Some years, after the massive and important Pittsburgh Jubilee conference (put on, with a bit of help from us, by the campus ministry outfit the CCO) I write a reflection, reminding readers how much fun the hard work is, how many books we sell about all manner of topics, and why, for many churches, the vision promoted at this conference about living into God’s promises of new creation — thy Kingdom come, on Earth! — is still underdeveloped. The CCO’s team putting together great keynote talks about the good creation, the seriousness of the fall into sin, the life-changing nature of Christ’s redemptive work, and the hope of living now in anticipation of God’s cosmic restoration, coupled with dozens of workshops on everything from science to journalism to the arts to business is nothing short of genius.

You can read some of my older celebrations of this event and how much it means to us (and our business) HERE, HERE, or HERE. Sorry, the sales mentioned are long over. Ha.

You can watch or listen to the last handful of our “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” podcast where I talked over a series of episodes about some of the seminal thinkers and best-selling books over the course of the conference’s last 50 years. Listen at Apple or Spotify or watch us on YouTube. The Jubilee ones start with Episode 48 and I’m doing another one soon.

AND, if you want to know even more you can enjoy any number of episodes of the podcast “Fifty Jubilees Story Project” made by the great Jen Pelling for the CCO (again easily found on Apple podcasts or Spotify. ) I’m in the very first one, in fact, as these conversations tell stories of former staff or participants in the yearly conference. I know every one of the people involved in these fun interviews and I’m not going to lie — a few of them brought tears to my eyes. It may seem like insider baseball, as they say, but if you are interested in the best ways to bring God’s Kingdom transformation to young adults, enjoy these fabulous chats.

For those who were praying for us and the stamina needed during the weeks of very hard work running the pop-up bookstore there, thank you. Beth and I both survived pretty well with the help of a large team of volunteers. Two of our best friends and H&M supporters came in for four days before the event to help us pack and lug and load boxes into the big rental truck. We are grateful that so many from all over care about our work here and the Jubilee conference is one dramatic example of our vision and vocation.

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A DOZEN NEW BOOKS YOU HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT — on sale, now.

After the Lenten list last week, I’m eager to curate another list of what we think are vital resources for those who making reading a spiritual habit and for those who want to know about some of the important resources for this end of February in the year of the Lord, 2026. You can order by clicking on the link at the very bottom. Please and thanks for doing that.

God’s Homecoming: The Forgotten Promise of Future Renewal N.T. Wright (HarperOne) $32.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $26.39

I hardly know what to say about this other than it may be the most important theological /Bible book of the year. If you like the way I described the Jubilee conference, above, inviting students to think of their studies, their sports, their shopping, their work, their relationships, their future callings as citizens and employees and church members (etc) in light of the redemptive trajectory in the Bible towards God’s renewal of all things, then this book explores that with Biblical detail, fleshing out at least some of the feisty implications. The final talk from the Main Stage at Jubilee, with praise songs capturing this very theme, is laden with hope for an embodied future, a new earth and Wright here shows that this isn’t some quirky schtick of the CCO but is the very heart of the gospel message. As I often say here, if your church doesn’t proclaim the incarnational nature of the Kingdom of God then they aren’t proclaiming the real Bible message. Personal salvation alone is not the gospel. Social transformation alone is not the gospel. We live with a story and in the Bible that unfolding drama goes from a good creation fallen but restored into a new creation. Wright is the one who helps us see this, maybe better than anyone writing today.

He has always had a fairly wholistic and Biblically faithful approach to the multidimensional realities of the story of Israel’s God and the church of Jesus Christ. He’s never preached a personalistic or overly pious pie in the sky sort of faith. He filled in some fabulous details with this Kingdom teaching in How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels which he preached about, some of you recall, in the backyard of our store, but spelled out the details of a renewed creation in Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (which hit the shelves in 2008 and people are still talking about it.) In a way, this new God’s Homecoming might be considered a sequel or follow up to Surprised by Hope. He seems to be saying that while he has long rejected the dualism (taught by the likes of Plato or Aristotle and too many church thinkers) between body and soul that leads to a hard dualism between the secular and sacred, even heaven and earth, he wants to say now that God’s plan and promise to reunite heaven and earth is *the* key to unlock so much of the Bible’s message.  The story of creation to new creation is the Biblical story and the hope of the gospel.

Here, the vivid thinker Time magazine called “one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought” explores all kinds of Bible teachings and themes and shows how new creation insights bring into focus the real meaning of topics from glory of God to the temple, the meaning of exile and the nature of the gospel accounts. He is helpful with a nuanced view of the Kingdom and, of course, wise ways to understand Paul and the early church. He ends by showing how we “switched the script” and how to re-read the texts faithful. There are big implications for worship, evangelism, and prayer, vocation, work, and the running of our churches. My, my, this is, maybe, a deeper dive and summary of much of his life’s work.

I haven’t studied the details or even the footnotes very carefully yet, but three other books (besides Wright’s Surprised by Hope) come immediately to mind. Although I wouldn’t say that God’s Homecoming is only about eschatology (a study of the end times) it obviously is exploring how our vision of the final restoration of creation must influence our current understanding of the Bible, our faith and daily discipleship, and our mission in the church as God’s vanguard of the coming Kingdom. The book that is doubtlessly the best undergirding for Wright’s hopes is J. Richard Middleton’s groundbreaking and hefty A New Heaven and New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Baker Academic; $31.99 // 25.59.) It’s big and a bit dense but it is a must. (His epilogue about why all this matters is wonderful and his exploration of the implications of the Year of Jubilee, there, are brilliant!)

I suppose you know my appreciation for another hefty, rich volume called Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement by Steven Bouma-Prediger & Brian Walsh (Eerdmans; $39.99 //OUR SALE PRICE = $31.99) where they explore the notion of original home-making (and fallen home-breaking and redemptive home-coming) as motifs for our stewardly care for the world. It unpacks this wholistic vision (by way of talking about the housing crisis and homelessness as well as the carelessness with which we experience place and creation-care) better than anything I know. Brian has often talked in detail with Wright about these things, which Wright has often acknowledged. (It is notable, I think, that the book Brian and his wife Sylvia Keesmaat wrote on Romans called Romans Disarmed is cited by Wright in his concise Into the Heart of Romans.) Anyway, Beyond Homelessness is generative and I suspect that it influenced N.T. a bit.

A third volume which obviously opens us up to the “homecoming” of God is The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything by Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz (Brazos Press; $30.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00.) It came out in 2022 in hardcover and was just released a few months ago in paperback. I can’t wait for a review of Wright’s God’s Homecoming by Volf — that would make perfect sense, eh?

As it says on the back of God’s Homecoming: The Forgotten Promise of Future Renewal:

“Everything changes when you begin to believe God’s plan has never been to leave the world he created and loves, but to dwell with us.” Indeed.

 

Sabbath Gospel: A New Narrative of Time, Rest, and the Work of the Church G.P. Wagenfuhr & Amy J. Erickson (IVP Academic) $29.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.99

Holy smokes does this look mighty. Serious and scholarly, but with a fine writing style and practical sections, this seems like an incredible work, blending insights discerned with fresh and rigorous Biblical scholarship and good stuff for ordinary folks (and pastors or anyone working in congregational or parachurch leadership.) There are even discussion questions for brave groups willing to work through a 250 + page volume.  Wagenfuhr is a Presbyterian pastor in Yakima, Washington and Erickson lectures in theology and ethics at St. Mark’s National Theological Centre in Australia.

Although I’d categorize this as a book of Biblical studies, it is clear it provides research offered for sake of the harried and hurting. It is for pastors who are hyperactive and ordinary folks who are exhausted. It offers a rejection of the idols of the culture — more and more and more! — and invites us to “anticipate the true rest that only comes in God’s reign.”

I mentioned, above, the Jubilee conference that has been going on yearly for 50 years. When we named the conference back in 1976 a Dutch neo-Calvinist philosopher was guiding us through the famous book The Politics of Jesus by Mennonite scholar John Howard Yoder; it showed the link between Jesus’s first sermon (Luke 4) and his text of the day (Isaiah 61) which draws on the Jubilee initiative in Leviticus 25. Not having done much reading from Leviticus, I had never head of the Year of Jubilee. Sabbath Gospel explains that, too, inviting us to notions of ultimate rest (think of Hebrews) to which we are invited. Yes, in Christ the Jubilee rest is gifted. Yes, in Christ, we can experience — now but not yet, here but not fully — the regime of shalom, rooted in rest. We don’t have to earn or achieve or try to deserve it. Sabbath, as explored by this wonderful book, is gospel language — gift and grace.

Yes, these authors are indebted to NT Wright. They quote remarkable books, from Seeing Like a State to early works by Jacque Ellul (and Marva Dawn on Jacque Ellul) to the rare book, Sabbath Economics by Ched Meyers.  Of course they love the respected old Jewish rabbi Abraham Heschel and his work The Sabbath and cite, importantly, Sabbath as Resistance by Brueggemann.

You may need to rest after working through Sabbath Gospel: A New Narrative of Time, Rest, and the Work of the Church but, believe me, you will rest better than you ever have, getting this stuff in your bones. We recommend it highly.

Becoming Neighbors: Common Good Made Local Amar D. Peterman (Eerdmans) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39

This little book came just today and although it is slim (under 100 pages) it is potent and wonderfully done. I think it would be ideal for outreach committees or adult ed classes or book clubs or small groups. There is a great foreword by James K.A. Smith which shows how important it is and the blurbs on the back are stellar. From Eboo Patel to Karen Swallow Prior, many have raved about the beauty of the words and healing, hopeful count. Hannah Reichel (For Such a Time as This) calls it “provocatively practical.” Joash Thomas (The Justice of Jesus) says it is “a hope-filled, prophetic reimagination of what the church was always meant to be.”

My friend Stephanie Summers (of the impeccably balanced Center for Public Justice) says very nice things about it. So does the eloquent Anne Snyder (of the equally eloquent Comment magazine.) So does John Inazu, who did a fabulous job, by the way, at Jubilee with his thoughtful book of legal theory (Confident Pluralism) and his delightful “year-in-the-life” book about being a professor on a conflicted campus, Learning How to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect. Talk about local!  Anyway, if Inazu recommends it, that’s worth listening to!

Amar Peterman was a leader in the civic networks movement of InterFaith America and founded Scholarship for Religion and Society. He holds an MDiv from Princeton Seminary (and I think is doing a PhD at the University of Chicago.) He’s convinced that we can best cultivate the common good by starting in our own neighborhood. He offers five wonderfully written and provocative chapters, each inviting us to care well for our neighbors and our neighborhoods. It’s beautiful and potent, not dense but perhaps what might be called thick (that is, not a thin telling.) He cites the likes of Norman Wirzba, Christian Wiman, Oliver O’Donovan, Hartma Rosa, William James Jennings, so he’s delightfully brainy. There is even an old Rubem Alves quote!  Talk about short and sweet. I hope Becoming Neighbors is discussed often, all over.

Braving the Truth: Essential Essays for Reckoning with and Reimagine Faith Rachel Held Evans (HarperOne) $29.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.99

I guess most of our readers (whether they appreciate her much or not) know who Rachel Held Evans was. Her first book was a memoir about growing up in a strict fundamentalist family and church in Dayton, Tennessee, the town famous for the Scopes Trial. First called Evolving in Monkeytown, I suspect that many potential readers didn’t know what that meant so they changed the title and reissued it as Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions. She wrote several books poking fun at legalism and strict configurations of faith, whether it was A Year of Biblical Womanhood or the poignant Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church. We met once and had a few deep conversations; we debated a bit and she was funny if firm. She has become sort of the poster-girl for a generous faith that rejects toxic formulations and invites gracious, inclusive, generous practices. She was dubbed by The Atlantic, “the hero to Christian misfits.”

Jeff Chu, author of Good Soil, one of our favorite books of last year, was devastated when his good friend and comrade died unexpectedly. I can’t imagine how hard it was, emotionally, but he responded to Rachel’s husband’s request and finished Rachel’s last manuscript, in her spirit, knowing much about her writerly style and trajectory. That book was called Whole Hearted Faith and I’m sure I said somewhere that it was her last book.

Happily, if bittersweet, her good friend Sarah Betsy, edited and brought together a whole bunch of Rachel’s previously unpublished [in book form] essays, articles, chapters (maybe journal entries?) and serious facebook postings and nicely put them together as only a good editor can, and we now have what I really do believe will be the final posthumously published book by Rachel Held Evans. The chapters are short but compiled well, bringing various pieces together in what truly feels like a major contribution to our reformulations and reconsiderations of faith both public and personal.

There are six major units or parks, each with maybe a dozen or more chapters. They include:

• An Evolving Faith: Essays on Doubt, Asking Questions, and the Cost of it All
• The Unholy American Trinity: Essays on Patriarchy, White Supremacy, and Religious Nationalism
• Casseroles, Evangelicalism, and the Kingdom of the Hungry: Essays on the Church
• All Right, Then, I’ll Go toHell: Essays on Gender and Sexuality
• Still a Bible Nerd: Essays on Scripture
• Telling the Truth: Essays on Life in the Midst of It All

Throughout, in each of these sections, are a few very appropriate pieces by friends and conversations partners such as Matthew Paul Turner, Shauna Niequist, Sarah Bessey, Scot McKnight, Shane Claiborne, Lisa Sharon Harper, Kathy Khang, Jen Hatmaker, Osheta Moore, Micha Boyett, Cindy Wang Brandt, Pete Enns, Kaitlin Curtice, and many more. All are exceptional writers and dear, dear people of character. You won’t want to miss her “meditation on nursing”, a penultimate piece called “Lent for the Lamenting” and the final chapter, the first I read, “Her Last Act as a Blogger: A Reflection by Amanda Held Opelt” (her sister.)  Sarah Bessey’s afterword “Go Forth, Woman of Valor” is beautiful. Braving the Truth is a very special book, mostly her own words and yet plenty of tribute, plenty of grace. We recommend it.

Lit Up With Love : Becoming Good News People to a Gospel-Starved World Derwin L. Gray (NavPress) $12.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $10.39

I know not everyone has time or disposition to wade through major hardback texts. I know some want a short and succinct shot in the arm (or what Dylan called a “shot of love.”) Or maybe you want to share a book with somebody but it can’t be too thick or pricey. Or maybe you’re looking for an accesible little book for a small group or one-on-one mentoring session. This little book is a gem and we’re happy to tell you about it. I hope it sells like hot-cakes.

If I were to say it is about evangelism, I suspect that will be a less than winning selling point so I’ll try not to use the E-word, even if that is how I’d best describe it. But please forget the bad images of pushy big-mouths or the person who is “that guy.” The world is hungry for answers, creative, winsome people with a big vision of life’s deepest meaning really can — when lit up with love — bear beautiful witness to the work God is doing in the world. If any of the above titles makes sense — reimagining apologetics, embodying faith, living into the story of new creation, caring for the brokenness of the world, working for racial and multiethnic reconciliation, affirming a high view of work and our callings in the world — then this little volume by a well-known black pastor will scratch where it itches for you and your friends. I’m sure of it.

Lit Up is a book about how to be the sorts of communities that when they talk about God people response well because they think it makes sense.  It is rooted in a full-orbed vision of the Kingdom, not a truncated, bullet-point formula of faith. It shows how we can become people who “develop a heart for the hurts and longings of the people in our lives” and are “living the adventure of being an everyday missionary.”  I won’t use the high-powered marketing lingo of this starting something like a catalytic movement or how “living loved” will change the reputation of the church in your community and therefore transform the world. But it sure can’t hurt, eh? Who doesn’t need a little help learning to love well and share faith in honest ways? And it is fun that Derwin Gray used to be a pretty significant NFL star who came to faith as a professional football player and eventually went on to study theology and church planting. Very cool.

This has 10 short chapters each followed with some “holy habits” and some discussion questions and a closing prayer making it fantastic for a small group or book club. There is also a fee church hit. With small-group curriculum videos, even possible sermon outlines for those who want to go big with this little guy. Gray is the cofounder and lead pastor of Transformation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. N.T. Wright says that his “passion for Jesus and the gospel leaps off every page.”

Discipling the Diseased Imagination: Spiritual Formation and the Healing of Our Hearts Justin Ariel Bailey (Baker Academic) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I often wonder how best to mentor others, to teach and inform and influence. I’m a lowly bookseller and do some public speaking, traveling here and there on rare occasions to talk about the importance of reading widely, preaching about the ways in which being a life-long learner can inform our faith and our visions of discipleship. What does it mean, really, in the famous text, to “make disciples of all nations”? And how do you do it in this day and age?  I’ve got my list of books about disciple-making and this now, is a vital addition. I’ve just started it but it is by far the most provocative and faithful and thoughtful book on the topic I’ve read in years.

Justin Bailey is a professor of theology (and the dean of chapel) at Dordt University. If you’re reading carefully, I alluded, above, to a Dutch philosopher who was teaching some of us back in the mid-1970s when we cooked up the idea of the Jubilee conference. That leader, a flamboyant philosophical evangelist named Pete Steen, had connections at Dordt College and Justin Bailey (when he spoke at Jubilee a few years ago) was happy to be reminded of the connections between Pittsburgh and Sioux Center, Iowa, between CCO and Dordt.

And now Bailey has a brand new book which, it seems to me, will be really useful for those such as the campus workers in CCO (or IVCF or RUF or Cru or Navs or at the Christian Study Centers or Fellows Programs, etc. etc.) who are tasked with guiding young adults in their faith journey. Although not written about shaping the lives of teens or those in confirmation classes, I’d say it offers a grand foundation for those doing that kind of work, too. Do you teach Sunday school? Mentor others in outreach groups? Are you a parent or teacher? This book is for you!

In fact, it isn’t even exactly about teaching others, but about understanding our own damaged imaginations and how our own faith formation can only develop if we reconsider how to find healing for our distorted imaginations.

Bailey’s main point his that the imagination should be at the center of our discipleship (that is, our Christian growth, internally and outwardly, so to speak, informing how we live out our faith.) If it is central to our own sanctification, this sort of intentional attention to our imagination therefore needs to be a part of the effort of those shaping and cultivating and nurturing others in their faith journey. Obviously, growing as a Christian or mentoring others in their own growth as Christians involves a lot more than transferring data, even if that content is Bible-rich and theological sound. Inner transformation is more than learning facts about religion. Duh.

I loved his hefty previous book called ReImagining Apologetics which invited us to reach others in outreach and persuasion by telling a better story than that which they are currently living; that is, apologetics can be more than arguing about the reliability of the Bible or the viability of a life in Christ or the importance of truth. Rather, we can use myth and the arts to rekindle the imagination so as to evoke a desire for deeper more wonderful things. Now, in Discipling the Diseased Imagination it seems like he has written a sequel, rather than focusing on using the imagination to enfold others into the Christian story but to mentor and build up others in the faith by forming not only the mindset the heart and spirit.

The modern sickness of the soul runs deeper than most diagnoses are able to reach,” says Joshua Chatrow, author of Telling a Better Story: How to Talk about God in a Skeptical Age. Of Justin Bailey’s book he continues, “Discipling the Diseased Imagination is the treatment plan the church sorely needs. With a rare blend of intellectual depth, pastoral care, and elegant prose, Bailey prescribes a vision for the Christian life that is honest, humane, and hopeful.”

Oh my. Isn’t that what you want for your life, for your church, for your witness to your unbelieving neighbors and friends? My pal Alex Sosler, who has a new book on hip hop, by the way, says that Justin Ariel Bailey writes artfully and convincingly and that “to reimagine is a moral imperative of possibility.” Yes.

The first chapter is about imaginative perception and the second is about prayer. The third is about resistance and the next is about attention. Do you believe God is still speaking? Do you believe we need to foster a wondrous sense of being alive to that? Listen to Bailey who is orthodox and rigorous and prayerful and yet eager to help us discover a broader spirituality of human-ness, of glory, of goodness.

Desire: The Longings Inside Us and the New Science of How We Love, Heal, and Grow Jay Stringer (Convergent) $30.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00

Okay, we’ve been suggesting books about living into a grand and robust vision of the gospel which takes fully the Bible’s teaching about the good sturdiness of creation, the radical and debilitation corruption caused by sin and idolatry, and the hopeful, substantial healing promised by Jesus the King of the coming new creation. Our speaker the first night of Jubilee, Drew Hyun, nicely describes the reality of these Biblical motif that we all know in our bones. His book is called Beautiful, Disappointing, Hopeful. Right? We all have these experiences of a good world gone south and we all need some way to make sense of the hope we long for. Much of this — as Augustine told us centuries ago and as many, many writers and preachers have said of late (many drawing on James KA Smith’s marvelous You Are What You Love)  — all hinges on matters of desire. What do you want, Jesus asks early in the gospel of John. It’s a good question.

Dan Allender, a name who shows up often here at BookNotes, helped start at graduate school of psychology and advance studies of counseling inspired, in part, by this deep perspective on the nature of the heart’s longings, attending to story and desire. How do we cope with longing and loss, how to we live out of our own authentic stories, if we aren’t self-reflective about what drives us, what we want, what we love?

Jay Stringer is an amazing young scholar who wrote a singular book seven or so years ago among a sea-full of mostly ineffective ideas about resisting pornography and other sexual brokenness. This was called Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing (NavPress; $18.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.16) and was based not only on his big picture, deep assessment of the nature of longing in the human heart, but on his own survey (one of the largest of its kind) about those who had unwanted sexual issues. “Listen to your lust,” he advised, not because lust was good or acceptable, but because putting a tourniquet on it, saying no, doing what all the other hundreds of books and pamphlets and Bible studies and pastoral messages said do simply wasn’t working. Most know that, frankly, those with unwanted sexual desires, even Biblical Christians empowered by the Spirit to want to do the right thing, find it complicated to break sexual compulsions. Jay invited readers to deep and honest awareness of what’s really going on, below the surface, under the hood. It’s a book we are glad to sell and that we think is for many a godsend.

And now (releasing next week) we have a brand new book that in some ways goes deeper and wider than the quite specific Unwanted. His faith is still evident and his helpfulness as a counselor is obvious, but Desire is a bit of a broader study, at once both more philosophical (about theological anthropology, I might suggest) and scientific (brain studies, attachment theory, etc.) His scope, now, is not just helping people with porn addictions and the like but asking how we even understand this human experience of longing. What is desire, really, and where does it come from?

And how cool is this — the best-selling author Will Guidara, a chef (whose high-end restaurant was the basis of several scenes in the TV hit The Bear) and author of Unreasonable Hospitality has called it  “a master class in caring for the human spirit.” Chef Guidara says that “Desire turns the work of hospitality inward, changing how you understand love, purpose, and what it means to serve those around you, and yourself.” I know Jay lives in New York City but I hadn’t seen that coming. Nice, eh?

Dan Allender, one of Jay’s mentors, has long talked about God’s story and our longings being fulfilled as we allow God to author our story, as we find our meaning in delving into our personal story in light of God’s redemptive story. (That Dan came to faith in part through that Dutch philosopher I mentioned who helped us name Jubilee is not inconsequential; from his earliest days as a collegiate follower of Jesus he was rooted in a philosophy of life and culture and a theology of the human person and grace that saw things others often missed. And so he’s a world-class leader, now, as is Jay Stringer.)

Jay did a massive bit of social science research and tons of interviews (number in the thousands, I’m told) to discover much about what people think about their own desires. We learn, in Desire, what he calls findings and skills and the like, making it researched based but immanently helpful. From a desire for personal growth (and ways we sidestep it) to a desire for intimacy (and how we create “rituals and routines of love” to sustain our affections) to even practical reflections on depression and joy, loneliness and friendship, the search for meaning and faith, Stinger’s years of work have paid off.  He is curious about all of this deeply human stuff and he invites us to fight our shame and be real about it all — can we become curious stewards of our own desires? Do we even know what we want? This book is provocative and a major work to study and discuss.

I’ve only scratched the surface. We can send them out next week when Convergent officially releases it. You should order it now!

Here is a bit of what the publisher has shared about it; I quote:

“Desire drives our search for intimacy, meaning, and joy, but it can also lead to shame, betrayal, and self-sabotage. Too often we are encouraged to silence it, distort it, or treat surface-level symptoms like loneliness, low desire, or porn use — without listening to what our longings are really telling us.

In Desire, Stringer shows how to decode those clues and transform your story. Drawing on unforgettable stories from his clinical practice–individuals and couples navigating everything from childhood scars to purity culture, professional exhaustion to sexual difficulties, codependency to self-doubt — he shows you how to ask the questions you’ve been avoiding and move toward the healing you didn’t know how to seek.”

Jay Stringer brilliantly invites us to a well-researched, richly imagined, and compellingly written understanding of what he calls the inner civil war of competing desires. His scholarship and personal honesty will give you a new path to offer kindness to your soul and the conflicts that have beset you. I say with no fear of exaggeration — this will be one of the most important books you will read for knowing yourself and others. — Dan B. Allender, PhD, professor of counseling psychology, founding president of the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology

Jay Stringer wants to give you permission — permission to stop running; to stop trying so hard; to stop the self-criticism; and, most of all, to start desiring again. This book is a much-needed corrective to strategies that get you almost there — but never quite feeling free and healed. Desire has the immense power to actually help people change and grow. Take this invitation to excavate buried desires and move toward an authentic, whole, and integrated you! — Sheila Wray Gregoire, author of The Great Sex Rescue

Undoing Manifest Destiny: Settler America, Christian Colonists, and the Pursuit of Justice L. Daniel Hawk (IVP Academic) $28.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.19

I have long said that IVP and IVP Academic have been the premier evangelical publisher and, at the same time, also the premier Christian publisher doing readable, useful, transformative book on racial reconciliation and racial justice. In recent decades all legitimate publishers everywhere joined in and nearly every faith-based publisher has something in their catalogues about race, anti-racism, or ethnic diversity. IVP has been publishing these kinds of books since the 1970s.

Early on, IVP — perhaps because of their connection to the evangelical campus ministry outfit IVCF which has worked on large city campuses since before there was an IVP publishing house — have done books for Asian American’s navigating Christian faith and for Latinos as well. Hooray. And, in recent decades they’ve pioneers books by and for and about indigenous peoples (such as Saving the Gospel from the Cowboys and books on diversity by Native leader Randy Woodley.) This past year they released the First Nations Translation New Testament and the First Nations Translation: Proverbs and Psalms. We stock those in hardback and paperback and a nice imitation leather.

Which is just to say that it makes sense for IVP to do this extraordinary scholarly history of white settlers spreading across North America and how they “crafted and enacted an epic story of their God-given dominion — over the land, over Indigenous nations, and over the future.” As Hawk explains, “Their narrative constructed a myth of innocence that justified a massive program of violence and dispossession by suppressing a darker history. That history still reverberates today.”

Daniel Hawk, with a PhD from Emory University, is professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio.  He is considered a published expert in postcolonial Biblical study. Here he is doing the necessary backstory to the turn in postcolonial theory and simply writes — as a descendant of White settlers — American history (with theology and Biblical scholarship combined) to show how to bust up the myths of Manifest Destiny.

Every Moment Holy: Rites of Passage Douglas McKelvey, illustrated by Ned Bustard (Rabbit Room Press) $32.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $26.39

This just arrived today and we are thrilled. This is not the time to do another extended review of the previous three editions, or discuss in detail the glories and wonders, the theological depth and  quotidian, prayerful usefulness, the aesthetic richness of language and the artful classy design of the first three volumes of Every Moment Holy.

I hope you know the belovedness of the three full-sized, leather-bound hardbacks and their smaller, flexible, leather-bound compact editions, as well.  Their popularity has nearly created a movement of liturgical prayer in houses, markets, college dorms, businesses, playgrounds, garages, workplaces, bedrooms, kitchens, yards, cars, and more. The taupe-colored first volume (in larger or smaller versions) include random liturgies and prayers for every imaginable occasion, some whimsical, some incredibly wise (if rare) while others are sort of standard (for hospitable visits, first days school, various hard moments.) The second — in those gorgeous tan editions — focuses on loss and lament (those were the most used, it seems, in Volume I so in Volume II they did more prayers for loss and sadness and complicated moments, richly illustrated with Ned Bustard’s striking graphics. Volume III (in large or smaller) is the bright blue one, with prayers and litanies composes by a variety of poets and pastors and the artwork (while still that black and white linocut /woodcut style) is by a handful of artists. Ned still designed the layout, the parts in red ink, the ribbon marker, and so forth. The three volumes (each in two sizes and prices) are precious and beautiful and have sold everywhere we go.

At last there is now a fourth and it is just a tiny bit different to behold and use. Every Moment Holy: Rites of Passage could be described as prayers and liturgies for young adults in transition. They have called it “a companion for early adulthood” and there are prayers about the unique day-to-day trials, joys, hopes, and griefs of these “critical years.”  There are more than 150 prayers  and liturgies for classes, graduations, dating, anxiety, job interviews, seasons of doubt, travel and more. There are over 30 illustrations by Ned Bustard.

The size is just a little different two. It is a leather-covered hardback, like the larger editions of the first three, but just a bit more trim in size, a bit thinner. It’s a fabulous size, in a rich brown with a Bustard linocut on the front. Not as small and chunky as the smaller editions but not as large as the bigger hardback editions, it feels just right. Hooray.

And guess what? Most of us are in transition and could use these prayers and litanies for knowing how to make good choices, for hosting our doubts, for seeking God’s will, to pray before an awkward social gathering, for cultivating gratitude, consuming media (for solo gamers.)

On the dedication page it reads:

For all who heed the wild call

to set foot upon this pilgrim road,

to take up your cross and follow Christ

wherever he might lead.

Run hard. Finish well.

 

Let’s gather at the Wedding Feast.

Strong Allies: Creating, Cultivating, Restoring Leslie Anne Bustard & Théa Rosenburg and others (Square Halo Books) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I’m pretty proud of my pal Ned Bustard, a dear friend and admired artist and “Barnabas” for artists. He and his teams founded Square Halo Books, run out of his Lancaster home office, in part, to deepen the literary contribution of artists writing about aesthetics, creativity, art history, and the importance of ordinary saints doing culture-making in our good but fallen world. In his own other job as graphic designer and printmaker, Ned has helped with the extraordinary success of the Every Moment Holy prayer books (see above) we couldn’t be more pleased to see his rising reputation.

You may recall us sharing about the death of his wife a few years ago. She was his ally in writing and publishing and curating their Square Halo Gallery in downtown Lancaster and was a poet and essayist in her own right. We have enthusiastically promoted her co-authored must-read Wild Things and Castles in the Sky a “guide to choosing the best books for children.” We so very much appreciate Tiny Thoughts I’ve Been Thinking: Selected Writings that include her essays and poems, published posthumously. Poet and her friend Malcolm Guite called it “a little trove of beauty and wisdom in the midst of ugly and confusing times.”

Well, one of the things Leslie and I (and Leslie and Beth) talked about from time to time was the Biblical / theological discussion about properly understanding gender roles and, particularly the vision and vocation of woman. She tried hard to develop what she and I more than once called “a third way” beyond the polarizing dogmas of the far feminist left and the far evangelical right. She herself was part of a lively and artful PCA congregation so we disagreed about some considerable matters, but I valued (really valued!) Her efforts at bridge building and discerning a Biblically solid and Reformed theological alternative to women-despising misogyny. More than polemical, too, she wanted to invite women into a generative and active role as women. The subtitle in this new collection of her pieces — finished by her close friend Théa Rosenburg — is important Strong Allies is not merely a “position” in the discussions about gender roles, it is a vivid and delightful and restorative call for women to be collaborative with others (male or female.) This really is Leslie’s gentle and lovely manifesto, written as only she could have, with plenty of strong insight and plenty of charm and grace.

The title is important as Leslie felt she had come up with the key to her particular take on the vocation of women, and that is the Hebrew word ezer, used in Genesis 2:18. It is often translated as helper (or in King James language, “helpmeet”), but that sometimes is used in ways that seem merely an assistant, not mutually valuable. She shows that the only other times that word is used is when the Biblical writers use it to describe God. God’s helpful, faithful, cultivating, creating, restoring power. Obviously, the linguistics of this part of being made in the very image of God suggests no secondary servant status. Ezer, Leslie realized, is a word loaded with fresh insight and poetic power.

Since she never fully finished her manuscript during her cancer years, Théa, with Ned’s full approval, found other women to weigh in, to share their insights, to tell stories, to make this whole vision of collaborative femininity for God’s reign become real, practical, down-to-Earth. So we have well-known writers and friends from Luci Shaw (perhaps offering her last written essay) to Margie Haack to Christie Purifoy to Karen Swallow Prior and many others, each sharing a story or insight. The book is visionary and thoughtful but also tender and practical; it is written for women and men, I’d say. Yes!

(And, for the record, for the three people who might care about this, she cites the rare book by Creation Regained author Al Wolters, a collection of scholarly pieces on Proverbs 31 called The Song of the Valiant Woman published by Paternoster in the UK. Just saying.)

No matter ones social status, stage of life, career, constraints or talents,  “Strong Allies calls women in every walk and stage of life to love the people around them in the places where he has planted them…”

I love the blurb on the back saying “countless books have been written about what women can and can’t do. But this book asks the question: “What did God make women to be?”

Leslie’s beautiful book not only shows us Scripture’s strong vision for women to be strong allies, but brings that vision to life in the stories of dozens of women then and now in a wide range of life circumstances. Personal and tender, practical and inspiring–we finally have a guide to biblical womanhood! — Carmen Joy Imes, author of Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters

Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest James Martin, SJ (HarperOne) $29.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.99

I could write about this for pages and pages but I’ll say just three quick things. I suppose you know of James Martin, a famous and often very funny Jesuit priest who sometimes appears on Colbert and has written many titles, including good ones on Jesus, on pilgrimage, on prayer, and on the Jesuits. He’s a fine writer and a good, good guy. This is his memoir of coming of age, his many summer jobs, and discerning his eventual call into the priesthood, which sort of surprised everybody. It’s a great fun read.

So, point number one: it’s a great fun read by an important Christian writer so you ought not miss it.  If you don’t buy it from us, visit your local library! It’s a delight to read, inspiring, and upbeat, humorously written with lyrical moments of lovely insight. Although I spend some of my days reading some heady stuff, I so enjoy dipping into this each night and I’m going to miss his clever voice when I’m done. Enjoy!

Point number two: it’s about work, summer jobs, all kinds of dumb and enchanting occupations, written about with zeal and idealism (except, well, when he tells about his often hilarious goof-ups and oddball antics — like being a caddy at one of the fanciest old country clubs in the country while not knowing a single thing about golf. Or trying to collect payment for a free paper he delivered to people who never requested it.) Anyway, we all need to honor the work of our hands (and the word of others hands and the theological conversation about workday callings and careers often skews to the professional and corporate. What fun to read about odd jobs and the life of a teen trying to make sense of the value and dignity of common labor.

Thirdly: Jimmy Martin grew up in the 1970s in a wonderfully colorful very middle class neighborhood outside of Philadelphia and describes childhood games and youthful anxieties and teen problems. And he nails it! I am not quite a decade older but this resonated so much, a fabulously fun glimpse into a world not unlike my own growing up. From the avocado colored decor and shag rugs (none of which we had) and saving money to buy 45s and albums and paperback books, and talking about the concerns about money (there were some rich kids around, but not many) and status and class and dating, it all rang so true.  This coming of age story — told through the jobs he had — is not merely a nostalgia piece (although it is charming to reminisce so well) but, like any really good memoir, a glimpse into the interior lives of folks making their way in the world. The remarkable memoirist Mary Karr notes in her rave review that “there is no greater quest or romance than this.”

I won’t even talk about what would be a major fourth point: Martin goes to the University of Pennsylvania, graduates from the Wharton business school and does sort of grow up. He becomes a corporate tool for a while (his word) spending time in New York City and eventually, even famously, discerning a call to ministry. I’ve not finished the story yet, but I see it coming. I do not think he will wax overly spiritual about how being called to what Catholics call the religious life is somehow better than so-called secular life. For him, though, becoming a Jesuit was finally a sweet spot and we can all be glad. That he finds God through it all is lovely and good; that he isn’t done writing yet might indicate that his priestly vocation also includes being a very good writer. Hooray!

Start with a Word: On the Craft and Adventure Writing Marilyn McEntyre (Eerdmans) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I sure hope I’ve done our job here as (at least one of) your book guys by highlighting the prolific work of the lovely and wonderful writer Marilyn McEntyre. I’ve often shared that she has been a literature prof working at a med school, helping wanna-be doctors and medical researchers understand more deeply the humanity of it all, reflecting on classic and modern literature and poetry and essays on illness and grief and bodies and hope. She knows how to use words well and uses them in this extraordinarily important work. Obviously we are fans.

Further, I think in every talk or class I’ve done on the reading life I’ve done since the summer of 2009 I’ve cited her fabulous book (originally given as the esteemed Stone Lecture at Princeton) Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies. When I get carried away here, I recall her chapter (one of her “stewardship strategies” for words) is to “love the long sentence. Ahem.

Just recently I had reason to revisit Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict and at Jubilee a weekend ago I pressed her When Poets Pray into the hands of a young writer. From daily devotionals to Biblical pieces to literary criticism, she has created a notable body of work. And now she tells us, in her eloquent prose, just how it’s done.

One would think that reading a book about writing by a master writer would be a coup de state. But, alas, not every good writer shows their finest prose in teaching about their craft. Some are wise and useful, others are pleasantly delightful but more rare are those books about how to write that are a joy to read. Enter Marilyn McEntyre, a profoundly Christian thinker with a wide palette of reading and a broad vision of being a good writer.  This, I am sure, is going to be a favorite book of the year, although I’ve only dipped in. It is very new and you are among the first to hear about it, so enjoy! Buy it now, even if you aren’t an aspiring writer (and certainly if you are.) I need it, in more ways than one!  You too?

I know I might sometimes overstate the importance of who endorses a book, although it remains an important keystone for my initial evaluations. Marilyn has had writers and reviews far more important and skilled than I praising her work. From Reformed writer Cornelius Plantinga to the interfaith mystic Carol Zaleski; from thoughtful, evangelical singer-songwriter Michael Card to the famous Catholic activist Richard Rohr, so many have appreciated her work. I love a long blurb on the back of this one by Scott Cairns, the extraordinary Orthodox poet. New York pastor and poet (and half of the band The Welcome Wagon, who has played with Sufjan Stevens, by the way), Vito Aiuto, says that “studying with Marilyn McEntyre helped set the trajectory of my creative life.” Wow. Now we can all take in her instructions with what looks like a great, great resource.

By the way, the very first chapter is, not surprisingly, to “read like a writer.” Yes!

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