Peter J Gomes

With his characteristic eloquence and compassion, Peter J. Gomes offers a new collection of his most important sermons, which draw on the wisdom of the Bible to guide us through the year and enrich our daily lives.

A book of deep and practical wisdom, and uncommon common sense, by one of the nation's most eminent educators. F. Washington Jarvis was headmaster of Boston's Roxbury Latin School, the oldest school in continuous operation in North America. This book, winner of the 2001 Christopher Award, collects Jarvis’s addresses, reprinted from his school’s publications. His approach is anecdotal. “If it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, it is ten times as true when you are speaking to young teenagers. They are gripped by the story of how real people cope with real situations. They are interested when you share with them the concrete realities of your own life and experience, and they are almost always willing to listen to adults who actually believe in something, who actually stand for something.” The author never talks down to his audience. He knows that students are asking the deepest questions, questions about whether life has meaning and purpose. He also knows that teenagers often find themselves caught by surprise in situations where they have to make tough decisions. And he believes that they are willing, even eager, to know how others have coped in similar situations.

The author argues that individuals can be both a creative scientist and a believer in divine design in a critical examination of how it is possible to contemplate a universe in which God plays an interactive role that is not excluded by science.

Offers a thought-provoking and timely look at the meaning of heroism in modern-day America, examining the various types of heroes that have been celebrated throughout American history and the meanings of seven key monuments and artworks dedicated to heroes. Reprint.

Urges readers to adopt deeper truths and more significant values, and challenges the allure of wealth and power, blind faith in science, and the desire for success, freedom, immortality, and personal happiness.

The man Time magazine hailed as one of America's finest preachers presents a collection of forty timeless addresses to guide us through the year. With his characteristic eloquence and compassion, quoting from scripture as well as from T.S. Eliot and Woody Allen, Gomes offers us the tools we need to understand the wisdom of the Bible and the joy and inspiration it can bring to everyday life.

The Good Book is a brilliant and inspiring look at the Bible today from the preacher to Harvard University, a man Time magazine called one of the seven best preachers in America. "The theme of this book," writes Peter Gomes in his introduction, "is the risk and the joy of the Bible: risk in that we might get it wrong, and joy in the discovery of the living Word becoming flesh. It is around this theme that I formulate three basic questions which the thoughtful reader brings to the Bible: What is it? How is it used? What does it have to say to me?" With compassion, humor, and insight, Gomes gives us the tools we need to make the Bible a dynamic part of our daily lives - and reminds us that the Bible is not just doctrine and interpretation, but one of the most available and extraordinary means by which we are brought into proximity with the divine.