Here is a selection of books recently added to the collection and ready for use.

A Christian folk religion in India: a study of the small church movement in Andhra Pradesh, with special reference to the Bible Mission of Devadas /P. Solomon Raj.The book under review deals with the problem of how far inculturation in the local culture is permissible to a Christian Church, in this case the Lutheran Church in Andhra Pradesh. The author tries to show that Devadas was orthodox in matters of faith, but might have gone too far in his endeavor to make the Christian Faith palatable to the people among whom he lived, understood so well. This book  is important, because it shows that Devadas’ Bible Mission is a folk-religion which in its earthy, practical, and simple framework, well attuned to a peasant mentality, could easily establish contact with the local people and
open their hearts to the message of Christ. The author does not say it expressl,y but seems to imply that Mother Churches alone could do so, with a higher developed theology and a more sublime and elevating liturgy.

 A hobbit, a wardrobe, and a great war: how J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis rediscovered faith, friendship, and heroism in the cataclysm of 1914-1918 /Joseph Loconte. This  true story explores how Tolkien and Lewis used the cataclysm of the Great War to illuminate the human condition: to insist that grace can overcome the human frailty and even the darkest powers set against us.

 A well of wonder: essays on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Inklings /Clyde S. Kilby ; edited by Loren Wilkinson and Keith Call. This  book makes available Kilby’s wide-ranging and inspiring take on Lewis, Tolkien and the affinities they shared with their circle, the Inklings, in their enchantment with profound thought vibrant with imaginative wonder which took them beyond “the walls of the world.”

 America’s philosopher: John Locke in American intellectual life /Claire Rydell Arcenas. America’s Philosopher examines how John Locke has been interpreted, reinterpreted, and misinterpreted over three centuries of American history. Arcenas’s book tells the story of Americans’ longstanding yet ever-mutable obsession with this English thinker’s ideas, a saga whose most recent manifestations have found the so-called Father of Liberalism held up as a right-wing icon. The first book to detail Locke’s trans-Atlantic influence from the eighteenth century until today, America’s Philosopher shows how and why interpretations of his ideas have captivated Americans in ways few other philosophers–from any nation–ever have. Drawing from a host of vernacular sources to illuminate Locke’s often contradictory impact on American daily and intellectual life from before the Revolutionary War to the present, Arcenas delivers a pathbreaking work in the history of ideas.

 Bandersnatch: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the creative collaboration of the Inklings /Diana Pavlac Glyer ; iIllustrated by James A. Owen. Bandersnatch offers an inside look at the Inklings of Oxford – and a seat at their table at The Eagle and Child pub. It shows how encouragement and criticism made all the difference in The Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, and dozens of other books written by members of this literary circle. You’ll learn what made these writers tick and more.

 CAPM/PMP project management certification: exam guide /Joseph Phillips.Thoroughly revised for the current PMI Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), this up-to-date resource offers complete coverage of all the material included on the Certified Associate in Project Management and Project Management Professional exams.

Christian contribution to Indian philosophy /edited by Anand Amaladass. Papers presented at a three-day National Symposium on Christian Contribution to Indian Philosophy from 1st to 3rd March 19

  Coffee shop conversations: evangelical perspectives on current issues /edited by Russell L. Meek and N. Blake Hearson. This book is a compilation of essays written by evangelical scholars who are seeking to provide Christians with a biblical perspective on various issues relevant to the twenty-first-century church.

 Dorothy L. Sayers: her life and soul /Barbara Reynolds. This biography attests that Sayers was  one of the first women to be awarded a degree from Oxford, a playwright, and an essayist–but also a woman with personal joys and tragedies. Here, Reynolds, a close friend of Sayers, presents a convincing and balanced portrait of one of the 20th century’s most brilliant, creative women.

 G.K. Chesterton: a half century of views /edited by D.J. Conlon. In this collection of essays, Conlon presents the views of more than fifty writers on the private and public Chesterton. Writers such as George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh, Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, V. S. Pritchett, A. N. Wilson and many others show the range and the nature of Chesterton’s impact over the last half century.

 Good news about injustice: a witness of courage in a hurting world /Gary A. Haugen ; foreword by John Stott.  In Haugen’s challenging and encouraging book, he offers stories of courageous Christians who have stood up for justice in the face of human trafficking, forced prostitution, racial and religious persecution, and torture.

 J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: the story of their friendship /Colin Duriez. This dual biography explores the complexity of their literary association through a forty year friendship, including disagreements, arguing that without Tolkien there would have been no Lewis, and without Lewis, no Tolkien.

 Once upon an Eid: stories of hope and joy by 15 Muslim voices /edited by S.K. Ali and Aisha Saeed illustrated by Sara Alfageeh. A collection of short stories that showcases the most brilliant Muslim voices writing today, all about the most joyful holiday of the year.The anthology includes a poem, graphic-novel chapter, and spot illustrations.

 Pastoral ethics: moral formation as life in the Trinity /W. Ross Hastings. Hastings provides pastors an evangelical and trinitarian framework for moral formation and ethical discernment. For Hastings, ethics must be reclaimed as theological. An approach to ethics that prompts faith, hope, and love, Pastoral Ethics is an essential guide for Christians in all ministry contexts.

 Renaissance of wonder: the fantasy worlds of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, E. Nesbit, and others /Marion Lochhead. The author writes] about the development of the world of fantasy and faery from its nineteenth-century renaissance to the great masters of the genre, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien

 The art of living for a technological age: towards a humanizing performance /Ashley John Moyse. The Art of Living for A Technological Age sketches the crisis of our late modern age, where persons are enamored by the promises of progress and disciplined to form by the power of technology–the ontology of our age. Yet, it also offers a response, attending to those performative activities, educative and transformative social practices that might allow us to live humanly and bear witness to human being (becoming) for a technological age.

 The arts and the Christian imagination: essays on art, literature, and aesthetics /Clyde S. Kilby ; edited by William Dyrness and Keith Call. In The Arts and the Christian Imagination, we are privileged to receive Kilby’s wise insights into areas such as Christianity and Aesthetics, the vocation of the artist, and the role of the theological imagination.  The Arts and the Christian Imagination is a landmark book. Its scope is breathtaking, bringing together in one place well-known “signature” essays by Clyde Kilby and unknown but equally excellent ones. The essays in this book, masterfully edited, sum up what a whole era wanted to say about literature and art in themselves and in relation to the Christian faith.

  The bishop’s man: a novel /Linden MacIntyre. Father Duncan MacAskill has spent most of his priesthood as a the bishop’s clean-up man, sent in to discipline wayward priests and defuse potential scandal while moderating the emotions of victims. When sent by his bishop to a country parish to avoid a big media scandal, Duncan must confront his consequences of past cover-ups and the suppression of his own human needs.

The Christian presence in India: editorials in the N.C.C. review /by Mathai Zachariah ; with a foreword by M.M. Thomas. Essays selected from editorials written for the National Council Review between the years 1968 and 1980. The editorials are Christian comments on current events in church, sociey and politics in India.

The conversion story of a great Tamil poet and his family /by V. Gnanasikhamani. Krishna Pillai began to study Christian scriptures and at the age of thirty,  in 1858,  was baptized  and became a Christian by the name of Henry Alfred Krishna Pillai. Few years after his wife and three children along with his mother also converted in to Christianity.  Pillai is considered one of the most important Tamil poets of 19th centuaryl. His Ratchanya yathrigam is based on John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, although not a translation. The work itself took 16 years to complete and is one of finest works of Tamil literature of the nineteenth century.  Krishnapillai used analogies from Hindu texts in his Christian writings. and his hymns are still popular among Tamil Protestants.

 The fellowship: the literary lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams /Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski. The authors offer the first complete rendering of the Inklings’ lives and works

 The forgotten Desert Mothers: sayings, lives, and stories of early Christian women /Laura Swan. An introduction to the sayings, lives, stories, and spirituality of women in the postbiblical, early Christian movement.

 The languages of Tolkien’s Middle-earth /Ruth S. Noel. This is the book on all of Tolkien’s invented languages, spoken by hobbits, elves, and men of Middle-earth — a dicitonary of fourteen languages, an English-Elvish glossary, all the runes and alphabets, and material on Tolkien the linguist.

 The lord of the rings: the making of the movie trilogy /Brian Sibley ; [foreword by Ian McKellen]. The Lord of the rings : the making of the movie trilogy reveals in words and pictures exactly how the magic was made: from the direction, scripting and acting, to creating the sets, landscapes, makeup, wardrobe, miniatures, music and special effects.

 The ring of words: Tolkien and the Oxford English dictionary /Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, Edmund Weiner.  Three senior editors of the OED offer an intriguing exploration of Tolkien’s career as a lexicographer and illuminate his creativity as a word user and word creator. The centerpiece of the book is a wonderful collection of “word studies” which will delight the heart of Ring fans and word lovers everywhere. The editors look at the origin of such Tolkienesque words as “hobbit,” “mithril, “Smeagol,” “Ent,” “halfling,” and “worm” (meaning “dragon”). Readers discover that a word such as “mathom” (anything a hobbit had no immediate use for, but was unwilling to throw away) was actually common in Old English, but that “mithril,” on the other hand, is a complete invention (and the first “Elven” word to have an entry in the OED). Fans of Harry Potter will be surprised to find that “Dumbledore” (the name of Hogwart’s headmaster) was a word used by Tolkien and many others (it is a dialect word meaning “bumblebee”). The Ring of Words offers a fresh and unexplored angle on the literary achievements of one of the world’s most famous and best-loved writers.

 War of the fantasy worlds: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien on art and imagination /Martha C. Sammons. This book is the first to focus solely on their contrasting concepts of fantasy.It is not a critical analysis of The lord of the rings or The chronicles of Narnia. Rather, it examines only elements of Tolkien’s and Lewis’s books that relate to their views about art, fantasy, and creativity, or the implementation of their theories. The result is a unique and altogether fascinating perspective on two of the most revered fantasy authors of all time.

 Why read the Bible in the original languages? /Takamitsu Muraoka. A range of linguistic issues touching on the three original languages are discussed in the light of actual examples. Matters of culture and rhetoric are also taken up. A special chapter is devoted to the Septuagint as a bridge between the two Testaments. The book is written in a non-technical style, hence easily readable by non-specialists, but specialists may also find things of interest.