Biblical contributors express an oral stage engaging Christianity within a properly basic communal worldview similar to Alvin Plantinga advocates. This approach includes a communal Christian application of common sense realism within a worldview and rhetoric similar to Hillite Pharisaism. Each biblical contributor provided vivid testimony using rabbinic language and thought forms. For example, Jewish-Christian midrash re-appropriates Old Testame ...
Within each of us are emotions that scale the heights of praise then sink so deep we are beyond the reach of light. In those depths we hold a notion that we cannot lift ourselves out, but there must be a power that can save. «Follow me,» Jesus said. From the first immersion that birthed earth from water, to the Hebrew mikveh that requires baptism in a natural body of water, to the Pentecost immersing believers into the age of the church, water i ...
In this work, Dr. Swafford opens up the wisdom of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters. From challenges at home, evangelization, overcoming anxiety, doubt, prayer, and becoming other-centered–these and many other struggles a Christian is bound to face show up in these pages. What unites this book is Swafford's ability to untwist the demonic plan to keep us down and bring us to despair. Truly, this work provides a roadmap for spiritual surviva ...
For the last two years, acclaimed theologian Amy Laura Hall has written a lively, wide-ranging, opinionated column for her local newspaper. In her column, Hall has sought–without flatly rejecting globalism–to think and act locally. She has also responded to what she sees as a disturbing Christian turn toward asceticism and away from abundance. Drawing from her scholarship, but also from conversations at coffee shops and around the dinner table, ...
Fictional stories speak to us in a way that is truer than real life. Even Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher of all time, regularly tapped into the power of telling completely untrue–and yet deeply true–stories. This book takes as its starting point the truth of the made up and uses one of the most popular story structures of all time–the Hero's Journey–and invites you to use this as the scaffolding for making meaning out of your own life. ...
Postils for Preaching repristinates an old term for commentaries on the appointed texts by assisting preachers in their time-honored calling of preaching the Word. «Post illa,» some think, probably refers to the reflecting «after this» (meaning upon the texts) that preachers must do in the context of the lives of their congregations and larger communities. These essays do not aim to be sermons but sermon-starters, goads and incitements to consid ...
Every person has seen a tree and maybe planted or climbed one! In all world religions, various trees are considered sacred. Trees have the ability to help us reach wholeness if we learn their wisdom and integrate it into our lives. This abecedarian–a book whose contents are in alphabetical order–explores the spiritual growth that is possible by reflecting on the wisdom of woody plants, which help humans experience the divine. In these pages you ...
Adoniram Judson was not only a historic figurehead in the first wave of foreign missionaries from the United States and a hero in his own day, but his story still wins the admiration of Christians even today. Though numerous biographies have been written to retell his life story in every ensuing generation, until now no single volume has sought to comprehensively synthesize and analyze the features of his theology and spiritual life. His vision ...
Father Udoekpo's work offers a thorough review of the theology of worship in the work of Amos of Tekoa, one of Israel's foundational prophets. It critically examines Amos 5 in its socio-historical and literary context and theologically reevaluates the application of Amos's message of ethical worship, judgment, and hope to two contemporary cultures: Nigeria and the United States of America. While intentionally down to earth and eng ...
