Charismatic Practice And Catholic Parish Life

In Charismatic Practice and Catholic Parish Life - the Incipient Pentecostalization of the Church in Guatemala and Latin America, Jakob Egeris Thorsen offers a detailed ethnographic and theological analysis of the impact of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal on the Catholic Church in the region. Based on fieldwork, this interdisciplinary study examines how Charismatic practice and spirituality permeate both local parish life and the pastoral plans of the Catholic Church in Guatemala and Latin America. The Charismatic Renewal is the largest lay movement in Latin America and has a profound influence on the Catholic Church. This book analyses both the social and ecclesiological consequences of an incipient Pentecostalization of Guatemalan and Latin American Catholicism.

Over the past decades, Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity has arguably become the fastest growing religious movement in the world. Distinguishing features of this variant of Christianity include formal ritual activities as well as informal, experiential, and ecstatic forms of worship. This book examines Pentecostal-charismatic ritual practice in different parts of the world, highlighting, among other things, the crucial role of ritual in creating religious communities and identities.

Wesleyan churches, Pentecostal churches, and the modern charismatic movement trace their theological roots to John Wesley. Yet these groups have gone separate ways in interpreting the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church, often regarding one another with suspicion or distrust.In The Divided Flame, Dr. Howard Snyder, a Wesleyan minister, calls Wesleyans and charismatics to reexamine how they parted ways. He finds that they still have a great deal in common theologically, and he proposes that this common ground should serve as a basis for dialogue."How does a Wesleyan dialogue with charismatic Christianity?" asks Snyder. "Rather than comparing our theology or practice point by point, we have chosen to address the central question that charismatic Christianity raises for us: In what sense is Christian experience, the church, charismatic? If the charismatic movement raises valid biblical questions for us--and it does--then it is more important to deal with those questions than merely to catalog the pluses and minuses of the movement."This book reviews the history of Wesleyan and charismatic thought, evaluating them in light of Scripture's norms for church life. A provocative study, The Divided Flame should bring fresh perspective to the controversy surrounding modern charismatic theology.

Since Comte, social scientists have tended to assume that mod苟rnization, along with a trièµ´mphant scientific rationality, has destroyed the legitimacy of religion as a social reality. However, this crisis of legit虹macy has never been examined in a setting where religious real虹ty is affirmed. This book fills that gap, exploring the meaning of religious reality in the lives of a group of Catholic Charismatics to discover how belief is created, developed, and maintained. Charismatics, or Neo-Pentecostals, tend to be white, relaè² ively affluent, well educated, and believe that they possess certain gifts including the power of healing, prophesy, discernè¡«ent of evil spirits, and speak虹ng in tongues. In describing and analyzing this religious minority, the author provides a basis for reevaluating sociological as貞umptions about religion and modernity. She asks: to what exè² ent can religion define the so苞ial world? Are religious values necessarily irrelevant to most institutional contexts? Is re衍igious reality only persuasive in the context of family and priè¡«ary group relations? What are the tensions between religious realities and other beliefs? Her answers have implications for all ways of making sense of the world, including common sense or science. Neitz situates the Charismatic Renewal in a broader social and historical context. She examines the antecedents of Neo-Pentecostalism in American culture and compares this movement with the secular, self-awareness movement. In so doing she shows what is unique about the Charismatics, and what they share with religious prede苞essors and members of contem計orary secular movements.

The Holy Spirit is the secret to the Church's growth and vitality—her "fountain of youth"! The Spirit is constantly renewing the Church, and the current age is no exception. In this book, theologian and author Dr. Alan Schreck writes a historical appreciation of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, now celebrating its fiftieth year—a renewal that has touched millions of Catholics throughout the world. Tracing the origins of the Renewal, Schreck outlines its characteristics, how it spread, what is meant by the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the charisms that are associated with it, and the communities that grew out of it. This book is for those who were involved in the Renewal and for those who want to know how the Spirit has moved so mightily in our own time and age.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.

The Holy Spirit is a sine qua non in the life of the church and in all Christian life and experience. The importance of the experiential and praxis-oriented theology of the Charismatic Renewal and Pentecostalism cannot be overemphasized in the realization of the potentials of a Spirit-animated church. In fact, Charismatic Renewal in the Nigerian Catholic Church is an essential part of the changing face of the Catholic Church in Nigeria. This work is, therefore, using Charismatic and Pentecostal theology and praxes to argue for the renewal of the Nigerian Catholic Church. It avers that the praxis-oriented and experiential theology of the Charismatics and Pentecostals, which characterize them as Spirit-filled groups and churches, are enabling the Nigerian Catholic Church to realize the potentials of a Spirit-driven church. It upholds that the Nigeria Catholic Church through the Nigerian Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which is an indispensable part of the changing face of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, has wittingly or unwittingly begun the renewal of her pneumatological, ecclesiological, and liturgical doctrines and practices in accord with those of a truly Spirit-animated church.

This book highlights for professional parish ministers the vital importance of the foundational or pre-communal aspects that make a parish community healthy and strong. It provides not a sociology of the parish, but a sociology of the first ingredients that go into making a parish community. It is not, therefore, a book explaining or analyzing the organizational dimensions or social structures that make-up a parish, such as the roles and statuses needed for a parish to function. Rather, the book examines the formation of relationships in the first place within the context of a parish and how such relationships might be maintained over time. Upward social mobility is a deterrent to forming such relationships, while social ritual practices, such as eating together, are a means for establishing and sustaining parish relationships. The book is theoretically grounded in the work of Emile Durkheim who discusses in minute detail the ingredients of social solidarity and community life in his classic work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.