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From a historical perspective, similarities among the Lutheran churches in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are easily understood. But these previously homogeneous northern societies, built on a Lutheran tradition with close ties between church and state, are now considered to be among the most secular in the world, as well as being impacted by a growing presence of other religions. These changes present a major challenge to the churches concerning how to relate to the state and how to be a ""folk church.""The goal of this volume is to explore how Lutheran identity presently shapes churches in the north. What are the burning issues engaging these churches at the beginning of the third millennium? Are there signs that they are affected by the global emergence of a theology and practice commonly known as Neo-Pentecostal or Charismatic? What is the situation for women in these churches embedded in societies ranked among the world's most egalitarian? In what ways does their Lutheran heritage influence how these churches shape themselves today?The point of departure for this study is not a predetermined, normative understanding of what a Lutheran church is or should be, but the fact that the churches presented here represent what ""Lutheranism"" is today in this part of the world.Contributors include Anne-Louise Eriksson, Steinunn Arnthrudur Bjornsdottir, Solveig Anna Boasdottir, Niclas Blader, Carl Reinhold Brakenhielm, Thomas Ekstrand, Arnfriður Guðmundsdottir, Goran Gunner, Harald Hegstad, Hjalti Hugason, Roger Jensen, Halvard Johannessen, Peter Lodberg, Benedicte Hammer Præstholm, Karin Sarja, Ulrika Svalfors, Merete Thomassen, Marie Thomsen, Marie Vejrup Nielsen, and Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen.

To Save Their Heathen Souls-Voyage to and life in Foochow, China, based on the Wentworth Diaries and Letters, 1854-1858, edited by Polly Park and Dikran Hadidian, is the ninth volume of the Pittsburgh Theological Monographs-New Series, published in 1984.

Spirituality and Growth on the Leadership Path: An Abecedary offers lessons not usually taught about leadership, lessons learned over the author's more than thirty years in higher education and nonprofit organizations.Few resources on leadership and administration attend to the inner life of a person in a leadership position. Many of this book's themes are therefore related to the inner moral and spiritual life. Some topics are prosaic, dealing with everyday activities. Throughout the book, ""pith instructions"" offer simple practical advice about the inner process and core values that may inform the leadership path. Haynes draws on the world's wisdom traditions--philosophy and religion, mysticism and theology, including indigenous beliefs and rituals--as rich resources for reconceiving leadership.This abecedary includes drawings by artist Michael Shernick, which are paired with entries from the ""chronicles of experience,"" etymology and poetry, examples of contemplative practice and meditation, and metaphoric digressions. Common elements--such as lists and advice--mix with uncommon elements, including recipes. This primer will provide inspiration and insight for navigating the shoals, deep water, rocky coasts, wind, and sunny climes of the leadership journey.

What is it to confess the Christian faith, and what is the status of formal confessions of faith? How far does the context inform the content of the confession? These questions are addressed in Part One, with reference to the Reformed tradition in general, and to its English and Welsh Dissenting strand in particular. In an adverse political context the Dissenters' plea for toleration under the law was eventually granted. The question of tolerance remains alive in our very different context, and in addition we face the challenge of confessing and commending the faith in an intellectual environment in which many question Christianity's relevance and rebut traditional defenses of it. In Part Two it is recognized that Christian confessing is an ecclesial, not simply an individual, calling, and that the one confessing church catholic is visibly divided over doctrine and practice. Suggestions for ameliorating this situation are offered, though the final resolution may be a matter for the eschaton. Until then Christians are called to witness faithfully and to live hopefully as citizens of heaven. In an epilogue the challenges and pitfalls of systematic theology as a discipline involving both confession and commendation are explored.

Catherine Booth's achievements--as a revivalist, social reformer, champion of women's rights, and, with her husband William Booth, co-founder of The Salvation Army--were widely recognized in her lifetime. However, Catherine Booth's life and work has since been largely neglected. This neglect has extended to her theological ideas, even though they were critical to the formation of Salvationism, the spirituality of the movement she cofounded. This book examines the implicit theology that undergirds Catherine Booth's Salvationist spirituality and reveals the ethical concerns at the heart of her soteriology and the integral relationship between the social and evangelical aspects of Christian mission in her thought. Catherine Booth emerges as a significant figure from the Victorian era, a British theologian and church leader with a rare if not unique intellectual and theological perspective: that of a woman.

Pentecostalism is one of the largest and fastest growing religious movements around the world. Yet, the movement's defining doctrine has met with controversy and criticism since its inception. Classical Pentecostals have not only affirmed and valued the experience of speaking in other tongues, they have argued that such an experience is the first evidence of a Christian having reached a level of spiritual empowerment they call Baptism in the Holy Spirit. That speaking in an unknown language should be considered by many Pentecostals to be a normative and uniform right of passage for all Christians is interesting. That such a controversial doctrine could rise to take such a prominent role in defining and shaping the Pentecostal movement begs further historical and social study.This work charts the development of the doctrine from a small community in the Midwest to become a norm for Pentecostal identity and a hallmark of Pentecostal experience around the world. Then, through an empirical study of ministers in three Pentecostal denominations, the work explores the current beliefs of practices of Pentecostals regarding the doctrine of initial evidence in order to form some conclusions and proposals about the future of the doctrine among classical Pentecostals.

In ancient religion and societies the concept of purity was of central importance; in many modern societies it is either irrelevant or, when it is used, attached to extremely conservative agendas. This suggests an interesting story to be told within the history of ideas and, at the same time, raises questions about the place, meaning, and use of purity in religious traditions. What does purity mean in different scriptural contexts? Is it synonymous with holiness or different? How has it been used within various strands of theology? What should we make of it today? Have we moderns, by discarding purity as an organizing social form, lost something essential or made a significant moral advance? Or both? This volume begins to address these questions in essays on biblical genres and books, and different theological traditions. Accessibly written and incisive in its scholarship, it will be of interest to both specialists and non-specialists alike.

In the present volume, James Robinson shows how the Holiness movement contributed to the rise of Pentecostalism, with emphasis on those sectors that practiced divine healing. Although other scholars have undertaken to explore this story, Robinson's treatment is by far the most thorough examination to date. He draws productively on the burgeoning secondary literatures on Pentecostalism and healing, and brings to light frequently overlooked, yet revealing primary sources. The events narrated are fascinating in their own right, and are important to the histories of Pentecostalism and healing for how they clarify the processes by which divine healing was pursued, debated, and often disparaged. The text also contributes to larger medical and social histories, offering tantalizing glimpses of the roots of some of today's most popular and contested medical and religious responses to sickness and health.

The critique of Jacques Dupuis, SJ, by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the direction of Joseph Ratzinger was met by almost universal dismay by Christian theologians and participants in interfaith dialogue throughout the world. This book is comprised of both responses by Father Dupuis to the Vatican's criticisms (which he was forbidden to publish during his lifetime) and introductory and background material by his friend and editor Bill Burrows, who draws on their many conversations to draw out the deeper implications of Dupuis' work and the background to the Vatican investigations and criticisms. In addition to laying bare procedural problems in the CDF's process, Dupuis shows that both the Vatican document Dominus Iesus and the Notification about problems in his work rest on dangerous misunderstandings of Scripture and church teaching that reverse the gains in interfaith understanding and ecumenism that have occurred over the past fifty years.

The recurring economic crises, or near crises, ...have slowly impressed the public mind that we have moved into an era signaling the end of affluence. The source as well as the visible symptom of these crises has been shortages of energy, which have made the average American realize that his habitual, wasteful lifestyle of uninhibited consumption is rapidly becoming impractical. At the same time, much has been written about the economic factors and problems associated with dwindling energy supplies, and there has been a good deal of off-handed speculation about imminent changes in social arrangements that must accompany the slowdown in economic growth. Yet theological reflection concerning the impact of diminished wealth on religious attitudes and values, and the social expectations underlying them, has been minimal; or at least it has not been done in a sustained and comprehensive way.... In [this book] the author assumes the task of such sweeping reflection

Pittsburgh Theological Monograph - New Series General Editor - Dikran Y. Hadidian

Pittsburgh Theological Monograph - New Series General Editor - Dikran Y. Hadidian

Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series General Editor - Dikran Y. Hadidian

Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series General Editor - Dikran Y. Hadidian

Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series General Editor - Dikran Y. Hadidian

Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series General Editor - Dikran Y. Hadidian

In this innovative study, Anna Miller challenges prevailing New Testament scholarship that has largely dismissed the democratic civic assembly--the ekkl¿sia--as an institution that retained real authority in the first century CE. Using an interdisciplinary approach, she examines a range of classical and early imperial sources to demonstrate that ekkl¿sia democracy continued to saturate the eastern Roman Empire, widely impacting debates over authority, gender, and speech. In the first letter to the Corinthians, she demonstrates that Paul's persuasive rhetoric is itself shaped and constrained by the democratic discourse he shares with his Corinthian audience. Miller argues that these first-century Corinthians understood their community as an authoritative democratic assembly in which leadership and "citizenship" cohered with the public speech and discernment open to each. This Corinthian identity illuminates struggles and debates throughout the letter, including those centered on leadership, community dynamics, and gender. Ultimately, Miller's study offers new insights into the tensions that inform Paul's letter. In turn, these insights have critical implications for the dialogue between early Judaism and Hellenism, the study of ancient politics and early Christianity, and the place of gender in ancient political discourse.