Representing God

How evangelical activism in England contributes to the secularizing forces it seeks to challenge Over the past two decades, a growing number of Christians in England have gone to court to enforce their right to religious liberty. Funded by conservative lobby groups and influenced by the legal strategies of their American peers, these claimants—registrars who conscientiously object to performing the marriages of same-sex couples, say, or employees asking for exceptions to uniform policies that forbid visible crucifixes—highlight the uneasy truce between law and religion in a country that maintains an established Church but is wary of public displays of religious conviction. Representing God charts the changing place of public Christianity in England through the rise of Christian political activism and litigation. Based on two years of fieldwork split between a conservative Christian lobby group and a conservative evangelical church, Méadhbh McIvor explores the ideas and contested reception of this ostensibly American-inspired legal rhetoric. She argues that legal challenges aimed at protecting “Christian values” ultimately jeopardize those values, as moralities woven into the fabric of English national life are filtered from their quotidian context and rebranded as the niche interests of a cultural minority. By framing certain moral practices as specifically Christian, these activists present their religious convictions as something increasingly set apart from broader English culture, thereby hastening the secularization they seek to counter. Representing God offers a unique look at how Christian politico-legal activism in England simultaneously responds to and constitutes the religious life of a nation.

Moshe Idel, the Max Cooper Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Senior Researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute, is a world-renowned scholar of the Jewish mystical tradition. His historical and phenomenological studies of rabbinic, philosophic, kabbalistic, and Hasidic texts have transformed modern understanding of Jewish intellectual history and highlighted the close relationship between magic, mysticism, and liturgy. A recipient of two of the most prestigious awards in Israel, the Israel Prize for Jewish Thought (1999) and the Emmet Prize for Jewish Thought (2002), Idel’s numerous studies have uncovered persistent patterns of Jewish religious thought that challenge conventional interpretations of Jewish monotheism, while offering a pluralistic understanding of Judaism. His explorations of the mythical, theurgical, mystical, and messianic dimensions of Judaism have been attentive to history, sociology, and anthropology, while rejecting a naïve historicist approach to Judaism.

In this groundbreaking collection, Edward L. Cleary and Allen D. Hertzke bring together nine new essays that provide the first systematic, comparative view of religion and politics at the state level. These essays take an in-depth look at the pressing issues facing states across the nation and how religious lobbies and organizations are addressing them. By examining the responses of different denominations and their rationales for involvement, the contributors explore the enormous diversity of interests being represented at the state level.

The greatest error one could make in life is to get involved without understanding. This book explains in clear terms what it means to represent God on earth.

Examining religious representation at the state, transnational and institutional levels, this volume demonstrates that religion is becoming an increasingly important element of the decision-making process. It provides a comprehensive analysis of religious representation in the European Union that will be of great interest to students and scholars of European politics, sociology of religion and international relations.

Much has been said about why Jesus died. This book focuses on why Jesus lived. God with Us: Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew shows that Jesus didn’t just come to be our teacher, a miracle work or prophet, or even just Israel’s savior and redeemer. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Notable Scripture scholar Edward Sri leads readers on a faithful exploration of Jesus’s kingdom-building mission and how it revealed God presence, which remains with us today. Helpful discussion questions are provided for personal and group study. This newly expanded edition of the study originally titled The Mystery of the Kingdom: On the Gospel of Matthew is an outstanding introduction to the first gospel.

The mayority of the human beings go throught the stage decesive of purpose; freedom; call; work; and direction in each one of the lives; stage during which unfortunately many follow their own will; some are overtaken by the responsabilities and the trend; while some others deviate themselves from the perfect will of God the Lord; for their lives; a great number of individuals are conformed to the day to day waiting for what would come. However; exist people in whose internal being is burning the will and the call of God for their lives; people to which God mades a call “Because God is the one that in yourselves produce the want or the will as the doing; for his good will.” (Phil 2:13). Is necessary to respond to God compromising with God to obey to his voice and then God would respond with the accomplishment of his voice; meanwhile of his word which is the will of God with the life of each believer “In what you would offer over my althar corrupted bread. And you said: ¿In what we had dishonored you? In thinking that the table of Jehovah is despreciable.” The time of assuming the service and the call from God is today; God is talking to you and is calling you the time is now. (Rom 13:11).