Why were the early Christians willing to die to protect a single iota of the creed? Why have the Judeans, Romans, and Persians—among others—seen the Christian creed as a threat to the established social order? In The Creed: Professing the Faith Through the Ages, bestselling author Dr. Scott Hahn recovers and conveys the creed’s revolutionary character. Tracing the development of the first formulations of faith in the early Church through later ecumenical councils, The Creed tells the story of how the very profession of our belief in Christ fashions us for heavenly life as we live out our earthly days.
“You can’t trust the Bible — it’s full of hundreds of contradictions.” Really? Just because the critic mindlessly declares it so? Don’t be so fast to believe everything you hear! In this book Dr. Jason Lisle examines 420 claims of Bible contradictions and sets the record straight. Contradiction #139 Was Abraham justified by faith or by works? Romans 4:2 - says by faith VS. James 2:21 - says by works Bifurcation fallacy. Abraham was justified both by faith and by works (James 2:24, 26). To “justify” means either to be in right moral standing or to show that one is (morally) in right standing. Abraham was justified by faith before God since God knows all things — including Abraham’s faith (James 2:23). God sees our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7), so we are justified before God by our faith alone, which God can see. But men cannot see another man’s faith. They only see the outward works that follow from inward faith. Therefore, Abraham was justified before men by the works that followed from his faith, since men cannot see faith but can see works. James explicitly teaches this (James 2:18–26).
Many Christians today tend to view the story of medieval faith as a cautionary tale. Too often, they dismiss the Middle Ages as a period of corruption and decay in the church. They seem to assume that the church apostatized from true Christianity after it gained cultural influence in the time of Constantine, and the faith was only later recovered by the sixteenth-century Reformers or even the eighteenth-century revivalists. As a result, the riches and wisdom of the medieval period have remained largely inaccessible to modern Protestants. Church historian Chris Armstrong helps readers see beyond modern caricatures of the medieval church to the animating Christian spirit of that age. He believes today's church could learn a number of lessons from medieval faith, such as how the gospel speaks to ordinary, embodied human life in this world. Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians explores key ideas, figures, and movements from the Middle Ages in conversation with C. S. Lewis and other thinkers, helping contemporary Christians discover authentic faith and renewal in a forgotten age.
A Top Ten Book for Parish Ministry in 2017, Academy of Parish Clergy The loss or disaffiliation of young adults is a much-discussed topic in churches today. Many faith-formation programs focus on keeping the young, believing the youthful spirit will save the church. But do these programs have more to do with an obsession with youthfulness than with helping young people encounter the living God? Questioning the search for new or improved faith-formation programs, leading practical theologian Andrew Root offers an alternative take on the issue of youth drifting away from the church and articulates how faith can be formed in our secular age. He offers a theology of faith constructed from a rich cultural conversation, providing a deeper understanding of the phenomena of the "nones" and "moralistic therapeutic deism." Root helps readers understand why forming faith is so hard in our context and shows that what we have lost is not the ability to keep people connected to our churches but an imagination for how and where God could be present in their lives. He considers what faith is and what steps we can take to move into it, exploring a Pauline concept of faith as encounter with divine action. This is the first book in Root's Ministry in a Secular Age series.
Where Faith Grows is a new, interactive Bible curriculum series designed to help you develop your child's love for God and His Word. Within the six-book series, you will find the tools needed to disciple your student, share your faith with them, and give them a solid, biblical foundation for life.Designed for first grade or ages 6-9, Where Faith Grows - Level 1 will help you reveal who God is, how He works in your life, and in the life of your child. You will have the delight of guiding your child in a discovery of God's character traits and how they can relate to Him. Because He is trustworthy, they can commit to Him. Because He is eternal, they can respond to Him with patience. Because He is holy, they can practice self-control. Your relationship with God and your child will flourish as you take this journey of discipleship together.This course requires two of our best-selling children's books: Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers: The Scripture and Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers: The Trinity.
An illuminating history of how religious belief lost its uncontested status in the West This landmark book traces the history of belief in the Christian West from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, revealing for the first time how a distinctively modern category of belief came into being. Ethan Shagan focuses not on what people believed, which is the normal concern of Reformation history, but on the more fundamental question of what people took belief to be. Shagan shows how religious belief enjoyed a special prestige in medieval Europe, one that set it apart from judgment, opinion, and the evidence of the senses. But with the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation, the question of just what kind of knowledge religious belief was—and how it related to more mundane ways of knowing—was forced into the open. As the warring churches fought over the answer, each claimed belief as their exclusive possession, insisting that their rivals were unbelievers. Shagan challenges the common notion that modern belief was a gift of the Reformation, showing how it was as much a reaction against Luther and Calvin as it was against the Council of Trent. He describes how dissidents on both sides came to regard religious belief as something that needed to be justified by individual judgment, evidence, and argument. Brilliantly illuminating, The Birth of Modern Belief demonstrates how belief came to occupy such an ambivalent place in the modern world, becoming the essential category by which we express our judgments about science, society, and the sacred, but at the expense of the unique status religion once enjoyed.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.So begins Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. And without doubt the Age of Reason--the Enlightenment--was a period unlike any other. In many respects it was during this time that the modern world was forged.It was a time when worldviews clashed and new ways of seeing and understanding emerged. And it was in the arena of religion, above all, that this clash took place. Our modern ideas of religion, our modern ideas of science, and our perspectives on the interaction between religion and science were developed as the Enlightenment gathered momentum and encountered opposition.In this volume, part of the IVP Histories series, Jonathan Hill examines the Age of Reason, spanning the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He begins by describing how the Middle Ages came to an end with the Renaissance and the Reformation, setting the scene for the Enlightenment. He then takes you on a fascinating tour of the central themes and characters of this turbulent period. Themes covered include: the churches, the new science, the new philosophy, the question of authority, politices and society, God, humanity and the world, the reaction and the legacy. Key figures you'll encounter include Samuel Johnson, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, Hume, Voltaire, Pascal, Locke, Diderot, Rousseau and Kant.Packed with centuries worth of fascinating prose and beautiful four-color art yet small enough to fit in your pocket, Faith in the Age of Reason offers a wonderfully rich and enjoyable exploration of one of great perioed of human history.
What was unfathomable in the first two decades of the twenty-first century has become a reality. Religious liberty, both in the United States and across the world, is in crisis. As we navigate the coming decades, We the People must know our rights more than ever, particularly as it relates to the freedom to exercise our religion. Armed with a proper understanding of this country’s rich tradition of religious liberty, we can protect faith through any crisis that comes our way. Without that understanding, though, we’ll watch as the creeping secular age erodes our freedom. In this book, Ken Starr explores the crises that threaten religious liberty in America. He also examines the ways well-meaning government action sometimes undermines the religious liberty of the people, and how the Supreme Court in the past has ultimately provided us protection from such forms of government overreach. He also explores the possibilities of future overreach by government officials. The reader will learn how each of us can resist the quarantining of our faith within the confines of the law, and why that resistance is important. Through gaining a deep understanding of the Constitutional importance of religious expression, Starr invites the reader to be a part of protecting those rights of religious freedom and taking a more active role in advancing the cause of liberty.
This is a collection of some of the finest examples of liturgical art. Supported by illustrations and a glossary, it will appeal to art historians, those interested in the history of religion and liturgical practices, and nonspecialists who appreciate medieval art or religious icons and reliquaries.
