Category: News

FREE THIS MONTH: Bonhoeffer’s Creation and Fall

DBWE 3 Creation and Fall

You may have read Bonhoeffer on the Sermon on the Mount, but did you know that he has a compelling and inspiring set of published lectures of Genesis 1-3, too?

Already at the age of 19, Bonhoeffer was laying the groundwork for what would become Creation and Fall: A Theological Exposition of Genesis 1-3. In an early essay he talked about God as the one

for whom the terms “God spoke” and “it became so” are identical.

In Creation and Fall this idea reaches fuller expression:

That God creates by speaking means that in God the thought, the name, and the work are in their created reality one. What we must understand, therefore, is that the word does not have ‘effects’; instead, God’s word is already the work. What in us breaks hopelessly asunder–the word of command and what takes place–is for God indissolubly one. With God the imperative is the indicative.

This month Logos Bible Software offers Creation and Fall for free. I haven’t read the whole thing, but what I have read has helped even familiar chapters of Scripture come alive in new ways. Highly recommended.

You can find Creation and Fall for Logos here. As part of the same promotion, Logos is also offering Bonhoeffer’s Fiction from Tegel Prison for $0.99.

If you’re not already set up with Logos, feel free to message me here, and I’ll tell you how to do it.

Fall 2014: A New Dietrich Bonhoeffer Book (DBWE 17!)

DBWE17

This October Fortress Press will publish a new–and the final–volume of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (English edition). This is Volume 17: Index and Supplementary Materials.

Here is the description from Fortress Press:

The completion of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, the definitive English translation of the Critical Edition, represents a milestone in theological scholarship. This wonderful series is a translation from the German editions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke. The product of over twenty years of dedicated labor, the comprehensive and thoroughly-annotated sixteen-volume series will be the essential resource that generations of scholars will rely upon to understand the life and work of this seminal thinker in the wider frame of twentieth-century thought and history.

Now, the editorial team has offered an essential companion to the entire series in the form of an index volume.

Here are the book’s contents. It is more than just an index, per se:

General Editor’s Foreword to the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition—Victoria J. Barnett
The Translation of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition: An Overview—Victoria J. Barnett
The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition: A Retrospective—Clifford J. Green
The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke: Afterword to the German Edition—Wolfgang Huber

Part I: Additional Letters and Documents

Part II: Comprehensive Chronology and Master List of Documents
1. Chronology 1906–1945
2. Master List of Documents for DBWE 8–17

Part III: Master Indexes
1. Master Index of Scriptural References
2. Master Index of Names
3. Master Index of Subjects

New to Bonhoeffer? I collected some reflections on his writings after spending much of Lent reading him. All my Bonhoeffer posts are gathered here. I’m currently reading Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible (DBWE 5) and will post a review some time this summer.

As for DBWE 17, here is its product page at Fortress Press. It’s also here at Amazon.

My understanding is that the “Additional Letters and Documents” (Part I) have been published elsewhere, but not necessarily in English, and not in the German Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke. So DBWE 17 will include material that is new to the Works series, some of it appearing in English for the first time anywhere.

The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works series in English is described here, available for purchase (hardcover) through Fortress Press here. Fortress Press tells me that once DBWE 17 is published, there will be a discounted purchase rate available for the whole set for a short time this fall.

Scrivener is 50% Off in the App Store Right Now

Scrivener Logo

Scrivener is 50% off at the Mac App Store right now. Not sure how long this sale will last, but it’s now $22.99, which is well worth the value Scrivener looks to provide, especially to writers. I posted about writing a paper with Scrivener here. The link to the sale in the App Store is here. (HT: Brian Renshaw for pointing it out!)

LeBron: Back Home to Cleveland

Lebron to Cleveland

LeBron James is going back to Cleveland. He says:

Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I’m their son. Their passion can be overwhelming. But it drives me. I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.

Whether you care much for him or not, it’s a beautifully written article, touching on themes of home, family, forgiveness, and making change in your community. Read the whole thing here.

Hashtag Praying as Activism? #LetHerGoFree (Meriam Yehya Ibrahim)

Meriam-Ibrahim

A little more than a month ago a 27-year-old woman, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, was sentenced to death by the Sudanese government for not recanting her Christian faith in favor of Islam. She has a just-under-two-year-old son and was eight months pregnant at the time of her arrest. (She has since given birth, in prison.)

Were the sentence to be carried out, she would have been a martyr in her death, but she is already even now a martyr in life.

Yesterday her appeal to have the sentence overturned was accepted by a higher court. She was released.

But frustratingly, the BBC reports today that she has been detained:

About 40 security agents detained Mrs Ibrahim – along with her husband, Daniel Wani and two children – at the airport, the sources said.

You can read the whole article here.

If you are inclined to join me, as I post any more about Meriam Yehya Ibrahim on Facebook and Twitter, I’ll use the hashtag #LetHerGoFree. See here.

I have my own qualifications and occasional reservations about so-called hashtag activism, but hashtag praying as activism seems a good way to go. Among all the other factors that led to Ibrahim’s being freed in the first place, I’m convinced that prayer played a major role. So let’s keep it up. And–dear God–please, let her go free!

Essential IVP Reference Collection for $99 This Week in Accordance

IVP ReferenceThis week at Accordance the Essential IVP Reference Collection is on sale for $99.90.

I use the volumes in this collection almost every week for preaching and teaching in a church setting. Highly recommended. Find the product here.

Here’s the listing from Accordance of what the collection includes:

  • New Bible Atlas
  • Hard Sayings of the Bible
  • New Bible Commentary
  • IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
  • IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
  • Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
  • New Dictionary of Biblical Theology
  • Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels
  • Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments
  • New Bible Dictionary
  • Dictionary of New Testament Background
  • Dictionary of Paul and His Letters
  • IVP-Pocket Dictionaries
  • New Dictionary of Theology

Baylor University Press: 50% Off for Grad Students

Luke Baylor

Baylor University Press is currently offering 50% off all their backlist titles for grad students with a .edu address. At Words on the Word I’ve reviewed the title above, as well as the Malachi Hebrew handbook.

To get the discount, you’ll need to sign up here, using your .edu email address. Sign-ups are open through June 12. Baylor sends the discount code June 13. Then you can apply the discount code to orders placed from June 14-18.

Baylor Press’s site is here.

Free Download of New Mac OS X Yosemite (Beta)

OS X Yosemite

Today Apple announced its new OS X update, Yosemite, to be released this fall. They have also offered free access to the beta version, which is available not only to developers but also to others.

Check out more about Yosemite at the Apple site here, from which the above screen capture comes. The full press release is here.

More information about the Beta Seed Program is here. Here’s what you’ll see once you sign up:

OS X Yosemite Beta

As with any beta testing, there are caveats to consider, but those who want access to the new OS this summer can check it out:

To join the OS X Beta Program, just sign up using your Apple ID. When the beta software is ready, you’ll receive a redemption code that will allow you to download and install OS X Yosemite Beta from the Mac App Store. Then go ahead and start using it. When you come across an issue that needs addressing, report it directly to Apple with the built-in Feedback Assistant application.

Free in Logos: Brueggemann on the Psalms

Free Brueggemann on Psalms

I was checking to see what Fortress Press books Logos was offering, when I saw–to my very pleasant surprise–that they are offering Walter Brueggemann’s Spirituality of the Psalms for free. You can get it by clicking the image above.

I’ll be preaching through some Psalms this summer, so will be glad to have this short volume at hand. I’ll also be reviewing it from a print edition from Fortress, so keep an eye out for that in the coming months, too.