Humanitarian Jesus

A resurgence of the Social Gospel is energizing many evangelicals, but what does the Bible say about the role of humanitarian works in the Christian life? As new covenant believers, Christians are called to a specific central task: to be ministers of God's message of salvation for sinners. At the same time, the New Testament justifies nearly every concern of the revitalized Social Gospel. Care for the poor and needy, reconciliation of social and racial divisions, and nurture for the sick and abused -- all can be biblical and Christ-honoring activities. Ryan Dobson and Christian Buckley have a message for believers on either side of the battle lines hardening around today's Social Gospel. To those on the Religious Left, they say: "Don't forget that Jesus Christ died to save sinners, not to bring about political change." To those on the Religious Right, they say: "Don't forget that Jesus spent much of his time helping the sick, the poor, and the needy." A corrective and a call to action all in one, Humanitarian Jesus shows that evangelism and good works coexist harmoniously when social investment is subservient to and supportive of the church's primary mission of worship, evangelism, and discipleship. In accessible and non-academic style, Dobson and Buckley outline the biblical case for humanitarian concern. They also engage the topic through interviews with leading Christian thinkers, activists, and humanitarian workers -- including Franklin Graham, Gary Haugen, Ron Sider, Tony Campolo, and many more -- seeking to define a broadly biblical approach to good works that all Christians can join hands around.

Human dignity, decent life and human rights are effects of extensive humanitarian struggles by a people to achieve reasonable life for all. The possibility of such El Dorado was stalled in the past by unforeseen circumstances and other man-made tribulations in global history. However, these struggles will remain incomplete without a global perspective. Thus, taking the responsibility to understand humanity and her shortfalls in other parts of the globe becomes necessary. This quest consequently triggers the thorough study on how, where and why their plight is intrinsically tied to their social, cultural, religious and political background. Such genuine consequent studies can uproot the causal effect and thus guarantee the success of that developmental slogan of 'helping people to help themselves.' This study attempts to provide a platform that could chart a path towards sustainable answers to basic social questions.

Effective communication with the African society in the field of missions, church planting, and social development work has been and continues to be a great challenge, particularly to people from western cultural and language orientation. Africans are a we rather than I and a depended on rather than independent of society. The worldview of a traditional African in terms of society, relationships, and communication is communal. Certainly, the African perception of communalism affects how they communicate with the people of different cultural orientation. Africa has several cultures and people differ in their communication depending on their cultural orientation. However, there are universal African cultures that act as a framework for understanding key aspects of communication with Africans for successful missions, church planting, and social development work. This book, therefore, provides a strategy of understanding communication with the African society. The discussions in this book provide readers with different cultural orientations unique perception of the African society as s/he may be planning to communicate with the African society for missions, church planting, and social development work, even doing humanitarian ministry in African society. Although literacy levels have improved tremendously in most African countries, most of Africa is not a reading society. It is imperative to understand that most Africans still communicate orally and are not time conscious. Hence, effective communication in African societies ought to be based on storytelling rather than literature distribution, although this is in transition. In fact, Africans are oratory and good listeners. Thus, this book provides an understanding to people of different cultural orientations when they plan to communicate with the people in Africa.

What may happen when Christians take doctrine seriously? One possible answer is that the shape of churchly life "on the ground" can be significantly altered. This pioneering study is both an account of the doctrine of the person of Christ as it has been expounded by the theologians of historic English and Welsh Nonconformity, and an attempt to show that while many Nonconformists held classical orthodox views of the doctrine between 1600 and 2000, others advocated alternative understandings of Christ's person; hence the evolution of the ecclesial landscape as we have come to know it. The traditions here under review are those of Old Dissent: the Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians and their Unitarian heirs; and the Calvinistic and Arminian Methodist bodies that owe their origin to the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century.

William L. Newell presents a comprehensive analysis of René Girard’s work on the origins of culture and the depths of human desire. Girard makes no claim toward a theory of religion, but he lays the groundwork for a postmodern theory of it. Girard’s desire concerns fallen humanity, those insanely imitating what they lacked, and his use of the Bible brings back into play the idea of the holy in secular academia. Newell challenges Girard’s interpretation of Jesus’s Passion as non-sacrificial and he offers a close reading of Girard’s works on mimetic desire, scape-goating, and sacrifice, and Newell creates breakthrough theology on Jesus in the Excursus. Girard makes no claim to having a theory of religion, but he lays the groundwork for a postmodern theory of it, and in this book, Newell seeks to begin a theory of “the end of the sacred” and what will be in its place: the holy.

Part I of this e-book summarizes the state of religion among the Jewish people during the long four hundred year period which elapsed between the time of the prophet Malachi and the beginning of the Christian era. Part II gives the Gospel's presentation of Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel's hopes, their perception of Him and His own claim to be the Messiah.