Christianity

The intention of this paper is to interpret the ontological conditions of youth identity crisis missionally. This is first done by conceptualising identity crisis as a psychological phenomenon using frameworks of authenticity and attachment to explain the impact of early attachment abuse, abandonment depression, insecure attachment anxiety with God, and self-regulation on the identity formation of the youth. Secondly, the paper introduces a missional hermeneutic that provides an interpretative framework for coping with the crises of identity amongst young people. A missional hermeneutic of care for coping with the crisis of identity formation, therefore, elaborates on the missional basis of biblical interpretation as a powerful framework within which to interpret a skewed, conflicted identity. The author herewith proposes a missional opportunity that can activate the missional consciousness of young people in their time of crisis and identity formation. Furthermore, the author insists that this missional methodology can be a very useful strategy for producing therapeutic change in young people and can help youth ministry workers and pastoral caregivers to reframe the crisis of youth identity from the perspective of 'missio Dei'.

Westerners have long admired the nature-friendly qualities of Eastern spiritual traditions, such as ahimsa and reincarnation, which tie human beings to the circle of life that reaches across species and which requires a compassionate approach to all living beings. Yet we have often failed to acknowledge this same beauty—teachings of compassion toward allliving beings—in Western traditions.
This article examines Jewish morality with regard to nature, specifically to human
relations with nonhumans. The article focuses on creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2, and on fundamental moral teachings such as compassion and peace. The point of the article is not so much to be critical of Judaism, but rather to reveal how much we might learn from the spiritual and moral teachings of the Jewish tradition about our place in the larger universe. Moreover, as Jewish morality from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) remains important to Christians, this article reveals the ethical standards to which others might hold both Jews and Christians accountable in their relations to animals and the world as a whole

Cite as: “Jewish Ethics and Nonhuman Animals.” Journal of the Institute of Critical Animal Studies 5.2 (2007)

Estre corto documento recoge algunas ideas muy interesantes de varios estudiosos como Antonio Cruz, John Lennox, William Lane Craig y otros.
Para explicar el concepto de la palabra evolución , su significado en el contexto y como la evolución presenta conflictos con algunas leyes universales.

Oi Christianoi - Sezione antica, n. 26 ----- Su Ipazia di Alessandria e su Sinesio di Cirene molti hanno già scritto: Ipazia, una nota antica scienziata e filosofia, Sinesio, un nobile, suo allievo e poi vescovo cristiano; Ipazia, da alcuni presa in considerazione unicamente come vessillo del femminismo, Sinesio, spesso trascurato a fronte di più famosi Padri della Chiesa. La peculiarità del libro, che è frutto di un accurato studio critico delle relative fonti primarie e secondarie, consiste nel tipo di approccio: le due figure e le loro opere sono esaminate sullo sfondo dei differenti ambiti culturali in cui si sono sviluppate le vicende della loro vita, pur nella contemporaneità: la differenza di ambiti culturali consente di evidenziare di questa donna e di questo uomo non solo la validità del loro lungo rapporto amicale, testimoniate da alcune lettere di Sinesio a noi pervenute, ma anche l'alto valore interculturale di tale rapporto.

This Article documents how and why the sixteenth-century Lutheran Reformation helped to build the modern public education system of the West. Rejecting the medieval tradition of church education primarily for and by the clergy, Martin Luther argued that all Christians need to be educated to be able to read the Bible on their own, to participate fully in the life of the church, state, and society, and to prepare for their distinct vocations. Lutheran Germany and Scandinavia thus set up public schools as "civic seminaries," in Philip Melanchthon's apt phrase, designed to offer general spiritual and civic education for all. In early modern Lutheran lands, the state replaced the church as the chief educator of the community, and free basic education with standard curricula was made compulsory for all children, boys and girls alike. The Article offers case studies of new German city and territorial laws on education on the books and in action, and it reflects on the enduring significance of this early experiment in education even in our day.

The practice of taxing church property while exempting other nonprofit groups appears to violate the “no special burden” principle of the free exercise clause. The Supreme Court case of Walz v. Commission charted a course between the free exercise and establishment clause. The Court argued from neutrality, separatism, and history to state that tax exemption of church property is part of an unbroken national tradition. However, the Court’s neutrality argument does not address constitutionality, its separatism argument is contrived, and historically, only established religions have been exempt from taxation.

Past tax exemptions are rooted in two traditions: the common law adopted from England that granted exemptions to established churches, and the equity law tradition that granted exemptions to all churches. The common law tradition was restricted to certain types of church property of established churches, and the exemptions could be put on hold during times of emergency. The equity tradition gave churches another chance; ecclesiastical and charitable organizations could be tax exempt.

These traditions continued uninterrupted in the early American republic. Three provisions ultimately provided ground for a challenge to the tax exemption of church property. The disestablishment of religion undercut the authority of officials to prefer one religion over the other. The truncation of the equity tradition removed the equitable privileges given to charities. Finally, equal and uniform taxation was considered a basis of American life.

In modern theory, churches are seen as beneficial to society because they promote public morality, charity, and education. The law of equity is now based in statutory schemes or state constitutions, but the religious use of property is key to its tax exempt status. In the future, courts must find a via media between the eradication of exemptions and blanket endorsements.

[Uncorrected Page Proofs] -- Montgomery, David W. 2019. "The Hardest Time Was the Time without Morality": Religion and Social Navigation in Albania. In Everyday Life in the Balkans, edited by David W. Montgomery. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 265-277.

This article examines how currents of renewal, particularly the
charismatic movement, have been leading to new patterns of Christian
formation within the Roman Catholic Church. I will look first at the
overall context; secondly, at the first stage of reform and renewal in
Catholic formation (1965-85) This article examines how currents of renewal, particularly the charismatic movement, have been leading to new patterns of Christian formation within the Roman Catholic Church. I will look first at the overall context; secondly, at the first stage of reform and renewal in Catholic formation

John Skelton is a central literary figure and the leading poet during the first thirty years of Tudor rule. Nevertheless, he remains challenging and even contradictory for modern audiences.

This book aims to provide an authoritative guide to this complex poet and his works, setting him in his historical, religious, and social contexts. Beginning with an exploration of his life and career, it goes on to cover all the major aspects of his poetry, from the literary traditions in which he wrote and the form of his compositions to the manuscript contexts and later reception. Contributors: Tom Betteridge, Julia Boffey, John Burrow, David Carlson, Helen Cooper, Elisabeth Dutton, A.S.G. Edwards, Jane Griffiths, Nadine Kuipers, Carol Meale, John Scattergood, Sebastian Sobecki, Greg Waite

In order to accept this Student Recruiter agreement with the College of Mental Health Counselling, you must believe in and agree with the value of learning about counselling through the online course described at www.ctihalifax.com, and you must act in good faith accepting that the College will remunerate you as per the terms of this agreement in #5 below. Because a Student Recruiter must communicate the following, therefore completing the below steps is considered a Skill Test in order to qualify. When the College receives full tuition from your first referral, you will be considered a Student Recruiter.

Author: Kirsten Laurel Guidero
Publisher: CBE International

Evangelicalism can find a foothold in renewed practices of reading Scripture. This article first illustrates the larger problems haunting evangelical patterns of reading Scripture by analyzing as a test case two prevalent evangelical interpretations of Gal 3:26–29.2 Next, I offer a better interpretive method and spell out how it treats this passage. We will see that, far from viewing the biblical texts too reverently, with a proposed correction of qualifying textual authority—an approach some evangelicals who struggle with difficult elements of Scripture have adopted—both of the earlier approaches may fail to respect the text enough.

The question of religion in the public sphere is an important issue in many Western countries today that is characterised by disintegration of Christian hegemony (secularization), and by the emergence of religious diversity. The starting point for the
discussion in this paper is the new relations between Church and State in Norway, i.e. how the connection between them is considerably weakened in the Norwegian Constitution at the same time as other religions and Christian denominations than
Lutheran Christianity are becoming more visible in the public sphere. The new Constitutional wording is a result of a search for possible common values across religious affiliations in a post-Lutheran state.I argue, with references to important strands of thought in the discourse of religion and secularism,for the importance of having a unifying values base and a key strategy for future social integration in today’s societies, where religious minorities including the Catholic Church are recognized and supported.

Jordan, Mandy M. Building Resiliency: The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in the Trauma-Affected Community of Santa Fe, Texas. Master of Science (Applied Anthropology), August 2021, 205 pp., 2 tables, 15 figures, 8 appendices, references, 91 titles. On May 18, 2018, a shooter entered Santa Fe High School, killing eight students and two teachers. Using ethnographic methods, this research examines the role of faith, rituals, language, and symbols in the trauma-affected community during the response, recovery, and resiliency efforts as perceived by the Santa Fe community and those impacted by the tragedy. Qualitative data collected from 100 individuals ages of 17-84 illustrated how historical trauma, community culture, and faith-based organizations impact community resiliency and how illusions of a homogenous view of the community left many feeling shocked, divided, forgotten or muted.

A shocking revelation of the late Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias’ secret life of decades-long deceit and predatory behavior shook the world as RZIM confirmed the allegations early February this year. Many Christians and non-Christians alike were quick to share their two cents; some were disgusted, some were enraged, but most were deeply heartbroken by the horrors of sin. A few weeks after the terrible revelation, Kyle J. Howard, a writer, and a trauma-informed soul-care provider wrote an article about how the responses of ministry leaders to Zacharias’ deviant private life fall “woefully short.” In a 45-minute video posted on Twitter, Howard explained the rationale behind the write-up, saying that he read various alarming statements on the said issue given by church leaders—pastors and seminary professors—that express a degree of identification, and even worse, empathy with the abuser rather than the abused. These statements and the names of the individuals who gave them, however, were not cited in the article, thus, the premise: ‘ministry leaders’ rush to empathize with Zacharias’ may or may not necessarily be true; it may just be a skewed view of the consensus unless proven otherwise. Howard further stated that the reason for his non-disclosure is to avoid the misdirection and truncation of his message to specific individuals rather than focusing on general principles of toxic speech and power dynamics in church. In the article, Howard explained that the reason for problematic responses could be a flawed view of sanctification and false humility masked as self-deprecation.

Without a doubt, Howard raises relevant points and shows great concern towards the abused. Although I have several disagreements with his claims, instead of being critical, I aim to give a perspective on how ordained ministry leaders can best address serious ministerial misconducts in the church.

Did Jesus and his disciples use cannabis and other drugs in magical ceremonies? Author and cannabis historian Chris Bennett takes us through some of the startling ancient evidence of early Christianity’s drug-fuelled rituals.

An illustrated version of this article can be accessed here - https://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2016/12/20/early-christianitys-drug-fuelled-magic-rituals/

I have held this book back many years.  It is now time for it to see the light of day (being part of the larger work, A Great And Terrible Love:  A Visionary Journey from Woodstock’s Sorceries to God’s Paradise).  With the gained perspective of years it needed some adding to.

Of course for a Poet to stand among the people of Israel—that Israel which cleaves to its King, Messiah, as well the children of that apostate Jewry who spurned Him—and speak truly to both camps without fear of man, this must needs be—simultaneously—an act of war and of love.  The prophetic office in Israel closed when the last prophet, John son of Zebedee (Matthew 10:2), finished writing the apocalyptic vision and prophecy given him around 95 CE—the culmination of all Old and New Covenant prophecy—so what I write is not “immediate” prophecy given me, yet as a student of prophecies the prophetic word of those who came before us is in my mouth.  Paul the apostle of Messiah put it like this, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?  But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), and John was instructed by the angel, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10).  The word of our prophets is precious to us who heed them.

I say this is war because of the tearing down of spiritual/intellectual strong holds many have invested their lives building and defending.  To err in this area of theology and vision allows actual blood to be spilled, much blood, precious blood.  We Jews know this first hand, the Arabs also.  But the Christian—and some of the Jewish—West do not; it mostly just sits in its easy chairs in front of the TV and drinks in the fruit of its unseeing.  A storm coming will turn these chairs over.

I do not know how many of my own family have perished because of the blind and blinding rabbinate, and when I say “perished” I mean in the prophesied Gehenna of eternal Hell, so this is no idle theology with me, and I mean it to be war, that the falsity plaguing my people may be challenged on the world stage, what I call, “Apocalypse Field, global arena of consciousness”.  Will my opponents resort to the old tricks of murder, slander, and lies?  What do I care, for I am given a heart and tongue to speak by Him who is Lord of poets, and there could be no power against me were it not given from above, so I will bear this testimony and love not my life even if it be unto the death.  I mean to cut down the lies and hatred that have cost the eternal lives of so many Jews I cannot count them.

What I say is in accord with both the Old Covenant (Tanakh) and the New Covenant Scripture (B’rit Chadashah), despite the opposition of some, both Christians and Jews.  These things impact the wider world also, as Gentile believers in Yeshua (Jesus) our Messiah are grafted into the spiritual faith of Israel, from which flows the river of eternal life to all nations—the ancient promise to Abraham fulfilled.

Mark you, the poet’s pen is not filled with lifeless ink.  It is a sword of the Spirit of YHWH, and His vessel.  It is among the foremost weapons of the Apocalypse—if so be it have the wind of Heaven filling its sails, and speeding its missiles, even as Heaven’s power sped David’s stone into the brain of the giant.

It is hard to think of an area of Christian theology that provides more scope for interdisciplinary conversation than the doctrine of creation. This doctrine not only invites reflection on an intellectual concept: it calls for contemplation of the endlessly complex, dynamic, and fascinating world that human being inhabit. But the possibilities for wide-ranging discussion are such that scholars sometimes end up talking past one another. Productive conversation requires mutual understanding of insights across disciplinary boundaries. Knowing Creation offers an essential resource for helping scholars from a range of fields to appreciate one another's concerns and perspectives. In so doing, it offers an important step forward in establishing a mutually-enriching dialogue that addresses, amongst others, the following key questions:

- Who is the God who creates?
- Why does God create?
- What is "creation"?
- What does it mean to recognize that a theology of creation speaks of a natural world that is subject to the observation of the natural sciences? What does it mean to talk about both a "natural" order and a "created" order?
- What are the major tensions that have arisen between the natural sciences and Christian thinking historically, and why? How can we move beyond such tensions to a positive and constructive conversation, while also avoiding facile notions such as a "god of the gaps"?
- Is it feasible for a natural scientist to maintain a belief in God's continuing creative activity?
- In what ways might a naturalistic understanding of the natural world be said to be limited?
- How can biblical studies, theology, philosophy, history, and science talk better together about these questions?

At a time when the doctrine of creation - and even a mention of "creation" - has been disparaged due to its supposed associations with anti-scientific dogma, and theological offerings sometimes risk appearing a little more than reactionary exercises in naive apologetics, ill-informed by science or distinctly wary of engagement with it, it is more important than ever to offer a cross-disciplinary resource that can voice a positive account of a Christian theology of creation, and do so as a genuinely broad-ranging conversation about science and faith.

Religious authority figures often use religious texts as the primary basis for censuring homosexuality. In recent years, however, non-heterosexual Christians and Muslims have begun to contest the discursively produced boundary of sexual
morality. Drawing upon two research projects on non-heterosexual Christians and Muslims, this article explores the three approaches embedded in this strategy. While acknowledging that homosexuality is indeed portrayed negatively in some parts of religious texts, the participants critique traditional hermeneutics by highlighting its inaccuracy and socio-cultural specificity, and arguing for a contextualized and culturally relevant interpretation. They also critique the credibility of institutional interpretive authority by highlighting its inadequacy and ideology, and relocating authentic interpretive authority to personal experience. Finally, they recast religious texts to construct resources for their spiritual nourishment.This strategy generally reflects the contemporary western religious landscape that prioritizes the authority of the self over that of religious institution.

This article tries to understand the prosperity gospel in a way that enables us to distinguish what is valuable and what is not in this phenomenon. The article starts by recognizing the puzzling aspects of the prosperity gospel. Someone might be tempted to dismiss it straightaway as simply unchristian and foolish. Looking at the people who are attracted to the prosperity gospel, however, helps in recognizing the prosperity gospel instead as a genuine protest against certain tendencies in the mainline churches. The article suggests that the prosperity gospel might be a celebration of the dignity in pure, spontaneous religious impulses and the dignity in enjoying or wishing to enjoy the good things in life This leaves us with the question of how we can distinguish between a genuine form of the prosperity gospel and forms that are simply is unchristian and foolish. To find answers to these questions the prosperity teaching's interpretation of Abraham is compared to Sören Kierkegaard's reading of Abraham as a knight of faith. This leads to a kind of litmus test to distinguish a genuine prosperity gospel from theologically unacceptable forms of it. Four criteria are presented: 1. Our faith should show gratitude rather than being a form of manipulation; 2. We should recognise the value of both tradition and resignation; 3. A genuine prosperity gospel would be a personal affair always enacted in fear and trembling; and 4. It should be about God and not about you. When these criteria are met, the prosperity gospel can be a theologically valid way to express dignity, so this article concludes-the dignity in pure, spontaneous religious impulses, and in enjoying or wishing to enjoy the good things in life.

Carnival versus Thélème: The Question of ‘Freedom’
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The best vantage point for understanding ‘transgressive sacrality’ as a universal phenomenon is the principle of ‘freedom’ (svātantrya), the central concern of Rabelais (1494–1563), Bakhtin (1895–1975), and Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1020).2 The medieval Christian dispensation revolved around the opposition, alternation, and complementarity between the stern, ascetic, otherworldly spiritual ideal of the Church and the periodic extended license of the popular carnival that rejuvenated this world of piety by rendering it topsy-turvy. Through Rabelais—the erudite monk and priest, who embodied the transition to the ‘humanist’ era—the unschooled obscene clamor of the primordial folk and festive marketplace found unvarnished exaggerated expression in early Renaissance literature. No longer capable of appreciating much less endorsing such celebration of the beast in Man, post-Enlightenment critics, severing his essential links with the ‘unofficial’ world of debasing folk humor, had sought to minimize the ‘Rabelaisian’ by reducing its thrust to negative anti-clerical satire or rebuked its capricious author wherever his excesses seemed too gratuitous.3 By rehabilitating carnivalesque laughter as intrinsic, readers, the aspiring new elites, from the surviving oral mass culture (Berrong 52-78).4 Princely Pantagruel himself embodies—especially after meeting the disconcerting Panurge—the values, ideals, temperament and comportment of the Renaissance Man par excellence.
Is ‘aristocratic’ Thélème therefore, pace Bakhtin, a (definitive) repudiation by Rabelais of his own earlier celebration of generalized antinomian license, or rather a (necessary, though guarded) reformulation that permits a better understanding of the presuppositions, parameters, and finality of that elusive ‘liberation’? Juxtaposing the medieval Christian carnival to its still surviving counterpart in the Hindu subcontinent—the traditional excesses of which have not been wholly smothered by the recent cultural passage of its (especially anglophone) elites to Westernizing modernity—may allow us to propose a more dialectical understanding of how such (systemic and not only carnivalesque) transgression could culminate in (inner) spiritual freedom.

From a close analysis of the idea of baptism in Pauline literature, one can identify the following conclusions: Paul nowhere identifies baptism in water as a work of merit that cannot save. Paul abundantly describes burial in water as best fulfilling his own description of baptism in Romans 6:4 and in Colossians 2:12. Paul describes baptism as a personal death of the one who is baptized, being "crucified with Him." This is similar to Peter's description of baptism as salvific and simultaneously, a pledge or promise to give up sin in ! Peter 3:21, as if it's a contract or agreement in which one agrees to give up sin while God in Christ forgives our past sins that He bore in his body on the cross in I Peter 2:24. Paul describes baptism as being buried and rising and being made alive with Christ. Hence, one is forgiven of past sins, circumcised not made with hands, include both male and female, performed by divine arrangement, and the Spirit is given as a gift, at that moment. Baptism is a personal conscious choice by the one baptized to enter a relationship with or being united with Christ. One is baptized into Christ and his death and in that moment one is forgiven, receives the Spirit as a gift, and is raised with Christ and made alive. So Paul who champions grace, nowhere describes baptism in water as a good work to be eschewed, relegated to a work of personal human merit. Let each party bring forth its prooftexts, and we shall conclude that there is no systematic or consistent theology in the Bible. Some think the Mashiach was to be a political or military leader but how does this view fit with the gentle, humble Yeshua who dies and is made aiive? Is there consistency in sacred scripture?

Inanna is typically the waning out of the feminine spirituality of Pre-Ice-Age Homo Sapiens to the masculine spirituality of Neolithic time. We are dealing with Sumerian mythology and it is the matrix of at least two Semitic religions, Judaism and Christianity.

Inanna is the last omnipotent goddess and she is becoming a triple goddess, the merging of three divine principles into one, which Greek mythology and other European mythologies will do whereas Christianity invest this ternary pattern directly in the trinity of the omnipotent and omniscient god.

That shift corresponds to the social development from the hunting and gathering ancient prehistoric society to the agricultural and pastoral society that completely changed the position of women.

Since the publication of the long-lost Gospel of Judas in 2006, there has been a flurry of interest in canonical and noncanonical traditions about the famous betrayer of Christ. One text overlooked in this excitement is the Legend of the Thirty Pieces of Silver (Leg. Silv.), which traces the transmission of the coins paid to betray Jesus from Terah’s gift of the coins to Abraham up to Judas’s purchase of the Field of Blood in Acts 1:18-19. Leg. Silv. was a very popular text in medieval times and appears in a number of languages and forms, including Latin, Syriac, and Armenian, along with several European languages: German, English, Italian, Spanish, and Catalan. To date, relatively little work has been done on this text; indeed, there has yet to appear a formal critical edition. This paper aims to address this neglect by presenting, for the first time, an edition of the Syriac branch of the tradition. The text is extant in at least eight Syriac manuscripts, another six in Garšūnī, and it is found also incorporated into the Book of the Bee by Solomon of Basra. The paper includes also an overview of previous scholarship on Leg. Silv. and a discussion of the text’s origins and transmission.

This essay was published in The Bible and Early Trinitarian Theology, edited by Christopher A. Beeley and Mark E. Weedman, for the CUAP Studies in Early Christianity (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2018); this is the uncorrected proofs. Exploring the humanity and divinity of Jesus, the Son's relation to the Father, and the agency of the Holy Spirit, it is one of five essays suggesting Johannine contributions to trinitarian discussions in the early church.

For years, critics and fans of C. S. Lewis have noted his curious attentiveness to descriptions of food and scenes of eating. Some attempts have been made to interpret Lewis’s use of food, but never in a manner comprehensively unifying Lewis’s culinary expressions with his own thought and beliefs. My study seeks to fill this void. The introduction demonstrates how Lewis’s culinary language aggregates through elements of his life, his literary background, and his Judeo-Christian worldview. Using the grammar of his own culinary language, I examine Lewis’s fiction for patterns found within his meals and analyze these patterns for theological allusions, grouping them according to major categories of systematic theology. Chapter two argues that ecclesiastical themes appear whenever Lewis’s protagonists eat together. The ritualized meal progression, evangelistic discourse, and biographical menus create a unity that points to parallels between Lewis’s body of protagonists and the church. Chapter three focuses on the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and charges that Lewis’s meals which are eaten in the presence of the novel’s Christ figure or which include bread and wine in the menu reliably align with the Anglo-Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist. Chapter four studies how sinful eating affects the spiritual states of Lewis’s characters. The chapter first shows how Lewis’s culinary language draws from Edenic sources, resonating with a very gastronomic Fall of Humanity, then examines how the progressively sinful eating of certain characters signifies a gradual alienation from the Divine. The fifth, and concluding, chapter argues that Lewis’s portrayal of culinary desire and pleasure ultimately points to an eschatological theme. This theme culminates near the end of Lewis’s novels either through individual characters expressing superlative delight in their food or through a unified congregation of protagonists eating a celebratory feast during the novel’s dénouement. I close the study by emphasizing how this approach to Lewis’s meals offers a complete spiritual analysis of Lewis’s main characters that also consistently supports Lewis’s own theology.

Current scholarly attitudes towards the historicity of Acts remain mixed, with extremist views expressed at both ends of the spectrum. However attitudes have generally become more positive since the publication of influential works by writers such as Hemer and Hengel, and historians of Rome have renewed their interest in the use of Acts as a valid source of information on the social, legal and political milieu of the empire in the first century. A number of objections to the historicity of specific events in Acts have now been dismissed conclusively, and a new consensus has emerged concerning the relationship  of the ‘we’ passages to the question of authorship.