Leaving Christianity

Author : Stuart Macdonald,Brian P. Clarke
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 219 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2017-11-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780773551947

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Leaving Christianity by Stuart Macdonald,Brian P. Clarke Pdf

Canadians were once church-goers. During the post-war boom of the 1950s, Canadian churches were vibrant institutions, with attendance rates even higher than in the United States, but the following decade witnessed emptying pews. What happened? In Leaving Christianity Brian Clarke and Stuart Macdonald quantitatively map the nature and extent of Canadians’ disengagement with organized religion and assess the implications for Canadian society and its religious institutions. Drawing on a wide array of national and denominational statistics, they illustrate how the exodus that began with disaffected baby boomers and their parents has become so widespread that religiously unaffiliated Canadians are now the new majority. While the old mainstream Protestant churches have been the hardest hit, the Roman Catholic Church has also experienced a significant decline in numbers, especially in Quebec. Canada’s civil society has historically depended on church members for support, and a massive drift away from churches has profound implications for its future. Leaving Christianity documents the true extent of the decline, the timing of it, and the reasons for this major cultural shift.

Author : Jeffrey Mark
Publisher : Jeffrey Mark
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2008-08
Category : Atheism
ISBN : 9780981631301

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Christian No More by Jeffrey Mark Pdf

Mark explores the deeper truths behind the Bible while discovering science, logic, and reason--and ultimately revealing Christianity for what it really is.

Author : Chrissy Stroop,Lauren O'Neal
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2019-12
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1946093076

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Empty the Pews by Chrissy Stroop,Lauren O'Neal Pdf

Author : Marlene Winell
Publisher : Marlene Winell Ph.D.
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 1933993235

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Leaving the Fold by Marlene Winell Pdf

Have you been harmed by toxic religion? Learn how to recover and reclaim your life. Psychologist Marlene Winell is uniquely qualified to address the subject of this book. In addition to her personal experience with leaving fundamentalist religion, she has worked with clients recovering from religion for 28 years. She is known for coining the term Religious Trauma Syndrome. Leaving the Fold is a self-help book that examines the effects of authoritarian religion (fundamentalist Christianity in particular) on individuals who leave the faith. The concrete steps for healing are useful for anyone in recovery from toxic religion. In this book you'll discover: - what you can expect about stages of religious recovery - information about the key issues of recovery - relevant family dynamics - the power of manipulations - motivations for belonging and for leaving religion - specific steps for healing and reclaiming life - further steps for rebuilding life in the present Leaving the Fold is the only self-help psychology book on the subject of religious recovery. The accessible, compassionate writing is ideal for the reader who needs clear information and concrete help. Buy Leaving the Fold and begin your healing journey today

Author : Daniel Enstedt,Göran Larsson,Teemu T. Mantsinen
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2019-10-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004331471

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Handbook of Leaving Religion by Daniel Enstedt,Göran Larsson,Teemu T. Mantsinen Pdf

The Handbook of Leaving Religion introduces a neglected field of research with the aim to outline previous and contemporary research, and suggest how the topic of leaving religion should be studied in the future. The handbook consists of three sections: 1) Major debates about leaving religion; 2) Case studies and empirical insights; and 3) Theoretical and methodological approaches. Section one provides the reader with an introduction to key terms, historical developments, major controversies and significant cases. Section two includes case studies that illustrate various processes of leaving religion from different perspectives, and each chapter provides new empirical insights. Section three discusses, presents and encourages new approaches to the study of leaving religion.

Author : Eli Santis
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 150 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2016-02-02
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781329803800

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Unveil Why I left Christianity by Eli Santis Pdf

Throughout the years, after leaving Christianity to embrace Judaism, I have come across the following question, asked by friends and even strangers, ""You don't believe in Jesus anymore?"" That question led me to write this book, to explain why I left Christianity and embraced Judaism, directing my prayers only to the Eternal G-d of Israel. It took me over 10 years of research, debate and confrontation to finally finalize this work. I want to make clear that I have no intention of converting anyone; the purpose of this book is to help those who are seeking clarification.

Author : Barbara Brown Taylor
Publisher : Canterbury Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2013-01-25
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781848253575

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Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor Pdf

Tells how a renowned preacher left her ministry to rediscover the authentic heart of her faith. A moving reflection on keeping faith amidst the relentless demands of modern life.

Author : Drew Dyck
Publisher : Moody Publishers
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2010-10-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1575675641

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Generation Ex-Christian by Drew Dyck Pdf

Young people aren’t walking away from the church—they’re sprinting. According to a recent study by Ranier Research, 70 percent of youth leave church by the time they are 22 years old. Barna Group estimates that 80 percent of those reared in the church will be “disengaged” by the time they are 29 years old. Unlike earlier generations of church dropouts, these “leavers” are unlikely to seek out alternative forms of Christian community such as home churches and small groups. When they leave church, many leave the faith as well. Drawing on recent research and in-depth interviews with young leavers, Generation Ex-Christian will shine a light on this crisis and propose effective responses that go beyond slick services or edgy outreach. But it won’t be easy. Christianity is regarded with suspicion by the younger generation. Those who leave the faith are often downright cynical. To make matters worse, parents generally react poorly when their children go astray. Many sink into a defensive crouch or go on the attack, delivering homespun fire-and-brimstone sermons that further distance their grown children. Others give up completely or take up the spiritual-sounding “all we can do is pray” mantra without truly exploring creative ways to engage their children on matters of faith. Some turn to their churches for help, only to find that they frequently lack adequate resources to guide them. This is where Generation Ex-Christian will lend a hand. It will equip and inspire parents, church leaders, and everyday Christians to reawaken the prodigal's desire for God and set him or her back on the road to a dynamic faith. The heart of the book will be the raw profiles of real-world, young ex-Christians. No two leavers are identical, but upon close observation some categories emerge. The book will identify seven different kinds of leavers (the postmodern skeptic, the drifter, the neopagan, etc.) and offer practical advice for how to connect with each type. Shrewd tips will also intersperse the chapters alerting readers to opportunities for engagement, and to hidden landmines they must sidestep to effectively reach leavers.

Author : Russell Moore
Publisher : B&H Publishing Group
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2015-08
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781433686177

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Onward by Russell Moore Pdf

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.

Author : Pamela Dickey Young,Heather Shipley
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2020-07-23
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780228002444

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Identities Under Construction by Pamela Dickey Young,Heather Shipley Pdf

Growing numbers of young adults are either nonreligious or "spiritual but not religious," but this does not signal a lack of interest in religion and meaning-making. Though the lexicon describing sexuality and gender is quickly evolving, young people do not yet have satisfactory language to describe their fluid religious and spiritual identities. In Identities Under Construction Pamela Dickey Young and Heather Shipley undertake a focused study of youth sexual, religious, and gender identity construction. Drawing from survey responses and interviews with nearly five hundred participants, they reveal that youth today consider their identities fluid and open to change. Young people do not limit themselves to singular identity categories, experiencing the choice of one religion, of maleness or femaleness, or of a fixed sexuality as confining. Although they recognize various forces at work in identity construction - parents, peers, the internet - they regard themselves as the authors of their own identities. For most of the young adults in the study, even those who are most traditionally religious, religious opinions and values should adapt to changing social mores to ensure that people are not judged for their sexual choices or identities. Further, they are not judgmental of others' choices, even if they would not make these choices for themselves. Engaging religion and sexuality studies in new ways, Identities Under Construction calls for a new grammar of religion that better captures lived realities at a time when religious choice has broadened beyond choosing a single organized religious tradition.

Author : Joshua Harris
Publisher : Multnomah
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2012-01-11
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781588601575

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I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris Pdf

Joshua Harris's first book, written when he was only 21, turned the Christian singles scene upside down...and people are still talking. More than 800,000 copies later, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, with its inspiring call to sincere love, real purity, and purposeful singleness, remains the benchmark for books on Christian dating. Now, for the first time since its release, the national #1 bestseller has been expanded with new content and updated for new readers. Honest and practical, it challenges cultural assumptions about relationships and provides solid, biblical alternatives to society's norm.Clear, stylish typeset, with user-friendly links to referenced Scripture.

Author : Doreen Virtue
Publisher : Thomas Nelson
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2020-07-28
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780785234227

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Deceived No More by Doreen Virtue Pdf

The Miraculous Story of a Hugely Successful New Age Teacher’s Conversion to Christianity In this brilliant, utterly captivating memoir, Doreen Virtue chronicles her journey in discovering everything she believed in was a lie. She poignantly shares the price she’s paid for following Jesus. New Age teachings are based on concepts that sound almost irresistible. But as Doreen discovered, they come with a hidden price: your eternal destiny. Here is a riveting, personal confessional of how a former false prophet learned to trust God after nearly wasting a lifetime being independent and willful—trying to predict and control the future—and how Jesus saved her soul from deception and opened her eyes to His truth. Deceived No More can help you learn how to discern dangerous teachings so you can detect and avoid deception. Topics include: How to spot New Age teachings, and why they’re dangerous Biblical ways to deal with persecution, spiritual warfare, and other post-conversion issues How to witness to a New Ager

Author : Josie McSkimming
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2016-10-04
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317106562

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Leaving Christian Fundamentalism and the Reconstruction of Identity by Josie McSkimming Pdf

There is an increasing interest in the influence of religious fundamentalism upon people’s motivation, identity and decision-making. Leaving Christian Fundamentalism and the Re-construction of Identity details the stories of those who have left Christian fundamentalist churches and how they change after they have left. It considers how the previous fundamentalist identity is shaped by aspects of church teaching and discipline that are less authoritarian and coercive, and more subtle and widely spread throughout the church body. That is, individuals are understood as not only subject to a form of judgment, but also exercise it, with everyone seemingly complicit in maintaining the stability of the church organisation. This book provocatively illustrates that the reasons for leaving an evangelical Christian church may be less about what happens outside the church in terms of the lures and attractions of the secular world, and more about the experience within the community itself.

Author : Amber Scorah
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2019-06-04
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780735222564

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Leaving the Witness by Amber Scorah Pdf

"À la Tara Westover's Educated, Scorah's pensive, ultimately liberating memoir chronicles her formative years as a Jehovah's Witness...and captures the bewilderment of belief and the bliss of self-discovery."--O, The Oprah Magazine, Named one of "The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019" "Scorah's book, the bravery of which cannot be overstated, is an earnest one, fueled by a plucky humor and a can-do spirit that endears. Her tale, though an exploration of extremity, is highly readable and warm."--The New York Times Book Review A riveting memoir of losing faith and finding freedom while a covert missionary in one of the world's most restrictive countries. A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture--and a whole new way of thinking--turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true. As a proselytizer in Shanghai, using fake names and secret codes to evade the authorities' notice, Scorah discreetly looked for targets in public parks and stores. To support herself, she found work at a Chinese language learning podcast, hiding her real purpose from her coworkers. Now with a creative outlet, getting to know worldly people for the first time, she began to understand that there were other ways of seeing the world and living a fulfilling life. When one of these relationships became an "escape hatch," Scorah's loss of faith culminated in her own personal apocalypse, the only kind of ending possible for a Jehovah's Witness. Shunned by family and friends as an apostate, Scorah was alone in Shanghai and thrown into a world she had only known from the periphery--with no education or support system. A coming of age story of a woman already in her thirties, this unforgettable memoir examines what it's like to start one's life over again with an entirely new identity. It follows Scorah to New York City, where a personal tragedy forces her to look for new ways to find meaning in the absence of religion. With compelling, spare prose, Leaving the Witness traces the bittersweet process of starting over, when everything one's life was built around is gone.

Author : Jackie Hill Perry
Publisher : B&H Publishing Group
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2018-09-03
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781462751235

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Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry Pdf

“I used to be a lesbian.” In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.