This book explores the shifting role of the minister in light of the experiences of college men in the United States. Young men frequently struggle to know what it means to be a man and doubt that churches can supply the meaning and direction for which they hunger. These men are not necessarily lost, but they do need a certain kind of spiritual accompaniment that is likely to push many ministers outside of postures and practices with which they have grown comfortable. This interdisciplinary work draws together feminist and masculinist theories, contemporary practices in campus ministry, recent literature on religious deconversion and individual interviews with college men in order to argue for new ways amid the practice of ministry. This work invites ministers to become more apophatic—to grow comfortable with moving away from clarity and to adopt ungrasping postures of ministry that attend to the unfolding theology of the individual. This repositions campus ministers to support young adults from a range of spiritual commitments. Disaffiliating Ministry invites ministers to eliminate wasteful ministerial habits, to explore new ministry practices and to enjoy the freedom of accompanying young men in processes of leaving behind attitudes and actions that cease to be life giving while deepening in faith, courage and responsibility for others.

This book argues for new ministerial postures and practices in light of the challenges college men in the United States face negotiating spirituality and gender. Young people require ministers who can accompany them from a range of spiritual commitments as they confront dynamics of power, intimacy and responsibility.

For a denomination like Roman Catholicism that is canonically difficult to leave, many American Catholics are migrating beyond the institution’s immediate influence. The new religious patterns associated with this experience represent a somewhat cohesive movement influencing not just Catholicism, but the whole of North American religion. Careful examination of the lives of disaffiliating young adults reveals that their religious lives are complicated. For example, the assumption that leaving conventional religious communities necessarily results in a non-religious identity is simplistic and even, perhaps, misleading. Many maintain a religious worldview and practice. This book explores one “place” where the religiously-affiliated and religiously-disaffiliating regularly meet—Catholic secondary schools—and something interesting is happening. Through a series of ethnographic portraits of Catholic religious educators and their disaffiliating former students, the book explores the experience of disaffiliation and makes its complexity more comprehensible in order to advance the discourse of fields interested in this significant movement in religious history and practice.

自1978年开启改革与开放之旅以来，中国从一个在世界经济舞台上微不足道的发展中国家一跃成为当今世界第二大经济体、一大商品贸易国、一大制造业国家。中国经济金融的改革与发展既生气蓬勃、飞速向前，同时也充满艰难和曲折，在近40年的时间里走出了改革开放的中国道路，积累了中国经验。梳理和总结这些经验与教训，对指导中国经济金融自身进一步的改革和发展有重要意义，也对世界其他发展中国家的经济金融改革、发展与经济成长具有重要的借鉴意义。《中国经济：崛起在世界的地平线》将中国经济置于全球视野下，除观察和比较中国经济金融历经改革开放所取得的发展与成绩外，还从世界角度讨论中国经济在世界经济中的地位变化以及对世界经济的影响。

The Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers were involved in nefarious activities including prostitution, drug smuggling, sexual abuse of children, and murder conspiracy. The Rajneesh Chronicles explains this behavior--and why the cult that committed the first act of bioterrorism in the U.S. was trying to cultivate a live AIDS virus. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, widely known as the "sex guru," fled India in 1981 and came to settle on a ranch in central Oregon, where he and his followers established the illegal city of Rajneeshpuram. In their effort to preserve the city, the Rajneeshees attempted during the 1984 election to take control of the Wasco County government by poisoning two county commissioners and over 700 potential voters in The Dalles, the county seat, with salmonella—the first act of bio-terrorism in U.S. history. Armed to the teeth with semiautomatic weapons, they threatened to defend the city to the death against any governmental intrusion, and hatched a plot to assassinate a U.S attorney. When the commune finally imploded and authorities arrived on the scene, they discovered that the Rajneesh nurse who had cultivated salmonella bacteria in the commune’s biological warfare laboratory was also trying to cultivate a live AIDS virus—which deranged group leaders clearly hoped to unleash on the rest on the world. The Rajneesh Chronicles is a collection of in-depth investigative and analytical articles published in Oregon Magazine covering the entire period from the time of the cult’s arrival in Oregon in mid-1981 to its dramatic disintegration at the end of 1985 (with an introductory chronology that extends the story up to the present). While most press treated the cult’s antics as a humorous sideshow typified by the Bhagwan’s dozens of Rolls-Royces, editor in chief Win McCormack and other of the magazine’s writers systematically exposed the full range of the Rajneeshees’ depraved behavior, including their involvement in prostitution and international drug smuggling, sexual exploitation of children, abuse of homeless people they imported into Rajneeshpuram to register as voters, and the use of brainwashing techniques bordering on torture. The tale of the Rajneesh has become an amorphous legend few inside or outside of Oregon actually understand. The Rajneesh Chronicles fully illuminates the shocking reality behind that legend.

-Smash the 80/20 barrier at your church -Unleash your laity to do the work of ministry -Transform your ministry to meet the needs of the 21st-century church -Empower and motivate your people There's no Z in Lay! Laypeople are not lazy, they just need purpose, motivation, and direction. Now the best-selling author of 'Can the Pastor Do It Alone?' tells you how to make your ministry more effective by getting more of the congregation involved in the work of your church. Not just theories from a classroom, Dr. Melvin Steinbron's principles are ministry-tested, biblical ideas that have helped hundreds of churches across the country and around the world. Shift your laity involvement from neutral to overdrive with wisdom from one of the pioneers of lay-driven ministry.

This book is the first in over a decade to attempt a systematic synthesis of the field of conversion studies, encompassing the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, and theology. Gooren analyzes conversion and disaffiliation in a worldwide comparative framework, using data from North America, Europe, and Latin America.

This book explores the vital, common, yet surprisingly often misunderstood and neglected vocation of people gifted to combine academic and priestly roles in church, church-related, and secular academic contexts. The works of those who unite priestly and academic functions into one vocation have been vital to the Church since its first-century foundations. The Church would have no practically informed theology or liturgy, and arguably no New Testament, if not for individuals who have been as gifted at researching, writing, and teaching as at conventional ministry skills like preaching and pastoral care. With a specific focus on Anglicanism as one useful lens, prominent voices from around the Anglican Communion reflect here on their experiences and expertise in academic-priestly vocation. Including contributions from the UK, USA, and Australia, this book makes a distinctive and timely offering to discussions that must surely continue.