Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening [Kindle Edition] Author: Diana Butler Bass | Language: English | ISBN:
B005O078OM | Format: PDF, EPUB
Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening Epub Free
Free download Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening Epub Free for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link Diana Butler Bass, one of contemporary Christianity’s leading trend-spotters, exposes how the failings of the church today are giving rise to a new “spiritual but not religious” movement. Using evidence from the latest national polls and from her own cutting-edge research, Bass, the visionary author of A People’s History of Christianity, continues the conversation began in books like Brian D. McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity and Harvey Cox’s The Future of Faith, examining the connections—and the divisions—between theology, practice, and community that Christians experience today. Bass’s clearly worded, powerful, and probing Christianity After Religion is required reading for anyone invested in the future of Christianity.
Books with free ebook downloads available Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening Epub Free
- File Size: 636 KB
- Print Length: 309 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062003739
- Publisher: HarperOne; Reprint edition (March 13, 2012)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B005O078OM
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,921 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #81
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Church History
- #81
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Church History
Most Americans are aware that recent decades have been a time of change in religious belief, behaving, and belonging. Most who read this blog have some knowledge of varying aspects of these shifts. Few people understand how the many trends are linked and fewer still grasp how this looks within the context of church history. Diana Butler Bass draws on her rich experiences as a researcher, consultant, subject matter expert, and perpetual student of the topic to craft a book that is sure to become the starting point for conversation in the academy, the church, and even in the many communities that together comprise our culture.
Christianity After Religion is a three part story that is designed to be read sequentially:
*Part 1, "The End of Religion," considers the changes within the framework of decline of traditional measures, primarily focusing on the last decade. Rather than simply recounting polls and popular opinion, Diana Butler Bass explores the deeper issues they suggest. (Readers will identify with their own life experiences while simultaneously better understanding the religious world in which they live.)
*Part 2, "A New Vision," captures the many and varied efforts to reshape Christianity for the future. These efforts have been underway for decades yet clarity, much less unity, remains elusive. Butler Bass proposes that new visions must end the centuries old approach of believing, behaving, and belonging in favor of the more ancient order: belonging, behaving, and believing.
*Part 3, "Awakening," moves from possibility to practice by arguing that the current experiences are a Fourth Great Awakening.
This author makes several interesting points about the recent shifts in American religious affiliation, but quickly devolves into a hypocritical tirade against conservative Christians, and conservatives in general. I'm neither politically or religiously conservative (I'm not even Christian), but I expect a little intellectual integrity from an author of Mrs. Bass' standing.
On several occasions she lampoons the religious right for their mixing of religious and political beliefs, but then goes on to do the same with her own beliefs and holds the result up as something completely different. Apparently we are supposed to accept that Christ identifies with modern, elitist liberalism while being offended that conservative evangelicals claim Christ's blessing upon their narrow dogmatism.
It's strange that so much of the book revolves around politics. The author seems incapable of separating them from the religious sphere - so much so that she calls the Tea Party a religious movement. Again, I'm not a conservative. I don't like the Tea Party's brand of social conservatism. At the same time, I'm willing to state my differences of opinion with their policy choices without blatantly inventing nonsense about them. What shocked me most was where on page 251 Mrs. Bass equates the Tea Party (who have never, as far as I know, committed violence) with terrorists, African religious fundamentalists who kill homosexuals and torture children, and religious dictators, among others. You can disagree with somebody as much as you want, but such accusations are truly absurd.
She also goes on to quote a friend as saying that "This is the worst version of religious and political hatred in American history for at least one hundred and fifty years.
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