New Titles Tuesday, September 5

This past week these eight titles were added to the collection. Click on the link for more information. TWU login may be required.

Adam’s ancestors: race, religion, and the politics of human origins /David N. Livingstone.  Although the idea that all human beings are descended from Adam is a long-standing conviction in the West, another version of this narrative exists: human beings inhabited the Earth before, or alongside, Adam, and their descendants still occupy the planet. In this engaging and provocative work, David N. Livingstone traces the history of the idea of non-adamic humanity, and the debates surrounding it, from the Middle Ages to the present day. From a multidisciplinary perspective, Livingstone examines how this alternative idea has been used for cultural, religious, and political purposes. He reveals how what began as biblical criticism became a theological apologetic to reconcile religion with science—evolution in particular—and was later used to support arguments for white supremacy and segregation. From heresy to orthodoxy, from radicalism to conservatism, from humanitarianism to racism, Adam’s Ancestors tells an intriguing tale of twists and turns in the cultural politics surrounding the age-old question, “Where did we come from?”

The annotated Luther /General editors, Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, Timothy J. Wengert.   The Annotated Luther series contains a number of the writings that defined the roots of reform set in motion by Martin Luther. Included are treatises, letters, and sermons. Each volume in The Annotated Luther series contains new introductions, annotations, illustrations, and notes to help shed light on Luther’s context and interpret his writings for today.

Caliphate: the history of an idea /Hugh Kennedy.  Caliphate is a grand and sweeping history of the caliphate since the death of the prophet Mohammed until the last official caliph in the 13th Century, and its modern incarnations under various Islamist groups today. In Caliphate, historian and Middle East expert Hugh Kennedy lifts the veil on the changing and contested position of the caliph and explores the fascinating succession of various leaders of the Islamic world since the death of the Prophet in 632 until the modern day. Kennedy begins in 7th century Medina, the Prophet Muhammad’s city in the Hejaz desert, in the hours following the prophet’s death. In the end, Kennedy delves into the modern fate of the caliphate, as the British manipulate the 19th Century caliphs to spur dissent against the Ottomans in the Arab provinces, and Islamist leaders call for the creation of a Muslim caliphate. We witness the emergence of another Abu Bakr as “caliph” in 2014, as Kennedy untangles the twisted and distorted Qur’anic history ISIS uses to justify its barbaric acts. An authoritative new account of the dynasties of leaders who shaped the Arab world, The Caliphate reveals the legacy of one of the most potent political ideas in modern history.

Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels  /edited by Joel B. Green, Jeannine K. Brown & Nicholas Perrin. The second edition of the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels is a thoroughly reconstructed and revised version of the critically acclaimed 1992 first edition. There are revised understandings of historiography, orality, form criticism, empire and more. Here is a self-contained reference library of information and perspective essential to exploring Jesus and the Gospels. This volume bridges the gap between scholars and those pastors, teachers, students and interested readers who want thorough treatments of key topics in an accessible and summary format. Articles cover each Gospel, major themes in the Gospels, key episodes in the life of Jesus, significant background topics, as well as issues and methods of interpretation.

Hawaiian plant life: vegetation and flora /Robert Gustafson, Derral R. Herbst, and Philip W. Rundel.  Hawaiian Plant Life has been written with both the layperson and professional interested in Hawai‘i’s natural history and flora in mind. In addition to significant text describing landforms and vegetation, the evolution of Hawaiian flora, and the conservation of native species, the book includes almost 875 color photographs illustrating nearly two-thirds of native Hawaiian plant species as well as a concise description of each genus and species shown.

Hopkins’s poetics of speech sound: sprung rhythm, lettering, inscape /James I. Wimsatt.  Wimsatt’s erudite and original study draws from Hopkins’s diaries, letters, student essays, and correspondence with poet-friends and illuminates Hopkins’s theory that the sound of poetic language carries an emotional, not merely logical and grammatical, meaning. Wimsatt concentrates his study on Hopkins’s writings about ‘sprung rhythm,’‘lettering,’and ‘inscape,’– his coinages – and makes abundant reference to Hopkins’s verse, showing how it exemplifies his language theory. A well-researched and highly detailed book, Hopkins’s Poetics of Speech Sound asserts major significance for a relatively neglected aspect of this important poet’s writings.

 The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament /Craig S. Keener.  This unique commentary provides, in verse-by-verse format, the crucial cultural background you need for responsible–and richer–Bible study. It includes a glossary of cultural terms and important historical figures, maps and charts, up-to-date bibliographies, and introductory essays about cultural background information for each book of the New Testament. Based on ten years of in-depth study, this accessible and bestselling commentary is valuable for pastors in sermon preparation, for Sunday-school and other church teachers as they build lessons, for missionaries concerned not to import their own cultural biases into the Bible, for college and seminary students in classroom assignments, and for everyday Bible readers seeking to deepen and enhance their study of Scripture.

Systematic theology /Katherine Sonderegger.  This systematic theology begins from the treatise De Deo Uno and develops the dogma of the Trinity as an expression of divine unicity, on which will depend creation, Christology, and ecclesiology.