This is a book hoping to embolden doubt and sharpen unanswerable questions, all in the context of loving the self and one another. Ridiculously, it believes the world can be healed through such a hope. It is especially addressed to those allergic to the word «faith,» and others who feel confident and proud in the faith they profess or system of thought they live by. Humbling Faith helps us see how our beliefs, or non-beliefs, our belongi ...
The inevitability of death in our broken world means that grief and mourning are a normal part of the human experience. Too often, though, this normal journey of grief is cut short by a culture intent on pretending bad things don't really happen. In A Road Too Short for the Long Journey, readers are invited to consider how we might travel this road of mourning with those who grieve and how we might join them as partners in a reorientation o ...
One can hardly ignore the significance of suffering in Paul's letters. Respected scholars (e.g., Scott Hafemann, Christiaan Beker, and Ann Jervis) have demonstrated the indispensable role of suffering in Paul's teaching. Despite that, the topic does not often «hit the headlines» in Pauline studies. Meanwhile, Christians around the world testify to the encouragement and comfort Paul gives them in times of pain and distress. The purpose ...
Is the Gospel Good News? was the theme of the 2015 H. H. Bingham Colloquium at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, held on June 4-5. The fourteen participants in this colloquium presented their own individual perspectives on the theme from three broad vantage points–Bible, theology, and crucial topics. The «good news» that Jesus proclaimed concerning the kingdom of God became the «gospel» proclaimed by his followers throughou ...
What does failure mean for theology? In the Bible, we find some unsettling answers to this question. We find lastness usurping firstness, and foolishness undoing wisdom. We discover, too, a weakness more potent than strength, and a loss of life that is essential to finding life. Jesus himself offers an array of paradoxes and puzzles through his life and teachings. He even submits himself to humiliation and death to show the cosmos the true meani ...
The close relationship between the Old Testament and archaeology goes without saying. However, the methodological nuances involved are often either underappreciated or ignored. Using William Dever's idea of convergence, this work attempts to flesh out details on how archaeology and Old Testament studies merge. It examines some of the most important archaeological finds to date and determines that, whether through a broad or narrow convergen ...
When is the last time you heard a sermon, Bible study, or even read the Letter to Philemon? For some the answer is «recently» but for too many the answer is «it has been a long time» or worse yet «never.» Why is it that Philemon, though included in the Christian canon, is not read and studied as a text with theological depth that is helpful for serious study and preaching? In A Companion to Philemon, Lewis Brogdon insists that a part of the reas ...
To open the Book of Psalms is to enter the world of God. To read the Psalms is to read the words of God and hear the words of these ancient people in response to this God who has graciously drawn them into an eternal covenant. The Book of Psalms is one continuous conversation that ranges over many centuries–perhaps nearly a millennium–between the God of Israel and the people of Israel; or more accurately, the God of glory and this particular peo ...
Preaching is a challenging, privileged, and awesome responsibility. As important as mining the text for its meaning and message and making connections to our twenty-first-century world is the responsibility to engage the imaginations of the people in the pews (or chairs). In this book, Ray Friesen–life-long preacher and retired pastor–has provided twenty examples of how to be creative and engage those imaginations. Most were written under the pr ...
