William B Lawrence

The most divisive and damaging aspect of the church in America is the combination of racism and white supremacy that has been woven into the fabric of the church to the degree that one cannot discuss the church in America apart from this sin. Nowhere is this clearer than in American Methodism, including The United Methodist Church. That denomination, which has been divided for decades over issues regarding human sexuality and homosexuality, is a product of a long history of racism and white supremacy. While initiatives have been taken to address these matters, there has not been any effort to help the church focus on being anti-racist in its practices or public witness at every level, including local church levels. This is a book that identifies this sin and offers an innovative look at the mission of the church, based on biblical witnesses to new life with the resurrection. It offers proposals for reparations and renewal that will come when the church woke.

Many people of faith struggle with aspects of their beliefs. These poems do not seek to propose resolutions to all faith struggles. They do seek to help one toward self-examination, to be honest about these struggles, and to know that to confront them does not mean loss of faith. The study of the biblical languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic makes clear that there are not always simple solutions to many difficult linguistic problems in the Bible. Is faith our last resort when all else seems lost? What of helplessness and hopelessness? Can they open a window to faith understanding? Can we believe for the wrong reasons? What are some of the questions we should ask about the meaning of grace, forgiveness, and destiny, subjects with which many people struggle every day? How shall we understand the incarnation of Jesus, his ministry, the events of the Passion Week, and his resurrection? How shall we understand the holy days that celebrate these events and others in the life of the Jesus? And especially, what is the meaning of Holy Communion in the life of the church? And how shall we understand the church itself? If the poetry in these pages provides the opportunity for others to share in these struggles openly and honestly, then the words will have been wisely spent.

Many people of faith struggle with aspects of their beliefs. These poems do not seek to propose resolutions to all faith struggles. They do seek to help one toward self-examination, to be honest about these struggles, and to know that to confront them does not mean loss of faith. The study of the biblical languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic makes clear that there are not always simple solutions to many difficult linguistic problems in the Bible. Is faith our last resort when all else seems lost? What of helplessness and hopelessness? Can they open a window to faith understanding? Can we believe for the wrong reasons? What are some of the questions we should ask about the meaning of grace, forgiveness, and destiny, subjects with which many people struggle every day? How shall we understand the incarnation of Jesus, his ministry, the events of the Passion Week, and his resurrection? How shall we understand the holy days that celebrate these events and others in the life of the Jesus? And especially, what is the meaning of Holy Communion in the life of the church? And how shall we understand the church itself? If the poetry in these pages provides the opportunity for others to share in these struggles openly and honestly, then the words will have been wisely spent.

For Christians, the word "requiem" is a voice of hope. It heralds the promise of resurrection and power of life. A requiem is not about death, rather it is a prayer that accepts the Lord's redemptive sacrifice, trusts his resurrection, and finds abundant life. It affirms our belief that by God's grace, we will enter a new realm of being. In this we can be confident and so remain unshaken by the challenges we face as communities of faith and as a denomination. What we now see as our troubles can give us new opportunities to seize God's promises and be strengthened by the mission to which God calls us. The mission of Methodism will endure.

The title of this volume is as old as the Wesleyan movement and apt for the very latest Methodist theological self-designation.Marks of Methodism points back to John Wesley himself and to his efforts to define the movement.Such marks or hallmarks prescribe a basis for Methodist identity, purpose, and unity.They also serve to differentiate Methodists from other Christians, to sketch the boundaries of our movement, and to mark us off.Marks also invite attention to the conjunction of precept and practice, to the considerable recent affirmation of practices as the traditioning and corporate bearers of Christian faithfulness and witness; and therefore as the ground of theology and doctrine, and to Methodist embodiment of and featuring of traditioning practices long before that became fashionable. These marks point to an understanding of church, a doctrine of the church, an ecclesiology, embedded in the everyday structures, policies, organizations, and patterns of Methodist life."

Explores the relationship between theology and preaching by examining the careers of four enormously influential, twentieth-century New York preachers (Harry Emerson Fosdick, George Buttrick, Paul Scherer, and Ralph Sockman), whose sermons reached the leaders in culture, commerce, and government across the United States. It examines these preachers' pulpit theology in its social, cultural, political, economic and demographic context as well as their doctrine and the theological legacy they bequeathed. Sundays in New York will be of interest to historians, theologians, students, and practitioners of ministry.