In this richly contextualized study, Liana Chua explores how a largely Christian Bidayuh community has been reconfiguring its relationship to its old animist rituals through the trope and politics of "culture." Placing her ethnography in dialogue with developments in the nascent anthropology of Christianity, Chua argues that such efforts at "continuity speaking" are the product not only of Malaysian cultural politics, but also of conversion and Christianity itself. This book invites scholars to rethink the nature and scope of conversion, as well as the multifarious, yet distinctive, forms that Christianity can take.

This book originated in the Donatio Universitatis Carolinae award and research support that Professor Petr Pokorný received in 2017. It was envisioned, designed, and originally conducted as a project exploring the biblical roots of Christian culture. Experts in various theological and philosophical disciplines, both from the Czech Republic and abroad, were to probe this topic from their particular perspectives. The hoped-for output was to be a coherent collective study of the proposed topic. However, due to the unexpected passing away of Prof. Pokorný in early 2020, the project could not be executed according to the original plan. Rather than a collective monograph, therefore, the present book is a collection of essays that investigate various aspects of the Bible and Christianity in their relation to culture as a broad human phenomenon. The book is divided into two sections. While the first section focuses on particular issues in the Bible, the second addresses historical, philosophical, and cultural developments. As Petr Pokorný was actively and importantly involved in the initial stages of the project, two essays are written by him personally. The whole book, then, is dedicated in his honor.

This book is a study of the writings of a group of Chinese Christian apologists in the seventeenth century, focussing on Xu Guangqi. Eleven of his shorter writings are included in Chinese and in translation. The first part of the book is devoted to a study of Latin Christian apologists within the Roman Empire to provide a comparison for the analysis of Xu Guangqi's work. Minucius Felix, Tertullian and Lactantius are shown to have faced, in regard to imperial power and Graeco-Roman culture, a situation comparable to that of Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao and Yang Tinqyun in regard to imperial power and culture in the late Ming period. The final chapters of the book reconsider general issues of confrontation and adaptation in the inculturation of Christianity.

Christianity is the confidence custom that spotlights the figure of Jesus Christ. Confidence alludes both to the adherents' Act of trust and to the substance of their confidence. As a custom, Christianity is in excess of an arrangement of strict conviction. It additionally has produced a culture, a bunch of thoughts furthermore, and a lifestyle, practices, and curios that have been given over from one age to another since Jesus originally turned into the virtuous object. Christianity is, in this manner, both a living practice of confidence and the way of life that confidence abandons. The study of world Christianity starts with the premise that Christianity is and has always been a multi-cultural, diversified religion with no single dominant form. All Christians have lived in unique cultural environments throughout history, which they have accepted and rejected. Culture indicates what people learn after birth, including language, religion, and customs or traditions. Culture is a lifestyle of a gathering; the behaviours, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, are passed down along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. Individuals can change matters of culture by individual choice after they are born. These two terms help us identify human patterns and understand a country's driving forces. Christianity has and is still facing many challenges throughout history across all continents because of the diverse traditions and cultures in which it finds itself. Christianity has turned into the biggest of the world's religions and, topographically, the most generally diffused of all beliefs. It has a voting demographic of multiple billion adherents. Christianity has learned to adapt to different world cultures, thereby causing a change in the beliefs and practices of many countries. It has been able to grow and surpass every other religion. To say that Christianity "centers" on Jesus Christ is to say that, in some way, it unites its convictions and practices and different customs about a recorded figure. Christians who embrace neighbouring cultures use indigenous languages, music, art forms, and rituals to further their goals. Christians have a long history of appropriating non-Christian objects and imbuing them with Christian meaning, making many cultures approve of its practices and believe its teaching. Christians continue to borrow new languages and civilizations to convey the story of Jesus as Christianity finds a home in new cultural settings. In the context of their unique cultural and religious tradition, Christ, the "Man for All Cultures," assists people in discerning and living according to God's plan. As a result, Christianity cannot be culturally homogeneous. This link between Christ and culture was presupposed by the churches of the Apostolic time. Christianity survived for centuries against opposition from different religions and cultures; after it was adopted as the Emperor's religion, it quickly developed a strong institutional structure that would outlive the Empire itself. Many cultures and countries of the world are still against the teachings and practice of Christianity, making it illegal, forbidden, and also persecuting its citizens for it.

Contemporary Christian Culture: Messages, Missions, and Dilemmas studies Christian media, its meanings, and its impact on social perceptions and lived experiences in a multicultural context and from within a communication framework. This interdisciplinary collection expands the dialogue surrounding race, culture, and Christian messages and provides a valuable resource for researchers, educators, and church practitioners who are interested in understanding how racial and cultural identity are impacted by religious media products.

"Drawing insights from gender studies and the environmental humanities, Demonic Bodies analyzes how ancient Christians constructed the Christian body through its relations to demonic adversaries. Case studies on New Testament texts, early Christian church fathers, and "Gnostic" writings trace how early followers of Jesus construed the demonic body in diverse and sometimes contradictory ways, as both embodied and bodiless, "fattened" and ethereal, heavenly and earthbound. Across this diversity of portrayals, however, demons consistently functiond as personfications of "deviant" bodily practices such as "magical" rituals, immoral sexual acts, gluttony, and "pagan" religious practices. This demonization served an exclusionary function whereby Christian writers marginalized fringe Christian groups by linking their ritual activities to demonic modes of (dis)embodiment. Demonic Bodies demonstrates, therefore, that the formation of early Christian cultures was part of the shaping of broader Christian "ecosystems," which in turn informed Christian experiences of their own embodiment and community"--

Evangelism in a Post-Christian Culture is the challenge facing the church today. Alastair Ferrie brings more than thirty years experience of preaching the gospel and sharing his faith. One of the greatest needs of the growing church is a training program for the whole church in evangelism. Those engaged in ministry will find this work invaluable, and those committed Christians in the pews will find this book a framework which will revolutionize their effectiveness in evangelism. Many Christians will admit to not knowing where to begin. This book explains and outlines an approach that can be used effectively in sharing the gospel. The material will also be useful for preaching and for use in Bible discussion groups. A companion volume to this work, Step-by-Step: Aftercare for New Christians is also published by iUniverse. Credit for Cover: Ray Ferrie The book begins with a discussion on worldview which explains the difficulty we often have in communicating the gospel with a world that has truly become post-Christian. A five fold foundational Christian worldview is put forward and contrasted with a Darwinian model so prevalent in the world today. This is followed by several chapters outlining an approach to evangelism based on the seven signs of John's gospel. "These things are written that you might believe." The book is rounded off with several chapters with the theme, "I believe because..." These are arguments that the author has presented in many home Bible studies to help people to see some reasons for believing. The world is constantly presented with reasons for NOT believing, and it is time for the church to step forward with some reasons for believing.

Syriac Christianity developed in the first centuries CE in the Middle East, where it continued to flourish throughout Late Antiquity and the Medieval period, while also spreading widely, as far as India and China. Today, Syriac Christians are found in the Middle East, in India, as well in diasporas scattered across the globe. Over this extended time period and across this vast geographic expanse, Syriac Christians have built impressive churches and monasteries, crafted fine pieces of art, and written and transmitted a sizable body of literature. Though often overlooked, neglected, and even persecuted, Syriac Christianity has been – and continues to be – an important part of the humanistic heritage of the last two millennia. The present volume brings together fourteen studies that offer fresh perspectives on Syriac Christianity, especially its literary texts and authors. The timeframes of the individual studies span from the second-century Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible up to the thirteenth century with the end of the Syriac Renaissance. Several studies analyze key authors from Late Antiquity, such as Aphrahat, Ephrem, Narsai, and Jacob of Serugh. Others investigate translations into Syriac, both from Hebrew and from Greek, while still others examine hagiography, especially its formation and transmission. Reflecting a growing trend in the field, the volume also devotes significant attention to the Medieval period, during which Syriac Christians lived under Islamic rule. The studies in the volume are united in their quest to explore the richness, diversity, and vibrance of Syriac Christianity.