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John Knox the Scottish Reformer was a mighty man of prayer. He was an instrumental to bring great reform and revival in Scotland.  Here is an example of how he prayed, “O Lord, give me Scotland, or I die !” After a time of stillness, again the cry, “O Lord, give me Scotland, or I die !” Once more deep silence. Then again the cry with more intense pathos, “O Lord, give me Scotland, or I die.” God gave him Scotland. He saved many from wrong faith to real salvation and pure doctrines. Another powerful example for power of prayer is China. It was a communist-atheist country. The churches were closed down and Christians were eradicated from the land. Bible was destroyed. However, believers from the many nations interceded for China, at present the Chinese churches are fastest and rapid growing churches in the world. We limit our prayer often to our personal needs. However, one of the best ways that we can do our ministry to build the Kingdom of God is prayer. Today we will look i

                      This article  with a brief survey of sociological studies of the New Testament scholarship.  Though interest in the sociological studies of the New Testament appeared in the early part of the last century, it revived by the introduction of the sociological models and theories in the New Testament studies in the later part of the last centuries. This revival brings a new understanding of the early Christianity.                 Problems Confronting Sociological Analysis The Problem of Methodology: Plentiful of sociological models and theories are currently available for the New Testament studies. However, the there is a dilemma about which is appropriate and valid. Such context, Theissen implies by his work that an eclecticism and pluralism is appropriate. Scroggs gives following suggestions: firstly one need to understand fully how the method works and to be clear that it can be applied to the data at hand. Secondly, one needs to know both the theoretical p

Introduction Church and its liturgy were born in a cultural context. Further, religion and culture always have interactions and interconnectedness, though they have certain divergence in several aspects. Culture is the symbolic-expressive dimension of the social life. Christian worship is expressed through language, symbols, rituals and customs. To meet the pastoral need of the community, early church often depended on the local cultural elements. Consequently, in this expression of the worship, early church often borrowed from or was influenced by the local cultural context. This paper deals with such influences and borrowings of the early church up to the fourth century. Early Christian Worship and Culture Early Christian worship was mainly influenced by the Jewish and Greco-Roman cultural and religious elements. Following discussion may explore this aspect. Though the paper discusses it in different headings such as language, rituals, symbols and custom, they are often int

        Introduction This article is an attempt to understand sociological contribution of the Gerd Theissen regarding the early Christina community particularly based on his books Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity and The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity. The first book deals with sociology of the Jesus movement and the later one explores sociology of the Pauline communities based on Corinthian correspondence. The paper also makes a critique of Theissen’s work by bringing together criticism from different scholars. 1.Theissen’s Methodology Gerd Theissen’s Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity is one of the pioneering sociological studies of the earliest Christianity and Jesus’ movement. The aim of sociology of the Jesus movement is to analyze the typical features of the Jesus movement and its interaction to the Palestinian society. He analyzes the roles, factors and function. “An analysis of roles investigates typical patterns of behavior; an analy