How the image of God is being refashioned from the Protestant pulpit for an increasingly secular world

In recent years, direct-mail Christianity has extended a new kind of invitation to the Protestant faithful: slick brochures enumerating the social and psychological advantages of church attendance, with no mention whatsoever of spiritual striving, suffering, or faith in God. Does this kind of secularity prevail in mainline Protestant churches? Marsha Witten looks for an answer to this question through an in-depth analysis of preaching on an important New Testament text: the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Witten finds that the transcendent and awesome God of Luther and Calvin, whose image informed early Protestant visions of the relationship between human beings and the divine, has been greatly softened in demeanor in American Protestant churches, with only minor resistance from conservative traditions. As preached from the pulpits of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Southern Baptist Convention, God is a deity whose primary function lies in providing psychological benefits to individual church members: the Parable of the Prodigal Son portrays God as a loving and understanding daddy figure. The focus is not on the challenges that the church could pose to the secular sphere of life. Instead, individuals are encouraged to make the right choices among the secular world’s various offerings, or, as in many Southern Baptist messages, to accept God’s offer of rescue from the “lostness” of secular confusions.

Situating the sermon at the heart of Protestant worship, All Is Forgiven shows how complex rhetorical strategies continue to transform Christian faith and help it survive in a secular world.

�ber die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Marsha G. Witten is assistant professor of sociology at Franklin and Marshall College.

��ber diesen Titel� kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Anbieterinformationen

We love books and pride ourselves of giving the customer the best buying experience.

Zur Homepage des Verk�ufers

Unternehmensdaten des Verk�ufers

Toscana Books
TX, U.S.A.

Gesch�ftsbedingungen und Versandinformationen

Verkaufsbedingungen

All returns are accepted within 30 days.

Widerrufsbelehrung

Versandbedingungen

All books will be shipped through media mail. All books will be shipped within 2 business days.

Versandkosten von USA nach Deutschland

Versandkosten von USA nach Deutschland
Bestellmenge	36 bis 42�Werktage	24 bis 30�Werktage
Erster Artikel	EUR 25.62	EUR 38.85

Die Versandzeiten werden von den Verk�uferinnen und Verk�ufern festgelegt. Sie variieren je nach Versanddienstleister und Standort. Sendungen, die den Zoll passieren, k�nnen Verz�gerungen unterliegen. Eventuell anfallende Abgaben oder Geb�hren sind von der K�uferin bzw. dem K�ufer zu tragen. Die Verk�uferin bzw. der Verk�ufer kann Sie bez�glich zus�tzlicher Versandkosten kontaktieren, um einen m�glichen Anstieg der Versandkosten f�r Ihre Artikel auszugleichen.