Books published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers

The first title in a new Living Well series provides support and practical help for the ill and those who are their caregivers.

* Interdisciplinary focus captures insights from theology, philosophy and psychology * Clearly separates natural, personal, and social evil * Allows readers to wrestle with the nature and dynamics of evil

* State-of-the-art essays on messianic expectation * Includes two maps, a timeline of persons, events, and literature, and a glossary of terms

Long argues that the literary form and dynamics of biblical texts can and should make a difference in the kinds of sermons created from those texts, not only because of what the texts say but because of how they say it. He presents a methodology for taking the literary characteristics of biblical texts into account in the text-to-sermon process and then applies that methodology in separate chapters on preaching on psalms, proverbs, narratives, parables, and epistles.

In this small book, Wink shows that the Christian tradition of nonviolence is needed as an alternative to the dominant and death-dealing "powers" of our consumerist culture and fractured world.

Why read the Bible? Gerd Theissen uses the wisdom gained from decades of teaching Bible instruction at a state university to address questions of the Bible''s relevance in a postmodern, pluralistic society. He describes the core themes and enduring value of the biblical legacy for anyone seeking to be a well-informed, self-aware, and responsible citizen, and he commends the contributions the Bible can make to interreligious and secular conversation.

The wrenching situation in the Middle East, recent events have shown, is as complex as it is volatile. In this immensely learned and clarifying volume-here updated and issued in paper for the first time-the Ruethers trace the tortured and contested history of Israel/Palestine from biblical times through the Diaspora, the development of Zionism, the creation of the modern state of Israel, and the subsequent conflict with Arab and Palestinian nationalism. Magisterial in its grasp of the historical, political, economic, and religious roots of the conflict, The Wrath of Jonah also offers convincing analysis of the moral and political dilemmas facing Israelis and Palestinians today. Though they see possibilities for peace, the Ruethers are forthright about what they and others see as Israel''s betrayal of its own original mandate. Their purpose, state the Ruethers, "continues to be to make a modest contribution to truthful historical accountability that must underlie the quest for justice, without which there can be no ''peace.''"

Wilfred Cantwell Smith, maintained in this vastly important work that Westerners have misperceived religious life by making "religion" into one thing. He shows the inadequacy of "religion" to capture the living, endlessly variable ways and traditions in which religious faith presents itself in the world.

This latest work from leading liturgical theologian Gordon Lathrop explores the extent to which the central symbols and interactions of Christian liturgy yield, for their participants, a new proposal for their understanding and experience of the world. In the process, it considers various kinds of world-making, the diverse maps, and the differing senses of "cosmology" in which we all live. Finally, the book examines how certain liturgical reforms can contribute to a refreshed sense of ecological ethics-to a Christian sense of the holiness of the earth itself.