Drawing on his extensive knowledge of both the New Testament and Middle Eastern culture, Kenneth E. Bailey presents an interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son from a Middle Eastern perspective and, in doing so, powerfully demonstrates its essentially Christian message.

Includes a one-act play for eight men, 'Two sons have I not'.

Kenneth E. Bailey was both a missionary and a New Testament scholar. As a missionary, first in Egypt and later in Lebanon, Israel-Palestine, and Cyprus, he experienced firsthand the life of traditional Middle Eastern villagers, which led him to the conclusion that the village culture he witnessed in the twentieth century had hardly changed since the first century. Consequently, he was able to reinterpret Jesus’s parables and life experiences through this traditional culture. In a remarkable series of acclaimed books, which include The Cross and the Prodigal, Jacob and the Prodigal, and Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, Bailey showed that Jesus was the first mind of the New Testament who used story and metaphor to challenge the leaders of his day in ways often unappreciated by contemporary readers. This biography explains the origins of Bailey’s key ideas and recounts his often fraught missionary career—one that included the austere and the sometimes harsh life in the simple villages of Upper Egypt, the perils of life in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), and being evacuated four times during the military conflicts in the region—that made possible his groundbreaking insights into the New Testament.

Drawing on a lifetime of study in both Middle Eastern culture and the Gospels, Kenneth E. Bailey compares the Old Testament saga of Jacob and the New Testament parable of the prodigal son, offering a fresh view of how Jesus interpreted Israel's past, his present, and their future.

What would the world look like if everyone had a home? The rise in homeless encampments. The destruction of our planet. The disconnection from place caused by capitalism and technology. Beyond the unavailability of housing, our culture is experiencing a devastating loss of home. In Beyond Homelessness, Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian Walsh explore the relationship between socioeconomic, ecological, and cultural homelessness. Bouma-Prediger and Walsh blend groundbreaking scholarship with stirring biblical meditations, while enriching their discussion with literature, music, and art. Offering practical solutions and a hope-filled vision of home, they show how to heal the deep dislocations in our society. In this fifteenth-anniversary edition, the authors return to their work with a new postscript, in which they discuss the evolution of their ideas and share true stories of home and community built anew. This revitalized classic is a must-read for any Christian committed to social justice—and anyone longing for home.

Are Islam and Christianity essentially the same? Should we seek to overcome divisions by seeing Muslims and Christians as part of one family of Abrahamic faith? Andy Bannister shares his journey from the multicultural streets of inner-city London to being a Christian with a PhD in Qur'anic Studies. Along the way, he came to understand that far from being the same, Islam and Christianity are profoundly different. Get to the heart of what the world's two largest religions say about life's biggest questions-and discover the uniqueness of Christianity's answer to the question of who God really is.