Elouise Renich Fraser describes her personal journey to become a theologian: confronting the past, befriending the Bible, developing theological imagination and finding an authentic voice.

Can theology be expounded almost entirely in jokes? This is an attempt to do so. But it is also a record of how one person recovered from fundamentalism, and found a different, more positive spirituality within Christian faith. It seeks to speak to those who only know an exclusive and dogmatic version of Christianity, and who feel the need for something more universally compassionate and friendly to informed scientific thought. Ward argues that we need to escape from the image of a vindictive, wrathful, judgmental God, who saves just a few people from endless torture for no obvious reason. He proposes instead a view of the universe as evolving towards a goal, guided by a supreme cosmic consciousness, which manifests its nature in this historical process. Jesus is the human image of this consciousness, an image of universal self-giving love and a foreshadowing of the transformation of human lives by their union with the divine. The jokes are there because Christian faith should be really joyful, hopeful, and positive good news for everyone—that there is a spiritual basis and goal of the universe which wills everyone without exception to share in its unlimited wisdom and love.

This brief, accessible invitation to the historic creeds and confessions makes a biblical and historical case for their necessity and shows why they are essential for Christian faith and practice today. J. V. Fesko, a leading Reformed theologian with a broad readership in the academy and the church, demonstrates that creeds are not just any human documents but biblically commended resources for the well-being of the church, as long as they remain subordinate to biblical authority. He also explains how the current skepticism and even hostility toward creeds and confessions came about.

In this second edition of her profound book on confession, which theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar calls "one of her most central works", Adrienne von Speyr discusses the moral and practical aspects of this sacrament in great depth. The most complete spiritual treatise on confession ever written, the book covers conversion, scruples, contrition, spiritual direction, laxity, frequency of confession, confessions of religious and lay people, and even confessions of saints. The most intriguing element in von Speyr's understanding of confession, fully developed in this volume, is its trinitarian and christological basis. The Cross is the archetypal confession, and Christian sacramental confession is thus an imitation of Christ in the strict sense. Confession examines the enormous fruitfulness of this dogmatic basis from many perspectives, giving a wealth of suggestions that both the theological expert and the layman will find very helpful. Its practical applicability to one's own confession emerges from every page.

The Reed of God is an inspirational classic written by a British Roman Catholic ecclesiastical artist, Caryll Houselander. This book contains a beautiful meditation on Mary, Mother of God and so much more. Reading this book will bring you closer to Our Blessed Mother, and hence, to Christ Himself. Filled with lyrical prose and touching analogies, the author shows how Mary was the "Reed of God" and that we are all vessels waiting to do God's work, and carrying Christ within us.

How did one of last century's most celebrated liberals change so dramatically? In this intellectual and spiritual memoir, Thomas Oden journeys from conservative rural Methodism in Oklahoma to free-spirited theological innovation in the land of academia and back to the foundations of ancient Christianity.