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Redemptive Almsgiving in Early Christianity (The Library of New Testament Studies)

In the light of the New Testament's conviction that Jesus Christ died for sins, and that the Cross is a 'once for all' act that makes the Temple cult unnecessary, this challenging work probes the reasons for the emerging doctrine of redemptive almsgiving in early Christianity. Do the New Testament writers themselves (even Jesus!) implicitly endorse the view that a 'supplementary' or alternative means of atonement is necessary? What is the background of this theme in Graeco-Roman sources and in the Hebrew Bible? What are the principal texts in early Christian literature that advocate almsgiving as a 'ransom' for sin? These questions firmly govern this investigation of the social and theological forces that gave legitimacy to a doctrine that at first appears to contradict the primary New Testament soteriology, namely that the death of Jesus Christ is the exclusive means of redemption from sin.

Redemptive Change: Atonement and the Christian Cure of the Soul (Theology for the 21st Century)

Change is a daily fact of life, one that people often have a hard time embracing. But when change does come, people do want it to be meaningful to them and to have some enduring value for their lives. In Redemptive Change, R. R. Reno argues that modern culture fails to offer people the hope of meaningful and enduring change. He shows how modern philosophers have argued that people are self-sufficient, that they do not need God to complete their identities, and that whatever changes they experience are momentary and of no ultimate significance.Countering modern philosophy, Reno contends that the only meaningful change occurs in Christ. At the moment of atonement, people experience an enduring change that has momentous consequences for their lives. We matter, he says, only insofar as we are more dependent upon and changed by Christ.R. R. Reno is Associate Professor of Theology, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, and co-author of Heroism and the Christian Life: Reclaiming Excellence.

Redemptive Dreams: Engaging Kevin Starr's California

An essential piece in California Studies, Redemptive Dreams: Engaging Kevin Starr’s California offers the first critical engagement with the vision of California’s most ambitious interpreter. While Starr’s multifaceted and polymathic vision of California offered a unique gaze—synthesizing central features, big themes, and incredible problems with the propitious golden dream—his eight-volume California Dream series, along with several other books and thousands of published articles and essays, often puzzled historians and other scholars. Historians in the contemporary school of critical historiography often found Starr’s narrative approach—seeking to tell the internal drama of the California story—to be less attuned to the most important work happening in the field. Such a perspective fails to acknowledge key developments in historical subfields like Black and African American Studies, Chicana/o/x Studies, Asian Studies, Native Studies, and others that draw from the narrative in their critical work and how this relates to Starr’s contribution. But it also neglects Starr as a theological interpreter. Along with being a major figure in California institutional life, with literary output spanning genres from journalism to critical cultural and political commentary, to history and memoir, Starr’s unique contribution to California Studies as a distinctly Catholic historian has yet to be adequately understood. Through his lived experience as a devout Catholic to the particular theological features of this faith tradition that animated his views, this critical sociological perspective sheds new light on his project. With contributions from sociology, history, and theology, akin to investigations appearing in Theology and California: Theological Refractions on California’s Culture (Routledge), Redemptive Dreams offers interdisciplinary perspectives that highlight key features inherent in interdisciplinary theological reflection on place and illuminates these diverse disciplinary discourses as they appear in Starr’s articulation of the California Dream. Such a vision remains important for reckoning with California’s place in the world.

Redemptive Dreams: Engaging Kevin Starr's California

An essential piece in California Studies, Redemptive Dreams: Engaging Kevin Starr’s California offers the first critical engagement with the vision of California’s most ambitious interpreter. While Starr’s multifaceted and polymathic vision of California offered a unique gaze—synthesizing central features, big themes, and incredible problems with the propitious golden dream—his eight-volume California Dream series, along with several other books and thousands of published articles and essays, often puzzled historians and other scholars. Historians in the contemporary school of critical historiography often found Starr’s narrative approach—seeking to tell the internal drama of the California story—to be less attuned to the most important work happening in the field. Such a perspective fails to acknowledge key developments in historical subfields like Black and African American Studies, Chicana/o/x Studies, Asian Studies, Native Studies, and others that draw from the narrative in their critical work and how this relates to Starr’s contribution. But it also neglects Starr as a theological interpreter. Along with being a major figure in California institutional life, with literary output spanning genres from journalism to critical cultural and political commentary, to history and memoir, Starr’s unique contribution to California Studies as a distinctly Catholic historian has yet to be adequately understood. Through his lived experience as a devout Catholic to the particular theological features of this faith tradition that animated his views, this critical sociological perspective sheds new light on his project. With contributions from sociology, history, and theology, akin to investigations appearing in Theology and California: Theological Refractions on California’s Culture (Routledge), Redemptive Dreams offers interdisciplinary perspectives that highlight key features inherent in interdisciplinary theological reflection on place and illuminates these diverse disciplinary discourses as they appear in Starr’s articulation of the California Dream. Such a vision remains important for reckoning with California’s place in the world.

Redemptive Leadership: Offering Second Chances as a Value-Added Management Practice

This book highlights research on and examples of redemptive managerial behaviors used in the successful reinstatement and improved performance of employees previously terminated for cause. Organizational pressure to hire and retain near-perfect employees is higher than ever, but by offering second chance opportunities and utilizing the resources outlined in this book managers can reclaim, restore, and redirect current employees with great potential.Based on qualitative research and contemporary stories of successful reinstatement, the author highlights the benefits of adopting a redemptive approach and offering employees second chances. The value proposition of retaining an already trained but underperforming employee often results in avoidance of arbitration costs, reduced turnover, higher productivity, and greater employee loyalty. Little research has been conducted assessing the impact of the manager’s leadership behavior on post-reinstatement employees, and this book fills that gap by providing seminal reading for faith-oriented students, scholars, managers, and human resources professionals.

Redirected Travel: Alternative Journeys and Places in Biblical Studies (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)

What if biblical scholars traveled to the Antipodes for an international conference instead of to Europe or North America? The essays in this volume, originally written for such a conference, explore the implications for biblical studies of such a change in direction. In fact, they travel in a host of different directions, exploring the alternative journeys and places of biblical studies, developing connections in the rhizomatic fashion (as delineated famously by Deleuze and Guattari). The vehicles used in such travel include postcolonialism, feminism, Marxism, gay theory, semiotics, political theory and poststructuralism.Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series, Volume 382.

Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context

This groundbreaking study looks beyond biblical texts, which have had a powerful influence over our views of women's roles and worth, in order to reconstruct the typical everyday lives of women in ancient Israel. Carol Meyers argues that biblical sources alone do not give a true picture of ancient Israelite women because urban elite males wrote the vast majority of the scriptural texts. Also, the stories of women in the Bible concern exceptional individuals rather than ordinary Israelite women. Drawing on archaeological discoveries and ethnographic information as well as biblical texts, Meyers depicts Israelite women not as submissive chattel in an oppressive patriarchy, but rather as strong and significant actors within their families and in their communities. In so doing, she challenges the very notion of patriarchy as an appropriate designation for Israelite society.

Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context

This groundbreaking study looks beyond biblical texts, which have had a powerful influence over our views of women's roles and worth, in order to reconstruct the typical everyday lives of women in ancient Israel. Carol Meyers argues that biblical sources alone do not give a true picture of ancient Israelite women because urban elite males wrote the vast majority of the scriptural texts. Also, the stories of women in the Bible concern exceptional individuals rather than ordinary Israelite women. Drawing on archaeological discoveries and ethnographic information as well as biblical texts, Meyers depicts Israelite women not as submissive chattel in an oppressive patriarchy, but rather as strong and significant actors within their families and in their communities. In so doing, she challenges the very notion of patriarchy as an appropriate designation for Israelite society.

Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History and Future

In this New York Times bestseller, join Newt and Callista Gingrich on a walking tour of Washington, D.C. and learn about the great people, events, and ideas that shaped the religious founding of America.Explore the architecture and beauty of America's capital with Newt and Callista Gingrich. You'll tour Washington, D.C. to view the nation's monuments and memorials, including the United States Capitol and the National Archives, where Thomas Jefferson's immortal words jump off the page.But this is not just a walking tour; this is a tour of American history -- of the patriotic founders who were shaped by the fervent belief that America is one nation under God. With this guide, you'll rediscover the soul of our country and find a profound path of discovery and renewal.

Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History and Future

In this New York Times bestseller, join Newt and Callista Gingrich on a walking tour of Washington, D.C. and learn about the great people, events, and ideas that shaped the religious founding of America.Explore the architecture and beauty of America's capital with Newt and Callista Gingrich. You'll tour Washington, D.C. to view the nation's monuments and memorials, including the United States Capitol and the National Archives, where Thomas Jefferson's immortal words jump off the page.But this is not just a walking tour; this is a tour of American history -- of the patriotic founders who were shaped by the fervent belief that America is one nation under God. With this guide, you'll rediscover the soul of our country and find a profound path of discovery and renewal.

Rediscovering The Holy Spirit: God's Perfecting Presence In Creation, Redemption, And Everyday Life

Rediscovering Sainthood in Italy: Hagiography and the Late Antique Past in Medieval Ravenna (The New Middle Ages)

Beginning with Saint Barbatianus, a fifth-century wonderworking monk and confessor to the Empress Galla Placidia, this book focuses on the changes in the religious landscape of Ravenna, a former capital of the Late Roman Empire, through the Middle Ages. During this period, written stories about saints and their relics not only offered guidance and solace but were also used by those living among the ruins of a once great city—particularly its archbishops, monks, and the urban aristocracy—to reflect on its past glory. This practice remained important to the citizens of Ravenna as they came to terms with the city’s revival and renewed relevance in the tenth century under Ottonian rule. In using the vita of Barbatianus as a central text, Edward M. Schoolman explores how saints and sanctity were created and ultimately came to influence complex political and social networks, from the Late Roman Empire to the High Middle Ages.

Rediscovering the Buddha: The Legends and Their Interpretations

Hans Penner takes a new look at the classic stories of the life of the Buddha. In the first part of the book, he presents a full account of these stories, drawn from various texts of Theravada Buddhism, the Buddhism of South and Southeast Asia. Penner allots one chapter to each of the major milestones in Buddha's life, with titles such as: Birth and Early Life, Flight from the Palace, Enlightenment and Liberation, Last Watch and Funeral. In the process, he brings to the fore dimensions of the myth that have been largely ignored by western scholarship. In Part II, Penner offers his own original interpretations of the legends. He takes issue with Max Weber's assertion that "Buddhism is an other-worldly ascetic religion," a point of view that remains dominant in the received tradition and in most contemporary studies of Buddhism. His central thesis is that the "householder" is a necessary element in Buddhism and that the giving of gifts, which creates merit and presupposes the doctrine of karma, mediates the relation between the householder and the monk. Penner argues that the omission of the householder - in his view one-half of what constitutes Buddhism as a religion - is fatal for any understanding of Buddha's life or of the Buddhist tradition. This boldly revisionist and deeply learned work will be of interest to a wide range of scholarly and lay readers.

Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition

The story of how Arab editors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolutionized Islamic literatureIslamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper and then to compose increasingly elaborate analyses of, and commentaries on, these ideas. Movable type was adopted in the Middle East only in the early nineteenth century, and it wasn't until the second half of the century that the first works of classical Islamic religious scholarship were printed there. But from that moment on, Ahmed El Shamsy reveals, the technology of print transformed Islamic scholarship and Arabic literature.In the first wide-ranging account of the effects of print and the publishing industry on Islamic scholarship, El Shamsy tells the fascinating story of how a small group of editors and intellectuals brought forgotten works of Islamic literature into print and defined what became the classical canon of Islamic thought. Through the lens of the literary culture of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Arab cities—especially Cairo, a hot spot of the nascent publishing business—he explores the contributions of these individuals, who included some of the most important thinkers of the time. Through their efforts to find and publish classical literature, El Shamsy shows, many nearly lost works were recovered, disseminated, and harnessed for agendas of linguistic, ethical, and religious reform.Bringing to light the agents and events of the Islamic print revolution, Rediscovering the Islamic Classics is an absorbing examination of the central role printing and its advocates played in the intellectual history of the modern Arab world.

Rediscovering the Marys: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam (The Library of New Testament Studies)

This interdisciplinary volume of text and art offers new insights into various unsolved mysteries associated with Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Mary the Mother of Jesus, and Miriam the sister of Moses. Mariamic traditions are often interconnected, as seen in the portrayal of these women as community leaders, prophets, apostles and priests. These traditions also are often inter-religious, echoing themes back to Miriam in the Hebrew Bible as well as forward to Maryam in the Qur'an. The chapters explore questions such as: which biblical Mary did the author of the Gospel of Mary intend to portray-Magdalene, Mother, or neither? Why did some writers depict Mary of Nazareth as a priest? Were extracanonical scriptures featuring Mary more influential than the canonical gospels on the depiction of Maryam in the Qur'an?Contributors dig deep into literature, iconography, and archaeology to offer cutting edge research under three overarching topics. The first section examines the question of "which Mary?" and illustrates how some ancient authors (and contemporary scholars) may have conflated the biblical Marys. The second section focuses on Mary of Nazareth, and includes research related to the portrayal of Mary the Mother of Jesus as a Eucharistic priest. The final section, “Recovering Receptions of Mary in Art, Archeology, and Literature,” explores how artists and authors have engaged with one or more of the Marys, from the early Christian era through to medieval and modern times.

Rediscovering the Marys: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam (The Library of New Testament Studies)

This interdisciplinary volume of text and art offers new insights into various unsolved mysteries associated with Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Mary the Mother of Jesus, and Miriam the sister of Moses. Mariamic traditions are often interconnected, as seen in the portrayal of these women as community leaders, prophets, apostles and priests. These traditions also are often inter-religious, echoing themes back to Miriam in the Hebrew Bible as well as forward to Maryam in the Qur'an. The chapters explore questions such as: which biblical Mary did the author of the Gospel of Mary intend to portray-Magdalene, Mother, or neither? Why did some writers depict Mary of Nazareth as a priest? Were extracanonical scriptures featuring Mary more influential than the canonical gospels on the depiction of Maryam in the Qur'an?Contributors dig deep into literature, iconography, and archaeology to offer cutting edge research under three overarching topics. The first section examines the question of "which Mary?" and illustrates how some ancient authors (and contemporary scholars) may have conflated the biblical Marys. The second section focuses on Mary of Nazareth, and includes research related to the portrayal of Mary the Mother of Jesus as a Eucharistic priest. The final section, “Recovering Receptions of Mary in Art, Archeology, and Literature,” explores how artists and authors have engaged with one or more of the Marys, from the early Christian era through to medieval and modern times.

Rediscovering the Umma: Muslims in the Balkans between Nationalism and Transnationalism

In Rediscovering the Umma, Ina Merdjanova discusses the conditions and role of Islam in relation to post-Ottoman nation-building, the communist period, and post-communist developments in the Balkans, focusing in particular on the remarkable transformations experienced by Muslim communities after the end of the Cold War. Amidst multiple structural and cultural transitions, they sought to renegotiate their place and reclaim their Islamic identities in formally secular legal and normative environments, mostly as minorities in majority-Christian societies. The rising political and cultural self-awareness of Muslims in Southeast Europe was frequently expressed by recourse to two frames of reference: the national and the transnational. Despite a certain level of tension between those two perspectives, they were closely intertwined. Moreover, transnational Islamic influences often reinforced Muslim ethnonational identities rather than prompting a radical redefinition of religious allegiances in the key of a "universalist" Islam. Merdjanova explores the transformations of Muslim identities in the region under the influence of national and transnational, domestic and global factors, while also looking at the historical legacies that inform present complexities. Furthermore, she examines the evolving status and roles of Muslim women both in their religious communities and in the larger societies. The book challenges representations of Islam and Muslims as alien to Europe, which overlook the fact that Europe has considerable indigenous Muslim populations in its southeastern part as well as societies that have developed certain models of negotiating cultural differences.

Rediscovering Traces of Memory: The Jewish Heritage of Polish Galicia [Second edition] (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)

The present-day traces of the Jewish past in Poland are complex. Jewish life lay in ruins after the Holocaust. Much evidence of ruin remains, but there are also widespread traces that bear witness to the elaborate Jewish culture that once flourished there, even in villages and small towns. One also sees places where Jews were murdered by the Germans in the war: not only in death camps and ghettos, but also in fields, forests, rivers, and cemeteries. After the war forty years of communism suppressed even the memory of the destroyed Jewish heritage. Today, by contrast, the historic Jewish culture of Poland is increasingly being memorialized, by local Poles as well as by foreign Jews. Synagogues and cemeteries are being renovated, monuments and museums are being set up. There are festivals of Jewish culture, hasidic pilgrims, and Jewish tourists; and local people who rescued Jews during the war are being honoured. In rediscovering the traces of memory one also finds clear signs of a local Jewish revival. This extensively revised second edition includes forty-five new photographs and updated explanatory texts. Together they suggest how to make sense of the past and discover its relevance for the present. This innovative, multi-layered book will appeal to everyone concerned with questions of history, memory, and identity.

Rediscovering Values: A Moral Compass For the New Economy

When we start with the wrong question, no matter how good an answer we get, it won't give us the result we want. Rather than asking, 'When will this economic crisis be over?' Jim Wallis says the right question to ask is 'How will this crisis change us?'. The worst thing we can do now, Wallis tells us, is to go back to normal. Normal is what got us into this situation. We need a new normal, and now, in the midst of a crisis affecting every part of society, is the time to discover it. These are some of the principles Wallis suggests we should consider-Spending money we don't have on things we don't need is a bad foundation for an economy or a family-It's time to stop keeping up with the Joneses and start making sure the Joneses are okay-The values of adverts and billboards are not the things we want to teach our children-Caring for the poor is not just a moral duty but is critical for the common good-A healthy society is a balanced society in which markets, the government, and our communities all play a role-The operating principle of God's economy says that there is enough if we share itIn REDISCOVERING VALUES, Wallis equips us with a new moral compass for the future -- one that draws on some of our oldest and best values and one that will guide us in the City, our towns and our neighbourhoods.

The Rediscovery of Wisdom: From Here to Antiquity in Quest of Sophia

By reconstructing it and tracing its vicissitudes, David Conway rehabilitates a time-honoured conception of philosophy, originating in Plato and Aristotle, which makes theoretical wisdom its aim. Wisdom is equated with possessing a demonstrably correct understanding of why the world exists and has the broad character it does. Adherents of this conception maintained the world to be the demonstrable creation of a divine intelligence in whose contemplation supreme human happiness resides. Their claims are defended against various latter-day scepticisms.

Reduce Me to Love: Unlocking the Secret to Lasting Joy

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer points out, "You can't give away something you don't have!"Many people who are trying to walk in God's love are doing so in their own strength, but they can't demonstrate God's love because they never stop to receive it themselves. Because God is love, loving and being loved is what makes life worth living. Once you learn how to truly accept God's unconditional love for you and walk in love like Jesus did, you will discover the sweet peace, deep joy, and unfailing strength that come with being willing to say, "REDUCE ME TO LOVE!"

Redundancy, Community and Heritage in the Modern Church of England, 1945–2000: Closing the Church Door

This book is a reappraisal of Anglican Church redundancy from a cultural perspective. It challenges long-held perceptions about the rationale for church redundancy, particularly secularisation. It argues that redundancy brought to the surface far-reaching social and cultural tensions that remain unresolved to this day, and which the pandemic closure of buildings has reignited.

The Reed Smoot Hearings: The Investigation of a Mormon Senator and the Transformation of an American Religion

This book examines the hearings that followed Mormon apostle Reed Smoot’s 1903 election to the US Senate and the subsequent protests and petitioning efforts from mainstream Christian ministries disputing Smoot’s right to serve as a senator. Exploring how religious and political institutions adapted and shapeshifted in response to larger societal and ecclesiastical trends, The Reed Smoot Hearings offers a broader exploration of secularism during the Progressive Era and puts the Smoot hearings in context with the ongoing debate about the constitutional definition of marriage. The work adds new insights into the role religion and the secular played in the shaping of US political institutions and national policies. Chapters also look at the history of anti-polygamy laws, the persistence of post-1890 plural marriage, the continuation of anti-Mormon sentiment, the intimacies and challenges of religious privatization, the dynamic of federal power on religious reform, and the more intimate role individuals played in effecting these institutional and national developments. The Smoot hearings stand as an important case study that highlights the paradoxical history of religious liberty in America and the principles of exclusion and coercion that history is predicated on. Framed within a liberal Protestant sensibility, these principles of secular progress mapped out the relationship of religion and the nation-state for the new modern century. The Reed Smoot Hearings will be of significant interest to students and scholars of Mormon, western, American, and religious history. Publication supported, in part, by Gonzaba Medical Group. Contributors: Gary James Bergera, John Brumbaugh, Kenneth L. Cannon II, Byron W. Daynes, Kathryn M. Daynes, Kathryn Smoot Egan, D. Michael Quinn

The Reemergence of Liberation Theologies: Models for the Twenty-First Century (New Approaches to Religion and Power)

This book brings together prominent voices from the global North and South to present brief analyses of liberation theology's future. It includes leaders in the field along with the newest voices. Each of these pieces was presented in the American Academy of Religion in the first five years of the Liberation Theologies Consultation.

Reexamining Academic Freedom in Religiously Affiliated Universities: Transcending Orthodoxies

Kenneth Garcia presents an edited collection of papers from the 2015 conference on academic freedom at religiously affiliated universities, held at the University of Notre Dame. These essays reexamine the secular principle of academic freedom and discuss how a theological understanding might build on and further develop it. The year 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the leading advocate of academic freedom in America. In October 2015, the University of Notre Dame convened a group of prominent scholars to consider how the concept and practice of academic freedom might evolve. The premise behind the conference was that the current conventional understandings of academic freedom are primarily secular and, therefore, not yet complete. The goal was to consider alternative understandings in light of theological insight. Theological insight, in this context, refers to an awareness that there is a surplus of knowledge and meaning to reality that transcends what can be known through ordinary disciplinary methods of inquiry, especially those that are quantitative or empirical. Essays in this volume discuss how, in light of the fact that findings in many fields hint at connections to a greater whole, scholars in any academic field should be free to pursue those connections. Moreover, there are religious traditions that can help inform those connections.