Creation Untamed

Creation Untamed
Author: Terence E. Fretheim
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2010-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0801038936

A leading Old Testament theologian addresses one of the most vexing questions in Christian life and theology: What is God's role in natural disasters?

All Things Wise and Wonderful

All Things Wise and Wonderful
Author: E. Janet Warren
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2021-01-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 172529205X

The Covid-19 pandemic provoked many questions. It is human nature to want to know how and why things happen. The sovereign God has created a beautiful, intricate world in which multiple factors interact to cause an event. We are called to properly understand creation, but often fail because we tend to be lazy, fearful, and self-serving. We make judgments based on (often incorrect) assumptions about cause-and-effect relations, and we seek reassuring explanations for both trivial and serious events. Christians have the added complication of figuring out God's role in making things happen. All Things Wise and Wonderful examines what the Bible and Christian theology say about cause and effect, how science views causation in the world, and how human mind-brains judge causation. Using illustrations from everyday life, it offers guidance for Christians to think and act wisely with respect to how and why things happen in creation.

Job

Job
Author: John H. Walton
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Total Pages: 470
Release: 2012-08-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310492009

The NIV Application Commentary helps you communicate and apply biblical text effectively in today's context. To bring the ancient messages of the Bible into today's world, each passage is treated in three sections: Original Meaning. Concise exegesis to help readers understand the original meaning of the biblical text in its historical, literary, and cultural context. Bridging Contexts. A bridge between the world of the Bible and the world of today, built by discerning what is timeless in the timely pages of the Bible. Contemporary Significance. This section identifies comparable situations to those faced in the Bible and explores relevant application of the biblical messages. The author alerts the readers of problems they may encounter when seeking to apply the passage and helps them think through the issues involved. This unique, award-winning commentary is the ideal resource for today's preachers, teachers, and serious students of the Bible, giving them the tools, ideas, and insights they need to communicate God's Word with the same powerful impact it had when it was first written.

Rereading Genesis 1–11 with a Look into Revelation 18:1—22:7

Rereading Genesis 1–11 with a Look into Revelation 18:1—22:7
Author: James Strickler
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 76
Release: 2023-02-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 166679967X

"Having studied the tail end of the Bible for decades, Strickler now probes the front end to unearth a fresh contribution to a theology of God's covenantal relationship to all creation. Recognizing that the younger Yahwist tradition reflects nationalistic interests, the book revolves around the paradigmatic influence of the elder Elohim tradition, which aligns better with the New Testament fulfillment of God's creative-redemptive purposes first mapped out in the early Genesis narratives." --Ted Lewis, executive director, The International Jacques Ellul Society "The aspiration to read the Bible beyond the confines of Christendom's categories has been shared by many, rarely practiced consistently, and often resulted in grievous disappointment. . . . Readers will be encouraged by Strickler's persistent effort to follow the story of Elohim from the first things of the Torah onward, reminding us that the elusive figure who covenanted with Noah is also the one who covenanted anew with the followers of Jesus and promises to send renewing waters flowing--at the end--through the new Jerusalem." --Michael Cartwright, University of Indianapolis "In looking at what might be the bookends of the Christian Scriptures, Strickler follows an Anabaptist ethos of trying to wrest the Scriptures from the holds of Christendom, with its priorities on power and self-protection. By contrast, Elohim is a God who creates, recreates, cocreates, and partners. . . . How the opening chapter of a story is understood determines how the rest of the story is read, and for those who claim the name 'Christian,' how the story of the Bible is understood determines how life is lived." --Tato Sumantri, digital content administration, Wipf and Stock Publishers

The Season of Creation

The Season of Creation
Author: Norman C. Habel
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2011-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 145141658X

"As the global climate crisis worsens, many churches have sought to respond by instituting a movement to observe a liturgical season of creation. Scholars who have pioneered the connections between biblical scholarship, ecological theology, liturgy, and homiletics provide here a comprehensive resource for preaching and leading worship in this new season. Included are theological and practical introductions to observance of the season, biblical texts for its twelve Sundays in the three-year lectionary cycle, and astute commentary to help preachers and worship leaders guide their congregations into deeper connection with our imperiled planet"--Publisher description.

Untamed

Untamed
Author: Glennon Doyle
Publisher: Dial Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1984801260

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick) In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • Cosmopolitan • Marie Claire • Bloomberg • Parade • “Untamed will liberate women—emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It is phenomenal.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls and Eat Pray Love This is how you find yourself. There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent—even from ourselves. For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within. This was her own voice—the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living. Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is. Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.

TheoMedia

TheoMedia
Author: Andrew J. Byers
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2013-07-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1610979885

The church is unsure of itself in the twenty-first century's media culture. Some Christians denounce digital media while others embrace the latest gadgets and apps as soon as they appear. Many of us are stumbling along amidst the tweets, status updates, podcasts, and blog posts, wondering if we have ventured into a realm beyond the scope of biblical wisdom. Though there is such a thing as "new media," Andrew Byers reminds us that the actual concept of media is ancient, theological, and even biblical. In fact, there is such a thing as the media of God. "TheoMedia" are means by which God communicates and reveals himself--creation, divine speech, inspired writings, the visual symbol of the cross, and more. Christians are actually called to media saturation. But the media that are to most prominently saturate our lives are the media of God. If God creates and uses media, then Scripture provides a theological logic by which we can create and use media in the digital age. This book is not an unqualified endorsement of the latest media products or a tirade against media technology. Instead, Byers calls us to rethink our understanding of media in terms of the media of God in the biblical story of redemption.

All Creation Groans

All Creation Groans
Author: Daniel W. O'Neill
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2021-05-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725290111

In a suffering world reeling from global pandemics and health disparities, it is high time to think theologically about the devastating experience of disease, and to address our God-inspired responsibility to understand its origins and engage in its management. In a fragmented world, we need a unifying and integrated perspective on people in communities embedded in a fractured ecology. In an academic world blind to the spiritual world and imbalanced toward technical solutions, the global church must articulate a contemporary metanarrative that is moral, practical, and deeply transformational. All Creation Groans brings together multiple perspectives for a compelling global-health approach to the pathologies of the world as a part of the missio Dei. The authors paint a unifying perspective on God’s healing intentions in creation, redemption, and consummation, and the opposing nature-corrupting effects of the rebellion of created moral agents. It is a fresh call for the global church to engage in aligning with God’s healing action for eternally sustainable global health.

On the (Divine) Origin of Our Species

On the (Divine) Origin of Our Species
Author: Darrel R. Falk
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2023-11-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1666757012

The Bible’s opening chapter includes these words: “So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” We are created beings, with a unique status in creation. Nothing is more fundamental to Christian faith. Yet biologists present extensive data and provide a picture of how our species came to be, but there is no Creator in the intricate details of the painting they provide. If the scientific evidence for the evolution picture is reasonable—and, in general, it is—and if humans were indeed created from a common ancestor of the great apes, then what can be said about the Artist who Christians believe was at work? Vague answers are not satisfactory anymore—not in this scientific age. Recent mainstream data from paleoanthropology and genetics suggest that the basis of our species’ success was not that they were superior fighters. Rather, the reason our ancestors thrived was likely their ability to function cooperatively in groups—to respect each other and to get along. This reframes the question about the nature of the hovering Spirit’s activity in bringing our species into being. And that is the subject of this book.

Cross Vision

Cross Vision
Author: Gregory A. Boyd
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2017-08-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506420745

Renowned pastor-theologian Gregory A. Boyd tackles the BibleÕs biggest dilemma. Ê The Old Testament God of wrath and violence versus the New Testament God of love and peaceÑitÕs a difference that has troubled Christians since the first century. Now, with the sensitivity of a pastor and the intellect of a theologian, Gregory A. Boyd proposes the Òcruciform hermeneutic,Ó a way to read the Old Testament portraits of God through the lens of JesusÕ crucifixion. Ê In Cross Vision, Boyd follows up on his epic and groundbreaking study, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God. He shows how the death and resurrection of Jesus reframes the troubling violence of the Old Testament, how all of Scripture reveals GodÕs self-sacrificial love, and, most importantly, how we can follow JesusÕ example of peace.