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By Edward Engelbrecht. 2014
Tap into the treasures of God's Word with the Lutheran Bible Companion, the first-ever comprehensive guide to the Bible featuring…
commentary that reflects Lutheran theology. Inside Volume 1, readers find new understanding for personal meditation or preaching in the expansive timeline of the Old Testament. Fascinating insights on the Bible's themes provide additional depth: Theological topics and literary features found in each book Significant events, people, and places found in detailed outlines and maps Biblical reflections from Martin Luther and Johann Gerhard Color photography and art illustrating stories, daily life, and landscapes (600+)Does the current celibate, semi-monastic, and all-male seminary formation contribute to the persistence of clerical sexual abuse in the Roman…
Catholic Church?Applying sociological theories on socialization, total institutions, and social resistance as the primary conceptual framework, and drawing on secondary literature, media reports, the author’s experience, interviews, and Church documents, this book argues that the Catholic Church’s institution of the celibate seminary formation as the only mode of clerical training for Catholic priests has resulted in negative unintended consequences to human formation such as the suspension of normal human socialization in society, psychosexual immaturity, and weak social control against clerical sexual abuse. The author thus contends that celibate training, while suitable for those who do live in religious or monastic communities, is inappropriate for those who are obliged to live alone and work in parishes. As such, an alternative model for diocesan clerical formation is advanced.A fresh look at the aptness – and effects – of celibate formation for diocesan clergy, this volume is the first to relate the persistence of Catholic clerical sexual abuse to celibate seminary formation, exploring the structural links between the two using sociological arguments and proposing an apprenticeship-based model of formation, which has numerous advantages as a form of clerical training. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of religion, sociology, and theology, as well as those involved with seminary formation.The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months…
between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two. A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People, Time, Los Angeles Times, Men&’s Health, New York Post, Lit Hub, Book Riot, ScreenrantOn November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln&’s election and the Confederacy&’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were &“so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.&”At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter&’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don&’t see a cataclysm coming until it&’s too late.By Matthew McKay. 2024
• Offers a step-by-step process to unleash the unconscious and intuitive wisdom held in the awareness of your soul: Deep…
Knowledge Meditation • Includes guided journal prompts to help you listen to your heart and shine a light on your own deepest wisdom and soul knowledge • Shares channeled lessons from the author&’s late son Jordan on the mysteries of human existence, including what the divine or god is, the nature of a soul, the nature of matter and energy, the role of love in our lives, and the origin of the universe Human life is surrounded by mystery. At the center of this mystery is the question: Why are we here? is there a purpose to our existence, a reason why we&’re experiencing the beauty and pain of physical life? There is also the mystery of the universe itself. What is it and where did it come from? Religious and spiritual traditions have created complex cosmologies to answer these questions, but each tradition has a different answer and we are left with profound uncertainty about deeper reality. As psychologist Matthew McKay reveals, we can each discover our own answers to these questions, our own inner truth, by connecting with the wisdom of our souls. In this guided workbook, McKay offers a step-by-step process to unleash the unconscious and intuitive wisdom held in the awareness of your soul. He explains how to use &“deep knowledge meditation&” to access all of your soul&’s accumulated knowledge, everything you have learned across all of your incarnations. Channeling his late son, Jordan, a discarnate soul who has lived hundreds of lives, McKay shares Jordan&’s lessons on the mysteries of human existence, including what the divine or god is, the nature of a soul, the nature of matter and energy, the role of love in our lives, and the origin of the universe. Accompanying these channeled teachings are journal prompts from Jordan, to be used with deep knowledge meditation, to help you listen to your heart and shine a light on your own deepest wisdom and soul knowledge. Guiding you on a journey of self-discovery, this book offers the opportunity to find your soul&’s truth about your life&’s purpose and the nature of physical reality.By Patrick J. Kennedy, Stephen Fried. 2024
Profiles in Mental Health Courage portrays the dramatic journeys of a diverse group of Americans who have struggled with their…
mental health. This book offers deeply compelling stories about the bravery and resilience of those living with a variety of mental illnesses and addictions. Several years ago, Patrick J. Kennedy shared the story of his personal and family challenges with mental illness and addiction—and the nation&’s—in his bestselling memoir, A Common Struggle. Now, he and his Common Struggle coauthor, award-winning healthcare journalist Stephen Fried, have crafted this powerful new book sharing the untold stories of others—a special group who agreed to talk about their illnesses, treatments, and struggles for the first time. When Kennedy&’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, published his classic book Profiles in Courage, he hoped to inspire &“political courage&” by telling the stories of brave U.S. senators who changed America. In Profiles in Mental Health Courage, former Congressman Kennedy adapts his uncle&’s idea to inspire the &“mental health courage&” it takes for those with these conditions to treat their illnesses, and risk telling their stories to help America face its crisis in our families, our workplaces, our jails, and on our streets. The resounding silence surrounding these illnesses remains persistent, and this book takes an unflinching look at the experience of mental illness and addiction that inspires profound connection, empathy, and action. In this book, you&’ll meet people of all ages, backgrounds, and futures, across politics and government, Hollywood and the arts, tech and business, sports and science—some recovering, some relapsing, some just barely holding on, but all sharing experiences and insights we need to better understand. You&’ll also meet those trying to help them through—parents, siblings, spouses, therapists, bosses, doctors, and friends who create the extended families needed to support care and wellness. The personal stories they share with Kennedy and Fried are intimate, sometimes shocking, always revealing. And they are essential reading for caregivers, family members, policymakers, and the general public—just as they are for those who often feel alone in experiencing these challenges themselves.Since at least the high point of the civil rights movement, African American Christianity has been widely recognized as a…
potent force for social change. Most attention to the political significance of Black churches, however, focuses on domestic protest and electoral politics. Yet some Black churches take a deep interest in the global issue of Israel and Palestine. Why would African American Christians get involved—and even take sides—in Palestine and Israel, and what does that reveal about the political significance of “the Black Church” today?This book examines African American Christian involvement in Israel and Palestine to show how competing visions of “the Black Church” are changing through transnational political engagement. Considering cases ranging from African American Christian Zionists to Palestinian solidarity activists, Roger Baumann traces how Black religious politics transcend domestic arenas and enter global spaces. These cases, he argues, illuminate how the meaning of the ostensibly singular and unifying category of “the Black Church”—spanning its history, identity, culture, and mission—is deeply contested at every turn. Black Visions of the Holy Land offers new insights into how Black churches understand their political role and social significance; the ways race, religion, and politics both converge and diverge; and why the meaning of overlapping racial and religious identities shifts when moving from national to global contexts.By Tobias Buck. 2024
The gripping narrative of one of the last Nazi criminal trials in Germany—that of Bruno Dey, a 93-year-old former concentration…
camp guard charged with aiding the murder of more than 5,000 people—and a larger exploration of Germany's reckoning with the Holocaust, from silence to memory to today's rising tide of fascism and antisemitism. Bruno Dey's trial formed part of an extraordinary series of Holocaust cases brought by German prosecutors in recent years in a belated attempt to deliver justice to the victims and reverse decades of judicial neglect. It also surfaced at a pivotal moment for Germany and its thinking about the Holocaust. The Nazi genocide continues to occupy a crucial space in German public life, but many of the country's long-held certainties and convictions around the Holocaust are starting to fray. This reflects in part the passage of time, and the fact that the last surviving witnesses—victims and perpetrators alike—are rapidly fading away. But it&’s also the result of profound changes in German politics and society. The far-right has made electoral gains and is openly challenging the country&’s historic commitment to Holocaust remembrance. At the same time, there is a small but vociferous group of intellectuals on the left who question Germany&’s memory culture from a different angle, asking what political lessons the country should draw from the Holocaust today. What does it mean for the country&’s new Muslim citizens from Syria and Afghanistan, many of whom arrived with their own traumas, to be expected to assume the nation&’s guilt? Final Verdict investigates questions that touch on German history, politics, and memory culture, and on the author&’s own family history. Buck revisits the silence that surrounds his own family&’s experiences and conduct during the Nazi period. In the face of rising anti-Semitism in Germany, the United States, and globally, Final Verdict examines the case for Holocaust justice in the twenty-first century—and the lessons that Germany's struggle with its Nazi past holds for the world today.By Scott Ashmon. 2020
¿ Cuá l es mi propó sito en la vida? ¿ Có mo debo vivir? Este libro te invita a…
explorar tu identidad a travé s de tus llamados, a imaginar vivir virtuosamente para los demá s, y a descubrir un profundo significado y satisfacció n en la vida. Verá s muchas vocaciones que los jó venes tienen o tendrá n má s tarde en la vida. Entre los llamados abordados está n el ser estudiante, ciudadano, vecino, trabajador, cuidador de la naturaleza, esposo, esposa, novio, novia, padre o madre, hijo, hermano, santo y sacerdote, y amigo. Los capí tulos sobre estos llamados examinan la naturaleza y las responsabilidades de estos roles a la luz de la sabidurí a humana y divina que se halla en la tradició n de las artes liberales y en la Biblia.Tambié n considerará s el rol que desempeñ an los pasatiempos en la vida y la manera en que estas entusiastas actividades pueden renovarte y capacitarte. Cada capí tulo contiene ejercicios para reflexió n y discusió n que se pueden desarrollar de manera personal, con un compañ ero o en grupo.By Allison Key Bemiss. 2024
Teach preschoolers their ABCs and faith using the hands-on, sensory experiences and projects in this creative activity devotional that explores…
living for Jesus with curiosity and excitement.Written by a mom, teacher, and expert in STEAM activities and early childhood education, this activity devotional is packed with opportunities for little ones to grow, learn, and have fun in God's great, exciting world. This book includes ...26 devotions for each letter that focus on curiosity and inquiry and include biblically-rooted "I Am" affirmations;short, easy-to-understand Bible verses and prayers that speak to a young child's sweet and joyful heart;active projects, crafts, recipes, games, and songs for hands-on sensory learning;an introduction for families overviewing the research-based design and strategies embedded in the projects; andaccess to a downloadable alphabet coloring book.God Made Me from A to Z is designed fortoddlers and preschoolers ages 2 to 5high-energy children, neurodivergent children, and children with special needsSunday school classes, preschool lessons, and homeschool familiesa New Year's or summer family project, starting a new school year, and gifts for birthdays, Easter baskets, and ChristmasYoung children are natural explorers. Help them discover God's world and how wonderfully God created them while encouraging their hearts with scriptural truths and gifting them special family memories.By Sarah Jakes Roberts. 2024
Unleash the superpower of being yourself. Sarah Jakes Roberts, bestselling author of Woman Evolve, will help you craft a language toward…
your issues with intentionality.Stripping our minds of the expectations that inundate our world has never been more difficult. One quick scroll of our phones and we're consumed by other people's projections of how we should be feeling or responding.The ability to determine your truth without judgment is the beginning of harnessing authentic power in Christ. When we do the work of embracing where we are, we create space for God's love to meet us in our most raw form and then polish us to shine like never before. Power does not lie in success, achievement, or performance. Power rests in humility, honesty, and the commitment to continuous growth.Power Moves will help you to qualify whether you're living life authentically or if you've found a way to maintain status quo. It will reveal the principles required to tap into the most powerful version of who you are, then lead you in how to introduce your authentic self to the world around you. Sarah will help yougive language to your changing needs,acknowledge and applaud your growth,refuse to bear the weight all at once or all alone, andrelease your power. Open your eyes to the way that God sees you and awaken your boldness to effect change in the world by living out the truth of who God says you are with confidence.These sensational fictional accounts of a near conquest of Japan by a kind of mythical Kirishitan, who used money and…
magic to gain converts in their attempt to take over Japan, are studied in the context of the publication trends of the time they were produced, as well as of the cultural and political attitudes toward Christianity that prevailed when they were written. Leuchtenberger also analyzes the representations of Japan and the Kirishitan that appear in these texts in the context of contemporary discourses on the world and Japan's place in it. New maps and information brought by the missionaries and traders to Japan reflected a world that looked very different from the traditional Sino-centric one. These anti-Kirishitan popular narratives meet the challenge of this new world by expelling it and reasserting the conventional three-realms world order, in which Japan plays an influential role. This is done most obviously in the expulsion of the Kirishitan that is narrated in the texts, but it is also achieved on another level by the representation of the Kirishitan as uncouth and very common villains. Conquering Demons features a new look at anti-Kirishitan works from a literary perspective, examining them in the context of developments in the publishing industry and in the broader discourses on Japan and many Others in the world. It is of interest most broadly to scholars and teachers of Japanese history and literature, but also to those dealing with questions of identity and Othering, issues of "mapping" Japan and the world, and the role of manuscript culture in Edo-period literature. The translations provide an entertaining and relatively rare look at some Japanese representations of Westerners and would be useful in undergraduate classes on Japanese history, culture, and literature.&“A truly remarkable story . . . Marc Stevens has produced a fitting tribute to his father . . . who played a full…
part in the defeat of Nazi Germany.&” —HistoryOfWar.org Peter Stevens was a German-Jewish refugee who escaped Nazi persecution as a teenager in 1933. He joined the RAF in 1939 and after eighteen months of pilot training he started flying bombing missions against his own country. He completed twenty-two missions before being shot down and taken prisoner by the Nazis in September 1941. To escape became his raison d&’être and his great advantage was that he was in his native country. He was recaptured after each of his several escapes, but the Nazis never realized his true identity. He took part in the logistics and planning of several major breakouts, including The Great Escape, but was never successful in getting back to England. After liberation, when the true nature of his exploits came to light, he was awarded the Military Cross. He then served as a British spy at the beginning of the Cold War before emigrating to Canada to resume a normal life. This is the story of a heavily conflicted young man, alone in a world that is in the midst of destruction. He is afforded an opportunity to help his persecuted people to obtain a small measure of revenge. It is at once a sad yet uplifting tale of thankless and unheralded heroism.&“This is a wartime career that would make any son proud, but Steven&’s real triumph is in writing a biography that will satisfy the most discerning historian.&” —National Defence JournalBy Collette Drifte. 2011
Women in the Second World War explores the experiences of women who served in the armed forces, or complimentary services.…
Using interviews, anecdotes, memoirs and/or accounts from the women (or, where appropriate, their children), the book tells the women's personal accounts of what their lives were like and what particular experiences they had while serving. They were all ordinary British women, and tell here in their own words their experiences on active service. Their accounts cover the whole spectrum, from famous battles, such as Monte Cassino, to being shipwrecked by a tornado, to simple acts of kindness, which in themselves seem nothing, but at the same time meant something very special to those young women, and were fondly remembered, even sixty years afterwards. The huge variety of services and experiences featured in the book reflect how widely spread the women's contribution to the war effort was, from tilling the soil below, to servicing the engines of aircraft about to take off to the sky above, and everything in between.By Nik Cornish. 2011
The 900-day siege of the Soviet city of Leningrad by the combined forces of the Germans and the Finns is…
one of the most remarkable, and terrible, events of the Second World War, yet until recently it has not received the attention it deserves it has been overshadowed by other massive confrontations on the Eastern Front, at Stalingrad and Kursk. And rarely has the compelling story of the siege been told through graphic wartime photographs like those that author Nik Cornish has collected for this book. Many of these images have not been published before, and they give an unflinching insight into the reality of the conditions of the siege as it was experienced by the soldiers on each side and by the civilians trapped in the city who were threatened by starvation, disease, shelling and assault. The entire course of the siege is covered, from the encirclement of September 1941, through the successive attempts by the Wehrmacht to break in and the dogged, sometimes desperate defense put up by the Red Army, to the withdrawal of the Germans and the lifting of the siege in January 1944. Nik Cornishs portrait of the ruthless struggle of Hitlers armies to capture the second city of the Soviet Union and the determination and suffering of the defenders will be fascinating reading for everyone who is interested in the war on the Eastern Front.For the first three years of the Second World War, the Dornier Do 17 was the Luftwaffe&’s principal light bomber.…
Designed to be fast enough to outrun contemporary fighter aircraft, the Dornier helped to spearhead Germany&’s Blitzkrieg as Hitler&’s armies raced through Poland and then France and the Low Countries. Until its withdrawal to secondary duties in 1941, the Dornier Do 17 served in every theatre of war involving German forces. This included the invasion of the Balkans and Greece as well as the battle to capture Crete. After suffering heavy losses at the hands of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain, the Do 17 was employed in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The Do 17 was withdrawn from frontline service later in 1941 but continued to be used by the German Air Force in various roles until the end of the war, including seeing service as a glider tug and in the defence of the Reich in 1944 as a night fighter. In this compilation of unrivalled images collected over many years, and now part of Frontline's new War in the Air series, the widespread deployment of the Dornier Do 17 is portrayed and brought to life.By Andrew Norman. 2011
Written by an authority on Adolf Hitler, this book charts new ground and shows how the writings of a deluded…
ex-monk, Lanz von Liebenfels and the pseudo-science of Liebenfels and other writers, convinced Hitler that Germanys destiny was to save the world from a Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy. It was this perverted sense of destiny that drove the Nazi Party and led to the outbreak of WWII and the deaths of some sixty million people as well as the destruction of much of Europe. Using the writings of Liebenfels from his magazine Ostara, Dr Andrew Norman demonstrates how the mass murders of Jews, Gypsies, mentally-ill people and those regarded as less than human had its roots in articles written by Liebenfels. An index of Ostara articles is included and their very titles indicate the malign influences that shaped Hitlers Germany.By Tom Berlin, Mark A. Miller. 2023
On the third day, he rose again.In The Third Day: Living the Resurrection, Tom Berlin uses his gifts of storytelling…
and understanding the Scriptures to connect the reader to the experiences of several individuals around Jesus in his final days, focusing on new life and redemption rather than loss.Join Peter, Mary Magdalene, and Thomas as they feel the despair of losing Jesus and the surprise and joy that awaits them in the resurrection. This study traces events around these characters, along with Paul and the disciples at Emmaus, and how the resurrection transforms their lives.The book can be read alone or used for a six-week group study and church-wide Lenten program. Components include a comprehensive Leader Guide and video teaching sessions featuring Tom (with closed captioning).By Magrey DeVega, Sam McGlothlin, Jevon Caldwell-Gross, Susan Robb. 2023
Be part of something more.We are hungry for a sense of purpose, direction, and calling in our lives. That’s as…
basic an ingredient to the human experience as they come. We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to participate in something that has eternal merit and lasting impact. We do not want to live a shallow, hollow existence. We yearn for deeper meaning, for deeper purpose within our lives. We want to be more than we are.In On Purpose: Finding God’s Voice in Your Passion, authors Magrey deVega, Sam McGlothlin, Jevon Caldwell-Gross, and Susan Robb help us see God's purpose for our lives, how to open ourselves to God's voice, and how to take the first or next step to follow God's call. Reading this book and exploring life choices alongside others, individuals will learn how to channel their passions, hear God’s voice, and live the life they were meant to live.To support reading in a group, resources including a full leader’s guide and DVD with four teaching sessions are also available.By Josh Scott. 2023
Read the Bible for the first time – again. In Bible Stories for Grown-Ups: Reading Scripture with New Eyes pastor…
Josh Scott looks at familiar Bible stories and reveals new details and interpretations for an adult audience. This six-week Bible study will consider stories many read as children including Noah's Ark, the binding of Isaac, Jonah and the big fish, Jesus and Zacchaeus, Jesus healing a blind man, and the parable of the talents. Scott reimagines these stories and opens new visions for readers to understand well known pieces of Scripture in our current cultural environment.The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study, including session plans, activities, discussion questions, and multiple format options. Additional components include the book, Bible Stories for Grown-Up, and video teaching sessions featuring Josch Scott, making this perfect as a group study throughout the year.By Charley Reeb. 2023
The local pastor’s go-to resource for weekly sermon planning.The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2024 is lectionary-based and follows the calendar year…
(January - December). It includes special days like Maundy Thursday and Ash Wednesday, and indexes for scriptures and themes, to assist preachers with non-lectionary sermons.Each entry begins with a preacher-to-preacher prayer for preparation, then moves to the key feature: a commentary on one or more texts for the week, exploring themes and storylines, theological reflections, and thoughts about how the text and topic relate to our lives today. Also included are ideas for bringing the text to life--stories, illustrations, ideas for further reading, questions the preacher might pose to the congregation, and suggestions for a ‘call to action’ in response to the message.Finally, for the preacher’s ongoing enrichment, the Annual includes excerpts from new books on preaching and homiletics. This helpful resource is written by every-week preachers who aim to come alongside you, offering a reliable starting point for your sermonic planning, writing, and delivery.