Holy Laughter
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Holy Laughter
Holy laughter is a term used within charismatic Christianity that describes a religious behaviour in which individuals spontaneously laugh during church meetings. It has occurred in many revivals throughout church history, but it became normative in the early 1990s in Neo-charismatic churches and the Third Wave of the Holy Spirit. Many people claimed to experience this phenomenon at a large revival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada known as the Toronto Blessing. History Practices similar to holy laughter were observed in the 1800s in Holiness Christian meetings on the American West. John Wesley encountered uncontrollable laughter in his Methodist meetings, and viewed it as an act of God.Porter 1996, p. 108 It also occurred in Signs and Wonders meetings run by John Wimber in the 1980s.Porter 1996, p. 106 The practice came to prominence in meetings led by the South African evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne in 1993 at the Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland, Florida and was often accompanied ...
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Charismatic Christianity
Charismatic Christianity (also known as Spirit-filled Christianity by its supporters) is a form of Christianity that emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and modern-day miracles as an everyday part of a believer's life. Practitioners are often called ''Charismatic Christians'' or ''Renewalists''. Although there is considerable overlap, Charismatic Christianity is often categorized into three separate groups: Pentecostalism, the Charismatic movement (which is spread across historical Christian denominations), and the Neo-charismatic movement. Charismatic Christianity grew out of Protestantism and is distinguished from Pentecostalism by making the act of speaking in tongues no longer necessary as evidence of baptism with the Holy Spirit, and giving prominence to a diversity of spiritual gifts. According to the Pew Research Center, Pentecostals and Charismatic Christians number over 584 million worldwide. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (December 19, 2011)' ...
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Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its highly visible office park, Trinity Christian City. The broadcaster retained its studios in nearby Tustin. Auxiliary studio facilities are located in Irving, Hendersonville, Gadsden, Decatur, Miami and Orlando, Tulsa and New York City. TBN has characterized itself as broadcasting programs hosted by a diverse group of ministries from Evangelical, traditional Protestant and Catholic denominations, non-profit charities, Messianic Jewish and Christian media personalities. TBN also offers a wide range of original programming and faith-based films from various distributors. TBN owns and operates six broadcast networks, each reaching separate demographics. In addition to the main TBN network, TBN owns TBN Inspire, Smile, Enlace, TBN Salsa an ...
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Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The word ''Southern'' in "Southern Baptist Convention" stems from its having been organized in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia, by white supremacist Baptists in the Southern United States who were supportive of enslaving Americans of African descent and split from the northern Baptists (known today as the American Baptist Churches USA). During the 19th and most of the 20th century, the organization played a central role in the culture and ethics of the South, supporting racial segregation and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy; it denounced interracial marriage as an "abomination", citing the Bible. In 1995, the organization apologized for its initial history. Since the 1940s, the SBC has spread across the states, having member churches across the co ...
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Christian Research Institute
The Christian Research Institute (CRI) is an evangelical Christian apologetics ministry. It was established in October 1960 in the state of New Jersey by Walter Martin (1928–1989). In 1974, Martin relocated the ministry to San Juan Capistrano, California. The ministry's office was relocated in the 1990s near Rancho Santa Margarita. In 2005, the organization moved to its present location in Charlotte, North Carolina. Background The establishment of CRI in 1960 is closely linked to Walter Martin. It represents one of the pioneering organizations in what is called the Christian countercult movement, but also relates to the wider history of Evangelical Christian apologetics in the mid-twentieth century. Martin is considered one of the first full-time career apologists to have specialized in Christian countercult apologetics. In 1949, Martin began his forays into the theological analysis of various groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Mormonism and Spiritualism. ...
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Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22, 1930) is an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, former presidential candidate, and former Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocates a conservative Christian ideology and is known for his past activities in Republican party politics. He is associated with the Charismatic Movement within Protestant evangelicalism. He serves as chancellor and CEO of Regent University and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). On Robertson's own account, he originally set out to be a businessman. He graduated near the top of his class at Yale Law School in 1955 but later failed the New York bar exam, which he described as a minor setback since he never planned to practice law and he already had a career with a major corporation on Wall Street. He became a Christian while having dinner at a restaurant in Philadelphia with an author and WWII veteran, Cornelius Vanderbreggen. After his conversion, Rob ...
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Evangelical Christianity
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual experiences personal conversion; the authority of the Bible as God in Christianity, God's revelation to humanity (biblical inerrancy); and evangelism, spreading the Christian message. The word ''evangelical'' comes from the Greek (''euangelion'') word for "the gospel, good news". Its origins are usually traced to 1738, with various theological streams contributing to its foundation, including Pietism and Radical Pietism, Puritanism, Quakerism, Presbyterianism and Moravian Church, Moravianism (in particular its bishop Nicolaus Zinzendorf and his community at Herrnhut).Brian Stiller, ''Evangelicals Around the World: A Global Handbook for the 21st Century'', Thomas Nelson, USA, 2015, pp. 28, 90. Preeminently, ...
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Laughter Yoga
Laughter yoga (''Hasyayoga'') is a modern exercise involving prolonged voluntary laughter. This type of yoga is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides similar physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter. It is usually done in groups, with eye contact and much playfulness between participants. Intentional laughter often turns into real and contagious laughter. Laughter yoga was popularized by family physician Madan Kataria who modernized and simplified the work of earlier laughter pioneers, who taught very similar concepts starting in the 1960s. Madan Kataria wrote about his experience in his 2002 book ''Laugh For No Reason.'' Laughter yoga is found in 53 countries. There are about 5,000 laughter yoga clubs worldwide, with roughly 200 of those in the United States. Method The yoga is performed without any humorous reason to laugh, with one practitioner observing that "The mind does not know that we’re faking it." Laughter yoga sessions may ...
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STETS
STETS (Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme) was a ministerial training scheme for church ministers in southern England, based in Salisbury. Its functions were absorbed by Sarum College, also in Salisbury, in 2015. History STETS developed from an earlier non-residential ministerial training scheme called Southern Dioceses Ministerial Training Scheme (SDMTS), founded in 1974 by a group chaired by the Salisbury and Wells Theological College Principal, Reginald Askew. The scheme was based at the college but complementary to it, offering training for self-supporting ordained ministry. SDMTS carried forward the ministerial educational work of Salisbury and Wells Theological College after it closed in 1994 and its premises were transferred to Sarum College, which became an independent ecumenical institution for further education. SDMTS briefly became STS before being reconstituted in 1997 as the Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme (STETS) by the Church ...
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Catharsis
Catharsis (from Greek , , meaning "purification" or "cleansing" or "clarification") is the purification and purgation of emotions through dramatic art, or it may be any extreme emotional state that results in renewal and restoration. In its literal medical sense, it refers to the evacuation of the '' catamenia''—the menstrual fluid or other reproductive material from the patient. But as a metaphor it was originally used by Aristotle in the ''Poetics'', comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of a spectator to the effect of catharsis on the body. In psychology, the term is associated with Freudian psychoanalysis and specifically relates to the expression of buried trauma, bringing it into consciousness and thereby releasing it permanently. However, there is considerable debate as to its therapeutic usefulness. Social catharsis may be regarded as the collective expression of extreme emotion. Dramatic uses Catharsis is a term in dramatic art that describes the effect of tra ...
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University Of Akron
The University of Akron is a public research university in Akron, Ohio. It is part of the University System of Ohio. As a STEM-focused institution, it focuses on industries such as polymers, advanced materials, and engineering. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The University of Akron offers about 200 undergraduate and more than 100 graduate majors and has an enrollment of approximately 15,000 students. The university's School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering is housed in a 12-story reflective glass building near downtown Akron on the western edge of the main campus. UA's Archives of the History of American Psychology is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. The university has three branch campuses: Wayne College in Orrville, Ohio; the Medina County University Center, in Lafayette Township, Ohio; and UA Lakewood, in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio. In addition, the university hosts nursing programs in affi ...
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Margaret Poloma
Margaret M. Poloma (born August 27, 1943) is an American sociologist, professor, and author who is known for her research on the Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement
movement in American Christianity. Poloma began her career as a sociologist with her research on two-careerPoloma, Margaret M. and T. Neal Garland. 1971. "The Married Professional Woman: A Study in the Tolerance of Domestication." Journal of Marriage and the Family, 33:531-540. Reprinted in Jerome Rabow (ed.), Sociology, Students, and Society. Goodyear Publishing (1972): 201-211. and child-free couples.Nason, Ellen Mara and Margaret M. Poloma. 1976. Voluntarily Childless Couples: The Emergence of a Variant Lifestyle. (Sage ...
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Miraculous Healing
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing of disease and disability can be brought about by religious faith through prayer or other rituals that, according to adherents, can stimulate a divine presence and power. Religious belief in divine intervention does not depend on empirical evidence of an evidence-based outcome achieved via faith healing. Virtually all scientists and philosophers dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience.See also: Claims that "a myriad of techniques" such as prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness have been popular throughout history. There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, HIV/AIDS, developmental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, sk ...
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