Jesus and the Powers rediscovers Jesus response to the imperial power of his day. Richard A. Horsley describes the relevance of political realities under great empires for understanding the rise of covenantal theology and apocalyptic vision in Israels history; then he explores aspects of Jesus activity in the context of the Roman Empire. Horsley examines Jesus as an exorcist and prophetic figure and the character of his death by crucifixion; then turns to discuss how the community life in the early Pauline assemblies gave form to a new response to imperial powers.

According to Luise Schottroff and Wolfgang Stegemann, the search for the historical Jesus has been marked by the tendency to isolate Jesus from his disciples and from Judaism. They argue, however, that Jesus is inseparable from his first disciples and from the indigent Jews who made up the earliest Jesus movement. Understood in the context of his following, Jesus emerges from Schottroff and Stegemann as a Jew who not only proclaimed the reign of God in a unique way but who was himself a symbol of hope for the poor and oppressed of his time. This exciting socio-historical interpretation of the Jesus movement focuses chiefly on the earliest Jesus tradition, the Sayings-source, and the Gospel of Luke. Students, teachers of New Testament studies, and anyone who wants to explore Jesus's life context will be challenged by this book.

A CBA Bestseller -- Two thousand years ago, twelve people changed the world. Stearns believes it can happen again. It's 1998 and Richard Stearns' heart is breaking as he sits in a mud hut and listens to the story Rakai, Uganda. His journey to this place took more than a long flight from the United States to Africa. It took answering God's call on his life, a call that hurtled him out of the presidential corner office at Lenox -- America's finest tableware company -- to this humble corner of Uganda. This is a story of how a corporate CEO faced his own struggle to obey God whatever the cost, and his passionate call for Christians to change the world by actively living out their faith.Richard Stearns has served as President of World Vision U.S. since 1998, having formerly been the CEO of Parker Bros. Games and Lenox, Inc. He and his wife, Renee, have five children of their own and millions more around the world.

These selectionis from his prolific writings highlight the deeply spiritual dimension of his work: the encounter with god, the response to suffering, the spirit of contemplation, and the maning of discipleship.

Keller explores a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace.

When Jesus left the most exclusive gated community in the universe to come live with the people he loved and gave his life for, he turned everything we know and believe about life on its head. Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor, but most Western Christians remain disconnected and isolated from the poor and their contexts of injustice. Even our churches echo society’s pressure to isolate ourselves from the margins (e.g. by moving to a better suburb) and instead teach us how to be “nice people” who worship a “nice Jesus” and don’t disrupt the status quo. Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ’s footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again. This is the story of how Jesus led them to the margins: initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world’s most vulnerable children. This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens—reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.

For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise. Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life. Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.