With Christ in the School of Prayer


Andrew Murray - 1981
    Classic book views prayer not as drudgery or a way to win favor with God, but as a means of communing with the Creator--and seeing lives changed.

Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope


Esau McCaulley - 2020
    A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but it has something vital to say. Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times. He advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery. Ultimately McCaulley calls the church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social location as well as the cultures of others. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward.

From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective


David Gibson - 2013
    Incorporating contributions from a host of respected theologians, From Heaven He Came and Sought Her stands as the first comprehensive resource on definite atonement as it examines the issue from historical, biblical, theological, and pastoral perspectives.Offering scholarly insights for those seeking a thorough and well-researched discussion, this book will encourage charitable conversations as it winsomely defends this foundational tenet of Reformed theology.

What's So Great About Christianity


Dinesh D'Souza - 2007
    Amidst scientists’ attempts to debunk Christianity’s truths and atheists’ assuming the Bible is a how-to-be-virtuous self-help book, bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza resolves to both answer the tough questions and challenge believers as well as doubters to search for the ultimate truths about theories of origin. D’Souza tackles subjects and events such as the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, the Big Bang theory and Darwinism—everything you always pondered but never scrutinized, now placed under the proverbial microscope and studied thoroughly.

The Cry of the Soul: How Our Emotions Reveal Our Deepset Questions about God


Dan B. Allender - 1994
    I should know. I first read The Cry of the Soul decades ago when I was still sorting through a lot of hurt and frustration connected with my quadriplegia (yes, I read it on that music stand holding a mouth stick). The Cry of the Soul showed me what to do with my anger and hurt--not stuff it under the carpet of my conscience, or minimize it, but actually do something good with it."All emotion--whether positive or negative--can give us a glimpse of the true nature of God. We want to control our negative emotions and dark desires. God wants us to recognize them as the cry of our soul to be made right with Him. Beginning with the Psalms, Cry of the Soul explores what Scripture says about our darker emotions and points us to ways of honoring God as we faithfully embrace the full range of our emotional life.

Rhythms of Grace: How the Church's Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel


Mike Cosper - 2013
    Mike Cosper ultimately answers the question: What is worship?

Redemption Accomplished and Applied


John Murray - 1954
    Murray explores the biblical passages dealing with the necessity, nature, perfection, and extent of the atonement, and goes on to identify the distinct steps in the Bible's presentation of how the redemption accomplished by Christ is applied progressively to the life of the redeemed.

The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race


Willie James Jennings - 2010
    Why has Christianity, a religion premised upon neighborly love, failed in its attempts to heal social divisions?  In this ambitious and wide-ranging work, Willie James Jennings delves deep into the late medieval soil in which the modern Christian imagination grew, to reveal how Christianity’s highly refined process of socialization has inadvertently created and maintained segregated societies.   A probing study of the cultural fragmentation—social, spatial, and racial—that took root in the Western mind, this book shows how Christianity has consistently forged Christian nations rather than encouraging genuine communion between disparate groups and individuals.Weaving together the stories of Zurara, the royal chronicler of Prince Henry, the Jesuit theologian Jose de Acosta, the famed Anglican Bishop John William Colenso, and the former slave writer Olaudah Equiano, Jennings narrates a tale of loss, forgetfulness, and missed opportunities for the transformation of Christian communities.  Touching on issues of slavery, geography, Native American history, Jewish-Christian relations, literacy, and translation, he brilliantly exposes how the loss of land and the supersessionist ideas behind the Christian missionary movement are both deeply implicated in the invention of race.Using his bold, creative, and courageous critique to imagine a truly cosmopolitan citizenship that transcends geopolitical, nationalist, ethnic, and racial boundaries, Jennings charts, with great vision, new ways of imagining ourselves, our communities, and the landscapes we inhabit.

Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It


Adam Hamilton - 2014
    Wesley's story is our story. It defines our faith and it challenges us to rediscover our spiritual passion. This is a gracious gift that we will benefit from reading. The commentary is written by a superb preacher who has a pastor's heart and knows how to make the past come alive to strengthen our own experience. Prepare to be transformed. Richard P. Heitzenrater, William Kellon Quick Professor Emeritus of Church History and Wesley Studies at Duke Divinity School Adam Hamilton connects John Wesley's contribution in 18th-century England with his legacy for 21st-century America, bringing lessons from Wesley's life and ministry to bear on discipleship today. This is an excellent resource for personal and denominational revival. Scott Jones, Resident Bishop of the Great Plains area of The United Methodist Church and author of The Wesleyan Way

War on the Saints, The Full Text, Unabridged Edition


Jessie Penn-Lewis - 1964
    325 pages, hardcover with jacket. A brilliant, highly accurate description of specific ways by which the powers of darkness work to confuse, deceive, oppose, afflict, mislead or bind believers - and how to detect, oppose and overcome them. An advanced text, not for quick or easy reading. Requires study - yields keen, sure understanding. Thomas E. Lowe, Ltd. restored this full original text to the public in 1973 after many years in which the editors of the condensed edition had opposed its publication. Today, Mrs. Penn-Lewis's books are still widely read by Christians and deservedly so, but there is a significant exception: her most important book, War on the Saints, written in collaboration with the famous Welsh revivalist, Evan Roberts, had been only available in an abridged version. There are many books which can be abridged without losing content, but in the case of War on the Saints the word "abridged" is certainly the wrong one simply because the main thrust of her vital book was eliminated in the abridged and emasculated version. The editors based their decision to discontinue the original version "first and foremost" on their rejection of the important teaching regarding demon influence on Christians.

The Early Church


Henry Chadwick - 1967
    Examines the beginning of the Christian movement during the first centuries AD, and the explosive force of its expansion throughout the Roman world.

Spiritual Theology


Simon Chan - 1998
    Simon Chan surveys the little-explored landscape where systematic theology and godly praxis meet, and he highlights the connections between Christian doctrine and Christian living.

God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics


C.S. Lewis - 1971
    S. Lewis. "His whole vision of life was such that the natural and the supernatural seemed inseparably combined."It is precisely this pervasive Christianity which is demonstrated in the forty-eight essays comprising God in the Dock. Here Lewis addresses himself both to theological questions and to those which Hooper terms "semi-theological," or ethical. But whether he is discussing "Evil and God," "Miracles," "The Decline of Religion," or "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment," his insight and observations are thoroughly and profoundly Christian.Drawn from a variety of sources, the essays were designed to meet a variety of needs, and among other accomplishments they serve to illustrate the many different angles from which we are able to view the Christian religion. They range from relatively popular pieces written for newspapers to more learned defenses of the faith which first appeared in The Socratic Digest. Characterized by Lewis's honesty and realism, his insight and conviction, and above all his thoroughgoing commitments to Christianity, these essays make God in the Dock very much a book for our time.

The Jesus I Never Knew


Philip Yancey - 1995
    From the manger in Bethlehem to the cross in Jerusalem, Yancey presents a complex character who generates questions as well as answers; a disturbing and exhilarating Jesus who wants to radically transform your life and stretch your faith.The Jesus I Never Knew uncovers a Jesus who is brilliant, creative, challenging, fearless, compassionate, unpredictable, and ultimately satisfying. ’No one who meets Jesus ever stays the same’, says Yancey. ‘Jesus has rocked my own preconceptions and has made me ask hard questions about why those of us who bear his name don t do a better job of following him.’

Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview


Albert M. Wolters - 1985
    Wolters spells out the structure of a reformational worldview and its significance for those who seek to follow the Scriptures. Wolters begins by defining the nature and scope of a worldview, distinguishing it from philosophy or theology, and noting that the Christian community has advanced a variety of worldviews. He then outlines a Reformed analysis of the three fundamental turning points in human history – Creation, the Fall, and Redemption – concluding that while the Fall might reach into every corner of the world, Christians are called to participate in Christ's redemption of all creation.