FREE/BARGAIN — Christian Interest

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Try this. The first one to try it, please pass along what you find.

There is (or was) an apparent glitch in the Amazon system. I found several Eerdmans books for 99 cents whose prices are generally much, much (think $25-40 or so) higher than those prices.

I purchased the ones that I saw that I was interested in. The prices on the product pages showed 99 cents. I double-checked, and the prices were each 99 cents in the order details in my "content and devices." However, several weren't appearing at all; I'll check again later.

I did not find the 99 cent prices by doing a low-to-high price search on Amazon's site, these 99 cent deals all showed up after the actual product information on the product pages, where it says, "Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations."

Then, the deals dried up, at least for me. There were still quite a few ebooks, under "Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations," that I saw for 99 cents, but when I went to the product pages, the prices were back to the regular prices.

I don't know why the prices dropped, and I don't know why they appeared, on the product pages, back to what they used to be. In case something in Amazon's computer said, "something is wrong here," give it a try and see what happens for you.

Good luck.

I think it's just some Eerdmans discounts. I see them from time to time. Some of the books that I saw at $0.99 were ones I've posted in the past. I bought a couple of new ones. The prices went back up on a few others before I had a chance to look at them again. If the publisher has any announcements of what is on discount, I haven't been able to find them. Catch-as-catch-can.

I currently see several at $0.99:

Stanley Hauerwas The Wisdom of the Cross: Essays in Honor of John Howard Yoder

Wilbert R. Shenk North American Foreign Missions, 1810-1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy (Studies in the History of Christian Missions)

Rein Bos We Have Heard That God Is with You: Preaching the Old Testament

For $2.83 is Vladimir Solovyov The Justification of the Good: An Essay on Moral Philosophy

It sometimes takes a while before books show up in the contents and devices list.

[Fluribus]

Here is a search for Eerdmans titles sorted by price.

This search was done by searching for "eerdmans" (quotes included) in the basic search. Searching without the quotes brings up books that have that publisher's name in the title. Advanced search by publisher is too strict. Searching for eerdmans in the publisher slot will miss books where the publisher listing is Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

I think it's just some Eerdmans discounts. I see them from time to time. Some of the books that I saw at $0.99 were ones I've posted in the past. I bought a couple of new ones. The prices went back up on a few others before I had a chance to look at them again. If the publisher has any announcements of what is on discount, I haven't been able to find them. Catch-as-catch-can.

I currently see several at $0.99:

Stanley Hauerwas The Wisdom of the Cross: Essays in Honor of John Howard Yoder

Wilbert R. Shenk North American Foreign Missions, 1810-1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy (Studies in the History of Christian Missions)

Rein Bos We Have Heard That God Is with You: Preaching the Old Testament

For $2.83 is Vladimir Solovyov The Justification of the Good: An Essay on Moral Philosophy

It sometimes takes a while before books show up in the contents and devices list.

The "several" were at least 2 dozen last night, before they went kaput.

Here's an example of an Eerdmans ebook that was 99 cents at one point last night. In case anyone doesn't notice, the price is $45.00 now. That's the thing that I ran up against repeatedly, after a while, last night.

You may be spot-on about Eerdmans doing temporary discounts like that; I just wish that there was some way to find out about them when they appear. I think that I remember someone, several years ago, creating a script to use with Amazon, for some purpose. I wonder if that could be done here. Of course, I'd check the rules first.

I'm on my way to check my "contents and devices." I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but it showed last night that I bought three books, but I felt that I had bought about twice that many.

[GtrsRGr8]

You can get the ePub Reading Paul, by Michael Gorman, free through June 12. This is Wipf and Stock's monthly ebook giveaway (although I remember one month recently in which they gave away three ebooks!).

The description of the book, courtesy of Wipf and Stock:
In this introduction to the Apostle Paul and his gospel, written especially for lay readers, for beginning students, and for those unsure about what to make of Paul, Michael J. Gorman takes the apostle seriously, as someone who speaks for God and to us. After an overview not only of Paul's radical transformation from persecutor to proclaimer but also of his letter-writing in the context of Paul's new mission, Reading Paul explores the central themes of the apostle's gospel: Gorman places special emphasis on the theopolitical character of Paul's gospel and on the themes of cross and resurrection, multiculturalism in the church, and peacemaking and nonviolence as the way of Christ according to Paul. Gorman also offers a distinctive interpretation of justification by faith as participation in Christ--an interpretation that challenges standard approaches to these Pauline themes. Reading Paul demonstrates that the apostle of faith, hope, and love speaks not only to our deepest spiritual needs but also to the challenging times in which we live.

Taking into account the ratings at Amazon and GoodReads, this book is highly to very highly rated.

Are you are Kindle-phile? If so, you currently can get the Kindle version for $2.99 there.

For those who have gotten a free ebook from Wipf and Stock in the past, this should be a review . . . . You must have an account; sign in to it. To get the free ePub ebook (it is at the bottom of the webpage; remember that email programs often clip the end of messages), add it to your cart. Don't worry about the $17.60 price that shows, it will disappear. Follow the subsequent directions; a code, "ebookfree," will automatically appear, and zero-out the price. Checkout.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

This month's free book for the Logos software is Roland Murphy's Ecclesiastes volume of the Word Biblical Commentary.

I hadn't read any volumes of this particular commentary before, but I'm impressed with it (or, at least, this volume). While the author is a bit theologically conservative for my taste in a critical commentary, he does a capable job of describing less conservative points of view.

If you're inclined to spend a few dollars, the Exodus volume is $4.99 and John's Gospel is $9.99.

BestCommentaries.com has the Old and New Testament Word Biblical Commentary ranked probably first, closely followed by the much briefer Tyndale Old and New Commentary and the NICOT/NICNT series.

The liberal-critical set, The International Critical Commentary does not fare very well at all, but probably that is understandable given the generally conservative bent of the reviewers at the bestcommentaries.com site. But, the poor showing of the ICC may be due to things other than the ideological stance of the reviewers. If I'm not mistaken, many volumes of that massive set have not been revised in many, many years--quite a few of them are on the Internet Archive because they were published pre-1923.

What is inexplicable to me is that the recent--to one degree or another--Anchor Yale commentaries are not listed. I have used them very, very little so far, but I get the impression that the quality of scholarship is basically on par with the ICC.

[TrevorViking]

Direct link to Reading Paul at Wipf & Stock:
https://wipfandstock.com/reading-paul.html

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

I think it's just some Eerdmans discounts. I see them from time to time. Some of the books that I saw at $0.99 were ones I've posted in the past. I bought a couple of new ones. The prices went back up on a few others before I had a chance to look at them again. If the publisher has any announcements of what is on discount, I haven't been able to find them. Catch-as-catch-can.

I currently see several at $0.99:

Stanley Hauerwas The Wisdom of the Cross: Essays in Honor of John Howard Yoder

Wilbert R. Shenk North American Foreign Missions, 1810-1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy (Studies in the History of Christian Missions)

Rein Bos We Have Heard That God Is with You: Preaching the Old Testament

For $2.83 is Vladimir Solovyov The Justification of the Good: An Essay on Moral Philosophy

It sometimes takes a while before books show up in the contents and devices list.

Originally Posted by Fluribus

Here is a search for Eerdmans titles sorted by price.

This search was done by searching for "eerdmans" (quotes included) in the basic search. Searching without the quotes brings up books that have that publisher's name in the title. Advanced search by publisher is too strict. Searching for eerdmans in the publisher slot will miss books where the publisher listing is Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

The information about enclosing "eerdmans" in quotes was helpful. I don't see the point of having to do it, since there's just one word, but whatever.

There are some different 99 cent-ers that appear new now from what I saw last night . . . . one is on Heidegger, one is on Zizek, and there are others. I'm still looking . . . .

Maybe Eerdmans marks down a few ebooks every day. I'm going to add the search webpage under the tab "CHECK THESE EVERY DAY" in my bookmarks, and see what I can come up with each day for the next few days.

Of course, I'll let you all know what I find out. As big as Eerdmans' catalog is, this could be a goldmine.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

The information about enclosing "eerdmans" in quotes was helpful. I don't see the point of having to do it, since there's just one word, but whatever.

There are some different 99 cent-ers that appear right now from what I saw last night . . . . one on Heidegger, one on Zizek, others. I'm still looking . . . .

Maybe Eerdmans marks down a few ebooks every day. I'm going to add the search webpage under the tab "CHECK THESE EVERY DAY" in my bookmarks, and see what I can come up with each day for the next few days.

Of course, I'll let you all know what I find out. As big as Eerdmans' catalog is, this could be a goldmine.

Okay, here's an oddity.

I mentioned last night that purchases weren't appearing in "content and devices." When I go to the webpages of the particular items, however, the webpage tells me that I have already purchased the ebook. So far, so good. Finally, I did a search of "content and devices" for two books that I purchased, but did not appear or, at least, did not appear in the order that they should have. The search turns up the "lost" ebooks as hits. The only thing else that I could do now, it seems, is to go to my Kindle library and make sure that it contains those titles. Right now, I don't see the urgency.

[GtrsRGr8]

I count 17 99 cent books, and 12 $1.99 books. There are more books than that, but at higher prices.

I'm anxious to see what later today brings.

[GtrsRGr8]

I checked Eerdmans just now, and didn't see any new additions to their 99 cent and up selection.

I'm trying to find out if there's a pattern to their discounting. I think that there has to be, especially since Fluribus mentioned that he saw discounts on Eerdman books from time to time.

If I post again about this matter, it will be to let you guys know that I discovered a pattern in Eerdmans' markdowns, and what that pattern is.

Keep your fingers crossed.

[GtrsRGr8]

Get a free PDF of Let the Stones Speak: Seals of Isaiah and King Hezekiah Discovered. This PDF is a catalog, of 40 pages in length, of an exhibition being held now in Edmond, Oklahoma. Get the catalog here.

The Biblical Archaeology Society (publishers of the Biblical Archaeology Review) states that "Now on view . . . . [are] the exhibit Seals of Isaiah and King Hezekiah Discovered, presenting two seal impressions found 3 feet apart in the Ophel excavations led by archaeologist Eilat Mazar at the foot of Jersualem’s Temple Mount."

As far as the seal of King Hezekiah is concerned, it is "the first time such a find of Hezekiah’s was found in an archaeological excavation."

A seal such as this is also called a bulla. This bulla of Hezekiah has an impression which depicts a "two-winged sun disk flanked by ankh symbols and contains a Hebrew inscription that reads, "Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of) Ahaz, king of Judah."

The identification of the Isaiah bulla is not quite as certain. It's a broken, small bulla, with the upper portion of the impression missing. Reconstruction of a few Hebrew letters would result in the words "[belonging] to Isaiah the prophet." If this reconstruction stands, it would be the first extra-Biblical reference to the prophet Isaiah.

The exhibition continues through August 19, is sponsored by the Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma (technically, by the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation), and is at the auditorium on the campus of Herbert W. Armstrong College.

The sponsor of the exhibition is sectarian. However, except for the last page of the exhibition catalog (which is an obvious advertisement), I saw no signs of sectarianism in the publication. Usually exhibition catalogs are just that--catalogs. Perhaps because of the few items in this exhibition, this "catalog" is filled with information about the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and places associated with them, along with information about the bullae themselves. It is a very well done publication, and makes for great reading, in my opinion.

[issybird]

The Sign of Jonas by Thomas Merton, his account of his first six years in a Trappist monastery, has dropped to $1.99 (regularly $9.99) at Kindle and Kobo.

[Ricky D'Angelo]

LOVE LIVES HERE audiobook is free. Description below:

FREE audiobook download for this month (normally $14.98)
Love Lives Here is a collection of stories that include the ways Maria and her husband, Bob, navigated family their way, without clear instructions or a road map. It’s about what they learned to make their lives meaningful and whimsical and how they created a space for their family to grow together while they reached outward to live the beautiful life God wanted for her and want for us.

https://christianaudio.com/free/

[Difflugia]

This week's "Free Friday" book from Wordsearch is Passionate Conviction, a book of apologetics essays edited by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig. It's been on sale before as a regular ebook (according to B&N, I bought it in 2014), but it's currently $8 at Amazon. I wonder if Amazon will match a Wordsearch price?

Wordsearch Free Friday

Note that this book requires either the Wordsearch app or you can read it online.

[GtrsRGr8]

Recommended: _International Standard Bible Encyclopedia_, 1915 ed.

Available _free_ on the Internet Archive (archive.org). All 5 volumes are available--get the files made from the _outstanding_ scans made by Cornell.

The 1915 edition still is of value, even though a "revised" edition was published in 1989. The 1915 edition is skewed much more toward doctrinal/philosophical matters, which change relatively little over time.