Deuteronomy

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Roberta Kells Dorr

"The sadness and the tenderness of life are felt so acutely in the presence of beauty, and love is revealed more in our sorrow than in our joy. -Solomon, from Solomon's Song. The wisest of all kings, beloved son of King David and his wife Bathsheba, builder of a prosperous empire, lover to many wives and concubines-King Solomon was once merely a son of David with no guarantee of ever taking the throne. On the cusp of adulthood, with no direction in life, Solomon found himself infatuated . . . in love with a lowly shepherdess, a young maiden chosen for his father to serve David in his later years. Overhead clouds ceased to discharge life-giving rain, and the anxious people looked to King David for relief from the famine. In their weakness they turned from Yahweh and sacrificed to foreign gods. But the David's eldest son, Adonijah had a plan, one that could cost the Benjamites their lives. Revenge. Solomon was still Bathsheba's eldest son and with it came certain family expectations. His mother wanted nothing less than the throne for her eldest living son. He must marry a princess first, and then he can marry any common woman he desired. Solomon struggled against family expectations and his chief rival, his own brother, Adonijah; he fought against the most disappointing aspect of his quest to become ruler. 'Love is nothing, when pitted against strength and power.'"--

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David Prior

"Living like a Corinthian." In ancient Greece this phrase was an insult cast at vagrants, drunkards and sexual deviates. The city of Corinth was infamous as a center for intellectual pride and moral laxity. Any church planted there was bound to have problems. The Corinthian church was no exception. Snobbishness, factionalism, insensitivity to other believers, doctrinal looseness and overexuberance all flourished in the Corinthian church. When the apostle Paul heard about the difficulties, he was grieved because he had founded the church and felt closely tied to it. He therefore wrote an intense and pointed letter. In this fresh and gripping exposition of 1 Corinthians, David Prior plainly shows the relevance of Paul's letter for our times. His hope is that all churches may better live out the lordship of Christ in today's cosmopolitan world. - Back cover.

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Pär Lagerkvist

Barabbas, the thief, was acquitted when Christ was crucified, but he cannot put the thought of that man out of his mind. He finds himself drawn to the Christians who remain.

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Leo G. Perdue ... [et al

An important ongoing debate focuses on the present health and well-being of families in American society. Much of the debate, however, is either ill-informed or consists of rhetoric that attempts to further particular political and social causes. The Family, Religion, and Culture series offers informed and responsible analyses of the state of the American family from a religious perspective and provides practical assistance for the family's revitalization.