This edited volume explores the richness and diversity of Christian musical traditions in the Americas. The essays present a cross-section of current scholarship on Christian sacred music and the approaches to studying them in context.
Language for God explores the ways language and images influence who we are and how we live. It declares the necessity of language and images for God that are expansive and inclusive of all genders. Lutheran perspectives are used as a compass to offer scriptural, theological, and historical insights to advance the reformation of Christian ......
American Quakerism changed dramatically in the antebellum era owing to both internal and external forces, including schism, industrialization, western migration, and reform activism. With the "Great Separation" of the 1820s and subsequent divisions during the 1840s and 1850s, new Quaker sects emerged. Some maintained the quietism of the previous ......
This book shows how contemporary religious groups arrange very different sorts of rituals in order to achieve collective encounters with "the spirit." Mixed-methods analysis of rituals across a diverse range of religious traditions shows how Randall Collins' interaction ritual theory opens new pathways for the sociology of religion.
Paul Ricoeur, Edith Stein, and the Heart of Meaning
This book probes the texts of Paul Ricoeur and Edith Stein to disclose the role of silence in the creation of meaning. To understand and live out of contemplative awareness as a way to think through transformative human experience is an ethical and spiritual task, one that warrants explanation and interpretation.
Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur extends Ricoeur's philosophical treatment of religion beyond an analysis of mythic symbols and the biblical texts to religious ritual practices. It applies his broader hermeneutic lens to liturgical actions and practices in regard to religious truth, language, imagination, and identity.
Performance, Representation, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition
Explores how, in the Americas, people of African birth or descent found spiritual and social empowerment in the orbit of the Church. Draws connections between Afro-Catholic festivals and their precedents in the early modern Christian kingdom of Kongo.
Sing with all the People of God by Chad Fothergill will be especially valuable for church musicians as well as pastors and other rostered leaders. It addresses topics such as skillful preparation, planning, and leadership of assembly song, working with volunteer musicians and staff, navigating questions of musical style, and more.
Gail Ramshaw provides ten insights into the three-year lectionaries to guide all who are interested in exploring the meaning and importance of the Revised Common Lectionary and the Lectionary for Mass. Ramshaw combines deep historical, biblical, liturgical, and ecumenical knowledge with a keen perspective on the contemporary church to show us all ......
Embodying Confidence and Grace by Callista Isabelle will guide those who serve as presiding ministers for the assembly's worship. It includes reflection on the essentials of presiding and practical guidance for how to prepare and lead the assembly with confidence and grace.
Anna B. Hoppe is one of the most prolific Lutheran hymn writers of the early 20th century. She composed hundreds of hymns along with opinion pieces and devotional writing. All the while, she lived quietly in Milwaukee, working as an office secretary and volunteering in various roles at her church. Despite her humble life, she became acquainted ......
James Engel (1925-1989) was a part of the generation of musicians who shaped Lutheran church music during the mid-to-late-20th century. As such, he played an important role in the history of Lutheran church music. Engel was known by his colleagues and students as an excellent musician, choir director, composer and teacher. He had a positive ......
In Addiction and Recovery, Martha Postlethwaite--pastor and a person in recovery--reflects on her pilgrimage of healing through valleys of despair and vistas of resurrection. Through her own and others' stories, she explores themes such as surrender, truth telling, shame, powerlessness, grace, forgiveness, and resurrection.
The purpose of this book is to expose preaching to its own death-to help it embrace its death-so that it can discover what eternal and abundant life might look and feels like.
Holy Rover is about the transformative power of travel. If you've ever been curious about the ancient spiritual practice of pilgrimage, come along with Lori Erickson as she explores a dozen holy sites around the world.
Delves into the ancient debate regarding the nature and purpose of the seven sacraments What are the sacraments? For centuries, this question has elicited a lively discussion and among theologians, and a variety of answers that do anything but outline a unified belief concerning these fundamental ritual structures. In this extremely ......
Delves into the ancient debate regarding the nature and purpose of the seven sacraments What are the sacraments? For centuries, this question has elicited a lively discussion and among theologians, and a variety of answers that do anything but outline a unified belief concerning these fundamental ritual structures. In this extremely ......
Religion and Society in New York's Early Republic Congregations
Tells the diverse story of four congregations in New York City as they navigated the social and political changes of the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. In the fifty years after the Constitution was signed in 1787, New York City grew from a port town of 30,000 to a metropolis of over half a million residents. This rapid ......
