New and Noteworthy Books Spring/Summer 2024
Here are some of the upcoming books we are most looking forward to set to be released between May - August 2024! If you are interested in any of these or would like to know more, please give us a call (604-228-1820) or send us an email ([email protected]) to inquire about reserving a copy or shipping.
Though we are overwhelmed with information, we often struggle to find true wisdom. Yet those leading or mentoring others, whether in business or in spiritual life, must rely on wisdom’s guidance to lead with purpose and meaning. With decades of leadership experience in business, nonprofits, and Christian higher education, Uli Chi helps readers build this foundational virtue.
Looking to Scripture as well as art and literature, Chi illuminates the nature of wisdom as fundamentally relational and other-centered. In the context of leadership, biblical wisdom shows us the importance of wielding power with humility. Chi also provides a framework for the formation of character and vision in the lifelong journey of gaining wisdom. Full of substantive and practical reflections, The Wise Leader both forms young leaders and teaches experienced leaders how to pass on the torch meaningfully.
Available for in-store purchase only.
A major new work by Charles Taylor: the long-awaited follow-up to The Language Animal, exploring the Romantic poetics central to his theory of language.
The Language Animal, Charles Taylor’s 2016 account of human linguistic capacity, was a revelation, toppling scholarly conventions and illuminating our most fundamental selves. But, as Taylor noted in that work, there was much more to be said. Cosmic Connections continues Taylor’s exploration of Romantic and post-Romantic responses to disenchantment and innovations in language.
Reacting to the fall of cosmic orders that were at once metaphysical and moral, the Romantics used the symbols and music of poetry to recover contact with reality beyond fragmented existence. They sought to overcome disenchantment and groped toward a new meaning of life. Their accomplishments have been extended by post-Romantic generations into the present day. Taylor’s magisterial work takes us from Hölderlin, Novalis, Keats, and Shelley to Hopkins, Rilke, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé, and on to Eliot, Miłosz, and beyond.
In seeking deeper understanding and a different orientation to life, the language of poetry is not merely a pleasurable presentation of doctrines already elaborated elsewhere. Rather, Taylor insists, poetry persuades us through the experience of connection. The resulting conviction is very different from that gained through the force of argument. By its very nature, poetry’s reasoning will often be incomplete, tentative, and enigmatic. But at the same time, its insight is too moving—too obviously true—to be ignored.
Available for in-store purchase only.
An Invitation into God's Grace
As we race to work in the morning, have coffee with a friend, or fall into bed exhausted, we want to feel God's presence, to sink into his grace. Yet too often he feels aloof, absent. Our prayers feel trivial. But as Julie Lane-Gay discovered, the Book of Common Prayer is designed for just this purpose: to root Christians in the riches of God's grace.
Lane-Gay has written this book to share the treasures she has found in the Book of Common Prayer. It's not a history of the prayer book nor a guide (though it will certainly help readers get their bearings). Instead, using stories from her own life, Lane-Gay shows what it means to live in the prayer book: to allow its prayers and patterns to shape an ordinary Christian life. Discover how the Book of Common Prayer can anchor us—our prayers, our daily lives, our hearts—in Christ.
Available for in-store purchase only.
The book consists of a series of interweaving case studies and focuses on Catherine Talbot (1721-70), Anne Steele (1717-78), and Ann Bolton (1743-1822), and on their literary interactions with friends and family. Considered together, these subjects and sources allow comparison across denomination, for Talbot was Anglican, Steele a Baptist, and Bolton a Methodist. Further, it considers women's life writings as spiritual legacy, as manuscripts were preserved by female friends and family members and continued to function in religious communities after the death of their authors. Various strands of enquiry weave through the book: questions of gender and religion, themselves inflected by denomination; themes related to life writings and manuscript cultures; and the interplay between the writer as individual and her relationships and communal affiliations. The result is a variegated and highly textured account of eighteenth-century women's spiritual and writing lives.
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In this beautifully written book, Bauckham combines memoir, theological and biblical reflection, and poetry to offer profound insight into God's providence amid life's difficulties. He discusses relevant aspects of his earlier life, delves into the time when his eyesight began to deteriorate, and reflects on issues that arose during that period. The book also includes generous amounts of Bauckham's own poetry.
Throughout his experience, Bauckham maintained a close relationship with God and drew nearer to him. His journey with God during this time led him to contemplate God's purpose for his life and how he can live in a way that reflects his overwhelming sense of gratitude. He shares his story as a way of encouraging others in their own unique walk with God.
Available for in-store purchase only.
These days many evangelicals are exploring the more sacramental, liturgical, and historically-conscious church traditions, including Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. This hunger for historical rootedness is a welcome phenomenon--but unfortunately, many assume that this need can only be met outside of Protestant contexts.
In What it Means to Be Protestant, Gavin Ortlund draws from both his scholarly work in church history and his personal experience in ecumenical engagement to offer a powerful defense of the Protestant tradition. Retrieving classical Protestant texts and arguments, he exposes how many of the contemporary objections leveled against Protestants are rooted in caricature. Ultimately, he shows that historic Protestantism offers the best pathway to catholicity and historical rootedness for Christians today.
In his characteristically charitable and irenic style, Ortlund demonstrates that the 16th century Reformation represented a genuine renewal of the gospel. This does not entail that Protestantism is without faults. But because it is built upon the principle of semper reformanda (always reforming), Protestantism is capable of reforming itself according to Scripture as the ultimate authority. This scholarly and yet accessible book breaks new ground in ecumenical theology and will be a staple text in the field for many years to come.
Available for in-store purchase only.
