The church focuses on bringing unbelievers into the church community. But I believe that their church has become too inward focused. “When one starts by focusing on the purpose of the church, the church tends to become the primary location of God.” Gelder argues that this is a false understanding of the purpose of the church. “The key point to understand is that the Spirit-led ministry of the church flows out of the Spirit-created nature of the church.”
Two main themes –struggle of maintaining faith in god, the “silence” are well developed in this section of the
Ehrenreich, B. (2016). Class Matters. Anglican Theological Review, 98(1), 15-21. This article, written by a highly-respected author, effectively discusses topics that I will be utilizing for the problem and solution sections of my final paper.
The work of Patrick Henry, John Winthrop, and Frederick Douglass have created a superior platform, it has influenced many people in a variety of ways. They used as a means of convincing an audience via the authority, they convinced the audience of an argument by creating an emotional response, and they persuade the audience with reasons and facts. Moreover, it has created wars, demonstrate their power and strength. However, the three works have different meanings and purposes. They all try to get into the people in a variety of different ways.
During a time period that was present around 400 years ago, many colonists sought religious and economic freedom and decided to break away from the British government to form an independent nation. This area they inhabited is now called, the United States. In this time of great change, the colonists had to completely formulate a new government. Since one of the major motives for breaking off of Britain was for freedom of religion, it ended up becoming a good base for the building up of a new government. Religion gave many advantages to the growth of government through unifying the people, establishing power, and constructing order.
When talking about the church, a person must keep in mind the rituals that are performed usually by said churches. Sometimes these rituals are traditional, but you must not forget that the church does attempt to avoid such practices unless they were to adapt to such a stale lifestyle. To do this churches use genres to help impact the action going on in-/outside of the church—by that, of course, churches also vary in actions. Johnathan Swales tells us that, “a discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims” (221). The church most dearest to me is none other than Titus Harvest Dome.
Chapter 1 discusses that theological questions surround us no matter who we are. As Christians, we should show genuine care and interest in theology. Due to the fall, sin continues to follow our lives. Theological reflection is a way to examine all aspects of our lives and to see if they align with God’s word. It is a way to probe and minimize potential dangers of the idols of this world that give us momentary comfort; e.g., online shopping.
The author argues that our Christian worldview should always be open for revision as we encounter new people, ideas, and experiences. We should learn to use a pencil more often than a pen when deciding what we believe. As an example, the author compared our worldview to that of a crossword puzzle. The argument was that each answer only fits if it works with the surrounding answers. One word might fit, but will not support the answer connected to it.
If you have ever attended a church, you may have heard “this is the house of God”. In my years of being part of a church congregation, I admittedly have stated this same phrase. This is the subject of the book, An Alter in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor (2009). The first two chapters examines the question “where God is found”. This paper will provide a brief summary of the first two chapters and will include a personal reflection of my thoughts of the reading.
Ed combats this view with the idea that the point of discipleship is not information, but Christ-like transformation. The second “broken view” presented is the fact that we try to program discipleship. Ed infers that discipleship is so much more than a six-week course, and people are looking for relationships more than discipleship classes. The third “broken view” is that we equate discipleship with our preaching. In fact, 56% of pastors surveyed believe their weekly sermon was the most important discipling ministry in the church.
The twentieth century marked a major shift in power. European Empires began to weaken the development of independent states began. Specifically, the fall of the Ottoman Empire left nations like Turkey scrambling to find a national identity and British control over the East India Company was beginning to weaken by the 1930’s. During this time, people began to debate what the true definition of a modern society was. As seen in Iqbal’s poetry, “Revolution” and “Europe and Syria” and Kemal’s “Speech to the Congress of the People’s Republican Party,” in order for a society to truly be modern we must disregard our current mindset that either strictly disregards religion or strictly follows it.
The moves and plots, which produce different fields of understanding, should arise from the nature of scripture. There are moments in consciousness termed immediacy, reflection, and praxis. Symbol’s task in consciousness is in different ways. Since scripture functions in these different ways, sermons also are plotted to work in human consciousness to shift congregational consciousness.
Do we need such an extensive system of academic organization in order to know more about God? Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson answer with a resounding “Yes!” in their book: Who Needs Theology? Grenz and Olson begin by defining theology and discussing what it means be a theologian.
In the Catholic “Trinitarian description of spirituality” humans can relate to God just like they can relate to another human being. Humans can speak with God, share their joys, and fears with God. Individuals are now able to live the Christian faith “after the way of Jesus” by following the steps that were laid out in the Bible. Jesus told his disciples how to live in a Christian like way and those steps have been shared over thousands of years. God’s Spirt has begun to play a large role in the Catholic faith because “we have a natural affinity to respond to the Spirit’s outreach” (Groome 278).
The divine command theory, utilitarianism, Kant’s duty defined morality, natural law theory, and Aristotle’s virtue ethics are the five types of ethical theories. The divine command theory states that what is morally right and wrong will be decided by God. Utilitarianism states that “Action “A” is morally right if and only if it produces the greatest amount of overall happiness. Kant’s duty defined morality states that what is important is acting for the sake of producing good consequences, no matter what the act is. Natural law theory states that people should focus on the good and avoid any evil.
