Reading Recommendations

Here is a list to get you started on your summer reading, courtesy of Dr. Bill Yarchin, the Dean’s Endowed Professor of Biblical Studies in the School of Theology (this list originally appeared in APU Life in the Winter 2011 issue):

Joel R. Primack & Nancy Ellen Abrams, The View From the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (Riverhead Trade, 2007).

Joel  M. Hoffman, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning (Thomas Dunne Books, 2010).

Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (Penguin, 2009).

Po Bronson, Why Do I Love These People? Honest and Amazing Stories of Real Families (Random House, 2006).

Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War (Broadway, 2008).

Eliza Griswold, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2010).

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian-Pacific Americans month – set out to be a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S.  Asian-Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

Asian-Pacific Heritage Month  began through a congressional initiative as a House resolution to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. A similar bill was passed shortly thereafter by the Senate.  President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration on October 5, 1978.  President George H.W. Bush signed an extension making the week-long celebration into a month-long celebration in 1990. The official designation of May as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month was signed into law in 1992.

There is a terrific website that a variety of government agencies have put together to help celebrate the month. These include resources from the Library of Congress, National Archives, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, National Parks Service, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. You can find it here.

We have many resources on Asian Americans and religion. Here are just a few items from our collections that might be helpful as we honor this month:

Bretzke, James T., compiler & annotator.
Bibliography on East Asian Religion and Philosophy
Edwin Mellen, 2001.
.
.

England, John C., ed.
Asian Christian Theologies:
A Research Guide to Authors, Movements, Sources.
Orbis Books, 2002-2004.
.
.

Hertig, Young Lee and Chloe Sun, eds.
Mirrored Reflections: Reframing Biblical Characters
Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2010.
(This book is edited and has several chapters by APU authors).
.
.

Jeung, Russell
Faithful Generations: Race and New Asian American Churches
Rutgers University Press, 2005.
.
.

Kitagawa, Joseph M.
The Religious Traditions of Asia:Religion, History and Culture
Routledge Curzon, 2002.

Min, Pyong Gap and Jung Ha Kim, eds.
Religions in Asian America: Building Faith Communities
AltaMira, 2002.
.
.

Yoo, David K., ed.
New Spiritual Homes: Religion and Asian Americans
University of Hawaii Press, 1999.

 

 

 

Image from the San Mateo County http://www.ShapetheFuture.org site.
Information about the celebration is primarily from http://www.asianpacificheritage.gov

New Books Added in April 2014

New titles added to the theological collections in April.

BJ1518 .H36 2014.
THE HANDBOOK OF VIRTUE ETHICS
EDITED BY STAN VAN HOOFT ; CONSULTANT EDITORS,
NAFSIKA ATHANASSOULIS … [ET AL.].
Durham; Bristol, Conn. : Acumen Publishing Ltd. 2014.

BR252 .M3935 2007.
MEDIEVAL RELIGION : A SOURCEBOOK
EDITED BY ROBERTA ANDERSON AND DOMINIC AIDAN
BELLENGER.
London : Routledge, 2007.

BR1640 .N475 2010.
NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY :
ENGAGING WITH GOD, SCRIPTURE, AND THE WORLD
EDITED BY TOM GREGGS.
London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

BR1725.O7 B74 2013.
Brekus, Catherine A.
SARAH OSBORN’S WORLD :
THE RISE OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY IN EARLY AMERICA
New Haven : Yale University Press, c2013.

BS2361.3 .U57 2013.
THE UNRELENTING GOD : GOD’S ACTION IN SCRIPTURE :
ESSAYS IN HONOR OF BEVERLY ROBERTS GAVENTA
EDITED BY DAVID J. DOWNS & MATTHEW L. SKINNER.
Grand Rapids, Michigan : William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013.

Earth Day Resources

April 22nd is the 44th celebration of the national Earth Day movement. Begun  in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson, it was hoped that encouraging public awareness about air and water pollution would bring it to the national political agenda. You can find information about Earth Day and it’s history here.

We have a great many resources on nature, ecology, and faith. Here are a few selections:

Chase, Steven
Nature as Spiritual Practice
Eerdmans, 2011.
.
.

Albertson, David and Cabell King, eds.
Without Nature: A New Condition for Theology
Fordham University Press, 2010. e-book.
.
.
.
.

Brown, Edward R.
Our Father’s World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation
IVP Books, 2008.
.
.

Hessel, Dieter T. and Rosemary Radford Ruether, eds.
Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans
Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, 2000.
.
.

Bakken, Peter W.
Ecology, Justice and Christian Faith: A Critical Guide to the Literature
Greenwood Press, 1995.
.
.
.

Observations, Celebration

Holy Week has begun …a time for remembering the darkest and the brightest days on the Christian calendar. I thought I would share this poem as a means of remembrance…

.
.
.
.

Et Resurrexit Tertia Die
(Bach, Credo, B-Minor Mass)

Three short days of twilight and darkness,
dawn and the light. The elements, free
of all knowledge, unblessed by prediction, yet sensed the
suspense —
Creator entombed by creation, the loftiest heights
brought low, the universe madly askew. Three
short days with the length of three endless nights.

Three times, forced by its nature to shine
the sun reluctantly rose. In the skies no sign
through clouds of a bow. The earth which knew not how
its Maker turned Captive had been yet felt the wrong.
The winds whistled dirges. Three endless
Days — then the groan of creation exploded in song.

Mark A. Noll
From A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation

This was selected for inclusion in the Nelson’s Anthology series:
The Cross: An Anthology
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003 (pp 122-123).

It’s National Library Week!

 

National Library week is celebrated April 13 – 19, 2014 with the theme “Lives change @ your library®.”

Sponsored by the American Library Association, all kinds of libraries – universities and seminaries (like ours), elementary and high school, public libraries and special (corporate, law, medical) all use this week to celebrate the many ways lives can be changed at your library.

The celebrations first began in the mid 1950s – when it was feared that people spent more time listening to the radio and watching television than reading books (I guess only the technologies have changed…).

A few fun facts about our library:

• The APU Libraries now select electronic books whenever possible. At the end of last year we had more than 87,000 e-books in our collection.
• The theological holdings of our library (Stamps and the regional libraries in San Diego and Los Angeles) number more than 82,000 volumes.
• Throughout APU University Library collections, we have more than 370,000 print items (so with the ebooks, above, we have approx. 457,000 volumes).

So now, in line with the theme of the week – how has your life changed in using the library? Any fun stories to share?

Here are a few titles from our collections that celebrate libraries:

Battles, Matthew
Library: An Unquiet History
Norton, 2004.
.
.

Murray, Stuart
The Library: An Illustrated History
ALA Editions, 2009.
.
.
.

Wiegand, Wayne A. and Donald G. Davis, Jr., eds.
Encyclopedia of Library History
Garland Publishing, 1994
.
.
.

 

 

Commemorating William Booth

Born on April 10, 1829, William Booth along
with his wife Catherine, founded the Salvation Army.

Booth was born in Nottingham, England and spent his early years apprenticed to a pawnbroker, giving him the opportunity to see poverty firsthand. He was a convert to Methodism at age 15 and studied to become a Methodist lay preacher and evangelist.
At 23 he left the work of the pawnshop to become a full-time preacher at Binfield Chapel in Clapham. He married Catherine Mumford  in June 1855. Over the next few years, he became a prominent Methodist evangelist but was regularly asked to serve in pastorates.
He requested that he be freed up for evangelistic work but the request was repeatedly denied and so he left the Methodist Church to become an independent evangelist.

In July 1865, he was invited to preach at a tent gathering near the Blind Beggar public house at Whitechapel. He preached a salvation message to all who would hear. Later that year he and Catherine began the Christian Revival Society in London – holding meetings nightly and on Sundays. The society was later renamed The Christian Mission and continued with this name until 1878, when renamed The Salvation Army.

During his lifetime, Booth established the work of the Salvation Army in 58 countries and colonies. He died (promoted to glory) on August 20, 1912. The Salvation Army considers it’s founding date July 2, 1865 – the date of Booth’s first preaching at Whitechapel.

The Stamps Library has a collection of books on the Salvation Army or written by it’s leaders. This  is a research collection and is non-circulating. You can make arrangements to use this collection by appointment. The Salvation Army is affiliated with the Holiness Movement (another area of research collections) and has ties to Azusa Pacific University as an affiliate denomination.

While most of our resources are kept in this special collection, a few resources are available for general circulation and include:

Green, Roger Joseph
The Life and Ministry of William Booth:
The Founder of the Salvation Army
Abingdon Press, 2005.
.
.
Hattersley, Roy
Blood & Fire: William and Catherine Booth and their Salvation Army
Doubleday, 2000.

 

 

April is National Poetry Month!

National Poetry Month was begun in 1996 by the American Academy of Poets to annually celebrate poetry and the important place it has in American culture. The organization has a terrific website with 30 Ways to Celebrate  and includes clever ideas like “Watch a poetry movie” and “Take a poem to lunch.” There are many creative ideas throughout the website – you can take a look at all of the suggestions here.

Meanwhile, I thought I would highlight some of our resources in the Stamps Library related to poetry. We have a great many titles, particularly in the area of Hebrew Bible, as well as titles related to faith integration. The following is a sampling:

Ballinger, Phillip A.
The Poem as Sacrament:
The Theological Aesthetic of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Peeters, 2000.
.
.

Chilcote, Paul Wesley, ed.
Early Methodist Spirituality: Selected Women’s Writings
Kingswood Books, 2007.
.
.
.

Guite, Malcolm
Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination
Ashgate, 2010.
.
.
.

Kimbrough, S.T., Jr.  and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds.
The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley
Kingswood Books, 1988-1992.
.
.
.

Orton, David E., ed.
Poetry in the Hebrew Bible: Selected studies from Vetus Testamentum
Brill, 2000.
.
.
.

Witherington, Ben and Christopher Mead Armitage
The Poetry of Piety: An Annotated Anthology of Christian Poetry
Baker Academic, 2002.

 

 

Faith Integration Research – Resources

My colleague, Michelle Spomer, has created a terrific resource for those working on faith integration papers, syllabi preparation and class assignments. It is a part of the University Libraries LibGuides collection and can be accessed here. LibGuides are also available on a wide-range of topics and are found on the University Libraries homepage.

The Stamps Library has a (growing) collection of faith integration books. Where possible, this is a second copy of a title, with the first copy located within the discipline circulating collection. With this “set-apart” collection the intention is to assist faculty in easily locating resources within their discipline but also to see relevant near disciplines and the ways in which they approach faith integration. These books are located on the second floor on the low shelving near the periodical display area.

Need more resources? Check out the Office of Faith Integration webpage.

 

New Additions to our Korean Language Collections – March 2014

These are the newest resources added to our Korean language collections at the LA Regional Center library. As you scroll through the list you’ll see a number of resources for research and writing skills, particularly for D.Min students. Where possible, an approximate translation of the title is included.

BF431 .O73165 2007
Organisez vos idées avec le mind mapping
생각 정리의 기술 : 한 장으로 끝내는 천재들의 사고법, 마인드맵!
드니 르보 외 지음   김 도연 옮김

BJ1251 .H325165 2010
Hauerwas, Stanley, 1940-
Community of character
교회됨
스탠리 하우어워스 지음   문 시영 옮김

BJ1535.P9 .M33165 2002
McClung, Floyd.
Intimacy with God
하나님과의 친밀감 : 교만을 극복하기 /
프로이드 맥클랑   예수전도단 옮김

BR100 .B65165 1999
Brown, Colin, 1932-
Philosophy & the Christian faith
철학과 기독교 신앙
콜린 브라운 지음   문 석호 옮김

BS511.3 .C653165
Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament
신약의 구약사용 주석 시리즈
G.K. 빌, D.A. 카슨 편집
G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson

BS2397 .S468165 2013
Schreiner, Thomas R.
Magnifying God in Christ
간추린 신약 신학
토마스 R. 슈라이너 지음   김 현광 옮김

BS2655.H67 F44165 2013
Fee, Gordon D.
God’s empowering presence
성령 : 하나님의 능력 주시는 임재   바울 서신의 성령론
고든 D. 피 지음   박 규태 옮김