For more than twenty-five years, R. Kirby Godsey has been a regular in the Chapel Services at Mercer University as a proclaimer of the Word. Collected for the first time, these sermons reveal a vision for the Christian living out one's faith in the world. Godsey's unique prospective requires that the hearer/reader be a critical thinker in their faith. Brought to print for the first time in this book, these sermons serve as a clarion call for faithful and radical discipleship and honesty.

Centering Our Souls: Devotional Reflections of a College President

Religion & Spirituality

Godsey, R. Kirby

Christian Books & Bibles

Mercer University Press

This remarkable collection of essays spans more than twenty-five years as president of Mercer University. As such, they form a corpus of thought by a university president who believes that the university can and does have a role in shaping culture and society, and is a leading factor in the architecture of our future.

The Courage Factor: A Collection of Presidential Essays

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

This is a thought-provoking book that deals with practical issues of the Christian faith. It illuminates a number of misconceptions based on social customs or traditions regarding grace, faith, salvation, judgment, and other basics of the Christian religion.

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT GOD LET'S BE HONEST

Book focuses on the groundbreaking baptist summit at Mercer University and the three main topics and speakers.

The Baptist Summit at Mercer University: 19-20 January 2006, Three Addresses

Shurden, Walter B.

Underwood, William D.

Mercer Univ Pr

In a world composed of almost seven billion people, about 2.2 billion of them claim to be Christian. And while Christianity is continuing to grow at a modest rate, other religions are growing at a faster pace. Some scholars predict that Islam will overtake Christianity as the world s largest religion by the middle of the twenty-first century. Predictions aside, religions are competing for the world stage, and in the competition, Christians seem certain that God is on their side. Christians often think and behave as though God is a Christian. This book is written to ask if that assumption is true and to foster a more open conversation about other world religions. The world has grown too small and the stakes for mankind have grown too high for any of us to engage our faith as if our understanding of God represents the only way God s presence may be known in the world. We need, more than ever before, to develop creative communities of conversation. Conversation does not begin with talking. It begins with listening. like Quakers of old, we need to gather in humility and honesty to face the meanness and evil that religion itself has sometimes heaped upon mankind. Godsey asserts that We should open ourselves to new spectrums of light that may emanate from faiths foreign to our own. Our high calling is to commit ourselves to building a better pathway for creating understanding and mutual respect among people of faith throughout the world.

Is God a Christian?: Creating a Community of Conversation

Religious Studies

In a world composed of almost seven billion people, about 2.2 billion of them claim to be Christian. And while Christianity is continuing to grow at a modest rate, other religions are growing at a faster pace. Some scholars predict that Islam will overtake Christianity as the world s largest religion by the middle of the twenty-first century. Predictions aside, religions are competing for the world stage, and in the competition, Christians seem certain that God is on their side. Christians often think and behave as though God is a Christian.
This book is written to ask if that assumption is true and to foster a more open conversation about other world religions. The world has grown too small and the stakes for mankind have grown too high for any of us to engage our faith as if our understanding of God represents the only way God's presence may be known in the world.
We need, more than ever before, to develop creative communities of conversation. Conversation does not begin with talking. It begins with listening. like Quakers of old, we need to gather in humility and honesty to face the meanness and evil that religion itself has sometimes heaped upon mankind. Godsey asserts that We should open ourselves to new spectrums of light that may emanate from faiths foreign to our own. Our high calling is to commit ourselves to building a better pathway for creating understanding and mutual respect among people of faith throughout the world.

Is God a Christian

The expansion of human knowledge that springs from the inquiries of science can become a profound resource for our faith traditions. We need not choose between faith and reason as the rejection of reason often leads to a failure of faith. The high calling of the scientific community is to bring the realities of our universe into sharper focus. Our faith traditions enable us to discern meaning and understanding in our lives that cannot be realized by examining facts alone. Both the knowledge we are gaining from science along with the deep insights that we gain from our faith stories provide light and encouragement for navigating our human journeys.
The hope and compassion and embodiments of grace that we experience within our communities of faith and the new knowledge we discovered through explorations of our world, such as the now-famous discovery of the "god particle," can come together to lead us toward a better understanding of ourselves and our world. We are learning that the universe, including ourselves, is a constellation of creative interdependence. There are no isolated entities in the world, including our individual lives. The solitary individual is a fiction. Our relational lives are central to our being.
A sustainable faith should engage our minds as a critical resource for sound belief. Every believer can become a thoughtful believer and every thoughtful person can find hope and insight for living from our stories of faith. Thinking and believing work together to enable us to live more fully enlightened lives.

God Particle