Christians Celebrate Adoption

Many books have been written specifically for Christian parents, and many others have been written about adoption. An anthology that brings those genres together is Loved by Choice: True Stories That Celebrate Adoption, edited by Susan Horner and Kelly Fordyce Martindale. Many distinct voices are contained in these pages—not only adoptive parents, but also men and women who reflect on their own experiences of having been adopted, and parents who made the choice to have their babies raised by others. The families introduced here include biracial, multinational and non-traditional families; one chapter shares the adoption stories of four special-needs children. The writing is not spectacular, but that's hardly the point. Christians who have considered adoption will be inspired by these courageous tales of faith. (Revell, $14.99 256p ISBN 0-8007-1786-4; Mar.)

Resources for Christians

Tony Campolo, a college professor who is also a popular Christian author and speaker, teams up with Duke Divinity School professor William Willimon for The Survival Guide for Christians on Campus: How to Be Students and Disciples at the Same Time. They encourage college students to use the undergraduate experience to test, think about and ultimately strengthen their faith, not to shy away from tough questions. The writing is down to earth, chummy (with the authors referring to themselves by their first names) and even funny, with numerous examples drawn from popular culture. Campolo and Willimon even pull examples from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is not exactly typical fodder for evangelical books. Many college-age Christians will find this as indispensable as a toaster oven or micro-fridge. (Howard, $14.99 paper 192p ISBN 1-58229-236-1; Mar. 12)

Many preachers and Christian speakers will appreciate Nancy Lammers Gross's If You Cannot Preach Like Paul, which seeks "to reclaim Paul for the preaching ministry of the church." Pastors have neglected Paul, she says, because of the recent trend toward narrative preaching and also because of confusion about how to deal with some of the trickier elements of his letters. The tone is primarily academic, with Gross citing theorists such as Paul Ricoeur, but she also offers illustrative anecdotes from her own life and effectively summarizes each chapter to help the reader. (Eerdmans, $15 paper 194p ISBN 0-8028-4938-5; Mar.)