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2009 is the 500th anniversary of the birth of Calvin, the Reformed theologian whose legacy has played such an important role in the shaping of modern South Africa. The popular understanding of him as grim moralist, proponent of predestination and a tyrannical God is a caricature, but one that does spring from aspects of Calvin''s legacy. In this book, De Gruchy attempts to restate the Reformed tradition as a transforming force, one that opposed slavery and apartheid and that participated in the struggle for liberation and transformation in this country. De Gruchy considers Christian humanism to be an alternative to both Christian fundamentalism and secularism, as ""being a Christian is all about being truly human in common with the rest of humanity"", and has come to the conclusion that there is much to retrieve and celebrate in the Reformed tradition that is of importance for the ecumenical church and global society in the 21st century. The ""evangelical"" element in the title refers to the literal meaning of the word - ""good news"" - which is at the heart of being both Christian and human.John de Gruchy is Emeritus Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Cape Town, where he taught for over thirty years. He is currently a Senior Research Scholar at the University of Cape Town and an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch. De Gruchy, who has doctorates in both theology and the social sciences, is author of The Church Struggle in South Africa and a number of other significant books.

A Bird in the Hand is not a ""how to"" book, but a ""how so"" book in which the reader is invited to travel with Leah Kostamo on the wild ride of salmon saving, stranger welcoming, and God worshiping as she and her husband help establish the first Christian environmental center in Canada. Avoiding simplistic prescriptions or cliched platitudes, Leah wrestles with issues of poverty, justice, and the environment through the narrative of her own life experience. The lived-theology and humility of voice conveyed in these pages draws readers to new and creative ways to honor the Creator as they are inspired to care for creation.""Grace, beauty, humor, and truth-telling combine in Leah Kostamo''s story of the growth of A Rocha, a grassroots organization in which she and her husband Markku have been world-changers for good. This is a fascinating narrative in which committed environmentalists respond to God''s call to renew our planet and our souls.""--Luci Shaw, author of The Crime of Living Cautiously: Hearing God''s Call to Adventure""A Bird in the Hand is one of the most captivating and inspiring books I have read in a long time. It offers rich and intimate glimpses into what sacrificial care for all God''s creation can look like in the lives of ordinary Christians. Surely God desires for this to become part of our story as well.""--Ben Lowe, activist and author of Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation""Leah Kostamo''s elegant memoir shares the story of A Rocha, an organization that lives out the principles of Christian stewardship and community. With humility, grace, and candor, Leah takes her readers along the creation-care journey, sharing how many small acts can and do make a difference. Most inspiring of all, Leah and her husband, Markku, provide a living example of being the change they wish to see in the world.""--Matthew and Nancy Sleeth, co-founders of Blessed Earth""The righteous person, says the psalmist, is like a tree planted by the waters. In this delightful book Leah Kostamo describes what it feels like to be (sometimes reluctantly) one of those trees, planted by the waters of God''s good creation. With humor, irony, wisdom, and a refreshingly iconoclastic voice, Planted blooms and flourishes--with fruit every thoughtful Christian needs to enjoy.""--Loren Wilkinson, Professor of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies, Regent CollegeAn American transplant to Canada, Leah Kostamo has a background in campus ministry and education. For the past twelve years, Leah has worked alongside her husband, Markku, to show God''s love for all of creation through the ministry of A Rocha. She lives and thrives on Kingfisher Farm near Vancouver, BC.

The Radical Orthodoxy Annual Review examines emerging agendas in contemporary theology and philosophy. Today, in an era of biotechnology and a growing ecological consciousness, it is rapidly becoming clear that the key question for our times is how to make sense of the nature and significance of life. In this, the inaugural edition of the Review, some of today''s most influential and important thinkers address this issue through wide-ranging discussion of the way in which life is currently being redefined in the work of orthodox theologians and philosophers. In so doing, they show the extent to which contemporary theology and philosophy are helping us to make better of sense of the natural world, the human body, contemporary techno-science, as well as the possibility of a living transcendence--allowing us to see why theology and philosophy remain absolutely crucial to any attempt to understand the current state of the modern world and its likely future development.""The present essays undertake a conversation the importance of which is impossible to exaggerate. . . . They direct us beyond liberal modernity''s form of the ''self-possessive'' and its ''homelessness'' to a created world centered in liturgy and community.""--David L. Schindler, Professor of Fundamental Theology, John Paul II Institute, The Catholic University of AmericaNeil Turnbull is Principal Lecturer in Philosophy at Nottingham Trent University, UK. He has published widely in the areas of Philosophy and Social Theory. He is currently the editor of the journal Radical Orthodoxy: Theology, Philosophy, Politics.

In 1984, Ron Sider challenged that until Christians are ready to risk everything in pursuit of peace, ""we dare never whisper another word about pacifism . . . Unless we are ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce conflict, we should confess that we never really meant that the cross was an alternative to the sword."" From this challenge, Christian Peacemaker Teams was born. Nearly thirty years later, Michael McRay too explored Sider''s challenge, interning with CPT in the West Bank city of Hebron. Alongside local and international peacemakers, McRay learned how to resist the violence of occupation, sharing in the stories of a suffering people as he struggled to embody the peaceable spirit of the rabbi from Nazareth. This book tells those stories.Drawing on his personal experience with the land and its history, McRay''s raw letters home tackle critical issues relevant to peacemakers everywhere: What is really happening in Palestine that mainstream media fails to report? How are Palestinians'' lives being affected? How can one be peaceable amidst such violence and oppression? How should Christian discipleship influence one''s pursuits of peacemaking and reconciliation? McRay''s letters illustrate both the challenge and promise of the cross in today''s world.""Our field needs passionate, on-the-ground, firsthand descriptions of the challenges of constructively engaging settings of deep and painful conflict. McRay''s book provides just such a window.""--John Paul Lederach, author of The Moral Imagination""Surprisingly invitational. This is a book worth reading and rereading. As a guide for activism, I hope these reflections will have a profound rippling effect.""--Kathy Kelly, Nobel Peace Prize nominee""A valuable resource for all who are called to be peacemakers--which should mean all of us."" --Brian D. McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity""What is hopeful about these letters is the humanity the author shows through his interaction with Jews and Palestinians. In a down-to-earth yet profound way, this book shows Jews a way out of the injustice of occupying another people. What more important lesson do we Jews have to learn before it is too late?""--Marc H. Ellis, author of Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation""Here is a book as unflinchingly faithful to the Christian gospel as a book can possibly be.""--Richard T. Hughes, author of Myths America Lives ByMichael T. McRay received his BA in History from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, earning regional and national awards for his senior thesis comparing European colonialism and the Israeli occupation. In addition to his internship with Christian Peacemaker Teams, Michael has worked and traveled extensively in the West Bank in various capacities. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in conflict transformation and reconciliation with the Irish School of Ecumenics (Trinity College Dublin) in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Telling the Whole Story is both a book about preaching and reading the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. John C. Holbert (PhD in Hebrew Bible) was a longtime teacher of preaching and Hebrew Bible at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, having retired in 2012 after thirty-three years. In this volume he combines his two skills of careful narrative reading and imaginative story preaching to offer the first comprehensive look at this particular kind of sermon proclamation. The reader will also find here an introduction to the long history of story preaching in the history of the church, as well as a primer both in ways to read the narratives more effectively and ways to preach several varieties of story sermons.At the heart of this book four narratives from the Hebrew Bible are exegeted and are accompanied by four story sermons based on those texts: Genesis 2-3; 1 Samuel 15; Judges 4; and Jonah. The goal of the book is to help preachers who are looking for effective ways to proclaim the gospel using narrative texts from the Hebrew Bible to allow the rich stories of the texts to sound their ancient truth to the modern world""John Holbert is a superb preacher of biblical narratives and a wonderful teacher of how to read the Bible and develop plot, character, and point of view. Stories have a danger of becoming mere entertainment, but when he shakes the narrative tree of the Bible, truths fall to the ground as fruit for the feeding of God''s people.""--Paul Scott Wilson, Professor of Homiletics, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto""John Holbert is unsurpassed, both as a narrative preacher and as a teacher of narrative preaching. Here he explains not only how to prepare a narrative sermon . . . but he provides case studies of four biblical texts in which he takes the reader from a masterful reading of the text, to thinking about how to develop a narrative sermon, and offering a sermon on the text. This kind of preaching will be life-giving in any congregation.""--Ronald J. Allen, Professor of Preaching and Gospels and Letters, Christian Theological Seminary""Holbert makes a compelling case for the inclusion of story preaching in the preacher''s repertoire. . . . He equips the reader to do far more than just admire the artistry of others. He gives us the interpretive tools to imitate it in our own preaching. This book offers several stunning story sermons from the Old Testament, complete with exegetical insights and evaluation. It is a joy to read and put into practice, a must-have for preachers and teachers of Scripture.""--Alyce M. McKenzie, Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist UniversityJohn C. Holbert is Lois Craddock Perkins Professor emeritus of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas. He is the author of Preaching Old Testament, The Ten Commandments, Preaching Job, Preaching Creation, and other texts that address the intersection between the Hebrew Bible and preaching.

In 1958, American historian of religion Morton Smith made an astounding discovery in the Mar Saba monastery in Jerusalem. Copied into the back of a seventeenth-century book was a lost letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215 CE) that contained excerpts from a longer version of the Gospel of Mark written by Mark himself and circulating in Alexandria, Egypt. More than fifty years after its discovery, the origins of this Secret Gospel of Mark remain contentious. Some consider it an authentic witness to an early form of Mark, perhaps even predating canonical Mark. Some claim it is a medieval or premodern forgery created by a monastic scribe. And others argue it is a forgery created by Morton Smith himself. All these positions are addressed in the papers contained in this volume. Nine North American scholars, internationally recognized for their contributions to the study of Secret Mark, met at York University in Toronto, Canada, in April 2011 to examine recent developments in scholarship on the gospel and the letter in which it is found. Their results represent a substantial step forward in determining the origins of this mysterious and controversial text.List of Contributors:Scott G. BrownTony BurkeStephen C. CarlsonBruce ChiltonCraig A. EvansPaul FosterCharles W. HedrickPeter JefferyAllan J. PantuckMarvin Meyer Hershel Shanks""In this brilliant and incisive collection of essays one finds both clarity and intellectual rigor. Not all the contributors ''sing from the same hymn sheet.'' However, this diversity reveals how a highly contested topic can be approached in an engaging and respectful manner. Everyone who reads this book will be enriched, both by consideration of its contents and through appreciation of the measured tone with which this important debate is conducted. This is a first-rate and vital treatment of the topic.""--Paul Foster, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh""The debate over the Secret Gospel of Mark rages on. Did Morton Smith discover this text, or did he forge it? This terrific collection of essays presents leading voices from both sides of the controversy, stating their views, marshaling their evidence, and allowing readers to pass their own verdicts.""--Bart D. Ehrman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill""Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? brings together most of the key supporters and detractors of the authenticity of the Secret Gospel of Mark in a balanced, probing, and illuminating book. . . . Although this book, carefully crafted by Burke, cannot be said to have brought closure on the issue, it has laid to rest many of the specious and illogical claims that have littered the discussion until now. We can only hope that the ground has now been cleared for a more balanced and scientific assessment of the Mar Saba manuscript.""--John S. Kloppenborg, University of TorontoTony Burke is Associate Professor of Early Christianity at York University in Toronto, Ontario. He is the author of De infantia Iesu evangelien Thomae graece (2010), a critical edition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

If worship is God centered,and God is the Trinity, then worship should be Trinity centered.Worshipping Trinity explores the meaning and implications of that simple claim. Written for church leaders, worship leaders, and songwriters, as well as for those interested in theology, this volume explains why the Trinity matters so much and explores practical ways our worship can be made more Trinitarian. This second edition is fully updated and expanded.""The book has become a classic--and rightly so. There is nothing else like it. It brings first-rate theology and astute practical wisdom to the very heart of the church''s life. And the second edition is even better than the first!""--Jeremy Begbie, Duke Divinity School""Robin Parry is a fine theologian who writes accessibly and engagingly. I hope this second edition will be very widely read. It has the capacity to enable the renewal of the life and worship of the church.""--John Inge, Bishop of Worcester, UKPraise for the First Edition:""This is an extremely helpful book!""--Matt Redman, songwriter and worship leader""Robin Parry has given us a terrific resource with which we can see a clearer picture of the God we worship.""--Keith Getty, hymn writer""Robin Parry calls us higher up and further in through this well-written, clear, and important book.""--Brian McLaren, pastor and author""Not merely theologically profound, but lucid, accessible, and profoundly relevant.""--Alan J. Torrance, University of St. Andrews, UK""This is a most important book.""--Graham Cray, Bishop of Maidstone, UK""I found my own spirit was stirred by simply reading the excellent central chapters. . . . This is a book well worth reading and one I wholeheartedly recommend.""--Terry Virgo, New Frontiers, UK""Bloody good!""--Andrew G. Walker, King''s College, UK""I cannot recommend this work highly enough. Pastors, worship leaders, and mature Christians must read this and practice the sort of Trinitarian worship Parry recommends.""--Myk Habets, Carey Baptist College, New ZealandRobin Parry is an editor for Wipf and Stock Publishers. He is also author of Old Testament Story and Christian Ethics and the coeditor of Great Is Thy Faithfulness? Reading Lamentations as Sacred Scripture.

What is the role of the church in ministering to the sick? This book argues that it is not what is now called the ""healing ministry,"" with its frequent claims of remarkable cures from physical illness. Little critical attention seems to have been paid to the validity of these claims, which, if genuine, would be producing clearly observable effects on the levels of morbidity and mortality in society. Similarly, the important ethical and moral questions the movement raises have also been very largely ignored. A huge edifice of muddled theology, together with highly questionable practice, has been built upon very shaky foundations. It is the purpose of this book to examine seriously the dubious claims and teaching of the modern healing movement, as well to expose its very real dangers, in order to encourage Christian people, both ordained and lay, to exercise a more critical approach to the healing movement. The book concludes by outlining a framework for a return to a more biblical emphasis on proper pastoral care in the church''s ministry to the sick.""The grace and fluidity of Howard''s writing makes this a highly accessible text. Informative and thought provoking, it poses an effective challenge to the widely held but largely unexamined belief that the Christian church should have a healing ministry.""--Dr. Tamar Posner, Integrative Psychotherapist""Howard''s loss to the clinical field is now being balanced by his contribution to setting the record straight in his analysis of Scripture and the clarification of what constituted ''healing'' in biblical times. . . . Despite being replete with scholarly reference and density, the book is easy to read. The case studies are particularly moving and poignant and force us to confront our own unexamined superstitions about the power of prayer.""--Nerys C. Parry, Registered Psychologist""In this well-written book, The Healing Myth, Keir Howard challenges much of the woolly thinking and exaggerated claims found in the contemporary church about the subject of Christian healing ministries. I believe it is important particularly for proponents of such ministries, faith healing, exorcisms, etc. . . . With a lifetime of research in medicine, particularly in epidemiology, as well as a second PhD in New Testament, Howard is well placed to consider the true nature of Christian healing ministry.""--Murray D. Gow, Senior Minister, St. Andrews First Presbyterian Church, AucklandJ Keir Howard is a retired consultant physician and Anglican priest with doctorates in both medicine and theology. He has been involved in academic teaching, as well as holding senior hospital and public medical posts, and remains active in the ministry of the Anglican Church. He is author of several books, including Medicine, Miracle and Myth in the New Testament (2010).

What is God doing about a world marked by conflict and division? What about a world in which our technologies promise great good but also threaten our existence? What is God doing in a world where the demands for accumulation and acquisition create division and despair? Can Christians hope to be of positive influence in a world that does not always support, reflect, or even understand Christian commitments?Christian ethics often raises such questions as these, and the possible answers vary widely. Paul''s Letter to the Ephesians is a tremendous resource for exploring a faithful response to perhaps the toughest question of all: what is God doing about evil? The role of Christian ethics is to take seriously the challenge that, whatever God is doing, God calls us to participate in a distinctive task that embraces our own commitments and labors within the divine purpose. Ephesians says that God has taken the initiative to pursue that purpose and, remarkably, offers that we ourselves are part of the answer to the question, what is God doing about evil?""Hope for the future cannot be extrapolated from data of the present. That would only yield despair. If there is to be hope, it must derive from a different sort of logic. In The Poetics of Grace, Jeph Holloway has undertaken to spell out this different logic. By insisting that the primary question of ethics is not ''what must I do?'' but ''what has been given to us?'' Holloway, motivated by deep pastoral concern, frames a Trinitarian ethics attuned both to history and Christian Scripture.""--Brad J. Kallenberg, Professor of Theology and Ethics, University of Dayton""God, in Holloway''s groundbreaking The Poetics of Grace, summons us to engage in the divine, transformative work that settles on nothing less than daring, responsible, and participatory biblical ethics in line with God''s creative, peacemaking, and reconciling work of sustaining life. This unique reading of Ephesians is a probing and stimulating, delicate and unfailing gift to the academy and the church.""--Aliou Cisse Niang, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Union Theological SeminaryJeph Holloway is Professor of Theology and Ethics in the School of Christian Studies and Graduate Program at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas. He is the author of Peripateō as a Thematic Marker for Pauline Ethics (1992).

Chapters of the Heart: Jewish Women Sharing the Torah of Our Lives invites readers into the lives of twenty women for whom Jewish language and texts provide a lens for understanding their experiences. The authors don''t just use religious words (texts, theologies, or liturgies) like a cookbook. Instead they serve readers something closer to a real meal, prepared with love and intention.Each essay shares one piece of its writer''s heart, one chapter of experience as refracted through the author''s particular Jewish optic. The authors write about being daughters, mothers, sisters, partners, lovers, and friends. They share their experiences of parenting, infertility, and abortion. One describes accompanying her young husband through his life-threatening illness. Another tells of her daughter''s struggle with an eating disorder. Still another reflects on long decline of a parent with Alzheimer''s. All these writers wrestle with Jewish texts while growing as rabbis, as feminists, and as interfaith leaders. They open their hearts and minds, telling when Jewish tradition has helped make meaning and, on occasion, when it has come up empty. The results are sometimes inspiring, sometimes provocative. Readers will find new insights into God, into Judaism, and into themselves.""A stunning gathering of women, a quilt of rich, wise voices.""--Anne Lamott""In these unforgettable chapters, leading American Jewish feminists tell the truth about their lives. This is the ''Torah of your Mothers.'' Recommended for men and women alike.""--Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University ""Here are twenty marvelously articulate, candid, brilliant, thought-provoking responses to the question, how does your spiritual understanding and practice support you in times of challenge? They are the voices of contemporary Jewish women, but the issues they address are universal. . . . This book will be a solace to everyone who reads it.""--Sylvia Boorstein, author of It''s Easier than You Think""With tact and wisdom, the authors of this collection of essays, more than half of them rabbis, chronicle their personal experiences of choices and challenges facing women everywhere, addressing each through the spiritual and cultural resources of the Jewish tradition, not prescriptively but in individual voices, each suggesting discovery or creativity and a path of growth. This is a book for all seasons.""--Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing a Life""These essays beautifully express the power of Jewish tradition to inspire and sustain a life rich in meaning. Yet, their profundity transcends the bounds of Judaism, speaking wisdom to readers of diverse traditions and cultures.""--Mary C. Boys, Union Theological Seminary""Reaching deep into their wise hearts, these women harvest words of healing, joy, sorrow, rage, and delight--nothing less than the fullness of life--which they then gift to us, their readers. Torah lives anew in each of these powerful echoes, and the insights you find here may well change your life.""--Rabbi Brad Artson, American Jewish UniversityINSIDE:""This book is a beautiful, profound, and deeply touching addition to the body of spiritual writing that heals and reveals ourselves to us in our full humanity. Nothing moves me more than women telling the truth about their real lives--their families, relationships, choices, inspirations, losses, transformation, survival, their histories and their immersion in the now. And these writers are a stunning gathering of women, a quilt of rich, wise voices.""--Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies""When I put this wonderful and wise book down (having read it straight through), I felt an unusual feeling: stirred up, but contemplatively so. Chapters of the Heart is for anyone who wants to find the holy in the ordinary, for anyone who wants to read the sacred texts of her own life with more attentiveness, more generosity, and more curiosity.""--Lauren F. Winner, author of Girl Meets God""I

In Building a Community of Interpreters Walter Dickhaut argues that the practice of reading (and, by extension, listening) is no less creative than the practice of writing (and speaking); readers and hearers, just as much as writers and speakers, are producers of meaning. Hence, the work of biblical interpretation is the work--the calling--of a community. Focused on the experience of the reader (or hearer) of biblical texts, he explores such questions as:-What happens when the author disappears?-What happens when a reader opens a book to meet the author?-What happens when a book is read?-What happens when the reader changes spectacles?Into discussion of such issues as the reader''s angle of vision, when texts open and close, the reader''s expectations, the reader''s meeting up with the text, and the functions of filters and lenses in the practice of reading and hearing, the author introduces mystery, surprise, and expectation as hermeneutical lenses that can enlarge what may be seen in biblical texts. In addition to some homiletical samples, the author concludes with a suggested teaching plan for building a community of interpreters.""This [book] reads beautifully, is chock-full of lovely reflections and insightful asides, and has all the marks of a great preacher. Whoever heard these sermons should thank their lucky stars. I think this text is exactly the sort of intelligent spiritual reflection the best presses are looking for: warm but not soppy, reflective but not intellectualistic.""--John D. Caputo, Syracuse University ""In this much-needed volume, Walter Dickhaut recovers biblical interpretation for preaching not simply as a community practice, but also as a community event. When it comes to listening to and reading the Bible, we are in this together, and Dickhaut makes the act of interpretation one filled with expectation, suspense, surprise, and new insight.""--Thomas G. Long, Candler School of Theology, Emory University""We have had more than enough of loud, shrill Bible interpretation, the proponents of which know what they will find before they look. Then along comes Dickhaut with his readerly patience, his waiting imagination, and his artistic capacity. . . . Readers who follow Dickhaut will be led to new ways of reading and a new sense of how the Bible is indeed disclosure beyond the already known.""--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary""This insightful offering of poetic prose calls those who preach, read, and hear sacred texts to engage them in a bond of mutuality, both for the text and each other. Walter Dickhaut invites speaker and listener into shared discourse, while affirming what is said and heard combine to shape insights. . . . Readers of this well-crafted book will be led to imagine the impact it might have on congregations and classrooms willing to plumb its depth.""--C. Joseph Sprague, Retired Bishop, United Methodist ChurchWalter R. Dickhaut is retired Fogg Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Oratory at Bangor Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine. While there he taught preaching and worship in the MDiv curriculum as well as calling and vocation in the DMin program. He now lives with his spouse, Marilyn, in London, Ohio.

Americans live their lives through institutions: government, businesses, schools, clubs, and houses of worship. But many Americans are wary of the control these groups--especially government and business--exercise over their lives.Flea Market Jesus provides an up-close look at the rugged individualism of those trying hardest to separate themselves from institutions: flea market dealers. Having spent most of his life studying American religious organizations, Art Farnsley turns his attention to America''s most solitary, and alienated, entrepreneurs.Farnsley describes an entire subculture of white Midwesterners--working class, middle class, and poor--gathered together in a uniquely American celebration of guns and frontier life. In this mix, the character ""Cochise"" voices the frustrations of flea market dealers toward business, politics, and, especially, religion.Part ethnography, part autobiography, Flea Market Jesus is a story about alienation, biblical literalism, libertarianism, and deep-seated religious belief. It is not about the Tea Party, the Occupy movement, or the Christian Right, but it shines a light on all of these by highlighting the potent combination of mistrust, resentment, and personal liberty too often kept in the shadows of public discourse among educated elites.""Drawing on extensive participation in flea markets and systematic interviews with the people who sell their wares there, Arthur Farnsley has written a vivid and sympathetic portrayal of flea market dealers and the world they inhabit. But this book is about more than flea markets. Part memoir and part cultural analysis, Flea Market Jesus compellingly connects dealers'' economic precariousness, religious beliefs, and alienation to broader currents in American politics and religion.""--Mark Chaves, Duke University ""Had anyone else told me he was going to write an account of American individualism as it is concocted, practiced, and sometimes sold in a Midwest flea market that hosts buckskin-clad muzzle-gun shooters and tomahawk throwing on the side, I would have patted them on the back and beat a quick retreat. But not Art Farnsley. This has long been a part of his world. And the result is one of the most personally engaging and intellectually compelling accounts of individualism since Thoreau. Farnsley dips into his own marginality to play interlocutor to the conflicts between anti-individualistic institutionalism and anti-conformist individuality. After being introduced to a beguiling range of his lifelong flea market friends and their composite, Cochise, the book slips up on you like a few cold beers on a hot summer afternoon.""--Jay Demerath, University of Massachusetts, AmherstArthur E. Farnsley II is Research Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. He is the author of Southern Baptist Politics (1994); Rising Expectations: Urban Congregations, Welfare Reform and Civic Life (2003); and Sacred Circles, Public Squares: The Multicentering of an American City (2004). His stories have appeared on the cover of Christianity Today and The Christian Century. He is also twenty-two-time knife and tomahawk champion of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.

In The Disciple, Lucy Peppiatt addresses the question of what it means to ""become like Jesus"" in the context of our everyday lives. Through the gifts of the Word and the Spirit, our communities, and our circumstances in life, God forms us into the likeness of his Son and leads us into a life of freedom, in relationship with the Father, where we experience what it means to become truly and fully human. The Disciple brings together theological depth, stories from Scripture, and examples from everyday life to paint a picture of the dynamic work of God in our lives and how we might respond to his work so that we are brought into the richness and reality of the life of the kingdom. Following Jesus means being apprenticed and schooled in the ways of freedom and the fullness of life. The Disciple combines theology and practice, including suggestions of how to respond in practical ways, as individuals, and in our communities, to the calling of God on our lives to ""follow him.""""In Peppiatt we find that all-too-rare combination of biblical scholar, academic theologian, and church planter who brings her winsomeness and wisdom, her gifts as teacher and pastor, to show us how we can develop a church community whose members really do look like Christ!""--Simon Ponsonby, Dean of Studies, Oxford Centre of Church Growth""This is a wise book. It shows wisdom gained through Peppiatt''s journey of discipleship and her vast experience of accompanying and nurturing others in faith. It is an account written by someone who knows the way of faith passes through the wilderness, that there are Gethsemanes to be faced. Yet this account of Christian discipleship is, above all, a testimony to the sufficiency of God''s grace. I warmly commend it to you.""--From the Foreword by Murray Rae, University of Otago, New Zealand""The Disciple is deceptive in its simplicity. It is a work of theology, shaped by a deep understanding of the great doctrines regarding the person of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, and divine providence. Yet it is everywhere pastoral rather than polemical, making space for the gospel to bring Christian life to fruition and form among those willing to reflect on its grandest themes.""--Alan Spence, author of Justification: A Guide for the Perplexed ""With the head of a theologian and the heart of a pastor, Peppiatt has written a work of profound and searching spiritual theology. This is a book that teaches what it means to be a disciple of Christ, apprentice to the Master. Whether you are new to the faith or someone who has been a follower for many years, there is much in this little book that will challenge, encourage, and comfort you.""--Oliver D. Crisp, Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological SeminaryLucy Peppiatt is the Dean of Studies at Westminster Theological Centre (UK) and lectures in systematic theology. She is also a pastor at Crossnet Church in Bristol, UK, which she leads with her husband, Nick Crawley. Crossnet is an Anglican community focused on discipleship and mission.

In 1972, Will Campbell published an issue of the Committee of Southern Churchmen''s journal, Katallagete, to shed light on the US prison system. None could anticipate how the system would expand exponentially in the next four decades. Today, the US operates the world''s largest prison system, incarcerating nearly 1 in every 100 American adults. How did this expansion happen? What is the human toll of this retributive system? How might ""ambassadors of reconciliation"" respond to such a punitive institution? Replicating the firsthand nature of Will Campbell''s original Katallagete collection, twenty new essays pull back the veil on today''s prison-industrial complex. The plea throughout this collection is not for some better, more progressive institution to exact justice. Rather, the invitation is to hear from voices of experience how the system functions, listen to what the institution does to those locked in its cells, consider what an execution involves, and, most importantly, contemplate the scandalous call to be in reconciled community with those whom society discards and the system silences. Our story is that there are neither good nor bad people, neither felon nor free world. We are all one. ""Back in 1973, Will Campbell saw that our retributive justice system was an affront to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Four decades later, ten times as many people are behind bars, and millions of others have been labeled ''convicted felons'' for life. The only power great enough to overcome our prison-industrial complex is the power that raised Jesus from the dead. Thank God, that power is alive and well--both in these essays and in our world.""--Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of The Awakening of Hope""The work of Campbell and Goode has more intellectual rigor, moral integrity, creative originality, and spiritual passion than anything I have encountered in my thirteen years of doing prison work . . . Read these testimonials and you will never again wonder why anyone should care about the lives of those incarcerated.""--Jody Lewen, Executive Director of the Prison University Project and Director of Patten University at San Quentin""This collection of essays presents a range of voices and critical perspectives on America''s system of mass incarceration. Its notable strengths include the thoughtful pieces by incarcerated men and women and the historical perspective gained by including older essays with recent scholarship. This book makes a clear, honest, and smart case for radical reappraisal of the practice of imprisonment. It deserves a wide audience among those who care about violence and justice.""--Rebecca Ginsburg, Director of the Education Justice Project, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignWill D. Campbell was a Baptist preacher in Taylor, Louisiana, for two years before taking the position of Director of Religious Life at the University of Mississippi from 1954 to 1956. Forced to leave the university because of his ardent Civil Rights participation, Campbell served on the National Council of Churches as a race relations consultant. Campbell worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Andrew Young toward bettering race relations. Campbell''s Brother to a Dragonfly earned him the Lillian Smith Prize, the Christopher Award, and a National Book Award nomination. The Glad River won a first-prize award from the Friends of American Writers in 1982. His works have also won a Lyndhurst Prize and an Alex Haley Award.Richard Goode is Professor of History at Lipscomb University. He edited Will Campbell''s Writings on Reconciliation and Resistance (Cascade, 2010) and authored with Will Campbell Crashing the Idols (Cascade, 2010).

Health is God''s original created intent: whole persons, healthy relationships, a thriving environment, and ongoing interaction with himself. In the Bible, human health is body-based, community-based, and deeply integrated in a relationship with God''s creating Spirit. The Pentateuch, prophets, writings, Gospels, and epistles all are deeply, if not primarily, concerned with the ongoing and ultimate health of God''s good creation. Scripture also has a wide perspective on the disruption of human health. It deals with the human tendency to violence, corruption, and self-destructive behaviors.The recently renewed interest in health, vitality, and spirituality of all kinds has led to this articulation of a biblical spirituality in relation to human health. Surprisingly, when we look for spirituality in the Bible, we find real and embodied relationships. Everyone is for health and for the restoration of health. But what are health and healing? How does the Bible describe or define them?Here is the result of ten years of conversations with health care professionals in a master''s course on biblical perspectives on health and healing. The biblical witness can transform the way we practice the healing arts. This book provides a biblical foundation for health and its restoration.""This is a rare book, a theologically savvy, solidly biblical, and deeply integrative contribution to faith and health. Grounded especially in Old Testament Scripture, this profound study of embodied human health will challenge and inform anyone involved in health care professions, churches, and theological study of the human person."" --Joel B. Green, professor of New Testament Interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary""Bruckner, a seasoned biblical scholar, offers here a teaching book in the best sense--one that students of the Bible, those in the healing professions, and general readers will turn to for its wisdom and its scholarly, theological, pastoral, and human insights. The book inevitably becomes an outline of biblical theology as a whole, as a careful study of biblical healing must. The God of the Bible is a God of healing, and Bruckner''s book helps us meet and know that God.""--Frederick J. Gaiser, professor of Old Testament at Luther SeminaryJames K. Bruckner is Professor of Old Testament at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago. He is the author of commentaries on Exodus (2008) and on Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (2004) as well as of Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative (2001).

This book argues that problems with recognizing the State of Israel lie at the heart of approaches to nationhood and unease over nationalism in modern Protestant theology, as well as modern social theory. Three interrelated themes are explored. The first is the connection between a theologian''s attitude to recognizing Israel and their approach to the providential place of nations in the divine economy. Following from this, the argument is made that theologians'' handling of both modern and ancient Israel is mirrored profoundly in the question of recognition and ethical treatment of the nations to which they belong, along with neighboring nations. The third theme is how social theory, represented by certain key figures, has handled the same issues. Four major theologians are discussed: Reinhold Niebuhr, Rowan Williams, John Milbank, and Karl Barth. Alongside them are placed social theorists and scholars of religion and nationalism, including Mark Juergensmeyer, Philip Jenkins, Anthony Smith, and Adrian Hastings. In the process, debates over the relationship between theology and social theory are reconfigured in concrete terms around the challenge of recognition of the State of Israel as well as stateless nations.""Here is a lively study of nationhood . . . [that] will undoubtedly raise hackles, provoke discussion and dissent, and require the unpersuaded to examine her arguments and cited texts with great care. Here is swashbuckling, stimulating theology, which should be carefully studied not only by theologians, but by people of many faiths, political and social theorists, and ethicists.""-Alan P. F. Sell, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom ""Nationalism and the concept of nationhood is something Christian theologians have shied away from. The tragedy of the Holocaust, the European experience during the twentieth century, and the fractious state of the Middle East during the twenty-first have given us all pause for thought. On the basis of a fresh understanding of Israel, Moseley tackles negative attitudes toward the integrity of stateless nations and suggests creative ways in which current missiology and theological ethics can respond positively.""-D. Densil Morgan, Professor of Theology, University of Wales Trinity Saint DavidCarys Moseley studied Classics and Theology at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Edinburgh, and has taught Theology and Christian Ethics at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of Nations and Nationalism in the Theology of Karl Barth (forthcoming).

Struck from Behind is a memoir--but not the usual narrative of events. James Howell tells intriguing stories from childhood, romantic life, travel, friendships, tragedies, and wonders, and how God was there, although unnoticed or uninvited at the time. By sharing in retrospect how he now understands God''s presence in seemingly mundane moments, we begin to sense something of God''s way in the world, and in our own lives.Howell has been a successful pastor and published theologian. In Struck from Behind he opens up his own private life as a window into God''s hidden activity. When he remembers, then we too remember God, and begin to notice, and become grateful.""A wordsmith with a purpose, James Howell bares just enough of his romantic pastor''s soul to allow us to better understand our own. His earthy reminiscences are a beautiful invitation to unearth the transcendent in our own messy lives.""--Lillian Daniel, Senior Minister, First Congregational Church, UCC""James Howell is simply incapable of thinking of his life without thinking of the uproarious and creative grace of God. That''s why this book is such a treasure. That God still sends us such preachers is a sign we''ve not been abandoned.""--Jason Byassee, Senior Pastor, Boone United Methodist ChurchJames Howell is Senior Pastor of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Adjunct Professor of Preaching at Duke Divinity School. The author of fifteen books, he is a columnist and blogger who has preached all around the world.