Religion

The book of Lamentations, marked by its tone of mourning, loss, defeat, and heartache, provides neither a pleasant nor an easy read. Nonetheless, it meets us in the valleys of suffering we inevitably face, offering a glimpse of hope in God's faithfulness. Rev. Dr. R. Reed Lessing is here to walk you through this valley, providing insight on the history of recent interpretation; theological, Christological, canonical, narratival, and pastoral features; historical setting; authorship; addressees; date and place of writing; genres; poetry; voices; theodicy; and place in canon.

Prayer is in a state of confusion in Lutheranism.Does prayer bring God to me?Is prayer a means of grace?Is it a pipeline of communication between a believer and God?Is that pipeline a two way street?The more prayers that are prayed the better Christian I am?The more people that are praying the more likely someone will be taken care of by God?Dr. Steinmann engagingly upholds the unique biblical Lutheran view of prayer in this book. Many books on prayer fall into the trap of making God so personal that prayer becomes a psychological tool, a sacrament, or an act in which the believer trusts more than the work of Christ. Dr. Steinmann, in a pastoral, yet scholarly manner brings to the reader God's word and the simplicity of prayer.He summarizes it this way:Prayer does not begin with human effort to pester God until he listens. Prayer begins with God's promise of mercy toward us;Prayer is not a way to manipulate God into answering all our questions or solving our problems in the ways we want them solved. Prayer is designed to help us transcend our problems and troubles by hearing God Himself through His word and Sacraments.It is a book about prayer through the eyes of a pastoral scholar who uses the prayers in the bible to teach the reader about prayer and its place in the daily piety of the believer.

Explores how the tremendous wealth of newly unearthed artifacts and manuscripts have changed our understanding of China's past.

Life of Jesus is a Bible study series that helps participants take a closer, more personal look at Jesus as they explore His significant life events and teachings. Each study includes 12 stand-alone lessons. Each book includes teacher notes and student sheets that include an opening activity, related Scripture, discussion and application questions. Life of Jesus: Teachings explores the ministry and teachings of Jesus. Session titles include: - Pass the Salt: Living a Blessed Life - Hey Diddle, Diddle; Every Jot and Tittle! - Murder He Re-Wrote - Holy Vow! Keeping Your Word and Being Faithful - What an Extraordinary Love! - Hypocrite! - Let Us Pray - Show Me the Treasure! - Stress Less! - A Visine Cure for Judging Others - Follow the Narrow Brick Road - Why Do We Keep Fooling Around? The series uses a simple, user-friendly format that consists of four major components: - Focus: introduces the participants to the concepts that will be explored in the session - Inform: guides participants into Scripture to learn what God says about different issues - Connect: provides activities and questions to help participants apply the truth found in Scripture to their lives - Vision: suggests activities for additional growth during the week to come. The four books in the series: Parables, Teachings, Passion, and Miracles.

An Introduction to the Five Scrolls: Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther is a comprehensive introduction to the Megilloth, an important but often neglected minor collection of books in the Hebrew Bible. Using contemporary critical methods, each chapter explores title, authorship, provenance, place and time of composition, literary development, intended audience, literary structure, form, and style, literary and traditional sources, the contents and theological contribution, canonicity, and liturgical reception of the scrolls in both Jewish and Christian traditions. An Introduction to the Five Scrolls is the first comprehensive, critical introduction to the Five Scrolls to appear in English in recent scholarship.

Human beings have always been concerned with fundamental questions about their selves, including the deeply personal nature of human experience, the persistence of the self over time, the relation between mind and body, and the interdependence between self and community. The goal of this volume is to rethink these questions against the backdrop of Chinese philosophical traditions, covering the ideas of major thinkers from Classical to late imperial China, with a particular focus on the fact that human experience is necessarily characterized by the first-person perspective. The contributors to this volume employ different methods (historical, comparative, phenomenological), but they all aim at bringing the rich resources of Chinese philosophy to life in our global present.

In the context of modern global exchanges, an imagined and essentialised notion of 'East Asia' has served as both a source of inspiration and a catalyst for new connections, extending beyond the geographic boundaries of China, Japan, and Korea. This volume explores the global circulation of practices, technologies, and ideas identified as 'East Asian' in alternative therapies and spiritual practices since the 1970s. Case studies range from the incorporation of traditional Chinese medicine into Brazilian naturopathy to self-development seminars promoting Korean national identity. Rather than focusing on questions of authenticity, the book uniquely interrogates how and why the cultures of China, Japan, and Korea have been invoked over the last fifty years to promote specific therapeutic, spiritual, and political agendas worldwide.