Mark P. Ryan

Among the Vesper Spires

Fiction

“At a time in which the transmission of Christian faith to younger and newer believers seems so easily thwarted, this volume extends a helping hand. In Pilgrim’s Progress-like manner, Among the Vesper Spires connects storytelling to substantive theology. In these pages we meet a man whose wanderings invite readers to ponder afresh the time-tested insights of the Westminster Larger Catechism and their own standing in truth. If you enjoy classic content dressed in imaginative attire, explore this work.”

Bullies and Saints

History & Biography

“John Dickson has little problem acknowledging the ‘log’ in Christianity’s eye. As an insider to the Christian tradition and as a trained historian, he articulates with a clarity beyond many popular critics just how much of an image problem the Christian Church has—there is hypocrisy in every century. And yet he also knows that Christianity has contributed uniquely to history, and its hospitals, schools, reformers, and advocates for human dignity have often managed to open the most jaundiced eye. Whether you believe we would be better off without Christianity or whether you have found it profoundly life-giving, Bullies and Saints is an invitation to look again at the Christian church’s performance and to see if we cannot glimpse something of the founder’s own loving character and concern for human well-being.”

In Search of the Common Good

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“There are voices today that seem either to rub our noses in the church's failures or to revel in the culture's fragmentation. While In Search of the Common Good does confront us with the considerable ills of our time, it does so without giving up on either the church or the culture. Instead, it calls us back toward a vision of the 'good life'—a vision both abandoned by those who have given up on Christian faith and obscured by the harrowed activism of others striving to do influential things in prominent ways in order to demonstrate Christianity's continued cultural viability. Indebted to his own deep Nebraskan roots (and to thoughtful others far beyond his local community), Meador has written a clear, compelling, and distinctly Christian volume focused on restoring communal flourishing. Born of the belief that Christianity is good news for a world beset by evil and for a church struggling with compromise, so we are encouraged to make our difference by taking up a humbler set of Christian disciplines and practicing ordinary piety. Should Wendell Berry, Charles Taylor, and Francis Schaeffer ever have met to discuss the need for the church to lead by loving Jesus in daily neighbor-benefitting fashion, and should that conversation ever have been recorded, then I can imagine it looking and sounding rather like Jake Meador's In Search of the Common Good. A bracing, prayer-inducing yet hope-filled read, I am only glad to have read this volume and pray that it finds a wider audience that will take it to heart.”

Mirrors in Mark

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“In the ancient world, chiasmus was commonly deployed to assist in the ordering of a literary work and as a help to memorization. In our contemporary world, readers often miss the chiasmi employed by biblical authors, thereby reading past this structural contribution to meaning. Edmond Smith's volume strives to remedy this misstep by highlighting chiastic arrangements in several New Testament books. Whether one agrees or disagrees with all of the particular examples Smith furnishes, every reader stands to benefit from his attentive reading of Scripture.”

Outsiders on the Inside

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Standing at the intersection of pastoral ministry, Reformed theology, and current concerns, Outsiders on the Inside makes its case for racial inclusivity as part of the church’s mission with scriptural sensitivity and in dialogue with one denomination’s history, Herman Bavinck’s theology, and the experiences of Black pastors. It models the kind of discussion many congregations and networks need to have and the tone with which to have it. I highly recommend it.”

The Drama of Discipleship

Discipleship & Christian Education

“The Drama of Discipleship is Greg Perry’s long-awaited group training resource for making disciples committed to gospel show-and-tell in everyday settings. Drawn from multiple local contexts and from listening to learned global voices, Greg’s work accessibly combines the metaphor of dramatic performance with a missional hermeneutic and a medley of image-bearing roles. Bravo! Here are contextually wise and biblically faithful directions for gospel performances I’m excited to see creatively staged by innumerable congregations.”