Being a Christian for over 20 years, I have read numerous books and workbooks. In the early 90's, I read this workbook and enjoyed it quite well. It confirmed a lot of what I had studied and been exposed to during my Christian journey. It added a lot to my growth. The book, Principles of Church Life, contains many valuable foundational truths and dynamics for church life and the born again spirit filled Christian. It will convince the new believer to want all of God and desire spiritual things He has made available to assist us in being better Christians. This book contains detailed information on
1. Foundation Principles and doctrines of Christ for the believer.
2. Personal growth and enrichment of the believer, i.e. stewardship, giving, soul winning, fasting and praying, praise and worship.
3. Study of church life - Christian protocol, church government, marriage and the church, gifts of the spirit.
4. Committment of the believer to God and the importance of the body of christ.
5. Restoration of the believer and the Church so that we may continue in His will and way.

Get the book, it will enhance your life and help you develop in your relationship with the Lord. The book is an excellent tool for Bible Study and Sunday School Teachers as well as for a School of Ministry. I have used this book as a tool in Bible study and in Bible training for almost ten years. It has been very valuable in directing others to answers to their questions as a back up to what was shared with them.

If you want committment, Principles of Church Life by Kevin Conner will be a blessing to others, your life and/or your congregation.

This is an excellent book: thorough in coverage and so well written that one need not be an academic scholar to enjoy and learn from it. Trexler's research labor is not evident in the writing but in the wealth of information that brings this most significant period of time and place to life. It is, moreover, a fine example of new history, meaning of real people going about daily life rather than kings, wars, and social upheavals.

This book should never have been allowed to go out of print; I am glad to see it available. The author was one of the great Christian ethicists in American history. His book, a collection of essays with overlapping themes, is still valuable. You will think about God and all the little gods we worship differently as a result of reading and thinking about this book. Also, Niebuhr has a unique, very fine writing style.

The Recovery Of Doctrine In The Contemporary Church: An Essay In Philosophical Ecclesiology by Richard Heyduck (Associate Pastor of Westbury United Methodist Church, Houston, Texas) is a scathing look at how modern ideas have altered or even marginalized church doctrine, particularly in the last century. Heyduck focuses upon Christian doctrine in general, and his own tradition of United Methodism in particular, in a forcefully written, candidly presented, articulate account of the importance of staying true to original church doctrine. A profound and persuasive case written to persuade ministers, evangelists, and churchgoers to rethink the impulse to change or accept changes as easily as the secular world accepts change, Pastor Heyduck's The Recovery Of Doctrine In The Contemporary Church: An Essay In Philosophical Ecclesiology is very highly recommended reading for both the clergy and the laity with an interest in contemporary ecclesiastical applications of Christian historic doctrines.

John Bowen, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote this as a college textbook for anthropology of religion. For this it is excellent. It is also really good for lay readers looking for an introduction to this field. It includes a review of religious studies theories from Hegel and Edward Tylor to Clifford Geertz. It includes examples from many religious traditions commonly studied--Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Umbanda, Native American traditions, Cargo cults, Japanese New Religions, Quakers, Mormonism, Hinduism; a good breadth indeed.

His chapters are: 1) Elements and Theories of Religion; 2) Doctrine and Practice in Tension; 3) Transitions in Life and Death; 4) Extending Our Powers: "Magic" and Healing; 5) Explaining Misfortune: Witchcraft and Sorcery; 6) Sacrifice Contested; 7) Prohibitions and Boundaries; 8) Objects, Images, and Worship; 9) Sacred Speech and Divine Power; 10) Places and Pilgrims; 11) Religious Authority and Religious Movements; 12) The Place of Religions in Modern Nation-States.

The book is expensive, so unless you find it used or really want it, I wouldn't buy it. But I really wanted it, and wasn't at all disappointed.

This is a great collection of almost 70 late antiquity primary religious texts. Many appear in english for the first time . Represented are every major religious current from the first century until the rise of Islam. Its extremely difficult to get information on what beleifs these ancient people were practiceing and what they were worshiping. This book has the answers , and their interesting. Some are highly unusual and all were predicated on transcending human experience and feeling the Divine. A very important book.

The title of this book evokes the feeling that it may be a
simple-minded recitation of those basic Catholic beliefs that
one may be given in Sunday school as a child. It is not. It
is a thoughtful book on the role of the Roman Catholic Church
within the "whole scheme" of the Catholic faith.

Richard Sipe's study of how celibacy is lived providea challenge to the Church and to celibates themselves. The issues that Sipe raises uncovers the need on the part of the Roman Catholic Church to become engaged in the issues of celibate living from the beginning of a priest's training in the seminary to ongoing formation throughout his life.

For the celibate Sipe's study is comforting as well as disconcerting. It is comforting because it demonstrates various ways of coping with celibacy in which many have achieved a lilfetime of celibate living. It is disconcerting because Sipe's revelations challenge the celibate to become more conscious of things he might take for granted.

Sipe begins his study by reviewing the origins of celilbacy as well as defining the meanings of celibacy,

The practices of celibacy take up a major portion of his study. While this section may disturb many, Sipe's research is based on 25 years of intervieiwng priests and male religious as well as other forms of research. Perhaps the fact that celibates engage in some sort of sexual activity, be it masturbation or sexual fantasies, pornography or sexual liasions demonstrates that celibacy, while a gift, is developmental. For those who lilve religious life, many do not express shock when they live less than ideal lives in the practice of poverty or obedience. Yet somehow something less than complete abstnence is the area of chastity is a shock.

And that is where the challenge to the Church comes is. In the last secion of his book Sipe notes how archaic is the Church's teachings sexual morality. The human develops. And so does human sexuality develop. If celibacy is to be practiced it, too, will have to be adapted to human development. The implications actually go further then the Roman Catholic Church's value of celibate ministering. It impacts on the total teaching of sexual morality. Most of it is cognitive, or prophetic, as Sipes would have it. That means it prohibits or allows. Without a context of! an objective or lyrical voice, this prophetic voice sounds empty and certainly uninspiring. As Sipe points out, however, to attract men into celibacy, the Church needs to present a sexuality that is coinherent with one's human development in a transcendent experience. The Church's present teaching is integrated with deformative accretions from misguided applications of various philosophies to an ignorance of celibacy and sexual practice of Christ and his apostles.

Sipe's study is most welcome and provides challenges, information and inspiration. He is not against celibacy and in fact promotes its achievement. But that achievement is a lifelong process whose appreciative formation can be realized only through a varieties of prayer and appreciative service, physical development among other things. This is long overdue. Sipe's reflections can be helpful in developing celibate formation programs.

Richard Rohr offers such insight that I could hardly turn the page without marking some bit of wisdom that I'd want to return to again and again. This is not a practical guide of "how to". Rather, it challenges the reader to begin to discern the right questions to ask him or herself about their perspectives of their own reality. Happiness begins there. Really living begins there.

This survey of Celtic Saints provides an important analysis of the continuing relevance of the saints and their spiritual message. Ireland, Scotland, Wales and parts of Europe are surveyed in an examination which blends history with spiritual insights.