Yonkers Public Library System

In the decades after World War II, Protestant missionaries abroad were a topic of vigorous public debate. From religious periodicals and Sunday sermons to novels and anthropological monographs, public conversations about missionaries followed a powerful yet paradoxical line of reasoning, namely that people abroad needed greater autonomy from U.S. power and that Americans could best tell others how to use their freedom. In The Gospel of Freedom and...

"'I am a man torn in two. And the gospel I inherited is divided.' Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove grew up in the Bible Belt in the American South as a faithful church-going Christian. But he gradually came to realize that the gospel his Christianity proclaimed was not good news for everybody. The same Christianity that sang, 'Amazing grace, how sweet the sound' also perpetuated racial injustice and white supremacy in the name of Jesus. His Christianity,...

With this study of the Gospel of Mark, Brendan Byrne completes his trilogy of works on the Synoptic Gospels. Mark, the Cinderella gospel, as Byrne says, languished for millennia in the shadow of Matthew ("the first gospel") and Luke. Beginning in the nineteenth century, scholars uncovered what is now generally accepted as the more likely scenario: that Mark was the pioneer, creating a new literary genre ("gospel") in which to communicate the "Good...

Contemporary culture frequently defines freedom the way the Bible describes sin: complete autonomy. A Quid without Any Quo explores how the gospel sets us free for glad and joyful service. Not only is Paul's Letter to the Galatians perhaps the most consequential book of the New Testament for the Protestant Reformation, its radical and unyielding proclamation of grace apart from the law is once again timely in a culture that is often without mercy. In...

What is our purpose in parenting? Is it to keep our kids alive and healthy? To raise responsible adults who will be kind people, loving friends, and good citizens? Or maybe we'd just be happy if our kids would clean up their rooms and stop antagonizing each other. While all of these are honorable goals, when we focus entirely on fixing our kids' behavior, we can miss the most important role a parent has: to show them the love and grace of Christ. “Give...