Faithful To The Future

Faithful to the Future examines the true nature of Christian Tradition and particularly how it implies a fidelity not only to the past but to the future as well - tradition appears to be inseparable from creativity and reform. Congar's sense of the future and his conviction that something very important is happening in history led him to re-emphasize forgotten dimensions of Christian tradition, especially those that value the human person. When Congar reflected on Church authority and how it is best exercised, he was not thinking about a power that curtails freedom. Seeking to rediscover what is specific to Christianity, he described authority as a reality that is at the service of growth, where paying attention to the unknown and the unexpected is of the utmost importance. Congar was one of the greatest artisans of Vatican II and his writings are characterized by the urgent call for the reforms made necessary by a changing world, and by an understanding of catholicity - a sense of the Church that is not sectarian, but that lives and thinks "according to the whole". This volume explores the four themes that are prominent in Congar's writings, namely tradition, reform, catholicity and authority. The book does not assume a detailed knowledge of Congar's writings but addresses a difficulty that is frequently encountered in the present time - no one better than Yves Congar has shown that the Church is not a "system".

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Author Rev. Dr. Jo Ann Browning provides nine God-given lessons, showing readers how to fortify themselves for future challenges, unlock their spiritual potential and live life fearlessly.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers comes a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the power of love, family, and fate. Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt. What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? Faithful is the story of a survivor, filled with emotion—from dark suffering to true happiness—a moving portrait of a young woman finding her way in the modern world. A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls—including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night. Here is a character you will fall in love with, so believable and real and endearing, that she captures both the ache of loneliness and the joy of finding yourself at last. For anyone who’s ever been a hurt teenager, for every mother of a daughter who has lost her way, Faithful is a roadmap. Alice Hoffman’s “trademark alchemy” (USA TODAY) and her ability to write about the “delicate balance between the everyday world and the extraordinary” (WBUR) make this an unforgettable story. With beautifully crafted prose, Alice Hoffman spins hope from heartbreak in this profoundly moving novel.

Leading Faithful Innovation offers a practical, hands-on approach to addressing the challenges of change in the church and our culture. This three-step process is not another program or add-on to what readers are already doing. It is an ongoing way of following God that allows the Spirit of God to drive the energy among the people of the church.

Barry Callen is a ""church theologian"" in the finest sense. In this book he once again brings the commitments nurtured by Pietist, Anabaptist, and Wesleyan theological streams into conversation with the issues and debates in contemporary church life and with the most formative voices in contemporary theology. The result is a convincing reminder that Christian teachings about ""ultimate things"" (eschatology) are much more concerned with providing hope and direction for living faithfully in our present settings than they are with providing timetables for the future. His exposition of the role of the church and sacrament in nurturing such hope is particularly helpful. Randy L. Maddox, Professor of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies, Duke University Divinity School In a day when fanciful end-times speculations abound, the church does well to give heed to voices that call us back to the fundamentals of biblical eschatology. Barry Callen is such a voice. As he so forcefully declares, rather than focusing on dates and times, God calls us to be ""faithful in the meantime."" Stanley J. Grenz, Professor Emeritus of Theology, Ethics, Baptist Heritage, Carey Theological College and Regent College The doctrine of last things is important because faith would be empty if it could not hope for the coming of the kingdom of God. What we have in eschatology are not so much secrets about the future as images of God's final purposes which are meant to impact our every action and judgment. Here we have, thanks to Barry Callen, a responsible, informed, interesting, and up-to-date account of our blessed hope. Clark H. Pinnock, Professor Emeritus of Theology, McMaster Divinity College Barry L. Callen is University Professor and Vice President of Academic Affairs Emeritus, Anderson University, Editor of Aldersgate Press, author of Radical Christianity (1999), Approaching Theology (2015), Heart of the Matter (2016), and Bible Stories for Strong Stomachs (2017).

The church has too often lost its way in reading the Old Testament for lack of sound principles of interpretation. When careless habits get us off track, we can lose sight of what the Bible is really saying, derailing our own spiritual growth and even risking discredit to God’s word. We need a consistent approach to give us confidence as faithful interpreters. In Wisdom for Faithful Reading, the trusted Old Testament scholar John Walton lays out his tried-and-true best practices developed over four decades in the classroom. His principles are memorable, practical, and enlightening, including: The Bible is written for us, but not to us. Reading the Bible instinctively is not reliable and risks imposing a foreign perspective on the text. More important than what the characters do is what the narrator does with the characters and what God is doing through the characters. Not everything has a "biblical view." Along with identifying common missteps, Walton's insights point the way to stay focused on what the Old Testament text communicated to its original audience—and what it has to say for us today. When we submit ourselves to be accountable to the authors' intentions we experience the true authority of Scripture, and faithful reading fuels a faithful life. Using numerous examples across the breadth of the Old Testament and its genres, Walton equips thoughtful Christians to read more knowledgeably, to pay attention to God’s plans and purposes, to recognize good interpretations, and to truly live in light of Scripture. You may never read the Old Testament the same way again.

By engaging the reader in a process which parallels the pastoral counseling method--extending a conversation of revising and refining questions--Schlauch illustrates the content of his thinking through his carefully crafted presentation, maintaining that pastoral counseling is, at its heart, healing through "faithful companioning".