Debating God's Economy


Book Description

What would a divinely ordained social order look like? Pre&–Vatican II Catholics, from archbishops and theologians to Catholic union workers and laborers on U.S. farms, argued repeatedly about this in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Debating God&’s Economy is a history of American Catholic economic debates taking place during the generation preceding Vatican II. At that time, American society was rife with sociopolitical debates over the relative merits and dangers of Marxism, capitalism, and socialism; labor unions, class consciousness, and economic power were the watchwords of the day. This was a time of immense social change, and, especially in the light of the monumental social and economic upheavals in Russia and Europe in the early twentieth century, Catholics found themselves taking sides. Catholic subcultures across America sought to legitimize&—or, in theological parlance, &“sanctify&”&—diverse economic systems that were, at times, mutually exclusive. While until now the faithful&—both scholars and nonscholars&—have typically spoken of &“the Catholic Social Tradition&” as if it were an established prescription for curing social ills, Prentiss maintains that the tradition is better understood as a debate grounded in a common mythology that provides Catholics with a distinctive vocabulary and touchstone of authority.




Debating God's Economy


Book Description

What would a divinely ordained social order look like? Pre–Vatican II Catholics, from archbishops and theologians to Catholic union workers and laborers on U.S. farms, argued repeatedly about this in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Debating God's Economy is a history of American Catholic economic debates taking place during the generation preceding Vatican II. At that time, American society was rife with sociopolitical debates over the relative merits and dangers of Marxism, capitalism, and socialism; labor unions, class consciousness, and economic power were the watchwords of the day. This was a time of immense social change, and, especially in the light of the monumental social and economic upheavals in Russia and Europe in the early twentieth century, Catholics found themselves taking sides. Catholic subcultures across America sought to legitimize—or, in theological parlance, “sanctify”—diverse economic systems that were, at times, mutually exclusive. While until now the faithful—both scholars and nonscholars—have typically spoken of “the Catholic Social Tradition” as if it were an established prescription for curing social ills, Prentiss maintains that the tradition is better understood as a debate grounded in a common mythology that provides Catholics with a distinctive vocabulary and touchstone of authority.




God And His Coexistent Relations To The Universe:


Book Description

The author says that the social contract theory of John Locke, the immortal souls of humans, and doubts of the divinity of Jesus (by Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams) caused the separation of the U.S. colonists from England on July 4, 1776. However, the author says that the USA has lost its God and has no facts about the universe in which we live. He also says that Locke's social contract theory and the immortal souls of humans were never installed by Congress. And he says that the doubts of the divinity of Jesus were never verified. In his new book, the author opens his widely respected mind to find answers to the above unknowns. In his studies of the immortal souls, the author concludes that all nations must become equal so that the immortal souls of every Little God can be reborn naturally by God. His study provides answers of all doubts about the divinity of Jesus and says that only one active God exists and governs the immortal souls and the universe forever. In time, only one religion will exist.




The Great Tithing Debate


Book Description

Finally, there’s a book that uses sound, rightly divided doctrine and wisdom to answer all your tithing questions. No longer will you have to rely on opinions, clichés, wishful thinking, passed down deceptions, legalism, or plain ole foolishness just to know what is required of you and where you stand with God. The Bible is very clear for those who want to know. All of your questions are thoroughly answered in THE GREAT TITHING DEBATE. The huge list of tithing questions, compiled over years of waiting for tithing to finally work, hinges on an exhaustive knowledge, or lack thereof, concerning exactly what Jesus fully accomplished at the cross. When the reality of redemption is properly understood, most questions disappear and the once shaky believer finds that, not only is he now standing on solid rock, but has actually become part of that rock. When redemption is fully understood, one realizes that the act of tithing to “open heaven” or provide anything that Jesus freely gave at the cross is actually an insult to the suffering He endured at the cross. Yes, tithing worked in the Old Covenant as a part of the total Law, but has absolutely no place in the New Covenant that provides everything (Romans 8:32) through the blood of Christ. Peter counted such teaching as “tempting the Holy Spirit” in Acts 15. Paul obviously had the same opinion in most of his writings, for those who will read them without wearing their tithing glasses. We may call it an “act of faith,” “obedience,” “doing the Word,” “good stewardship,” or what ever we want, but at the end of the day it is nothing more than an obsolete, Old Testament ordinance that will only “frustrate the grace of God,” as Paul taught in Galatians. As circumcision became “nothing” under the NT, likewise, tithing is no longer obligatory. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to actually have your prayers easily answered because of Jesus’ finished work and the Name He gave us to use? Would you like to know that God is going to say “yes” to His promises without you having to wonder if all your church ducks are in a row? And finally, wouldn’t it be nice to have a royal ring put on your finger, a kingly robe put on your back, and a big hug of approval without having to sleep in the bunk house as a “servant” until it’s decided that you can be trusted? So, this is a book about salvation; something that the church seems to know little about. Beyond forgiveness of sins, today’s church seems to be unaware and uninterested in understanding redemption. This vacuum has left us open to a myriad of opinions, questionable doctrines, and even deception. This book endeavors to fill some of that vacuum. You should get a copy and explore the possibilities of the complete redemption that God intended for us to enjoy. Examine the free preview below and “taste and see that the Lord is good,” even much better than we’ve been taught. Hopefully, pride, a rampant byproduct of legalism and performance, won’t keep you from hearing. Maybe you’re still teachable and open to God’s leading, even if you’re already pretty sure you have a good understanding of the duties required of a genuine Christian. DO YOU KNOW THAT Malachi was




Interrupting Capitalism


Book Description

In the decade since the financial crisis of 2008, governments around the world have struggled to develop strategies to stabilize precarious markets, encourage growth, and combat mounting wealth inequality. In the United States, the recovery from that crisis has exacerbated the fears of the working and middle classes and pitted those classes against the wealthy. Although we participate every day in economic life as workers, consumers, employers, or activists, we often experience the economy as a mysterious force that we cannot control, or fully understand. Matthew Shadle argues that Catholics ought to be able to draw on their faith to help navigate and make sense of economic life, but too often the effort to get ahead or just stay afloat drowns out faith's appeal. Interrupting Capitalism proposes a new strategy for Christian economic discipleship. Rather than engage the two theological poles of continuity and rupture, Christians should interrupt capitalism: neither whole-heartedly endorsing global capitalism nor seeking to dismantle it. This means "breaking into" the economy, embracing those aspects that enhance human well-being while transforming the market in a spirit of solidarity. Shadle argues that all three of the dominant theological approaches dealing with economic life-the progressive, neoconservative, and liberationist-are theologies of continuity. A fourth approach, a communitarian one, he believes, can best embody the strategy of interrupting capitalism. The Catholic tradition, including its tradition of social teaching, provides a cultural structure that, along with their own social context, conditions how Catholics think about and engage in economic activity. Drawing on the resources of the tradition, theologians reflect on this activity, giving it a theoretical justification and offering correctives. Both the experience of ordinary Catholics and the work of theologians feed into new articulations of Catholic social teaching. Offering an overview of Catholic thought since the Second World War, Shadle begins with the experience of Catholics in Western Europe at mid-century, moving to Latin America and the United States in the 1970s and 80s, and then concluding with the phenomenon of globalization.




God and the Transgender Debate


Book Description

Helps Christians engage lovingly, thoughtfully, and biblically with discussions on gender identity. Originally released in 2017, this version has been updated and expanded. In the West, more and more Christians are coming across the topic of gender identity in their everyday lives. Legislative changes are impacting more and more areas of life, including education, employment, and state funding, with consequences for religious liberty, free speech, and freedom of conscience that affect everyone. So it’s a crucial moment to consider how to engage lovingly, thoughtfully, and biblically with one of the most explosive cultural discussions of our day. This warm, faithful, and compassionate book that helps Christians understand what the Bible says about gender identity has been updated and expanded throughout, and now includes a section on pronoun usage and a new chapter challenging some of the claims of the transgender activist movement. Andrew T. Walker also answers questions such as: What is transgender and gender fluidity? How should churches respond? What does God's word actually say about these issues?




The Sovereignty of God Debate


Book Description

How is God sovereign with respect to creation? Does creation affect God? Does God suffer or change because of creation? If so, how is this related to Christology? Why have these questions been so controversial in evangelical theology, even costing some people their jobs? This book is a collection of lectures given to the Forum for Evangelical Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Six theologians answer the questions above from a variety of perspectives. They draw on resources including the church fathers, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Jurgen Moltmann, process theology, and open theism. In the process of answering the question, does God suffer? each theologian also illustrates how responding to this subject requires an examination of other crucial evangelical issues, such as how we read Scripture and what it means to proclaim that God is love. Although the writers answer these questions in a variety of ways, the hope is that engaging in this conversation together can help evangelicals and all Christians to speak more faithfully of our sovereign God.




Radical Sufficiency


Book Description

Rethinking the means through which we can achieve economic well-being for all. In this timely book, Christine Firer Hinze looks back at the influential teachings of priest-economist Monsignor John A. Ryan (1869-1945), who supported worker justice and defended a living wage for all Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. Advancing Ryan’s efforts to articulate a persuasive plan for social reform, Hinze advocates for an action-oriented livelihood agenda that situates US working families’ economic pursuits within a comprehensive commitment to sustainable “radical sufficiency” for all. Documenting the daily lives and economic struggles of past and present US Catholic working-class families, Hinze explores the larger impulses and patterns—economic, cultural, political, moral, and spiritual—that affect the work these people perform in homes, in communities, and at paid jobs. Their story entwines with the larger history of the American dream and working people's pursuit of a dignified livelihood. Surveying this history with an eye to the dynamics of power and difference, Hinze rethinks Ryan’s ethics and Catholic social teaching to develop a new conception of a decent livelihood and its implications for contemporary policy and practice. The result is a critical Catholic economic ethic capable of addressing the situations of workers and families in the interdependent global economy of the twenty-first century. Radical Sufficiency offers transformative strategies and strategic policy directions for achieving the radical Christian goal of dignified work and a good livelihood for all.




Life-study of Mark


Book Description

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic in portraying the Savior’s humanity in different aspects with His deity. Since Mark presents the Savior as a slave, he does not tell His genealogy and status, because the ancestry of a slave is not worthy of note. Furthermore, in contrast to Matthew, who presents to us the Savior’s marvelous teachings and parables concerning the heavenly kingdom, and John, who presents His profound revelations of the divine truths, Mark’s intention is not to impress us with the Slave’s wonderful words, but with His excellent deeds in His gospel service. Mark’s Gospel provides more details than the other Gospels in order to portray the Slave-Savior’s diligence, faithfulness, and other virtues in the saving service He rendered to sinners for God. In Mark's Gospel are the fulfillment of the prophecies in Isa. 42:1-4, 6-7; 49:5-7; 50:4-7; 52:13–53:12 concerning Christ as the Slave of God. His diligence in labor, His need of food and rest, His anger, His groaning, and His affection display beautifully His humanity in its virtue and perfection, while His lordship, His omniscience, His miraculous power, and His authority to cast out demons to forgive sins, and to silence the wind and the sea manifest in full His deity in its glory and honor. What a Slave of God! How lovely and admirable! Such a Slave served sinners as their Slave-Savior, with His life as their ransom, for the fulfillment of the eternal purpose of God, whose Slave He was.




Roman Catholicism in the United States


Book Description

Roman Catholicism in the United States: A Thematic History takes the reader beyond the traditional ways scholars have viewed and recounted the story of the Catholic Church in America. The collection covers unfamiliar topics such as anti-Catholicism, rural Catholicism, Latino Catholics, and issues related to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the U.S. government. The book continues with fascinating discussions on popular culture (film and literature), women religious, and the work of U.S. missionaries in other countries. The final section of the books is devoted to Catholic social teaching, tackling challenging and sometimes controversial subjects such as the relationship between African American Catholics and the Communist Party, Catholics in the civil rights movement, the abortion debate, issues of war and peace, and Vatican II and the American Catholic Church. Roman Catholicism in the United States examines the history of U.S. Catholicism from a variety of perspectives that transcend the familiar account of the immigrant, urban parish, which served as the focus for so many American Catholics during the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries.