An uncompromising yet beautiful portrait of the life of Italian immigrants on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1920s, Christ in Concrete is the... story of a twelve-year-old boy who must support his family after his father's untimely death.

HELL ON WHEELS... It was love at first sight. From the moment seventeen-year-old Arnie Cunningham saw Christine, he knew he would do anything to possess... her. But Christine is no lady. She is Stephen King's ultimate vehicle of terror

This book presents a new understanding of Christ in the world of today. Analysing how Jesus Christ shapes Christian life, it tries to plumb the meaning... of Christ in an evolutionary universe. Providing a sweeping view of the meaning of Christ, from the Gospels through the Pauline literature up to the fathers of the church, it explores the christic universe of Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus, Teilhard, Raimon Panikkar, Thomas Merton and Bede Griffiths. Also, it examines a rebirth of Christology today through the experience of the mystics.

A decade after the untimely death of renowned Scripture scholar Father Raymond E. Brown, SS, he continues to inspire and inform scholars and preachers,... students and pastoral ministers, lay and ordained. To mark the tenth anniversary of Brown's death, his six-volume series on preaching the Scriptures, a series that had begun in the mid-1970s with the publication of his popular An Adult Christ at Christmas, is collected here in one convenient commemorative edition. Brown's work is left largely untouched, and readers will find that his wisdom is lasting. This edition contains introductory essays by Brown's colleagues and friends John R. Donahue, SJ, and Ronald D. Witherup, SS, as well as useful indexes and a bibliography of resources for preaching the word of God in the context of the lectionary.

This is a book that focuses on God's appearances in human form rather than the shekinah, the pillar of cloud or other manifestations of God's presence.... Its purpose is to present a positive theology of theophanies rather than simply a defence against erroneous views. Borland looks at the characteristics of Christophanies and their use by God. It is the most comprehensive book of its type, although not every Christophany is investigated all categories are represented.

Christ Jesus and the Jewish People Today explores the historical, biblical, christological, trinitarian, and ecclesiological dimensions of this crucial... question: “How might we Christians in our time reaffirm our faith claim that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all humanity, even as we affirm the Jewish people’s covenantal life with God?” This volume is the result of a transatlantic, interfaith collaboration among Boston College, Catholic Theological Union, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Lund University, Pontifical Gregorian University, and Saint Joseph’s University. “This book opens up new vistas after forty-five years of Catholic-Jewish reconciliation. Not comfortable with resting on prior accomplishments, this work is a bold step forward in Catholic searching for a closer theological bond to Judaism without giving up the differences between the two faiths. . . . Offers the cutting edge of Christian theological views of Judaism.” — Alan Brill Seton Hall University “Stunning in its scope, erudition, and creativity, this work is without parallel or peer. . . . A watershed contribution to a new era in the Jewish-Christian encounter, as both communities increasingly take decades of dialogue experience back into their own theological workshops and, with newfound partners lending support, strive to fashion a more adequate account of God’s work among us.” — Peter A. Pettit Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding, Muhlenberg College

A caroler's delight: complete lyrics for over 50 of the most popular and beloved Christmas songs. Away in a Manger, O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to the... World, Silent Night, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, and many more. The perfect companion for the holiday season.

(Educational Piano Library). Seasonal fun for adult and older beginner piano students! Includes 12 songs: Away in a Manger * Deck the Hall * God Rest Ye... Merry, Gentlemen * Jingle Bells * Joy to the World * O Come, O Come, Emmanuel * Silent Night * and more.

The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping,... and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.

It is as predictable as the sunrise or sunset. Early on Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, shoppers flock to the stores unleashing a month of... consumerism unparalleled during any other time of year. Yet it was not always thus. How did Christmas become a consumer event, and what does that say about America today? Christmas Unwrapped, edited by Richard Horsley and James Tracy, offers a fascinating critique of the American Christmas from the perspectives of cultural studies, theology, and biblical studies. Their central argument is that Christmas—with its attendant mythology (Christmas carols, It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street), icons (Santa Claus), and rituals (gift-giving, holiday concerts, Christmas shopping)—has become a new religion in America, the religion of consumer capitalism. Looking at Christmas from a wide range of perspectives, some of the essays examine the social history of the American Christmas and show the ways in which it differs from the European celebration. Others explore the holiday in celluloid by examining "classic" Christmas movies. Additional essays focus on the infancy narratives in the Gospels, comparing the clash of cultures between early Christianity and the Hellenistic world and reexamining the stories in their Roman/Jewish political-economic-religious context.As the contributors to this lucid and accessible critique of American culture demonstrate Jesus is definitely not the reason for the season. Contributors include: Kathleen M. Sands (University of Massachusetts Boston); Paula Cooey (Macalester College); Richard Horsley (University of Massachusetts Boston); Max A. Myers (St. Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo, New York); Arthur P. Simonds (University of Massachusetts Boston); and Elizabeth Fleck (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign).Richard Horsley is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the author of Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs. James Tracy is Headmaster of Boston University Academy.

An expert on the Greco-Roman world explores the miracle stories of the Gospels in their Hellenistic context, illuminating what they reveal about the... person, character, and power of Jesus: his generosity, kindness, understanding, and compassion in response to unreasonable demands for help. The book contextualizes the petitioners' behavior and speech against their cultural backdrop and refocuses attention from the miracle accounts themselves to the way Jesus responds to the petitioners.

In this fully revised and updated second edition of his accessible account of systematic Christology, Gerald O'Collins continues to challenge the... contemporary publishing trend for sensationalist books on Jesus that are supported neither by the New Testament witness nor by mainline Christian beliefs. This book critically examines the best biblical and historical scholarship before tackling head-on some of the key questions of systematic Christology: does orthodox faith present Jesus the man as deficient and depersonalized? Is his sinlessness compatible with the exercise of a free human will? Does up-to-date exegesis challenge his virginal conception and personal resurrection? Can one reconcile Jesus' role as universal Saviour with the truth and values to be found in other religions? What should the feminist movement highlight in presenting Jesus? This integral Christology is built around the resurrection of the crucified Jesus, highlights love as the key to redemption, and proposes a synthesis of the divine presence through Jesus. Clear, balanced, and accessible, this book should be valued by any student reading systematic theology, anyone training for the ministry in all denominations, as well as interested general readers.

With Christology, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen provides an up-to-date, comprehensive introduction to the topic in which voices from around the globe are... heard. He offers three main perspectives on Christology (biblical, historical, and contemporary) and attempts to combine classical and contextual work done in Christology over the course of church history. Kärkkäinen compares and contrasts how the Gospel writers and the apostle Paul understood the person and work of Jesus Christ. He then focuses on the christological discussions that took place in the early church and the ways in which scholars have attempted to understand Jesus. The heart of Christology is an extended discussion of ten major Western Christologies from well-known theologians such as Karl Barth, Stanley Grenz, and John Hick. The final part of the book delves into contextualized interpretations about Christ in various parts of the world. Feminist, process, black, and postmodern Christologies extant in North America and Europe are discussed and evaluated. Asian (Christ as universal Savior), African (Christ as Ancestor), and Latin American (Christ as Liberator) Christologies round out the discussion. Christology is ideal for readers who desire to know how the global Christian community understands the person and work of Jesus Christ.