A Conversation From Ten Years Ago Essay

In the introductory chapters, she draws upon her own experiences overseas and comments on the mistakes she has made and how they can be prevented through best practice. Next, Butrin outlines methods for assessing communities through identifying the resources individuals possess, the needs of the community, and strategies for meeting those needs through meaningful partnerships with the local people. She asserts that our view of poverty directly relates to how we act in compassion and if we view it only as material deficit than our work will never truly alleviate poverty. The church should play a large role in this entire process because proclamation of the Gospel is a vital component of holistic ministry. Only God can bring true transformations to communities and people. If the message of salvation is absent from efforts towards justice than we have barely scratched the service and are responding to the external as opposed to addressing the root causes. The text concludes with decisive commentary on applying the principles of best practice to all

This text was helpful in helping me to understand how to relate to different people with different biblical understandings. In this text, McKinlay critically reflects within her culture (New Zealand) and how they come to understand Christianity and their interpretation

Ideas do not prove their value until they withstand the challenge of being questioned. On the surface, professor Craig Martin and anthropologist Clifford Geertz approach analyzing religion with opposing views. Martin dismisses definitions of religion claiming that no definition can encompass the practical use of the word and instead provides a step by step approach to explaining beliefs and actions in the perspective of a methodological atheist. Geertz, however, provides a working definition broken into a five-part model to make it a useful tool. Upon further analysis of these two methods, the once contradicting ideas begin to work in unison with each other. Martin’s functionalist approach and the definition

The meaning of theology is simple; it is the study of God and religious belief. The definition is plain to see but it’s important to go beyond what is already known. On a deeper level, what is the meaning of theology in respect to a religious community and to a person trying to find themselves in God? How is everyone involved in doing theology all the time? In this paper, there will be an in depth analysis on what theology is, why it is important, and how people are engaged in theology all the time.

In a personal reflection of 1,000 – 1,250 words, consider how a Christian might benefit from a study of other religions by addressing the following:

This work investigates the implications of theories of global change for the study of religion generally and, through a series of case studies, applications of those theories to specific religious movements. In particular, Beyer is interested in the seeming contradiction of the persistence of conflict between social units within a globalizing world that is more and more becoming a "single place." The first half of his book, the introduction and four chapters, is taken up with theoretical definitions of religion as a social system and the position of that social system with regard to other systems. The second half of the book, five chapters, explores applications of Beyer’s theorizing to a wide range of world religious particularities.

This will be based on the chapter 4 Religion as "Truth-Claims", posted on Blackboard. First of all, Dianne L. Oliver makes a preface about her writings saying that religions claim to get the truth, and followers of diverse religions say that their truth is the only one true, and cannot be compare with any other. Also, she remarks that many of those religion followers use violence to uphold their own version of truth. Moreover, she let us know that she is going to consider the "True-Claims" of different religions, and show how those claims can influence the practices, behaviors, and ideas of religion followers. Next to the introduction, she considers that religion is very essential for understanding the fundamental questions in our daily lives.

I knew I was in trouble when I read the words "go back to the book again, learn some more and apply your new learnings". Deep thinking was not even a phrase I had thought about in at least two years (since my last Dr. Bill class). Obviously, this book was hand picked for a reason to allow the process of deep CRITICAL thinking to take place. Go back and apply what you have learned…. learn more…….

Mr. Price is known for preaching at people even when he is not standing at the pulpit, believing that he is superior to the Congolese people because he worships God. His closed-minded way of thinking is apparent in his argument with Brother Fowles about the Bible. When offered a different perspective on some Bible passages, Reverend Price claims “I’ve never been troubled by any such difficulties with interpreting God’s word” (Kingsolver 251). Another on of Price’s shortcomings is his refusal to properly learn the Kikongo language. During church, the reverend pronounces batiza, which could mean baptism, incorrectly so that it means “to terrify” (Kingsolver 214). While Mr. Price thinks it is the ignorance of the Kilanga people that makes them reject Christianity, it is really his own ignorance that scares them

Some estimate that 70 percent of the worlds bible-believing Christians (as opposed to nominal or cultural Christians) now live in the majority world.”1 This reality should entirely changes the way we think about missions. If the greater part of Christians no longer live

The introduction to The Religion Toolkit: A Complete Guide to Religious Studies by John Morreall and Tamara Sonn establishes the basic purposes behind studying religion. It tries to show its readers that religion may be a much broader and undefined topic than they might be expecting. The Religion Toolkit discusses how the academic study of religion differs from the normative study of religion, how religion is not clearly described, and how Religious Studies compares and contrasts religions against each other.

Religion is a guideline for social conduct; additionally one may conclude of the gospel, and superstitious practices are the closest perceptible occurrence humans can term ‘magic. ' There are several definitions of the word religion because no one seems concise. One proper definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is “Religion is a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices” (Merriam-Webster, 2015). One might think that this distinguishing definition is most suitable for the purpose of this assignment. This paper will discuss the interviews of three different people who associate themselves with a particular religion. Hiawatha Macomb, Maxine Hawthorne, and Christian X will answer questions about their beliefs concerning religion, spirituality, faith, and perceptions about religion. In brief, the participants will have honest discussions about their beliefs in God and the supernatural.

Moschella’s text is an excellent resource for persons operating in pastoral roles who desire to understand their contexts better, discover the lived theology of their religious communities, affect real and productive change in their communities, and communicate these findings to their faith communities and broader audiences. To the an end, Moschella is not concerned with the unengaged academic task of research for the sake of knowledge production. Instead, her primary concern is to promote the use of pastoral ethnography as a method to achieve life-altering prophetic change within a community of faith. Many of the examples Moschella uses in the text exemplify this commitment. In one example, Moschella reflects on the work of one of her students, an openly gay pastor, who employed pastoral ethnographic methods to see if churches with openly gay pastors in the United Church of Christ (UCC) experienced a positive or negative change in membership in predominantly straight UCC congregations (81-82). He was able to demonstrate that church attendance increased when gay clergy became pastors of predominantly straight UCC congregation. Moschella’s text addresses two distinct audiences the pastoral care providers and academic researchers studying in the Western faith

Chua’s discussion focusses on a specific example of a village that has animist practitioners coexisting churches within the same community. It is important to note that communities can be and often are pluralistic and at times contradictory, thus conversion is relational and temporal. Chua focuses also on Conversation around the relationship between ‘old ways’ and conversion, or not to Christianity and the idea that conversion is a space that incorporates both non converts and converts alike.

The Destiny of the Unevangelized Debate has been a concern for Christians throughout the years. There have been questions to arise as to what actually happens to those who have never heard the Gospel. According to Body and Eddy, “the issue of the destiny of the unevangelized forces Christians to wrestle with the seeming tension between the universality of God’s love and the particularity of the path to salvation or one’s personal relationship with Christ.” Exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism are three ways that theologians address the issue of the destiny of the unevangelized. The text takes on these three ways through four views which are the Restrictivist View, Universal Opportunity View, Postmorten Evangelism View, and Inclusivist View.