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This Strange and Sacred Scripture: Wrestling with the Old Testament and Its Oddities, by Matthew Richard Schlimm. The Old Testament is deeply and sometimes distressingly strange to modern Christians (as it was also to many ancient readers). Schlimm does not explain away the bizarre or unsettling; rather, he shows how it is sometimes in the very peculiarities of scripture that we can find illumination. I have successfully used this book with first-semester seminary students. It is engagingly written and full of wisdom.

Millions of people in several eastern and southern African nations are facing malnutrition, disease, and other harm as a result of El Niño–related extreme weather patterns: drought in late 2015 and heavy rains in the past few months.

“We have seen too much water in some places and too little in other places,” said Nagulan Nesiah, a senior officer in Episcopal Relief and De­velopment’s disaster response and risk reduction work.