A landmark in the conversation about race and religion in America. "They put him to death by hanging him on a tree." Acts 10:39 The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and "black death," the cross symbolizes divine power and "black life" God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era. In a work that spans social history, theology, and cultural studies, Cone explores the message of the spirituals and the power of the blues; the passion and of Emmet Till and the engaged vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.; he invokes the spirits of Billie Holliday and Langston Hughes, Fannie Lou Hamer and Ida B. Well, and the witness of black artists, writers, preachers, and fighters for justice. And he remembers the victims, especially the 5,000 who perished during the lynching period. Through their witness he contemplates the greatest challenge of any Christian theology to explain how life can be made meaningful in the face of death and injustice.

God isn’t angry with you—He longs to give you peace and joy. That’s the message of Hannah Whitall Smith’s important and powerful book The God of All Comfort. Abridged and updated for today’s reader, this late nineteenth-century study holds a well-deserved spot among the Christian classics, reminding God’s children of His many promises of comfort, help, and love. Addressing God’s powerful names, His role as shepherd and dwelling place, and His complete sufficiency for human needs, The God of All Comfort will show you that anxiety, fear, and insecurity are unnecessary feelings for Christians.

In The Calling, the Cross and the Crown, the author has lived to admire believers and ministers who lay down their lives for the Lord! Here he pens down heaven-bound guarantee and mind-blowing reward for all believers who have been called to carry their crosses and follow him. He highlights that God is the highest and most faithful boss who lives, a paymaster who pays more than any multinationala hundred percent here on earth and in the life after. He expresses inexplicable passion and comfort for ministers and missionaries the world over for laying down their lives for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, who was and is and is to come.

Perhaps Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s most radical book, this reading of the Sermon on the Mount has influenced many Christians throughout the world over the last 50 years.

Who of us can possibly imagine the excruciating pain of being crucified? But further, who would imagine that in the midst of this ghastly punishment that brings on unrelenting headaches and mental disorientation, a crucified man would actually give thought to the needs of others? This book explores in detail the nature of crucifixion and then invites the reader to listen in stunned silence to the amazing seven sayings of Jesus of Nazareth while hanging on the cross, as he focuses his attention on others in the first three sayings, and only then on his own distressing situation. His last four sayings give expression to his utter spiritual and physical anguish and conclude with a cry of victory and then a cry in which he commits himself to God.

Place yourself as a witness of the cross and determine what your own testimony will be! Experience Holy Friday from the perspective of those who watched Jesus die: Mary his mother; the Beloved Disciple from the Gospel of John; Mary Magdalene and the other women from Galilee; the two men, usually identified as thieves, crucified with Jesus; the centurion and the soldiers; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Jews and Romans, friends and strangers, the powerful and the powerless, the hopeful and the despairing. The story of Jesus’s death is not something we just read: we think about it, and we experience it; we hear the taunts of the soldiers, the priests, and the passersby even as we hear the famous “seven last words” from the cross. In Witness at the Cross, Amy-Jill Levine shows how the people at the cross each have distinct roles to play. Each Evangelist presents a distinct picture of the death of Jesus. Each portrays different individuals and groups of people at the cross, each offers different images and dialogues, and so from each, we learn how those meanings and messages cross the centuries to any who would come to the cross today. Each Gospel has its own story to tell, all the witnesses have their own memories, and every reader comes away with a new insight. The witnesses at the Crucifixion watch Jesus die, and we watch with them, and we watch them. And we come away transformed. Additional components are available for a six-week study include a DVD featuring Dr. Levine and a comprehensive Leader Guide.