In this PhD research, the author has inquired the contribution of the Khrist Bhakta movement to inculturation in the field of community building in India. He focuses on Matridham asram at Varanasi where rural Hinduism and the charismatic form of Catholic Christianity meet one another. The author addresses the issues involved in this encounter from a social, cultural, legal, pastoral and theological perspective, which is relevant for all those interested in interreligious and intercultural encounter. --Book Jacket.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 Kenya is a diverse nation, with many ethnic communities and cultural traditions. However, this diversity has led to deep divisions over the years, resulting in entrenched ethnopolitical tension and conflict. In this book, Dr David Kirwa Tarus advocates for a Christian theological response to the nation’s divisions by presenting various theological perspectives on anthropology, society, and politics including those of John Calvin and John Mbiti, as well as other prominent Kenyan theologians. This work traces the history of ethnopolitical conflict in Kenya and the church’s response from 1895 to 2013 and thoroughly examines how a reformed theology can provide a pathway to social cohesion in Kenya. David Tarus humbly yet boldly challenges Kenyans to pursue national unity and peace by interrogating their allegiances to their ethnic communities and political parties. This book carefully argues why it is only a Christian identity, commitment to humanity as bearing the divine image, and the triune God himself, that can heal the divisions in this land and in turn bring an end to other social evils such as corruption, intolerance, and violence. Ethnopolitical conflict is not confined to one nation, and this study will bear much fruit in other contexts where people yearn for social cohesion.

"This book argues that the development of Catholicism in Asia was closely connected with globalization. Since the 16th century Catholicisms has contributed significantly to global connectivity, while at the same time the Church 's global expansion has transformed the Church's own global consciousness. Casanova and Phan adopt a framework of three distinct phases of the development of Catholicism in Asia and Oceania - early modern (16th to 18th centuries), modern Western hegemony (1780s to the 1960s), and the contemporary, after Western hegemony. With this framework, contributors discuss the development of Catholicism in all major countries of the region, including China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Australia. Except for the Philippines and Timor-Leste, Catholicism in Asia is and is likely to remain a minority religion for the foreseeable future. For that reason, however, it can serve as a unique prism through which to look at the processes of globalization in Asia, precisely because the historical processes through which Catholicism took roots in the entire region and became inculturated as an Asian religion are so intimately connected with the processes of globalization"--

Provides a broad and deep survey of Roman Catholic life and thought, updated and expanded throughout The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Catholicism provides an authoritative overview of the history, doctrine, practices, and expansion of Catholicism. Written by a group of distinguished scholars, this comprehensive reference work offers an illuminating account of the global, historical, and cultural phenomena of Catholicism. Accessible chapters address central topics in the practice of Catholic theology and the development of doctrine, including God and Jesus Christ, creation and Church, the Virgin Mary, the sacraments, moral theology, eschatology, and more. Throughout the text, the authors illustrate the unity and diversity of Catholic life and thought while highlighting the ways Catholicism overlaps with, and transforms, other ways of living and thinking. Now in its second edition, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Catholicism is fully updated to include recent developments in the study of Catholicism. Extensively revised and expanded chapters, many of which written by new authors, address contemporary issues such as theology and politics, environmentalism, and the clerical sexual abuse crisis. Entirely new chapters cover the early modern Church, the Bible in Catholic theology, the Eastern Catholic churches, liturgy, care for creation, the consecrated life, challenges for the Catholic Church, and more. An informed and engaging intellectual journey through the past and present of Roman Catholicism, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Catholicism: Illustrates the diversity of modern Catholic life and thought Describes Catholics in different lands, including the Holy Land, India, Africa, Europe, the British Isles, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas Surveys spirituality and ecumenism, inter-religious dialog, Catholic schools and hospitals, art and the sciences, the Holy See, and other central Catholic institutions and practices Covers major eras in Catholic history, from the Scriptures and the early Church to Post-Modernity Features new material on diverse practices of Catholicism across cultures, the global dimensions of the Catholic Church, race and ethnicity, and Eastern Catholic Churches The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Catholicism, Second Edition, is the ideal textbook for surveys classes on Catholicism and Catholic theology in Catholic, Protestant, and non-confessional colleges and universities. It is also an invaluable resource for scholars and general readers interested in broadening their knowledge of Catholicism.

How is Christianity to express itself in the public forum within Western nations? This book seeks answers through a historical retrieval of the dynamic mission in post-war Scotland of Tom Allan and his contemporaries: the Iona Community; the Gorbals Group Ministry inspired by the East Harlem Protestant Parish; and Robert Mackie, Ian Fraser and Scottish Churches House. Allan's missiology focused upon the apostolate of the laity: allowing ordinary people to express their faith in word and deed in a full contextualization of Christianity to seek a missionary parish of constant witness and service. The book examines his work in parish ministry, nationally as leader of the Tell Scotland Movement, and internationally with the WCC; and the rich sources and context of his missiology. Key questions are asked about tensions caused by the role of the church, and the effect of the Billy Graham "All Scotland Crusade," which Allan instigated, on the rapid decline in Christian adherence from the late fifties. His work is placed alongside his contemporaries, who took bold steps beyond those of Allan to relocate faith to the rhythms of the streets. Utilizing present day missiology as a lens, their inspiration leads to derivations and principles, offered as guideposts for Christian mission now.

How can churches in America, modeling the oldest Christian communities, renew themselves form within? They can look to examples of thriving small Christian communities within their own country and throughout the world. This inspiring book shows what is happening now across six continents to give pastors and lay leaders of every denomination encouragement through useable examples from their counterparts around the world.

From its beginnings, liberation theology has provoked a wide and diverse range of responses from a multitude of critics-theological, methodological, political, ecclesiastical. Liberation Theology and Its Critics is a comprehensive and systematic explication of these diverse criticisms, as well as a reasoned and rigorous defense of liberation theology. McGovern states his aim thus: to understand better the world of Latin America and the culture and conditions which prompt a liberation theology, while at the same time giving expression to some of the misgivings that many US Americans experience when reading about liberation theology. Liberation Theology and Its Critics begins by discussing the place of theology itself in liberation theology. The book offers an historical overview, shows us what liberation theologians see as most distinctive in their work, addresses the biblical interpretations and major areas of theology stressed by liberation theologians, and discusses other theologians' critiques. Next, McGovern explicates the use of social and political analysis in liberation theology, which has been one of the areas of particular controversy. He focuses on such issues as dependency theory, Marxism, class struggle, socialism, and the Nicaraguan revolution, addressing throughout the concerns raised by a range of critics, from the Vatican to Michael Novak. Finally, McGovern explores the role of the church and how liberation theology is lived out in practice. He examines base communities, ecclesiology, current political trends in Latin America, the varying status of liberation theology as well as its most recent developments. McGovern demonstrates that liberation theology encompasses a wide spectrum of theologians with different styles and emphases. It requires careful study, non-polemical debate, and an honest effort to present the views of both liberation theologians and their critics fairly. McGovern's book will be the benchmark against which subsequent work is measured.

The necessity for meaningful change and reform in the Roman Catholic Church is not just the opinion of the few but a consensus of the many. It is no secret; many Catholics today are discontent with the leadership of the church. The once bastion of the faithful are steadily drifting away from Catholicism, some for personal reasons, but the majority of Catholics that have moved on to other denominations or none at all are those who have become disillusioned and disenchanted by the controlling forces of leadership. That is the hierarchy that has failed to modernize the church by bringing its practices and ways of being church into the twenty-first century—especially the leadership that has insufficiently addressed the causes and remedies of the scandalous abuses of pedophile priests. It appears by most accounts that the leadership of the church has not been able to recognize the signs of the times. It is rather obvious; we live in a troubled world, acculturated by sex, greed, violence, and power. These self-destructive futilities grow from the seeds of obsession in the existence of the many. Therefore, reforms are absolutely essential to ensure that Catholicism has a future in the world.

An honest, unflinching tale of re-finding one's faith, from one of the world's most famous theologians Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian narrates how esteemed theologian, Paul F. Knitter overcame a crisis of faith by looking to Buddhism for inspiration. From prayer to how Christianity views life after death, Knitter argues that a Buddhist standpoint can encourage a more person-centred conception of Christianity, where individual religious experience comes first, and liturgy and tradition second. Moving and revolutionary, this book will inspire Christians everywhere.