Book picks similar to
White Christ Black Cross: The Emergence of a Black Church by Noel Loos


australia
history-biography
indigenous-first-nations
indigenous-theology

The Bible Compass: A Catholic's Guide to Navigating the Scriptures


Edward Sri - 2009
    It is literally the word of God, and, along with Sacred Tradition, is one of the two pillars upon which all our beliefs and practices rest. The Bible Compass provides readers with the tools to study the Word of God with confidence and purpose. This book demonstrates how to read the Bible within the living Tradition of the Catholic Church, and it addresses all the common questions about the Bible.

The Burning Point: A Memoir of Addiction, Destruction, Love, Parenting, Survival, and Hope


Tracy McKay - 2017
    No, you’re not. Yes, I am. Of what? What if I can’t do it? What if you can? When the call came, when the letter arrived, when the sunlight finally fell on your face—the struggle fell away, and you only remembered the beauty. It was like childbirth, but constantly, for your whole life. Every day we brought forth our future, every choice we made determined what raw materials would be in the hands of tomorrow. Some days took years and were times of transition where we thought we might die, and some years were full of euphoria or rushing release. Most years were slightly uncomfortable until we remembered how to breathe. Everything didn’t always work out. Sometimes things were just hard. Sometimes life hurt too much, and people did break. Sometimes, you had to wait for a long time for the sun to rise. While it’s true the sun always rose, not everyone lived through the night, and the stars didn’t give a damn. The Burning Point will be available from By Common Consent Press on July 1, 2017.

The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find that Reveals the Birth of Christianity


James D. Tabor - 2012
    In 2010, using a specialized robotic camera, authors Tabor and Jacobovici explored a previously unexcavated tomb in Jerusalem from around the time of Jesus. They made a remarkable discovery—two ossuaries, or bone boxes, one carved with the earliest known image of Jonah; the other displaying a reference to resurrection. Since the newly discovered ossuaries can be reliably dated to before 70 AD, it is possible that whoever was buried in this tomb knew Jesus and heard him preach. In addition, the newly examined tomb is in close proximity to the so-called Jesus Family Tomb, and its discovery increases the likelihood that the “Jesus Family Tomb” is, indeed, the real tomb of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate: Crafting a Handmade Faith in a Mass-Market World


John Joseph Thompson - 2015
    We care about how things are made. We want to invest in our neighbor, not a distant executive. We choose to spend more for responsibly produced, locally sold, higher quality chocolate than for the Hershey bar we enjoyed a few years ago. The popularity of farmers markets, bakery bread, house concerts, craft-brewed beer, and boutique coffee shops reflects this renewed interest in important premodern ethics, but is there a deeper truth here to be discovered by people of faith? Might these distinctly earthy things possess a uniquely biblical flavor amidst a culture of automation and excess?

Mystic Mountains


Tricia McGill - 2005
    Isabella O'Shea is transported to New South Wales for wounding a member of the British aristocracy who raped her, so it is understandable that she loathes members of the upper class and the system that punished her; sentenced her to seven years transportation.Tiger Carstairs is rich, ambitious and English-so is it any wonder she is determined to hate her new master. Tiger dreams of making a new life beyond the aptly named Blue Mountains, so called because of the perpetual haze of blue surrounding them.Mystic Mountains is a story of courage and persistence-traits that were essential for the settlers who carved out a new life in a raw land where suffering and heartbreak were commonplace.Isabella and Tiger face tragedy and many hardships in their quest for a new life in this untamed land.Reviews:“Tricia McGill has written a sweeping love story of two people fighting for their places in an unfair world among the wild, untamed vistas of Australia. The strong plot reveals much about the early settlement days of the continent of Australia and is a history lesson in itself besides a sizzling romance. A job well done by Ms. McGill.” Lani Roberts 5 stars ***** Affaire de Coeur“Sometimes we in America forget that Australia is an equally young country, complete with tales of adventure about the settlement of the land. In this story of love adventure and hardship, we see a man and a woman work together to survive and overcome the harsh land that is Australia. A thoroughly enjoyable book, well-written and exciting.”Deborah Brent for Romantic Times book club **** four stars

God's Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion


Guy Consolmagno - 2007
    A full fledged techie himself, he relates some classic philosophical reflections, his interviews with dozens of fellow techies, and his own personal take on his Catholic beliefs to provide, like a set of "worked out sample problems," the hard data on the challenges and joys of embracing a life of faith as a techie. And he also gives a roadmap of the traps that can befall an unwary techie believer. With lively prose and wry humor, Brother Guy shows how he not only believes in God but gives religion an honored place alongside science in his life. This book offers an engaging look at how--and why--scientists and those with technological leanings can hold profound, "unprovable" religious beliefs while working in highly empirical fields. Through his own experience and interviews with other scientists and engineers who profess faith, Brother Guy explores how religious beliefs and practices make sense to those who are deeply rooted in the world of technology.

The Shape of Catholic Theology: An Introduction to its Sources, Principles, and History


Aidan Nichols - 1991
    Faithful to Catholic teaching yet critical, discerning yet impartial, Nichols offers this introduction to dogmatic theology, with the firm belief that dogmatics are the center of theology, and that any theological discipline which cuts itself off from these heartlands does so at its own peril. For it is in dogmatics that theology is in touch with the heart of revelation, and only by virtue of the quality of its contact with that revelation is thinking Christian at all.Though comprehensive and far-reaching, this work is not beyond the understanding of people just commencing a study of theology. It makes an excellent text for study groups.

The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace


Kenneth J. Collins - 2007
    This work carefully displays John Wesley's eighteenth century theology in its own distinct historical and social location, but then transitions to the twenty-first century through the introduction of contemporary issues. So conceived, the book is both historical and constructive demonstrating that the theology of Wesley represents a vibrant tradition. Cognizant of Wesley's own preferred vocabulary, Collins introduces Wesley's theological method beginning with a discussion of the doctrine of God. In this insightful exposition the leitmotif of holy love arises out of Wesley's reflection on the nature of the divine being as well as other major doctrines. (Douglas Meeks)

Steal Away Home: Charles Spurgeon and Thomas Johnson, Unlikely Friends on the Passage to Freedom


Matt Carter - 2017
     Johnson, an American slave, born into captivity and longing for freedom--- Spurgeon, an Englishman born into relative ease and comfort, but, longing too for a freedom of his own. Their respective journeys led to an unlikely meeting and an even more unlikely friendship, forged by fate and mutual love for the mission of Christ. Steal Away Home is a new kind of book based on historical research, which tells a previously untold story set in the 1800s of the relationship between an African-American missionary and one of the greatest preachers to ever live.

Crossing the Line: How Australian Cricket Lost Its Way


Gideon Haigh - 2018
    Y’know, it's not within the spirit of the game.’ Steve Smith was not to know it at Cape Town on 24 March 2018, but he was addressing his last press conference as captain of the Australian cricket team. By the next day morning he would be swept from office by a tsunami of public indignation involving even the prime minister. In a unique admission, Smith confessed to condoning a policy of sandpapering the cricket ball in a Test against South Africa. He, the instigator David Warner and their agent Cameron Bancroft returned home to disgrace and to lengthy bans. The crisis plunged Australian cricket into a bout of unprecedented soul searching, with Cricket Australia yielding to demands for reviews of the cricket team and of itself to restore confidence in their ‘culture’. In Crossing the Line, Gideon Haigh conducts his own cultural review – ‘less official and far cheaper but genuinely independent’. Studying the cricket team across a decade of radical change, he finds an accident waiting to happen, and a system struggling to cope with self-created challenges, on the field and in the boardroom. And he wonders: is there even any longer a spirit of the game to be within? Crossing the Line is the first instalment in Slattery Media Group’s Sports Shorts collection, a new series of sports essays published as small-format books. Sports Shorts has been created as a home for ambitious, lively and engaging writing and journalism on sport—work of a scale and scope not suited to the confines of day-to-day journalism. Every instalment will illuminate or entertain, all the while fitting into your back pocket on the way to the game.

The Theological Origins of Modernity


Michael Allen Gillespie - 2008
    Taking as his starting point the collapse of the medieval world, Gillespie argues that from the very beginning moderns sought not to eliminate religion but to support a new view of religion and its place in human life. He goes on to explore the ideas of such figures as William of Ockham, Petrarch, Erasmus, Luther, Descartes, and Hobbes, showing that modernity is best understood as a series of attempts to formulate a new and coherent metaphysics or theology.“Bringing the history of political thought up to date and situating it against the backdrop of contemporary events, Gillespie’s analyses provide us a way to begin to have conversations with the Islamic world about what is perhaps the central question within each of the three monotheistic religions: if God is omnipotent, then what is the place of human freedom?”—Joshua Mitchell, Georgetown University

2014 Magnificat Lenten Companion


Magnificat - 2013
    A perfect way to live Lent to the full this year - Lent is a time to refocus our hearts and revive our love of the Lord and one another.A Companion for the Forty Days of Lent, featuring original meditations on the Gospel reading of each day by fifteen gifted authors.Each issue of the Lenten Companion is never the same as the last and contains these one-of-a-kind extras that you won’t find anywhere else:- Inspiring reflections from some of the most gifted Catholic writers for each day- Faith-filled essays- Prayers, poetry, and devotions- Meditations for the Way of the Cross- A treasury of spiritual insights

Abraham Lincoln: Frontier Crusader For American Liberty


Michael Crawley - 2016
    His profound and poetic speeches are famous around the world, evidence of the greatness of American’s most beloved leader. But did you know that the sixteenth president of the United States was also a backwoods hillbilly from America’s western frontier, with a Kentucky accent so thick you could cut it? Or that he liked wrestling matches, dirty jokes, and had a reputation for telling hilarious, R-rated stories that weren’t suitable for mixed company? From his childhood working as a virtual slave for an abusive father, to sailing a river raft to New Orleans, to the Illinois General Assembly, Congress, and the White House, the story of Abraham Lincoln’s life is the story of America. He mourned the deaths of almost everyone he loved, endured marriage to a wife whose mental health issues made her a domestic abuser, and lost more elections than he won. But Abraham Lincoln believed in one thing above all: that everyone deserved a fair shot at the American dream. Why did John Wilkes Booth really shoot Abraham Lincoln? The truth is as shocking now as it was in 1865.

One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter


Greg Garrett - 2010
    K. Rowling's Harry Potter series topped the best-seller charts, inspired the highest-grossing film series of all time, and has now become a $250 million Universal Studio theme park. What is it about this story that has ignited such fandom and struck such a chord with people around the world? As English professor, culture critic, and Potter devotee Greg Garrett explains, these novels not only entertain but teach deeply held truths about ourselves, others, and the world around us. Unlocking the textual intricacies behind the Harry Potter narrative, Garrett reveals Rowling's magical formula--one that, he contends, earns her a place right next to the literary giants of old.--Craig Detwiler, Director, Center for Entertainment, Media, and Culture, Pepperdine University

The Jewish New Testament: A Translation of the New Testament That Expresses Its Jewishness


David H. Stern - 1989
    Its central figure, the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), was and is a Jew. Vicarious atonement, salvation, immersion (baptism), the new covenant and the very concept of a Messiah are all Jewish. In sum, the New Testament is built upon and completes the Hebrew Scriptures.Freshly rendered from the original Greek into enjoyable modern English by a Messianic Jew (a Jew who honors Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel), the "Jewish New Testament" challenges Jews to understand that Yeshua is a friend to every Jewish heart and the New Testament a Jewish book filled with truths to be accepted and acted upon. At the same time, while reaffirming the equality of Gentiles and Jews in the Messianic Community, it challenges Christians to acknowledge the Jewishness of their faith and their oneness with the Jewish people.