Long the dominant religion of the West, Christianity is now rapidly becoming the principal faith in much of the postcolonial world--a development that marks a momentous shift in the religion's very center of gravity. In this eye-opening book, Lamin Sanneh examines the roots of this "post-Western awakening" and the unparalleled richness and diversity, as well as the tension and conflict, it has brought to World Christianity.
Tracing Christianity's rise from its birth on the edge of the Roman empire--when it proclaimed itself to be a religion for the entire world, not just for one people, one time, and one place--to its key role in Europe's maritime and colonial expansion, Sanneh sheds new light on the ways in which post-Western societies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America were drawn into the Christian orbit. Ultimately, he shows, these societies outgrew Christianity's colonial forms and restructured it through their own languages and idioms--a process that often occurred outside, and sometimes against, the lines of denominational control. The effect of such changes, Sanneh contends, has been profound, transforming not only worship, prayer, and the interpretation of Scripture, but also art, aesthetics, and music associated with the church. In exploring this story of Christianity's global expansion and its current resurgence in the non-Western world, Sanneh pays close attention to such issues as the faith's encounters with Islam and indigenous religions, as well as with secular ideologies such as Marxism and nationalism. He also considers the challenges that conservative, non-Western forms of Christianity pose to Western liberal values and Enlightenment ideas.
Here then is agroundbreaking study of Christianity's role in cultural innovation and historical change--and must reading for all who are concerned with the present and future of the faith.

Have you ever felt like something was missing either within yourself or in your life-as if there's a void that you can't define and yet can't escape? You've been trying to find your purpose, and sometimes you even question whether you have one. Author Jill Allen has faced those questions and has discovered the way to show up as the woman she wants to be-the woman God designed and created her to be.

Set Free reveals Allen's heartbreaking and awe-inspiring life story. She recalls the fog surrounding the tragedy of her mother's unexpected death when she was a young girl, her own near-fatal accident, and her relationship with God throughout every moment. Using candid and relatable storytelling, she shares some of her darkest moments and traces her path to where she is today-a fierce woman of strong faith, a happily married wife of twenty years, and a proud mother of five. She details every step she took along the journey that led her to God's unconditional love so you can take these exact steps to freedom and enjoy His peace too.

In this inspirational personal narrative, one woman tells her life story to help women realize they can overcome anything with God.

Winner of an Award of Merit in the Christianity Today Book Awards, History/Biography category
On January 17, 1776, one week after Thomas Paine published his incendiary pamphlet Common Sense, Connecticut minister Samuel Sherwood preached an equally patriotic sermon. "God Almighty, with all the powers of heaven, are on our side," Sherwood said, voicing a sacred justification for war that Americans would invoke repeatedly throughout the struggle for independence.
In Sacred Scripture, Sacred War, James Byrd offers the first comprehensive analysis of how American revolutionaries defended their patriotic convictions through scripture. Byrd shows that the Bible was a key text of the American Revolution. Indeed, many colonists saw the Bible as primarily a book about war. They viewed God as not merely sanctioning violence but actively participating in combat, playing a decisive role on the battlefield. When war came, preachers and patriots alike turned to scripture not only for solace but for exhortations to fight. Such scripture helped amateur soldiers overcome their natural aversion to killing, conferred on those who died for the Revolution the halo of martyrdom, and gave Americans a sense of the divine providence of their cause. Many histories of the Revolution have noted the connection between religion and war, but Sacred Scripture, Sacred War is the first to provide a detailed analysis of specific biblical texts and how they were used, especially in making the patriotic case for war. Combing through more than 500 wartime sources, which include more than 17,000 biblical citations, Byrd shows precisely how the Bible shaped American war, and how war in turn shaped Americans' view of the Bible.
Brilliantly researched and cogently argued, Sacred Scripture, Sacred War sheds new light on the American Revolution.

The central act of Christian worship is the Mass or Eucharist. This, however, is a formal public act, and generally a once-in-a-week event, which does not entirely answer the spiritual aspirations of the vast majority of Christians who express these through prayer and "devotional practices". The cult of relics and of saints in general; banding together into confraternities to foster a special devotion; going on pilgrimages, wearing medals, badges and scapulars - all these are forms of devotion. Where did they all come from? They have left their mark on the Church, in the history of books and in manuals of prayers, but relatively little is known about them. The idea for this book arose when, in the senior common room of a university theological faculty, it became clear that none of those present knew why there was an "Infant of Prague". The book is in a dictionary format. Mainly historical in its approach, it explains how a particular devotion arose, sets it in its context and explains the purpose it served in the life of the Church. It is critical without being judgemental on subjects such as the "truth" behind apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Some 600 entries range over topics such as relics, pilgrimages and the cult of the saints, as well as more specialized and local devotions. The work is designed to be of use to historians and those engaged in religious studies, as well as being of interest to the general public. The topics are confined to the Christian religion and, in effect, almost entirely to the Roman Catholic tradition. Tables provide a comparison of the Liturgical Calendar (fixed and moveable feasts) before and after the Reform of 1969. A comprehensive index enables readers to follow virtually any subject through its different aspects, as well as providing a quick guide to the contents of the dictionary. Michael Walsh is the editor of Bishop Butler's "Lives of the Saints" in one concise volume, and the author of a companion volume, "Patron Saints".

What should be the Christian's attitude toward society? When so much of our contemporary culture is at odds with Christian beliefs and mores, it may seem that serious Christians now have only two choices: transform society completely according to Christian values or retreat into the cloister of sectarian fellowship.
In Making the Best of It, John Stackhouse explores the history of the Christian encounter with society, the biblical record, and various theological models of cultural engagement to offer a more balanced and fruitful alternative to these extremes. He argues that, rather than trying to root up the weeds in the cultural field, or trying to shun them, Christians should practice persistence in gardening God's world and building toward the New Jerusalem. Examining the lives and works of C. S. Lewis, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer for example and direction, Stackhouse suggests that our mission is to make the most of life in the world in cooperation with God's own mission of redeeming the world he loves. This model takes seriously the pattern of God's activity in the Bible, and in subsequent history, of working through earthly means--through individuals, communities, and institutions that are deeply flawed but nonetheless capable of accomplishing God's purposes. Christians must find a way to live in this world and at the same time do work that honors God and God's plan for us.
In an era of increasing religious and cultural tensions, both internationally and domestically, the model that Stackhouse develops discourages the "all or nothing" attitudes that afflict so much of contemporary Christianity. Instead, he offers a fresh, and refreshingly nuanced, take on thequestion of what it means to be a Christian in the world today.

What makes someone a hero? Or a villain? The Action Bible: Heroes and Villains is an extensive, full-color guide to the Bible’s heroes and villains, and includes fascinating facts and figures about the Bible’s most curious yet sometimes relatable people.

It will draw in 8- to 12-year-old readers with:

• Colorful info about the crazy origins, amazing occupations, and strengths and failings of more than 75 Bible characters.
• Historical background and “Where Is It Now?” guides to ancient and modern-day locations.
• Diagrams, stories and fun facts about food, clothing, traditions, individual quirks and miraculous interventions.

From Adam and Eve’s most embarrassing moment to the details of a Roman soldier’s armor to Zechariah’s hometown, the unique insights and dynamic illustrations in this jam-packed guide will jump off the pages and into kids’ minds and hearts as they meet people just like them whom God used in His redemptive story.

Ensure your next 18 months go according to plan with this convenient 2026 weekly planner featuring space to record monthly goals, birthdays, important dates, to-do lists, daily appointments and priorities. Each week provides space to write down prayer lists and priorities and make notes. Find strength, inspiration and comfort in the quotes and Scripture verses each week.

Features include:

• 18-month weekly planner (August 2025–January 2027).
• View 2026 and 2027 at a glance.
• View each month at a glance.
• List of public holidays.
• Space to record personal information and contacts.
• Standard measurements and conversions, world time zones and dialing codes.
• Space for monthly goals, birthdays, important dates and “to-dos”.
• Space for weekly prayer lists, priorities and notes.
• Scripture verses and inspiring quotes each week.
• Crisis Scripture guide.
• Ribbon marker.
• 244 two-color pages.

What would you do to inherit a million dollars? Would you be willing to change your life? Jason Stevens is about to find out. Red Stevens has died, and the older members of his family receive their millions with greedy anticipation. But a different fate awaits young Jason, whom his great-uncle Stevens believed might be the last vestige of hope in the family. "Although to date your life seems to be a sorry excuse for anything I would call promising, there does seem to be a spark of something in you that I hope we can fan into a flame. For that reason, I am not making you an instant millionaire." What Stevens does give Jason leads to The Ultimate Gift. Young and old will take this timeless tale to heart.

How can religion contribute to democracy in a secular age? What can the millennia-old Catholic tradition say to church-state controversies in the United States and around the world? Secularism, Catholicism, and the Future of Public Life, presents a dialogue between Douglas W. Kmiec, a prominent scholar of American constitutional law and Catholic legal thought, and an international cast of experts from a range of fields. In his essay, "Secularism Crucified?," Kmiec illustrates the profound tensions around religion and secularism through an examination of the Lautsi case, a European judicial decision that supported the presence of crucifixes in Italian classrooms. Laying out a church-state typology, Kmiec argues for clarifying U.S. church-state jurisprudence, and advances principles to prudently limit the over-stretching impulse of religious conscience claims. In the process, he engages secular thinkers, popes, U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and President Barack Obama. The respondents, scholars of legal theory, international relations, journalism, religion, and social science, challenge Kmiec and illustrate ways in which both scholars and citizens should understand religion, democracy, and secularism. Their essays bring together current events in Catholic life, recent social theory, and issues such as migration, the Arab Spring, and social change.

The Jesus People movement of the late 1960s and 1970s was an important force in the lives of millions of American Baby Boomers. This unique combination of the hippie counterculture and evangelical Christianity first appeared amid 1967's famed "Summer of Love" in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and grew like wildfire in Southern California and in cities like Seattle, Atlanta, and Milwaukee. In 1971 the growing movement found its way into the national spotlight, attracting a great deal of contemporary media and scholarly attention. In the wake of publicity, the movement gained momentum and attracted a huge new following among evangelical church youth who enthusiastically adopted the Jesus People persona as their own. In the process, the movement spread across the country - particularly into the Great Lakes region - and coffeehouses, "Jesus Music" singers, and "One Way" bumper stickers soon blanketed the land. Within a few years, however, the movement faded and disappeared and was largely forgotten by everyone but those who had filled its ranks. God's Forever Family is the first major attempt to re-examine the Jesus People phenomenon in over thirty years. It reveals that it was one of the most important American religious movements of the second half of the 20th-century. Not only did the Jesus movement produce such burgeoning new evangelical groups as Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard movement, but the Jesus People paved the way for the huge Contemporary Christian Music industry and the rise of "Praise Music" in the nation's churches. More significantly, perhaps, it revolutionized evangelicals' relationship with youth and popular culture-important factors in the evangelical subculture's emerging engagement with the larger American culture from the late 1970s forward. God's Forever Family makes the case that the Jesus People movement not only helped create a resurgent evangelicalism but - alongside the hippie counterculture and the student movement - must be considered one of the major formative powers that shaped American youth in the late 1960s and 1970s.

This volume initiates von Balthasar's study of the biblical vision and understanding of God's glory. Starting with the theopanies of the Patriarchal period, it shows how such glory is most fully expressed in the graciousness of the Covenant relationship between God and Israel.

In hierdie praktiese, toeganklike en lekkerlees-dagstukkieboek is daar elke dag ’n nuwe bruistablet om in afsondering te lees, te absorbeer en toe te pas in jou lewe – om jou innerlik te versterk as mens. Dit is ’n reis na groter egtheid en verdieping as kinders van die Here sodat jy (en ek) meer kan bruis en minder kan brul te midde van ons realiteit en probleme.

In this book, Dr. Werner Keller has brought the Bible alive for countless readers by telling the exciting story of how archaeologists have adventured 4000 years into the past to document events and to illuminate the backgrounds of the Scriptures. With this entirely fresh, lavishly illustrated new volume, the same distinguished author makes the world of the Bible visible as well as intelligible. He has selected a wide range of photographs-scenery, monuments, sculptures, wall paintings, excavations and the rest- to illustrate the Bible story. In his text he links the pictures to the words of the Scriptures and adds explanatory notes in such a way as to provide a unique companion to the Bible which will appeal to every reader.

Bishop Harvey Spencer never thought he'd witness a pandemic-just as he never expected to see the election of a Black president, the election of a female vice president (Black or otherwise), or an insurrection. But all of those things have happened, and our lives have been forever altered. In this book, he seeks to discover what God is trying to reveal to us by letting COVID-19 run rampant. By studying the Bible, he discovered it is not silent when it comes to fighting an infectious disease. He answers questions such as: - How did ancient Israel fight the spread of another infectious disease-leprosy? - What does the Bible tell us about quarantining individuals who are sick or may be sick? - Why do some elected officials continue to display a lack of leadership amid the pandemic? The author also examines what the Bible says about using face coverings, what the world has done to fight other outbreaks of disease, and similarities between COVID-19 and other deadly viruses. Get simple, practical explanations from the Bible that will help you understand the spread of COVID-19-and how to protect yourself-with A Biblical Response to COVID-19.

This volume presents a series of studies of representative mystics, theologians, philosophers, and poets and explores the three mainstreams of metaphysics which have developed since the catastrophe of Nominalism.

Heralding a new era in literary studies, the Oxford English Literary History breaks the mould of traditional approaches to the canon by focusing on the contexts in which authors wrote and how their work was shaped by the times in which they lived. These are books that every serious student and scholar of the period will need on their shelves.

James Simpson covers both high medieval and Tudor writing, showing how the coming of the Renaissance and Reformation displaced the earlier, hospitably diverse literary culture. Out went the flourishing variousness of medieval writing (Chaucer, Langland, the 'mystery' plays, feminine visionary writing); in came writing - by Wyatt, Surrey, and others - that prized coherence and unity, even while reflecting a sense of what had been lost.

Today we are facing a global crisis when it comes to families. Marriages are under
more pressure than ever. Many children are growing up without experiencing the
security of their parents' love and commitment to each other-and consequently are
finding it harder to receive God's unconditional love. There is an urgent need to invest
in marriage and family life, for strong societies are built on strong families, and
strong families are built on strong marriages.

The Marriage Course, developed by Nicky and Sila Lee of Alpha, has been revised and
updated to provide practical tools to help couples at every stage of their relationship.

This update includes talks from experts including Dr. Gray Chapman, Dr. Henry Cloud,
and Dr. Sue Johnson on topics such as money, sex, love languages, healthy
boundaries, and building connections. The course will also cover how couples can:

• Better understand each other's needs
• Communicate more effectively
• Grow closer by learning methods to resolve conflicts
• Recover from the way they may have hurt each other
• Recognize how their upbringing has affected their relationship
• Improve relationships with parents and in-laws
  

"My Walks with Remi - Book Two" is the second book of devotions written by Cindy J. Anderson. Inspired by stunning color photos of nature taken during Cindy's walks with her Portuguese Water Dog, Remi, she invites her readers to see God's presence around them in a unique and thought-provoking way. The photos in each devotion will become visual cues for the reader in their everyday life to remind them of the life-lesson illustrated in each devotion. Walking with Remi amidst his beautiful surroundings in Southern California will help the reader experience God's artistry in the soaring mountains, the sparkling blue of the Pacific Ocean, and the vibrant light that shines on the American Riviera, which makes colors pop against the backdrop of the clear, azure-blue sky.
With Scripture that spans both the Old and New Testaments, the devotions are a witness to how God still speaks to us today. The Scripture verses, photos, reflections, prayers, and life application questions that accompany each devotion will uplift and encourage the reader and help them feel God's presence walking with them each day. "My Walks with Remi - Book Two" will delight the eyes and nourish the soul.

Arianism is the archetypal Christian heresy. It was not only a watershed historically; its central issue-the question of Christ's full co-equal divinity as Son of God-remains an issue of deep concern to every generation of Christians, including our own. The traditional critique of Arianism is that its errors arise from an over-intellectual approach to Christianity, that it failed because it lacked a gospel of salvation. Questions about that traditional view have been raised here and there in recent years. This book challenges it head on. It does no on a basis of careful scholarship, and at the same time in a lively and readable style.' Maurice Wiles, Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford 'Gregg and Groh have enabled us to see the thought of Arius on the nature of Christ as condensing nothing less than a distinctive view of man, congruent to a precise social and religious milieu. As a result, the clash of disembodied dogmas becomes suffused with the quality of a late Roman Christian's most urgent concerns: "love and betrayal, grace and backsliding". Now presented with liberating precision in all its implications-from conflicting attitudes to change and stability in society and the universe, to vivid glimpses of the bustling world of Greek cities contrasted with the unearthly stillness of St Anthony in the desert-a well-worn chapter of Christian dogma emerges as a high moment in the birth of a new civilization in the Roman world. This is a model book, that any scholar of Christian doctrine would dearly wish to have written; and that every scholar of the early Christian world must read.' Peter Brown, Professor of History and Classics in the University of California at Berkeley 'Gregg and Groh propose a novel approach to the most profound crisis of the dogmatic tradition in the ancient church. They extract from the denunciation of the errors of Arius ... a striking view of the ancient doctrine of salvation. The principle aspects of this doctrine remain too often neglected by the critics. But with Gregg and Groh the saviour God of Arius is brought back to life, reactivated ... The authors display in convincing fashion the original accents of this doctrine, at the heart of the Christian community, before it had become nothing but a heresy charged doctrine... They promote a healthy reflection on the more fixed forms of antiArian dogmatism, passively transmitted over the centuries.' Charles Kannengiesser, Professeur a Onstitut Catholique de Paris

In Reforming Saints, David J. Collins explains how and why Renaissance humanists composed Latin hagiography in Germany in the decades leading up to the Reformation. Contrary to the traditional wisdom, Collins's research uncovers a resurgence in the composition of saints' lives in the half century leading up to 1520. German humanists, he finds, were among the most active authors and editors of these texts.
Focusing on forty Latin depictions of German saints written between 1470 and 1520, Collins finds patterns both in how these humanists chose their subjects and how they presented their holiness. He argues that the humanist hagiographers took up the writing of saints' lives to investigate Germany's medieval past, to reconstruct and exalt its greatness, and to advocate programs of religious and cultural reform. This literature, says Collins, left a legacy that polemicists and philologists in Catholic Europe would be using for their own purposes by the end of the sixteenth century. These hagiographic writings are thus both reflective and formative of the religious and cultural conflicts that defined this period of European history. To bolster his case, Collins draws not only on the Latin saints' lives, but also on vernacular lives, maps and chorographic documents, personal and professional letters, papal, urban, and municipal archives, painting, sculpture and broadside print, and medieval and early modern histories and chronicles. The result is a fresh, new portrait of the humanism of Renaissance Germany.
With his surprising and insightful conclusions, Collins sheds new light on humanism's appropriation in Germany, particularly in its religious aspect. He approaches the humanists'writings on their own terms and recaptures the creative energy the humanists brought to the task of revising the legends of the saints. His scholarly perspective includes the roles of emperors, princes, abbots, city councilmen, artists, librarians, soldiers, peasants, and pilgrims, showing how humanists reached larger and less learned audiences than many other kinds of writing ever could. The cult of the saints and Renaissance humanism are two topics that have attracted considerable scholarly attention. Reforming Saints considers them as seldom before -- at their intersection.

Many Christians ignore most Old Testament laws as obsolete or irrelevant. Others claim to honor them but in fact pick and choose among them very selectively in support of specific agendas, like opposition to homosexual rights. Yet it is a basic tenet of Christian doctrine that the faith is contained in both the Old and the New Testament. If the law is ignored, an important aspect of the faith tradition is denied. In this book Cheryl Anderson tackles this problem head on, attempting to answer the question whether the laws of the Old Testament are authoritative for Christians today. This question is crucial, because some Christians actually believe that the New Testament abolishes the law, or that the major Protestant reformers (Luther, Calvin, Wesley) rejected the law. Anderson acknowledges the deeply problematic nature of some Old Testament law, especially as it applies to women. For example, Exodus 22:16-17 and Deuteronomy 22:28-29 both deem the rape of an unmarried female to have injured her father rather than the female herself. Deuteronomy requires the victim to marry her rapist. Anderson argues that biblical laws nevertheless teach us foundational values. They also, however, remind us of the differences between their ancient context and our own. She suggests that we approach biblical law in much the same way that Americans regard the Constitution. The nation's founding fathers were privileged white males who did not have the poor, women, or people of color in mind when they agreed that "all men are created equal." The Constitution has subsequently been amended and court decisions have extended its protections to those who were previously excluded. Although the biblical documents cannot be modified, the manner in which they are interpreted in later settings can and should be altered. In addition to her work as a scholar of the Old Testament, Anderson has been a practicing attorney, and has worked extensively in critical, legal, feminist and womanist theory. This background uniquely qualifies her to apply insights from contemporary law and legal theory to the interpretive history of biblical law, and to draw out their implications for issues of gender, class, and ethnicity.