Walking Through Infertility: Biblical, Theological, and Moral Counsel for Those Who Are Struggling
by Dr. Matthew Arbo, Assistant Professor
of Biblical and Theological Studies
“This book was written to help you see and understand that God is the Giver of life. You are his child. He cares deeply about you. When you hurt, he hurts with you.” (from the Introduction)
Infertility is the profoundly wounding experience of many couples, often leading to feelings of despair and shame as they grapple with shattered dreams and unanswered questions. But God does not leave them alone in their pain. The Creator and Redeemer of life has not forsaken the infertile, but has called and equipped them to participate in his church, kingdom and mission.
Overflowing with warmth and sensitivity, this book explores what the Bible says about infertility, helping the church walk alongside couples struggling with infertility and assessing the ethical issues surrounding common fertility treatments and reproductive technologies.
Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age
by Dr. Alan Noble,
Assistant Professor of English
We live in a distracted, secular age.
These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits – and devices – that distract and “buffer” us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls “a secular age” – an age in which all beliefs are equally viable and real transcendence is less and less plausible. Drawing on Taylor’s work, Alan Noble describes how these realities shape our thinking and affect our daily lives. Too often Christians have acquiesced to these trends, and the result has been a church that struggles to disrupt the ingrained patterns of people’s lives.
But the gospel of Jesus is inherently disruptive: like a plow, it breaks up the hardened surface to expose the fertile earth below. In this book Noble lays out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt our society’s deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to the transcendent grace and beauty of Jesus.
Disruptive Witness casts a new vision for the evangelical imagination, calling us away from abstraction and cliché to a more faithful embodiment of the gospel for our day.
A Greek Reader’s
Apostolic Fathers
by Dr. Alan Bandy,
Rowena R. Strickland Associate Professor of New Testament
The writings from the postapostolic period of the early church (ca. 70–150 CE), known as the Apostolic Fathers, comprise the earliest extant Christian writings outside of the New Testament. The Apostolic Fathers furnish us with an invaluable repository of insights related to the issues, theology, and exegetical practices during this period in church history. Due to the frequent allusions to and quotations of the Gospels and Epistles, the Apostolic Fathers are also an important witness to the text of the New Testament. While several Greek–English diglot editions exist offering excellent English translations, this is the first annotated version of the Greek text that provides a contextual English gloss for all vocabulary occurring less than 30 times in the Greek New Testament. A Greek Reader’s Apostolic Fathers will help one develop the necessary skills for an advanced familiarity and fluency in the Greek texts of early Christianity. This reader is designed primarily as a textbook for an advanced Greek readings course, but is intended for general reading or scholarly research as well.