SUMMARY: The nativity story as told by the angel Gabriel gives the prophetic account of the life and ministry of Jesus before His birth. It came to bring fulfillment the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah rendered 750 years earlier. The story has a very strident anti-abortion message since at the time of the annunciation Mary had not yet said yes to the angel Gabriel and God. All the events in the life of Jesus were already spelled out and so it was for John the Baptist, Jeremiah and for all of us. It is from that encounter and other texts, we know that life begins when God speaks it forth because His Word is spirit and life and not the prerogative of anyone not the least the Pro-lifers or those of Pro-choice. This work looks at the politics of choice; discuses when life begins and chronicles the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, in 1973 that ushered in the current law of the land, which has led to the legalization of abortion as the law of the land in America. BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Bonaventure C. Okoro MD is an Internist in private practice in Toledo Ohio in the United States. Born in Nigeria, he did his medical education at the University of Medicine & Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca Romania. After a brief practice in Nigeria, he did his training in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine at Howard University in Washington DC. Dr. Okoro now resides with his wife and four children in Ohio, USA and a member of Corner Stone church, a global ministry under the pastoral leadership of Bishop Michael Pitts. His time is spent in full time medical practice and is deeply involved in medical missionary work to different regions of the world.

The Walls That Remain explores the trauma of German reunification in 1990 as it affected ordinary Eastern and Western Germans. Told mainly in their own words, this book features the voices of those Germans who have suffered as well as profited from the transformations in German society since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and Germany's reunification in October 1990.

The philanthropist and philosopher Strachan Donnelley (1942–2008) devoted his life to studying the complex relationship between humans and nature. Founder and first president of the Center for Humans and Nature, Donnelley was a pioneer in the exploration and promotion of the idea that human beings individually and collectively have moral and civic responsibilities to natural ecosystems. In this wide-ranging volume, Donnelley traces the connections between influential figures such as Aldo Leopold and Charles Darwin, as well as lesser-known but original thinkers that he met during the course of a full life—ministers at his church, friends with whom he fished, and colleagues who shared his passion for research and writing. He grounds his work in classic philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Whitehead and reinterprets their writings about the natural world to develop a conservation-centered philosophy, which he dubs "democratic ecological citizenship." Edited by his daughter, Ceara Donnelley, and Bruce Jennings, Frog Pond Philosophy illuminates the dominant strands of Donnelley's intellectual identity as a philosopher, naturalist, agitator, and spiritualist. Despite his often grim depiction of the current state of the environment, Donnelly never surrenders his faith in humanity's ability to meet its ethical obligations to conserve, respect, and nurture the complexity and diversity of the natural world. His vivid and personal essays, rooted in everyday experiences, offer a distinctive perspective on questions of urgent contemporary importance.

Promoting Resilience offers a fresh perspective that views resilience through a sociological lens, emphasizing the significance of loss issues and highlighting a range of practice implications across a wide range of fields. Drawing on the expertise of a wide range of contributors, the book provides a solid foundation for developing a fuller and more holistic picture of the many challenges associated with promoting resilience. Chapters present a range of sociological perspectives that cast light on trauma and vulnerability. Combining theoretical richness with practical insights, chapter authors bring a sociological lens to enrich understanding of loss and adversity. This volume offers a bedrock of understanding for students, clinicians, and researchers who want to extend and deepen their knowledge of the sociological aspects of overcoming life challenges.

Leonardo’s Choice: Genetic Technologies and Animals is an edited collection of twelve essays and one dialogue focusing on the profound affect the use of animals in biotechnology is having on both humans and other species. Communicating crucial understandings of the integrated nature of the human and non-human world, these essays, unlike the majority of discussions of biotechnology, take seriously the impact of these technologies on animals themselves. This collection’s central questions revolve around the disassociation Western ideas of creative freedom have from the impacts those ideas and practices have on the non-human world. This transdisciplinary collection includes perspectives from the disciplines of philosophy, cultural theory, art and literary theory, history and theory of science, environmental studies, law, landscape architecture, history, and geography. Included authors span three continents and four countries. Included essays contribute significantly to a growing scholarship surrounding “the question of the animal” emanating from philosophical, cultural and activist discourses. Its authors are at the forefront of the growing number of theorists and practitioners across the disciplines concerned with the impact of new technologies on the more-than-human world.

Feasting on the Gospels follows up on the success of the Feasting on the Word series with all new material on the most prominent and preached-on New Testament books, the four Gospels. With contributions from a diverse and respected group of scholars and pastors, Feasting on the Gospels covers every single passage in the Gospels, making it suitable for both lectionary and nonlectionary use. Moreover, these volumes incorporate the unique format of Feasting on the Word, with four perspectives for preachers to choose from for each Gospel passage: theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical.

There is a general understanding within religious and academic circles that the incarnate Christ of Christian belief lived and died a faithful Jew. This volume addresses Jesus in the context of Judaism. By emphasizing his Jewishness, the authors challenge today’s Jews to reclaim the Nazarene as a proto-rebel rabbi and invite Christians to discover or rediscover the Church’s Jewish heritage. The essays in this volume cover historical, literary, liturgical, philosophical, religious, theological, and contemporary issues related to the Jewish Jesus. Several of them were originally presented at a three-day symposium on “Jesus in the Context of Judaism and the Challenge to the Church,” hosted by the Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies at Case Western Reserve University in 2009. In the context of pluralism, in the temper of growing interreligious dialogue, and in the spirit of reconciliation, encountering Jesus as living history for Christians and Jews is both necessary and proper. This book will be of particular interest to scholars of the New Testament and Early Church who are seeking new ways of understanding Jesus in his religious and cultural milieu, as well Jewish and Christian theologians and thinkers who are concerned with contemporary Jewish and Christian relationships.