This book is a call for preachers to learn the importance of keeping their eyes on the vision of Jesus and biblical prophets when preaching - that of doing justice, caring for others, and being equitable. The book attempts to make a biblical argument for the importance and the content of prophetic preaching, and argues that the issue is not preaching from a text taken from the prophetic corpus but preaching on the themes that echoed over and over from the biblical prophets themselves.

The role of religious prophetic witness in the public discourse of modern civil societies is a vital question, not only for the churches, but for society as a whole. Is it still appropriate for churches to make use of prophetic witness as a mode of public discourse in contemporary democratic societies? Can biblical tradition be a referential source for prophetic public statements of the churches in highly debated political questions? Or must public discourse in pluralistic societies be strictly grounded in purely reason-based arguments? This book deals with these questions in a multi-disciplinary perspective, looking at historical settings of biblical texts and discussing contemporary issues and contexts. (Series: Theology in the Public Square/Theologie in der Offentlichkeit - Vol. 1)

This book lays out the basic characteristics of liberal theology, delving into historical and philosophical sources as well as social and intellectual roots. Ideal for readers who want a better understanding of liberal theology, a religious tradition that is rooted not in authority but in one's own experience and conscience.

What happens when prophets are wrong? In 2020, many Christians claiming to be prophets said God told them that Donald Trump would be re-elected as president. Over thirty years before that, one the famous Kansas City Prophets, Paul Cain, prophesied that there would be a revival in London in 1990, which never came to pass. These examples make us wonder: What happens when prophets get it wrong? Are there consequences for misleading God's people? What would a genuine prophet look like today? And how can you tell a false prophet from a genuine one? In recent years, misjudgments among Charismatic Christians claiming to speak for God as well as moral failures within Evangelicalism have resulted in a crisis of belief. In Prophetic Integrity, bestselling author and speaker, R.T. Kendall gives a warning to those speaking in God's name and offers a way forward in trusting God despite the failures of the church. To unpack this difficult topic, Kendall, a self-described "Reformed charismatic," relates accounts of visions and supernatural experiences and shares stories and thoughts about Christian leaders that he knew personally, such as Paul Cain and Ravi Zacharias. He gives examples of good and bad prophecies and teaches a biblical and theologically-sound understanding of prophetic gifting and use. Prophetic Integrity is a book for those who believe that God still speaks today but have serious questions about those within the church that identify as prophets. It's a call for honesty, vulnerability, and repentance; and it speaks to Christians of many different traditions, including Charismatic and Evangelical. Discerning Christians of many different traditions can and must take both God's word and the gift of prophecy seriously and recognize how humans can abuse such gifts or use them to advance God's Kingdom.

The Hebrew prophets of ancient Israel strove to convey God’s point of view to the people and the powers at a time when injustice, deceit, malfeasance, and crushing the poor and the oppressed was prominent—much like today! The prophets spoke courageously and emphatically about God’s profound and unrelenting concern and compassion for human beings. Much influenced by the theology of prophecy developed by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, this book discusses the nature, meaning, and relevance of ethical prophecy at a time when democracy—in the United States of America and elsewhere—is under vicious assault from the religious and secular right and authoritarian politicians who openly flirt with and support murderous dictators, sexism, homophobia, racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred of Muslims both in word and practice. An examination of the contributions of eight powerful personalities from the period of American slavery through the post-civil rights era—Angelina Grimké, Ida B. Wells, Abraham J. Heschel, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Óscar Romero, and Alice Walker—offers a recipe for addressing this state of affairs.

Where have all the prophets gone? And why do preachers seem to shy away from prophetic witness? Astute preacher Leonora Tisdale considers these vexing questions while providing guidance and encouragement to pastors who want to recommit themselves to the task of prophetic witness. With a keen sensitivity to pastoral contexts, Tisdale's work is full of helpful suggestions and examples to help pastors structure and preach prophetic sermons, considered by many to be one of the most difficult tasks pastors are called to undertake.

Sacred Nature examines the crisis of environmental degradation through the prism of religious naturalism, which seeks rich spiritual engagement in a world without a god. Jerome Stone introduces students to the growing field of religious naturalism, exploring a series of questions about how it addresses the environmental crises, evaluating the merits of public prophetic discourse that uses the language of spirituality. He presents and defends the concept of religious naturalism while drawing out the implications of religious naturalism for addressing some of the major environmental issues facing humans today. This book is designed for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as scholars specializing in contemporary religious thought or environmental studies.

The 'death of tragedy' in the modern era has been proposed and debated in recent years, largely in terms of literature and western culture in general. Today, any catastrophe or misadventure is likely to be labeled a 'tragedy', without any inference of a larger, transcendent horizon or providential design that the word once conveyed. This book offers new perspectives on the idea of the 'death of tragedy', taking England and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in particular as a case study. Chapters focus on the origins of tragedy in ancient Greece, gospel and tragedy, the beginnings of the Quaker movement in seventeenth-century England, apocalyptic versus secularized experiences of time, Edwardian Quaker triumphalism, the search for English identity in postcolonial Britain, liberal Quakerism at the end of the twentieth century, and the promise and dilemma of postmodernity. The different disciplinary perspectives of the contributing authors bring literature, history, theology and sociology into a creative and revealing conversation. A Foreword by Richard Fenn introduces the book with an original and provocative meditation on tragedy and time.

A panel of top scholars presents the first comprehensive collection of primary sources from Unitarian Universalist history. This critical resource covers the long histories of Unitarianism, Universalism, and Unitarian Universalism in the United States and around the world, and offers a wealth of sources from the first fifty-five years of the Unitarian Universalist Association. From Arius and Origen to Peter Morales and Rebecca Parker, this two-volume anthology features leaders, thinkers, and ordinary participants in the ever-changing tradition of liberal religion. Each volume contains more than a hundred distinct selections, with scholarly introductions by leading experts in Unitarian Universalist history. The selections include sermons, theologies, denominational statements, hymns, autobiographies, and manifestos, with special attention to class, cultural, gender, and sexual diversity. Primary sources are the building blocks of history, and A Documentary History of Unitarian Universalism presents the sources we need for understanding this denomination’s past and for shaping its future.