Dr. Ron Sider's Biography
Ron Sider the son of a Canadian Brethren in Christ minister, grew up in rural southern Ontario. He recieved a BA in European History from the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo Ontario.
During time at the University of Waterloo, he first came in contact with the work of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an evangelical para-church organization, and shortly after this, Ron decieded to engage in a career in academia. He later attended Yale University, and graduated with a Masters of Divinity and a Ph.D in history.
His goals then were to continue teaching modern European History to various secular campuses, and to continue working with InterVarsity's ministries.
Declarations and Confessions
Faced with the glaring needs and blatant injustice of the inner city, Ron began to work toward developing a biblical response to social injustice. He brought together a network of similarly concerned evangelicals, which in 1973 became the Thanksgiving Workshop on Evangelical Social Concern. It was this conference that issued the now historic "Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern." 20 years later, a similiar gathering of evangelical leaders resulted in the Chicago Declaration II: A Call for Evangelical Renewal. In 2004 he was a signatory of the "Confessing Christ in a World of Violence" dcoument.
Family
Ron is the father of three and lives in Philadelphia's Germantown section with his wife Arbutus, a family counselor.
Dr. Ron Sider's Prominent Writing
In 1977, Ron's ground-breaking book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, was published. Hailed by Christianity Today as one of the one hundred most influential books in religion in the twentieth century, Rich Christians has sold over 350,000 copies. 1978 also saw the formation of ESA, a movement that continues to shape and influence North American Christian thinking on issues of biblical justice and spirituality.
Other book publications in recent years include Good News Good Works, (published by Baker Book House). This is an invigorating and passionately biblical call to the church to embrace the whole gospel through the combination of evangelism, social engagement and spiritual formation. Its companion book tells stories about effective ministries that bring both evangelism and social transformation together. Cup of Water, Bread of Life, was published in 1994. Living Like Jesus (1999) has been called Siders Mere Christianity.
Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (1999) offers a holistic, comprehensive vision for dramatically reducing Americas poverty. And Churches That Make a Difference (2002) with Phil Olson and Heidi Rolland Unruh provides concrete help to local congregations seeking to combine evangelism and social ministry. Sider has published over 22 books and has written over 100 articles in both religious and secular magazines on a variety of topics including the importance of caring for creation as part of our biblical discipleship. He is a founding board member of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.
References and External Links
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