The silence of God is a recurring theme in modern reflection. It is not only addressed in theology, religious studies and philosophy, but also in literary fiction, film and theatre. The authors show that the concept of a silent deity emerged in the ancient Near East (including Greece). What did the Ancients mean when they assumed that under circumstances their deities remained silent? What reasons are discernable for silence between human beings and their gods? For the first time the close interrelation between the divine and the human in the revelatory process is demonstrated here on the basis of a wealth of translated ancient texts. In an intriguing epilogue, the authors explore the theological consequences of what they have found.

In these 1997 Lyman Beecher Lectures in Preaching delivered at Yale Divinity School, the author focuses on the task of those who preach and those who hear sermons in a world where people thirst for a word from God.

You’ve heard the story before: an orphaned boy, raised by a wise old man, comes to a fuller knowledge of his magic and uses it to fight the great evil threatening his world. But what if that hero were destined to become the new dark lord? The Academy of Chaenbalu has stood against magic for centuries. Hidden from the world, acting from the shadows, it trains its students to detect and retrieve magic artifacts, which it jealously guards from the misuse of others. Because magic is dangerous: something that heals can also harm, and a power that aids one person may destroy another. Of the academy’s many students, only the most skilled can become avatars—warrior thieves, capable of infiltrating the most heavily guarded vaults—and only the most determined can be trusted to resist the lure of magic. More than anything, Annev de Breth wants to become one of them. But Annev carries a secret. Unlike his classmates who were stolen as infants from the capital city, Annev was born in the village of Chaenbalu, was believed to be executed, and then unknowingly raised by his parents’ killers. Seventeen years later, he struggles with the burdens of a forbidden magic, a forgotten heritage, and a secret deformity. When Annev is subsequently caught between the warring ideologies of his priestly mentor and the Academy’s masters, he must finally decide whether to accept the truth of who he really is ... or embrace the darker truth of what he may one day become.

A discussion of election in a perspective and spirit that will be quite novel to most theologians and ministers. The author contends that election can be understood only within faith, and within a spirit of doxology, for election takes place 'in Christ'. Hence election must be understood and employed in terms of the Gospel. He then repudiates theological usage which employs election and reprobation as a principle of interpretation for theology with the usual consequence of deducing from this truth a nice logical system of theology. Another powerful feature of this book is its criticism of the conception of the sovereignty of God and then makes it into a mere principle of naked 'abosolute power', and ethically neutral principle of brute force. [Book jacket].

Pete Greig, the acclaimed author of Red Moon Rising, has written his most intensely personal and honest account yet in God on Mute, a book born out of his wife Samie's fight for her life and diagnosis of a debilitating brain tumor. Greig asks the timeless questions of what it means to suffer and to pray and to suffer through the silence because your prayers seem unanswered. This silence, Greig relates, is the hardest thing. The world collapses. Then all goes quiet. Words can't explain, don't fit, won't work. People avoid you and don't know what to say. So you turn to Him and you pray. You need Him more than ever before. But somehow . . . even God Himself seems on mute. In this heart-searching, honest, and deeply profound book, Pete Greig looks at the hard side of prayer, how to respond when there seem to be no answers, and how to cope with those who seek to interpret our experience for us. Here is a story of faith, hope, and love beyond all understanding.

Can we trust a God who gives us different answers than we pray for? Who only fully reveals himself when we look back? Who lets us walk in darkness for months (and sometimes years) at a time? In Finding Faith in the Dark, Laurie Short says yes, and through her story and the stories of others, she reveals a God who is able to transform the dark chapters of our lives into opportunities of grace. Maybe you've been there: The husband or wife you stayed faithful to had an affair The death of a spouse or child has torn your heart A diagnosis has taken away your health, your plans and your future When these things happen, we are left wondering "Where is that God who promises to answer our prayers if we trust in Him? Why isn’t my life turning out the way I hoped, let alone how I had planned?” If you are, or have ever been, in that place, this book is for you. And more than helping you find your way out, this book will help you find your way through that place.

At the turn of the century St. Petersburg offered the best of Imperial Russia. Few realized that the glitz and glamour of the Silver Age would soon dissolve into mass rebellion and revolution. For the wealthy Lindlof family, the only Latter-day Saints living in St. Petersburg at the time, life would never be the same--changed forever by an ideology that would persist for more than a century. The ravages of the Bolshevik Revolution are seen through the eyes of nineteen-year-old Agnes Lindlof and her lifelong friend, Natasha, in a powerful, extraordinary novel of devotion and loyalty.

He Speaks in the Silence is about Diane Comer’s search for the kind of intimacy with God every woman longs for. It is a story of trying to be a good girl, of following the rules, of longing for a satisfaction that eludes us. Disappointed with all Diane had been told was supposed to fulfill her, she begged God in desperation to give her more. And He did. But first He took her through a trial so debilitating it almost destroyed what little faith she had. He let her go deaf. Using vivid parallels between her deafness and every woman’s struggle to hear God, this book shows women not only how Diane, as a deaf woman, hears in everyday life, but also how she can learn to listen to God in the midst of her own loud life, finding intimacy with God and the deep soul satisfaction she longs for.

Annev has avoided one fate. But a darker path may still claim him . . . After surviving the destruction of Chaenbalu, new mysteries and greater threats await Annev and his friends in the capital city of Luqura. As they navigate the city’s perilous streets, Annev searches for a way to control his nascent magic and remove the cursed artifact now fused to his body. But what might removing it cost him? As Annev grapples with his magic, Fyn joins forces with old enemies and new allies, waging a secret war against Luqura’s corrupt guilds in the hopes of forging his own criminal empire. Deep in the Brakewood, Myjun is learning new skills of her own as apprentice to Oyru, the shadow assassin who attacked the village of Chaenbalu—but the power of revenge comes at a daunting price. And back in Chaenbalu itself, left for dead in the Academy’s ruins, Kenton seeks salvation in the only place he can: the power hoarded in the Vault of Damnation . . .

Shhh…God Is in the Silence reminds us that we are all loved by God and were created with the spark of God’s love in our hearts. Through the gentle repetition of simple yet profound truths, this book will help children realize that silence is itself a form of prayer—the part of the prayer conversation when we quiet our minds to listen to God in our hearts. 2019 Catholic Press Association, Third Place: Children's Books and Books for Teens—Children's Books 2019 Independent Press Awards, Distinguished: Children's Religious (Non-Fiction) 2019 International Book Awards, Finalist: Children's Religious 2019 Best Book Awards, Finalist: Children's Religious For families looking for affirming resources to show children that we are all loved by God, for teachers and catechists entrusted with the spiritual formation of young children, and for anyone looking for a meditative reminder of silence as prayer, Shhh…God Is in the Silence will help create the space to listen to the voice of God gently guiding us and speaking to us.