Professor Jon Pahl examines the history of youth ministry through the lens of four twentieth-century movements: the Walther League (Lutheran), the Young Christian Workers (Catholic), Youth for Christ (evangelical), and African American congregations (Methodist, Baptist, and United Church of Christ). By chronicling the emergence and influence of these movements, Pahl enhances our understanding of their effect upon both the American church and society. Pahl also explores how youth ministry has been transformed over the years and suggests ways that youth ministry must redirect its focus in the twenty-first century.

Youth Ministry in Modern America: 1930 to the Present

Religion & Spirituality

Pahl, Jon

Christian Books & Bibles

Baker Academic

It is widely recognized that American culture is both exceptionally religious and exceptionally violent. Americans participate in religious communities in high numbers, yet American citizens also own guns at rates far beyond those of citizens in other industrialized nations. Since 9/11, United States scholars have understandably discussed religious violence in terms of terrorist acts, a focus that follows United States policy. Yet, according to Jon Pahl, to identify religious violence only with terrorism fails to address the long history of American violence rooted in religion throughout the country’s history. In essence, Americans have found ways to consider blessed some very brutal attitudes and behaviors both domestically and globally.
In Empire of Sacrifice, Pahl explains how both of these distinctive features of American culture work together by exploring how constructions along the lines of age, race, and gender have operated to centralize cultural power across American civil or cultural religions in ways that don’t always appear to be "religious" at all. Pahl traces the development of these forms of systemic violence throughout American history, using evidence from popular culture, including movies such as Rebel without a Cause and Reefer Madness and works of literature such as The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Handmaid's Tale, to illuminate historical events. Throughout, Pahl focuses an intense light on the complex and durable interactions between religion and violence in American history, from Puritan Boston to George W. Bush’s Baghdad.

Empire of Sacrifice: The Religious Origins of American Violence

History

Americas

NYU Press

It is widely recognized that American culture is both exceptionally religious and exceptionally violent. Americans participate in religious communities in high numbers, yet American citizens also own guns at rates far beyond those of citizens in other industrialized nations. Since September 11, 2001, U.S. scholars have understandably discussed religious violence in terms of terrorist acts, a focus that follows U.S. policy. Yet, according to Jon Pahl, to identify religious violence only with terrorism fails to address the long history of American violence rooted in religion throughout the country's history. In Empire of Sacrifice, Pahl explains how both of these distinctive features of American culture work together by exploring how constructions along the lines of age, race, and gender have operated to centralize cultural power across American civil or cultural religions in ways that don't always appear to be 'religious' at all. Pahl traces the development of these forms of systemic violence throughout American history and focuses an intense light on the complex and durable interactions between religion and violence in American history, from Puritan Boston to George W. Bush's Baghdad.

Hopes and Dreams of All: The International Walther League and Lutheran Youth in American Culture, 1893-1993

Jon Pahl writes about the Walther League years with a focus on the intersection of church and culture through the years.

Wheat Ridge Ministries

As pictured (please see my image); signed and dated by the author on title page; tips of corners mildly curled; text excellent

Hopes & Dreams of All: The International Walther League

Professor Jon Pahl examines the history of youth ministry through the lens of four twentieth-century movements: the Walther League (Lutheran), the Young Christian Workers (Catholic), Youth for Christ (evangelical), and African American congregations (Methodist, Baptist, and United Church of Christ). By chronicling the emergence and influence of these movements, Pahl enhances our understanding of their effect upon both the American church and society. Pahl also explores how youth ministry has been transformed over the years and suggests ways that youth ministry must redirect its focus in the twenty-first century.
Â“The compelling stories and contributions of modern youth ministry remain invisible in the standard histories of Religion in America. Jon Pahl makes young people and their faith commitments visible as primary actors in portraits of four youth ministries. A skillful theologian and historian, Pahl analyzes the tension between Â‘purityÂ’Â—keeping young people safe from a hostile cultureÂ—and Â‘practicesÂ’Â—efforts to encourage young people in risks and responsibilitiesÂ—and allows the past to become present tense.Â” Â—Ronald C. White, Dean and Professor of Church History, San Francisco Theological Seminary

Youth Ministry in Modern America: 1930 To the Present

Hendrickson Pub

Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces: Putting God in Place

Brazos Pr

Pahl sees things in a way that some of us who lived through the history fo the Walther League don't -- or can't. He has seen and presented the League as it was and for what it really did accomplish. Pahl has done us all a great service. -- Arnie Kuntz former LCMS District President Pahl brings off his task with panache, beguiling the reader into a nostalgia trip through the joys and jostlings of yesteryear. Giants of the past return to life in these pages, and sometimes stub their toes when they do. But it's all richly documented by an author who has mastered with distinction the crafts of research and writing. -- Paul L. Maier Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History, Western Michigan University 'Hopes and Dreams of All' is an enlightening, moving, and challenging history that must be read if one wishes to understand the impact of the Walther League movement. Jon Pahl skillfully intertwines the mission of the Walther League with that of Wheat Ridge, Valparaiso University, . . . and the church at large. -- Florence Montz member, LCMS Board of Directors Jon Pahl is Professor of the History of Christianity in North America at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He has written many articles and reviews and is the author of 'Youth Ministry in Modern America', 'Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces', and 'Paradox Lost: Free Will and Political Liberty in American Culture, 1630-1760'. He lives with his family near Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

World

Wipf and Stock

Christian historian Sidney Mead has observed: "In America space has played the part that time has played in older cultures of the world." In Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces, Jon Pahl examines this provocative statement in conversation with what he calls the "spatial character" of American theology. He argues that places are always imaginatively constructed by the human beings who inhabit them. Sometimes this spatial theology works to our benefit; other times it poses spiritual risks. What happens when our banal "clothing of the sacred" violates our genuine need for comfort and intimacy? Or when we remember that the fleeting pleasures of a shopping trip or a Disneyland escape are designed to fill someone else's pocket rather than the spiritual emptiness in our own hearts? Pahl develops several ways to "clothe the divine from within the Christian tradition." He introduces a theology of place that reveals aspects of God's character through biblical metaphors drawn from physical spaces, such as the true vine, the rock, and the living water. Accessible and thought provoking, this enlightening book provides a better grasp of our particularly American way of lending religious significance to spaces of all kinds.

In this first critical biography of Fethullah Gulen in English, historian Jon Pahl takes us on a journey where we discover wisdom and controversy, from 1940's Turkey to the U.S. in the twenty-first century. Pahl tells the story of a pious Muslim boy from a tiny and remote Turkish village who on the one hand has inspired a global movement of millions of individuals dedicated to literacy, social enterprise, and interreligious dialogue, but who on the other hand has been monitored by Turkish police, seen as a threat by autocrats, and recently declared number one enemy by the current Turkish dictator. With lively prose and extensive research, Pahl traces Fethullah Gulen's life and thought in its contexts, states clearly his own positions, and then lets readers draw their own conclusions from the evidence about this undeniably significant historical figure.

Fethullah Gulen: A Life of Hizmet

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Blue Dome Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pahl, Jon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pahl, Jon

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pahl, Jon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Youth Ministry in Modern America: 1930 to the Present

Empire of Sacrifice: The Religious Origins of American Violence

Empire of Sacrifice: The Religious Origins of American Violence

Hopes and Dreams of All: The International Walther League and Lutheran Youth in American Culture, 1893-1993

Hopes & Dreams of All: The International Walther League

Youth Ministry in Modern America: 1930 To the Present

Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces: Putting God in Place

Hopes and Dreams of All: The International Walther League and Lutheran Youth in American Culture, 1893-1993

Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces: Putting God in Place

Fethullah Gulen: A Life of Hizmet