The Subversion Of Christianity

Author : Jacques Ellul
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1606089749
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Subversion of Christianity written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-06-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pointing to the many contradictions between the Bible and the practice of the church, Jacques Ellul asserts in this provocative and stimulating book that what we today call Christianity is actually far removed from the revelation of God. Successive generations have reinterpreted Scripture and modeled it after their own cultures, thus moving society further from the truth of the original gospel. The church also perverted the gospel message, for instead of simply doing away with pagan practice and belief, it reconstituted the sacred, set up its own religious forms, and thus resacralized the world. Ellul develops several areas in which this perversion is most obvious, including the church's emphasis on moralism and its teaching in the political sphere. The heart of the problem, he says, is that we have not accepted the fact that Christianity is a scandal; we attempt to make it acceptable and easy--and thus pervert its true message. Ultimately, however, Ellul remains hopeful. For, in spite of all that has been done to subvert the message of God, the Holy Spirit continues to move in the world. Christianity, writes Ellul, never carries the day decisively against Christ.

Author : Jacques Ellul
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1606089714
Total Pages : 127 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Anarchy and Christianity written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-05-18 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacque Ellul blends politics, theology, history, and exposition in this analysis of the relationship between political anarchy and biblical faith. While he clarifies the views of each and how they can be related, his aim is not to proselytize either anarchists into Christianity or Christians into anarchy. On the one hand, suggests Ellul, anarchists need to understand that much of their criticism of Christianity applies only to the form of religion that developed, not to biblical faith. Christians, on the other hand, need to look at the biblical texts and not reject anarchy as a political option, for it seems closest to biblical thinking. After charting the background of his own interest in the subject, Ellul defines what he means by anarchy: the nonviolent repudiation of authority. He goes on to look at the Bible as the source of anarchy (in the sense of nondomination, not disorder), working through Old Testament history, Jesus' ministry, and finally the early church's view of power as reflected in the New Testament writings.

Author : Luke Bretherton
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1444357697
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christianity and Contemporary Politics written by Luke Bretherton and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congratulations to Luke Bretherton on winning the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing for Christianity and Contemporary Politics! Relations between religious and political spheres continue to stir passionate debates on both sides of the Atlantic. Through a combination of theological reflection and empirical case studies, Bretherton succeeds in offering timely and invaluable insights into these crucial issues facing 21st century societies. Explores the relationship between Christianity and contemporary politics through case studies of faith-based organizations, Christian political activism and welfare provision in the West; these case studies assess initiatives including community organizing, fair trade, and the sanctuary movement Offers an insightful, informative account of how Christians can engage politically in a multi-faith, liberal democracy Integrates debates in political theology with inter-disciplinary analysis of policy and practice regarding religious social, political and economic engagement in the USA, UK, and continental Europe Reveals how Christians can help prevent the subversion of the church – and even of politics itself – by legal, bureaucratic, and market mechanisms, rather than advocating withdrawal or assimilation Engages with the intricacies of contemporary politics whilst integrating systematic and historical theological reflection on political and economic life

Author : Jacques Ellul
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1630871869
Total Pages : 89 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book If You Are the Son of God written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-05-05 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This significant book, written a few years before his death, presents Ellul's fullest understanding of the meaning of Jesus' life. One finds all of the major themes of Ellul's writings. The first half of this book deals with Jesus' sufferings, which are by no means limited to Good Friday. Through Jesus' identification with "the whole human condition," we are offered the possibility of both enduring and overcoming suffering. Similarly, the temptations are understood beyond the wilderness temptation narrative since Jesus experiences them throughout his ministry. Ellul believes temptations are ultimately human avenues for tempting God, and so focuses on the discussion power and "non-power," be it on personal or political levels. Appropriately, Ellul enters into the passion narrative not simply in the context of suffering but in the context of temptation, where Jesus could have easily "proved his divinity," but chose instead to reveal both the character and way of God.

Author : Paul Johnson
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451688512
Total Pages : 816 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book History of Christianity written by Paul Johnson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1976, Paul Johnson’s exceptional study of Christianity has been loved and widely hailed for its intensive research, writing, and magnitude—“a tour de force, one of the most ambitious surveys of the history of Christianity ever attempted and perhaps the most radical” (New York Review of Books). In a highly readable companion to books on faith and history, the scholar and author Johnson has illuminated the Christian world and its fascinating history in a way that no other has. Johnson takes off in the year AD 49 with his namesake the apostle Paul. Thus beginning an ambitious quest to paint the centuries since the founding of a little-known ‘Jesus Sect’, A History of Christianity explores to a great degree the evolution of the Western world. With an unbiased and overall optimistic tone, Johnson traces the fantastic scope of the consequent sects of Christianity and the people who followed them. Information drawn from extensive and varied sources from around the world makes this history as credible as it is reliable. Invaluable understanding of the framework of modern Christianity—and its trials and tribulations throughout history—has never before been contained in such a captivating work.

Author : Jacques Ellul
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1532684452
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Apocalypse written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “There has never been a book provoking more delirium, foolishness and irrational movements, without any relationship to Jesus Christ [than the Book of Revelation].” —Jacques Ellul, Introduction Known for his trenchant critique of modernity and of those Christians who celebrate their captivity to it, Ellul here cuts to the heart of the theological intention of the Book of Revelation, and thereby reveals the liberating gospel in all its offensiveness. Neither an exhaustive commentary nor a work of historical-exegetical analysis, Apocalypse is a provocative, independent interpretation. Ellul seeks to rescue Revelation from the reassuring and orthodox banality to which commentators often reduce it. The goal is to perceive the totality of the book in its movement and structure. “Architecture in movement” is the key to understanding Revelation’s puzzling but simple message. This edition also comes with a new foreword by Jacob Marques Rollison who provides an essential aid for guiding readers through Ellul’s thorough engagement with Revelation.

Author : Judith Butler
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 023152725X
Total Pages : 149 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere written by Judith Butler and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-02 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere represents a rare opportunity to experience a diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one pervasive contemporary concern: what role does or should religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, Judith Butler explores the potential of religious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while Jürgen Habermas, best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, thinks through the ambiguous legacy of the concept of "the political" in contemporary theory. Charles Taylor argues for a radical redefinition of secularism, and Cornel West defends civil disobedience and emancipatory theology. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen detail the immense contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an afterword by Craig Calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both religion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics.

Author : Jacques Ellul
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1498204112
Total Pages : 98 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Islam and Judeo-Christianity written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-08-13 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theme of Islam and Judeo-Christianity is the relationship between these three faiths under three headings that are often promoted as a basis for commonality between them (sons of Abraham, monotheism, and religions of the book). Ellul incisively critiques these expressions, finding less common ground than is generally accepted and a pattern of conformism. The English edition of Islam and Judeo-Christianity includes a foreword by David Gill and Dominique North Ellul, and Alain Besancon's extensive foreword to the French edition of Islam and Judeo-Christianity (relocated to the appendices in this edition). The book also includes other writings on this theme by Ellul: Firstly, chapter 5 from Ellul's Subversion of Christianity where "Islam is portrayed as a non-progressive, totalitarian religion, founded on the concept of divine right, and credited with having introduced into Christianity the idea of holy war." Secondly, Ellul's foreword to The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam written by Bat Ye'or (1985), which documents the conditions of Jews and Christians in Muslim society. Thirdly, Ellul's foreword to The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude, also by Bat Ye'or (1996), which further explores the history of Jews and Christians under Islam.

Author : Craig Warren Greenfield
Publisher : Zondervan
ISBN 13 : 031034624X
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Subversive Jesus written by Craig Warren Greenfield and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Jesus left the most exclusive gated community in the universe to come live with the people he loved and gave his life for, he turned everything we know and believe about life on its head. Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor, but most Western Christians remain disconnected and isolated from the poor and their contexts of injustice. Even our churches echo society’s pressure to isolate ourselves from the margins (e.g. by moving to a better suburb) and instead teach us how to be “nice people” who worship a “nice Jesus” and don’t disrupt the status quo. Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ’s footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again. This is the story of how Jesus led them to the margins: initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world’s most vulnerable children. This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens—reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.

Author : Li Ma
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1725268620
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Babel Church written by Li Ma and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assisted by a diverse mass media industry, American evangelicalism has been long plagued by consumerism, entrepreneurism, and social engineering. Churches and movements that carry the name of Christ have become projects of ambition and scandals in the public eye. Without fixing its dysfunctions, these ministry models have expanded to other parts of the world, reaping similar fruits of corruption, prejudice, and abuses. The alarm call of #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements since 2017 made it more urgent for the global body of Christ to inspect its pathological patterns. What kind of response does the #MeToo movement require of our public theology and leadership ethics? Sociologist Li Ma invites us to re-engage with biblical exegesis while being attentive to new mandates of God revealed from #MeToo. A creative Ellulian integration of sociological analysis and theology, Babel Church incisively reveals why American evangelicalism and its global projects have succumbed to the temptations of worldly power at the expense of vulnerable members in the body of Christ.