The Chance of Salvation offers a history of conversions in the United States which shows how religious identity came to be a matter of choice. Shortly after the American Revolution, people in the United States increasingly encountered an expanded array of religious options. Evangelical Protestants began an effort to convert Americans, while developing new practices that emphasized conversion as an immediate choice. Their missionary effort extended to Native American nations such as the Cherokee in the Southeast, who received Christianity on their own terms. Enslaved and newly freed African Americans likewise created a variety of Christian conversion that was centered on religious hope and eschatological expectation. Mormons, drawing on earlier Protestant practices and beliefs, enthusiastically proselytized for a new tradition that emphasized individual choice and free will. By uncovering the way that religious identity is structured as an obligatory decision, this book explains why Americans change their religions so much, and why the United States is both highly religious in terms of religious affiliation and very secular in the sense that no religion is an unquestioned default.--

John Bergsma’s popular Bible Basics for Catholics, which has sold more than 60,000 copies, offers readers an accessible vision of salvation history as it unfolds in the Bible, showing readers how the Bible points us to the saving life and work of Jesus. This new edition includes an additional chapter on covenant fulfillment in the Book of Revelation. Bergsma brings to his theology a combination of academic expertise, pastoral wisdom, and unique playfulness. Bible Basics for Catholics is based on Bergsma’s popular Introduction to Theology course at Steubenville. As a teacher, Bergsma has an uncanny ability to make complex ideas understandable and faith-inspiring while staying true to both Catholic teaching and biblical scholarship. Readers will begin to see the Christian understanding of salvation by walking through the Old Testament, going through the great stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the great kings and prophets of Israel, and culminating in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

We are living in an extraordinary time: A Time of Mercy. But what is mercy? What does it mean to be living in a Time of Mercy? How can we receive God’s Mercy? And how should we respond? In Doors of Mercy, authors Fr. Jeffrey Kirby and Brian Kennelly answer these important questions. They act as your tour guides on a whirlwind tour of salvation history, from Adam and Eve to the coming of the Savior, and into the present day with the beautiful story of St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy message and devotion. You’ll discover the intricate stitching of a divine rescue plan that would not be stopped by anything. Across countless generations the Lord’s mercy acted as the lifeblood of this rescue plan, so that neither our own weakness, nor the devil himself, could thwart it. He would deliver us a Savior and a King of Mercy no matter what it took, one who would bring His Kingdom to the ends of the earth, and who would smash the very gates of hell. You’ll discover: -How the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the Garden affects our relationships with each other, with God, and with the world around us -Why God chose a rainbow as the sign of the covenant with Noah -The purpose behind Abram’s name being changed to Abraham -How the plagues in the time of Moses were not random but had symbolic meaning -How David’s Kingdom serves as a template, or blueprint, for the Church -The hidden meaning behind some of Jesus’s well known parables and why the Eucharist is the sign of the new and eternal covenant -How the Church and her saints have spread mercy throughout the centuries, with short biographies of Sts. Vincent, Camillus, Margaret Mary, Maria Goretti and more -The history behind St. Faustina’s visions of Jesus and the spreading of the Divine Mercy message and devotion -How you can continue Christ’s mission of mercy in your own life…

Participant Workbook Revised and reformatted! Genesis to Jesus opens the door to deeper understanding of Scripture for all Catholics, especially those who find reading the Bible a daunting task. The book leads the reader on an overview of salvation history in order to give the "big picture," the single plot that runs through the books of the Bible. What is that overarching story? God's plan to bring all humanity into his covenant family. This overview of key covenants from creation to the New Covenant established by Jesus not only helps the reader see how various biblical stories fit together in God's plan, it also provides a foundation for ongoing Bible study. Genesis to Jesus is the first in a series of study guides produced by The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, based in Steubenville, Ohio. The Center, founded in 2000, develops materials to help Catholics deepen their faith through Scripture study. KIMBERLY HAHN is the author of Life-Giving Love: Embracing God's Beautiful Design for Marriage, the Life-Nurturing Love series published by Servant Books, and coauthor, with her husband Scott Hahn, of Rome, Sweet Rome: Our Journey to Catholicism. DR. SCOTT HAHN teaches theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. He is the author of A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God's Covenant Love in Scripture and many other books. They are the parents of six children.

This book will attempt to explore faith-based responses to unending injustices by embracing the reality of hopelessness. It rejects the pontifications of some salvation history that move the faithful toward an eschatological promise that, when looking back at history, makes sense of all Christian-led brutalities, mayhem, and carnage. To embrace hopelessness moves away from a middle-class privilege that assumes all is going to work out in the end. By upsetting the norm, an opportunity might arise that can lead us to a more just situation, although such acts of defiance usually lead to crucifixion. Hopelessness is what leads to radical liberative praxis.

Salvation history can be thought of as twofold: one is that God Himself personally takes action and the other is God has humans act. An example of the latter is Exodus in which God had Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. The skin garment that God made with slain animals for the fallen Adam is an example of the former. Adam's fall is the very starting point of God's saving acts in human history. In His saving acts, God utilized his sin as the means of salvation. However, God's plan on saving human beings began far ahead of the creation of Adam, for omniscient God already knew of Adam's fall before the world had begun. As Apostle Peter confirms, God's will to save lost sinners was planned from the very beginning and Jesus Christ was chosen before the creation of the world as our Savior. In His saving plan, Almighty God reversed all the negatives that would arise from Adam's fall into positives, triumphing over them by the cross. We need to be clothed in the robe of righteousness, the garments of salvation through Jesus Christ. The fig leaf coverings sewn by human efforts cannot cover our nakedness. In essence, the grace of salvation originates from God, not from fallible humans. Current human history has been heading towards a thorough restoration of God's image. When the full and perfect restoration of God's image is accomplished, salvation history will finally be complete. Although heavily infected by sin, we have constantly been advancing towards the perfect restoration of God's image and likeness. When Jesus Christ returns to us, our defiled image of God will be transformed into His perfect likeness. On the day when He appears, as Apostle John says, we shall be like Him. That day will be the very end of human history. On that very day, at long last, God's redemptive plan will be completed.