Confronting Religious Judgmentalism
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Confronting Religious Judgmentalism
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Author : Catherine M. Wallace
language : en
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Release Date : 2016-05-23
Confronting Religious Judgmentalism written by Catherine M. Wallace and has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-05-23 with Religion categories.
Come to church or go to hell. That's religious bullying. It's judgmentalism. And it's a theological distortion, a distortion insisting that shame and self-loathing are morally appropriate. In Christian humanist tradition, God is not some cosmic judge eager to smite all of us for our sinfulness. God is compassion. We are cherished by God beyond our wildest imagining. We are called to radical hospitality, not to crass judgmentalism. So where does this religious judgmentalism come from? It is the heritage of medieval theocracy: a violent, vindictive God of command and control was far more useful politically than a God of compassion, hospitality, and forgiveness. It comes from literal-minded misreading of the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, a story about shame, not disobedience. And it comes from political success in exploiting deep-seated liabilities in the American soul: we spend our lives trying to "prove ourselves," a hopeless task. There's an alternative. In the Christian humanist tradition, authentic moral judgment is rooted in conscience as a creative process. Morality is an art demanding both rigorous consideration of the facts and thoughtful introspection. Conscience properly understood and thoughtfully practiced is an antidote to shame, incessant self-criticism, and chronic self-doubt.
Confronting Religious Violence
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Author : Catherine M. Wallace
language : en
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Release Date : 2016-03-28
Confronting Religious Violence written by Catherine M. Wallace and has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-03-28 with Religion categories.
Confronting Religious Violence: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination tells the tale of Christian theocracy in the West. Who converted whom was never entirely clear: the empire did stop feeding people to the lions for public entertainment; but Christianity was theologically corrupted by its official role in legitimating empire-as-usual. That theological corruption led to crusades, inquisitions, torture, and so forth. And it leaves us with a major question: is God violent? More dangerously yet: is violence our only option in response to wrongdoing? Are we morally obligated to injure those who have injured others, to kill those who have killed others? If theocracy is a terrible idea, what is the proper relationship between church and state? We can't say that the state is never morally accountable at all. Furthermore: despite constitutional separation of church and state, hard-right Christian fundamentalism continues to play a culturally significant role in advocating military action abroad and supporting state violence at home. There is a lot at stake in reclaiming the systematic nonviolence and moral imagination of Jesus of Nazareth.
Confronting Religious Absolutism
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Author : Catherine M. Wallace
language : en
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Release Date : 2016-10-27
Confronting Religious Absolutism written by Catherine M. Wallace and has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-10-27 with Religion categories.
Papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy provide the conceptual foundations of theocracy, which is to say religiously-based totalitarianism. These absolutist doctrines emerge for the very first time among the Victorians: they are not ancient beliefs at all. They appear in the 19th century, right alongside secular varieties totalitarian thought, and in response to all the same cultural anxieties. Reactionary religious leaders used these doctrines to oppose scholarly conclusions in geology and evolutionary biology. That much everyone knows. What's not as well known is the fact that their principal target was Christian-humanist biblical scholarship, an unbroken 500-year tradition of inquiry undertaken primarily by Christian clergy and seminary faculty. The alternative to faith-based totalitarianism is faith based upon the imagination, our most sophisticated cognitive skill. Faith rooted in the moral imagination does not depend upon abject deference to an array of rigid doctrines and improbable claims. Wallace contends that faith is best understood as a creative process, and religion is best understood as a multi-media art (and originally the Mother of all arts). The arts convince, they do not command. They persuade, they do not prove. The arts provide humane resources whereby we grapple with life's deepest mysteries. Symbolism, like quantum mathematics, is a tool for grappling with inescapable paradox at the heart of reality. It is an ancient strategy for articulating what we discover at the elusive mind-body interface.
Confronting Religious Denial Of Science
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Author : Catherine M. Wallace
language : en
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Release Date : 2016-07-05
Confronting Religious Denial Of Science written by Catherine M. Wallace and has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-07-05 with Religion categories.
Confronting Religious Denial of Science: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination traces the cultural backstory of contemporary conflicts between biblical literalists who oppose evolution and "New Atheists" who insist that religion is so pernicious it should be outlawed, if not exterminated. That's a clash of fundamentalisms. It's a zero-sum game derived from high Victorian misunderstanding of both religion and science. The God whom science supposedly replaces is the Engineer Almighty sitting at his keyboard, controlling every event on earth. But that's not a viable concept of God. Far better, Wallace argues, to understand Christianity in Clifford Geertz's terms as a system of symbols that both constitutes a worldview and, according to David Sloan Wilson, encourages prosocial behavior. That reframing makes it possible to reclaim what biblical scholars have said for decades: the miracles of Jesus were confrontational symbolic actions. They contradicted the political status quo in colonial Palestine, not the laws of biology. Prayer, she explains, is not magical thinking. It's a creative, highly disciplined introspective process, most familiar to many people in forms like mindfulness meditation. Wallace offers an intriguing exploration of issues that believers seldom discuss in ways that make sense to the religiously unaffiliated. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }
Confronting A Controlling God
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Author : Catherine M. Wallace
language : en
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Release Date : 2016-08-24
Confronting A Controlling God written by Catherine M. Wallace and has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-08-24 with Religion categories.
Christianity has lost control of its brand. That matters even for nonbelievers because Christian symbolism permeates Western culture. It shapes the source code for how we think about ourselves and what we expect from one another. If God is all-controlling, then human control is divinely sanctioned. Our efforts to control one another have cosmic legitimacy--the legitimacy claimed by fundamentalists pursuing a political agenda that has nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth. But if God is defined as compassion and loving-kindness, then Christianity calls the faithful to compassion and radical hospitality. Wallace traces the backstory of this vitally important tension all the way back to competing translations of Moses's argument with the burning bush, arguing for a "Copernican turn" in which the spiritual encounter with compassionate Presence lies at the heart of Christianity.
The Confrontational Wit Of Jesus
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Author : Catherine M. Wallace
language : en
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Release Date : 2016-07-27
The Confrontational Wit Of Jesus written by Catherine M. Wallace and has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-07-27 with Religion categories.
Jesus did not die to save us from God. He died because the Romans did not tolerate charismatic teachers who attracted a lively following. Jesus attracted that following through his personal compassion, his confrontational inclusivity, and his skill in using laughter as a nonviolent weapon of mass disruption. The Gospel authors picked up Jesus' witty techniques. They adeptly parodied the literary conventions of heroic biography, laying out "the kingdom of God" in a point-for-point contrast with the empire of Caesar Augustus. Most of this contrast was Jewish Prophetic Rant, Standard Edition: the God of the Jews had always demanded justice for workers, food for the hungry, care for those unable to earn a living, and an end to monopolizing natural resources for private and imperial profit. Jesus added a fourth and telling point: God is nonviolent. God smites no one. God's loving-kindness and compassionate presence embraces all of humanity equally. We are all the children of God. Then and now, that's a revolutionary claim. It portrays our obligation to the common good as a sacred obligation. It's owed to God. In cultural terms, that's the most potent variety of obligation. This is the cultural heritage at risk from fundamentalism, which portrays God as both crazy-violent and vindictive.
Beyond Religion Discovering Authentic Christianity In A World Of Rituals Matthew 15 8
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Author : Pastor Yves Gerard
language : en
Publisher: Pastor Yves Gerard
Release Date :
Beyond Religion Discovering Authentic Christianity In A World Of Rituals Matthew 15 8 written by Pastor Yves Gerard and has been published by Pastor Yves Gerard this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on with Religion categories.
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” — Matthew 15:8 In a world overflowing with rituals, traditions, and religious performance, many are left wondering: Is this all there is to Christianity? Beyond Religion: Discovering Authentic Christianity in a World of Rituals takes a courageous and thought-provoking look at the difference between outward religiosity and inward transformation. Drawing from the words of Jesus and the witness of Scripture, this book explores the heart of faith — a living, vibrant relationship with God — as distinct from the hollow routines that can often dominate religious life. From majestic cathedrals now reduced to tourist attractions, to modern churches wrestling with cultural compromise, this book confronts the spiritual crisis of our time: the disconnect between religious form and authentic spiritual encounter. Inside, you will explore: The biblical contrast between religion and relationship How religious systems throughout history have shaped — and sometimes distorted — Christian faith The psychological and spiritual dynamics of ritualism The hidden cost of religious performance on personal faith The challenges facing the modern church, including the influence of Freemasonry Practical steps to move beyond hollow rituals to genuine relationship with Christ Global perspectives on cultural Christianity vs. kingdom living Whether you're a pastor, a lifelong churchgoer, a disillusioned believer, or a curious seeker, this book offers a roadmap toward deeper, more authentic faith. With a rich blend of theology, history, and pastoral insight, *Beyond Religion* challenges readers to examine their own spiritual lives and invites them into a more intimate walk with the living God. Authentic Christianity isn’t about appearances — it’s about transformation. Join the journey to move beyond religion and rediscover the heart of faith.
Separation Of Church And State
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Author : Jonathan A. Wright
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Release Date : 2010-06-16
Separation Of Church And State written by Jonathan A. Wright and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-06-16 with Religion categories.
This tour of the American church/state issue revisits past controversies and personalities in the hope of enlightening present-day debates. Examining an issue that has been a matter of controversy since the founding of the United States, Separation of Church and State offers a chronological survey that helps put the ongoing debate in broad historical context. The book briefly traces the earliest instances of tension between church and state within the Western tradition, from the era of Constantine to the Reformation, before moving on to the American experience. Attention is paid to the colonial debates about the ideal relationship between faith and politics, the 18th-century trends that culminated in a constitutional settlement, and the experiences of various religious groups during the early republic and 19th century. Finally, the book focuses on the post-1940 era, during which church-state controversies came before the Supreme Court. In the course of the discussion, readers will learn about complex legal and theological issues and debates between the great and powerful, but also about ordinary Americans whose religious scruples led to some of the most important legal cases in U.S. history.
Confronting The Color Line
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Author : Alan B. Anderson
language : en
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Release Date : 2008-01-01
Confronting The Color Line written by Alan B. Anderson and has been published by University of Georgia Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-01-01 with History categories.
In Confronting the Color Line, Alan Anderson and George Pickering examine the hopes and strategies, the frustrations and internal conflicts, the hard-won successes and bitter disappointments of the civil rights movement in Chicago. The scene of a protracted local struggle to force equality in education and open housing for blacks, the city also became the focus of national attention in the summer of 1966 as Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference challenged the entrenched political machine of Mayor Richard J. Daley. The failure of King's campaign--a failure he would not live to redeem--marked the final unsuccessful attempt to secure significant social change in Chicago, and soon afterward the national civil rights movement itself would unravel amid white backlash and cries of black power. Picking up the threads of our own recent history, Confronting the Color Line examines a political movement that remains unfinished, a dilemma for America's system of democratic social change that remains unsolved.
God Jesus And Other Foolishness
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Author : Jeffrey A. Kramer
language : en
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Release Date : 2022-09-13
God Jesus And Other Foolishness written by Jeffrey A. Kramer and has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022-09-13 with Philosophy categories.
In our post-Christian society many skeptics, atheists, and agnostics assume that the Christian faith involves belief in spite of a lack of evidence and that Christianity encourages its adherents to be satisfied with not understanding the world. This is untrue. Christianity has a legacy of thought and logic, and a convincing case can be made that modern science and Western culture could only have sprung from the Judeo-Christian worldview. Although questions of origins, purpose, and meaning are not easily proved true in a "scientific" or empirical sense, things can be true without empirical proof. It does not follow that religion is untrue or that religious belief is for the credulous and the gullible. Many of the presuppositions underlying any worldview cannot be proven empirically, and acceptance of many of the truth claims of atheism and postmodernism requires just as much faith as acceptance of the fundamentals of Christianity. This book is an attempt to demonstrate that biblical Christianity is true, in the sense that it is a logical interpretation of reality and our lived experience, and that the implications of Christian faith make more rational sense than a rejection of that faith.