Kirjahaku

Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) was the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, the author of the Book of Common Prayer, and a central figure in the English Protestant Reformation. Few theologians have led such an eventful life: Cranmer helped Henry VIII break with the pope, pressed his vision of the Reformation through the reign of Edward VI, was forced to recant under Queen Mary, and then dramatically withdrew his recantations before being burned alive.This gripping biography by Leslie Williams narrates Cranmer's life from the beginning, through his education and history with the monarchy, to his ecclesiastical trials and eventual martyrdom. She portrays Cranmer's ongoing struggle to reconcile his two central beliefs - loyalty to the crown and loyalty to the Reformation faith - as she tells his fascinating life story.

The speaker in this collection seeks an understanding of the darkness of suicide and mortal illness in the light of Christian faith. Poet Leslie Williams captures this light in tender and piercing poems that traverse a grieving world where healing is always possible but never assured: “my God can do this, but my God / might not.” Through restless questioning, the speaker finds a balm for suffering in the divine beauty and mystery of the natural world. Seven prose poems woven into the collection deal with different aspects of a young girl’s life-threatening illness. Five additional poems wrestle with the grief of suicide and the emptiness afflicting those left behind. Other poems in the collection reflect on how to approach daily life while coping with heartbreak and express wonder about our responsibilities in a variety of roles: as parents, as neighbors, as an imagined anchoress, as children of God. The language remains beautiful and precise throughout, whether the speaker lies “in a gully cracked / with stars” or tells herself, “It’s a handmade raft I live on.” The speaker entreats, as in Psalm 27, “teach me how to live.” Dwelling attentively in the abundance and mystery of creation, the book aims to offer a comfort and peace that might “even the dark.”

Just as Jacob wrestled with God in his long desert night's dream, author Leslie Williams has experienced many late-night wrestling sessions of her own. With piercing honesty and refreshing transparency, Night Wrestling shares the deep unsettling questions that can rob us of peace. More importantly, she offers hope of God's grace and mercy for those truly seeking His face.

"Just Words: Who Will Teach Our Women?" is a self-help/inspirational book geared towards challenging and/while encouraging women to elevate the way they think about, talk about, and see: God, relationships, the world, their lifestyles, and ultimately themselves. Men, as well as unbelievers, can also benefit from applying the tools and insight(s) taught in this book. Other books help challenge people to elevate themselves but none of those books address the need for the human race as a whole, to be more accepting and encouraging of one another, especially while our racial and political disharmony is at it's crescendo. Everyone is hopeful for answers and ways to make it all better. "Just Words" provides those answers by revealing to women that they are the key to bringing change to our world according to God's plan.

Matters for You Alone is a spiritual exploration of friendship: its shapes and duties, stresses and blames-and its absolute necessity. The book takes its title from Jean-Pierre de Caussade's classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence, as it strives to interpret everyday encounters and events-the domestic, the mundane-in light of the eternal. Powerful and powerless-made perfect in weakness-the speaker in these poems is fractured and dazzling, abject and hurried, courageous and fallen, you and me. At times playful, at others deadly serious, these poems ask important questions about our friends. What is the lifespan of a friendship and how might we celebrate its glories? How have our friends made us who we are? "As Seen in Frescoes Now Effaced" says it this way: "We're taught to love / by someone-a series of them- // each seeking a brief shelter / as the spirit searches / for more capacious / seas-." A friend holds a special status-not exactly family, but often with deeper resonances of meaning and responsibility, and especially, choice. When friendships go wrong, how can we mend and heal? As "way leads on to way," how can forgiveness hold the sacred memory of others and their indelible marks on us? This book is for anyone who wants to reflect on the people in our lives from whom we've received instruction, correction, inspiration, and joy.

Matters for You Alone is a spiritual exploration of friendship: its shapes and duties, stresses and blames-and its absolute necessity. The book takes its title from Jean-Pierre de Caussade's classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence, as it strives to interpret everyday encounters and events-the domestic, the mundane-in light of the eternal. Powerful and powerless-made perfect in weakness-the speaker in these poems is fractured and dazzling, abject and hurried, courageous and fallen, you and me. At times playful, at others deadly serious, these poems ask important questions about our friends. What is the lifespan of a friendship and how might we celebrate its glories? How have our friends made us who we are? "As Seen in Frescoes Now Effaced" says it this way: "We're taught to love / by someone-a series of them- // each seeking a brief shelter / as the spirit searches / for more capacious / seas-." A friend holds a special status-not exactly family, but often with deeper resonances of meaning and responsibility, and especially, choice. When friendships go wrong, how can we mend and heal? As "way leads on to way," how can forgiveness hold the sacred memory of others and their indelible marks on us? This book is for anyone who wants to reflect on the people in our lives from whom we've received instruction, correction, inspiration, and joy.