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Book SynopsisDale Andrews and Robert Smith combine the voices of constructive theologians, practical theologians, and those ministering in black churches to craft a rich and expansive black practical theology. Black Practical Theology brings together the hermeneutical conversation between scholars working within the traditional disciplines of theological education (systematic theology, ethics, biblical studies, history) and those scholars working within practical theology (homiletics, pastoral care and counseling, Christian education, spirituality). To this ongoing conversation, Andrews and Smith add the voices of pastors of black congregations and para-church leaders who serve the communities of faith who daily confront the challenges this work addressesâyouth and intergenerational divides, education and poverty, gender and sexuality, globalism, health care, and incarceration and the justice system. Black Practical Theology sets the standard for practical theology. Embodying its own methodological callâto begin with the issues of the black church, as well as its resources and practicesâit does not rest content but returns immediately to the communities from which it emerged. Black Practical Theology is a gift to both teacher and student.Trade ReviewBlack Practical Theology comprehensively graphs the contours of black practical theology, offering readers eighteen essays that explore an exhaustive range of generative topics involving the most pressing exigencies within what Smith conceptually labels the 'black thematic universe,' which shapes the religious life world of contemporary African Americans and Pan-Africans (8-9). -- Kenyatta R. Gilbert -- HomileticA wide-ranging, interdisciplinary approach to issues that concern all Christian communities, including education, poverty, gender, race, immigration, HIV/AIDS, and the justice system. -- The Christian CenturyA must read for those interested in practical theology. -- ChoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgments I. Introduction 1 Prophetic Praxis for Black Practical Theology, Dale P. Andrews and Robert London Smith Jr. II. Black Youth, Intergenerational Relations, and Ageism 2. Bridging Civil Rights and Hip Hop Generations, Evelyn L. Parker 3. Rejoining Black Youth, Families, and Our Elders, James H. Evans Jr. 4. Rituals of Resistance to Strengthen Intergenerational Relations, Donna E. Allen III. Education, Class, and Poverty 5. Participative Black Theology as a Pedagogy of Praxis, Anthony G. Reddie 6. Listening to the Poor and Nonliterate, Madipoane Masenya (ngwanâa Mphahlele) 7. Doing Theology for Ordinary Folk, Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. IV. Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Race 8. Building Communities of Embodied Beauty, Phillis Isabella Sheppard 9. Encircling in Our Womanist Strength, Diana L. Hayes 10. A Radically Inclusive Vision for the Fellowship of the Black Church, Dennis W. Wiley and Christine Y. Wiley V. Globalism, Immigration, and Diasporan Communities 11. African Diasporan Communities and the Black Church, Esther E. Acolatse 12. The Aesthetic Struggle and Ecclesial Vision, Willie James Jennings 13. Embodied Black Practical Theology for the Caribbean Diasporan Church, Delroy A. Reid-Salmon VI. Health Care, HIV/AIDS, and Poverty 14. Liberating Black-Church Practical Theology from Poverty and Pandemic Marginalization, Emmanuel Y. Amugi Lartey 15. Black Practical Theology of Health and HIV/AIDS Health Care, Edward P. Antonio 16. Rethinking Theology for Impoverished Care, Gina M. Stewart VII. Mass Incarceration, Capital Punishment, and the Justice System 17. The Incarceration of Black Spirituality and the Disenfranchised, Michael Battle 18. Lifting Our Voices and Liberating Our Bodies in the Era of Massive Racialized Incarceration, Raphael Warnock 19. Jesus on Death Row: The Case for Abolishing Prisons, Madeline McClenney VIII. Conclusion 20. Graphing the Contours of Black Practical Theology, Dale P. Andrews and Robert London Smith Jr. Notes List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisFirst-person accounts that show the expanding demographics of African-descended religions. In this focused portrayal of global dispersal and spiritual sojourning, Martin Tsang draws together first-person accounts of the evolving Afro-Atlantic religious landscape. Spirited Diasporas offers a glimpse into the frequently misunderstood religions of Afro-Cuban Lukumí, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomblé, adding to the growing research on the transnational yet personal nature of African diasporic religions.In these accounts, practitioners from many origins illustrate the workand commitment they undertook to learn and become initiated in these traditions. They reveal in the process a variety of experiences that are not often documented. Their perspectives also show the expanding contemporary demographics of African-descended religions, many of whose members identify as LGBTQ or are part of other minoritized populations, and they counter inaccurate and often racialized portrayals of these religions as being anti-modern and geographically limited.Through the voices of the professionals, scholars, and activists gathered here, readers will appreciate the purpose and belonging to be found in the far-reaching communities of these Latin American and Caribbean spiritualities. As the seekers in these stories discover and come home to their new religious families, Spirited Diasporas displays the relevance and generative power of these traditions.

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Book SynopsisAll of us are tempted to believe lies about ourselves. For many pastors, the lies we're tempted to believe have to do with our identity: that God has called us to lead a movement, that we must sacrifice our home life for our ministry life, or that our image as holy is more important than our actual pursuit of holiness.In Lies Pastors Believe, pastor and professor Dayton Hartman takes aim at these and other lies he has faced in his own ministry and seen other pastors struggle with. With a winsome and engaging style, Hartman shows current and future pastors why these lies are so tempting, the damage they can do, and how they can be resisted by believing and applying the truth of the gospel.

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Book SynopsisAre the world's great religions ultimately all the same? Christianity and Pluralism is a collection of concise yet thoughtful essays by J. I. Packer and Ron Dart, interacting with and responding to the four traditional models used to answer the existence of multiple faiths (exclusive, inclusive, pluralist, and syncretist), but focusing particularly that form of syncretism which claims that all faiths find commonality through their mystical traditions. Written in response to key events in the history of the Anglican church, Packer and Dart's analysis gives us a perennially relevant model for how the church ought to respond to our own pluralistic culture with integrity and kindness - and how to uphold the distinctiveness of the gospel. Christians directly or indirectly engaging our pluralist world will find their ideas enriched by this short yet powerful book.

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Book SynopsisYou pray it. But do you understand it? The Lord's Prayer has become so familiar to us that we don't think about what we're praying. It's a portrait of Jesus' heart. And in it Christians from different times, places, and traditions have been united. We pray it, but do we actually believe it? When Jesus taught his followers how to pray, he emphasized how uncomplicated it should be. There's no need for pretense or theatrics. Instead, simply ask for what you need as though you were speaking with your earthly father. This opens a window into Jesus' prayer life and presents us with a portrait of his heart for his followers. Wesley Hill re-introduces the Lord's Prayer. He shows us a God who is delighted to hear prayer. Petition by petition, in conversation with the Christian tradition, he draws out the significance of Jesus' words for prayer today.

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Book SynopsisGod's word illumines the darkness of society. Dutch politician and historian Groen van Prinsterer's Unbelief and Revolution is a foundational work addressing the inherent tension between the church and secular society. Writing at the onset of modernity in Western culture, Groen saw with amazing clarity the dire implications of abandoning God's created order for human life in society. Groen's work served as an inspiration for many contemporary theologians, and he had a profound impact on Abraham Kuyper's famous public theology. In Challenging the Spirit of Modernity, Harry Van Dyke places this seminal work into historical context, revealing how this vital contribution still speaks into the fractured relationship between religion and society. A deeper understanding of the roots of modern secularism and Groen's strong, faithful response to it gives us a better grasp of the same conflict today.

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Book SynopsisTrue productivity is more than just getting things done. True productivity is less about getting things done; it is more concerned with stewarding priorities, time, and resources wisely and faithfully in a way that honors God. In Every Day Matters Brandon Crowe provides an accessible and biblical understanding of productivity filled with practical guidance and examples. Crowe draws insights from wisdom literature and the life and teaching of the Apostle Paul to reclaim a biblical perspective on productivity. He shows the implications for matters such as setting priorities and goals, achieving rhythms of work and rest, caring for family, maintaining spiritual disciplines, sustaining energy, and engaging wisely with social media and entertainment.

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Book SynopsisYou know them. But do you understand them? The Ten Commandments have become so familiar to us that we don't think about what they actually mean. They've been used by Christians throughout history as the basis for worship, confessions, prayer, even civil law. Are these ancient words still relevant for us today? Their outward simplicity hides their inward complexity. Jesus himself sums up the entire law in a pair of commandments: Love God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Peter Leithart re-introduces the Ten Commandments. He shows us how they address every arena of human life, giving us a portrait of life under the lordship of Jesus, who is the heart and soul of the commandments.

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Book SynopsisThe correspondence of William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645, provides revealing insights into his mind, methods and activities, especially in the 1630s, as he sought to remodel the church and the clerical estatein the three kingdoms. William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645, is a central figure in the history of seventeenth-century Britain. Laud's correspondence provides revealing insights into his mind, methods and activities, especially in the 1630s, as he sought to remodel the church and the clerical estate in the three kingdoms. The Further Correspondence of William Laud prints 223 letters, drawn from thirty-eight libraries and archives, which were not included in the nineteenth-century edition of his Works. It has real importance for our perception of Laud and the early Stuart church, greatly increasing the number of his letters for the 1620s and providing significant new information, such as the three earliest letters to his closest political ally, Thomas Wentworth, in 1630. Other correspondents include politicians such as Sir John Coke and Lord Keeper Coventry, the diplomat Sir William Boswell, numerous heads of colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge, and churchmen such as Bishops John Bridgeman of Chester and John Bramhall of Derry as well as Cyril Lucaris, Patriarch of Constantinople. A lengthy introduction assesses the waysin which these letters deepen our knowledge, broaden our understanding and refine our views of Laud's various roles, as chief ecclesiastical counsellor to Charles I, court politician and administrator, chancellor of Oxford University, and overseer of religious reformation in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. An appendix lists all of Laud's correspondence in chronological order. Collectively, the letters attest to his extraordinary energy andtireless commitment to reform and point to the indelible impact that Laud made on his contemporaries. KENNETH FINCHAM is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Kent. He has written extensively on religion and politics in early modern Britain, including two monographs, Prelate as Pastor: the Episcopate of James I (1990) and, with Nicholas Tyacke, Altars Restored: the Changing Face of English Religious Worship 1547-c.1700 (2007); edited two collections of essays, The Early Stuart Church 1603-1642 (1993) and, with Peter Lake, Religious Politics in post-Reformation England (2006); and edited two volumes of Articles and Injunctions of the Early Stuart Church (1994-8) for the Church of England Record Society.Trade ReviewA meticulously researched compilation of letters of the former Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud (1573-1645), many of which did not exist in print before the publication of this volume. * READING RELIGION *A valuable addition to our understanding of the complexity and extent of the part that [Laud] played, especially in the 1630s when he was at the height of his power as principal ecclesiastical adviser to Charles I...[An] excellent publication enhanced with Professor Fincham's impeccable scholarship. * CHURCH TIMES *Kenneth Fincham, a distinguished historian of the early modern Anglican Church, has gathered a rich collection of letters that do much to breathe new life into the wooden martinet we thought we knew. . . . This edition of Archbishop Laud's correspondence is masterfully edited and annotated, and greatþ enhances our understanding of his life and character. -- Victor Stater * Anglican & Episcopal History *Table of ContentsIntroduction Letters 1614-1645 Appendix Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe true importance of cathedrals during the Anglo-Norman period is here brought out, through an examination of the most important aspects of their history. Cathedrals dominated the ecclesiastical (and physical) landscape of the British Isles and Normandy in the middle ages; yet, in comparison with the history of monasteries, theirs has received significantly less attention. This volume helps to redress the balance by examining major themes in their development between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. These include the composition, life, corporate identity and memory of cathedral communities; the relationships, sometimes supportive, sometimes conflicting, that they had with kings (e.g. King John), aristocracies, and neighbouring urban and religious communities; the importance of cathedrals as centres of lordship and patronage; their role in promoting and utilizing saints' cults (e.g. that of St Thomas Becket); episcopal relations; and the involvement of cathedrals in religious and political conflicts, and in the settlement of disputes. A critical introduction locates medieval cathedrals in space and time, and against a backdrop of wider ecclesiastical change in the period. Contributors: Paul Dalton, Charles Insley, Louise J. Wilkinson, Ann Williams, C.P. Lewis, RichardAllen, John Reuben Davies, Thomas Roche, Stephen Marritt, Michael Staunton, Sheila Sweetinburgh, Paul Webster, Nicholas VincentTrade ReviewA useful and engaging volume with some original and important essays. * CHURCH HISTORY *Scholars pursuing topics that deal with religious communities, not only cathedrals, in the Anglo-Norman period will find much of interest in these well-crafted and carefully referenced essays. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Paul Dalton and Charles Insley and Louise J. Wilkinson The Dangers of Invention: The Sack of Canterbury, 1011, and the 'Theft' of Dunstan's Relics - Ann Williams Remembering Communities Past: Exeter Cathedral in the Eleventh Century - Charles Insley Communities, Conflict, and Episcopal Policy in the Diocese of Lichfield, 1050-1150 - C P Lewis The Acta archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium and Urban Ecclesiastical Rivalry in Eleventh-Century Rouen - Richard Allen Cathedrals and the Cult of Saints in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Wales - John Reuben Davies A Bishop and His Conflicts: Philip of Bayeux [1142-63] - Thomas Roche Ecclesiastical Responses to War in King Stephen's Reign: The Communities of Selby Abbey, Pontefract Priory and York Cathedral - Paul Dalton Secular Cathedrals and the Anglo-Norman Aristocracy - Stephen Marritt The Lives of Thomas Becket and the Church of Canterbury - Michael Staunton Caught in the Cross-Fire: Patronage and Institutional Politics in Late Twelfth-Century Canterbury - Sheila Sweetinburgh Crown, Cathedral, and Conflict: King John and Canterbury - Paul Webster The English Monasteries and their French Possessions - Nicholas Vincent

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Book SynopsisThis book challenges the recently established consensus that the trial was a carefully prepared and executed judicial process in which the judges were amenable to reasonable arguments. Thomas More's treason trial in 1535 is one of history's most famous court cases, yet never before have all the major documents been collected, translated, and analyzed by a team of legal and Tudor scholars. This edition serves asan important sourcebook and concludes with a 'docudrama' reconstructing the course of the trial based on these documents. Legal experts H. A. Kelly and R. H. Helmholz take different approaches to the legalities of this trial, and four experienced judges [including Justice of the Queen's Bench Sir Michael Tugendhat] discuss the trial with some disagreements - notably on the meaning and requirement of 'malice' called for in the Parliamentary Act of Supremacy. More's own accounts of his interrogations in prison are analyzed, and the trial's procedures are compared to and contrasted with 16th-century concepts of natural law and also modern judicial practices and principles. The book is a 'must read' not only for students of law and Tudor history but also for all concerned with justice and due process. As a whole, the book challenges Duncan Derrett's conclusions that the trial was conducted in accord with contemporary legal norms and that More was convicted only on the single charge of denying Parliament the power to declare Henry VIII Supreme Head of the English Church [testified to by Richard Rich] - a position that has been uniformly accepted by historians since 1964. HENRY ANSGAR KELLY is past Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA. LOUIS W. KARLIN is an attorney with the California Court of Appeal and Fellow of the Center for Thomas More Studies, University of Dallas. GERARD B. WEGEMER is Director of the Center for Thomas More Studies.Trade ReviewA valuable reference tool-all the more so as it includes twenty major documents, many otherwise not easily available and all translated into English, and a comprehensive bibliography.. [E]ssential reading for anyone interested in Thomas More's trial about which much remains controversial. * CERCLES *[A] clever and innovative volume. ... The essays are meticulously researched and legal jargon never gets in the way of historical understanding. Anyone interested in the particulars of one of the most renowned trials in history will find this book indispensable. * ANNUAL BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE *This is an intriguing and often insightful study. [It] is an important contribution to Morean studies for both scholars and students. * SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL *Table of ContentsA Procedural Review of Thomas More's Trial - Henry Ansgar Kelly Natural Law and the Trial of Thomas More - R.H. Helmholz A Guide to Thomas More's Trial for Modern Lawyers - Louis W. Karlin and David R. Oakley Thomas More's Three Prison Letters Reporting on His Interrogations - Elizabeth McCutcheon Judicial Commentary on Thomas More's Trial: Preliminary Comment and Round Table - Sidney Fitzwater and Edith Hollan Jones and Jennie D. Latta and Michael Tugendhat Documents Thomas More's Trial: Docudrama

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Book SynopsisEssays bring out the important and complex roles played by Anglo-Saxon churchmen, including Bede and lesser-known figures. Both episcopal and abbatial authority were of fundamental importance to the development of the Christian church in Anglo-Saxon England. Bishops and heads of monastic houses were invested with a variety of types of power and influence. Their actions, decisions, and writings could change not only their own institutions, but also the national church, while their interaction with the king and his court affected wider contemporary society. Theories of ecclesiastical leadership were expounded in contemporary texts and documents. But how far did image or ideal reflect reality? How much room was there for individuals to use their office to promote new ideas? The papers in this volumeillustrate the important roles played by individual leading ecclesiastics in England, both within the church and in the wider political sphere, from the late seventh to the mid eleventh century. The undeniable authority of Bede and Bishop Æthelwold is demonstrated but also the influence of less-familiar figures such as Bishop Wulfsige of Sherborne, Archbishop Ecgberht of York and St Leoba. The book draws on both textual and material evidence to show the influence (by both deed and reputation) of powerful personalities not only on the developing institutions of the English church but also on the secular politics of their time. Contributors: Alexander R. Rumble, Nicholas J.Higham, Martyn J. Ryan, Cassandra Rhodes, Allan Scott McKinley, Dominik Wassenhoven, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Debby Banham, Joyce Hill.Trade ReviewOffer[s] much of value to students of the Anglo-Saxon church. * EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE *Filled with historical context and insight, particularly for those who work on the religious prose of Anglo-Saxon England. * YEARS WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES *Underlines the significance of the ecclesiastical elite in Anglo-Saxon England. * NORTHERN HISTORY, L, no. 2, September 2013 *A valuable collection of essays on a range of important subjects. * JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Church Leadership and the Anglo-Saxons - Alexander R. Rumble Bede and the Early English Church - Nicholas Higham Archbishop Ecgberht and his Dialogus - Martin Ryan Abbatial Responsibility as Spiritual Labour: Suckling from the Male Breast - Cassandra Rhodes Understanding the Earliest Bishops of Worcester c. 660-860 - Allan Scott McKinley The Role of Bishops in Anglo-Saxon Succession Struggles, 955 x 978 - Dominik Wassenhoven Image-Making: Portraits of Anglo-Saxon Church Leaders - Gale R. Owen-Crocker 'To Keep Silence Following the Rule's Command': Bishop Æthelwold, Reforming Ideology and Communication by Signs - Debby Banham Wulfsige of Sherborne's Reforming Text - Joyce Hill From Winchester to Canterbury: Ælfheah and Stigand - Bishops, Archbishops and Victims - Alexander R. Rumble

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Book SynopsisThe history of the vexed relationship between clergy and warfare is traced through a careful examination of canon law. In the first millennium the Christian Church forbade its clergy from bearing arms. In the mid-eleventh century the ban was reiterated many times at the highest levels: all participants in the battle of Hastings, for example, who had drawn blood were required to do public penance. Yet over the next two hundred years the canon law of the Latin Church changed significantly: the pope and bishops came to authorize and direct wars; military-religious orders, beginning with the Templars, emerged to defend the faithful and the Faith; and individual clerics were allowed to bear arms for defensive purposes. This study examines how these changes developed, ranging widely across Europe and taking the story right up to the present day; it also considers the reasons why the original prohibition has never been restored. Lawrence G. Duggan is Professor of History at the University of Delaware and research fellowof the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.Trade ReviewDuggan's work is an extremely valuable resource for those interested in the question of the role of armsbearing in the lives of Western clergy. Although the study of canon law has often times been deemed extremely dry Duggan makes his discussion of legal theory very interesting and exciting. Moreover Duggan must also be commended for the sheer volume of his sources and the depth of is knowledge of them. * ANGLICAN AND EPISCOPAL HISTORY *[A] well-written account that gives the reader many examples of clerics who went to war, their participation in warfare, their role in the Crusades, and the peculiar rise of clerical military orders. it has the virtue of covering the entire span of European civilization. * CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW *Offers an important corrective to the blanket assumption that medieval canon law spoke with one unanimous voice condemning clerical participation in warfare. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *Exemplary as a study of how theory and practice relate to each other. * SEHEPUNKTE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Julius Exclusus? Quot homines, tot sententiae The Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church on Clerical Armsbearing (I): To the Twelfth Century The Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church (II):"Revolution in Law," ca. 1140-1317 The Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church (III): Since 1317 Armsbearing in the English Legal Tradition Conclusion

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Book SynopsisIn the first decades after Christ a small movement from the Middle East rapidly grew to become an empire-wide phenomenon. Soon there were established Christian communities spreading from Jerusalem to Rome, all grappling with the same issue: how to live their new-found faith? A Social History of the Early Church seeks to answer this question by exploring what life was actually like for the first Christians. Through detailed analyses of archaeological evidence and contemporary accounts, Simon Jones addresses topics such as the role of pagan religion, people's sources of entertainment, the nature of family life, how societies were structured and the changing role of women. This book is a fascinating survey that brings this period vividly to life for scholars at all levels of study.

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Book SynopsisExamines Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI's manifold contributions to Catholic-Protestant theological reflection. The collection opens with an introduction comparing Ratzinger's approach to ecumenism to that of Karl Rahner. Rahner argues that the structural uniting of Protestants and Catholics should take place now without worrying about doctrinal differences. In contrast, Ratzinger argues that unity in Christ requires probing the doctrinal differences and seeking a deeper understanding of the reasoning of each side - on the grounds that the truth of the Gospel that each side desires to preserve will ultimately be the basis for the only kind of Christian ecclesial unity worth having, namely, a unity of the basis of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Detailed essays follow, treating a number of loci including papal primacy, ecumenical principles, liturgy, evangelization, Mariology, Christ's birth and the celebration of Christmas, public theology, Christocentrism, Martin Luther, charity, conscience, missiology, justification, the reception of Ratzinger/Benedict in Radical Orthodoxy, and Scripture and Tradition. These essays run the full gamut of Ratzinger/Benedict's major themes and preoccupations. Ten of the essays are by Catholic scholars, and seven by Protestant scholars. Contributors include many of the world's leading Ratzinger experts, and the volume opens with an essay by Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer, Director of the Pope Benedict XVI Institute in Regensburg, Germany.

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Book SynopsisAt Ansha's takes the reader inside the spirit mosque of a female healer in Nampula, northern Mozambique. It is here that Ansha, a Makonde spirit healer, heals the resisting ailments of her patients, discloses pieces of her story of affliction and healing, and engages the world outside her mosque. We come to know Ansha’s experiences as revolutionary and migrant, her religious trajectories, family, the healers who cured her, the spirits who possessed her, and her declining health. We follow Ansha’s shifts in her life and work in the mosque as these intersect with the visible and invisible borders of Mozambique and of its fraught history. Confronting events in her life and in the mosque between 2009 and 2016, Ansha invites us to make meaning with her, as we sit in her mosque, and engage with her family, spirits, friends, patients, and world.Trade Review"This vivid, richly woven ethnographic account of healing practice in Mozambique offers valuable insights into the fluidity and flexibility of cultural and religious boundaries. The book captures the dynamics of agency and power in its focus on a healer’s spiritual border-crossing, revealing alternative visions of experiences of culture and religion as continually re-constructed and emergent."— Susan Rasmussen, author of Those Who Touch: Tuareg Medicine Women in Anthropological Perspective "Through this ethnographic account of one healer in northern Mozambique, Daria Trentini evokes the contours of an entire social world. As Ansha works the borders between health and illness, tradition and modernity, good and evil—even life and death—Trentini shows how lives are defined by tensions and contradictions as well as attempts to ease them. By providing such an accessible and compelling narrative, Trentini herself works ontological borders between her readers and those she meets in Ansha’s compound."— Harry G. West, author of Ethnographic Sorcery "This ethnography is well written and offers much comparative material for medical anthropology, cultural anthropology, and the social science of medicine. I recommend it highly for both undergraduate and graduate students. Daria Trentini has made a very important contribution to the understanding of the personal and professional life and development of a spiritual healer." — Patricia Barker Lerch, Nova ReligioTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Foreword by Lenore Manderson List of Abbreviations Ansha’s Family Note on Languages Prologue Introduction Part I: Ansha and the Spirits 1 Rural and Urban 2 Health and Healing 3 Wives and Husbands 4 Demons and Spirits 5 Insiders and Outsiders 6 Mountains 7 Coast 8 Rivers and Bridges Part II: Outside the Mosque 9 Makhuwa and Maka 10 Books and Roots 11 Muslims of the Spirits and Muslims of the Mosque 12 Healers and the Governo 13 Healers and Nurses 14 Knowing and Not-Knowing Part III: Patients 15 Good and Evil 16 Closed and Opened 17 The Dead and the Living 18 Juniors and Seniors 19 Tradition and Modernity 20 Spirits and Women Part IV: Returns 21 Life and Death Epilogue Acknowledgments Glossary Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisMany American Christians have come to understand their relationship to other Christian denominations and traditions through the lens of religious persecution. This book provides a historical account of these developments, showing the global, theological, and political changes that made it possible for contemporary Christians to claim that there is a global war on Christians. This book, however, does not advocate on behalf of particular repressed Christian communities, nor does it argue for the genuineness (or lack thereof) of certain Christians’ claims of persecution. Instead, this book is the first to examine the idea that there is a “global war on Christians” and its analytical implications. It does so by giving a concise history of the categories (like “martyrs”), evidence (statistics and metrics), and theologies that have come together to produce a global Christian imagination premised upon the notion of shared suffering for one’s faith. The purpose in doing so is not to deny certain instances of suffering or death; rather, it is to reflect upon the consequences for thinking about religious violence and Christianity worldwide using terms such as a “global war on Christians.”Trade Review"Jason Bruner's Imagining Persecution offers a polite, probing, and ultimately devastating deconstruction of the common American Christian belief that there is at this time a global war of persecution against Christians. This is an extraordinarily important book. In its own understated way, it raises this fundamental question—why exactly is it so important for conservative American Christians to believe they are part of a globally persecuted community?"— David P. Gushee, author of Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelism. "A significant contribution."— David Smith, author of Religious Persecution and Political Order in the United States "Persecution, Martyrdom, and Christian Identity: 7 Questions with Jason Bruner"— Sacred Matters "New Books Network - New Nooks in Christian Studies" interview with Jason Bruner— New Books Network - New Nooks in Christian StudiesTable of ContentsContents Preface 1. Coming to Terms: Christians, Martyrs, and Persecution 2. Christians, Martyrdom, and Persecution from the New Testament to the Reformation 3. Religious Persecution and American Christianity 4. A Global War on Christians? 5. The Global Politics of the Suffering Body of Christ Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisDie Studie widmet sich Schleiermachers politischem Einsatz während aller Phasen seines Wirkens. Auf breiter, zum Teil neu erschlossener Quellenbasis werden die politischen Predigten, die Tätigkeit im bildungs- und hochschulpolitischen Bereich, die staatstheoretische Konzeption, die Mitwirkung an politisch-publizistischen Aktivitäten im Rahmen der preußischen Reformpartei ("Der Preußische Correspondent") und die Urteilsbildung in Bezug auf Judentum und jüdische Kultur untersucht. Mit seinem in der neueren Forschung bisher wenig beachteten politischen Entwurf erweist sich Schleiermacher als Programmatiker einer liberalen Staatsbürgergesellschaft.

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents a timely contribution to the growing body of scholarship on the apocryphal writings and their reception in the Middle Ages, especially in connection with visual representation. It aims to bridge what often remains disconnected, the visual art and the written text, the early Christian roots and medieval reception, the East and the West, as well as methodologies of various disciplines. The studies in this volume firstly investigate issues related to the Virgin Mary, and through them, also the status, function, and identity of women. Mary and the female element thus represent significant models and/or background figures in fields pertaining to theology, religious studies, textual studies, manuscript studies, and art history in a trans-disciplinary perspective. Secondly, the studies focus on the apostles and the Last Judgment, their visual representations and the use of apocryphal sources. The volume is divided in two parts according to two major topics: Part I dealing with Mary in the Apocrypha, and Part II focusing on the Apostles and the Last Judgment.Table of Contents Notes on Contributors Introduction CHAPTER 1. Responsible Midwifery or Reckless Disbelief? Revisiting Salome's Examination of Mary in The Protevangelium Jacobi, by Mark M. Mattison CHAPTER 2. Introduction to Mary as High Priest in Early Christian Narratives and Iconography, by Ally Kateusz CHAPTER 3. Visual Cherubikon: Mary as Priest at Lagoudera in Cyprus, by Matthew J. Milliner CHAPTER 4. Apocryphal Iconography in the Byzantine Churches of Cappadocia: Meaning and Visibility in Scenes of the Story of Mary and the Infancy of Christ, by Manuela Studer-Karlen CHAPTER 5. The Impact of Apocryphal Sources on the Annunciation in Medieval Art, by Marilyn Gasparini CHAPTER 6. Pseudepigrapha and Last Judgment Iconography: Examples from the Church of the Ascension in Luzhany, by Daria Co?codan CHAPTER 7. Apocryphal Sources and Their Importance in the Italian Iconography of Saint James the Greater, by Andrea D'Apruzzo CHAPTER 8. Apostolorum Gloriosissimus Princeps. Saint Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow in Late Medieval Painting between the Acts and the Golden Legend, by Gerd Mathias Micheluzzi

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Book SynopsisThe book examines the dynamic processes of the various social, political, and cultural negotiations that representatives of Christian groups engage in within authoritarian societies in Greater China, where Christianity is deemed a foreign religious system brought to China by colonial rulers. The book explores the political and social cooperation and negotiations of two particular Christian groups in their respective and distinct settings: the open sector of the Catholic Church in the communist People’s Republic on mainland China from 1945 to the present day, and the Presbyterian church of Taiwan in the Republic of China in Taiwan during the period of martial law from 1949 to 1987. Rather than simply confirm the ‘domination-resistance’ model of church–state relations, the book focuses on the various approaches adopted by religious groups during the process of negotiation. In an authoritative Chinese environment, religious specialists face two related pressures: the demands of their authoritarian rulers and social pressure requiring them to assimilate to the local culture. The book uses two case studies to support a wider theory of economic approach to religion.Trade Review“This book adopts the economic approach to religion to study the development of Christianity in China from the perspective of the relationship between Church and state. … This book is a catalyst for advancing the study of Christianity in China and will be much appreciated by both specialists and students of Chinese Christianity.” (Wei Xiong, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 49 (1), March, 2023)“Uneasy Encounters, the author’s first book, is a laudable effort at marshalling an extensive review of church publications and scholarly literature … . Rychetská is to be commended for bridging scholarly conversations that have not always been in dialogue with each other. In particular, Rychetská’s review of published church documents and government policy documents relating to the church will interest scholars and teachers seeking to illustrate particular aspects of church-state relations in either context.” (Joshua Tan, Review of Religion and Chinese Society, February 20, 2023)Table of ContentsIntroduction. - Part 1: Presbyterian Church in Taiwan during the martial law. - Chapter 1. A Historical Overview of the Presbyterian Mission in Taiwan. - Chapter 2. The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan under the Nationalist Rule during the Martial Law. - Chapter 3. Re-sinicization and the Struggle for Localisation. - Chapter 4. Church’s struggle for Taiwanese National Identity. - Chapter 5. Church and the Human Rights. - Chapter 6. The Promotor of Democratisation. - Part 2: Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association in the People’s Republic of China. - Chapter 7. A Historical Overview of the Catholic Mission in China. - Chapter 8. Catholic Church under the Communist Rule. - Chapter 9. Sino-Vatican Relations. - Chapter 10. Catholic Church in the Light of Policy and Legislation Documents on Religion. - Chapter 11. Sinicizing Christianity in the Contemporary People’s Republic of China. - Chapter 12. Resistance or Cooperation? - Conclusion: Christian Churches in the Authoritarian Regimes

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisShame strikes at the heart of human individuals rupturing relationships, extinguishing joy and, at times, provoking conflict and violence. This book explores the idea that shame has historically been, and continues to be, used by an oftentimes patriarchal Christian Church as a mechanism to control and regulate female sexuality and to displace men's ambivalence about sex. Using a study of Ireland's Magdalen laundries as a historical example, contemporary feminist theological and theoretical scholarship are utilised to examine why the Church as an institution has routinely colluded with the shaming of individuals, and moreover why women are consistently and overtly shamed on account of, and indeed take the blame for, sex. In addition, the text asks whether the avoidance of shame is in fact functional in men's efforts to adhere to patriarchal gender norms and religious ideals, and whether women end up paying the price for the maintenance of this systemTrade Review"This work is mandatory to anyone looking to study religion on the island of Ireland; anyone engaging with state control of citizen’s bodies; anyone looking at collusion between institutional churches and state governments; and anyone engaging with shame research."- Kristen Nielsen Donnelly, Independent ScholarTable of ContentsIntroduction1 Overview2 Towards an Understanding of Shame 3 Shame: Affect and Emotion4 Shaming the Feminine5 Embodied Shame6 Sexual Ambivalence: Why Men Shame Women about Sex7 Shame and Transgressive Female Sexuality in Ireland8 Reforming the Feminine: The Magdalen LaundriesConclusion

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Book SynopsisBoston Globe journalist and Catholic commentator Michael O’Loughlin opens a wonderful window into the heart and revolutionary mission of Pope Francis by examining his extensive and revelatory use of social media—published to coincide with the pontiff’s visit to the United States in September 2015.Michael O’Loughlin uses Pope Francis’s almost daily “tweets” to his 21 million followers to explain why this pope has captured the world’s imagination and to explore his strategy and vision for the Catholic Church. Grouped by the Pope’s most pressing concerns—forgiveness, mercy, injustice, poverty, war, joy, the environment, and more—The Tweetable Pope uses Francis’ pithy 140-character (or fewer) missives as a prism to view the biographical, historical, and spiritual context of his messages and how each is part of a larger vision.O’Loughlin contends that these seemingly simple commu

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Book SynopsisExperience the fullness of life that Jesus promises by learning how to engage with the present--even in the increasing busyness of work and family life.Do you ever wonder how long can you keep: grinding out eighty-hour work weeks? putting your marriage on the backburner? treating your employees like cogs in a machine? pushing your life aside before you realize your time is all up? At the heart of this collaborative project is the belief that the pain we experience is the result of absence--living disconnected from our authentic selves and lacking deep, meaningful relationships with others and with God.Daniel Montgomery, the founding pastor of Sojourn Community Church; Kenny Silva, a PhD candidate at Trinity International University; and Eboni Webb, who holds a doctorate of Clinical Psychology, pooled their efforts and expertise to focus on the problem of modern absence and the pain it causes us an

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Book SynopsisWe live our lives in both physical and digital community. We need to do ministry the same way. Because of COVID-19, nearly every church in the US was forced to adapt to a quarantine and adopt new ministry strategies, including digital technologies they may have avoided before. When services began to be offered in-person once more, many church leaders said they hoped they''d never have to live stream again for the rest of their lives. But then came the shock: people didn''t return in droves, and declining attendance steepened. The pandemic had only accelerated the profound cultural changes that were already marginalizing the church and reducing its relevance.In Hybrid Church, James Emery White argues that the post-pandemic church must commit to a hybrid strategy as the only means to reach a post-Christian culture in a digital age.This book will help you rethink the church''s approach and stretch you to move beyond

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