So you're the little woman who started this big war, Abraham Lincoln is said to have quipped when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin converted readers by the thousands to the anti-slavery movement and served notice that slavery's days were numbered. Overnight Stowe became a celebrity, but to defenders of slavery she was the devil in petticoats.Most writing about Stowe treats her as a literary figure and social reformer while underplaying her Christian faith. But Nancy Koester's biography treats Stowe's faith as central to her life -- both her public fight against slavery and her own struggle through deep personal grief to find a gracious God.

A Christ-Centered guide to the Gospel of Luke for daily devotion and group study during Lent. Exploring the major themes found in Luke's gospel, including the ways of God-promise, fulfillment, salvation, and the work of the Holy Spirit-Koester shows us how to live in this world-in vocation and compassion, worship and prayer. Each of the 47 devotions (one for each day during Lent and Holy Week) is freestanding, but the themes link groups of devotions together, lending depth and continuity to them. Vivid word pictures, crisp retelling of texts and creative allegory spark delight in the beauty of Luke's Gospel and a desire to follow Christ. Each meditation focuses on a key point from the reading in Luke and offers excellent questions for small-group discussion or for individual reflection, as well as prayer.