazos Press

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1493400061

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What do Hobby Lobby, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Wheaton College, World Vision, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the University of Notre Dame have in common? All are faith-based organizations that have faced pressure to act in ways contrary to their religious beliefs. In this book, two policy experts show how faith-based groups--those active in the educational, healthcare, international aid and development, and social service fields--can defend their ability to follow their religiously based beliefs without having to jettison the very faith and faith-based practices that led them to provide services to those in need. They present a pluralist vision for religious freedom for faith-based organizations of all religious traditions. The book includes case studies that document the challenges faith-based organizations face to freely follow the practices of their religious traditions and analyzes these threats as originating in a common, yet erroneous, set of assumptions and attitudes prevalent in American society. The book also includes responses by diverse voices--an Orthodox Jew, a Roman Catholic, two evangelicals, two Islamic leaders, and an unbeliever who is a religious-freedom advocate--underscoring the importance of religious freedom for faith-based organizations.

Freedom of Belief and Christian Mission
Freedom of Belief and Christian Mission

Author: HANS AAGE GRAVAAS;CHRISTOF SAUER;TORMOD ENGELSVIKE.

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 9781506476292

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Christian mission takes place in a world with increasing interreligious tensions, including violence and persecution. Politics, economics, religion, ethnicity and other factors play a role in these tensions. Christians too are involved in such conflicts, sometimes as those who are persecuted and sometimes as those participating in violence. 'Freedom of religion and belief'is a core value in the UN Human Rights Declaration. At the same time it is a core biblical value. Obstacles to and attacks on freedom of belief are therefore a central concern for witnessing to Christ. The purpose of this volume on Freedom of Belief and Christian Mission is to bring to public attention a broad overview on the history, development and perspectives on the role of mission and freedom of belief and to reflect on these issues within a context of authentic witness in mission.

Christian Moderns
Christian Moderns

Author: Webb Keane

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2007-01-03

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 0520939212

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Across 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.