OFF THE SHELF
Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom
Shaun A. Casey
Many American policy makers are squeamish about religion’s role in diplomacy. Nevertheless, religion plays a crucial and complex part in global affairs, such as in sustainable development, various human rights issues, and fomenting and mitigating conflict. Shaun A. Casey, the founding director of the US Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs, makes a compelling case for the necessity of understanding global religion in Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom.
Willingness to Die and the Gift of Life: Suicide and Martyrdom in the Hebrew Bible
Paul K.-K. Cho
One particularly challenging aspect of the Hebrew Bible is its treatment of various forms of voluntary death: suicide, suicide attack, martyrdom, and self-sacrifice. How can people of faith make sense of the ways biblical literature at times valorizes these sensitive and painful topics?
Body Connections: Bodybased Spiritual Care Michael S. Koppel
Too often we think and teach in ways that reinforce a mind-body split. This can lead people to self-alienation, impeding holistic, healthy relationships between people, God, and each other Body Connections takes a different approach, teaching us to see the connections between our embodied experience and faithful spiritual care. Author Michael Koppel focuses on the human body and its relationship to faith and spiritual care He engages religious texts and traditions as well as scientific insights, offering accessible theology and spiritual practices for healing and care of the body. This remarkable book empowers pastors, counselors, chaplains, seminarians, and caregivers to understand and provide the ministry of care in an entirely new, life-giving way.
OFFTHESHELF
Embodied Hope: A Homiletical Theology Reflection Veronice Miles
Sustaining While Disrupting: The Challenge of Congregational Innovation
F. Douglas Powe, Jr. and Lovett H. Weems, Jr.
Embodied Hope explores the implications of an embodied theology of hope for preachers' ability to nurture imaginative abundance and purposeful hope-filled action even in the most chaotic of times. As an embodied theology, this conception of Hope is grounded in a theological anthropology that foregrounds humanity's inherent identity as imago Dei and embodiment of God’s Spirit. Hope is the alwaysspeaking voice of God's Spirit assuring us of God's power, faithfulness, and redemptive presence and calling us toward loving, just, and restorative action in our world today. Over and against the voice of despair, Hope creates yearning for the wellbeing of all creation
Clergy and other church leaders often feel pressed to preserve cherished traditions even as they direct people to discern the new thing God is doing They face this tension of sustaining tradition while guiding fresh initiatives and addressing unfamiliar issues.
Frederick
Douglas Powe Jr. and Lovett H Weems Jr guide leaders in stewarding traditions while seeking innovative opportunities for faith communities.
OFFTHESHELF
Engaging Faith-Based Organizations to Promote Health through Health
Ministries in Washington, DC
Ayanna Wells,
Robin
McClave, Elizabeth W. Cotter, Tom Pruski, Deborah Nix & Anastasia M.
Snelling
This article describes capacity building and formative assessments completed at five faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Washington, DC to inform sustainable health promotion programming led by certified health ministers. Five FBO partners were recruited with two congregation members from each FBO completing a health minister certificate program. A series of health assessments were conducted to assess each FBO’s capacity to implement evidence-based lifestyle change programs that are responsive to congregation members’ health needs Results indicated a need for programming to support older adults in managing high blood pressure and arthritis. Health ministers represent a significant opportunity for building capacity within FBOs to deliver programming that can improve health outcomes
OFFTHESHELF
Brushes with Faith Aaron Rosen
Contemporary artists are engaging more deeply than ever with religious imagery, themes, practices, and audiences With a bracing, jargon-free style, Aaron Rosen a leading scholar, art critic, and curator takes readers into studios, galleries, and worship spaces as he paints a compelling picture of art and religion today
What Would Jesus See? Aaron Rosen
What would Jesus see if he looked at the world around us today? In these pages, Aaron Rosen, one of the world's leading experts on art and religion, tackles this question--in turn helping us do the same He invites readers to use their imagination and explore with him how Jesus saw, what he saw, and why it is important today.
OFFTHESHELF
William Taylor and the Mapping of the Methodist Missionary Tradition: The World His Parish Dr. Douglas D. Tzan
This book is the first critical biography of William Taylor, a nineteenth-century American missionary who worked on six continents. Following Taylor’s global odyssey, the volume maps the contours of the Methodist missionary tradition and illumines key historical foundations of contemporary world Christianity. A work of social history that places a leading Methodist missionary in the foreground, this narrative illustrates distinctive aspects and tensions within Methodist missions such as the importance of doctrines like universal atonement and entire sanctification, a deeply pragmatic orientation rooted in God’s providence, an embrace of both entrepreneurial initiatives and networked connection, and the use of revivalism for missionary outreach and leadership development.
Generosity, Stewardship, and Abundance: A Transformational Guide to Church Finance (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021)
Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel
This book provides practical advice to pastors and church leaders tasked with funding ministry and inspiring others toward responsible stewardship and greater generosity The book integrates the practical and theological dimensions of finance to empower congregational leaders to think critically about stewardship from a Christian perspective and use personal and congregational resources faithfully
OFFTHESHELF
La Biblia a traves de los ojos de Juan Wesley (The Bible through the eyes of John Wesley)
Philip Wingeier-Rayo
This is a curriculum consisting of 52 small group Bible studies in Spanish to introduce readers to the Bible and spiritual growth through the lens of the Wesleyan tradition.
