Sovereign Joy

In this book, John Piper explores the lives of 21 leaders from church history, offering a close look at their perseverance amidst opposition, weakness, and suffering--inspiring readers toward a life of Christ-exalting courage, passion, and joy.

Sovereign Joy explores the performance of festive black kings and queens among Afro-Mexicans between 1539 and 1640. This fascinating study illustrates how the first African and Afro-creole people in colonial Mexico transformed their ancestral culture into a shared identity among Afro-Mexicans, with particular focus on how public festival participation expressed their culture and subjectivities, as well as redefined their colonial condition and social standing. By analyzing this hitherto understudied aspect of Afro-Mexican Catholic confraternities in both literary texts and visual culture, Miguel A. Valerio teases out the deeply ambivalent and contradictory meanings behind these public processions and festivities that often re-inscribed structures of race and hierarchy. Were they markers of Catholic subjecthood, and what sort of corporate structures did they create to project standing and respectability? Sovereign Joy examines many of these possibilities, and in the process highlights the central place occupied by Africans and their descendants in colonial culture. Through performance, Afro-Mexicans affirmed their being: the sovereignty of joy, and the joy of sovereignty.

An uplifting look at three famous and flawed fathers of the Christian church and how their lives can inspire us to fall in love with God and find the power to overcome our weaknesses. Augustine grappled with sexual passion. Martin Luther struggled to control his tongue. John Calvin fought the battle of faith with the world's weapons. Yet despite their failings, each man will always be remembered as a founding father to the Christian faith because of the messages they declared. And even with their deaths hundreds of years ago, their messages still speak today. John Piper explores each man's life, integrating Augustine's delight in God with Luther's emphasis on the Word and Calvin's exposition of Scriptures. Through their strengths and struggles, he teaches us how to better live today, for when we consider their lives, we behold the glory and majesty of God - and in that, find the power to overcome our weaknesses.

From Bestselling Author John Piper: 27 Biographies of Notable Figures from Church History, including Augustine, John Calvin, and Martin Luther Throughout church history, the faithful ministries of Christian leaders—though full of struggle, sin, and weakness—have magnified the worth and majesty of God. Their lives and teachings are still profoundly relevant. Their voices live on in the stories we read and tell today. In this book, John Piper celebrates the lives of 27 such leaders from church history, offering a close look at their perseverance amidst opposition, weakness, and suffering. Let the resilience of these faithful but flawed saints inspire you toward a life of Christ-exalting courage, passion, and joy. Written by Best-Selling Author John Piper: The author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God; Don't Waste Your Life; Providence; The Supremacy of God in Preaching; Expository Exultation; and Why I Love the Apostle Paul Short Biographies of 27 Inspiring Figures from Church History: Features short biographies of Augustine, John Calvin, John Bunyan, Martin Luther, John Newton, William Wilberforce, and more Updated from 21 Servants of Sovereign Joy: Includes new chapters about Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Jonathan Edwards, Bill Piper, J. C. Ryle, Andrew Fuller, and Robert Murray McCheyne

The powerful transgender teenage superhero returns in this action-packed sequel to Dreadnought. Only nine months after her debut as the superhero Dreadnought, Danny Tozer is already a scarred veteran. Protecting a city the size of New Port is a team-sized job and she’s doing it alone. Between her newfound celebrity and her demanding cape duties, Dreadnought is stretched thin, and it’s only going to get worse. When she crosses a newly discovered billionaire supervillain, Dreadnought comes under attack from all quarters. From her troubled family life to her disintegrating friendship with Calamity, there’s no lever too cruel for this villain to use against her. She might be hard to kill, but there's more than one way to destroy a hero. Before the war is over, Dreadnought will be forced to confront parts of herself she never wanted to acknowledge. And behind it all, an old enemy waits in the wings, ready to unleash a plot that will scar the world forever. “Daniels doesn’t just perfectly “queer the capes,” she delivers a book that’s tightly packed with brilliantly rendered fights, nail-biting scenes of peril, emotional authenticity, and a perfect first kiss.”—Kirkus Reviews “An extremely compelling narrative…An uplifting kind of book.”—Tor.com “Danny is so real that even when she is flying around in space throwing punches at a bazillion miles per hour, she is 100% believable.”—Locus “A well-crafted story, filled with charming characters and nerve-wracking narratives that keep the reader enthralled.”—Lambda Literary

Collected writings from both past and present preachers of God's Gospel of Free and Sovereign Grace through Jesus Christ. Includes works by William Tiptaft, Tobias Crisp, William Huntington, William Gadsby, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, J.C. Philpot, John Kershaw, James Bourne, Eli Ashdown, Francis Covell, John Vinall, John Warburton, Don Fortner, Henry Mahan, Don Bell, Gary Shepard, Todd Nibert, Tom Harding, Peter Meney and Benjamin A. Ramsbottom. The book also includes an Introduction on 'Sovereign Grace', background information about each author and a useful appendix containing much information about other works written by or about the authors. These works are by authors whose lives span several hundred years, yet their message is the same - they proclaim the grace of God which brings salvation - because the One of whom they speak never changes, He is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever".

This title offers a comprehensive analysis of Baptist theology. Embracing in one common trajectory the major Baptist confessions of faith, the major Baptist theologians, and the principal Baptist theological movements and controversies, this book spans four centuries of Baptist doctrinal history. Acknowledging first the pre-1609 roots (patristic, medieval, and Reformational) of Baptist theology, it examines the Arminian versus Calvinist issues that were first expressed by the General Baptists and the Particular Baptists; that dominated English and American Baptist theology during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from Helwys and Smyth and from Bunyan and Kiffin to Gill, Fuller, Backus, and Boyce; and, that were quickened by the 'awakenings' and the missionary movement. Concurrently there were the Baptist defense of the Baptist distinctives vis-a-vis the pedobaptist world and the unfolding of a strong Baptist confessional tradition. Then during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the liberal versus evangelical issues became dominant with Hovey, Strong, Rauschenbusch, and Henry in the North and Mullins, Conner, Hobbs, and Criswell in the South even as a distinctive Baptist Landmarkism developed, the discipline of biblical theology was practiced and a structured ecumenism was pursued. Missiology both impacted Baptist theology and took it to all the continents, where it became increasingly indigenous. Conscious that Baptists belong to the free churches and to the believers' churches, a new generation of Baptist theologians at the advent of the twenty-first century appears somewhat more Calvinist than Arminian and decidedly more evangelical than liberal.