Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals

Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals PDF Author: Herbert Anderson
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506454801
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Shaping our journey into the Divine This moving and enlightening book presents us with a compelling vision of what can happen when we take the opportunity to connect stories and rituals--a vision of individuals and communities transformed through a deeper sense of connection to our loved ones, our communities, and God. Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley reveal how when stories and rituals work together, they have the potential to be both mighty and dangerous--mighty in their ability to lift us up and help us make these connections beyond ourselves and dangerous in challenging us to learn to live with complexity and contradiction. They show how much more meaningful a baptism, wedding, or funeral can be when liturgy is made to include and recognize the personal stories of those involved. Suddenly, these familiar life-cycle rituals are infused with new life as participants become connected in a narrative web linking past and present, human and divine. Newly created rituals can also help us connect our stories to the divine story, giving meaning to what we experience and bringing us closer to God. Ministers, worship leaders, and pastoral caregivers can use this approach to storytelling and ritual to find ways to bring together worship and pastoral care.

Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals

Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals PDF Author: Herbert Anderson
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506454801
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
Shaping our journey into the Divine This moving and enlightening book presents us with a compelling vision of what can happen when we take the opportunity to connect stories and rituals--a vision of individuals and communities transformed through a deeper sense of connection to our loved ones, our communities, and God. Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley reveal how when stories and rituals work together, they have the potential to be both mighty and dangerous--mighty in their ability to lift us up and help us make these connections beyond ourselves and dangerous in challenging us to learn to live with complexity and contradiction. They show how much more meaningful a baptism, wedding, or funeral can be when liturgy is made to include and recognize the personal stories of those involved. Suddenly, these familiar life-cycle rituals are infused with new life as participants become connected in a narrative web linking past and present, human and divine. Newly created rituals can also help us connect our stories to the divine story, giving meaning to what we experience and bringing us closer to God. Ministers, worship leaders, and pastoral caregivers can use this approach to storytelling and ritual to find ways to bring together worship and pastoral care.

Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide

Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide PDF Author: Monique M. Ingalls
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351391682
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
What does it mean for music to be considered local in contemporary Christian communities, and who shapes this meaning? Through what musical processes have religious beliefs and practices once ‘foreign’ become ‘indigenous’? How does using indigenous musical practices aid in the growth of local Christian religious practices and beliefs? How are musical constructions of the local intertwined with regional, national or transnational religious influences and cosmopolitanisms? Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide explores the ways that congregational music-making is integral to how communities around the world understand what it means to be ‘local’ and ‘Christian’. Showing how locality is produced, negotiated, and performed through music-making, this book draws on case studies from every continent that integrate insights from anthropology, ethnomusicology, cultural geography, mission studies, and practical theology. Four sections explore a central aspect of the production of locality through congregational music-making, addressing the role of historical trends, cultural and political power, diverging values, and translocal influences in defining what it means to be ‘local’ and ‘Christian’. This book contends that examining musical processes of localization can lead scholars to new understandings of the meaning and power of Christian belief and practice.

A Struggle for Holy Ground

A Struggle for Holy Ground PDF Author: C. Michael Weldon
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780814621554
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
A Struggle for Holy Ground results from thirty-five interviews with participants in the 1989 consolidations of then parishes in Chicago's Englewood and two parishes from the San Francisco consolidations after its 1989 earthquake. It explores the roles of ritual and pastoral care in this sometimes highly conflicted situation through the lens of trauma and reconciliation. It proposes a series of new rites: group reconciliation, atonement, lament, leave-taking, memorial, and inauguration based on the experience of people most impacted by parish restructurings.

Imagination and the Journey of Faith

Imagination and the Journey of Faith PDF Author: Sandra M. Levy
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802863019
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
"What makes us open to mystery, to glimpses of the Transcendent in our daily lives? The power of the imagination, according to Sandra Levy - a power that has been seriously depleted in today's postmodern culture. To address and redress this deficit, Levy explores how the imagination expresses itself - through ritual, music, poetry, art, story - and focuses on specific practices that can exercise and enrich our spiritual capacity, thus opening us up to divine encounter. Imagination and the Journey of Faith will speak to all readers, whether religious believers or not, who wish to strengthen and deepen the imaginative power of their spiritual lives."--BOOK JACKET.

Remembering the Future, Imagining the Past

Remembering the Future, Imagining the Past PDF Author: David A. Hogue
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1606088602
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Brain research is opening up our understanding of not only what role the different areas of our brain play in making decisions or in recognizing the faces of those we love, but even in experiencing God. As a pastoral theologian and counselor, Hogue values and utilizes the significant resources of the brain sciences for the work of the church in guiding, healing, and challenging persons and systems informed by our current understanding of the central nervous system. His latest book, Remembering the Future, Imagining the Past, is an especially useful resource for all those persons concerned with the practical theological arts of preaching, worship, pastoral care, and counseling, as well as those interested in how our increasing knowledge of the ways in which our brains work can help us understand and tailor our spiritual and pastoral practices in the church.

Why O Lord?

Why O Lord? PDF Author: David J Cohen
Publisher: Authentic Media Inc
ISBN: 1780783035
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
The book begins by exploring a number of signposts in psalms' scholarship which alert us to the value of psalms as a form of prayer. The particular focus is lament psalms, and their potential as a form of prayer for people engaging with distressing experiences in life. What follows, is a discussion of lament as a process and the areas of potential change for someone who uses these psalms for prayer. The final section of the book includes stories of several people who prayed some of these psalms over a period of time. It explores their responses and reflections in an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of praying psalms such as these. The book culminates with a chapter which invites the reader to pray some psalms of distress themselves with notes suggesting an appropriate ritual to follow and some ideas for further exploration. 'David J. Cohen's book, Why, O Lord?, provides a wonderful, comprehensive view of the psalms of lament. It is an encouragement to all Christian traditions to look with fresh eyes on the psalms as prayer, and particularly the psalms of lament, as our suffering, and the suffering of many in our world, needs the language to cry out to God in times of darkness. The psalms express every human emotion and use a strong confidence that we can cry out to God, and that God will hear our suffering, and that transformation is possible. Bringing the psalms of lament into ritual, so aptly described by Cohen, brings a new dimension to worship, both personal and communal. This book is an excellent academic and pastoral addition to our knowledge of the psalms.' Angela McCarthy, lecturer in Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia: National President of the Australian Academy of Liturgy

Ecclesiastes (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms)

Ecclesiastes (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms) PDF Author: Craig G. Bartholomew
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441205071
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Respected Old Testament scholar Craig Bartholomew, coauthor of the well-received Drama of Scripture, provides a careful exegetical reading of Ecclesiastes in this addition to the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms series. Along with helpful translation and commentary, Ecclesiastes considers the theological implications of the text and its literary, historical, and grammatical dimensions. Footnotes deal with many of the technical matters, allowing readers of varying levels of interest and training to read and profit from the commentary and to engage the biblical text at an appropriate level. Pastors, teachers, and all serious students of the Bible will find here an accessible commentary that will serve as an excellent resource for their study.

Theological Reflection across Religious Traditions

Theological Reflection across Religious Traditions PDF Author: Edward Foley
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442247207
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
Theological reflection — connecting real life, ministry, and religious traditions — is a core component of most pastoral training. It is also a hallmark of practical theology and a common spiritual exercise among ordinary Christians trying to discern how their beliefs might influence daily living. Yet, our society is increasingly pluralistic, with growing numbers of people from varying belief systems — from Islam to Buddhism — as well as an increasing number of atheists. In this book, Edward Foley reimagines theological reflection in interfaith contexts and with those of no faith tradition. The book addresses and celebrates diverse beliefs, and envisions the practice of theological reflection in such contexts. Theological Reflection Across Religious Traditions introduces readers to the basics of traditional forms of theological reflection, then considers how it might be reconceived in different contexts — from interfaith ministers working together to reduce poverty and homelessness to people of diverse or no faith traditions strategizing to secure the dignity of undocumented immigrants. Beyond suggestions for collaborative social action, the book offers tools for productive interfaith conversation through a process Foley calls “reflective believing.” This is a groundbreaking rethinking of theological reflection for today’s world, proposing that people across the religious landscape can participate in reflective believing for personal and communal benefit without sacrificing their own integrity.

Dictionary of Christian Spirituality

Dictionary of Christian Spirituality PDF Author: Zondervan,
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
ISBN: 0310531039
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 2439

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Book Description
In recent decades Christian spirituality, spiritual formation and spiritual theology have become important concepts in the global evangelical community. Consequently, an accessible and reliable academic resource is needed on these topics—one that will offer a discerning orientation to the wealth of ecumenical resources available while still highlighting the distinct heritage and affirming the core grace-centered values of classic evangelical spirituality. The Dictionary of Christian Spirituality reflects an overarching interpretive framework for evangelical spiritual formation: a holistic and grace-filled spirituality that encompasses relational (connecting), transformational (becoming), and vocational (doing) dynamics. At the same time, contributors respectfully acknowledge the differences between Reformed, Holiness, and Pentecostal paradigms of the spiritual life. And, by bringing together writers from around the world who share a common orthodoxy, this reference work is truly global and international in both its topical scope and contributors. Entries give appropriate attention to concepts, concerns, and formative figures in the evangelical tradition of spirituality that other reference work neglect. They offer a discerning orientation to the wealth of ecumenical resources available, exploring the similarities and differences between Christianity and alternate spiritualities without lapsing into relativism. The Dictionary of Christian Spirituality is a resource that covers a wide range of topics relating to Christian spirituality and is biblically engaged, accessible, and relevant for all contemporary Christians.

Re-embodying Pastoral Theology

Re-embodying Pastoral Theology PDF Author: Johann Choi
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1978717113
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
With the dominance of psychotherapeutic theories and methods in the field of pastoral theology, the typical pastoral encounter has been understood to be a private conference in which a pastor addresses a sufferer’s thoughts and emotions. What results is a kind of dualism that is contrary to a historically Christian affirmation of—and concern for—the body. The phenomenon of moral injury further problematizes this model of pastoral care in part due to a greater awareness that trauma is imprinted as much in the body as in the mind. Re-embodying Pastoral Theology uses the problem of moral injury in veterans to propose a pastoral theology that recognizes ritual as the means by which the Christian community addresses the body in pastoral care. In advancing this new approach to “ritual care,” the author draws from the fields of psychology, ritual studies, liturgical studies, and historical theology, as well as the experiences of veterans throughout history. This book endeavors to re-think the Christian approach to moral injury and re-embody the field of pastoral theology.