Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith

Five Views on Apologetics

The goal of apologetics is to persuasively answer honest objections that keep people from faith in Jesus Christ. But of several apologetic approaches, which is most effective? Five Views on Apologetics examines the "how-to" of apologetics, putting five prominent views under the microscope: Classical, Evidential, Presuppositional, Reformed Epistemology, and Cumulative Case. Offering a forum for presentation, critique, and defense, this book allows the contributors for the different viewpoints to interact. Like no other book, Five Views on Apologetics lets you compare and contrast different ways of "doing" apologetics. Your own informed conclusions can then guide you as you meet the questions of a needy world with the claims of the gospel. The Counterpoints series provides a forum for comparison and critique of different views on issues important to Christians. Counterpoints books address two categories: Church Life and Bible and Theology. Complete your library with other books in the Counterpoints series.

Caitlin Matthews

The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year

Discover the Living Wisdom of the Ancient Celts The ancient Celts and their spiritual mediators, the Druids believed in the communion of all living things and sought harmony between nature and the human soul. Now, with this inspiring book of day-by-day mediations, renowned Celtic scholar Caitlin Matthews shows you how to reawaken the power of this age-old spiritual inheritance. Using poetry, myths, reflections, rituals, and visualizations, Matthews leads you on a yearlong pilgrimage that will help connect the cycles of your soul to the circle of the seasons. From the winter months of Samhain the summer months of Beltant, from mediations on the gifts and blessings of life to the insights and promises of the soul, she enables you to complete your own sacred circuit of the turning year. Brimming with the legends and lore of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Britain, The Celtic Spirit is a brilliant introduction to the sacred wisdom of the Celtic path--and a potent resource for daily spiritual renewal.

Jonathan L. Reed, John Dominic Crossan

Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts: Revised and Updated

The premier historical Jesus scholar joins a brilliant archaeologist to illuminate the life and teaching of Jesus against the background of his world. There have been phenomenal advances in the historical understanding of Jesus and his world and times, but also huge, lesser known advances in first-century Palestine archaeology that explain a great deal about Jesus, his followers, and his teachings. This is the first book that combines the two and it does it in a fresh, accessible way that will interest both biblical scholars and students and also the thousands of lay readers of Biblical Archaeology Review (150,000+ circulation), National Geographic, and other archaeology and ancient history books and magazines. Each chapter of the book focuses on a major modern archaeological or textual discovery and shows how that discovery opens a window onto a major feature of Jesus's life and teachings.