Books published by Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Roadmap, myth, or history? The Book of Revelation draws readers and repels them. Schmidt explores how Revelation can shape people's understanding of God, and nurture their spiritual lives in unexpected ways.

Discover how to use St. Benedict's concepts of stability, obedience, and conversion to live spiritually even in the midst of illness.

365 days of meditations based on passages from the Psalms.

This powerful, prayerful, and practical guide teaches groups a whole new way of conducting meetings and reaching consensus. Rooted in scripture, Grounded in God energizes and inspires.

This latest edition of the classic guide has been extensively revised and updated. Its step-by-step format helps servers to perform with confidence and reverence, allowing the liturgy to unfold in a smooth and prayerful manner.

For all churches who value dignified ceremony, here is a practical handbook detailing the responsibilities of all who serve at the altar. Diagrams and a friendly style make its teaching clear and there are notes on general demeanour, how to avoid fussiness and processions.

This substantive book addresses the CREDO approach to wellness. Chapters explore the theology of wellness and identity, core values, creativity and passion, renewal, emotional health, spiritual practices, balance, transformation, and fitness. It features a foreword by the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Models, perspectives, theories, and stories are provided by contributors who are involved with CREDO as faculty, researchers, or participants.

This concise and clear introduction to Celtic spirituality provides an overview of all aspects of Celtic understandings. By providing readers not only with a narrative, but with the poetry and songs of the ancient Celts, she explores Celtic views of pilgrimage, solitude, creation, and healing. De Waal also looks at their understanding of core Christian concepts, such as sin, sorrow, salvation, and the cross. Written accessibly, this book is excellent for parish study as well as individual reading.

What does it mean to be human in this season of waiting? And what does it mean to believe that God became human? In language drenched in poetry, this collection of meditations for Advent and Christmas explores what it means to gaze into the mystery that is Incarnation.

This classic book on sewing linens for the church explains the materials and equipment needed, a variety of hemming options, special instructions on the small linens such as purificators and palls, working with fair linens, white work embroidery, and caring for church linens. New to this edition are directions for rolled hems, chalice veils, more specific directions and an improved worksheet for planning shrinkage, special advice specifically for beginners, an updated ¿Sources and Resources¿ section, and new patterns.

This newly revised edition of the classic manual provides all the information needed for quick-and-easy church banner construction. Includes 49 patterns with complete instructions.

Organized around the Rule of St Francis, this book shows readers what it means to live out the Christian life with a Franciscan accent, and is useful as a resource for private devotion or group study. It also tells the author's story of the Franciscan life, as a member of the Third Order, founded by Francis himself.

Learning to journal as a way of developing spirituality.

Prayer can go far beyond words, and Johnson shows how to 'do' prayer while sitting, walking, listening and more. This is a book for spiritual adventurers who seek to deepen their prayer lives and draw closer to God by praying in meaningful new ways. An explorefaith.org book.

Individuals at every skill level, families, and churches can enrich their celebration of the Christmas season with the ancient art and tradition of the Advent calendar. Includes historical explanations of various Christian symbols, full-sized patterns, and detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to create your own calendar out of a variety of materials.

Combining excellent theology, theory, and practical pastoral suggestions, the author explores the concept that forgiveness is not a step-by-step process, but one of conversion and of seeing Gods way. Biblically based with sound academic research, yet written in a conversational style.

A collection of essays by prominent practitioners of an emerging field-the supervision of spiritual directors. This book explores a wide variety of issues including: gender and sexuality; ethical dilemmas; working with diverse racial ethnic constituents; working with the differently abled; and the parameters of supervision.

This large-scale work is the application of modern theories of discourse analysis to questions of Greek grammar, especially with respect to the debate over the literary integrity of Philippians. Chapter 1 introduces the linguistic theory of discourse analysis, defining key terms, sketching its historical evolution and outlining its major tenets. Chapter 2 sets forth a model of discourse analysis primarily based on the systemic functional theories of M.A.K. Halliday. Chapter 3 outlines the historical-critical debate over the literary integrity of Philippians. Chapter 4 inspects the genre of Philippians, challenging rhetorical approaches to the text and proposing instead an epistolary classification, viz. ''personal, hortatory letter''. Chapter 5 focuses on the discourse structure of the letter, investigating its use of ideational, interpersonal and textual functions of Hellenistic Greek. In chapter 6, relevant issues of biblical hermeneutics are addressed.

Here is the second of three volumes (the first, Revelation: The Torah and the Bible, was published in 1995) whose purpose is to compare and contrast the paramount theological categories of Judaism and Christianity. The volumes provide the faithful of both Judaism and Christianity with informative, factual accounts of how Judaism and Christianity addressed the same issues and set forth their own distinctive program and set of propositions.While religions speak to individuals in the privacy of their hearts, they also define themselves through social entities such as "church," "holy people," "nation of Islam," "kingdom of God." In this book, Professors Neusner and Chilton bring reader to a consideration of "Israel" in Judaism and Christianity. When Jews call themselves "Israel," their initial claim is that they constitute the "Israel" to whom God gave the Torah. All of those who inherit these Hebrew scriptures, specifically Christians, also claim to form an "Israel" because they receive these scriptures.Individual chapters in part one deal with Israel in the theology of Judaism, Israel as a kingdom of priests and holy nation, Israel as family, and Israel as (Christian) Rome. Part two examines Jesus and the absence of Israel; the Israel of James, the community of "Q" and Peter; and the church (ekklesia) in the Synoptic Gospels, Paul, Hebrews, and Revelation.The volumes in this series are excellent resources for all who wish to deepen their understanding of Judaism and Christianity and the relationship between these two great traditions.Jacob Neusner, leading scholar of the formative age and writings of Judaism, is Distinguished Research Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida, Tampa.Bruce D. Chilton, New Testament and Judaic scholar, is Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

Vernon K. Robbins has changed the face of New Testament studies through his commitment to exploring the interface of several disciplines. His Exploring the Texture of Texts introduces students to the ways that society and rhetoric form part of the fabric out of which literary texts are woven, and he began the Emory Studies in Early Christianity Series as a way of disseminating works using this method. His Jesus the Teacher remains a classic work in rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. Finally, he has been instrumental in gathering the rhetorical forms of the ancient world into a large database that will aid both New Testament and classical studies.David B. Gowler is Associate Professor and Pierce Professor of Religion at Emory University and Associate Editor of the Emory Studies in Early Christianity.L. Gregory Bloomquist is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Theology at St. Paul Univeristy. Duane F. Watson is Professor of New Testament Studies at Malone College in Canton, Ohio.

Barbara Jordan was a private woman in public spaces. She emerged from the obscurity of Houston''s segregated Fifth Ward to become the first African American Congresswoman elected from Texas since Reconstruction and a keynote speaker at two national Democratic conventions. Although her public career began in politics, she soon became known for her ethics, her vision of community, and her passion for education and public service. Jordan challenged the nation to reclaim constitutional ideals, adhere to moral principles, and commit to a pluralism that was dynamic and transformative. In her speeches she emerges as a woman who views public life as an opportunity to share the very best that the human spirit can conceive. This provocative and creative work offers the first comprehensive analysis of Jordan''s written speeches, with particular emphasis on the period that begins with the Watergate years and ends with her immigration initiatives. Ethics, public religion, and law are the three themes that predominate in Jordan''s speeches. On these themes, Jordan''s voice is heard in juxtaposition with contemporaries Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Thurgood Marshall, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, bell hooks, and others.Barbara A. Holmes received her law degree from Mercer University and her religion degree from Vanderbilt University. She is currently Assistant Professor of Ethics and African American Religious Studies at Memphis Theological Seminary

For Paul, who imprisoned Christians, his own incarceration ironically became a way in which he understood his mission. Paul's convictions and his rhetoric were often shaped during those times when chains constrained him from travelling. By examining a wide variety of sources-such as ancient novels, dream interpretations and moral tractates-Wansink first describes prison conditions and the daily life of prisoners, in the Graeco-Roman world. Subsequent exegetical chapters focus on two epistles Paul wrote from prison: Philippians and Philemon. This book replaces a 'docetic' view of Paul's incarceration with an original insight into how prison would have shaped his interaction with the Philippians and Philemon.

What is the church, and what is essential to it particularly in a post-Christian age?In contrast to "the City", that is, the world (including the hedonism and narcissism of popular culture) that virtually all human beings now inhabit, the author calls upon the church to remember that it is "Another City" that does not compromise itself by giving allegiance to any political entity that belongs to this world.Instead, the church must have the courage to live, like Israel of old, in the diaspora as a distinct minority, remaining an uncompromising and faithful servant of God's final (though still future) triumph in the risen Christ.