Author: Richard Norton
Publisher: Lutterworth Press
ISBN: 0718896165
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 115
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Book Description
Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love grapples with the same fundamental question that has vexed philosophers and theologians since the advent of monotheistic religion, and continues as a barrier to belief for many today. Namely, if God is so good, how can natural disaster, genocide, trauma - and my present suffering - occur? Historically, there have been two apparently very different approaches to the problem: the pastoral, or practical, on the one hand and the systematic on the other. However, Richard Norton suggests that these two lines of thought may not be as separate as they seem, and may indeed be dependent on one another for their cohesion. Drawing on Julian's medieval experience of personal and population-wide suffering, alongside that of more recent theologians such as Dorothy Solle and Jurgen Moltmann, Norton constructs a compassionate model of theodicy that can be of use to both pastoral and systematic theologians. Throughout, he remains sensitive to the raw atrocity of evil, while preserving a vision of God as the one who ensures that all shall be well.
Author: M. Stoeber
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023050552X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 155
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Book Description
In Reclaiming Theodicy , Michael Stoeber explores various themes of theodicy - theology that defends God in the face of evil - by creatively developing a distinction between transformative and destructive suffering. Emphasising the importance of human compassion and illustrating various spiritual experiences of God that are healing, the book proposes a narrative of life within which one might understand suffering in relation to a personal God of ultimate power and love, and suggests basic principles toward developing a politics of compassion.
Author: M. Stoeber
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781403997623
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
In Reclaiming Theodicy , Michael Stoeber explores various themes of theodicy - theology that defends God in the face of evil - by creatively developing a distinction between transformative and destructive suffering. Emphasising the importance of human compassion and illustrating various spiritual experiences of God that are healing, the book proposes a narrative of life within which one might understand suffering in relation to a personal God of ultimate power and love, and suggests basic principles toward developing a politics of compassion.
Author: Matthew S. Hendzel
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666754269
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
Purgatory holds a precarious position in the afterlife beliefs of most Christians. Often viewed as a doctrine that is held only by Roman Catholics, purgatory has historically been maligned by its detractors as unbiblical, theologically problematic, and a product (and source) of superstition. Moreover, it would appear that belief in purgatory has declined in the faith-lives of Catholics as well, many of whom now seem keen to forget the fears and anxieties that its existence might have raised for them about the afterlife. In response to such criticisms and concerns, this book argues that purgatory can indeed be a constructive and hope-filled component of any Christian understanding of the afterlife. In examining the history of the doctrine, it seeks answers that explain purgatory’s recent descent into obscurity. However, it also pursues present insights that can shed new light onto how purgatory might find renewed relevancy.
Author: Joyce Elaine Gill Johnson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532616678
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231
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Book Description
Some adolescent women struggle to maintain positive self-identity, resilience, and personalized faith development on their journey toward adulthood. It is a contemporary crisis recognized by many, including ministry leaders of faith communities. In today’s fast-paced digital culture, concerns addressing challenges facing adolescent women are evident in research literature. To strengthen their spiritual well-being, emphasis is placed on spiritual formation practices that enhance faith, hope, and personal relationships amid social, peer, and media pressures pulling them into negative, detrimental, and dysfunctional lifestyles. Empirical research reveals a need to transform negative images and self-destruction utilizing stories of holistic well-being. Sowing Stories Deep in the Soul: Biblical Storytelling with Adolescent Women highlights biblical women touched by the holistic healing ministry of Jesus with deep soul-stirring experiences of God’s compassionate love. It meets the need as a spiritual formation ministry model focused on creativity, engaging study, internalized story learning, positive life connections, and performing biblical stories by heart. These expressive aspects form the ancient oral character of Bible stories internalized and voiced in repeated performances for compelling impact and action. Included are replicable results of action research using this model with adolescent women to encourage maintaining Christ-centered lives.
Author: William B. Parsons
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190208635
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
The term ''mysticism'' has never been consistently defined or employed, either in religious traditions or in academic discourse. The essays in this volume offer ways of defining what mysticism is, as well as methods for grappling with its complexity in a classroom. This volume addresses the diverse literature surrounding mysticism in four interrelated parts. The first part includes essays on the tradition and context of mysticism, devoted to drawing out and examining the mystical element in many religious traditions. The second part engages traditions and religio-cultural strands in which ''mysticism'' is linked to other terms, such as shamanism, esotericism, and Gnosticism. The volume's third part focuses on methodological strategies for defining ''mysticism,'' with respect to varying social spaces. The final essays show how contemporary social issues and movements have impacted the meaning, study, and pedagogy of mysticism. Teaching Mysticism presents pedagogical reflections on how best to communicate mysticism from a variety of institutional spaces. It surveys the broad range of meanings of mysticism, its utilization in the traditions, the theories and methods that have been used to understand it, and provides critical insight into the resulting controversies.
Author: Asle Eikrem
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567678652
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
In dialogue with a range of post-enlightenment critiques of Christian theologies regarding sacrificial love, Asle Eikrem presents an unconventional systematic approach to this multi-layered and complex theological topic. From Hegel to prominent 20th century theologians, from feminist theologies to postmodern philosophers, this volume engages in a critical conversation with a host of different voices on all the classical topics in theology (creation, trinity, incarnation, atonement, sin, faith, sacraments, and eschatology), also providing a moral and socio-historical vision for Christian living. The result is a unique appraisal of the significance that the life and death of Jesus holds for the world today.
Author: Edwin Ikechukwu Ozioko
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643911017
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
Compassion is the dynamic force of all pastoral engagement. Without it, Salvation is impossible. With it, the salvation of the human person both spiritually and materially is assured. It is a deep natural, philosophical, theological, and religious value. The proper assimilation of this value, with all its implications, marks a turning point in one's life. It opens up one, not only to love and to be loved, but also to see things, not as they are, but as they should be. It marks one's entry into the crusade of the universal- pastor-hood; a heart-driven crusade that abhors all forms of exploitation and abuses. A crusade of socio-political wellbeing realized through politics of compassion.
Author: Emeka Christian Obiezu
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1434399664
Category : Christian sociology
Languages : en
Pages : 230
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Book Description
Wise beyond his years, Johnny Black Hawk takes pride in his mixed heritage, believing in the inherent good of both the Indians and whites. Then the Civil War brings unbearable grief and suffering. Amid troubles, triumphs, deception and daring, Johnny struggles to follow his father's teachings about honor. Emotions long dormant are revealed, as he discovers decency in a person long considered evil, and the miraculous faith of another, once thought a fool. Then the white mans' broken promises and greed bring death and destruction to the Indian people, and he must learn to listen with his heart to an ancient, sacred voice. But will he ever understand the meaning of his gift from the Grandfathers?
Author: O'Halloran Sj Nathan W
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813238064
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
The claim of this book is that it is a precondition for Heaven that victims experience an eschatological healing of their other-inflicted wounds. Nathan O'Halloran, SJ, argues that the best theological space in which to locate this eschatological healing is in what he terms Paradise-in-Purgatory. The doctrine of Purgatory developed as a postmortem theological category for addressing sins committed after baptism and for which adequate penance has not been completed before death. In its full doctrinal articulations at Lyons II, Florence, and Trent, Purgatory is a doctrine concerned with personal, self-inflicted sin. Victims, on the other hand, require healing from other-inflicted sin rather than self-inflicted sin. For this reason, a certain expansion of this Catholic doctrine is required to make theological space for victims. O'Halloran argues that he has found that theological space within the Church's ample tradition. The wellspring from which the doctrine of Purgatory emerged contains a richer content than has been represented thus far by conciliar definitions. Paradise in Purgatory maintains that the soteriological logic out of which Purgatory developed can be extended also to the postmortem healing of victims, and the soteriological logic of the New Testament supports this conclusion. Using as fundamental touchstones the wiping away of victims' tears in the Book of Revelation, and the healing of Dinocrates through the prayers of his sister Perpetua in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, O'Halloran argues that victims must have an opportunity to experience full postmortem salvation from other-inflicted sin. The volume concludes that Purgatory can be theologically expanded to include a Paradise-in-Purgatory, i.e., a process that heals the other-inflicted wounds of sin which victims carry with them through death. The wounds of victims cannot be eschatologically discarded but must be subjected to the healing salvation which Christ came to offer.
