Denominationalism Illustrated and Explained

Denominationalism Illustrated and Explained PDF Author: Russell E. Richey
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621895815
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Evidence of mainstream denominational decline virtually throws itself in our faces--growing religious pluralism in North America; the decline over the last half century in the salience, prestige, power, and vitality of Protestant denominational leadership; slippage in mainline membership and corresponding growth, vigor, visibility, and political prowess of conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist bodies; patterns of congregational independence, including loosening of or removal of denominational identity, particularly in signage, and the related marginal loyalty of members; emergence of megachurches, with resources and the capacity to meet needs heretofore supplied by denominations (training, literature, expertise); growth within mainline denominations of caucuses and their alignment into broad progressive or conservative camps, often with connections to similar camps in other denominations; widespread suspicion of, indeed hostility towards, the centers and symbols of denominational identity--the regional and national headquarters; migration of individuals and families through various religious identities, sometimes out of classic Christianity altogether. Denominationalism looks doomed and is so proclaimed. It may be. However, viewing the sweep of Anglo-American history, this volume suggests how much denominations and denominationalism have changed, how resilient they have proved, how significant these structures of religious belonging have been in providing order and direction to American society, and how such enduring purposes find ever new structural/institutional expression.

Denominationalism Illustrated and Explained

Denominationalism Illustrated and Explained PDF Author: Russell E. Richey
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621895815
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
Evidence of mainstream denominational decline virtually throws itself in our faces--growing religious pluralism in North America; the decline over the last half century in the salience, prestige, power, and vitality of Protestant denominational leadership; slippage in mainline membership and corresponding growth, vigor, visibility, and political prowess of conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist bodies; patterns of congregational independence, including loosening of or removal of denominational identity, particularly in signage, and the related marginal loyalty of members; emergence of megachurches, with resources and the capacity to meet needs heretofore supplied by denominations (training, literature, expertise); growth within mainline denominations of caucuses and their alignment into broad progressive or conservative camps, often with connections to similar camps in other denominations; widespread suspicion of, indeed hostility towards, the centers and symbols of denominational identity--the regional and national headquarters; migration of individuals and families through various religious identities, sometimes out of classic Christianity altogether. Denominationalism looks doomed and is so proclaimed. It may be. However, viewing the sweep of Anglo-American history, this volume suggests how much denominations and denominationalism have changed, how resilient they have proved, how significant these structures of religious belonging have been in providing order and direction to American society, and how such enduring purposes find ever new structural/institutional expression.

Reimagining Denominationalism

Reimagining Denominationalism PDF Author: Robert Bruce Mullin
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 9780199767458
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In a wide-ranging collection of articles, a distinguished set of commentators on American religion examine the denomination's past and present roles, its definable nature, and its evolution over time.

Denomination

Denomination PDF Author: Paul M. Collins
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567289230
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
The term "denomination" is now widely used to describe a Christian community or church. But what is a 'denomination'? In this highly creative collection of essays, representatives of all major Christian traditions give an answer to this question. What does the term mean in their own tradition? And does that tradition understand itself to be a 'denomination'? If so, what is that understanding of 'denomination'; and if not, how does the tradition understand itself vis à vis those churches which do and those churches which do not understand themselves as 'denominations'? In dialogue with the argument and ideas set forth in Barry Ensign-George's essay, each contributor offers a response from the perspective of a particular church (tradition). Each essay also considers questions concerning the current landscape of ecumenical dialogue; ecumenical method and the goals of the ecumenical movement; as well as questions of Christian identity and belonging.

Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Future of Denominationalism

Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Future of Denominationalism PDF Author: David S. Dockery
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
ISBN: 1433673428
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Are church denominations necessary; do they even have a future? Such questions are explored in Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Future of Denominationalism, based on a conference of the same name held at Union University where Evangelical and Southern Baptist scholars addressed challenging issues of theology, polity, and practice. Contributors include: Ed Stetzer ("Denominationalism: Is There a Future?") James Patterson ("Reflections on 400 Years of the Baptist Movement") Harry L. Poe ("The Gospel and Its Meaning") Timothy George ("Baptists and Their Relations with Other Christians") Duane Liftin ("The Future of American Evangelicalism") Ray Van Neste ("Pastoral Ministry in Southern Baptist and Evangelical Life") Mark DeVine ("Emergent or Emerging") Daniel Akin ("The Future of the Southern Baptist Convention") Michael Lindsay ("The Changing Religious Landscape in North America") Jerry Tidwell ("Missions and Evangelism") David S. Dockery ("So Many Denominations") Nathan Finn ("Passing on the Faith to the Next Generation") R. Albert Mohler Jr. (title essay)

A New Conversation

A New Conversation PDF Author: Robert Boak Slocum
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725239426
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
In these twenty-nine essays, Episcopalians consider the tradition and the future of their church--its theology, its polity, its missiology. These "new conversations" come from ministers of every order (bishop, priest, deacon, laity) and from practiced hands at many ministries (education, theology, music, chaplaincy, and spiritual direction). Several essayists write urgently that the Episcopal Church must change if it is to survive. Others contend--with equal fervor--that American Anglicanism can work if Episcopalians will reclaim and reaffirm their liturgical, spiritual, and theological heritage. Between these views are other writers who suggest that points of supposed opposition might indeed coexist in the church of the future--taking vibrant, and perhaps paradoxical, new forms.

Between Congregation and Church

Between Congregation and Church PDF Author: Barry A. Ensign-George
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567658368
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
Denominations are one of the primary ways in which Christians attempt to live in a community based around God. Yet there is very little careful theological analysis of denomination available today. Between Congregation and Church offers a constructive theological understanding of denomination, showing its role as an intermediary structure between congregation and church. It places denomination and other intermediary structures within the doctrine of the church. Barry Ensign-George reviews work by theologians and church historians that can contribute to a constructive theological understanding of denomination. The book highlights particular developments in the history of the church that established preconditions for the emergence of denomination. Exploration of unity and diversity is central to this analysis, and individual chapters offer theological analyses of the unity and the diversity to which the Christians are called. Finally, denomination has often been a vehicle for sin, and the relationship between denomination and sin is considered. Between Congregation and Church addresses a major gap in contemporary theology: the failure to offer substantive theological analysis of denomination, a major way Christians together live their faith today.

The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume V

The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume V PDF Author: Mark P. Hutchinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192518224
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
The five-volume Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions series is governed by a motif of migration ('out-of-England'). It first traces organized church traditions that arose in Britain and Ireland as Dissenters distanced themselves from a state church defined by diocesan episcopacy, the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and Royal Supremacy, but then follows those traditions as they spread beyond Britain and Ireland--and also analyses newer traditions that emerged downstream in other parts of the world from earlier forms of Dissent. Secondly, it does the same for the doctrines, church practices, stances toward state and society, attitudes toward Scripture, and characteristic patterns of organization that also originated in earlier British and Irish dissent, but that have often defined a trajectory of influence independent of ecclesiastical organizations. The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume V follows the spatial, cultural, and intellectual changes in dissenting identity and practice in the twentieth century, as these once European traditions globalized. While in Europe dissent was often against the religious state, dissent in a globalizing world could redefine itself against colonialism or other secular and religious monopolies. The contributors trace the encounters of dissenting Protestant traditions with modernity and globalization; changing imperial politics; challenges to biblical, denominational, and pastoral authority; local cultures and languages; and some of the century's major themes, such as race and gender, new technologies, and organizational change. In so doing, they identify a vast array of local and globalizing illustrations which will enliven conversations about the role of religion, and in particular Christianity.

The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Contemporary Christianity in the United States

The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Contemporary Christianity in the United States PDF Author: Mark A. Lamport
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538138816
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 581

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Book Description
The Handbook of Contemporary Christianity in the United States is a one-volume examination of Christianity in its role, contributions, and embattled engagements with the contemporary culture of the postmodern United States. While Christianity has been a sustaining force and dominant storyline of the historical foundations of America, obvious social, political, and scientific inroads have lessened its influence and altered the issues considered. The handbook explores the strengths and weaknesses of the Christian faith and traditions in the United States and its rich and textured history with a discernable eye toward how the message, strategies, and initiatives of Christianity has adapted to contemporary American life.

The End of Protestantism

The End of Protestantism PDF Author: Peter J. Leithart
Publisher: Brazos Press
ISBN: 1493405837
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
The Failure of Denominationalism and the Future of Christian Unity One of the unforeseen results of the Reformation was the shattering fragmentation of the church. Protestant tribalism was and continues to be a major hindrance to any solution to Christian division and its cultural effects. In this book, influential thinker Peter Leithart critiques American denominationalism in the context of global and historic Christianity, calls for an end to Protestant tribalism, and presents a vision for the future church that transcends post-Reformation divisions. Leithart offers pastors and churches a practical agenda, backed by theological arguments, for pursuing local unity now. Unity in the church will not be a matter of drawing all churches into a single, existing denomination, says Leithart. Returning to Catholicism or Orthodoxy is not the solution. But it is possible to move toward church unity without giving up our convictions about truth. This critique and defense of Protestantism urges readers to preserve and celebrate the central truths recovered in the Reformation while working to heal the wounds of the body of Christ.

What We Shall Become

What We Shall Become PDF Author: Winnie Varghese
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 0898698960
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
• Edited by a well-known Episcopal leader • Designed to facilitate the church’s dialogue on structure • Presents viewpoints representative of the diversity of the church Structure—throughout the denomination and within local parishes—is the hot-topic conversation of the day. How do we order ourselves for mission? What structure is helpful and what hinders our work? Who holds power and how do they wield it? From the triennial budget based on the Five Marks of Mission, to the decision to relocate the Episcopal Church Center away from its current headquarters in New York City, how the denomination will be structured for the 21st century remains the critically defining question. This edited volume will provide thoughtful resources from a wide range of perspectives, as well as foundational materials on theology, history, and ecclesiology to facilitate the dialogue.