Modern Religious Idols

Modern Religious Idols

Author: Michael Bunker

Publisher:

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9780615498317

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Idol worship may seem like just a curious anachronism to our modern sensibilities. The Old Testament is replete with God's commands against it and Israel's temptation to it, but the average reader of today may feel quite insulated from the whole matter. Idolatry is dismissed as ancient naiveté, the impulse of the unlearned, and a superstition that the enlightened man has outgrown. In the following pages, Michael Bunker strikes at the heart of such comfortable assumptions by demonstrating that idolatry is still as alive and malignant as ever, the difference between the ancient world and ours being only that idolatry has become more subtle and idolaters more sophisticated. Instead of having outgrown idolatry, men have nurtured and perfected it. No longer do we craft our idols out of wood and stone, leaving their obvious lifelessness to unsettle our consciences; now we give our idols the breath of life by enshrining them in unbiblical ideas, selfish values and worldly assumptions. Idolatry has always been a matter of the heart; the external manifestations merely change with the times and fall in and out of fashion. The purpose of this present volume is to expose and tear down the subtle idols of the heart that have been enshrined all around us and within us.


Book Synopsis Modern Religious Idols by : Michael Bunker

Download or read book Modern Religious Idols written by Michael Bunker and published by . This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Idol worship may seem like just a curious anachronism to our modern sensibilities. The Old Testament is replete with God's commands against it and Israel's temptation to it, but the average reader of today may feel quite insulated from the whole matter. Idolatry is dismissed as ancient naiveté, the impulse of the unlearned, and a superstition that the enlightened man has outgrown. In the following pages, Michael Bunker strikes at the heart of such comfortable assumptions by demonstrating that idolatry is still as alive and malignant as ever, the difference between the ancient world and ours being only that idolatry has become more subtle and idolaters more sophisticated. Instead of having outgrown idolatry, men have nurtured and perfected it. No longer do we craft our idols out of wood and stone, leaving their obvious lifelessness to unsettle our consciences; now we give our idols the breath of life by enshrining them in unbiblical ideas, selfish values and worldly assumptions. Idolatry has always been a matter of the heart; the external manifestations merely change with the times and fall in and out of fashion. The purpose of this present volume is to expose and tear down the subtle idols of the heart that have been enshrined all around us and within us.


Idols of the Market

Idols of the Market

Author: Sven Lütticken

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13:

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In this is a book-length essay, art critic and historian Sven Lutticken takes philosopher Theodor Adorno's critique of popular arts and culture a step further. Adorno criticized the manipulation of taste in official cultures and the pretense of individualism; Lutticken looks at the tension between fundamentalism and individualism in the context of the current religious-political image wars. This book examines both the afterlife of religious elements in modern culture and possible responses to the current religious re-appropriation of Adorno's critique of modern capitalist culture by both Christian fundamentalists and radical Islamists...


Book Synopsis Idols of the Market by : Sven Lütticken

Download or read book Idols of the Market written by Sven Lütticken and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this is a book-length essay, art critic and historian Sven Lutticken takes philosopher Theodor Adorno's critique of popular arts and culture a step further. Adorno criticized the manipulation of taste in official cultures and the pretense of individualism; Lutticken looks at the tension between fundamentalism and individualism in the context of the current religious-political image wars. This book examines both the afterlife of religious elements in modern culture and possible responses to the current religious re-appropriation of Adorno's critique of modern capitalist culture by both Christian fundamentalists and radical Islamists...


Overcome Modern Idols

Overcome Modern Idols

Author: Bruce Leiter

Publisher:

Published: 2020-10-17

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13:

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Do you struggle because of situations or people that weigh you down? How can you get help? This book can help you gain victory over the stressful circumstances in your life. God wants to make you into his victor instead of being a victim. Using easy-to-read language with a generous dose of humor, the author explains and applies the Bible to everyone's daily life. As a result, God can enable you overcome the many false gods that creep into your life from your culture. The study has discussion questions for groups and practical steps you can follow to help you run on your journey with Jesus toward every believer's goal, final perfection after death.Notice the following review by Rev. Jack Stulp, retired pastor and home-missions administrator: "Having read 'Overcome Modern Idols, ' I appreciate that it's not merely a collection of the author's opinions. It is full of Scripture that is quoted and is expounded. Author Leiter is impressed with our Lord's wisdom and seeks to share it."This book does not take the common approach of naming things that people accept as idols, like money. Reflecting much thinking and meditation, this book gets us to think of ways that people come up with distorted and wrong ideas of what God is like and then worship these distorted concepts, which are false gods. I found it helpful and am pleased to recommend this book to others."The following review is from Judy Dunnagan, a Moody Publishers editor: "We can tell that this message is very near and dear to your heart. Your study is very compelling and is needed for such a time as this." The Bible study's chapter outline follows: Part One: An important pattern 1.The desperate need to overcome the false gods and the evil forces 2.Christians' general unawareness of many modern idols 3.The ways that idols creep into believers' lives 4.The Old Testament's teachings against idols 5.Who is more powerful, God or the idols/demons? 6.God's command about the false gods 7.Recognizing and rejecting false idols 8.How to overcome the evil forces' attacks and influences Part Two: Who is the true God compared to the false gods? Part Three: The highest modern idol, the "I-god" -The Old Testament's teaching and depiction of the "I-god" or self-ism -The New Testament's solution to the "I-god" or self-ism -Our connection to Jesus, the Source of our strength -God says that confession is good for the soul Part Four: Six personal false gods often learned in our childhood The bodyguard god The on-demand god The boy(girl)friend god The guilt-god The anti-science god The god-of-the-gaps Part Five: False group-gods learned from the world's cultures Six "Human-gods" - The "Me-god" - The "We-god" - The "Good-us-god" - The "False-theory-god" - The "I-think-god" - The "My-experience-god" Three "Escape-gods" - The "Separate-god" - The "It-god" - The "Fun-god" Four "Whatever-gods" - The "No-god" - The "?-god" - The "Shifty-god" - The "I'm-okay-you're-okay-god" Four "I'm better-gods" - The "My-race-god" - The "My-sex-god" - The "High-head-god" - The "Rage-god" Five undefined gods - The "Form-god" - The "Gone-god" - The "All-god" - The "Always-been-done-that-way god" - The "Law-god" Part Six: The "One-person-gods" Part Seven: Prayer to the true God-the key to experiencing Jesus' victoryEvery Christian is the target of these modern idols, which are Satan's arrows. We can overcome them with the use of the Bible and prayer. How? This Bible study will help you defeat their influence in your life and in that of your loved ones. Awareness is the first step, and then using God's tools to stop their attacks in their tracks is the next step. You will find guidance to stop their influences.


Book Synopsis Overcome Modern Idols by : Bruce Leiter

Download or read book Overcome Modern Idols written by Bruce Leiter and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-17 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you struggle because of situations or people that weigh you down? How can you get help? This book can help you gain victory over the stressful circumstances in your life. God wants to make you into his victor instead of being a victim. Using easy-to-read language with a generous dose of humor, the author explains and applies the Bible to everyone's daily life. As a result, God can enable you overcome the many false gods that creep into your life from your culture. The study has discussion questions for groups and practical steps you can follow to help you run on your journey with Jesus toward every believer's goal, final perfection after death.Notice the following review by Rev. Jack Stulp, retired pastor and home-missions administrator: "Having read 'Overcome Modern Idols, ' I appreciate that it's not merely a collection of the author's opinions. It is full of Scripture that is quoted and is expounded. Author Leiter is impressed with our Lord's wisdom and seeks to share it."This book does not take the common approach of naming things that people accept as idols, like money. Reflecting much thinking and meditation, this book gets us to think of ways that people come up with distorted and wrong ideas of what God is like and then worship these distorted concepts, which are false gods. I found it helpful and am pleased to recommend this book to others."The following review is from Judy Dunnagan, a Moody Publishers editor: "We can tell that this message is very near and dear to your heart. Your study is very compelling and is needed for such a time as this." The Bible study's chapter outline follows: Part One: An important pattern 1.The desperate need to overcome the false gods and the evil forces 2.Christians' general unawareness of many modern idols 3.The ways that idols creep into believers' lives 4.The Old Testament's teachings against idols 5.Who is more powerful, God or the idols/demons? 6.God's command about the false gods 7.Recognizing and rejecting false idols 8.How to overcome the evil forces' attacks and influences Part Two: Who is the true God compared to the false gods? Part Three: The highest modern idol, the "I-god" -The Old Testament's teaching and depiction of the "I-god" or self-ism -The New Testament's solution to the "I-god" or self-ism -Our connection to Jesus, the Source of our strength -God says that confession is good for the soul Part Four: Six personal false gods often learned in our childhood The bodyguard god The on-demand god The boy(girl)friend god The guilt-god The anti-science god The god-of-the-gaps Part Five: False group-gods learned from the world's cultures Six "Human-gods" - The "Me-god" - The "We-god" - The "Good-us-god" - The "False-theory-god" - The "I-think-god" - The "My-experience-god" Three "Escape-gods" - The "Separate-god" - The "It-god" - The "Fun-god" Four "Whatever-gods" - The "No-god" - The "?-god" - The "Shifty-god" - The "I'm-okay-you're-okay-god" Four "I'm better-gods" - The "My-race-god" - The "My-sex-god" - The "High-head-god" - The "Rage-god" Five undefined gods - The "Form-god" - The "Gone-god" - The "All-god" - The "Always-been-done-that-way god" - The "Law-god" Part Six: The "One-person-gods" Part Seven: Prayer to the true God-the key to experiencing Jesus' victoryEvery Christian is the target of these modern idols, which are Satan's arrows. We can overcome them with the use of the Bible and prayer. How? This Bible study will help you defeat their influence in your life and in that of your loved ones. Awareness is the first step, and then using God's tools to stop their attacks in their tracks is the next step. You will find guidance to stop their influences.


Desirable God?

Desirable God?

Author: Roger Burggraeve

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9789042913165

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The human fascination with images, and the idolatry or idolization of images as the source of desire, passion and terror, is treated in this book. The first part enters more deeply into religious idolatry, past and present. It treats the biblical, the early-Jewish as well as the Christian views on monotheism and the prohibition against images, as source of authentic humanism or as source of intolerance and violence. In the second part, the focus shifts onto a number of contemporary, profane idols and gods: the nationalist fascination for one's own land and people, and the fear or hate towards foreigners; the rampant preoccupation with (genetic) health, in a context of body culture and aestheticization, of which the postmodern sport idols have become the great 'icons'; the current image- and screen-culture and all forms of audiovisual exorcisms; and last but not least the ongoing process of economization and globalization, with an expanding culture of 'branding' logos.


Book Synopsis Desirable God? by : Roger Burggraeve

Download or read book Desirable God? written by Roger Burggraeve and published by Peeters Publishers. This book was released on 2003 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human fascination with images, and the idolatry or idolization of images as the source of desire, passion and terror, is treated in this book. The first part enters more deeply into religious idolatry, past and present. It treats the biblical, the early-Jewish as well as the Christian views on monotheism and the prohibition against images, as source of authentic humanism or as source of intolerance and violence. In the second part, the focus shifts onto a number of contemporary, profane idols and gods: the nationalist fascination for one's own land and people, and the fear or hate towards foreigners; the rampant preoccupation with (genetic) health, in a context of body culture and aestheticization, of which the postmodern sport idols have become the great 'icons'; the current image- and screen-culture and all forms of audiovisual exorcisms; and last but not least the ongoing process of economization and globalization, with an expanding culture of 'branding' logos.


The Idol in the Age of Art

The Idol in the Age of Art

Author: Rebecca Zorach

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1351543555

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After 1500, as Catholic Europe fragmented into warring sects, evidence of a pagan past came newly into view, and travelers to distant places encountered deeply unfamiliar visual cultures, it became ever more pressing to distinguish between the sacred image and its opposite, the 'idol'. Historians and philosophers have long attended to Reformation charges of idolatry - the premise for image-breaking - but only very recently have scholars begun to consider the ways that the idol occasioned the making no less than the destruction. The present book focuses on how idols and ideas about them matter for the history of early modern objects produced around the globe, especially those created in the context of an exchange or confrontation between an 'us' and a 'them'. Ranging widely within the early modern period, the volume contributes to the project of globalizing the study of European art, bringing the continent's commercial, colonial, antiquarian, and religious histories into dialogue. Its studies of crosses, statues on columns, wax ex-votos, ivories, prints, maps, manuscripts, fountains, banners, and New World gold all frame Western 'art' simultaneously as an idea and as a collection of real things, arguing that it was through the idol that object-makers and writers came to terms with what it was that art should be, and do.


Book Synopsis The Idol in the Age of Art by : Rebecca Zorach

Download or read book The Idol in the Age of Art written by Rebecca Zorach and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After 1500, as Catholic Europe fragmented into warring sects, evidence of a pagan past came newly into view, and travelers to distant places encountered deeply unfamiliar visual cultures, it became ever more pressing to distinguish between the sacred image and its opposite, the 'idol'. Historians and philosophers have long attended to Reformation charges of idolatry - the premise for image-breaking - but only very recently have scholars begun to consider the ways that the idol occasioned the making no less than the destruction. The present book focuses on how idols and ideas about them matter for the history of early modern objects produced around the globe, especially those created in the context of an exchange or confrontation between an 'us' and a 'them'. Ranging widely within the early modern period, the volume contributes to the project of globalizing the study of European art, bringing the continent's commercial, colonial, antiquarian, and religious histories into dialogue. Its studies of crosses, statues on columns, wax ex-votos, ivories, prints, maps, manuscripts, fountains, banners, and New World gold all frame Western 'art' simultaneously as an idea and as a collection of real things, arguing that it was through the idol that object-makers and writers came to terms with what it was that art should be, and do.


No Other Gods

No Other Gods

Author: Kelly Minter

Publisher: David C Cook

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780781448970

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Minter explores what happens when good desires become false gods, robbing people of an intimate relationship with the heavenly Father. (Christian)


Book Synopsis No Other Gods by : Kelly Minter

Download or read book No Other Gods written by Kelly Minter and published by David C Cook. This book was released on 2008 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minter explores what happens when good desires become false gods, robbing people of an intimate relationship with the heavenly Father. (Christian)


Idols for Destruction

Idols for Destruction

Author: Herbert Schlossberg

Publisher: Regnery Publishing

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis Idols for Destruction by : Herbert Schlossberg

Download or read book Idols for Destruction written by Herbert Schlossberg and published by Regnery Publishing. This book was released on 1990 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


American Idols

American Idols

Author: Bob Hostetler

Publisher: B&H Publishing Group

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 080544078X

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Feeding off the frenzy of fleeting fame and image overload, Hostetler takes anecessary look at the false gods in modern society. This timely book can helpreaders realize and overcome their own idolatries.


Book Synopsis American Idols by : Bob Hostetler

Download or read book American Idols written by Bob Hostetler and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2006 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feeding off the frenzy of fleeting fame and image overload, Hostetler takes anecessary look at the false gods in modern society. This timely book can helpreaders realize and overcome their own idolatries.


No Idols

No Idols

Author: Thomas E. Crow

Publisher: Power Publications, Sydney

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780909952990

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The first in the new Power Polemics series, Thomas Crow's No Idols: The Missing Theology of Art turns away from contemporary cultural theories to face a pervading blindspot in today's art-historical inquiry: religion. Crow pursues a perhaps unpopular notion of Christianity's continued presence in modern abstract art and in the process makes a case for art's own terrain of theology: one that eschews idolatry by means of abstraction. Tracking the original anti-idolatry controversy of the Jansenists, anchored in a humble still life by Chardin, No Idols sets the scene for the development of an art of reflection rather than representation, and divinity without doctrine. Crow's reinstatement of the metaphysical is made through the work of New Zealand artist Colin McCahon and American artists Mark Rothko, Robert Smithson, James Turrell, and Sister Mary Corita Kent. While a tightly selected group of artists, in their collective statute the author explores the proposal that spiritual art, as opposed to "a simulacrum of one," is conceivable for our own time.


Book Synopsis No Idols by : Thomas E. Crow

Download or read book No Idols written by Thomas E. Crow and published by Power Publications, Sydney. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first in the new Power Polemics series, Thomas Crow's No Idols: The Missing Theology of Art turns away from contemporary cultural theories to face a pervading blindspot in today's art-historical inquiry: religion. Crow pursues a perhaps unpopular notion of Christianity's continued presence in modern abstract art and in the process makes a case for art's own terrain of theology: one that eschews idolatry by means of abstraction. Tracking the original anti-idolatry controversy of the Jansenists, anchored in a humble still life by Chardin, No Idols sets the scene for the development of an art of reflection rather than representation, and divinity without doctrine. Crow's reinstatement of the metaphysical is made through the work of New Zealand artist Colin McCahon and American artists Mark Rothko, Robert Smithson, James Turrell, and Sister Mary Corita Kent. While a tightly selected group of artists, in their collective statute the author explores the proposal that spiritual art, as opposed to "a simulacrum of one," is conceivable for our own time.


False Gods

False Gods

Author: Frank Stockton Dobbins

Publisher:

Published: 1881

Total Pages: 800

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis False Gods by : Frank Stockton Dobbins

Download or read book False Gods written by Frank Stockton Dobbins and published by . This book was released on 1881 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: