Himself giving an excellent discussion of the history and current state of each doctrinal issue, he allows the essays to explore and raise questions about their key elements—and the contemporary issues confronting them.

    To explain these beliefs for Christians today, particularly the Trinity, McIntosh begins with what we know: the language of relationship and mutuality, of friendship and family ties. The central theme of the book is our relationship with Jesus and our relationship with our neighbor, for such mutuality lies at the heart of every doctrine. McIntosh's starting point is the fact that every one of us is a theologian, for we are all drawn to approach the mysteries of faith with attention and love. By drawing on our common experiences as members of a community of faith, particularly through the sacraments of baptism and eucharist, he helps us to explore these mysteries for ourselves and to see how we might live them in our daily lives. As with each book in The New Church's Teaching Series, recommended resources for further reading and questions for discussion are included.

    Introductions and bibliographies are generous and up to date. In the textual apparatus, existing notes have been revised and expanded, and well over 200 new notes have been added. This handsome and handy one-volume, thin-paper edition will be an essential resource for students and scholars and a joy to book lovers.

    "The Drama of Scripture" is an introduction to the basic story line and theology of the Bible. In considering the biblical story, the authors emphasize the unity of the whole, viewing the Bible as a drama in six acts--creation, sin, Israel, Christ, church, and new creation. Two overarching themes tie the biblical story together--covenant in the Old Testament and kingdom in the New Testament. Throughout, the authors suggest, God is revealed through the story and calls us to participate in his drama.

    Read each year at the Seder table, the Haggadah recounts the miraculous tale of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, with a celebration of prayer, ritual, and song. Wiesel and Podwal guide you through the Haggadah and share their understanding and faith in a special illustrated edition that will be treasured for years to come. Accompanying the traditional Haggadah text (which appears here in an accessible new translation) are Elie Wiesel's poetic interpretations, reminiscences, and instructive retellings of ancient legends. The Nobel laureate interweaves past and present as the symbolism of the Seder is explored. Wiesel's commentaries may be read aloud in their entirety or selected passages may be read each year to illuminate the timeless message of this beloved book of redemption. This volume is enhanced by more than fifty original drawings by Mark Podwal, the artist whom Cynthia Ozick has called a "genius of metaphor through line." Podwal's work not only complements the traditional Haggadah text, as well as Wiesel's poetic voice, but also serves as commentary unto itself. The drawings, with their fresh juxtapositions of insight and revelation, are an innovative contribution to the long tradition of Haggadah illustration.

    In eight stirring meditations, Darrell Johnson shows how the Lord's Prayer sums up the essence of Christian faith and, when prayed in faith, draws us into draws us into the Triune God's work of transforming the world. Darrell W. Johnson is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A popular conference and retreat speaker, he has also served as the preaching pastor for a number of congregations in North America and the Philippines and Adjunct Professor of Preaching for the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. His other books include Experiencing the Trinity and Discipleship on the Edge: An Expository Journey through the Book of Revelation.

    He presents a methodology for taking the literary characteristics of biblical texts into account in the text-to-sermon process and then applies that methodology in separate chapters on preaching on psalms, proverbs, narratives, parables, and epistles.

    Akin, and Tony Merida, this new commentary series, projected to be 48 volumes, takes a Christ-centered approach to expositing each book of the Bible. Rather than a verse-by-verse approach, the authors have crafted chapters that explain and apply key passages in their assigned Bible books. Readers will learn to see Christ in all aspects of Scripture, and they will be encouraged by the devotional nature of each exposition. Exalting Jesus in Ephesians is written by Tony Merida.

    In our rapidly changing and ever more complex world, we suffer a crisis of leadership. Leighton Ford sees the growing dearth of bold leaders--in the marketplace, religion and public life. In this powerful book, Ford calls Christians to be transformational leaders. Many leaders work within situations; transformational leaders change situations. Many leaders accept what can be talked about; transformational leaders change what can be talked about. Many leaders talk about payoffs; transformational leaders talk about goals. Many leaders bargain; transformational leaders appeal to a common vision. Ford realizes that desperately needed Christian and transformational leadership will not emerge until we have a model of the transforming leader. And what more powerful example of leadership could there be than Jesus? Insightfully examining Jesus' work and the best recent books on leadership, Ford presents --the leader as strategist --the leader as seer --the leader as seeker --the leader as servant --the leader as struggler --the leader as sustainer Executives, pastors, managers, professionals--all will benefit from this fresh, in-depth treatment by a man who is himself one of the world's finest Christian leaders.

    The more unusual the portrait, the more it departs from the traditional view of Jesus, the more attention it gets in the popular media. Why are scholars so prone to fabricate a new Jesus? Why is the public so eager to accept such claims without question? What methods and assumptions predispose scholars to distort the record? Is there a more sober approach to finding the real Jesus? Commenting on such recent releases as Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty, Michael Baigent's The Jesus Papers and The Gospel of Judas, for which he served as an advisory board member to the National Geographic Society, Craig Evans offers a sane approach to examining the sources for understanding the historical Jesus.

    This book makes learning Hebrew a natural process and shows from the very beginning how understanding Hebrew helps in understanding the Old Testament. deductive approaches. Field-tested at a number of colleges and seminaries. Uses actual examples from the Hebrew Old Testament rather than made-up illustrations. Emphasizes the structural pattern of the Hebrew language rather than rote memorization, resulting in a simple, enjoyable, and effective learning process. Typestyle highlights particles added to nouns and verbs for easy recognition of new forms. Includes a CD-ROM featuring the full answer key to the accompanying workbook; and full-color, printable charts and diagnostics. Includes Acrobat Reader. (Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, NT4 and MacOS 8.1 or later.) With an Internet connection, you can also access additional resources including FlashWorks(TM), a fun and effective vocabulary-drilling program from Teknia Language Tools. Section of appendices and study aids is clearly marked for fast reference.

    Around the world, religion has become an increasingly more important and pervasive force in personal and public life. Revealing the significance of religion in contemporary life, World Religions Today, Second Edition, explores eight major religious traditions as dynamic, ongoing forces in the lives of individuals and in the collective experience of modern societies. Covering historical details more succinctly than the previous edition, this volume features revised chapters on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and East Asian Religions and adds two new chapters, Primal Religions, and Globalization: From New to New Age Religions. It also integrates material on Osama bin Laden, global terrorism, and the Iraq War. Moving beyond many books in the field--which focus on the historical origins and ancient development of the classical traditions of each religion--World Religions Today, Second Edition, takes a fresh approach. The book uses historical coverage of the religious traditions as a framework to help students understand how faiths have evolved to the present day and continue to have an impact on belief, politics, and society. It connects today's religions to their classical beliefs and practices but also shows how these religions have responded to and been transformed by the modern world. To help students grasp what might be new about the emerging era of religious life in the twenty-first century, the authors open each discussion with a contemporary scenario of religious experience that illustrates the tension between premodern views and modernity. World Religions Today, Second Edition, incorporates many pedagogical aids--timelines, maps, illustrations, discussion questions, and a glossary of key terms--and also features approximately 200 photographs and two new eight-page full-color inserts. A Companion Website contains student resources including chapter summaries, self-quizzes, and links to additional sources. An Instructor's Manual offers chapter summaries, pedagogical suggestions, and exam questions and answers. Ideal for undergraduate courses in world religions and comparative religion, World Religions Today, Second Edition, emphasizes the interconnectedness of faith, culture, politics, and society, providing a peerless examination of the diverse ways in which contemporary human beings are religious.

    Employing the narrative chronology of the Bible itself and the history of the ancient Near East as a framework, author Michael D. Coogan covers all the books of the Hebrew Bible, along with the deuterocanonical books included in the Bible used by many Christians. He treats every book of the canon with careful attention to its historical context, its particular genre, and its distinctive features. Dealing in detail with ancient Near Eastern sources and archaeological data, Coogan works from a primarily historical and critical methodology but also introduces readers to literary analysis and other interpretive strategies, especially current ones. The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures is enhanced by a glossary, timelines, photos, illustrations, maps, and a four-color insert on Jerusalem in biblical times. Strategically placed boxes address issues that often puzzle readers of the Bible, provide models of interpretation of particular texts, and discuss their significance for Judaism and Christianity. Each chapter includes key terms, questions for review and discussion, and suggestions for further reading. Providing a non-denominational and non-doctrinal treatment, The Old Testament is accessible to students of all backgrounds. It offers a unique and captivating introduction to the Hebrew scriptures themselves and to how they have been--and can be--interpreted.

    It combines authoritative research with a captivating style to bring our heritage home to us.

    Klyne Snodgrass explores in vivid detail the context in which these stories were told, the purpose they had in Jesus' message, and the ways they have been interpreted by the church and modern scholarship. While holding a consciously evangelical approach, Snodgrass deals throughout with a broad spectrum of opinions and interpretations. He begins by surveying the primary issues in parables interpretation. Offering both a new, more functional classification system for Jesus' parables and guidelines for interpreting them, he provides an overview of other parables -- often neglected in the discussion -- from the Old Testament, Jewish writings, and the Greco-Roman world. The remaining chapters group the longer and more important parables of Jesus thematically and give a comprehensive treatment of each, including background and significance for today.