Handbook of global contemporary Christianity : movements, institutions, and allegiance /
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The Handbook of Contemporary Christianity: Movements, Institutions andamp; Allegiance traces how the largest religion in the world continues to be expressed in energetic global dynamic forms. In contemporary times Christianity is increasingly exposed to divisions, not only through its traditional channels - Roman Catholic, Protestant and the Orthodoxy - nor conservative and liberal streams, but numerous nuanced articulations. This is reflected in the roles of clergy and lay people, in organisational dynamics, sources of allegiance and articulations of the faith, movements of renewal and revivalism, syncretic modes, and broader relationships with wider cultural trajectories and changing social circumstances. Collectively the contributors to this volume offer a comprehensive exploration of these themes. The volume is a companion to the Handbook of Global Contemporary Christianity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004310780 :
1874-6691 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The earliest history of the Christian gathering : origin, development and content of the Christian gathering in the first to third centuries /
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Recent research has made a strong case for the view that Early Christian communities, sociologically considered, functioned as voluntary religious associations. This is similar to the practice of many other cultic associations in the Greco-Roman world of the first century CE. Building upon this new approach, along with a critical interpretation of all available sources, this book discusses the social and religio-historical background of the weekly gatherings of Christians and presents a fresh reconstruction of how the weekly gathering originated and developed in both form and content. The topics studied here include the origins of the observance of Sunday as the weekly Christian feast-day, the shape and meaning of the weekly gatherings of the Christian communities, and the rise of customs such as preaching, praying, singing, and the reading of texts in these meetings.
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Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Leiden University, 2009. :
1 online resource (xvii, 342 pages) : illustrations, plans. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-321) and indexes. :
9789004190702 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christian identity amid Islam in medieval Spain /
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In Christian Identity amid Islam in Medieval Spain Charles L. Tieszen explores a small corpus of texts from medieval Spain in an effort to deduce how their authors defined their religious identity in light of Islam, and in turn, how they hoped their readers would distinguish themselves from the Muslims in their midst. It is argued that the use of reflected self-image as a tool for interpreting Christian anti-Muslim polemic allows such texts to be read for the self-image of their authors instead of the image of just those they attacked. As such, polemic becomes a set of borders authors offered to their communities, helping them to successfully navigate inter-religious living.
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1 online resource (x, 296 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004192294 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
China's Christianity : from missionary to indigenous church /
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Among the assumptions interrogated in this volume, edited by Anthony E. Clark, is if Christianity should most accurately be identified as "Chinese" when it displays vestiges of Chinese cultural aesthetics, or whether Chinese Christianity is more indigenous when it is allowed to form its own theological framework. In other words, can theological uniqueness also function as a legitimate Chinese Christian cultural expression in the formation of its own ecclesial identity? Also central to what is explored in this book is how missionary influences, consciously or unconsciously, introduced seeds of independence into the cultural ethos of China's Christian community. Chinese girls who pushed "the limits of proper behaviour," for example, added to the larger sense of confidence as China's Christians began to resist the model of Christianity they had inherited from foreign missionaries. Contributors are: Robert E. Carbonneau, CP, Christie Chui-Shan Chow, Amanda C. R. Clark, Lydia Gerber, Joseph W. Ho, Joseph Tse-hei Lee, Audrey Seah, Jean-Paul Wiest, and Xiaoxin Wu.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004345607 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Theology as improvisation : a study in the musical nature of theological thinking /
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In Theology as Improvisation , Nathan Crawford reimagines the possibilities for how theology thinks God within a postmodern world. He argues that theology is improvisation by analyzing the nature of attunement within theological thinking and how this opens certain possibilities for theology. He does so by engaging a number of thinkers, including Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, David Tracy, and Saint Augustine. He navigates the nature of thinking God in a postmodern world by using these thinkers to offer critiques of onto-theological thinking and totalizing systems while also following their embrace of the fragment and focus upon the nature of thinking as attunement. The result is a unique way of approaching theological thinking in our contemporary context.
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1 online resource (ix, 235 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004245983 :
1876-1518 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Faith Lost: Faith Regained : Rediscovering a Transforming Christian Belief /
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A holistic, positive answer to modernist and post-modernist challenges to Christian faith. Recent trends in theology have adapted to what has been assumed to be universally valid scientific thinking, thereby contributing to the erosion of traditional protestant belief. Pointing to parable as a tool of understanding and appealing to aesthetic appreciation as an analogy, the author makes an impassioned call for a return to an assured biblical faith. The answer lies in a fuller epistemology and a profounder ontology to explain the universe and man's place in it.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004397361
Biblical exegesis without authorial intention? : interdisciplinary approaches to authorship and meaning /
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In Biblical Exegesis without Authorial Intention? Interdisciplinary Approaches to Authorship and Meaning , Clarissa Breu offers interdisciplinary contributions to the question of the author in biblical interpretation with a focus on "death of the author" theory. The wide range of approaches represented in the volume comprises mostly postmodern theory (e. g. Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Paul de Man, Julia Kristeva and Gilles Deleuze), but also the implied author and intentio operis. Furthermore, psychology, choreography, reader-response theories and anthropological studies are reflected. Inasmuch as the contributions demonstrate that biblical studies could utilize significantly more differentiated views on the author than are predominantly presumed within the discipline, it is an invitation to question the importance and place attributed to the author.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004379558 :
0928-0731 ;
Missionary expatriate effectiveness : how personality, calling, and learned competencies influence the expatriate transitions of Pentecostal missionaries /
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In Missionary Expatriate Effectiveness , John Farquhar Plake examines how Pentecostal missionaries adjust to foreign cultural environments and become proficient at their work abroad. Connecting the disciplines of psychology, human resource management, and missiology, Plake provides unique insights into the predictors of expatriate effectiveness through the experience of 949 missionaries working in 127 nations. Responding to the question, "Are missionaries born, called, or made?", Plake provides evidence that cross-cultural training is a critical component of missionary formation. Here missionaries, educators, mission agency leaders, I-O psychologists, and cross-cultural scholars will find actionable data and a hopeful, nuanced picture of reality, grounded in the lived experiences of Pentecostal missionaries worldwide.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004313835 :
1876-2247 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Interpreting Proverbs 11:18-31, Psalm 73, and Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 in light of, and as a response to, Thai Buddhist interpretations : a contribution to Christian-Buddhist dialogue /
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This book discusses how three Old Testament wisdom texts can be interpreted in light of, and as a response to Thai Buddhist interpretations. Its central aim is to explore a new method in Buddhist-Christian dialogue that has three steps. First, Buddhists are asked to reflect on biblical texts, second, the texts are analyzed by placing Christian and Buddhist perspectives side by side, and finally points of convergence and difference are established in order to provide a platform for further dialogue. The study succeeds in demonstrating that the method explored is a fruitful approach to interreligious dialogue which takes interpretations of biblical texts by the religious 'other' seriously, and manages to both affirm commonalities and face religious difference.
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1 online resource (vii, 345 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004227125 :
1876-1518 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Grace and the Will According to Augustine.
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The doctrine on grace, one of the most discussed themes in his later years, was regarded by Augustine as the very core of Christianity. This book traces the gradual crystallisation of this teaching, including its unacceptable consequences (such as double predestination, inherited guilt which deserves eternal punishment, and its transmission through libidinous procreation). How did the reader of Cicero and "the books of the Platonists" reach the ideas that appear in his polemic against Julian (and which remind one of Freud rather than the Stoics or Plotinus)? That is the point of departure of this book. It surely cannot be expected that there is a definite answer to the question; rather, the aim is to follow and understand the development.
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Part Three: Introduction. :
1 online resource (442 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-378) and indexes. :
9789004229211 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Myotei dialogues : a Japanese Christian critique of native traditions /
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The Myōtei Dialogues is the first complete English translation one of the most important works of early Japanese Christianity. Fukansai Habian's Myōtei mondō (1605) presents a sharp critique of the three main Japanese traditions, Buddhism, Shintō, and Confucianism, followed by an explanation of the main tenets of Christianity specifically aimed at a Japanese audience. Written by a convert, it is of importance not merely because it shows us how the Christian message was presented by a Japanese to other Japanese, but also for what it reveals about the state of the three native traditions at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004307292 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Mapping the New Testament : early Christian writings as a witness for Jewish biblical exegesis /
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This volume discusses links between the exegetical trends current in various Second Temple Jewish circles and patterns of New Testament conversation with Jewish Scripture. The standard focus on Jewish background of Christianity is complemented here by an alternative direction: the "mapping" of New Testament evidence as the early witness to more general trends attested in their fully developed form only later, in rabbinic literature. The question that dominates much of the discussion is: How can the New Testament be used for creating a fuller picture of Second Temple Jewish exegesis? The book deals with a representative variety of samples from different layers of the New Testament tradition: Synoptic Gospels, Pauline Epistles and Acts.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047420958 :
1388-2074 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Theology and the First Theory of Sacrifice.
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Are social scientific theories and confessional theologies of sacrifice equally well suited as public discourse about religion? The French liberal Protestant theologians of the 5th Section of the École Pratique and the French doyen of sociology, Émile Durkheim and his two main followers, Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss, engage in a struggle over the proper approach to sacrifice in the public university. The Durkheimians argued that theological language and assumptions were inappropriate for this purpose because of their confessional allegiances. Another approach to sacrifice, free of confessional entanglements, was required. This is what Hubert and Mauss sought to provide in the Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function.
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1 online resource. :
9789047402732
The Book of the Twelve : A Pentecostal Commentary /
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This commentary, written from a distinctively Pentecostal perspective is primarily for pastors, lay persons and Bible students. It is based upon the best scholarship, written in popular language, and communicates the meaning of the text with minimal technical distractions. The authors offer a running exposition on the text and extended comments on matters of special significance for Pentecostals. They acknowledge and interact with alternative interpretations of individual passages, and this commentary also provides periodic opportunities for reflection upon and personal response to the biblical text.
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1 online resource. :
9789004397279
9781905679263
Faith and Ethnicity : Volume 1 /
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In writing 'In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek', the apostle Paul touched on a topic that still is hotly debated among christians today: the relationship between faith and ethnicity. The Reformed Churches, usually organised along regional or national lines, are no exception and wrestle world-wide with the issue. This volume offers Asian and African perspectives, especially exploring the Indonesian and South African context. This and the next volume of Studies in Reformed Theology contain contributions to the fourth international conference of the International Reformed Theological Institute (IRTI), held in Princeton, N.J., U.S.A. (2001), on the theme of Faith and Ethnicity.
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1 online resource :
9789004389137
9789021138923
Missionary positions : a postcolonial feminist perspective on sex work and faith-based outreach in Australia /
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Missionary Positions examines the context for Christian outreach to people in the sex industry. Over the last 20 years, faith-based organisations have become more engaged in ministering with sex workers. But what are the methods and desired outcomes that undergird pastoral practice in this field? Most Christians see prostitution as evil, and those who sell sex are considered broken victims in need of restoration. Yet the voices and experiences of sex workers themselves often challenge these assumptions. Using feminist and postcolonial perspectives, interviews with Christian practitioners in Australia and personal narrative, Lauren McGrow carves out a space for the dynamic theological agency and life complexity of sex workers to be more fully acknowledged in faith-based outreach projects.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004353183 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Naming and thinking God in Europe today : theology in global dialogue /
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Is there a new need and place for God-talk in Europe? The present volume both confirms this and opens up new questions for discussion. It shows how different traditions of naming and thinking God in Europe draw on various theoretical and philosophical foundations that are in competition with one another in many ways. Due to socio-cultural, historical and political divides between Eastern and Western Europe, these theological traditions often suffer from isolation and mutual misunderstanding. Can the inherent tensions and conflicts be understood more adequately? While exploring a variety of approaches in Europe on the topic, several authors also ask: How can God be named and thought in Europe, which finds itself in the midst of complex crosscultural and interreligious processes - particularly as immigration increases and peoples of non-Christian faith traditions name and think God in ways that differ from and sometimes conflict with Europe's dominant religion(s) and secular culture? What function and impact will traditional God-talk have in a globalizing Europe as religions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism move into the foreground? This volume not only reveals the broad spectrum of its topic but also documents the vivid seeking undertaken by a new generation of European theologians and scholars of religion who openly engage the question of how to live and believe in Europe today, facing complex global challenges.
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"This volume is the first publication of a three-year-long European Socrates Intensive program entitled "The concept of God in Europe's global religious dialogue," compare pages [11]. The program comprised three conference seminars that met in 2003, 2004, and 2005. The papers in this volume were presented at the meeting held in May, 2003, in Vienna. :
1 online resource (536 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004358225 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jesus for Zanzibar : narratives of Pentecostal (non-)belonging, Islam, and nation /
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In Jesus for Zanzibar: Narratives of Pentecostal (Non-)Belonging, Islam, and Nation Hans Olsson offers an ethnographic account of the lived experience and socio-political significance of newly arriving Pentecostal Christians in the Muslim majority setting of Zanzibar. This work analyzes how a disputed political partnership between Zanzibar and Mainland Tanzania intersects with the construction of religious identities. Undertaken at a time of political tensions, the case study of Zanzibar's largest Pentecostal church, the City Christian Center, outlines religious belonging as relationally filtered in-between experiences of social insecurity, altered minority / majority positions, and spiritual powers. Hans Olsson shows that Pentecostal Christianity, as a signifier of (un)wanted social change, exemplifies contested processes of becoming in Zanzibar that capitalizes on, and creates meaning out of, religious difference and ambient political tensions.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004410367
Relocating world Christianity : interdisciplinary studies in universal and local expressions of the Christian faith /
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Existing scholarship on World Christianities tends to privilege the local and the regional. In addition to offering an explanation for this tendency, the editors and contributors of this volume also offer a new perspective. An Introduction, Afterword and case-studies argue for the importance of transregional connections in the study of Christianity worldwide. Returning to an older post-war conception of 'World Christianity' as an international, ecumenical fellowship, the present volume aims to highlight the universalist, globalising aspirations of many Christians worldwide. While we do not neglect the importance of the local, our aim is to give due weight to the significant transregional networks and exchanges that have constituted Christian communities, both historically and in the present day. Contributors are: J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Naures Atto, Joel Cabrita, Pedro Feitoza, David C. Kirkpatrick, Chandra Mallampalli, David Maxwell, Dorottya Nagy, Peter C. Phan, Andrew Preston, Joel Robbins, Chloe Starr, Charlotte Walker-Said, Emma Wild-Wood.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004355026 :
2452-2953 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Kingdom-minded people : Christian identity and the contributions of Chinese business Christians /
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During the early twentieth century in China, a number of key economic leaders converted to Christianity. Whilst strongly influenced by cultural heritage, powerful modernizing forces and tumultuous political changes, the new Christian identity inculcated by Protestant missionaries motivated these entrepreneurs to modify their business practices, improve their social environment and extend the influence of Christianity. Protestant and Catholic sojourners likewise made significant contributions into their adopted communities. With unprecedented economic growth in China today, a fascinating contemporary parallel can be seen, particularly through the influence of Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical training. Previous research has explored the emergence of the urban Christian élite in modern China. However, this systematic study provides new understanding of how Christian identity motivates Chinese business Christians toward economic, social and religious contribution.
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1 online resource (xx, 286 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004222670 :
1876-2247 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.