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Many colleges with historical church ties experience significant tension between the desire to compete in the secularized world of higher education and the desire to remain connected to their religious commitments and communities. In this history of one such school, Roanoke College, Robert Benne not only explores the school's 175-year tradition of educational excellence but also lays bare its complicated and ongoing relationship with its religious heritage. Benne examines the vision of ten of Roanoke's presidents and how those visions played out in college life. As he tells the college's story, Benne points to specific strengths and weaknesses of Roanoke's strategies for keeping the soul in higher education and elaborates what other Christian colleges can learn from Roanoke's long quest.

Theologian and ethicist Robert Benne addresses the Christian life in its religious and moral dimensions by writing about the vocation of the Christian in daily life. With clarity and authority, he discusses Christian identity, the call of God, moral development, and marriage and family life, among other topics. This fully revised edition includes a study guide for use in classrooms and church study groups.

"There is nothing greater than indignation to stimulate a writer to write." says Robert Benne, "and my outrage has been stirred mightily by reading so many wrongheaded 'takes' on how religion and politics ought to be related." --

What are the implications of a person's faith for Christian social ethics? Robert Benne elaborates a basic theological-ethical framework for engaging the Christian vision with its surrounding public environment--political, ethical, cultural, and intellectual. He offers practical ways in which religious traditions do, in fact, engage the public environment.

This book demonstrates that, despite much evidence to the contrary, there are still Christian colleges and universities of high academic quality that have also kept their religious heritages publicly relevant. Respected scholar Robert Benne explores how six schools from six different religious traditions (Calvin College, Wheaton College, St. Olaf College, Valparaiso University, Baylor University, and the University of Notre Dame) have maintained "quality with soul." These constructive case studies examine the vision, ethos, and personnel policies of each school, showing how--and why--its religious foundation remains strong.

Presents an approach to film interpretation blending the influences of Preston Roberts, a Quaker professor of the 1950s, and the work of the Ecumenical Institute, a Protestant renewal movement that flourished in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. After a chapter on movies and meaning, chapters look at four different types of narrative: the Christian, the American, the Greek, and the skeptical story. Films explored include Tender Mercies, Blue Velvet, and The Natural. The author is affiliated with Roanoke College. Lacks a subject index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"In his insightful, self-critical and transparent disclosures, Dr. Benne's personal memoirs describe in microcosm the struggles with which every faithful Lutheran must wrestle in the pursuit of vocation or discipleship."

Learn to think deeply about the relationship between church and state in a way that goes beyond mere policy debates and current campaigns. Few topics can grab headlines and stir passions quite like politics, especially when the church is involved. Considering the attention that many Christian parachurch groups, churches, and individual believers give to politics--and of the varying and sometimes divergent political ideals and aims among them--Five Views on the Church and Politics provides a helpful breakdown of the possible Christian approaches to political involvement. General Editor Amy Black brings together five top-notch political theologians in the book, each representing one of the five key political traditions within Christianity: Anabaptist (Separationist: the most limited possible Christian involvement in politics) - represented by Thomas Heilke Lutheran (Paradoxical: strong separation of church and state) – represented by Robert Benne Black Church (Prophetic: the church's mission is to be a voice for communal reform) – represented by Bruce Fields Reformed (Transformationist: emphasizes God's sovereignty over all things, including churches and governments) – represented by James K. A. Smith Catholic (Synthetic: encouragement of political participation as a means to further the common good of all people) – represented by J. Brian Benestad Each author addresses his tradition's theological distinctives, the role of government, the place of individual Christian participation in government and politics, and how churches should (or should not) address political questions. Responses by each contributor to opposing views will highlight key areas of difference and disagreement. Thorough and even-handed, Five Views on the Church and Politics will enable readers to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the most significant Christian views on political engagement and to draw their own, informed conclusions.

Discussion of Christian values and lifestyles intergrated into American conventional mindset.

Martin Luther read and preached the biblical text as the record of God addressing real, flesh-and-blood people and their daily lives. He used stories to drive home his vision of the Christian life, a life that includes struggling against temptation, enduring suffering, praising God in worship and prayer, and serving one's neighbor in response to God's callings and commands. Leading Lutheran scholar Robert Kolb highlights Luther's use of storytelling in his preaching and teaching to show how Scripture undergirded Luther's approach to spiritual formation. With both depth and clarity, Kolb explores how Luther retold and expanded on biblical narratives in order to cultivate the daily life of faith in Christ.