A Case for Latter-Day Christianity
A Case for Latter-Day Christianity

Author: Robert Starling

Publisher: Balboa Press

Published: 2019-08-26

Total Pages: 524

ISBN-13: 1982232021

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Can a Mormon be a Christian? How does that work? That’s the idea behind this personal book by Robert Starling, a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who grew up in the heart of the Bible Belt. Some folks there (and elsewhere) believe that Mormons are members of a non-Christian “cult”. Robert’s purpose for this book is not to convert anyone, but to give his “strong reasons” to dispel that misconception. As a child of converts to Mormonism whose uncle is a retired Methodist pastor, Robert has a unique perspective to share with Mormons and non-Mormons alike. He attended a Baptist vacation Bible school as a child (and so did his own children) and his best friend in college at Georgia Tech was the president of the Catholic student Newman Club. Having resided in Utah for twenty years where he worked as a media producer for the LDS Church at its worldwide headquarters, Robert has lived “really inside Mormonism” for decades. While Robert is not an official spokesman for the LDS Church, he has trained local church leaders in how to work with news media. He’s been active in defending his faith from critics (he’s been sued by them twice for a total of $30 million) and sharing his knowledge with anyone interested in learning what Mormons really believe. For instance: Do Mormons believe in a “different” Jesus? What do Mormons believe about the Trinity? How are Mormons “saved”? Do Mormons baptize dead people? Is there only “one true church”? What happens in Mormon temples? Do Mormons wear “magic underwear”? Do Mormons worship Joseph Smith? Is the Bible God’s word for Mormons? Do Mormons want to become like God? What kind of evidences does Robert use to make his case? Whether you’re a Mormon or not, you’ll be surprised. Take a look inside and find out! (and be sure to read the introduction)

W. Robertson Smith and the Sociological Study of Religion
W. Robertson Smith and the Sociological Study of Religion

Author: T. O. Beidelman

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2016-09-30

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 1725237644

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William Robertson Smith (1846-94) was one of the most profound and versatile Victorian thinkers--a principal figure in the development of social anthropology and the founder of modern sociology of religion. In W. Robertson Smith and the Sociological Study of Religion, T. O. Beidelman, a renowned anthropologist and ethnographer, relates Smith's personality and career to the radical nature of his investigations. His study contains the only readily available account of Smith's life, and represents the only attempt to place Smith's work within the contemporary perspective of the field of social studies. Professor Beidelman discusses how Smith introduced to Britain the revolutionary interpretations in the fields of biblical and Semitic literary studies first formulated by Continental scholars, as well his original views on the interrelationship between human psychology, social structure, and history. The author also reviews the intellectual background and basic themes of Smith's work, the impact that it had upon his contemporaries, and the later influence that his theories had upon such diverse thinkers as Durkheim, Mauss, Hubert, Frazer, Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard, and Freud. In his Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, his last and most famous work, Smith sought to define the essential nature of religious behavior, and he approached the analysis of social institutions through comparative and historical studies. This is a problem that remains central to social anthropology, and the general methods by which Smith endeavored to clarify it are still employed today. Professor Beidelman indicates the ways in which Smith may still be read with profit, and he supplements his study with an extensive bibliography of works by and about this influential thinker.

Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy
Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy

Author: Adam J. Powell

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2015-10-30

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1611478723

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Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy seeks both to demonstrate the salience of “heresy” as a tool for analyzing instances of religious conflict far beyond the borders of traditional historical theology and to illuminate the apparent affinity for deification exhibited by some persecuted religious movements. To these ends, the book argues for a sociologically-informed redefinition of heresy as religiously-motivated opposition and applies the resulting concept to the historical cases of second-century Christians and nineteenth-century Mormons. Ultimately, Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy is a careful application of the comparative method to two new religious movements, highlighting the social processes at work in their early doctrinal developments.

William Robertson Smith
William Robertson Smith

Author: Bernhard Maier

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9783161499951

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William Robertson Smith (1846-1894) was successively the embattled champion of the emergent higher criticism as applied to the Old Testament, chief editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University. Today he is acknowledged to have been a pioneering figure in both social anthropology and the study of comparative religion, deeply influencing the thinking of J. G. Frazer, Emile Durkheim and Sigmund Freud. The first full-length biography of Robertson Smith to be published for almost a hundred years, this text makes use of hitherto unknown material preserved by the Smith family and draws upon the extensive range of correspondence between Smith and such scholars as Albrecht Ritschl, Paul de Lagarde, Julius Wellhausen, Abraham Kuenen and Theodor Noldeke. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the biography locates and defines the place of this remarkable polymath within the context of Free Church Calvinism, the Scottish Enlightenment and 19th century German Protestant theology. It highlights Smith's interest in physics and philosophy, his friendship with contemporary artists, his Oriental travels, and his involvement in the social life of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. In recent years, the image of Smith as a comparative religionist has come to dominate all other perspectives and indeed tends now to overshadow his fame as an Old Testament scholar. This book seeks to redress the balance, aiming to discover the theological drive behind Smith's manifold activities.

Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal
Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal

Author: Gordon T. Smith

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2017-03-21

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 0830891625

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Christians tend to divide into three camps: evangelical, sacramental, and pentecostal. But must we choose between them? Drawing on the New Testament, Christian history, and years of experience in Christian ministry, Gordon T. Smith argues that the church not only can be all three, but in fact must be all three in order to truly be the church.

College Voices
College Voices

Author: Clare Davidson

Publisher: Saint Andrew Press

Published: 2018-11-30

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 0715209590

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College Voices tells the story of Christ’s College Aberdeen, a theological college of the Church of Scotland, from its beginnings in the 1840s to the present day. This is a rich and colourful story, vividly told, and peopled with many fascinating characters and stories. Written by the College’s administrator, who saw how the personalities of teachers and students alike shone through the formal language of minute books and other records, College Voices relates how the College grew and evolved alongside the history not only of Scotland but of the world. It demonstrates the effects on ministerial training of two world wars, and is honest about times when the College was threatened by closure and scandal.