The Long Path to Christianity in Surprised by Joy Essays

Imagine a town, a town that is devoid of any warmth and hospitality. It merely stands as a collection of apartments, houses, stores, restaurants, roads; a plethora of buildings all laid out in meticulous detail for a royal return that will never come. Large, vibrant red slogans with painted with the words “SALE,” only to be read by the dusty, stale wind. If you look up, you see a bicycle, a fine layer of dust slowly inching its way over the bike, chained to a rack, waiting for its owner to never return. Beyond the once-busy market is the town’s clock tower, frozen at quarter past four. Is this what our amazing God created this world for? Is this the meaning of every human life? Is the purpose of life for a lively town to be stripped of its skeleton of civilians, to be reduced

Christianity answers suffering by allowing Christians to understand why evil dominates and how resisting the temptations will end with forgiveness.

The book Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity second edition by David Entwistle introduces the text by explaining how psychology can go in a direction, and Christian theology approach can lead in a different direction. He continued by stating the need for understanding and studying human behavior because people come from different walks of life and different expectations. It leads us to form unique perspectives to help give us an understanding of the individuals you encounter. The Entwistle 's book addresses the relationship between Christianity and culture, Christianity and science, and Christianity and psychology.

Enwistle’s book, Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity: An introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations, and models of integration (2010) is a text that explores integrating psychology and Christianity. We start out by learning about integration related to both psychology and Christianity. Is this a thing? Is integration between these two subjects a subject itself? Enwistle explores through time to reveal how psychology and Christianity have been both closely studied and intertwined throughout time. Enwistle (2010) defines Christian psychology as “ a commitment to a Christian worldview that shapes how psychology is studied and applies, and that recognizes that there are specific Christian resources that uniquely reveal crucial aspects of what it means to be human (p. 14). Those in the psychology or counseling field who are also Christian have unique and different approaches but they draw from both Christianity and psychology to help them succeed.

Chapter three of Engaging the Christian Scriptures goes into detail over selective parts of the sections of history, writings, and prophets. Chapter three gives the reader information over several books in the Bible such as Joshua, Judges, Jeremiah, etc. The chapter dives into the text of Joshua and gives the reader useful insight over Joshua and him leading the Israel across the Jordan river to conquer the land of milk and honey, Jericho. The book of Judges purpose was to teach Israel that God is faithful and certain to punish sin therefore each person must remain loyal and devoted to the Lord. The purpose of Jeremiah was to warn of the destruction that they were about to face and to urge Judah to return and submit to God. Towards the end

In the book Simply Jesus, N.T. Wright makes three different claims throughout. N.T. Wright's first claim is about the “perfect storm”. The “perfect storm” takes up a large section of the first few chapters, and in those chapters N.T. Wright writes about that to enter the “perfect storm” you must step out of your own storm that is happening in your life, you must jump back into the “perfect storm” just as Jesus did in his own life. N.T. Wright fails to fully support the idea of the “perfect storm” throughout the book. Wright writes about the two myths that create the “storms”, the first is “… the high-pressure system of conservative Christianity” and the second is “... the new classic modernist myth…”. N.T. Wright loses his credibility to his claims by never giving evidence that disproves they myths. N.T. Wright states that the stories in the bible “...’really did happen’. And there the matter ends…. Facts or no facts”. N.T. Wrights claims are never fully

The study of psychology and Christianity has been known to be at odds over the past several decades. Many believe that Christianity and Psychology cannot mix or intertwine. They believe a person can only believe in one but not both. In this essay I will discuss what the integration view entails in reference to psychology and Christianity. I will then discuss the major objectives that can arise from this view and follow by the counter objectives and core strengths of this view. I then will give an example of how this view can be used practically in a counseling situation.

David Entwistle's (2010) Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity appears to be a text with a primary audience which appears to be conservative evangelical Christians. The basic ‘meat’ of the book is the premise that "weaving together perspectives from psychology and Christian theology can help us understand and appreciate humanity more fully than we could with either perspective alone" (p. 3). Entwistle’s view is that in faithful reading of both the book of God's work (nature) and the book of God's word (theology), this textbook seems to be the work of an individual

• Writes about James, brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ. Stoned to death in A.D. 62. Pg.78

At a very young age John Lewis’ love for the gospel was born. At four his uncle gave him his first Bible for Christmas. Even though he was too young to read it for himself; the words that his mother read to him, had a strong impact. He said, “I’ll never forget my mother reading aloud to me the first words in that book-- ‘In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth’” (Lewis and Aydin March Book one 26). By age five he could read the Bible himself, and the messages began to shape him, and mean even more to him. John Lewis then wanted to be a preacher, so he began preaching to the chickens on his farm, with soulful messages. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. [...] Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Lewis and Aydin March Book one 27). Little did he know, that what he preached to the chickens were molding his future. Those words are what he was going

We have now come to the fourth and final book of Mere Christianity. In this book, the author takes us to the place in our Christian growth where we begin to rely more heavily on the power of God and less on ourselves to become the being that God originally intended for us to be — a son of God. He begins with an explanation of the difference between “making” and “begetting”.

The new testament contains four (4) accounts of the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The 3 accounts are similar, while Johns bible presents Jesus in a unique way. These differences exist because Matthew and Luke got their information from Mark and John got his information from another source, maybe John did not have access to the other gospels or he chose not to use them. No one really knows the source of John’s gospel and we don’t know for sure who wrote the gospels. Scholars refer to the authors as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, this may not even be their real names. The Gospel were not first hand accounts except for Mark. John did not seem to have known the existence of the other

In the first chapter of “Christianity Rediscovered” by Vincent J. Donovan he is introducing us to the idea that missionaries now have a poor reputation due to their history. He says “History has offered the opportunity to deflect and distort the meaning of missionary work in every age”. For a long time a missionary was a person spreading the word of God and after years of doing so we have diminished many different beliefs, practices, cultures and history. At the time it was thought to be the right thing, to spread out and share the gospel to help people find meaning and acceptance. In today’s age a missionary is a lot of different things, in many cases it is more focused on the health and physical wellbeing of the people. Many people still share the gospel through missionary work, but in other cases it is more of a material aid. Donovan introduces the book as a voyage of discovery he wants us to put our normal beliefs aside to see his perspective of living a missionaries life and struggling with the fact of if you are helping or hurting.

not open to the idea of Christianity? He believed that the best way to do this

Therefore, “book” becomes an underlying insinuation for Gosse’s later individual development; from his parents austere Calvinism to a religious independent who read freely. Gosse did not let his religion become a restriction for what he could read like his parents. From this point, Gosse became introduced to literature other than the Bible. For Gosse, Charles Dickens The Pickwick Papers act as an apprenticeship to fiction (Rees, 238). Gosse says he was “instantly and gloriously enslaved” by Pickwick, for his excitement in reading literature that was not the Bible was “scandalous” (Gosse, 179). Ironically, finding individuality from the “Calvinist cloister” (Gosse, 28) of his upbringing, is only possible through experiencing restriction. Although, Gosse does not acknowledge his upbringing as particularly positive, understands his antipathy was not towards religion but for his paternal restrictions. Gosse uses Wordsworth to address his developing individuality towards his “Father's dogmatic theology” (Gosse, 78). Further, Wordsworth addresses the impact nature has on the infant mind. In contrast, Gosse’s fascination with the sea compares to Wordsworth’s affinity for the mountains in The Prelude. Further, the sea becomes a rival for his Father’s Calvinism by insinuating Gosse is more affected by the natural world and reading than religion.