Here’s a selection of titles added to the collection in the past week

 Assisted suicide in Canada: moral, legal and policy considerations /Travis Dumsday. Assisted Suicide in Canada delves into the moral and policy dimensions, other key court rulings and subsequent legislation. Travis Dumsday explores thorny topics such as freedom of conscience for healthcare professionals, public funding for medical assistance in dying and extensions of eligibility. Carter v. Canada will alter Canadians’ understanding of life, death, and the practice of medicine for generations.

 Being-in-creation: human responsibility in an endangered world /edited by Brian Treanor, Bruce Ellis Benson, and Norman Wirzba. Being in Creation asks about the role of humans in the more-than-human world from the perspective of human creatureliness, a perspective that accepts as a given human finitude and limitations, as well as responsibility toward other beings and toward the whole of which they are a part.

 Breaking barriers, shaping worlds: Canadian women and the search for global order /edited by Jill Campbell-Miller, Greg Donaghy, and Stacey Barker. A comprehensive exploration of the role of women in twentieth-century, Canadian international affairs. Bringing together contributors ranging from new scholars to a former prime minister, Breaking Barriers, Shaping Worlds examines the lives and careers of women who have made an impact: professional women working abroad in the so-called helping fields; women who fought for change as anti-war, anti-nuclear, or Indigenous rights activists; and women with careers in traditional diplomacy.

 C.S. Lewis /Stewart Goetz. The definitive exploration of C.S. Lewis’s philosophical thought, and its connection with his theological and literary work. In this newest addition to the Blackwell Great Minds series, well-known philosopher and Lewis authority Goetz discusses Lewis’s philosophical thought and illustrates how it informs his theological and literary work. Drawing from Lewis’s published writing and private correspondence, including unpublished materials, C.S. Lewis is the first book to develop a cohesive and holistic understanding of Lewis as a philosopher. In this groundbreaking project, Goetz explores how Lewis’s views on topics of lasting interest such as happiness, morality, the soul, human freedom, reason, and imagination shape his understanding of myth and his use of it in his own stories, establishing new connections between Lewis’s philosophical convictions and his wider body of published work. Written in a scholarly yet accessible style, this short, engaging book makes a significant contribution to Lewis scholarship while remaining suitable for readers who have only read his stories, offering new insight into the intellectual life of this figure of enduring popular interest.

 Chaplaincy ministry and the mission of the church /Victoria Slater. Slater explores the significance of chaplaincy for the mission and ministry of the contemporary Church. She discusses the reasons for the recent growth in new chaplaincy roles in the contemporary cultural and church context and provides a theological rationale for chaplaincy along with practical suggestions for the development and support of chaplaincy practice. The book provides conceptual clarity about what chaplaincy actually is and will move beyond the common polarisation of chaplaincy and Church to position chaplaincy as a distinctive form of ministry with its own identity and integrity that, together with other forms of ministry, makes a significant contribution to the mission of the Church.

 English ministry crisis in Chinese Canadian Churches: towards the retention of English-speaking adults from Chinese Canadian Churches through associated parallel independent English congregational models /Matthew R.S. Todd. Todd looks into the anecdotal reporting of high numbers of Canadian-born Chinese leaving western Canadian Chinese churches — what is termed the silent exodus. This book recommends solutions towards the retention of Canadian-born Chinese adults in Chinese bicultural churches through empowerment.

 Hopeful influence: a theology of Christian leadership /Jude Padfield. Engaging with the work of influential theological voices such as Lesslie Newbigin, Tom Wright and Martyn Percy,’Hopeful Influence’argues that it is in the process of helping others to see, participate in or experience the world to come that Christian leadership becomes manifest

Human rights: moral or political? /edited by Adam Etinson.  This volume brings together a distinguished, interdisciplinary group of scholars to address philosophical questions raised by the complex status of human rights as both moral rights, on the one hand, and legally, politically, and historically practised rights, on the other. Its original chapters, each accompanied by a critical commentary, explore topics including: the purpose and methods of a philosophical theory of human rights; the Orthodox-Political debate; the relevance of history to philosophy; the relationship between moral and legal human rights; and the value of political critiques of human rights.

 Pillars in the history of biblical interpretation. Volume 3, Further essays on prevailing methods /edited by Stanley E. Porter and Zachary K. Dawson. This third volume, like its predecessors, adds to the growing body of literature concerned with the history of biblical interpretation.  Each chapter provides a biographical sketch of its respective scholar(s), an overview of their major contributions to the field, explanations of their theoretical and methodological approaches to interpretation, and evaluations and applications of their methods. By focusing on the contexts in which these scholars lived and worked, these essays show what defining features qualify these scholars as ‘pillars’ in the history of biblical interpretation.

 Qualitative research in theological education: pedagogy in practice /edited by Mary Moschella, Susan Willhauck. Brings together a diverse group of scholars to consider the theological values arising from and contributing to their use of qualitative research in scholarship and teaching. The book offers a careful consideration of the pedagogical and administrative challenges involved in teaching qualitative research and its various sub-disciplines such as ethnography. As a whole, the book argues that the teaching of QR methods is critical to the theological, ethical, spiritual, and/or pastoral formation of ministers and theological scholars

 Reading Paul with the Reformers: reconciling old and new perspectives /Stephen J. Chester. Chester brings a careful and nuanced reading of the Reformers’ Pauline exegesis. Examining the overall contours of Reformation exegesis of Paul, he contrasts the Reformers with their opponents and explores particular contributions made by such key figures as Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin. He relates their insights to contemporary debates in Pauline theology about justification, union with Christ, and other central themes, arguing that their work remains a significant resource today.  Reading Paul with the Reformers reclaims a robust understanding of how the Reformers actually read the apostle Paul.

 The geography of hell in the teaching of Jesus: Gehena, Hades, the Abyss, the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth /Kim Papaioannou ; with a foreword by Edward W. Fudge. In this study,  Papaioannou tackles the topic of hell at its most foundational level, in the words and teaching of Jesus. Rather than attempt overarching and all-encompassing answers, he begins instead with a detailed study of the relevant texts and builds from there upwards. The result is a picture that is not only coherent and satisfying, but more importantly, solidly based on biblical exegesis of the most refined nature. Papaioannou concludes by putting hell into a more palatable and biblically sound perspective. Though unreservedly scholarly, the study is written in such a way that lay readers can understand and enjoy it.

 The origins of creativity /Edward O. Wilson.  The Origins of Creativity grapples with the question of how this uniquely human expression–so central to our identity as individuals and, collectively, as a species–came about and how it has manifested itself throughout the history of our species. One of our most celebrated biologists offers a sweeping examination of the relationship between the humanities and the sciences: what they offer to each other, how they can be united, and where they still fall short. Both endeavours, Edward O. Wilson reveals, have their roots in human creativity–the defining trait of our species. Reflecting on the deepest origins of language, storytelling, and art, Wilson demonstrates how creativity began not ten thousand years ago, as we have long assumed, but over one hundred thousand years ago in the Paleolithic age. Chronicling this evolution of creativity from primate ancestors to humans, The Origins of Creativity shows how the humanities, spurred on by the invention of language, have played a largely unexamined role in defining our species. And in doing so, Wilson explores what we can learn about human nature from a surprising range of creative endeavors–the instinct to create gardens, the use of metaphors and irony in speech, and the power of music and song.

 These brothers of mine: a biblical theology of land and family and a response to Christian Zionism /Rob Dalrymple.  Dalrymple contends that just as Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s purpose for the Temple, so also Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham that he would receive the Holy Land and an uncountable number of descendants.

Torah encounters: Exodus /Rabbi Daniel Pressman. This book invites readers into the richness of the Torah, sharing context and information for each parasha, as well as commentary from generations of Biblical interpreters—historical and modern, and Pressman’s own insights. The second in the five-volume Torah Encounters series, Torah Encounters: Exodus makes the weekly Torah portion approachable and applicable. It is a wonderful resource for clergy, adult or high school Hebrew education, or personal study.

Understanding the periodic table /by Jane P. Gardner.