Bible readings, selections and meditations Books

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Book SynopsisReflections for Daily Prayer has nourished thousands of Christians for a decade with its inspiring and informed weekday Bible reflections. Now, in response to demand, Reflections for Sundays combines material from over the years with new writing to provide high-quality reflections on the Principal Readings for Sundays and major Holy Days. Contributors include some of the very best writers from across the Anglican tradition who have helped to establish it as one of the leading daily devotional volumes today. For each Sunday and major Holy Day in Year C, Reflections for Sundays offers: • full lectionary details for the Principle Service • a reflection on the Old Testament reading • a reflection on the Epistle • a reflection on the Gospel It also contains a substantial introduction to the Gospel of Luke, written by renowned Bible teacher Paula Gooder.

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Book SynopsisLucy Winkett is a gifted communicator, engaging preacher, popular broadcaster and rector of one of London’s most vibrant churches. In this new collection, her first book since 2010, she explores the lived reality of faith through fifty reflections on scripture that span the Christian year. Her gift is to bring ancient texts to bear on contemporary experience and to tease out their wisdom for living with authenticity and joy today. Reflecting a ‘head, heart and feet’ approach to understanding scripture, this collection will delight those who preach with an abundance of wisdom, and inspire all readers to embody a living faith.

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Book SynopsisGuli Francis-Dehqani was born in Isfahan, Iran, to a family who were part of the tiny Anglican Church established by 19th century missionaries. Her father, a Muslim convert, became the first indigenous Persian bishop. As the Islamic Revolution of 1979 swept across the country, church properties were raided, confiscated or closed down. Guli’s father was briefly imprisoned before surviving an attack on his life, which injured his wife. Soon after, whilst he was out of the country for meetings, Guli’s 24 year-old brother, Bahram, a university teacher in Tehran, was murdered. No one was ever brought to justice and the family were advised to leave Iran. Guli was 14. They eventually settled in England with refugee status. Drawing on the riches of Persian culture and her own dramatic experience of loss of a homeland, Guli offers memorable and perceptive reflections on Jesus’ seven final sayings from the cross, opening up for Western readers fresh and arresting insights from a Middle Eastern perspective.

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Book SynopsisSince the publication of the bestselling Sounding the Seasons, Malcolm Guite has repeatedly been asked for more sonnets. This new collection offers a sequence of 50 sonnets that focus on many passages in the Gospels: the Beatitudes, parables and miracles, teachings on the Kingdom, and the ‘hard sayings’ - Jesus’ challenging demands with which we wrestle. In addition this collection includes: • A sequence of five sonnets on 'The Wilderness', exploring mysterious stories of divine encounter such as Jacob’s wrestling with the angel. • Poetic reflections on music, hospitality and ecology. • Seven short poems celebrating the days of creation. • A biblical index pairing the poems with scripture readings for use in worship.

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Book SynopsisA short accessible guide to the Gospel of Mark for individuals and groups.

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Book SynopsisAs the Israelites received the bread of angels— manna—as they made their way through the wilderness, so too is God made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives. With humour and an eye for human stubbornness, Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on moments of divine providence and encounter in the Bible, from the stories of Moses, David, and Daniel to the Book of Acts. Along the way, she explores with honesty and grace the questions that we all ask about whether God answers prayer, whether miracles happen, and how we recognise God in the unexpected. As enjoyable as they are profound, her meditations on the life of faith and the cost of discipleship will inspire preachers and delight readers.

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Book SynopsisThis volume is part of a series which provides a fundamental resource for feminist biblical scholarship, containing a comprehensive selection of essays, both reprinted and specially written for the series, by leading feminist scholars. 'An enterprising series of collections of important and pioneering studies.... Those teaching feminist courses will find the books invaluable as a resource for students.' C.S. Rodd, Expository Times.Table of Contents Acknowledgements/ Abbreviations/ Athalya Brenner/ Introduction/ Part I/ Gendered Reading Perspectives/ Elizabeth Caddy Stanton/ The Book of Ruth/ Ilona Rashkow/ Ruth: The Discourse of Power and the Power of Discourse/ Mieke Bal/ Heroism and Proper Names, Or the Fruits of Analogy/ Athalya Brenner/ Naomi and Ruth/ Carol Meyers/ Returning Home: Ruth 1.8 and the Gendering of the Book of Ruth/ Part II/ Gendered Authorship?/ Adrien J. Bledstein/ Female Companionship: If the Book of Ruth were Written by a Woman/ Fokkelien Van Dijk-Hemmes/ Ruth: A Product of Women's Culture?/ Athalya Brenner/ Naomi and Ruth: Further Reflections/ Part III/ On Some Ancient Comments/ Leila Leah Bronner/ A The Thematic Approach to Ruth in Rabbinic Literature/ Jane Richardson Jenson/ Ruth According to Ephrem the Syrian/ Part IV/ Comments in Art/ Zefira Gitay/ Ruth and the Women of Bethlehem/ Cynthia Ozick/ Ruth/ Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe nature of Lukan christology has been much debated in recent years, with scholars claiming the pre-eminence of such categories as Lord, Prophet, Christ, or Isaianic Servant. In the present work the author examines one major theme within Luke's christology, that of the coming king from the line of David. A study of the Lukan birth narrative and the speeches in Acts reveals that Luke shows a strong interest in this royal-messianic theme, introducing it into passages which are introductory and programmatic for his christology as a sermon, portraying Jesus in strongly prophetic terms. The author seeks a synthesis of these seemingly conflicting royal and prophetic portraits in Luke's interpretation of the Old Testament book of Isaiah. When Isaiah is read as a unity, the eschatological deliverer is at the same time Davidic king (Isa. 9.11), suffering servant of Yahweh (Isa. 42-53), and prophet herald of salvation (Isa. 61), leading God's people on an eschatological new exodus. On the basis of this synthesis the christology of Luke-Acts is seen to be both consistent and unified, forming an integral part of Luke's wider purpose in his two-volume work.

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Book SynopsisThis two-part commentary argues that Chronicles, placed as it is among the 'historical books' in the traditional Old Testament of the Christian church, is much misunderstood. Restored to its proper position as the final book in the canon as arranged in the order of the Hebrew Bible, it is rather to be understood as a work of theology essentially directed towards the future. The Chronicler begins his work with the problem facing the whole human race in Adam-the forfeiture of the ideal of perfect oneness with God's purpose. He explores the possibility of the restoration of that ideal through Israel's place at the centre of the world of the nations. This portrayal reaches its climax in an idealized presentation of the reign of Solomon, in which all the rulers of the earth, including most famously the Queen of Sheba, bring their tribute in acknowledgment of Israel's status (Volume 1). As subsequent history only too clearly shows, however, the Chronicler argues (Volume 2), that Israel itself, through unfaithfulness to Torah, has forfeited its right to possession of its land and is cast adrift among these same nations of the world. But the Chronicler's message is one of hope. By a radical transformation of the chronology of Israel's past into theological terms, the generation whom the Chronicler addresses becomes the fiftieth since Adam. It is the generation to whom the jubilee of return to the land through a perfectly enabled obedience to Torah, and thus the restoration of the primal ideal of the human race, is announced.

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Book SynopsisThe Life of Adam and Eve once belonged to the most popular literature in the Christian world. Retelling the Genesis 3 story, it gives an elaborate description of Adam's death and his assumption to Paradise in the third heaven. His continued existence, as well as his future resurrection, are as much a paradigm for humanity as his transgression, condemnation and death. For a long time attention was focused on the Greek and Latin versions only. More recently, editions of Georgian and Armenian versions have become available, occupying a middle position between the Greek and the Latin. This new material now makes it necessary to sort out the relationships between no less than five clearly related but in many respects different documents. Taken together they present a complex but interesting mosaic of reflections on the human plight, inspired by the Genesis story.

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Book SynopsisTroubling Jeremiah presents essays by Jeremiah scholars who are troubled by the biblical book and give the scholarship on Jeremiah trouble in turn. Essays seek to move beyond the Duhm-Mowinckel source criticism of the book to address matters of metaphor, final form, intertextuality, and the relationship of the book to various audiences of readers. Taken together, the 24 essays in this volume press for an end to 'innocent' readings of Jeremiah inasmuch as current models prove inadequate for troubling the very Jeremiah they have already helped to reveal.

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Book SynopsisMany explanations of the miracles recorded in the Gospels fall into one of two questionable categories: unthinking acceptance or debunking, which leaves only some vague moral lessons to be learned. In this text, Jeffery John sets the miracles of Jesus in a wider biblical context and shows them to be loaded with theological and prophetic relevance. This broad perspective, which brings together theological enquiry and the needs of personal faith, should come as a revelation to many Christians searching for a proper understanding of Jesus' miracles.

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Book Synopsis

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