The Bible In The Ashes Of Social Chaos

Daily we witness the spectacle of a country in chaos. Mass shootings, partisan gridlock, the growing wealth divide, gross economic inequities, crumbling institutions, and widespread sexism, racism, and xenophobia reflect a country in serious peril. Cynicism, narcissism, fear, and nihilism hide behind the veneer of success, happiness, and materialism that deludes us about our dire condition. Both America and its dominant religion are in decline and more people are raising serious questions about God, the church, and its sacred text for the role they play in past and present realities unfolding around us. This is especially true in the African American community where there are grassroots movements and emerging leaders questioning traditional beliefs of the Black church. Today, millennials and Gen Z youth question problematic things said in the Bible and why a book with moral contradictions continues to be authoritative. There is a real need to grapple with the Bible's relevance in the ashes of social chaos. More importantly, there is a need to expand our moral imagination in new ways that can revitalize faith. In The Bible in the Ashes of Social Chaos, Brogdon invites readers to wade into these biblical, theological, and philosophical issues in a way that holds the sacred nature of the biblical text and questioning rooted in faith in a healthy tension. This book will resonate with people in various places in their intellectual and faith journey.

Daily we witness the spectacle of a country in chaos. Mass shootings, partisan gridlock, the growing wealth divide, gross economic inequities, crumbling institutions, and widespread sexism, racism, and xenophobia reflect a country in serious peril. Cynicism, narcissism, fear, and nihilism hide behind the veneer of success, happiness, and materialism that deludes us about our dire condition. Both America and its dominant religion are in decline and more people are raising serious questions about God, the church, and its sacred text for the role they play in past and present realities unfolding around us. This is especially true in the African American community where there are grassroots movements and emerging leaders questioning traditional beliefs of the Black church. Today, millennials and Gen Z youth question problematic things said in the Bible and why a book with moral contradictions continues to be authoritative. There is a real need to grapple with the Bible’s relevance in the ashes of social chaos. More importantly, there is a need to expand our moral imagination in new ways that can revitalize faith. In The Bible in the Ashes of Social Chaos, Brogdon invites readers to wade into these biblical, theological, and philosophical issues in a way that holds the sacred nature of the biblical text and questioning rooted in faith in a healthy tension. This book will resonate with people in various places in their intellectual and faith journey.

“No other book of the Bible is quite so R-rated. No other book is quite so ugly or grotesque. Judges offers its reader not a roster of angelic saints, but an astonishing tempest of brutality, feces, slaughter, assassinations, conspiracy, genocide, child sacrifice, rage, betrayal, mass graves, gang-rape, corpse mutilation, kidnapping, and civil war.” Gift of the Grotesque offers readers a series of seven theological essays focused on one of the most confusing and challenging books in the biblical canon. Stulac’s captivating style combines sensitive exegesis with broadly accessible meditations on culture, art, music, literature, memoir, theology, and spirituality. Better understood as a companion rather than a biblical commentary, this unusual resource will kickstart the theological imagination of anyone who struggles to understand how the book of Judges points forward to the life and work of Jesus Christ. Dare to follow an experienced biblical scholar into the heart of Israel’s theological Dark Age, and you will encounter there the transformative Word of God in ways you do not expect. The prophetic book of Judges, writes Stulac, “wants to gut you like a fish, because on the far side of that unenviable prospect, it wants you alive like you’ve never lived before.”

The purpose of this book is to introduce the Pentateuch to (under)graduate students by approaching it from the perspective of five theological polarities: chaos-creation (Genesis), slavery-freedom (Exodus), defilement-holiness (Leviticus), wilderness-homeland (Numbers), and conflict-covenant (Deuteronomy). It examines these polarities in light of other great texts from the ancient Near East (and Qur'an) in the hope of ushering the reader into a deeper understanding of the one God revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

This two-part volume contains a comprehensive collection of original studies by well-known scholars focusing on the Bible’s wide-ranging reception in world cinema. It is organized into sections examining the rich cinematic afterlives of selected characters from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament; considering issues of biblical reception across a wide array of film genres, ranging from noir to anime; featuring directors, from Lee Chang-dong to the Coen brothers, whose body of work reveals an enduring fascination with biblical texts and motifs; and offering topical essays on cinema’s treatment of selected biblical themes (e.g., lament, apocalyptic), particular interpretive lenses (e.g., feminist interpretation, queer theory), and windows into biblical reception in a variety of world cinemas (e.g., Indian, Israeli, and Third Cinema). This handbook is intended for scholars of the Bible, religion, and film as well as for a wider general audience.

The saving message of the Gospel is the heartbeat of this preacher and evangelist. Millions around the world heard Billy Graham proclaim this unchanging truth. He never forgot the transformation of his own life, when he first said yes to God’s gift of salvation, and he witnessed multitudes turn their hearts to the God of Hope. What is the most hopeful word in History? For Billy Graham, that word is SALVATION. Billy Graham proclaimed God's Gospel with resolve and deep compassion. It is a message he preached for more than seventy years. And in this book you will sense its urgency, filled with hope for the future. Salvation is what we all long for, when we are lost or in danger or have made a mess of our lives. And salvation belongs to us, when we reach out for the only One who can rescue us—Jesus. The Reason for My Hope: Salvation presents the essence of that transformative message. It is biblical and timeless, and though simple and direct, it is far from easy. There are hard words, prophetic words, directed toward a culture that denies the reality of sin and distracts us from the veracity of Hell. But through its ominous warnings shines a light that cannot be extinguished—a beacon of hope that Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

God Speaks His Word Straight Into The Hearts Of Men And Women. The Word Of God Is Alive And Active Today In The Lives Of Millions. With the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as his singular focus, Billy Graham faithfully, passionately, and unapologetically preached God’s Word for more than seventy years. At the age of ninety-two, during an exclusive Fox News interview in 2010, Dr. Graham told Greta van Susteren, “I have a tremendous amount of hope for the future because of Jesus Christ.” In this stunning collection of quotes by Billy Graham comes a historic anthology covering seven decades of ministry, drawing from both his published and personal works. These pages are filled with hope, truth, and redemption and seek the hearts of a lost people who need God now more than ever. Today we are putting our hopes in materialism, in technological progress, and in freedom from moral absolutes. They have all failed. They have failed because they have been powerless to change the human heart. Join Billy Graham as he seeks to bring God’s Word to the heart of daily life. Reconnect and be drawn like never before. “Hearing Billy Graham express hope for the world gives me hope that my life can be worthwhile,” comments one twenty-two-year-old. Arranged topically for easy reference, Billy Graham in Quotes provides insight on more than one hundred topics anchored in Scripture. This gifted evangelist takes the focus off of the messenger and shines the Light on the Message of God’s Word. Earth’s troubles fade in the light of heaven’s hope.