Tortured Wonders


Book Description

Explores Christian spirituality with intelligence and flair, addressing sacraments, sex, death, and the role of the body in prayer.




Wonder of Wonders


Book Description

A sparkling and eye-opening history of the Broadway musical that changed the world In the half-century since its premiere, Fiddler on the Roof has had an astonishing global impact. Beloved by audiences the world over, performed from rural high schools to grand state theaters, Fiddler is a supremely potent cultural landmark. In a history as captivating as its subject, award-winning drama critic Alisa Solomon traces how and why the story of Tevye the milkman, the creation of the great Yiddish writer Sholem-Aleichem, was reborn as blockbuster entertainment and a cultural touchstone, not only for Jews and not only in America. It is a story of the theater, following Tevye from his humble appearance on the New York Yiddish stage, through his adoption by leftist dramatists as a symbol of oppression, to his Broadway debut in one of the last big book musicals, and his ultimate destination—a major Hollywood picture. Solomon reveals how the show spoke to the deepest conflicts and desires of its time: the fraying of tradition, generational tension, the loss of roots. Audiences everywhere found in Fiddler immediate resonance and a usable past, whether in Warsaw, where it unlocked the taboo subject of Jewish history, or in Tokyo, where the producer asked how Americans could understand a story that is "so Japanese." Rich, entertaining, and original, Wonder of Wonders reveals the surprising and enduring legacy of a show about tradition that itself became a tradition. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles.




Heaven on Earth


Book Description

Heaven isn't only about the future. It has everything to do with life on earth-life "in between." Jonathan Edwards understood this well. His writings are full of his thoughts on heaven and how those thoughts should make a difference in our lives. This book focuses on key sermons by Edwards, showing readers how his insights can be applied to the challenges of living the Christian life in the twenty-first century. Edwards reminds us of our duty to live on earth in light of heaven and to endeavor to bring the realities and the beauty of heaven to earth-even if only in miniature. This book is for all believers wondering how to live on earth with a view of heaven, and those familiar with Edwards's works will have a special appreciation for this study.




Ancient Faith for the Church's Future


Book Description

Mark Husbands and Jeffrey P. Greenman bring together select essays from the 2007 Wheaton Theology Conference, Ancient Faith for the Church's Future demonstrates the vitality and significance of the early church for contemporary Christian witness and practice. These fourteen essays provide for a significant evangelical ressourcement by considering the importance of the thought and practice of the patristic church especially for our (1) interpreting Scripture, (2) engaging in missional witness through hospitality, social justice and evangelism, (3) renewing our worship and prayer, (4) grasping afresh our salvation through Jesus Christ, and (5) authentically engaging our surrounding culture. Fresh and forward-looking, this book leads the way toward a deeply rooted church that points beyond contemporary evangelical accommodation to civil religion, privatism and enlightenment methodologies toward its true vocation to bear vital witness to God's present and coming kingdom. Contributors include Christopher A. Hall Brian E. Daley, S.J. D. H. Williams Michael Graves Peter J. Leithart Nicholas Perrin Christine Pohl George Kalantzis Alan Kreider John Witvliet Paul I. Kim D. Stephen Long Jason Byassee




Fathers in Faith


Book Description

Drawing on their experiences as fathers, eleven men share what they have learned about parenting, living a Christian life, and the relationship between the two. As fathers to children ranging in age from the very young to adults, contributors reflect on some of their joys and successes as fathers but also on their questions, concerns, mistakes, sorrows, and hopes--for themselves and for their children. They invite all parents to reflect on and learn from their own parenting experiences. This kind of reflection fosters wisdom, perspective, and, in solidarity with other parents, gratitude, confidence, and hope in the parenting life.




Your Church Is Too Small


Book Description

“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”Too often, these words of Jesus from John 17:20-21 seem like an unreachable ideal. But in Your Church Is Too Small, John Armstrong shows that Jesus’ vision of Christian unity is for all God’s people across social, cultural, racial, and denominational lines.“With attention to his own pilgrimage and growth in ecclesial awareness, John Armstrong explores here the evangelical heart and ecumenical breadth of churchly Christianity. I am encouraged by his explorations and commend this study to all believers who pray and labor for the unity for which our Savior prayed.” – Timothy George, senior editor, Christianity Today.“Dr. Armstrong’s irenic approach should make it easy for Christians—whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant—to engage the challenging thesis of the book, while recognizing that there remain points of doctrine between them which will require further clarification. Anyone concerned about either evangelism or Christian unity should read this book, and take seriously its call for both mission and ecumenism.” – Fr. Thomas A. Baima, Provost, University of Saint Mary of the LakeJohn Armstrong is one of those Evangelical theologians—may their tribe increase and the valley abound with their tents—who know that full obedience to Christ embraces the historical transmission through which we know him. This book refuses to scale down the bearer of that tradition—the historical church, that is—or reduce the authority of its voice. – Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, senior editor, Touchstone “It's a must for anyone who has grown weary with Christian divisiveness and schism and longs to discover ways of strengthening the bonds that unite us in the Spirit of Christ.”– Chuck Colson




Christian Ethics


Book Description

Christian Ethics provides a biblical, historical, philosophical and theological guide to the field of Christian ethics. Prominent theologian David S. Cunningham explores the tradition of ‘virtue ethics’ in this creative and lively text, which includes literary and musical references as well as key contemporary theological texts and figures. Three parts examine: the nature of human action and the people of God as the ‘interpretative community’ within which ethical discourse arises the development of a ‘virtue ethics’ approach, and places this in its Christian context significant issues in contemporary Christian ethics, including the ethics of business and economics, politics, the environment, medicine and sex. This is the essential text for students of all ethics courses in theology, religious studies and philosophy.




iPod, YouTube, Wii Play


Book Description

Should Christians w00t or wail about the scope and power of modern entertainment? Maybe both. But first, Christians should think theologically about our human passion to be enteprtained as it relates to the popular culture that entertains us. Avoiding the one-size-fits-all celebrations and condemnations that characterize the current fad of pop culture analyses, this book engages entertainments case by case, uncovering the imaginative patterns and shaping power of our amusements. Individual chapters weave together analyses of entertainment forms, formats, technologies, trends, contents, and audiences to display entertainment as a multifaceted formational ecology.




Intersecting Realities


Book Description

Experiencing racial marginalization in society and pressures for success in family, Asian American Christian young adults must negotiate being socially underpowered, culturally dissonant, and politically marginal. To avoid misunderstandings and conflicts within and without their communities, more often than not they hide their true thoughts and emotions and hesitate to engage in authentic conversations outside their very close-knit circle of friends. In addition, these young adults might not find their church or Christian fellowship to be a safe and hospitable place to openly struggle with all of these sorts of questions, all the while lacking adequate vocabulary or resources to organize their thoughts. This book responds to these spiritual-moral struggles of Asian American young people by theologically addressing the issues that most intimately and immediately affect Asian American youths’ sense of identity—God, race, family, sex, gender, friendship, money, vocation, the model minority myth, and community— uniquely and consistently from the contexts of Asian American young adult life. Its goal is to help young Asian Americans develop a healthy, balanced, organic sense of identity grounded in a fresh and deeper understanding of the Christian faith.




Engraved Upon the Heart


Book Description

How does liturgy impact the formation of faith? The Protestant Church has traditionally emphasized human reason and doctrinal knowledge. But there is another method with great formative power--participation in liturgy. Human beings gain important knowledge not only through traditional, cognitively focused learning, but also through practice and participation. And because knowledge is wholistic, an inability to express an idea in language does not necessarily signify an absence of knowledge. This book shows how liturgy transmits knowledge that transcends human reason. We repeat the liturgy in weekly public worship, and its contents are inscribed on our minds and bodies. Contrary to common belief, this is also true for children and cognitively challenged individuals. They may be unable to verbally express the contents of their faith in a way that satisfies "normal" adult expectations, but these two groups of people are capable of rich religious experiences. This book explores how welcoming them into experience and practice of worship and sacrament can benefit children, cognitively challenged church members, their families, and the church community as a whole, and makes us all a more inclusive community in Christ.