One of the privileges of working at PRTS is the weekly arrival of new books to supplement our library of 70,000+ books. Here are some of the new selections this week.
Note: Inclusion in the library does not necessarily mean endorsement of contents. We often have to buy books to help students with specialist theses and also to train students to think critically. Also, a book new to the library does not necessarily mean a new book on the market.
For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.
The Church: A Theological and Historical Account by Gerald Bray
“Solid, shrewd, and most thorough, this superlative survey of God’s people on earth past and present will be a boon not only for seminarians but also for many more of us besides. It is a truly outstanding performance.” -J. I. Packer, Regent College
The Bible in Christian North Africa by Maureen A. Tilley
“Maureen A. Tilley’s study gives new insight into the Donatist church by focusing attention on the surviving Donatist controversies. She persuasively shows how Donatist interpretations of Scripture correlate with changes in the social setting of their church.”
Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630-1865 by S. Scott Rohrer
“Popular literature and frontier studies stress that Americans moved west to farm or to seek a new beginning. Scott Rohrer argues that Protestant migrants in early America relocated in search of salvation, Christian community, reform, or all three.”
Historical Milton: Manuscript, Print, and Political Culture in Revolutionary England by Thomas Fulton
“John Milton’s Commonplace Book is the only known political notebook of a radical polemicist writing during the English civil war, and the most extensive manuscript record of reading we have from any major English poet from this period. In this rethinking of a surprisingly neglected body of evidence, Thomas Fulton explores Milton’s reading practices and the ways he used this reading in his writing.”
As We Grow Old: How Adult Children and Their Parents Can Face Aging With Candor and Grace by Ruth Fowler
Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America by E. Jennifer Monaghan
“An experienced teacher of reading and writing and an award-winning historian, E. Jennifer Monaghan brings to vibrant life the process of learning to read and write in colonial America. Ranging throughout the colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia, she examines the instruction of girls and boys, Native Americans and enslaved Africans, the privileged and the poor, revealing the sometimes wrenching impact of literacy acquisition on the lives of learners.”
The New Testament and Hellenistic Judaism edited by Peder Borgen and Soren Giversen
The Syntax of the Verb in Classical Hebrew Prose by Alviero Niccacci
Temples, Tithes, and Taxes: The Temple and the Economic Life of Ancient Israel by Marty E. Stevens
“The temple in Jerusalem was both the center of ancient Israel’s religious life and also an economic center for the nation. In this groundbreaking study of the economic functions of the Jerusalem temple, Marty E. Stevens … demonstrates that the temple acted as the central bank, internal revenue collector, source of loans, and even debt collector for ancient Israel.”
Islamic Da`wah in the West: Muslim Missionary Activity and the Dynamics of Conversion to Islam by Larry Poston
“This book explains the concept of Islamic ‘da’wah’, or missionary activity, as it has developed in contemporary Western contexts. Poston traces the transition from the early ‘external-institutional’ missionary approach impracticable in modern Western society, to an ‘internal-personal’ approach which aims at the conversion of individuals and seeks to influence society from the bottom upwards. Poston also combines the results of a questionnaire-survey with an analysis of published testimonies to identify significant traits that distinguish converts to Islam.”
The German Roots of Nineteenth-Century American Theology by Annette G. Aubert
“By exploring the significant influence of German theology, especially mediating theology, on American religious thought, this book sheds new and welcome light on nineteenth-century American Reformed theology. It is the first full-scale examination of that influence on the Mercersburg theology of Emanuel V. Gerhart and the Princeton theology of Charles Hodge.”
Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church by Richard Bauckham
“This volume is an original and important contribution to the study of the earliest Palestinian Jewish Christianity. For the first time all the evidence for the role which relatives of Jesus played in the early church is assembled and assessed. Dr. Bauckham discusses a wide range of evidence, not only from the New Testament but also from the Church Fathers, the New Testament Apocrypha, rabbinic literature and Palestinian archaeology. The letter of Jude, in particular, proves to have much to teach us about the theology of the brothers of Jesus and their circle…”
How to Be an Atheist: Why Many Skeptics Aren’t Skeptical Enough by Mitch Stokes
“Atheists talk a lot about the importance of skepticism. But the truth is, they’re not nearly skeptical enough…”
What Is God Doing in Israel: When Jews and Palestinians Meet Jesus by Julia Fisher
“Author Julia Fisher presents fourteen true stories from Jewish, Arab, and Palestinian believers living in Israel and Palestinian areas that describe what God is doing despite the current tide of political and religious turmoil. ”
John Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion”: A Biography by Bruce Gordon
“Here, Bruce Gordon provides an essential biography of Calvin’s influential and enduring theological masterpiece, tracing the diverse ways it has been read and interpreted from Calvin’s time to today.”
Sacred Violence in Early America by Susan Juster
“Sacred Violence in Early America offers a sweeping reinterpretation of the violence endemic to seventeenth-century English colonization by reexamining some of the key moments of cultural and religious encounter in North America.”
C. S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity”: A Biography by George M. Marsden
“Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis’s eloquent and winsome defense of the Christian faith, originated as a series of BBC radio talks broadcast during the dark days of World War Two. Here is the story of the extraordinary life and afterlife of this influential and much-beloved book.”