Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Christian Rituals & Practice - General

This Is the Night is a work of "liturgical theology," understood as a theology inspired or informed by the liturgies of Christian Holy Week. In the context of modernity in crisis, it is an attempt to think with the principal liturgies of the "PaschalTriduum" - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil of Easter - about human suffering.

The author works from an analysis of the structure of the Christian paschal liturgies to offer an account of suffering that is more compassionate and honest than that of western modernity. Moreover, this account is the theoretical correlate of...

Christian theologians have historically described a 'saving faith in God' as containing a fundamental element of 'belief'. However, philosophers present strong arguments exist that we are not capable of freely deciding which beliefs we will hold. Rather, we simply find ourselves believing things as the evidence before us seems to dictate. So, if belief is indeed involuntary, and if certain beliefs are requisite for Christian faith, then how can the matter of one's salvation rest on whether one has freely put one's faith in God? After explaining this objection to the Christian affirmation...

Recent years have seen an unprecedented period of reform in the public worship of the Catholic Church. Controversy over liturgical reform was focused in England by an international conference in 1996, which led to the formation of a Liturgy Forum and the issuing of the Oxford Declaration on Liturgy. This book represents all the key elements from that important conference.

This book is designed to give the reader an understanding how to use the blood of Jesus to live the victorious, successful life God has planned for us. The reader will learn how to pray more effectively with the blood of Jesus on his or her lips.

There are personal confessions in the book based on specific scriptures on the blood of Jesus. The reader will not only get a thorough understanding of the power contained in Jesus blood, but how they can immediately start putting the blood to work in their lives.

Based on the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, this second in a series of three volumes provides resources for an entire year of sermons and offers practical help for preachers and others who use the Revised Common Lectionary. Beginning with Advent, this unique and comprehensive resource deals with lectionary texts for Year C. Each of the four texts--the Old Testament, Psalter, Gospel, and Epistle--for each Sunday and important festival day, including Christmas, Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday, is treated. A brief introduction for the day indicates the general thrust of the texts...

This well-written and engaging book explores the effects of the rush to adopt new, "contemporary" styles of worship by many Protestant congregations. As churches try to reach the unchurched and draw new members, they often adapt their worship until it becomes nothing more than a Spirit-less reflection of popular culture, A. Daniel Frankforter argues. The book discusses some of the different programs for "marketing" worship, explores the implications for the integrity of a church's mission and spiritual life, and proposes some alternative means for rejuvenating worship.

Concerned that the celebration of the Lord's Supper had become a "ritual rather than a reality," WIlliam Barclay set forth his ideas on the biblical foundation of the sacrament, the history of its form and interpretation in the church, and its meaning for today. This reissue of an older Westminster John Knox Press title makes a welcome addition to the highly popular William Barclay Library series.

The William Barclay Library is a collection of books addressing the great issues of the Christian faith. As one of the world's most widely read interpreters of the Bible and its meaning,...

Exploring fundamental ways in which verbal expression in worship relates to aesthetic expression, Clayton Schmit provides a vitally important book for all homiletics students and scholars. Schmit explains that worship isn't just a sequence of "holy" words, and he reflects theologically on the relationship between verbal and aesthetic expression, demonstrating the aesthetic significance of verbal liturgical expression and the aesthetic responsibility of those who preach, pray, and lead in public worship.

Are you looking for a new way to renew your worship, respond to the needs of the church and community, and connect with people in their passage of life--both chronological and crisis? This book offers a rich resource to you, both as a tool for worship and also devotionally as you face the deepest questions of life. Here you will find one way that the church can renew and rediscover its healing ministry. Abigail Evans, a leading specialist in bioethics and health ministries, explores how God's gift of healing is available during all seasons of a person's life and how the power of hope and...

The addition of simple drama to sermons is effective in bringing Bible passages alive and involving a variety of church members in preaching. In this book, James Chatham invites clergy to develop a use of drama to proclaim the gospel. Chatham writes that the Bible is comprised primarily of stories--stories of the relationship between God and God's people spanning over more than a thousand years--many of which are so good that they need little explanation. There is no more engaging way to tell these stories, he says, than through effective sermon drama.

Singing the Lord's Song in a New Land is one of the first books to address ministry in Korean American contexts and the first from the highly regarded Valparaiso Project to explore how faith practices work differently in a racial ethnic community. The groundbreaking work identifies eight key practices of the Korean American culture: keeping the Sabbath, singing, fervent prayer, resourcing the life cycle, bearing wisdom, living as an oppressed minority, fasting, and nurturing.

An ongoing issue for clergy as well as Christians in general is how to approach New Testament narratives about the crucifixion of Jesus in relation to Jews, Judaism, and the horrific events of the Holocaust. The events of Holy Week pose particular challenges for clergy and congregations. In this book Henry Knight helps us deal with Holy Week texts in light of our post-Holocaust world and provides practical examples of prayers, liturgies, and resource material to help pastors prepare for and lead worship and teach during this important time in the life of a congregation.

Ruth Duck provides a much-needed how-to book for creating unique and creative worship resources, including prayers, hymns, and sermons. She presents methods and models for creating these new resources while remaining scripturally relevant and mindful of inclusive-language concerns. This is an invaluable guide for those involved in writing or evaluating worship services.

When We Gather is an essential resource for pastors, worship committees, and others who plan weekly congregational worship. For every Sunday in the church year, James Kirk provides contemporary, theologically solid prayers and other elements for use in worship. Included are prayers of praise and adoration, confession and pardon, dedication, thanksgiving and petition, as well as concise comments on the lectionary Scripture readings for each Sunday. Now expanded and updated to conform to the Revised Common Lectionary, this revised edition of When We Gather combines the original...