Church History
Showing 25–36 of 549 results
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Reorganized Religion : The Reshaping Of The American Church And Why It Matt
$17.99Add to cartUncover the ways the Christian church has changed in recent years–from the decline of the mainline denominations to the mega-churchification of American culture–and a hopeful reimagining of what the church might look like going forward.
The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented spiritual, technological, demographic, political and social transformation–moving from an older, mostly white, mostly Protestant, religion-friendly society to a younger diverse, multiethnic, pluralistic culture, where no one faith group will have the advantage. At the same time, millions of Americans are abandoning organized religion altogether in favor of disorganized disbelief.
Reorganized Religion is an in-depth and critical look at why people are leaving American churches and what we lose as a society as it continues. But it also accepts the dismantling of what has come before and try to help readers reinvent the path forward. This book looks at the future of organized religion in America and outline the options facing churches and other faith groups. Will they retreat? Will they become irrelevant? Or will they find a new path forward?
Written by veteran religion reporter Bob Smietana, Reorganized Religion is a journalistic look at the state of the American church and its future. It draws on polling data, interviews with experts, and reporting on how faith communities old and new are coping with the changing religious landscape, along with personal stories about how faith is lived in everyday life. It also profiles faith communities and leaders who are finding interesting ways to reimagine what church might look like in the future and discuss various ways we can reinvent this organization so it survives and thrives. The book also reflects the hope that perhaps people of faith can learn to become, if not friends with the larger culture, then at least better neighbors.
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Advent : The Season Of Hope
$20.00Add to cart“Christians believe not just in one coming of Christ, but in three.”
We tend to think of Advent as the season of anticipation before Christmas–and while it is that, it’s also much more. Throughout its history, the church has observed Advent as a preparation not only for the first coming of Christ in his incarnation but also for his second coming at the last day. It’s also about a third coming: the coming of Christ to meet us in our present moment, to make us holy by his Word and Sacrament.
In this short volume, priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren explores all three of these “comings” of Christ and invites us into a deeper experience of the first season of the Christian year.
Each volume in the Fullness of Time series invites readers to engage with the riches of the church year, exploring how its traditions, prayers, Scriptures, and rituals all point us to Jesus.
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Infinite Fountain Of Light
$26.00Add to cartChristians need to pause once in a while to get their bearings. For perspective on our own times and how we got here, it helps to listen to wise guides from other eras. In An Infinite Fountain of Light, the renowned American historian George Marsden illuminates the landscape with wisdom from one such mentor: Jonathan Edwards.
Drawing on his deep expertise on Edwards and American culture, Marsden explains where Edwards stood within his historical context and sets forth key points of his complex thought. By also considering Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield, two of Edwards’s most influential contemporaries, Marsden unpacks the competing cultural and religious impulses that have shaped our times. In contrast, Edwards offered us an exhilarating view of the centrality of God’s beauty and love. Christians’ love for God, he taught, can be the guiding love of our lives, opening us to transformative joy and orienting all our lesser loves.
“There is an infinite fullness of all possible good in God, a fullness of every perfection, of all excellency and beauty, and of infinite happiness,” wrote Edwards. “This infinite fountain of light should, diffusing its excellent fullness, pour forth light all around.”
With Marsden’s guidance, readers will discover how Edwards’s insights can renew our own vision of the divine, of creation, and of ourselves.
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Quest For Revival
$21.99Add to cartNow is the Time to Embrace God’s Revival Fires
Manifestations of God’s presence and power are known to have swept the world in past revivals with amazing healings and miracles. But today, how often do we see God’s mighty power? Now, more than ever, we need the refreshing of the Lord.
In Quest for Revival, international Bible teacher and revival historian, Ron McIntosh uncovers key truths of the marvelous moves of God and shares insights to ignite the revival fires in your life today. Ron draws on the victories and failures of past revivalists including John Alexander Dowie, Smith Wigglesworth, William Seymour, Kathryn Kuhlman, and more to reveal how you can:
*Recognize the seasons of revival
*Activate the power of prevailing prayer
*Understand the role of repentance for a nation
*Utilize the force of divine momentum
*Experience fresh communion with the Holy SpiritIt may seem like darkness is overtaking the world, but God’s tremendous power is about to break loose! Discover how you can join God’s plan to dispel the darkness and ignite the glorious fires of revival.
Now is the Time to Embrace God’s Revival Fires
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How The Saints Shaped History
$27.95Add to cartIn every era of the Catholic Church, holy men and women have shaped history through their gifts and talents and, most importantly, through their resolute commitment to Jesus Christ. Some led armies, some founded monasteries, some lived a radical call to charity – and each one had a unique part to play.
How the Saints Shaped History focuses on the essential role of the saints, as vessels of God’s grace, in moving the Church (and the world!) through her two-thousand-year history. Written especially for everyday Catholics hungry to learn more about the Faith, this book is both comprehensive and accessible. It tells the story of how more than 180 saints, from Saint Mary Magdalene to Pope Saint John Paul II, led the Church through many crises and back to her spiritual roots.
As our Church continues to face crises, this book reminds us that we still have reason to hope in our own time. As the providential hand of God worked through the saints to shape history, each of us is called to become a new saint to shape the history of the Church today.
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Tell Her Story
$24.00Add to cartWomen were there.For centuries, discussions of early Christianity have focused on male leaders in the church. But there is ample evidence right in the New Testament that women were actively involved in ministry, at the frontier of the gospel mission, and as respected leaders.
Nijay Gupta calls us to bring these women out of the shadows by shining light on their many inspiring contributions to the planting, growth, and health of the first Christian churches. He sets the context by exploring the lives of first-century women and addressing common misconceptions, then focuses on the women leaders of the early churches as revealed in Paul’s writings. We discover the major roles of people such as:
*Phoebe, Paul’s trusted coworker
*Prisca, strategic leader and expert teacher
*Junia, courageous apostle
*Nympha, representative of countless lesser-known figuresWhen we understand the world in which Jesus and his followers lived and what the New Testament actually attests about women in the churches, it becomes clear that women were active participants and trusted leaders all along. They were welcomed by Paul and other apostles, were equipped and trained for ministry leadership, instructed others, traveled long distances, were imprisoned-and once in a while became heroes and giants.
The New Testament writers tell their stories. It’s time for the church to retell them, again and again.
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Pentecost : A Day Of Power For All People
$20.00Add to cart“The power of Pentecost is inseparable from the good news of the Christ who is proclaimed in the Gospels, in accordance with the Scriptures.”
Pentecost may well be the most misconstrued day on the church calendar. A long legacy of cessationism has drained Pentecost of much of its significance, and it’s largely misunderstood in many Western churches today, if not outright ignored.
That’s not the case in Emilio Alvarez’s tradition, though. In this Fullness of Time volume, the Pentecostal bishop and theologian offers us a rich biblical and theological introduction to the day of Pentecost and sets it in its liturgical context–not only in the Protestant tradition but also in Catholic, Orthodox, and Pentecostal expressions. The result is a rich theological feast and an invitation to find afresh the power of the gospel for all peoples.
Each volume in the Fullness of Time series invites readers to engage with the riches of the church year, exploring the traditions, prayers, Scriptures, and rituals of the seasons of the church calendar.
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Worship By Faith Alone
$35.00Add to cartIn every age, the church must consider what it means to gather together to worship God.
If the church is primarily the people who follow the risen Christ, then its worship should be “gospel-centered.” But where might the church find an example of such worship for today?
In this Dynamics of Christian Worship volume, scholar, worship leader, and songwriter Zac Hicks contends that such a focus can be found in the theology of worship presented by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury during the English Reformation. Hicks argues that Cranmer’s reformation of the church’s worship and liturgy was shaped primarily by the Protestant principle of justification by faith alone as reflected in his 1552 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, which was later codified under Elizabeth I and has guided Anglican worship for centuries.
Here, we find a model of “gospel-centered” worship through which the church of today might be reformed yet again.
The Dynamics of Christian Worship series draws from a wide range of worshiping contexts and denominational backgrounds to unpack the many dynamics of Christian worship–including prayer, reading the Bible, preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, music, visual art, architecture, and more–to deepen both the theology and practice of Christian worship for the life of the church.
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Jesus Revolution Movie Edition
$18.99Add to cartNow a major motion picture
The Jesus Movement transformed the church–and it can transform you
God has always been passionate about turning unlikely people into His most fervent followers. Prostitutes and pagans, tax collectors and tricksters, the pompous and the pious–the more unlikely, the more it seemed to please God to demonstrate His power, might, and mercy through them. America in the 1960s and 1970s was full of many such characters–young men and women who had rejected the conformist religion of their parents’ generation, didn’t follow conventional rules, and didn’t fit in. Their longing for something more set the stage for the greatest spiritual awakening of the twentieth century.
Discover the remarkable true story of the Jesus Movement, an extraordinary time of mass revival, renewal, and reconciliation. Setting intriguing personal stories within the context of one of the most tumultuous times in modern history, Greg Laurie and Ellen Vaughn draw important parallels with our own time of spiritual apathy and overt hostility, offering a new vision for the next generation of unlikely believers–and hope for the next great American revival.
Because God can always bring a new Jesus Revolution.
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Faithful Disobedience : Writings On Church And State From A Chinese House C
$28.00Add to cartThroughout China’s rapidly growing cities, a new wave of unregistered house churches is growing. They are developing rich theological perspectives that are both uniquely Chinese and rooted in the historical doctrines of the faith. To understand how they have endured despite government pressure and cultural marginalization, we must understand both their history and their theology.
In this volume, key writings from the house church have been compiled, translated, and made accessible to English speakers. Featured here is a manifesto by well-known pastor Wang Yi and his church, Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, to clarify their theological stance on the house church and its relationship to the Chinese government. There are also works by prominent voices such as Jin Tianming, Jin Mingri, and Sun Yi. The editors have provided introductions, notes, and a glossary to give context to each selection.
These writings are an important body of theology historically and spiritually. Though defined by a specific set of circumstances, they have universal applications in a world where the relationship between church and state is more complicated than ever. This unique resource will be valuable to practical and political theologians as well as readers interested in international relations, political philosophy, history, and intercultural studies.
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What Nuns Read
$49.95Add to cartThe literacy and education of medieval nuns has been a subject of dispute and study in recent years. In his third Index of medieval libraries, David Bell presents a comprehensive list of all manuscripts and printed books which have been traced with certainty or high probability to english nunneries. A systematic listing of the books available to english nuns, and in the process an indication of the wealth, the intellectual level, and the spirituality of english nuns from the Conquest to the Reformation.
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Great Is Thy Faithfulness
$34.99Add to cartFrom basement Bible study to leading evangelical institution
Starting from humble beginnings in the late nineteenth century, the story of Trinity International University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School is one of faithfulness.
In Great Is Thy Faithfulness, scholars John D. Woodbridge, David M. Gustafson, Scott M. Manetsch, and Bradley J. Gundlach trace the journey of Trinity International University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In order to tell the story of evangelicalism in America, one must know the story of Trinity International University. Great Is Thy Faithfulness is an essential resource for understanding an institution that has been at the center of evangelical theological life for decades. Readers will be encouraged by God’s faithfulness to his people.