Social Issues
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Color Of Compromise
$22.99Add to cartAn acclaimed, timely narrative of how people of faith have historically–up to the present day–worked against racial justice. And a call for urgent action by all Christians today in response.
The Color of Compromise is both enlightening and compelling, telling a history we either ignore or just don’t know. Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices. You will be guided in thinking through concrete solutions for improved race relations and a racially inclusive church.
The Color of Compromise
*Takes you on a historical, sociological, and religious journey: from America’s early colonial days through slavery and the Civil War
*Covers the tragedy of Jim Crow laws, the victories of the Civil Rights era, and the strides of today’s Black Lives Matter movement
*Reveals the cultural and institutional tables we have to flip in order to bring about meaningful integration
*Charts a path forward to replace established patterns and systems of complicity with bold, courageous, immediate action
*Is a perfect book for pastors and other faith leaders, students, non-students, book clubs, small group studies, history lovers, and all lifelong learnersThe Color of Compromise is not a call to shame or a platform to blame white evangelical Christians. It is a call from a place of love and desire to fight for a more racially unified church that no longer compromises what the Bible teaches about human dignity and equality. A call that challenges black and white Christians alike to standup now and begin implementing the concrete ways Tisby outlines, all for a more equitable and inclusive environment among God’s people. Starting today.
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Be True To Yourself
$15.99Add to cartOur culture tells us that the way to be happy is to be true to yourself. It’s posted on social media, promoted in adverts, taught in schools and, even, expressed in churches. But what does that mean, and does it actually work?
Matt Fuller explores how true happiness, wholeness and freedom can be found in embracing who God has created us to be; allowing ourselves to be shaped by who the Bible says we are, rather than our own fluctuating feelings, or the voices around us. In the process, this book draws on a broad range of fascinating research and examples to give us a fresh biblical take on some of today’s biggest hot-button issues.
By cutting through the confusion and showing us something better, this is a book to help every Christian live with confidence in today’s culture.
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Who Is My Neighbor
$10.95Add to cartPart of the group of Little Books that focus on social justice and faith
Written by an immigrant who is also an Episcopal priest and now helps refugees find a new home in America We live amidst the largest mass migration in human history. God has chosen to use the Church, the Body of Christ, to be the instrument of Christ’s healing and restorative love in the world. The restorative and healing work of Christ can be accomplished when each Christian is moved by compassion to see and love the neighbor. Who is My Neighbor? puts a human face on a politically charged issue: refugees. It tells stories about refugees to challenge us all to reconsider our definition of “neighbor.”
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Earthkeeping And Character
$27.00Add to cartAddressing a topic of growing and vital concern, this book asks us to reconsider how we think about the natural world and our place in it. Steven Bouma-Prediger brings ecotheology into conversation with the emerging field of environmental virtue ethics, exploring the character traits and virtues required for Christians to be responsible keepers of the earth and to flourish in the challenging decades to come. He shows how virtue ethics can enrich Christian environmentalism, helping readers think and act in ways that rightly value creation.
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Spirit Of Hope
$34.00Add to cartFamous theologian Jurgen Moltmann returns here to the theme that he so powerfully addressed in his groundbreaking work, Theology of Hope. In the twenty-first century, he tells us, hope is challenged by ideologies and global trends that would deny hope and even life itself. Terrorist violence, social and economic inequality, and most especially the looming crisis of climate change all contribute to a cultural moment of profound despair. Moltmann reminds us that Christian faith has much to say in response to a despairing world. In “the eternal yes of the living God,” we affirm the goodness and ongoing purpose of our fragile humanity. Likewise, God’s love empowers us to love life and resist a culture of death.
The book’s two sections equally promote these affirmations, yet in different ways. The first section looks at the challenges to hope in our current world, most especially the environmental crisis. It argues that Christian faith–and indeed all the world’s religions–must orient themselves toward the wholeness of the human family and the physical environment necessary to that wholeness. The second section draws on resources from the early church, the Reformation, and the contemporary theological conversation to undergird efforts to address the deficit of hope he describes in the first section.
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Collateral Damage : Changing The Conversation About Firearms And Faith
$16.99Add to cartOne hundred people die from gun violence every day in the United States. Some fifty children and teens are shot. There are more than 35,000 gun-related deaths every year. Yet many Christians say gun violence shouldn’t be talked about in church.
In Collateral Damage, pastor and activist James E. Atwood issues an urgent call to action to Christians to work together to stop gun violence. An avid hunter for many years, Atwood enumerates the tragic and far-reaching costs that accrue in a country with more guns than people. Collateral damage includes a generalized fear and loss of trust. Suicides and homicides. Trauma for children in neighborhoods plagued by gun violence and in schools with frequent lockdown drills. A toxic machismo that shapes our boys and men in unhealthy ways. Economic costs that exceed $229 billion per year. Atwood also considers the deeper story of racism, inequality, and mass incarceration in which the conversation about gun violence is lodged.
Gun violence has been called the theological emergency of our time. The church has a moral and spiritual obligation to side with life against death. Will we rise to the occasion?
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10 Commandments Of Progressive Christianity
$7.99Add to cartA cautionary look at ten dangerously appealing half-truths.
In 1923, J. Gresham Machen, then a professor at Princeton Seminary, wrote his classic text, Christianity and Liberalism. The book was a response to the rise of liberalism in the mainline denominations of his own day. Machen argued that the liberal understanding of Christianity was, in fact, not just a variant version of the faith, nor did it represent simply a different denominational perspective, but was an entirely different religion. Put simply, liberal Christianity is not Christianity.
What is remarkable about Machen’s book is how prescient it was. His description of liberal Christianity–a moralistic, therapeutic version of the faith that values questions over answers and being “good” over being “right”–is still around today in basically the same form. For this reason alone the book should be required reading, certainly for all seminary students, pastors, and Christian leaders.
Although its modern advocates present liberal Christianity as something new and revolutionary, it is nothing of the sort. It may have new names (e.g., “emerging” or “progressive” Christianity), but it is simply a rehash of the same well-worn system that has been around for generations.
The abiding presence of liberal Christianity struck me not long ago when I came across a daily devotional from Richard Rohr that listed ten principles he thinks modern Christianity needs to embody. These ten principles are actually drawn from Philip Gulley’s book, If the Church Were Christian: Rediscovering the Values of Jesus. In that devotional series, ironically titled “Returning to Essentials,” Rohr sets forth the ten principles as a kind of confessional statement of modern liberalism (while at the same time pretending to deplore confessional statements). They are, in effect, a Ten Commandments for progressive Christianity.
Indeed, these ten sound like they were gathered not so much on the mountaintop as in the university classroom. They are less about God revealing his desires and more about man expressing his own–less Moses, more Oprah.
But take note: each of these commandments is partially true. Indeed, that is what makes this list, and progressive Christianity as a whole, so challenging. It is a master class in half-truths that sound appealing on the surface until you dig down deeper and really explore their foundations and implications. Benjamin Franklin was right when he quipped, “Half the truth is often a
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Rest For The Justice Seeking Soul
$16.99Add to cartSusan K. Williams Smith is a minister and activist who has been on the front lines of social and racial justice for many years. As she has marched shoulder-to-shoulder to resist systematic oppression, she has heard the same question over and over: “How are we going to get through this?” Rest for the Justice-Seeking Soul was birthed out of those cries.
Here is a soul-care manual for social justice-seeking believers who stand in constant vigilance against all forms of racial, class, and gender oppression. The fight for justice and equality is an exhausting daily grind–and the work is never over. That’s why it is incumbent upon all who speak and advocate for the less fortunate to practice self-care. You can’t fight when your tank is empty.
In response to the many calls and emails she has received from friends, clergy, and strangers who are in utter despair and even deep depression, she has created ninety daily devotions to provide a daily spoonful of hope and encouragement, a healing balm to “strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees” (Hebrews 12:12). Lift your gaze upward toward a better future by allowing God to restore harmony and focus in your soul and justice in your community. Our God is bigger than whoever is oppressing you. As the old hymn states, “Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.”
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Abortion And The Christian Tradition
$40.00Add to cartAbortion remains the most contested political issue in American life. Poll results have remained surprisingly constant over the years, with roughly equal numbers supporting and opposing it. A common perception is that abortion is contrary to Christian teaching and values. While some have challenged that perception, few have attempted a comprehensive critique and constructive counterargument on Christian ethical and theological grounds. Margaret Kamitsuka begins with a careful examination of the church’s biblical and historical record, refuting the assumption that Christianity has always condemned abortion or that it considered personhood as beginning at the moment of conception. She then offers carefully crafted ethical arguments about the pregnant woman’s authority to make reproductive decisions and builds a theological rationale for seeing abortion as something other than a sin.
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I Bring The Voices Of My People
$30.99Add to cartDisrupting the racist and sexist biases in conversations on reconciliation
Chanequa Walker-Barnes offers a compelling argument that the Christian racial reconciliation movement is incapable of responding to modern-day racism. She demonstrates how reconciliation’s roots in the evangelical, male-centered Promise Keepers’ movement has resulted in a patriarchal and largely symbolic effort, focused upon improving relationships between men from various racial-ethnic groups.Walker-Barnes argues that highlighting the voices of women of color is critical to developing any genuine efforts toward reconciliation. Drawing upon intersectionality theory and critical race studies, she demonstrates how living at the intersection of racism and sexism exposes women of color to unique experiences of gendered racism that are not about relationships, but rather are about systems of power and inequity.Refuting the idea that race and racism are “one-size-fits-all,” I Bring the Voices of My People highlights the particular work that White Americans must do to repent of racism and to work toward racial justice and offers a constructive view of reconciliation that prioritizes eliminating racial injustice and healing the damage that it has done to African Americans and other people of color. -
No Avatars Allowed
$21.95Add to cartReaches across generations to explore divinity, humanity, and technology through the lens of video games
Challenges readers to look theologically at how they play Since the advent of video games in the 1960s, they have become the common experience of everyone from Gen-X to the Millennial and post-Millennial generations. While many of today’s clergy, parishioners, and theologians grew up gaming, the church’s stance regarding video games is one of, at best, bemusement. This book takes seriously the idea that video games can challenge us to think more deeply about our reality, divinity, faith, and each other. It draws readers into a small, but growing, conversation about models of incarnation and what it means to distinguish between the virtual and the real. This book will introduce readers to concepts and questions from the perspective of a Christian systematic theologian who has been playing games since he was four years old, and who has been writing, speaking, and podcasting about this topic since 2010. It is an invitation into a relatively new conversation about divinity, humanity, and technology.
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End Of Hunger
$17.99Add to cartJesus’ command is clear: we are called to feed all of God’s children. But is that possible? Bringing together activists, politicians, scientists, pastors, theologians, and artists, this is a comprehensive picture of the current situation with the latest facts and figures, compelling stories both from those fighting against hunger and from the hungry themselves, and clear steps for action by individuals, families, churches, and communities.
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Separated By The Border
$18.99Add to cartIn 2017 five-year-old Julia traveled with her mother, Guadalupe, from Honduras to the United States.
Her harrowing journey took her through Mexico in the cargo section of a tractor trailer. Then she was separated from her mother, who was held hostage by smugglers who exploited her physically and financially. At the United States border, Julia came through the processing center as an unaccompanied minor after being separated from her stepdad who was deported. Gena Thomas tells the story of how Julia came to the United States, what she experienced in the system, and what it took to reunite her with her family. A Spanish-speaking former missionary, Gena became Julia’s foster mother and witnessed firsthand the ways migrant children experience trauma. Weaving together the stories of birth mother and foster mother, this book shows the human face of the immigrant and refugee, the challenges of the immigration and foster care systems, and the tenacious power of motherly love.
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Holy Disunity : How What Separates Us Can Save Us
$20.00Add to cartThese days, there’s no dirtier word than “divisive,” especially in religious and political circles. Claiming a controversial opinion, talking about our differences, even sharing our doubts can be seen as threatening to the goal of unity. But what if unity shouldn’t be our goal?
In Holy Disunity: How What Separates Us Can Save Us, Layton E. Williams proposes that our primary calling as humans is not to create unity but rather to seek authentic relationship with God, ourselves, one another, and the world around us. And that means actively engaging those with whom we disagree. Our religious, political, social, and cultural differences can create doubt and tension, but disunity also provides surprising gifts of perspective and grace. By analyzing conflict and rifts in both modern culture and Scripture, Williams explores how our disagreements and differences–our disunity–can ultimately redeem us.
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With Her Last Breath
$15.99Add to cartWith Her Last Breath looks for answers of hope for those struggling with thoughts of suicide and their loved ones.
When Barbara M. Roberts first heard that her niece, Kathy, had taken her life, the pain was so bad she could barely stand it. If only she had called her more often; if only they had taken her to dinner one more time; if only she had taken her ‘suicide talk’ more seriously.
Suicide happens so often in our society that it now almost seems normal. People used to think that Christians did not commit suicide. But when Barbara read through Kathy’s 26-page journal, written within the last 36 hours of her life, she knew she was experiencing something the likes of which she had never seen in all her years of pastoral ministry. Kathy’s journal not only details the act itself, but her reasoning behind her suicide–a depiction of why she could not stay here on this earth one more day, looking forward instead to her hope of Heaven. Each chapter of With Her Last Breath is tied to a page in Kathy’s journal, intertwining the pages with stories of others and tools to help those who are suicidal or their loved ones, including what to watch for, how to care, and where to turn. Hearing others’ stories of suffering, those struggling with suicide in any manner are able to make more sense out of their own suffering and emerge with a vision of God’s love and faithfulness.
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Bread For The Resistance
$17.99Add to cartSometimes you get tired, doing this thing we call justice. You feel burned out or disillusioned. Sometimes you just need a word from the Lord. In these daily devotions, Donna Barber offers life-giving words of renewal and hope for those engaged in the resistance to injustice. When your legs are tired from marching and your knees bruised from kneeling, you can experience rest and healing.
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Carpe Diem Redeemed
$22.99Add to cartHow do we make the most of life and the time we have? In the midst of our harried modern world, Os Guinness calls us to consequential living, reorienting our notion of history not as cyclical nor as meaningless, but as linear and purposeful. We can seek to serve God’s purpose for our generation, read the times, and discern our call for this moment in history.
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Truth Over Fear
$20.00Add to cartQuestions and fears about Islam have proliferated American life for decades, from the Iranian Revolution in 1979 to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Yet more recent history has seen a new development in the tangle of Christian-Muslim relations: the mainstreaming of Islamophobia as a path to political and societal power at the highest level. Politicians and religious leaders now routinely spread fear and confusion about Muslim beliefs and practice in order to bolster their own positions.
Many recognize what is wrong with this situation but are frustrated with what seem to be limited options for response. Truth over Fear provides resources to address the manipulation of religious misunderstanding and intolerance. From renowned Christian scholar of Islam and longtime participant in Christian-Muslim engagement, Charles Kimball demystifies Islam, the world’s second-largest religion, and provides practical guidance on how to share simple facts about Muslim beliefs and practices with family and others, how to take the first steps in dialogue with Muslim neighbors, and how to move beyond dialogue to shared ministry and community building.
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I See You
$17.99Add to cartWe don’t care about what we don’t see.
Countless people are invisible to us. We overlook the poor and homeless, partly because we don’t share much space with them. More seriously, we often choose not to see the realities around us. We hold misconceptions about who is deserving or not, or make false assumptions about people’s poverty being their own fault. Terence Lester calls us to see the invisible people around us. His personal encounters and real-life stories challenge Christians to become more informed about poverty and homelessness, and to see the poor as Jesus does. When we see people through God’s eyes and hear their stories, we restore their dignity and help them flourish. And when we recognize our own inner spiritual poverty, we have greater empathy for others, no matter their circumstances. Let love open your eyes. Discover how seeing leads us to act with compassion and justice–as God intends.
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I Was Hungry
$20.00Add to cartHunger is one of the most significant issues in America. One in eight Americans struggles with hunger, and more than 13 million children live in food insecure homes. As Christians we are called to address the suffering of the hungry and poor: “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat . . .” (Matthew 25:35). However, the problems of hunger and poverty are too large and too complex for any one of us to resolve individually.
I Was Hungry offers not only an assessment of the current crisis but also a strategy for addressing it. Jeremy Everett, a noted advocate for the hungry and poor, calls Christians to work intentionally across ideological divides to build trust with one another and impoverished communities and effectively end America’s hunger crisis. Everett, appointed by US Congress to the National Commission on Hunger, founded and directs the Texas Hunger Initiative, a successful ministry that is helping to eradicate hunger in Texas and around the globe. Everett details the organization’s history and tells stories of its work with communities from West Texas to Washington, DC, helping Christians of all political persuasions understand how they can work together to truly make a difference.
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Different Shade Of Green
$15.95Add to cartWe have been shockingly bad at using our Bibles and our brains when it comes to conservation and the environment. Unhinged environmentalism is not the answer, but neither are ignorance and apathy. It’s time for something different.
Christian responsibility for the natural world goes back to the very beginning, when God commanded us to “fill the earth and subdue it.” This Dominion Mandate is an authoritative alternative to both environmental activists and to those who think “conservation” is a word progressives made up.
So what does “dominion” mean for us, living in a world of constant reports about impending global meltdown; of oils spills, pollution, and strip-mining; of extinction threats both real and imagined? A Different Shade of Green contains a compelling Christian approach to biodiversity, life cycles, and the environment, offering solutions and correcting errors while teaching us how to give thanks for-and rule over-all of creation.
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Invited : The Power Of Hospitality In An Age Of Loneliness
$29.99Add to cartJust come on over.
Many people today feel lonely, isolated, and disconnected from God and others. We crave authentic community, but we have no idea where to start. We’d be glad to cultivate friendships; but honestly, who’s got the time?
In Invited, writer Leslie Verner says real hospitality is not having a Pinterest-perfect table or well-appointed living room. True hospitality is not clean, comfortable, or controlled. It is an invitation to enter a sacred space together with friends and strangers. Through vivid accounts from her life and travels in Uganda, China, and Tajikistan, and stories of visiting congregations in the United States, Verner shares stories of life around the table and how hospitality is at the heart of Christian community. What if we in the West learned about hospitality from people around the globe? What if our homes became laboratories of belonging?
Invited will empower you to open your home, get to know your neighbors, and prioritize people over tasks. Holy hospitality requires more of Jesus and less of us. It leads not only to loving the stranger but to becoming the stranger. Welcome to a new kind of hospitality.
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Invited : The Power Of Hospitality In An Age Of Loneliness
$16.99Add to cartJust come on over.
Many people today feel lonely, isolated, and disconnected from God and others. We crave authentic community, but we have no idea where to start. We’d be glad to cultivate friendships; but honestly, who’s got the time?
In Invited, writer Leslie Verner says real hospitality is not having a Pinterest-perfect table or well-appointed living room. True hospitality is not clean, comfortable, or controlled. It is an invitation to enter a sacred space together with friends and strangers. Through vivid accounts from her life and travels in Uganda, China, and Tajikistan, and stories of visiting congregations in the United States, Verner shares stories of life around the table and how hospitality is at the heart of Christian community. What if we in the West learned about hospitality from people around the globe? What if our homes became laboratories of belonging?
Invited will empower you to open your home, get to know your neighbors, and prioritize people over tasks. Holy hospitality requires more of Jesus and less of us. It leads not only to loving the stranger but to becoming the stranger. Welcome to a new kind of hospitality.
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Protecting Your Child From Predators
$17.00Add to cartEven good parents often underestimate the dangers their children face. Research indicates that one in four females and one in six males are sexually abused before age 18. In most cases, the enemy is not a faceless stranger; it’s someone you know and trust–a neighbor, a coach, or even a family member.This book provides practical steps to ensure you’re doing all you can to reduce the risks of abuse. But since you cannot be with your children 24/7, it goes beyond what you can do as a parent to teach you how to increase your child’s own awareness and strategies in the face of potential dangers–without making them fearful.Dr. Robinson, whose decades-long practice focuses on abused and endangered children, calls on her own case studies to show age-appropriate conversation starters for parents, teaching them how to ask the right questions and provide the right boundaries.This book will help you move from fear to confidence on this heavy topic that is just too important to ignore.
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Not Forsaken : A Story Of Life After Abuse – How Faith Brought One Woman Fr
$22.99Add to cartJenn Greenberg was abused by her church-going father. Yet she is still a Christian. In this courageous, compelling book, she reflects on how God brought life and hope in the darkest of situations. Jenn shows how the gospel enables survivors to navigate issues of guilt, forgiveness, love, and value. And she challenges church leaders to protect the vulnerable among their congregations.
Her reflections offer Biblical truths and gospel hope that can help survivors of abuse as well as those who walk alongside them.
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Unborn Untold : True Stories Of Abortion And God’s Healing Grace
$14.99Add to cartConfused. Scared. Pressured. Alone. That’s what so many of the women and men in these true stories felt when faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Many believed they had no alternative but to abort their child, while others made the difficult decision to choose life. All live with the consequences of that decision. And all have experienced the healing grace and mercy of God.
Their stories will touch your heart, expand your ability to offer compassion to all affected by abortion, and provide practical tools and guidance through the healing process.
The global abortion epidemic demands a response of support, encouragement, and grace from those on all sides of the issue. Only then will those in crisis pregnancy situations feel equipped and empowered to choose life. And only then can every person affected by abortion let go of the past and move forward into a future filled with healing and hope.
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Myth Of Equality (Expanded)
$18.99Add to cartIs privilege real or imagined? Ken Wytsma, founder of the Justice Conference, unpacks what we need to know to be grounded in conversations about today’s race-related issues. And he helps us come to a deeper understanding of both the origins of these issues and the reconciling role we are called to play as witnesses of the gospel.
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From Risk To Resilience
$16.99Add to cartGirls and women are transforming the world. Will the church support them?
Educating women is the most effective way to combat extreme poverty, slash child mortality rates, and build healthy communities. But first a girl must navigate the minefields of childhood and adolescence. Will she get pregnant or finish her education? Will she be trafficked or taught a trade? Will she be abused by authority figures or equipped for leadership?
From Risk to Resilience weaves the stories of young women between the ages of twelve and twenty-one into a tapestry of hope. Author and gender justice advocate Jenny Rae Armstrong illuminates dangers common to women and girls around the world: gender-based violence, child marriage, healthcare gaps, and damaging social attitudes. She also delves into narratives of women in Scripture, examining theologies of oppression that contain and crush women’s potential, and theologies of shalom that lift women up.
Drawing on resources from the gender justice movement and from heroines of the Bible, Armstrong offers a stirring call to action, with practical ways that churches and individuals can help girls around the globe thrive.
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If Jesus Is Lord
$28.00Add to cartWhat does Jesus have to say about violence, just war, and killing? Does Jesus ever want his disciples to kill in order to resist evil and promote peace and justice?This book by noted theologian and bestselling author Ronald J. Sider provides a career capstone statement on biblical peacemaking. Sider makes a strong case for the view that Jesus calls his disciples to love, and never kill, their enemies. He explains that there are never only two options: to kill or to do nothing in the face of tyranny and brutality. There is always a third possibility: vigorous, nonviolent resistance. If we believe that Jesus is Lord, then we disobey him when we set aside what he taught about killing and ignore his command to love our enemies.
This thorough, comprehensive treatment of a topic of perennial concern vigorously engages with the just war tradition and issues a challenge to all Christians, especially evangelicals, to engage in biblical peacemaking.
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Scoot Over And Make Some Room
$17.99Add to cartAuthor and Instagram star Heather Avis has made it her mission to introduce the world to the unique gifts and real-life challenges of those who have been pushed to the edges of society. Mama to three adopted kids – two with Down Syndrome – Heather encourages us all to take a breath, whisper a prayer, laugh a little, and make room for the wildflowers.In a world of divisions and margins, those who act, look, and grow a little differently are all too often shoved aside. Scoot Over and Make Some Room is part inspiring narrative and part encouraging challenge for us all to listen and learn from those we’re prone to ignore.Heather tells hilarious stories of her growing kids, spontaneous dance parties, forgotten pants, and navigating the challenges and joys of parenthood. She shares heartbreaking moments when her kids were denied a place at the table and when she had to fight for their voices to be heard. With beautiful wisdom and profound convictions, this manifesto will empower you to notice who’s missing in the spaces you live in, to make room for your own kids and for those others who need you and your open heart.This is your invitation to a table where space is unlimited and every voice can be heard. Because when you open your life to the wild beauty of every unique individual, you’ll discover your own colorful soul and the extraordinary, abundant heart of God.
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In Search Of The Common Good
$24.99Add to cartCommon life in our society is in decline–our communities are disintegrating, our public discourse is hateful, and economic inequalities are widening. In this book, Jake Meador reclaims a vision of common life for our fractured times: a vision that doesn’t depend on the destinies of our economies or our political institutions, but on our citizenship in a heavenly city. Only through that vision can we truly work together for the common good.
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Reading Romans With Eastern Eyes
$28.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. How To Read With Eastern Eyes
2. Paul’s Mission Frames His Message (Rom 1, 15)
3. Dishonoring God And Ourselves (Rom 1-2)
4. Distinguishing “Us” And “Them” (Rom 2)
5. Christ Saves God’s Face (Rom 3)
6. Who Is Worthy Of Honor? (Rom 4)
7. Faith In The Filial Christ (Rom 5-6)
8. The Hope Of Glory Through Shame (Rom 5-8)
9. Shamed From Birth? (Rom 7)
10. They Will Not Be Put To Shame (Rom 9-11)
11. Honor One Another (Rom 12-13)
12. The Church As “Harmonious Society” (Rom 14-16)
Discussion Guide
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture IndexAdditional Info
What does it mean to “read with Eastern eyes”? According to Jackson Wu, an Eastern perspective is in many ways culturally closer to that of the first-century world. Cultural values of honor and shame, social status, tradition, hierarchy, and relationships are similar in both East Asia and the New Testament.As readers, we bring our cultural understanding and values to the text. Our biases and background influence what we observe-and what we overlook. Wu aims to help us develop our “Eastern lenses” in order to interpret Scripture well and gain insights we might have missed.
In Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes, Wu demonstrates how an Eastern perspective sheds light on Paul’s most complex letter. When read this way, we see how honor and shame shape so much of Paul’s message and mission.
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Addiction Nation : What The Opioid Crisis Reveals About Us
$30.99Add to cart“Opioids claim the lives of 115 people per day. One of them could have been me.”
When a near-fatal illness led his doctors to prescribe narcotics, media consultant Timothy McMahan King ended up where millions of others have: addicted. Eventually King learned to manage pain without opioids–but not before he began asking profound questions about the spiritual and moral nature of addiction, the companies complicit in creating the opioid epidemic, and the paths toward healing and recovery.
We have become a society not only damaged by addiction but fueled by it. In Addiction Nation, King investigates the ways that addiction robs us of freedom and holds us back from being fully human. Through stories, theology, philosophy, and cultural analysis, King examines today’s most common addictions and their destructive consequences. In stark yet intimate prose, he looks not only at the rise of opioid abuse but at policy, pain, virtue, and habit. He also unpacks research showing patterns of addiction to technology, stress, and even political partisanship.
Addiction of any kind dims the image of God and corrupts who we were created to be. Addiction Nation nudges us toward healing from the ravages of addiction and draws us toward a spirituality sturdy enough to sate our deepest longings.
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Addiction Nation : What The Opioid Crisis Reveals About Us
$17.99Add to cart“Opioids claim the lives of 115 people per day. One of them could have been me.”
When a near-fatal illness led his doctors to prescribe narcotics, media consultant Timothy McMahan King ended up where millions of others have: addicted. Eventually King learned to manage pain without opioids–but not before he began asking profound questions about the spiritual and moral nature of addiction, the companies complicit in creating the opioid epidemic, and the paths toward healing and recovery.
We have become a society not only damaged by addiction but fueled by it. In Addiction Nation, King investigates the ways that addiction robs us of freedom and holds us back from being fully human. Through stories, theology, philosophy, and cultural analysis, King examines today’s most common addictions and their destructive consequences. In stark yet intimate prose, he looks not only at the rise of opioid abuse but at policy, pain, virtue, and habit. He also unpacks research showing patterns of addiction to technology, stress, and even political partisanship.
Addiction of any kind dims the image of God and corrupts who we were created to be. Addiction Nation nudges us toward healing from the ravages of addiction and draws us toward a spirituality sturdy enough to sate our deepest longings.
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Love Thy Body
$19.99Add to cartWhy the call to Love Thy Body? To counter a pervasive hostility toward the body and biology that drives today’s headline stories:
Transgenderism: Activists detach gender from biology. Kids down to kindergarten are being taught their bodies are irrelevant. Is this affirming–or does it demean the body?
Homosexuality: Advocates disconnect sexuality from biological identity. Is this liberating–or does it denigrate biology?
Abortion: Supporters deny the fetus is a person, though it is biologically human. Does this mean equality for women–or does it threaten the intrinsic value of all humans?
Euthanasia: Those who lack certain cognitive abilities are said to be no longer persons. Is this compassionate–or does it ultimately put everyone at risk?
In Love Thy Body, bestselling author Nancy Pearcey goes beyond politically correct slogans with a riveting expose of the dehumanizing worldview that shapes current watershed moral issues.
Pearcey then turns the tables on media boilerplate that misportrays Christianity as harsh or hateful. A former agnostic, she makes a surprising and persuasive case that Christianity is holistic, sustaining the dignity of the body and biology.
Throughout she entrances readers with compassionate stories of people wrestling with hard questions in their own lives–their pain, their struggles, their triumphs. -
Love Anyway : An Invitation Beyond A World That’s Scary As Hell
$17.99Add to cartWith almost two decades of working in conflict zones like Iraq and Syria, Jeremy Courtney has come face-to-face with ISIS, suffered U.S. airstrikes, spent jail time in Iraq, and had fatwas calling for his death. And yet, he’s learned to love anyway.Nowadays it seems we are all afraid. We fear wars and injustice, government policies and economic ruin, tragedies and the loss of those we love. Our hearts tell us a better world is possible. We can imagine it – and almost taste it – but do we dare reach beyond our fear for it? Could it be that the extraordinary, meaningful lives we dream of aren’t found in clinging to what we have, but in walking toward the very things that scare us most?Founder of Preemptive Love Coalition Jeremy Courtney knows better than most that the world can be scary as hell. With almost two decades of working in conflict zones like Iraq and Syria, Jeremy and his team have come face-to-face with ISIS, suffered U.S. airstrikes targeting the team, spent jail time in Iraq, had fatwas calling for Jeremy’s death, and yet learned to love anyway – despite being afraid. Gut honest, Jeremy shares his own journey, taking readers inside the heartbreak – and the joy – he and his family have experienced along the way.With raw accounts of living with real people amid bombings, war, and terrorism, Jeremy opens the door on what he has experienced and his struggle to understand what it all means. Love Anyway will inspire you to confront your deepest fears and live the courageous life open to you on the other side of fear. By finding ways to respond to our scary world with the kind of love that may seem a little crazy, we can become agents of hope who unmake violence itself and unfurl the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
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Affirming Gods Image
$16.99Add to cartWhat is a knowledgeable, faithfully biblical response to transgenderism?
In Affirming God’s Image, J. Alan Branch takes a fair, respectful, and factual tone in addressing this complex issue through a biblical lens.
You’ll learn:
*Scientific research around the transgender experience
*An Overview of the history of transgenderismImportant terminology surrounding gender issues
*Why people pursue gender reassignment surgery, and what happens after
*How to navigate conversations around this topicThe book ends with two practical chapters for families and churches, giving you guiding principles for how to address this issue in a loving, Christ–honoring way.
The first step to responding well to any situation is understanding it. Affirming God’s Image equips you with the biblical, scientific, and practical knowledge you need for a wise response.
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Mama Bear Apologetics
$17.99Add to cart#RoarLikeAMother
The problem with lies is they don’t often sound like lies. Their attraction is their appeal. They seem harmless, and even sound right. So what’s a Mama Bear to do to protect her children and raise them in the truth?
Mama Bear Apologetics is the book you’ve been looking for. This mom-to-mom guide will equip you to teach your kids how to form their own beliefs about what is true and what is false. Through honest storytelling and practical application, this band of Mama Bears offers tools to train your kids how to spot the lie traps intended to trip them up and the steps to take to stand strong on God’s Word.
Are you ready to answer the rallying cry, “When you mess with our kids, we will demolish your arguments”? Join the Mama Bear movement and raise your voice to protect your kids.
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Fight Forward : Reclaim The Real You
$19.99Add to cartI’m not good enough. It’s my fault. I am alone. I am worthless. The voices and lies you give power to shape who you are and attempt to hijack your identity, twisting your perspective on God, family, career, church, and other relationships. Whose voice are you listening to?
You are a champion by God’s design. In Fight Forward, Brenda Crouch bravely shares her story of overcoming the abuse she suffered as a child and an adult. She offers practical solutions that will help you – find courage to dismantle the faade and embrace your true identity.
– break the cycle of a victim mindset and trust the power of God to set you free.
– discover the strength to say no to users and learn to recognize authentic love.
– ditch self-ambition and explore the wealth of your divine purpose.
– find your voice and help others heal.Be propelled into favor and fulfillment as you listen to God’s voice. He wants you to know the relevance of your authentic value and the unique purpose for which you were born.
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God Who Sees
$16.99Add to cartMeet people who have fled their homelands.
Hagar. Joseph. Ruth. Jesus.Here is a riveting story of seeking safety in another land. Here is a gripping journey of loss, alienation, and belonging. In The God Who Sees, immigration advocate Karen Gonzalez recounts her family’s migration from the instability of Guatemala to making a new life in Los Angeles and the suburbs of south Florida. In the midst of language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and the tremendous pressure to assimilate, Gonzalez encounters Christ through a campus ministry program and begins to follow him.
Here, too, is the sweeping epic of immigrants and refugees in Scripture. Abraham, Hagar, Joseph, Ruth: these intrepid heroes of the faith cross borders and seek refuge. As witnesses to God’s liberating power, they name the God they see at work, and they become grafted onto God’s family tree.
Find resources for welcoming immigrants in your community and speaking out about an outdated immigration system. Find the power of Jesus, a refugee Savior who calls us to become citizens in a country not of this world.
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God Who Sees
$29.99Add to cartMeet people who have fled their homelands.
Hagar. Joseph. Ruth. Jesus.Here is a riveting story of seeking safety in another land. Here is a gripping journey of loss, alienation, and belonging. In The God Who Sees, immigration advocate Karen Gonzalez recounts her family’s migration from the instability of Guatemala to making a new life in Los Angeles and the suburbs of south Florida. In the midst of language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and the tremendous pressure to assimilate, Gonzalez encounters Christ through a campus ministry program and begins to follow him.
Here, too, is the sweeping epic of immigrants and refugees in Scripture. Abraham, Hagar, Joseph, Ruth: these intrepid heroes of the faith cross borders and seek refuge. As witnesses to God’s liberating power, they name the God they see at work, and they become grafted onto God’s family tree.
Find resources for welcoming immigrants in your community and speaking out about an outdated immigration system. Find the power of Jesus, a refugee Savior who calls us to become citizens in a country not of this world.
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In Search Of Christ In Latin America
$45.99Add to cartNoted theologian Samuel Escobar offers a magisterial survey and study of Christology in Latin America. Starting with the first Spanish influence and moving through popular religiosity and liberationist themes in Catholic and Protestant thought of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, In Search of Christ in Latin America culminates in an important description of the work of the Latin American Theological Fraternity (FTL). Escobar chronologically traces the journey of Latin American Christology and describes the milestones along the way toward a rich understanding of the spiritual reality and powerful message of Jesus.
IVP Academic is pleased to release this important work, originally published in Spanish as En busca de Cristo en America Latina, for the first time in English.
*Offers theological, historical, and cultural analysis of Latin American understandings of Christ
*Discusses the sixteenth-century Spanish Christ, popular religiosity, and developed theological reflection
*Covers the full spectrum of theological traditions in Latin America
*Examines the figure of Jesus Christ in the context of Latin American culture of the twentieth century
*Places liberation theology within its social and revolutionary context -
Political Visions And Illusions
$35.99Add to cartWhat you believe about politics matters. The decades since the Cold War, with new alignments of post-9/11 global politics and the chaos of the late 2010s, are swirling with alternative visions of political life, ranging from ethnic nationalism to individualistic liberalism.
Political ideologies are not merely a matter of governmental efficacy, but are intrinsically and inescapably religious: each carries certain assumptions about the nature of reality, individuals and society, as well as a particular vision for the common good. These fundamental beliefs transcend the political sphere, and the astute Christian observer can discern the ways-sometimes subtle, sometimes not-in which ideologies are rooted in idolatrous worldviews.
In this freshly updated, comprehensive study, political scientist David Koyzis surveys the key political ideologies of our era, including liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, democracy, and socialism. Koyzis gives each philosophy careful analysis and fair critique, unpacking the worldview issues inherent to each and pointing out essential strengths and weaknesses, as well as revealing the “narrative structure” of each-the stories they tell to make sense of public life and the direction of history. Koyzis concludes by proposing alternative models that flow out of Christianity’s historic engagement with the public square, retrieving approaches for both individuals and the global, institutional church that hold promise for the complex political realities of the twenty-first century.
Writing with broad international perspective and keen analytical insight, Koyzis is a sane and sensible guide for Christians working in the public square, culture watchers, political pundits, and all students of modern political thought.
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Connecting For A Change
$16.99Add to cartAt its simplest, Mission Strategy is about aligning the what, who, how and when with God’s why. Learn to implement Mission Strategy in your community of faith! Church and community relevance and vitality depends on leaders who see their situation through the lens of mission strategy. At its simplest, mission strategy is about aligning the what, who, how and when with God’s why. The authors have lived Mission Strategy in a variety of bold ways and have helped others do the same. In doing so, they have created vitality in existing congregations and in newly formed clusters of churches. They have helped create zones of innovation and new ministry development. The sky is the limit when pastors, church leaders and laity in local churches begin emphasizing mission strategy in their conferences, regions, neighborhoods and churches.
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Our Spiritual Compass
$19.95Add to cartAn Outskirts Press Title
Even a casual look at trends in human behavior will instantly reveal that kindness and good are on the decline, while greed and cruelty are on the rise-even as secular culture proclaims its dedication to tolerance and safety for all. In reality, the conscience is under assault, and the result is a general condemnation of the morality that society must rely upon as a guide. Those who would live a godly life are told that they are the problem. Although the conscience is not given much attention by the Church, it is very important in understanding both ethics and morality. Our Spiritual Compass: The Conscience and Morality provides an overview of man’s immaterial parts (spirit, soul, heart, flesh, will, mind, and conscience). It uses this background to provide an in-depth Biblical study of the conscience. The latter part of the book is dedicated to understanding morality from the standpoint of conscience, examining how two hundred years of worldly thought have corrupted our understanding of morality and ethics, and the ways in which modern life and philosophy are at odds with God’s guidance. Clear, accessible, and well researched, this is the book you need to assess whether you-and your loved ones-are on the right path.
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Gender Violence And Justice
$64.00Add to cartGender, Violence, and Justice is a volume of collected essays by an expert in the field of violence against women and pastoral theology. It represents over three decades of research, advocacy, and pastoral theological reflection on the subject of sexual and domestic violence. Topics include intimate partner violence, sexual abuse and trauma, and clergy sexual misconduct; controversial theological issues such as forgiveness; and, as well, positive frameworks for fostering well-being in families, church, and society.
Framed by a foreword and an introduction that place this work in the context of new and contemporary challenges in theory and practice, these essays show an evolution of issues and frameworks for theology, care, and activism arising over time from the movement to end violence against women (both within and beyond religious communities)-while at the same time demonstrating an unchanging core commitment to gender justice.
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Tough Gynes : Violent Women In Film As Honorary Men
$22.00Add to cartIn Borderline, Stan Goff unpacked the association of masculinity with war. In Tough Gynes, using an incisive and often darkly humorous study of nine films featuring violent female leads, he untangles the confusion about “masculinity constructed as violence” when our popular stories feature women as violent protagonists. Whether read individually or with a group, Tough Gynes raises compelling questions about gender and violence, with a few provisional answers. Plus, you get to watch movies as you read it.
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Americas Unholy Ghosts
$30.00Add to cartAmerica’s Unholy Ghosts examines the DNA of the ideologies that shape our nation, ideologies that are as American as apple pie but that too often justify and perpetuate racist ideas and racial inequalities. MLK challenged us to investigate the “ideational roots of race hate” and Ghosts does just that by examining a philosophical “trinity”–Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Adam Smith–whose works collectively helped to institutionalize, imagine, and ingrain racist ideologies into the hearts and minds of the American people.
As time passed, America’s racial imagination evolved to form people incapable of recognizing their addiction to racist ideas. Thus, Ghosts comes to a close with the brilliant faith and politics of Martin Luther King, Jr. who sought to write the conscience of the Prophetic Black Church onto American hearts, minds, and laws. If our nation’s racist instincts still haunt our land, so too do our hopes and desires for a faith and politics marked by mercy, justice, and equity–and there is no better guide to that land than the Prophetic Black Church and the one who saw such a land from the mountaintop.
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Cristianismo Y Posmodernidad – (Spanish)
$14.99Add to cartEn palabras del autor, debemos enfrentarnos a la conciencia de saber que todo entendimiento es frágil.Nos toca presenciar de cerca la debacle de instituciones, ideas, personalidades y proyectos. La posmodernidad vino para desestabilizar buena parte de las soluciones que funcionaron para nuestros padres y abuelos; hoy sus respuestas ya no resultan tan útiles para entender el mundo que nos rodea.Toda nuestra historia está simbolizada en esas dos escenas de los evangelios: el reconocimiento y la negación. Por gracia de Dios, nos unimos a Pedro en la afirmación más grande de todas: que el profeta Jesús es el Hijo del Dios viviente. Por cobardía, nos unimos a Pedro y seguimos diciendo «yo no conozco a ese hombre». La iglesia reconoce y niega, afirma y traiciona, acepta y rechaza. Veinte siglos de historia son testigos de esa dualidad.
