Leaving Christianity

Leaving Christianity PDF Author: Stuart Macdonald
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773551948
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
Canadians were once church-goers. During the post-war boom of the 1950s, Canadian churches were vibrant institutions, with attendance rates even higher than in the United States, but the following decade witnessed emptying pews. What happened? In Leaving Christianity Brian Clarke and Stuart Macdonald quantitatively map the nature and extent of Canadians’ disengagement with organized religion and assess the implications for Canadian society and its religious institutions. Drawing on a wide array of national and denominational statistics, they illustrate how the exodus that began with disaffected baby boomers and their parents has become so widespread that religiously unaffiliated Canadians are now the new majority. While the old mainstream Protestant churches have been the hardest hit, the Roman Catholic Church has also experienced a significant decline in numbers, especially in Quebec. Canada’s civil society has historically depended on church members for support, and a massive drift away from churches has profound implications for its future. Leaving Christianity documents the true extent of the decline, the timing of it, and the reasons for this major cultural shift.

Leaving Christianity

Leaving Christianity PDF Author: Stuart Macdonald
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773551948
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
Canadians were once church-goers. During the post-war boom of the 1950s, Canadian churches were vibrant institutions, with attendance rates even higher than in the United States, but the following decade witnessed emptying pews. What happened? In Leaving Christianity Brian Clarke and Stuart Macdonald quantitatively map the nature and extent of Canadians’ disengagement with organized religion and assess the implications for Canadian society and its religious institutions. Drawing on a wide array of national and denominational statistics, they illustrate how the exodus that began with disaffected baby boomers and their parents has become so widespread that religiously unaffiliated Canadians are now the new majority. While the old mainstream Protestant churches have been the hardest hit, the Roman Catholic Church has also experienced a significant decline in numbers, especially in Quebec. Canada’s civil society has historically depended on church members for support, and a massive drift away from churches has profound implications for its future. Leaving Christianity documents the true extent of the decline, the timing of it, and the reasons for this major cultural shift.

Christian No More

Christian No More PDF Author: Jeffrey Mark
Publisher: Jeffrey Mark
ISBN: 0981631304
Category : Atheism
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
Mark explores the deeper truths behind the Bible while discovering science, logic, and reason--and ultimately revealing Christianity for what it really is.

Uprooted

Uprooted PDF Author: Grace Olmstead
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593084039
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
"A superior exploration of the consequences of the hollowing out of our agricultural heartlands."—Kirkus Reviews In the tradition of Wendell Berry, a young writer wrestles with what we owe the places we’ve left behind. In the tiny farm town of Emmett, Idaho, there are two kinds of people: those who leave and those who stay. Those who leave go in search of greener pastures, better jobs, and college. Those who stay are left to contend with thinning communities, punishing government farm policy, and environmental decay. Grace Olmstead, now a journalist in Washington, DC, is one who left, and in Uprooted, she examines the heartbreaking consequences of uprooting—for Emmett, and for the greater heartland America. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Uprooted wrestles with the questions of what we owe the places we come from and what we are willing to sacrifice for profit and progress. As part of her own quest to decide whether or not to return to her roots, Olmstead revisits the stories of those who, like her great-grandparents and grandparents, made Emmett a strong community and her childhood idyllic. She looks at the stark realities of farming life today, identifying the government policies and big agriculture practices that make it almost impossible for such towns to survive. And she explores the ranks of Emmett’s newcomers and what growth means for the area’s farming tradition. Avoiding both sentimental devotion to the past and blind faith in progress, Olmstead uncovers ways modern life attacks all of our roots, both metaphorical and literal. She brings readers face to face with the damage and brain drain left in the wake of our pursuit of self-improvement, economic opportunity, and so-called growth. Ultimately, she comes to an uneasy conclusion for herself: one can cultivate habits and practices that promote rootedness wherever one may be, but: some things, once lost, cannot be recovered.

I Kissed Dating Goodbye

I Kissed Dating Goodbye PDF Author: Joshua Harris
Publisher: Multnomah
ISBN: 1588601579
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
Joshua Harris's first book, written when he was only 21, turned the Christian singles scene upside down...and people are still talking. More than 800,000 copies later, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, with its inspiring call to sincere love, real purity, and purposeful singleness, remains the benchmark for books on Christian dating. Now, for the first time since its release, the national #1 bestseller has been expanded with new content and updated for new readers. Honest and practical, it challenges cultural assumptions about relationships and provides solid, biblical alternatives to society's norm.Clear, stylish typeset, with user-friendly links to referenced Scripture.

Unveil Why I left Christianity

Unveil Why I left Christianity PDF Author: Eli Santis
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1329803809
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 150

Get Book Here

Book Description
Throughout the years, after leaving Christianity to embrace Judaism, I have come across the following question, asked by friends and even strangers, ""You don't believe in Jesus anymore?"" That question led me to write this book, to explain why I left Christianity and embraced Judaism, directing my prayers only to the Eternal G-d of Israel. It took me over 10 years of research, debate and confrontation to finally finalize this work. I want to make clear that I have no intention of converting anyone; the purpose of this book is to help those who are seeking clarification.

Why I Left, Why I Stayed

Why I Left, Why I Stayed PDF Author: Tony Campolo
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062415425
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 118

Get Book Here

Book Description
Bestselling Christian author, activist, and scholar Tony Campolo and his son Bart, an avowed Humanist, debate their spiritual differences and explore similarities involving faith, belief, and hope that they share. Over a Thanksgiving dinner, fifty-year-old Bart Campolo announced to his Evangelical pastor father, Tony Campolo, that after a lifetime immersed in the Christian faith, he no longer believed in God. The revelation shook the Campolo family dynamic and forced father and son to each reconsider his own personal journey of faith—dual spiritual investigations into theology, faith, and Humanism that eventually led Bart and Tony back to one another. In Why I Left, Why I Stayed, the Campolos reflect on their individual spiritual odysseys and how they evolved when their paths diverged. Tony, a renowned Christian teacher and pastor, recounts his experience, from the initial heartbreak of discovering Bart’s change in faith, to the subsequent healing he found in his own self-examination, to his embracing of his son’s point of view. Bart, an author and Humanist chaplain at the University of Southern California, considers his faith journey from Progressive Christianity to Humanism, revealing how it affected his outlook and transformed his relationship with his father. As Why I Left, Why I Stayed makes clear, a painful schism between father and son that could have divided them irreparably became instead an opening that offered each an invaluable look not only at what separated them, but more importantly, what they shared.

Leaving Church

Leaving Church PDF Author: Barbara Brown Taylor
Publisher: Canterbury Press
ISBN: 1848253575
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
Tells how a renowned preacher left her ministry to rediscover the authentic heart of her faith. A moving reflection on keeping faith amidst the relentless demands of modern life.

Leaving the Fold

Leaving the Fold PDF Author: Marlene Winell
Publisher: Marlene Winell Ph.D.
ISBN: 9781933993232
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
Have you been harmed by toxic religion? Learn how to recover and reclaim your life. Psychologist Marlene Winell is uniquely qualified to address the subject of this book. In addition to her personal experience with leaving fundamentalist religion, she has worked with clients recovering from religion for 28 years. She is known for coining the term Religious Trauma Syndrome. Leaving the Fold is a self-help book that examines the effects of authoritarian religion (fundamentalist Christianity in particular) on individuals who leave the faith. The concrete steps for healing are useful for anyone in recovery from toxic religion. In this book you'll discover: - what you can expect about stages of religious recovery - information about the key issues of recovery - relevant family dynamics - the power of manipulations - motivations for belonging and for leaving religion - specific steps for healing and reclaiming life - further steps for rebuilding life in the present Leaving the Fold is the only self-help psychology book on the subject of religious recovery. The accessible, compassionate writing is ideal for the reader who needs clear information and concrete help. Buy Leaving the Fold and begin your healing journey today

How Jesus Became God

How Jesus Became God PDF Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062252194
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description
New York Times bestselling author and Bible expert Bart Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church. The claim at the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. But this is not what the original disciples believed during Jesus’s lifetime—and it is not what Jesus claimed about himself. How Jesus Became God tells the story of an idea that shaped Christianity, and of the evolution of a belief that looked very different in the fourth century than it did in the first. A master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, Ehrman reveals how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty, Creator of all things. But how did he move from being a Jewish prophet to being God? In a book that took eight years to research and write, Ehrman sketches Jesus’s transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus’s followers had visions of him after his death—alive again—did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God. And what they meant by that was not at all what people mean today. Written for secular historians of religion and believers alike, How Jesus Became God will engage anyone interested in the historical developments that led to the affirmation at the heart of Christianity: Jesus was, and is, God.

Saving Christianity?

Saving Christianity? PDF Author: Michael Youssef
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 1496441699
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Get Book Here

Book Description
A clear and frank exploration of the future of Christianity and whether it needs to be saved. We live in confusing times. Our society has shifted on its moral axis, and many are asking whether Christianity needs to be reinvented--or even reimagined--in order to save it. With Newsweek declaring "The Decline and Fall of Christian America" on its cover and The Daily Beast questioning "Does Christianity Have a Future?" bloggers and Christian commentators are discussing whether we need a "new of kind of Christianity." In Saving Christianity? Dr. Michael Youssef explores this train of thought and its pitfalls. He describes how similar discussions in Christianity's recent past explored the very same question. Saving Christianity? will help you discern what is going on within the church while it reviews the essentials of the Christian faith as described in the Bible. We dare not abandon this "mere faith," as Dr. Youssef describes it, because it is the light for all humanity--and especially for those of us living in today's chaotic times. After reading Saving Christianity? you'll have a renewed confidence in the future of the church and the central place it will occupy for generations to come.