The discourse of prayer responds to the abiding lure of transcendence. From Gilgamesh to the primordial human beings in Eden to Odysseus, the quest for ultimate truths has summoned forth all manner of human effort - courageous, desperate, pious, impious, successful, failed, invited, forbidden - and like all such lures, one can never be certain whether the glimmer of transcendence is that of a bright and shining star that illuminates the shadows or only a shiny object that seduces one into an inescapable darkness (a fishing lure, for example). In this study, Samuel E. Balentine demonstrates how prayer's invocation of God transgresses the limits of human beings. The author shows how inviting, let alone commanding God to speak may be the "acme of bardic pretention," but in the ancient world such transgression characterizes the audacity of prayer.

Jewish Culture and Creativity honors the wide-ranging scholarship of Prof. Michael Fishbane with contributions of his students on subjects that cover the gamut of Jewish studies, from biblical and rabbinic literature to medieval and modern Jewish culture, and concluding with case studies of the creative application of Prof. Fishbane’s thought and theology in contemporary Jewish life. The innovative scholarship represented in this volume offers critical new perspectives from antiquity to contemporary Judaism and will serve as a stimulus for new directions in and beyond the field of Jewish studies.

In 1969, Bill Pinar was privileged to study with Dwayne Huebner at Teachers College. In a large room with 70 others, he watched an extraordinary figure in the distance--speaking a tongue few of them grasped--whom they all found compelling. They knew they were in the presence of a most remarkable and learned man. Huebner helped create the world which contemporary curriculum scholars now inhabit and labor to recreate as educators and theoreticians. His generative influence has been evident in many discourses, including the political, the phenomenological, the aesthetic, and the theological. This volume situates Huebner's work historically, emphasizing the ways it foreshadowed the reconceptualization of the field in the 1970s.

Shameless Persistence - The Audacity Of Purposeful Praying was born out of a desire and a recognition that this approach to prayer in no way impinges or compromises on the sovereignty of God. Quite the contrary, God expressly desires and encourages this approach, 'for men ought always to pray and not to lose heart.' The greatest need of prayer at all times is the intrinsic quality called Passion. The single greatest motivation to pray is defined by that word. It is the intention of the author that by reading this book, you will be engulfed with the flames of desire and consumed by a passionate need to pursue God, expectantly awaiting the outcome of such encounters. Be encouraged us to ask and keep asking unrelentingly, never wilting under pressure or in the face of a crisis. Be confident that God who knows what we have need of before we ask is benevolent and reliable. We dare to accede to the instructions of Jesus knowing that the Audacity of our Purposeful praying will grant a response from God. Let us therefore commit to a lifestyle of persistent, purposeful praying.