BookTalk

June 3 & 4, 2013

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men

by Dr. Leonard Sax

Live via Phone on June 3rd!

Something scary is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically. While Emily is working hard at school and getting A’s, her brother Justin is goofing off. He’s more concerned about getting to the next level in his videogame than about finishing his homework. Now, Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the scientific literature and draws on more than twenty years of clinical experience to explain why boys and young men are failing in school and disengaged at home. He shows how social, cultural, and biological factors have created an environment that is literally toxic to boys. He also presents practical solutions, sharing strategies which educators have found effective in re-engaging these boys at school, as well as handy tips for parents about everything from homework, to videogames, to medication.

June 5 & 6, 2013

Rescuing Randy: A Family Determined to Rescue Their Son from a Cult

by Geneva Paulson

Live via Phone on June 5!

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The author shares the disturbing and inspirational story of her son’s entrapment and manipulation by a religious cult and her family’s struggle to reclaim him.

Randy became a navy recruit the autumn after his high school graduation. Within a year, he joined the Christian Fellowship Church International.

Later, along with other sailors, he was baptized into their ministry team. His family saw a drastic personality change occur. He became a stranger as the cult drew him in deeper and deeper.

Geneva Paulson

His family needed answers: What had happened in his life? What could they do about it?

As they progressed through his abduction, deprogramming, snapping, exit counseling, and ultimate freedom, their faith grew stronger and their family bond deeper.

June 7 & 10, 2013

Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith

by Douglas Groothuis

Live via Phone on June 7!

The Christian worldview proposes answers to the most enduring human questions. But are those answers reliable?

In this systematic text, Douglas Groothuis makes a comprehensive apologetic case for Christian theism–proceeding from a defense of objective truth to a presentation of the key arguments for God from natural theology to a case for the credibility of Jesus, the incarnation and the resurrection. Throughout, Groothuis considers alternative views and how they fare intellectually.

Douglas Groothuis

June 11 & 12, 2013

Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?

by Art Vanick

Live via Phone on June 11!

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Was The Book of Mormon given to Joseph Smith by an angel or created from a work of fiction?

Who was Solomon Spalding and did he have a connection with Joseph Smith?

This book critically examines key historical documents, personal testimonies, and records of 19th-century Mormon history concluding that The Book of Mormon is an “adaptation of an obscure historical novel” written by Revolutionary War veteran Solomon Spalding during the War of 1812.

Art Vanick

In twelve chapters, the authors lay out the evidence for the assertion that Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, and Joseph Smith Jr. adapted and embellished the Spalding manuscript to create The Book of Mormon. Although based on public records and solid research, the book reads like “investigative history,” demonstrating that Mormon claims to the “supernatural” revelation and transcription of The Book of Mormon are fraudulent.

June 13 & 14, 2013

Romans 1-8, Volume 1 – Concordia Commentary

by Mike Middendorf

Live via Phone on June 13th!

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About This Volume:

This commentary articulates the meaning of the Greek text of Romans in its original context for the benefit of the church and world today. Those without any knowledge of Greek will also profit from utilizing the volume. It provides insights that will enhance the understanding and effectiveness of scholars, pastors, and teachers who have the privilege of proclaiming Paul’s most famous letter. This commentary seeks to be theologically thorough in as few words as possible. Romans is the Spirit-breathed, living, and powerful Word of God. Its purpose is to bestow the righteous of God, which comes through faith alone, and to inculcate the life of faith in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

About the Series:

Concordia Commentary: A Theological Exposition of Sacred Scripture is written to enable pastors and teachers of the Word to proclaim the Gospel with greater insight, clarity, and faithfulness to the divine intent of the biblical text.

This landmark work will cover all the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, interpreting Scripture as a harmonious unity centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Every passage bears witness to the Good News that God has reconciled the world to Himself through our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection.

The commentary fully affirms the divine inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of Scripture as it emphasizes “that which promotes Christ” in each pericope.

Authors are sensitive to the rich treasury of language, imagery, and themes found throughout Scripture, including such dialectics as Law and Gospel, sin and grace, death and new life, folly and wisdom, this fallen world and the new creation in Christ. Careful attention is given to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. Further light is shed on the text from archaeology, history, and extrabiblical literature. Finally, Scripture’s message is applied to the ongoing life of the church in terms of ministry, worship, proclamation of the Word, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, confession of the faith—all in joyful anticipation of the life of the world to come.

About The Author:

Michael Middendorf

Michael P. Middendorf was born and raised in St. Paul, Minn. He received all of his education at Lutheran schools, including a B.A. in pre-seminary studies from Concordia University-St. Paul (1981). He worked there for three years as an admissions counselor and guest instructor o Greek before enrolling at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO., where he earned his M.Div. (1987), S.T.M. (1989), and Th.D. (1990) degrees. Dr. Middendorf served as a parish pastor in Jamestown, N.D., from 1990 to 1992 and as a professor of religion and biblical languages at Concordia University Texas (in Austin) from 1992 to 2001. Since then he has been professor of theology in Christ College, at Concordia University Irvine, in California. Hi is also a pastoral assistant at Trinity Cristo Rey Lutheran Church, a bilingual congregation in Santa Ana, Calif.

June 17 & 18, 2013

Lutheranism 101 – Holy Baptism

by Charles L. Lehmann (CPH)

Live via Phone on June 17th!

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Baptism is not a mere symbol of rebirth. It is not a choice or a prize for attaining a certain amount of faith.

Lutheranism 101: Holy Baptism gives an overview of what Baptism is, what it does, how it does it, and what it means for our lives now and into the future. Throughout, it emphasizes that the One doing the baptizing makes all the difference. Like the original book, Lutheranism 101: Baptism will never get too far away from the reality that it is all about Jesus.

Charles Lehmann

Each chapter concludes with several questions that can be used to further the study and the discussion about the material. For those who may be leading a group discussion based upon the chapter, and for those individuals who want to check their answers against the author’s comments, a free downloadable guide is available online at lutheranism101.com.

June 19 & 20, 2013

What Motivates Cultural Progressives?: Understanding Opposition to the Political and Christian Right

by George Yancey

Live on June 19 via Phone!

Public activism has grown significantly during the 21st century as a cornerstone of the democratic process. But activism, regardless of its ideological roots, is often interpreted through the lens of the culture wars–pitting social movements with opposing ideals against one another. For too long, as George Yancey and David Williamson argue, progressive activists, one side of these culture wars, have been seldom studied and virtually never critiqued in public conversation.

Yancey and Williamson describe and analyze the multifaceted cultural progressive movement and its place within the larger American society. What they uncover is a collective identity informed by staunch opposition to cultural conservatives–both political and religious–that is motivated by the progressive activist’s preference for absolute rationality. Further, Yancey and Williamson argue that, despite great resistance to conservatives purportedly nonrational appeals, progressive activists are found to use irrational techniques when seeking to establish their movement and position their cause as socially legitimate.

In the contemporary heated political climate the often-surprising and likely controversial findings of What Motivates Cultural Progressives? will prove essential, thought-provoking reading for understanding the growing concern over the influence of activism.

June 21 & 24, 2013

Luther’s Works, Volume 58 (Selected Sermons V)

by Dr. Christopher Boyd Brown

Live via Phone on June 21!

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This volume contains a selection of Luther’s preaching from between January 1539 and his death in 1546. Aware of his own mortality and deeply committed to the proclamation of the Gospel in the last days of the world, Luther preached during these years with a special sense of urgency, seeking to make a final confession and testament of his teaching and to issue a public rejection of its opponents. In that effort, he returned frequently to theological themes from the early years of his public career and to autobiographical reflection, working to convey the significance of the Reformation to a new generation ignorant of the circumstances that had called for reform, who had experienced ”nothing of these distresses and heartbreak under the pope and what a joyful thing the Gospel is.”

The recent expansion of the Reformation to previously hostile territories and cities provided Luther, despite his health, with opportunities to travel and to preach to newly Evangelical communities, expounding the basic elements of his theology. In these sermons, Luther emphasized catechesis in the heart of the Gospel as he understood it, but he was also concerned with warning against a return to old abuses and with encouraging the new organization and support of Evangelical clergy and schools to ensure the survival of the Reformation.

Dr. Christopher Brown

In his ongoing preaching in Wittenberg itself, Luther was intensely concerned with the life and welfare of the congregation with whose life he had been most intimately involved. In addition to preaching on the broader theological conflicts with which he dealt in his published treatises, Luther dealt with local tensions–which culminated in his own brief, self-imposed ”exile” from Wittenberg in the summer of 1545. He defended his own role within and responsibility for the Wittenberg church and dealt concretely with the Antinomians’ rejection of the Law for Christians by assiduously preaching both the Law and the Gospel to the congregation. When, as it often did, the life of the Wittenbergers seemed to fall short in both good works and faithful devotion, Luther could be uncompromising and unrestrained in his admonitions, whether in denouncing the university jurists who sought to reimpose the standards of papal canon law or in rebuking the Wittenbergers for immorality and, especially, for their greed.

Nevertheless, even Luther’s most bitter complaints about Evangelical congregations do not suggest that the old reformer had fallen into despair. His admonitions to faithful hearing of the Word and amendment of life appear alongside his confident declarations that, in fact, the Gospel was being faithfully taught. Luther boasted that the Gospel was being preached and proclaimed, not only in the churches by faithful pastors, not only in the schools, but also in homes, among parents and children, as he says in his last sermon: ”You hear [God's Word] at home in your house, father and mother and children sing and speak of it, the preacher speaks of it in the parish church.” The Gospel is thus communicated from one generation to the next, from parents to children–and also back again, from children to parents. It is to the children, learning the Catechism, that Luther refers adults who have questions about Christian faith, and upon the youth, ”the seedlings with which the Church of God, like a beautiful garden, is cultivated and propagated,” that the reformer continues to place undiminished hopes. These sermons thus bear witness to Luther’s understanding that the Reformation is neither an accomplished, once-for-all event nor a step along the progressive way to the full purification of the Church, but a continual struggle, carried out through the preaching of the Law and the Gospel, to be renewed from generation to generation until the Last Day.

June 26 & 27, 2013

Concordia’s Complete Bible Handbook

with CPH staff Tom Nummela

Live via Phone on June 26!

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Who is this Bible Handbook for?

• Who wrote the Bible?
• How is the Bible organized?
• What’s up with all those translations?
• Is the Bible reliable and trustworthy?
• How can I get the most out of the Bible reading I do?

• The Books of Moses
• The Books of History
• The Books of Wisdom
• The Books of the Prophets
• The Time Between the Testaments
• The Gospels and Acts
• The Pauline Epistles
• The General Epistles and Revelation

Tom Nummela

How is this edition of the Bible Handbook different from the first edition?

The main change is the addition of a Bible dictionary that is more than 190 pages long.  The dictionary starts with Aaron, ends with Zorah, and has a wealth of information between about  people and places, customs and traditions, and terms found throughout the Bible.  The dictionary also serves as a “smart index” for the book, including page number references to Handbook content where appropriate.