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What does it mean to become a human being? This question was persistently repeated by Kierkegaard scholar Howard V. Hong (1912–2010) to students during his forty-year tenure at St. Olaf College. As one of Dr. Hong’s students, Jamie Lorentzen never forgot the question—one that always pointed to the ethical upbuilding of individuals. Lorentzen’s Kierkegaard studies inform commentary on how central characters in four works of literature help readers answer Howard Hong’s question. Twain’s Huck Finn becomes human by being an unwitting ethicist despite himself and the pro-slavery culture in which he was reared. Ishmael and Queequeg’s embrace of the neighbor and outcast in Melville’s Moby-Dick is an ethical counterpoint to Ahab’s terrifying narcissism. Meanwhile, Ibsen’s famous narcissist, Peer Gynt, offers an archetypal negative ethical model for becoming human. Finally, Dostoevsky’s Father Zosima and Ivan and Alyosha Karamazov show how ethics informs human development in both secular and religious cultures.

GOD, NIMROD, AND THE WORLD presents the perspectives of more than two-dozen authors on the controversial sport of hunting, surveying the relationship between the blood sport and the salvation religion of Christianity. The first half of the book provides sketches of the diverse interpretations of hunting in Hebrew and Christian cultures of the last two millennia, finally giving voice to those in the field who are both practitioners and persons of faith. The second half offers prescriptions for the place of hunting in the life of contemporary Christians, with perspectives arguing for prohibition to those contending that hunting has a practical, even perfecting, place in the life of faith.

SPECTER MOUNTAIN is a book-length poetry collaboration between Jesse Graves and William Wright that imagines the spiritual and ecological life of an embattled landscape. The collection fuses two striking poetic visions into a cohesive and innovative new perspective on nature and the inevitable imprint of human interaction with wilderness. Readers will gain a sense of the permanent beauty of rivers and mountains, timeless images of the sublime, and the grandeur that reaches beyond human life and influence.

WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS includes eight essays that were first presented at the 2016 A.V. Elliott Conference on Great Books and Ideas, the ninth annual conference sponsored by Mercer University's Thomas C. and Ramona E. McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles. 1776 was a momentous year. Contributors include W.B. Allen, Jane E. Calvert, Adam Potkay, Dennis C. Rasmussen, James H. Read, Diana Schaub, Scott Philip Segrest, and Brian Steele.

Surviving the Stained-Glass Jungle is a compelling and positive look at the parish ministry through the eyes of a veteran pastor of more than fifty-three years. The book directly confronts the issues of burnout, conflict, stress, and social concerns. It gives strategy and practical help in navigating through these difficult currents. Self addresses the usual themes of preaching, administration, and pastoral care, but also gives practical help with the issues of the pastor's own mental health and self-care. This material is written for parish leaders of all mainline denominations and will become a standard for the practice of ministry. The general theme of the book is that the church is worth the effort. The target audience is seminarians and veteran pastors alike in order to encourage them in the task. Laymen would also benefit significantly by reading this book, gaining a better understanding of the ministry. Self has a national reputation as a gifted preacher, pastor, author, lecturer, motivational speaker for corporate America, and innovator in church growth.

Walter Rauschenbusch is credited by many interpreters as the fountainhead of the social gospel in America. An American Baptist minister of German heritage, Rauschenbusch was the “prophet” of a movement that created a watershed in American religious thought. This three-volume set makes available the original texts of a seminal thinker in an authorized and critical edition. Volume II is oriented toward an ethical appreciation of the life and works of Walter Rauschenbusch. Ethicist David Gushee provides an in-depth analysis of Rauschenbusch’s ethics, tracing in particular the course of development of Christian ethics and Rauschenbusch's contribution.

Robert L. Steed’s funniest collection of “Willard” columns here are enhanced by the illustrative skills of Jack Davis for all those who love Steed’s columns.

On February 13, 1930, amidst the turmoil of the Great Depression, Isaac "Nick" Bullington, circus advance man, advertising guru, and entrepreneur wanderlust from Indiana, opened a tiny, shotgun-style, hamburger, hot dog, and chili joint in Roanoke, Virginia. TEXAS TAVERN: FOUR GENERATIONS OF THE MILLIONAIRES CLUB explores these questions as it tells the story of one family and their faithful stewardship of place: their restaurant and their community. It celebrates the Tavern's famous food, and it reveals the Tavern's true heartbeat through the love stories of its customers.

In this anthology of Civil War memoirs, we get a clearer impression of some of the chaplains who served during that Great Conflict. Chaplains were among the most omnipresent observers on the battlefield, and some wrote extensively about their experiences. Eighty-seven of the 3,695 chaplains who served in both armies wrote regimental histories or published personal memoirs, not counting a multitude of letters and more than 300 official reports. Yet, there has never been an extensive collection of memoirs from chaplains of both the Confederate and Union armies presented together. In this groundbreaking work, many of the Confederate chaplains write that they opposed secession and submitted to it only when war was inevitable. Moreover, some of the ministers who became chaplains were active in ministry to black slaves. They spoke out against the neglect and abuse of those held in bondage both before and during the war. For example, Reverend John L. Girardeau formed a large mission church for slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, before the war; Reverend Isaac Tichenor criticized the abuses of the slave system before the Alabama Legislature in 1863; and Chaplain Charles Oliver preached to black laborers in the Army of Northern Virginia in 1864 with the thought that more needed to be done for them. While these efforts may appear trivial in the face of the enormity of the entire slave system, they do reflect that a social conscience was not completely lacking among the Southern chaplains. From the battlefield to the pulpit, Confederate chaplains were surprising and complex individuals. For the first time, explore this aspect of the great struggle in each chaplain’s own words.

In a world composed of almost seven billion people, about 2.2 billion of them claim to be Christian. And while Christianity is continuing to grow at a modest rate, other religions are growing at a faster pace. Some scholars predict that Islam will overtake Christianity as the world’s largest religion by the middle of the twenty-first century. Predictions aside, religions are competing for the world stage, and in the competition, Christians seem certain that God is on their side. Christians often think and behave as though God is a Christian. This book is written to ask if that assumption is true and to foster a more open conversation about other world religions. The world has grown too small and the stakes for mankind have grown too high for any of us to engage our faith as if our understanding of God represents the only way God’s presence may be known in the world.