The time is ripe for a new Christian reformation--a profound transformation of theological substance, not just liturgical style. Jesus never intended to create a new religion of rites, creeds, and dogma that offered an eternal reward in heaven. Instead he announced the subversive arrival of the kingdom of God--a social and economic revolution of the heart based on a lifestyle of radical love, lavish generosity, extravagant forgiveness, inclusive hospitality, compassionate action, selfless service, a passion for justice, creative nonviolence, and simple living. He invited his followers to transform their lives and change the world. A postmodern Christianity will call people to engage in the Jesus revolution--a conspiracy of love that rises up against the unjust systems of the world through everyday acts of kindness, compassion, and resistance. An Unorthodox Faith provides a framework for a faithful life based on the Way of Jesus--a way of living authentically and humanely for the sake of others. It offers countless people--those who remain in the church, those who have left, and those who have never ventured near--with a life of faith that is meaningful, intelligent, and passionate.

A most unorthodox rabbi revisits twenty-five turbulent years in Toronto’s Reform Jewish community. John Moscowitz is an unlikely rabbi who rejected a religious life as a teenager and spent his formative years as a social activist under the wing of a radical professor. It is hard to say what path his life might have taken, had not a spiritual awakening led him to devote his life to the service of the Jewish community. This set him on a path to becoming one of Toronto’s most cherished and effective rabbis over the past twenty-five years. For the congregants of Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto’s oldest Reform synagogue, those twenty-five years were a great blessing. In the sermons he has gathered here, Rabbi Moscowitz looks back at the temple and congregation he served for so long. A most unconventional rabbi indeed, he charts the rapid shifts in thinking on issues including same-sex marriage, peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and gun control laws. Part memoir, part social history, this book is also a deep examination of a long, personal and public journey into the centre of an evolving community of faith.

First Published in 1987. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Have you ever wondered where religion is concerned, what you really believe? In FAITH, REASON & COMMON SENSE the interdependence of religion and culture is examined with care and insight. Readers with strong religious convictions may be surprised to discover that the history of religion - every religion - is both a chronicle of heresy and a reconfiguration of belief. In his examination of the relationship between Faith and Reason, the author rejects the familiar premise that a life guided by one must exclude the other. Although he stresses the importance of examining `the faith of our fathers' he is respectful of those who, in a world dominated by science, find guidance and reassurance in their religion. Far ranging and insightful, drawing on a wealth of sources and opinions, there is something for everyone in this challenging and though-provoking study.

This set collects together in 19 volumes a wealth of texts on Sociology of Religion. An invaluable reference resource, it contains classic books on a wide range of topics, including: religion and violence, religion and family life, religion and society, culture and class.

During his lifetime, Dante was condemned as corrupt and banned from Florence on pain of death. But in 1329, eight years after his death, he was again viciously condemned—this time as a heretic and false prophet—by Friar Guido Vernani. From Vernani’s inquisitorial viewpoint, the author of the Commedia “seduced” his readers by offering them “a vessel of demonic poison” mixed with poetic fantasies designed to destroy the “healthful truth” of Catholicism. Thanks to such pious vituperations, a sulphurous fume of unorthodoxy has persistently clung to the mantle of Dante’s poetic fame. The primary critical purpose of Dante & the Unorthodox is to examine the aesthetic impulses behind the theological and political reasons for Dante’s allegory of mid-life divergence from the papally prescribed “way of salvation.” Marking the septicentennial of his exile, the book’s eighteen critical essays, three excerpts from an allegorical drama, and a portfolio of fourteen contemporary artworks address the issue of the poet’s conflicted relation to orthodoxy. By bringing the unorthodox out of the realm of “secret things,” by uncensoring them at every turn, Dante dared to oppose the censorious regime of Latin Christianity with a transgressive zeal more threatening to papal authority than the demonic hostility feared by Friar Vernani.

Thinking with the Church offers twelve substantial essays from B. A. Gerrish, renowned historian, theologian, and Calvin scholar. In this collection, he focuses on the Calvinist tradition and the interpretation of historical theology as a critical engagement with past leaders of Christian thought and their opponents. / In the first two parts the essays focus on philosophical theology, considering questions such as What is religion? and What is revelation? Part three turns directly to historical interpretation of the Calvinist tradition, viewed in the very diverse work of three of its foremost representatives Calvin himself, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Charles Hodge. Finally, in the fourth and fifth sections Gerrish deals with particular Christian doctrines in which the diversity of the Calvinist tradition is apparent the atonement, the Eucharist, and grace. Historical interpretation is the foundation throughout, but Gerrish does not exclude the critical engagement that belongs to the task of historical theology.

"By reconstructing the religious crusade to achieve prohibition in Texas, Making the Bible Belt reveals how southern religious leaders overcame longstanding anticlerical traditions, built a formidable social movement, and, in the course of outlawing liquor, injected religion irreversibly into public life." -- Provided by the publisher.