Good poetry is like a good painting: the more you linger over it, the more it reveals. It is a deep well that never runs dry. And that is why the Psalter, like a good painting, keeps giving. In the last four decades, Psalms scholarship has found remarkable fruitfulness in reading the Psalter as a book–that is, in reading the Psalms as a unified composition with a metanarrative across its 150 poems. Pivotal questions associated with this approach ...
Being a clergyperson can be stressful–mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. From pressure to grow their congregations to unrealistic expectations from church members to poorly defined guidelines about working hours or tasks, new pastors sometimes flounder. Even experienced pastors can get caught off guard by deep-seated dysfunction in their congregations or other circumstances that trigger psychological issues from th ...
Suddenly There is God plunges us into the key stories of biblical characters who find themselves caught up in the divine-human drama. With unique insight, it relates these stories directly to the distinct stages of our own lives: being created, falling from grace, leaving the childhood ark, hearing God's call, gaining freedom, embracing covenant, praying the psalms, learning forgiveness, choosing love, and expecting resurrection. The scenes ...
The catastrophes of the twentieth century have decisively broken the grip of Aristotle's fixed universe on our minds. «Society» is no longer the logical category of statecraft that is to determine our lives. The glorious horrors of fascism discredited the survival of the fittest, upstaged even by the compulsory class equality of the Soviets. Instead we now appeal to «culture» and mutual «communication» as we hope to grow together in respons ...
This compelling collection tells five stories of young Australian women who served in times of armed conflict in early twentieth-century China. These courageous missionaries lived in the midst of pre-Boxer uprisings, the Republican revolution, clashes between regional warlords, Japanese occupation during World War II, and civil war between Nationalists and Communists. Suffering deprivation and hardship with the Chinese people, they were shot at ...
Virtually all churches aim to invest meaningfully in the faith development of the younger generations who have been entrusted into their care. Some churches have a longstanding track record of faithfulness in living out this commitment. Some lose sight of this priority over time and allow their intentionality to fade. This book makes a distinctive contribution to our understanding of children's, youth, and young adult ministries by appropri ...
The first Gospel has traditionally been considered a very Jewish work. Recent scholarship has suggested some Hellenistic influence. The issue is explored in this work with attention focused on the dream narratives of the first two chapters. An investigation is carried out using a new methodology. The memory techniques used in an oral or semi-literate society are explored. A search is made for such techniques in Matthew and these are then compare ...
In this clear, practical, and relatively brief commentary, Anthony Thiselton brings to bear his intimate knowledge of Paul's theology, the ancient city of Corinth, and Paul's epistles to the church of that city. The commentary is not only critical and exegetical, but also has a focus on practical and pastoral reflection. Second Corinthians is Paul's most passionate epistle. It shows him to be a man of very deep feeling, who some ...
In God in the Labyrinth, Andrew Hollingsworth uses Umberto Eco's semiotic concept of the model encyclopedia as the basis for a new model and approach to systematic theology. Following an in-depth analysis of the model encyclopedia in Eco's semiotics, he demonstrates the implications this model has for epistemology, hermeneutics, and doctrinal development. This work aims to bridge the unfortunate gap in research that exists between the ...
