The Consuming Force

The Consuming Force PDF

Author: Thomas Kessler

Publisher: Outskirts Press

Published: 2015-06-30

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 9781478750581

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How the teachings of Jesus continued to be obscured and defiled into the Middle Ages. This book challenges some long-held beliefs about Christianity as we know it, detailing a great divide between Jesus of Nazareth's teachings and Christianity extending into the Middle Ages. With comprehensive historical research over a twenty year period Thomas Kessler analyzes the power and class struggles in the church. He shows how clergymen continued to choke life out of the Christian community. The reality is insidious, the horrors startling, and some church officials even committed genocide. No, the church has not been perfect throughout its history. Knowing the facts about it grounds us in reality, the starting point of any true Christian commitment. This is a true People's History of Christianity in the tradition of Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States and one that will have you seeing Christianity in a brand-new light.

Christianity: Endangered or Extinct, Volume 2

Christianity: Endangered or Extinct, Volume 2 PDF

Author: Thomas Kessler

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2019-06-12

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 1532677138

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This book challenges some long held beliefs about Christianity as we know it, detailing a great divide between Jesus of Nazareth’s teachings and Christianity extending into the Middle Ages. With comprehensive historical research over a twenty year period Thomas Kessler analyzes the power and class struggles in the church. He shows how clergymen continued to choke life out of the Christian community. The reality is insidious, the horrors startling, and some church officials even committed genocide. No, the church has not been perfect throughout its history. Knowing the facts about it grounds us in reality, the starting point of any true Christian commitment. This is a true People’s History of Christianity in the tradition of Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States and one that will have you seeing Christianity in a brand-new light.

Christianity: Endangered or Extinct, Volume 2

Christianity: Endangered or Extinct, Volume 2 PDF

Author: Thomas Kessler

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2019-06-12

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 1532677154

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This book challenges some long held beliefs about Christianity as we know it, detailing a great divide between Jesus of Nazareth’s teachings and Christianity extending into the Middle Ages. With comprehensive historical research over a twenty year period Thomas Kessler analyzes the power and class struggles in the church. He shows how clergymen continued to choke life out of the Christian community. The reality is insidious, the horrors startling, and some church officials even committed genocide. No, the church has not been perfect throughout its history. Knowing the facts about it grounds us in reality, the starting point of any true Christian commitment. This is a true People’s History of Christianity in the tradition of Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States and one that will have you seeing Christianity in a brand-new light.

Christianity: Endangered or Extinct

Christianity: Endangered or Extinct PDF

Author: Rodger L. Cragun

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2018-12-07

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1532668023

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Written by two respectable religious scholars, this groundbreaking new book challenges some of our long-held beliefs about Christianity as we know it, detailing the origins of a great divide between Jesus of Nazareth’s teachings and Christianity during its formative stages. With comprehensive historical research, authors Cragun and Kessler use the analysis of power and class struggle to reexamine church history and the teachings of the theologians. They outline how the so-called “Fathers of the Church” took over the community of Jesus, destroyed its foundations, and built their own church edifice, which they then passed down to us. Though much of modern scholarship blames Constantine for the corruption of the church. Christianity: Endangered or Extinct? shows how the corruption was a gradual process in which Platonic philosophy, power, and prestige gradually entombed the message Jesus actually gave us. This religion was carefully honed to be acceptable to emperors, rulers, and the elite, replacing Christ’s original message of love, egalitarianism, communalism, pacifism, and servant leadership—concepts that are essential for the survival of humanity in the twenty-first century. This is a true People’s History of Christianity in the tradition of Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States and one that will have you seeing Christianity in a brand-new light.

Christianity: Endangered or Extinct

Christianity: Endangered or Extinct PDF

Author: Rodger L. Cragun

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2018-12-07

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1532663668

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Written by two respectable religious scholars, this groundbreaking new book challenges some of our long-held beliefs about Christianity as we know it, detailing the origins of a great divide between Jesus of Nazareth’s teachings and Christianity during its formative stages. With comprehensive historical research, authors Cragun and Kessler use the analysis of power and class struggle to reexamine church history and the teachings of the theologians. They outline how the so-called “Fathers of the Church” took over the community of Jesus, destroyed its foundations, and built their own church edifice, which they then passed down to us. Though much of modern scholarship blames Constantine for the corruption of the church. Christianity: Endangered or Extinct? shows how the corruption was a gradual process in which Platonic philosophy, power, and prestige gradually entombed the message Jesus actually gave us. This religion was carefully honed to be acceptable to emperors, rulers, and the elite, replacing Christ’s original message of love, egalitarianism, communalism, pacifism, and servant leadership—concepts that are essential for the survival of humanity in the twenty-first century. This is a true People’s History of Christianity in the tradition of Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States and one that will have you seeing Christianity in a brand-new light.

Endangered Gospel

Endangered Gospel PDF

Author: John C. Nugent

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2016-06-16

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1498291678

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For centuries, Christians sought to rescue people from this world. Today, we're trying to fix it. While this shift is helpful in some ways, in other ways it can be quite dangerous. Endangered Gospel flips the script on this conversation by stressing the core gospel truth that rather than ushering in a new world through social activism, God's people already are the new world in Christ. It's not our job to make this world a better place, but to be the better place God has already made in this world. That's good news! If we let go of this truth, we become servants of the world and not God. We also lose the great joy and abundant life that God intended us to have in community. Jesus himself said that the world will know we are Christians by our love for one another--not the fervor of our activism. Social action makes us feel relevant and alive, but it can't be the center of our new life in Christ. Endangered Gospel explores how we might enthusiastically embrace the social dimensions of the gospel without divorcing them from the church or forcing them on the world. Read this book, hear the gospel story afresh, and embrace the good news of God's kingdom!

Christian Ethics, Volume 2

Christian Ethics, Volume 2 PDF

Author: Karl-Heinz Peschke

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2012-08-21

Total Pages: 862

ISBN-13: 1620322161

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This edition is once again a new, thoroughly revised version of Christian Ethics II. In some portions the subject matter has been reorganized more organically, and recent theological developments and documents of the magisterium have been integrated. New themes have been added, others further developed, such as deepening the concept and content of mission, as well as ecumenical participation. Also, questions in bioethics have been supplemented, such as the duty to preserve life, topics of prenatal medicine, reproductive and therapeutic cloning, genetic alteration, and euthanasia. Other issues raised concern the discrimination against women, civil marriage of homosexuals, compassion in prison care, the right of asylum, humanitarian interventions, the fostering of peace after conflicts, empowerment of the poor in development projects, and the treatment of animals. The author hopes that this new edition will be a contribution to the ongoing aggiornamento of moral theology and that it will continue to meet the expectations of its readers.

Berkeley Journal of Religion and Theology, Vol.2, No. 2

Berkeley Journal of Religion and Theology, Vol.2, No. 2 PDF

Author: BJRT GTU

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2016-06-18

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1365171582

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Volume 2, Issue 2 of the Berkeley Journal of Religion and Theology is a special issue honoring the work of Judith Berling and Arthur Holder. Judith Berling, the 4th academic dean of the Graduate Theological Union is retiring from the faculty, and Arthur Holder, the 6th academic dean, is stepping down from the deanship of the GTU. This issue brings students and colleagues of both Drs. Berling and Holder to celebrate their achievements and honor their service to the GTU by engaging their work. Featuring contributions by Margaret Miles, Henry Kuo, Lisa Dahill, Ken Butigan, Sandra Schneiders, William Short, Mary Mee-Yin Yuen, Jennifer Howe Peace, and Riess Potterveld.

Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France: Volume 2: The Religion of the People and the Politics of Religion

Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France: Volume 2: The Religion of the People and the Politics of Religion PDF

Author: John McManners

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Published: 1998-08-27

Total Pages: 880

ISBN-13: 0191520632

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This second volume begins with a Section on the religion of the people. The clergy offered the liturgical services, sermons, evangelistic missions, and the offices sanctifying birth, marriage, and death; distinctions are made between what they intended and how their ministrations were popularly interpreted and incorporated into the social order. Statistical soundings concerning the extent of religious practice and the degree of conviction involved are evaluated. Further chapters deal with processions, pilgrimages, and popular practices and superstitions, with hermits and confraternities, with the impact of reading the Bible and other edifying literature in an age of increasing literacy. Finally comes a view of the twilight world of magic and sorcery. Throughout this Section the comments of theologians and thinkers of the Enlightenment are recorded, whether in coincidence or contradiction. The next section deals with the efficacy of the confessional and the role of the casuistry of the Church in attempting to mould sexual mores, business practices, and in the world of the theatre. In the next two Sections, the role of religious issues in political affairs is detailed. An overview of the Jansenist quarrel and of the activities of the Jesuits brings in the story of the struggle between Crown and Parlement, while an extended portrayal of the life of the Protestant and Jewish communities leads to the history of the debate on toleration, involving the Gallican Church in political interventions and controversy. Throughout the two volumes the rising forces of anticlericalism and the tensions within the ecclesiastical establishment have been recorded, and these themes come to their climax in a final section on the role played by churchmen in the coming of the Revolution.