In 1927 American Presbyterians chose to stop listing and insisting upon "the essential tenets of the Reformed faith"; instead, they emphasized tolerance and essential action. Since then, historic, biblically based Christianity has been supplanted more and more by a different religion, dubbed Religious Liberalism by the author, within the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States. This, coupled with decades of removing practical means of holding pastors accountable for any of their beliefs and much of their behavior, is leading to that denomination's demise in the early years of the 21st Century. The author combines historical overview and perspective with his own experiences as a pastor of Presbyterian churches in North Carolina to make his case.
Many churches in America today want to be powerful, relevant, and influential in personal and social transformation. But whose kingdom are we building? God's? Or our own? A plethora of programs for outreach, discipleship, and spiritual disciplines are available at any bookstore and on countless websites. Yet what we need most is a renewed understanding of and commitment to the Great Commission. We assume that we already know the nature of this commission and the appropriate methods of carrying it out. But Michael Horton contends that it too often becomes our mission instead of God's. At a time when churches are zealously engaged in writing up mission statements and strategic plans, he argues that we must ask ourselves anew whether we are ambassadors, following the script we've been given, or building our own kingdoms with our own blueprint. Pastors, church leaders, and readers of Horton's Christless Christianity and The Gospel-Driven Life will value this frank and hopeful exploration of the Great Commission as a call to understanding and good practice.
Based on interviews with gay and lesbian clergy, Dann Hazel constructs a mosaic depicting the ministry of gays and lesbians across the denominational spectrum. He poignantly describes the personal challenges these clergy face in their efforts to do constructive work in theology in order to build faith communities where gay men and lesbians can flourish spiritually.
At a time when the world is becoming increasingly interdependent, multi-cultural and multi-religious, the concept of religious pluralism is under assault as a result of hatred, prejudice and misunderstanding from both religious exclusivists and dogmatic secularists. In this important and timely book, twenty internationally acclaimed scholars and leading religious thinkers respond to contemporary challenges in different ways. Some discuss the idea of a dialogue of civilisations; others explore the interfaith principles and ethical resources of their own spiritual traditions. All of them reject the notion that any single religion can claim a monopoly of wisdom; all are committed to the ideal of a just and peaceful society in which people of different religions and cultures can happily coexist. More space is here given to Islam than to Judaism and Christianity because, as a result of negative stereotypes, it is the most misunderstood of the major world religions. HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan contributes the Foreword.
Kyle Hayden has been the pastor of the Crofington Living Water church for over five years. He has delivered the same condemning message that has met with the approval of the congregation for the entirety of that time. In spite of the approval he receives with his shallow messages, Kyle has been questioning if that is all there is to ministry, keeping a few narrow-minded people happy with bigoted preaching. Not only is Kyle questioning his ministry, he is also holding a secret, a secret he is not even willing to let himself know or at least admit. If he acknowledges and reveals this deeply hidden part of himself, how will it affect his ministry, his children, the community he serves, but most importantly his wife? Rev. Hayden has to make a decision for authenticity before he can effectively move forward in Gods plan, but is there any moving forward authentically in Gods plan when the dark secret he holds can undo any hopes he has for the future?
In this provocative book, Andrew Bacevich warns of a dangerous dual obsession that has taken hold of Americans, both conservatives and liberals alike. It is a marriage of militarism and utopian ideology, of unprecedented military might wed to a blind faith in the universality of American values. This mindset, Bacevich warns, invites endless war and the ever-deepening militarization of U.S. policy. It promises not to perfect but to pervert American ideals and to accelerate the hollowing out of American democracy. In The New American Militarism, Bacevich examines the origins and implications of this misguided enterprise. He shows how American militarism emerged as a reaction to the Vietnam War, when various groups in American society -soldiers, politicians on the make, intellectuals, strategists, Christian evangelicals, even purveyors of pop culture-came to see the revival of military power and the celebration of military values as the antidote to all the ills besetting the country as a consequence of Vietnam and the 1960s. The upshot, acutely evident in the aftermath of 9/11, has been a revival of vast ambitions, this time coupled with a pronounced affinity for the sword. Bacevich urges Americans to restore a sense of realism and a sense of proportion to U.S. policy. He proposes, in short, to bring American purposes and American methods-especially with regard to the role of the military-back into harmony with the nation's founding ideals. For this edition, Bacevich has written a new Afterword in which he considers how American militarism has changed in the past five years. He explores in particular how this ideology has functioned under Barack Obama, who ran for president on a campaign based on hope for change and for a new beginning. Despite such rhetoric, Bacevich powerfully suggests, the attitudes and arrangements giving rise to the new American militarism remain intact and inviolable as ever.
"Political correctness" involves much more than a restriction of speech. It represents a broad cultural transformation, a shift in the way people understand things and organize their lives; a change in the way meaning is made. The problem addressed in this book is that, for reasons the author explores, some ways of making "meaning" support the creation and maintenance of organization, while others do not. Organizations are cultural products and rely upon psychological roots that go very deep. The basic premise of this book is that organizations are made up of the rules, common understandings, and obligations that "the father" represents, and which are given meaning in the oedipal dynamic. In anti-oedipal psychology, however, they are seen as locuses of deprivation and structures of oppression. Anti-oedipal meaning, then, is geared toward the destruction of organization.
The grace of God is powerfully revealed and described in the story of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, and nowhere is the grace of God more eloquently explained than in the book of Romans.
Karl P. Donfried -- Smith College "A penetrating analysis of western Christianity in crisis as well as an incisive and compelling guide for course correction. Written with clarity, insight, and conviction, That All May Believe is Braaten at his very best. A must-read for Christians in the northern hemisphere." Gabriel Fackre -- author of The Church "Who else but Carl Braaten could show us an ecumenical vision of theology as evangelical but not simply Protestant, catholic but not just Roman, orthodox but not only Eastern? Here is a needed call to share our ecclesial gifts with mutual affirmation on classical convictions and mutual admonition regarding teachable differences. Yet all this is done with a well-known Braaten 'edge' -- indictment of conventional Christianity and a drifting academic theology. We are in the author's debt for charting the right course toward visible unity and full communion for a church solid in its centralities and passionate about its mission." Frank C. Senn -- Immanuel Lutheran Church, Evanston, Illinois "Employing his gift for incisive analysis of theological movements and trends according to the criterion of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, Braaten affirms the catholic tradition with its canon of Scripture and historic dogmas as the indispensable bearer of the gospel. With evangelical passion for the missionary enterprise, he shows how the church must move toward ecumenical unity in order to bring the world to belief. He does not ignore the reality of the powers of evil that strive against the mission of the gospel. Nor does he shrink from saying that dialogue with the religions must not blunt the apostolic imperative to proclaim the gospel and bring converts into the community of faith in the crucified and risen Christ. This timely book, confessionally anchored and ecumenically hopeful, will engage theological readers from beginning to end."
