Beginning Thursday, September 1, Wright Library will be open:

• Monday–Thursday 8am–9pm (no entry after 8:30pm)
• Friday 8am–6pm (no entry after 5:30pm)
• Saturday 9am–5pm (no entry after 4:30pm)
• Sunday 2pm–6pm (no entry after 5:30pm)

For exceptions and a calendar view, visit the library hours page (link below).

Hundreds of thousands of e-books for Princeton Seminary faculty, students and staff, plus booklists and other custom features on a Netflix-like platform. Registration required.

After you have registered, then you can use the link in the Databases A-Z list to login and return to the platform.

Trial ends July 20, 2023

The print version of Dale Allison's recent book Encountering mystery : religious experience in a secular age (2022) has been cataloged – BL53 .A425 2022 – and added to the collection.

An e-book version is also available.

Summary from the publisher: "Despite widespread skepticism on the matter, a significant number of people today have stories of religious experience—moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions. How should rationally minded people respond?

What would your reaction be if someone told you that, one night while sitting alone, she saw through the window a brilliant light descend from the sky until it was so large that it filled the room—and that it radiated a feeling of “pure love”? And what would you say if a friend confided that one night he woke up and could not move, felt he was being suffocated, and sensed an evil spirit in the room?

By default in the secular age we are skeptical about anything mysterious or supernatural. More likely than not, most people would respond to the stories above with embarrassment and concern about the person's grasp of reality, or they would attempt to explain them away through rational or scientific means. But the truth is that religious experiences like these are not as uncommon as they seem—although talking about such experiences often is. This is the case even in a faith tradition such as Christianity, despite the Bible's numerous accounts of miraculous and mysterious happenings.

In Encountering Mystery, noted biblical scholar Dale Allison makes the argument that stories of religious experience are meaningful and not to be marginalized—and that we have a moral prerogative to lovingly engage with such stories regardless of whether we have had similar experiences. Through a close look at phenomena such as moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions, Allison shows how ordinary practices of faith need not be at odds with individual religious experiences. Above all, he enjoins us to be honest about the persistence of religious experience in a secular age and to make space for those who encounter mystery in their lives."

Image description: Photo of the book standing on a wooden bench outside Wright Library, Princeton Seminary.

Wright Library offers access on the Sabinet African Journals platform to all titles contained in the Religion (excl. T&F) Collection as well as all open access titles.

Sabinet is the most comprehensive, searchable collection of full-text African electronic journals available on a single platform.

From a brand-new edited volume featuring disabled authors and creators (Redefining Disability, 2022) to open access e-books to many print books including works by John Swinton, we invite you to delve into this curated bibliography this summer (or winter, depending on your location!).

Links to conference recordings, conversations, articles, websites and social media channels are also included.

Just follow the link below!

Wright Library is pleased to offer trial access to Sabinet African Journals. Access all titles contained in the Religion (excl. T&F) Collection as well as all open access titles.

Sabinet is the most comprehensive, searchable collection of full-text African electronic journals available on one platform.

Trial ends July 31, 2022

The print version of The Grace of Being Fallible in Philosophy, Theology, and Religion (2021) co-edited by Thomas John Hastings, Executive Director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) and editor of the International Bulletin of Mission Research has been cataloged and added to the collection, BD171 .G73 2021.

An e-book version continues to be available from Wright Library as well.

Summary from the publisher: "Why is epistemic fallibilism a viable topic for Christian thought and cultural engagement today? Religious fundamentalists and scientific positivists tend to deal with reality in terms of "knockdown" arguments, and such binary approaches to lived reality have helped to underwrite the belligerence and polarization that mark this age of the social media echo chamber. For those who want to take both religion and science seriously, epistemic fallibilism offers a possible moderating stance that claims neither too much nor too little for either endeavor, nor forces a decision for one side over and against the other. This book uses this epistemological approach to fallibilism as a positive resource for conversations that arise at the intersection of philosophy, theology, and religion. The essays explore a range of openings into the interstices of these often siloed fields, with the aim of overcoming some of the impasses separating diverse ways of knowing."

Image description: Photo of the book and some decorative objects on a table. Book cover illustration copyright Alex Linch shutterstock.com.

The wounds of beauty : seven dialogues on art and education by Margarita Mooney Suarez (editor & principal author) is now available in the Wright Library collection.

Call Number: BR115.A8 W68 2022
ISBN: 9781685951115
Publication Date: 2022-05-11

Contributors include Peter Brown, George Harne, Sister Noëlla Marcellino, James Matthew Wilson, David Clayton, Dana Gioia, and Francis X. Maier.

Azusa reimagined : a radical vision of religious and democratic belonging by Keri Day is now available in the Wright Library collection.

Call Number: BX6194.A7 D39 2022
ISBN: 9781503615236
Publication Date: 2022-06-07

An e-book version is also available via eBooks on EBSCOhost (and will be in the library catalog and Summon soon).

This week, as Princeton Theological Seminary hosts The Joe R. Engle Institute of Preaching, we're lifting up free preaching resources available online.

One of these is The Earl Palmer Collection, which preserves articles, newsletters, essays, transcripts, study guides, poems, lectures, commentaries and more representing sixty-four years of ministry in digital format with audio and video recordings of sermons and seminars plus selected writings by Reverend Earl F. Palmer, Class of 1956. The collection is part of Princeton Seminary's Theological Commons digital library.

Rev. Earl Palmer has served in pastoral ministries at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington; Union Church in Manila, Philippines; First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, California and The National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. He is viewed as one of the most gifted teachers of the Bible, with a unique style that unfolds the text and allows the listener to make great discoveries. As such, Earl has gained a reputation as a great expositor.¹ He also has a strong interest in pursuing theological themes that are present in classic and contemporary literature, with particular focus on such authors as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth. As an author, Earl has published numerous articles and eighteen books plus contributed chapters in other published works. After his retirement, Earl Palmer Ministries (EPM) was created so that this teacher can keep sharing his gift with the world.

Find a link to this collection and other free preaching resources in the research guide linked at the bottom of this post.

¹ Old, Hughes Oliphant. The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church. Vol. 7. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing, 2010. 108.