Showing results by publisher "Tantor Media" in Christianity

What was the apostle Paul's relationship to Judaism? How did he view the Jewish law? How did he understand the gospel of Jesus's messiahship relative to both ethnic Jews and gentiles? These remain perennial questions both to New Testament scholars and to all serious Bible readers. Respected New Testament scholar Matthew Thiessen offers an important contribution to this discussion. A Jewish Paul is an accessible introduction that situates Paul clearly within first-century Judaism, not opposed to it.

The Generosity Secret provides a proven strategy to break free from the financial stress that's keeping you from pursuing your passions and living a joy-filled life. This systematic approach to handling money in a God-honoring way guides you step by step away from a life of financial strain to a new reality of financial health and freedom.

Africa has played a decisive role in the formation of Christian culture from its infancy. Some of the most decisive intellectual achievements of Christianity were explored and understood in Africa before they were in Europe. If this is so, why is Christianity so often perceived in Africa as a Western colonial import? How can Christians in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, indeed, how can Christians throughout the world, rediscover and learn from this ancient heritage?

In Faith Formation in a Secular Age, the first book in his Ministry in a Secular Age trilogy, Andrew Root offered an alternative take on the issue of youth drifting away from the church and articulated how faith can be formed in our secular age. In The Pastor in a Secular Age, Root explores how this secular age has impacted the identity and practice of the pastor, obscuring his or her core vocation: to call and assist others into the experience of ministry.

The Bible is the most influential book in Western history. As the foundational text of Judaism and Christianity, the Bible has been interpreted and reinterpreted over millennia, utilized to promote a seemingly endless run of theological and political positions. Adherents and detractors alike point to different passages throughout to justify wildly disparate behaviors and beliefs. Translated and retranslated, these texts lead both to unity and intense conflict.

From the worldwide phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code to the national bestseller Misquoting Jesus, popular culture is being bombarded with radical skepticism about the uniqueness of Christ and the reliability of the New Testament. Reinventing Jesus cuts through the rhetoric of extreme doubt expressed by these and several other contemporary voices to reveal the profound credibility of historic Christianity.

In this concise volume, Brent Strawn addresses ten common "lies" or mistruths about the Old Testament, from perceptions of God's personality (the "angry Old Testament God") to the relevance of the Old Testament for Christians. Discover why stories and laws written thousands of years ago, centuries before Christ, are enriching and indispensable for modern Christians. Written by a leading scholar in Old Testament and designed for easy listening and group discussion, this book will expand your thinking about the Bible's First (and largest) Testament.

Satan's transformation from opaque functionary to chief antagonist is one of the most striking features of the development of Jewish theology in the Second Temple Period and beyond. Once no more than an "accuser" testing members of the human community, Satan, along with his demons, is presented by Jewish apocalyptic texts and the New Testament as a main source of evil in the world. In Satan and the Problem of Evil, noted scholar Archie Wright explores this dynamic in both its historical and theological trajectories.

Many of us fail to recognize that obtaining the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to getting to heaven. We often block their reception through our own faults. We fail to see how they are passed on or strengthened in the sacraments. And, sadly, we forget to petition God in prayer to bestow these gifts upon us.

The Homiletical Plot, Expanded Edition follows in the same solid tradition of its predecessor. Upon its release, The Homiletical Plot quickly became a pivotal work on the art of preaching. Instead of comments on a biblical passage, Lowry suggested that the sermon follow a narrative form that moves from beginning to end, as with the plot of a story. This expanded edition continues to be an excellent teaching resource and learning tool for all preachers, from introductory students to seasoned clergy.

Not so very long ago, Yuletide was as much a chilling season of ghosts and witches as it was a festival of goodwill. In The Old Magic of Christmas, you'll rub elbows with veiled spirits, learn the true perils of elves, and discover a bestiary of enchanted creatures. Rife with the more frightful characters from folklore and the season's most petulant ghosts, this book takes you on a spooky sleigh ride from the silvered firs of a winter forest to the mirrored halls of the Snow Queen.

If talking about racism makes you anxious, afraid, or even angry, you're not alone. In Anxious to Talk About It, pastor and professor Carolyn B. Helsel draws on her success with White congregations to offer insight and tools to embrace, explore, and work through the anxious feelings that often arise in these hard conversations. Through powerful personal stories, new observations on racial identity development, and spiritual practices to help engage issues of racial justice prayerfully, you'll gain a deeper understanding of race in America and your place in it.

"Let me do something for you." Carrie Stephens offers these words of hope from the heart of God in Jesus, Love, & Tacos as she uses vibrant metaphors and comical self-deprecation to tell the story of lordship, community, and mission. These three ancient values will offer you help and hope as they shape your spiritual life, define how to gather in unity, and lead you to God's missional love in action.

In this "love letter to the Black Church," Dr. Lisa Allen examines the history of worship in the Black Church in America (and its legacy of equating liturgy with justice), the enduring effects of white supremacy on its liturgical heritages, and finally proffers a new liturgical paradigm, using a womanist hermeneutic, for students, liturgists, liturgical musicians, and lay people.

The idea that Christianity and science are inextricably in conflict is a relatively recent conception. However, with each new scientific discovery and scriptural insight, it's an idea that's being proved to be insupportable. Sy Garte has immersed himself in both science and faith and knows they work beautifully together to sing of the greatness of God. Now this respected scientist shares how God's world (nature and science) and God's word (made flesh in Christ) are bound together in loving harmony. In Science and Faith in Harmony,

Their revolutionary marriage was arguably one of the most scandalous and intriguing in history. Yet five centuries later, we still know little about Martin and Katharina Luther's life as husband and wife - until now. Against all odds, the unlikely union worked, over time blossoming into the most tender of love stories. This unique biography tells the riveting story of two extraordinary people and their extraordinary relationship, offering refreshing insights into Christian history and illuminating the Luthers' profound impact on the institution of marriage.

Carol Berry and her husband met and befriended Henri Nouwen when she sat in his course on compassion at Yale Divinity School in the 1970s. At the request of Henri Nouwen's literary estate, she has written this book, which includes unpublished material recorded from Nouwen's lectures. As an art educator, Berry is uniquely situated to develop Nouwen's work on Vincent van Gogh and to add her own research. She fills in background on the much misunderstood spiritual context of van Gogh's work, and reinterprets van Gogh's art in light of Nouwen's lectures.

Context looks at verses we know by heart but may not know the people, places, and times that give them meaning. Josh Scott delves into these well-known Scripture verses, exploring their true meanings by examining them in their original biblical context. Through this process, he unveils fresh and enlightening interpretations that are often missed when these Scriptures are taken out of context.

"Red beef and strong beer" was how C. S. Lewis described his education under one of his early tutors. It was, in other words, a substantial education that engaged deeply with the intellectual tradition and challenged him to grow. Gary Selby sees Lewis' expression as an indication of the kind of transformation that is both possible and necessary for the Christian faith, and he contends that spiritual formation comes about not by retreating from the physical world, but through deeper engagement with it.

On March 7, 203, in the amphitheater at Carthage, Vibia Perpetua was one of five Christians who met their deaths after refusing to venerate Roman emperor Septimius Severus and his son. Perpetua stood out from the others, and in fact from all the other martyrs of her era and before: she was an aristocratic married woman with an infant son, and she is the first female prose author whose work survives. Offering a new translation of Perpetua's prison diary and situating the life behind it within the late Roman Empire, Sarah Ruden tells the story of Perpetua's feat of self‑invention as a martyr.