Christianity Today 2025 Book Award (Christian Living / Spiritual Formation)Outreach **2025 Resource of the Year (Spiritual Growth)"With so many distractions in life, we must be deliberate in our search for God, and Sosler's book gives masterful guidance."--**Christianity TodayIn a society always seeking the new and novel, Christians can become more grounded and mature thro...

In a society always seeking the new and novel, Christians can become more grounded and mature through a retrieval of our common tradition. Alex Sosler sets forth the "transcendentals" of truth, goodness, and beauty—along with community—to help listeners follow the way of Jesus.Weaving together church history, theology, and devotional practice, Sosler offers a holistic introduction to spiritual formation, encompassing biblical truth, the pursuit of the good life, the contemplation o...

When you look at the world, what do you see? As an artist, your creativity stems from your vision. The problem in the modern world is how often one's imagination is fragmented and reduced--between worship and work, the body and soul, the material and the spiritual. Written to practicing artists and those who pastor them, The Artistic Vision encourages artists who long for a greater sense of purpose and a greater sense of wholeness, proposing that seeing the material world as a shadow of sp...

While all music genres incorporate religious imagery, the blues has its origin in the soil of the church. In its infancy, the blues was often dismissed as undermining the church’s gospel songbook. The initial resistance, however, could not suppress the organic development of a genre of music born from suffering. The great Mississippi Delta bluesman, Muddy Waters, once said, "The blues was born behind a mule." Behind a beast of burden, the working man found in the blues a way to console the...

The works of J.R.R. Tolkien have not only redefined a genre of literature but also had a far-reaching impact on culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Tolkien's name has joined the ranks of authors such as Shakespeare, Milton, Dostoevsky, Donne, and Dickens who make us think differently about the world. In Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology, an international group of scholars consider what Tolkien's works (and Jackson's film interpretations) can teac...

Theology and Breaking Bad explores the brutal and seemingly nihilistic moral landscape of the AMC neo-Western crime drama Breaking Bad (2008–2013) with insights into the characters, their struggles, and the moral consequences resulting from their actions. Throughout the book, the contributors find telltale traces of theological themes woven into the storylines by the writers and directors and bring them out for the reader in ten essays spanning topics from Greek mythology to the Hebrew Bib...

The Avett Brothers sing of a spiritual yearning present in modern culture. Without being overtly religious, theological underpinnings are prevalent in their music. The contributors in this book delve into the Avett Brother's explicit and implicit theology with an eye on how they help make sense of our secular age. Theology and the Avett Brothers offers a rich contemplation on how these brothers from North Carolina help listeners navigate the religious consciousness of today's world, explor...

Hip-hop has crossed boundaries in recent years—from comic books (Into the Spiderverse) to Broadway (Hamilton). For over fifty years, hip-hop has grown as a cultural icon. There’s no escaping it.How does hip-hop fit within Christianity? Can hip-hop beats be sanctified? Can perverse lyrics serve the kingdom? In other words, “What has Jerusalem to do with the Bronx, or Compton, or the South Side of Chicago, or the west side of Houston?” Senior scholars, emerging scho...