Religion As Make-Believe

Religion As Make-Believe PDF Author: Neil Van Leeuwen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067429033X
Category : Belief and doubt
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Drawing on a range of hard evidence, Neil Van Leeuwen shows that the psychological mechanisms underlying religious belief are the same as those enabling imaginative play. He argues that we should therefore understand religious belief as a form of make-believe that people use to define their group identity and express the values sacred to them.

Religion As Make-Believe

Religion As Make-Believe PDF Author: Neil Van Leeuwen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067429033X
Category : Belief and doubt
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Drawing on a range of hard evidence, Neil Van Leeuwen shows that the psychological mechanisms underlying religious belief are the same as those enabling imaginative play. He argues that we should therefore understand religious belief as a form of make-believe that people use to define their group identity and express the values sacred to them.

Opening the Parables

Opening the Parables PDF Author: M. D. Hayden
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
For centuries, Jesus' parables have been--and still are--extensively interpreted by those who impose Christian dogma and tradition on a parable told decades before Christianity per se even existed. There was no Christian tradition when Jesus was teaching his followers, and he was teaching regular people, not theologians. No wonder then that after two millennia, Jesus' parables, coated with a confusing overlay of Christian dogma, still puzzle readers of the New Testament. Opening the Parables is based on the premise that Jesus taught a singular spiritual truth which--once the clutter of others' words and interpretations is cleared away--appears consistently in all his teachings, even in his parables. In the best-possible way, Jesus was a one-subject teacher (one subject, using various teaching techniques, both deductive and inductive), a one-sermon preacher (one message, told in various ways). Everything he taught or preached was about love in the infinite, here-and-now Kingdom of God. All his parables, proverbs, aphorisms, and direct statements teach one lesson: in the highest realm we can imagine, compassionate love is all that matters.

Meditations for Every Day in they Year

Meditations for Every Day in they Year PDF Author: Roger Baxter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description


The Spirit of Praise

The Spirit of Praise PDF Author: Monique M. Ingalls
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271070684
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
In The Spirit of Praise, Monique Ingalls and Amos Yong bring together a multidisciplinary, scholarly exploration of music and worship in global pentecostal-charismatic Christianity at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The Spirit of Praise contends that gaining a full understanding of this influential religious movement requires close listening to its songs and careful attention to its patterns of worship. The essays in this volume place ethnomusicological, theological, historical, and sociological perspectives into dialogue. By engaging with these disciplines and exploring themes of interconnection, interface, and identity within musical and ritual practices, the essays illuminate larger social processes such as globalization, sacralization, and secularization, as well as the role of religion in social and cultural change. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Peter Althouse, Will Boone, Mark Evans, Ryan R. Gladwin, Birgitta J. Johnson, Jean Ngoya Kidula, Miranda Klaver, Andrew Mall, Kimberly Jenkins Marshall, Andrew M. McCoy, Martijn Oosterbaan, Dave Perkins, Wen Reagan, Tanya Riches, Michael Webb, and Michael Wilkinson.

A Journal of Meditations for Every Day in the Year

A Journal of Meditations for Every Day in the Year PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description


Writings

Writings PDF Author: Saint Junípero Serra
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : California
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Commentary on the New Testament

Commentary on the New Testament PDF Author: Robert H. Gundry
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441237089
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 2399

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Book Description
Verse-by-verse explanations with a literal translation Shouldn't a Bible commentary clarify what God's Word actually says? Going beyond questions of authorship, date, sources, and historicity, respected linguist and teacher Gundry offers a one-volume exposition of the New Testament that focuses on what is most useful for preaching, teaching, and individual study--what the biblical text really means. Providing interpretive observations in a "breezy" style that's easy to read and adaptable for oral use in pulpit or classroom presentations, Gundry directs his book to an evangelical audience. His crisp translation of the New Testament inserts various phrasings of passages in brackets, allowing for smooth transition from original text to alternative and contemporary readings. SAMPLE TEXT OF TRANSLATION JOHN'S PREDICTING A MORE POWERFUL BAPTIZER THAN HE (Mark 1:1-8) 1:1-3: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God's Son, according as it's written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I'm sending my messenger before your face [= ahead of you], who'll pave your way [= the road you'll travel], [the messenger who is] the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.'" Pastors, Sunday school teachers, small-group leaders, and laypeople will welcome Gundry's non-technical explanations and clarifications. And Bible students at all levels will appreciate his sparkling interpretations of the NT Scriptures. A trustworthy guide for anybody wanting to delve deeper into God's Word. SAMPLE TEXT OF COMMENTS "Gospel" means "good news." Jews would associate this good news with Isaiah 52:7. Non-Jews would think of the good news of an emperor's accession to power, birthday, visit to a city, military victory, or bringing of prosperity to the empire. But Mark's good news has to do with the salvation and victory brought by Jesus over evil in all its demonic and physical forms. "The gospel of Jesus Christ" therefore means "the gospel about Jesus Christ" and refers to a proclaimed message ("the voice of one crying out"), not a book (though because books like Mark's contain that proclaimed message, the term came to refer to those books in the capitalized form of "Gospels" to distinguish them from the message, kept uncapitalized as "gospel").

Chosen

Chosen PDF Author: Donna Steichen
Publisher: Ignatius Press
ISBN: 1681490897
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 495

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Book Description
The twenty-three men and women who tell their conversion stories in these pages were not drawn to the Church by sound evangelization programs, beautiful buildings and liturgies, or saintly witnesses among the clergy. On the contrary, many of them were attracted to Catholicism in spite of a now decades-long stretch of deficient catechesis, mediocre Masses, and uninspiring leadership. Christ himself led these souls to his Church, concludes editor Donna Steichen, who compiled this consoling collection, and it is the Lord who set them to work replanting his devastated vineyard. "Despite their marked differences in origin, education, and field of service," writes Steichen, "each one makes it clear that it is Christ who did the choosing. They testify that Christ touched their hearts and intervened in their lives in unexpected, sometimes even miraculous, ways."

Commentary on Acts (Commentary on the New Testament Book #5)

Commentary on Acts (Commentary on the New Testament Book #5) PDF Author: Robert H. Gundry
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1441237623
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Delve Deeper into God's Word In this verse-by-verse commentary, Robert Gundry offers a fresh, literal translation and a reliable exposition of Scripture for today's readers. The book of Acts provides a selective record of events that took place during the formative years of the early church. Gundry's commentary makes clear how the Christian faith came to be accepted from Jerusalem to Rome. Pastors, Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, and laypeople will welcome Gundry's nontechnical explanations and clarifications. And Bible students at all levels will appreciate his sparkling interpretations. This selection is from Gundry's Commentary on the New Testament.

Writings of Junípero Serra

Writings of Junípero Serra PDF Author: Saint Junípero Serra
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : California
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description