This book examines encounters between the Christian church and Maori. Christian faith among Maori changed from Maori receiving the missionary endeavours of Pakeha settlers, to the development of indigenous expressions of Christian faith, partnerships between Maori and Pakeha in the mainline churches, and the emergence of Destiny Church. The book looks at the growth, development and adaptation of Christian faith among Maori people and considers how that development has helped shape New Zealand identity and society. It explores questions of theology, historical development, socio-cultural influence and change, and the outcomes of Pakeha interactions with Maori.

"This book examines encounters between the Christian church and Māori. Christian faith among Māori changed from the missionary endeavours of Pākehā settlers, to the development of indigenous expressions of Christian faith, to partnerships between Māori and Pākehā in the mainline churches, and the emergence of Destiny Church. The book looks at the growth, development and adaptation of Christian faith among Māori people, and considers how that development has helped shape New Zealand identity and society. It explores questions of theology, historical development, socio-cultural influence and change, and the outcomes of Pākehā interactions with Māori."--Publisher information.

The arrival of the Anglican Church with its claims to religious power was soon followed by British imperial claims to temporal power. Political, legal, economic and social institutions were designed to be the bastions of control across the British Empire. However, they were also places of contestation and engagement at a local and national level, and this was true of New Zealand. Māori culture was constantly capable of adaptation in the face of changing contexts. This ground-breaking book explores the emergence of Te Hāhi Mihinare – the Māori Anglican Church. Anglicanism, brought to New Zealand by English missionaries in 1814, was made widely known by Māori evangelists, as iwi adapted the religion to make it their own. The ways in which Mihinare (Māori Anglicans) engaged with the settler Anglican Church in New Zealand and created their own unique Church casts light on the broader question of how Māori interacted with and transformed European culture and institutions. Hirini Kaa vividly describes the quest for a Māori Anglican bishop, the translation into te reo of the prayer book, and the development of a distinctive Māori Anglican ministry for today’s world. Te Hāhi Mihinare uncovers a rich history that enhances our understanding of New Zealand’s past.

Mana from Heaven is the definitive work about the early interaction between Maori and missionary, and the more than 60 Maori prophets that arose in response to the translation of the Old Testament into Maori in 1858. Some movements were ephemeral, some closer to indigenous animism than Christianity, but some have endured and evolved into established parts of the religion, like today's leading Maori church, Ratana.

In The Spirit, Indigenous Peoples and Social Change Michael Frost explores a pentecostal theology of social engagement in relation to Māori in New Zealand. Pentecostalism has had an ambiguous relationship with Māori and, in particular, lacks a robust and coherent theological framework for engaging in issues of social concern. Drawing on a number of interviews with Māori pentecostal leaders and ministers, Frost explores the transformative role of pentecostal experience for Māori cultural identity, a holistic theology of mission, an indigenous prophetic emphasis, and consequent connections between pentecostalism and liberation. He thus contributes a way forward for pentecostal theologies of social change in relation to Māori, with implications for pentecostalism and indigenous peoples in the West.

This is volume 8 (2014) of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture published by The Interpreter Foundation. It contains articles on a variety of topics including narrative theology, Limhi's use of enallage, a book review of The Intolerance of Tolerance, biblical theophanies and Joseph Smith's First Vision, Oliver Cowdery's aborted attempts to describe the First Vision, a book review of Tiki and Temple: The Mormon Mission in New Zealand, thoughts on Christmas from Hugh Nibley, the scale of creation in space and time, a book review of In God's Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel, Hagar in LDS thought, two book reviews of Letters to a Young Mormon, the NHM inscriptions as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon, chiasmus in Abraham 3, a note on the names Zeezrom and Jershon, two book reviews of Significant Textual Changes in the Book of Mormon: The First Printed Edition Compared to the Manuscripts and to the Subsequent Major LDS English Printed Editions, and a call to Pacific anthropologists on the origin of mankind in the Pacific.

Sport is a major preoccupation of the modern world. It consumes the time and energies of millions of people around the globe. In fact, for many participants, it operates much like a functional equivalent of religion, giving them a way to interpret and understand the world. Sports stadiums are the cathedrals of our time. Sports stars are the saints or demi-gods through whom we access the transcendent. Members of the sports media serve as religious scribes, and sports fans are the worshiping faithful. What is true of sport is also true, more generally, of play. Nevertheless, and quite remarkably, Christian theologians and religious historians have been surprisingly slow to recognize the spiritual and cultural significance of sport and play, or to engage in the study of these concepts. This book attempts to redress that neglect by integrating sport and play with Christian faith and practice. In Sports and Play in Christian Theology, ten Christian scholars and practitioners explore sport and play from theological, biblical, historical, and pastoral perspectives. This rich collection of wide-ranging reflections and focused case studies will help readers locate sport and play within Christian faith and practice.