Christians Disguised As Prisoners

Prisons are an institutional altar God has placed in communities all around us. In this book, the author is giving an invitation for the outside churches to minister in such a way that Jesus can say: I was in prison and you came to me. Prisons are mission fields in which God has brought the world to our back yards. Any given prison in America houses inmates from all nations around the world. This book is also a call to the Church to answer Jesus Christ's Great Commission: to go into all the world and make disciples. After thirty years as a prison chaplain and assistant program director, the author has a keen insight into this rewarding ministry. He draws that knowledge from personal experiences, writing policies, and training staff and volunteers. He has ministered with and to the inmates on every level of the system, including Death Row. This book is essential for serious readers who are seeking to improve relationships with wardens, correctional officers, chaplains and inmates, their family, and the victims. Leonard M. Payne, Jr. was just a country preacher with a PhD (Praying Hard Daily) when he applied for the chaplain position at the West Virginia State Penitentiary, Moundsville, WV. He was the only staff member allowed to go with Governor Arch Moore to the negotiations during the 1986 riots at the West Virginia State Penitentiary. He has authored two books: Un-redeemer Son and Daughters and My People Yesterday, Today and Forever, a history of the Glorious Churches of God in Christ, in which he presently serves as National Director of Chaplaincy. He holds a Doctoral degree from the United Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts from the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio. Leonard lives in St. Clairsville, Ohio with his wife, Charlotte

Prisons are an institutional altar God has placed in communities all around us. In this book, the author is giving an invitation for the outside churches to minister in such a way that Jesus can say: I was in prison and you came to me. Prisons are mission fields in which God has brought the world to our back yards. Any given prison in America houses inmates from all nations around the world. This book is also a call to the Church to answer Jesus Christ's Great Commission: to go into all the world and make disciples. After thirty years as a prison chaplain and assistant program director, the author has a keen insight into this rewarding ministry. He draws that knowledge from personal experiences, writing policies, and training staff and volunteers. He has ministered with and to the inmates on every level of the system, including Death Row. This book is essential for serious readers who are seeking to improve relationships with wardens, correctional officers, chaplains and inmates, their family, and the victims. Leonard M. Payne, Jr. was just a country preacher with a PhD (Praying Hard Daily) when he applied for the chaplain position at the West Virginia State Penitentiary, Moundsville, WV. He was the only staff member allowed to go with Governor Arch Moore to the negotiations during the 1986 riots at the West Virginia State Penitentiary. He has authored two books: Un-redeemer Son and Daughters and My People Yesterday, Today and Forever, a history of the Glorious Churches of God in Christ, in which he presently serves as National Director of Chaplaincy. He holds a Doctoral degree from the United Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts from the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio. Leonard lives in St. Clairsville, Ohio with his wife, Charlotte

Dr. Covert uses his experiences as both police officer and state prison chaplain to examine the environment of the incarcerated—people who are often forgotten by society. He emphasizes particular areas of inmate stress and how they impact upon the inmate's spiritual formation and the role of the Church in offering encouragement, healing, and transformation. He calls for staff education, environmental improvement, and a pastoral presence that facilitates rehabilitation and hope, rather than discouragement and punishment. (197pp. Masthof Press, 2022.)

From 1938 to 1945, the Protestant church leader Martin Niemoeller was detained as 'Hitler's Personal Prisoner' in Nazi concentration camps, and has been widely hailed as an icon of Christian resistance against the Nazis. Benjamin Ziemann uncovers a more problematic 'historical' Niemoeller behind the legend of the resistance hero.

This study focuses on the apocryphal "Acts of Andrew" (200 AD), which purport to tell the story of the travels, miracles and martyrdom of the apostle Andrew. Breaking with tradition that concludes the Acts came from scripture, the author investigates classical literature to find the sources.

For Paul, who imprisoned Christians, his own incarceration ironically became a way in which he understood his mission. Paul's convictions and his rhetoric were often shaped during those times when chains constrained him from travelling. By examining a wide variety of sources-such as ancient novels, dream interpretations and moral tractates-Wansink first describes prison conditions and the daily life of prisoners, in the Graeco-Roman world. Subsequent exegetical chapters focus on two epistles Paul wrote from prison: Philippians and Philemon. This book replaces a 'docetic' view of Paul's incarceration with an original insight into how prison would have shaped his interaction with the Philippians and Philemon.

"This is an important collection and starting point for the worthy goal of promoting a better understanding of the past that makes it less able to be manipulated for contemporary political and religious aims...Compiled out of the European past, its aim of a better understanding of traditional values ought to be useful for contemporary cultures and for the work of scholars of all cultures and continents." - Renaissance Quarterly In the last decade or so, many books have been devoted to the history of Europe.Two conceptual axes predominate in a large number of these accounts: a discourse focusing on Europe's values, and another discourse, fashioned largely in opposition to the first, which emphasizes the process of European "construction." The first conceives of Europe's past teleologically, as a process by which certain values (Christian ethics, individualism, capitalism, tolerance, republicanism, due process, etc.) were affirmed and came to define European culture. The second approach rejects the discourse on values emphasizes the post-Enlightenment emergence of the concept of Europe, and the political and ideological implications in its continuous redefinitions (and re elaborations) during the past two or more centuries. This volume offers new approaches that integrate the long temporal dimension of the values-based approach, albeit devoid of its teleological element, with the "constructivist" interpretation.