A Rebirth For Christianity

The search to uncover the hidden origins of Christianity and discover its true message has become a current topic of fascination for many readers. People are eager to know the truths behind the biblical legends and the mysteries that created Christian rites, ceremonies, and codes of behavior. Kuhn argues that the sacred scriptures of Judaism and Christianity do not portray historical truths, but symbolic and mystical metaphors. The spiritual truth encoded in scripture, says Kuhn, is far more important than its literal narrative. Kuhn’s research provides a clear understanding of the allegorical interpretations of the scriptures and their significance to a deeper, more profound Christianity. He traces the historical and philosophical origins of Christian thought to illustrate that Jesus was one of many incarnations of an enduring archetype that has surfaced in many religions. In fact, those who wrote the scriptures may have never even intended the focus to be on Jesus, the man. Moreover, Kuhn investigates the problems (psychological, spiritual, and otherwise) that result from a purely historical interpretation of Jesus. In doing so, Kuhn reclaims the mystical power at the core of Christianity's message, which has to do with the "birth" of the inner Christ and the emergence of divine consciousness in humanity.

In this exciting landmark work, MacGregor delves into the annals of Christian history to demonstrate that Christian doctrine and reincarnation are not mutually exclusive belief systems.

Predominantly Catholic for centuries, Latin America is still largely Catholic today, but the religious continuity in the region masks great changes that have taken place in the past five decades. In fact, it would be fair to say that Latin American Christianity has been transformed definitively in the years since the Second Vatican Council. Religious change has not been obvious because its transformation has not been the sudden and massive growth of a new religion, as in Africa and Asia. It has been rather a simultaneous revitalization and fragmentation that threatened, awakened, and ultimately brought to a greater maturity a dormant and parochial Christianity. New challenges from modernity, especially in the form of Protestantism and Marxism, ultimately brought forth new life. In The Rebirth of Latin American Christianity, Todd Hartch examines the changes that have swept across Latin America in the last fifty years, and situates them in the context of the growth of Christianity in the global South.

The search to uncover the hidden origins of Christianity and discover its true message has become a current topic of fascination for many readers. People are eager to know the truths behind the biblical legends and the mysteries that created Christian rites, ceremonies, and codes of behavior. Kuhn argues that the sacred scriptures of Judaism and Christianity do not portray historical truths, but symbolic and mystical metaphors. The spiritual truth encoded in scripture, says Kuhn, is far more important than its literal narrative. Kuhn’s research provides a clear understanding of the allegorical interpretations of the scriptures and their significance to a deeper, more profound Christianity. He traces the historical and philosophical origins of Christian thought to illustrate that Jesus was one of many incarnations of an enduring archetype that has surfaced in many religions. In fact, those who wrote the scriptures may have never even intended the focus to be on Jesus, the man. Moreover, Kuhn investigates the problems (psychological, spiritual, and otherwise) that result from a purely historical interpretation of Jesus. In doing so, Kuhn reclaims the mystical power at the core of Christianity's message, which has to do with the "birth" of the inner Christ and the emergence of divine consciousness in humanity.

The author of this book argues that a dialogue between the truths of science and religion could enhance the prospects of resolving the environmental crisis.

African orthodoxy today reveals the same powerful faith that was confessed by Athanasius and Augustine seventeen centuries ago. Classic African Christian teaching in the patristic period (100–750 AD) preceded modern colonialism by over a thousand years. Many young African women and men are now reexamining these lost roots. They are hungry for accurate information about their Christian ancestors. Thomas C. Oden asks readers to recapture the resonance of a consensual orthodoxy, the harmony of voices celebrating the apostolic testimony to God’s saving work in Jesus Christ, witnessed to in scripture and understood best by African interpreters of the faith. In ten seminars, Oden invites discerning readers to reclaim and reaffirm Christian faith as it emerges from thoughtful conversations between contemporary and ancient African interpreters of orthodox faith. “This new book by Tom Oden is remarkable and historic. His words challenge the worldwide church to return to the true fountain of living water, Jesus Christ. He specifically encourages us Africans to continue to seek the treasures left to us by our early church fathers and mothers in order to reshape the Christian mind now as they did in the first millennium.” –The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis, Archbishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa “A thought-provoking book with factual evidences emphasizing the continuity of global orthodoxy that emanated in Africa and has been nurtured by Africans from the time of Mark the evangelist to the present. People yearning to discover the intellectual and classical African Christian roots will find the book very helpful.” –Thomas A. Oduro, President, Good News Theological College & Seminary, Accra, Ghana “While Tom Oden writes about Africans for Africans, The Rebirth of African Orthodoxy: Return to Foundations is also addressed to all Christians everywhere who ask, ‘What is God doing in the world today?’ The author proposes that the clue to what God is doing in the present is to be found in what God has done in the past, for ‘the Holy Spirit has a history.’ Tom directs us to look to Africa, where the ancient African Christian orthodoxy is being reborn in the African church today, making it a witness to the whole church everywhere.” –Timothy W. Whitaker, retired bishop, Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church

The Rebirth of Revelation explores the different and important ways religious thinkers across Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism modernized the concept of revelation from 1750 to 1850.

In Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, Jon Davies charts the significance of death to the emerging religious cults in the pre-Christian and early Christian world. He analyses the varied burial rituals and examines the different notions of the afterlife. Among the areas covered are: * Osiris and Isis: the life theology of Ancient Egypt * burying the Jewish dead * Roman religion and Roman funerals * Early Christian burial * the nature of martyrdom. Jon Davies also draws on the sociological theory of Max Weber to present a comprehensive introduction to and overview of death, burial and the afterlife in the first Christian centuries which offers insights into the relationship between social change and attitudes to death and dying.