Do you struggle to get into the Christmas spirit? Do you dislike all the trappings of the season and cannot bear its crass materialism? This book is written by a theologian who feels that way too. As an antidote, Ben Pugh tries to take us back to that very first Christmas as described in the Gospels. Particular moments in the story are vividly brought to life and paralleled with the present day. Using good scholarship, Pugh tries to get the reader to imagine actually being there, and suggests a...
This book is for anyone who yearns to enter more fully into the world Jesus inhabited, not as an intellectual exercise, but as an aid to authentic personal devotion. The King of the Jews ponders five defining moments from the ministry of Jesus and lingers at a series of events that, historically, must have unfolded rapidly. Within twenty-four hours of his arrest, Jesus was dead, yet these events are so momentous that they repay careful meditation: first upon the night of trials, and then the...
Fictional stories speak to us in a way that is truer than real life. Even Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher of all time, regularly tapped into the power of telling completely untrue–and yet deeply true–stories. This book takes as its starting point the truth of the made up and uses one of the most popular story structures of all time–the Hero's Journey–and invites you to use this as the scaffolding for making meaning out of your own life. It is an invitation to storify your life, to get...
Slave markets, temple courts, prophetic lawsuits, diplomatic treaties, imperial victory processions, dying and rising deities. These and more are the pictures painted by the New Testament writers as they search for language to describe their life-changing experiences of God through Jesus. Some of these pictures might still resonate with us; many do not. Pictures of Atonement surveys the six most important metaphors of atonement used in the New Testament with a view to, not explaining away the...
Bill Johnson, Joyce Meyer, Heidi Baker. The fame of these names is evidence enough that, though the controversies are less intense, the Charismatic Movement is alive and well today. It continues to attract thousands of adherents who find its vision of a supernatural lifestyle uniquely compelling. Now, for the first time, all that is most theologically innovative about the movement is synthesized into five distinct and original ideas. These five brand new theologies have been created, not by...
Beyond this Darkness is a brand new faith-based recovery program. It is not based on 12 steps, though it takes the best of 12-step wisdom and updates it by adding some of the best things that have been tried in addiction therapy since the 1930s. Addiction therapy has moved on a long way since Bill Wilson and his brilliant book. This book seeks to harness these newer insights and wrap them up within a framework that is inspired by some of the most intriguing and liberating insights of the Apostle...
