Poetic text and color illustrations celebrate the city of Jerusalem, its history, and its diverse people.

Wars and rumors of war are everywhere. Terrorism is on the rise. Disease and famine are increasing in great measure. The nuclear arms race out of control. Riccio's book puts everything into perspective.

An award–winning writer delivers a major reckoning with religion, place, and sexuality in the aftermath of 9/11 Hailed in The Washington Post as “one of the most eloquent and probing public intellectuals in America,” Richard Rodriguez now considers religious violence worldwide, growing public atheism in the West, and his own mortality. Rodriguez’s stylish new memoir—the first book in a decade from the Pulitzer Prize finalist—moves from Jerusalem to Silicon Valley, from Moses to Liberace, from Lance Armstrong to Mother Teresa. Rodriguez is a homosexual who writes with love of the religions of the desert that exclude him. He is a passionate, unorthodox Christian who is always mindful of his relationship to Judaism and Islam because of a shared belief in the God who revealed himself within an ecology of emptiness. And at the center of this book is a consideration of women—their importance to Rodriguez’s spiritual formation and their centrality to the future of the desert religions. Only a mind as elastic and refined as Rodriguez’s could bind these threads together into this wonderfully complex tapestry.

All over the world, like a train that first comes to a halt, then goes back again, the progress of the civil societies strangely and mysteriously stops and returns to a sort of obscure high middle age. One day, the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, together with the Seraph Daniel, appear to four young farmers, the Oeedah brothers, and ask them go to the earthly paradise and accomplish a difficult and dangerous mission.

In Open, Brad Braxton boldly articulates an open theology--progressive approaches that promote unorthodox theological reflection and the creation of inclusive communities. Despite attempts by many right-wing politicians and conservative Christians to curtail diverse religious and cultural expressions, an open embrace of pluralism enhances Christianity's capacity to foster healing, hope, and restorative justice. Thus, Christian communities should be audaciously open about being open. Attempts to box in God diminish us spiritually and render us prone to small-mindedness and mean-spiritedness. Certain Christians function as if God cannot withstand robust engagement with the complexities of a diverse world. God does not need to be protected by religious fence-building and cultural gatekeeping. To honor an open God who delights in diversity, we should create open communities committed to radically inclusive love. This book engages serious, even controversial, topics including Jesus's identity, reparations for slavery, LGBTQ equality, the Black Lives Matter movement, warfare and non-violence, environmental justice, and interreligious collaboration. Insisting that there is room for all, an open theology empowers us to create broad spaces where people from diverse backgrounds with divergent beliefs can peacefully probe their differences and celebrate their similarities for the sake of a better world. If you are tired of closed-minded religion that sows division and hatred, open this book! If you are searching for compassionate spirituality that promotes inclusion and justice, open this book! Here you will find an open theology--creative thinking about God and courageous practices for building diverse communities through radically inclusive love.

Peace seems to be the most difficult thing to find in life today and the thing most desired by us all. Peace! Be Still! The Gift of Peace demonstrates how we can acquire peace in the midst of the tempests of daily life and know joy unspeakable and full of glory.

An experiment is under way in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: a woman, recently widowed, is starting a trial period in assisted living, mainly to placate her over-anxious son, whilst in Jerusalem her daughter Noga, a young harpist, returns from her job with a Dutch orchestra to look after the family apartment. To enliven her stay, Noga's brother finds work for her - playing roles as an extra in film, TV, and in the opera Carmen. The random roles Noga is thrust into resonate strangely with her own life which she begins to re-evaluate. Central to her past is the fact that she refused to have children, resulting in the break-up of her marriage. No-one in her family understood her motives for not wanting children and everyone has a different explanation for it. Now, a chance encounter with her former husband reveals his continuing powerful, love as well as a shocking deed she committed during their marriage. But Noga is a free spirit neither tied to the past nor defined by it, and always keen to push boundaries. She lives for her music and is willing to go wherever it takes her. The three-month experiment proves as much of a test for her as for her mother and both are radically transformed by the end. A.B. Yehoshua is as creative, humorous and provocative as ever in The Extra, exploring themes familiar to him of love, family relationships and artistic ambitions, set mainly in an ever-changing Jerusalem.