The Rise Of Theological Liberalism And The Decline Of American Methodism

Author : James V. Heidinger (II)
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Church attendance
ISBN : 162824402X

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The Rise of Theological Liberalism and the Decline of American Methodism by James V. Heidinger (II) Pdf

"Once a strong, vital, and growing denomination, the United Methodist Church is now barely recognizable after more than four decades of demoralization and membership decline. What has gone wrong? In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the American church saw the rise of "theological liberalism," a religious system that intended to respond to new scientific and intellectual currents that were sweeping across the culture. Instead, liberalism not only challenged, but often displaced the substance of the church's doctrine and teaching, accommodating it to the new intellectual milieu of secularism and rationalism. In The Rise of Theological Liberalism and the Decline of American Methodism, James Heidinger discusses the rise of liberalism in America, its anti-supernatural focuses, and the resulting transition in Wesleyan theology. While there are undoubtedly many dimensions to the decline of a denomination, Heidinger suggests we look no further than theological liberalism as the driving force behind the fall of the once-mighty United Methodist Church"--

Author : Darryl W. Stephens
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 293 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2024-03-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781666775631

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Reckoning Methodism by Darryl W. Stephens Pdf

Reckoning Methodism addresses the brokenness of The United Methodist Church (UMC) in the United States. Homosexuality is but one of several fault lines with decades-long histories in this predominantly White denomination. Demographic shifts, racism, and imperialism are heavily implicated in the current state of division. What, then, is the true nature and mission of this church? The UMC is the public church divided. Distinct missional theologies arise from competing commitments and priorities. When Methodist programmatic initiatives—such as vital congregations, environmental witness, and volunteers in mission—fail to account for these differences, denominational unity is weakened. Constructively, this book seeks historical clarity, collective repentance, charismatic learning, and institutional courage as United Methodists reckon with inherited animosities and divisions. This book provides no answers or programmatic fixes. Rather, it provides possibilities for repairing past harms as United Methodists seek ways to continue living out their Wesleyan faith. Reckoning with the public church divided, we glimpse the nature and mission of the church—not only as it has been but also as it could be. Podcast interview with GCAH

Author : David W. Scott,Darryl W. Stephens
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 283 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2021-04-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781000380255

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The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism by David W. Scott,Darryl W. Stephens Pdf

This book brings together Methodist scholars and reflective practitioners from around the world to consider how emerging practices of mission and evangelism shape contemporary theologies of mission. Engaging contemporary issues including migration, nationalism, climate change, postcolonial contexts, and the growth of the Methodist church in the Global South, this book examines multiple forms of mission, including evangelism, education, health, and ministries of compassion. A global group of contributors discusses mission as no longer primarily a Western activity but an enterprise of the entire church throughout the world. This volume will be of interest to researchers studying missiology, evangelism, global Christianity, and Methodism and to students of Methodism and mission.

Author : Phillip C. Thrailkill
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 483 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2022-10-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781666743487

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Following Jesus by Phillip C. Thrailkill Pdf

Two questions are braided together in Luke’s Gospel. Who is Jesus, and what does it mean to be his student and apprentice? The church has spent much of its intellectual energies on the first question, but not so much on the second. We are precise in our Christology and vague in our Discipleology (my new word!). Of the four biographies that open the New Testament, Luke is perhaps the best equipped to answer the question of what it means to follow Jesus along with others, and what we can expect in the process. Luke’s Gospel is dense with story after story about Jesus’s stumbling, goofy, persistent disciples. And his second volume—Acts—continues the tale. There is a deep continuity, as Luke teaches, between Jesus’s original disciples and the ones who later declared their allegiance to him after his resurrection. We walk in the footsteps of pioneers in this new way of living with a Jesus who is always near but just beyond sight. The aim of this book is to plunder the fruits of New Testament scholarship, especially the tools of rhetorical and narrative criticism, to highlight what an incredible adventure came with the call to follow me.

Author : Jonathan Mumme,Richard J. Serina, Jr.,Mark W. Birkholz
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 211 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2019-06-25
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781978702868

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Church as Fullness in All Things by Jonathan Mumme,Richard J. Serina, Jr.,Mark W. Birkholz Pdf

What is Lutheran ecclesiology? The Lutheran view of the church has been fraught with difficulties since the Reformation. Church as Fullness in All Things reengages the topic from a confessional Lutheran perspective. Lutheran theologians and clergy who are bound to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions explore the possibilities and pitfalls of the Lutheran tradition’s view of the church in the face of contemporary challenges. The contributors also take up questions about and challenges to thinking and living as the church in their tradition, while looking to other Christian voices for aid in what is finally a common Christian endeavor. The volume addresses three related types of questions faced in living and thinking as the church, with each standing as a field of tension marked by disharmonized—though perhaps not inherently opposite—poles: the individual and the communal, the personal and the institutional, and the particular and the universal. Asking whether de facto prioritizations of given poles or unexamined assumptions about their legitimacy impinge the church Lutherans seek, the volume closes with Anglican, Reformed, and Roman Catholic contributors stating what their ecclesiological traditions could learn from Lutheranism and vice-versa.

Author : David Hempton
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2005-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780300106145

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Methodism by David Hempton Pdf

Hempton explores the rise of Methodism from its unpromising origins as a religious society within the Church of England in the 1730s to a major international religious movement by the 1880s.

Author : David A. Hollinger
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2024-05-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9780691233925

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Christianity's American Fate by David A. Hollinger Pdf

Tracing the rise of evangelicalism and the decline of mainline Protestantism in American religious and cultural life How did American Christianity become synonymous with conservative white evangelicalism? This sweeping work by a leading historian of modern America traces the rise of the evangelical movement and the decline of mainline Protestantism’s influence on American life. In Christianity’s American Fate, David Hollinger shows how the Protestant establishment, adopting progressive ideas about race, gender, sexuality, empire, and divinity, liberalized too quickly for some and not quickly enough for others. After 1960, mainline Protestantism lost members from both camps—conservatives to evangelicalism and progressives to secular activism. A Protestant evangelicalism that was comfortable with patriarchy and white supremacy soon became the country’s dominant Christian cultural force. Hollinger explains the origins of what he calls Protestantism’s “two-party system” in the United States, finding its roots in America’s religious culture of dissent, as established by seventeenth-century colonists who broke away from Europe’s religious traditions; the constitutional separation of church and state, which enabled religious diversity; and the constant influx of immigrants, who found solidarity in churches. Hollinger argues that the United States became not only overwhelmingly Protestant but Protestant on steroids. By the 1960s, Jews and other non-Christians had diversified the nation ethnoreligiously, inspiring more inclusive notions of community. But by embracing a socially diverse and scientifically engaged modernity, Hollinger tells us, ecumenical Protestants also set the terms by which evangelicals became reactionary.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 1903
Category : Methodists
ISBN : YALE:39002014487293

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Wesley Studies by Anonim Pdf

Author : Wesley Covenant Association
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2017-09-14
Category : Church renewal
ISBN : 1628245115

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A Firm Foundation by Wesley Covenant Association Pdf

What does the future hold for The United Methodist Church? It is the question being asked all around our denomination. What should be the response to the competing visions and notable division within contemporary Methodism in North America? Can we explore the issues confronting us in a post-Christendom era without rupturing our relationships? This carefully curated volume engages the deep heart questions of United Methodists and casts a compelling vision by trustworthy voices for dynamic faith. Contributors explore the power of classic ideas such as: The Lordship of Jesus Christ Engaging scripture meaningfully The power of the Holy Spirit The promise of sanctification Living with undivided purpose Fostering dynamic discipleship The gift of the global church This resource is a useful tool not only in navigating present challenges but in pursuing the future promise for the people called Methodists. The foundational principles that have guided Methodist thought from the beginning of John Wesley's countercultural movement remain rich resources as we explore what it means to remain faithful disciples in the tradition of the Wesleys.

Author : Linda Woodhead
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 130 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Christianity
ISBN : 0191780944

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Christianity by Linda Woodhead Pdf

This is a short, accessible analysis of Christianity that focuses on its social and cultural diversity as well as its historical dimensions.

Author : Gary J. Dorrien
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
Page : 710 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2003-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0664223559

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The Making of American Liberal Theology by Gary J. Dorrien Pdf

In this first of three volumes, Dorrien identifies the indigenous roots of American liberal theology and demonstrates a wider, longer-running tradition than has been thought. The tradition took shape in the nineteenth century, motivated by a desire to map a modernist "third way" between orthodoxy and rationalistic deism/atheism. It is defined by its openness to modern intellectual inquiry; its commitment to the authority of individual reason and experience; its conception of Christianity as an ethical way of life; and its commitment to make Christianity credible and socially relevant to modern people. Dorrien takes a narrative approach and provides a biographical reading of important religious thinkers of the time, including William E. Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Charles Briggs. Dorrien notes that, although liberal theology moved into elite academic institutions, its conceptual foundations were laid in the pulpit rather than the classroom.

Author : Christopher H Evans
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2019-07-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781479884490

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The Social Gospel in American Religion by Christopher H Evans Pdf

A remarkable history of the powerful and influential social gospel movement. The global crises of child labor, alcoholism and poverty were all brought to our attention through the social gospel movement. Its impact on American society makes it one of the most influential developments in American religious history. Christopher H. Evans traces the development of the social gospel in American Protestantism, and illustrates how the religious idealism of the movement also rose up within Judaism and Catholicism. Contrary to the works of previous historians, Evans demonstrates how the presence of the social gospel continued in American culture long after its alleged demise following World War I. Evans reveals the many aspects of the social gospel and their influence on a range of social movements during the twentieth century, culminating with the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. It also explores the relationship between the liberal social gospel of the early twentieth century and later iterations of social reform in late twentieth century evangelicalism. The Social Gospel in American Religion considers an impressive array of historical figures including Washington Gladden, Emil Hirsch, Frances Willard, Reverdy Ransom, Walter Rauschenbusch, Stephen Wise, John Ryan, Harry Emerson Fosdick, A.J. Muste, Georgia Harkness, and Benjamin Mays. It demonstrates how these figures contributed to the shape of the social gospel in America, while arguing that the movement’s legacy lies in its profound influence on broader traditions of liberal-progressive political reform in American history.

Author : Timothy C. Tennent
Publisher : Zondervan
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2020-11-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780310113188

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For the Body by Timothy C. Tennent Pdf

An in-depth look at what it means to be created in the image of God and how our bodies serve as icons that illuminate God's purposes instead of ours. The human body is an amazing gift, yet today, many people downplay its importance and fail to understand what Christianity teaches about our bodies and their God-given purposes. Many people misunderstand how the body was designed, its role in relating to others; and we lack awareness of the dangers of objectifying the body, divorcing it from its intended purpose. Timothy Tennent covers topics like marriage, family, singleness, and friendship, and he looks at how the human body has been objectified in art and media today. For the Body offers a biblical framework for discipling people today in a Christian theology of the body. Tennent—theologian and president of Asbury Theological Seminary—explores the contours of a robust Christian vision of the body, human sexuality, and the variety of different ways we are called into relationships with others. This book will reveal a theological vision that: Informs our self-understanding of our own bodies. Examines how we treat others. Reevaluates how we engage today's controversial and difficult discussions on human sexuality with grace, wisdom, and confidence. For the Body is a call to a deeper understanding of our bodies and an invitation to recapture the wonder of this amazing gift.

Author : Gary J. Dorrien
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
Page : 534 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2001-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0664223540

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The Making of American Liberal Theology by Gary J. Dorrien Pdf

This text identifies the indigenous roots of American liberal theology and uncovers a wider, longer-running tradition than has been thought. Taking a narrative approach the text provides a biographical reading of important religious thinkers of the time.

Author : Thomas C. Oden
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2014-11-06
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780830880195

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A Change of Heart by Thomas C. Oden Pdf

Preaching's Best Books for Preachers Best Theological Memoir from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore How did one of the twentieth century's most celebrated liberals have such a dramatic change of heart? After growing up in the heart of rural Methodism in Oklahoma, Thomas Oden found Marx, Nietzsche and Freud storming into his imagination. He joined the post-World War II pacifist movement and became enamored with every aspect of the 1950s' ecumenical Student Christian Movement. Ten years before America's entry into the Vietnam war he admired Ho Chi Min as an agrarian patriot. For Oden, every turn was a left turn. At Yale he earned his PhD under H. Richard Niebuhr and later met with some of the most formidable minds of the era—enjoying conversations with Gadamer, Bultmann and Pannenberg as well as a lengthy discussion with Karl Barth at a makeshift office in his hospital room. While traveling with his family through Turkey, Syria and Israel, he attended Vatican II as an observer and got his first taste of ancient Christianity. And slowly, he stopped making left turns. Oden's enthusiasms for pacifism, ecumenism and the interface between theology and psychotherapy were ambushed by varied shapes of reality. Yet it was a challenge from a Jewish scholar, his friend and mentor Will Herberg, that precipitated his most dramatic turn—back to the great minds of ancient Christianity. Later a meeting with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI) planted the seeds for what became Oden's highly influential Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. This fascinating memoir walks us through not only his personal history but some of the most memorable chapters in twentieth-century theology.