Recent years have witnessed an astonishing cultural and legal shift when it comes to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Many Christians see these changes as a defeat for Christian values, often painting Christian opponents as sell-outs to secular culture. But can there be a genuinely Christian case for same-sex marriage? This book makes that case. While sensitive to scriptural issues, it focuses on a question that cannot be answered by Scripture alone: What does love for our gay and lesbian neighbors demand? This question calls us to pair theological, philosophical, and scriptural reflection with something else: attention to gay and lesbian lives. We must attend to the psychological research and, more importantly, to the stories our gay and lesbian neighbors tell us about themselves and their experience. Love does not permit us to plug our ears with Bible verses. While this book argues that Christian love calls us to make same-sex marriage available, the deeper conclusion is that Christian values prevail when we wrestle with these questions in a spirit of love: love for those with whom we disagree, and love for those most affected by the decisions we reach.

The book of Revelation is as current today as ever. It offers encouragement and guidance for faithful Christian living in the nuclear age. It does not speak only of a distant past or far-off future. ÒTriumph of the LambÓ, a self-study guide to the book of Revelation, provides aid for understanding the then and now of the last book in the Bible. Each section of the book contains study question, a brief explanation of the biblical passage, a discussion of the meaning for today, and penetrating questions for thought and discussion. The book is designed for the average person who would like to unlock the secrets of this strange and fascinating book of the Bible. For those who wish to go deeper, a general introduction to Revelation is also provided. The book ends with a concluding discussion of significant theological and ethical questions, and a guide to further study. Revelation is a difficult book to understand, but its author promises, ÒBlessed are those who read, hear, and keep the words contained in this book.Ó ÒTriumph of the LambÓ aims to contribute to that blessing.

In Geoffrey Hill's words, "The poet's job is to define and yet again define. If the poet doesn't make certain horrors appear horrible, who will?" This astonishing book is a protest against evil and a tribute to those who have had the courage to resist it.

"Part Kurt Vonnegut, part Douglas Adams, but let's be honest, Matheson had me at ‘Based on the Bible.'" —Dana Gould, comedian and writer The Bible offers some clues to God's personality—he's alternately been called vindictive and just, bloodthirsty and caring, all-powerful and impotent, capricious and foresighted, and loving and hateful. But no one has ever fully explored why God might be such a figure of contrasts. Nor has anyone ever satisfactorily explained what guides his relationship not just with angels, the devil, and his son, but also with all of creation. Might he be completely misunderstood, a mystery even to himself? Might his behavior and actions toward humankind tell us much more about him than it does about us? Enter the mind of the creator of the universe, travel with him through the heavenly highs and hellish lows of his story, from Genesis to Revelation, to better understand his burdensome journey: being God isn't easy. After hearing his story—at times troubling and tragic but always hilarious in its absurdity and divine in its comedy—you'll never look at a miracle or catastrophe—or at our place in the universe, or God's—the same way again.

Though individual prologues and epilogues have been treated in depth, very little scholarship has been published on early modern framing texts as a whole. The Framing Text in Early Modern English Drama fills a gap in the literature by examining the origins of these texts, and investigating their growing importance and influence in the theatre of the period. This topic-led discussion of prologues and epilogues deals with the origins of these texts, the difficulty of definition, and the way in which many prologues and epilogues appear to interact on such subjects as the composition of the theatre audience and the perceived place of women in such an audience. Author Brian Schneider also examines the reasons for, and the evidence leading to, the apparently sudden burgeoning of these texts after the Restoration, when prologues and epilogues grace nearly all the dramas of the time and become a virtual cottage industry of their own. The second section-a comprehensive list of prologues and epilogues-details play titles, playwrights, theatres and theatre companies, first performance and the earliest edition in which the framing text(s) appears. It quotes the first line of the prologue and/or epilogue and uses the printer's signature to denote the page on which the texts can be found. Further information is provided in notes appended to the relevant entry. A final section deals with 'free-floating' and 'free-standing' framing texts that appear in verse collections, manuscripts, and other publications and to which no play can be positively ascribed. Combining original analysis with carefully compiled, comprehensive reference data, The Framing Text in Early Modern English Drama provides a genuinely new angle on the drama of early modern England.