Cornelius Plantinga

Outreach 2025 Resource of the Year (Christian Living)"This worthy meditation on an essential state of being uplifts without sugarcoating."--Publishers WeeklyWhat is gratitude? Where does it come from? Why do we need it? How does it change us?In Gratitude, award-winning author Cornelius Plantinga explores these questions and more. Celebrating the role of gratitude in our lives, Plantinga makes the case that it is the very key to understanding our relationships with one another, the world around us, and God.Going deeper than mindfulness and positive psychology, Plantinga explores gratitude in a theologically informed and pastorally sensitive way. He shows that being grateful to God is not only our righteous duty but also the single best predictor of our well-being. Gratitude makes us more faithful, joyful, generous, healthy, and content.While it's easy to focus on the suffering, fear, and worries that surround us, Plantinga places all of that in the larger context of provision, abundance, and delight, empowering readers to experience the deep joy of giving thanks.

Longing. Hope. Love. Fear.These are just some of the experiences embodied in the infinitely rich Christian life. In Under the Wings of God, seasoned author Cornelius Plantinga explores these facets and more, reflecting on the joys and challenges of a life following God.Rooted in Scripture, this book offers wisdom about topics including the problem of suffering, the nature of Christian virtue, love of God and our neighbor, longing for redemption and reconciliation, humility, and hospitality. Plantinga delves into hard questions with a calm and pastoral authority that offers the perfect antidote for the unrest in the world and the church right now. Each reflection is presented with a Bible text and a brief prayer, useful for personal devotions or small group discussions. Readers will emerge with a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the Christian life, equipped with timeless insights into the ups and downs of a life lived in the presence of God.

Longing. Hope. Love. Fear.These are just some of the experiences embodied in the infinitely rich Christian life. In Under the Wings of God, seasoned author Cornelius Plantinga explores these facets and more, reflecting on the joys and challenges of a life following God.Rooted in Scripture, this book offers wisdom about topics including the problem of suffering, the nature of Christian virtue, love of God and our neighbor, longing for redemption and reconciliation, humility, and hospitality. Plantinga delves into hard questions with a calm and pastoral authority that offers the perfect antidote for the unrest in the world and the church right now. Each reflection is presented with a Bible text and a brief prayer, useful for personal devotions or small group discussions. Readers will emerge with a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the Christian life, equipped with timeless insights into the ups and downs of a life lived in the presence of God.

Our truest identity isn't something we create or build ourselves.It's a gift we receive.We live under water.What does baptism mean? And what do we do with it? Kevin Adams--an experienced pastor and church planter who has baptized people of all ages and spiritual origins--makes the case that baptism isn't merely a one-time ceremony but something to be lived and affirmed throughout one's life. In Living under Water, Adams shares stories that illustrate how baptism shapes one's identity and enters us into an alternate narrative, one ongoing since the dawn of creation, through which we understand our truest selves with all our joy and trauma and by which we are united with a group of people unbound by race or language, continent or generation. Foregrounding baptism in the lives of Christians means foregrounding baptism in the life of the church. Anchored in both theology and real-world experience, Adams shows how that can happen while engaging honestly with the history (and ongoing reality) of baptism's corruptions and abuses. This book is for pastors and parishioners of any Christian tradition who long for baptism to be bigger than a set of doctrinal bullet points--nothing less than the gospel story enacted with water.

This study is an introduction to the history and content of the three ecumenical creeds (Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian) and three Reformed confessions (Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, and Canons of Dort). The materials can be used in various adult study groups, taking as few as four or as many as 31 sessions. The last section of A Place To Stand contains Postscripts, which are to be used in class sessions.

In Reading for Preaching Neal Plantinga makes a singular claim: preachers who read fine writing will likely become deeper and defter preachers. In his own winsome writing style Plantinga shows how a general reading program benefits preachers. First, he says, good reading generates delight, and the preacher who enters the world of delight goes with God. Good reading can also help tune the preacher's ear for language -- his or her primary tool. General reading can enlarge the preacher's sympathies for people and situations that she or he had previously known nothing about. And, above all, the preacher who reads widely has the chance to become wise.Though aimed especially at preachers, this beautifully written book will benefit anyone interested in the wisdom to be derived from reading.

The Bible admonishes Christians to love God with the mind as well as with the heart. Engaging God's World clearly links this scriptural mandate with the pursuit of academic life, extolling the crucial role of Christian higher education in the intellectual and spiritual formation of believers.Chiefly intended to serve as a primer for students beginning college careers but valuable to thoughtful Christians at every stage of life, this volume spells out the central themes of the Christian faith from a Reformed perspective. More important, however, the book shows how Christian higher education fits inside a view of the world and of human life that is formed by these ideas."Learning, " Cornelius Plantinga writes, "is a spiritual calling; properly done, it attaches us to God." Approaching the topic of education from a variety of angles, Plantinga shows that Christ-centered learning teaches people to correctly see the world as God's creation, to see providence in history, to handle secular knowledge critically, to develop good judgment and, ultimately, to use faith-filled learning in the service of God's kingdom.

From the pen of award-winning author Cornelius Plantinga Jr. comes this book of flesh-and-blood Christian meditations with a theological spine.Building on the success of two earlier editions and now splendidly updated, Beyond Doubt unpacks the deep truths of the Christian faith by raising basic questions like What is God like? Why pray? What is the shape of the godly life? If the Lord is with us, why do we suffer? How do we face death?Plantinga addresses such questions through short, vivid meditations, all written in the graceful, polished prose that he is celebrated for. Thoughtful and challenging throughout, the meditations each start with a Bible verse and end with a brief edifying prayer.

This timely book retrieves an old awareness that has slipped and changed in recent decades. The awareness of sin used to be our shadow. Christians hated sin, feared it, fled from it--and grieved over it. But the shadow of sin has now dimmed in our consciousness. Even preachers, who once got visibly angry over a congregation's sin, now speak of sin in a mumble.Cornelius Plantinga pulls the ancient doctrine of sin out of mothballs and presents it to contemporary readers in clear language, drawing from a wide range of books, films, and other cultural resources. In smoothly flowing prose Plantinga describes how sin corrupts what is good and how such corruption spreads. He discusses the parasitic quality of sin and the ironies and pretenses generated by this quality. He examines the relation of sin to folly and addiction. He describes two classic "postures" or movements of sin -- attack and flight. And in an epilogue he reminds us that whatever we say about sin also sharpens our eye for the beauty of grace.