The Gospel at Work by Traeger and Gilbert

Global Missiology, 2013

Although there is only one gospel (Gal 1:6-8), evangelicals find it difficult both to answer the question, "What is the gospel?" and thus to contextualize it. Many people concur with the idea that Scripture must be central and decisive in contextualization. Moving beyond this basic principle has proven more difficult. Hundreds of books, articles, essays, and blog posts mull over the relationship between the Bible and culture. Despite such labor, evangelicals struggle to develop methods of contextualization that both recognize the Bible as supremely authoritative and reveal God's truth in ways that make sense in diverse settings, not importing a foreign culture under the guise of the "gospel."

Uncovering Idolatry' is a study about the true image of God and false images of him.

Bold in its premise and masterful in its execution, MisGod’ed by author and physician Laurence B. Brown teases common threads in the complex world of organized religion from the tangled mass of religious misdirection. An earnest search for truth, this text unveils both the corruptions and commonalities of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to fill the current void of intellectual discourse on the subject. For those readers who are intrigued but skeptical of organized religion, especially strict, literal interpretation of the Bible, this book articulates many of the questions readers have about religion, and poses others of its own. It provides a comprehensive, historically based analysis of documents, traditions and institutions. The central theme is to examine Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for truth in revelation, and trace the chain of revelation to its logical conclusion. Solicitous and precise, this text captures the essence of what it means to be a person of God.

Urban Loft Publishers, 2015

Often times the Bible is associated with rural pastoral settings. The Israelites wandering in the desert wilderness living in tents, David playing his harp for sheep out in the pasture, and Jesus strolling along dusty roads between remote villages. But what if I told you that the Bible is an urban book and that the center stage for where the drama of biblical events played out was truly the city? Starting in Genesis, all of the way to the end of the Bible in Revelation, the whole trajectory of humanity and the focal point for the Missio Dei was and is urban and not rural. When Jesus erupted into history through the womb of a teenager he lived in the most urban region in the world. The early church was birthed in the city and spread to the largest most influential cosmopolitan urban centers of the day. For the first-century Christian, to be a follower of Jesus was synonymous with being an urbanite. The Urbanity of the Bible explores the urban nature of the Bible and displays the urban trajectory of the Missio Dei. The city was and is a dominant theme of the setting, backdrop, and purposes of God throughout history. As the world today has flooded to the cities this book is good news. We were meant to live in the city.

ABSTRACT This thesis attempts to conduct a critical analysis on the Sangtam’s perception of tentmaking. First, a brief historical account of the Sangtam tribe from the pre-Christianity, and socio-economic situation of the church; and secondly, the Sangtam’s perception about tentmaking. Chapter 3 explores Paul’s practice of tentmaking in his ministry. This section examines briefly the background to Paul’s practice of tentmaking which includes his concept of finance, the welfare of ministers, work, and ministry. The investigation shows that although Paul voluntarily employed tentmaking practice, the social, church, and his personal situations compelled him to do so. The fourth chapter conducts an integrative analysis of the findings in the light of Paul’s application of tentmaking in his mission practice. It is shown that the contexts of Paul and the Sangtam are different yet when Paul’s principles are taken carefully it might find its own relevance to the Sangtam context. This study concludes that the perceived reservation about tentmaking in the Sangtam context is most probably caused by the mentality that any minister who works outside of his/her church commitments is taken negatively. This reflects an insufficient knowledge about it and the lack of practice of it. Thus, this paper suggests that USBLA should devise a policy on tentmaking, carefully thrash it out and consequently implement it to help facilitate or cater to the socio-economic situation of the Sangtam ministers.

2014

This article critically examines Jonathan Edwards’s doctrine of the Trinity with a particular focus upon his understanding of the person of the Holy Spirit. While his restatement of Augustinian orthodoxy served the church well during a time of great doctrinal heterodoxy, it created some problems of its own. These problems were rooted in his use of philosophical idealism, his reliance upon trinitarian analogies, and his adapted doctrine of perichoresis.