First CRC Library
Category:
Fiction
Betrayed by his best friend and enslaved by the Romans, Judah Ben-Hur seeks revenge but instead finds redemption through his encounters with Jesus Christ. Generations have thrilled to the sacred destiny of the mighty charioteer Ben-Hur, whose enduring tale began as a bestselling 1880 novel that later inspired equally popular stage and film interpretations. Combining the appeal of a historical adventure with a heartfelt message of Christian love and compassion, the story blends the visceral excitement of a quest for vengeance with the spiritual thrill of forgiveness.
Author Lew Wallace―a Civil War general, politician, and diplomat―conducted meticulous research into the ancient world to bring a vivid immediacy to his characters and settings, from life as a Roman galley slave, to the living death of exile, to a Jerusalem leper colony.
Author Lew Wallace―a Civil War general, politician, and diplomat―conducted meticulous research into the ancient world to bring a vivid immediacy to his characters and settings, from life as a Roman galley slave, to the living death of exile, to a Jerusalem leper colony.
| Author | Wallace, Lew |
| Year Published | 1880 |
Category:
Fiction
A milestone in the history of popular theology, The Screwtape Letters is an iconic classic on spiritual warfare and the dynamics of temptation.
This profound and striking narrative takes the form of a series of letters from Screwtape, a devil high in the Infernal Civil Service, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior colleague engaged in his first mission on earth, trying to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. Although the young man initially looks to be a willing victim, he changes his ways and is "lost" to the young devil.
Dedicated to Lewis's friend and colleague J. R. R. Tolkien, The Screwtape Letters is a timeless classic on spiritual conflict and the psychology of temptation which are part of our religious experience.
This profound and striking narrative takes the form of a series of letters from Screwtape, a devil high in the Infernal Civil Service, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior colleague engaged in his first mission on earth, trying to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. Although the young man initially looks to be a willing victim, he changes his ways and is "lost" to the young devil.
Dedicated to Lewis's friend and colleague J. R. R. Tolkien, The Screwtape Letters is a timeless classic on spiritual conflict and the psychology of temptation which are part of our religious experience.
| Author | Lewis, Clive Staples |
| Year Published | 1942 |
Category:
Fiction
C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.
| Author | Lewis, Clive Staples |
| Year Published | 1946 |
Category:
Fiction
The Space Trilogy is a remarkable work of fantasy, demonstrating the powerful imagination of C.S..Lewis. This new one-volume edition marks the 75th Anniversary of the first publication of Out of the Silent Planet with an exclusive Foreword by J.R.R. Tolkien, on whom the main character of Ransom was largely based.
OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET
Dr Ransom, a Cambridge academic, is abducted and taken on a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra, which he knows as Mars. His captors are plotting to plunder the planet’s treasures and offer Ransom as a sacrifice to the creatures who live there...
PERELANDRA
Having escaped from Mars, Dr Ransom is called to the paradise planet of Perelandra, or Venus. When his old enemy also arrives and is taken over by the forces of evil, Ransom finds himself in a desperate struggle to save the innocence of this Eden-like world...
THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH
Investigating the truth about her prophetic dreams, Jane Studdock encounters the fabled Dr Ransom, who is in great pain after his travels. A sinister society run by his old adversaries intends to harness the ancient powers of a resurrected Merlin in their ambition to subjugate the people of Earth...
OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET
Dr Ransom, a Cambridge academic, is abducted and taken on a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra, which he knows as Mars. His captors are plotting to plunder the planet’s treasures and offer Ransom as a sacrifice to the creatures who live there...
PERELANDRA
Having escaped from Mars, Dr Ransom is called to the paradise planet of Perelandra, or Venus. When his old enemy also arrives and is taken over by the forces of evil, Ransom finds himself in a desperate struggle to save the innocence of this Eden-like world...
THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH
Investigating the truth about her prophetic dreams, Jane Studdock encounters the fabled Dr Ransom, who is in great pain after his travels. A sinister society run by his old adversaries intends to harness the ancient powers of a resurrected Merlin in their ambition to subjugate the people of Earth...
| Author | Lewis, Clive Staples |
| Year Published | 1945 |
Category:
Fiction
Thalli has fifteen minutes and twenty-three seconds left to live. The toxic gas that will complete her annihilation is invading her bloodstream. But she is not afraid.
Thalli is different than others in The State. She feels things. She asks questions. And in the State, this is not tolerated. The Ten scientists who survived the nuclear war that destroyed the world above believe that emotion was at the core of what went wrong—and they have genetically removed it from the citizens they have since created. Thalli has kept her malformation secret from those who have monitored her for most of her life, but when she receives an ancient piece of music to record as her community’s assigned musician, she can no longer keep her emotions secreted away.
Seen as a threat to the harmony of her Pod, Thalli is taken to the Scientists for immediate annihilation. But before that can happen, Berk—her former Pod mate who is being groomed as a Scientist—steps in and persuades the Scientists to keep Thalli alive as a test subject.
The more time she spends in the Scientist’s Pod, the clearer it becomes that things are not as simple as she was programmed to believe. She hears stories of a Designer—stories that fill her mind with more questions: Who can she trust? What is this emotion called love? And what if she isn’t just an anomaly, but part of a greater design?
Thalli is different than others in The State. She feels things. She asks questions. And in the State, this is not tolerated. The Ten scientists who survived the nuclear war that destroyed the world above believe that emotion was at the core of what went wrong—and they have genetically removed it from the citizens they have since created. Thalli has kept her malformation secret from those who have monitored her for most of her life, but when she receives an ancient piece of music to record as her community’s assigned musician, she can no longer keep her emotions secreted away.
Seen as a threat to the harmony of her Pod, Thalli is taken to the Scientists for immediate annihilation. But before that can happen, Berk—her former Pod mate who is being groomed as a Scientist—steps in and persuades the Scientists to keep Thalli alive as a test subject.
The more time she spends in the Scientist’s Pod, the clearer it becomes that things are not as simple as she was programmed to believe. She hears stories of a Designer—stories that fill her mind with more questions: Who can she trust? What is this emotion called love? And what if she isn’t just an anomaly, but part of a greater design?
| Author | McGee, Krista |
| Year Published | 2013 |
Category:
Fiction
In The Company of Others is the second installment in Jan Karon's new Father Tim series set this time in County Sligo.
Father Tim and Cynthia arrive in the west of Ireland, intent on researching his Kavanagh ancestry from the comfort of a charming fishing lodge. The charm, however, is broken entirely when Cynthia startles a burglar and sprains her already-injured ankle. Then a cherished and valuable painting is stolen from the lodge owners, and Cynthia's pain pales in comparison to the wound at the center of this bitterly estranged Irish family.
In the Company of Others is a moving testament to the desperate struggle to hide the truth at any cost and the powerful need to confess. Of all her winning novels, Jan Karon says this "dark-haired child" is her favorite.
Father Tim and Cynthia arrive in the west of Ireland, intent on researching his Kavanagh ancestry from the comfort of a charming fishing lodge. The charm, however, is broken entirely when Cynthia startles a burglar and sprains her already-injured ankle. Then a cherished and valuable painting is stolen from the lodge owners, and Cynthia's pain pales in comparison to the wound at the center of this bitterly estranged Irish family.
In the Company of Others is a moving testament to the desperate struggle to hide the truth at any cost and the powerful need to confess. Of all her winning novels, Jan Karon says this "dark-haired child" is her favorite.
| Author | Karon, Jan |
| Year Published | 2010 |
| Series Name | Father Tim Series |
Category:
Fiction
Originally written at a jail cell desk in 1675, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress quickly grew in popularity second only to the Bible itself, and it has seen countless editions and printings over the years. Gary Schmidt has now recaptured this story of everyman's quest for life in contemporary language for a new generation of readers. This volume offers a superb original retelling of Bunyan's beloved classic, masterfully illustrated with fifty dramatic watercolors by Barry Moser. Here again is the tale of Christian's spiritual journey from the City of Destruction to the Heavenly Palaces, including the pitfalls and graces that threaten and fortify his epic pilgrimage. Matching Bunyan's flare for storytelling and vivid imagery, Gary Schmidt's new narrative also echoes the best of writers like Dante, Sir Thomas Browne, E. M. Forster, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Barry Moser's illustrations bring Bunyan's unforgettable characters and landscapes to life in fresh ways. While Christian himself is interpreted as a contemporary figure, Moser portrays the story's characters within different historical eras, powerfully enhancing their symbolic meanings for today's readers while also showing their common tie to humankind throughout the ages. Even after three centuries, this odyssey of faith and human perseverance still appeals to a wide audience. This new retelling of Pilgrim's Progress will stand repeated readings as it speaks to the experiences and stirs the imaginations of both young and old.
| Author | Bunyan, John; Schmidt, Gary D. |
| Year Published | 2008 |
Category:
Fiction
Powerful Retelling of the Story of Esther
In 1944, blond and blue-eyed Jewess Hadassah Benjamin feels abandoned by God when she is saved from a firing squad only to be handed over to a new enemy. Pressed into service by SS-Kommandant Colonel Aric von Schmidt at the transit camp of Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia, she is able to hide behind the false identity of Stella Muller. However, in order to survive and maintain her cover as Aric's secretary, she is forced to stand by as her own people are sent to Auschwitz.
Suspecting her employer is a man of hidden depths and sympathies, Stella cautiously appeals to him on behalf of those in the camp. Aric's compassion gives her hope, and she finds herself battling a growing attraction for this man she knows she should despise as an enemy.
Stella pours herself into her efforts to keep even some of the camp's prisoners safe, but she risks the revelation of her true identity with every attempt. When her bravery brings her to the point of the ultimate sacrifice, she has only her faith to lean upon. Perhaps God has placed her there for such a time as this, but how can she save her people when she is unable to save herself?
In 1944, blond and blue-eyed Jewess Hadassah Benjamin feels abandoned by God when she is saved from a firing squad only to be handed over to a new enemy. Pressed into service by SS-Kommandant Colonel Aric von Schmidt at the transit camp of Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia, she is able to hide behind the false identity of Stella Muller. However, in order to survive and maintain her cover as Aric's secretary, she is forced to stand by as her own people are sent to Auschwitz.
Suspecting her employer is a man of hidden depths and sympathies, Stella cautiously appeals to him on behalf of those in the camp. Aric's compassion gives her hope, and she finds herself battling a growing attraction for this man she knows she should despise as an enemy.
Stella pours herself into her efforts to keep even some of the camp's prisoners safe, but she risks the revelation of her true identity with every attempt. When her bravery brings her to the point of the ultimate sacrifice, she has only her faith to lean upon. Perhaps God has placed her there for such a time as this, but how can she save her people when she is unable to save herself?
| Author | Breslin, Kate |
| Year Published | 2014 |
Category:
Fiction
Three Days captures Mary's story as she grew from a young, vulnerable girl to a grown woman witnessing Jesus's agonizing death and then, miraculously, his resurrection. It imagines Mary's deepest emotions and richest experiences as the mother of God's own Son.
| Author | Carlson, Melody |
| Year Published | 2005 |
Category:
Fiction
When her little brother died in her care, Emma Grace stopped praying, believing, reading the Bible and attending church. She thinks God failed her. Can He convince her otherwise? One of Emma Grace Falin's six-year-old twin brothers falls into a well and dies while in her care. Emma Grace begins a journey that takes her through the dark valley of guilt, sorrow, depression and anger at God. But through her ordeal, readers see the hand of God at work. Although she rejects Him, God brings restoration and healing into her troubled life. Readers will better understand God's mercy, as He compassionately guides the lives of Emma Grace and her family during their desperate period of grief and despair. Prayerfully, this book will encourage readers to claim God's faithfulness and love as their own - especially in times of brokenness.
| Author | Jenkins, Nancy Jo |
| Year Published | 2006 |