Worshiping Power


Book Description

In a new study of politogenesis state formation that will shake up the status quo, Peter Gelderloos cuts through inadequate theories of state-formation on both the right and the left to offer a new and innovative analysis that is as useful to academic theorists as it is to anarchists seeking to dismantle the institution. Where did the state come from? Where is it going? Worshiping Power discusses the answers given by historical materialism, geographical determinism and primitivism, showing that there are major problems with all of them.




The Power Worshippers


Book Description

The inspiration for the documentary God & Country For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right's rise to political power. For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America's religious nationalists aren't just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre of super-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today's Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding antidemocratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America's past. It forms common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far more organized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals. The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart's probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms.




You Are What You Love


Book Description

You are what you love. But you might not love what you think. In this book, award-winning author James K. A. Smith shows that who and what we worship fundamentally shape our hearts. And while we desire to shape culture, we are not often aware of how culture shapes us. We might not realize the ways our hearts are being taught to love rival gods instead of the One for whom we were made. Smith helps readers recognize the formative power of culture and the transformative possibilities of Christian practices. He explains that worship is the "imagination station" that incubates our loves and longings so that our cultural endeavors are indexed toward God and his kingdom. This is why the church and worshiping in a local community of believers should be the hub and heart of Christian formation and discipleship. Following the publication of his influential work Desiring the Kingdom, Smith received numerous requests from pastors and leaders for a more accessible version of that book's content. No mere abridgment, this new book draws on years of Smith's popular presentations on the ideas in Desiring the Kingdom to offer a fresh, bottom-up rearticulation. The author creatively uses film, literature, and music illustrations to engage readers and includes new material on marriage, family, youth ministry, and faith and work. He also suggests individual and communal practices for shaping the Christian life.




The Worshiping You


Book Description

If you know where God is taking the church, you will know how to prepare for the journey. This book gives prophetic insight into the place of worship that God is taking the church, what you can expect and how to prepare for it. You will learn: A prophetic insight into what the church will look like in the years to come and the changes necessary to bring it about. How valuable and unique your worship is to God. What happens to you and your circumstances when you worship. How we can best prepare our children and the next generation for the astounding revival that will take place through them. How God wants to release His healing power through worshipers that will shake the world.




Worship 365


Book Description

Worship: a subject that touches the very heart of God. In Worship 365, award-winning songwriter and conference leader David M. Edwards defines worship as what must become an irremovable part of our everyday lives; not only something we do at church a few times each week.Indeed, worshipping God is our highest priority, and Edwards takes us step-by-step through the worship process, highlighting what it is, how it happens, what it does, and where it takes us. “Written for everyone, Worship 365 is sure to enhance the readers understanding and experience of God’s presence on a daily basis.”




The Solutions Are Already Here


Book Description

As the climate crisis worsens, we must look to revolutionary strategy for justice




Worshiping God, God’s Way


Book Description

Worshiping God, God's Way: A Biblical Perspective of the Origin of Worship explores the theology behind what Jesus called "true" worship in John 4:24. The book carefully highlights the emergence from the praise movement which began in the 1980s, to today's contemporary theology which uses the catchphrase, "everything we do is worship."




Worship and Power


Book Description

Christian worship emerges from and speaks back into human relationships that are necessarily shaped by power and authority. Free Churches structure and negotiate power in relation to worship in ways that reflect the decentralization, local diversity, and personal agency that characterize many aspects of Free Church theology and practice. This volume models how dialogue among scholars and practitioners of Free Church worship, as well as dialogue with the wider church, can be mutually enriching as Christians strive together to worship in ways that are faithful and just.




Worship That Changes Lives


Book Description

Compiles cultural, theological, and psychological perspectives on spiritual experience in worship from scholars and laity, paying particular attention to the role of the arts in facilitating spiritual transformation.




Dynamic Equivalence


Book Description

In studying the history of the vernacular in worship beginning with the Christian Scriptures, Dynamic Equivalence uncovers the power of a living language to transform communities of faith. How we pray when we come together for common worship has always been significant, but the issue of liturgical language received unprecedented attention in the twentieth century when Latin Rite Roman Catholic worship was opened to the vernacular at Vatican II. Worshiping in one's native tongue continues to be of issue as the churches debate over what type of vernacular should be employed. Dynamic Equivalence traces the history of liturgical language in the Western Christian tradition as a dynamic and living reality. Particular attention is paid to the twentieth century Vernacular Society within the United States and how the vernacular issue was treated at Vatican II, especially within an ecumenical context. The first chapter offers a short history of the vernacular from the first century through the twentieth. The second and third chapters contain a significant amount of archival material, much of which has never been published before. These chapters tell the story of a mixed group of Catholic laity and clergy dedicated to promoting the vernacular during the first half of the twentieth century. Chapter Four begins with a survey of vernacular promotion in the Reformation itself, explores the issue of vernacular worship as an instrument of ecumenical hospitality and concludes with some examples of ecumenical liturgical cooperation in the years immediately preceding the Council. The final chapter treats the vernacular debate at the Council with attention to the Vernacular Society's role in helping with theimplementation of the vernacular. Chapters are "A Brief History of the Vernacular," "The Origins of the Vernacular Society: 1946-1956," "Pressure for the Vernacular Mounts: 1956-1962," "Vernacular Worship and Ecumenical Exchange," "Vatican II and the Vindication of the Vernacular: 1962-1965" Keith F. Pecklers, SJ, SLD, is professor of liturgy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and professor of liturgical history at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant 'Anselmo. He is the author of The Unread Vision: The Liturgical Movement in the United States of America 1926-1955, and co-editor of Liturgy for the New Millennium: A Commentary on the Revised Sacramentary, published by The Liturgical Press.