When Heaven and Earth Collide is an investigation into what went wrong in the American South in regard to race and religion—and how things can be and are being made right. Why, in a land filled with Christian churches, was there such racial oppression and division? Why didn’t white evangelicals do more to bring racial reconciliation to the South during the 19th and 20th centuries? These questions are asked and answered through an exploration of history, politics, economics, philosophy, and social and theological studies that uncovers the hidden impetus behind racism and demonstrates how we can still make many of the same errors today—just perhaps in different ways. The investigation finally leads us in hopeful directions involving how to live out the better way of Jesus with an eye on heaven in a world still burdened and broken under the sins of the past.

This book explores the unprecedented challenge of involuntary singleness for women, and the implications of disregarding this challenge for the Christian (and particularly, baptistic) communities of faith. It argues that these communities not only fail involuntarily single women, but also in so doing, suffer a serious detriment to their own communal health and Christian witness. Taking the challenge of involuntary singleness as a test case, this book explores the method of convictional theology and argues for a holistic framework that can draw together the personal, communal, and visionary spheres of human existence. Although primarily a work of theological ethics, it also draws from a number of different disciplines, including cultural studies and sociology as well as intersections of science and theology.

Minter explores what happens when good desires become false gods, robbing people of an intimate relationship with the heavenly Father. (Christian)

"A definite shift in the Catholic Church's understanding of marriage took place at Vatican Council II. Rather than perceiving marriage as a contract whose primary purpose was the procreation of children, the council spoke of marriage as an intimate partnership of life and love. Then, recapturing an earlier tradition, it went on to describe the family as a domestic church." "In this book seven theologians who have lectured and written extensively on marriage probe the rich theology of marriage and family that emerged from Vatican II and explore some of the implications that flow from this theology." "Part One reflects on the sacramentality of marriage and on the family as a church of the home. Part Two examines the pastoral implications this has for marital and family ministry and spirituality."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In the midst of a Christian subculture that idolizes families, an evangelical history of overcelebrating families, and a secular culture that overprograms families, one American family identifies the danger they're in the midst of and embarks on a radical adventure. Household Gods offers an examination of the culture that spawned family idolatry and the steps we can take to flee this idolatry and escape to the Cross.

Rodney Clapp articulates a challenge to both sides of the critical debate on the future of the family. Named one of the Best Books of 1995 by the London Bible College Bookshop.

Discipleship is costly. Are we willing to critique and even challenge much we've been taught for the sake of the kingdom? For this is the radical nature of the discipleship to which Jesus calls us. He did not allow the outside culture to hold him captive; instead he established the kingdom of God and turned the world on its head. Jesus was untamed, and he calls his church to be the same. In this provocative and compelling book, internationally known missiologists Alan and Debra Hirsch overthrow culturized understandings of theology and culture, and cast a vision for a distinctly mission-shaped way of living the Christian life. Written for any Christian serious about issue of discipleship, Untamed covers such topics as church, humans as bearers of the image of God, family life, culture, and sexuality. Through it all they seek to answer the question, how are we to think and live day to day as followers of Jesus? Each chapter ends with suggested practices to help readers begin to live out the book's principles as well as questions for group discussion.

Christian discourse on sexuality, spirituality, and ethics has continued to evolve since this book's first edition was published in 1994. This updated and expanded anthology featuring more than thirty contemporary essays includes more theologians and ethicists of color and addresses issues such as the intersection of race/racism and sexuality, transgender identity, same-sex marriage, and reproductive health and justice.

The 1950s religious boom was organized around the male-breadwinner lifestyle in the burgeoning postwar suburbs. But since the 1950s, family life has been fundamentally reconfigured in the United States. How do religion and family fit together today? This book examines how religious congregations in America have responded to changes in family structure, and how families participate in local religious life. Based on a study of congregations and community residents in upstate New York, sociologist Penny Edgell argues that while some religious groups may be nostalgic for the Ozzie and Harriet days, others are changing, knowing that fewer and fewer families fit this traditional pattern. In order to keep members with nontraditional family arrangements within the congregation, these innovators have sought to emphasize individual freedom and personal spirituality and actively to welcome single adults and those from nontraditional families. Edgell shows that mothers and fathers seek involvement in congregations for different reasons. Men tend to think of congregations as social support structures, and to get involved as a means of participating in the lives of their children. Women, by contrast, are more often motivated by the quest for religious experience, and can adapt more readily to pluralist ideas about family structure. This, Edgell concludes, may explain the attraction of men to more conservative congregations, and women to nontraditional religious groups.