Larry A. Witham's Books

Who Shall Lead Them?

The Future of Ministry in America

By: Larry A. Witham

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Who Shall Lead Them?

The Future of Ministry in America

By: Larry A. Witham

The clergy today faces mounting challenges in an increasingly secular world, where declining prestige makes it more difficult to attract the best and the brightest young Americans to the ministry. As Christian churches dramatically adapt to modern changes, some are asking whether there is a clergy crisis as well. Whatever the future of the clergy, the fate of millions of churchgoers also will be at stake. In Who Shall Lead Them?, prizewinning journalist Larry Witham takes the pulse of both the Protestant and Catholic ministry in America and provides a mixed diagnosis of the calling's health. Drawing on dozens of interviews with clergy, seminarians and laity, and using newly available survey data including the 2000 Census, Witham reveals the trends in a variety of traditions. While evangelicals are finding innovative paths to ministry, the Catholic priesthood faces a severe shortage. In mainline Protestantism, ministry as a second career has become a prominent feature. Ordination ages in the Episcopal and United Methodist churches average in the 40s today. The quest by female clergy to lead from the pulpit, meanwhile, has hit a "stained glass ceiling" as churches still prefer a man as the principal minister. While deeply motivated by the mystery of their "call" to ministry, America's priests, pastors, and ministers are reassessing their roles in a world of new debates on leadership, morality, and the powers of the mass media. Who Shall Lead Them? offers a valuable snapshot of this contemporary clergy drama. It will be required reading for everyone concerned about the rapidly shifting ground of our churches and the health of religion in America.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

257

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

019534720X

ISBN 13

9780195347203

Where Darwin Meets the Bible

Creationists and Evolutionists in America

By: Larry A. Witham

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Where Darwin Meets the Bible

Creationists and Evolutionists in America

By: Larry A. Witham

The conflict between creationists and evolutionists has raged ever since the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859. And yet, even as generations of Americans have fought and re-fought the same battles, the contours of the debate have in recent years shifted dramatically. Tracking the dizzying rhetorical heights and opportunistic political lows of this controversy, Larry Witham travels to America's churches, schools, universities, museums, and government agencies to present creationists and evolutionists in their own unfiltered voices. We meet leading creationists and proponents of Intelligent Design such as Michael Behe; evolutionists such as Richard Dawkins; and theistic scientists who describe how they reconcile God and Nature. Today, Biblical literalism is tempered by the Intelligent Design movement, which finds evidence of God's presence in nature's patterns. The once-dominant "young earth" school has been replaced by a creationism that conscripts the language of science to advance the creationist cause. Meanwhile, evolutionary scientists hesitate to point out gaps in their theories for fear that such self-scrutiny could serve as fodder for anti-evolution propaganda. In an age marked both by a rising religious tide and daily scientific breakthroughs, Where Darwin Meets the Bible provides the standard account of this lasting conflict.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

339

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198034253

ISBN 13

9780198034254

Who Shall Lead Them?

The Future of Ministry in America

By: Larry A. Witham

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Who Shall Lead Them?

The Future of Ministry in America

By: Larry A. Witham

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

257

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

019534720X

ISBN 13

9780195347203

Book's by Larry A. Witham

Who Shall Lead Them?

Who Shall Lead Them?

Where Darwin Meets the Bible

Where Darwin Meets the Bible

Who Shall Lead Them?

Who Shall Lead Them?

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email