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When Western Christians think about God, the default image that comes to mind is usually white and male. How did that happen? Christianity is rooted in the ancient Near East among people of darker skin. But over time, European Christians cast Jesus in their own image, with art that imagined a fair-skinned Savior in the style of imperial rulers. Grace Ji-Sun Kim explores the historical origins and theological implications of how Jesus became white and God became a white male.

Although Christian believers agreed with one another that the Bible was authoritative and that it should be interpreted through commonsense principles, there was rampant disagreement about what Scripture taught about slavery. Furthermore, most Americans continued to believe that God ruled over the affairs of people and nations, but they were radically divided in their interpretations of what God was doing in and through the war.

Christianity could be defined as a “cold case”: it makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little forensic evidence. In Cold-Case Christianity, J. Warner Wallace uses his nationally recognized skills as a homicide detective to look at the evidence and eyewitnesses behind Christian beliefs. Including gripping stories from his career and the visual techniques he developed in the courtroom, Wallace uses illustration to examine the powerful evidence that validates the claims of Christianity.

The Way of Thomas offers a crystal clear, easy-to-understand new version of the Gospel of Thomas. Dr. Mabry, an expert in the mysticism of the world’s religions, then unpacks the core teachings of the gospel in ways that can shift not only how we understand ourselves, but how we view reality.

As the first scribe among men, the Prophet Enoch wrote the first history of the world ever recorded by man’s hands. Prior to this seventh generation from Adam, an angel in Heaven kept an account on the Heavenly Tablets. Many have mischaracterized the Bible today misunderstanding this fact. The only writing that predates Enoch is that of the Heavenly Tablets which accounts were provided to Moses on Mt. Sinai affirmed by Jubilees, Luke, and Paul. Enoch was the first world traveler escorted by the angels. He visited Heaven and was given much knowledge of the workings thereof including that ...

Tim Chester invites a new generation to experience the Christian life as John Stott envisioned it - not simply a theological puzzle to be solved, but the daily practice of humble service and compassion found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Love Wins, Rob Bell confronted the troubling questions that many people of faith are afraid to ask about heaven, hell, fate, and faith. Using the same inspired, inquisitive approach, he now turns to our most sacred book: the Bible. What Is the Bible? provides insights and answers that make clear why the Bible is so revered and what makes it truly inspiring and essential to our lives. Rob takes us deep into actual passages to reveal the humanity behind the Scriptures.

Satan's transformation from opaque functionary to chief antagonist is one of the most striking features of the development of Jewish theology in the Second Temple Period and beyond. Once no more than an "accuser" testing members of the human community, Satan, along with his demons, is presented by Jewish apocalyptic texts and the New Testament as a main source of evil in the world. In Satan and the Problem of Evil, noted scholar Archie Wright explores this dynamic in both its historical and theological trajectories.

Five hundred years after Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses ushered in the Reformation, best-selling author and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong delivers 12 forward-thinking theses to spark a new reformation to reinvigorate Christianity and ensure its future. Spong contends that there is mounting pressure among Christians for a radically new kind of Christianity - a faith deeply connected to the human experience instead of outdated dogma.

In Know How We Got Our Bible, scholars Ryan Reeves and Charles Hill trace the history of the Bible from its beginnings to the present day, highlighting key figures and demonstrating overall the reliability of Scripture. Reeves and Hill begin with the writing of the Bible's books (including authorship and dating), move into the formation of the Old and New Testaments (including early transmission and the development of the canon), and conclude with several chapters on Bible translation from the Latin Vulgate to the ongoing work of translation around the world today.

Signs are meant to point us toward something: Jesus. Story in the Stars takes an in-depth look at the Bible and all the signs God mapped out through constellations, planets, and even the way the Earth is tilted. We are uniquely designed by God, and he loves us so much that he ensured a way for all inhabitants of the Earth, through all of time, to see the messages of salvation and redemption that he painted in the stars.

How might premodern exegesis of Genesis inform Christian debates about creation today? Imagine a table with three people in dialogue: a young-earth creationist, an old-earth creationist, and an evolutionary creationist. Into the room walks Augustine of Hippo, one of the most significant theologians in the history of the church. In what ways will his reading of Scripture and his doctrine of creation inform, deepen, and shape the conversation?

"Tethered to the cross" is how the renowned 19th-century English Baptist Minister Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) described the task of ministry and his approach to preaching. Tracing the development of Spurgeon's thought and his approach to biblical hermeneutics throughout his ministry, theologian and historian Thomas Breimaier argues that Spurgeon viewed the entire Bible through the lens of the cross of Christ.

How did early Christians come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the divine Son of God? This is the central question in this book. When Did Jesus Become God? is a transcribed conversation between Bart Ehrman and Michael Bird, with a helpful historiographic introduction by Robert Stewart that helps listeners understand the conclusions reached by Ehrman and Bird.

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

For more than half a century, the question of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) has been widely dismissed in our culture. That wasn’t always the case. Some of the best minds of the last 25 centuries in Western civilization have grappled with this mystery. In Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith, best-selling author Paul Thigpen begins with a fascinating historical survey of the public conversation about ETI, tracing the thought of prominent Catholics and others. This is a thorough guide to navigating the conversation from a faithful Catholic perspective.

Handbook on the Pentateuch is part of the eight-volume Apostolic Handbook series. In this volume, Chris Paris surveys the Pentateuch from both literary and theological viewpoints and introduces us to literary techniques such as type scenes, recurring motifs, and irony. Becoming aware of these techniques produces a reading of the text that deepens our appreciation for the God behind the text.

Is God a sadistic torturer? Coldhearted judge? Genocidal maniac? Unfortunately, our popular caricatures often make him out to be. God has some skeletons in the closet. At least, that's what many of us fear. "How can a loving God send people to hell?" "Isn't it arrogant to believe Jesus is the only way to God?" "What is up with holy war in the Old Testament?" These are difficult questions that our family, our friends, our culture - even we ourselves - are asking.

Almost every pastor feels the pressure to get people in the doors. Often, in their zeal for fruit and growth, pastors and church leaders adopt worldly mechanisms for church growth that end up undermining the very call God has given them. Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, was a pastor to well over 5,000 people in a day long before "mega-churches" were the norm. In Spurgeon the Pastor, Geoff Chang shows how Spurgeon models a theological vision of ministry in preaching, baptism and the Lord's supper, meaningful church membership, biblical church leadership, and more.

To the early Christians, hospitality was central to the gospel mission. This hospitality did not consist of entertaining neighbors, but welcoming the stranger, especially those who could not return the favor. Yet despite urgent need, hospitality has fallen by the wayside. Christine Pohl’s classic work, Making Room, first spoke to this issue in 1999. And it is just as relevant today, with the refugee crisis, the rise in homelessness, and growing loneliness and isolation.