scholarly journals From America to the World: Protestant Christianity's Creation of Religious Liberty

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Peter A. Lillback
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Religious Persecution ◽  
Constitutional Protection ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACT: Half the population of the world to this day still has not experienced religious freedom. Religious persecution often still occurs at many places in the world. Research studies show that there is a direct correlation between religious freedom and economic prosperity. "Prosperity is the result of freedom, therefore the best way to improve the economic prosperity of a nation is to ensure freedom for its citizens." This article will first elaborate models of the relationship between church and state, and then explain the basic principle of the Bible regarding religious freedom. It further explains why incarceration of religious freedom or of conscience by the state is wrong, despite the reasons of protecting its citizens from false religion or from a cult. This paper will also explore religious persecution from the time of early church until the birth of Protestantism, and then speaks about the struggle and the protection of religious freedom. Furthermore this article goes into what underlies the constitutional protection of religious freedom in America, and then browse through the struggle and the protection of religious freedom as a struggle of the world. KEY WORDS: religious freedom, religious conflict, heresy, early church, Protestantism, religious freedom in the United States of America.

Building the “Wall of Separation”: Construction Zone for Historians

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-880
Author(s):  
W. Clark Gilpin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
American People ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Roger Williams ◽  
The Church

The argument of Mark deWolfe Howe's The Garden and the Wilderness turned on the contrast Howe drew between two uses of a single phrase: “wall of separation.” Thomas Jefferson used the phrase in 1802, in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association: “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and state.” More than a century and a half earlier, in 1644, the colonial advocate of religious freedom Roger Williams had employed the same phrase in a letter to his theological opponent, the Reverend John Cotton of Boston. According to Williams's reading of the Bible, the people of God—Jews and Christians—were “separate from the world,” and, “when they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made His garden a wilderness, as at this day. And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world; and that all that shall be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the world, and added unto his church or garden.”

scholarly journals Persecution and Martyrdom: Global Debates and Christian Responses

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
M. CHRISTIAN GREEN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Persecution ◽  
The World

The Article Examines Religious Persecution, In The United States And Abroad, Through The Lens Of An Extreme Result Of Persecution: Martyrdom. It Examines Maximal And Minimal Definitions Of Martyrdom And Recent Claims And Instances Of Martyrdom, Both In United States Law And Political Culture And Against Christian And Other Religious Groups Around The World. The Article Concludes With Some Principles From Which To Discern An Ethic Of Martyrdom And Claims Of Martyrdom, Recommending Especially Attention To The Role Of The Martyr As Witness. KEYWORDS: Religious Persecution, Martyrdom, Law And Religion, Human Rights, Religious Freedom, Ethics, Witness

scholarly journals Historical Foundations and Enduring Fundamentals of American Religious Freedom

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-167
Author(s):  
John Witte
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Church And State ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Constitutional Protection

The eighteenth-century American founders believed that religion is special and deserves special constitutional protection, and that all peaceable faiths must be drawn into the constitutional process and protection. The founders introduced six constitutional principles for the protection of religious freedom: freedom of conscience, free exercise of religion, religious pluralism, religious equality, separation of church and state, and no state establishment of religion. Since the 1940s, the United States Supreme Court has upheld these religious freedom principles in more than 170 cases, albeit unevenly of late. Moreover, in recent years religious freedom has come under sharp popular and academic attack, particularly as religious pathologies have come to light and religious freedom claims have clashed with sexual liberty claims. This article calls for a return to the first principles of religious freedom for all, at home and abroad, and for a new balance between religious freedom and other fundamental rights claims.

The Sino–Russian Strategic Partnership

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Bolt ◽  
Sharyl N. Cross
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Strategic Partnership ◽  
Relative Power ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Major Power ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Players ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
The Relationship

The Conclusion reviews the volume’s major themes. Russia and China have common interests that cement their partnership, and are key players in shaping the international order. Both seek better relations with the West, but on the basis of “mutual respect” and “equality.” While the relationship has grown deeper, particularly since 2014, China and Russia are partners but not allies. Thus, their relationship is marked by burgeoning cooperation, but still areas of potential competition and friction. Russia in particular must deal with China’s growing relative power at the same time that it is isolated from the West. While the Russian–Chinese relationship creates challenges for the United States and Europe and a return of major power rivalry, there is also room for cooperation in the strategic triangle comprising China, Russia, and the West. Looking ahead, the world is in a period of dramatic transition.

scholarly journals Separation of Church and State, American Exceptionalism, and the Contemporary Social Moment: Viewing Church–State Separation from the Priority of Slavery

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Joseph Prud'homme
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Antebellum South ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
Religious Establishment ◽  
The Relationship

The contemporary social moment in the United States has affirmed the critical importance of racial justice, and especially claims to justice informed by the contributions of structural and institutional forces connected with the nation’s original sin of slavery. In this paper, I examine the contributions of strict church–state separationism to the maintenance of slavery in the antebellum South in comparison to the contributions various forms of religious establishment made to the successful abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom and the British Empire. Developing a deeper historical understanding of the ways the relationship between religious and governmental institutions influenced the abolition and maintenance of slavery can assist the contemporary quest for racial justice.

Soteria

1953 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-416
Author(s):  
R. McL. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Good News ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
Wrath Of God

In the Gospel according to St. John it is written that ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever-lasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.’ In these familiar words is summed up the message of the Bible as a whole, and of the New Testament in particular. In spite of all that may be said of sin and depravity, of judgment and the wrath of God, the last word is one not of doom but of salvation. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a Gospel of salvation, of deliverance and redemption. The news that was carried into all the world by the early Church was the Good News of the grace and love of God, revealed and made known in Jesus Christ His Son. In the words of Paul, it is that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself’.

The World of the Bible—Always Strange, Forever New

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-182
Author(s):  
Joseph D. Small
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
University Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Productive Author ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Reflections

Abstract Although Markus Barth was a productive author and is known widely through his published written work, he was also, for many decades, a teacher of formative importance for generations of seminary and university students in both the United States and Switzerland. This essay shares personal reflections on Markus Barth’s profile as a biblical and theological educator and thereby introduces readers to something of his influential personal and theological style.

scholarly journals Foucault’s On the Government of the Living

2015 ◽  
pp. 266-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Konstan
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Biblical Faith ◽  
Christian Beliefs

In The Government of the Living, Foucault demonstrates elegantly and convincingly the emergence of a new idea and practice of penitence within the early Church, one that traced its origins to the Bible but in fact represented a departure from earlier Christian beliefs. This shift occurred largely under the influence of monastic and ascetic tendencies that came to play an increasingly powerful role in the second and third centuries after Christ. I suggest that this is the fundamental contribution of the lectures, rather than the framing narrative concerning truth and power. In my comments, I focus on the ideas of conversion, change of heart, remorse, and repentance, and show how the classical Greek and Latin terms for a change of mind (metanoia, paenitentia) assume meanings as widely different as “conversion” and “penitence.” This semantic slide or instability mirrors and enables the reinterpretation of Biblical faith as penitence. I also discuss the relationship between self-disclosure, as the classical writers understood it, and confession, and relate this to a new conception of the inviolable self.

scholarly journals "Die Sprache ist eine große und göttliche Gabe" (Martin Luther) Reformation und Sprachkultur

Labyrinth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Susanne Heine
Keyword(s):  
Martin Luther ◽  
Personal Relationship ◽  
Human Being ◽  
German Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Capability ◽  
The Relationship

"Language is a great and divine gift" (Martin Luther)Reformation and Language Culture  In this paper Luther's anthropology is shown as being based on the human capability of speaking. As a speaking person, the human being is not outside the world but involved in the world by communication. For Luther being human means – thanks to the capability of speaking – being in a personal relationship. The author argues that this relationship to others is based in the relationship to God. Although speaking is a gift of God, it can be abused whenever someone stirs up people to degrade others, as populists do. Luther had been reproached to be a populist in his closeness to simple people, but this was only due to his intention, that everyone should understand his translation of the bible. Instead of stoking fears, as populists do, Luther helped people to overcome their fears, by telling them in their own language – due to his German translation – that God loves them.  

scholarly journals Peduli kemanusiaan dan keutuhan ciptaan: Melacak pesan penatalayanan ciptaan di era pandemi

Kurios ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohanes Hasiholan Tampubolon ◽  
Aeron Frior Sihombing ◽  
Robi Prianto ◽  
Oferlin Hia
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Global Problem ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

Covid 19 has hit the world and is a global problem today. Various theological responses are also present to interpret suffering, worship to pastoral care. However, this pandemic cannot be separated from the problem of the relationship between humans and other creations of God. Humanitarian issues and environmental problems are interrelated. So, there needs to be a theological reflection related to the integrity of creation in the midst of a pandemic. The author uses the term stewardship of creation to describe the relationship between humans and other creations of God. This article uses a descriptive-analytic research method with a qualitative approach. The author found that important themes in the Bible can encourage human involvement in the stewardship of creation even though there are certainly various challenges that will be faced.

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