What do we do with a God who sanctions violence?

Old Testament violence proves one of the most troubling topics in the Bible. Too often, the explanations for the brutality in Scripture fail to adequately illustrate why God would sanction such horrors on humanity. These unanswered questions leave readers frustrated and confused, leading some to even walk away from their faith.

In Flood and Fury, Old Testament scholar Matthew Lynch approaches two of the most violent passages in the Old Testament – the Flood and the Canaanite conquest – and offers a way forward that doesn't require softening or ignoring the most troubling aspects of these stories. While acknowledging the persistent challenge of violence in Scripture, Flood and Fury contends that reading with the grain of the text yields surprising insights into the goodness and the mercy of God. Through his exploration of themes related to violence including misogyny, racism, and nationalism, Lynch shows that these violent stories illuminate significant theological insights that we might miss with a surface reading.

Flood and Fury challenges us to let go of the need to rescue the Old Testament from itself and listen afresh to its own critiques on violence.

Amazing Grace is the surprising true story of John Newton, author of the song that has touched millions. A biography that reads like a novel, it reveals Newton’s dramatic story of sin and salvation as a slave trader before his ultimate transformation to speaking out against the horror of slavery. His story speaks to the brokenness within us all and our need for God’s amazing grace—and reveals the truth behind his song.

Amazing Grace is based on years of research on the life and writings of John Newton. It tells of a prodigal who returns home, and a young love that defies the odds; of a young man whose life is torn by grief and wounded by the cruelty of others, following his descent into deeper suffering and finally into the brutal world of the slave trade. Newton rejects God repeatedly but is rescued by a divine mercy that reaches deeper than he could ever have imagined as he ultimately faces his past and repents.

Newton’s story is shocking, and Amazing Grace does not try to airbrush or excuse his faults. There are glaring contradictions in the life of a ship’s Captain who retreats to his cabin to study his Bible and write tender love letters to his wife while hundreds of slaves lie in chains in the hold below.

The profound lessons from his life are applicable to us today, helping us to:

• Discover that the need for grace is universal and offers the deepest hope for overcoming hatred
• Be honest about our lives even when we are ashamed and face seemingly unresolvable problems
• Look for grace when life is far from perfect and doesn't match up to our expectations 
• Trust that our mistakes and regrets, no matter how deep, can be redeemed in the end

Since the first public singing of “Amazing Grace” almost 250 years ago, every generation has been profoundly moved by the song, and now readers can connect with John Newton’s story like never before. In these days of extreme polarization when beliefs about race, church, and politics have all become deeply divisive in society, we need grace more than ever. We need stories like this one that talk honestly about the human condition but even more about the relentless love of God and his forgiveness of sins.

Timothy Keller takes readers behind the scenes to meet the people and understand the events that formed Keller's spiritual life and ministry priorities.

Millions have read books and listened to sermons by Timothy Keller. But which people and what events shaped his own thinking and spiritual growth? With unfettered access to Keller's personal notes and sermons--as well as exclusive interviews with family members and longtime friends--Collin Hansen gives you unprecedented understanding of one of the 21st century's most influential church leaders.

Spend any time around Timothy Keller and you'll learn what he's reading, what he's learning, what he's seeing. The story of Timothy Keller is the story of his spiritual and intellectual influences, from the woman who taught him how to read the Bible to the professor who taught him to preach Jesus from every text to the philosopher who taught him to see beneath society's surface.

For the first time, Hansen introduces readers to Keller's early years: the home where he learned to tell stories from the trees, the church where he learned to care for souls, and the city that lifted him to the international fame he never wanted.

You'll discover how to:

• Understand the principles and practices that allowed Keller to synthesize so many different influences in a coherent ministry.
• Take the best of Keller's preaching and teaching to meet emerging challenges in the 21st century.
• Develop your own historical, theological, and cultural perspectives to shape your leadership.

This is the untold story of the people, the books, the lectures, and ultimately the God who formed and shaped the life of Timothy Keller.

Dismissals such as "boys will be boys" and "not all men" are ingrained in our world. And the purity culture of our youth sold the same excuses with a spiritual spin. Can we break the toxic cycle and recover a healthy identity for men?

In Non-Toxic Masculinity, Zachary Wagner tells men, "If you are in Christ, this is your problem—and you should be part of the solution."

Reflecting on his own coming of age in the purity culture movement and ongoing recovery from sexual shame, Wagner confronts harmful teaching from the American church that has distorted desire, sex, relationships, and responsibility. For those—both men and women—who feel disillusioned and adrift, this book offers a renewed vision for Christian male sexuality founded in empathy and selflessness.

Millions of people in the West identify as atheists. Christians often respond to this reality with proofs of God's existence, as though rational arguments for atheism were the root cause of unbelief. In Bulwarks of Unbelief, Joseph Minich argues that a felt absence of God, as experienced by the modern individual, offers a better explanation for the rise in atheism. Recent technological and cultural shifts in the modern West have produced a perceived challenge to God's existence. As modern technoculture reshapes our awareness of reality and belief in the invisible, it in turn amplifies God's apparent silence. In this new context, atheism is a natural result. And absent of meaning from without, we have turned within.

Christians cannot escape this aspect of modern life. Minich argues that we must consciously and actively return to reality. If we reattune ourselves to God's story, reintegrate the whole person, and reinhabit the world, faith can thrive in this age of unbelief.

We aren't always honest about how difficult normal human life is.

For the majority of people, sorrow, despair, anxiety, and mental illness are everyday experiences. While we have made tremendous advancements in therapy and psychiatry, the burden of living still comes down to mundane choices that we each must make—like the daily choice to get out of bed.

In this deeply personal essay, Alan Noble considers the unique burden of everyday life in the modern world. Sometimes, he writes, the choice to carry on amid great suffering—to simply get out of bed—is itself a powerful witness to the goodness of life, and of God.

Holy Scripture requires holy reading.

• Encounter an ancient but fresh way of reading the Bible.
• Learn from Augustine, Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux, and others.
• Experience a structured and attentive way to focus on Christ, listen to the Spirit, and rest in God's love.

Christians read Scripture to encounter Christ and be conformed to his image. Jesus is the point of reading the Bible. But Scripture is no mere human text; it is God's living word. So how should we read it?

For Christians throughout the centuries, the answer has been lectio divina―"divine reading." Lectio divina is a sacramental reading. It aims to take us more deeply into the life of God. Through practicing the four movements of lectio divina―attentive reading, extended meditation, prayerful reflection, and silent resting―we focus on Christ, listen to the Spirit, and rest in God's love. We no longer simply read the words of Scripture; instead, we read the face of God in the eternal Word.

Is Christian singleness a burden to be endured or a God-ordained vocation? Might singleness here and now give the church a glimpse of God's heavenly promises?

Dani Treweek offers biblical, historical, cultural, and theological reflections to retrieve a theology of singleness for the church today. Drawing upon both ancient and contemporary theologians, including Augustine, Ælfric of Eynsham, John Paul II, and Stanley Hauerwas, she contends not only that singleness has served an important role throughout the church's history, but that single Christians present the church with a foretaste of the eschatological reality that awaits all of God's people.

Far from being a burden, then, Christian singleness is among the highest vocations of the faith.