The last century has seen the revolutionary remaking of Christianity into a truly world religion. How did it happen? What triggered the emergence of this new global faith no longer dominated by the West, full of new and vital forms of devotion?Mark Shaw's provocative thesis is that far-flung revivals are at the heart of the global resurgence of Christianity. These were not the quirky folk rituals associated with rural America and nineteenth-century camp meetings that belong more to an age of plows and prairies than of postmodernity and globalization.Rather they were like forces of nature, protean, constantly adjusting their features and ferocity to new times and to new places, speaking Spanish, Portuguese, Yoruba, Korean, Mandarin and Gujarati. They crossed the equator. As they traveled abroad they grabbed hold of missionaries, Bible translations, national evangelists, globalization and glossolalia and turned them into a religious revolution. In this engaging book we read the stories of Joseph Babalola and the Aladura Revival in Africa, of Kil Sun-Ju and the great Korean revival of 1907, of Paulo Borges Jr. and explosion of neo-Pentecostalism in Brazil, and of V. S. Azariah and the mass conversions of the Dalit people in India. As Shaw paints portraits of these and many more, his gallery fills, and we begin to see beyond isolated pictures to the sweeping landscape that we didn't realize was before our eyes all the time.
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Key Questions about Christian Faith: Old Testament Key Questions about Christian Faith: Old Testament Answers
Distinguished biblical theologian John Goldingay explores what the Old Testament has to say about twenty-five important questions of the Christian faith, drawing practical, sensible applications for today's church. He writes in an engaging, conversational style and seeks biblical alternatives to the often polarized positions of Christian debates. Questions include:
• Who Is God?
• How Do God's Love and God's Wrath Relate to Each Other?
• Does God Have Surprises?
• What Does It Mean to Be Human?
• Can We Make Sense of Death and Suffering?
• What Is Sin?
• What Is the People of God? (A Narrative Answer)
• What Is the People of God? (An Answer in Images)
• What Is a Covenant?
• What Is the Meaning of Sacrifice?
• Why Circumcision?
• Should I Tithe Net or Gross?
• Was the Holy Spirit Active in First Testament Times?
• How Does Prayer Work?
• What Is Israel's Place in God's Purpose?
• Is Election Fair?
• What Is the Relationship between Creation and Salvation?
• How Does the First Testament Look at Other Religions?
• Is Leadership Biblical?
• Is God in the City?
• Does God Care about Animals?
• What Is a Family?
• What Does the Bible Say about Women and Men?
• What Might the Song of Songs Do for People?
• How Should We Think about Same-Sex Relationships?
Old Testament professors and students, pastors, and educated lay readers will appreciate Goldingay's passion for his subject.
Questions include:
• Who Is God?
• How Do God's Love and God's Wrath Relate to Each Other?
• Does God Have Surprises?
• What Does It Mean to Be Human?
• Can We Make Sense of Death and Suffering?
• What Is Sin?
• What Is the People of God? (A Narrative Answer)
• What Is the People of God? (An Answer in Images)
• What Is a Covenant?
• What Is the Meaning of Sacrifice?
• Why Circumcision?
• Should I Tithe Net or Gross?
• Was the Holy Spirit Active in First Testament Times?
• How Does Prayer Work?
• What Is Israel's Place in God's Purpose?
• Is Election Fair?
• What Is the Relationship between Creation and Salvation?
• How Does the First Testament Look at Other Religions?
• Is Leadership Biblical?
• Is God in the City?
• Does God Care about Animals?
• What Is a Family?
• What Does the Bible Say about Women and Men?
• What Might the Song of Songs Do for People?
• How Should We Think about Same-Sex Relationships?
Old Testament professors and students, pastors, and educated lay readers will appreciate Goldingay's passion for his subject.
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Didache, The: A Window on the Earliest Christians Didache, The: A Window on the Earliest Christians
The Didache (or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) is one of the earliest Christian writings, compiled between 50 and 70 CE. Thus, it probably predates the four Gospels. It offers a unique glimpse into how some of the earliest Christian communities lived and worshiped.
This accessible volume offers an introductory guide to this important text, including a new translation and a commentary highlighting areas of interest to Christians today. It is an essential resource for readers interested in history, Scripture, and liturgy in Christianity's earliest period.
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Riddles of the Fourth Gospel Riddles of the Fourth Gospel: An Introduction to John
Paul Anderson, a leading scholar of the Fourth Gospel, provides an introductory textbook, crafted for a semester course, which leads students through literary, historical, and theological aspects of the Fourth Gospel's most vexing puzzles. Traditional, historical-critical, and literary-critical approaches are deftly introduced and their limitations evaluated; questions of the Gospel's authorship, composition, relationship to the Synoptics, and origins in particular historical experiences are succinctly addressed; and distinctive Johannine perspectives on Jesus, the church, and the world are discussed.
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Unlocking the Last Days A Guide to the Book of Revelation and the End Times
The very title of the last book of the Bible means "unveiling." Yet this mysterious and confusing book seems to do anything but unveil, especially when we read it on our own. Unlocking the Last Days takes readers through key parts of this misunderstood book, using a verse-by-verse approach that clearly communicates God's truth, warnings, and promises. Both Bible teachers and students will find this book a welcome aid to understanding an intriguing piece of the Scriptures.
Given that Peter fades from view halfway through the book of Acts and that he left no gospel account in his name, it is tempting for many biblical scholars to dismiss him as a vague figure in Christian history and downplay his influence in the early church.
Martin Hengel rejects this understanding in his new book Saint Peter: The Underestimated Apostle and argues that Peter was in fact the Rock, central to the development of both the Jewish and the Gentile Christian communities. Hengel clearly shows how each of the four gospels specifically highlights Peter's foundational role. He considers what Peter's message must have been as an eyewitness of Christ, reflects on Peter's theology, and draws attention to Peter's work as an organizer and mission strategist. Hengel also examines the contributions of married apostles - like Peter - and their family communities to the rapid and enduring spread of the Christian message.
Wisdom Literature is the first comprehensive commentary on the wisdom texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls. John Kampen provides original translations of these works, most of which are drawn from an extensive collection of fragments that only became widely accessible for study in 1991.
Augmenting the text and translation with scholarly notes, discussions of key terms, and detailed commentary this commentary is is a very important first step to understanding the meaning of the DSS in both the ancient world and for all who seek to understand ancient texts.
Kampen relates the body of wisdom literature discovered at Qumranto the larger wisdom tradition, to apocalyptic literature, to the Hebrew Scriptures, and to the New Testament, and he shows how these texts fit into--and enhance our understanding of--the complex social and intellectual history of Second Temple Judaism.
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Psalms as Christian Worship The Psalms as Christian Worship: An Historical Commentary
This commentary uniquely combines a verse-by-verse exposition of the Hebrew text of selected Psalms with a history of their interpretation in the Church from the time of the apostles to the present. / Bruce K. Waltke begins the collaboration by first skillfully establishing the meaning of the chosen psalms through careful exegesis in which each text is interpreted in light of its historical backgrounds, its literary form, and the poet’s rhetoric. James M. Houston then exposits each text’s relevance in conjunction with the Church’s interpretation of it throughout her history. To further the accuracy of this interpretation, he commissioned fresh translations of numerous Latin and Middle English texts. / The authors’ purpose in creating this volume was not merely to produce a masterful commentary. Rather, they wished to aid in enriching the daily life of the contemporary Christian and to deepen the church’s community. Waltke and Houston here bring together the two voices of the Holy Spirit — heard infallibly in Scripture and edifyingly in the Church’s response — in a rare and illuminating combination.
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An Outline of New Testament Spirituality An Outline of New Testament Spirituality
In this compact book Prosper Grech provides an overview of the various elements of Spirituality in the New Testament. Grech, an Augustinian Father, defines "spirituality" not in a New Age sense but rather as "the full response in the life of a believer to God's offer of salvation in Christ."
He outlines key spiritual themes of early Christian belief drawn from Genesis, the Psalms, the Synoptic Gospels, Paul's epistles, the letter to the Hebrews, and the Johannine Gospel, letters, and apocalypse - all crucial documents in the life of the New Testament churches.
Drawing these various theological strands together, Grech crafts a complex portrait of a dynamic yet contemplative Christian spirituality - a spirituality that not only saturated the New Testament church but continues to animate Christian life today.
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Introducing Romans Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Paul's Most Famous Letter
Paul's Letter to the Romans has proven to be a particular challenge for commentators, with its many highly significant interpretive issues often leading to tortuous convolutions and even dead ends in their understanding of the letter.
Here, Richard N. Longenecker takes a comprehensive look at the complex backdrop of Pauls letter and carefully unpacks a number of critical issues, including:
* Authorship, integrity, occasion, date, addressees, and purpose
* Important recent interpretive approaches
* Greco-Roman oral, rhetorical, and epistolary conventions
* Jewish and Jewish Christian thematic and rhetorical features
* The establishing of the letters Greek text
* The letters main focus, structure, and argument.