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A hand book of New Testament Exegisis
(Baker Academic, 2010-10-20) Craig L. Blomberg
“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Those who do not do what is right are not God’s children; nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:10). This sounds pretty cut and dried, but don’t most people fall somewhere in between doing what is right and not doing so? “Son though he [Jesus] was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb. 5:8–9). Christ had to learn to obey God? He was made perfect? Wasn’t he God from all eternity past and therefore always perfect? And doesn’t this passage, like the last one, clearly teach salvation through obedience to God’s commandments? Isn’t salvation entirely by grace through faith? “But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety” (1 Tim. 2:15). Good grief! Now half the human race is saved not only by good works but by one particular deed— having kids? What about all those women who can’t or don’t have children? “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38). Here it sounds like all people, including women and men alike, must be baptized to be saved. At least that’s easier than having children. Moreover, then we’ll receive a gift from the Spirit. Hmm, I wonder which gift it is. The Scriptures certainly seem confusing.
A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN AFRICA
(Cambridge University Press, 2004-04-15) BENGT SUNDKLER; CHRISTOPHER STEED
`A bitter pill which the majority of writers on Christianity and missionary activities in Africa should swallow is that they have not been writing African Church History.'1 This statement by Professors J. F. Ade Ajayi and E. A. Ayandele must serve as an introductory remark to our Church history of Africa. The two Nigerian scholars developed their point by claiming that hitherto Church history had been written `as if the Christian Church were in Africa, but not of Africa'.2 It stressed the missionary presence while forgetting or neglecting whatever there was of an African initiative, an African dimension of African Church history. The sort of book which my Nigerian colleagues may have had in mind was not least the detailed and lengthy Mission histories, produced in the pre-Independence period and stamped by this fact. Of necessity this implied a view centred in some Western metropolis and in certain mission societies there. This view of Christianization was to treat it as a Western invasion in sub-Saharan Africa. The continent was mapped out according to mission societies and mission ®elds.
A History of the Ancient Near East
(Wiley Blackwell, 2016-06-16)
In the year 334 BC, a young king from Macedon and his well-trained army crossed from Europe into Asia, confronted the vast empire of Persia, and conquered it in the course of a decade. Alexander's troops marched through an antique world that contained the remains of thousands of years of earlier history. Their previous encounter with Greece could not have prepared them for what they saw in the Near East and Egypt. They entered cities like Uruk that had existed for three millennia, and visited pyramids and temples that had stood for almost as many years. This was a world steeped in history, not a world in decline, waiting for fresh inspiration. The city-dwellers knew their traditions were so ancient that they claimed they dated from the beginning of time itself. People wrote in scripts that had been used for almost thirty centuries, they read and copied texts that were hundreds of years old. These were not idle claims, as for a long time their lands had indeed been home to the most advanced cultures in the world, well before Greece had developed its great classical civilization. It is in the Near East and northeast Africa that many of the elements we associate with advanced civilization first originated, including agriculture, cities, states, writing, laws, and many more. Because this region lies at the juncture of three continents, practices and concepts from numerous and diverse people came together there, inspired and complemented one another, and were used by the inhabitants to manipulate their surroundings. They created their environment rather than reacting to it.
A New Weave of Power, People and Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation
(PRACTICAL ACTION, 2007-08-28) Lisa VeneKlasen; Valerie Miller
This Action Guide is designed for people and organizations grappling with issues of power, politics, and exclusion. It goes beyond the first generation of advocacy manuals to delve more deeply into questions of citizenship, constitu- ency-building, social change, gender, and accountability.
A Public Faith : How followers of Christ should serve the Common Good
(Brazos Press, 2011-11-21) Miroslav Volf
D ebates are raging today about the role of religions in public life, and it is not difficult to see why. First, religions—Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and so on—are growing numerically, and their members worldwide are increasingly unwilling to keep their convictions and practices limited to the private sphere of family or religious community. Instead, they want these convictions and practices to shape public life. They may engage in electoral politics and seek to influence legislative processes (as the Religious Right has done in the United States since the Reagan presidency), or they may concentrate on transforming the moral fabric of society through religious awakening (as the Religious Right seems to be doing during the Obama presidency). Either way, many religious people aim to shape public life according to their own vision of the good life. Second, in today’s globalized world, religions cannot be neatly sequestered into separate geographic areas. As the world shrinks and the interdependence of people increases, ardent proponents of different religions come to inhabit the same space.
A Survey of the New Testament
(Zondervan, 2012-02-12) Robert H. Gundry
A textbook surveying the New Testament should bring together the most salient items from New Testament background, technical intro duction, and commentary. Nearly all surveys of the New Testament suffer, however, from a deficiency of comments on the biblical text. As a result, study of the survey textbook often nudges out a reading of the primary and most important text, the New Testament itself. Reading the New Testament Itself Since many beginning students have never read the New Testament sys tematically or thoroughly, if at all, the present survey prompts them to read it in its entirety, passage by passage, and carries on a dialogue with each passage in the form of brief commentary. By tracing the flow of thought from passage to passage, students will gain a sense of narratival and logical progression. Thus it has proved possible to move at least some of the background material concerning intertestamental history, Judaism, and other matters — which seem tortuous to many students — from the first part of the book to later parts, where such material elucidates the bib lical text directly. This procedure reduces the discouragingly long intro duction to the typical academic course in New Testament survey, better enables students to see how background material helps interpret the text, and above all keeps the textbook from supplanting the New Testament.
A THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION History, Politics, and Salvation
(ORBIS BOOKS, 1928-02-03) GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ
This book is an attempt at reflection, based on the gospel and the experiences of men and women committed to the process of liberation in the oppressed and exploited land of Latin America. It is a theological reflection born of the experience of shared efforts to abolish the current unjust situation and to build a different society, freer and more human. Many in Latin America have started along the path of a commitment to liberation, and among them is a growing number of Christians; whatever the validity of these pages, it is due to their experiences and reflections. My greatest desire is not to betray their experiences and efforts to elucidate the meaning of their solidarity with the oppressed. My purpose is not to elaborate an ideology to justify postures already taken, or to undertake a feverish search for security in the face of the radical challenges that confront the faith, or to fashion a theology from which political action is “deduced.” It is rather to let ourselves be judged by the word of the Lord, to think through our faith, to strengthen our love, and to give reason for our hope from within a commitment that seeks to become more radical, total, and efficacious. It is to reconsider the great themes of the Christian life within this radically changed perspective and with regard to the new ques tions posed by this commitment. This is the goal of the so-called theology of liberation.1 Many significant efforts along these lines are being made in Latin America. Insofar as I know about them, they have been kept in mind and have contrib uted to this study. I wish to avoid, however, the kind of reflection that— legitimately concerned with preventing the mechanical transfer of an approach foreign to our historical and social coordinates—neglects the contribution of the universal Christian community. It seems better, moreover, to acknowledge explicitly this contribution than to introduce surreptitiously and uncritically The present for study a is based on a paper presented at the Encuentro National del Movimiento Sacerdotal ONIS, July 1968, in Chimbote, Peru, published by the MIEC Documentation Service in Montevideo (1969) with the title Hacia una teologia de la liberation. The original lecture was updated presentation SODEPAX, November 1969, at in the Cartigny, Consultation Switzerland, of and Theology published and as Development “Notes on organized a Theology by of Liberation,” in In Search of a Theology of Development: A Sodepax Report (Lausanne, 1970).
A THEOLOGY OF RECONSTRUCTION Nation-building and human right
(CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1992-11-30) Charles Villa -Vicencio
Only twenty years ago it was widely assumed that religion had lost its previous place in western culture and that this pattern would spread throughout the world. Since then religion has become a renewed force, recognised as an important factor in the modern world in all aspects of life, cultural, economic and political. This is true not only of the Third World, but in Europe East and West, and in North America. It is no longer a surprise to find a religious factor at work in areas of political tension. Religion and ideology form a mixture which can be of interest to the observer, but in practice dangerous and explosive. Our information about such matters comes for the most part from three types of sources. The first is the media which understand ably tend to concentrate on newsworthy events, without taking the time to deal with the underlying issues of which they are but symptoms. The second source comprises studies by social scientists who often adopt a functionalist and reductionist view of the faith and beliefs which motivate those directly involved in such situations. Finally, there are the statements and writings of those committed to the religious or ideological movements themselves. We seldom lack information, but there is a need often an urgent need - for sound objective analyses which can make use of the best contemporary approaches to both politics and religion. 'Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion' is designed to meet this need. The subject matter is global and this will be reflected in the choice both of topics and of authors. The initial volumes will be concerned primarily with movements involving the Christian religion, but as the series becomes established movements
A THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION History, Politics, and Salvation
(Orbis Books, 1973-03-13) GUSTAVO GUTIÉRREZ
This book is an attempt at reflection, based on the gospel and the experiences of men and women committed to the process of liberation in the oppressed and exploited land of Latin America. It is a theological reflection born of the experience of shared efforts to abolish the current unjust situation and to build a different society, freer and more human. Many in Latin America have started along the path of a commitment to liberation, and among them is a growing number of Christians; whatever the validity of these pages, it is due to their experiences and reflections. My greatest desire is not to betray their experiences and efforts to elucidate the meaning of their solidarity with the oppressed.
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION A Guide for Trustees, Leaders, and Aspiring Leaders of Two- and Four-Year Institutions
(Stylus Publishing, LLC, 2013-02-10) Robert M. Hendrickson,
his book has been a labor of love. All four authors contributed equally to the formulation and writing of this book. Each of us, as a scholar and an education leader, has had a long-standing interest in understanding and improving the administration, management, and lead ership of academic organizations. Collectively we have worked for numerous private and public colleges and universities, serving as faculty members, directors, deans, vice presidents, and presidents. In addition, we have served on and staffed boards of trustees and worked for a state-level department of higher education. Through all these experiences, we recognized that very limited resources exist to help academic leaders, external stakeholders, and lay board members understand the complexities of the academic organiza tion and how it interacts with various aspects of society. The initial idea for this book came from Robert M. Hendrickson, who for three decades has taught a graduate course titled Administration in Higher Education. The outline of this book resembles the outline of that course. Since each of the areas covered in this book has a vast literature, it is impossible for busy administrators to delve into this literature while meeting their administrative responsibilities and keeping current in their area of expertise. What was needed was a book that pulled together this knowledge and made it accessible and understandable to busy academic leaders, external stakeholders, and lay board members. Three colleagues—Jason E. Lane, associate professor of educational administration and policy and director of education studies at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, State University of New York at Albany; James T. Harris, president of Widener University; and Richard H. Dorman, president of Westminster College in Pennsylvania—were intrigued by the idea of creating a book for academic administrators and joined Bob Hendrickson in developing the concept for this book. This book is the culmination of dozens of years of practice and study. In conceiving and writing this volume, we spent countless hours debating various issues. While we underestimated the amount of work involved in this project, the discussions and debates that occurred during all-day meet ings and many conference calls have greatly enriched our own understanding
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
(stylus publishing, llc., 2013-05-10) Robert M. Hendrickson; Jason E. Lane; James T. Harris; Richard H. Dorman
Academic Leadership and Its Consequences Ifacademicinstitutions functioned in a stable environment, the demands for leadership would be modest. Vision, mission, programs, and policies could simply be put on automatic pilot. For colleges and universities, however, automatic pilots don’t work. The environment is in continual flux, and the implications and consequences of these changes for the future of colleges and universities are often profound. Sound, authentic, creative, empowering leadership is indispensable, and it spells the difference between healthy, productive, sustainable academic institutions and programs and those that are in continual crisis, vulnerable, and failing. One need only reflect on the change that has come about in higher education over the last century. The very mission and scale of colleges and universities have been transformed. Institutions are altering the ways and means of teaching and learning. New directions in research and service to society are evolving. The costs and benefits of the academic enterprise are in continual fluctuation and open to challenge. The roles of faculty are differ ent, as are campus cultures. The very definition of precisely who is served and touched by academic institutions is in transition. Amid this whirlwind, the authors of this handbook on academic leadership make a conscious effort to think afresh about the challenges and opportunities of leadership. The main themes of the book are grounded in the argument that successful higher education institutions embrace three essential principles: 1. Sound institutional decisions must be based on a clearly articulated mission and set of core values. 2. Successful institutional adaptation to a changed environment must be grounded and aligned with the fundamental mission and core values. 3. Successful academic leaders must be able to create and foster partner ships, bringing diverse individuals and interests together around a shared vision and mission based on common values.
Accountability and Leadership in the Catholic Church
(Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020-01-15) Brian Dive
Brian Dive has several decades of experience in large multinational organisations working in staff development and organisation design. In recent years, he has advised numerous large organisations and government departments about structure; how to ensure that those at each level in an organisation have sufficient empowerment to become fully effective and gain greater satisfaction. He has written extensively about these matters. In this book, he offers suggestions to the Church based on his experiences. Some might say, thinking of Matthew 28:20, that the Church has done well enough for a couple of millennia and has no need to embrace “new” thinking. However, in the twentieth century the Church readily adopted new technological breakthroughs to assist with its mission. In 1931 Vatican radio established only the sixth short wave broadcasting service in the world (assisted by Guglielmo Marconi). The Vatican website demonstrates an impressive mastery of twenty first century digital means of communication. And, according to recent comments from John W. O’Malley S.J.1, the Vatican adopted microphones and amplifiers before the House of Commons and typewriters before the British Foreign Office. Furthermore, there is the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Vatican Observatory. Recent popes have made extensive use of the technological marvel we call international air travel to visit local churches all around the globe. The conclusion from these observations is that the Church does not turn inwards on itself but rather looks outward towards the world and utilises whatever useful modern ways of doing things come to hand. In fact, in Chapter 1, Dive quotes from comments made by Pope Pius XII in 1950: “The Church welcomes all that is truly human … [she] cannot shut herself up, inactive, in the privacy of her churches and thus neglect the mission entrusted to her.” Given the above uptake of “new thinking” the book suggests, drawing on the fruits of a career spent in applying late 20th century understanding of organisations, possible steps towards the streamlining of existing Church structures and procedures. The book is very readable and the source of many surprising
Advocacy Organizations and Collective Action
(cambridge university press, 2010-03-10) Aseem Prakash; Mary Kay Gugerty
MARYANN BARAKSO earned her PhD at MIT and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research and publications explore the factors influencing the strategic and tactical choices of interest groups and the political and civic implications of those choices. She also considers the conditions under which interest groups facilitate membership representation and participation in the polity. She is the author of Governing NOW: Grassroots Activism in the National Organization for Women (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Her published articles include a forthcoming piece that examines the factors contributing to interest group density across American communities (British Journal of Politics); an analysis of the levels of democracy in women’s membership associations (Politics and Gender,2007);andan article explaining variation in levels of organizational democracy in advocacy groups (American Politics Research, 2008). She is president elect of the Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association.
AFRICA, ITS GEOGRAPHY, PEOPLE AND PRODUCTS and AFRICA-ITS PLACE IN MODERN HISTORY
(Oxford University Press, Inc., 2007-01-15) W. E. B. DU BOIS
African Christianity: An African Story
(Africa World Press, Inc., 2007-07-17) Ogbu U. Kalu
i) arkness has hit Africa at noon. As Henri Marou would say, the historian is a “missionary dispatched to the past to strike a hyphen between the past and the present.” The Igbo people have a proverb that says that a man who does not know where the rain met him is unlikely to know where he is going. There is no brand of African scholarship that can be done in our times without a concern to explore the dilemma and seek a solution for our continent’s condition. This is what Eduardo Hooanert calls, “re-animating the memory of Christian commu- nities so that it defines their social consciousness.”! History could be a certain type of memory that evokes liberative power; not mere knowledge of the past but one that is commitment. It should lead people to the truth of their condi- tion in a scientific manner, not violated by cant or propaganda.
African Hermeneutics
(Langham Publisher, 2019-09-09) Elizabeth Mburu
|| Seco the Bible is always a challenging task. To be more precise, interpreting the Bible accurately is a challenging task. And yet the Bible is meant to be understood and applied in the daily lives of believers if it is to be a guide for faith and practice. African readers of the Bible face the additional challenge that most of the models and methods of Bible interpretation, or hermeneutics, are rooted in a Western context. This is not surprising given that Christianity came to Africa from the West, the churches and theological institutions that were founded were missionary led, and most of the theological resources are produced by Western writers. Millions of Africans therefore use “foreign” approaches to the interpretation of the Bible. This may be one of the reasons why many African Christians experience a dichotomy in their Christian lives. While the content of Christianity may be known and perhaps even understood, practice is not often consistent with this knowledge. This book is an attempt to address this problem by providing the reader with a contextualized, African intercultural approach to the study of the Bible. Part I provides a foundation for this intercultural approach by outlining principles that address the issue of this dichotomy and provide a solution through a contextualized hermeneutic. Since Bible interpretation can never be done in a vacuum, this contextualized hermeneutic begins with an exploration of African worldviews. Part I also presents a four-legged stool model that guides the reader in examining the text using four interrelated steps. Specific application of the biblical text to the African context is viewed as the logical endpoint of this process. The review questions at the end of each chapter in Part I are intended to help the reader think more critically about the African contextual issues that affect accurate interpretation of the Bible.
African History: A Very Short Introduction
(Oxford University Press Inc., New York, 2007-08-20) John Parker; Richard Rathbone
African Women, Religion, and Health
(Orbis Books, 2006-08-28) Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye
The cabinet drawer was stuck, and for all her violent shak- ing, pulling and straining, Mercy could not release the stuck drawer. So in sheer exasperation she did the next best thing and headed for the hammer and axe. Filled with determi- nation, she was ready to shatter the drawer, when her helper intervened with the Ga words, malaka-le. The words malaka- Je can be translated to mean “coaxing” or almost “encour- aging through gentle tapping.”’ So Richard, the helper, began to gently tap, first to the right, then to the left and as he began an almost rhythm of tapping, the drawer gave way, and opened much to Mercy’s relief.
An Expositional Commentary ACTS
(Zondervan, 1996-06-26) James Montgomery Boice
In the last few years I have come across a number of disturbing books that ring a loud alarm for the church establishment known as evangelicalism. Evangel means "good news," or "the gospel," and the evangelical churches are those that assume they know the gospel and are defending it in a day when liberal churches are not. The books I am referring to say that this is not so, that evangelicals are actually in the process of abandoning the gospel along with many other theological convictions on which the church has been built. One outstanding book is David F. Wells's No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? Michael Scott Horton edited Power Religion: The Selling Out of the Evangelical Church.
AND MARRIES ANOTHER Divorce and Remarriage in th e Teaching o f th e NewTestament
(Baker Academic, 2012-02-12) CRAIG S. KEENER
Why still another book on divorce and remarriage for the Chris tian market? Because the issue is a pressing one that much of the church of Jesus Christ has failed to address responsibly. On the one hand, it has become all too easy to cite several proof-texts and so pass judgment on other people’s lives or ministry. On the other hand, it is convenient to ignore certain texts and to pass over the horribly tragic character of divorce, thus blending into the false values of modern North American society. When I began my Bible college training, I met brothers and sisters who had been divorced before their conversion but had felt called to ministry after their conversion. Although most of the students I knew seemed to sympathize with them, these prospec tive ministers were told by certain professors that they may as well give up on their calling altogether, because this very conservative denomination would not license them. They were caught in a fix: most districts did not want single ministers, but the denomination forbade divorced ministers to remarry under any circumstances.