Mid-January 2019 Selection
The selection below includes books on the life and work of NZ’s Kim Workman and that of Jean Varnier founder of L’Arche. There are books on eco-theology, and thoughtful new books by Rowan Williams and Walter Brueggemann. And John Spong’s Unbelievable is now out in paperback.
Please click this link for our 2019 Lent and Easter list
___________
See the Ordering section below for other information about ordering these titles.
Ordering via the PayPal Add to Cart buttons gives you a secure way to order and pay online using your credit card. (See further PayPal instructions here)
As an alternative, you are also welcome to pay by telling us your Visa or Mastercard details, by online banking or by cheque. Email or phone us to place your order and arrange payment using one of these options.Each month we choose a selection of titles that we think you will find stimulating and satisfying to read. So come back to the Monthly Selections section of our website regularly.
Please also ask us about any other books you are interested in. We will give you a price and time to deliver. Emailing us at bookspgpl@gmail.com works best.
Ordering
We ask for prepayment with orders.
Payment Options:
- Phone us on (04) 475 8855 to tell us your Visa or MasterCard details and the titles you want to order. We will process your credit card payment here, OR
- Click the Add to Cart buttons to order your books securely online via our PayPal
shopping cart. (See further PayPal instructions here), OR - Email us at bookspgpl@gmail.com and we will email you an invoice so you can pay by online/internet banking.
Some books will be in stock. Others will be ordered in when you place your order. These will usually take 3 to 6 weeks to arrive.
Postage Charges
Our usual NZ postage charges apply: $5.50 for orders up to $65, $7.00 for orders up to $199.99 and freight free for orders $200 or over.
Overseas customers
Please email us at bookspgpl@gmail.com with your requirements as we will need to deduct NZ GST from your order and higher postal charges will apply.
[Prices, stock levels and estimated delivery time for titles on this page were last updated on 29 January 2019]
Jazz musician, policeman, public servant, prison manager, prominent campaigner for restorative justice – Kim Workman’s life is full of passion and spirit, research and writing, action and commitment. Kim’s visionary work in justice reform began when he became director of Prison Fellowship New Zealand, and ultimately found expression in the Rethinking Crime and Punishment project and in supporting the activist group JustSpeak. His thinking draws on both his Christian faith and his Māori heritage: he was instrumental in establishing one of the first faith-based prison units, and his understanding of restorative justice draws strongly on Māori customary practice. This is an eloquent account of a life that is at once ordinary and exceptional, told with warmth and honesty. |
“This book was born from a sense of urgency. Faced with the sad divisions, fears, wars and inequalities of our world, and the depression and despair of so many young people, I have dared to share with you a way of hope. In the course of my life, it is people with an intellectual handicap who have little by little transformed me and freed me from my own fears, revealing my own humanity to myself. A path towards unity, fraternity and peace is possible. The future depends on each one of us,” writes Varnier. This is the closest Jean Vanier has come to writing a spiritual autobiography. Through the stories of his childhood, the foundation of L’Arche, and his relationship with significant figures such as Pope John Paul II, Pope Francis, Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day, Vanier teaches us the lessons of his life, his own psychological barriers and struggles, and a profound message of hope for the future. |
|
Theologian Alister McGrath and Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University, explore the question of human nature from both scientific and religious perspectives. They weave together the results to open up and explore some of the deepest and most important questions about: Who are we? Why are we here? What is our future? Are we alone? And what can religion bring, alongside biology and anthropology, to these important and exciting questions? |
Australian customers
|
|
Based on the biblical books from Esther to Maccabees, this is a collection of stories, scripts and reflections written by Iona Community members, associates, friends and others. There are some beautiful stories in the Bible and there are some hideous stories as well. What do we do with them? Do we tell them in Sunday school? Do we omit them from the lectionary? Do we try to explain them? Stories are important. Stories are powerful. Teach us, God, to read the Bible (This is a companion volume to Olives and Obligations, which is based on the books from Genesis to Nehemiah.) |
How far can science go in making sense of what “life” means to human beings and societies? This book looks at flash points in law, politics, ethics, and culture – artificial reproduction, stem cell research, gene drives, the creation of synthetic organoids – to argue that the claims of rewriting life are overblown. Science may have editorial authority over one of the books of life, but not over the entire library that defines the values that have held us together through human history: the meanings of autonomy, integrity, and privacy; the bonds of kinship and family; and the place of humans in nature. |
|
“This is a remarkable testimony summing up a remarkable life: nonviolence is our greatest tool, and here you see it wielded with kindness, firmness, and skill.” Bill McKibben In the Beatitudes, Jesus says of the meek, “they will inherit the earth.” Meekness, John Dear argues, is the biblical word for nonviolence. Drawing on personal stories of his life in the desert of New Mexico, his time as a chaplain at Yosemite, his friendship with indigenous and environmental leaders, his experience at the Standing Rock protests, as well as his work with the Vatican on a new stance on nonviolence, John Dear invites us to return to nonviolence as a way of life and a living solidarity with Mother Earth and her creatures. |
Erikson writes about the transformative power of travel. If you’ve ever been curious about the ancient spiritual practice of pilgrimage, come along as she explores a dozen holy sites around the world. Travel writer, Episcopal deacon, and author of the Holy Rover blog at Patheos, Erickson is an engaging guide for pilgrims eager to take a spiritual journey. Both irreverent and devout, Holy Rover describes travels that changed her life and can change yours, too.
|
|
Mac Barron assures us that Jesus loves us, even though we’re human. We know this, because the Bible says so. Over and over and over again. With its hilarious, sometimes irreverent, and always humble reflections, this book will make you laugh and help you look at the Bible and yourself in a whole new way. READER ALERT: Three things to know about this book before you buy it:
“Funny and off-kilter in the best way, Mac Barron will help you look with fresh eyes at people in the Bible you thought you knew and discover that they were all too human.” Bishop Robert Reed, The Catholic TV Network |
As we witness a possible sixth great mass-extinction, there is increasing awareness of the fragility of life on this planet. What is the nature of Christian hope in this context? St Paul declares that all of creation “will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” How are we to imagine this “freedom” when death and decay are essential to biological life as we currently experience it, and when the scientific predictions for life are bleak at best? This book explores these questions, reflecting on how our traditions shape our imagination of the future, and considering how a theology of hope may sustain Christians engaged in conservation initiatives. “This collection of essays brings to an international readership, threatened by climate change, the voices of those whose hope-filled eco-theology is profoundly informed by their context of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Readers will encounter the braided rivers of the Canterbury plains, the A Rocha project to restore biodiversity to Mount Karioi, and the animal in Derrida’s Bible. These and other such engagements are brought into creative dialogue with biblical text and theological tradition. A rich new contribution.” Elaine Wainwright, Professor Emerita, University of Auckland |
|
In this wide-ranging book, Williams argues that what we say about Jesus Christ is key to understanding what Christian belief says about creator and creation overall. Through detailed discussion of texts from the earliest centuries to the present day, we are shown some of the various and subtle ways in which Christians have discovered in their reflections on Christ the possibility of a deeply affirmative approach to creation, and a set of radical insights in ethics and politics as well. Williams draws on insights from Eastern Christianity, from the Western Middle Ages and from Reformed thinkers, from Calvin to Bonhoeffer – as well as considering theological insights sparked by philosophers like Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein. He writes with clarity and shows his gift for putting across what are inevitably complex ideas to a wide audience. |
Essays and new writings from 2014 to 2018. Brueggemann brings the “transformative potential” of the biblical texts to bear on critical contemporary contexts, including but not limited to economic disparities, racial injustice and white supremacy, climate and care for creation, and the power of memory and mentoring. He delves deeply in the Psalms, which he says, “provides a foundational script for living into the fullest and deepest realities of human existence.” And he draws from the Prophets his foundational concept of totalism, which he defines as “automated fragmentation of social life such that we habitually and callously disregard our relations with others.” |
|
Five hundred years after Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses ushered in the Reformation, bestselling author and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong delivers 12 forward-thinking theses to spark a new reformation to reinvigorate Christianity and ensure its future. With its revolutionary resistance to the authority of the Church in the 16th century, Spong sees in Luther’s movement a model for today’s discontented Christians. In fact, the questions they raise resonate with those contemplated by our ancestors. Does the idea of God still have meaning? Can we still follow historic creeds with integrity? Are not such claims as an infallible Pope or an inerrant Bible ridiculous in today’s world? Spong has enlightened Christians and challenged them to explore their beliefs in new and meaningful ways. In this, his final book, he continues that rigorous tradition, once again offering a revisionist approach that strengthens Christianity and secures its relevance for generations to come. |
This youth and adult study engages participants in how we should now live into this time of climate change crisis, and offers a hopeful answer to climate challenges through scripture, tradition, and Christian practice. It guides Church communities into deeper understanding of their role as the Church in the world and how they might be communities for the Common Good in this time.This resource will foster rich conversations and provide a path toward love of all Creation and our particular places as we face the climate crisis together. |
|
One autumn day, a lion finds a wounded bird in his garden. With the departure of the bird’s flock, the lion decides that it’s up to him to care for the bird. He does and the two become firm friends. Nevertheless, the bird departs with his flock the following autumn. What will become of Lion and what will become of their friendship? The snow increases until all the animals can see is white. Ages approx. 4-8 years. |
The bedrock grounding of church leaders is in God. This grounding comes through deliberate and explicit attention to God through prayer and self-reflection. Christian leadership, begins with self-leadership – clarifying our own heart, whole being, and mind in order to find and show that our most basic identity and deepest and most concrete security lie in God. Not in success or in pleasing someone else or in being seen as a good person or being loved by a congregation or the faith community we lead. Contents include:
|
|
Wigner introduces readers to more than 40 different practices from Eastern and Western traditions, encompassing everything from mindfulness to music, yoga to the Lord’s Prayer. In each short description, the focus is to “just begin” to practice and experiment, grow, and develop spiritually on the way. No one can take a journey without taking the first step, and Dr. Wigner provides the first steps for multiple practices in various religious traditions. These spiritual exercises will help spur people of faith to deeper self-awareness, holistic living, and prayer. The book’s sections are organised around types of practices: Meditating, Listening, Being, Sensing, and Embodying, with a final section: Doing. Each chapter forms a short 3-5 page introduction to a mystical practice, consisting of segments on definition, background, how to practice, resources for further study, journal prompts and discussion questions, and common problems that sometimes “get in the way” of one’s practice. |
Take 90 days and walk through the pages of the Bible with a definitive voice in Christian spirituality. Eugene Peterson, author of The Message Bible provides brief commentary and challenging thoughts designed to stir the biblical imagination and encourage even the weary believer. |
|
“Let there be light!” That’s what God said. And light began shining and then started to spread. Wild and creative illustrations from top children’s illustrator David Catrow pair with Matthew Paul Turner’s lyrical verse in this message of a God-made light that cuts through darkness to bring vision and hope to all young readers. This light radiates, chasing away the shadows, providing the wonder and fun of stargazing or firefly chasing. Most important, this light appears in each child – an inner God-given spark that grows and will be used to change the world.
|
In this profound meditation on loneliness and humanity, Erik Varden, a Trappist monk, uses a range of sources – from Aristophanes and Virgil through Athanasius and Bernard of Clairvaux to Hammarskjöld, Akhmatova and Makine – to illuminate his themes of loneliness and remembrance. He examines six facets of Christian remembrance, complementing biblical exegesis with readings from literature, ancient and modern. It aims to be an essay in theology. At the same time, it proposes a grounded reflection on what it means to be a human being. “The Shattering of Loneliness is an extraordinary book: not too long but richly dense; profound in its insights and scholarship yet eminently readable; and though clearly written by a monk happy to be a monk, it has as much relevance to the ordinary Christian as to the Trappist monks in the author’s care.” Catholic Herald |
Other recent email newsletters
Click here for:
Lent and Easter 2019 resources &
Year C – 2019 Devotional, Worship and Preaching resources
Including Fresh From the Word 2019
And click here for links to our other recent selections.
Stock list on our website
There are now over 700 titles listed on our website.
Click here for a summary of all the books, CDs and DVDs
Specials on Trade Me
We have over 150 titles loaded on Trade Me, many of which are now reduced to $5.00 or less (but only while stock lasts). These are all in stock now. 50 are listed as auctions at any one time. They are all Buy Now only, so order straight away to secure your books. The listings last 5 days, so come back every few days to see a fresh list.
Click here for our current listings on TradeMe.
Are you looking for a specific book?
Please also ask us to find any other books you are interested in. We will give you a price and time to deliver. Emailing us at bookspgpl@gmail.com works best.
Want to get published in 2019?
Check out the Publish your book with us page on our website, which explains how we can work with you to publish your book in print and as an eBook.