Christianity Today Book Awards - Bible and Devotional Finalist (2025)Discover how studying the Bible can renew your church community.How do we teach the Bible in a way that makes a real difference in our students' lives and our communities? Too often, biblical introductions treat Scripture as a mere historical artifact. Mark W. Hamilton and Samjung Kang-Hamilton combine their decades of experience in theological and religious educat...

Here is a panoramic history of America from 1954 to 1973, ranging from the buoyant teen-age rebellion first captured by rock and roll, to the drawn-out and dispiriting endgame of Watergate. In America's Uncivil Wars, Mark Hamilton Lytle illuminates the great social, cultural, and political upheavals of the era. He begins his chronicle surprisingly early, in the late '50s and early '60s, when A-bomb protests and books ranging from Catcher in the Rye to Silent Spring

In beautiful, thoughtful, and sensitive lyrics, UPSTREAM offers an enthusiastic encounter with a winter journey paddling up the Mississippi River. This sequence of meditations follows in the tradition of Basho's Eastern travelogues-as a contemplation of self, history, and our contemporary environment.UPSTREAM gives form to the belief that life, itself, is a relationship with the Earth. Guided by Native Nation cosmologies, this collection captures that complexity o...

The book of Exodus tells the story of Israel's liberation from Egyptian bondage and its formation as a nation. Though at one level an epic of origins for a nation, Exodus transcends its time and place as it bears witness to God's desire to fashion a people who can live sane and holy lives in community with each other and in harmony with God.Yet Exodus recognizes that this reality is hard-won and always precarious. Making it real requires more than the overthrow of empires. It requires also...

How does Scripture read Scripture, and can the church follow that lead?Scripture or tradition? The things of God or the things of men? It's easy, especially in the long shadow of the Reformation, to pit Scripture against tradition as enemies. After all, the goal of orienting one's faith to the Bible alone can be so alluring.But the Bible itself suggests there is a fundamental unity between Scripture and the tradition it embodies. Rightly appreciating this unity can set the st...

These twenty-two meditations on the songs, prayers, and stories of the Bible invite readers to imagine themselves as part of a world in which human beings may fully live into their sufferings and joys as part of a vibrant while still critically searching faith in God. Here we see prophets and poets, as well as ordinary men and women, embrace the realities of life without apology or fear. Each meditation opens with the author's fresh translation of the biblical text and concludes with a pra...

The life and work of Jesus Christ must not be overlooked.Born under Roman occupation, Jesus lived his entire life without writing anything down. His earliest followers, the Christians that were shaped by his life and teachings, carefully recorded his words as good news. They also experienced his resurrection and believed that he had entrusted them with a mission to transform the world.

God reveals his true nature in the first five books of the Bible.While the broader story of the Bible is known to many Christians, careful readers of the Pentateuch still have many questions. The origin story of the Jewish nation is one of hardship and loss. The Transforming Word will encourage you to examine the Scriptures and discover the God who sustains everything.

The nation of Israel tells its story of the rise of kings not once but twice (Joshua–2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles); and during this period, they wrote Psalms and gathered together their wise sayings. Then, plunged into the darkness of exile, they had to discover again who God was and what kind of life he called them to live. In the same way, Christians read these texts today for what they share about a promised Messiah and how they explain what life with God looks like in all its complexity.

The life and work of Jesus Christ must not be overlooked.Born under Roman occupation, Jesus lived his entire life without writing anything down. His earliest followers, the Christians that were shaped by his life and teachings, carefully recorded his words as good news. They also experienced his resurrection and believed that he had entrusted them with a mission to transform the world.

How interactions of race and religion have influenced unity and division in the churchAt the center of the story of American Christianity lies an integral connection between race relations and Christian unity. Despite claims that Jesus Christ transcends all racial barriers, the most segregated hour in America is still Sunday mornings when Christians gather for worship.In Slavery’s Long Shadow fourteen historians and other scholars examine how the sobering historica...

The book known as the Old Testament is actually a collection of stories, songs, prophetic addresses, wise sayings, and other bits of literature composed over centuries and compiled for the use of worshiping communities. These texts appeared in ancient Israel, reflecting its traumas and less frequent triumphs. Far from being comfortable texts that sedate over-stimulated readers, they offer critique of the powerful for the sake of those for whom the only tool of overcoming oppression is lang...