J.I. Packer is a British-born Canadian. He received his Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy at Corpus Christi College. He later attended Oxford University. While attending Oxford, Packer gave his life to God at an Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union meeting. He is the current Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College. His most known work is Knowing God. Knowing God started as a series of magazine articles. In 1973, the articles were combined and published as a book, Knowing God.
Summary
The primary purpose of J.I. Packer’s book, Knowing God, is to know who God is by the end or have a better understanding. He splits the book into three large sections, I. Know the Lord, II. Behold Your God!, and III. If God Be For Us… In the first section, “Know the Lord,” he gives five principles for knowing God: the Bible, God is Lord, God is Savior, God is
Chapter 7 is entitled, “God Unchanging.” In this chapter, Packer lists six ways God is unchanging. God’s life, character, truth, ways, purposes, and Son do not change, and His people are supposed to have these characteristics. After chapter seven, each chapter of Part II lists characteristics of God—majesty, wisdom, truth, love, grave, justice, wrath, goodness, severity, and jealousness. Packer titles chapter ten, “God’s Wisdom and Ours,” he gives the two ways to wisdom. The first, “We must learn to reverence God,” means that we must fear God and be humble to receive God’s knowledge, and the second, “We must learn to receive God’s word,” says that in order to receive God’s wisdom, one must “apply themselves to God’s revelation (101).” When Packer discusses the topic of wrath, he says today it is not talked about as commonly as it was in the old and new testament days. He quotes A.W. Pink who says that there are more references to God’s wrath, judgement, and jealously then there are of love and
Harry S. Stout is the Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Christianity and Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University, and is also an author. He received his B.A. from Calvin College, M.A. from Kent State University, and Ph.D. from Kent State University. Professor Stout is the author of several books, including The New England Soul, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for history; The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism, which received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for biography as well as the Critic's Award for History in 1991; Dictionary of Christianity in America (of which he was co-editor), which received the Book of the Year Award from Christianity Today in 1990; A Religious History of America (coauthor with Nathan Hatch); and Readings in American Religious History (co-edited with Jon Butler). He most recently contributed to and co-edited Religion in the American Civil War and is currently writing a moral history of the American Civil War. He is also co-editing Religion in American Life, a seventeen-volume study of the impact of religion on American history for adolescent readers and public schools (with Jon Butler). He is general editor of both The Works of Jonathan Edwards and the "Religion in America" series for Oxford University Press. He has written articles for the Journal of Social History, Journal of American Studies, Journal of American History, Theological Education, Computers and the Humanities, and Christian Scholar's Review. He is a contributor to the Concise Encyclopedia of Preaching, Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, and the Reader's Encyclopedia of the American West.
In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.
The late first lady Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it." Mrs. Roosevelt means that although one person may feel alone through the hardships one faces, one has millions beside oneself who can relate to and understand what one may feel. Zora Neale Hurston shows that even though Janie's family and spouses continue to be abusive and harsh toward Janie, their hate and control left her stronger than before, preparing her for the next challenges thrown at her. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the deaths' of close relatives and family positively affect Janie because she tends to become more educated and wiser with each death she overcomes in the obstacles she calls her life.
In the nineteen thirties, women were raised with a strict criteria for the way they were required to live their lives. Regardless of love, women only strived to marry men who owned great deals of land. In their eyes, the more land their husbands owned, the more stability they were offered. They lived at their husband’s beck and call, and did not openly oppose to their thoughts. Women rarely strayed away from what was socially acceptable, and ignored what the main character, Janie, from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, could not. Although Janie is raised with this requirement as well, certain events throughout her life triggers a change in the way she views the way she lives her life. Merriam Webster defines awaken as to become conscious or aware of something. Throughout the oscillating process of her awakening, Janie gains self-realization as she seeks her horizons.
From the beginning of society, men and women have always been looked at as having different positions in life. Even in the modern advanced world we live in today, there are still many people who believe men and women should be looked at differently. In the work field, on average women are paid amounts lower than men who may be doing the exact same thing. Throughout the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston brings about controversy on a mans roles. Janie Crawford relationships with Logan, Joe and Tea Cake each bring out the mens feelings on masculine roles in marital life.
Writing about a topic that has been on an upward slope of controversy and criticism within the past two decades, Fred Donner a notable Islamic History professor at the University of Chicago whom has written multiple texts about the origins of Islam, tells the tale of the beginnings of Islam and how it would be shaped into its current manifestation today with Muhammad and the Believers. Donner admirably conveys the early history of Islam and its success to its centrality and “Believers’ Movement” opposed to many western historians accrediting it to the need of social and economic reform. Muhammad and the Believers is split up into five chapters, all of which Donner imparts his main thesis of Islam being a group of believers (mu’minun) opposed
Henry David Thoreau once said, “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” This excerpt of wisdom is prevalent in the journey of Janie Mae Crawford, the protagonist in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie spends the entirety of the novel searching for love and companionship, and on the way she discovers her truest self. When she finally determines her own identity, she realizes that she is a strong, independent woman of color who can defy the stereotypical standards placed upon women in the early 1900s. Although she initially allowed others to place restrictions on her based on her gender and race, she overcame these boundaries and understood that she did not have to conform to the expectations of others. The most apparent theme of this novel portrays that in order to for one to understand themselves in the realest and most raw fashion, they must encounter a number of instances that shape who they are as an individual.
Each of these articles brought an interesting view to the book of Exodus by giving examples of different perspectives. Interpreting the scripture with different views of the Lord brings out opposing outlooks on Him. Most of us as Christians think traditionally that God is just all loving and patient, He is; but He is also jealous and wrathful. The book of Exodus is a perfect example portraying His love and His wrath on the Israelites.
“Overall, there have been well over a billion abortions performed around the world since 1980.” Isn’t murder unlawful? Aren’t you killing the fetus in you when you’re getting abortion? Isn’t it God’s decision to give or take life? However, many women still get abortion based on their situations. They aren’t doing something that is against the law, but still many people might not approve of it, because it may go against their golden rule or their “sense of injustice.” In the excerpt of “Who Needs God” by Harold Kushner, and the poem “First They Came for the Jews” by Martin Niemöller, both these authors talk about human nature, the golden rule and human “sense of injustice.” There are many things that may affect our human nature, our religion,
The book I read for my Political Science class was In God's Underground, by Richard Wurmbrand.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their eyes were watching God the main character Janie is on a quest for self-fulfillment. Of Janie’s three marriages, Logan and Joe provide her with a sense of security and status. However, only her union with Teacake flourishes into true love.
Morality and ethics have always been a large source of debate and contention between different factions of various interests, beliefs, and ideals due to its centrality and foundational role in society and civilization and incredible importance to everyday life and decision making. In many of these disputes religious belief, or a lack thereof, serves as an important driving force behind one or both sides of the argument. In the modern world, one of the bigger instances of this can be seen in the many debates between Atheistic and religious individuals about the implications of religious belief on morality. One of the most famous Atheists, Christopher Hitchens, asserts that religion is not only unnecessary for morality, but actually impedes it. In his work God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens challenges religious believers to “name an ethical statement or action, made or performed by a person of faith that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer”, and proudly states afterwards that many have made the attempt but no one has given him a satisfactory answer. However, the best response to this challenge is to point out the inherent flaws in his logic, the unfairness of his challenge, and the fact that Hitchens is asking the wrong question in the first place.
Today as I write my column I am so filled with an outpouring of emotion from our latest Bible study, The Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer. I wish I could start at Day 1 and do it again. The Women’s Ministry prayerfully selects these studies and they are all wonderful, but this one I feel really spoke to us as Christians facing an unsaved world. The study is based on Eph.6:10-19; Vs. 11, Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. The author took us weekly through the armor that we have been given as our heritage from God, the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Shoes of Peace, the Shield of Faith, the Helmet of Salvation, the Sword of the Spirit and Prayer. We can
In the novel, Their Eyes Are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston the reader is introduced to a young African American women named Janie and her caretaker that we know as Nanny. Throughout the story, Nannys hopes for Janie are skewed from the beginning because of her traumatic experiences in the past. Nanny lived through slavery and was even raped by her white master resulting in Janie's mom. After Janie's mom died, Nanny is forced to take care of Janie for most of her life. Therefore, Nanny has always hoped for Janie to have a marriage and relationship with a wealthy man that will take good care of her. In hopes of creating a marriage that Nanny and Janie's mom never had. However, Janie is not happy with Nanny’s ideals of a man for her when
The Story of Christianity is a book written by Justo Gonzalez; a native of Cuba. Gonzalez serves on the faculty of the Interdenominational Theological Center which is located in Atlanta Georgia. He attended Yale University, where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in historical theology; in fact Dr. Gonzalez is the youngest person at Yale to be awarded a Ph.D. He is also one of the first generation Latino theologians and instead of growing up Catholic, comes from a protestant background. In addition to writing many other books, Gonzalez is also Cokesbury’s publishing chief narrator of the Christian Believer study video lessons course and the recipient of the Ecumenism Award from the Theological Consortium in Washington, which he received as a result of his ecumenical work of bringing together churches of different denominations