Can you believe it is almost September? Oh my.  Here are some books that are coming soon, good for you to PRE-ORDER NOW.

Of course you can pre-order nearly any book, any time, and we are delighted to serve you by getting you on a waiting list of whatever you’re most eager to receive. There are so many good books coming out this fall, so stay tuned.

For now, here are six that many of our customers will surely be interested in. They are important. Three are adult books, there’s one kid’s book, and two study Bibles. We list the dates they are to be released and in some cases I suspect we’ll get them early.

ALL ARE 20% OFF. If you are ordering more than one, please tell us if you want them shipped consolidated together when they all arrive, or if we should send each one out promptly as soon as it releases.  Whatever suits your fancy. Thanks.

The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance Jemar Tisby (Zondervan) $29.99 / OUR SALE PRICE = $23.99  RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 3, 2024

I hope you know Jemar Tisby, PhD — the popular, if controversial, scholar / activist from Mississippi who has done great work educating church folks (and others) about American history and fighting racism. (Dr. Tisby’s PhD is in history from the University of Mississippi, an esteemed, Southern institution of higher learning and he has been an active Christian leader and spokesperson for racial justice for a long time. We respect him greatly.)

Tisby’s first book (and excellent, accompanying video curriculum), The Color of Compromise, explored the ways in which church people of various sorts compromised at strategic times throughout American history to accommodate themselves to the racial animus at the heart of much of the American experiment. It was well-researched, honest (about both the good and the bad) and a real wake-up call for those who may not have realized just how very implicated and complicit many Christian churches were to both overtly evil racism and more subtle sorts of institutional discrimination and systemic harms. It garnered some push back, I suppose, but was most very highly regarded. I helped lead an online group using the videos and it was a fabulous learning experience.

The second book picked up where the last chapter of The Color of Compromise ended, with the natural question of what we are to do; how shall we then live, to use Biblical language. It was called How to Fight Racism and was excellent. There is a video curriculum for that as well with a lively study/participants guide. How To…came out in 2021 (with a paperback release in 2023) and by then the harsh voices of the evangelical right were now on higher alert, making (foolish) public accusations that Tisby was a Marxist, that he was teaching a pagan sort of CRT, etc. etc. (Yes, as if you couldn’t guess, the sloppy, attack journalist Megan Basham makes an inaccurate statement about him in her recent, disreputable, Shepherds for Sale.) We have promoted Jemar’s work gladly here and we are grateful for his research, his prophetic clarity, and his steadfastness. You should order this book and support this brother.

The soon to be released, The Spirit of Justice is, in a way, a return to his first passion, telling the stories of the history of race and racial justice in the US. Pitched as a follow-up to The Color of Compromise, it is, in a way, the reverse: this is the story of those who stood up to be counted, who did the right thing. Just as there were those who perpetuated racist ideas and unjust policies, those who compromised, so, too, there are those who told a better story. There were those who created positive proposals, whose churches took stands, who raised the bar, paid the price, made a difference. These true stories are extraordinary examples of those who realized their faith demanded that they (in various ways in various places) agitated for justice.

The back cover gives one great reason why this book is so very urgent. It says:

When the struggle for racial justice gets discouraging, history can give us hope. These true stories from the past will inspire you to keep up the fight.

As Tisby notes, “we cannot be passive in our efforts to learn the lessons from the past. We must recommit ourselves to gaining hope, inspiration, and wisdom from our ancestors…”

This historical survey covers a lot. There is some stuff about the colonial era, the pre-Civil War years full of colorful characters and abolitionists; this is all very, very interesting and inspiring. He moves to an era of “building black institution” and names leaders and organizations that were thrilling to learn about. He has the requisite (and always fascinating) stuff on King and the others of the largely faith-based civil rights movement. He names women, of course, all along the way, but has one chapter dedicated to “women of the movement.” His section on the latter days the civil rights movement (the late 1960s into the 70s) introduces us to amazing stories of the theologians like James Cone and political leaders like Shirley Chisholm, and the extraordinary Myrlie Evers-Williams who brought renewal to the troubled NAACP in the 1990s. I was only a little surprised and really delighted to see his tribute to famous Roman Catholic sister Thea Bowman. This guy knows his stuff!

Near the end of the book Tisby looks at the rising generation of young Christian activists and writers (and, again, we were delighted to see that he honors Cole Arthur Riley and offers a sampling of some of the other great Black Christian writers who have emerged in recent years. His curation of who to highlight and his explanations about why they are important is beautiful.) All of this gives me great hope. I bet it will for you, too.

A short review like this can only hint at the great amount of good content in this book, and we invite you to get it on your shelf as soon as possible. Sure there are other books on black history, even others on black Christian leaders. Not long ago I celebrated Awakening to Justice: Faithful Voices from the Abolitionist Past from the “Dialogue on Race and Faith Project” published by IVP Academic ($28.00 / OUR SALE PRICE = $22.40. And just a day ago we got the brand new book Yonder Come the Day: Exploring the Collective Witness of the Formerly Enslaved by Jasmine L. Holmes (Baker Books; $18.99 / OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19.) We’ve got so much to learn from our American past and the “great cloud of witnesses” of people of faith who have gone before are cheering us on. Let’s get on with it. Don’t worry if somebody calls you woke. This is a path for the righteous, and this soon-to-be-released book by Jemar Tisby will help us all. Highly recommended.

The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust Francis S. Collins (Little, Brown and Company) $30.00 / OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00  RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

I trust that you have at least heard of the great scientist, physician, public health leader (and exceptionally gracious Christian) Dr. Francis Collins. Known world-wide as an advocate for the disabled and sick (he discovered the gene issue that causes Cystic Fibrosis) and for a part of his public life was the director of the NIH program that was mapping the human genome. His work has been groundbreaking and he gives the credit to God for his abilities and for the ways in which science and medicine can be a blessing.

He wrote a lovely, powerful book about how the glories of science can point to God (The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief) and a popular-level but somewhat detailed study of genetics in 2011 entitled The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine. As his fame grew and he had more opportunities to share his faith with the watching world, and, importantly, colleagues in labs and research institutions, he put together a reader, a great collection of essays or book excerpts that presents the Christian faith for smart skeptics. (That fabulous anthology is called Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith.) Eventually, his team successfully sequenced all three billion letters of our DNA. He went on to serve three presidents as the director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins was instrumental with a few other Christians whose vocations had them working in the field of science to start a think-tank and resource center that proclaimed a perspective on the integration of faith and science that is called BioLogies. Rejecting “young Earth creationism” for a more nuanced sort of Christian appreciation for evolutionary data, he co-authored a very helpful guidebook for understanding this congenial sort of Christian worldview that “thinks Christianly” about the task of science. It is called Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions, published in hardcover by IVP in 2011.

When Covid hit and the pandemic ravaged the world, his work increasingly became focused on public health; even though at one point 3,000 people were dying each day, some people (including those who identified as evangelicals) resisted taking precautions and we know many agitated citizens got very angry about the government’s efforts to mitigate the crisis. (My recent study of a handful of books about the rise of the far right and the militias and what led to the attack on the Capitol on January 6 of 2021 are connected to this.) It grieves me to think that one of the finest scientists and public voices of evangelical faith in our day has been maligned and attacked…

And so, this forthcoming book is not only a sight for sore eyes — it has been a while since Collins has published anything new — but it was written from and speaks about these last hard years and into this cultural moment as wisely as anything I’ve read lately. Yes, there are stories of science and the ways in which we should or shouldn’t “trust the science” (and what that even means.) But besides his hope to reinvigorate a similar (if somewhat more generic) public conversation as has BioLogos about what science is and isn’t, The Road to Wisdom does something more profound: it is inviting us to question what we mean by truth. And how we might even get beyond the mere reliability of facts and data, to a deeper sense of truthfulness, something akin to fidelity, to deep knowledge, to wisdom. Yes, the title is apt: Collins sees these four components of his subtitle (truth, science, faith, and trust) as part of a path towards wisdom.

It is just lovely to see a book that has such a wide and prestigious list of endorsers. From cellist Yo-Yo Ma to Kay Redfield Jamison (author of the An Unquiet Mind) to Jennifer Doudna, the Nobel laureate who wrote A Crack in Creation, to the aging statesman former President Bill Clinton, to Philip Yancey who calls him “a national treasure.” Listen to Jane Goodall, certainly one of the most known scholars of our era:

This book should be read by anyone, Christian or non-Christian alike, who is seeking meaning or trying to make sense of our troubled times. — Jane Goodall

The Goodall quote is an indication of a few good things: The Road to Wisdom could be enjoyed by nearly anyone, regardless of their own faith or philosophical views.  In a way, there is a bit in here on our deepest beliefs — what is truth is religiously-laden, of course — and his call to faith is potent but gracious. I’d give this book to anyone who is even mildly open to religious reading.

But, more, a bit of the book is about trust, and he mostly means trusting one another as a culture, as fellows in our land. He addresses our polarized society directly and he tells some tragic stories about the hostility he faced as he stood nearly at the center of the storm about Covid regulations, masking, vaccines, and more. I could write a review just on the penultimate  “trust” chapter…

The last section is called “Hope and a Plan of Action.” I’ve read it twice. I will revise it again — it’s very good. It is not rocket science, and he could have gone deeper, but it is a lovely and powerful message, a good guide, a helpful plan for moving forward.

The book is dedicated “to the memory of my friend and spiritual mentor the Reverend Tim Keller.” Order it today and we’ll send it out promptly. Thanks for caring.

To Gaze Upon God: The Beatific Vision in Doctrine, Tradition, and Practice Samuel Parkison (IVP Academic) $30.00 / OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00 RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

I know not everybody who reads our BookNotes cares about hefty historical theology, but I was excited about this as soon as I saw it announced. The publisher entices us to work through this serious stuff — which has fabulous advanced reviews — by saying this:

Though the doctrine of the beatific vision has woefully been forgotten in the church today, Samuel Parkison argues that the beatific vision is central for the life of the church today. Through close readings of Aquinas, Dante, Calvin, and more, Parkison reminds us of the beatific vision’s historical and contemporary significance.

I’m very eager to see this and hope some of you may be, too. I just want to make one concern — not really a disclaimer, since I haven’t seen the book.

One of the things that has most transformed much of the best evangelical thinking and living these days has been a recovery of the full gospel story — which is the announcement of the Kingdom of God, inaugurated in Christ — and the trajectory that the Bible gives us towards the renewal of all creation. Since we are not going to spend eternity in heaven, but Christ comes down to be with us (see the last chapters of the Bible!) that is, since everything in life matters, we need a piety which embraces the spirituality of the ordinary and worldview that affirms our embodied, day-to-day living in a good, if broken, creation that is truly being restored in Christ Jesus.

Although eschatology isn’t the most important matter in theological knowledge, I suppose, it could be argued that what we think of how our story ends, where we and history are going, what our lives are about as we hope in the future, decisively effects how we live now. And if we are right about what (just for instance) Richard Middleton so beautifully lays out in his major work, A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology or, about what N.T. Wright invites us to in Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, we will have a missional vision that is gritty and down-to-earth, seeing the connections between creation and re-creation, between incarnation and resurrection. All of life is redeemed as Christ Himself is glorified by summing up “all things in Himself” as it is allusively put in Ephesians 1:10. So I want nothing to distract us from our calling as stewards of creation and nothing to detract from the Bible’s own narrative trajectory of creation regained. Behold, it says at the end of Good Book, God is making “all things (re)new(ed.) Right? You betcha!

Now the notion of the beatific vision, insofar as I understand it (which I probably don’t — another big reason why I’m eager for this book to release soon) is that we are caught up at the End with the beautiful vision of Jesus, upon whom we will gaze in extraordinary splendor. In heaven we will see Him face-to-face. What a hope! Who doesn’t want that?

I do hope, though, that this author and his book, Gaze Upon God, does not pit one aspect of the true story of the whole world that says we will live in a renewed Paradise, enjoying God’s world as God wanted us to in the beginning, as if seeing Jesus somehow removes the context (what Al Wolter’s once called “the circumference”) of the scope of redemption. I hope it is not either/or but both/and (we see the glories of the new creation and we see God face to face, in the very face of Jesus.)

Some who have taken great inspiration and have staked their very lives on a transforming vision from pondering the implications of a conviction about a (re)new(ed) creation (and the consequential affirmations of cultural duties and enjoyments in the creation that God so loves, here and now) have needed to get past an otherworldly sort of spirituality and an ethereal eschatology. Speculating about the rapture and fixating too much about heaven, have, in fact, crippled many of us and we have learned to resist such misguidedness. Rather, with a proper understanding of God’s story, we’ve championed books with titles like Heaven Is Not My Home: Living in the Now of God’s Creation by Paul Marshall and Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God by Michael Wittmer. Both of these, by the way, are by authors who love Jesus with all they’ve got and I’m sure are eager for his promised return to heal the “vandalization of shalom” that sin has caused.

So what should we believe about the mystical significance of this encounter with the face of God? What even is the beatific vision? Is it mostly a Roman Catholic thing? Can its insights and power and solace and hope be harnessed for more faithful living in these complicated days? I’m sure that Parkison will show us how a retrieval of this doctrine will inform our daily Christian lives.  (In fact, see chapter 6 for this exact theme.) We must resist (as G-C professor Adonis Vida puts it, “a captivity to a pragmatist and naturalist understanding” of the nature of our faith and salvation. Perhaps this is — to draw the matter very broadly — part of our need to think about “re-enchantment” in a so-called secular age. Hmmm.

Here’s the table of contents:

1.  What Is the Beatific Vision?
2.  Biblical Foundations for the Beatific Vision
3.  A Cloud of Witnesses, Part One: Pre-Reformation Historical Witness
4.  A Cloud of Witnesses, Part Two: Reformation and Post-Reformation Historical Witness
5.  Retrieval for Reformed Evangelicals
6.  The Beatific Vision and the Christian Life
7.  Postscript: The Beatific Vision and Global Christianity

It makes perfect sense that one of the great ecumenical, historical, and dare I say sacramental theologians of today, Hans Boersma, likes this book and heartily commends it. Boersma says:

This is easily the best primer on the beatific vision today. Samuel Parkison’s scholarly yet wide-ranging treatment — Scripture, history, philosophy, theology — makes To Gaze upon God a valuable resource and accessible textbook. Grounded in a realist metaphysic, Parkison’s moderate Reformed approach judiciously encourages evangelicals to take seriously the tradition’s teaching on the transformative vision of God. Parkison effectively puts to rest the notion that the Reformation did away with belief in the beatific vision. Here is a book sure to rekindle our longing for happiness in God. — Hans Boersma, Nashotah House Theological Seminary, author of Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry

Listen to Michael Haykin, a Baptist church history prof and scholar of the Puritans, who seems to anticipate my own concerns and makes me think that Gaze Upon God is not going to fall into the things I worry about (above.) It might have proven nice for author Sam Parkison, too, since he himself writes, as a Baptist, “Should I even be talking like this?” Ha. Check this out:

This overview of the history of Christian reflection on the beatific vision is an extremely important study, for it rightly reveals the central place that the hunger to gaze upon God has had in Christian tradition. But this is a hunger that far too many Western evangelicals in this ‘Secular Age,’ as Charles Taylor has termed it, seem to have lost and even rejected as pie-in-the-sky pietism. May this study be used by God to reawaken this hunger and so empower our witness to the ever-present God in this day! — Michael Haykin, professor of church history

Hey, one other nifty thing about this forthcoming title. The author — who has penned several other books on God, the Trinity, and such — is a theology professor in (get this): The United Arab Emirates. Did you even know there is a seminary there? Hooray for this.

NIV Upside-Down Kingdom Bible edited by Preston Sprinkle (Zondervan)

gray hardcover $49.99 / OUR SALE PRICE = $39.99

tan imitation leather $79.99 / OUR SALE PRICE = $63.99

When ordering don’t forget to tell us which edition you want.

RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

The Zondervan company that manages the rights to the NIV translation does many nice study Bibles, and we stock a lot, from the seeker-oriented Quest Study Bible to the rigorously evangelical Biblical Theology Study Bible edited by D.A. Carson, from the excellent globally-minded Justice Study Bible to the gospel-centered The Jesus Bible, from the NIV Faith & Work Study Bible (where there is even a sidebar entry about me, believe it or not) to the lovely Encouraging Word Bible by Max Lucado, from the various artful ones that have room for coloring (Journal the Word for Woman, for instance) to the useful Cultural Background Study Bible. Of course, by far, the best-selling, classic study Bible is the NIV Study Bible which has been around for decades and updated several times. Each of these many study edition comes in hardback or softer, nice imitation leather-bound editions, so there are plenty of solid options.

[And these are only some of the ones available in the popular NIV translation. Give us a holler if you want to know about other good translations, from the NLT, NRSVue, ESV, CEB, NASB, KJV or NKJ, or the Roman Catholic American Standard translation, among others. And we are fond of Peterson’s great paraphrase The Message. We have a lot!

And now, one more in the NIV family of study Bible editions.

The NIV Upside-Down Kingdom Bible draws its name from a often-used trope in various quarters that God’s coming but not fully here yet Kingdom is “upside down” from the ways of this world. I’m pretty sure that Preston Sprinkle, who edits this multi-author, major Bible resource, read the classic on the Sermon on the Mount, The Upside Down Kingdom by Donald Kraybill, a remarkable book published by a Mennonite publisher, Herald Press, decades ago. I think of Kraybill’s provocative study whenever I hear the phrase, but I know it has been used by all manner of speakers and preachers. There is no doubt that it rings true: everything about Jesus’s ways is counterintuitive. Let’s hope the notes of this study edition bring that out, showing the alternative community God’s people are to be shaped into if we allow the unfolding drama of God’s Word to color and form our posture and imagination, our faith and our practice. I’m assuming the notes will be mostly centrist evangelical in their theological persuasion, using writers from a variety of denominations, informed by up-to-date scholarship without being overly critical or trendy. They promise to pick up on themes in the Biblical text that point us to ways we are to — as their marketing slogan puts it — “Think Deeply // Love Widely.”

Like any good study edition the soon to be released Upside-Down Kingdom Bible will have hundreds of side-column notes, good introductions to each book of the Bible, full-page articles throughout. Zondervan Bibles uses a type font that has proven to be easy on the eye for sustained reading and this is in an 8.5 font. There is a two-color page design and ribbon markers.

You know that we believe that God calls believers to (as the promo for this study edition puts it) “live faithfully in a way that flips the wisdom of worldly kingdoms on its head.” We are excited about this one, for sure.

I’m sure it will have textual notes that open up our understanding of a Biblical perspective on topics such as race and ethnicity, creation care, the arts, leadership and power, science, abortion, wealth and poverty, lament and grief, gender and sexuality, politics, baptism, singleness and friendship, technology, immigration, mental health, social justice, violence and warfare, and many others contemporary topics. Few study Bibles offer comment on big social issues of this sort and I’m hoping this will help some of us who are have developed habits/instincts of using a more personal sort of interpretive impulse to see how the Bible shapes even the most public and social of concerns. These notes and essays alongside the Scripture are all indexed in a large set of pages in the pack, too. Hooray.

I haven’t seen it yet (and not everyone always agrees with Sprinkle, the team’s project overseer; for instance he has written a book about being committed to Biblical nonviolence, which puts him at odds with most evangelicals, and he is as gracious as he can be while still holding conventional views of sexuality and gender, which puts him at odds with most mainline churches that are inclusive of LGTBQ sisters and brothers.) I don’t know all of the contributors, but they will surely be men and women of depth and integrity. It’s a great idea for a study edition and we look forward to having it here at the shop soon. Here is what their marketing team says about it:

In a culture that has become exponentially polarized, it can be difficult to think deeply and love widely. The NIV Upside-Down Kingdom Bible provides readers with thoughtful, Scripture-based notes from a diverse set of trusted Christian voices and explores difficult issues facing Christians today, with features that are honest, nuanced, and filled with grace.

The Book of Belonging: Bible Stories for Kind and Contemplative Kids  Mariko Clark & Rachel Eleanor (Convergent Books) $24.99 / OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99  RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

There are so many great new children’s books coming that it is hard to know what to highlight but we certainly want to celebrate this forthcoming release that already has considerable buzz. The Book of Belonging is (as they explain) designed for families seeking a Bible storybook that reflects the diversity of God’s people and for every reader seeking a more expansive and wondrous view of God. I don’t want to label it “progressive”, really, and many religious books these days feature a multiethnic caste of colorful characters. But the exceptionally thoughtful text and rich illustrations present “some of Scripture’s most important and overlooked stories — including many female-centered ones — alongside old favorites reimagined to convey greater inclusivity, diversity, and historical representation.”

Taking a cue, perhaps, from the “wondering” approach of resources like “Godly Play” or the lovely children’s Bible Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible by esteemed educators Elisabeth Caldwell and Carol Wehrheim, this Book of Belonging offers more than narratives, but and guided wonder moments, mindful practices, and other creative ways to engage the text of Scripture. With this theme of “belovedness” that appears, children will learn who God is and much about God’s heart and the fact of their being loved and delighted in. As the authors like to say,  “When it comes to the love of God, everyone belongs.”

This gentle, gracious Bible story book offers forty-two Bible stories with aesthetically-pleasing colorful illustrations on every page.They would want you to know that the art showcases a variety of body shapes, ages, abilities, and skin colors and, also, uses historically accurate depictions of Jesus and God’s people, including original Hebrew and Greek names with historically accurate depictions. This is going to be great.

Here is what the publishers tell us about the creators of this long-awaited resource:

Mariko Clark is a Japanese American author, mother, and storyteller on a mission to help kids embrace diversity and wonder. Her time as an editor with National Geographic Learning sharpened her ability to make complex topics accessible and engaging. She lives near Indianapolis where she equips kids and caregivers with spiritual resources to navigate the messy middle, wrestle with tough questions, and find community in the journey.

Rachel Eleanor is an illustrator known for doodles of questing travelers, friendly spirits, and all manner of creatures. She uses drawing as a way to explore the wilderness within and without, focusing on themes of spirituality and mindfulness. Her whimsical characters have inhabited books and stationery, championed brands, and even bedecked beverages. She lives in Atlanta.

NRSVue Westminster Study Bible with the Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal Books (Westminster/John Knox) hardcover $55.00 / OUR SALE PRICE = $44.00  RELEASE DATE OCTOBER 1, 2024

If the above NIV “Upside Down Kingdom” Bible has a contemporary feel, it is surely upbeat and useful for ordinary readers. It is not aimed at scholars or those that follow postmodern literary devices or critical theory. Although it is interdenominational, it will no doubt tilt evangelical and theological traditional.

No so, the Westminster Study Bible. I haven’t seen this, yet, either, but my hunch is that it will be geared to a much higher academic level (not unlike the NRSVue, the translation it uses, which is a tad more demanding to read, unlike the more colloquial NIV (or, even more so, the New Living Translation, say.)

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) has been the chosen translation in many mainline denominational churches for decades, so PCUSA, Episopalians, Lutherans, most United Methodist and UCC folks would all know this translation as their pastor’s preaching Bible. As of last year, the NRSV has itself been updated — the “ue” at the end stands for “updated edition” making it the NRSVue.

Not only is this study Bible a bit more on the scholarly side, the social context of the interpreters and the theological persuasions of those writing the notes are, it seems, more mainline denominational and therefore more open to fresh, even critical, takes on the meaning of a given text.

Listen carefully how the publisher puts it:

The first entirely new study Bible to utilize the recently released New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue), The Westminster Study Bible includes interpretive materials from over eighty leading biblical experts who, as teachers in a variety of educational settings, are sensitive to how the biblical texts have been received, what their cultural and social consequences have been, and how readers might hear them now in multiple contexts. Paying close attention to interdisciplinary connections, contemporary students, teachers, and other readers from diverse backgrounds will find the WSB both useful and relevant.

They continue:

The key features of the WSB attend to the cultural impact of the Bible in its original setting as well as its impact on later readers and communities, up to and including the present day. Study notes open up the biblical texts and explore cultural insights from the ancient world as well as help readers to grasp how certain texts may have functioned in much later periods and far different settings. Together, these two points of access—back then and since then—allow readers to have a richer, fuller discussion about the meanings of the Bible.

There are plenty of articles and sidebars as well. Some of the pieces will be on topics such as:

The Bible, Gender, and Sexuality, The Bible, Race, and Ethnicity, The Bible and Social Justice, The Bible and Visual Art, The Bible in Film and Media, The Bible in Music, The Bible in Literature, The Bible in Museums, The Bible, Science, and the Environment.

Unique, eh? And fascinating.

There are excursus topics, too, on themes such as “woman wisdom” and “Black and beautiful” and “Slut-shaming as Prophetic Discourse” and one called “Frederick Douglass, Paul, and Onesiumus.” Whether you are interested in questions about “the divine mandate to exterminate the Canaanites” or examples of feminine imagery for God or Revelation in popular culture, there are all kinds of these extra features to help readers grapple with how the Bible has inspired certain attitudes and practices and how maybe we need deeper conversation about what these texts actually say and how they can be faithfully construed.

There are nearly 100 ecumenical scholars who have contributed to this major new study Bible. The general editors are :

• Emerson B. Powery, Professor of Biblical Studies and Dean of the School of Arts, Culture, and Society at Messiah University
• Stacy Davis, Professor of Religious Studies and Theology and Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at Saint Mary’s College
• Mary F. Foskett, Wake Forest Kahle Professor of Religious Studies and John Thomas Albritton, Fellow at Wake Forest University
• Brent A. Strawn, Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law at Duke

Go Forward in Love: A Year of Daily Readings from Timothy Keller Timothy Keller (Zondervan) $26.99 / OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59  RELEASE DATE OCTOBER 1, 2024

This book will arrive late in September and since most of the world is just learning about it now, we are delighted to be able to assure you that we will stock it. We’re so grateful to get to write a bit about it here, now, and, of course, offer it at our BookNotes 20% off.

I do not have to reiterate the importance of this eloquent, thoughtful, and widely-read, generous thinker. Keller was a pastor who came to a deeper faith during his college years here in central Pennsylvania and studied at Westminster Theological Seminary near Philadelphia. His own intellectual journey and that which most influenced him is beautifully explored in the fascinating biography by Collin Hansen, Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation (Zondervan; $26.99 / OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59.) Keller was honored in a book of tribute testimonials (that are fantastic, by the way) called The City for God: Essays Honoring the Work of Timothy Keller edited by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books; $24.99 / OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99) and it is a book Tim saw before his death last Spring. He loved it, and so will you.

In any case, this new collection is compiled from selected excerpts of his many beloved works. Like most devotionals, it offers a thought for each day, on the many things he wrote about, from prayer to cultural engagement, from forgiveness to our callings in the work world. He has written about Bible characters, about evangelistic encounters, about social justice, about love for God and love for neighbor. He is known both for tender stories of grace (as seen in one of his most popular, The Prodigal God) and for rigorous, culturally-wise apologetics for the modern world, like in his important Making Sense of God. And, of course, there are pieces drawn from a book he wrote while dying of cancer on hope in the power of the resurrection. Once can hardly go wrong.

Some folks may not have the time or energy or capacity to read through his many books which, while not academic, may be a bit more rigorous than many books on Christian living. This way to dip in to his body of written work in very short snippets is ideal. 365 days of Keller. Hooray.  It would, it seems to me, make a great Christmas gift for anyone who might be longing for an intellectually respectable and yet deeply spiritual book.  Pre-order it now and get our 20% off.

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It is helpful if you tell us how you want us to ship your orders. And if you are doing a pre-order, tell us if you want us to hold other books until the pre-order comes, or send some now, and others later… we’re eager to serve you in a way that you prefer. Let us know your hopes.

The weight and destination of your package varies but you can use this as a quick, general guide:

There are generally two kinds of US Mail options and, of course, UPS.  If necessary, we can do overnight and other expedited methods, too. Just ask.

• United States Postal Service has an option called “Media Mail” which is cheapest but can be a little slower. For one typical book, usually, it’s $4.83; 2 lbs would be $5.58. This is the cheapest method available and sometimes is quicker than UPS, but not always.
• United States Postal Service has another, quicker option called “Priority Mail” which is $8.70, if it fits in a flat-rate envelope. Many children’s books and some Bibles are oversized so that might take the next size up which is $9.50. “Priority Mail” gets more attention than does “Media Mail” and is often just a few days to anywhere in the US.
• UPS Ground is reliable but varies by weight and distance and may take longer than USPS. Sometimes they are cheaper than Priority. We’re happy to figure out your options for you once we know what you want.

If you just want to say “cheapest” that is fine. If you are eager and don’t want the slowest method, do say so. It really helps us serve you well so let us know. Keep in mind the possibility of holiday supply chain issues and slower delivery… still, we’re excited to serve you.

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