The Old Testament bears witness to an in-your-face, holy God--a God who gets down and dirty with creation and history; a God who gets in people's face with love and law, with power and purpose. Yet Israel's in-your-face God is also "holy"--too other, too raw, too intense to be handled without oven mitts. Rolf Jacobson wrestles with this in-your-face God. The Old Testament starts at the beginning, where God digs in the dirt to create humanity and then gets in the dustlings' faces when they sin. God smiles on Abraham and Sarah, electing their descendants as the chosen people, but has to get in Pharaoh's face when he tries to enslave the people. Mostly, God gets in Israel's face: with laws about what it looks like to be God's people and through the prophets, who have to get in the faces of those who turn away from the Holy One. Jacobson also explores the psalms, poetry in which God often hides his face. He closes by exploring how the Old Testament points us ahead to Jesus, when God took on a human face and offered us the most intimate picture of God we'll ever get.

It is time for the Holy Spirit to get its own street cred! There shall be no more third-wheeling the ever-present, life-sustaining, and empowering member of the Trinity. In this guide to the Spirit, Kim is putting the Holy Ghost back where it belongs; after all, the Spirit gave birth to the church and kept it rocking, rolling, revivaling, and transforming across time and culture. Throughout the book, you will get a taste of the different ways the church has understood the Spirit, partnered with the Paraclete, and imaged the Spirit in scripture. Most importantly, Kim brings together the tradition with contemporary culture, science, and the many tongues and testimonies of the global church. The compelling power of this volume comes from the creative interplay Kim orchestrates between images such as the Spirit as vibration, breath, and light and her powerful unpacking of different images such as the releaser of han, a Korean term for unjust suffering, or the concept of Chi. This isn't simply a guide to what the church is saying about the Holy Spirit--it's a guide to actually opening our theological imaginations to a Spirit that is present, active, and calling us to participate in life-giving work.

The book of Psalms is a treasure. Orienting readers to these inspired poems, Ian Vaillancourt emphasizes Christ, the canon, and practical insights for the church community and individual Christians. Readers will gain new viewpoints into the flow, context, and message of the Psalms, as well as gospel-centered applications for a living faith.

Amid the ferment of dissent and the protests of heretics, the church developed most significantly. This guide introduces that history by looking at those periods. A variety of questions have preoccupied Christian communities throughout history. Christians have attempted to determine who Jesus is and whether his life and teaching have global significance. They've battled over the nature of salvation and the sources of authority for Christian belief and practice. They've argued about the nature and purpose of the Christian church and how is it to be organized. They've drawn swords over the relationship between church and state. And they've taken votes on who should be sainted and who should be expelled. Focusing on sources of unity and division within the church throughout its history, and some of the most and least savory characters in the history, this guide provides an overview of Christian responses to those and other formative questions, all with the trademark Homebrewed Christianity wit and wisdom.

Is God the First Cause? The Unmoved Mover? Mr. Miyagi? In this latest installment of the Homebrewed Christianity series, edited by Tripp Fuller, Eric E. Hall approaches the question of God from various perspectives, including philosophy, personal revelation, Christian tradition, and other religions. The classical conception of God is like the famously stoic-yet-lethal character in the Karate Kid. Competing versions of God include Your Hippie Aunt, St. Joan of Arc, and even the muscle-headed goons from Jersey Shore. Hall uses each of these analogies to elucidate a version of God that has held sway at one point or another. For each, he shows strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons. After proposing this nouveau-pantheon, Hall takes on atheism, religion versus science, and popular images of Jesus. At the end of this romp through history and pop culture, Hall argues that the God you need may be the very God you rejected years ago.

People still believe that Jesus is returning to earth . . . and soon! Like Jesus first followers, millions of Christians hold fast to the idea that we are living in the last days, yet here we are, two thousand years later, still waiting. In The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the End Times Jeffrey C. Pugh recounts his own brief sojourn in an apocalyptic cult. Looking back now, as a respected professor of theology, he tackles how Christianity in general, and the evangelical world in particular, have been captivated by the theological innovation known as Dispensationalism that emerged in the nineteenth century. The embrace of this idea has influenced millions, leading to such cultural phenomena as the Left Behind books and movies, and Christian Zionism. But Pugh argues that the belief in the imminent return of Christ has in fact been harmful to Christian engagement with the world, and he builds this argument on a thorough and occasionally sassy reading of biblical texts and church history.

Christology is crazy. Its rather absurd to identify a first-century homeless Jew as God revealed, but a bunch of us do anyway. In this book, Tripp Fuller examines the historical Jesus, the development of the doctrine of Christ, the questions that drove christological innovations through church history, contemporary constructive proposals, and the predicament of belief for the church today. Recognizing that the battle over Jesus is no longer a public debate between the skeptic and believer but an internal struggle in the heart of many disciples, he argues that we continue to make christological claims about more than an event or simply the Jesus of history. On the other hand, C. S. Lewiss infamous liar, lunatic, and Lord scheme is no longer intellectually tenable. This may be a guide to Jesus, but for Christians, Fuller is guiding us toward a deeper understanding of God. He thinks its good newsgood news about a God who is so invested in the world that God refuses to be God without us.

If God can't prevent evil, what can God do? In his best-selling book, God Can't: How to Believe in God and Love After Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils, Thomas Jay Oord solves the problem of suffering. Oord offers five aspects of a real answer to why a loving God doesn't prevent pointless pain. The most helpful: God can't stop evil singlehandedly. In this follow-up, Oord answers questions God Can't readers asked about his ground-breaking proposals. The answers are in this book, and they solve age-old conundrums. Questions and Answers for God Can't addresses questions such as... If God can't control creation, why pray? If God's love is uncontrolling, how do we explain miracles? What does an uncontrolling God actually do? What does it mean to say God loves everyone and everything? How does Jesus fit into a theology of uncontrolling love? If a loving God created the universe, why is evil even possible? What hope do we have if God's love is noncontrolling? How do you know God can't prevent evil? In a conversational style, Oord offers chapter-length answers. The result is a compelling view of God! Questions and Answers for God Can't answers questions clear-eyed thinkers ask. This book deepens our trust in a God of uncontrolling love. Thinking people need this book! Topics of interest: prayer, divine action, hope, miracles, Genesis, the meaning of love, eschatology, suffering, Jesus, the problem of evil, the virgin birth, science and religion, John Wesley, providence, biblical inspiration, the afterlife, Coronavirus, worship, creation from nothing, doubt, progress, resurrection, science

With humanity on the cusp of a dramatic new era, Patricia Kepler invites us to reexamine the foundations of Christian faith that mainstream expressions of Christianity share. “Rediscovering Christianity” explores basic beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and the early church. It goes on to explore the theological and ethical questions essential to moving toward the new creation of which Jesus speaks. In that creation, heart and mind come together in search of God’s Realm on earth. This book is for people who never learned much about their faith and those Christians who are asking questions in these changing times. Kepler sees faith as evolving and has great hope for the future. Given that humanity now has the power to destroy its world, Kepler sees that we have, as never before, responsibility with God, for saving it: holding fast to the sanctity of life, reclaiming the importance of community, pursuing peace with justice, and revering the earth. It is time for Christianity to come of age. What we believe about God and humanity matters. Theology and Ethics matter. The new era opens a door to new creativity and spiritual depth in the power of the Spirit.

What God wants his people to know about the end times. Christians' fixation on the end times is not new. While eschatological speculation has sometimes resulted in distraction or despair, Scripture does speak about the end. So what does God most want us to know and do with prophecy? In After Dispensationalism, Brian P. Irwin and Tim Perry sympathetically yet critically sketch the history, beliefs, and concerns of dispensationalism. Though a minority view in the sweep of church history and tradition, dispensationalism is one of the most influential end-times systems today, and there is much to learn from it. And yet, sometimes it gets sidetracked by overlooking the prophets' main concerns. Irwin and Perry reexamine the key texts and show that Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation primarily give a word of hope to God's people.