An exploration of the role of Christian practices in overcoming segregation according to race and disability in an interracial Methodist church in the USA. Mary McClintock Fulkerson argues that theology which is truly `worldly' must display redemption without overlooking the ambiguous and messy realities of real human lives.

This story-oriented recovery book unfolds the back-story of redemption in Exodus to show how Jesus redeems us from the slavery of abuse and addiction and restores us to our created purpose, the worship of God.

Preliminary Material -- OUT OF THE ABYSS: COMMONPLACES OF REPETITION AND REDEMPTION -- GLISSANT'S COMMON PLACES -- WALCOTT'S ALLEGORY OF HISTORY -- A BACKWARD FAITH IN WALCOTT'S “THE SCHOONER FLIGHT” -- CLAUDIA RANKINE: JANE EYRE'S BLUES AT THE END OF THE ALPHABET -- DEAR DIARY: AMANIFESTO - WEREWERE LIKING'S ELLE SERA DE JASPE ET DE CORAIL -- RITUALIZING UTOPIA IN ELLE SERA DE JASPE ET DE CORAIL -- MASKS OF AFFLICTION IN FRANKÉTIENNE'S HAITI -- FRANKÉTIENNE'S LOGORRHEA: AN EXCESS OF SEEMING -- “THE HORIZON DEVOURS MY VOICE”: NOTES ON TRANSLATION -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.

Even as theologians and others have become more critical of classic theories of atonement, Brondos maintains, biblical scholars have continued to understand Paul's soteriology based on the language and categories of a thousand years later. In this vital volume he draws the theological consequences of the "new perspective" on Paul for our understanding of the meaning and efficacy of Jesus'' death. Paul, says Brondos, understood Jesus' death primarily as the consequence of his mission of serving as God's instrument to bring about the awaited redemption of Israel, in which Gentiles throughout the world would also be included. For Paul, Jesus' death is salvific, not because it satisfies some necessary condition for human salvation as most doctrines of the atonement have traditionally maintained, nor because it effects some change in the situation of human beings or the world in general, but because God responded to Jesus' faithfulness unto death by raising him, ensuring that all the divine promises of salvation would be fulfilled through him. Jesus' death forms part of an overarching story culminating in the redemption of Israel and the world; it is this story, and in particular what precedes and follows Jesus' death on the cross, which makes that death redemptive for Paul.

Quentin Vennie shouldn’t be alive―he has walked a path that many don’t live long enough to write about. Growing up in Baltimore, he was surrounded by nothing but dead ends. Statistics mapped out his future, and he grew hostile toward a world that viewed him with suspicion and disdain. He’s been shot at, sold drugs up and down the East Coast, lingered on the brink of incarceration, and stared down death more than once. Haunted by feelings of abandonment and resentment, he struggled with chronic anxiety and depression and battled a crippling prescription drug addiction. The day he contemplated taking his life was the day he rediscovered his purpose for living. Vennie’s survival depended upon his finding a new path, but he didn’t know where to turn―his doctor was concerned only with prescribing more medication. Vennie refused, and in a desperate attempt to save his own life, decided to pursue a journey of natural healing. After researching a few self-healing methods, he immediately bought a juicer from an all-night grocery store. He started juicing in the hopes that it would help him repair his body and clear his mind. He jumped headfirst into the world of wellness and started incorporating yoga and meditation into his life. This “wellness trinity” helped him cut back on and then quit the many medications he was on, overcome his addictions, and ultimately, transform his life while inspiring others to find their own unique path to wellness. Strong in the Broken Places is the harrowing story of Vennie’s life, the detours that almost ended it, and the inspiring turns that saved it. The odds were stacked against him, but he was able to defy expectations and claw his way out on his own terms. He is living proof that during our weakest moments, we have the power and ability to unlock unimaginable strength.

In 1961, young, black, eighth-grade dropout Wilbert Rideau despaired of his small-town future in the segregated deep south of America. He set out to rob the local bank and after a bungled robbery he killed the bank teller, a fifty-year-old white female. He was arrested and gave a full confession. When we meet Rideau he has just been sentenced to death row, from where he embarks on an extraordinary journey. He is imprisoned at Angola, the most violent prison in America, where brutality, sexual slavery and local politics confine prisoners in ways that bars alone cannot. Yet Rideau breaks through all this and finds hope and meaning, becoming editor of the prison magazine, going on to win national journalism awards. Full of gritty realism and potent in its evocation of a life condemned, Rideau goes far beyond the traditional prison memoir and reveals an emotionally wrought and magical conclusion to his forty-four years in prison.