Here is a selection of print and eBook titles recently added to the collection and ready for use.
A beautiful question: finding nature’s deep design / Frank Wilczek. Wilczek explores just how intertwined our ideas about beauty and art are with our scientific understanding of the cosmos. Wilczek brings us right to the edge of knowledge today, where the core insights of even the craziest quantum ideas apply principles we all understand. The universe itself, suggests Wilczek, seems to want to embody beautiful and elegant forms. Gorgeously illustrated, A Beautiful Question is a mind-shifting book that braids the age-old quest for beauty and the age-old quest for truth into a thrilling synthesis.
Braiding legal orders: implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples / John Borrows, Larry Chartrand, Oonagh E. Fitzgerald and Risa Schwartz, editors. These essays engage with the legal, historical, political and practical aspects of UNDRIP implementation. Written by Indigenous legal scholars and policy leaders, and guided by the metaphor of braiding international, domestic and Indigenous laws into a strong, unified whole composed of distinct parts, the book makes visible the possibilities for reconciliation from different angles and under different lenses. – 
Chinese Collection: Tan suo Jidu yu ma ke si de zhong jian dao lu: ding guang xun zhu jiao chu jing shen xue yan jiu = In search of the Via Media between Christ and Marx : a study of Bishop Ding Guangxun’s contextual theology / Li Jieren zhu ; Li Luke yi.
Chinese Collection: Delan xiu nü zhuan: Shangdi de li wu = Works of love are works of peace / Hua Zi zhu.
Christian-Muslim relations during the Crusades / Alex Mallett. In a clear and accessible form, this book explores everyday relations and interactions between Christians and Muslims in the Levant during the Crusades, demonstrating that it was usually practicality rather than religious scruples that dictated their responses to the religious other.
Ending human trafficking: a handbook of strategies for the church today / Shayne Moore, Sandra Morgan ; and Kimberly McOwen Yim. Ending Human Trafficking is a handbook designed to educate churches and parachurch organizations for truly effective work. In collaboration with The Global Center for Women and Justice at Vanguard University, Ending Human Trafficking is an accessible and compelling resource for Christian leaders, written by seasoned leaders in the struggle against modern slavery. Grounded in a theological response to the issue and filled with stories, up-to-date data, and practical tools and tips, it promises to be an invaluable resource for years to come.
Evolutionary theology: a critical introduction / Michael Anthony Abril. Evolutionary Theology provides a clear, critical, and concise synthesis of the most influential viewpoints in the field–from its origins in the eighteenth century to its maturation in the twenty-first. Topics include scientific contributions, philosophical ideas, dogmatic debates, and the development of process theology
Hope for the afflicted: a framework for sharing the good news with asylum seekers and refugees / Jairo de Oliveira ; forewords by Edward L. Smither and Warren Larson. de Oliveira deals with the topic based on his interactions with the Fur, a Muslim people group from Darfur, Sudan, living as asylum seekers and refugees in Jordan, in the Middle East. After providing a thorough historical background and cultural analysis of Fur, the author commends a contextualization model and fruitful practices that emerged from his study of the people. Hope for the Afflicted serves as a manual and practical guide for those who feel called to engage the current migration crisis by proclaiming the hope of the gospel and discipling asylum seekers and refugees worldwide
I heard there was a secret chord: music as medicine / Daniel J. Levitin. Levitin reveals how the deep connections between music and the human brain can be harnessed for healing. A work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and joyful celebration of the human mind, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord explores the critical role music has played in human evolution, illuminating how the story of the human brain is inseparable from the creative enterprise of music that has bound cultures together throughout history. Levitin demonstrates in this follow-up to This Is Your Brain on Music medical researchers are now finding that these same deep connections can be harnessed to create profound benefits for those both young and old
Imagining for real: essays on creation, attention and correspondence / Tim Ingold. Ingold sets out to heal the break between reality and imagination at the heart of modern thought and science. Imagining for Real joins with a lifeworld ever in creation, attending to its formative processes, corresponding with the lives of its human and nonhuman inhabitants. Building on two previous essay collections, this book rounds off the extraordinary intellectual project of one of the world’s most renowned anthropologists. Offering hope in troubled times, these essays speak to coming generations in a language that surpasses disciplinary divisions.
Iron and blood: a military history of the German-speaking peoples since 1500 / Peter H. Wilson. Wilson looks to 500 years of history to contest rigid assumptions about German militarism.
Jane Austen and reflective selfhood: rereading the self / Linda Charlton. This book makes connections between selfhood, reading practice and moral judgment which propose fresh insights into Austen’s narrative style and offer new ways of reading her work. It grounds her writing in the Enlightenment philosophy of selfhood, exploring how Austen takes five major components of selfhood theory, memory, imagination, probability, sympathy, and reflection and investigates their relation to self-formation and moral judgement. Drawing analogies between reading text and reading character, the book argues that Austen’s rendering of reading and rereading as both reflective and constitutive acts demonstrates their capacity to enable self-recognition and self-formation. It shows how Austen raises questions about the potential for different readings and, in so doing, challenges her readers to reflect on and reread their own interactions with her texts.
Jane Austen and the price of happiness / Inger Sigrun Bredkjaer Brodey. This work explores how, through shifts in narrative tone and pacing at the conclusions of her novels, Jane Austen gives her readers the happy ending they crave, but leaves its price tag attached
Lytton: climate change, colonialism and life before the fire / Peter Edwards and Kevin Loring. Edwards and Loring, two sons of Lytton, BC, which burned to the ground in 2021, offer a meditation on hometown–when hometown is gone. This book is the story of Lytton, told from a shared perspective, of an Indigenous playwright and the journalist son of a settler doctor who quietly but sternly pushed back against the divisions that existed between populations Portrayed with all the warmth, humour and sincerity of small-town life, the colourful little town that burned to the ground could be every town’s warning if we don’t take seriously what this unique place has to teach us.
Making: anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture / Tim Ingold. Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture are all ways of making, and all are dedicated to exploring the conditions and potentials of human life. Ingold ties the four disciplines together in a way that has never been attempted before. In a radical departure from conventional studies that treat art and architecture as compendia of objects for analysis, Ingold proposes an anthropology and archaeology not of but with art and architecture.
Mental health, gender, and the rise of sport / Gerald R. Gems. This book explores the historical role of sport as a prescription for mental and physical health through the epidemic of neurasthenia, a debilitating neurological disorder that afflicted American society throughout the latter nineteenth century.
Modern genre theory: an introduction for biblical studies / Andrew Judd. This book offers students in biblical studies an accessible but comprehensive introduction to modern genre theory, providing access to literary tools for understanding how writers and readers use genre to make meaning. In one convenient package, this book first describes the current state of biblical genre theory, what form criticism is, and why it needs to die. It then presents a better alternative based on. the best developments in secular literary theory, linguistics, and rhetorical studies. Judd proposes a working definition of genre for biblical studies as relatively stable conventions that writers and readers use to make meaning in certain contexts but not others. He identifies twelve tenets of modern genre theory that follow from seeing genres in their historical and social context.
On classical Trinitarianism: retrieving the Nicene doctrine of the triune God / Matthew Barrett, ed. ; foreword by J. Todd Billings. Motivated by the longstanding need to retrieve the classical doctrine of the Trinity, Barrett brings together over forty Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox scholars in one ecumenical volume, demonstrating that Nicene orthodoxy can endure in the modern world and unite the church catholic
Pacific Northwest insects / by Merrill A. Peterson. This field guide sets a new standard for insect identification, making it an indispensable resource to naturalists, educators, gardeners, and others. Pacific Northwest Insects features detailed species accounts, each with a vivid photograph of a living adult, along with information for distinguishing similar species, allowing the reader to identify more than 3,000 species found from southern British Columbia to northern California, and as far east as Montana. The book features most of the commonly encountered insects, spiders, scorpions, millipedes, centipedes, and kin in the Pacific Northwest, as well as representatives of an amazing variety of unusual and interesting insects living in the area.
Paradise / Dante Alighieri ; translated with an introduction, notes, and commentary by Mark Musa. In his translation of Paradise, Musa captures the vibrant power and full dramatic force of Dante’s poetry. Dante relates his mystical interpretation of the heavens, and his moment of transcendent glory, as he journeys, first with Beatrice, then alone, toward the Trinity. Musa’s translation and his interpretive commentary, informative glossary, and bibliography clarify the theological themes and make Dante accessible to the English-speaking public.
Prison life and the aftermath of thug living: chaplain training approaches to pastoral care for the long-term incarcerated / Damien W. D. Davis ; foreword by Sharon Ellis Davis. This study highlights what pastoral care should resemble for chaplains working in prison through the critical lens and assessment of formally incarcerated citizens. Furthermore, this work reflects on their experiences with chaplains and reconstructs how chaplaincy provides care. Davis utilizes qualitative data, interviews/questions, observations, and storytelling to measure his results
Reading for the love of God: how to read as a spiritual practice / Jessica Hooten Wilson. Wilson shows us how to read as a spiritual practice in a way that encourages humility, increases our charity toward others, frees our minds and hearts from the trappings of contemporary idols, and directs us toward contemplation.
Synoptikon: streams of tradition in Mark, Matthew, and Luke / by Bruce Chilton, with Alan J. Avery-Peck, Darrell Bock, Craig A. Evans, Daniel M. Gurtner, Lawrence H. Schiffman This Synoptikon brings together the Synoptic Gospels, freshly translated, comparing them with materials selected from previous volumes in this series. The aim is to serve commentators who engage the Gospels critically and with the awareness that a consideration of their Judaic environments is crucial. Placing the texts within that setting evokes particular streams of tradition that interacted so as to produce the Gospels. These are set out in distinctive typefaces, so that readers may assess the depth of the Synoptic tradition as well as the breadth of its development
The age of AI: and our human future / Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher ; with Schuyler Schouten.
The Arab-Israeli conflict: an introduction and documentary reader / Gregory S. Mahler. This textbook examines the diplomatic and historical setting within which the Arab-Israeli conflict has developed, and gives students the opportunity to study the Middle East peace process through a presentation of primary documents that have been instrumental in the development of the conflict from the mid-1800s through the present. This edition includes an updated and expanded introduction and a significant expansion of the number of documents.
The blazing world: a new history of revolutionary England, 1603-1689 / Jonathan Healey. A fresh, exciting, readable and informative history of seventeenth-century England, a time of revolution when society was on fire and simultaneously forging the modern world. Healy makes a convincing argument that the turbulent era qualifies as truly ‘revolutionary,’ not simply because of its cascading political upheavals, but in terms of far-reaching changes within society. The Blazing World is the story of this strange, twisting, fascinating century. It shows a society in sparkling detail.
The Messiah of the Targums: messianic exegesis of the Hebrew Bible / Michael B. Shepherd. This book explores how the ancient Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible known as Targums are in part designed to guide readers to see the messianism of the biblical text.
The philosophical breakfast club: four remarkable friends who transformed science and changed the world / Laura J. Snyder. Traces the influential friendship of William Whewell, Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and Richard Jones, citing their pivotal contributions to a significant array of scientific achievements throughout the mid-nineteenth century.
The sensory studies manifesto: tracking the sensorial revolution in the arts and human sciences / David Howes. The Sensory Studies Manifesto opens multiple lines of investigation into the diverse ways in which human beings sense and make sense of the world. This unique volume treats the human sensorium as a dynamic whole, which is best approached from historical, anthropological, geographic, and sociological perspectives. Howes challenges the assumptions of mainstream Western psychology by foregrounding the agency, interactivity, creativity, and wisdom of the senses as shaped by culture. The Sensory Studies Manifesto sets the stage for a radical reorientation of research in the human sciences and artistic practice.
The truth about English grammar / Geoffrey K. Pullum. Pullum breaks away from the tradition, presupposing no prior knowledge or technical terms, he provides an informal introduction to the essential concepts underlying grammar and usage. With the foundation he provides, you will be equipped to understand the classification of words, the structure of phrases and clauses, and why some supposed grammar rules are really just myths. Also covered are some of the key points about spelling, apostrophes, hyphens, capitalization, and punctuation.
They flew: a history of the impossible / Carlos M.N. Eire. An examination of impossible events at the dawn of modernity and of their enduring significance. Eire explores how a culture increasingly devoted to scientific thinking grappled with events deemed impossible by its leading intellectuals. Eire observes how levitating saints and flying witches were as essential a component of early modern life as the religious turmoil of the age, and as much a part of history as Newton’s scientific discoveries. Relying on an array of firsthand accounts, and focusing on exceptionally impossible cases involving levitation, bilocation, witchcraft, and demonic possession, Eire challenges established assumptions about the redrawing of boundaries between the natural and supernatural that marked the transition to modernity. Using as his case studies stories about St. Teresa of Avila, St. Joseph of Cupertino, the Venerable María de Ágreda, and three disgraced nuns, Eire challenges readers to imagine a world animated by a different understanding of reality and of the supernatural’s relationship with the natural world. The questions he explores-such as why and how “impossibility” is determined by cultural contexts, and whether there is more to reality than meets the eye or can be observed by science-have resonance and lessons for our time.
Thich Nhat Hanh: essential writings / edited by Robert Ellsberg ; introduction by Sister Annabel Laity. Drawn from more than twenty of the books of Thich Nhat Hanh, these are the essential writings of one of the most popular spiritual writers of today. This selection is aimed at the mind, body and spirit.
Who we are: four questions for a life and a nation / Murray Sinclair (Mazina Giizhik) ; as told to Sara Sinclair and Niigaanwedom Sinclair. This is Murray Sinclair’s story–and the story of a nation–in his own words, an oral history that forgoes the trappings of the traditional written memoir to center Indigenous ways of knowledge and storytelling. Sinclair guides us to ask the most important and difficult question we can ask of ourselves: Who are we? And now, for the first time, he shares his full story–and his full vision for our nation–with readers across Canada. Who We Are examines the roles of history, resistance, and resilience in the pursuit of finding that path forward, and healing the damaged relationship between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Worship in an age of anxiety: how churches can create space for healing / J. Michael Jordan. Jordan challenges the manipulative, utilitarian approach to worship, offering a critical assessment of contemporary as well as historical evangelical figures such as D. L. Moody and Billy Graham who have deployed anxiety as a tool for conversion. Proposing a completely different model, Jordan takes up various elements of worship, including liturgy, space, music, and preaching the sacraments. In doing so, he develops a practical theology of worship that also turns people toward God but within a healing framework.
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