Apocalypse And Allegiance

Download or read book Apocalypse and Allegiance written by J. Nelson Kraybill and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively introduction, J. Nelson Kraybill shows how the book of Revelation was understood by its original readers and what it means for Christians today. Kraybill places Revelation in its first-century context, opening a window into the political, economic, and social realities of the early church. His fresh interpretation highlights Revelation's liturgical structure and directs readers' attentions to twenty-first-century issues of empire, worship, and allegiance, showing how John's apocalypse is relevant to the spiritual life of believers today. The book includes maps, timelines, photos, a glossary, discussion questions, and stories of modern Christians who live out John's vision of a New Jerusalem.

Download or read book Apocalypse and Allegiance written by J. Nelson Kraybill and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2010-04 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A respected biblical scholar shows how the Book of Revelation made sense to its first readers and what it really means for Christians today.

Download or read book Reading Revelation Responsibly written by Michael J. Gorman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading Revelation Responsibly is for those who are confused by, afraid of, and/or preoccupied with the book of Revelation. In rescuing the Apocalypse from those who either completely misinterpret it or completely ignore it, Michael Gorman has given us both a guide to reading Revelation in a responsible way and a theological engagement with the text itself. He takes interpreting the book as a serious and sacred responsibility, believing how one reads, teaches, and preaches Revelation can have a powerful impact on one's own--and other people's--well-being. Gorman pays careful attention to the book's original historical and literary contexts, its connections to the rest of Scripture, its relationship to Christian doctrine and practice, and its potential to help or harm people in their life of faith. Rather than a script for the end times, Gorman demonstrates how Revelation is a script for Christian worship, witness, and mission that runs counter to culturally embedded civil religion.

Download or read book Unveiling Empire written by Wes Howard-Brook and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confused by "end of the world" readings or put off by the dense and mysterious imagery, many readers hesitate to explore the Book of Revelation. Unveiling Empire offers a new entree into this troubling and controversial book of the Bible by examining the roots and social purposes of apocalyptic literature and Revelations own use of traditional imagery. In this way the authors provide readers with the tools for deciphering the texts message--and its urgent applications for Christians today living amidst a new kind of "empire."

Download or read book Waiting for Antichrist written by Damian Thompson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-04-21 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can people believe that the supernatural end of the world lies just around the corner when, so far, every such prediction has been proved wrong? Some scholars argue that millenarians are psychologically disturbed; others maintain that their dreams of paradise on earth reflect a nascent political awareness. In this book Damian Thompson looks at the members of one religious group with a strong apocalyptic tradition--Kensington Temple, a large Pentecostal church in London--and attempts to understand how they reconcile doctrines of the end of the world with the demands of their everyday lives. He asks such questions as: Who is making the argument that the world is about to end, and on whose authority? How is it communicated? Which members are persuaded by it? What are the practical consequences for them? How do they rationalize their position? Based on extensive interviews as well as a survey of almost 3000 members, Thompson finds existing explanations of apocalyptic belief inadequate. Although they profess allegiance to millennial doctrine, he discovers, members actually assign a low priority to the "End Times." The history of millenarianism is littered with disappointment, Thompson notes, and the lesson has largely been learned: "predictive" millenarianism--with its risky time-specific predictions of the end--has been substantially supplanted by "explanatory" millenarianism, which uses apocalyptic narratives to explain features of the contemporary world. Most apocalyptic believers, he finds, are comfortable with these lower-cost explanatory narratives that do not require them to sell their houses and head for the hills. He does uncover a handful of "textbook" millenarians in the congregation--people who are confident that Jesus will return in their lifetimes. He concludes that their atypical beliefs were influenced by their conversion experiences, individual psychology, and degree of subcultural immersion. Although much has been written about apocalyptic belief, Thompson's empirically-based study is unprecedented. It constitutes an important step forward in our understanding of this puzzling feature of contemporary religious life.

Download or read book In Harm's Way written by Shawn Chesser and published by Morbid Press. This book was released on 2014-09-04 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Harm's Way, Book 3 in the Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series, picks up on Day 8 where "Soldier On: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse" left off. Outbreak - Day 8 After running and gunning across much of the western U.S., Cade Grayson, former Delta Force operator, is finally reunited with his wife Brook and daughter Raven. Hours after arriving at the relative safety of Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, the new Capital of the United States, Cade is approached by the new President, Valerie Clay. Her request is simple: she appeals to the patriot in him to rejoin the Unit that he left for civilian life fifteen months prior and once more go into harm's way, taking the fight to the enemy. Meanwhile, Duncan Winters, Vietnam-era aviator, finds himself stranded in Springs along with BLM firefighter Daymon Bush. Both men arrived with Cade and were promised transport back to Eden, Utah. Duncan longs to be reunited in Eden with his brother Logan, a survivalist/ Doomsday prepper. Daymon, with no surviving family, knows only one thing for certain: he doesn't want to remain trapped behind the wire inside of a huge government-run military base. Mere days after Washington D.C. is overrun and the sitting President goes missing, Robert Christian, billionaire kingmaker who has been waiting in the wings for a world-changing event such as this, marshals his group of mercenaries led by former Navy SEAL Ian Bishop. Their mission: to control what remains of the United States by any means necessary and ultimately reshape the country to fit their warped vision for a new world order. Will Cade accept President Clay's overture and embark on a new high priority mission alongside his friend and mentor, Delta Commander General Mike Desantos? Will Brook Grayson continue to hone her newly found survival skills and successfully train her eleven-year-old daughter Raven to defend herself against the undead threat? Will Captain Ronnie Gaines and his SF soldiers from Fort Kit Carson succeed in clearing downtown Springs of the zombie menace? Will Duncan and Daymon survive their flight from Schriever Air Force Base and find the survivalist group in Eden? Can the human race survive what appears to be its final extinction level event?

Download or read book Reading Revelation Responsibly written by Michael J. Gorman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume deals with the varied forms of shame reflected in biblical, theological, psychological and anthropological sources. Although traditional theology and church practice concentrate on providing forgiveness for shameful behavior, recent scholarship has discovered the crucial relevance of social shame evoked by mental status, adversity, slavery, abuse, illness, grief and defeat. Anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists have discovered that unresolved social shame is related to racial and social prejudice, to bullying, crime, genocide, narcissism, post-traumatic stress and other forms of toxic behavior. Eleven leaders in this research participated in a conference on The Shame Factor, sponsored by St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Lincoln, NE in October 2010. Their essays explore the impact and the transformation of shame in a variety of arenas, comprising in this volume a unique and innovative resource for contemporary religion, therapy, ethics, and social analysis.