A Song to Sing, a Life to Live

A Song to Sing, a Life to Live
Author: Don Saliers
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2019-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506454720

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Celebrating the spirit of song In A Song to Sing, a Life to Live, Don and Emily Saliers help readers see the connections between Saturday night music and Sunday morning music by exploring the spiritual dimensions of music itself. They tell the stories of their own lives in music, and they share what they have learned and observed about the power of music in human life. They help us appreciate the joy of music and also how music carries us into places of sorrow, where we must go if we are to live with honesty about ourselves and compassion for others. This book is for churchgoers and spiritual seekers alike. Music is described in terms of spiritual practice; it has the power to embrace those who are deeply immersed in the life of Christian faith and speak to those who are spiritual but may question formal religion. The book explores a wide variety of musical traditions and offers an invitation to embrace a broader and deeper vision of the power of music and the spiritual dimensions of attentive listening. "This is a beautiful expression of music as many things--healer, gift, symbol of freedom and community, and agent of change" (Mary Chapin Carpenter).

Practicing Our Faith

Practicing Our Faith
Author: Dorothy C. Bass
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2019-03-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506454747

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Twelve time-honored Christian practices that will help us, and the world, to flourish Practicing Our Faith offers help to Christians who are asking how our faith can help us discern what we might do and who we might become. How can we live faithfully and with integrity in a world where the pace of existence is so fast and life's patterns are changing all around us? Can we conduct our daily lives in ways that help us not just get by but flourish--as individuals, as communities, and as a society in concert with creation and in communion with God? These questions are on the hearts and minds of many seekers who are exploring spirituality today. They are also at the heart of Practicing Our Faith. Practices are those shared activities that address fundamental needs of humankind and creation and that, woven together, form a way of life. The twelve practices explored in this book are practices that human beings simply cannot do without, particularly at this time in history. This book will stimulate your imagination. It will encourage you to reflect. It initiates a conversation that will spread into many contexts, each of which presents unique opportunities for noticing, discussing, and living the practices of faith.

The Study of Liturgy and Worship

The Study of Liturgy and Worship
Author: Benjamin Gordon-Taylor
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2016-12-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0814663354

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This introductory book for students and general readers sheds fresh light on the study of liturgy and worship, reflecting important new directions in contemporary research. The contributors, who are at the forefront of teaching and research in the United Kingdom, United States, and Ireland and who represent a variety of denominations, offer multiple insights into a range of topics neglected by traditional approaches. The book is divided into themed sections, influenced by developments in scholarly methodologies in the social sciences, anthropology, philosophy, and linguistics, building on previous textual and historical foundations. Significantly, The Study of Liturgy and Worship has also taken inspiration from the growth of ecumenical dialogue and exchange in recent years. Academics have praised the book for “its accessibility and clarity”; “the personal tone and examples given by the authors”; “its easy adaptability to both an advanced undergraduate and master’s level usage”; “’inspired’ organization”; and how “it addresses the themes [of] my introductory course . . . [and my] advanced seminars with PhD students.”

Caring for Joy: Narrative, Theology, and Practice

Caring for Joy: Narrative, Theology, and Practice
Author: Mary Clark Moschella
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2016-09-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 900432500X

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In Caring for Joy: Narrative, Theology, and Practice Mary Clark Moschella offers a new account of the value of joy in caregiving vocations, demonstrating how the work of caring for persons, communities, and the world need not be a dreary endeavor overwhelmed by crises or undermined by despair. Moschella presents glimpses of joy-in-action in the narratives of five notable figures: Heidi Neumark, Henri Nouwen, Gregory Boyle, Pauli Murray, and Paul Farmer, gleaning their wisdom for the construction of a theology of joy that embodies compassion, connection, justice, and freedom. Care must be deep enough to hold human suffering and spacious enough to take in the divine goodness, beauty, and love. This book expands the pastoral theological imagination and narrates joy-full approaches to transformational care. “This work is a scholarly, engaging and compassionate call to reconsider the significance of joyful living and joyful lives in radical pastoral theology.” — Heather Walton, University of Glasgow, President of the International Academy of Practical Theology, July 2016. “Based on biographies, interviews, and life stories, Mary Clark Moschella presents joy as a counter-cultural emotion, as a spiritual path, and as a fruit of the Spirit. In her research, joy and reason are not ultimately opposed.” — Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Professor of Pastoral Care, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, July 2016. “This highly readable and compelling theology of joy will inspire you to explore how joy might energize your vocation, especially caregiving vocations that use narrative approaches to spiritual care and pastoral counseling. I plan on using this book as a textbook in my theodicy, grief, death and dying, and vocational courses.” — Carrie Doehring, Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, August 2016 “Mary Moschella has given us a rare text, one that is theologically rich, intellectually sophisticated, drenched in pastoral wisdom, and beautifully written. She gives us a pastoral theology attuned to the realities of diversity and sensitive to the complex challenges facing those who lives constantly interface with suffering. There is simply nothing else like this book in pastoral care.” — Willie James Jennings, Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, Yale University, August 2016

Music and Theology

Music and Theology
Author: Daniel Zager
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2006-12-13
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1461701511

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The scholar Robin A. Leaver holds a unique place in sacred music scholarship because of his training in both music and theology. He has written widely, bringing acute insights on a variety of musical repertories and topics related to Martin Luther, sixteenth-century psalmody, hymnody, and the sacred music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In Music and Theology, twelve scholars influenced by Leaver's work contribute essays in diverse areas of sacred music history and philosophy, focusing on the intersection of music and theology. Ranging chronologically from the twelfth-century writer and composer Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) to present-day considerations of American church music and worship, the volume provides thought-provoking new work for all who study church music. Reflecting the prominent emphasis in Leaver's own scholarship, eight chapters deal with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, including his organ music, sacred cantatas, and passion settings. A final chapter provides a chronological listing of Leaver's own voluminous writings on music and theology.

Music as Theology

Music as Theology
Author: Maeve Louise Heaney
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2012-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1621894290

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"The conversation between music and theology, dormant for too long in recent years, is at last gathering pace. And rightly so. There will always be theologians who will regard music as a somewhat peripheral concern, too trivial to trouble the serious scholar, and in any case almost impossible to engage because of its notorious resistance to words and concepts. But an increasing number are discovering again what many of our forbears realized centuries ago, that the kinship between this pervasive feature of human life and the search for a Christian 'intelligence of faith' is intimate and ineradicable. Maeve Heaney's ambitious, wide-ranging, and energetic book pushes the conversation further forward still. Her approach is unapologetically theological, grounded in the passions and concerns of mainstream doctrinal theology. And yet she is insisting . . . that music must be given its due place in the ecology of theology. Although convinced that music should not be set up as a rival to linguistic or conceptual articulation, let alone swallow up 'traditional' modes of theological language and thought, she is equally convinced that music is an irreducible means of coming to terms with the world, a unique vehicle of world-disclosure, and as such, can generate a particular form of 'understanding': 'there are things which God may only be saying through music.' If this is so, it is incumbent on the theologian to listen." --Jeremy Begbie, from the Foreword

Learning to Sing in a Strange Land

Learning to Sing in a Strange Land
Author: Wesley F. Stevens
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2009-01-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1621897966

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Prison is a strange land, a land of deep heartache and sadness. Over two million people are serving prison time in America. Millions more are carrying the mark of prison as those who were formerly incarcerated, including large numbers of men and women who have been released on parole. In the midst of such human misery, when "loosened tongues" are freed to sing of God's redemptive love, grief is diminished and the prison loses its power.

Fully Awake and Truly Alive

Fully Awake and Truly Alive
Author: Jane Elizabeth Vennard
Publisher: SkyLight Paths Publishing
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2013
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1594734739

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Fulfill the reality that the glory of God is the human fully alive. "Reverend Vennard is fearlessly awake to the wild dance of life. Rather than sleeping through life, she awakens to it. Rather than escaping from reality, she embraces it. Rather than distracting herself with a life to come, she dares to live the life that is. And she wants you to do all this as well. Read this book. Live this book. Wake up." --from the Foreword In a culture enthralled with technology, striving and speed, people of many faith traditions and no faith tradition long to slow down, pay attention and wake up to the present moment. They want help in realizing their hope that they can become more truly alive. This engaging and highly readable book offers you guidance for the journey. Sharing stories from her personal life as a spiritual seeker and from her professional career as a retreat leader, spiritual director and teacher, Reverend Jane Vennard illustrates the joys and frustrations of spiritual practice, offers insights from various religious traditions, and provides step-by-step exercises and meditations to practice: Caring for the body - Rest - Silence Solitude - Letting go - Community - Hospitality - Service - Living gratefully

Daring to Share

Daring to Share
Author: Sandra Beardsall
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2018-06-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532639139

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Multi-denominational congregations offer rich soil for new interpretations of what it means to be a church. These parishes have chosen to covenant together for worship, service, ministry, mission, and nurturing of faith across two or more denominational traditions. Daring to Share tells their stories, investigates their practices, and proposes a fresh vision of church for the twenty-first century. This book equips ordained and lay leaders for the formation and flourishing of such ministries. It describes five models of partnership, analyzes the parish life cycle, interprets how worship works, addresses constitutional and governance issues, and reflects theologically on the intersection of diversity and unity. What can we learn from these congregations? Studying their particular witness, struggles, and promise for the future fills a gap in both congregational studies and contemporary ecclesiology. Multi-denominational parishes are more than a convenient way to revitalize congregational ministry. They present new opportunities and approaches for sharing the gospel. Ecumenical convergence meets demographic realities to suggest a mission strategy that will transform local practice and, perhaps, the church itself. By daring to share, these churches challenge a fractured world.