The Roman Catholic Church - A Critical Appraisal


Book Description

The Roman Catholic Church is the largest denomination with 1.1 billion adherents. Recently the pope Benedict XVI reasserted that the Catholic Church is the only true church founded by Christ. Today there is a pervasive indifference as to the question what is the true Christianity. This is a serious situation because there are numerous false or only partly true versions of Christianity. The author of this book attempts a critical appraisal of the Roman Catholic Church by the criteria of the Bible and history. The conclusion he reached is that the Catholic Church is a perversion of the Christianity of the New Testament. The author believes that he has substantiated the proposition that there are many unbiblical pagan elements in the Church. To give one example the monarchical papacy and the authoritarian church structure developed after the model of the authoritarian government of the ancient Roman Empire. No wonder that its official name is the Roman Catholic Church. A theologian and a minister. Received a doctorate in systematic theology from the University of Toronto. He did the ministerial work for 17 years in the United Church of Canada. Took early retirement in 1990 to study and write books, which is, he feels, the talent and his main vocation he has received from God. He respects the Bible as containing the revealed word of God. According to the prophets of God "justice and mercy" and the pure preservation of the true religion of God are God's two major concerns. He believes that God's major concerns should be all Christians' major concerns as well. "The Roman Catholic Church - A Critical Appraisal" was written from that perspective in order to attest to the true religion of God and to keep Christians from heading onto the wrong path.







The Failure of Natural Theology


Book Description

Aristotle's cosmological argument is the foundation of Aquinas's doctrine of God. For Thomas, the cosmological argument not only speaks of God's existence but also of God's nature. By learning that the unmoved mover is behind all moving objects, we learn something true about the essence of God-principally, that God is immobile. But therein lies the problem for Thomas. The Catholic Church had already condemned Aristotle's unmoved mover because, according to Aristotle, the unmoved mover is unable to be the moving cause (i.e., Creator) and governor of the universe-or else he would cease to be immobile. By seeking to baptize Aristotle into the Catholic Church, however, Thomas gave his life to seeking to explain how God can be both immobile and the moving cause of the universe. Thomas even looked to the pantheistic philosophy of Pseudo-Dionysius for help. But even with Dionysius's aid, Thomas failed to reconcile the god of Aristotle with the Trinitarian God of the Bible. If Thomas would have rejected the natural theology of Aristotle by placing the doctrine of the Trinity, which is known only by divine revelation, at the foundation of his knowledge of God, he would have rid himself of the irresolvable tension that permeates his philosophical theology. Thomas could have realized that the Trinity alone allows for God to be the only self-moving being-because the Trinity is the only being not moved by anything outside himself but freely capable of creating and controlling contingent things in motion.




The Roman Catholic Church’S Arrogant False Claims


Book Description

The Roman Catholic Churchs Arrogant False Claims grounds its critique of that bodys doctrines, pronouncements and practices on the authoritative teachings embedded in the Bible. The author, Hendrick Park, a retired minister of the United Church of Canada, brings to his analysis insights gained from his work on a doctoral degree in theology from Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, and his research for two other books: The Roman Catholic ChurchA Critical Appraisal and What is the True Christianity? When Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness and faced the devils temptations, he responded three times with bold claims that the people of God ought to trust in the authority of Gods word. As heirs to that witness to the truth of life with God, Christians in todays church are called to preach, teach and live together in the same wayleaning on Gods word. The Roman Catholic Churchs Arrogant False Claims enumerates the churchs claims, offers a critique, reviews the churchs history, evaluates the papacy and the actions of the Second Vatican Council and analyzes the churchs doctrines and dogmas. This treatment of the significant issues facing half of the worlds Christians brings the Scriptures into conversation with the practices and teachings of the churchs largest single tradition. Whether you find those claims attractive or alarming, you will discover in The Roman Catholic Churchs Arrogant False Claims food for your thoughtful reflections on the faith.




The Unintended Reformation


Book Description

In a work that is as much about the present as the past, Brad Gregory identifies the unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation and traces the way it shaped the modern condition over the course of the following five centuries. A hyperpluralism of religious and secular beliefs, an absence of any substantive common good, the triumph of capitalism and its driver, consumerism—all these, Gregory argues, were long-term effects of a movement that marked the end of more than a millennium during which Christianity provided a framework for shared intellectual, social, and moral life in the West. Before the Protestant Reformation, Western Christianity was an institutionalized worldview laden with expectations of security for earthly societies and hopes of eternal salvation for individuals. The Reformation’s protagonists sought to advance the realization of this vision, not disrupt it. But a complex web of rejections, retentions, and transformations of medieval Christianity gradually replaced the religious fabric that bound societies together in the West. Today, what we are left with are fragments: intellectual disagreements that splinter into ever finer fractals of specialized discourse; a notion that modern science—as the source of all truth—necessarily undermines religious belief; a pervasive resort to a therapeutic vision of religion; a set of smuggled moral values with which we try to fertilize a sterile liberalism; and the institutionalized assumption that only secular universities can pursue knowledge. The Unintended Reformation asks what propelled the West into this trajectory of pluralism and polarization, and finds answers deep in our medieval Christian past.




The Critical Analysis of Religious Diversity


Book Description

Drawing on international and thematic case studies, The Critical Analysis of Religious Diversity asks its readers to pay attention to the assumptions and processes by which scholars, religious practitioners and states construct religious diversity. The study has three foci: theoretical and methodological issues; religious diversity in non-Western contexts; and religious diversity in social contexts. Together, these trans-contextual studies are utilised to develop a critical analysis exploring how agency, power and language construct understandings of religious diversity. As a result, the book argues that reflexive scholarship needs to consider that the dynamics of diversification and homogenisation are fundamental to understanding social and religious life, that religious diversity is a Western concept, and that definitions of ‘religious diversity’ are often entangled by and within dynamic empirical realities. Contributors are: Martin Baumann, Peter Beyer, Jørn Borup, Paul Bramadat, Marian Burchardt, Henrik Reintoft Christensen, Andrew Dawson, Mar Griera, Anna Halafoff, William Hoverd, Lene Kühle, Mar Marcos, Stefania Travagnin, and Andreas Tunger-Zanetti.




Critical Analysis of Christianity and Human Rights


Book Description

This book is based on a thesis presented in June, 2013, which requires fulfillment for the Degree of Post-Graduation Diploma in Human Right. I am conscious of its many omissions. My aim has been, however to provide a working introduction to the study of, “Critical Analysis of Christianity and Human Rights”, setting it so far as possible in its historical and cultural Context, and tracing the more obvious lines of development. It is my hope that this book may stimulate others to produce more adequate studies, and to carry forward the studies of Christianity and Human Rights. Specifically, in the content, it was regarding about Christianity that from the beginning is called religion of Freedom. If we checked and read the Holy Bible, one theme you’ll find and notice, which we can call Liberation, Freedom. Whether it is the people of Israelite liberated from the king of Egypt in Old Testament or liberation from the sin through Jesus Christ in New Testament. But Christianity talks about very important aspect of free will. God wants all His Children to walk in the righteous way but He has given the free will to choose by the Human Being. He has given decision making authority to human to choose the way of Life. In general, this book is some what touches spirituality and scholastic, what we as a human being can learnt Human Rights from Christianity. Because Christianity is a picture of Human Right. Christianity is an image of Human Rights.




Who Do We Think We Are?


Book Description

This empirical study explores how the sampled priests understand their priesthood. Chris A. Fallon reviews Liverpool's history of expansion and decline, which has left fewer and older priests serving fewer active Catholics and an undiminished number who still require baptisms, first communions, marriages and funerals. It contrasts the models of priesthood found in Liverpool with American studies of the cultic and servant leader models of priesthood, taking into account the theological viewpoints and personality profiles of the individuals who took part.




Instrumental Data for Drug Analysis, Second Edition


Book Description

Compiled with the most sophisticated chromatographic and spectrometric instruments available, this complete and self-contained seven-volume reference provides forensic, toxicology, and clinical laboratories with up-to-date information on 1,600 drugs and drug-related compounds-one of the largest collections of analytical data generated from a single source. Instrumental Data for Drug Analysis contains timely, quality data presented in a large, easily usable format. It is an essential reference in the libraries of all toxicology, analytical chemistry, and forensic specialists and laboratories.




A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of His Existence


Book Description

Reproduction of the original: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of His Existence by John E. Remsburg