The Most Misused Stories in the Bible: Surprising Ways Popular Bible Stories Are Misunderstood
Eric J. Bargerhuff (Bethany House)
Anyone with experience in a small-group Bible study knows the pattern: You read a passage of Scripture together, go around the room to find out what everyone thinks . . . and end up with nearly as many interpretations as there are interpreters! This book—a follow-up to Bargerhuff’s 2012 effort, The Most Misused Verses in the Bible—reviews common mishandlings of stories from the Old and New Testaments, such as Cain and Abel, David and Goliath, and the parable of the “rich fool.”
Torn Asunder: Children, the Myth of the Good Divorce, and the Recovery of Origins
Edited by Margaret Harper McCarthy(Eerdmans)
When parents divorce, their children often bear emotional scars. Even when the split is reasonably free of acrimony, there remains a haunting sense of confusion and insecurity—“a wound,” writes McCarthy in her introduction to this volume, “that affects them at the very level of their being.”Torn Asundergathers more than a dozen essays, written by Protestants and Catholics, examining divorce through the lenses of theology, philosophy, politics, law, and psychology. The authors survey the damage done to children of divorce and reflect on what it will take to rebuild a durable culture of marriage.
Theologies of the American Revivalists: From Whitefield to Finney
Robert W. Caldwell (IVP Academic)
The First and Second Great Awakenings were times of incredible spiritual fervor, as thousands flocked to open-air revivals and reported born-again experiences. But they were also times of intense debate among preachers and theologians over different understandings of Christian commitment. What does it mean to be saved? How exactly should a conversion experience unfold? How should preachers present the gospel so as to usher hearers into an authentic encounter with God? Caldwell, who teaches church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, maps out the theological traditions that emerged from these debates—traditions that have shaped American Christianity ever since.
