The Hiddenness of God addresses the problem of divine hiddenness which concerns the ambiguity of evidence for God's existence, the elusiveness of God's comforting presence, the palpable and devastating experience of divine absence and abandonment, and more; phenomena which are hard to reconcile with the idea, central to the Jewish and Christian scriptures, that there exists a God who is deeply and lovingly concerned with the lives of humans. Michael C. Rea argues that divine hiddenness is not a problem to be explained away but rather a consequence of the nature of God himself. He shows that it rests on unwarranted assumptions and expectations about God's love for human beings. Rea explains how scripture and tradition bear testimony not only to God's love, but to God's transcendence. He shows that God's transcendence should be understood as implying that all of God's intrinsic attributes—divine love included—elude our grasp in significant ways.

Set against a bloody Sudanese civil war, a disgraced American mercenary pilot and a missionary’s widow find a love as rich and complicated as its milieu.

"The church must learn from the ant that Christians cannot be spectators. We are to be transforming the world!" A Christian book for small groups and individuals. Based on Proverbs 6:6-8 "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest." Each chapter of Consider the Ant focuses on the incredible attributes of ants which offer a surprisingly great model of Christian greatness. Because of their willingness to submit and sacrifice for the good of the whole and because of their drive to self-initiate, ants are highly successful. In fact, their body mass equals that of total human body mass in the world. When local churches learn from ants, we will thrive as well. Pastors and small group leaders will find this book to be an indispensable asset in developing a community of Christ-like disciples who are quick to serve, anxious to reproduce, and sure to grow. Consider the Ant contains 10 chapters with small group discussion questions at the end of each chapter. While it is structured to easily use the first six chapters during Lent and the last four chapters after Easter, it can be used at any time of the year. Practical suggestions for building teams, empowering people and growing the church community and its outreach are given throughout each chapter. "I wrote this book because I want you, your family and your friends to know how much God loves all of us. Though our Creator directs our lives best in Scripture, we are given heaven's light in other ways. God created these ants, and they can teach us wisdom in so many ways. I hope when we see their dedication to others, we might be imitators of their best attributes-and always imitators of Christ." Whether you are building a team spirit or wishing that your group or church were better at multiplying, this book is for you.

"God and the Ants" is the coming-of-age story about AJ, the daughter of conservative Korean immigrants. From an impoverished Chicago neighborhood to the manicured lawns of the suburbs, AJ struggles to make sense of her faith and her identity as a female, a sister, and a daughter. Follow AJ through seasons of chaos and joy as she questions helmet-haired aunties, fights the status quo, and makes life-long friendships. AJ searches for meaning as she sits on church pews, kisses boys on her parents' rooftop, and overdoses at a warehouse party. This culminates on the sunniest, most tragic of mornings, where AJ finally finds answers to lifelong questions.

The Ant God is the recounted story of a two-hour interview a man has with an angel.

New York Times Bestseller • Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • An Oprah's Book Club Selection “Powerful . . . [Kingsolver] has with infinitely steady hands worked the prickly threads of religion, politics, race, sin and redemption into a thing of terrible beauty.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review The Poisonwood Bible, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, established Barbara Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, it is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in Africa. The story is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Against this backdrop, Orleanna Price reconstructs the story of her evangelist husband's part in the Western assault on Africa, a tale indelibly darkened by her own losses and unanswerable questions about her own culpability. Also narrating the story, by turns, are her four daughters—the teenaged Rachel; adolescent twins Leah and Adah; and Ruth May, a prescient five-year-old. These sharply observant girls, who arrive in the Congo with racial preconceptions forged in 1950s Georgia, will be marked in surprisingly different ways by their father's intractable mission, and by Africa itself. Ultimately each must strike her own separate path to salvation. Their passionately intertwined stories become a compelling exploration of moral risk and personal responsibility.

If they found and destroyed the Scroll they would bring down all civilisation. Would the sacrifice of one man’s life save humanity? Five years after the Great Fire of Lundun, ex-dragoon Laqua is lured into helping the Keepers of the Light, a covert band fighting the equally clandestine Cult of the Death of Hope. The Cult would bring down the empire of the Moors and, indeed, all civilisation. An empire that has conquered most of Europe, where the language is Arabic and the flag of the falcate moon flies. Where alcohol is banned and hashish legal, prison is unknown and punishment by whip, knife or hook. A world in which the Industrial Revolution is already well advanced and steam engines chug. Where the Norse have settled the New World first. In Lundun, capital of the Tin Isles, the largest mosque looms over St Pauls Cathedral. And Samuel Peppin has given up his diaries to write bawdy poems. Vital to defeating the Cult is an ancient secret Scroll, the final chapter of the sacred Script, its authenticity assured by the Seal. While the Cult would destroy it, the Keepers intend its dissemination to all. Until they have the means to do so, Laqua is charged with its safekeeping. He falls in with a dour eunuch, a functionary of the Court of the Amir in Qurtuba, and a perfidious, possibly drug-addled, heretic. And what part might a libidinous Norsewoman play? Ahead of him lie spying, fighting, loving, torture and tragedy … and the discovery of a hideous truth. As Ants to the Gods is an alternate history adventure that challenges some of the orthodoxies and assumptions of Western culture. For adults only, certainly not for the faint-hearted or easily shocked, it is a ribald and irreverent exploration of a world that could have been. Visit bit.ly/AsAntsToTheGods Cover artwork by Alison Buck