Ash Wednesday is February 14, 2018. What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? How do we walk with him along the way? Our annual Lenten devotional offers daily reflections and prayers to help guide and deepen your journey with Jesus this Lenten season. Purchase copies for yourself and all members of your congregation!

The Earth needs our attention--the best of our intellectual, ethical, and spiritual wisdom and action. In this collection, written in honor of Elizabeth A. Johnson, scholars from the United States and around the world contribute their insights on how theology today can and must turn to the world in new ways in light of contemporary science and our ecological crisis. The essays in this collection advance theological visions for the human task of healing our destructive relationship with the earth and envision hope for our planet's future. Contributors: Kevin Glauber Ahern, Erin Lothes Biviano, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Colleen Mary Carpenter, David Cloutier, Kathy Coffey, Carol J. Dempsey, OP, Denis Edwards, William French, Ivone Gebara, John F. Haught, Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP, Sallie McFague, Eric Daryl Meyer, Richard W. Miller, Jürgen Moltmann, Jeannette Rodriguez, Michele Saracino

Reproduction of the original: Forty Years in the Wilderness by William A. Acott

By studying the many ways diverse peoples have changed, shaped, and conserved the natural world over time, environmental historians provide insight into humanity's unique relationship with nature and, more importantly, are better able to understand the origins of our current environmental crisis. Beginning with the precolonial land-use practice of Native Americans and concluding with our twenty-first century concerns over our global ecological crisis, American Environmental History addresses contentious issues such as the preservation of the wilderness, the expulsion of native peoples from national parks, and population growth, and considers the formative forces of gender, race, and class. Entries address a range of topics, from the impact of rice cultivation, slavery, and the growth of the automobile suburb to the effects of the Russian sea otter trade, Columbia River salmon fisheries, the environmental justice movement, and globalization. This illustrated reference is an essential companion for students interested in the ongoing transformation of the American landscape and the conflicts over its resources and conservation. It makes rich use of the tools and resources (climatic and geological data, court records, archaeological digs, and the writings of naturalists) that environmental historians rely on to conduct their research. The volume also includes a compendium of significant people, concepts, events, agencies, and legislation, and an extensive bibliography of critical films, books, and Web sites.

Like many other denominations, seventeenth-century Quakers were keen to ensure that members married within their own religious community. In order to properly understand the ramification of such a policy, this book explores the early Quaker marriage approbation process and discipline as demonstrated through the works and marriage of the movement’s leaders, George Fox and Margaret Fell. The book begins with an introduction that briefly summarises the historical context of the early Quaker movement, the ministry of Fox and Fell, and importance they laid upon the marriage approbation discipline. The remainder of the book is divided into three broad chapters. Chapter one examines the practical aspects of the early Quaker marriage approbation discipline, including a summary of seventeenth-century courtship and marriage practice, and an analysis of early Quaker Meeting Minutes. Chapter two then looks at the theological foundations of the marriage approbation process, and the Quaker emphasis on ’Good Order’ and their desire to return to the primitive Christianity of the apostolic church. Chapter three examines the marriage between Fox and Fell, which they presented as a testimony of the union of Christ and his Church. Their married life is analysed through their correspondence to discover whether or not the marriage did indeed exemplify the spiritual gravity originally bestowed upon it by Fox, Fell and some in the Quaker community. Through this close investigation of Quaker marriage approbation, the book offers fascinating insights into early modern English society, attitudes to gender and the early Quakers’ self-perception of themselves as the one and only True Church.

The Girl from Montana – Elizabeth's life is in grave danger. His brother's murderer will stop at nothing to possess her and make her miserable for the rest of her life. Hatching an ingenious plan she flees to her Grandfather's house in Arizona. But her past and her pursuer is not far behind. Will she ever find her way home? Will she ever meet the man who loves and understands her? The Man of the Desert – When weary and tired Hazel Radcliffe falls off her horse in the unforgiving weather of Arizona, she is nursed back to her health by John Brownleigh, a missionary. Soon enough both of them develop feelings for each other but never succeed in confessing it. Will they get separated for ever or has fate other plans for these two? A Voice in the Wilderness – Margaret Earle, a young school teacher accidently gets down on a wrong platform and finds herself lost in the wilderness of Arizona. Alone and helpless, she pins her hope on a man to help her but it soon backfires and Margaret finds herself running away in sheer desperation. But what will happen when her path will cross with Lance Gardley, the handsome cowboy?