Month: October 2023 (Page 1 of 2)

Here is a selection of titles recently added to the collection.

 1 Corinthians /Kimlyn J. Bender. Written by leading theologians, encouraging readers to explore how the vital roots of the ancient Christian tradition inform and shape faithfulness today. In this eddition to the series, Bender offers a theological reading of 1 Corinthians.

 A Christian theology of science: reimagining a theological vision of natural knowledge /Paul Tyson ; foreword by David Bentley Hart. Reframes the discussion between Christian theology and contemporary science, arguing that it is good both for religion and for science when Christians treat theology as their first truth discourse.

 Historical foundations of worship: Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant perspectives /edited by Melanie C. Ross and Mark Lamport ; introductions by Nicholas Wolterstorff and John Witvliet. An ecumenical team of scholars provide a historical overview of how worship developed in three major Christian traditions: Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, churches of the Reformation, and evangelicalism/Pentecostalism.

 How to inhabit time: understanding the past, facing the future, living faithfully now /James K.A. Smith. Smith explains that we must reckon with the past in order to discern the present and have hope for the future. Integrating popular culture, biblical exposition, and meditation, he helps us develop a sense of temporal awareness that is attuned to the texture of history, the vicissitudes of life, and the tempo of the Spirit. Smith shows that awakening to the spiritual significance of time is crucial for orienting faith in the twenty-first century.

 Introduction to classical Chinese philosophy /Bryan W. Van Norden. This book provides the beginner with an accurate, sophisticated, yet accessible account, and offers new insights and challenging perspectives to those who have more specialized knowledge. Focusing on the period in Chinese philosophy that is surely most easily approachable and perhaps is most important, it ranges over of rich set of competing options. It also, with admirable self-consciousness, presents a number of daring attempts to relate those options to philosophical figures and movements from the West.

 Mau MC24: Bruce Mau’s 24 principles for designing massive change in your life and work /edited by Jon Ward. Bruce Mau has long applied the power of design to transforming the world. Developed over the past three decades, this remarkable book is organized by 24 values that are at the core of Mau’s philosophy. MC24 features essays, observations, project documentation, and design work by Mau and other high-profile architects, designers, artists, scientists, environmentalists, and thinkers of our time. Practical, playful, and critical, it equips readers with a tool kit and empowers them to make an impact and engender change on all scales.

 Origins of New Testament Christology: an introduction to the traditions and titles applied to Jesus /Stanley E. Porter and Bryan R. Dyer.  This book opens a window into the Christology of the first century by helping readers understand the eleven most significant titles for Jesus  used in the New Testament. The authors trace the history of each title in the Hebrew Scriptures, Second Temple literature, and Greco-Roman literature and look at the context in which the New Testament writers retrieved these traditions to communicate their understanding of Christ. The result is a robust portrait that is closely tied to the sacred traditions of Israel and beyond that took on new significance in light of Jesus Christ.  This accessible and up-to-date exegetical study defends an early high Christology and argues that the titles of Jesus invariably point to an understanding of Jesus as God.

 Spiritual formation as if the church mattered: growing in Christ through community /James C. Wilhoit. This book offers an introduction to spiritual formation set squarely in the local church. The second edition has been updated throughout, incorporates findings from positive psychology, and reflects an Augustinian formation perspective.

 Surrey: a city of stories /K. Jane Watt. Surrey: A City of Stories is the legacy project by the Surrey Heritage Advisory Commission in celebration of Canada 150. They hoped to create a book that would be an experience–both a richly illustrated visual chronicle and a beautifully written tribute to Surrey and its citizens over time. Surrey: A City of Stories represents the fulfillment of those aspirations as it offers stories of this place in all their breadth and diversity, from the distant past to the modern day.

 The Baker expository dictionary of biblical words /edited by Tremper Longman III and Mark L. Strauss. A fascinating, easy-to-use dictionary that’s designed to provide pastors, seminarians, and every student of the Bible with an in-depth understanding of the Hebrew and Greek words that are behind the biblical translations we use. 

 The evangelical theology of the Orthodox Church /Bradley Nassif. In these articles, Nassif focuses on the evangelical reality of the Orthodox Church and reflects on the Orthodox Church’s’ new dialogues with Christians in the Evangelical (Protestant) movement.

 The new orthodoxy: Canada’s emerging civil religion /Bruce J Clemenger. This book examines the founding non-sectarian approach to Canadian statecraft that accommodated religious and cultural diversity.  Clemenger presents a biblically-based model of public and political engagement and a defense of religious freedom, especially the freedom to disagree, in an increasingly secularist state. 

 The Poetic Edda /translated with an introduction and notes by Carolyne Larrington. The collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry known as the Poetic Edda contains the great narratives of the creation of the world and the coming of Ragnarok, The Doom of the Gods. The mythological poems explore the wisdom of the gods and giants, narrating the adventures of the god Thor against the hostile giants and the god’s rivalries amongst themselves. The heroic poems trace the exploits of the hero Helgi and his valkyrie bride, the tragic tale of Sigurd and Brynhild’s doomed love, and the terrible drama of Sigurd’s widow Gudrun and her children. Many of the poems predate the conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity, allowing us to glimpse the pagan beliefs of the North. This is a complete translation, and it includes a scholarly introduction, notes, a genealogy of the gods and giants, and an index of names

When the arrow flies /by Rosemary Cunningham. This is a story of God’s redemptive power in the  jungles of Brazil. In the early 1950’s, not long before five missionaries died from the spears of Aucas, missionaries, Harry Bollback and Harold Reimer, set out to reach another tribe known as the Xavante. What seemed a friendly first connection turned deadly as the arrows began to fly. In God’s sovereign plan, the missionary team escaped and later had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with those who once sought to kill them. The experiences of Harry and Harold served as the foundation to establish an international ministry.

 Women who hike: walking with America’s most inspiring adventurers /Heather Balogh Rochfort. Profiles of and suggested hikes from well-known female hikers across the USA.

Here is a selection of titles recently added to the collection.

 1-3 John /Thomas Andrew Bennett. Bennett keeps historical speculation to a minimum and delves into the theological depths of 1-3 John in this commentary. He begins by providing a new translation of the text from the Greek, along with verse-by-verse exegesis, and then moves into an extended reflection on a litany of relevant theological topics, including questions of trinitarianism, creation, faith, atonement, eschatology, salvation, the nature of divine and human love, and the composition of the church. Readers challenged by Johannine metaphors (walking in the light, children of God, etc.) will find clarity, and pastors will find detailed guidance for teaching and preaching.

 Christians and the color line: race and religion after Divided by faith /edited by J. Russell Hawkins and Phillip Luke Sinitiere. Christians and the Color Line offers an updated analysis of the complex entanglement of race and religion in American society. Taking into account cultural context and important changes over time, this volume questions the existence of a post-racial reality for religious congregations and spiritual interests.

 Cruciformity: Paul’s narrative spirituality of the cross /Michael J. Gorman ; with a foreword by Nijay K. Gupta ; and an afterword by the author. Cruciformity broke new ground with a vision of Pauline spirituality that illuminated what it meant to be a person or community in Christ. Beginning with Paul’s express desire to “know nothing but Christ crucified,” Gorman showed how true spirituality is telling the story, in both life and words, of God’s self-revelation in Jesus, so that we might practice “cruciformity”—the impossible possibility of conformity to the crucified Christ. This twentieth-anniversary edition includes a new foreword by Nijay Gupta—a next-generation Pauline scholar heavily influenced by Gorman—as well as an afterword by the author, in which he reflects on the legacy of Cruciformity in the church and the academy, including his own subsequent work in Pauline theology.

 Designing your life: how to build a well-lived, joyful life /Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Burnett and  Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.

  Dionysus, Christ, and the death of God. Volume 1, The great mediations of the classical world /Giuseppe Fornari. and Dionysus, Christ, and the death of God. Volume 2, Christianity and modernity This magisterial reflection on the history and destiny of the West compares Greco-Roman civilization and the Judeo-Christian tradition in order to understand what both unites and divides them.

 First the Jews: combating the world’s longest-running hate campaign /Rabbi Evan Moffic. Moffic provides a compelling discussion to help Christians understand this dangerous rise in anti-Semitism by working to address tough questions. Focusing on the events since September 11, 2001,  Moffic considers the twenty-first century anti-Semitism and the historical pattern of discrimination to other groups that often follows new waves of discrimination against Jewish communities. With a hopeful and collaborative tone, he suggests actions for all people of faith to combat words and actions of hate while lifting up practical ways Christians and Jews can work together.First the Jews offers new insights and unparalleled perspectives on some of the most recent, pressing developments in the contemporary world.

 Forgiveness, peacemaking, and reconciliation /general editors, David K. Ngaruiya and Rodney L. Reed. In this volume from the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology, contributors explore forgiveness, peacemaking and reconciliation as necessary prerequisites for human flourishing. Ranging from biblical studies and church history to medical ethics and public theology, this collection offers a rich diversity of voices and perspectives as each author reflects on God’s heart for conflict alleviation within the contexts of their own communities, nations, histories, and academic disciplines. Taken together, these contributions offer profound insight into both the particularities and generalities of God’s transformative, healing work in the world.

 Fountain of salvation: Trinity and soteriology /Fred Sanders. Fountain of Salvation The theological vision expounded here by Sanders is one in which the holy Trinity is the source of salvation in a direct and personal way, as the Father sends the Son and the Holy Spirit to enact an economy of revelation and redemption. Individual chapters show how this vision informs the doctrines of atonement, ecclesiology, Christology, and pneumatology–all while directly engaging with major modern interpreters of the doctrine of the Trinity. As Sanders affirms throughout this in-depth theological treatise, the triune God is the fountain from which all other doctrine flows–and no understanding of salvation is complete that does not begin there.

 Fresh expressions in a digital age: how the church can prepare for a post-pandemic world  /Michael Adam Beck, Rosario Picardo. This book argues that we must recognize the digital space as its own kind of third place, a new missional frontier.

 God’s law and order: the politics of punishment in evangelical America /Aaron Griffith. Griffith reveals a key component in the origins of American mass incarceration: evangelical Christianity.

 Growing through disaster: tools for financial and trauma recovery in your faith community /Clayton L. Smith, Matt Schoenfeld. Helping the community recover from the trauma from a disaster, together.

 Indigenous peoples within Canada: a concise history /Olive Patricia Dickason, William Newbigging, and Cary Miller. A comprehensive and accessible history of Indigenous Peoples from time immemorial to the present day. It centres Indigenous voices and perspectives throughout and links historical patterns to contemporary issues and events.

 Jubilee: God’s answer to poverty? /edited by Hannah J. Swithinbank and Emmanuel Murangira with Caitlin Collins. Uniting social justice, creation care, equality and worship, jubilee remains a radical challenge, thousands of years later. This exciting collection engages with this challenge and offers ideas and inspiration for disciples today. It brings together rigorous theological thought and practical experience from voices from around the world. Its chapters reflect on issues of poverty in its different dimensions and discuss some of the challenges that face churches, Christian organisations and individual Christians in responding to them. The authors each bring their unique context and perspectives which challenge us to go beyond viewing the jubilee ordinances as simple rules and help us to begin to understand the redemptive and restorative power of the jubilee principles for us today.

 Martyrdom: why martyrs still matter /Catherine Pepinster. In this powerful exploration of the significance of martyrdom today,  Pepinster looks at the lives of over a dozen martyrs, past and present, to consider how ideas about giving up your life for your faith have changed over the centuries, and especially the way martyrs often become caught up in the clash between religion and politics.

 Nazis of Copley Square: the forgotten story of the Christian Front /Charles R. Gallagher. During WWII, a group of American Catholics openly embraced Nazism. Their armed wing, the Christian Front, stockpiled weapons for the revolution. Gallagher unearths the history of these forgotten terrorists, the mainstream leaders who protected them, the powers who brought them down, and a society that has suppressed their memory.

 People of the book: Prophet Muhammad’s encounters with Christians /Craig Considine. Through a careful study of works by historians and theologians, Considine highlights an idea central to Muhammad’s vision: an inclusive Ummah, or Muslim nation, rooted in citizenship rights, interfaith dialogue, and freedom of conscience, religion and speech. In this unprecedented sociological analysis of one of history’s most influential human beings, Considine offers groundbreaking insight that could redefine Christian and Muslim relations.

 Religion in the public square: Sheen, King, Falwell /James M. Patterson. Religion in the Public Square examines how three very different members of clergy– Fulton J. Sheen, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jerry Falwell–each persuaded politicians and ordinary people that his theological ideas formed the foundation of American politics.

 The history of Christianity in Britain and Ireland: from the first century to the twenty-first /Gerald Bray. Bray’s comprehensive overview demonstrates the remarkable creativity and resilience of Christianity in Britain and Ireland. Although historians have done much to explain the details of how the church has evolved separately in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, a synthesis of the whole has rarely been attempted.  Bray sets individual narratives in an overarching framework. Accessible to a general readership, The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland draws on current scholarship to serve as a reference work for students of both history and theology.

 The religious other: a biblical understanding of Islam, the Qur’an and Muhammad /general editors, Martin Accad and Jonathan Andrews. These essays, drawn from the 2018 and 2019 Middle East Consultations hosted by the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary’s Institute of Middle East Studies, engage the need for a carefully developed theological understanding of Islam, its origins and its sacred text. Weaving together the work of Christian scholars of Islam, the Bible, theology and missiology, along with the insights of ministry practitioners, this book combines scholarly exploration with pertinent ministry practice, offering a rich framework for the church to continue its conversation about its engagement with Muslim communities and its proclamation of Christ worldwide.

 Thinking through science and technology: philosophy, religion, and politics in an engineered world /edited by Glen Miller, Helena Mateus Jerónimo, and Qin Zhu. This wide-ranging collection of original essays explores how individual and societal beliefs, values, and actions are transformed by science, technology, and engineering. Practical and theoretical insights from a global cohort of philosophers, policymakers, STS scholars, and engineers illuminate the perils and promise of technoscientific change.

 We will feast: rethinking dinner, worship, and the community of God /Kendall Vanderslice. Explores the practice of eating together as Christian worship. Vanderslice shares stories of churches worshiping around the table, introducing readers to the rising contemporary dinner-church movement. We Will Feast provides vision and inspiration to readers longing to experience community in a real, physical way.

 Wrestling the angel: the foundations of Mormon thought : cosmos, God, humanity /Terryl L. Givens. This is not a work of either systematic or historical theology per se. It is, rather, the first volume in a two-part study of the foundations of Mormon thought and practice, situated in an overview of the Christian tradition.

Here is a selection of books recently added to the collection

 A companion to J.R.R. Tolkien /edited by Stuart D. Lee. This second edition of the Companion remains the most complete and up-to-date resource of its kind, encompassing new Tolkien publications, original scholarship, The Hobbit film adaptations, and the biographical drama Tolkien. Five new essays discuss the history of fantasy literature, the influence of classical mythology on Tolkien, folklore and fairytales, diversity, and Tolkien fandom. A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien is essential reading for anyone formally studying or teaching Tolkien in academic settings, and an invaluable resource for general readers with interest in Tolkien’s works or fans of the films wanting to discover more.

 Beethoven: a life in nine pieces /Laura Tunbridge. Tunbridge offers an alternative history of Beethoven’s career, placing his music in contexts that shed light on why particular pieces are valued more than others, and what this tells us about his larger-than-life reputation. Each chapter focuses on a period of his life, a piece of music, and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. We discover, along the way, Beethoven’s unusual marketing strategies, his ambitious concert programming, and how specific performers and instruments influenced his works. This book offers new ways to understand Beethoven and why his music continues to be valued today.

 My shoes are killing me: poems /Robyn Sarah.  In My Shoes are Killing Me,  award-winning  poet Robyn Sarah reflects on the passing of time, the fleetingness of dreams, and the bittersweet pleasure of thinking on the “hazardous . . . treasurehouse” that is the past. Natural, musical, meditative, warm, and unexpectedly funny, this is a restorative and moving collection from one of Canada’s most well-regarded poets.

 Saving the Protestant ethic: creative class Evangelicalism and the crisis of work /Andrew Lynn. Lynn draws on archival research and interviews with movement leaders to survey and assess the surging number of new organizations, books, conferences, worship songs, seminary classes, vocational programming, and study groups promoting classically Protestant and Calvinist ideas of work and vocation with American Evangelicalism.

 Statistics for nursing: a practical approach /Elizabeth Heavey. Statistics for Nursing: A Practical Approach presents the complicated topic of statistics in an understandable manner, so students are prepared to start their career no matter the setting. Relevant clinical examples followed by end of chapter application exercises, provide students the opportunity to practice statistics while learning. The Fourth Edition introduces Intellectus Statistics, a web-based statistical software program designed to help non-statisticians learn to conduct research and complete statistical analyses appropriately. This program simplifies the process of learning the software while helping students produce and understand the actual statistics content.

 Statistics for people who (think they) hate statistics using R /Neil J. Salkind, Leslie A. Shaw. Shaw carries forward Salkind’s signature humorous, personable, and informative approach as the text guides students in a grounding of statistical basics and R computing and the application of statistics to research studies.

 The great tower of Elfland: the mythopoeic worldview of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and George MacDonald /Zachary A. Rhone. This text overturns the misapplication of a divided worldview among two Inklings, J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, and their forerunners, G. K. Chesterton and George MacDonald. Analyzing their literary, scholarly, and interpersonal texts, The Great Tower of Elfland clarifies the unities of their thinking through five general categories: literature and language, humanism, philosophy of the personal journey, philosophy of history and civilization, and their Christian mythopoeia. Rhone analyzes the Renaissance-like Christian humanism of these authors, their belief that humans should care for animals and nature, and their assertion of fallen humanity. Next, he takes readers through Tolkien’s, Lewis’s, Chesterton’s, and MacDonald’s perspectives of the human journey, analyzing literary motifs of pathways in their texts, roads used to demonstrate their perceptions of free will, fate, and the accompanying discipleship of companions along the way. After noting the individual human journey, Rhone articulates the group’s vantages on humanity through civilization and barbarism, myth and science, and even political opinions. Finally, The Great Tower of Elfland recontextualizes the perspectives of MacDonald, Chesterton, Lewis, and Tolkien in lieu of their Christian mythopoeia, the point on which their unity hinges.

 The history of video games /Charlie Fish. This book tells all the rollercoaster stories of this fascinating young industry. Each chapter explores the history of video games through a different lens, giving a uniquely well-rounded overview.

 XVII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies: Aberdeen, 2019 /edited by Gideon R. Kotzé, Michaël N. van der Meer, and Martin Rösel. Jean MauraisTWU CONTENT This volume includes the papers given at the XVII Congress of the IOSCS. Essays in the collection fall into five areas of focus: textual history, historical context, syntax and semantics, exegesis and theology, and commentary. Scholars and students of the translation, theology, and reception of the Old Greek translation of Scripture will find in this volume critical information for future work in Septuagint studies