1.) NOOMA OPEN.  In the latest installment of the NOOMA DVD series, Rob Bell asks, “Does God answer prayer?”  He states that if we understand how Jesus prayed, our concepts and expectations of prayer would change.  Once again, this video leaves the viewer with a powerful  closing image.

2.) Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction: Christianity and the Battle for the Soul of a Nation by Rodney Clapp.  In this book, Rodney Clapp wrestles with what it means to be a Christian and an American through the story of the Man in Black.  He argues that Cash's "music can help us see more keenly into the often baffling murkiness that is the American relation between holiness and hedonism, church and state, faith and culture."

3.) VeggieTales: The Wonderful Wizard of Ha’s.   This video tells the story of the prodigal son using talking vegetables.  DVD, 49 minutes.

4.) God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens by John Haught.  Haught gives clear, concise, and compelling answers to the charges against religion laid out in recent best-selling books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens.

5.) Brokenness and Blessing: Towards a Biblical Spirituality by Frances M. Young.  From the back of the book, "At a time when one had despaired of finding anything but drivel under the title 'spirituality,' here comes a wonderful book that advocates and demonstrates the placing of the Christian under a reengagement with the 'overarching story of the Scriptures, read as a unity': creation, fall, redemption, pilgrimage, consummation."

6.) The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from and Active Life by Bill McKibben.  This book is a collection of essays from one of America's leading voices on the environment (and an Editor at Large of The Christian Century).

7.) Debating Immigration by Carol M. Swain.  This collection of 18 essays on the immigration debate explores the issue from the perspectives of religion, law and policy, economics and demographics, and race.

8.) Immigrant America: A Portrait by Alejandro Portes.  Recognized for its superb portrayal of immigration and immigrant life in the U.S., this book probes the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers and the psychological consequences of various modes of migration and acculturation.

9.) The Stewardship Companion: Lectionary Resources for Preaching.  This volume provides a brief reflection on one Scripture passage from each week in the three-year lectionary cycle on how that passage can be used to teach and preach about stewardship.

10.) Taught by God: Teaching and Spiritual Formation by Karen Marie Yust and E. Byron Anderson.  

11.) The Last Week: A Day by Day Account of Jesus’ Final Week by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  Two of today's top Jesus scholars offer what they believe is the real gospel account of Jesus' final week in Jerusalem--from his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday to his death on the cross.

12.) For the Bible Tells Me So.  Through the experiences of five very normal, Christian, American families, this recently released documentary describes how people of faith handle the realization that a child or family member is gay.  The filmmaker, Daniel Karslake, is a native of Camp Hill.  DVD, 98 minutes.

13.) Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw.  From the Introduction, "We are seeing more and more that the church has fallen in love with the state and that this love affair is killing the church's imagination.  The powerful benefits and temptations of running the world's largest superpower have bent the church's identity...Too often the patriotic values of pride and strength triumph over the spiritual values of humility, gentleness, and sacrificial love.”

14.) Places of Promise: Finding Strength in Your Congregation’s Location by Cynthia Woolever.  This book demonstrates that every congregation can achieve strength and effectiveness in its present location if its ministry focus and leadership decisions parallel factors that are important to the surrounding community.

15.) Amazing Grace with Bill Moyers.  The hymn "Amazing Grace" has been sung by numerous performers.  In this video, Bill Moyers asks some of them what the hymn means to them.  DVD, 90 minutes.

Resource Center Blog 
http://newbooksmell.blogspot.com/

Items may be picked up at the Presbytery office or mailed to locations throughout the Presbytery.