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Contents 1
Theology
10 Pauline Studies 14 New Testament Studies 16 The World of the Bible 19 Commentaries 22 Christian Ministry 26 Faith & Life 32 Religion & Society 35 Biography
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Scandalous Witness
A Little Political Manifesto for Christians Lee C. Camp A call for a renewed Christian politic that is “neither left nor right nor religious” “A hopeful book that helps us know how better to hope.”
— STANLEY HAUERWAS author of Resident Aliens
“Lee Camp reminds us that our ultimate allegiance is not to a donkey or to an elephant, but to the Lamb. His invitation is not to go ‘Right’ or ‘Left,’ but to go deeper. And much of our current moral crisis could simply be averted if Christians were more committed to Jesus and to the poor than to their political ideology.” — SHANE CLAIBORNE author, activist, and cofounder of Red Letter Christians
“With characteristic intelligence, humor, and grace, Lee Camp argues that the American church today has earned itself the curious distinction of having largely ‘destroyed its own witness.’ But Lee is not just a prophet of doom. He proposes an alternative. It may be a scandalous one, to be sure, but it is a courageously hopeful one as well.”
— MIROSLAV VOLF
author of Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World
“Lee has outlined clearly and beautifully all the ways, large and small, we Christians abandon our first love and turn to national interest—which in the end is another form of self-interest.” — ASHLEY CLEVELAND Grammy-winning gospel singer, author of Little Black Sheep
“With the savvy of a scholar, the keen eye of an observer, and the passion of a prophet, Lee Camp has produced a document for our times.”
Lee C. Camp is professor of theology and ethics at Lipscomb University in Nashville. He is the author of Mere Discipleship and Who Is My Enemy? and hosts the long-running theological variety show Tokens Show. 978-0-8028-7735-2 | Jacketed Hardcover | 192 pages | $19.99 | Available
— RANDALL BALMER Dartmouth College
“The only thing of interest to me as a theologian of the church when it comes to politics is something that dissects and decimates the current Christian alliances with American political parties. Someone once said the mainline church lost its grip among American mainline Christians because it was no longer distinguishable from The New York Times, and someone now needs to warn conservative evangelicals that it is losing its grip on its people because it is no longer distinguishable from Fox News. If you would like an alternative, read this tart, sassy, and, yes, strategic book that presses us to see the church as a politic. Agree or not, he’s an equal opportunity critic.” — SCOT McKNIGHT author of The Jesus Creed
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The Messianic Theology of the New Testament THEOLOGY
Joshua W. Jipp A reading of the New Testament’s central and defining feature One of the earliest Christian confessions—that Jesus is Messiah and Lord—has long been recognized throughout the New Testament. Joshua Jipp shows that the New Testament is in fact centered around this foundational messianic claim, and each of its primary compositions is a unique creative expansion of this common thread. Having made this argument about the Pauline epistles in his previous book Christ Is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology, Jipp works methodically through the New Testament to show how the authors proclaim Jesus as the incarnate, crucified, and enthroned messiah of God. In the second section of this book, Jipp moves beyond exegesis toward larger theological questions, such as those of Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology, revealing the practical value of reading the Bible with an eye to its messianic vision. The Messianic Theology of the New Testament functions as an excellent introductory text, honoring the vigorous pluralism of the New Testament books while still addressing the obvious question: what makes these twenty-seven different compositions one unified testament? TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part One: The Messianic Testimony of the New Testament
1. The Son of David Who Saves His People from Their Sins: The Gospel of Matthew 2. The Powerful, Humiliated Son of God and the Kingdom of God: The Gospel of Mark 3. The Messianic King and the Hope of Israel: Luke-Acts 4. The Kingdom and the Glory of the Messiah: The Gospel of John 5. The Messianic Christology of the Apostle Paul: The State of the Discussion and a Few Themes 6. Participating in the Rule of the Messianic King (Part I): Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, and Philippians 7. Participating in the Messianic Rule of the Messianic King (Part II): Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Timothy
8. The Suffering and Enthronement of the Messianic Son of God as Foundation for Humanity’s Salvation: Hebrews and 1 Peter 9. Sharing in the Battle of the Triumphant Lamb: The Book of Revelation
Part Two: A Messianic Theology of the New Testament 10. Scripture: Messianic Exegesis and Christology 11. Christology: The Messianic Life and Acts of Jesus 12. Soteriology: Participating in the Saving Reign of the Messiah 13. Sanctification and Ecclesiology: Living as Citizens under the Reign of the Messiah 14. Politics, Power, and Eschatology: Christians as Subjects of a Good and Righteous King
Joshua W. Jipp is associate professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. His previous books include Christ Is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology and Saved by Faith and Hospitality, which won the Academy of Parish Clergy’s Book of the Year award in 2018. 978-0-8028-7717-8 | Jacketed Hardcover | 480 pages | $50.00 Available November 2020
RELATED TITLES James D. G. Dunn, Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels Michael J. Gorman, Apostle of the Crucified Lord
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A Theology for the Twenty-First Century THEOLOGY
Douglas F. Ottati A reflective, capacious, and compassionate theology that engages a changing world
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Christianity in the United States is in crisis. Liberalism is declining, evangelicalism is splintering, increasing numbers of Christians are slipping away from churches, and more and more young people are for various reasons finding Christianity as they conceive it (a metaphysical thought system, a society of science-deniers, or an ideology for oppressors) not just implausible but repellent. At the same time, Christians across denominational and ideological divides are rediscovering a moral core, especially in the Jesus of the Gospels, that reactivates and unites them, and this kind of faith appeals to many who consider themselves averse to all traditional organized religion. But any revitalized Christian faith is going to need to understand its rootedness in, and interpretation of, Christianity’s foundational texts and traditions. Noted theologian Douglas F. Ottati steps in to offer a theology for this new era. Combining deep learning in texts and traditions with astute awareness of contemporary questions and patterns of thought and life, he asks: what does it mean, in our time, to understand the God of the Bible as Creator and Redeemer? Distilling the content of Christian faith into seventy concise propositions, he explains each in lucid, cogent prose. A Theology for the Twenty-First Century will be an essential textbook for those training for ministry in our current climate, a wise guide for contemporary believers who wonder how best to understand and communicate their faith, and an inviting and intelligent resource for serious inquirers who wonder whether the way of Jesus might help them grasp the real world while remaining open to the transcendent. Douglas F. Ottati is Craig Family Distinguished Professor of Reformed Theology and Justice at Davidson College in North Carolina. He taught for many years at what is now Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and is a past president of the Society of Christian Ethics. He is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Among his other books are Jesus Christ and Christian Vision and Hopeful Realism: Reclaiming the Poetry of Theology. 978-0-8028-7811-3 | Hardcover | 832 pages | $60.00 Available October 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Point of View Part One: Method
1. A Conception of Christian Theology 2. The Formation and Arrangement of Theological Statements
Part Two: Creation
Part Three: Redemption
3. The Constitution of the Dynamic World: Cosmic Ecology 4. The Dynamic Continuation of the World: Cosmic Passage 5. Created and Sustained Human Life 6. God the Creator
7. Jesus Christ and the Covenant of Grace 8. The Way, the Truth, and the Life 9. The Spirit and the Church 10. Human Life: Sin and Regeneration 11. The Fragmentation and Renewal of the World: Civil Government, Church, and Sustainability 12. God the Redeemer
Epilogue: The Sense the Trinity Makes
RELATED TITLES Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Christian Theology in the Pluralistic World Cornelis van der Kooi and Gijsbert van den Brink, Christian Dogmatics
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Deification through the Cross THEOLOGY
An Eastern Christian Theology of Salvation Khaled Anatolios Unified soteriology for the whole church
It is commonly claimed that Western Christianity teaches salvation as deliverance from sin through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, while Eastern Christianity teaches salvation as deliverance from death—and as deification—through Christ’s incarnation. But is it really true that there is no normative, unified doctrine of salvation to be found in Scripture and tradition? Theologian Khaled Anatolios, deeply grounded in both East and West, here expounds a soteriology that speaks deeply to all Christians. He argues that both Western and Eastern perspectives are needed, and especially that Eastern theology and liturgy, contrary to Western misperceptions, hold cross, resurrection, and glorification together in an exemplary way. Anatolios uses the phrase “doxological contrition” to suggest that the truth of salvation is found both in Jesus’s perfect glorification of God and in his representative repentance for humanity’s sinful rejection of its original calling to participate in the life of the Holy Trinity. Deification through the Cross is a salutary rebuttal of the postmodern fragmentation that assumes no single, normative soteriology can apply globally. Anatolios systematically expounds an integrated soteriology, which he then puts into dialogue with various perspectives, including liberation theology, Girardian theory, and penal substitution. All who seek to understand and teach “the joy of our salvation” will find indispensable help in this magisterial retrieval of an often-misunderstood doctrine. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Part One: Foundational Sources for a Soteriology of Doxological Contrition 1. Doxological Contrition in Byzantine Liturgy 2. Doxological Contrition in Scripture 3. Doxological Contrition in Conciliar Doctrine
Part Two: A Systematic Theology of Doxological Contrition
4. The Mutual Glorification of the Divine Trinity 5. Human Existence as Participation in Inner-Trinitarian Glorification 6. The Doxological Weight of Human Sin 7. Salvation as Reintegration into Trinitarian Glorification 8. Soteriology of Doxological Contrition in Dialogue
Conclusion
Khaled Anatolios is John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He was born in India and grew up in Egypt and Canada. His other books include Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine. 978-0-8028-7798-7 | Jacketed Hardcover | 500 pages | $50.00 Available November 2020
RELATED TITLES Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion Darrin W. Snyder Belousek, Atonement, Justice, and Peace
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THEOLOGY
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Ecotheology
A Christian Conversation Kiara A. Jorgenson and Alan G. Padgett, editors
Reformed Theology and Evolutionary Theory Gijsbert van den Brink
Foreword by Katharine Hayhoe
Foreword by Richard J. Mouw
Theocentric scholarly dialogues on creation care
Many books aim to help beginners explore whether or not evolutionary science is compatible with Christian faith. This one probes more deeply to ask: What do we learn from modern evolutionary science about key issues that are of special theological concern? And what does Christian theology, especially in its Reformed expressions, say about those same key issues? Gijsbert van den Brink begins by describing the layers of meaning in the phrase “evolutionary theory” and exploring the question of how to interpret the Bible with regard to science. He then works through five key areas of potential conflict between evolutionary theory and Christian faith, spelling out scientific findings and analyzing Christian doctrinal concerns along the way. His conclusion: although some traditional doctrinal interpretations must be adjusted, evolutionary science is no obstacle to classical Christian faith.
Just as God loves creation, so are Christians called to care for it. Now, amid the accelerating degradation of our global environment, that task has taken on greater urgency than ever. How should Christians respond to the climate crisis and widespread pollution of earth’s shared commons, water and air? How might Christian communities think about human responsibility to other living creatures? In roundtable format, Richard Bauckham, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Stephen Bouma-Prediger, and John F. Haught navigate the layers of what it means for humans to live in right relationship with earth’s lifesystems. After each contributor’s essay, the other three contributors issue a response—including points of disagreement and questions— thereby modeling for readers productive and respectful dialogue. The ecumenical conversations in Ecotheology represent the diverse viewpoints of contributors’ theological and practical commitments, exploring creation care through a variety of frameworks, including natural science, biblical studies, systematic theology, and Christian ethics. CONTRIBUTORS
“Reading Gijsbert van den Brink’s profound—and, I would insist, groundbreaking—study of faith and science has been an illuminating intellectual adventure. And while it has stretched my thinking, it has also encouraged me in my journey of faith.” — RICHARD J. MOUW from the foreword
Richard Bauckham, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Stephen Bouma-Prediger, and John F. Haught. Kiara A. Jorgenson is assistant professor of religion and environmental studies at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Alan G. Padgett is a professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota. 978-0-8028-7441-2 | Paperback | 240 pages | $24.99 | Available September 2020
“No matter what perspective readers come from, they will appreciate the frank honesty and refreshing sensitivity demonstrated in this book. The combination of unapologetic faith and open-minded thoughtfulness charts an important path forward as van den Brink has demonstrated a clear grasp of both science and theology.” — JOHN WALTON Wheaton College
Gijsbert van den Brink holds the University Research Chair for Theology and Science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and is an ordained minister in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. He is the author of Philosophy of Science for Theologians and coauthor, with Cornelis van der Kooi, of Christian Dogmatics. 978-0-8028-7442-9 | Paperback | 344 pages | $39.99 | Available
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THEOLOGY
The Love That Is God
Spiritual Healing
Foreword by Sarah Coakley
Spiritual healing has been a cornerstone of Christian belief from its beginnings, although there are various interpretations of what exactly it is and how it happens. To address these questions, the contributors to this volume come together to examine spiritual healing from a number of disciplinary perspectives. How can such healing be explained through a scientific or medical lens? What do biblical and historical instantiations of it tell us today? And how are we to think of it as anthropologists, philosophers, or theologians? Finally, what does all this mean for those seeking spiritual healing for themselves, or pastors walking alongside the afflicted? Under the guiding editorship of theologian Sarah Coakley, Spiritual Healing offers a composite narrative that investigates the many intermingled factors at work in this intriguing phenomenon. The result is a human story as much as it is a theological one, satisfying discerning believers and skeptics alike in its rigorous pursuit of truth and meaning.
An Invitation to Christian Faith Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt
Science, Meaning, and Discernment Sarah Coakley, editor
A meditation on five central axioms of Christian belief, written for a world that is abandoning organized religion “God is love is the radical claim of Christianity,” writes Frederick Bauerschmidt at the beginning of this little meditation on the essentials of Christian faith. Throughout The Love That Is God, Bauerschmidt goes to work breathing life back into that claim, drawing from Scripture, great Christian and non-Christian writers of the past, and his own lived experience to show just how countercultural and subversive Christianity is actually meant to be. In a rich yet accessible style reminiscent of C. S. Lewis and N. T. Wright, Bauerschmidt eschews the abstract and dogmatic in favor of the relational and inviting. His ecumenical vision offers something for everyone, from lifelong churchgoers and students of religion to the growing population of “nones” among younger generations who are increasingly seeking spiritual fulfillment outside of institutional Christianity. With further reading suggestions (both scriptural and nonscriptural) at the end of each chapter, The Love That Is God is the perfect starting point of a spiritual journey into deeper relationship with God. “Fritz Bauerschmidt has written an extraordinary account of love to help us understand better what we are doing when we say we believe in God. In doing so he has avoided the great enemies of any attempt to write about love—that is, sentimentality and rationalism. His chapter on friendship alone is worth the price of the book. I cannot help but believe that this book is destined to become a classic.” — STANLEY HAUERWAS Duke Divinity School
Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt is professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland and a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, assigned to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
CONTRIBUTORS
Emma Anderson, Stephen R. L. Clark, Philip Clayton, Thomas J. Csordas, Heather D. Curtis, Howard L. Fields, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Anne Harrington, Malcolm Jeeves, and John Swinton.
Sarah Coakley is Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity Emerita at Cambridge University and research professor at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. Her other books include God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’; The New Asceticism: Sexuality, Gender, and the Quest for God; and Sacrifice Regained: Reconsidering the Rationality of Religious Belief. 978-0-8028-7093-3 | Paperback | 256 pages | $35.00 | Available October 2020
978-0-8028-7795-6 | Paperback | 152 pages | $18.99 | Available August 2020
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THEOLOGY
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Doing the Work of Comparative Theology Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen In a world that is more religiously diverse than ever before, our coworkers and neighbors may well be adherents of other faiths. But how many of us really grasp the similarities and differences between the major world religions? Comparative theology is one increasingly important way to bridge this gap, especially for Christian leaders and professors, but also for lay people and students. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen introduces the nature and work of comparative theology, then delves into a detailed doctrine-by-doctrine comparison of Christian teachings with those of historical and contemporary Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. With every doctrine, he first presents a summary of consensual Christian belief and then orients the reader to the distinctive teachings of other faith traditions, highlighting parallels and differences. Ideal for students, ministers, instructors, and lay people interested in interfaith dialogue, Doing the Work of Comparative Theology distills the comparative-theological rigor of Kärkkäinen’s Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World series into an accessible and user-friendly textbook. Readers will not only learn basic methodology but also begin to undertake the actual work of comparative theology. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen is professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, and docent of ecumenics at the University of Helsinki, Finland. His other books include Christian Theology in the Pluralistic World and the five volumes of his ambitious constructive-theology project: Christ and Reconciliation, Trinity and Revelation, Creation and Humanity, Spirit and Salvation, and Hope and Community. 978-0-8028-7466-5 | Hardcover | 335 pages | $35.00 | Available
Atonement
Jewish and Christian Origins Max Botner, Justin Harrison Duff, and Simon Dürr, editors What is the historical basis for today’s atonement theology? Where did it come from, and how has it evolved throughout time? In Atonement, a sterling collection of renowned biblical scholars investigates the early manifestations of this core concept in numerous ancient Jewish and Christian sources. Rather than imposing a particular view of atonement upon these texts, these specialists let the texts speak for themselves, so that the reader can truly understand atonement as it was variously conceived in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, and early Christian literature. The resulting diverse ideas mirror the manifold perspectives on atonement today. Contributors to this volume attend to the linguistic elements at work in these ancient writings without limiting their scope to explicit mentions of atonement. Instead, they explore atonement as a broader phenomenon that negotiates a constellation of features—sin, sacrifice, and salvation—to capture a more accurate and holistic picture. Atonement will serve as an indispensable resource for all future dialogue on these topics within Jewish and Christian circles. CONTRIBUTORS
Christian A. Eberhart, Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Martha Himmelfarb, T. J. Lang, Carol A. Newsom, Deborah W. Rooke, Catrin Williams, David P. Wright, and N. T. Wright.
Max Botner is assistant professor of New Testament at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Justin Harrison Duff is a postdoctoral research fellow at St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Simon Dürr is a research associate in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. 978-0-8028-7668-3 | Jacketed Hardcover | 256 pages | $59.00 Available September 2020
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A PEOPLE AND A LAND
Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos Ancient stories asking contemporary questions and providing insight for an uncertain future In the three books comprising A People and a Land, Johanna van Wijk-Bos accompanies the reader through Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, explaining the overarching story of Israel from the entry into Canaan through the end of the monarchy. Each book has the structure of a commentary, but without wading into technical weeds. As van Wijk-Bos shows, the historical books of the Bible were written for education, edification, and entertainment. Some of the stories may move us, some may appall; all will speak to the imagination if we let them. They show a people forging a path forward into an uncertain future in the hope that God will begin again with them, in view of past failures. Christians enter the stories of Israel’s past in a certain
sense as outsiders, while at the same time they lay claim to a bond with the same God, and as such, they expect more from the text than lessons of the past intended for a different people. These are not our stories, but from them we too hope for insight and a guiding word for our own uncertain future. Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos taught as professor of Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary from 1977 to 2017. She serves the Presbyterian Church as an ordained pastor and is deeply engaged with issues of equity in terms of gender and race. A prolific author and editor, she has also written Making Wise the Simple: The Torah in Christian Faith and Practice and Reading Samuel: A Literary and Theological Commentary.
The End of the Beginning The Road to Kingship
The Land and Its Kings
Joshua and Judges
1–2 Samuel
1–2 Kings
“Van Wijk-Bos bases The End of the Beginning on her commitment to the value of ancient Israel’s rendering of its identity through narrative, to the ongoing witness of Jews and Christians to the God of Israel, and to the struggles for a just and compassionate social order. Her translation of the Hebrew text into ‘short lines’ is a real aid for the modern reader. I am glad to recommend it.”
“The Road to Kingship is the kind of commentary I long for as a pastor: anchored in contemporary scholarship, suffused with generative imagination. Van Wijk-Bos embraces the complexity, artistry, and ambiguity of the Hebrew narrative, which often invites more questions than it answers. This inspired study pays particular attention to the women in the story: wise women, autonomous women, poets—even writers. I highly recommend this fascinating exploration.” — DEBBIE BLUE
“Read along with Johanna van Wijk-Bos as she explores the interpretations and implications behind the stories and accounts found in this account of the monarchy of Israel and Judah. This is a great companion with which to begin study of 1 and 2 Kings. Special emphasis is given to accounts mentioning women and the significance of their roles.”
— J. ANDREW DEARMAN Fuller Theological Seminary
978-0-8028-6838-1 | Paperback | 365 pages | $29.99 Available
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author of Consider the Women: A Provocative Guide to Three Matriarchs of the Bible
— RICHARD S. HESS Denver Seminary
978-0-8028-7745-1 | Paperback | 344 pages | $29.99 Available July 2020
978-0-8028-7744-4 | Paperback | 427 pages | $29.99 Available
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JUDAISM AND JEWISH-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUES
Separated Siblings
An Evangelical Understanding of Jews and Judaism John E. Phelan Jr. Foreword by Rabbi Yehiel Poupko
978-0-8028-7455-9 | Paperback 352 pages | $25.00 Available October 2020
In the minds of many American evangelicals today, Judaism exists in two places: the pages of the Bible and the modern nation of Israel. In Separated Siblings, John Phelan offers to fill in the gaps of this limited understanding with the larger story of Judaism, including its long history and key facets of Jewish thought and practice. Phelan shows that Judaism is anything but monolithic or unchanging. Readers may be surprised to learn that contemporary Judaism exists in a multiplicity of forms and continues to evolve, as recent changes in scholarly Jewish perspectives on Jesus and Paul attest. An evangelical Christian himself, Phelan addresses what other evangelicals are often most curious about, such as Jewish beliefs concerning salvation and eschatology. Nevertheless, Separated Siblings is geared toward understanding rather than Christian apologetics, aiming for an undistorted view of Judaism that is sensitive to the painful history of Christian replacement theology and other forms of antiSemitism. Readers of this book will emerge with more informed attitudes toward their Jewish brothers and sisters—those in Israel and those across the street. John E. Phelan Jr. taught at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago for twenty-five years after serving two churches as pastor. He has been involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue for many years.
Table and Temple
Jewish Mysticism
Foreword by John D. Witvliet
Jewish Mysticism surveys Jewish visionary and mystical experience from its origins in the ancient Near East through the emergence of modern Hasidism. Marvin Sweeney provides a comprehensive treatment of one of the most dynamic fields of Jewish studies in the twenty-first century, providing an accessible overview of texts and interpretative issues.
The Christian Eucharist and Its Jewish Roots David L. Stubbs In most modern discussions of the Eucharist, the Jewish temple and its services of worship do not play a large role. They are often mentioned in passing, but they do little work in grounding, organizing, or explicating what is happening in the Eucharistic celebration. In Table and Temple, David Stubbs throws light on the reasons for this neglect and shows the important role the temple and its worship played in the imagination of Jesus and his disciples about this central Christian practice. He then explores the five central meanings of the temple and its main services of worship, demonstrating their relationship to the five central meanings of the Christian Eucharist. David L. Stubbs is professor of ethics and theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. He is also codirector of the Hope-Western Prison Education Program and served on the task force in the Presbyterian Church that authored Invitation to Christ: A Guide to Sacramental Practices.
From Ancient Times through Today Marvin A. Sweeney
“Broad in scope, rich in detail, and innovative in approach, Sweeney’s study is truly magisterial. It is destined to take its place alongside the classical works of Gershom Scholem and Moshe Idel. Scholars, students, and broad public alike will find it accessible, useful, and enlightening.” — SERGE FROLOV Southern Methodist University
Marvin A. Sweeney is professor of Hebrew Bible at the Claremont School of Theology in California. He is a specialist in Jewish biblical theology, prophetic literature, narrative literature, and Jewish mysticism and visionary texts. 978-0-8028-6403-1 | Hardcover | 448 pages | $60.00 | Available
978-0-8028-7480-1 | Jacketed Hardcover | 416 pages | $40.00 Available September 2020 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
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Unto Us a Child Is Born
The God Who Acts in History
Foreword by Walter Brueggemann
Foreword by William J. Abraham
Whether through a hymn, Handel’s Messiah, or the lectionary reading, the book of Isaiah provides a familiar voice for congregations during the season of Advent. So how do we create faithful, Christian interpretations of Isaiah for today while sharing this book with our Jewish neighbors? Tyler Mayfield invites readers to view Isaiah through two lenses. He demonstrates using near vision to see how the Christian liturgical season of Advent shapes readings of Isaiah, and how far vision clarifies our relationship to Jews and Judaism. Both near vision and far vision are required to read Isaiah clearly and responsibly. Unto Us a Child Is Born provides a series of lessons on the passages of Isaiah that appear during Advent. Mayfield provides beautiful theological readings of these texts as bearers of good news alongside contextual readings that locate the prophetic passages in their historical setting. Included is a discussion of how to use Isaiah as a theological resource during the season of Advent as well as how one can responsibly share Isaiah among friends and neighbors of Jewish faith.
Did the decisive event in the history of Israel even happen?
“Tyler Mayfield’s Unto Us a Child Is Born overflows with insight. I recommend it as a lucid way in which we Christians might envisage the power of Scripture for our world today.” — MARY C. BOYS
“Craig Bartholomew does a service here for anyone who thinks critically about the philosophical assumptions that inform modern critical study of the Bible. As a Jewish scholar, I learned much about how my own tradition has related to the Sinai event from his critique and contextual readings of both classical figures, such as Maimonides and Halevi, and contemporary Jewish theologians such as Benjamin Sommer.” — JOSHUA BERMAN
Isaiah, Advent, and Our Jewish Neighbors Tyler D. Mayfield
The Significance of Sinai Craig G. Bartholomew
Surprisingly, there is a lack of serious theological reflection on the revelation at Sinai in Exodus by both Jewish and Christian scholars, and those who do engage the subject often vacillate about the historicity of what occurred there. Craig Bartholomew explores how early interpreters understood divine action, engages scholars who deride the idea of divine intervention in historical events, and finally shows that the reasons for doubting the historicity of Sinai are not persuasive. The God Who Acts in History provides compelling reasons for affirming that God has acted and continues to act in history. “Another tour de force by a leading hermeneutical scholar! This volume is comprehensive in scope and fair in its treatment of conflicting scholarly views. It teems with both biblical and bibliographic documentation and has the reality of the living God at its heart. I applaud Craig Bartholomew’s remarkable endeavor and highly recommend this fresh, challenging volume.” — ROBERT L. HUBBARD JR. North Park Theological Seminary
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
“Whereas Christians traditionally read Isaiah as a prophet who predicts the coming of Christ, Mayfield demonstrates that Isaiah must be read from different angles as a book that gives expression to the issues that faced ancient Israel and Judah in the prophet’s own day and that gives expression to some of the highest ideals of Judaism in our own.” — MARVIN A. SWEENEY Claremont School of Theology
Tyler D. Mayfield is the Arnold Black Rhodes Professor of Old Testament and director of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Bar-Ilan University
Craig G. Bartholomew is director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Tyndale House, Cambridge, UK. He has written several books and commentaries, including Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture. 978-0-8028-7467-2 | Paperback | 287 pages | $29.99 | Available
978-0-8028-7398-9 | Paperback | 200 pages | $19.99 | Available June 2020
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Paul and the Power of Grace John M. G. Barclay
PA U L I N E S T U D I E S
Paul and the Gift changed the landscape of Pauline studies forever upon its publication in 2015. In it, John Barclay led readers through a recontextualized analysis of grace and interrogated Paul’s original meaning in declaring it a “free gift” from God, revealing grace as a multifaceted concept that is socially radical and unconditioned—even if not unconditional. Paul and the Power of Grace offers all of the most significant contributions from Paul and the Gift in a package several hundred pages lighter and more accessible. Additionally, Barclay adds further analysis of the theme of gift and grace in Paul’s other letters and explores contemporary implications for this new view of grace.
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John M. G. Barclay is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University, England.
978-0-8028-7461-0 | Paperback | 208 pages | $22.00 | Available November 2020
praise for Paul and the Gift “Pauline studies and the church will be indebted to Barclay’s Paul and the Gift for decades, and those who read and ponder will never be the same again.” — SCOT McKNIGHT in Books & Culture
“One of the more important books on Paul to appear in many years.” — C. KAVIN ROWE in First Things
“Technical, learned, and masterful, this book could prove to be the most rewarding and influential exposition of Pauline theology written in nearly two decades.” — MATTHEW L. SKINNER in The Christian Century
“Barclay’s distinctions regarding various perspectives on grace illuminate much of the ongoing controversy over what constitutes grace. In doing so, he interacts with a wide range of scholarly literature without getting lost in scholarly detail. . . . Recommended.” — P. K. MOSER in Choice
“Paul and the Gift is a brilliant book. It is not just a big, important book—an opus from a senior scholar with which anyone working in the field is obliged to interact—although it certainly is that. . . . A model of surefooted use of theory, devastating criticism of previous interpretation, thorough command of relevant classical and Jewish sources, and critical but empathetic exegesis.”
“One of the most important books on Paul’s theology in years. . . . Truly a gift.” — DOUGLAS J. MOO in Themelios
“John Barclay reveals just how little we have grasped the multitude of ways in which grace—‘the gift’— was parsed among Paul’s contemporaries, including questions of reciprocity and the worth of recipients. The resulting bold proposal for reorienting Pauline theology is a landmark in New Testament scholarship. A must-have, must-read, must-ponder book!” — BEVERLY ROBERTS GAVENTA
Baylor University
“A deeply impressive study by a superb scholar from whom all will learn a great deal. Indeed, future Pauline scholars are now significantly indebted to Barclay for this superabundant scholarly gift.” — DOUGLAS A. CAMPBELL Duke Divinity School
“Barclay’s magisterial analysis results in a powerful and compelling new understanding of Paul’s theology of grace that cuts across traditional debates and disciplinary categorizations, remaps Paul’s location among his fellow Jews, and manages to be both historically sensitive and theologically rich.”
978-0-8028-7532-7 | Paperback 672 pages | $55.00 | Available
— DAVID G. HORRELL University of Exeter
“A watershed in Pauline studies.” — STEPHEN WESTERHOLM
McMaster University
— MATTHEW V. NOVENSON in Review of Biblical Literature
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African American Readings of Paul Reception, Resistance, and Transformation Lisa M. Bowens
PA U L I N E S T U D I E S
Foreword by Emerson B. Powery Afterword by Beverly Roberts Gaventa
A historical survey of black Pauline hermeneutics from the 1700s to the mid-twentieth century The letters of Paul—especially the verse in Ephesians directing slaves to obey their masters—played an enormous role in promoting slavery and justifying it as a Christian practice. Yet despite this reality African Americans throughout history still utilized Paul extensively in their own work to protest and resist oppression, responding to his theology and teachings in numerous—often starkly divergent and liberative—ways. In the first book of its kind, Lisa Bowens takes a historical, theological, and biblical approach to explore interpretations of Paul within African American communities over the past few centuries. She surveys a wealth of primary sources from the early 1700s to the mid-twentieth century, including sermons, conversion stories, slave petitions, and autobiographies of ex-slaves, many of which introduce readers to previously unknown names in the history of New Testament interpretation. Along with their hermeneutical value, these texts also provide fresh documentation of black religious life through wide swaths of American history. African American Readings of Paul promises to change the landscape of Pauline studies and fill an important gap in the rising field of reception history. “African American Readings of Paul reveals an extensive African American (and proto-womanist) tradition engaged in the practice of reclaiming Paul from white supremacist and black patriarchal discursive modes.” — EMERSON B. POWERY from the foreword
“Lisa Bowens’s work provides a glimpse into the life and thought of people for whom the interpretation of Paul has been nothing less than a matter of life and death. They deserve our attention, our respect, our emulation.” — BEVERLY ROBERTS GAVENTA from the afterword
“Among several fine recent books on African American use of Scripture, African American Readings of Paul is one of the very best. Lisa Bowens pays careful attention to what black authors wrote about the Apostle Paul, how they used his writings, and how they dealt with Pauline passages that seem to take slavery for granted. This book makes a signal contribution to American history, but also to general hermeneutical questions about understanding and using the Scriptures. It is a timely as well as an unusually well-informed study.” — MARK NOLL
Lisa M. Bowens is associate professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is also the author of An Apostle in Battle: Paul and Spiritual Warfare in 2 Corinthians 12:1–10. 978-0-8028-7676-8 | Jacketed Hardcover | 384 pages | $40.00 Available October 2020
author of The Civil War as a Theological Crisis
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: African American Pauline Hermeneutics 1. Early Eighteenth Century to Early Nineteenth Century 2. Mid-Nineteenth Century to Late Nineteenth Century 3. Late Nineteenth Century to First Half of Twentieth Century 4. Pauline Language in Enslaved Conversion Experiences and Call Narratives 5. African American Pauline Hermeneutics and the Art of Biblical Interpretation
RELATED TITLES Henry H. Mitchell, Black Church Beginnings Stephen J. Chester, Reading Paul with the Reformers
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Constructing Paul The Canonical Paul VOLUME 1
Luke Timothy Johnson By extrapolating Paul’s theology from the fragments offered by ancient sources, Luke Timothy Johnson shows the possibilities for further and better inquiry into the life and thought of Paul. In addition, Johnson addresses pertinent questions about Paul’s canonical letters, ultimately using them to make a case for why Paul’s voice ought to be heard today as liberating rather than oppressive. “A landmark study of Paul brimming with sparkling exegetical insights and written in lyrical prose, clear and compelling. Contrarian in the best sense, Constructing Paul offers a way to read Paul that challenges long-held consensus positions by offering fresh, constructive proposals that advance rather than obstruct debate. Vintage Johnson.” — CARL R. HOLLADAY Candler School of Theology, Emory University
“This first volume of a magisterial study of the apostle Paul and his theology bears the trademarks of its distinguished author’s many important contributions to New Testament study: confident scholarship, rhetorical verve, and thoughtful positions that buck the trends. Luke Timothy Johnson embraces the canonical Pauline corpus of thirteen letters and searches there for the multifaceted and liberating message of the apostle.” — DONALD SENIOR Catholic Theological Union, Chicago
Luke Timothy Johnson is Candler School of Theology’s Robert W. Woodruff Professor Emeritus at Emory University. He won the 2011 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his book Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity. Johnson’s many other books include The Revelatory Body; Brother of Jesus, Friend of God; and The Writings of the New Testament. 978-0-8028-0758-8 | Jacketed Hardcover | 399 pages $50.00 | Available
Paul and the Language Pauline Dogmatics of Faith The Triumph of God’s Love Nijay K. Gupta Foreword by James D. G. Dunn
Faith language permeates the letters of Paul. Yet, its exact meaning is not always clear. Many today, reflecting centuries of interpretation, consider belief in Jesus to be a passive act. In this important book, Nijay Gupta challenges common assumptions in the interpretation of Paul and calls for a reexamination of Paul’s faith language. Gupta argues that Paul’s faith language resonates with a Jewish understanding of covenant involving goodwill, trust, and expectation. Paul’s understanding of faith involves the transformation of one’s perception of God and the world through Christ, relational dependence on Christ, as well as active loyalty to Christ. “Nijay Gupta presents here the best contemporary exploration of the meaning of ‘faith’ and ‘believing’ in the Christian Bible. He leaves no stone unturned as he covers topics like faith as doctrine, virtue, allegiance, trust, obedience, and fidelity, among other things. Along the way Gupta cracks open a few hoary chestnuts like the ‘faithfulness of Christ’ and faith as a social boundary marker, always with clarity and acumen.” — MICHAEL F. BIRD Ridley College
“A clear discussion of the biblical, particularly Pauline concept of faith, its breadth and its specifics. Reading it with care will strengthen and perhaps correct the reader’s understanding of faith. Who could ask for more?” — JAMES D. G. DUNN from the foreword
Nijay K. Gupta is associate professor of New Testament at Portland Seminary, George Fox University. He has written 1 and 2 Thessalonians in the Zondervan Critical Introductions to the New Testament Series and is coeditor of The State of New Testament Studies with Scot McKnight. 978-0-8028-7343-9 | Paperback | 239 pages | $34.99 Available
Douglas A. Campbell The eschatological heart of Paul’s gospel in his world and its implications for today Drawing upon thirty years of intense study and reflection on Paul, Douglas Campbell offers a distinctive overview of the apostle’s thinking, demonstrating that Paul’s theology belongs to the church and, properly understood, causes the church to flourish. In these conversations Campbell pushes through interdisciplinary boundaries to explicate different aspects of Pauline community with notions such as network theory and restorative justice. “With stunning breadth and his trademark brio, Campbell passionately argues for the heart of Paul’s gospel and its transforming effects: the Lordship of Christ, the love of God, and the power of the Spirit unleashed in the world. A must-read for scholars and preachers alike.” — SUSAN EASTMAN author of Paul and the Person: Reframing Paul’s Anthropology
“Pauline Dogmatics is quite simply the most enjoyable biblical or theology related book I have ever read, and I consider it to be the best book on Pauline theology ever written. A superlative endorsement like this would make me cynical too, but I mean it. This is theology written not simply about Paul, but with Paul, under Paul, illuminating Paul, which reaches beyond the cerebral assault into my own life and practices with unnerving immediacy. This is a dazzling Pauline dogmatics, animated by what matters most: the reality of God in Christ.”
— CHRIS TILLING St. Mellitus College
Douglas A. Campbell is a professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School who is known for studies of Paul’s writings that command the respect of scholars worldwide, including Framing Paul: An Epistolary Biography and The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul. 978-0-8028-7564-8 | Jacketed Hardcover | 807 pages $64.99 | Available
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Paul and the Marginalized Carla Swafford Works
Paul’s Three Paths to Salvation Gabriele Boccaccini
Foreword by Todd D. Still
Foreword by David Bentley Hart
Jesus cared for the least, but did Paul?
“We no longer need to separate Paul from Judaism in order to claim his Christianness,” writes Gabriele Boccaccini, adding, “nor do we need to separate him from the early Jesus movement in order to state his Jewishness.” With this guiding principle Boccaccini unpacks the implications of Paul’s “belonging” simultaneously to Judaism and Christianity to arrive at the surprising and provocative conclusion that there are in fact three means of salvation:
“Here is a book we have needed. The Least of These looks into the place of the marginalized in Paul’s letters. Navigating such fraught subjects as poverty, slavery, gender, and childhood, Carla Works operates with respect for Paul as well as his detractors. Without domesticating Paul’s otherness, she brings him into conversation with contemporary concerns. Students of Paul, and especially those who have no interest in being students of Paul, will learn from her instruction.”
— BEVERLY ROBERTS GAVENTA Baylor University
“Works shows that Paul’s gospel is an embodied theology with profound implications for the impoverished, the enslaved, for all ethnicities, for women, and more. While anyone will profit from reading this work, I highly recommend this text as a wonderful and engaging supplement for those teaching courses on Paul at an undergraduate or graduate level.” — JOSHUA W. JIPP Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
“The Least of These challenges ways that Paul has been used to justify slavery, homophobia, the marginalization of women, and the misuse of power and wealth to oppress; it bridges the chasm between Jesus the freedom fighter and Paul the reactionary. Using biblical text and historical context, Works builds on the ideas of some of the most renowned Pauline scholars but breaks new ground in exploring Paul’s social, political, and theological commitments. A must-read for all those interested in the Bible, poverty, and justice.” — LIZ THEOHARIS author of Always with Us? What Jesus Really Said about the Poor
Carla Swafford Works is associate professor of New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. She is the author of The Church in the Wilderness: Paul’s Use of Exodus Traditions in First Corinthians and “Philippians” in the Women’s Bible Commentary.
1. For Jews, adherence to Torah. 2. For gentiles, good works according to conscience and natural law. 3. For all sinners, forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul’s Three Paths to Salvation is an attempt to reconcile the many facets of Paul’s complex identity while reclaiming him from accusations of intolerance. Boccaccini’s work in reestablishing the figure of Paul as a messenger of God’s mercy to the sinners is an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about Paul’s place in the contemporary pluralistic world. Gabriele Boccaccini is a professor at the University of Michigan and the author of numerous publications on Second Temple Judaism and Christian origins. He is the founding director of the Enoch Seminar, a forum of international specialists in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam affiliated with the Society of Biblical Literature. In 2019, he was awarded knighthood by the president of Italy in recognition of his contribution to Italian culture in the world. 978-0-8028-3921-3 | Jacketed Hardcover | 182 pages $30.00 | Available September 2020
978-0-8028-7446-7 | Paperback | 221 pages | $24.00 Available
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Hearing Paul’s Voice Insights for Teaching and Preaching M. Eugene Boring Foreword by Thomas G. Long
Until we grasp the meaning of the text on its terms, Scripture is little more than a sounding board that echoes the religious interpretations of readers. Eugene Boring offers those who preach and teach methods of understanding Scripture contextually in Hearing Paul’s Voice. He begins by placing the reader in the position of a first-century believer, demonstrating how such a reader would understand the church and the letter we now call 1 Thessalonians. Our own culture, combined with familiarity of the Bible and church life, has conditioned us to suppose we already understand what the Thessalonian believer had to learn. But hearing the Bible through the ears of its first hearers opens up the possibility of hearing it afresh in our own time. The theme throughout is coming within hearing distance of the text for those whose ears have been numbed by cultural familiarity.
PA U L I N E S T U D I E S
The Least of These
“It is refreshing, even surprising, to encounter the Paul that Eugene Boring portrays in this volume. In clear and engaging terms, Boring introduces us to a Paul quite different from the master theological architect, on the one hand, and from the glum moralist, on the other. As Boring sees him, Paul might be systematic in thought, but he was no systematic theologian. He was a missionary and a working pastor, a person with deep convictions about what God had done in Christ.” — THOMAS G. LONG from the foreword
M. Eugene Boring, before retiring, was the I. Wylie and Elizabeth M. Briscoe Professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. He is the author of several books, including Hearing John’s Voice, a commentary on Revelation, and (with Fred Craddock) The People’s New Testament Commentary. 978-0-8028-7750-5 | Paperback | 256 pages | $29.99 Available
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N E W T E S TA M E N T S T U D I E S
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The First Biography of Jesus Genre and Meaning in Mark’s Gospel Helen K. Bond
Reading Mark’s Gospel as a Text from Collective Memory Sandra Huebenthal
Reading the gospels as ancient biographies makes a profound difference in the way we interpret them. Biography immortalizes the memory of the subject, creating a literary monument to the person’s life and teaching. Yet it is also a bid to legitimize a specific view of that figure and to position an author and his audience as appropriate “gatekeepers” of that memory. Furthermore, biography is well suited to the articulation of shared values and commitments, the formation of group identity, and the binding together of a past story, present concerns, and future hopes. Helen Bond argues that Mark’s author uses the genre of biography—while both utilizing and subverting its literary conventions —to extend the gospel from an earlier narrow focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus so that it included his way of life. The First Biography of Jesus shows how this was a bold step in outlining a radical form of Christian discipleship, one patterned on the life and death of Jesus. “This is a beautifully crafted study that soundly explores the Gospel of Mark and probes its meanings, written by one of the world’s most eminent scholars in the field. Helen Bond takes the reader through the world of ancient ‘lives’ to this one, allowing us to see the gospel with fresh eyes, to admire both its literary craft and its message.” — JOAN TAYLOR King’s College London
“Despite the now widely held view that Mark’s Gospel is an ancient biography, few Markan scholars have explored the narrative-critical implications of this genre. In this groundbreaking work full of fresh insights, Helen Bond skillfully redresses that deficiency and shows how reading Mark’s Gospel as ancient biography can fruitfully inform how we understand its message.”
— CRAIG S. KEENER
Asbury Theological Seminary, author of Christobiography
Helen K. Bond is professor of Christian origins and head of the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. She is also the author of Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation, Caiaphas: High Priest and Friend of Rome?, The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed, and Jesus: A Very Brief History.
Foreword by Werner H. Kelber
How did the Gospel of Mark come to exist? Drawing on modern explorations of social memory in different cultural contexts, Sandra Huebenthal presents a model for reading biblical texts as collective memories. Using Mark’s Gospel as an example, she demonstrates that Mark is a text evolving from collective narrative memory based on recollections of Jesus’s life and teachings. Huebenthal investigates the principles and structures of how groups remember and how their memory is structured and presented. In the case of Mark’s Gospel, this includes examining which image of Jesus, as well as which self-image, this text as memory constructs. “This translation of Sandra Huebenthal’s important work offers the English-language reader the chance to engage with her groundbreaking work on Mark as an artifact of collective memory, a narrative of commemoration and testimony that strengthened its readers’ sense of self-identity. Written with clarity and perception, this is a book that no Markan scholar will want to ignore.” — HELEN K. BOND University of Edinburgh
“In Reading Mark’s Gospel as a Text from Collective Memory, Sandra Huebenthal turns her focus from Jesus as a figure from the past to the Gospel of Mark as a commemorative text, a product and example of collective memory. She recalibrates factors that are too often treated as mutually exclusive options (collective or individual, story or history, diachronic or synchronic, etc.) and situates Mark within the creative tension between these and other poles.” — RAFAEL RODRÍGUEZ Johnson University
Sandra Huebenthal is professor for exegesis and biblical theology at the University of Passau, Germany. She holds a PhD in Roman Catholic Theology from Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen/Frankfurt. She obtained the venia legend for New Testament from the University of Tübingen and is an expert for the application of social memory theory to biblical studies. 978-0-8028-7540-2 | Jacketed Hardcover | 656 pages | $74.99 | Available May 2020
978-0-8028-7460-3 | Jacketed Hardcover | 336 pages | $42.99 | Available
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Reading with the Grain of Scripture Richard B. Hays
• the importance of narrative as the “glue” that holds the Bible together • the figural coherence between the Old and New Testaments • the centrality of the resurrection of Jesus • the hope for New Creation and God’s eschatological transformation of the world • the importance of standing in trusting humility before the text • the significance of reading Scripture within and for the community of faith Readers will find themselves guided toward Hays’s “hermeneutic of trust” rather than the “hermeneutic of suspicion” that has loomed large in recent biblical studies. TABLE OF CONTENTS Richard B. Hays is former dean and George Washington Ivey Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Duke Divinity School. He is internationally recognized for his work on the letters of Paul and New Testament ethics. His book The Moral Vision of the New Testament was selected by Christianity Today as one of the 100 most important religious books of the twentieth century.
Introduction: Gathering the Wheat Part One: Interpretation
978-0-8028-7845-8 | Jacketed Hardcover 448 pages | $55.00 | Available October 2020
Part Two: Historical Jesus
1. Narrative Interpretation and the Quest for Theological Unity 2. Reading Scripture with Eyes of Faith 3. Reading Scripture in Light of the Resurrection 4. Figural Interpretation of Israel’s Story
5. Rebranding Jesus and the Pitfalls of Entrepreneurial Criticism 6. Story, History, and the Quest for Jesus 7. Catholic Tradition and the Quest for Jesus 8. A Modest Sketch of Jesus of Nazareth
Part Three: Paul
9. Christology: Paul’s Story of God’s Son 10. Soteriology: Christ Died for the Ungodly 11. Apocalyptic: New Creation Poetics in Galatians 12. Pneumatology: The Spirit in Romans 8 13. Gospel: For Gentiles Only? 14. Israel: Hope for What We Do Not Yet See 15. Paul, Acts, and Early Christian Proclamation
Part Four: New Testament Theology
16. Christology: Jesus in the Apocalypse of John 17. Covenant: New Covenantalism in Hebrews 18. Humanity: Bultmann’s Misreading of Pauline Anthropology 19. Law: Whose World Is It, Anyway? 20. Confession: Romans and the Nicene Creed 21. Eschatology: “Why Do You Stand Looking Up into Heaven?”
N E W T E S TA M E N T S T U D I E S
Richard Hays has been a giant in the field of New Testament studies since the 1989 publication of his Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. Now, his most significant essays of the past twenty-five years are collected here, representing the full fruition of major themes from his body of work:
Conclusion: A Hermeneutic of Trust Epilogue: Dark Fruition
Empire, Economics, and the New Testament Peter Oakes Foreword by Bruce W. Longenecker
Peter Oakes has long been recognized for his illuminating use of Greco-Roman material culture and social-scientific criticism to interpret the New Testament. This volume combines his best work in a single volume and introduces a substantial new essay that challenges current scholarly approaches to paradoxical teachings of the New Testament. Of special interest to Oakes throughout this book is the concrete impact of economic realities and Roman imperialism on first-century Christian communities meeting in house churches. To address this, Oakes considers an array of textual and archaeological resources from first-century nonelite life, including extensive archaeological evidence available from Pompeii. Readers will find here a deep trove of wisdom for understanding the New Testament in the context of the Greco-Roman world. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Peter Oakes is professor of New Testament at the University of Manchester. His other books include Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul’s Letter at Ground Level. 978-0-8028-7326-2 | Jacketed Hardcover 256 pages | $55.00 | Available November 2020
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1. A House Church Account of Economics and Empire 2. Nine Types of Church in Nine Types of Space in the Insula of the Menander 3. Methodological Issues in Using Economic Evidence in Interpretation of Early Christian Texts 4. Economic Approaches, Scarce Resources, and Interpretive Opportunities 5. Urban Structure and Patronage: Christ Followers in Corinth 6. Jason and Penelope Hear Philippians 1:1–11 7. Re-mapping the Universe: Paul and the Emperor in 1 Thessalonians and Philippians 8. Christian Attitudes to Rome at the Time of Paul’s Letter 9. A State of Tension: Rome in the New Testament 10. God’s Sovereignty over Roman Authorities: A Theme in Philippians
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THE WORLD OF THE BIBLE
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Has Archaeology Buried the Bible? The Ancient Mediterranean Social William G. Dever World In the last twenty years, archaeological evidence has dramatically illuminated ancient Israel, particularly its religion. However, instead of proving the truth of the Bible, as an earlier generation had confidently predicted, the new discoveries have forced us to revise much of what was thought to be biblical truth. The new data provokes an urgent question: if the biblical stories are not always true historically, what, if anything, is still salvageable of the Bible’s ethical and moral values? Has Archaeology Buried the Bible? simplifies the complex issues and summarizes the new, archaeologically attested ancient Israel, period by period (ca. 1200–600 BCE). But it also explores in detail how a modern, critical reader of the Bible can still find relevant truths by which to live.
A Sourcebook Zeba A. Crook, editor
“This book is both vintage Dever and refreshingly innovative. Dever’s strongly argued positions on the relationship between the Hebrew Bible and archaeological materials are presented in lucid and riveting language, accessible to all. In addition, Dever shows how biblical accounts—even problematic ones—are not devoid of meaning but rather are rich with the potential to provide lessons for contemporary life.” — CAROL MEYERS
“If the past is a foreign country, then Crook’s sourcebook gives readers the tools to enter and experience that foreign culture. It primes them to articulate both traditional and newer social-scientific frameworks that can help guide their reading and interpretation of ancient texts.” — SARAH E. ROLLENS
Foreword by Peter Oakes
The Ancient Mediterranean Social World makes the rich social context of the ancient Mediterranean available to readers through the succinct introduction of key ideas and the thoughtful and extensive cataloging of relevant primary sources. “A unique and indispensable resource for understanding the ancient social contexts in relation to which we must interpret the biblical texts for their historical meaning.” — PHILIP F. ESLER University of Gloucestershire
Duke University
“An eminently readable synthesis of biblical studies and archaeology that situates the text of the Bible in its ancient context—with the result, as Dever himself says, of bringing the Bible as well as ancient Israel into a new and brighter light.” — SUSAN ACKERMAN Dartmouth College
“A must-read to anyone interested in biblical history and in understanding its relevance in the modern world.” — AVRAHAM FAUST Bar-Ilan University
William G. Dever is professor emeritus of Near Eastern archaeology and anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He has served as director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology in Jerusalem, as director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, and as a visiting professor at universities around the world. He has also spent thirty years conducting archaeological excavations in the Near East, resulting in a large body of award-winning fieldwork. 978-0-8028-7763-5 | Jacketed Hardcover | 176 pages | $25.99 Available August 2020
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Rhodes College
“This helpful sourcebook provides carefully chosen selections from the varied ancient texts that undergird the models applied in traditional and emergent areas of social-scientific criticism, from patronage and honor to space and secrecy.” — ANTHONY KEDDIE University of British Columbia
CONTRIBUTORS
Alicia J. Batten, Giovanni B. Bazzana, Agnes Choi, Zeba A. Crook, John W. Daniels Jr., Dennis C. Duling, John H. Elliott, Amy Marie Fisher, Mischa Hooker, Emil A. Kramer, Jason T. Lamoreaux, Dietmar Neufeld, Jerome H. Neyrey, SJ, Douglas E. Oakman, Ronald D. Roberts, Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Colleen Shantz, Gary Stansell, Eric C. Stewart, Erin K. Vearncombe, and Ritva H. Williams.
Zeba A. Crook is professor of religious studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He is the author or coeditor of many social-scientific studies on topics relating to the earliest Christian communities and their writings. 978-0-8028-7356-9 | Hardcover | 392 pages | $65.00 | Available May 2020
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Religion, Race, and Whiteness in Constructions of Jewish and Christian Identities David G. Horrell Foreword by Judith M. Lieu
In Ethnicity and Inclusion, David Horrell explores the ways in which “ethnic” (and “religious”) characteristics feature in key Jewish and early Christian texts, challenging the widely accepted dichotomy between a Judaism that is ethnically defined and a Christianity that is open and inclusive. Then, through an engagement with whiteness studies, he offers a critique of the implicit whiteness and Christianness that continue to dominate New Testament studies today, arguing that a diversity of embodied perspectives is epistemologically necessary. “David Horrell’s Ethnicity and Inclusion is an ambitious, impressive, and important work. It is wide-ranging, dealing not only with ancient Judaism and ancient Christianity, but also theology, race, and whiteness. It is must reading for anyone in the field of early Christianity.” — MATTHEW THIESSEN McMaster University
“Here is a landmark book, advancing biblical studies in multiple ways. Horrell provides a framework concerning how we might approach categories like ethnicity and religion in the ancient world, then interprets the diverse ways in which ancient Jews and the earliest Christians constructed group identity. Along the way, Horrell dismantles the facile distinction between exclusive Judaism and inclusive Christianity. Finally, this book pioneers the application of critical race theory, particularly whiteness studies, to the formation of biblical scholarship.” — GREG CAREY Lancaster Theological Seminary
David G. Horrell is professor of New Testament studies and director of the Centre for Biblical Studies at the University of Exeter, UK, where he has taught since 1995. His other books include The Making of Christian Morality: Reading Paul in Ancient and Modern Contexts and Becoming Christian: Essays on 1 Peter and the Making of Christian Identity. 978-0-8028-7608-9 | Jacketed Hardcover | 504 pages | $55.00 Available October 2020
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Gentile Christian Identity from Cornelius to Constantine
The Nations, the Parting of the Ways, and Roman Imperial Ideology Terence L. Donaldson
THE WORLD OF THE BIBLE
Ethnicity and Inclusion
Originally an ascribed identity that cast non-Jewish Christ-believers as an ethnic other, “gentile” soon evolved into a much more complex aspect of early Christian identity. Gentile Christian Identity from Cornelius to Constantine is a full historical account of this trajectory, showing how, in the context of “the parting of the ways,” the early church increasingly identified itself as a distinctly gentile and anti-Judaic entity, even as it also crafted itself as an alternative to the cosmopolitan project of the Roman Empire. This process of identity construction shaped Christianity’s legacy, paradoxically establishing it as both a counter-empire and a mimicker of Rome’s imperial ideology. Drawing on social identity theory and competitive ethnography, Terence Donaldson offers an analysis of gentile Christianity that is thorough and highly relevant to today’s discourses surrounding identity, ethnicity, and Christian-Jewish relations. As Donaldson shows, a full understanding of the term gentile is key to understanding the modern Western world and the church as we know it. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Three Orations and a Question 2. Positioning the Question 3. Ethnē as an Identity Ascribed to Non-Jews: By Jews 4. Ethnē as an Identity Ascribed to Non-Jews: By Jewish Christ-believers 5. The Nations in Roman Imperial Discourse 6. Ethnē and Gentile Christian Identity (to 135 CE) 7. Ethnē and Gentile Christian Identity (after 135 CE) Afterword
Terence L. Donaldson is the Lord and Lady Coggan Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies at Wycliffe College in Toronto. He is also the author of Jews and Anti-Judaism in the New Testament and Paul and the Gentiles. 978-0-8028-7175-6 | Jacketed Hardcover | 656 pages | $75.00 Available November 2020
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THE WORLD OF THE BIBLE
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New Testament Apocrypha
Beginning from Jerusalem
VOLUME 2
VOLUME 2
Tony Burke, editor A compilation of apocryphal Christian texts, many translated into English for the first time
James D. G. Dunn
More Noncanonical Scriptures
This second volume of New Testament Apocrypha continues the work of the first by making available to English readers more apocryphal texts. Twenty-nine texts are featured, including “The Adoration of the Magi” and “The Life of Mary Magdalene,” each carefully introduced, copiously annotated, and translated into English by eminent scholars. These fascinating texts provide insights into the beliefs, expressions, and practices of a range of Christian communities from the early centuries through late antiquity and into the medieval period.
Christianity in the Making
“A wealth of historical insights about the earliest churches reflected in Acts and the letters.” — MICHAEL J. GORMAN in Interpretation
“A truly remarkable achievement, reflecting a lifetime of research, writing, teaching, and supervising. Throughout Dunn maintains a style that is both readable and erudite but also unfailingly courteous. His vigorous running exegesis of the texts is expanded in a veritable mountain of footnotes engaging with (mostly recent) scholarship. The resulting work is every undergraduate’s dream, providing lateral access to a vast array of research interest. In consequence this is a text the scholar and the teacher will want to have in a handy place for frequent use.” — PAUL BARNETT in Themelios
Tony Burke is professor of religious studies at York University in Toronto and founding president of the North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature. He is also the author of Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha and coeditor of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 1.
“Beginning from Jerusalem will not be the last word on a number of issues it raises. However, for a judicious, middle-of-the-road, even conservative-leaning synthesis of the status quaestionis on countless topics, spiced up by Dunn’s distinctive positions at several key points, one could hardly ask for more.”
978-0-8028-7290-6 | Jacketed Hardcover | 656 pages | $75.00 | Available July 2020
“Readers will surely express admiration for the learning and scholarly passion this volume displays.” — L. W. HURTADO
— CRAIG L. BLOMBERG in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
in Catholic Biblical Quarterly
VOLUME 1 also available
New Testament Apocrypha More Noncanonical Scriptures
James D. G. Dunn is Lightfoot Professor Emeritus of Divinity at Durham University and one of the foremost New Testament scholars in the world today. His many other books include the other two volumes in the magisterial Christianity in the Making trilogy and The Theology of Paul the Apostle. 978-0-8028-7800-7 | Paperback | 1370 pages | $65.00 | Available
VOLUME 1
978-0-8028-7289-0 Jacketed Hardcover 635 pages | $75.00
also available in paperback
Jesus Remembered Christianity in the Making 978-0-8028-7799-4 | Paperback 1037 pages | $60.00
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The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians F. F. Bruce After a lifetime of work that earned him the appellation “Dean of Evangelical Scholarship,” F. F. Bruce’s legacy of defending the historical reliability of the New Testament and explicating its meaning remains influential today, and rightly so. This collection of three commentaries in one volume—Bruce’s final study of Paul’s writings—represents his legacy well. It was met with immediate acclaim upon publication in 1984 and earned an Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Gold Medallion award the following year. In these pages—now Bruce’s third volume in the Eerdmans Classic Biblical Commentaries series—this giant of twentieth-century biblical studies speaks still. 978-0-8028-7592-1 | Jacketed Hardcover | 470 pages | $40.00 Available July 2020
C O M M E N TA R I E S
EERDMANS CLASSIC BIBLICAL COMMENTARIES
Judges David J. H. Beldman Judges is a book for our time. It forces readers to come face to face with the way that faith speaks into the situations we encounter and read about in our newsfeeds. Warfare, authoritarianism, sexual exploitation, tribalism—these are a few of the repercussions from not having our social order oriented toward God. In this commentary David Beldman, associate professor of religion and theology at Redeemer University College, expounds the story of God and Israel that unfolds in the book of Judges, highlighting the vital message it speaks to contemporary Christians who strive to live lives of integrity and undivided loyalty to Jesus under the constant pressure of the idols of twenty-first-century culture.
THE TWO HORIZONS OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY
978-0-8028-2701-2 | Paperback | 330 pages $34.00 | Available
THE PILLAR NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY
The Letters of John SECOND EDITION
Colin G. Kruse This updated and revised Pillar commentary seeks to clearly explain the meaning of John’s letters to teachers, pastors, and general readers looking for a reliable and trusted resource for personal study. Colin Kruse, senior lecturer in New Testament at Melbourne School of Theology, introduces the important issues involved in interpreting the Johannine letters, gives verse-byverse comments, and provides extensive discussion of John’s major theological themes, including the real humanity of Christ, atonement, the role of the Spirit, Christian assurance, koinonia, Christian love, and eternal life. 978-0-8028-7667-6 | Jacketed Hardcover | 312 pages | $40.00 | Available May 2020
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The Letter to the Ephesians C O M M E N TA R I E S
Lynn H. Cohick
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The letter to the Ephesians provokes interpretive questions of authorship, audience, date, occasion, and purpose of writing. Interacting critically with this intense debate, Lynn Cohick provides an exegetically astute analysis of the six chapters of Ephesians, offering an insightful account of the epistle’s theology and soteriology as she attends to the letter’s expansive prose and lofty vision of God’s redemption. Cohick, provost/ dean and professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, investigates the complex relatioship between Jews and gentiles within the text and in the broader cultural context as she analyzes the epistle’s description of the Church and its appeals for discipleship. Her extensive knowledge of the social realities of women and families in the ancient world is evident throughout. Cohick’s historically sensitive and theologically rich commentary will resource a new generation of scholars, pastors, and lay leaders. 978-0-8028-6842-8 | Jacketed Hardcover | 600 pages | $55.00 Available November 2020
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Book of Amos M. Daniel Carroll R. In this commentary on the book of Amos, Wheaton College’s Blanchard Professor of Old Testament Daniel Carroll combines a detailed reading of the Hebrew text with attention to its historical background and current relevance. What makes this volume unique is its special attention to Amos’s literary features and what they reveal about the book’s theology and composition. Instead of reconstructing a hypothetical redactional history, this commentary offers a close reading of the canonical form against the backdrop of the eighth century BCE. 978-0-8028-2538-4 | Jacketed Hardcover | 640 pages | $52.00 | Available November 2020
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT
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I N T R O D U C T I O N S TO C H R I ST I A N P H I LOS O P H Y
Loving Wisdom
A Grotesque in the Garden
SECOND EDITION
Hud Hudson
Paul Copan
Foreword by Michael Rea
SECOND EDITION
A Guide to Philosophy and Christian Faith
As human beings, we all qualify as philosophers, and Paul Copan contends that we take a position of trust (faith) shaped by philosophical stances but also personal heart commitments (worldviews). In this thoroughly revised and expanded second edition of Loving Wisdom, Copan explores philosophy of religion from a distinctively evangelical Christian perspective—biblically grounded, informed by apologetics, and engaging with questions about universal human longings. “Paul Copan is a leading Christian philosopher who has an uncanny ability to take rigorous ideas and make them clear, interesting, and very practical. These skills are delightfully on display in this much-needed, expanded, second edition of Loving Wisdom. An excellent text for those needing a substantive, accessible introduction to philosophical subjects essential for developing an adequate Christian worldview.” — J. P. MORELAND
After several millennia living as a lone sentinel in the Garden of Eden, the angel Tesque is contemplating leaving his post in rebellion against God. Meanwhile, in another time and place, a professor of mathematics isolates herself in remote Iceland as she finds herself increasingly at odds with society. The connection between these two characters? A letter, a sentient dog, and a deep-seated resistance to the demands of love. A Grotesque in the Garden is a philosophical tale that addresses some of theology’s thorniest problems, including the questions of divinely permitted evil, divine hiddenness, and divine deception, couching them in narrative form for greater accessibility to students and general readers. While Hudson’s story ultimately vindicates the virtue of obedience to God, it never shies away from critiques of troublesome theological positions. This second edition contains an appendix with commentary, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading.
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
“Copan has advanced an important, systematic, passionate philosophical case for Christian faith. Loving Wisdom has extraordinary breadth and insight. Highly recommended for both Christian and non-Christian readers.” — CHARLES TALIAFERRO St. Olaf College
“This is not your average novel. It taps into deep religious themes to ask fundamental philosophical questions by means of a compelling and beautifully written narrative. If you yearn for tales that satisfy your head as well as your heart, and that leave you pondering some of the greatest existential questions human beings face, then read this book.” — OLIVER CRISP University of St. Andrews
Paul Copan is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Florida. He has written and edited dozens of books in the area of philosophy of religion, apologetics, and theology, including Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God and An Introduction to Biblical Ethics, which he wrote with Robertson McQuilkin.
Hud Hudson is professor of philosophy at Western Washington University, where he has taught since 1992, primarily in the disciplines of metaphysics, philosophy of religion, ethics, and analytic theology. He is also the author of The Fall and Hypertime, The Metaphysics of Hyperspace, A Materialist Metaphysics of the Human Person, and Kant’s Compatibilism.
978-0-8028-7547-1 | Paperback | 376 pages | $29.99 | Available 978-0-8028-7817-5 | Paperback | 200 pages | $16.99 | Available June 2020
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CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
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The Beauty of Preaching
The Overshadowed Preacher
Foreword by Will Willimon
Foreword by Luke A. Powery
What does beauty have to do with healing the fragmentation within our churches? According to Michael Pasquarello, everything. Amid the cacophony of ugly political invective that dominates nearly every space today—including church—only God has the power to unify and heal through his truth and goodness, revealed in his beauty. And every Sunday, those in the pulpit have the opportunity and responsibility to share this beauty with their parishioners. The Beauty of Preaching is about nothing less than the essence of what preaching is. Pasquarello’s project is to turn the tide against the conventional wisdom that sermons are first and foremost meant to be pragmatic. Tapping into a long tradition that can be traced back to Augustine, Pasquarello explores a theological definition of beauty that has tremendous revelatory power in a post-Christendom world. A church manifesting this beauty is not merely a gathering of people, but a place where God’s new creation appears in the midst of the old creation, ushered in by a pastor willing to make God the primary actor within the doxological craft of preaching.
Jerusha Matsen Neal’s The Overshadowed Preacher breaks open one of the most important, unexamined affirmations of preaching: the presence of the living Christ in the sermon. Neal argues that Mary’s conceiving, bearing, and naming of Jesus in Luke’s nativity is a potent description of the mystery. Mary’s example calls preachers to leave behind the false shadows haunting Christian pulpits and be “overshadowed” by the Spirit of God. The Overshadowed Preacher asks gospel proclaimers to own the limits and promise of their humanness as God’s Spirit-filled servants, rather than disappear behind a “pulpit prince” ideal. It is a preacher’s fully embodied witness, lived out through Spirit-filled acts of hospitality, dependence, and discernment, that bears the marks of a fully embodied Christ. This affirmation honors the particularity of preachers in a globally diverse context—challenging a status quo that has historically privileged masculinity and whiteness. It also offers hope to ordinary souls who find themselves daunted by the impossibility of the preaching task. Nothing, in the angel’s words, is impossible with God.
“Eschewing modernity’s limp aestheticism, in this encouraging book Mike does his usual sweeping survey of theological literature to produce a loving, bold proclamation that Christian preaching’s beauty is not a set of rhetorical devices whereby we sugarcoat and pretty up a sermon to make it more palatable. No, Mike joins Augustine in joyfully preaching that beautiful is who God is, beauty is the truth about the God who delights in delighting us through faithful preaching.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
God’s Glory in Christian Proclamation Michael Pasquarello III
Mary, the Spirit, and the Labor of Proclamation Jerusha Matsen Neal
— WILL WILLIMON from the foreword
Michael Pasquarello III is Methodist Chair of Divinity, director of the Robert Smith Jr. Preaching Institute, and director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Beeson Divinity School. His other books include Dietrich: Bonhoeffer and the Theology of a Preaching Life and Sacred Rhetoric: Preaching as a Theological and Pastoral Practice of the Church. 978-0-8028-2474-5 | Paperback | 272 pages | $26.99 | Available August 2020
1. Uneasy Borders, Tricky Definitions 2. Dangerous Deliveries: The Queen of Heaven and the Pulpit Prince 3. Starting with the Body . . . the Resurrected Body 4. The Spirit-filled Handmaid 5. Fully Human Preaching 6. Conceiving: The Labor of Hospitality 7. Bearing: The Labor of Dependence 8. Naming: The Labor of Discernment Epilogue: The Overshadowed Preacher
Jerusha Matsen Neal is assistant professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School. An ordained American Baptist pastor with broad ecumenical experience, she has spent her ministry preaching in cross-cultural spaces. She is also a former actress, playwright, and Global Ministries missionary to the Fiji Islands. 978-0-8028-7653-9 | Jacketed Hardcover | 256 pages | $35.00 Available October 2020
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Sunday’s Sermon for Monday’s World Preaching to Shape Daring Witness Sally A. Brown Foreword by Luke A. Powery
How can we who preach inspire the “ordinary prophets” of our time—those who, in Christ’s name, will act in great or small ways as agents of redemptive interruption? Sally A. Brown, with her extensive experience both in parish ministry and in training others for ministry, shares preaching strategies that equip these ordinary prophets to take daring action. Sunday’s Sermon for Monday’s World will inspire both preachers and those who listen to them to move from sanctuary to street, week after week, eager to discern and participate in the ongoing, redemptive work of God already underway. “For the preacher seeking to address our rapidly changing context, Brown lays out a theology of witness that translates convincingly into congregational formation. And she forms the homiletician for this task with her pithy analysis of a range of well-chosen sermons.” — DARRELL GUDER Princeton Theological Seminary
“What this book urges readers to consider is how the sermon is lived as a public witness. . . . Brown invites us to see eloquent preaching as a practice, not only in a pulpit but also enfleshed through justice, mercy, and love in the world.” — LUKE A. POWERY from the foreword
Sally A. Brown, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, USA, teaches preaching, hermeneutics, and homiletical theory at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she also directs the annual Engle Institute of Preaching. In 2019, she served as president of the Academy of Homiletics. Her previous books include Ways of the Word: Learning to Preach for Your Time and Place (with Luke A. Powery), Cross Talk: Preaching Redemption Here and Now, and Lament: Reclaiming Practices in Pulpit, Pew, and Public Square (coedited with Patrick Miller).
Finding Jesus in the Storm
The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges John Swinton
CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
THE GOSPEL IN OUR CULTURE SERIES
People living with mental health challenges are not excluded from God’s love or even the fullness of life promised by Jesus. Unfortunately, this hope is often lost amid the well-meaning labels and medical treatments that dominate the world of mental health today. In Finding Jesus in the Storm, John Swinton makes the case for reclaiming that hope by changing the way we talk about mental health and remembering that, above all, people are people, regardless of how unconventionally they experience life. This means accepting the reality and ramifications of suffering while also affirming that there is more to humanity than cells and synapses. Finding Jesus in the Storm is a call for the church to be an epicenter of compassion for those experiencing depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and related difficulties. Part of this compassion means breaking free of the assumptions that often accompany these diagnoses, allowing for the possibility that people living within unconventional states of mental health might experience God in unique ways that are real and perhaps even revelatory. In each chapter, Swinton gives voice to those experiencing the mental health challenges in question, so readers can see firsthand what God’s healing looks like in a variety of circumstances. The result is a book about people instead of symptoms, description instead of diagnosis, and lifegiving hope for everyone in the midst of the storm. John Swinton is professor of practical theology and pastoral care at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and founding director of Aberdeen’s Centre for Spirituality, Health, and Disability. He worked as a nurse for sixteen years within the fields of mental health and learning disabilities and later also as a community mental health chaplain. 978-0-8028-7372-9 | Paperback | 224 pages | $25.00 | Available September 2020
978-0-8028-7112-1 | Paperback | 216 pages | $19.99 | Available
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CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
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Delighted
What Teenagers Are Teaching the Church about Joy Kenda Creasy Dean, Wesley W. Ellis, Justin Forbes, and Abigail Visco Rusert “Joy” is not often a word young people associate with church—but it should be By reimagining three common practices in youth ministry through the theological lens of joy, veteran youth workers Kenda Creasy Dean, Wesley Ellis, Justin Forbes, and Abigail Visco Rusert demonstrate how to shift this association and become more honest about what youth ministry can, and can’t, do to support young people and their faith. Grounding youth ministry in joy rather than in fear also models a way forward for the church. It reminds us that youth ministry is not a tool for anxious congregations to use to ensure their survival. Rather, youth ministry—like all ministry—is a way to help people name and experience God’s delight, free from fear and anxiety about their futures. “Kenda, Wesley, Justin, and Abigail provocatively ground youth ministry—and discipleship for all generations—in our ongoing awareness of God’s joyful delight in us, which in turn sparks our delight in God. After reading Delighted, you’ll experience joy differently, you’ll love young people differently, and you’ll almost certainly view yourself differently too.” — KARA POWELL Fuller Youth Institute
“Kenda, Abigail, Wes, and Justin are passionate, intelligent, and theologically thoughtful youth workers that are bringing a critically important message to us in the midst of our emotionally stressful culture of contempt.” — MIKE KING President & CEO, Youthfront
Kenda Creasy Dean is an ordained United Methodist pastor and the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary. Wesley W. Ellis is a veteran youth worker and the associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Toms River, New Jersey. Justin Forbes is the director of the Youth Ministry Program at Flagler College. Abigail Visco Rusert is the director of the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. 978-0-8028-7780-2 | Paperback | 151 pages | $16.99 | Available
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Digital Life Together
The Challenge of Technology for Christian Schools David I. Smith, Kara Sevensma, Marjorie Terpstra, and Steven McMullen Based on a three-year in-depth study of Christian schools, Digital Life Together walks educators, school leaders, and parents through some of the big ideas that are hidden in our technology habits, going beyond general arguments for or against digital devices to address the nuanced realities of Christian education in a twenty-first century context. “Here, finally, is wisdom about the role of technology in Christian teaching and learning that is neither blind enthusiasm nor defensive dismissal.” — JAMES K. A. SMITH author of Desiring the Kingdom and You Are What You Love
“Not only will every Christian school educator, student, and parent see their experiences reflected in this book, they’ll also be challenged toward technology-based practice that is missionally aligned, encourages both creativity and discernment, and enriches Christian formation and community.” — LYNN E. SWANER Association of Christian Schools International
“Every Christian school should have at least one copy of Digital Life Together in its staff library.” — TREVOR COOLING Canterbury Christ Church University
“The authors of this book employ quantitative studies, focus groups, case studies, classroom observations, and in-depth interviews to illuminate the complex realities and challenges of educational life with technology.” — PERRY L. GLANZER author of The Outrageous Idea of Christian Teaching
David I. Smith is director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning and professor of education at Calvin University. Kara Sevensma has over fifteen years of educational experience, first as a K–12 special education teacher and then as an assistant professor of education at Calvin University. Marjorie Terpstra is chair of the education department and associate professor of education at Calvin University. Steven McMullen is associate professor of economics at Hope College, the executive editor of the journal Faith & Economics, and fellow at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. 978-0-8028-7703-1 | Paperback | 384 pages | $29.99 | Available May 2020
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T H E O L O G I C A L E D U C AT I O N B E T W E E N T H E T I M E S “Theological education is between the times—not just between one paradigm and another, but also between the resurrection of Jesus and the consummation of redemption at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Written from this time-between-the-times, the books in this series are shot through with confession, critique, hope, and joy. They offer not blueprints, but foretastes and yearnings. And they are written in the confidence that theological education will live on, not because this series proposes the next new model, but because God longs to be known.” — TED A. SMITH series editor
After Whiteness
An Education in Belonging Willie James Jennings On forming people who form communion Theological education has always been about formation: first of people, then of communities, then of the world. If we continue to promote whiteness and its related ideas of masculinity and individualism in our educational work, it will remain diseased and thwart our efforts to heal the church and the world. But if theological education aims to form people who can gather others together through border-crossing pluralism and Goddrenched communion, we can begin to cultivate the radical belonging that is at the heart of God’s transformative work. After Whiteness is part memoir, part decolonial analysis, and part poetry—a multimodal discourse that deliberately transgresses boundaries, as Jennings hopes theological education will do, too.
Attempt Great Things for God Theological Education in Diaspora Chloe T. Sun Celebrating the contributions of the ethnic seminary in America
While the narrative of decline haunts churches and seminaries in the United States, there is great hope to be found in the explosive growth of Christian populations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In light of this, much can be learned from points of intersection between the minority and majority worlds, such as Logos Evangelical Seminary, an ATS-accredited Chineselanguage seminary in California—the first in the US. Chloe Sun makes the case here for why an ethnic seminary like Logos has much to teach us about the evolving possibilities for theological education in a society of cultural exchange, with many populations living in diaspora.
Willie James Jennings is associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale University Divinity School. His book The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race won both the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
Chloe T. Sun is professor of Old Testament at Logos Evangelical Seminary, the first fully accredited seminary in the United States that is dedicated to communities of Mandarin speakers. Sun is the author of eight books. A prominent leader in the global Chinese Christian community, she publishes in both Chinese and English.
978-0-8028-7844-1 | Paperback | 176 pages | $19.99 Available October 2020
978-0-8028-7842-7 | Paperback | 176 pages | $19.99 Available November 2020
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Renewing the Church by the Spirit
Theological Education after Pentecost Amos Yong In most parts of the world and especially where Christianity is flourishing, Pentecostal and charismatic movements predominate. What would it look like for the Western world—beset by the narrative of decline—to participate in this global Spirit-driven movement? According to Amos Yong, it all needs to start with the way we approach theological education. Renewing the Church by the Spirit makes the case for elevating pneumatology in Christian life, allowing the Spirit to reinvigorate church and mission. Yong shows how this approach would attend to both the rapidly deinstitutionalizing forms of twentyfirst-century Christianity and the pressing need for authentic spiritual experiences that marks contemporary religious life. Amos Yong is professor of theology and mission while also serving as dean of the School of Theology and the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. One of the most notable Pentecostal theologians writing today, Yong is the author and editor of more than four dozen books. 978-0-8028-7840-3 | Paperback | 176 pages | $19.99 Available November 2020
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FA I T H & L I F E
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The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty Martin Schleske Translated by Janet Gesme Foreword by Makoto Fujimura
“In the final analysis, music is prayer cast into sound.” One of the greatest luthiers of our time reveals the secrets of his profession—and how each phase of handcrafting a violin can point us toward our calling, our true selves, and the overwhelming power and gentleness of God’s love. Schleske explains that our world is flooded with metaphors, parables, and messages from God. But are we truly listening? Do we really see? Drawing upon Scripture, his life experiences, and his insights as a master violinmaker, Schleske challenges readers to understand the world, ourselves, and the Creator in fresh ways. The message of this unique book is mirrored in sensitive photographs by Donata Wenders, whose work has appeared in prominent newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Esquire, as well as museums and galleries throughout the world. “Reading Martin is not an exercise; it is an encounter and experience. May each reader or listener who slows to ‘hear’ this work of art through its hallowed depths discover anew the ‘singer’ within their own heart.”
— WILLIAM PAUL YOUNG author of The Shack
“Drawing on diverse sources—trees, mountain hikes, musical instruments, artwork—a violinmaker weaves a tapestry of beauty and spiritual wisdom. Rarely have I read such a fresh and stimulating work.”
— PHILIP YANCEY
author of The Jesus I Never Knew
Martin Schleske, a best-selling German author, is renowned not only for his writing but also for his innovative and skillful work as a luthier. Just as his instruments open up a world of beauty for the musician, so do his books and articles open up the beauty of creation and God’s heart to the reader. 978-0-8028-7614-0 | Paperback | 400 pages | $24.99 | Available
God, Improv, and the Art of Living MaryAnn McKibben Dana Foreword by Susan E. Isaacs
The famous improvisational principle of “yes, and…” has produced a lot of great comedy. But it also offers an invigorating approach to life in general, and the spiritual life in particular. From Moses to Ruth to Jesus, Scripture is full of people boldly saying “yes, and…” as they accept what life throws their way and build upon it. In this book, pastor, speaker, and improv aficionado MaryAnn McKibben Dana blends Scripture, psychology, theology, and pop culture in a wise, funny, down-to-earth guide to God, improv, and the art of living. Offering concrete spiritual wisdom in the form of seven improvisational principles, this book will help readers become more awake, creative, resilient, and ready to play—even (and perhaps especially) when life doesn’t go according to plan. “Life happens. Living well means improvising, which is a craft that can be practiced and honed. In MaryAnn McKibben Dana we have the gift of an honest, playful, and deeply wise guide. In this book you will find practical insight drawn from the world of improv, tested in the crucible of pastoral ministry, and engagingly told in story after story.” — KEN EVERS-HOOD author of The Irrational Jesus: Leading the Fully Human Church
“This spiritual guide explores a world of universe-expanding possibility through the simple act of uttering the word yes.” — SARAH LITTLE filmmaker, comedian with The Second City
“McKibben Dana artfully, tenderly, and prophetically challenges us all to embrace the idea that it is precisely by experiencing and sharing vulnerability and a lack of control with others that we meet God. Her God, Improv, and the Art of Living is a gift for those who dare to step into this holy improv space and risk the possibilities.” — BRUCE REYES-CHOW coauthor of Rule #2: Don’t Be an Asshat: An Official Handbook for Raising Parents and Children
“Insightful and truthful. . . . Offers a fresh perspective on the profound freedom and gift of saying YES to life and God.” — JESSICA TATE director of NEXT Church
MaryAnn McKibben Dana is a writer, speaker, pastor, and the author of Sabbath in the Suburbs: A Family’s Experiment with Holy Time. An avid student and champion of improvisational theater, she prides herself on her ability to get even stodgy groups playing together and reflecting on life as improv. 978-0-8028-7834-2 | Paperback | 230 pages | $16.99 | Available July 2020
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FA I T H & L I F E
Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict Marilyn McEntyre Those who want to avoid simplistic partisan rhetoric and use words in a challenging, spirited way need practical strategies. This book offers a range of them. Drawing upon the work of exemplary contemporary writers, Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict shows how to speak and write clearly and generously. For example, we can attend more carefully to the effects of metaphors, recognize and avoid glib euphemisms, define terms in ways that retrieve core meanings and revitalize them, and enrich our sense of history by deft use of allusion. Contemporary readers are awash in many words that have been cheapened and profaned. But with deliberate use of intelligence and grace we can redeem their “sacramentality”: humanely uttered words can become a life-giving means of clarity and compassion. Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict is an homage to outstanding wordsmiths who have achieved that potential and an invitation to follow them in making well-chosen words instruments of peace. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1. Don’t Rely on Webster’s 2. Unmask Euphemisms 3. Remind People of What They Know 4. Embrace Your Allusive Impulses 5. Tell It “Slant” 6. Promote Poetry
7. Articulate Your Outrage 8. Find Facts and Check Them 9. Mind Your Metaphors 10. Complicate Matters 11. Laugh When You Can 12. Quit Trying to “Win” Afterword
Marilyn McEntyre is the award-winning author of several books on language and faith, including What’s in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause (winner of a Christianity Today 2015 book award in spirituality), Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts, Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice, When Poets Pray, and Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies. 978-0-8028-7814-4 | Jacketed Hardcover | 212 pages | $21.99 | Available May 2020
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Leading Lives That Matter What We Should Do and Who We Should Be SECOND EDITION
Mark R. Schwehn and Dorothy C. Bass, editors Leading Lives That Matter compiles a wide range of texts—from ancient and contemporary literature, social commentary, and philosophy—related to questions of vital interest for those who are trying to decide what to do with their lives and what kind of human beings they hope to become. This book draws upon both religious and secular wisdom, bringing these sources into conversation with one another. Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass identify four vocabularies typically used in discussions of the meaning of life choices: authenticity, virtue, exemplarity, and vocation. Six guiding questions then shape the chapters that contain the majority of the texts. Each chapter’s texts provide a variety of insights and approaches to be considered in addressing the question, arranged and introduced in ways that prompt deeper reflection. Leading Lives That Matter invites readers into arguments that have persisted for generations about what we human beings should do and who we should be. “We are overwhelmed, we are self-absorbed, we feel melancholy emptiness— most of us and more often than we like. Yet we long for our lives to contribute to something truly great, something that transcends our individual selves. Here is an excellent tool that helps us reflect on how our lives acquire depth and weight, that offers guidance about who we should be and what we should do if we are to lead lives that truly matter.” — MIROSLAV VOLF Mark R. Schwehn is senior research professor at Christ College, the honors college of Valparaiso University. Dorothy C. Bass is the director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith, a Lilly Endowment project at Valparaiso University that develops resources to help contemporary people live the Christian faith with vitality and integrity in changing times. 978-0-8028-7714-7 | Paperback | 648 pages | $35.00 | Available June 2020
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Teach Us to Pray
The Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church and Today Justo L. González The Lord’s Prayer is one of the oldest and most widely used short summaries not only of how Christians pray but of what they believe about God, the world, and humankind. Justo González, whose textbooks have taught Christian doctrine and history to thousands of pastors, draws on Scripture, the Church Fathers, and his own life experience to make this vital prayer from the Christian past comprehensible for readers who want to understand—and live—Christianity in the present. Teach Us to Pray is for all who are learning or practicing Christian discipleship and ministry, from college students and motivated laypeople to veteran pastors and teachers. “Great teachers always need great assistants, and in Teach Us to Pray we discover that Jesus—the true teacher of prayer—has enlisted Justo González to teach us to pray our Lord’s Prayer ever more faithfully. González has synthesized a treasure trove of wisdom from the early church with his own deep theological and pastoral insight. The result is a text I will reach for every time I teach the Lord’s Prayer, but more importantly, a text that will continue to shape my own praying.”
Praying the Psalms with Beads A Book of Daily Prayers Nan Lewis Doerr The psalms made intimate and tangible
Life is often so busy and chaotic that even when we do find the time to pray, our minds cannot settle and our thoughts drift to the stresses and concerns that pull our attention elsewhere. With the use of beads, however, our whole bodies are directly incorporated into the act of praying, allowing us to remain present with God in a state of peaceful meditation. Praying the Psalms with Beads guides the reader in a daily devotional habit that distills the entire book of Psalms into 182 five-minute prayers, allowing one to go through this whole cycle twice a year, gaining deeper familiarity with the psalms each time. By virtue of this repetition, the psalmists’ praises, laments, and supplications become something deeply felt instead of only distantly understood. Nan Lewis Doerr’s introduction includes an overview and guide to using prayer beads, making this an accessible book for anyone who longs for deeper peace and spiritual focus in their lives.
— BRENT LAYTHAM Saint Mary’s Ecumenical Institute
“I never miss the opportunity to read Justo González. The eminent Cuban American church historian has long provided a wealth of insight into the development of Christian doctrine as it has spread across the globe.” — MATTHEW BARRETT in Christianity Today
“Justo González is an exemplary historian. Untold numbers of seminary students, now pastors, have been influenced by his long and distinguished work.” — PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK
Justo L. González is a retired United Methodist minister and professor of historical theology. His more than one hundred books, which have been published in ten languages, include The Story of Christianity, A History of Christian Thought, Knowing Our Faith, and A Brief History of Sunday. 978-0-8028-7796-3 | Paperback | 192 pages | $16.99 | Available June 2020
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Nan Lewis Doerr is an Episcopal priest who has served in six parishes, on two university campuses, and in one mission in the diocese of Texas. She is also the coauthor, with Virginia Stem Owens, of Praying with Beads. 978-0-8028-7833-5 | Paperback | 200 pages | $15.00 | Available August 2020
Also available from
NAN LEWIS DOERR
Praying with Beads Daily Prayers for the Christian Year
978-0-8028-2727-2 | Paperback 95 pages | $12.00
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FA I T H & L I F E
Help My Unbelief
I Understand
Fleming Rutledge Sermons of hope and faith for those who feel they have lost both
Foreword by Mariel Hemingway
TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
“For those, like me, who rarely hear a memorable sermon, Fleming Rutledge’s wondrous collection is worth a month of Sundays. May she preach forever.” — KENNETH L. WOODWARD author of Getting Religion
“Among the many other blessings it brings, Rutledge’s book helps to restore our confidence that, both as a ministry and as a literary form, there is simply no substitute for good preaching. The need for such preaching is impossible to overstate. If we don’t have the good fortune to hear sermons like this very often, let us at least read them.” — CHRISTIAN CENTURY “It is extremely rare to find in any one preacher such deep faith, fearlessness before the powers that be, and deep humility combined with such crackling intelligence and stunning powers of expression. Fleming Rutledge is a gift to the Christian pulpit, and these sermons are life preservers thrown to a culture drowning in uncertainty.” — THOMAS G. LONG Candler School of Theology, Emory University
“Rutledge’s sermons shine with biblical intelligence and pastoral wisdom.” — CORNELIUS PLANTINGA JR. Calvin Theological Seminary
“You will not be able to put this book down. Buy it, read it, and be refreshed in mind and Spirit.” — SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY “Those who are nourished by good sermons will enjoy Fleming Rutledge’s wellcrafted homilies. Those who are obliged to preach may profit from studying how she fashions her sermons and weaves both current events and ancient texts into them.” — THE ANGLICAN Fleming Rutledge is an Episcopal priest, a best-selling author, and a widely recognized preacher whose published sermon collections have received acclaim across denominational lines. Her other books include Three Hours: Sermons for Good Friday, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ, and The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, which won Christianity Today’s 2017 Book of the Year Award.
Pain, Love, and Healing after Suicide Vonnie Woodrick Time doesn’t heal—love heals When Vonnie Woodrick lost her husband Rob to suicide in 2003, she was faced with a series of decisions. How would she move on? How would she support and raise her three children as a young widow? How would she talk about Rob and honor his memory? These questions had no easy answers, but Vonnie found herself longing for one thing in particular: understanding. The stigma of mental illness loomed large over Rob’s death and made healing difficult. But Vonnie found the common assumptions surrounding suicide to be false. Rob was not “crazy.” He did not choose to take his own life. He was in agony and only wanted the pain to end. His death was a direct result of his mental illness. Why didn’t more people understand this? Over a decade later, Vonnie and her children created the nonprofit organization i understand to help others enduring this same grief and loneliness. Since its founding in 2014, i understand has become a haven of compassionate comfort in the West Michigan region and a powerful voice in the movement to change the way we talk about suicide so that it can be seen for what it truly is: a terminal effect of mental illness, rather than a deliberate choice. This is the story of how love transformed Vonnie’s brokenness into hope—not only for herself and her family, but for anyone struggling to emerge from the darkness of suicide. Vonnie Woodrick is the founder of i understand, a nonprofit organization created in 2014 in loving memory of her husband Rob, who lost his battle with depression in 2003. Woodrick is passionate about comforting those affected by suicide and changing the conversation around mental health. She has previously been published in Woman’s World and is a monthly contributor to Women’s Lifestyle Magazine. 978-0-8028-7804-5 | Paperback | 128 pages | $14.99 | Available September 2020
978-0-8028-7790-1 | Jacketed Hardcover | 312 pages | $25.99 | Available
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Defiant
What the Women of Exodus Teach Us about Freedom Kelley Nikondeha Foreword by Sarah Bessey
If it weren’t for the women in the Exodus narrative, there would be no Moses, no crossing of the Red Sea, and no story of breaking the chains of slavery. On both sides of the Nile, women exhibited a subversive strength to defy Pharaoh and lead an entire people to freedom. Defiant invites us to reflect on how this ancient story speaks to women’s resistance against injustice today and highlights the biblical mandate of working toward liberation in all times and places. “In Defiant, Kelley lays out a feast for us of the truth about biblical womanhood: the resistance, the strength, the civil disobedience, the collaboration, the truthtelling, the drumming, the wit, the holy liberated power of women who know their God.” — SARAH BESSEY from the foreword
“You, like myself, will walk away from this book understanding there is a long line of women to partner with as we seek to liberate ourselves and others from a world desperate to baptize inequality and injustice as the norm. Together, we will march toward liberation in an age of fear.” — D. L. MAYFIELD author of Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith
“Kelley Nikondeha fiercely embodies the work of loving solidarity, and this book is proof of that reality. So many of the women mentioned in this book have been forgotten, our own eyes tainted by patriarchy. Kelley invites us to look deeper, and her words give me renewed hope in what has been covered up again and again by empire—the enduring power of defiant, feminine resistance.” — KAITLIN CURTICE
Showing
What Pregnancy Tells Us about Being Human Agnes R. Howard Might pregnancy form women just as much as children? When we talk about pregnancy, we too often end up talking clinically or sentimentally. We tend to think of pregnancy as either a series of medical details or a whirl of emotions—vitamins and ultrasounds or baby showers and expectant joy. But it is so much more. In Showing, Agnes Howard takes us beyond clinical reductionism and fluffy sentimentality to show us how to take pregnancy seriously as hard but important work. It is not just a bodily process, she argues, but an active work of care—one that underscores the generosity and mutual dependence we all require in order to live. It is an act of radical hospitality that shows us all what it means to be human. Howard delves into prenatal care literature from the Christian tradition to find images and vocabulary that elevate and honor pregnancy— not only for the benefit of expectant parents but also their communities and the church. Taking pregnancy seriously does not entail viewing it as a woman’s only role or romanticizing it. Instead, Showing maintains that thinking well about pregnancy can help not only childbearing women but all who surround them understand how to live together more faithfully. “In Showing, Agnes Howard provides us with the historian’s best gift: perspective. With a skilled eye trained always on cultural, medical, and religious history, Howard provides an orientation that helpfully illuminates our current understandings of pregnancy. Her reflections on virtues practiced in pregnancy, particularly courage and hospitality, are especially promising, offering a more meaningful construction of the pregnant woman’s agency. This book celebrates pregnancy and calls all of us to what pregnancy ideally exemplifies: embodied generosity.” — DEBRA RIENSTRA author of Great with Child
author of Glory Happening
Kelley Nikondeha is the codirector and chief storyteller for Communities of Hope, a community development enterprise in Burundi, and the cofounder of Amahoro Africa, a conversation between theologians and practitioners within the African context. She is also the author of Adopted: The Sacrament of Belonging in a Fractured World. 978-0-8028-6429-1 | Paperback | 228 pages | $17.99 | Available
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Agnes R. Howard is assistant professor of humanities at Valparaiso University, where she teaches in Christ College, the honors college. A senior fellow in the Lilly Fellows Program, her research focuses on the history of childbirth, the culture of pregnancy, and women’s health movements in the United States. Her writing has also appeared in Commonweal, First Things, The Cresset, and other publications. 978-0-8028-7723-9 | Jacketed Hardcover | 240 pages | $21.99 | Available
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FA I T H & L I F E
We Were Spiritual Refugees
Sanctuary
Foreword by Doug Pagitt
Foreword by Lenny Duncan
Church reimagined for a new day
Throughout her nearly forty years in ministry, Heidi Neumark has strived to make the communities she was part of sanctuaries amid the turmoils of life. Now, with the social and political upheaval of the years since Donald Trump was elected president, Neumark believes the true Christian calling is to live out a counterpoint to today’s prevailing spirits of exclusion and hatred. Using her own bilingual, multicultural congregation as a model, she moves through the seasons of the church calendar to reflect on what it looks like to live out essential Christian convictions in community with others. Sanctuary is an amplifier for the many voices crying out against policies and rhetoric that are cruel, dehumanizing, and dangerous. Neumark begins each chapter with a quote from Donald Trump that she defies and dismantles with the power of her own stories—anecdotes about offering shelter for queer youth in her city, supporting immigrants and asylum-seekers being harassed by ICE, and embracing her church’s diversity with a Guadalupe celebration, to name a few. This is a book born out of the necessity of our current times that will nevertheless stay relevant as this era’s deep wounds, inflicted before and during Trump’s presidency, remain long past its end.
A Story to Help You Believe in Church Katie Hays
Being Christian in the Wake of Trump Heidi Neumark
Katie Hays, planter-pastor of Galileo Church, shares the story of departing from the traditional church for the frontier of the spiritualbut-not-religious and building community with Jesus-loving (or at least Jesus-curious) outsiders. Now well-established, Galileo Church “seeks and shelters spiritual refugees” in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas—especially young adults, LGBTQ+ people, and all the people who love them. If you are all-in with Jesus but have trust issues with church, We Were Spiritual Refugees will give you hope for finding a communityof-belonging to call home. “Katie Hays’s radiant theology and being, and her fierce intelligence and integrity, are magnetic. So is her soaring, hard-won readiness to question and evolve, stretch and create, in response to the tenderness and tumult of this age. This account of ‘making a church’ lights my imagination about the new forms and meanings of Church, community, and belonging our world is giving birth to.” — KRISTA TIPPETT creator and host of On Being
“What Katie will describe in the pages that follow is one story of one community of meaning. It has all the quirky particularities of one community. It is apparent that the wonderful parts of the Galileo community were made possible by the specific people who were involved in its formation. Galileo Church is not offered here as a repeatable prototype, and that is a good thing. But it remains true: what you will find in the story of these particular spiritual refugees is the universal, ancient, modern, and postmodern pursuit of a people seeking a community of belonging and path-making.” — DOUG PAGITT from the foreword
Heidi Neumark is a Lutheran pastor who has served congregations in the South Bronx and Manhattan for almost four decades. In her present position, she is also the cofounder and executive director of a shelter for homeless LGBTQIA+ youth. She is the author of two books, Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx and Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets, Memory, and Faith, about the discovery of her Jewish heritage and her grandfather’s death in a concentration camp. 978-0-8028-7839-7 | Jacketed Hardcover | 192 pages | $24.99 Available September 2020
Silenced along with all women in the church of her youth, Katie Hays was grateful to find traditional congregations that received her ministry for twenty years, but in 2013 she left that life behind and became the Lead Evangelist of Galileo Church in Fort Worth, Texas, a quirky church for spiritual refugees that asks, “Who would Jesus love?” 978-0-8028-7778-9 | Paperback | 320 pages | $24.99 | Available
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The Bible and the Ballot
God and Guns in America
Using Scripture in Political Decisions Tremper Longman III
Michael W. Austin Foreword by Rob Schenck
Although the Bible does not always speak explicitly to modern issues, it does give us guiding principles as we think about how we might vote or act as political figures ourselves. In The Bible and the Ballot Tremper Longman demonstrates how to use the Bible in this manner, then tackles topics ranging from poverty and criminal justice to immigration and environmental stewardship, citing important passages of Scripture to be taken into consideration in each case and offering an evangelical interpretation. “Evangelicals will find much food for thought in this cogent, well-argued guide.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“The Bible and the Ballot is a book where Tremper Longman III’s biblical scholarship, wisdom, and intellectual integrity converge. His goal is less to tell you what to think than to explain how to think, in a way that is faithful, theologically rigorous, and authentically biblical. In an era when many politically engaged evangelical Christians are discrediting their faith, Tremper Longman honors it.” — PETER WEHNER contributing editor, The Atlantic; senior adviser to President George W. Bush
“This book is a tremendous gift to Christians seeking counsel on how to read Scripture to make political decisions! Tremper Longman’s expert biblical scholarship, his love for God’s word, and his longing for Christian citizens to be shaped by Scripture come through on every page.” — STEPHANIE SUMMERS Center for Public Justice
Tremper Longman III is distinguished scholar and professor emeritus of biblical studies at Westmont College. He has authored or coauthored more than thirtyfive books. In addition, as a Hebrew scholar, he is one of the main translators of the popular New Living Translation of the Bible. Tremper and his wife Alice live in Alexandria, Virginia.
What if Christians did more than offer thoughts and prayers in response to gun violence? Ethicist Michael Austin argues—from a biblical but nonpacifist perspective—that we can impose firearms restrictions to make our society safer and less fearful while still respecting the rights of gun owners. God and Guns in America is a thoughtful, measured, and articulate treatment of a polarizing topic that is too often treated with more heat than light. “Michael Austin exposes the economic forces that have driven America’s gun culture since the end of the Civil War and challenges Christians to be peacebuilders in a violent world, offering a way forward in making it harder for us to harm one another with guns.” — REV. DEANNA HOLLAS Minister of Gun Violence Prevention, Presbyterian Church (USA)
“God and Guns in America is required reading for any follower of Jesus interested in the gun debate. Austin advocates a third way between pacifism and the just war notions of the use of violence, which he calls ‘peacebuilding.’ A fine work of theological integration around one of our culture’s most vexing issues.” — SCOTT B. RAE Biola University
“This is an important book—comprehensive yet concise, well researched yet accessible, with a balanced treatment of the theological, ethical, and legal issues related to guns.” — DAVID P. GUSHEE Mercer University
“With insight, brilliance, and conviction, Austin shows us how to match what the Bible, the evidence, and Christian discernment say about God and guns in America with corresponding actions we can undertake to reduce the dangers and suffering that so often attend them.” — ROB SCHENCK from the foreword
978-0-8028-7734-5 | Paperback | 328 pages | $24.99 | Available
Michael W. Austin is professor of philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University. His other books include Humility and Human Flourishing: A Study in Analytic Moral Theology and Being Good: Christian Virtues for Everyday Life, which he edited with R. Douglas Geivett. 978-0-8028-7643-0 | Paperback | 216 pages | $21.99 | Available May 2020
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PROPHETIC CHRISTIANITY
Dear White Christians SECOND EDITION
Jennifer Harvey Foreword by Traci Blackmon
Jennifer Harvey is professor of religion at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. Her other books include Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America and Whiteness and Morality: Pursuing Racial Justice through Reparations and Sovereignty.
With the troubling and painful events of the last several years—from the shooting of numerous unarmed Black men at the hands of police to the rallying of white supremacists in Charlottesville—it is clearer than ever that the reconciliation paradigm, long favored by white Christians, has failed to heal the deep racial wounds in the church and American society. In this provocative book, originally published in 2014, Jennifer Harvey argues for a radical shift away from the well-meaning but feeble longing for reconciliation toward a robustly biblical call for reparations. Now in its second edition—with a preface addressing the explosive changes in American culture and politics since 2014 as well as an appendix that explores what a reparations paradigm can actually look like—Dear White Christians is for justice-committed Christians who are ready to do the gospelinspired work of opposing racist social structures around them. Harvey’s message is historically and Scripturally rooted, making it ideal for facilitating the difficult but important discussions about race that are so desperately needed in churches and faith-centered classrooms across the country.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation
“Dear White Christians addresses whiteness head-on and tells the too-often-ignored story of black power. . . . One of the clearest and most succinct diagnoses of the inadequacies of the popular reconciliation paradigm.”
978-0-8028-7791-8 | Paperback | 304 pages $25.00 | Available September 2020
— SOJOURNERS
“A provocative analysis of the current state of race relations. . . . For those who are willing to look deeply into our history—to remember, to repent and to repair—this book is a most valuable resource.” — THE PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK
The End of Memory
Remembering Rightly in a Violent World Miroslav Volf Can one forget atrocities? Should one forgive abusers? Ought we not hope for the final reconciliation of all the wronged and all wrongdoers alike, even if it means spending eternity with perpetrators of evil? We live in an age when it is generally accepted that past wrongs—genocides, terrorist attacks, bald personal injustices—should be constantly remembered. But Miroslav Volf here proposes the radical idea that letting go of such memories—after a certain point and under certain conditions—may actually be the appropriate course of action. Volf ’s personal stories of persecution offer a compelling backdrop for his search for theological resources to make memories a wellspring of healing rather than a source of deepening pain and animosity. Controversial, thoughtful, and incisively reasoned, The End of Memory begins a conversation hard to ignore. This new paperback edition includes an appendix on the memories of perpetrators as well as victims, along with a recent Miroslav Volf interview with James K. A. Smith about the nature and function of memory in the Christian life. Miroslav Volf is director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School. His other books include Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation.
“The End of Memory is a book that had to be written. From many quarters in present-day society comes the cry, ‘Remember the wrongs done to you.’ Miroslav Volf agrees with that cry but cogently argues that remembering wrongs can be done wrongly. With great learning and deep humane wisdom he reflects on how we can rightly remember the wrongs done to us. In all of Volf’s writing, theology illuminates life and life illuminates theology. Here this two-way illumination is at its very brightest.” — NICHOLAS WOLTERSTORFF
978-0-8028-7523-5 | Paperback | 288 pages $18.99 | Available November 2020
“In this hauntingly autobiographical narrative, Miroslav Volf examines afresh the problems of abuse, memory, and reconciliation, and he concludes that memory, as such, cannot be adjusted to relieve our hurts. But forgetting, rightly understood, provides a healing balm. This is a book of profundity and wisdom, endowed with the authenticity of considerable personal suffering.” — SARAH COAKLEY
author of Lament for a Son
University of Cambridge
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Bioethics
A Primer for Christians FOURTH EDITION
Gilbert Meilaender In the face of continuing advances in medical research and treatment, bioethical questions remain at the heart of many of our society’s difficult moral problems. Since its original publication in 1996, Gilbert Meilaender’s Bioethics has proven itself an effective introduction into this arena, providing thoughtful guidance on today’s most relevant issues, including abortion, assisted reproduction, genetic research, euthanasia, human experimentation, and much more. In this fourth edition, Meilaender updates much of the data referenced in the book and responds directly to recent developments, such as the CRISPR/Cas9 method of gene editing. Christians seeking discernment in this new decade will appreciate Meilaender’s circumspect writing and his ability to address the nuances of each issue while maintaining strong and clearly stated moral convictions.
“A thoughtful introduction to the ethical questions surrounding medical issues at the nexus of life and death.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “Meilaender gives his reasoning, carefully worked out from Christian writings, for each of his major conclusions. . . . Concise and definite, his primer does its duty well.” — BOOKLIST “This pithy little book offers a vision and wisdom rarely found in volumes many times its size.” — JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN NURSING
Believe Me
The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump John Fea Believe Me explores how we arrived at the unprecedented moment in American politics when approximately 81 percent of white evangelicals supported Donald Trump on his way to the White House. An evangelical Christian himself, Fea argues that the embrace of Trump is the logical outcome of a long-standing evangelical approach to public life defined by the politics of fear, the pursuit of worldly power, and a nostalgic longing for an American past. Now in paperback, with a postscript that takes stock of the ensuing time since the book’s original publication in 2018, Believe Me is as timely as ever in its plea for Christians to replace fear with hope, the pursuit of power with humility, and nostalgia with history.
The Cost of Moral Leadership
The Spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson Foreword by Renate Bethge
The Cost of Moral Leadership probes the spirituality of the modern Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, showing how his spiritual life formed him into an exceptional moral leader in a period known for grievous immorality. Geffrey Kelly and F. Burton Nelson explore Bonhoeffer’s spirituality in the context of his life story, work for social justice, Christocentric theology, emphasis on discipleship, preaching, and prolific writing. “One of the best introductions to Bonhoeffer available.” — STANLEY HAUERWAS
“Clear, concise, and convincing.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)
“Fea is uncommonly well positioned to make the case for turning away from the Donald and toward the Almighty. . . . He is the very definition of an engaged Christian scholar.” — CHRISTIAN CENTURY “An important book for anyone, Christian or otherwise, who wishes to understand the 2016 election and who believes that we can do better.” — FOREWORD REVIEWS
“Whether you belong to the 19 percent or the 81 percent, you’ll find reading Believe Me a provocative and illuminating exercise.”
— CHRISTIANITY TODAY
Gilbert Meilaender is senior research professor at Valparaiso University. He also served on the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2002 to 2009. His other books include Neither Beast nor God: The Dignity of the Human Person and The Way That Leads There: Augustinian Reflections on the Christian Life.
John Fea is professor of American history and chair of the history department at Messiah College, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. His other books include Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction, and he blogs regularly at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.
978-0-8028-7816-8 | Paperback | 172 pages | $19.99 Available August 2020
978-0-8028-7742-0 | Paperback | 248 pages | $18.99 Available
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“This is a book for those prepared to think about moral leadership at a time when the future is unclear and when self-righteous certainty dominates public discourse.” — CHRISTIAN CENTURY
“This is a ground-breaking work, filled with prophetic passion and new insights. It convincingly opens fresh pathways in the exploration of Bonhoeffer’s legacy.”
— THE BONHOEFFER CENTER
Geffrey B. Kelly (1932–2017) was professor of systematic theology and chairman of the Department of Religion at La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. F. Burton Nelson (1924–2004) was research professor of Christian ethics at North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. 978-0-8028-7758-1 | Paperback | 318 pages | $29.99 Available
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LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY
A Religious Biography Paul Harvey The faith journeys of a major mentor to the Civil Rights movement
Paul Harvey is professor of history and presidential teaching scholar at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He is the author or coauthor of several books on religion and race in US history, including The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, which was named a “Top 25 Outstanding Academic Title” by Choice magazine in 2013.
Teacher. Minister. Theologian. Writer. Mystic. Activist. No single label can capture the multiplicity of Howard Thurman’s life, but his influence is written all over the most significant aspects of the Civil Rights movement. In 1936, he visited Mahatma Gandhi in India and subsequently brought Gandhi’s concept of nonviolent resistance across the globe to the United States. Later, through his book Jesus and the Disinherited, he foresaw a theology of American liberation based on the life of Jesus as a dispossessed Jew under Roman rule. Paul Harvey’s biography of Thurman speaks to the manifold ways this mystic theologian and social activist sought to transform the world to better reflect “that which is God in us,” despite growing up in the South during the ugliest years of Jim Crow. After founding one of the first intentionally interracial churches in the country—The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco—he shifted into a mentorship role with Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders. He advised them to incorporate more inward seeking and rest into their activism, while also thinking of their struggle for racial equality in a more cosmopolitan, universalist manner. Few historical figures represent such diverse parts of the American religious tradition as Howard Thurman did. By telling the story of his religious lives, Paul Harvey gives the reader a window into many of the main currents of twentieth-century American religious expression.
BIOGRAPHY
Howard Thurman and the Disinherited
978-0-8028-7677-5 | Jacketed Hardcover | 256 pages | $28.99 | Available October 2020
LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY
Mother of Modern Evangelicalism The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Mears Arlin C. Migliazzo Foreword by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Arlin C. Migliazzo is professor emeritus of history at Whitworth University, where he taught from 1983 to 2018. His many publications include books, articles, and essays on ethnic studies, the Pacific Northwest, colonial South Carolina, church-related higher education, the history of evangelicalism, and comparative democratic development.
Although she was never as prominent as Billy Graham or many of the other iconic male evangelists of the twentieth century, Henrietta Mears was arguably the single most influential figure in the shaping of modern evangelicalism. Her seminal work What the Bible Is All About sold millions of copies, and key figures in the early modern evangelical movement like Bill Bright, Harold John Ockenga, and Jim Rayburn frequently cited her teachings as a formative part of their ministry. Graham himself stated that Mears was the most important female influence in his life other than his mother or wife. Mother of Modern Evangelicalism is the first comprehensive biography of Henrietta Mears. Arlin Migliazzo uses previously overlooked archival sources and dozens of interviews with Mears associates to assemble a detailed portrait of her life and legacy, including the way she helped steer conservative theology between fundamentalism and liberal modernism with her relentless focus on the Christian life as an act of consecrated service. Readers will find here a religious leader worthy of emulation in today’s world—one who sought an alternative to the divisive polemics of her own day, staying fiercely committed to her staunchly orthodox faith while fighting against the anti-intellectualism and cultural parochialism that had characterized the fundamentalist movement of the early twentieth century. While she never technically delivered a Sunday morning message from the pulpit and refused to be called a preacher, Henrietta Mears’s life stands here as a sermon about graceful leadership and faithful engagement with the world. 978-0-8028-7792-5 | Paperback | 320 pages | $29.99 | Available November 2020
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LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY
BIOGRAPHY
A Heart Lost in Wonder
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The Life and Faith of Gerard Manley Hopkins Catharine Randall Foreword by Lauren Winner
Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of the most beloved English-language poets of all time, lived a life charged with religious drama and vision. The product of a High Church Anglican family, Hopkins eventually converted to Roman Catholicism and became a priest—after which he stopped writing poetry for many years and became completely estranged from his Protestant family. A Heart Lost in Wonder provides perspective on the life and work of Gerard Manley Hopkins through both religious and literary interpretation. Catharine Randall tells the story of Hopkins’s intense, charged, and troubled life, and along the way shows readers the riches of religious insight he packed into his poetry. By exploring the poet’s inner life and the Victorian world in which he lived, Randall helps readers to understand better the context and vision of his astonishing and enduring work. Catharine Randall is scholar-in-residence in religion at Dartmouth College. She is the author of numerous books, including Earthly Treasures, The Wisdom of Animals, and From a Far Country.
“A warm and welcoming introduction to Gerard Manley Hopkins, which focuses not only on his poetry but also his religion, thus filling in the blanks for all those who have wondered what inspired his groundbreaking artistry.” — JAMES MARTIN, SJ author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
978-0-8028-7770-3 | Paperback | 192 pages | $22.00 | Available July 2020
LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY
A Life of Alexander Campbell Douglas A. Foster The first critical biography of Alexander Campbell, one of the founders of the StoneCampbell Movement “In this splendid biography, Douglas Foster presents Alexander Campbell as the complicated man he was—a man who defined himself as a simple, New Testament Christian, but whose view of the Christian religion was deeply shaped by the age in which he lived and by many of his less-than-noble characteristics. In the end, Campbell was a man whom history largely forgot but—as Foster makes clear—a man whose story says so much about the human condition that his life deserves to be known. Any biography that can paint such a highly nuanced portrait of its subject is a work of art, indeed.” — RICHARD T. HUGHES author of Myths America Lives By: White Supremacy and the Stories That Give Us Meaning
“Alexander Campbell is one of the most important religious figures in all of American history, yet few of us know much at all about him. He was a fascinating man who led a busy, complex, and always controversial life, one that Doug Foster represents here with great skill. This is a good read by a real pro at just the right time.” — DOUGLAS A. SWEENEY
Douglas A. Foster served as professor of church history and director of the Center for Restoration Studies at Abilene Christian University for twenty-seven years and now serves as scholar-in-residence. He coedited The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement and The Stone-Campbell Movement: A Global History and has published books and articles on Stone-Campbell history and racism in American Christianity.
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Beeson Divinity School
“Douglas Foster successfully illuminates the real and seeming contradictions of this complex nineteenth-century leader’s inflexible teaching of baptism and the Holy Spirit, recognition of the genuine Christianity of persons who did not share his views, and relationships with persons whom he viewed as opponents or threats to his program to advance God’s coming reign of peace and justice that was to begin in the United States.”
— D. NEWELL WILLIAMS Brite Divinity School
978-0-8028-7633-1 | Paperback | 360 pages | $29.99 | Available June 2020
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