Theologies have often pointed to the cross as a place of suffering and sacrifice, while feminist critiques have frequently argued against interpretations of the cross as patriarchal valorizing of suffering. Wonhee Anne Joh points toward a new interpretation of the cross as a place of love, where God and humanity come together in a surprising way. Interpreting the cross as performing a double gesture that has a subversive effect, Joh argues that the cross works simultaneously to pay homage to and to menace complex oppressive powers. Utilizing the Korean concept ofjeong, Joh constructs a theology that is feminist, political and love-centered, while acknowledging the cross as source of pain and suffering. Joh's innovative vision is a call for political love that is stronger than powers of oppression.
From Ireland to Kings Cross, a legacy of loss and hope echoes across the generations ... Tinahely, Ireland, 1959 Rosie Hart is content leaving her home behind to follow her new husband to Australia. But she soon discovers there is no room for her or their young son in the life he has built in vibrant Kings Cross. As their marriage crumbles, Rosie will need to fight for the golden future her son deserves. Rose Bay, 1984 Haunted by her past, Rosie is determined her daughter Maggie will follow the path she has set out for her. But Maggie has plans of her own, and Rosie can only pray the grief that plagues the Hart name won't follow her. Sydney, 2017 When her grandmother dies and leaves Brianna Hart a secret apartment in Kings Cross, Brie wonders what else Rosie was keeping from her. As Brie chases the truth of Rosie's past she uncovers an incredible story of passion, violence, love and tragedy. Is the Hart family's legacy of loss inescapable, or has Rosie gifted her granddaughter with a future of hope? MORE PRAISE 'Expertly woven ... a heartbreaking tale of first love lost, second chances, new beginnings and overwhelming guilt. It captured my heart and my imagination.' - Beauty and Lace on The Lost Pearl
The Canterbury Press Lent book for 2021 focuses on the significance of the story at the very centre of Christianity: the crucifixion. Samuel Wells writes as a theologian and pastor to explore the cross in the purposes of God and how this act brings about salvation. Three sections, each with six short chapters, explore the cross in: - the Old Testament (Covenant, Test, Passover, Atonement, Servant, Sacrifice) - the Epistles (Forgiveness, Obedience, Foolishness, Example, Reconciliation, Boast) - the Gospels (Finished, Judged, Betrayed, Pierced, Forsaken, Mocked) Written with characteristic clarity and wearing its considerable learning lightly, A Cross at the Heart of God will give readers a comprehensive understanding of the story at the heart of scripture, the central event in history and a core tenet of the Christian faith. A study guide with questions and prayers makes this ideal for Lent groups as well as individual reading.
Five-year-old Clara Bynum is dead, drowned in the Potomac River in the shadow of a seemingly haunted rock outcropping known locally as the Three Sisters. River, Cross My Heart, which marks the debut of a wonderfully gifted new storyteller, weighs the effect of Clara's absence on the people she has left behind: her parents, Alice and Willie Bynum, torn between the old world of their rural North Carolina home and the new world of the city, to which they have moved in search of a better life for themselves and their children; the friends and relatives of the Bynum family in the Georgetown neighborhood they now call home; and, most especially, Clara's sister, ten-year-old Johnnie Mae, who must come to terms with the powerful and confused emotions stirred by her sister's death as she struggles to decide what kind of woman she will become. This highly accomplished first novel resonates with ideas, impassioned lyricism, and poignant historical detail as it captures an essential part of the African-American experience in our century.
Arden is an undercover agent for one of the most powerful organizations of this steam powered world—the Wardens of the Realm—a group with extraordinary abilities, dedicated to protecting England against evil. Arden Grey enjoys a life most women in 1898 London can’t even dream of: She has the social status, wealth, and independence of a countess. She also has the ability to witness the final moments of a murder victim’s life. But ever since the disappearance of her husband, Lucas, none of this means anything to her. Until one night, when Arden spies a man watching her—a man she recognizes as her missing husband. He’s been ordered to assassinate Arden as retribution for her part in the killing of a Company agent. Luke remembers nothing of his life before the Company, a corrupt agency that has erased his memory. Even so, he can't seem to complete his assignment. There is something familiar about his lovely target, something that attracts him, and fills him with dread. For he knows that if he doesn’t kill her, someone else will—and kill him as well.
In twenty-one meditative readings, pastor-theologians James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken meet the troubled, skeptical, and restless. And, with insights both simple and profound, they draw us to the heart of our faith: Christ and his cross. Book jacket.
Descended from West African kings and healers, raised in the turbulence of Guinea in the 1960s, Kadiatou Diallo was married off at the age of thirteen and bore her first child when she was sixteen. Twenty-three years later, that child—a gentle, innocent young man named Amadou Diallo—was gunned down without cause on the streets of New York City. Now Kadi Diallo tells the astonishing, inspiring story of her life, her loss, and the defiant strength she has always found within. It was Kadi Diallo’s voice that captivated the public when she came to America to defend her slain son, and it is that same voice—candid, wise, and generous—that fills the pages of this extraordinary book. Kadi reaches back to her earliest memories of growing up in Guinea, the daughter of a strict man who was thwarted by the relics of the French colonial system. Raised in a world in which age-old religious and cultural rituals were disappearing before the onslaught of modernity, Kadi saw her own childhood end abruptly at age thirteen when her father literally gave her away in marriage. Kadi prayed for death, but instead she found herself plunged into a baffling new life—the life of a second wife in a strange household in a distant country, and soon afterwards the teenage mother of a sweet-natured son. Yet somehow, Kadi managed not only to survive but to flourish. Despite the rigid strictures of African-Islamic culture, she attended school and later started a successful business of her own. She eventually divorced and remarried and lived for eight years in Bangkok. Back in Guinea, she learned that her oldest child Amadou had been shot in New York City in a case of racial profiling. Kadi read with outrage the American newspaper description of her son as “an unarmed West African street vendor.” “Nothing,” she writes, “could be more distant from the truth.” Now, with great pride and searing love, Kadi Diallo finally tells the truth about herself and her son. My Heart Will Cross This Ocean is an extraordinary book—a girl’s story of desire and innocence, a wife’s story of defiance, a mother’s story of unbearable loss, and a woman’s story of unshakable strength and love.
The stakes are higher than ever for Alex Cross as he faces his most personal enemy yet: a criminal who threatens his family. Detective Alex Cross is a family man at heart: nothing matters more to him than his children, his grandmother, and his wife Bree. His love of his family is his anchor, and gives him the strength to confront evil in his work. One man knows this deeply, and uses Alex's strength as a weapon against him in the most unsettling and unexpected novel of James Patterson's career. When the ones Cross loves are in danger, he will do anything to protect them. But if he does anything to protect them, they will die. Cross My Heart is the most powerful Alex Cross novel ever, propelled by the ever-ingenious mind of James Patterson, the world's #1 bestselling writer.
Taylor and Jessica are best friends that have almost everything in common--including life-threatening illnesses. The one difference is, Jessica's is voluntary. Jessica Anderson has everything: a close-knit group of friends, parents who love her, and a size two waist. There is nothing more to life at the age of fifteen. But it isn't enough. Jessica can't find the acceptance she needs. Tormented by an eating disorder she won't acknowledge, Jessica keeps the smile on, relying heavily on Taylor for the love and support to continue living. But Taylor has devastating news: her leukemia is back. With her mask slipping and her best friend beyond her help, Jessica makes a promise she doesn't know if she can keep.
"To stand at the foot of the cross is to witness the purpose for which God created the world." The cross is a wonder unfathomable. Time cannot contain its reach. No heart can endure its weight. And yet it is the center of everything. It cannot be passed over. Pastor and author Erwin W. Lutzer believes that the better we grasp what the cross meant to Christ, the better we grasp what it should mean to us. To do this, Lutzer examines Jesus’ cries from the cross. Search with him and see how God’s love and justice meet. Know the weight of sin and the power of redemption. Look upon Jesus in His weakness, obedience, sorrow, and compassion. Let the scandal of the cross give you pause. The cross deserves our attention. Journey forth into the heart of Jesus, that your own heart may be shaped to His.
