For religious communities to have integrity and credibility they must flourish as places of love and respect. Every aspect of church life is defined and protected by essential boundaries: boundaries around space, time, thought, speech, will, emotion, and behavior–both for clergy and church members. Lack of awareness and attention to boundary keeping diminishes the integrity of the church and harms its mission, whereas insight and vigilance about ...
Yung Suk Kim raises a perennial question about Jesus: How can we approach the historical Jesus? Kim proposes to interpret him from the perspective of the dispossessed–through the eyes of weakness. Exploring Jesus's experience, interpretation, and enactment of weakness, understanding weakness as both human condition and virtue, Kim offers a new portrait of Jesus who is weak and strong, and empowered to bring God's rule, replete with mer ...
In his enthronement sermon as archbishop of Canterbury in 1942 William Temple famously declared the ecumenical movement to be «the great new fact of our era.» In this book Martin Camroux tries to face honestly how hope met reality. By the end of the century the enthusiasm had largely dissipated, the organizations that represented it were in decline, and organic unity looked further away than ever. One significant ecumenical merger took p ...
This text provides a novel approach to a critical issue–the potential of pain. Initially, the potential of pain is explored by way of paradise lost, as an explanation of why things are as we experience them. The book then entertains the classic Job narrative, as it pertains to addressing the question of why the godly suffer. The passion narratives next invite our attention and the collective voices of the martyrs appear as a logical extension of ...
Idealistic farm girl Teresa can't wait to leave home, to escape the ugliness. College offers her a soft landing place, but her history and genetics haunt her. Later, propelled by shame and possibilities, she rides away on her motorcycle. But one cannot escape the wounds of the past, or the God of creation. A fighter, Teresa finds inspiration in a little known place–five thousand year old poetry known as the Psalms. Immerse yourself in Teres ...
In the Bible, faith is contrasted with sight, not with reason. The apostle Paul consistently reasoned with his listeners, persuading them regarding the truth of his message, establishing a precedent for Christian apologetics (Acts 17:17, 18:4, and 18:19). He did so because the Christian faith is reasonable. This defense begins with arguments in favor of theism: a finite universe, physical laws hospitable to life, and the origin and compl ...
Despite a plurality of doctrinal statements on war, peace, and nonviolence, some United Methodists sustain a commitment to nonviolence. Through qualitative research, Practicing Discipleship draws out lived theologies of nonviolence in order to understand how nonviolent United Methodists define, ground, and practice nonviolence, and to give that voice opportunity to challenge church doctrine and thereby the wider church. An analysis of statement ...
Leaving room for doubt and mystery, this book addresses the question of whether or not God exists. The author draws upon life-long personal experiences and her graduate school days as a middle-aged, Protestant wildcard at Weston Jesuit School of Theology. After considering a theological problem, turnings of her heart, divine guidance, and earthly unbinding, she discusses images of God, God's actions, and dwelling in God not as dogma but as ...
Written in preparation for the 2010 centennial of the national organization Catholic Charities USA, Faith. Works. Wonders. introduces the mission, scope, and impact of Catholic Charities agencies in communities across the nation. This book also describes the work, motivation, and spirituality of the three hundred thousand staff, board members, and volunteers in local Charities agencies; this network composes the largest voluntary social service ...
