Damaged by an attempted abortion, preyed upon by the violence of his parents' marriage, abused from the age of seven, and shut away in a mental hospital at thirteen, Paul Broadley never ceases to love the landscape he grows up in, which acts as a precursor to his salvation. But there is a serpent in that garden bent on willfully corrupting people–and yet redemption is strewn widely for those able to respond. Longman's Charity is a nove ...
In a series of dramatic monologues, first-century men and women–some real, some imaginary–remember, often from the perspective of old age, their encounters with Jesus and reflect on the significance of those encounters. Some comprehend and welcome him as Messiah. Others comprehend him only as an extraordinary figure and remain puzzled by their memories. A few are angered by him and bitterly reject any claim their encounter might make on them. Th ...
In various voices and with a range of strategies, these poems speak of and into the collisions we experience day in and day out–collisions with nature, art, language, religion, family, imagination, new and old ways of seeing and navigating the world–collisions that result in loss and sadness, confusion and laughter, gratitude and amazement. Still Working It Out, a collection that moves freely between memory and invention, embodies a faithful str ...
We kill. We come home. We move on. But the violence haunts. And then it questions. Was I justified in Iraq? Is there meaning in violence? For some, the answer comes easily. For others, one question leads to many–the answers seen through all the plain. Benjamin John Peters invites you to accompany him on his harrowing journey through Marine Corps Recruit Training, a violence-riddled Iraq, the questions and doubts of seminary, and the pursuit of r ...
This book offers an examination of the hero figure in the work of G. A. Henty (1832-1902) and George MacDonald (1824-1905) and a reassessment of oppositional critiques of their writing. It demonstrates the complementary characteristics of the hero figure which construct a complete identity commensurate with the Victorian ideal hero. The relationship between the expansion of the British Empire and youthful heroism is established through investig ...
His Real Life is about the young life of the West's dominant figure, Jesus of Nazareth. Its focus is on his central desire to live a full human life on earth, not only as his parents' loving child and as a son of the nation of Israel, but to transcend all boundaries in order to live in deepest beauty and widest truth as the universal man. The action unfolds through Jesus' vivid encounters with individuals of every loved and variou ...
The poet ceases. Something has changed. He has reached his goal but somehow remains undone. His soul has received as nourishment the odes he writes, yet he cannot rest. Or might it be possible that rest has now become enduring and no change appears to mind? Either way, he has been instructed to stop. Something has been completed even if not him. He counts the manuscripts upon the shelf. They are nine in number and the digit feels complete. The n ...
Men have been spit up onto shore by whales and great fish since the beginning of time. This has been going on for forever; perhaps, even longer than forever. This may be true. It may also be true that men have spit whales and great fish up onto shore since the beginning of time. This has also been going on or forever; perhaps, even longer than forever. Which of these happened first, I cannot say. Who knows; who can say? Regardless, before bei ...
These poems–selected from the award-winning poet's output over four decades–more explicitly than any of his prior volumes address the centrality of Christian vision to his aims and aspirations. Lea looks unflinchingly at all that may challenge his faith: the cruelties of both natural and human worlds, the attractions of jolly, good-hearted secularism, the distortions of doctrinaire religiosity, the seeming pointlessness of untimely deaths; ...