Download Free Beyond Indulgences Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Beyond Indulgences and write the review.

Between Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 and his excommunication from the church in 1520, he issued twenty-five sermons and treatises on Christian piety, most of them in German. These pastoral writings extended his criticisms of the church beyond indulgences to the practices of confession, prayer, clerical celibacy, the sacraments, suffering, and death. These were the issues that mattered most to Luther because they affected the faith of believers and the health of society. Luther’s conflict with Rome forced him to address the issue of papal authority, but on his own time, he focused on encouraging lay Christians to embrace a simpler, self-sacrificing faith. In these pastoral writings, he criticized theologians and church officials for leading people astray with a reliance on religious works, and he began to lay the foundation for a reformed Christian piety.
Religion has been the biggest divisive force in history. This book examines the irrational and harmful beliefs of religious people, which lead to religion becoming a destructive force. Religion can be and has been a force for good too. What are the aspects of religion that make it meaningful? Does God exist? The book details the scientific and philosophical arguments adduced for God’s existence and how valid they are. In the last section, we look at five luminaries of science who either had close encounters with religious establishments or had strong views on religion and God. We look at the lives of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Hawking, not so much as scientists, but as human beings with their own kinks and idiosyncrasies. The author brings to this book his extensive knowledge of physics, philosophy, religion and the behavioural sciences.
The Luther@500 anniversary may be behind us, but Luther stands ahead of us in many ways. The essays in this volume by an international group of scholars begin with a contextual discussion of Luther's definitive contribution to the Wittenberg Reformation and its significance for us today. New light is shed on old issues across a range of topics. But these essays do not stay in the past. Many also engage critically with contemporary issues in Luther interpretation and a few boldly trace the trajectory of Luther's reformational theology into the future.
The wall separating the cloister from the surrounding world is one of the most distinctive features of a monastery: it marks out the community of monks or friars and defines the very essence of a cloister. However, this wall was never completely impenetrable. Those inside interacted with those outside – in churches, in towns and villages, or even in the cloisters. It is this permeability of the cloister wall what constitutes the central motif of this book. Using the example of the Franciscan Friary of St Bernardino in Olomouc (nowadays in the Czech Republic) it analyses the interaction of the friars and the urban community. It focuses on the 17th and 18th centuries when, following the suppression of non-Catholic confessions, Roman Catholicism became the only official religion and the city became one of major ecclesiastical centres in the Habsburg Lands. The Franciscans significantly contributed to the formation of the new Catholic confessional culture in the city, yet they were just one of the many agents. They were forced to constantly re-negotiate their position and to compete with other religious institutions. The mendicant character of the order eventually proved to be their main advantage. Although the life in strict poverty brought many complications, it also greatly enhanced the prestige of the friars. Simultaneously, it motivated them to search for new and efficient ways to address the people. Begging for alms thus became one of the main forms of interaction between the friary and the local community, allowing the mendicants to extend their reach significantly, to emphasise their uniqueness and importance, and to patiently build their own network of ties to the local population. The story of the friary of St Bernardino in Olomouc demonstrates that early modern Roman Catholicism was not built unilaterally, from the top down, but was instead the result of synergy and even conflicts between many actors.
The Protestant Reformation, a sweeping religious movement that swept Europe in the 16th century, irrevocably changed the course of Christianity. While fueled by theological disputes, its reverberations extended far beyond church walls, profoundly influencing politics, economics, and the very fabric of Western culture. From concepts of individual conscience to the structure of governance, echoes of the Reformation can still be found in modern institutions and thought patterns. In sum, the study of Protestantism is not a mere exploration of the past but a potent tool for engaging with the complexities of contemporary faith and society. It unlocks a deeper understanding of our present challenges and perspectives in several ways: The Evolution of Christianity: Protestantism is far from a static monolith. By examining its development, we chart the trajectory of a major world religion, its divisions, and how it has adapted over time. Understanding this path of internal adaptation can help illuminate both Christianity's place in a modern world and how denominations manage theological evolution today.
A surprisingly large number of people have denied that it is possible for human moral agents to act in such a way as to go beyond or transcend what moral duty or obligation requires of them. Some of this opposition to the possibility of supererogation, as it is called, has been motivated by theological concerns. This book surveys the concerns of Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon, as they react to certain teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the concerns of several contemporary theologians. It also examines some contemporary philosophers whose concerns have grown out of a commitment to a Kantian, utilitarian, or prescriptive type of ethics and urges that there are valuable lessons to be learned from these theologians and philosophers. At the same time it is argued that some of their concerns are the result of a mistaken idea of what it means to perform an act of supererogation. In addition, it is argued that some of their concerns can be addressed in ways that do not require a denial of the possibility of going beyond the call of duty in human life. This stage of the argument involves a discussion of virtue ethics and an examination of the concept of vocation, particularly as it has developed in Protestant thought, and illustrates the relevance of virtue and vocation to the problem of supererogation.
This easy-to-read biblical reference highlights times before, during, and after God’s revelations became written words. Key topics include ancient civilizations, Hebrew Bible, Jewish revolts against Rome, Roman world of Jesus, New Testament, and related interests beyond the Bible. The book concludes with a brief review of current countries linked to the Holy Land. Glossaries, timelines, maps, and an index assist the reader. The author’s intent is to unravel the somewhat bewildering and overwhelming information of the Bible. “The Bible and Beyond: A Connection to Related Media is a guide for understanding the Bible that simply cannot get enough praise. Author Judith Marie Judy is not a preacher or ideologist of a specific way to interpret the Bible. [The book] is an excellent reference that isn’t aimed at scholars but at everyone who wants a deeper connection and understanding of the Bible.” — The Moving Words LLC, Santa Maria, CA 93455 http://themovingwords.com/category/the-moving-words-review “Judith Marie Judy presents a sourcebook of the history, geography, and politics that surrounded and influenced Judaism and Christianity through their development over three millennia. . . . Judy’s breezy, conversation style carries readers effortlessly through the book. . . . Her personal reflections opening each chapter help give flesh to all the history and theology she’s researched, providing a tenderness that runs through this book that makes it different from other resource books. . . . Judy’s book has much heart.” — BlueInk Review
The second volume of the trilogy Beyond Homo SapiensDoubt, explores and interprets the historical events from the discovery of America to the end of the 19th Century. Enlightenment began with the acceptance by a majority of the worlds population that the Earth rotates around the Sun. Symbolically, it meant that our minds became centered on the Light of wisdom instead of the darkness of ignorance. Mari Suarez, the author, shows us how Homo sapiens managed to gain more tools with the marriage of science and crafts. However, his biological automatic reactions of self defense, immediate gratification and drive to reproduce have been left untouched, perpetuating and making even less human the world in which we live. Spiritual insight continued to be absent from our daily lives. Mari explains how two classic fiction characters of the time exemplified the inner struggle of mankind to leave behind blind faith. Don Quixote's Cervantes, and Hamlet's Shakespeare. Mari makes clear, Cervantes wrote about the world of blind faith and feudalism in decline, while Shakespeare explored with Hamlet the world of the bourgeoisie and doubt in ascendance.
"Despite current academic claims that the establishment of the Reformation cannot have resulted from lay religious understanding, this study offers evidence that theological ideas did reach beyond religious elites to promote various popular responses to the Reformation."--Jacket