The Faith of the Outsider PDF Download

Author: Frank A. Spina
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802828644
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
This book offers a probing, insightful look at the "outsider" motif running through the Bible. The biblical story about God's covenant with "insiders" -- with Israel as the chosen people -- is scandalous in today's cultural climate of inclusivity. But, as Frank Anthony Spina shows, God's exclusive election actually has an inclusive purpose. Looking carefully at the biblical narrative, Spina highlights in bold relief seven remarkable stories that treat nonelect people positively and, even more, as strategically important participants in God's plan of salvation. The stories of Esau, Tamar, Rahab, Naaman, Jonah, Ruth, and the woman at the well come alive in new ways as Spina discusses and examines them from an outsider-insider point of view.

Author: John W. Loftus
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616147385
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Fostering mutual understanding by viewing religion from an outsider perspective Depending on how one defines religion, there are at least thousands of religions in the world. Given such religious diversity, how can any one religion claim to know the truth? Nothing proposed so far has helped us settle which of these religions, if any, are true--until now. Author John W. Loftus, a former minister turned atheist, argues we would all be better off if we viewed any religion--including our own--from the informed skepticism of an outsider, a nonbeliever. For this reason he has devised "the outsider test for faith." He describes it as a variation on the Golden Rule: "Do unto your own faith what you do to other faiths." Essentially, this means applying the same skepticism to our own beliefs as we do to the beliefs of other faiths. Loftus notes that research from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and neuroscience goes a long way toward explaining why the human race has produced so many belief systems, why religion is culturally dependent, and how religion evolved in the first place. It's important that people understand these findings to escape the dangerous delusion that any one religion represents the only truth. At a time when the vast diversity of human belief systems is accessible to all, the outsider test for faith offers a rational means for fostering mutual understanding.

Author: Matthew Paul Turner
Publisher: Relevant Media Group
ISBN: 9780974694207
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
The Christian Culture Survival Guide is about the author's humorous experiences growing up in the Christian subculture and what he's learned along the way. From overcoming the temptation to wear W.W.J.D. bracelets to the disparaging experience of witnessing to a gay man at a bar, Matthew Paul Turner offers a fun read that's packed with profound insight and truth.

Author: Lawrence M. Wills
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1461640385
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In the Bible, there is a drama of defining who are truly God's people—and who are not. Using an array of biblical texts from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, Not God's People explores how ancient Jews and Christians created their own identity in relation to others. The book analyzes how biblical texts define 'us' and 'them,' how these texts differ in the way they define group identity, and how this process continues to be re-created by Jews and Christians today. Not God's People asks questions such as: How is the outsider defined? Is the ideal insider defined as the opposite of the outsider? It follows up with related questions such as: How were these definitions of 'we' and 'other' in the ancient communities used by later Jews and Christians? Are the processes of community and enemy formation found in the Bible exhibited in most other cultures as well? Not God's People ultimately shows that though the Bible's definitions of the insider and outsider changes dramatically over time, the process are enduring, and eternally true.

Author: Penelope Williamson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476731012
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
After her husband is killed by vigilantes, Rachel Yoder seeks refuge on her Montana ranch, but her life is changed when she comes to the aid of a mysterious, severely wounded stranger who stumbles onto her land.

Author: Ann H. Gabhart
Publisher: Revell
ISBN: 9781585589531
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
For as long as she can remember, Gabrielle Hope has had the gift of knowing--visions that warn of things to come. When she and her mother joined the Pleasant Hill Shaker community in 1807, the community embraced her gift. But Gabrielle fears this gift, for the visions are often ones of sorrow and tragedy. When one of these visions comes to pass, a local doctor must be brought in to save the life of a young man, setting into motion a chain of events that will challenge Gabrielle's loyalty to the Shakers. As she falls deeper into a forbidden love for this man of the world, Gabrielle must make a choice. Can she experience true happiness in this simple and chaste community? Or will she abandon her brothers and sisters for a life of the unknown? Soulful and filled with romance, The Outsider lets readers live within a bygone time among a unique and peculiar people. This tender and thought-provoking story will leave readers wanting more from this writer.

Author: Ken Gire
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 0764208837
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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"Popular author uses stories from the Bible and his own life to teach about God's love for those who feel like outsiders"--Provided by publisher.

Author: David Kinnaman
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441200010
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Based on groundbreaking Barna Group research, unChristian uncovers the negative perceptions young people have of Christianity and explores what can be done to reverse them.

Author: Howard Fast
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453237631
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
The New York Times–bestselling author of Spartacus evokes the postwar Jewish-American experience through the story of a compassionate but conflicted rabbi. After witnessing the inhumanity and devastating suffering of Dachau, chaplain David Hartman returns to post–World War II America seeking meaning and purpose. As a young rabbi, he accepts a post in the sleepy, WASPy Connecticut suburb of Leighton Ridge, where a handful of Jewish families want to build a religious community. Accompanied by his lively wife, Lucy, a self-proclaimed “Jewish atheist,” and aided by a kindred spirit in the local Congregational minister, David meets skepticism with sincerity, and poverty with humility and humor—and faces anti-Semitism with quiet courage. Over the next quarter century, David and his family and congregation weather the social upheavals of McCarthyism, the establishment of Israel’s statehood, the trial and execution of the “atom spies,” civil rights marches, and Vietnam War protests. David finds both his faith and his marriage tested as he continues to struggle with feeling marginalized as a rabbi and a Jew in American society, haunted by the Holocaust and challenged to respond to the prejudice, inequality, and warmongering he sees locally and nationally. Capturing a tumultuous time when humanity was rapidly figuring out how to destroy itself and eager to declare God if not dead, then irrelevant, Howard Fast’s sweeping historical novel offers an intimately personal portrayal of a rabbi’s life—and fearlessly probes questions of personal morality, spiritual identity, and social responsibility that continue to resonate in the twenty-first century. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate.

Author: James W. Geiger
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1620320673
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
What does Christianity have to say about the salvation of the African tribesman who died before the missionaries arrived, and the great sorrow of the Messianic Jew who grieves for family and friends who did not or will not acknowledge his Jesus as their Messiah? C. S. Lewis said these outsiders represent the scandal of exclusivity. Jim Geiger is a Christian insider and fully committed to the exclusivity of Christ's atonement. However, he is suggesting an expanded Christology where: ¥ The constant speed of light in E = mc2 corroborates the constant Christ of Heb 13:8. ¥ Special and general relativity model special and general revelation. ¥ The Christ of general revelation represents the hope of salvation for some of Christianity's outsiders.