In The Face Of God

Two devout men from different faiths are pitted against each other in a race to find the stones of the High Priest's Breastplate, a mysterious Old Testament artifact that some believe enable the owner to hear the audible voice of God. From America to Israel, from France to Africa, the men race as they come to a deepened understanding of their faith. (July)

Thomas turns to the classic writings of well-known Christians to offer a program for rediscovering an authentic Christian spirituality that applies to everyday life's frustrations, problems, and even joys. "Many will be grateful for the forceful sensitivity of this survey of classical insights into our fellowship with God".--J.I. Packer.

"Best-selling journalist, historian and author Paul Badde embarks on an exciting quest to discover the truth behind the Holy Face of Manoppello, a relic recently rediscovered and rumored to be the veil of Veronica...Badde was intrigued when he heard of a mysterious image in a remote Italian village--an image of a man's face on byssus cloth. Byssus, or sea silk, is a rare and delicate fabric woven from a silky filament produced by mollusks. It is claimed that the fabric is so thin and delicate that it is impossible to paint on--yet the image in Manoppello is clearly visible, and when laid over the image of the face on the Shroud of Turin, forms a perfect match..."--Dust cover flap.

There is now a substantial scholarly consensus for the emergence of a high or divine Christology very early and from a Jewish context, but the questions of "how" and "why" need further study. Within the framework of traditional Jewish monotheism, Paul and other early Christians used the language of deity to describe Jesus. To investigate their view of Jesus, the author examines Paul's discourse in 2 Cor 3:16–4:6, employing insights from rhetorical criticism and Oneness Pentecostal Christology. He explains how early Christians proclaimed the deity of Jesus within their monotheistic Jewish context. He then identifies socio-rhetorical reasons for and practical consequences of the monotheistic deification of Jesus.

Roger Scruton explores the place of God in a disenchanted world. His argument is a response to the atheist culture that is now growing around us, and also a defence of human uniqueness. He rebuts the claim that there is no meaning or purpose in the natural world, and argues that the sacred and the transcendental are 'real presences', through which human beings come to know themselves and to find both their freedom and their redemption. In the human face we find a paradigm of meaning. And from this experience, Scruton argues, we both construct the face of the world, and address the face of God. We find in the face both the proof of our freedom and the mark of self-consciousness. One of the motivations of the atheist culture is to escape from the eye of judgement. You escape from the eye of judgement by blotting out the face: and this, Scruton argues, is the most disturbing aspect of the times in which we live. In his wide-ranging argument Scruton explains the growing sense of destruction that we feel, as the habits of pleasure seeking and consumerism deface the world. His book defends a consecrated world against the habit of desecration, and offers a vision of the religious way of life in a time of trial.

Oliver's study is rigorous and detailed but contemplative in its approach, examining the larger meanings of mankind's first adventures in "the heavens."

This Danish painter's first monograph finds him borrowing from nineteenth-century Nordic predecessors, inter-war-era Magical Realism and 1960s comic books. Visual quotations from the sacred to the most profane function as eye-catchers, shortcuts to shared cultural memory and elements in unusually complex allegories. He is represented by I-20 Gallery, New York.