What's God Saying Here?
Preachers and teachers are expected in Scripture to teach the whole counsel of God. Yet, in the Bible, God says some rather odd things, and strange things seem to happen. The natural tendency for preachers and teachers alike is to skip over such troubling texts. We tend to cherry pick from passages that we like and conveniently stray from texts or verses that are confrontational or bizarre. Many teachers of the Bible will ask, "How do you teach that? Let's just move on to the next passage or the next verse."In What's God Saying Here? Eric J. Bargerhuff and Matthew D. Kim offer advice on how to handle and communicate 30 of the most confusing verses, passages, sayings, and stories in the Bible. With the authors' advice and encouragement and help from the Holy Spirit, preachers and teachers will be less fearful about teaching such confusing passages. Providing suggestions for exegeting, illustrating, and applying these difficult passages, this book offers guiding principles for teaching peculiar texts with greater precision and confidence.
Healing Ableism
Most people encounter disability at some point in their lives, either in their own bodies or through a friend or loved one. Faith leaders, sacred texts, and members of religious communities frequently offer religious teachings and metaphors as explanation for the presence of disability, but rarely do we hear the voices of people living with disabilities reflecting on their experiences of God, faith, or religious life. In Healing Ableism: Stories about Disability and Religious Life, Darla Schumm explores the extraordinary stories of people with disabilities who struggle with the ordinary human challenges of faith and doubt, exclusion and inclusion, and injustice and justice. Blending candid story-telling, cultural critique, and theory, Schumm invites readers to reflect on the experiences of people with disabilities in religious communities and organizations. Schumm argues that it's not disability that needs healing, it's ableism that needs healing. In the final chapter, Schumm offers accessible love as one avenue for healing ableism.
Religion Is Not Done with You
A smart, irreverent, and accessible guide to thinking more deeply about how religion permeates and shapes the world around us -and why you need to understand the work it's doing Religion lurks in the floorboards of our daily lives, whether we want it to or not. A departure from more traditional approaches to "Religion 101," Religion Is Not Done with You gives thought-provoking context to the basics of religious studies by challenging readers to consider the origins of their assumptions about religion and broaden their perspectives on what religion is and does. Religion scholars and Keeping It 101 podcast duo Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst and Megan Goodwin offer their straightforward, plainspoken overviews of religious studies theory: that religion is what people do (not just beliefs or individual practices); that people are complicated and messy and constantly changing, which means religion is also complicated and messy and constantly changing; that religion shapes what choices you get to make. Choices like what you can learn in school; how your government works; what kind of options you have (or increasingly don't have) in caring for your own body. Sure, you have the choice to participate in religion or not. But how you make that choice builds on your entire personal history, your connection to communities and regions, and the systems that surround you. All of which have been shaped by religion. Religion is systems and structures and assumptions we didn't create or choose - and, to be honest, we might not even like or agree with. You can feel however you want to feel about religion, but religion is shaping your world whether you like it or not. And if you don't like how religion is shaping our world? This book might just be your first step in diagnosing the problems and agitating for positive change. Even if you are done with religion, religion is not done with you.
Lectionary Reflections
This book is one of three volumes that bring together Jane Williams's widely read and much enjoyed Church Times columns.Here, she offers reflections on the Sunday readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for Year B. Each section gives the lectionary references and provides a thought-provoking starting point for exploring the readings, drawing out points of connection between them.Intelligently written in an engaging and inspiring style, Lectionary Reflections will prove invaluable in preparation for Sunday worship or for regular Bible study throughout the year. It will be of use to individuals and groups for opening up the Bible and applying its rich teaching and stories.
For Such a Time as This
A devotional for ordinary Christians seeking to live faithfully in extraordinary times"This is not the first end of the world. Many worlds have ended."In an era of political polarization, eroding democratic norms, and rising authoritarianism, many Christians find themselves disoriented, wondering how their faith should inform myriad daily decisions. Drawing upon both scholarship and pastoral wisdom, theologian Hanna Reichel offers a timely resource for believers seeking spiritual grounding amid societal upheaval.For Such a Time as This provides a thoughtful framework for discernment rooted in scripture, historical wisdom, and the core commitments of Christian faith. Through meditations on scripture, reflections on historical precedents including the Confessing Church's resistance to Nazi Germany, and portraits of inspiring figures who maintained their integrity in the face of oppression, Reichel guides readers toward their own Christian response to the present moment.Written specifically for ordinary believers, this accessible volume acknowledges that while some are called to dramatic public witness, all must face the daily challenge of living faithfully as long-established institutions and systems reveal their fragility. Neither alarmist nor complacent, Reichel reminds readers that Christians throughout history have faced the collapse of worlds they once took for granted--and have discovered unexpected liberation in the process.For anyone troubled by current political trends and searching for ways to disentangle faith in God from misplaced trust in political systems, For Such a Time as This offers both challenge and comfort. Readers will come away with practical wisdom for navigating our uncertain times, a deeper understanding of Christianity's resources for resistance, and renewed energy for the urgent tasks that faithful discipleship demands today."None of this is unprecedented; what is unprecedented is that today it is we who have to do the hard work of seeing idols smashed, grieving and picking up the pieces, holding them into the sun, and seeing new refractions of light in their edges."
Blessed Weakness
Reflect on Cistercian abbot Dom Andr矇 Louf's insightful homilies. Blessed Weakness contains Dom Andr矇's homilies on the Gospel passages for year A of the church's three-year liturgical cycle. These homilies reflect Dom Andr矇's spiritual insights about the wisdom in the teachings of Christ. The title conveys a favorite theme of Dom Andr矇's: God's special love for humans in their weakness, manifested in Jesus' leaving behind his glory to become one of us in weakness, living among and ministering to the poor. Contemplative reflection on these Gospel passages and on Dom Andr矇's insights will provide a path for the reader and hearer to seek a deeper union with God.
The First English Prayer Book
In 1549 Thomas Cranmer published the first Prayer Book in English. Based on a medieval form of worship, its language is both sublime and majestic. This new edition presents Cranmer's services in a form which is practical, accessible and easy to follow.
The Naturalist and the Christ
This five-part Lent course draws on the life, work and religious struggles of Charles Darwin as depicted in the 2009 film 'Creation', a film based on the book 'Annie's Box' by Darwin's great-great-grandson Randal Keynes. This compelling and accessible Lent course looks at questions of great importance to all Christians. Can God and evolution co-exist? Why did the Victorian Church find it so hard to accept Darwin's theory? Why do some Christians today find it difficult? What implications does evolution have for the Church and her doctrine? What is the authority or 'reliability' of scripture? To what extent were Darwin's own Christian beliefs shaped by the theology of his day, and how did this lead to his loss of faith after the death of his daughter Annie in 1851? Where is God in all the suffering of his creation? This innovative and interactive Lent course, which is written for Christians of all denominations and could easily be undertaken by an ecumenical group comprising different traditions, addresses these questions with clarity and depth of understanding in a proven and highly successful format.
The San Piper
On a camping trip through the Kalahari bush Uys Lafra meets Teecha, of the San people. In a 7 day apprenticeship he is taught the basics of physical survival, and absorbs the Bushman's view of life. Teachings on faith, destiny, spiritual balance, on the nature of spirit and the beginning and ending of all things, overturn his own assumptions and change his life forever.
