This book focuses on the relevance of Christianity for the twenty-first-century world. It addresses questions such as:•Is Jesus real?•Can we know that Jesus rose from the dead?•Does Christianity have a sure foundation?It examines Jesus’s historicity, the significance of the empty tomb, and the unexpected, transformative impacts of the early disciples’ encounters with the risen Lord. It then looks behind these testimonies to explore the role of the Holy Spiri...

This timeline comprises one thousand significant dates for global Christianity. It includes events across all inhabited continents (and also in Antarctica and outer space), emphasizing those occurring in the non-Western world. The detailed annotations on each date are intended as provocative "ignition points" to spark historical curiosity, functioning as "launchpads" into further exploration in global Christianity. For example: -739: What did the finding of the Rotas-Sator palindrome on th...

This book examines encounters between the Christian church and Maori. Christian faith among Maori changed from Maori receiving the missionary endeavours of Pakeha settlers, to the development of indigenous expressions of Christian faith, partnerships between Maori and Pakeha in the mainline churches, and the emergence of Destiny Church. The book looks at the growth, development and adaptation of Christian faith among Maori people and considers how that development has helped shape New Zeal...

What is the future of Christianity in the twenty-first century West? Are Western societies growing more secular, leaving cherished religious traditions behind? Or have modernity's secularizing currents generated equally powerful desecularizing and resacralizing currents? Should secularization theory, the dominant paradigm in the social scientific study of religion for much of the twentieth century, be thrown in the dustbin, as some scholars have suggested? Or does it remain useful, even in...

Alongside essays on aspects of Calvin's Theology, Calvin: The Man and the Legacy includes studies of Calvin as pastor, preacher and liturgist and traces the influence of Calvin as it was conveyed through Scottish migration to Australia and New Zealand. Fascinating stories are told of the ways in which the Calvinist tradition has contributed much to the building of colonial societies, but also of the ways it has attracted ridicule and derision and has been subject to caricature that is some...

This book brings together a series of papers by Ani Mikaere that reflect on the effect of Pakeha law, legal processes and teaching on Maori legal thought and practice. She discusses issues such as the ability of Maori to achieve justice when Maori law is marginalised; the need to confront racism in thinking, processes and structures; the impact of interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi; the difficulty of redressing harm to Maori within the Pakeha legal system; and the importance of rein...

This Very Short Introduction to Christian ethics introduces the topic by examining its sources and historical basis. D. Stephen Long presents a discussion of the relationship between Christian ethics, modern, and postmodern ethics, and explores practical issues including sex, money, and power. Long recognises the inherent difficulties in bringing together 'Christian' and 'ethics' but argues that this is an important task for both the Christian faith and for ethics. Arguing that Ch...

I don't know why you're spending all your time on this. Theyre only animalsfor heaven's sake! That was the reaction of one of Andrew Linzey's fellow students at Kings College, London, when he was studying theology in the 1970s. Since then, the now Rev. Dr. Andrew Linzey has been arguing that animals aren't only anything, but rather that they matter to God, and should do so to us. In this collection of essays, Linzey counters with his customary wit, erudition, and insight, some contemporary (...

This book tells the story of Keiths restless journey of faith, from his early days at Prairie Bible Institute in Canada, through positive encounters with Anglican evangelicalism in Australia, and into a more restful and sustainable faith. Two significant landmarks on his journey were doctoral studies on American philosopher Alvin Plantinga and the discovery that the Noah Flood story is probably best understood as myth, with implications for how the Bible can be read and appropriated in a 2...

"Mr Evan Roberts has lived to see the nation slip deeply into its former condition, and in some respects to a worse condition. He has lived to see the churches slip back into their old rut, wearing the same clothes, speaking the same language, in the same tone, without ardour or conviction."This quote is by Rev Vyrnwy Morgan in 1909. Read why he thought this and whether it was a fair criticism or not.

"As Canadian as the maple leaf" is how one observer summed up the United Church of Canada after its founding in 1925. But was this Canadian-made church flawed in its design, as critics have charged? A Church with the Soul of a Nation explores this question by weaving together the history of the United Church with a provocative analysis of religion and cultural change.The story begins in the aftermath of Confederation, when the prospects of building a Christian nation persu...

Fewer Australians now practise a religion or believe in God than ever. Yet our governments increasingly push conservative Christianity on our children.Nearly forty per cent of secondary students attend a private school, which are overwhelmingly Christian. Canberra funds them heavily, and sends evangelical Christian chaplains into both public and private schools. Some states subsidise Christian volunteers to deliver religious instruction, and some make Christian ministry a matricula...