Walter Brueggemann

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“Yeo, ably matched by Claire Matheny, lets the text surge into contemporary life with its ample measure of loss and pain, of wonder and possibility. The 'connect' that the Spirit makes between Scripture and contemporary faith is accomplished in the rich and daring utterance of prayer. The author has probed deeply into the human condition and lets it intersect with the biblical text in compelling ways. The book is a model for the interaction that faith and culture must always undertake anew, an interaction that at its best evokes human dignity among us. The interplay of utterance and image in this volume make for a powerful invitation.”

The Tree of Life

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“An amazingly discerning and helpful book.”

The Trial of Innocence

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Andre LaCocque brings a distinctive style of imagination, interpretation, and articulation to his growing corpus of valuable exposition. Here he probes the thickest text of biblical faith. He goes 'back' to common cultural myths, but then shows how Israel has claimed generic myths for its own peculiar lived experience. And then he goes 'forward' to show how the voiced experience of Israel is paradigmatic for all human reality. Along the way he connects with the demanding interpretive tradition that includes Kierkegaard, Ernest Becker, and Ernst Bloch plus the richness of rabbinic work. The outcome is a compelling invitation to think again, afresh, about texts that have too long been settled in conventional, reductionist ways. LaCocque models the courage needed for reading and demanded by the texts.”

The Violence of Scripture

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Seibert has waded into the tough and demanding question of violence in the Bible with great courage and sensitivity. He exposits the deep problem of pervasive violence and suggests venturesome ways to counter such terrifying testimony. This book will be an important reference point for the interpretive conversation that we must continue to have.”

The Whole Gospel according to the Universal Theater of God’s Kingdom

“Read, mark, note well . . . and laugh!”

The Word on the Street

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Theologies in the Old Testament

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“As much as anyone in biblical studies, Erhard Gerstenberger has taught us the cruciality of the local, social contexts for reading texts. Early on, he engaged in social analysis of the texts of the Old Testament. And now, in his most mature work, he reflects on the specific contexts out of which come the variant voices of faith in Israel. Beyond that, Gerstenberger makes suggestive connections to contemporary contexts in his study of the personal and impersonal, absoluteness and relativity, and the reality of globalization. This book evidences a masterful reading of the Old Testament in contemporary context. The rich documentation, moreover, is worth the price of admission.”

Theology for Skeptics

Theology

“Dorothee Soelle is one tough Christian ... a rare presence in world Christianity because she embodies the best of classical theology, a clear grasp of our broad social crisis, a lyrical quality of expression and a determination to keep faith linked to political reality.”

Thinking the Faith

Theology

“Hall's careful sorting out of reason and revelation, kerygmatic and apologetic theological stances, and his futuring beyond Barth and Tillich are significant gains for our common work. . . . This book will exercise profound influence for the next generation."”

To Mend the World

Children & Youth

“To Mend the World is a wise and wide-awake book about youth ministry. Jason Lief and Kurt Rietema, experienced in their work with young people, recognize that the old ways of youth ministry no longer work. Their approach, in every way one can imagine, is "both-and": both transcendent and immanent, both theoretical and practical, both active and reflective. They see youth ministry as essentially an interpretive task wherein hands-on lived experience and faith claims function in interactive illumination. Their aim is to equip young Christians for an effective, faithful life in the real world, and to help them be knowingly reflective about the menacing, seducing ideologies all around us and committed to creative, imaginative work toward a mended world.”

Transforming Culture

Arts & Literature

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Unfettered

Christian Living

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Unto Us a Child Is Born

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

Foreword

“Mayfield’s way with eight Isaiah texts that are especially familiar to the church is rich, imaginative, and thick with multiple meanings.”

Useless Beauty

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“A wise old adage of faith states, 'Read the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other.' The slogan is an invitation to notice the complex engagement of faith and culture. In Useless Beauty, Johnston takes up the interface of faith and culture with specificity and immediacy. His discussion permits an instructive dialogue, whereby we read Ecclesiastes differently, and we read contemporary film with fresh eyes of faith. Neither the text nor the films can be easily dismissed as 'absurd.' Both are thickened, and we are driven deeper in our self-discernment by the process. Johnston's alertness and urbaneness constitute a model for faith that is not simplistic and a model for culture that is not thin or transparent.”

We Aren't Broke

Church Leadership & Ministry

“This is a book the likes of which you have never read before. Mark Elsdon has written a book on money in the church that is both smart and wise. The smart part of his book is that he opens up important specific resources for good money management and investment. The wise part of his book is that he appeals to faith in order to imagine afresh the uses of our resources. Elsdon proposes nothing less than that we ‘recalibrate our relationship with money’ in order not to keep reiterating old practices. This book is a must-read for any part of the church that fears it lacks adequate resources. Elsdon’s own life experience provides an elemental case study for his exposition.”

We Pray Freedom

Preaching & Worship

“Freedom-cum-justice is not a gift that falls from the sky. It is rather a piece of hard, sustained work that must always struggle against the rulers of this age. Such good work requires preparation and readiness through practice. In this rich, suggestive collection, Theoharis and Hribar invite us to liturgical practice for the sake of such emancipation. Their models of liturgical practice open a wide deposit of images, resources, and perspectives that will prosper such good work.”

What Christianity Is Not

Theology

“Those who know the work of Hall will know what to expect in this book: wisdom that comes from long years of faithful discernment, pathos about foolish fickleness in the name of the gospel, and buoyancy because he trusts the God of the gospel. Readers who do not know his work may take this book as an access point. In his critique of idolatrous misconstruals of the faith, Hall is himself a forceful antidote to the dysfunction of our society and to the dismay of the church.”

Where the Water Goes Around

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Bill Wylie-Kellermann knows that deep neighborly truth about a great city must be told in poetic playful idiom. He knows that ordinary prose has become the dialect of corporate fascism. This book is Wylie-Kellermann's welcome read of Detroit from below. . . . The book is a truthful counternarrative about the city. It offers an urban epitome of our national narrative. It must be read, heard, and noticed because it is a history of conscience, a history of despair, and a powerful story of relentlessly body-engaged hope.”

Why Narrative?

Theology

“Quietly, but irreversibly, the categories of critical theology have shifted and continue to shift. Not long ago, 'narrative' was so flimsy and vulnerable. Almost without our noticing, 'narrative and theology' are now joined together in a way that recharacterizes both terms... "The contributions to and advances in this fundamental shift are the work of a limited number of scholars, but their work is scattered in too many journals and books. This marvelous collection brings many of the most important resources together in one place.... The editors have rendered us a singular service in making these materials so conveniently available. I anticipate that the book will become both a primary tool for much teaching and a crucial point of reference for further work.”

Willingness to Die and the Gift of Life

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Paul Cho has written a fresh and richly suggestive book. He shows that by a focus on a fresh interpretive question, texts are illuminated in new configurations that generate new possibilities for meaning and significance. Cho’s work is marked in two important ways. On the one hand he attends carefully to the biblical text; on the other hand he has read widely and has mobilized fresh secondary material for his study. This book is welcome now in a culture of violence where life is precarious and widely under threat. It is only because of the inexplicable gift of life that we may think with freedom about death. In this study, Cho features those who thought courageously about death.”