Saving Christianity?

Saving Christianity?
Author: Michael Youssef
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2020
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1496441699

A clear and frank exploration of the future of Christianity and whether it needs to be saved. We live in confusing times. Our society has shifted on its moral axis, and many are asking whether Christianity needs to be reinvented--or even reimagined--in order to save it. With Newsweek declaring "The Decline and Fall of Christian America" on its cover and The Daily Beast questioning "Does Christianity Have a Future?" bloggers and Christian commentators are discussing whether we need a "new of kind of Christianity." In Saving Christianity? Dr. Michael Youssef explores this train of thought and its pitfalls. He describes how similar discussions in Christianity's recent past explored the very same question. Saving Christianity? will help you discern what is going on within the church while it reviews the essentials of the Christian faith as described in the Bible. We dare not abandon this "mere faith," as Dr. Youssef describes it, because it is the light for all humanity--and especially for those of us living in today's chaotic times. After reading Saving Christianity? you'll have a renewed confidence in the future of the church and the central place it will occupy for generations to come.

Saving Paradise

Saving Paradise
Author: Rita Nakashima Brock
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 588
Release: 2008
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780807067505

"Saving Paradise" offers a fascinating new lens on the history of Christianity, asking how its early vision of beauty evolved into a vision of torture, and what changes in society and theology marked that evolution.

Saving Christianity?

Saving Christianity?
Author: Michael Youssef
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1496441710

A clear and frank exploration of the future of Christianity and whether it needs to be saved. We live in confusing times. Our society has shifted on its moral axis, and many are asking whether Christianity needs to be reinvented—or even reimagined—in order to save it. With Newsweek declaring “The Decline and Fall of Christian America” on its cover and The Daily Beast questioning “Does Christianity Have a Future?” bloggers and Christian commentators are discussing whether we need a “new of kind of Christianity.” In Saving Christianity? Dr. Michael Youssef explores this train of thought and its pitfalls. He describes how similar discussions in Christianity’s recent past explored the very same question. Saving Christianity? will help you discern what is going on within the church while it reviews the essentials of the Christian faith as described in the Bible. We dare not abandon this “mere faith,” as Dr. Youssef describes it, because it is the light for all humanity—and especially for those of us living in today’s chaotic times. After reading Saving Christianity? you’ll have a renewed confidence in the future of the church and the central place it will occupy for generations to come.

Saving God

Saving God
Author: Mark Johnston
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2011-07-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400830443

A bold and persuasive case for abandoning old religions and still believing in God In this book, Mark Johnston argues that God needs to be saved not only from the distortions of the "undergraduate atheists" (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris) but, more importantly, from the idolatrous tendencies of religion itself. Each monotheistic religion has its characteristic ways of domesticating True Divinity, of taming God's demands so that they do not radically threaten our self-love and false righteousness. Turning the monotheistic critique of idolatry on the monotheisms themselves, Johnston shows that much in these traditions must be condemned as false and spiritually debilitating. A central claim of the book is that supernaturalism is idolatry. If this is right, everything changes; we cannot place our salvation in jeopardy by tying it essentially to the supernatural cosmologies of the ancient Near East. Remarkably, Johnston rehabilitates the ideas of the Fall and of salvation within a naturalistic framework; he then presents a conception of God that both resists idolatry and is wholly consistent with the deliverances of the natural sciences. Princeton University Press is publishing Saving God in conjunction with Johnston's forthcoming book Surviving Death, which takes up the crux of supernaturalist belief, namely, the belief in life after death. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Saving Jesus from the Church

Saving Jesus from the Church
Author: Robin R. Meyers
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2009-02-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0061973068

“Scholarly, pastoral, prophetic, and eloquent. The invitation to follow Jesus instead of worshiping Christ could not come at a more important time, or be issued by a more credible source.” — Desmond Tutu “Robin Meyers emerges in Saving Jesus from the Church as a national voice for a new Christianity. He is a well read scholar and a superb communicator. He writes with a refreshing honesty and a disarming authority. This book is a treat.” — John Shelby Spong, author of Jesus for the Non-Religious Robin Meyers, a rising star of liberal Christianity, restores the true mission of the faith that captures the heart of Jesus’s concern for people over “right belief.” Saving Jesus from the Church will resonate deeply with those who enjoy the works of John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, and John Dominic Crossan.

Saving Christianity

Saving Christianity
Author: Hilary Wakeman
Publisher: The Liffey Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2012-10-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1908308354

‘I believe, because it is impossible’ (Tertullian, 2nd century) Some of the statements of belief that Christians are required to assent to, such as the Virgin Birth and the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, are driving many of them out of the Catholic and Protestant churches--and preventing new people from coming in. Yet those statements were formulated nearly two thousand years ago, in a time when people understood the world very differently. For over 150 years theologians of all denominations have been warning the Church that, if it is not to become extinct, it needs to look for the truths that lie behind those ancient formulations, and find new ways of presenting them. But their words have been ignored by the church authorities and by priests and ministers, preferring not to disturb the present faith of their congregations. And so the gap between the theologians and the people in the pews continues to widen. Now many Christians are taking their beliefs into their own hands. Increasingly, they are meeting in small groups and communities, without formal leadership and without formal doctrine, ignoring denominational differences yet bringing the best of their various traditions with them. Is this the Christianity of the future? In this book Hilary Wakeman, a recently retired priest in the Church of Ireland, talks about the difference between right-brain and left-brain approaches to faith and religion, and considers some of the ways that the core doctrines of Christianity can be re-stated so that they can be expressed with honesty and integrity.

How Jesus Saves the World from Us

How Jesus Saves the World from Us
Author: Morgan Guyton
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 161164660X

Christianity has always been about being saved. But today what Christians need saving from most is the toxic understanding of salvation we've received through bad theology. The loudest voices in Christianity today sound exactly like the religious authorities who crucified Jesus. This is a book for Christians who are troubled by what we've become and who want Jesus to save us from the toxic behaviors and attitudes we've embraced. Each of the 12 chapters proposes an antidote for the toxicity that has infiltrated Christian culture, such as "Worship not Performance, "Temple not Program," and "Solidarity not Sanctimony." Each chapter includes thought-provoking discussion questions, perfect for individual or group study. There are many reasons to lose hope about the state of our world and our church, but Guyton offers one piece of good news: Jesus is saving the world from us, one Christian at a time.

Near Christianity

Near Christianity
Author: Anthony Le Donne
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-09-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310522978

This unique book is an exploration of Christianity alongside Jewish guides who are well-studied in and sympathetic to Christianity, but who remain “near Christianity.”Reflecting on his journeys within biblical studies and contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue, Anthony Le Donne illustrates not only the value but also the necessity of continued Jewish friendship for the Christian life. With the help of Jewish friends and mentors, he presents a deeper and more complex Christian faith, offering readers a better vision of the beauty and genius of Christianity, but also an honest look at its warts and failings. Weaving his own story and personal conversations with Jewish friends, Le Donne, a respected scholar and published author, models how his fellow Christians can avoid blurring the differences between Christianity and Judaism on the one hand and exaggerating them on the other.

Saving the Saved

Saving the Saved
Author: Bryan Loritts
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310344948

White-knuckling can never get you where you want to go. But grace can. You already know because you’ve tried: repeated attempts to earn God’s love and approval get you nowhere and leave you exhausted. When performance taints our relationship with him, the Christian life can turn into an unholy hustle. It was never meant to be like this. In Saving the Saved, Pastor Bryan Loritts reveals the astonishing truth that God doesn’t want your spiritual scorekeeping. He simply wants your surrender. The punchline of the gospel of Matthew is just that—a message of grace and performance-free love to do-good, try-harder Jews who thought they had to earn their way into God’s favor. It’s an ancient message, yet it can be a lifeline to us today as we live in a world of performance metrics. Just as Matthew wrote to the Jews in his gospel, we were never meant to flounder under the pressures and anxieties of show Christianity. Make no mistake: we are called to live in obedience, but Jesus wants us to save us from the illusion that our actions can ever earn God’s acceptance of us. In Pastor Bryan’s relevant, uncompromising style, Saving the Saved proclaims the good news that once the pressure is off to perform, we are free to abide. Beyond the man-made rules and the red tape, there is a God who knows you by name. Come and meet him as you’ve never known him before.