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The Malagasy revival movement, which started in 1894 and operates within the structure of the historical churches, continues to have a profound impact on Protestant church life. This book focuses on exorcism as practised and understood by the so-called shepherds (lay, unsalaried, consecrated church workers) and defines «exorcism» as the expulsion of demons and prayer with the laying on of hands. This study, with Malagasy actors at its centre, argues that exorcism constitutes a synthesis between the biblical message and the traditional Malagasy culture. The shepherds, who vehemently oppose traditional religion, understand exorcism as a practice appropriate for people with a wide variety of problems, and they assert that the purpose of exorcism is to create a living faith in Jesus. The shepherds consider the battle with demons absolutely decisive because it concerns nothing less than salvation or condemnation.
While Africa and Madagascar seem like strange and faraway places, the world in which we now live has become much smaller than many of us could ever have imagined. Moreover, even our neighbors visit the local fortuneteller, read the horoscope page in the newspaper, and attend s ances that seek to reach departed friends, lovers, and family members. Consequently, as we begin a journey into faraway places, we may soon find they are not as far away as we may have expected. from Chapter 3 I Am Not Afraid is Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett's fascinating first-hand account of the spiritual warfare found within the Lutheran Church of Madagascar. Is spiritual warfare something new to the Church? Bennett reviews what the Bible, Church Fathers, and contemporary Lutheran leaders have to say. Part One includes recent conversations dealing with spiritual warfare, an introduction into the Malagasy Lutheran Church, and the traditional Malagasy worldview. These are the stories of those who have been rescued from the darkness of sin and brought into the light of the Gospel. Part Two looks to the Bible and the Church for explanation and historical perspective on the spiritual warfare found in the Malagasy Lutheran Church. Is it something only found in the time of Jesus and the apostles? What has the Church said in the past about such activities? Bennett explores the views of Martin Luther and other Lutheran leaders, and finally provides some helpful contemporary material and resources for dealing with spiritual warfare in today's context. Includes a glossary of key terms, transcripts of personal interviews, bibliography, Scripture index, and subject index.
Fifteen years after its original publication comes a thoroughly revised edition of the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Every article from the original edition has been revisited. With some articles being removed, others revised, and many new articles added, the result is a completely new dictionary covering systematic, historical, and philosophical theology as well as theological ethics.
Narrated by both Henry Cockburn and his father Patrick, this is the extraordinary story of the eight years since Henry's descent into schizophrenia- years he has spent almost entirely in hospitals- and his family's struggle to help him recover.
In 1894 Jesus appeared in a dream to Rainisoalambo during a period of intense national crisis shortly before the French colonial invasion of Madagascar. An educated member of the southern highlands aristocracy, Rainisoalambo was also a traditional medicine man who had fallen into grave difficulty. Being stricken with a case of then-rampant leprosy, his business had vanished and he and his family were starving. In this vision, Jesus told Rainisoalambo to put away his sampy, the small idols and charms he used for his traditional divining and healing. When he awoke, he found that he was healed. He quickly got rid of his charms and began a new life of fervent prayer, witnessing to his neighbors about what had happened, and reading the gospels with new eyes, as current reality rather than ancient reports of the far-away dealings of the white man's god. A group of believers soon gathered around him. Within a year of intense activity they had formally organized themselves at Soatanana into what we would now call a base community, the Disciples of the Lord. Their simple rules called them to lives of economic sharing and self-sufficiency, cleanliness and orderliness in their persons, houses, and lands, learning to read the Bible, daily communal prayers and study, and sending out apostles and evangelists to establish other such households and communities. This was the beginning of what is now called the Fifohazana, or Awakening. More than a century later the movement comprises several tobys, or base communities, following the appearance of several more prophets, female and male, and their miracle-working. The members of the movement, or mpiandry, live throughout the island, some in the tobys but most in the cities and villages as members of a variety of churches. The Fifohazana continues to stress spiritual healings, exorcisms, personal service to the poor and sick, cleanliness, prayer, Bible study, and witnessing. This volume provides the reader with a very clear understanding of what the Fifohazanamovement is all about historically, theologically, in terms of the main characters involved, its tremendous contributions to what a Christian healing ministry might ideally be, and as it relates to the larger world of church and society. The book is strengthened by the contributions of a diverse international group of scholars and participants in the movement. This has fostered the creation of an authentic piece of research, which combines the actual voices of participants within the movement itself along with the perspectives of scholars, who analyze the movement from the external periphery. This is the first book-length treatment of the Fifohazana in English. Editor Cynthia Holder Rich has gathered contributions from authors from five countries, including several members of the movement, to offer several perspectives onto the history and current life of the movement. Articles include analysis of major movement leaders, the place of healing in the movement, history of the conflict between the missions and the movement, the significance of oral expression in proclamation and as a means of revival, the role of women as leaders in the movement, and theological issues. The Fifohazana is one of the most intriguing current instances of indigenous Christianity in the world. While the movement has greatly evolved and changed in over a century, Jesus continues to appear and raise up new leaders. Various branches of the movement have developed a variety of institutions, but the movement has not lost its power of transformation and change. The Fifohazana: Madagascar's Indigenous Christian Movement is an important volume for research libraries, universities, African studies institutions and theological schools."
There's More to This Story Than You've Been Told Is there more about the story of Christmas you wish you understood or that you have specific questions about? In this storybook of biblical truth and history, Rick Renner takes you on the magical journey of Christ's coming to earth as a baby — and the purpose of His coming — in a way you’ve probably never heard it before. Featuring full-color, original illustrations by artist Lev Kaplan of Stuttgart, Germany, Christmas — the Rest of the Story tells the spellbinding story of God’s plan to redeem mankind — from the angel’s pronouncement to the virgin Mary, and her espousal and marriage to Joseph all the way to the angels’ glorious heralding of the Savior’s birth and His young, "ordinary" life marked by God Almighty’s extraordinary plan. Some of the topics covered include: Why God chose Mary. Why angels viewed God in the flesh with such wonderment. Who were the "shepherds keeping watch" and the Magi? What was the value of the Magi’s famous gifts? A baby-dedication ceremony of all ceremonies! Why King Herod was so troubled by this historical birth? The humility of the Creator’s death. How to prepare for Jesus’ next coming. This book is sure to be a favorite family book in your home, perhaps for generations to come! Jesus’ birth, life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection is truly the greatest story on earth — but it has never been more uniquely told than in these pages written by Rick Renner.
"WHEN DARK FORCES RISE, ARE FAITH AND FIREPOWER ENOUGH? On the eve of his medical retirement, Navy SEAL Jedidiah Johnson receives a frantic call from his estranged childhood best friend, David Yarnell. David's daughter has been kidnapped off the streets of Nashville in broad daylight. The police have no suspects and no leads. The only clue: the body of a dead priest left behind at the scene. With the clock ticking, David is growing desperate, as is his wife, Rachel . . . Jed's first love. Despite his painful history with David and Rachel, Jed agrees to help. But he's spent his career as a door-kicking Navy SEAL, not an investigator. His presence immediately draws unwanted attention, creates friction with the local police, and triggers a mysterious attempt on his life. Just when he thinks things can't get worse, it starts to happen again-the voices in his head, the nightmares, the visions. Dark memories and strange abilities, things he believed he'd left behind when he fled Nashville for the Navy at eighteen, begin to resurface. Jed realizes that to save the missing girl, he must take a leap of faith and embrace the gifts he's denied for all these years. To foil this dark intercept, he'll need more than just his years as a SEAL operator, because he has no choice now but to take up arms and join the battle in the unseen, spiritual warfare raging all around him. And there is far more at stake than just a missing girl: the world is not the place he thought it was-and he is not alone"--
In present-day Greece many people still speak of exotikNB--mermaids, dog-form creatures, and other monstrous beings similar to those pictured on medieval maps. Challenging the conventional notion that these often malevolent demons belong exclusively to a realm of folklore or superstition separate from Christianity, Charles Stewart looks at beliefs about the exotikNB and the Orthodox Devil to demonstrate the interdependency of doctrinal and local religion. He argues persuasively that students who cling to the timeworn folk/official distinction will find it impossible to appreciate the breadth and coherence of contemporary Greek cosmology. Like the medieval cartographers' fantasies, which were placed on the "edges" of the physical world, Greek demons cluster in marginal locations--outlying streams, wells, and caves. The demons are near enough to the community, however, to attack humans--causing illness or death, according to Stewart's informants. Drawing on an unusual range of sources, from the author's fieldwork on the Cycladic island of Naxos to Orthodox liturgical texts, this book pictures the exotikNB as elements of a Greek cognitive map: figures that enable individuals to navigate the traumas and ambiguities of life. Stewart also examines the social forces that have by turns disposed the Greek people to embrace these demons as indicative of links with the classical past or to eschew them as signs of backwardness and ignorance.