Institutionalization of Authority and the Naming of Jesus


Book Description

This book is about the names given to Jesus by those followers responsible for putting his words and deeds into writing-the earliest "Christian scribes." In the first-century Mediterranean world, the first name of male person was his proper name. The second name indicated the family or clan to which he belonged, whereas the third name was an "honorary title" bestowed on him because of some achievement, good fortune, physical attribute, or "special excellence." Honorary titles were bestowed on Jesus mostly after his death. Such titles were often given to sages. The titles could either amplify Jesus' wisdom and empower people, or serve as instruments of power. This book aims to demonstrate the ideological and political mystification of Jesus in the transmission of the tradition about him. It illustrates the relevance of --The social history of formative Christianity; --The evolution of the Jesus traditions; --The genre of the gospels as biography; and --The institutionalization of charismatic authority.







The Routledge Companion to the Christian Church


Book Description

Written by an international team of distinguished scholars, this comprehensive book introduces students to the fundamental historical, systematic, moral and ecclesiological aspects of the study of the church, as well as serving as a resource for scholars engaging in ecclesiological debates on a wide variety of issues.




Jesus


Book Description

Drawing on examples from literature, art, and popular culture, aswell as theology, this engaging book reveals the importance of thequestion, "whose was he?" in fully understanding the life andlegacy of Jesus. A concise, accessible and engaging exploration of Jesus's lifeand enduring influence Charts the changing global status and influence of Jesus, aGalilean Jew born when the ancient Roman Empire ruled theMediterranean world, and how he has come to be honored as theChrist and recognized by billions of people around the world Traces the reception history of Jesus and his story over thepast two millennia, through art, literature, and culture, as wellas theology Draws on a fascinating range of materials - from ancient texts,creeds, and theological treatises, to the visual and dramatic arts,including books like The DaVinci Code and films such asThe Passion of the Christ




Institutionalizing Rights and Religion


Book Description

Modern statesmen and political theorists have long struggled to design institutions that will simultaneously respect individual freedom of religion, nurture religion's capacity to be a force for civic good and human rights, and tame religion's illiberal tendencies. Moving past the usual focus on personal free expression of religion, this illuminating book - written by renowned scholars of law and religion from the United States, England, and Israel - considers how the institutional design of both religions and political regimes influences the relationship between religious practice and activity and human rights. The authors examine how the organization of religious communities affects human rights, and investigate the scope of a just state's authority with respect to organized religion in the name of human rights. They explore the institutional challenges posed by, and possible responses to, the fraught relationship between religion and rights in the world today.




The Expression Son of Man and the Development of Christology


Book Description

'Son of Man' is practically the only self-designation employed by Jesus himself in the gospels, but is used in such a way that no hint is left of any particular theological significance. Still, during the first many centuries of the church, the expression as it was reused was given content, first literally as signifying Christ's human nature. Later 'Son of Man' was thought to be a christological title in its own right. Today, many scholars are inclined to think that, in an original Aramaic of an historical Jesus, it was little more than a rhetorical circumlocution, referring to the one speaking. Mogens Müller's 'The Expression 'Son of Man' and the Development of Christology: A History of Interpretation' is the first study of the 'Son of Man' trope, which traces the history of interpretation from the Apostolic Fathers to the present, concluding that the various interpretations of this phrase reflect little more than the various doctrinal assumptions held by its interpreters over centuries.




The Politics of the Sacred in America


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive investigation of the political dimensions of civil religion in the United States. By employing an original social-psychological theory rooted in semiotics, it offers a qualitative and quantitative empirical examination of more than fifty years of political rhetoric. Further, it presents two in-depth case studies that examine how the cultural, totemic sign of ‘the Founding Fathers’ and the signs of America’s sacred texts (the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence) are used in attempts to link partisan policy positions with notions that the country collectively holds sacred. The book’s overarching thesis is that America’s civil religion serves as a discursive framework for the country’s politics of the sacred, mediating the demands of particularistic interests and social solidarity through the interaction of social belief and institutional politics like elections and the Supreme Court. The book penetrates America’s unique political religiosity to reveal and unravel the intricate ways in which politics, political institutions, religion and culture intertwine in the United States.




John


Book Description

John: A Daring Vision of Faith delivers a unique understanding of the good news. Dr. Doohan calls John's Gospel a challenging and refreshing foundational document for Christian faith, because it calls to a deep mysticism and avoids the clutter of petty laws and power struggles so typical of inauthentic religion. John's Gospel has always been characterized as coming from the fruits of reflection and deep prayer, and it cannot be comprehended unless one enters into a deep mystical state. The author aids the reader in entering this spiritual state required to truly know John's gospel of Christ.




Sacred Power, Sacred Space


Book Description

The author's main concern in this book is the dynamic character of Christianity and how church buildings shape and influence the religion. She argues that a primary function of church buildings is to represent and reify three different types of power: divine power, personal empowerment, and social power.




Awakening our Faith in the Future


Book Description

What transformation would happen if we could combine the best of liberal politics with psychology? Awakening our Faith in the Future investigates the avenues for creating a new branch of psychology, a transformative political psychology. In the past, political psychology has focused directly on analysis and knowledge acquisition, rather than on interventions that transform self and culture. A transformative political psychology combines the best of traditional social science with the transformative intent of clinical psychology in order to create a new political culture. Peter T. Dunlap suggests that while liberals focus intently outside of themselves on changing the world, those with psychological interests focus much more internally on changing themselves. In this book, he argues that by combining political liberalism and psychology, and encouraging psychologists to develop cultural learning practices based on ideas of self-knowledge, there is opportunity to transform our political culture. Divided into five parts, this book explores: stories of political destiny questions of development opportunities for political development a speculative theory of cultural evolution practices of a political psychologist. This scholarly text uses personal experiences and the stories of progressive political leaders as pathways for addressing political problems, making it ideal reading for professionals and students in the fields of both politics and psychology as well as for activists interested in the future of liberalism.