In this addition to the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series, Guy Prentiss Waters provides a study of the Sabbath, from creation to consummation.

A new edition of the definitive guide to the sites visited by St. Paul on his missionary journeys. Fully updated and redesigned with new maps and plans, and many new colour photographs. Expanded, with new sections on St John and his writing of the Book of Revelation on the island of Patmos, together with other Greek islands that may be visited as part of your holiday. Highlights include: the Seven Churches of the Revelation, notably Ephesus and Pergamum; the splendours of Istanbul and Athens; the glories of Ancient Greece and Macedonia. The islands of Cyprus and Malta, with their layers of history, are described. These lands are rich in reminders of the hardships faced by early Christians to establish their faith. This is an essential aid to prepare for a pilgrimage and a quality souvenir to evoke many lasting memories.

A people's lifestyle is one thing, their death-style another. The proximity or distance between such styles says much about a society, not least in Britain today. Mors Britannica takes up this style-issue in a society where cultural changes involve distinctions between traditional religion, secularisation, and emergent forms of spirituality, all of which involve emotions, where fear, longing, and a sense of loss rise in waves when death marks the root embodiment of our humanity. These world-orientations, evident in older and newer ritual practices, engage death in the hope and desire that love, relationships, community, and human identity be not rendered meaningless. Yet both emotions and ritual have an uneasiness to them because 'death' is a slippery topic as the twenty-first century gets under way in Britain. In this work, Douglas J. Davies draws from a largely anthropological-sociological perspective, with consideration of history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and theology, to provide a window into British life and insights into the foundation links between individuals and society, across the spectrum of traditionally religious views through to humanist and secular alternatives. He considers memorial sites (from churchyards to roadside memorials); forms of corporeal disposal (from cremation to composting); and death rites in a range of religious and secular traditions.

Many of the Christian festivals traditionally draw imagery and symbolism from the northern hemisphere seasons. Christmas is often described as a light in the darkness of winter, and Easter reflects the new life emerging in spring. Rudolf Steiner also offered various descriptions of the relation of the festivals to seasons. This has led some to suggest that Christian festivals in the southern hemisphere should be celebrated at opposite times of the year: for example, celebrating Christmas in June, or Easter in September. Is that really what Steiner was suggesting? This insightful book thoroughly reviews all of Steiner's words on the subject, as well as the writings of other anthroposophical thinkers. Steiner shared cosmic, spiritual imaginations for the northern hemisphere, and in this book Martin Samson develops a useful equivalent guide for the southern hemisphere, as well as closely studying the liturgy of The Christian Community and its seasonal prayers. From his research, he concludes that the essence of Christian festivals works at the same time for the whole earth, but take on subtly different nuances through the opposite seasons.

A beautifully written, theologically astute Advent study that focuses on the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

Since the 1950s, millions of American Christians have traveled to the Holy Land to visit places in Israel and the Palestinian territories associated with Jesus's life and death. Why do these pilgrims choose to journey halfway around the world? How do they react to what they encounter, and how do they understand the trip upon return? This book places the answers to these questions into the context of broad historical trends, analyzing how the growth of mass-market evangelical and Catholic pilgrimage relates to changes in American Christian theology and culture over the last sixty years, including shifts in Jewish-Christian relations, the growth of small group spirituality, and the development of a Christian leisure industry. Drawing on five years of research with pilgrims before, during and after their trips, Walking Where Jesus Walked offers a lived religion approach that explores the trip's hybrid nature for pilgrims themselves: both ordinary--tied to their everyday role as the family's ritual specialists, and extraordinary--since they leave home in a dramatic way, often for the first time. Their experiences illuminate key tensions in contemporary US Christianity between material evidence and transcendent divinity, commoditization and religious authority, domestic relationships and global experience. Hillary Kaell crafts the first in-depth study of the cultural and religious significance of American Holy Land pilgrimage after 1948. The result sheds light on how Christian pilgrims, especially women, make sense of their experience in Israel-Palestine, offering an important complement to top-down approaches in studies of Christian Zionism and foreign policy.

Designed to empower preachers as they lead their congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary. For each worship day within the three-year lectionary cycle, the commentaries in Connections link the individual lection reading with Scripture as a whole as well as to the larger world. In addition, Connections places each Psalm reading in conversation with the other lections for the day to highlight the themes of the liturgical season. Finally, sidebars offer additional connections to Scripture for each Sunday or worship day. This nine-volume series is a practical, constructive, and valuable resource for preachers who seek to help congregations connect more closely with Scripture. This volume covers Year A for Lent through Pentecost.