Christianity Books

David A. Shank has been reflecting on the mission of the church from an Anabaptist perspective for more than half a century. His writings represent among the best biblical, theological, and missiological study on the matter, shaped by two primary...

"Whoever attempts it will find it far easier to write a long commentary than a brief one," said a famous commentator. This we believe. The Christian Workers' Commentary represents the labor of eight years in the use of such spare hours as could be found...

At a moment in which interest in political theology is rising, acceptance of a public role for religion is declining, and cynicism regarding both political and religious institutions is overflowing, this book investigates the possibilities and...

The thirteen essays in this volume engage biblical texts from the three books in the Hebrew Bible associated with the wisdom tradition in ancient Israel: Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. These three books provide deep theological reflection on everyday...

This book questions all familiar readings of the body of Christ in Paul's letters and helps readers rethink the context and the purpose of this phrase. Against the view that Paul's body of Christ metaphor mainly has to do with a metaphorical organism...

What does Paul mean by ""the flesh""? There is a great deal of confusion among laymen and disagreement among scholars on this issue. Christians know that we are supposed to ""walk by the Spirit"" so that they will not gratify the desires of the flesh,...

In A Mirror is a thought-provoking introduction to God's salvation, reflecting on the the epic story that has evoked many mythologies about good and evil portrayed in the story of Adam and Eve, and ending with the redemption and resurrection of Jesus...

Take a Moment to Listen:Come gentle child, come rest in my heart--for I am here deep within your own. If you can still yourself just for a moment, you can hear me whisper your name. You can hear me whisper the depth of my eternal love for you, in this...

The Christians, from the very outset, committed their theology and prayer to the form of the song. The hymnal elements in the New Testament are among the earliest of all strands, some of them composed within a decade of the death of Jesus. From the third...

We live in the wealthiest and most heavily defended world in history, so why do we feel so insecure? In a secular world, what does Christian theology have to say about this problem? Security after Christendom combines practical examples, social...

Deolito Vistar brings a new perspective to the interpretation of the temple incident--a key event in Jesus' life--by approaching the subject not from the "historical Jesus" point of view but from that of the authors of the Gospels. Using composition...

For centuries, evangelical Protestants and Catholics have hurled harsh epithets at each other. But that has changed dramatically in the last forty years. In 1960, many prominent evangelicals opposed John Kennedy for president because he was a Catholic...

One Greater Than Satan, like God's Unfolding Story of Salvation, is a Bible study based on A Tale of Two Kingdoms. Its title emphasizes the truth that King Jesus reigns over all, including Satan.The Bible describes Satan's character and activity many...

Jews and most Christians know about only 150 "Psalms of David"; they were collected in the Davidic Psalter of the (Masoretic) Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Since about 200 BCE, the Greek translation of the Davidic Psalter contained 151 Psalms of David...

Political philosophy is nothing other than looking at things political under the aspect of eternity. This book invites us to look philosophically at political things in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, demonstrating that Tolkien's potent mythology can be...

In the mid 1980s the Waterboys took a sudden turn away from their climb up the ladder of UK rock stardom and headed out to Ireland--and eventually the rural West of Ireland--to record the remarkable Fisherman's Blues album. They drew together traditional...

Imagine reading a letter where the writer is engaged in a heated debate with someone and repeatedly cites their positions, but never uses quotation marks to indicate that he is quoting them. This is precisely what we find in 1 Corinthians! Paul...

God came to earth as an illegitimate child. Mary, his mother, was a human being, not a porcelain figure in a nativity scene with a halo. She was a young teenage Mediterranean woman who wanted to save herself for marriage. Then an angel told her she'd...

The famous theologian Karl Barth is known for his admonition that Christians should evaluate major news events in the light of the Bible rather than vice versa. This book reviews attempts at implementing Barth's principle in more than a hundred responses...

Peter Chaadaev (1794-1856) is rightfully considered to be one of the forerunners of modern Russian philosophy. There is a famous scene from his life that may help us to understand both his own thought as well as the whole subsequent tradition of Russian...

This biography provides an exploration of the formative influences, development, and impact of the theology of David Smith Cairns, Scottish minister, academic, and writer, during the high point of British imperial expansion, and at a time of social...

Why does the church engage in missions? Where in the Bible do we find support for this work? These questions have been asked and answered by many throughout the centuries, though rarely does the investigation span across the entire canon of Scripture. In...

-Will your death be the end of you or is there something more?-Is it credible to have religious belief in the twenty-first century?-Can there be a deeper meaning to life?Pondering the Meaning of Life is a systematic review of the evidence that may allow...

Faithful biblical sermons not only attempt to capture what the biblical text says, but also what the text is trying to do. Biblical sermons will take direction from both the content and the intent of the biblical text. In Taken Up and Preached, Blayne...

Constantine's conversion to Christianity marks one of the most significant turning points in the epic of Western civilization. It is also one of history's most controversial and hotly-debated episodes. Why did Constantine join a persecuted sect? When did...

Personal encounters with God are vital for the current generation of believers--the postmodern/millennial generation who affirm truth through experience. Instead of the traditional view of inner healing and deliverance (IHD) as a ""hospital unit"" of the...

""Without doubt the most competent analysis of Schaeffer's work to date. Morris is a first-rank philosopher and an ardent evangelical: his critique is a needful but friendly one, and he puts his finger on key issues.""--Arthur F. Holmes, Wheaton...

""To understand the immediate cultural and societal background of the cities to which John wrote in Revelation 1 and 2, we must first understand the broader background of Roman civilization and its impact upon Asian province,"" writes Roland H. Worth in...

Faith, doubt, and reason are universal human faculties, yet they are frequently misunderstood, denigrated, and even abused. What does it mean to have faith, and what distinguishes faith from belief? Can someone have faith without religious commitments?...

This is a different book about Jesus. It does not study the Gospels as sources for the historical Jesus, but reads them as memories about Jesus, each Gospel with its characteristic picture of Jesus. The book traces the transmission and growth of memories...

The place of religion within a secular society has been much discussed in recent years, fueled in part by Charles Taylor's Secular Age (2007). The conversation surrounding Taylor's work suggests a widespread interest in religion in secular or...

Is the Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy Biblical?While theologians throughout church history have condemned numerous doctrines as heresy, Cragun boldly declares that the doctrine of biblical inerrancy is the worst heresy that the church has ever faced,...

Wildflowers and the Call to the Altar is a fascinating story of the history of the St. Francis Altar Society, embedded within the tri-cultural nexus of Santa Fe, New Mexico. For close to a hundred years, the society responded to the call that the church,...

Symptoms of broken systems are all around us, due to our over-consumptive lifestyles, nearly unfettered capitalism, failure to live peaceably together, and the societal dismissal of nature's limits. Climate change is our new reality, and we must respond...

The book looks into the liturgy of the Mar Thoma Church. The Mar Thoma Church claims to be eastern and reformed. An enquiry is made into the liturgy of the passion week and the Eucharist to look into the theology of Atonement (work of Christ) and the...

As Christ-followers, we are at war. Paul tells us in Ephesians that we are not at war with flesh and blood, but against darkness and spiritual forces of evil; i.e., The Dragon. This war is a daily battle of competition for our hearts, and these battles...

Before COVID-19 reshaped the way we looked at the world and life's big questions, the Western church was already being pushed from the center to the margins of society. We are entering a time which the experts call ""after Christendom."" New and emerging...

""What do I do now?"" Whether you're a lay minister, pastor, or missionary, this is probably a question you've often asked yourself. Along with the joy of helping people in Christian ministry comes the complexity of all the issues and situations that...

The pastor who seeks to preach expositionally through Psalms faces a daunting task, for the sermon series would take several years to complete and many of the sermons would seem repetitious because of similar psalms. To respond to this challenge the...

God's Saved Israel examines identity in the Pauline corpus in terms of how Paul expresses the new identity in Christ in relation to the identity of ancient Israel. In this study, the way in which Paul uses the terms ""Israel,"" ""Israelite,"" and...

The text of the Torah includes not only its words, but also various atypical scribal features. Prime among these are the dots over certain letters, various letters written either large or small, and the exceedingly odd placement of two inverted Hebrew...

Love, seduction, betrayal, violence, riddles, and myth all find their place in the biblical story of Samson. Samson is the last of the judges, with 20 percent of the book devoted to him--more than any other judge. From the beginning, Samson is unlike any...

Like sounds of beautiful music, worship can renew us for God's glory and our good by the invigorating power of God's reverberating Word. It is God's story that redeems all our stories. We want to tell it again and again as best we can, clearly conveying...

How do we live the Christian life? April Love-Fordham and her husband contemplated this as they retraced the footsteps of Saint Francis across the Italian wilderness. Did they need to renounce materialism and live more simply? Did they need to do more...

This book wrestles with quandaries of pastoral ministry in what psychotherapist Mary Pipher calls "the age of overwhelm." Drawing especially from the wisdom of Jesus' own teaching and healing ministries as portrayed in the Gospel of Luke, it offers an...

On October 30, 1608, Jacobus Arminius presented his Declaration of Sentiments to the Assembly of the States of Holland and West Friesland in the Binnenhof at The Hague. First, Arminius sought to defend himself and his theological views from the spirited...