The Anonymous Disciple

The Anonymous Disciple

Author: Gerard E. Goggins

Publisher: Paulist Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9781929039029

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The story of an alcoholic Jesuit priest, Father Jim Collins, who, after a string of unsuccessful attempts at a cure, finally joins AA, is cured, and helps others find cures.


Forming Intentional Disciples

Forming Intentional Disciples

Author: Sherry A. Weddell

Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor

Published: 2015-11-30

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1612789439

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How can we transmit a living, personal Catholic faith to future generations? By coming to know Jesus Christ, and following him as his disciples. These are times of immense challenge and immense opportunity for the Catholic Church. Consider these statistics for the United States. Only 30 percent of Americans who were raised Catholic are still practicing. Fully 10 percent of all adults in America are ex-Catholics. The number of marriages celebrated in the Church decreased dramatically, by nearly 60 percent, between 1972 and 2010. Only 60 percent of Catholics believe in a personal God. If the Church is to reverse these trends, the evangelizers must first be evangelized-in other words, Catholics-in-the-pew must make a conscious choice to know and follow Jesus before they can draw others to him. This work of discipleship lies at the heart of Forming Intentional Disciples, a book designed to help Church leaders, parish staff and all Catholics transform parish life from within. Drawing upon her fifteen years of experience with the Catherine of Siena Institute, Sherry Weddell leads readers through steps that will help Catholics enter more deeply into a relationship with God and the river of apostolic creativity, charisms, and vocation that flow from that relationship for the sake of the Church and the world. Learn about the five thresholds of postmodern conversion, how to open a conversation about faith and belief, how to ask thought-provoking questions and establish an atmosphere of trust, when to tell the Great Story of Jesus, how to help someone respond to God's call to intentional discipleship, and much more. And be prepared for conversion because when life at the parish level changes, the life of the whole Church will change.


The Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles

Author: P.D. James

Publisher: Canongate Books

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 93

ISBN-13: 0857861077

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Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James


The Last Disciple

The Last Disciple

Author: Hank Hanegraaff

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Published: 2012-04-19

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1414323492

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First-century Rome is a perilous city as Nero stalks the political circles and huddled groups of believers. To be safe, Christians must remain invisible. Gallus Sergius Vitas is the only man within Nero’s trusted circle willing to do what it takes to keep the empire together. He struggles to lessen Nero’s monstrosities against the people of Rome—especially the Christians. But as three Greek letters are scrawled as graffiti throughout the city, Nero’s anger grows. As the early church begins to experience the turbulence Christ prophesied as the beginning of the last days, an enemy seeks to find John’s letter, Revelation, and destroy it. Meanwhile the early Christians must decipher it and cling to the hope it provides as they face the greatest of all persecutions.


Misquoting Jesus

Misquoting Jesus

Author: Bart D. Ehrman

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-10-06

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0061977020

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When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative views of the Bible. Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible. Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.


Wisdom Commentary: John 1-10

Wisdom Commentary: John 1-10

Author: Mary L Coloe, PBVM

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2021-07-15

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0814681689

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Teaching and researching the Gospel of John for thirty years has led author Mary L. Coloe to an awareness of the importance of the wisdom literature to make sense of Johannine theology, language, and symbolism: in the prologue, with Nicodemus, in the Bread of Life discourse, with Mary and Lazarus, and in the culminating “Hour.” She also shows how the late Second Temple theology expressed in the books of Sirach and Wisdom, considered deuterocanonical and omitted from some Bible editions, are essential intertexts. Only the book of Wisdom speaks of “the reign of God” (Wis 10:10), “eternity life” (Wis 5:15), and the ambrosia maintaining angelic life (Wis 19:21)—all concepts found in John’s Gospel. While the Gospel explicitly states the Logos was enfleshed in Jesus, this is also true of Sophia. Coloe makes the case that Jesus’s words and deeds embody Sophia throughout the narrative. At the beginning of each chapter Coloe provides text from the later wisdom books that resonate with the Gospel passage, drawing Sophia out of the shadows.


John 1–10

John 1–10

Author: Mary L. Coloe

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2021-07-29

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 081468193X

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2022 Catholic Media Association honorable mention in scripture: academic studies Teaching and researching the Gospel of John for thirty years has led author Mary L. Coloe to an awareness of the importance of the wisdom literature to make sense of Johannine theology, language, and symbolism: in the prologue, with Nicodemus, in the Bread of Life discourse, with Mary and Lazarus, and in the culminating “Hour.” She also shows how the late Second Temple theology expressed in the books of Sirach and Wisdom, considered deuterocanonical and omitted from some Bible editions, are essential intertexts. Only the book of Wisdom speaks of “the reign of God” (Wis 10:10), “eternity life” (Wis 5:15), and the ambrosia maintaining angelic life (Wis 19:21)—all concepts found in John’s Gospel. While the Gospel explicitly states the Logos was enfleshed in Jesus, this is also true of Sophia. Coloe makes the case that Jesus’s words and deeds embody Sophia throughoutthe narrative. At the beginning of each chapter Coloe provides text from the later wisdom books that resonate with the Gospel passage, drawing Sophia out of the shadows.


Following the Lamb

Following the Lamb

Author: Keith T. Marriner II

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2016-01-11

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1498237401

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Jesus' parting words to his followers were for them to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matt 28:19). This being the case, shouldn't we be concerned with gaining a full understanding of discipleship from the entire New Testament corpus? Many scholars recognize that the theme of discipleship is found throughout the New Testament, even in Revelation, with all of its symbolism and bizarre imagery. But how does it do this? The focus of this study, through the use of content analysis methodology, is to demonstrate that the theme of discipleship is not only found in the Apocalypse, but is also exceedingly relevant for Christians today. In many parts of the world Jesus' disciples are facing opposition and persecution for their testimony to Jesus Christ. It would do Christians well to read the book of Revelation once again. As they read it this time through the eyes of the oppressed, the content of the book will prove extremely valuable to aid disciples of Jesus in their efforts to "follow the Lamb wherever he goes" (Rev 14:4), no matter what the cost.


The Strange Gospel

The Strange Gospel

Author: James L. Resseguie

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-10-18

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 9004494766

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In this literary analysis of the Gospel of John, Resseguie examines rhetoric, setting, character, and plot to uncover the Gospel’s unique point of view. He shows the usefulness of the concepts of defamiliarization and point of view for understanding how the narrator makes the familiar seem strange. A material, familiar point of view that is voiced by the dominant culture is compared with a defamiliarized, strange point of view that is expressed by Jesus and the disenfranchised. Through close readings of narrative texts, the author develops and elaborates the theological perspective of John, which emerges in the clash of differing points of view. The introduction defines “objective” and “subjective” point of view, and shows the value of the works of Boris Uspensky and Susan Sniader Lanser for understanding the Gospel of John. In chapter one, irony, misunderstandings, and double entendres are shown to be important rhetorical tools in the Gospel’s attempt to make the familiar seem strange. Chapter two discusses point of view as it is expressed in architectural settings (sheepfold, garden, courtyard, praetorium, well, temple, and tomb) and in topographical settings (sea, mountain). Chapter three highlights the distinct points of view of Jesus, Nicodemus, religious authorities, the world, the royal official, the man at the pool, the man born blind, Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, the beloved disciple, and Judas. Chapter four discusses the point of view that emerges from an analysis of the plot. The final chapter is a summary of the narrative’s singular point of view. This work is a suitable introduction to a literary analysis of the Gospel of John. It makes an important contribution to narrative criticism on the Fourth Gospel in particular, and to our understanding of defamiliarization and point of view in general. The book confronts head-on habitualized and familiar ways of thinking in the ancient world and today.


Tax Collector to Gospel Writer

Tax Collector to Gospel Writer

Author: Michael J. Kok

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Published: 2023-02-07

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1506481086

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Matthew, the tax collector-turned-apostle of Jesus, was identified as a Gospel writer as early as the beginning of the second century CE. Michael J. Kok weighs the internal and external evidence regarding Matthew's authorship of the "Gospel according to Matthew" and the "Gospel according to the Hebrews."