Lights A Lovely Mile

Eugene H. Peterson’s never-before-published wisdom for each season of the Christian year The glorious, never-dull reality of the gospel is this: Christ sets us free. All of us can be doers of the word, using the stuff of the everyday to make something to the glory of God. Long before his iconic paraphrased Bible translation, The Message, Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) faithfully preached for decades to the small congregation of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. As the seasons passed, along with the accompanying fasts and feasts, Peterson faithfully revealed ways to cultivate a robust, authentic life of faith, intimacy, obedience, and joy. Now you can gain new insights into Peterson’s preaching and pastoral life through this collection of his most compelling yet never-before-published sermons. Following the calendar of the church year, from the darkness of Advent to the light of Epiphany, the wilderness of Lent to the celebration of Easter, and the fire of Pentecost to the everyday glory of ordinary time, these remarkable sermons point to the eternity beyond our experience of time. With his trademark wit and wisdom, Peterson shows how to pursue a “long obedience in the same direction” through all the seasons, colors, and rhythms of our lives.

Eugene H. Peterson’s never-before-published wisdom for each season of the Christian year The glorious, never-dull reality of the gospel is this: Christ sets us free. All of us can be doers of the word, using the stuff of the everyday to make something to the glory of God. Long before his iconic paraphrased Bible translation, The Message, Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) faithfully preached for decades to the small congregation of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. As the seasons passed, along with the accompanying fasts and feasts, Peterson faithfully revealed ways to cultivate a robust, authentic life of faith, intimacy, obedience, and joy. Now you can gain new insights into Peterson’s preaching and pastoral life through this collection of his most compelling yet never-before-published sermons. Following the calendar of the church year, from the darkness of Advent to the light of Epiphany, the wilderness of Lent to the celebration of Easter, and the fire of Pentecost to the everyday glory of ordinary time, these remarkable sermons point to the eternity beyond our experience of time. With his trademark wit and wisdom, Peterson shows how to pursue a “long obedience in the same direction” through all the seasons, colors, and rhythms of our lives.

An analysis of the writing life of the nineteenth-century English poet documents his experiences as a Jesuit priest, his struggles with depression, and the spiritual journey that informed his beliefs. 12,500 first printing.

In the face of religious and cultural diversity, some doubt whether Christian faith remains possible today. Critics claim that religion is irrational and violent, and the loudest defenders of Christianity are equally strident. In response, Desire, Faith, and the Darkness of God: Essays in Honor of Denys Turner explores the uncertainty essential to Christian commitment; it suggests that faith is moved by a desire for that which cannot be known. This approach is inspired by the tradition of Christian apophatic theology, which argues that language cannot capture divine transcendence. From this perspective, contemporary debates over God’s existence represent a dead end: if God is not simply another object in the world, then faith begins not in abstract certainty but in a love that exceeds the limits of knowledge. The essays engage classic Christian thought alongside literary and philosophical sources ranging from Pseudo-Dionysius and Dante to Karl Marx and Jacques Derrida. Building on the work of Denys Turner, they indicate that the boundary between atheism and Christian thought is productively blurry. Instead of settling the stale dispute over whether religion is rationally justified, their work suggests instead that Christian life is an ethical and political practice impassioned by a God who transcends understanding.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

'Claire's honest, raw, authentic diaries will be a source of comfort to many'- Miranda Hart At the age of 54 Claire Gilbert was diagnosed with myeloma, an incurable cancer of the blood. The prognoses ranged from surviving only a few months to living for several decades, with no guarantee of which outcome was to be hers. It was a shocking diagnosis into uncertainty, or rather, into only one certainty: death. But Claire discovered that facing her own mortality was liberating. She discovered this through writing letters. Claire asked her siblings and a small group of friends if they would let her write to them with total honesty about what she was going through, as she was going through it. These letters turned out to be a great solace, and gradually her group of 'dear readers' has grown; what she had to say wasn't just of value to herself, but to others, too. The letters chart Claire's journey through diagnosis, chemotherapy and a brutal round of stem cell treatment, and end with the rest of the UK joining her in her immuno-compromised isolation in March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Unflinchingly honest and wide-ranging, Claire writes about the restorative role of nature, politics, poetry, humour - and a restless exploration of the spiritual dimension of death and dying. This is an honest, luminous account of what Claire has gone through and what keeps her going, a deeply spiritual meditation on life and suffering, and an exploration of how faith is no simple solace but provides a whole new plane of meaning during these liminal moments. 'Claire Gilbert's account of the progress of her fatal illness, from diagnosis through various traumatic treatments, is in turn candid, painful, funny, tender, fierce and philosophical. But most of all it is a marvellously enjoyable read depicting the human spirit at its finest: defiant, exuberant, joyous. An example to us all that we can triumph over the cruellest adversity'- Salley Vickers

The good, the true and the beautiful-it is for these that our souls long. Though they reside in unity and perfection in God alone, the written word is one place we can discover glimmers of divine light. The writings of great souls can turn our gaze toward God as he is revealed in Jesus Christ. Even authors who do not know Christ or who reject Christ can still point to him, for anyone who seeks the truth finds it; and any one who turns his back on the truth turns away from a someone whose presence can often be more keenly felt in his absence. In this volume, Lucy Beckett illuminates some of the finest writings in the Western tradition and trains our eye to discover in them the Christian vision of God. She masterfully guides us through Sophocles, Plato, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and many others, deftly demonstrating each author's worth as a bearer of truth.