Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Christianity - Denominations

For decades the accepted wisdom has been that America's mainline Protestant churches are in decline, eclipsed by evangelical mega-churches. Church and religion expert Diana Butler Bass wondered if this was true, and this book is the result of her extensive, three-year study of centrist and progressive churches across the country. Her surprising findings reveal just the opposite--that many of the churches are flourishing, and they are doing so without resorting to mimicking the mega-church, evangelical style.

Christianity for the Rest of Us describes this phenomenon and...

In Women of Fire and Spirit, Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton uses the extensive oral histories and life narratives of active participants in the faith, giving them full voice in constructing the history of their Church. In doing so, she counter-balances the existing historical...

In Women of Fire and Spirit, Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton uses the extensive oral histories and life narratives of active participants in the faith, giving them full voice in constructing the history of their Church. In doing so, she counter-balances the existing historical...

"Hamm has simply produced the best book on Quaker history in recent years." --Quaker History

..". will stand as one of the most important works in the field." --American Historical Review

In this prize-winning study of the sacred and profane in Puritan New England, Richard P. Gildrie seeks to understand not only the fears, aspirations, and moral theories of Puritan reformers but also the customs and attitudes they sought to transform. Topics include tavern mores, family order, witchcraft, criminality, and popular religion. Gildrie demonstrates that Puritanism succeeded in shaping regional society and culture for generations not because New Englanders knew no alternatives but because it offered a compelling vision of human dignity capable of incorporating and adapting...

Winner, 2004 Dale W. Brown Book Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies

Winner, 2005 Outstanding Publication, Communal Studies Association

Co-published with the Pennsylvania German Society/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

The Ephrata Cloister was a community of radical Pietists founded by Georg Conrad Beissel (1691-1768), a charismatic mystic who had been a journeyman baker in Europe. In 1720 he and a few companions sought a new life in William Penn's land of religious freedom, eventually settling on the banks of the Cocalico Creek in what is now...

Over the past few decades, mainline Protestant denominations in North America have been experiencing a significant decline in membership, active participation, and financial contributions. In the midst of this decline, these denominations have been caught up in a variety of controversial religious, ecclesiastical, and social issues--a shift from neo-orthodox to liberal theology, the advent of inclusive liturgical and biblical language, denominational support for often controversial social issues, and heated debates around human sexuality, particularly the place of homosexuals in the...

Is evil a state of mind that can be changed? Is there a latent divinity in us all? Is there a personal God? The answers to these questions given by the mind sciences: groups such as Christian Science, Religious Science, and the Unity School of Christianity are not the same ones given by orthodox Christianity. Moreover, these mind sciences appeal to many people who seek cures to illness that conventional medicine and Christianity do not offer. Can we put our trust in them? Why this series? This is an age when countless groups and movements, old and new, mark the religious landscape in our...

The Unification Church and its founder, Dr. Sun Myung Moon, have been in the center of controversy because of their recruiting practices, their financial holdings, and their authoritarian style--including arranged, mass marriages. Most controversial in terms of its teachings in Dr. Moon's claim to be a new Messiah who will finish what Jesus left "undone." Is he the Messiah, and is his Diving Principle the third testament of the Bible? Why this series? This is an age when countless groups and movements, old and new, mark the religious landscape in our culture, leaving many people confused...

The Doukhobors emerged in Russia as a sect of dissident peasants separating themselves during the 18th century from the Orthodox Church. The first groups of Doukhobors arrived in Canada in 1899 seeking land and freedom from the control of any government. The intensity of the problem of Doukhobor adjustment to life in British Columbia led to the formation of the Doukhobor Research Committee upon whose final report this book is based.

This timely and fascinating historical study of Protestant women will increase the appreciation of their continuing struggle for acceptance within their churches and of their contribution to the success of the Protestant movement. An introductory chapter traces the origins of female subordination and exclusion from the preaching ministry, a practice that was reinforced by Protestant interpretations of Scripture. In essays contributed by recognized specialists, women's roles both in the early development of Protestant sects and in supporting established churches are examined, and their...