"I've been reading with interest the important work being done by Denny Weaver and others on violence in relation to our understandings of God, atonement, and eschatology. I've also been watching, with joy, the growing rediscovery of the nonviolent heritage of the Radical Reformation. So I enthusiastically await the release of Defenseless Christianity," observes Brian D. McLaren, Author/Activist (brianmclaren.net). Entering a field of ongoing controversy, this book dares to offer a new model or vision--defenseless Christianity--for understanding Anabaptism, both present and past. The authors content that an Anabaptism defined as defenseless Christianity should be seen as a nonviolent Christian movement with a world-reconciling theology even though some first-generation Anabaptists were not pacifists. Greg Boyd, Author, The Myth of a Christian Nation; and Pastor, Woodland Hills Church, expresses in the foreword his hope that "God uses this book to call Anabaptists along with other Jesus-followers back to the beautifully foolish, enemy-loving, cross-bearing center of our faith." Nancy R. Heisey, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Church History at Eastern Mennonite University as well as Mennonite World Conference president, reports that "My first reaction on reading Defenseless Christianity was, 'Them's fightin' words ' On further reflection, I'm grateful for the gift Weaver and Mast have offered by provocatively addressing a host of issues in Anabaptist historiography and theology on behalf of contemporary communities of Christ's followers. Mennonite vision for the church but also issues a compelling call to faithful living." Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm, Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, Bethany Theological Seminary, adds, "Let the reader beware: the dynamic nature of Christ's peace permeates this text-not as a position to hold but as a way of creative engagement and witness to God's reconciling love for all creation." And Elaine Moyer, Associate Director, Mennonite Education Agency, concludes that "This book not only presents the peaceful Anabaptist-Mennonite vision for the church but also issues a compelling call to faithful living."

A review of Modern Love and Other Tall Tales: With prose as clean as Hemingway’s and a Kafka-esque sense of the absurd, Greg Boyd delivers a memorable book in Modern Love and Other Tall Tales. But these tales are not quite so “tall” as the title might suggest; in fact, their distinction lies in the way they negotiate a fine line between veracity and the farcical. Each narrator seems to fancy himself “the rational one” while elaborating the most bizarre situation with little or no comment. Boyd exploits this irony by mingling a crushing sense of isolation with a host of eccentric, straight-faced characters whose predicaments become the reader’s source of stupefaction and endless mirth. In “Horny,” a man walks around town carrying a heavy wood cross on his back, convinced that suffering will erase his primal instincts; “listen” is a one-sided conversation in which the narrator formulates a sad and defensive logic that falls on dead ears or—as one might imagine—no ears at all; and “The Further Adventures of Tom, Huck, and Jim” transports Twain’s classic characters to Southern California and brings us hilariously up to date. But Modern Love isn’t just one laugh after another. Though Boyd makes light of unfortunate circumstances, there is an underlying feeling of loneliness and sadness throughout, as if his characters’ idiosyncrasies were born from an acute sense of helplessness or an inability to participate in or relate to typical activities. The characters themselves seem real but flimsy, as if they will at any moment be blown off the page by a Kafkan ill wind, as if they were all once, as in “Unglued,” “shy and sickly, largely ignored by the other children.” Boyd’s writing, like his characters, is straightforward and descriptive. There’s no need for verbal trickery here because the author’s imagination provides us with more than enough to digest. In Modern Love it’s quite possible to become so engrossed in a story that you forget you’re actually reading at all.

Worldwide Fury Up close and personal--these stories bring God's supernatural love and protection closer to "real life" than you may have thought possible." ""Igniting Furious Love" is an eclectic spiritual partnering of nine on-fire-for-God believers who "turn everything upside down in the church to be as unlike the world as absolutely possible." Spanning the globe from Kosovo to Thailand, Russia, Mozambique, and inner-city USA, each writer has a unique story of their furious love for God as manifested in their lives. Through humorous stories, intelligent commentary, and real-life miracles and healings, the culmination of distinct voices and callings of these men and women range from witnessing a blood-drinking witch, confronting Buddhists with machetes, prostitution and gay bars--to lecturing at Cambridge University, experiencing victorious spiritual warfare, planting underground churches, and seeing people being raised from the dead." "Exciting chapters and authors include: It's All in the Delivery by Matteus Van Der SteenCalled to Feed the Hungry by Heidi BakerWorldview Shakedown by Greg BoydRaising the Dead by Rolland BakerI Will Get Him by Philip MantofaSimply Love by Shampa RiceWitches, Babies, and Soldiers by Will HartStepping Stones by Angela GreenigCradle to Coffin by Robby Dawkins "Igniting Furious Love" reveals God's wildly soul-stirring plans for any who wants to know Him inside out.