Discerning the Signs of the Times - Sermons for Today and Tomorrow


Book Description

This early work of theology is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. It contains the writings of the twentieth century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and his thoughts on contemporary religion. This is a fascinating work and is thoroughly recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of religion. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.







Humor Us


Book Description

This book addresses the fact that Americans tend to live under a considerable amount of stress, tension, and anxiety, and suggests that humor can be helpful in alleviating their distress. It posits that humor is a useful placebo in this regard; cites studies that show that humor moderates life stress; considers the relationship of religion and humor, especially as means to alleviate anxiety; proposes that Jesus had a sense of humor; suggests that his parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard has humorous implications for the relief of occupational stress; explores the relationship of gossip and humor; and suggests that Jesus and his disciples were a joking community. It concludes that Jesus viewed the kingdom of God as a worry-free existence.




Discerning the Signs of the Times - Sermons for Today and Tomorrow


Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... (6) Columns for Discount on Purchases and Discount on Notes on the same side of the Cash Book; (c) Columns for Discount on Sales and Cash Sales on the debit side of the Cash Book; (d) Departmental columns in the Sales Book and in the Purchase Book. Controlling Accounts.--The addition of special columns in books of original entry makes possible the keeping of Controlling Accounts. The most common examples of such accounts are Accounts Receivable account and Accounts Payable account. These summary accounts, respectively, displace individual customers' and creditors' accounts in the Ledger. The customers' accounts are then segregated in another book called the Sales Ledger or Customers' Ledger, while the creditors' accounts are kept in the Purchase or Creditors' Ledger. The original Ledger, now much reduced in size, is called the General Ledger. The Trial Balance now refers to the accounts in the General Ledger. It is evident that the task of taking a Trial Balance is greatly simplified because so many fewer accounts are involved. A Schedule of Accounts Receivable is then prepared, consisting of the balances found in the Sales Ledger, and its total must agree with the balance of the Accounts Receivable account shown in the Trial Balance. A similar Schedule of Accounts Payable, made up of all the balances in the Purchase Ledger, is prepared, and it must agree with the balance of the Accounts Payable account of the General Ledger." The Balance Sheet.--In the more elementary part of the text, the student learned how to prepare a Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the purpose of disclosing the net capital of an enterprise. In the present chapter he was shown how to prepare a similar statement, the Balance Sheet. For all practical...




Mark Twain


Book Description

Mark Twain's literary works have intrigued and inspired readers from the late 1860s to the present. His varied experiences as a journeyman printer, river boat pilot, prospector, journalist, novelist, humorist, businessman, and world traveller, combined with his incredible imagination and astonishing creativity, enabled him to devise some of American literature's most memorable characters and engaging stories. Twain had a complicated relationship with Christianity. He strove to understand, critique, and sometimes promote various theological ideas and insights. His religious perspective was often inconsistent and even contradictory. While many scholars have overlooked Twain's strong interest in religious matters, others disagree sharply about his religious views--with many labelling him a secularist, an agnostic, or an atheist. In this compelling biography, Gary Scott Smith shows that throughout his life Twain was an entertainer, satirist, novelist, and reformer, but also functioned as a preacher, prophet, and social philosopher. Twain tackled universal themes with penetrating insight and wit including the character of God, human nature, sin, providence, corruption, greed, hypocrisy, poverty, racism, and imperialism. Moreover, his life provides a window into the principal trends and developments in American religion from 1865 to 1910.




The Relational Pulpit


Book Description

Includes personal profiles methods for effective sermon writing and suggestions for improving the speaker-audience connection.




Divine Laughter


Book Description

Comedians tend to view the world somewhat askew or askance, and that view--a kind of hermeneutical lens for discerning the comedic in daily life--serves to frame, reframe, and even de-frame reality. Preachers do the same, viewing the world askance through a theological lens of discerning God in daily life. That theological view allows one to preach hope in the face of despair, seeing the world in terms of God's justice and declaring the promise of life out of death. Divine Laughter: Preaching and the Serious Business of Humor looks closely at both the cultural phenomenon of stand-up comedy and theories of humor, asking what preachers can learn from both. Karl N. Jacobson and Rolf A. Jacobson offer preachers a means of growth in their art and an approach to reading Scripture both for its humor and through the lens of humor. The book models approaches to the biblical text that allow the Bible to be funny and that bring humor to the text. Divine Laughter brings the task of preaching into conversation with both the comedic parts of the Bible and the theological parts of the comedic, in order to bring a new kind of life to preaching. As a serious look at humor and laughter in the Bible, the book explores the theological implications of what it means if we think of God, Jesus, and even the Holy Spirit as filled with laughter. Preachers are invited to wonder at and chuckle their way through examples of God's laughter in the Bible, thinking about what that means for God's people, for the life of faith, and for preaching to God's people.




Baptist Sacramentalism 3


Book Description

This collection of essays includes historical and theological studies in the sacraments from a Baptist perspective. Subjects explored include the liturgy and sacrement, presence of the Kingdom, some fallacies of Baptist anti-sacramentalism, ...a profound mystry, first communion, sacraments in a virtual world, richly are thy children fed, the scacraments, sacramental pratices of the believing community, priesthood of all the people, "laying on of hands," holistic approach to water-baptism, powerful practices, and enough to set a Kimgdom laughing.




The Good Kill


Book Description

"The Good Kill examines killing in war in its moral and normative dimension. It argues against the commonplace belief, often tacitly held if not consciously asserted, among academics, the general public, and even military professionals, that killing, including in a justified war, is always morally wrong even when necessary. In light of an increasingly sophisticated understanding of combat trauma, this belief is a crisis. Moral injury, a proposed subset of PTSD, occurs when one does something that goes against deeply held normative convictions. In a military context, the primary predictor of moral injury is having killed in combat. In turn, the primary predictor for suicide among combat veterans is moral injury. In this way, the assertion that killing is wrong but in war it is necessary becomes deadly, rendering the very business of the profession of arms morally injurious. It does not need to be this way. Beginning with the simple observation-recognized by both common sense and law-that killing comes in different kinds, this book equips warfighters-and those charged with their care and formation-with confidence in the rectitude of certain kinds of killing. Engaging with Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Ramsey, Nigel Biggar, and other leading Christian realists, crucial normative principles within the just war tradition are brought to bear on questions regarding just conduct in war, moral and non-moral evil, and enemy love. The Good Kill helps equip the just warrior to navigate the morally bruising field of battle without becoming irreparably morally injured"--




Reinhold Niebuhr; His Religious, Social, and Political Thought


Book Description

This collection of essays, by world scholars of different faiths and fields of study, eloquently documents the importance and continuing influence of Niebuhr's extensive body of work. Following an "intellectual autobiography" by Niebuhr are twenty essays forming a candid and vigorous discussion spanning the range of Niebuhr's thought. Since Niebuhr first came to the world's attention as a critic of social conditions, the book begins with an examination of his social thought, especially as a Christian ethicist, proceeding from this to the political sphere. Further essays offer critical exposition, criticism, and questions on such topics as Niebuhr's philosophy of history, his role in American political thought and life, his theology, and the historical roots of his thought. For this new edition, there are updated essays by John Bennett, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and Kenneth Thompson, plus new interpretations by Ronald Stone and Richard Fox. Other contributors include Paul Tillich, Emil Brunner, and Abraham I. Heschel. A bibliography of Niebuhr's work has been brought up to date by D. B. Robertson.