Meals from Mars


Book Description

"A fateful encounter late at night at a gas station in the hood brings together a white man from the suburbs and a young black man from the neighborhood. Stuck with each other for the night, they deal with their core prejudices, the walls that keep them from each other, and the discovery of their God-given humanity in one another. When talking about race, it helps to have something specific to talk about--a story we can all wrap our heads around. In Meals from Mars, Ben Sciacca provides that story: two men from different worlds forced by circumstance to see and hear and consider one another. It is a novel that demonstrates the social challenges and relational potential for racial reconciliation."--Publisher website.







Practicing Our Faith


Book Description

Twelve time-honored Christian practices that will help us, and the world, to flourish Practicing Our Faith offers help to Christians who are asking how our faith can help us discern what we might do and who we might become. How can we live faithfully and with integrity in a world where the pace of existence is so fast and life's patterns are changing all around us? Can we conduct our daily lives in ways that help us not just get by but flourish--as individuals, as communities, and as a society in concert with creation and in communion with God? These questions are on the hearts and minds of many seekers who are exploring spirituality today. They are also at the heart of Practicing Our Faith. Practices are those shared activities that address fundamental needs of humankind and creation and that, woven together, form a way of life. The twelve practices explored in this book are practices that human beings simply cannot do without, particularly at this time in history. This book will stimulate your imagination. It will encourage you to reflect. It initiates a conversation that will spread into many contexts, each of which presents unique opportunities for noticing, discussing, and living the practices of faith.




The Parables of Jesus the Galilean


Book Description

Who do we meet in the stories Jesus told? In The Parables of Jesus the Galilean: Stories of a Social Prophet, a selection of the parables of Jesus is read using a social-scientific approach. The interest of the author is not the parables in their literary contexts, but rather the parables as Jesus told them in a first-century Jewish Galilean sociopolitical, religious, and economic setting. Therefore, this volume is part of the material turn in parable research and offers a reading of the parables that pays special attention to Mediterranean anthropology by stressing key first-century Mediterranean values. Where applicable, available papyri that may be relevant in understanding the parables of Jesus from a fresh perspective are used to assemble solid ancient comparanda for the practices and social realities that the parables presuppose. The picture of Jesus that emerges from these readings is that of a social prophet. The parables of Jesus, as symbols of social transformation, envisioned a transformed and alternative world. This world, for Jesus, was the kingdom of God.




The Parables of Jesus


Book Description

A premier New Testament scholar explores how Jesus' trial and execution are portrayed in the New Testament and how that portrayal has affected biblical studies, Christian theology, and Jewish-Christian relations through history. Tomson has written an accessible, responsible analysis of the biblical accounts of Jesus' death, demonstrating how, through compounded misunderstandings, they contributed to anti-Jewish sentiment in the early church and later history. Tomson's question of how Jesus is to be understood in his first-century Judean context is a critical one not only for biblical scholars, but for anyone concerned about human rights and interreligious dialogue today.




The Parables in Q


Book Description

Few New Testament topics have been discussed as often and as intensely as Q, the hypothesized second major source alongside the gospel of Mark for the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the parables. And yet, no monograph to date has been devoted to considering the parables in Q. In addition to filling this gap in New Testament scholarship, Dieter T. Roth addresses the need to move scholarship on both Q and the parables forward along methodological and interpretive lines. Roth considers Q not as a text behind Matthew and Luke that needs to be reconstructed but rather as an intertext between Matthew and Luke that offered plots, characters, and images in parables that were taken up by Matthew and Luke and utilized in their own respective texts. In addition, Roth draws on recent parables research in his examination of the 27 parables in Q (two spoken by John the Baptist, one by the Centurion, and 24 by Jesus) in order to consider their purpose and function in this early Christian text.




How Not to Study Judaism: Parables, rabbinic narratives, rabbis' biographies, rabbis' disputes


Book Description

In How Not to Study Judaism : Examples and Counter-Examples, Jacob Neusner presents a collection of essays and book reviews that identify the wrong way of conducting the academic study of Judaism. Pointing readers toward the right way to pursue the academic study of Judaism, Nuesner's focus is on the study of the literature of Judaism and the culture of the Jewish community.




The Parables and Metaphors of Our Lord


Book Description

G. Campbell Morgan Reprint Series Foreword If it is true that the measure of a person's greatness is their influence, not only on his own time but on future gen- erations, G. Campbell Morgan must be regarded as a great person. His greatness is seen not only in the wide impact of his ministry on both sides of the Atlantic, but in the fact that his books are still read and studied sixty-five years after his death. Named one of the ten greatest preachers of the twentieth-century by the contributing board of Preaching magazine, Morgan made the Bible a new and living book not only to the congregations who listened to him, but the vast multitude of persons who read his books. Fox sixty-seven years Morgan preached and taught the Scriptures and served churches in England and the United States. What is remarkable is that his commentaries and expositions of the Bible still speak to persons of a new millennium. There have been many changes in the world since he faithfully preached and taught the Scriptures, but the wide appeal of his books testify to the timelessness of his message. Although he held pastorates in the Congregational and Presbyterian denominations, he had an ecumenical appeal to persons of all denominations and traditions. The mystic Thomas á Kempis once wrote, "He to whom the eternal word speaks is delivered from many opinions." In one of his sermons, he referred to the words of Amos that there would be a famine for hearing the word of God (Amos 8:11). The timeless work of G. Campbell Morgan addresses that hun- ger, as his books enable his readers to get beyond opinions to the living Word. Wipf and Stock Publishers have rendered a great gift to the religious world in reprinting dozens of Morgan's books. This growing collection makes his books more available, so that readers have an option other than searching the internet for used, and often expensive, copies. Among this collection is the classic The Great Physician and commen- taries on the Gospel of Matthew and John. Persons seeking a living faith and a meaningful encounter with God would profit from reading any of these Morgan books. Near the end of his ministry, in a sermon entitled "But One Thing," Morgan commented on how Portugal changed the words of a coin after Christopher Columbus discovered America. No longer did the inscription say, Ne Plus Ultra (nothing more beyond) but Plus Ultra (more beyond). It is the hope of the G. Campbell Morgan Trust that the reprint- ing of these books will bring readers to the "more beyond," and an even deeper encounter with the Word in Scripture. The Morgan Trust Richard L. Morgan Howard C. Morgan John C. Morgan




Eating Your Way Through Luke's Gospel


Book Description

Robert Karris spreads before us a delightful feast of information about food themes in the Gospel of Luke. In a lively style of writing, Karris describes the food and drink popular in Jesus' day, eucharistic implications, and the social roles Jesus assumes in relation to food.




The Parables of Jesus Revisited


Book Description

With the exception of perhaps prophecy, more has been written and interpreted about parables than any other subject in the Bible. Many authors offer varying viewpoints and theories on these stories, but few explain how to discover which opinion is correct. The Parables of Jesus Revisited shares a commonsense approach to understanding biblical parables and applying them to a twenty-first century society by removing any mystery or misunderstanding that surrounds them. Parables are figures of speech used to teach and instruct and should not be so cryptic that they cannot be understood. By discarding the use of allegorical interpretation and applying the storys literal meaning to our lives, we learn that each parable is meant to be read as a simple story, without any hidden meaning. In Matthew 13:1315, Jesus spoke of people who could not understand these stories because of an unwillingness to hear the truth. But the parables were not meant for the faithless. Instead, they were meant for souls interested in hearing more about Christs message. Learn how to interpret these parables through notes on the customs from the period, allegorical and literal interpretations, practical applications, and more. If you have ever wondered about the real meaning of biblical parables, The Parables of Jesus Revisited is the key to unlocking the truth.