Don’T Call Me out of My Name Spirituality for the 21St Century a Member of the Christian Left Speaks Out


Book Description

This book challenges the unwritten laws that dominate U.S. society, creating great wealth and even greater poverty. Social (Structural) Analysis uncovers the hidden agenda behind this system of political economy that exploit the majority while enriching the few. Modern liberal economics holds the proverbial carrot in front of the world's population while the real winners, the multi-national banks and corporations, reap scandalous profits. This political/economic monopoly treats the living earth as if it was a disposable resource and turns the majority of the world's population into mere cogs in its machinery. Like a cancer, if untreated it will destroy its host. Social analysis cannot cure this cancer, but it can remove the rose-colored glasses from people's eyes so that they can understand it. Free Market Capitalism has undoubted benefits. It becomes evil when it is a law unto itself. A system of political economy, endowed with a wider vision and a more just definition of profits, might evolve out of the dialogue between the mechanisms of Capitalism and the priorities of socialism. Such a system would allow all peoples to enjoy a decent life while preserving the integrity of the earth. Utopia, the perfect society, may never become a reality, but we should never stop trying to implement it. Social analysis is a necessary first step towards a more just world.




Post-Conflict Security in South Sudan


Book Description

Just eight years after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and two years after gaining independence, the world's newest nation state descended once more into violence and civil war. Why have policies of liberal peacebuilding failed to bring lasting stability to the region? And what now for South Sudan? Nyambura Wambugu, an academic with more than ten years' practical advisory and policymaking experience, adopts a holistic and multi-thematic approach to answer these crucial questions. Rooting her analysis as deeply as the initial militarisation of Sudan in the 1950s, Wambugu considers the complex and overlapping issues that have afflicted the region since 2005. In the process, Wambugu demonstrates the failure of the billions of dollars spent on liberal peacebuilding and elucidates the possibility of demilitarisation as a lasting and sustainable alternative. Such issues are common in post-conflict states, and the book therefore acts as a case study for better understanding the deeply entrenched causes of instability and identifying the most sustainable paths to peace. This meticulously researched account is essential reading for all students, researchers and policymakers working on post-conflict societies.




Kissing Fish


Book Description

Christianity receives a lot of attention in the media, but the most frequently discussed version represents a type of Christianity that sometimes turns people away from the Church. Kissing Fish presents a postmodern systematic theology of progressive Christianity, a growing movement that reclaims the radical message of the Gospel. This informative, contemplative, and entertaining book will guide you through the beliefs that inspire us to love one another in the transformative way that Jesus proclaimed, including practices that will take your faith to a new level. Kissing Fish is a scholarly yet thoroughly accessible introduction to progressive Christianity. While the intended target audience for this work would seem to be those who have either left the Christian faith or never adopted it at all; the work is filled with pearls of wisdom for all of us, whether associated with Christianity or not. Kissing Fish is a truly remarkable work, serving both as a reminder of the beauty and grace that form the central tenets of the faith, while offering a graceful yet prophetic rebuttal to its more exclusionary tendencies. Kissing Fish is part theological text and part tell-all personal spiritual journey. Imagine a down-to-earth combination of the works of Marcus Borg, Anne Lamott, Jim Wallis, Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne, Diana Butler-Bass, Brian McLaren, Walter Wink, Wes Howard-Brook, and Donald Miller. A profound romp that informs and inspires.




The Christian Century


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Did Jesus Exist?


Book Description

In Did Jesus Exist? historian and Bible expert Bart Ehrman confronts the question, "Did Jesus exist at all?" Ehrman vigorously defends the historical Jesus, identifies the most historically reliable sources for best understanding Jesus’ mission and message, and offers a compelling portrait of the person at the heart of the Christian tradition. Known as a master explainer with deep knowledge of the field, Bart Ehrman methodically demolishes both the scholarly and popular “mythicist” arguments against the existence of Jesus. Marshaling evidence from within the Bible and the wider historical record of the ancient world, Ehrman tackles the key issues that surround the mythologies associated with Jesus and the early Christian movement. In Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, Ehrman establishes the criterion for any genuine historical investigation and provides a robust defense of the methods required to discover the Jesus of history.




Letter from Birmingham Jail


Book Description

A beautiful commemorative edition of Dr. Martin Luther King's essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail," part of Dr. King's archives published exclusively by HarperCollins. With an afterword by Reginald Dwayne Betts On April 16, 1923, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., responded to an open letter written and published by eight white clergyman admonishing the civil rights demonstrations happening in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King drafted his seminal response on scraps of paper smuggled into jail. King criticizes his detractors for caring more about order than justice, defends nonviolent protests, and argues for the moral responsibility to obey just laws while disobeying unjust ones. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" proclaims a message - confronting any injustice is an acceptable and righteous reason for civil disobedience. This beautifully designed edition presents Dr. King's speech in its entirety, paying tribute to this extraordinary leader and his immeasurable contribution, and inspiring a new generation of activists dedicated to carrying on the fight for justice and equality.




Archaeology and the New Testament


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A veteran archaeologist sheds light on the biblical text by examining archaeological discoveries.




Onward


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Christianity Today "Beautiful Orthodoxy" Book of the Year in 2016. Keep Christianity Strange. As the culture changes all around us, it is no longer possible to pretend that we are a Moral Majority. That may be bad news for America, but it can be good news for the church. What's needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it its power in the first place. We seek the kingdom of God, before everything else. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonize opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let's do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down. The signs of the times tell us we are in for days our parents and grandparents never knew. But that's no call for panic or surrender or outrage. Jesus is alive. Let's act like it. Let's follow him, onward to the future.




Congressional Record


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The Christian Advocate


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