Author(s): Matthew Wade Umbarger
Publisher: Cascade Books
Price: $2.99       (Ends May 31)

Psalm 23, the most beloved of the Psalms, contains a perplexing riddle. What can it possibly mean that God prepares a table in the presence of the psalmist’s enemies? Matthew Umbarger proposes that Psalm 23:5 makes the most sense when read according to its cultural context of prebattle covenant banquets. Beginning with ancient Mesopotamian mythology, Umbarger traces a conceptual trajectory of the prebattle banquet motif that reaches its zenith in the apocalyptic banquets of Second Temple Period literature and the eucharistic theology of the early church.

Author(s): Nicholas Wolterstorff
Publisher: Cascade Books
Price: $2.99       (Ends May 31)

Almost all of us, at some time in our lives, are cast into grief. Living with Grief begins by the author narrating how he was cast into grief by the early death of his son, followed by an analysis of the nature of grief. He then distinguishes between owning one’s grief and disowning it—putting it behind one—and explains why he has determined to own his grief, more specifically, to own it redemptively. In describing how he has struggled to own his grief redemptively, the author draws on the Christian tradition. The manuscript of the book was discussed by about twenty-five prisoners in the Handlon State Prison for Men (Michigan). The postlude of the book consists of letters by five of (more…)

Author(s): Jean W. Rioux
Publisher: Cascade Press
Price: $2.99       (Ends May 31)

The full title of Newton’s Principia is “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.” Sadly, some contemporary philosophers might be hard-pressed to say just what natural philosophy is about–sadly, because it remains foundational to questions arising in other disciplines: metaphysics, ethics, philosophical psychology, and the philosophy of god, to name a few. In Nature, the Soul, and God, Jean Rioux has brought together primary readings in the philosophy of nature, presenting ways in which philosophers conceive of and account for the natural world in a pre-scientific reflection upon the way things are. Its three main sections comprise: a consideration of what the world would look like if natural philosophy were not possible, some representative natural philosophies (materialism, formalism, dualism, and hylomorphism), (more…)