Highlighting the place of Stoic teaching in early Christian thought, an international roster of scholars challenges the prevailing view that Platonism was the most important philosophical influence on early Christianity. They suggest that early Christians were more often influenced by Stoicism than by Platonism, an insight that sheds new light on the relationship between philosophy and religion at the birth of Christianity.

"YOU NEVER REALLY OWN FREEDOM, YOU ONLY PRESERVE IT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION."

From New York Times best-selling author Brigitte Gabriel

This book is critical to your family and your personal freedom. Will you sit back and watch the greatest country our world has ever known slowly fade away? Or will you rise?

"YOU NEVER REALLY OWN FREEDOM, YOU ONLY PRESERVE IT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION."

Issuing a bold wake-up call to America, New York Times best-selling author Brigitte Gabriel reveals the people, organizations, and forces at work to dismantle our Judeo-Christian values and freedoms, destabilize and threaten our national security, and radically redefine our very way of life. Gabriel regularly faces death threats from terrorists, condemnation from critics, and attacks from the “PC police,” yet she refuses to back down.

Rise will empower you by:

•Providing a plan for preserving your values and freedoms before it’s too late

•Educating you on how to identify behaviors and ideas that could threaten the local community and ultimately national security

•Motivating you to unite with other patriots who wish to preserve our endangered Judeo-Christian values and freedoms

•Helping you understand what you can do to fight the forces that aim to undermine our nation

Following Britain's decision to leave the European Union, and with increasing division, xenophobia, and confusion over future national and international relationships, this thought- and action-provoking book considers the crucial question, Who is my Neighbour? What does the Christian injunction to `love your neighbour as yourself' actually mean in practice today? Contributions by renowned theologians and practitioners reflect on this subject in relation to issues of poverty, ecology, immigration, fear and discrimination, and the recent political upheavals both in Europe and the USA.

2012 Midwest Publishing Association Crystal Book Award honorable mention Margot Starbuck is back with as much passion and energy as ever. In thirty brief chapters, she invites you to choose the adventure that fits who you are in authentically loving those around you. Yes, she knows: just the thought of adding something more to your life sounds exhausting. But here's the fantastic truth she's discovered in her own journey: "We don't have to add lots more overwhelming activity to what we've already got going. The regular stuff of our lives--the commute to work and the potlucks and home improvement projects and errands and play dates--are the exact places in which we express and experience God's love for a world in need." With a list of resources, a study guide and a six-week "Adventure Challenge," as well as plenty of stories and hilarity from Margot's own life, Small Things with Great Love will open your eyes to the people around you and the huge impact you can have on them through small acts of love. "Small things happen when I learn the name of my daughter's school bus driver," Margot writes. "Small things happen when I listen to the dreams of a woman who lives in a group home on my block. Small things happen when I risk crossing a language barrier even though I look really stupid doing it." And small things add up to big adventures and surprises, for you and others. The biggest surprise of all might be how powerfully God can use you, right in the midst of your walking-the-dog, paying-the-bills, doing-laundry life, when you're living out his love. Do the first small thing by opening these pages--and let the adventure begin

Few topics can grab headlines and stir passions quite like politics, especially when the church is involved. Considering the attention that many Christian parachurch groups, churches, and individual believers give to politics-and of the varying and sometimes divergent political ideals and aims among them-Five Views on the Church and Politics provides a helpful breakdown of the possible Christian approaches. Readers will find themselves equipped to think more deeply about the relationship between church and state in a way that goes beyond mere policy debates and current campaigns. General Editor Amy Black brings together five top-notch political theologians in the book, each representing one of the five key political traditions within Christianity: Anabaptist (Separationist)-Thomas Heilke Lutheran (Two Kingdom)-Robert Benne Catholic (In Tension)-J. Brian Benestad Reformed (Integrationist)-James K. A. Smith Black Church (Prophetic)-Bruce Fields Each author addresses his tradition's theological distinctives, the role of government, the place of individual Christian participation in government and politics, and how churches should (or should not) address political questions. Responses by each contributor to opposing views will highlight key areas of difference and disagreement. Thorough and even-handed, Five Views on the Church and Politics will enable readers to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the most significant Christian views on political engagement and to draw their own, informed conclusions.

A Courageous Yes When Yvrose fled her native Haiti for the United States, she couldn't imagine she'd return. After suffering multiple miscarriages, she struggled to build a new life. In a desperate moment, she finally met Jesus-uttering her first "yes" to God. That one yes became many when she couldn't forget the faces of the children she saw in a recurring dream. Finally, a trip to Haiti brought her dream to life when she became Mama to the many children left with no home after a catastrophic earthquake devastated the nation. Becoming Mama tells the incredible story of one woman who had the courage to lay everything aside in answer to God's call. You will be encouraged by God's overwhelming faithfulness to Yvrose's every yes to God, and learn you don't have to sell everything or travel to far-off places to make a difference. All you need is an open heart ready to say yes to His call.

Take heart You can live with the same promises, experiences and blessings we read in the lives of the Old Testament heroes and the New Testament disciples. What was their secret? The Bible is filled with stories of great events about God moving in seemingly ordinary people's lives. But what about you? And what about now? If you're ready to throw off your baby faith, put down the milk bottle, and get into the meat of living out God's promises, then Cultural Nonsense is for you In Hebrews chapter five the writer talks about moving beyond an initial level of faith and covenant training called the MILK of the word. It's where we all start after joining the family of God. MILK deals with the basic preliminary truths of our faith, but as believers we are encouraged to press past this MILK level and get into the real meat of the word. Now is the time for you to move to a new level of authority and anointing If you are seeking a closer understanding of God and His workings, then Cultural Nonsense is exactly what you are hungry for. Come and dine with David as he serves a meal with no limitations.

The 2014 Christianity Today Book Award Winner (Her.meneutics) Winner of a 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award ("Our Very Short List" in "The Leader's Outer Life" category) Mental illness is the sort of thing we don't like to talk about. It doesn't reduce nicely to simple solutions and happy outcomes. So instead, too often we reduce people who are mentally ill to caricatures and ghosts, and simply pretend they don't exist. They do exist, however--statistics suggest that one in four people suffer from some kind of mental illness. And then there's their friends and family members, who bear their own scars and anxious thoughts, and who see no safe place to talk about the impact of mental illness on their lives and their loved ones. Many of these people are sitting in churches week after week, suffering in stigmatized silence. InTroubled Minds Amy Simpson, whose family knows the trauma and bewilderment of mental illness, reminds us that people with mental illness are our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ, and she shows us the path to loving them well and becoming a church that loves God with whole hearts and whole souls, with the strength we have and with minds that are whole as well as minds that are troubled.

A pastor who is also a politics professor examines current issues pertaining to sexuality and society and asks, What kind of world are we creating? And is it the world we want to live in? With no finger-pointing, and a cordial openness to responses from all points of view, Dale Kuehne contrasts the "tWorld," in which traditional morality reigned and recent innovations would have been inconceivable, with the post-Enlightenment "iWorld," in which these innovations are promoted because the perceived immediate needs of the individual are paramount. Both, he finds, fall short of the "rWorld," the larger web of healthy and nourishing social relationships that provides the context for a biblical understanding of individual sexuality. This book will transform the conversation on sexuality among college students, campus ministers, church and ministry leaders, and all readers with an eye on culture and public policy.
EXCERPT
Even as the broader culture has deviated from the traditional understanding of sexual ethics and marriage, so have Christians. . . . Given the rapid shift in the sexual behavior of Christians, it should come as no surprise that when the church attempts to respond to the questions posed by the Sexual Revolution, it does so with mixed messages, a muted voice, and little impact. . . . The answer for the church is not to withdraw permanently from the public debate about sexual morality. Instead we need to step back, think deeply about what we believe, and rearticulate it in a better way. Most of all, we need to practice what we profess and in doing so, reengage the culture in a dialogue about the meaning of sexuality.

White Lies is a thoughtful, practical guide for confronting and dismantling White supremacy and promoting racial justice in healthy, effective ways. White supremacy presents one of the greatest threats to the soul of our nation and the kingdom of God--but we can do something about it. Drawn from more than twenty years of working in cross-cultural communities and learning from some of the greatest leaders of color, pastor and racial justice advocate Daniel Hill offers clarity on what White supremacy is and how it is much more than extremist groups spewing hatred, but lamentably is an ideology that infiltrates us all. As more and more White Christians are awakening to the pervasive bias for white culture, ideas, and actions that shape every aspect of society, many are eager to fight for racial justice. But what steps can be taken to make good, lasting change? How can White Christians get involved without causing more harm? In this practical and illuminating guide, Hill provides nine practices rooted in Scripture that will position you to be an active supporter of inclusion, equality, and racial justice. With stories, studies, and examples from his own journey, Hill will show you: How to get free of the impact of White supremacy individually and recognize that it works systemically How to talk about race in an intelligent and respectful way How to recognize which strategies are helpful and which are harmful What you can do to make a difference every day, after protests and major events We cannot experience wholistic justice without confronting and dismantling White supremacy. But as we follow Jesus--the one who is supreme over all things--into overturning false power systems, we will become better advocates of the liberating and unconditional love that God extends to us all.

When we pray ''Your Kingdom Come", what do we mean? Local neighbourhoods everywhere are affected by global changes, including the death of a single religious vision, shifting work and family patterns, and widespread scepticism. Violence and tension are rising. There is a way forward. Churches are taking a lead in community cohesion and transformation. If we are faithful, the future is full of hope. Duncan outlines a "Kingdom approach" affecting every area of community life. From housing to healthcare, from citizenship to crime prevention, ordinary Christians and local churches have a vital role to play. This is a manifesto for social transformation, peppered with examples from across the Western world.

The author, a dynamic young Parisian, retraces his year-long cycle journey with long-time friend, Gabriel de Lepinau, through remote parts of the world, visiting minority and persecuted Catholic communities on four continents, including the currently war-torn areas of Syria and northern Iraq. In his direct and engaging style, the author combines vivid and fast-paced story-telling with accounts of deeply moving encounters with Christians who experience daily what it means to suffer and face death for their faith.

Religion can be a double-edged sword bringing both love and condemnation for gays and lesbians. How can believers speak the truth in love to provide hope and compassion to those would be drawn to Christianity if it were not for the condemnation they fear they will receive?

Widely respected theologian Gerald McDermott has spent two decades investigating the meaning of Israel and Judaism. What he has learned has required him to rethink many of his previous assumptions. Israel Matters addresses the perennially important issue of the relationship between Christianity and the people and land of Israel, offering a unique and compelling "third way" between typical approaches and correcting common misunderstandings along the way. This book challenges the widespread Christian assumption that since Jesus came to earth, Jews are no longer special to God as a people, and the land of Israel is no longer theologically significant. It traces the author's journey from thinking those things to discovering that the New Testament authors believed the opposite of both. It also shows that contrary to what many Christians believe, the church is not the new Israel, and both the people and the land of Israel are important to God and the future of redemption. McDermott offers an accessible but robust defense of a "New Christian Zionism" for pastors and laypeople interested in Israel and Christian-Jewish relations. His approach will also spark a conversation among theologians and biblical scholars.