Post-Christendom

Post-Christendom PDF Author: Stuart Murray
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 149824310X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Western societies are experiencing a series of disorientating culture shifts. Uncertain where we are heading, observers use "post" words to signal that familiar landmarks are disappearing, but we cannot yet discern the shape of what is emerging. One of the most significant shifts, "post-Christendom," raises many questions about the mission and role of the church in this strange new world. What does it mean to be one of many minorities in a culture that the church no longer dominates? How do followers of Jesus engage in mission from the margins? What do we bring with us as precious resources from the fading Christendom era, and what do we lay down as baggage that will weigh us down on our journey into post-Christendom? Post-Christendom identifies the challenges and opportunities of this unsettling but exciting time. Stuart Murray presents an overview of the formation and development of the Christendom system, examines the legacies this has left, and highlights the questions that the Christian community needs to consider in this period of cultural transition.

Post-Christendom

Post-Christendom PDF Author: Stuart Murray
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 149824310X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
Western societies are experiencing a series of disorientating culture shifts. Uncertain where we are heading, observers use "post" words to signal that familiar landmarks are disappearing, but we cannot yet discern the shape of what is emerging. One of the most significant shifts, "post-Christendom," raises many questions about the mission and role of the church in this strange new world. What does it mean to be one of many minorities in a culture that the church no longer dominates? How do followers of Jesus engage in mission from the margins? What do we bring with us as precious resources from the fading Christendom era, and what do we lay down as baggage that will weigh us down on our journey into post-Christendom? Post-Christendom identifies the challenges and opportunities of this unsettling but exciting time. Stuart Murray presents an overview of the formation and development of the Christendom system, examines the legacies this has left, and highlights the questions that the Christian community needs to consider in this period of cultural transition.

After Christendom

After Christendom PDF Author: Stanley Hauerwas
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 142672201X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Liberal/conservative and modern/postmodern concepts define contemporary theological debate. Yet what if these categories are grounded in a set of assumptions about what it means to be the church in the world, presuming we must live as though God's existence does not matter? What if our theological discussion distracts us from the fact that the church is no longer able to shape the desires and habits of Christians? Hauerwas wrestles with these and similar questions constructing a theological politics necessary for the church to be the church in the world. In so doing, he challenges liberal notions of justice and freedom.

Evangelism after Christendom

Evangelism after Christendom PDF Author: Bryan Stone
Publisher: Brazos Press
ISBN: 1441201548
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Most people think of evangelism as something an individual does--one person talking to one or more other people about the gospel. Bryan Stone, however, argues that evangelism is the duty and call of the entire church as a body of witness. Evangelism after Christendom explores what it means to understand and put to work evangelism as a rich practice of the church, grounding evangelism in the stories of Israel, Jesus, and the Apostles. This thorough treatment is marked by an astute sensitivity to the ways in which Christian evangelism has in the past been practiced violently, intentionally or unintentionally. Pointing to exemplars both Protestant and Catholic, Stone shows pastors, professors, and students how evangelism can work nonviolently.

The Church in Exile

The Church in Exile PDF Author: Lee Beach
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 083089702X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
The church in North America today lives in a post-Christian society. Lee Beach helps the people of God today to develop a hopeful and prophetic imagination, a theology responsive to its context, and an exilic identity marked by faithfulness to God?s mission in the world.

Reading the Bible After Christendom

Reading the Bible After Christendom PDF Author: Lloyd Pietersen
Publisher: Authentic Media Inc
ISBN: 1842277650
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Pietersen argues that for too long the Old Testament has been the primary source for Christian ethics and the letters of Paul for Christian discipleship. Without disparaging these sources the author suggests that the church in a postmodern, post-Christian society needs to look at Scripture with a different focus. This book seeks to examine what reading the Bible might look like in the current period when the church is no longer central and the Christian story is not well known. 'This is a provocative and refreshing exploration of the possibilities inherent i[1;5Cn reading Scripture from the margins, rather than from within the compromised and rapidly receding structures of Christendom. A worthy addition to the challenging After Christendom series, Lloyd Pietersen's thoughtful work moves the discussion forward in ways that are at times controversial, at other times stretching, but at all times constructive. Highly recommended!' - Brian Harris, Principal, Vose Seminary, Perth Australia

Christ, Church, and World

Christ, Church, and World PDF Author: Theodore J. Hopkins
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1978708599
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
As the North American church struggles to navigate the emerging post-Christian context, Theodore J. Hopkins argues that the church is identified by three fundamental relationships: Christ-church-world. By attending to the Christological center of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology, Hopkins establishes a framework for the church’s mission in the world that flows from Christ’s relationship to the church and his relationship to the world. This Christological framework also illuminates the changing relationship between the church and the world in Bonhoeffer’s works, such that Discipleship seems to demarcate the church from the world while Ethics seems to unite church and world in one Christ-reality. Following Bonhoeffer, Hopkins contends that the church is both distinct from the world and in solidarity with it in the dynamic of the crucified Lord Jesus who took the form of a servant and is present in Word, Sacrament, and community as the Risen One. Hopkins envisions the church within the story of Jesus so that preaching and teaching the Gospel identifies the church and calls it to faithfulness in Christ’s own mission. The church is formed to see itself and the world in Jesus and enabled to follow Christ’s mission of witness and service in the world.

Politics after Christendom

Politics after Christendom PDF Author: David VanDrunen
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
ISBN: 0310108853
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
For more than a millennium, beginning in the early Middle Ages, most Western Christians lived in societies that sought to be comprehensively Christian--ecclesiastically, economically, legally, and politically. That is to say, most Western Christians lived in Christendom. But in a gradual process beginning a few hundred years ago, Christendom weakened and finally crumbled. Today, most Christians in the world live in pluralistic political communities. And Christians themselves have very different opinions about what to make of the demise of Christendom and how to understand their status and responsibilities in a post-Christendom world. Politics After Christendom argues that Scripture leaves Christians well-equipped for living in a world such as this. Scripture gives no indication that Christians should strive to establish some version of Christendom. Instead, it prepares them to live in societies that are indifferent or hostile to Christianity, societies in which believers must live faithful lives as sojourners and exiles. Politics After Christendom explains what Scripture teaches about political community and about Christians' responsibilities within their own communities. As it pursues this task, Politics After Christendom makes use of several important theological ideas that Christian thinkers have developed over the centuries. These ideas include Augustine's Two-Cities concept, the Reformation Two-Kingdoms category, natural law, and a theology of the biblical covenants. Politics After Christendom brings these ideas together in a distinctive way to present a model for Christian political engagement. In doing so, it interacts with many important thinkers, including older theologians (e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin), recent secular political theorists (e.g., Rawls, Hayek, and Dworkin), contemporary political-theologians (e.g., Hauerwas, O'Donovan, and Wolterstorff), and contemporary Christian cultural commentators (e.g., MacIntyre, Hunter, and Dreher). Part 1 presents a political theology through a careful study of the biblical story, giving special attention to the covenants God has established with his creation and how these covenants inform a proper view of political community. Part 1 argues that civil governments are legitimate but penultimate, and common but not neutral. It concludes that Christians should understand themselves as sojourners and exiles in their political communities. They ought to pursue justice, peace, and excellence in these communities, but remember that these communities are temporary and thus not confuse them with the everlasting kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians' ultimate citizenship is in this new-creation kingdom. Part 2 reflects on how the political theology developed in Part 1 provides Christians with a framework for thinking about perennial issues of political and legal theory. Part 2 does not set out a detailed public policy or promote a particular political ideology. Rather, it suggests how Christians might think about important social issues in a wise and theologically sound way, so that they might be better equipped to respond well to the specific controversies they face today. These issues include race, religious liberty, family, economics, justice, rights, authority, and civil resistance. After considering these matters, Part 2 concludes by reflecting on the classical liberal and conservative traditions, as well as recent challenges to them by nationalist and progressivist movements.

Worship and Mission After Christendom

Worship and Mission After Christendom PDF Author: Eleanor Kreider
Publisher: Herald Press
ISBN: 9780836195545
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Today, as Christendom weakens, worship and mission are poised to reunite after centuries of separation. But this requires the church to rethink both “mission” and “worship.” In post-Christendom mission, God is the main actor and God calls all Christians to participate. In post-Christendom worship, the church tells and celebrates the story of God, enabling members to live in hope and attract outsiders to its many tables of hospitality. In this passionate and thoughtful study, Alan Kreider and Eleanor Kreider draw upon missiology, liturgiology, biblical studies, church history, and the vast experience of today’s global Christian church-to say nothing of their long tenure as teachers and writers in contemporary England and the United States. Academically responsible but also practical and accessible, Worship and Mission After Christendom is a much-needed guide for people who take seriously God’s call to be the church in a world where institutional religion is no longer taken for granted.

Mission after Christendom

Mission after Christendom PDF Author: Ogbu U. Kalu
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611640644
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
In 1910 Protestant missionaries from around the world gathered to explore the role of Christian missions in the twentieth century. In this collection, leading missiologists use the one hundred year anniversary of the Edinburgh conference as an occasion to reflect on the practice of Christian mission in today's context: a context marked by globalization, migration, ecological crisis, and religiously motivated violence. The contributors explore the meaning of Christian mission, the contemporary context for mission work, and new forms in which the church has engaged-and should engage-in its missionary task. From these essays, a vision of twenty-first-century mission begins to emerge-one that is aware of issues of race, gender, border spaces, migration, and ecology. This renewed vision gives strength to the future of shared Christian ministry across nations and traditions.

Christendom Awake

Christendom Awake PDF Author: Aidan Nichols
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780567086730
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Aidan Nichols shows how recovering the Church's traditional mission will re-energise its witness in such areas as philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, the family, economics, gender relations, and politics. Providing insight into the forces of mainstream culture, this volume will enlighten and embolden all those concerned for the renewal of Christendom in today's world.