The City in Biblical Perspective

The City in Biblical Perspective PDF Author: J.W. Rogerson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317490851
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 131

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Book Description
The city is an ambiguous symbol in the Bible. The founder of the first city is the murderer, Cain. The city of Jerusalem is the place chosen by God, yet is also a place of wrong-doing and injustice. Jesus seems to have largely avoided cities except Jerusalem, where he was crucified. 'The City in Biblical Perspective' examines the archaeological and social background of the urban biblical world and explores the implications of the deliberate ambiguities in the biblical text. The book aims to deepen our understanding of both the biblical and the contemporary city by asking how the Bible's complex understanding of the city can illuminate our own ever more urban time.

The City in Biblical Perspective

The City in Biblical Perspective PDF Author: J.W. Rogerson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317490851
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 131

Get Book Here

Book Description
The city is an ambiguous symbol in the Bible. The founder of the first city is the murderer, Cain. The city of Jerusalem is the place chosen by God, yet is also a place of wrong-doing and injustice. Jesus seems to have largely avoided cities except Jerusalem, where he was crucified. 'The City in Biblical Perspective' examines the archaeological and social background of the urban biblical world and explores the implications of the deliberate ambiguities in the biblical text. The book aims to deepen our understanding of both the biblical and the contemporary city by asking how the Bible's complex understanding of the city can illuminate our own ever more urban time.

The City in Biblical Perspective

The City in Biblical Perspective PDF Author: J.W. Rogerson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317490843
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
The city is an ambiguous symbol in the Bible. The founder of the first city is the murderer, Cain. The city of Jerusalem is the place chosen by God, yet is also a place of wrong-doing and injustice. Jesus seems to have largely avoided cities except Jerusalem, where he was crucified. 'The City in Biblical Perspective' examines the archaeological and social background of the urban biblical world and explores the implications of the deliberate ambiguities in the biblical text. The book aims to deepen our understanding of both the biblical and the contemporary city by asking how the Bible's complex understanding of the city can illuminate our own ever more urban time.

The City of God and the Goal of Creation

The City of God and the Goal of Creation PDF Author: T. Desmond Alexander
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433555778
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” –Hebrews 13:14 At the very heart of God’s plan for the world stands an extraordinary city. Beginning with the garden of Eden in Genesis and ending with the New Jerusalem in Revelation, the biblical story reveals how God has been working throughout history to establish a city filled with his glorious presence. Tracing the development of the theme of city in both testaments, T. Desmond Alexander draws on his experience as a biblical scholar to show us God’s purpose throughout Scripture to dwell with his redeemed people in a future extraordinary city on a transformed earth. Part of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series.

Pagans and Christians in the City

Pagans and Christians in the City PDF Author: Steven D. Smith
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467451487
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
Traditionalist Christians who oppose same-sex marriage and other cultural developments in the United States wonder why they are being forced to bracket their beliefs in order to participate in public life. This situation is not new, says Steven D. Smith: Christians two thousand years ago faced very similar challenges. Picking up poet T. S. Eliot’s World War II–era thesis that the future of the West would be determined by a contest between Christianity and “modern paganism,” Smith argues in this book that today’s culture wars can be seen as a reprise of the basic antagonism that pitted pagans against Christians in the Roman Empire. Smith’s Pagans and Christians in the City looks at that historical conflict and explores how the same competing ideas continue to clash today. All of us, Smith shows, have much to learn by observing how patterns from ancient history are reemerging in today’s most controversial issues.

The Meaning of the City

The Meaning of the City PDF Author: Jacques Ellul
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1606089730
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Jacques Ellul, a former member of a Law Faculty at the University of Bordeaux, was recognized as a brilliant and penetrating commentator on the relationship between theology and sociology. In the Meaning of the City he presents what he finds in the Bible--a sophisticated, coherent theology of the city fully applicable to today's urbanized society. Ellul believes that the city symbolizes the supreme work of man--and, as such, represents man's ultimate rejection of God. Therefore it is the city, where lies man's rebellious heart, that must be reformed. The author stresses the fact that the Bible does not find man's fulfillment in a return to an idyllic Eden, but points rather to a life of communion with the Savior in the city transfigured. The Meaning of the City, says John Wilkinson in his introductory essay to the book, is the theological counterpoint to Ellul's Technological Society, a work that analyzed the phenomenon of the autonomous and totally manipulative post-industrial world. Ellul takes issue with those who idealistically plan new urban environments for man, as though man alone can negate the inherent diabolism of the city. For Ellul, the history of the city from the times of Cain and Nimrod through to Babylon and Jerusalem reveals a tendency to destroy the human being for the sake of human works. Nevertheless, continuing the theme of the tension between two realities that characterizes all his works, Ellul sees God as electing the city as itself an instrument of grace for the believer. William Stringfellow describes The Meaning of the City as a book of startling significance, which should rank beside Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society as a work of truly momentous potential. Douglass D. McFerran adds that it is a book worth serious consideration by anyone interested in the relationship between religious commitment and secular involvement. And John Wilkinson sums it up: There are very few convincingly religious analyses of the sociological phenomena of the present day. . . . Ellul's biblically based sociology is today furnishing the matter for a large and growing group of social protestants, particularly in the United States.

City of God, City of Satan

City of God, City of Satan PDF Author: Robert C. Linthicum
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310877350
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Why is the city a battleground of hostile principalities and powers? What is the mission of the church in the city? How can the church be supported in accomplishing that mission? These are the questions that Robert Linthicum treats in his comprehensive and probing biblical theology of the city. In the Bible the city is depicted both as a dwelling place of God and his people and as a center of power for Satan and his minions. The city is one primary stage on which the drama of salvation is played out. And that is no less the case at the end of this pivotal century as megacities become the focal point of most human activity and aspirations around the world. This is a timely theology of the city that weaves the theological images of the Bible and the social realities of the contemporary world into a revealing tapestry of truths about the urban experience. Its purpose is to define clearly the mission of the church in the midst of the urban realities and to support well the work of the church in the urban world.

Kingdom Prologue

Kingdom Prologue PDF Author: Meredith G. Kline
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1597525642
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
As intimated by the subtitle, 'Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview', the immediate literary focus of this study is the book of Genesis and its account of the formative ages in the eschatological movement of the kingdom of God from creation to consummation. As also indicated by the subtitle, our biblical-theological commentary on Genesis is designed to uncover the foundations of God's covenantally administered kingdom with its major historical developments and its institutional structures and functions. In this way 'Kingdom Prologue' seeks to provide an introductory sketch of the overall shape of the biblical worldview and the character of biblical religion.

The City in the Hebrew Bible

The City in the Hebrew Bible PDF Author: James K Aitken
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567678911
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
These essays explore the idea of the city in the Hebrew Bible by means of thematic and textual studies. The essays are united by their portrayal of how the city is envisaged in the Hebrew Bible and how the city shapes the writing of the literature considered. In its conceptual framework the volume draws upon a number of other disciplines, including literary studies, urban geography and psycho-linguistics, to present chapters that stimulate further discussion on the role of urbanism in the biblical text. The introduction examines how cities can be conceived and portrayed, before surveying recent studies on the city and the Hebrew Bible. Chapters then address such issues as the use of the Hebrew term for 'city', the rhythm of the city throughout the biblical text, as well as reflections on textual geography and the work of urban theorists in relation to the Song of Songs. Issues both ancient and modern, historical and literary, are addressed in this fascinating collection, which provides readers with a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary view of the city in the Hebrew Bible.

Integrative Ministry

Integrative Ministry PDF Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310516951
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
Our goal as Christians and Christian ministers is never simply to build our own tribe. Instead, we seek the peace and prosperity of the city or community in which we are placed, through a gospel movement led by the Holy Spirit. Movements like these do not follow a “bounded-set” approach in which you only work with others who can sign off on nearly all your distinctive beliefs and practices. Rather it follows a “centered-set” orientation in which you work most closely with those who face with you toward the same center. That center is a classic, orthodox understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a common mission to reach and serve your city, and a commitment to have a generous, Christ-focused posture toward people who disagree with you. It’s a type of movement that is missional, integrative, and dynamic. This eBook contains the seventh part of Center Church, “Integrative Ministry.” In it, Keller examines what is required to apply a Center Church theological vision to four “ministry fronts.” Churches must first seek to connect people to God through evangelism and worship. Second, an integrated church will work to connect people to one another through community and discipleship. The church should also seek ways of connecting people to the needs of the city through mercy and justice ministries. Finally, churches must help connect people to the culture through the integration of faith and work.

Why Cities Matter

Why Cities Matter PDF Author: Stephen T. Um
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433532921
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
We live in a unique moment in history. Right now, more people live in urban centers than ever before. This means that we have an unprecedented opportunity to influence the majority of the world through the church in the city. Helping us to make the most of this moment, urban pastors Justin Buzzard and Stephen Um lay out a compelling vision for cultural engagement and church planting in our world’s cities. If you’re looking for motivation to maintain a commitment to the city or for guidance as you consider going all in, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of urban life that informs, instructs, inspires, and answers questions including: Why cities are so important What the Bible says about cities How to overcome common issues and develop a plan for living missionally in the city Instead of retreating from or taking from our cities, here is a call to make the cities our home, to take good care of them, and to participate in God’s kingdom-building work in the urban centers of our world.