Books published by Resource Publications (CA)

Remarkable studies in the New Testament have recovered the fact that the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, was apocalyptic good news--God''s redemptive action within history.Today, for more and more people, the sheer scope of an evolutionary universe renders life on Earth as utterly insignificant, religion as nothing more than superstition. And now, in the Anthropocene, we on the pale blue dot live in an apocalyptic age in which cataclysmic issue after cataclysmic issue threaten the future of the planet.The faith of the early church was in an apocalyptic cosmic Christ unleashing within history God''s good news of a new creation. Set within the world as we now know it, this gives meaning to the cosmos and life wherever it is found around any star.Screened from view for over a millennium during mission to non-apocalyptic cultures, now is the time for a new paradigm for church, the ""apocalyptic church"" for an apocalyptic age to replace the denominational church. What a difference this makes to faith, worship, and the role of the church in an apocalyptic future.""It''s time! Dean Drayton argues that it is time to recognize that the Christian faith must express itself through a recovery of an apocalyptic gospel. It is time to come to terms with our place in an ever-expanding universe and the threats posed by the Anthropocene. It is no longer sufficient to fall back on understandings of an Enlightenment-derived self and a denominational Christ.""--Clive Pearson, United Theological College""Dean Drayton has written a monumental, extraordinary work. Dean is a geologist, a pastor, a theologian, a leader, a deep thinker, and a good friend. He has written a remarkable book that stands among the best of books. You will discover helpful, hopeful wisdom and insights, compassion and scholarship, common sense and new thought. The book will bless you, your friends and family, and the whole of humanity.""--Kennon L. Callahan, Theologian, Author, PastorDean Drayton is an adjunct research professor of the Public and Contextual Theology Research Unit (PaCT) of Charles Sturt University, Canberra. He is the author of Pilgrim in the Cosmos (1995) and Which Gospel? (2005). He was national president of the Uniting Church in Australia (2003-06). A geophysicist ordained in the ""Death of God"" era, he has been actively involved as a minister of the Uniting Church in the practice and teaching of mission and evangelism.

While there are plenty of books by men, for men, on the topic of ""Christian masculinity,"" these books generally fail to address men's propensities for violence and the traditional inequity between men and women, often endorsing inequity and sanctioning aggressive behavior as an appropriate ""manly"" response to conflict. Peaceful at Heart cuts through this conversation by offering a uniquely Anabaptist Christian perspective on masculinity. The vision of masculinity presented in this book is more peaceful, just, caring, life-giving for men, and more sensitive to women and children than both traditional images of masculinity and the hypermasculine images promoted by contemporary popular culture and wider evangelical Christianity. Peaceful at Heart addresses men and masculinity using Anabaptist theological themes of discipleship, community, and peace. As a collaborative project by men, for men, this book demonstrates through personal narratives, theological reflection, and practical guidance the importance of collective discernment, accountability, and mutual encouragement regarding how to live as a peaceful man in a violent world.""Much of the literature written in men's psychology/spirituality is ensnared in wild/aggressive/warrior/conquer language. Like a beacon of light, this book reveals a vision of peace for men and shows how to embrace a peacefulness within male humanity. . . . Most certainly, this book will be one that I loan to men who are not satisfied with what our cultures are asking of them.""--Doug Klassen, Executive Minister, Mennonite Church Canada""By bravely, intelligently, and compassionately wrestling with what it means to be a man who loves Jesus, this book invites men to invert their ideas of strength and power, living into deeper connection, sacrifice, and dependence on God. This book is a sorely needed gift for the contemporary church.""--Kristyn Komarnicki, Director of Oriented to Love, Evangelicals for Social Action""I am grateful for Mennonite Men and their willingness to take on this project. I am also grateful for their commitment to give voice to a diverse group of men and their experienced masculinity from outside the typical white heterosexual narrative of North American society.""--Glen Guyton, Executive Director, Mennonite Church USA""My hope for this project is that it will not only get men talking but also get women and men talking together. . . . Together we can overcome this toxic reality of masculinity and create healthy norms of masculinity and femininity.""-- from the Afterword by Cyneatha Millsaps, Executive Director, Mennonite Women USA""This book is for men who want to explore alternatives to the dominant but tired and harmful mythological types of men as warriors, kings, or wild ones. Teenage through senior males will be challenged by stories and models of masculinity marked by honesty, interdependence, and faith. Maleness in the twenty-first century is complex, but, as this book demonstrates, it is both possible and life-giving to reconcile with ourselves and with all humanity.""--Andy Brubacher Kaethler, Associate Professor, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical SeminaryDon Neufeld is the Canadian Coordinator for Mennonite Men and is a clinical social worker in private practice in the Niagara Region in Ontario.Steve Thomas is the US Coordinator for Mennonite Men and is a pastor and arborist in Goshen, Indiana.

Come and visit the Amazon!Join Matori, Banu and Marianne on the adventure of a lifetime.Discover the secrets of the rainforest.Meet talking animals.Your imagination will take flight with Marianne's Magical Journey!

How has the Christian movement grown and changed in the last five hundred years? From Luther to Tillich and the Virgin Mary, from Protestant initiatives and Catholic dialogues, from Charles Taylor to progressive Christianity, this book runs the gamut. The urgency of ecology, the sacramentality of foot-washing, the complexities of biblical interpretation, the theology of the cross, and the ongoing work of reformation are all under the microscope. A distinctively ecumenical project, this book presents a variety of perspectives on these pressing questions, drawing together authors from the Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, United Church of Canada traditions, and more. Each contributor provides unique insights into Christianity's ongoing processes of re-forming as contexts and circumstances change. Readers will find resonances of the familiar interwoven with new research about the project of ecumenical Christianity. ""Living Traditions is an apt title for this intriguing collection of voices exploring how the Reformation, for better or worse, continues to shape church and society. This text is both provocative and evocative; it challenges simplistic slogans and is an elixir for historical amnesia. Living Traditions is a finely crafted polyphony of both praise and lament.""--Allen Jorgenson, Martin Luther University College""This book goes beyond traditional theological categories of reflection on five hundred years of the Reformation, and offers interesting, creative contributions related to the environment, Mariology, trauma studies, and interreligious dialogue. The chapters are short, engaging, and illuminating for many aspects of the life of the church in the years to come.""--Kristin Johnston Largen, United Lutheran Seminary""'And teach your followers that there are times when dogmas need to make room for human sympathy.' We can still hear the echoes of Rabbi Albert Friedlander's letter to Martin Luther throughout the essays in Living Traditions! Whether it is through the lens of L'Arche, the environment, Mary, or numerous other topics, McNabb and Fennell have gathered together an excellent variety of materials for us to ponder. Truly Luther's rose, after all these years, still has a beautiful fragrance for us to enjoy, in the pages of this book.""--Jeffrey Crittenden, Huron University at Western""Is there a way to be Christian without the pope and without sola scriptura as a sort of distorted image of the papacy? These essays suggest there is, that we have good news to share from Jesus Christ to the world God loves, stewarded in our traditions, back to the apostles. However you lean liturgically and on authority, and on congregation-based small groups and discipleship, these essays will enlighten, challenge, and delight you.""--Jason Byassee, Vancouver School of Theology, author of Surprised by Jesus AgainKimberlynn McNabb is the pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, the dean of the Atlantic Ministry Area of the Eastern Synod (ELCIC), and a sessional professor at the Atlantic School of Theology.Robert C. Fennell is the academic dean and an associate professor of historical and systematic theology at Atlantic School of Theology, and the author of The Rule of Faith and Biblical Interpretation: Reform, Resistance, and Renewal (Cascade, 2018).

Free Will, also known as Freedom of the Will, is appraised as the one of the greatest works ever produced in America. The mid-eighteenth-century New England philosophical theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) defines the will by importing terms from John Locke. Edwards states the Arminian nature of free will, suspects the need for such free will, and finally defends Calvinist free will and objects to the Arminian one.In his argument, he chooses three British antagonists: Daniel Whitby, Thomas Chubb, and Isaac Watts. These antagonists insist that the self-determining will is necessary for us to be morally accountable. Edwards disputes their objections that God''s determination is contradictory to the liberty of the human will. He then goes to argue what kind of freedom of the will is necessary for the former and latter to be compatible. Edwards''s psychological, moral, and theological philosophy is displayed. In addition, readers can learn how our will chooses something pleasant by following the dictate of understanding, while the author demonstrates the natures of New England Arminianism and Calvinism.""Beyond all peradventure, the Freedom of the Will is the cornerstone of Edwards'' fame; it is his most sustained intellectual achievement, the most powerful piece of sheer forensic argumentation in American literature. It became the Bible of the New England theology, and is considered by logicians one of the few proofs in which the conclusion follows inescapably and infallibly from the premises."" --Perry Miller, Harvard University""This book alone is sufficient to establish its author as the greatest philosopher-theologian yet to grace the American scene.""--Paul Ramsey, Princeton University""This new study guide will aid the reading of an important work of philosophy and theology, Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards. Dr. Jung has offered a great service to many in the academy and the church in preparing this study guide.""--Adriaan C. Neele, Consulting and Digital Editor, Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University""Peter Jung is one of the most important Korean scholars at work on Jonathan Edwards and his thought. And this monograph on Edwards and the will is a great example of Jung''s scholarly acumen. It is a marvelous accomplishment that deserves a wide reading.""--Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School""This new edition of Edwards''s classic philosophical argument will help readers understand this important text and its implications for past and contemporary debates.""--Gerald R. McDermott, Samford University""Jonathan Edwards''s treatise on Freedom of the Will is one of the most important, and also one of the most demanding, works in philosophical theology from the modern era, but any who commit themselves to serious engagement with it will be rewarded. This new study guide will be helpful to students on many levels and to church study groups seeking to understand Edwards'' magnificent view of God and of the human person.""--Kenneth P. Minkema, Yale University""A new edition of Edwards'' work is a worthy project given the importance of this work for the history of debates about free will and religious belief. The introduction to this new edition by Peter Jung concerning the history and scholarly discussions of Edwards'' seminal work is especially thorough, well-researched, and very informative.""--Robert Kane, University of Texas at AustinPeter Jung is the research associate of Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale. He is the author of Life of Jonathan Edwards (1996) and Jonathan Edwards and New England Arminianism (2019).

Time is a novel that explores the time that Mary and Jesus had together before the beginning of his ministry. It explores Jesus'' relationships with brothers and sisters, with neighbors, and, most important, his relationship with God. Rooted in biblical tradition, Time offers significant insights into the family life, healings, parables, stories, and teachings that we associate with the ministry of Jesus.Alan Sorem is a graduate of the College of Wooster, Yale Divinity School, and Fordham University. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Imagine waking up one morning at age fifty. You''re a noted, published artist whose work hangs all over the world. Then imagine finding yourself standing in front of thirty-five at-risk African American high school students in an inner-city classroom in one of the most difficult high schools in the country.It''s your job to teach them, and you''ve never taught a day in your life.This is the story of an artist who did just that. It is a moving story of a middle-aged white artist who dared to venture into the inner city of Savannah, Georgia, and attempt to teach in one of the first all-black high schools for children of freed slaves in America. Yet Shadow Lessons is not another ""teacher saves the day"" book. It is a story of beauty and ugliness, life and death, joy and sorrow, laughter and despair. Shadow Lessons takes us beyond the classroom on a compelling journey of compassion, healing, and transformation. ""Bonnell takes us into an at-risk school with both sacred and kick-ass prose that weaves Steinbeck-like storytelling with art theory, history, practice, and pedagogy. Everyone in need of reconnecting with his or her own humanity should read this book.""--Stephen Knudsen, contributing editor and critic, ARTPULSE Magazine""I found myself reading Shadow Lessons very slowly. When I finally finished I realized why. I just didn''t want it to end.""--Phil Ginsburg, writer and performer""Read, weep, enjoy, and learn. Shadow Lessons is a lot like Bonnell''s sacred art: both offer fresh, new, and sometimes hard insights.""--Steve Starr, photojournalist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for News Photography (1970)""Shadow Lessons paints an intimate, candid, and harrowing portrait of a desperate corner of America, where dire circumstances mock the very idea of hope. In the midst of this bleak landscape, Bonnell introduces us to one remarkable character after another--with compassion, humility, and humor--and ultimately reveals the indomitability of the human spirit in the face of crushing adversity. An unforgettable read.""--JohnΓÇêEdmark, lecturer, Stanford UniversityDaniel Bonnell is a noted published artist whose work is found around the world, in churches, cathedrals, and private collections. He obtained his BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and his MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design, and he studied under the renowned artists Ansel Adams, Ed Ross, and Milton Glaser. Daniel Bonnell''s art may be viewed at www.BonnellArt.com.

No Strings Attached is the story of a Mennonite congregation in Indiana that existed for eighty-six years. The congregation began during the social and religious turmoil of the 1920s when some Mennonites in North America held to rigid doctrines and ethics implemented by central authority, and others operated with a congregational polity and became more assimilated into secular culture. The struggle between these two different understandings of faithfulness was most passionately played out in northern Indiana. Placing the narrative of this congregation within the context of 500 years of Mennonite history illustrates the grace and the tension that has both beset and empowered a unique group of people who began as radical reformers. Although ""no strings attached"" refers to the women''s headwear during the 1920s, which had no strings, it could also be the story of the pastor eating lunch on the peak of the steep roof of the church building! Reflecting on stories of these Mennonite people is an invitation to move into the future with courageous hope. Believing and behaving differently has not prevented Middlebury Mennonites from treating each other respectfully, living in a community of love, joy, and peace, and offering God''s healing and hope to each other and to the world.""Few congregational histories provide the theological and cultural context of their story. This book is a striking exception! It is set in post-World War I northern Indiana, the most significant setting for the struggle between tradition and innovation among Mennonites in the United States at that time. . . . This book is a revealing retelling of the struggles, dreams, and personalities that made Pleasant Oaks Mennonite Church a faithful community of Christ.""--John D. Rempel, Director, Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre""No Strings Attached is a fascinating story of division within one congregation told against the backdrop of tumultuous conflict within the broader Mennonite church. Hartzler recounts how that division played itself out and chronicles the gracious process of discernment that led to reconciliation and reunion eighty-six years later. This book puts present-day conflicts in perspective and explores themes of authority, communal discernment, and nonconformity, which are as relevant today as they were then.""--Andre Gingerich Stoner, Director of Interchurch Relations, Director of Holistic Witness, Mennonite Church USA""Fascinating! This story weaves together a particular church conflict with the historical context of the Mennonite Midwest in the 1920s. No Strings Attached invites us to grasp more fully the layers underlying church conflicts, then and today. Our love for God compels us to continue the work of discerning boundaries around essentials and freedom in nonessentials, to have strings attached or not. This book is an encouragement in that hard and holy conversation.""--Lois Johns Kaufmann, Conference Minister, Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USARachel Nafziger Hartzler is a mother, grandmother, nurse, and ordained minister in Mennonite Church USA. She was the last pastor of Pleasant Oaks Mennonite Church. She currently lives in Indiana and works as a spiritual director and retreat leader. She is the author of Grief and Sexuality: Life After Losing a Spouse (2006) and Nurturing Healthy Sexuality at Home: A Guide for Parents (2010).

Gracelyn is a young girl who lives on a small ranch called Eagle Wings with her family and animal friends. She has to go to a hospital for a life-saving operation and will miss being at home for her twelfth birthday. While Gracelyn prepares to go to the hospital, the animals living at the ranch decide that Gracelyn should have a birthday gift. They work together to surprise her with the perfect present, but how will they get it to her? The clever animals choose a gift that hides its identity and beauty until the time is right.Together, Gracelyn and her older brother Terry discover the charming secrets of the birthday present. There are even more happy surprises to come, much to everyone''s delight. This is a story about giving the best gift of all.A. E. Smith has a bachelor of science from Baylor University and a master''s degree from Northern Arizona University. Smith is also the author of Journey of the Pearl (2018).

Who would ever imagine that an eighteen-year-old who began his career teaching thirty-two eight-year-olds in a state school in an insignificant city in the remote South Pacific would end up on the world stage as the writer of definitive technical volumes in the field of biblical studies and as the only scholar from Australia/New Zealand on the Committee on Bible Translation that produced the New International Version? This autobiography is the account of the surprising stages that led Murray Harris from his humble beginnings to ending his teaching career as a professor emeritus at a leading United States theological institution. These stages are here attributed to the gracious guiding hand of a God who delights in providing serendipities while achieving his purposes. All this is recorded with humor and with many photos and illustrations.""Even if I had never met Murray and Jennifer Harris, this autobiography would have been a pleasure to read. It admirably tells the story of a Kiwi whose growth in grace, scholarship, and adversity has made him a beloved teacher of the New Testament in several countries, and whose books are widely read around the world.""--D. A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School""Murray Harris''s hugely refreshing, joyful, and honest autobiography of life''s experiences confirms the remarkable distinction of this evangelical biblical scholar internationally. . . . The richness of family life and his discoveries of ''what pleasure can compete with seeing God at work'' are among the many gems that will enrich the reader abundantly.""--Brian Heap, CBE FRS, formerly Master of St Edmund''s College, University of Cambridge""The life of Murray Harris, recounted so beautifully in this honest and humorous retrospective, truly speaks to the veracity of the Christian gospel. Engaging with Murray Harris changed my life; engaging with this book will challenge yours.""--David McDowell, Australian National University Medical School, consultant neurosurgeon at Canberra Hospital, Australia""A compelling read! It''s a testimony to how God takes ordinary people from humble beginnings, and through them does extraordinary things. . . . From classrooms to seminaries to commentaries and Bible translation, Murray''s story unfolds with candor, honesty, and humor. It''s the work of a self-effacing, remarkably effective, godly gentleman.""--Brian Winslade, Senior Pastor, Hamilton Central Baptist Church, New Zealand""A superb read of the rise of a young Kiwi man under the providential hand of God to the top of world Christian academia, ably supported by his beautiful wife Jennifer. Murray Harris writes in his precise style with humility, yet with wit and humor as he recalls with clarity his life story in topical segments as though they were but yesterday.""--Stuart Bay, founding chairman of Christian Community Churches of New ZealandMurray J. Harris is professor emeritus of New Testament Exegesis and Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Formerly he was the warden of Tyndale House, a biblical research library in Cambridge, and a faculty member of the Divinity School at the University of Cambridge. He has written commentaries on the Greek text of Colossians and Philemon, 2 Corinthians, and the Gospel of John. He was one of the translators of the New International Version.

Free Will, also known as Freedom of the Will, is appraised as the one of the greatest works ever produced in America. The mid-eighteenth-century New England philosophical theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) defines the will by importing terms from John Locke. Edwards states the Arminian nature of free will, suspects the need for such free will, and finally defends Calvinist free will and objects to the Arminian one.In his argument, he chooses three British antagonists: Daniel Whitby, Thomas Chubb, and Isaac Watts. These antagonists insist that the self-determining will is necessary for us to be morally accountable. Edwards disputes their objections that God''s determination is contradictory to the liberty of the human will. He then goes to argue what kind of freedom of the will is necessary for the former and latter to be compatible. Edwards''s psychological, moral, and theological philosophy is displayed. In addition, readers can learn how our will chooses something pleasant by following the dictate of understanding, while the author demonstrates the natures of New England Arminianism and Calvinism.""Beyond all peradventure, the Freedom of the Will is the cornerstone of Edwards'' fame; it is his most sustained intellectual achievement, the most powerful piece of sheer forensic argumentation in American literature. It became the Bible of the New England theology, and is considered by logicians one of the few proofs in which the conclusion follows inescapably and infallibly from the premises."" --Perry Miller, Harvard University""This book alone is sufficient to establish its author as the greatest philosopher-theologian yet to grace the American scene.""--Paul Ramsey, Princeton University""This new study guide will aid the reading of an important work of philosophy and theology, Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards. Dr. Jung has offered a great service to many in the academy and the church in preparing this study guide.""--Adriaan C. Neele, Consulting and Digital Editor, Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University""Peter Jung is one of the most important Korean scholars at work on Jonathan Edwards and his thought. And this monograph on Edwards and the will is a great example of Jung''s scholarly acumen. It is a marvelous accomplishment that deserves a wide reading.""--Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School""This new edition of Edwards''s classic philosophical argument will help readers understand this important text and its implications for past and contemporary debates.""--Gerald R. McDermott, Samford University""Jonathan Edwards''s treatise on Freedom of the Will is one of the most important, and also one of the most demanding, works in philosophical theology from the modern era, but any who commit themselves to serious engagement with it will be rewarded. This new study guide will be helpful to students on many levels and to church study groups seeking to understand Edwards'' magnificent view of God and of the human person.""--Kenneth P. Minkema, Yale University""A new edition of Edwards'' work is a worthy project given the importance of this work for the history of debates about free will and religious belief. The introduction to this new edition by Peter Jung concerning the history and scholarly discussions of Edwards'' seminal work is especially thorough, well-researched, and very informative.""--Robert Kane, University of Texas at AustinPeter Jung is the research associate of Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale. He is the author of Life of Jonathan Edwards (1996) and Jonathan Edwards and New England Arminianism (2019).

What does a clock or calendar, a map, a newspaper or bandage, a set of measuring cups or a basket have to do with prayer? Kathleen Finley not only tells about how to pray with all our senses, but also shows us how, using Scripture as well as factual information about a wide variety of everyday objects, to help us take seriously how everything has the potential to be holy in light of Jesus'' incarnation.If folding your hands and closing your eyes doesn''t always work for you as a posture of prayer, this excursion into new possibilities for prayer may be for you.""This is incarnational Christianity and embodied prayer as it was meant to be. For some reason it is the specific, the concrete, the immediate, and the now that lead us to experience the eternal. In this ''prayer book'' we have a fine guide and fine guidance.""--Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life""Kathleen Finley uncovers the potential for prayer through objects. Ordinary combs and keys, seeds and shoes, take on a new luster in this light. With specific directions and relevant Scripture passages, what more do you need? Try it!""--Kathy Coffey, Hidden Women of the Gospels""Kathleen Finley takes very seriously the presence of God in creatures and God''s manifestation through the senses. In this wondrous book she prescribes concrete exercises to bring us closer to the God who lurks everywhere.""--Andrew Greeley, The Cardinal Virtues""Kathleen Finley shows that we needn''t look far to find entry points to connect with God. With imagination and lively faith, Finley guides us to a fresh yet ancient way to pray.""--Tom McGrath, Raising Faith-Filled Kids: Ordinary Opportunities to Nurture Spirituality at HomeKathleen Finley is a visiting instructor in the Religious Studies Department at Gonzaga University. She speaks regularly about spirituality and family life at workshops around the country. She is the author of several other books, including9 Building a Christian Marriage: 11 Essential Skills.