‘Tithing is biblical but not Christian.’ So asserts Dr. Stuart Murray in this radical examination of the contemporary practice of tithing in which the author comes to some surprising conclusions.
Stuart Murray clearly explains tithing in the Old Testament and in Christian history, but then probes further, asking penetrating questions such as: ‘Is tithing Christian?’ ‘Did Jesus tithe?’ ‘Does tithing function as a regressive tax, burdening the poor while the rich get richer?’ ‘Does tithing lead to a legalistic approach that alienates us from Jesus?’
The author suspects that a lot of the current lack of interest in the church stems from deep-seated memories of the church as oppressive, uncreative, and money-grabbing. In response we should therefore learn not to calculate percentages but explore creative ways of developing communities of justice and generosity that are good news to the poor.
Beyond Tithing will stimulate your thinking and challenge the dominant influence of the practice of tithing as the model for Christian stewardship.
Over de auteur
Stuart Murray has a Ph.D. in Anabaptist hermeneutics from The Open University, under the auspices of the Whitefield Institute. He is chair of the Anabaptist Network since 2001, where he works as a trainer and consultant, with particular interest in urban mission, church planting and emerging forms of church. He is the founder of Urban Expression, a pioneering urban church planting agency with teams in several cities in the UK and in The Netherlands. He has written several books on church planting, urban mission, emerging church, the challenge of post-Christendom and the contribution of the Anabaptist tradition to contemporary missiology. Recent publications include Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World (Paternoster 2004), Church after Christendom (Paternoster 2005), Changing Mission (CTBI 2006), Planting Churches: A Framework for Practitioners (Paternoster 2008) and The Naked Anabaptist (Herald 2010). He is married to Sian, who is a tutor at the Baptist College in Bristol, and he has two grown sons and two grandchildren.
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