What is the gift of Christmas wrapped in the perfect package? Author Linda Crosland brings the timeless story of the birth of Christ to life in rhyme and verse, in a contemporary way as you've never heard it before. Each full color page is illustrated in beautiful original art. Discover "The Gift" of Christmas and it will become a cherished tradition to be enjoyed each Christmas season

Baptism for the early Christians was a subject of crucial importance, and its symbolism fired the imagination of writers throughout the Christian world. Arator, the Roman sub-deacon who wrote a verse-commentary on the Acts of the Apostles in A.D. 544, was no exception. The Historia Apostolica is a work of historical importance. Written at a time of crisis, politically and theologically, it is of interest as propaganda for a papacy under threat from Constantinople. But Arator's concentration on baptismal themes offers vital evidence of the transmission of exegetical ideas in late antiquity. This book is the first major work on Arator in English and the first ever to study the Historia Apostolica as biblical commentary. Passages of particular baptismal importance are presented both in the original Latin and in a new translation, and are considered in the context of the writings of earlier Christian commentators. Hillier's study is a wide-ranging study of the popularity and potency of baptismal symbolism in the first six centuries A.D.

This time tested, biblically based, Christ centered program, gaurantees church growth within 30 days! This soul winning strategy requires only 15 minutes each week. It will work for every church with every culture. This strategy worked sucessfully with the lower class in the Detroit area. We have had success with the islanders of the Caribbean, good success was achieved with the middle class of Louisiana, and Aborignals of Australia. In addition, the good news is it will work for you!

Deep emotions pervade our human lives and ongoing moods echo them. Religious traditions often shape these and give devotees a sense of identity in a hopeful and meaningful life despite the conflicts, confusion, pain and grief of existence. Driven by anthropological and sociological perspectives, Douglas J. Davies describes and analyses these dynamic tensions and life opportunities as they are worked out in ritual, music, theology, and the allure of sacred places. Davies brings some newer concepts to these familiar ideas, such as 'the humility response' and 'moral-somatic' processes, revealing how our sense of ourselves responds to how we are treated by others as when injustice makes us 'feel sick' or religious ideas of grace prompt joyfulness. This sense of embodied identity is shown to be influenced not only by 'reciprocity' in the many forms of exchange, gifts, merit, and actions of others, but also by a certain sense of 'otherness, whether in God, ancestors, supernatural forces or even a certain awareness of ourselves. Drawing from psychological studies of how our thinking processes engage with the worlds around us we see how difficult it is to separate out 'religious' activity from many other aspects of human response to our environment. Throughout these pages many examples are taken from the well-known religions of the world as well as from local and secular traditions.

This is a book for pacesetters -- church leaders who desire to help their churches break free of the things that turn them in on themselves and keep them from being outward-looking and outward-moving communities of Jesus Christ. The ingrown church is a common phenomenon. It is the 'norm' for contemporary evangelical and Protestant churches. But ingrownness is a pathology. It can destroy the vital spiritual health of a church. It must, therefore, be combated with the norms of Scripture. And that is why this book was written. Outgrowing the Ingrown Church is a masterful mix of biblical principle, objective analysis, and personal experience. It traces the author's own growing awareness of the problem of ingrownness in his calling as a pastor, seminary professor, and evangelist/missionary. In his own discovery of the power and presence of God he discovered the tendency of the church to live by its own power and resources. This is a book written to help change churches by changing the individuals who read it. It offers one an unparalleled challenge to be evaluated, revitalized, and then used by God for the work of ministry. Thus it is a book not merely for pastors, but for the whole body of Christ. 'I have never been as excited about any book concerning church growth as when I read this book . . . . (His biblical) principles, if followed, transform individual lives and then lead to a movement within a church to change the whole congregation, ' writes John Guest in the foreword

In life he was larger than life. He made an immediate and memorable impact on those he met and with whom he worked. He was incredibly industrious in all his teaching, speaking, lecturing, composing, and above all in his writing. In the time others would take to think through the possibility of authoring a book, Erik would have gone to his longsuffering and slightly dyslexic typewriter and completed the manuscript. Gathering with his family at Westminster Abbey for his memorial service, the idea of a random collection of essays or a series of personal anecdotes was discarded by the editors. To appropriately honor this substantial life, something more systematic was required. Thus the idea for this volume was born. Each of the contributors, who has benefited in some way from his friendship, teaching and writing, has examined an area or a subject in which Erik Rowley has made his mark. Significantly, it has taken seventeen authors to cover some of the ground where his footprints are still fresh and the clarity of his voice still rings.

Mexican statues and paintings of figures like the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Lord of Chalma are endowed with sacred presence and the power to perform miracles. Millions of devotees visit these miraculous images to request miracles for health, employment, children, and countless everyday matters. When requests are granted, devotees reciprocate with votive offerings. Collages, photographs, documents, texts, milagritos, hair and braids, clothing, retablos, and other representative objects cover walls at many shrines. Miraculous Images and Votive Offerings in Mexico studies such petitionary devotion-primarily through extensive fieldwork at several shrines in Guanajuato, Jalisco, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, and Zacatecas. Graziano is interested in retablos not only as extraordinary works of folk art but: as Mexican expressions of popular Catholicism comprising a complex of beliefs, rituals, and material culture; as archives of social history; and as indices of a belief system that includes miraculous intercession in everyday life. Previous studies focus almost exclusively on commissioned votive paintings, but Graziano also considers the creative ex votos made by the votants themselves. Among the many miraculous images treated in the book are the Cristo Negro de Otatitlan, Nino del Cacahuatito, Senor de Chalma, and the Virgen de Guadalupe. The book is written in two voices, one analytical to provide an understanding of miracles, miraculous images, and votive offerings, and the other narrative to bring the reader closer to lived experiences at the shrines. This book appears at a moment of transition, when retablos are disappearing from church walls and beginning to appear in museum exhibitions; when the artistic value of retablos is gaining prominence; when the commercial value of retablos is increasing, particularly among private collectors outside of Mexico; and when traditional retablo painters are being replaced by painters with a more commercial and less religious approach to their trade. Graziano's book thus both records a disappearing tradition and charts the way in which it is being transformed.

Some early Christians used water, not wine, in the cup of their Eucharist, and avoided eating meat. This kind of avoidance, more common than previously imagined, reflected a more radical stance towards the wider society than that taken by the Christian mainstream. The discussion here throws new light on early Christianity and the ways eating and drinking have often reflected deeply-held beliefs and values.

Drama has power. It can awaken us. Make us curious. Reveal our inner desires and passions. Remind us of our foolishness. Drama has power in worship. It can snap us out of our Sunday morning (or Saturday night) trance. It can draw us into the story of Scripture. It can help us see our sin. It can motivate us to change. But drama can also be dull, predictable, guilt-inducing and just plain cheesy. How do we avoid the pitfalls and discover the power? Alison Siewert and her team of writers have some ideas about that. They offer in this handbook articles on every aspect of drama ministry--from why it's biblical to how to direct a performance, from warm-ups for actors to how to write your own sketches. You'll learn how to do drama that is simple and meaningful--without experienced actors. You'll learn how to craft drama with authenticity and excellence. Also included are cutting-edge sketches for the postmodern crowd that you can reproduce for your drama team and use in your ministry. Drama has power to change lives.Drama Team Handbook will show you how.

In Jewish Integration in the German Army in the First World War David J. Fine offers a surprising portrayal of Jewish officers in the German army as integrated and comfortably identified as both Jews and Germans. Fine explores how both Judaism and Christianity were experienced by Jewish soldiers at the front, making an important contribution to the study of the experience of religion in war. Fine shows how the encounter of German Jewish soldiers with the old world of the shtetl on the eastern front tested both their German and Jewish identities. Finally, utilizing published and unpublished sources including letters, diaries, memoirs, military service records, press accounts, photographs, drawings and tomb stone inscriptions, the author argues that antisemitism was not a primary factor in the war experience of Jewish soldiers.