Praise for Saeed Jones: "Jones is the kind of writer who's more than wanted: he's desperately needed."—FlavorWire "I get shout-happy when I read these poems; they are the gospel; they are the good news of the sustaining power of imagination, tenderness, and outright joy."—D. A. Powell "Prelude to Bruise works its tempestuous mojo just under the skin, wreaking a sweet havoc and rearranging the pulse. These poems don't dole out mercy. Mr. Jones undoubtedly dipped his pen in fierce before crafting these stanzas that rock like backslap. Straighten your skirt, children. The doors of the church are open."—Patricia Smith "It's a big book, a major book. A game-changer. Dazzling, brutal, real. Not just brilliant, caustic, and impassioned but a work that brings history—in which the personal and political are inter-constitutive—to the immediate moment. Jones takes a reader deep into lived experience, into a charged world divided among unstable yet entrenched lines: racial, gendered, political, sexual, familial. Here we absorb each quiet resistance, each whoop of joy, a knowledge of violence and of desire, an unbearable ache/loss/yearning. This is not just a "new voice" but a new song, a new way of singing, a new music made of deep grief's wildfire, of burning intelligence and of all-feeling heart, scorched and seared. In a poem, Jones says, "Boy's body is a song only he can hear." But now that we have this book, we can all hear it. And it's unforgettable."—Brenda Shaughnessy "Inside each hunger, each desire, speaks the voice of a boy that admits "I've always wanted to be dangerous." This is not a threat but a promise to break away from the affliction of silence, to make audible the stories that trouble the dimensions of masculinity and discomfort the polite conversations about race. With impressive grace, Saeed Jones situates the queer black body at the center, where his visibility and vulnerability nurture emotional strength and the irrepressible energy to claim those spaces that were once denied or withheld from him. Prelude to a Bruise is a daring debut."—Rigoberto González From "Sleeping Arrangement": Take your hand out from under my pillow. And take your sheets with you. Drag them under. Make pretend ghosts. I can't have you rattling the bed springs so keep still, keep quiet. Mistake yourself for shadows. Learn the lullabies of lint. Saeed Jones works as the editor of BuzzfeedLGBT.

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. "No one has written a finer, stranger, more enjoyably various and intelligent long poem than Jason's Koo's 'No Longer See,' the central poem in his splendid new book, MORE THAN MERE LIGHT. Schuyler and Knausgaard, Proust and Ashbery, to name just a few, meld into a poetic performance that is joyfully bent, and as gloriously funny as it is self-castigating. Underscoring all this is a sorrowing sense of self that can't shake free of time--time as it drags or stops or flies during romance and sex and the passage from domestic happiness to failure, and as it marks off the progress of a poetry and a life coming into its full, vital strength. With a cool-eyed detachment from his own drama, Koo has written a book that is unforgettable in its candor, its disabused self-knowledge, and its generosity of spirit."--Tom Sleigh "This book is about falling, a lot. There are good falls and uncomfortable falls and quiet falls and in-between falls and falling in and out of love with other people and yourself--as Koo aptly writes, 'That was a falling.' Koo is brilliant at mastering the often anxious way we talk to ourselves in our heads, as a way to recall moments and construct memories, justify behavior to oneself, and explore the roles of gender dynamics and sexuality within a world full of distractions in an often strange modern technological landscape. Throughout the collection, Koo is wonderfully narrative, bringing us into the speaker's world, full of jazz and biking and Brooklyn and girlfriends and students and conversations with both an overload of self-consciousness and a lack of it all at the same time ('What's okay, okay?'). The speaker's unabashed ability to be excessive while also having the reader rely on silence, on what isn't told, creates a captivating world for the reader to explore--and most importantly, see themselves fully immersed in as they navigate their own bizarre lives and landscapes. Read it over and over and over again, so you can, as Koo says, drop back 'against the light.'"--Joanna C. Valente

Comprehensively detailing the sources for our knowledge of Jesus, Theissen and Merz fully explore the historical and social context of Jesus and his activity. They then unfold what we can know about Jesus' characteristics as a charismatic teacher, a Jewish prophet, a healer, a teller of parables and an ethical teacher. Finally, they examine closely the historical question surrounding Jesus' last supper, his violent death, the accounts of Easter, and the beginnings of Christology.

In recent decades few Christian themes have attracted as much attention as that of eschatology, or Christian hope. Resurrection, Apocalypse, and the Kingdom of Christ explores the meaning of this theme for Thomas F. Torrance, one of the twentieth-century's leading theologians. This study, the first of its kind, brings Torrance's eschatology to light through an exploration of the whole range of his corpus, including sermons, lectures, and correspondence. It also demonstrates that his eschatology is molded by momentous historical events such as World War II, the spread of communism, and the ecumenical movement. Out of all this, we realize that eschatology is a central component of Torrance's theology--so much so that it conditions his thinking on other Christian doctrines.

This book will be of particular interest to those persons who are seeking to identify the circumstances leading to the destruction of the world (end times) and the coming of New Jerusalem, heaven. Nothing is quite as intriguing as "End Times" Nothing is quite as intriguing as "End Times" prophecy being fulfilled before your eyes. This author offers "defined options" to the reader; that is, what does the reconstruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem have to do with me and my life? Will these events place me in the position of having to make choices and what are the implications of those choices? If Biblical prophecy is true (and so far it has been fulfilled, down to the smallest detail) then your life will, within 3 1/2 years of the re-building of Solomon's Temple, never be the same. Events will unfold very quickly. The first 3 1/2 years will be peaceful. The Muslims, the Jews, the Christians and all other world religions will feel that world peace has broken out. It is at the end of the 3 1/2 year period that the Great Tribulation will begin and it will start when the anti-Christ (not a devilish looking person, but a very handsome, very persuasive man) declares religion, temples, mosques and churches as places that must be destroyed. He will tell the world that religion is a silly, divisive pursuit, designed to sway and control the masses and what is needed is a "one world" economic and political system devoid of false gods. People will be required to accept the Mark of the Beast, (not some ugly tattoo, but an implanted chip on their right hand or forehead) in order to have transactions. No "chip", no buying and selling. Those who know their Bible know that this is a critical turning point in history. If you accept the Mark of the Beast, if you buy into the compelling rational view of the one world economy with a single political system, you will be sealing your death sentence with God. God expressly forbids His children to succumb to the one who has desecrated His Temple and forbidden all forms of worship. God will send "two witnesses" to oppose the anti-Christ. They will have the power to withhold rain for this entire 3 1/2 year period and no one will be able to destroy these two. They will become the enemy of the anti-Christ and the people, due to the drought and due to their pronouncements of impending doom. At the end of 3 1/2 years they will be killed, their bodies will lie in the street for 3 days and the world will celebrate their death, celebrating and sending each other gifts. The celebration is premature. At the end of the third day, these two rise up and ascend into heaven and shortly thereafter the Battle of Armageddon commences. God's enemies will be destroyed and His people will be protected. Then there will be a 1000 year period of peace. The promised land, from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates will be restored and Israel will live in peace. Satan will be bound for this millennium period. At the end of 1000 years, some of those who were not pure blooded Israelites, will, along with Satan who has been loosed for one final attack on God's people, mobilize to destroy Israel. However, God will step in and destroy all of His enemies. Then the Great White Throne Judgment will commence. Jesus Christ and His angels will separate the sheep from the goats, the saints from the sinners and those who are sinners will be consigned to Hades and the earth and everything on it will be destroyed. Then New Jerusalem, heaven, will descend and all of God's people will be eternally with God in perfect peace and harmony, forever.