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BookwormMama14 (18 KP) rated The Thorn Bearer (Penned in Time, #1) in Books
Jan 2, 2019
The Thorn Bearer truly blew my expectations out of the water. Pepper shares deep and agonizing struggles with beautifully pure redemption. There were many points in which certain characters needed a good bashing over the head...But it was exciting to see God work in their lives and transform them into a new creation. Ashleigh's past follows her wherever she goes. Nothing she has tried, on her own, has worked to forget the nightmares haunting her. Be prepared for an emotional ride with some difficult subjects. But that is one thing that makes Pepper stand out...She doesn't sugar coat things, and she doesn't shortchange God's love and compassion. While specific trials of the characters are not ones I am familiar with, I do know how unforgiveness can drag your soul down. It is incredible to witness the freedom that forgiveness can offer. I am also familiar with the frustrations of God allowing certain things to happen in our lives. However, I do know in the depths of my heart, that God works all things together for good. As my daily life is witness to. I definitely recommend this book without reservations. I can't wait to start the next book!
Confessions of a Convert: The Classic Spiritual Autobiography from the Author of Lord of the World
Robert Hugh Benson and Dawn Eden
Book
In Confessions of a Convert, Robert Hugh Benson shares his spiritual journey from being an Anglican...
365 Devotions for Living Joyfully
Victoria York and Stacy J. Edwards
Book
Discover the joy of the Lord in fresh ways through the beautiful new 365 Devotions for Living...
SR
Sacred Reading: The 2018 Guide to Daily Prayer
Douglas Leonard and Apostleship of Prayer
Book
This powerful and inspiring prayer book from the Apostleship of Prayer (The Pope's Worldwide Prayer...
The Silver Linings Playbook
7.3
Rate It
Book
Pat Peoples has a theory. The theory is this: his life is actually a movie produced by God. And...
TravelersWife4Life (31 KP) rated Brand of Light (The Droseran Saga #1) in Books
Feb 24, 2021
Oh, where do I even start?
This book was everything I hoped it would be plus so much more. I personally do not usually read sci-fi genre books because they (usually) take God out of the equation or put in a bunch of gods. When Ronie Kendig started advertising that she felt God calling her to write a sci-fi book I was intrigued to see what God had put on her heart for this genre. Even having little to no experience with this genre I believe Ronie Kendig hit a home run with this book.
The characters were very well laid out, they did not contradict themselves and were easy to get along with. The first few chapters Ronie Kendig showed us some great strengths and weaknesses in all her main characters. Technically, there are probably only two main characters, however, I would argue that there could technically be three main characters. I will let you decide on that. The characters interacted seamlessly together, and by the end of this book, I was captivated by the plights of the characters. The only character I would have liked to see more of was Kersei, I never saw her thoughts on the events that took place come through. However, this is only the first book
This book was everything I hoped it would be plus so much more. I personally do not usually read sci-fi genre books because they (usually) take God out of the equation or put in a bunch of gods. When Ronie Kendig started advertising that she felt God calling her to write a sci-fi book I was intrigued to see what God had put on her heart for this genre. Even having little to no experience with this genre I believe Ronie Kendig hit a home run with this book.
The characters were very well laid out, they did not contradict themselves and were easy to get along with. The first few chapters Ronie Kendig showed us some great strengths and weaknesses in all her main characters. Technically, there are probably only two main characters, however, I would argue that there could technically be three main characters. I will let you decide on that. The characters interacted seamlessly together, and by the end of this book, I was captivated by the plights of the characters. The only character I would have liked to see more of was Kersei, I never saw her thoughts on the events that took place come through. However, this is only the first book
Bible App for Everyday Life - Quotes and Divine Features
Catalogs and Book
App
Let God be your anchor in your life, and see what you can learn from the Bible and the new Pope!...
Orbis
Tabletop Game
Orbis is a tactical game of world development and strategic resource management, in which players...
boardgames PretendtobeGods MythologyGames
With Winter's First Frost
8.0
Rate It
Book
With the coldest season comes the warmest of second chances. At age seventy-three, Laura...
Amish Christian Fiction Fiction Romance
Cody Cook (8 KP) rated A Black Theology of Liberation in Books
Jun 29, 2018
James Cone is considered to be the founder of Black Liberation Theology, a variant of the Liberation Theology movement most widely connected with South American theologian Gustavo Gutierrez. Liberation Theology emphasizes those biblical concerns that white European flavored Christianity has often looked over– concerns like justice and liberation for the oppressed and downtrodden (Luke 4:16-21, Matthew 25:31-45, etc.). Though these emphases are quite important, in Liberation movements, they can often drown out other, extremely vital, elements of the Christian faith, as they clearly do in Cone’s Black Liberation Theology.
One major issue for Cone is one of authority. The experience of one group of people (the oppressed) becomes equivalent with universal truth, and not simply an important concern in Christian theology. In other words, Cone makes his own experience the judge of who God is and what God is for. While “white” (a term used by Cone not so much to reflect skin color but an oppressor mentality) Christianity commits this grave error without realizing it, Cone does so with full knowledge. So, for instance, while a conservative “white” theologian would say that his own views and actions *should* be directed by the scripture (whether or not he does in fact direct them by this standard), Cone makes the judgement of the oppressed black community the ultimate truth for them– and if mass violence against whites is decided by the group as the best means to effect their liberation, so be it. Cone explicitly distances himself from the approach of King, identifying more with the violence-prone philosophy of the Nation of Islam as propounded by Malcolm X. If someone criticizes his approach, he seems to assume that they’re doing so as a “white” oppressor and should be ignored– an oppressor has no moral right to question the rightness or wrongness of the actions of the people he is oppressing. This of course ignores the criticisms of violence, even from the oppressed, of black Christians like Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, etc. Cone is also unfortunately either unfamiliar with or unconvinced by pacifist Christian claims to be committed to peaceful action, since he equates non-violence with inaction and acquiescence. While he is absolutely correct in seeing liberation as an important theme in the Christian faith, he, like “white” religionists, allows his own experience and emotions to determine what is right and wrong to the point of supporting evil in the interest of what he feels is best for his community. However, what can’t be said of Cone’s position on violence is that it is radical, because it is emphatically not. The political heroes of most white Americans are men who used violence to gain political autonomy. Thus, it is not radical for black men and women to look up to figures like Malcolm X and James Cone who advocate doing the same thing if it seems necessary for freedom and self-determination; it is merely status quo. The problem is that Jesus calls all men and women, regardless of color, to rise above the status quo and the myth of redemptive violence.
Seizing on that point, one major problem with Cone’s view of violent revolution is that when oppressed people rise up through violence, they become the oppressor– co-opting the tools of oppression and dehumanization. “Blacks” become “white” through the use of violence. Cone seems unaware of (doubtful) or unaffected by the history of the Bolshevik, Cuban, or French revolutions, wherein the oppressed quickly became the oppressors and became twofold more a child of hell than their oppressors. His view also reshapes Nat Turner, the slave who claimed to have been directed by God to murder white women and children, into an unqualified hero. Cone’s system re-establishes and re-affirms oppression– it does not end it.
For Cone, God is black and the devil is white, because God supports the oppressed and the devil supports the oppressor. But in so closely identifying God with blackness, the actions of those in the black community are now above being questioned, just like the actions of white enslavers were, according to them, above being questioned because they aligned themselves with God and those whom they oppressed with the devil.
What Cone is really trying to get at is that since Jesus supports the cause of the oppressed, the oppressor must so distance himself from his oppressor identity that he becomes indistinguishable from the oppressed– willing to suffer along with them– if he is to be Christ-like. In other words, the “white” must become “black.” Cone says that God can’t be colorless where people suffer for their color. So, where blacks suffer God is black. Taking this logic, which is indeed rooted in Scripture, where the poor suffer, God is poor. Where babies are killed in the womb, God is an aborted baby. Where gay people are bullied, God is gay. It is our obligation to identify with the downtrodden, because that’s what Jesus did. Paul, quoting a hymn of the church about Jesus, puts it this way:
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
‘Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!'”
–Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus not only gives up his power to express love to the powerless by identifying with them, He also takes on their sin and suffers with and for them. This is the essence of the gospel, and it often gets lost when we translate it into our daily lives. For Cone, this important truth gets lost in the banner of black militantism and the cycle of violence. For so many American Christians, it gets lost when they reduce the political nature of Christianity to scolding those whose private expression of morality doesn’t line up with theirs. We refuse to identify with sinners (which is a category we all fit into) in love.
One major issue for Cone is one of authority. The experience of one group of people (the oppressed) becomes equivalent with universal truth, and not simply an important concern in Christian theology. In other words, Cone makes his own experience the judge of who God is and what God is for. While “white” (a term used by Cone not so much to reflect skin color but an oppressor mentality) Christianity commits this grave error without realizing it, Cone does so with full knowledge. So, for instance, while a conservative “white” theologian would say that his own views and actions *should* be directed by the scripture (whether or not he does in fact direct them by this standard), Cone makes the judgement of the oppressed black community the ultimate truth for them– and if mass violence against whites is decided by the group as the best means to effect their liberation, so be it. Cone explicitly distances himself from the approach of King, identifying more with the violence-prone philosophy of the Nation of Islam as propounded by Malcolm X. If someone criticizes his approach, he seems to assume that they’re doing so as a “white” oppressor and should be ignored– an oppressor has no moral right to question the rightness or wrongness of the actions of the people he is oppressing. This of course ignores the criticisms of violence, even from the oppressed, of black Christians like Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, etc. Cone is also unfortunately either unfamiliar with or unconvinced by pacifist Christian claims to be committed to peaceful action, since he equates non-violence with inaction and acquiescence. While he is absolutely correct in seeing liberation as an important theme in the Christian faith, he, like “white” religionists, allows his own experience and emotions to determine what is right and wrong to the point of supporting evil in the interest of what he feels is best for his community. However, what can’t be said of Cone’s position on violence is that it is radical, because it is emphatically not. The political heroes of most white Americans are men who used violence to gain political autonomy. Thus, it is not radical for black men and women to look up to figures like Malcolm X and James Cone who advocate doing the same thing if it seems necessary for freedom and self-determination; it is merely status quo. The problem is that Jesus calls all men and women, regardless of color, to rise above the status quo and the myth of redemptive violence.
Seizing on that point, one major problem with Cone’s view of violent revolution is that when oppressed people rise up through violence, they become the oppressor– co-opting the tools of oppression and dehumanization. “Blacks” become “white” through the use of violence. Cone seems unaware of (doubtful) or unaffected by the history of the Bolshevik, Cuban, or French revolutions, wherein the oppressed quickly became the oppressors and became twofold more a child of hell than their oppressors. His view also reshapes Nat Turner, the slave who claimed to have been directed by God to murder white women and children, into an unqualified hero. Cone’s system re-establishes and re-affirms oppression– it does not end it.
For Cone, God is black and the devil is white, because God supports the oppressed and the devil supports the oppressor. But in so closely identifying God with blackness, the actions of those in the black community are now above being questioned, just like the actions of white enslavers were, according to them, above being questioned because they aligned themselves with God and those whom they oppressed with the devil.
What Cone is really trying to get at is that since Jesus supports the cause of the oppressed, the oppressor must so distance himself from his oppressor identity that he becomes indistinguishable from the oppressed– willing to suffer along with them– if he is to be Christ-like. In other words, the “white” must become “black.” Cone says that God can’t be colorless where people suffer for their color. So, where blacks suffer God is black. Taking this logic, which is indeed rooted in Scripture, where the poor suffer, God is poor. Where babies are killed in the womb, God is an aborted baby. Where gay people are bullied, God is gay. It is our obligation to identify with the downtrodden, because that’s what Jesus did. Paul, quoting a hymn of the church about Jesus, puts it this way:
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
‘Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!'”
–Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus not only gives up his power to express love to the powerless by identifying with them, He also takes on their sin and suffers with and for them. This is the essence of the gospel, and it often gets lost when we translate it into our daily lives. For Cone, this important truth gets lost in the banner of black militantism and the cycle of violence. For so many American Christians, it gets lost when they reduce the political nature of Christianity to scolding those whose private expression of morality doesn’t line up with theirs. We refuse to identify with sinners (which is a category we all fit into) in love.