The Patient Ferment of the Early Church - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Patient Ferment of the Early Church write by Alan Kreider. This book was released on 2016-03-29. The Patient Ferment of the Early Church available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. How and why did the early church grow in the first four hundred years despite disincentives, harassment, and occasional persecution? In this unique historical study, veteran scholar Alan Kreider delivers the fruit of a lifetime of study as he tells the amazing story of the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Challenging traditional understandings, Kreider contends the church grew because the virtue of patience was of central importance in the life and witness of the early Christians. They wrote about patience, not evangelism, and reflected on prayer, catechesis, and worship, yet the church grew--not by specific strategies but by patient ferment.
Healing in the Early Church
Healing in the Early Church - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Healing in the Early Church write by Andrew Daunton-Fear. This book was released on 2009-07-01. Healing in the Early Church available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This monograph presents the most comprehensive investigation yet made into the healing activity of the Early Church. In contrast to early skeptics like B. B. Warfield, the author is convinced there was a vigorous healing ministry in the centuries that followed the apostles, though it fluctuated somewhat and changed its mode. Exorcism is prominently attested throughout the period. The pre-Nicene Fathers recognized its great apologetic value as a dramatic demonstration of the superiority of Jesus Christ over pagan gods. Interest in healing miracles per se appears to have been particularly characteristic of the less educated members of the Church and those who were chaste in their devotion to the cause of Christ. Amongst these groups gifts of healing were found, becoming rare it seems by the mid-third century, but well attested again later in monastic circles. In the pre-Nicene period anointing with oil (in the name of Christ) was clearly an avenue of healing and, though mentioned comparatively rarely, may have been widespread as part of the regular ministry of local clergy to the sick. Baptismal healing, physical as well as spiritual, also took place. In the post-Nicene Church the shrines of the martyrs became a prominent locus of healing. Devotion to this cult may have been encouraged by Church Fathers as an acceptable alternative to magical practices. But evidence suggests syncretism did occur and martyr's relics could be invested with quasi-magical awe. Most Fathers were positive about the medical profession, seeing it as an avenue of God's work, and in the late fourth century one pioneered the hospital which then spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean. In an appendix to his work, the author sets down nine pointers from the healing activity of the Early Church, and his own experience, to assist those engaged in the healing ministry today.
Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity
Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity write by Robin M. Jensen. This book was released on 2012-06-01. Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. What can we learn from early Christian imagery about the theological meaning of baptism? Robin Jensen, a leading scholar of early Christian art and worship, examines multiple dimensions of the early Christian baptismal rite. She explores five models for understanding baptism--as cleansing from sin, sickness, and Satan; as incorporation into the community; as sanctifying and illuminative; as death and regeneration; and as the beginning of the new creation--showing how visual images, poetic language, architectural space, and symbolic actions signify and convey the theological meaning of this ritual practice. Considering image and action together, Jensen offers a holistic and integrated understanding of the power of baptism. The book is illustrated with photos.
Early Christian Thinkers
Early Christian Thinkers - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Early Christian Thinkers write by Paul Foster. This book was released on 2012-04-10. Early Christian Thinkers available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book introduces twelve key Christians from the second and third centuries, a formative period for the Church. These figures are: Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Perpetua, Origen, Hippolytus, Cyprian, Gregory Thaumaturgos and Eusebius. Each chapter is self-contained and requires no preliminary knowledge of the figure under discussion, making this an ideal book for laity and for undergraduates studying Christian origins or Patristics.
Understanding Christian Mission
Understanding Christian Mission - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Understanding Christian Mission write by Scott W. Sunquist. This book was released on 2013-09-15. Understanding Christian Mission available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This comprehensive introduction helps students, pastors, and mission committees understand contemporary Christian mission historically, biblically, and theologically. Scott Sunquist, a respected scholar and teacher of world Christianity, recovers missiological thinking from the early church for the twenty-first century. He traces the mission of the church throughout history in order to address the global church and offers a constructive theology and practice for missionary work today. Sunquist views spirituality as the foundation for all mission involvement, for mission practice springs from spiritual formation. He highlights the Holy Spirit in the work of mission and emphasizes its trinitarian nature. Sunquist explores mission from a primarily theological--rather than sociological--perspective, showing that the whole of Christian theology depends on and feeds into mission. Throughout the book, he presents Christian mission as our participation in the suffering and glory of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the nations.
