Don’t miss the offer for a free book, embedded part way down this long review. While supplies last, friends.

In the first line of the forthcoming Art Is How God Loves: The Sacred Beauty of Created Things (Broadleaf Books; due July 2026) oboist and writer Meredith Hite Estevez begins telling of her advanced voice class at Juilliard in an opening piece on Frederic Chopin saying, “The melody cracked open a door I thought would be closed forever.” I was hooked.

Also, importantly, she has an epigram to start the book from abstract artist Makoto Fujimura: “God creates out of love, not necessity.”

“God creates out of love, not necessity.” — Makoto Fujimura

I would like to amble in to a discussion of Mr. Fujimura’s books, and the brand new one which we have already celebrated here, Beauty x Justice: Creating a Life of Abundance and Courage co-written very nicely with his wife Haejin Fujimura. (Brazos Press.) Call it a survey of his written work or a readers guide to Mako & Haejin’s books.

BUT FIRST.

I can remember the first time I met Calvin Seerveld, in the mid-1970s. His book A Christian Critique of Art and Literature was out, soon to be followed by his legendary Rainbows for the Fallen World and so many more. I think it was the second time I heard him, at a workshop at one of the early Jubilee conferences in Pittsburgh, when I dared to speak to him, bearing my soul by asking what I hoped would not insult him. I wanted to know something about how we can value art in a world where tens of thousands of children die every single day of preventable hunger. I wanted to know why I should care about aesthetics in a world of injustice and war. I was not asking lightly and he answered me with an honest passion and Biblical unction I have rarely encountered. I later told friends that I felt like I was in the presence of an Old Testament prophet, someone who knew God and His ways in the world. Seerveld became somewhat of a hero to me, and eventually a friend, a person who would both weep earnest tears over the poor and oppressed and take delight in everyday, suggestion-rich, glorious nods towards aesthetic obedience. Both/and, not either/or. Interior design, clothing, puns and jokes, rich reading, art reviews, sports, games, coffee, it all matters in God’s good world.

My old college friend Dr. Bill Romanowski got Cal interested in pop culture and soon he had an appreciation for the history of rock music, video games, and the joys of both high cinema and popular movies. All were considered manifestations of the arts, a human response to the way God made the world to be and to be taken seriously, if also playfully. (This is not uncommon now, thinking critically about pop culture, but in those years it was pioneering; Romanowski’s magisterial Pop Culture Wars: Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American Life remains unsurpassed. And wouldn’t you know what this massively researched history shows? American evangelicals distrusted popular entertainments in the early 1900s in part because they were identified with immigrants and people of color.)

Many others have written wisely (and not so wisely) about beauty and art, about aesthetics, and, yes, about the relationship between aesthetics and social change, about art and justice. Can we honor and maybe even make art that has a vision of new creation justice without it becoming what Cal called propaganda? Can art help us understand injustices without being too on the nose? Ham-fisted, not imaginatively allusive enough to be fully artful, such ideologically-driven work fails the aesthetic norms even if it is righteous in its zeal for a better world. It’s a tough needle to thread.

Cal Seerveld’s deep insights about these very themes as a Biblically-rooted scholar of the philosophy of aesthetics were sometimes above my head, but he, like no other, assured me of an overall affirmation of the arts, even in a broken world. His landmark Rainbows for a Fallen World suggests as much and the excellent Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves, again, hints at hope. Art matters but does so even as we are called to be peacemakers when sabers are rattling and bomb falling. Art matters but it should lead us to have care for the marginalized and hurting. Art matters even as we know our world is on fire.

When Dordt College Press released a multi-volume set of Cal’s various and sundry writings, one volume was a collection of pieces around the theme of Redemptive Art in Society. It was one of my great honors to have a blurb put on the back, another task above my pay grade, I’m afraid, but Cal knew I cared about this essential question: what do the arts have to say in a world of torture and starvation, in a world where corporate pirates enrich Presidents who slash the budgets for the poor? Does justice have any need for beauty?

There have been good Christian writers who hint at these questions.

It would be a good project to collect chapters from here and there, from the important scholarly work of Seerveld’s heady former student Lambert Zuidervaart to the always wise Bruce Herman, from a splendid chapter on justice in Terry Glaspey’s Discovering God Through the Arts to bits in Russ Ramsey’s Rembrandt Is In the Wind and Van Gogh Had a Broken Heart. We must include the short treatise by Princeton political philosopher Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just, and the lovely Just Making: A Guide for Compassionate Creators by Mitali Perkins. I think of black writers like Sho Baraka and Propaganda and Jonathan Walton (who recently released Beauty + Resistance Spiritual Rhythms for Formation and Repair.) I of course think of Brian Walsh on Bruce Cockburn. I think of the magisterial work of Nicholas Wolterstorff.

Many of the pieces in the amazing The Art of New Creation: Trajectories in Theology and the Arts edited by Jeremy Begbie, Daniel Train and W. David Taylor are stunningly bold but I’d also draw your attention to the great interview with Black art maker Steve Prince in that same volume. Wow. And we’d want to suggest chapters from Charlie Peacock & Andi Ashworth’s Why Everything That Doesn’t Matter, Matters So Much: The Way of Love in a World of Hurt; read back-to-back their chapters “On Becoming a Light in the City” and “The Artists Role in the World.”

I’m not sure which letters / chapters I’d pick but such a gathering of pieces should include something excerpted from Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian, real correspondance by Miroslav Volf & Christian Wiman, published nicely not long ago.

Although it is spiritually deep and written by a philosopher, Jamie Smith’s magnificent tour de force about art and mysticism (Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark: Mysticism, Art, and the Path of Unknowing) yields some germane insights about this very topic; “…the best artworks make room for the messiness of the world around us,” he notes, before listing examples.

More practically, J. Scot McElroy released just last summer a one-of-a-kind book on faith-based perspectives on art as therapy called How To Care: Crisis-Trauma-Mental Health Ministry with the Arts which is yet another part of this story of redemptive art in society. For less of a guide and manual and more of a meditation see the brand new, truly beautiful Church Beautiful: Sacred Art & Spiritual Healing by Katie Kresser. Artist Bruce Herman calls it ‘brilliant” and writer and professor Justin Ariel Bailey says it is “luminous.”

In such an anthology about the arts and beauty we’d have to include David Dark. All his bookwork is über-creative, confoundingly so, at times (a good sign for artistic types, eh?) We should at least know his Everyday Apocalypse: Art, Empire, and the End of the World. And for a good foundation, see Mary McCampbell’s amazingly rich Imagining Our Neighbors as Ourselves: How Art Shapes Empathy well done by Fortress Press.

We have described all of these titles at BookNotes at one point or another and you might find my reviews of them and our sale prices by using the search box at our BookNotes page at our store’s website. 

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I write all this to set the stage — I wanted make a big stage — for the exceedingly important work of Makoto Fujimura, a working artist and writer who has captured my attention (and has the admiration of many, many others) because he has, from his very first writing, indicated something of this same concern and same vision that Seerveld taught me years ago; art can make a difference. Art is not just for arts sake. In a hurting world, art plays a unique and particular redemptive role an our mission to offer repair to the world.

Seerveld’s friend Hans Rookmaaker insisted that “art needs no justification” and we are proud to still stock the reprint of that splendid little book, Art Needs No Justification. Mako would not disagree. Art need not be “relevant” or classical or transgressive or Bible-based nor must it directly engage social concerns. Full stop. But, somehow, without devolving into propaganda or reductive efforts to have it “speak” to issues, good art draws us into the quest for a new world a-coming, as Seerveld might have said, which is laden with shalom. The artistic signposts pointing towards such new creation bears, again from Seerveld’s book, “fresh olive leaves” gratuitously brought back to the ark — there is land and there is hope. Back to Esteves’s opening epigram: God does God’s creative work, says Makoto, out of love. Art emerges from generosity, from abundance. He does not mean to conjure notions of the well-heeled and upper-class wealthy when he talks about extravagance.

Perhaps Mako gets this so well, that there must been engagement with the suffering of the world, because his faith journey was somewhat formed among the survivors of the atomic blast in Nagasaki, Japan. Maybe it was because of his literal proximity to the trauma of Ground Zero on September 11th. God has given him extraordinary gifts of creative expression but also a keen mind to ponder the questions that arise when we wonder about the goodness of God in a violent world. And God has blessed him with also with a tender heart towards the suffering. You should know his art and you should know his books.

And you should know Haejin Shim Fujimura. Born in South Korea (with their wariness towards the Japanese) and now a lawyer running a global justice ministry, she has understood her own life-long yearning for justice as a deeper longing for beauty, and has helped Mako clarify his long longing for justice. She writes in their co-authored book, Beauty and Justice, that their cross-cultural marriage “represents beauty born out of the fractures of sister nations.” They pray each morning that they “steward Jesus in each other” as they are “carried into the new creation.” What a pair!

Beauty x Justice: Creation a Life of Abundance and Courage Haejin Shim Fujimura & Makoto Fujimura (Brazos Press) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I raved about this in a previous BookNotes trying to gather some pre-orders and we were happy to send them out a bit early to friends and customers. I described it pretty well from my first skimming of the advanced manuscript but now that I’ve got the real book in my hand and have been studying it more carefully, it is, I must say, with as much energy as I can muster, a splendid, splendid book.

Those who appreciate Mako know of his world-renowned (mostly) abstract art using an ancient Japanese style that includes pulverizing precious metals that, over time, glitter and glimmer on the canvas or paper; he was the first student who was not native Japanese to train in this prestigious Japanese art school. As he has written elsewhere, his time living as an adult in Japan (he was born in Boston) was formative spiritually as he found an almost mystical relationship with the Risen Christ. His aesthetics are mature, his insights profound, his writing, while not academic, is sophisticated. I want to say this delicately because I so love his books, even when they meander a bit, or may seem abstract. (I say that with great respect and intend to honor him by saying that his many books are written by a real artist with an artist’s temperament and deep worldview, so of course they are at times allusive or a tad mysterious.)

Beauty x Justice, however, as I’ve said, is a collaborative project with his wife, a clear-headed, sharp-thinking, professional attorney, well-trained and well-practiced in making a logical case, building an apologetic, declaring points. As one nurtured in a more conventional evangelical background — South Korean style, too — Haejin’s writing about her faith is wonderfully pious in the most healthy of ways. I think what I’m trying to say is that Haejin’s gifts are on full display making this book the clearest and most readable of any that Mako has done. I don’t mean to say she is a better writer, but her storytelling style and Biblical studies and passion for social justice make this book sing with an urgency and clarity and joy that the others may not, quite. Mako is a fine writer and he makes stuff glimmer and refract on canvas; Haejin makes it happen clearly on the page. Together they have crafted — in the writing, the collaborative styles, the different voices, and different sorts of stories — one of the best books of the year.

Mako, by the way, would not disagree. It is more than charming but a true joy to see how they refer to each other in such complimentary ways in the book, often. For instance:

“When I (Mako) hear Haejin’s stories, I see her acts of compassion as the creation of beauty. Her inner compass as a justice advocate naturally points her toward the most vulnerable, and the needs are overwhelming Yet, what makes Haejin’s work so extraordinary is not just her commitment to justice — it is her ability to live in gratitude.”

As I’ve noted in the opening of this column, and as you’ve surmised thus far, this new book provides a particular and vital aspect of the broader conversation about faith and the arts (the often abstract discourse about a Christian approach to aesthetics, seen in the myriad of fabulous books about the spirituality of creativity and such.) Their contribution here is just not talked about as much or as consistently so this new book is very important. Yes, a few have noted the social responsibility of redemptive artists and a few have addressed topics of justice as it shapes the heart of the artist. But no one has addressed this in an entire book and no one has done so in such an impeccable and inspiring manner. Beauty x Justice has just catapulted to one of the most important books in this genre in our lifetime.

Beauty x Justice has just catapulted to one of the most important books in this genre in our lifetime.

Despite my bold assertion of the importance of this rather rare study, please know it is a blast to read. A joy. You will find lovely reflections on whole-life discipleship and solid Bible ruminations. There is wise counsel about spirituality (and some amazing stories!) They are solid on inviting us to think about our careers and callings, whatever vocations we have. Obviously there is plenty — from the both of them — about the role of beauty in our lives and the ways in which art can capture our hearts and shape our vision. There are stories about Haejin’s work as a human rights attorney and they both tell tales about what they call a multigenerational approach to fighting human trafficking and child slavery. Gut-wrenching as a few of the stories are (about visiting brothels in India, say) they are not demoralizing. These chapters really are theologically wise and utterly captivating; as a reader you will experience all that (most of us) want in a book like this. It is heart-breaking and powerful and informative and inspiring, a page-turner and, maybe, for you, in any number of possible ways, a game-changer.

You’ll enjoy the part where they tell about meeting the Pope who exhorted them to keep on making beauty. You’ll be moved to hear about the founding of Embers International, their anti-trafficking work in India. You’ll smile when you hear about Mako’s first spray paint project and be glad to hear about the youth whose art was used in the cover design. You will be touched by learning more intimately about their personal lives, their first meeting, their romance — it is beyond charming and a sweet sign of God’s abundant, amazing grace. (It may sound a little odd but they even have as an appendix the sermon preached at their wedding, surprisingly based on Isaiah 61. Speaking of beauty and justice, eh? Nice!)

The eight chapters seem to be nearly experiential; that is, they invite us into their own stories of experiencing beauty, of discovering justice, of creating the good and the beautiful. Reflective as it is, it is still loaded with action. One chapter called “Grit” is on “fostering the courage to do the slow work of justice.” I loved the chapter on generosity, long a theme in Mako’s work, brought to fresh levels in Haejin’s stories from India, as they write about “living by trusting in God’s abundance.”

There is a chapter on gratitude that I think breaks new ground amidst a dozen other books on the subject. The subtitle of that chapter is “Practicing the Discipline of Thanks Amid Suffering.” I am not there yet, grateful even in suffering, and I suspect I need to read this chapter again. Maybe you, too?

As I interrogated Seerveld so many years ago, I was hot on the question of the ethics of luxury in the face of poverty, enjoying art in the face of war and corruption, beauty and the reality suffering. Their chapter (again) on “generational stewardship” uses the line “creating beauty out of ashes.” Oh my. Oh my. Other authors dare to use this line but they have earned the right to use it with devasting integrity; they have seen some of the most hellish places on Earth.

(Haejin, I think it could be said, is not unlike her friend and mentor Gary Haugen, the now-famous founder of IJM (the International Justice Mission), the world-class anti-trafficking agency. Gary is a man of deep prayer his writings seem gritty and yet full of hope and something seemingly close to joy. Imagine! He notes, by the way, that their reflections “have brought deep refreshment to my soul.”)

I trembled when I read the section on new wineskins that ends the book, inviting us to become “vessels made more beautiful because of their scars.” They write of Mako’s painting process, calling it “mysterious and daring.” They look at the Road to Emmaus story (by way of Georges Rouault’s painting which is reproduced.) They briefly dive deep to recover gems of insights from a few other Biblical texts that might make your heart burn within you, too. They draw on N.T. Wright and his big picture of a transformed new creation to frame the role of both art and justice work.

I loved this readable, wise book full of new insights and fresh stories and very important stuff.

I hope Beauty x Justice becomes a volume that becomes well-known and is often discussed and studied. It not only is about the callings of two delightful individuals, both wonderfully thoughtful leaders, but it is book about their work together. More, it is a book that integrates in a profound, Biblically-informed way, the too-often separated aspects of God’s redemptive work in the work. Bringing together justice and beauty, beauty and justice, is urgent and right. Three cheers to all who joined this pioneering effort, reconciling things that should never have been separated in the first place. And may it not be the last book moving in this direction, helping us all embrace God’s ambitious call to shalom.

For more information about Embers International, please visit their great webpage (and contribute to) Embers International. ( https://www.embersinternational.org/ )

Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture Makoto Fujimura (NavPress) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

This was Mako’s first book and I adored the well-designed paperback as was first released by NavPress. Fifteen years later the artist was renowned as painter and writer and they did a tremendous commemorative hardback re-issued edition with a few new essays. The cover shimmers with gold that brings to mind his best work.

Refractions is a collections of amazingly good essays and reflections. Refractions are, if I may simplify, what Mako called writing pieces he was developing as a young writer trying to make sense of the horror of 9-11. He lived and worked very near Ground Zero and he was part of an effort by artists in the immediately smoky aftermath to create safe places for people in lower Manhattan to use artistic expression to heal from the loss, to find some stability amidst the disorientation. Most of his refractions, published in this wonderful collection, are not directly about loss and lament, but some are. Again — see above — I resonated with this, perhaps even more than other great volumes about creativity and the arts, about aesthetics and questions under the rubric of beauty.

Mako’s writing had gritty impact as he linked the power of the arts to God’s vision of shalom. He talked gently about the vocation of doing redemptive work in the world. He cared about culture, about justice, about health and wholeness, about those dislocated. This was an artist speaking out of the belly of the beast and it remains one of my favorite books. This is a must if you care about the arts and society and is a must if you are following Mr. Fujimura’s career. Kudos to those who did this handsome new, expanded edition.

Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering Makoto Fujimura (IVP) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

Oh my, this book on a Japanese novel called Silence took me by surprise, but I soon realized it made very good sense. Mako was making a name for himself using this rare and ancient technic of slow painting, nihonga, using ground minerals as he learned in Japan. (He uses the word pulverized in telling about his slow process of preparing the paint.) He had written a bunch of reflections. The Lancaster-based Square Halo Books was touting his writing with chapters in more than one book. He told much of his faith journey and his story of being a Japanese-America (born in Boston, raised for a while in Japan and then Denmark, graduating from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania) who travelled as a young man to study Japanese culture and art where he ended up in Nagasaki.

Nagasaki was the heart of Japanese (Catholic) Christian culture and was known for spiritual leaders and authors, a huge convent (which was the chief target for the second atomic bomb dropped in August of 1945.) It was there that Mako became familiar with the agonizingly painful and beautiful story, an award winning novel simply called Silence. Written in 1966 by Shūsaku Endō, it tells the story of 17th century Japanese Christians who were forced to renounce their faith and deface a framed icon/relief of Jesus. Mako beheld one of these fum-i plaques, worn down from so many who stomped on it and it contributed to his conversion to evangelical faith. (As did a poem by William Blake, which is also described here.)

Years later, as he told this story of his conversion, called to faith by this horrific episode of Japanese imperial repression and the apparent silence of God, the world-famous filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, reached out to Mako, who became (one might say) a spiritual advisor of sorts, a consultant on the making of Scorsese’s masterpiece film version of Silence. Fujimura tells all this in this amazing book.

One learns in Silence and Beauty much about Japanese culture (including the often misunderstood and incredibly powerful tea ceremonies.) One learns about his own faith journey, his art, his appreciation for literature, especially Endo’s Silence. On one hand, Fujimura’s Silence and Beauty is the best book of which I know that examines the themes of Endo and his novel. It is worth getting for that very reason, a deeply sensitive study by a thoughtful Christian on one of the great works of classic literature. Book club anyone?

https://vimeo.com/161220152?fl=pl&fe=sh

But, in Silence and Beauty, as you can see, we also have here a deepening of the themes evoked in Refractions, even the subtle connection between the immoral bombing of citizens in cities, connecting — for those readers who are paying attention — the grief of Nagasaki from August 9th and the horror of Manhattan’s 9-11. Yes, good art can name and evoke and help process life — the good, the bad, and the ugly, as they say. Endo does this and in Mako’s hands, the novel becomes that much more urgent, even in the midst of our own War on Terror. Can art speak to the silence? Can peace and justice be evoked by literature and paintings? This is a learned and wonderfully meandering book, covering so much. But it is existential for Fujimura and it is simply a must-read volume to understand his deep commitment to art and to beauty.

WHILE SUPPLIES LAST WE WILL GIVE A FREE COPY OF SILENCE AND BEAUTY TO ANYONE WHO PURCHASES ONE. BOGO, y’all. While supplies last.

Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life Makoto Fujimura (IVP) $23.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.19

We’ve established that Fujimura is a renowned painter. But also a cultural critic, a thinker, a writer. He tells us about novels and poetry, about other artworks and painters, about the history of other lands, about trends in the high art world. (I’ve heard him say, for instance, as he writes in one book) that it was simply unheard of in Manhattan when he was showing his work at important galleries and shows, to have an artist speak of his or her work. (And, obviously, it would have been even worse if one talked about one’s Christian faith when saying even a few words about an art piece or installation.) He was reviewed in art journals by serious art reporters as one who should be taken seriously, even as he broke the rules about speaking about one’s creative processes and art pieces. Wow.

He connected with other artists around the world and organized networks in New York under the rubric of his organization, the International Arts Movement (IAM.) From indie folk-rock bands to prestigious poets like Christian Wiman to classical dancers and film-makers, he cross-pollinated artists of all sorts. IAM was growing and this book — on creating a culture where human values and the arts are honored and embodied — became what I’ve thought of as a manifesto. He had a short booklet for a while about being generative and he was picked to serve (by President Bush) on the national commission on the humanities and the arts., the National Council on the Arts that advised the National Endowment for the Arts. He was increasingly vocal about what we might want to call the arts and a national cultural policy. He called it “culture care.’

I love this book which came into the world in 2017. It is about society and culture and values and pluralism and the arts. How can we avoid the lingo of “culture wars” and move beyond that sort of nastiness, moving to stewarding notions of goodness and beauty? To affirming generative approaches?  “Tell ‘em about the dream,” Mahalia Jackson said to King when he was floundering before the “I Had a Dream” speech took off. That’s it!

From Biblical roots to fabulous stories to strategic calls to apply generative thinking to help heal the “soul” of culture, this book offers insights into the nature of flourishing, personally and communally and institutionally. Readers will learn quite a bit about Fujimura’s slow art, notions of healing and hope that the arts can offer, and he relates amazing stories about social transformation through artists.

In his generous and inspiring work Culture Care, artist Mako Fujimura suggests that our common culture is not a territory to be captured, but a garden to be cultivated, needing the nourishment of creativity, community, connection, and the generation of beauty. It is a grace-filled call to beat swords into plowshares and take up the work of tilling our common garden. —Cherie Harder, president, The Trinity Forum

Art and Faith: A Theology of Making Makoto Fujimura (Yale University Press) $17.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.60

So much could be said about this one, but I will be brief. The fabulous introduction by N.T. Wright might give a hint, but this is exactly what the subtitle promises: a theology of making. Now out in paperback (we can still get the hardcover, though) this serious work from Yale University Press should be considered one of the essentials in a library on faith and the arts. There are serious theologians writing (Jeremy Begbie comes to mind, although he is a trained classical musician and composer) about the arts and there are a lot of good scholars, but this is done by a working painter.

(For rigorous works done by thinkers, scholars, and some artists, too, see the great series from IVP, Studies in Theology and the Art. We’ve got ’em all at 20% off. )

Art + Faith is less an academic study as a from-the-heart testimonial from the studio. This is Mako explaining the best he can what he does and why he does it. Although it has come up in other books, he explores with great care the “new newness” of kintsugi. (In other writings, including his acceptance of the Abraham Kuyper Prize last year, and in a lauded commencement address, he referred to “Kintsugi Grace.” Some say it is his most serious book, a writerly masterpiece.

Here a world-class painter and cultural critic reinterprets both the creative act and the nature of Christian faith in a way that should interest anyone concerned with the indispensable role of the creative imagination in human flourishing. — Ellen Davis, Duke Divinity School, author of Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible and Preaching the Luminous Word: Biblical Sermons and Homiletical Essays

Makoto Fujimura’s art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art and faith and their reconciliation with a quiet and moving eloquence. — Martin Scorsese

In a time of polarization and culture wars, Makoto Fujimura takes broken pieces and makes beauty through his art. I’m delighted that he has put his lived theology in written form so that we can emulate his example! — David M. Bailey, CEO of Arrabon and founder of Urban Doxology

Art Is: A Journey Into the Light Makoto Fujimura (Yale University Press) $30.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00

If the wonderful and inspiring Beauty x Justice [see above] co-written with attorney and human rights activist Haejin Fujimura came out just this Spring, Art Is: A Journey into the Light was Mako’s most recent  solo volume that appeared to great acclaim in Fall of 2025. It was a good seller for us here at the shop — we’d recommend it as a Christmas gift for those who might enjoy such a thing and named it as one of the Best Books of 2025 in our January 2026 BookNotes lists. I love the tough, craft dust-jacket with dapples of gold. There is full-color art on quality paper, too, and yet it is not stuffy. It feels great to hold, brings joy to browse through and offers some of Mako’s most personal writing content yet. If the medium is the message, this is a winner, and if you’re a lover of great, even whimsical prose, Art Is creatively takes us on a journey. A journey, as he insists, towards the light.

And there you go: even this most tender of reflections, this further step deeper in, the lovely images of light suppose, of course, darkness. Art, he suggests, is awareness, and, it seems, this includes an awareness of virtue and goodness but also of our social location, our context, the pains of the wounded world. It is so fitting that (as I mentioned at the outset) that he penned the moving foreword to Steve Garber’s Hints of Hope which grapples with the conjoined nature of beauty and brokenness.

Fujimura is a deeply Christian painter by which I mean he is informed by the Spirit of the compassionate Christ and shaped by the Biblical story of cosmic redemption. This is good, good news, indeed, and constrains him from idealism or romanticism. He knows the really real, as they say. What is that redemptive story, what Newbigin, from India, called “the true story the whole world?” Makoto doesn’t precisely spell it out — he’s an artist not a theological scholar — but it is surely the four-act drama of Scripture itself: creation, fall, redemption, and future restoration. We live in a good, real world, broken and ugly and wounded as it is, but it has been redeemed in the death and resurrection of the true King. In Jesus’s resurrection and ascension and the subsequent gifting of the Holy Spirit to form the people of God anew, we have hope; hope for, as their friend NT Wright puts it in his new book, “God’s Homecoming”and the restoration of a marred creation.

Mako and Haejin were both shaped by the neo-Kuyperian worldview of Tim Keller and others during their years at Redeemer in NYC and it seems no accident that his example, here, of his integreation of faith and vocation, worship and work, liturgy and labor, is embodied — intregal — without hardly saying so. There is no longer a fake dualism between the sacred and the secular. He is alive to life, awake, heartfelt, as a professor at the Pratt Institute put it. Indeed.

Art Is is asking what sort of light our aesthetic experiences can lead us to and in this good but broken world, in the power of Christ’s redemption, it apparantly leads to some very exciting places, indeed. Mako writes gloriously, here, telling of the color of the flowers (and the bees) by his barn / studio. The politics of tea and Sen no Rikyú. The thresholds and soliloquies and “interdependence of colors” — oh, this is richly textured, luminous stuff.  Art Is is a gloriously rich and diverse and even rambling survey of all sorts of stuff, an awakening and a testimony. This is what it looks like when we live out a “theology of making.” As such, it is a wonderful continuation of his previous Yale book. Art Is certainly is a joy and you will be grateful to own it.

Hear this:  “My art is a portal into a New Creation.”  Art Is reflects, as only a practicing artist can, on what this may mean, enigmatic as it may be.. For some, it will be their favorite yet of his many books.

When reading Makoto Fujimura’s Art Is, I hear song sparrows, bluebirds, and a goldfinch deliver an impossible peace with his paintings. Like William Blake’s, his faith is a door to his imagination. Working to the rhythm of slow art practice, Makoto Fujimura is a master painter very much in the present. — Susie Ibarra, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, percussionist, sound artist

With his stunning visual art and his lyrical writing, Mako shows us that art is a journey toward beauty as a revelation of hope: for abundance emerging through scarcity; for love replacing transaction; for truth-telling subverting injustice; for light shining through darkness in both human history and human hearts. From its most fragile expressions to its powerful convergence of science, spirituality, and creativity, he plumbs beauty’s depths of meaning in this masterpiece for mind, body, and soul. — Ian Morgan Cron, author of The Road Back to You

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BOOKS TO WHICH MAKO FUJIMURA CONTRIBUTED

PRE-ORDER ESV The Four Holy Gospels with artwork by Makoto Fujimura (Crossway) $49.99 // OUR PRE-ORDER SALE PRICE = $39.99 – due September 3, 2026

This forthcoming new edition is a somewhat smaller (and a lot less expensive) version of the famous 2011 edition and this revised Four Holy Gospels will come this fall; we are taking pre-orders. The first edition came out in 2011 commemorating the 400th anniversary of the momentous publishing of the King James Version of the Bible. While the ESV is a very different translation than the KJV, it attempted to deliver both elegance and accuracy and remains a favorite of many church leaders and Bible readers. The earlier (now out of print) ESV Four Holy Gospels was expensive and quite large and was very well manufactured. There were five full-page reproductions of Mr. Fujimura’s Japanese-style nihonga paintings (done with gold and other metallic elements in the paint, created with rare brushes on certain sorts of handmade paper) and several other, small abstract compositions throughout.

I suppose some bought this as a Bible to read although it was large; I know of more than one church who uses it liturgically, to read the weekly gospel lesson from in church. I have a hunch many customers just bought it for the lovely setting of Mako’s work. It was a book of great art reproduced in a hefty volume alongside Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This new one is the same (textured cloth over board and the handsome typography of the ESV) but somewhat smaller and less expensive so more affordable. Coming in September 2026.

It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God edited by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE – $19.99

I list this rather ceremoniously — okay, not like the learned and serious Japanese tea ceremonies Mako often writes about — because, well, as far as I know, it is his first bit of writing published in a real book. (He first read him, I think, in the amazingly good and too-short lived Re:Generation Quarterly.) It Was Good has a bunch of very sharp authors, and this was Mako’s first time getting his name on a book and his writing in a collection. Hooray and three cheers! Omedetou Gozaimasu, as I am told they say in Japan.

It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God is, in fact, a glorious book, an anchor of the artful, boutique publishing house, Square Halo. It has many full-color artworks and illustrations, and original pieces by so many of the best leaders or writers in the faith/art movement, such as Adrian Chaplin, Ed Knippers, Sandra Bowden, Mary McCleary, Charlie Peacock, Greg Wolfe, and Timothy Keller (a pastor to artists) before he was known. Mako’s piece in here is remarkable and any fan should have this book. His chapter is entitled “That Final Dance” and, by way of the notion of wabi-sabi, tells of his art-making amidst suffering. I told you that Beauty x Justice is the fruit of many years of his thinking about this.

Scribbling in the Sand: Christ and Creativity Michael Card (IVP) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39

I often come back to this, dipping in, re-reading bits just for the sheer joy of knowing what a very fine thinker and writer this singer-songwriter is. He’s known as a Bible scholar and an artful poet / writer.  We’ve hosted Card here and love his work, and this (perhaps not his best known) is an excellent little volume, ideal for both those starting the journey towards thinking well about creativity and the arts, or those wanting to forge more deeply into how the Bible can inform our thinking about all of this. Always a delightful read, Scribbling in the Sand has a very special bonus. Inspired by Hans Rookmaaker’s then-famous “Letter to a Young Christian Artist” Michael recruited four or five important artists or writers to share their contemporary “what would you say in one letter” piece for those seeking to step into or double-down on their vocation in the arts. Harold Best, Calvin Seerveld, and others are here, as is an amazing little piece by Mako. Take up and read!

Beauty Given by Grace: The Biblical Prints of Sadao Watanabe edited and designed by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books) $45.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $36.79

One of the great Christian artists from 20th century Japan is Sadao Watanabe. Watanabe did textile art and his prints of Bible scenes are in famous locations all over the world (including the headquarters of the World Council of Churches and the Vatican Museum.) They grace homes and churches and book covers and more. He was a very important (and beloved) Protestant artist and this rare collection of his work — a slightly oversized coffee table work — is one of the most esteemed of Square Halo titles. I love it.

This slightly revised second edition still includes fabulous essays by several key critics and church leaders and a splendid piece by Makoto. His tender and interesting (if brief) piece (in which he introduces us to the Japanese art style known as mingei) is called “My Journey with an Artist I Never Met.” Nicely done.

Objects of Grace: Conversations on Creativity and Faith edited with interviews by James Romaine (Square Halo Books) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

This is a fabulous, square-sized, full-color paperback that (in the early 2000s) placed Square Halo Books as a small press doing serious work promoting contemporary Christian artists. James Romaine, with a serious degree in art history and a good eye for edgy contemporary stuff, too, created this amazing book of interviews with a curated selection of amazing practicing artists. From Joel Sheesley to Mary McCleary to Tim Rollins and K.O.S. to Albert Pedulla (and more) there is a fascinating array of those focusing on the intersection of faith and art-making. It is a fabulous book, a title that anyone interested in the thinking of contemporary artists will enjoy (and benefit from!) Lot’s of vivid color and excellent design, showing off the work alongside the interviews. No one in this pioneering collection became quite as well-known or as published as Mako Fujimura. There are good visual examples of his early work, too, making this a real treasure for fans and collectors.

Faith + Vision: Twenty Years of Christians in the Visual Arts edited by Cameron J. Anderson & Sandra Bowden (Square Halo Books) $49.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $39.99

We have quite a lot of art books, coffee-table sized or small, all lovely collections of excellent artists and their good work. This big one is a favorite and it is not just because of Mako’s presence (or the great introduction by Nicholas Wolterstorff and other good essays) Faith +Vision commemorates CIVA, an organization we held in high esteem and with whom we had the privilege of serving sometimes by doing small book displays at their annual conferences. This breathtaking hardback is jam-packed with fabulous contemporary art by artists making their mark at the end of the 20th century and into the early new millennium, all with some connection to the now greatly-missed CIVA. There are over 200 images that “showcase the work of CIVA’s most accomplished artists and highlight the quality and breadth of its many traveling exhibitions, conferences, directories, and publications.” And, yep, Mako was part of this. It’s a very good book in its own right, but for those looking for even small contributions made by Fujimura, this should not be missed.

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FOREWORDS or INTRODUCTIONS BY MAKO FUJIMURA

Mako has written several good introductions or forewords to important books. They are not quickly dashed off and show more of his attentiveness and artful writing style and are, themselves, well worth reading.

Collectors should stay tuned for others, but, at least, all should know about his excellent wordsmithing and encouragement for books such as Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate by Steven Garber, the exquiste hardcover The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty by German luthier Martin Schleske, the singular Reading Buechner: Exploring the Work of a Master Memoirist, Novelist, Theologian and Preacher by Jeffrey Monroe, the popular Rembrandt Is In the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey, Doorway to Artistry: Attuning Your Philosophy to Enhance Your Creativity by philosopher Esther Meek, and The Problem with the Dot: A Holistic Approach to Christians’ Care and Cultivation of Global Culture Through the Theatrical Ecosystem by Bruce Long. In the aftermath of one of the worst natural disasters in human history, artist and musician Roger Lowther wrote Aroma of Beauty in the Wake of the 2011 Tsunami  in Japan and, naturally, Mako wrote a very moving foreword.

The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community by neurologist and psychotherapist Dr. Curt Thompson is a special favorite as Thompson uses the arts in his therapy and besides the good foreword, some of Mako’s art is shown on full-color inserts on glossy paper. Order any of these from us and we’ll extend the 20% OFF. Read on!

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Visit www.makofujimura.com to see some of his limited edition collections of books that accompanied showings, and things only available there. It’s well worth your time, but do please come back to Hearts & Minds and place order. It would be our delight to serve you further.

And don’t forget the thrilling work of Embers International. 

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BookNotes

SIX BOOKS FOR COLLEGE GRADS

We know you want to honor some college grads in your life and while there are dozens of great books that are ideal for this big step into adult life (or for anyone wanting to renew their commitment to Christian faith at a key time in their life) we want to highlight just five; okay six.

These are the best choices. They really are.

And three or four we’ve been recommending for years as there has been nothing more germane. That I edited one of them, well, makes it sort of special — okay, I’m real biased — but, really, these three have been essentials for the post-college transition.

And now, just this season, we have a new fifth suggestion, a very handsome prayer book custom made for young adults which is classy enough to be a very special gift.

(Frankly, it is useful for almost anyone even if it is subtitled as “Rites of Passage.” And then we’ll add another recent book useful for any and everyone, but that seems perfect for a collegiate or as a graduation gift.)

I’ll try not to go on and on about these although each one is dear to my heart. I’ve got personal connections of one sort or another with all six so it will be truly a joy to get to send a few out. We are here to serve you and based on our pretty wide awareness of the publishing world, we are confident that these books are very appropriate for gift-giving to young adults this time of year. You search is over. We’ve got you covered. I’ll keep it succinct.  ALL ARE 20% OFF, too.

Serious Dreams: Bold Ideas for the Rest of Your Life edited by Byron Borger (Square Halo Books) $13.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.19

Yep, this is my baby, a book I’m proud that we put together a decade ago, mostly out of sheer necessity. I felt like there just wasn’t a good small gift made to honor graduates, especially that would remind church-going grads that God cares about their transition into the world of work and that underscores the sense that they are called by God into whole-life discipleship, in every zone of life, including their future jobs.

It’s a collection of fabulous graduation speeches by women and men we admire (and one by me) each given at Christian colleges or universities. Believe me, each one is inspiring, some actually brilliant. Whether your grad went to a faith-based or church affiliated college or not, these addresses call one and all to learn how to live well in a new stage of young adult life. It is bold and captivating and pretty practical. We think it has held up well over the last years and we highly recommend it.

A few years ago I wrote a long “back story” of why I feel so strongly about this little volume and I’ll share that link below if you’re curious. I hope you enjoy reading about our store’s mission, my graduation speech about being sons and daughters of Issachar at Geneva College in Western Pennsylvania, and the great authors I pulled together to publish this project. From the always wise Richard Mouw to the visionary Amy Sherman to the late, great John Perkins, and several more, Serious Dreams: Bold Ideas… offers upbeat commencement addresses, motivational, full of inspiration and guidance. Each one is stellar and repays repeated readings (even, I might add, for those not commencing to a new place or job.)

They each hold up a big vision of dreaming God’s dreams, especially about making a difference in one’s vocation or career field. Most offer ways to imagine how God is going to meet the young adult in his or her job search and personal issues and each chapter will remind them (in different ways) to care deeply about the ways in which they serve God in the marketplaces of life. You’ll love Nicholas Wolterstorff’s tender story about seeing with “two eyes.” You’ll love Claudia Beversluis’s use of a Wendell Berry poem. And if you are a Steven Garber fan, he’s got a rare piece in here.

There are nice reflection questions after each chapter and a hefty introductory essay that I wrote that is said to be pretty touching, encouraging, and practical. (You can read it in a link I share below if you care to.) The final epilogue is by Erica Young Reitz, now a well-respected expert in the personal struggles many grads experience in their transitions out of college and author of her own book, After College.

Here is the big backstory of some of what inspired us to create Serious Dreams. And, a nice, short introduction to each chapter.  

Here is a wordy overview of the book, a thank you to our first customers, and a reprint of the whole first chapter. The print is a bit small, but if you can manage, it’s a fun read.

After College: Navigating Transitions, Relationships, and Faith (revised edition) Erica Young Reitz (IVP) $18.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.40

When Erica worked in campus ministry at Penn State University she learned that there was a lot of stress and anxiety — only growing worse after Covid and the rise of the ubiquitousness of cell phones — among college seniors. Sure they were excited about graduating and if they had been mentored well by robust leaders and good churches, they maybe had not only a healthy personal faith but a vision for their lives; many want to be of use in the world, serving God by taking up their careers with Christian distinction. Maybe they had what some might call a Christian world and life view, helping them integrate the various sectors of their lives into one beautiful life (or maybe not.) Still, the famous Mary Oliver line resonates.

And maybe that is part of the problem: many students want to live well but are nervous about finding a job, keeping friends, worrying about everything from finances to sexuality. Stuff I wrote about in the introduction to Serious Dreams — moving home, finding a church, forming friendships, not expecting to cause heroic social transformation in an entry level job — plagues young adults. Excited, sure. Maybe even visionary. But many were hurting inside, full of anxiety that surprised even the most caring campus mentors.

So Erica started a program, offering a semester full of classes and mentoring sessions focused on the upcoming transitions out of college and into new jobs and cities and habits. She loved these kids well as they were becoming young adults and her passion for this project led to her writing this one-of-a-kind book. She went on and got a Master’s degree in the philosophy of higher education doing original research on this topic, interviewing hundreds of college seniors and those in their post-college years. She has become a recognized expert on the topic and has appeared on podcasts and as a conference speaker.

A new edition of the After College book came out, adding more insight that she has developed and making the book that much more interesting and practical for twenty-something readers. It isn’t academic but it isn’t simplistic, either.

You can read more of what I said about this wonderful resource here: 

And it’s fun to think that Erica got her publishing debut contributing her clear and charming afterword to Serious Dreams. It brought some needed practical guidance to that motivational and inspirational book. Now she has her own good book and we very highly recommend it. Give it to any college grad (or, for that matter, even better, any college student approaching their senior year.) They will appreciate it.

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

I hope you know the three volumes of Every Moment Holy (each of the first three done in larger sized leather-bound hardbacks and personal sized, compact, soft flexible leather ones.) Now comes volume four and it carries the subtitle, Rites of Passage. It is created for young adults and college grads. What a marvelously designed and beautifully rendered collection of prayers to consecrate the ordinary experiences of many young adults (among others.) It has been called “a companion for young adulthood.”

As I have written before, there are more than 150 prayers and liturgies for quotidian uses, for classes, graduations, dating, anxiety, job interviews, seasons of doubt, travel, cooking, and more. There are over 30 b/w linocut illustrations by Ned Bustard. It is so handsomely designed.

The size is just a little different from the previous three EMH editions. It is a leather-covered hardback, like the larger editions of the first three, but just a bit more trim in size, and a bit thinner. It’s a fabulous size, really, in a rich tan leather 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. It has well-made, quality paper, tasteful, two color ink and a ribbon marker. It makes a truly great gift.

I said just a bit more about it here.

Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good Steven Garber (IVP) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39

Those who follow BookNotes know that Garber is one of my favorite writers, always eloquent, always wise, never simplistic, often profound. He weaves stories from his life with film and literature, news events and history as he tells about how he walks through the world, learning as he goes, always nurturing a Christian imagination that can inspire and sober us. He wants us to learn to love well, in what he calls “the landscapes of our lives” but that means caring for the world as it is. It means being implicated, being responsible. (Not a bad charge for young ones soon to be called bona fide adults.)

You may know he has developed that theme of knowing the world as it really is in his respected and serious Habits of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate. (I wrote a bit about it here.) I’d like to say that is an ideal book for an inspired and eager, young culture-maker and history-maker but, alas, it may be a bit much for some young adults. If you give Hints of Hope tell them to be sure to dig it out ten years from now (or sooner, if they grow weary) when it could save their faith or their very life.

For now, though, it seems a deep reflection of what keeps us going — namely, a sense of vocation — is ideal and this thoughtful book will inspire those given to careful reading. Visions of Vocation is a truly wonderful book, a bit deep, well-crafted, and truly one of the best books of our lifetime. I’ve suggested it as an ideal gift for thoughtful grads often before. One reviewer noted how it helps us work through the tough dilemmas of this oh-so-beautiful and yet sadly broken world and I am sure that young adults today are deeply aware of the wounds of the world and the struggle to keep going. This artful writing will touch them deeply, if they are open. The Van Gogh cover is beautiful, too, isn’t it?

Visions of Vocation by Steven Garber seems to help the graduate take what they learned in college — much of it abstract “head knowledge” — and learn to apply it, so to speak, allowing what we most deeply know to get embodied in the very habits of our hearts and the ways we live.

I’ve highlighted it often and written a bit about it before. Take a look here; I hope you know it, and can now ponder if it would be a good option for young adults you want to honor with a substantial read. .

The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work Steven Garber (IVP) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

For those perhaps not ready to dive into Garber’s detailed Visions of Vocation, I highly recommend the compact sized Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love & Learning, Worship & Work, which is, again, a personal favorite. It is a nicely done paperback with full color photographs for each chapter. A tapestry it is! I’ve given numbers of them away (and we have a lot of good books to chose from here when we want to offer a little gift, believe me.)

Steve’s Seamless essays are extended chapters that, although somewhat random, are delightfully arranged, with great pieces with him sharing personal stories of his parents and his past, his growth as a young adult, his studies, movie reviews, and memorable adventures, and much about his passion for helping others integrate faith and work. As he insists, we must relate worship and work, bringing together our curiosities and passions about the world with a robust and profound faith. His storytelling in Seamless is charming and mature. These short essays make a great little gift and could be life-changing. I’m a fan.

You can read or reread my early celebration of it here: 

To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times Alan Noble (IVP) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I’ve written about this before (here) and at the time it was brand new. As I’ve worked with it more, enjoyed Dr. Noble’s good lines and fine writing (and his ever current interest in popular culture and the ethos of our times) I’ve come to believe this would make a great, great gift to commemorate a college graduation. As Gospel Coalition author Tim Challies puts it, To Live Well is “philosophical yet practical, profound yet understandable, and always deeply Biblical.” I would add that it is serious and yet playful, sober yet enthusiastic.

He knows it is hard to live well. He gets it that virtues demand a life structured around deep personal growth and interior transformation. He knows that character formation doesn’t come easy. He knows that the lives of most of us are already too demanding and we are oversaturated. (It is interesting that his first book was about bearing witness in a distracted and digital age; another was about coping with deperession.)

Noble is clear about God’s grace being the foundation for any development in virtue and that living well is itself a gift. Maybe that’s the thing: realizing (as his previous book put it) “we are not our own.” Life is a gift. Can God’s abundance and gift-giving nature be the foundation for a life well lived? Can we make some personal choices and nurture habits that facilitate the best sort of human flourishing?

Noble is an energetic college prof and he knows how to speak to young adults. He invites them here to choose decisively, act justly, suffer steadfastly, live moderately, believe soundly, hope resolutely, and love rightly. That sounds like quite a book, eh?

Get a few and give them away. You are planting seeds that will last, even in these chaotic, fragmented times.

The first phrase on the flyleaf of this nice hardback offers a line that I’m sure will resonate with those who recently sat through commencement speeches: “You were told to live a meaningful life, but no one ever told you how.” This book will help and I hope you have somebody in your life you can comfortably give it to.

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BookNotes

We’ve been busy lately doing several off-site events. Struggling to know what to box up and lug and set up is taxing mentally and physically (most have no idea how complicated it all is) but the joy of seeing eager shoppers at our pop-up book displays is almost overwhelming. We thank God for this change to serve.

Being with authors as they present to gathered groups is a treat. We recently got to be with Andy Crouch for an evening in Baltimore, to sell books of Tara Isabella Burton at an Episcopalian event (thanks Chris and Ben) and was delighted to spend time with former Houghton College President Dr. Shirley Mullen (author of Claiming the Courageous Middle) during an event with long-time friends of the United Church of Christ in the Keystone Conference. Tonight Beth and I will be with Haejin & Mako Fujimura as they speak in Lancaster about their co-authored book Beauty & Justice which will be nothing short of wonderful.

This week in BookNotes, however, we want to give a big shout out to those involved in a thrilling event held last Saturday right here in central Pennsylvania, the annual Racial Justice Summit hosted at the First Church of the Brethren in the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg. Nicely organized by a team led by Dr. Drew Hart of Messiah University, this year the Summit had three stellar saints sharing from the main stage. All three were authors whose books we stock and it was a privilege to meet all three. Not to mention Drew’s three books. I’ve mentioned most of these before, but because we have some left over (I often over-order for events) we are doing a one week sale with some extra savings for you.

30% OFF (one week only)

All of these books will get a 30% off discount UNTIL MAY 8th 2026.  After that they return to our normal BookNotes 20% off.

Got that? For one week, through next Friday, you can get 30% off any of these vital titles. While supplies last. Tell your friends!

BOOKS BY SHEILA WISE ROWE

Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience Sheila Wise Rowe (IVP) $19.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $13.99

Dr. Rowe is known throughout the world (she and her husband lived in South Africa for a decade) as a keen observer of not only racist systems and cultural injustices, but how that perversely generates what can sometimes be called trauma among those impacted by ongoing mistreatment. Of course it isn’t just gross racism that wears down people of color but the micro-aggressions, the memory, the need to be on-guard. White readers of a certain age learned this with the extraordinary and influential (for a time) memoir called Black Like Me in the mid-1960s or from classic black literature from that era; think of The Invisible Man, say.

Sheila Rowe in this book has given us just about the best overview of this personal consequence of living in a racist culture and I recommend it (very heartily) not only for people of color (the main audience) but for anyone who wants to understand what it is like to feel the weight of this sort of harm. White counselor and theologian Dan Allender calls it “a magisterial gift for those who have suffered harm as persons of color and a revelation for those whose whiteness has served as a pair of blinders from racial trauma.” He calls it a “must-read for al who hunger for righteousness.”

Each chapter tells a of an interview / case study of a certain sort of experience and throughout she not only offers Biblically-informed, wise counsel, but also her own stories and experiences.  Whether you like memoir-like storytelling, social science, history, Bible teaching or hope-filled practical application Healing Racial Trauma is a very impressive read. Buy a few and start a book group!

Seeds of Racial Healing: 52 Devotions for Navigating Through Trauma Sheila Wise Rowe (IVP) $21.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $15.39

This is a compact sized devotional that can be used once a week for a year, or daily, if you’d like, for almost two months. Or just read it straight through! Although there are some exercises and prayers that invite a slower more intentional reading, so you’ll want to be attentive to the deeper things you are feeling as you ponder this content.

Seeds of Racial Healing are for those of any ethnicity who has experienced some sort of racial trauma or who resonate with the need to spend some gentle time prayerfully considering one’s hurts and needs. The world is packed with discrimination and even racially motivated violence and all of have (to some degree or another) carried the weight of the world in ways that may not be healthy. We must come to terms with the wounds of this world and we can do so with the help of the pastoral guide, a trained and trauma-informed professional (with an advanced degree from Cambridge, no less.) As black writer and advocate for the poor Terence Lester has written, ”This book offers space to breathe, to be honest with God, and believe that healing is still possible.”  I’ve dipped in and read through a number of these and they are really top-notch.

Young, Gifted and Black: A Journey of Lament and Celebration Sheila Wise Rowe (IVP) $18.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $13.29

I recall enjoying giving a little description of this when it was brand new a year or so ago in front of thousands of college students at the Jubilee conference in Pittsburgh. I noted that I think anyone can and should read a book like this, and it is fascinating, for sure, but it is designed to affirm the lives of those who are black youth. She did an incredible amount of research and has stores galore in here.

The title of the book, it is cool to know, is from a famous1969 song by Nina Simone which was later covered by Aretha Franklin; the late Chadwick Boseman referenced it in an acceptance speech at the Screen Actor’s Guild award (while being honored for his role in Black Panther.) Rowe’s great opening quote and story doesn’t attribute the playwright Lorraine Hansberry but she knows all about that, too. It’s a great legacy for her to be standing on as she brings the affirmation to young women and men of our cultural moments.

The interviews here are life-affirming and inspirational but it does not cover up the pain; the subtitle reminds us of the journey of lament we must voice.  Rowe invites readers to engage with embodied practices that “become like life preservers on uncharted waters” (as author and pastor Juanita Rasmus puts it.) This is a tribute to both black excellence, the sorrows of so many emerging adults, and a celebration of all who model resilience and flourishing.

Healing Leadership Trauma: Finding Emotional Health and Helping Others Flourish Nicholas Rowe and Sheila Wise Rowe (IVP) $19.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $13.99

Although Sheila Wise Rowe was presenting at the excited Racial Justice Summit in Harrisburg last weekend, her esteemed husband was with her and it was an honor and delight to meet him. He has worked in higher education (and now teaches at Gordon Conwell near Boston, Massachusetts.) He and Sheila (a professional powerhouse couple and a lovely pair) worked on this book for years, making it, again, a truly rare find. There are a lot of books on leadership but few that are about the emotional life of the leader and that is informed by trauma-sensitive psychology.  And written by two black evangelicals leaders. Pastors should know this, for sure, but it isn’t primarily about pastoral leadership but more general about anyone who serves, does ministry, offers influence, mentors others, and thinks about leadership regardless of the space. In which they find themselves.

I mentioned that it is for those who think about leadership; there is quite a cottage industry of books about leadership capacities and practices. This is a must. However, I’d also say it is for anyone, maybe especially for those who don’t think about leadership much.

There’s a lot of dysfunction in churches and the corporate world and the nonprofit sector. I know some of you reading this feel isolated and maybe confused. The five themes of Healing Leadership Trauma — invitation, attachment, remembrance, healing, and reconnection.  — will be a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended.

BOOKS BY DOMINIQUE DUBOIS GILLIARD

Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores Dominique Dubois Gilliard (IVP) $18.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $13.29

One of the things I value about InterVarsity Press show they so often offer uniquely Christian perspectives on various career areas and callings, helping Christians relate faith to work and their various vocations. (Heck, they just did one on hobbies.) They also have lots of solid, Biblically-shaped books about all manner of social issue, from sexual abuse to creation care, gun violence and the abortion questions.  This extraordinary book is an example of IVP offering us all a resource for any and all who care about our civic life, about crime and punishment, about police and law and prisons and such. It should go without saying that it is a must-have for anyone who works in law enforcement, criminal justice, the prison system or in the judiciary.

But more than a righteous book for good folks in law enforcement or criminal justice careers, it is for any of us who need reminding how structural injustice works. For anyone who thinks that something as harmful as racism is merely a matter of personal prejudice or that speaking of white privilege is somehow unnecessary. In this case, Gilliard — the director of the racial righteousness program of the Evangelical Covenant Church and an ordained ministry — explores why it might be that the US has more people locked in jails and prisons than any other country in the history of the word. He offers a Christian lens through which we can study what has come to be called mass incarceration (and how it has become a lucrative industry.) He unpacked what some call the school-to-prison pipelines in some under resourced schools and proposes some ways “authentic rehabilitation, lasting transformation, and healthy reintegration”  can happen within this broken system.

I suppose most BookNotes readers know of the groundbreaking 2010 book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. It documented the facts about inequitable punishments faced by Blacks and is still often discussed. Publishers Weekly gave Gilliard’s Rethinking Incarceration a starred review, saying it is “an outstanding addition to this incredibly important conversation.” Indeed.

Subversive Witness: Scriptures Call to Leverage Privilege Dominique Dubois Gilliard (IVP) $24.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $17.49

In the riveting presentation done by Rev. Gilliard at the Harrisburg Church of the Brethren Summit, the theologically and racially and generationally diverse folks rose to their feet (and to the book table), searching for the book that further shared his many compelling points. Much of his talk about justice and reconciliation and boldness and fidelity in the face of a dangerous Empire, came from this great book. It is, I am happy to say, rooted in Bible stories, freshly proclaimed and interpreted with surprising relevance. From Pharaoh’s daughter we learn about leveraging privilege to resist systemic sin. He has a chapter (based on Esther) about standing in solidarity (and three cheers for his preaching about Vashti, too.) Moses births liberation and Paul and Silas come in the picture, as well. Of course, he has chapter of Jesus’s own incarnational model of “abandoning and leveraging privilege to proclaim good news.”) Too few books explore Zacchaeus as well as Dominique does here. He boldly has a whole chapter on the call to repentance, and the final chapter of Subversive Witness is “producing fruit in keeping with repentance.”

If anybody who bad-mouths being “woke” or dismisses out of hand every bit of critical race theory they should read this fabulous book that offers a radical critique of privilege and power all the while drawing on classic Bible characters and their redemptive stories. God is at work in the world and as we learn from Scripture, we can be empowered by God’s own Spirit to resist the tragedies of injustice and help bring repair to this broken world. From his wonderful allusions to Isaiah 58 to his exploration of Luke 4 and on and on, Dominique Dubois Gilliard here give us a book that many of us should study. Hooray.

“This book is an absolute gift that can shakes out of our discontent…” —Jenny Yang, co-author of Welcome the Stranger

BOOK BY ISAAC SAMUEL VILLEGAS

Migrant God: A Christian Vision for Immigrant Justice Isaac Samuel Villegas (Eerdmans) $22.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $16.09

Villegas’s presentation at the Harrisburg Summit focused on work he does as a Mennonite minister around issues of immigration justice. The book is one of dozens we stock on this hot topic and it is recent and up to date. One of the great features of his lecture — I won’t say it was a pleasure, exactly, as some of it moved us to tears, but it was an excellently crafted talk! — was that it deftly combined data and research with stories and testimony. Yes, we had graphs and charts and gruesome maps documenting deaths of migrants in Arizona and yes there was data enough to convince even skeptics that our nation is not going about our adjudication of migrating people (made in God’s image) in a good or decent manner.

But Villegas was engaging as a speaker with stories about artists who commemorate the deceased out of simply decency, about meals eaten with immigrants (and Christmas tamales made by hand in detention centers when anything from the commissary is vastly overpriced.) About active resistance as ICE brutes kidnap fellow citizens or those seeking legal asylum. After soberly listing the names of the individuals who have died (usually under suspicious circumstances) while in US detention just this year we cried out after each name (in the fashion of those bearing witness to those disappeared by right wing death squads in Central America during their most terrible war years) “Presente!”

Migrant God is applied theology, shared with very good writing, with stories and Scripture. The analysis and information of each chapter starts with episodes “on the ground.” (Perhaps you have read some of Villegas’s stories in The Christian Century or Anabaptist World.) From the humanity found in migrant shelters to nonviolent direct action protests, Isaac takes us to the sites of the good work many are doing to resist dehumanization and injustice. As the back cover puts it, it is “a stirring read for anyone who wants to shift the conversations about immigration toward a more holistic Christian vision of life lived in solidarity with migrants.” As Isaac pointed out, the Bible really is, after all, a story of migration…

Isaac Villegas’s Migrant God isn’t just a book full of powerful, often overwhelming, stories. It is certainly that. But it is also a book that serves as a powerful, often overwhelming, political ‘vision of belonging’ — reminding us that amidst the darkness of what nations do daily to God’s migrant people, a light overwhelms the darkness, and the darkness has neither overcome nor comprehended it. — Jonathan Tran, associate dean for faculty and associate professor of theology in Great Texts, Baylor University; author of Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism

BOOKS BY DREW G.I. HART

In the latest “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” I am interviewed by a CCO friend about these three Drew Hart books; watch the half hour impromptu conversation at YouTube or listen in, true podcast style, at Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way theChurch Views Racism Drew G.I.Hart (Herald Press) $16.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $11.89

I do not have to belabor this — I’ve written about all three of Drew’s good books before — but Hart is an important voice for a variety of reasons. Not least, he is a a Pennsylvania Anabaptist (raised Brethren-in-Christ and now a member of First Church of the Brethren in Harrisburg.) While he is not alone, the historic Anabaptist movement has been largely white. (Speaking of mostly white denominations, Hart got his PhD at a Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia; ya can’t blame him since he’s often seen sporting a Phillies cap.) So he has navigated some things and has a ton of savvy insight from his lived experience within his minority denomination. He is now a beloved prof at Messiah University here in central PA.

I’ve often suggested to people that Trouble I’ve Seen is one of the best introductions to a vivid, Christian prophetic denunciation of racism that moves us to action.  As Efrem Smith puts it, “you won’t be comfortable with this read, but you will be led into the deep waters of the social dilemma and reality of the race matrix.” In the end, he says,”the church can be a bridge over these troubled waters.” The book is bracing but is practical, too, as he makes suggestions for exactly how churches can take steps to live in greater solidarity with the oppressed.

The book is energetic and captivating, too. You’ll learn a lot about the Bible and a bit about hip-hop; about Bonhoeffer, too. You’ll hear his stories of being at a largely white, evangelical Christian college and about a trip to Kenya, and his encounters on the urban streets of a mid-sized US city. It’s a very worthy read.

Who Will Be a Witness? Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, and Deliverance Drew G. I. Hart (Herald Press) $18.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $13.59

If Trouble I’ve Seen was passionate and poignant and powerful as an introduction to the Biblical call to be anti-racist, Who Will Be a Witness? is more so. It is a thicker, more thorough book, its scope is broader, and it is even more laden with stories and Biblical and theological studies. It seems wrong to say it is entertaining, but it is engaging, as they say these days, captivating as a bona-fide page-turner. Again, we are fans of this book and have highlighted it before. I am grateful for its big picture vision of Kingdom activism and how Hart draws so many themes together in calling us to a spiritual awakening of the sort that would resist political and social injustice and struggled against the principalities and powers.

One can sense how his vision in this book is a bit broader (or at least articulated and framed around God’s desires beyond racial matters) and how even though it is a popular level read, he’s rooted in serious learning. The great Otis Moss III writes on the back:

Drew Hart is a brilliant public intellectual, preacher, and cultural critic… Do yourself a favor and purchase this book.

Richard Hughes — a peacemaker par excellence (especially around polarizations in higher education) — says that it is “brimming over with moral urgency.” And these days, that is a good thing.

The best-selling album of 1973 (before Drew’s time — I’m dating myself) was 1972s The World Is a Ghetto by the horn-driven, funky, samba-influenced Black band War. It seemed to almost draw gospel themes and black power critique and hints at global concerns. I just happen to be listening to it again these days, and it dawns on me that maybe that’s what Who Will Be a Witness? does — moves the liberating power explored by the likes of James Cone, say, into the global vision a radical church in language ordinary people can get.. Can we inspire our people for this kind of good work? This book will help.

Making It Plain: Why We Need Anabaptism and the Black Church Drew G.I. Hart (Herald Press) $21.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $17.59

I raved about this when I first reviewed it briefly at a previous BookNotes and while I know it’s a bit hard to sell — Anabaptism? The Black Church? — I think at this price you can’t go wrong.

Look: we often speak, sometimes loudly, about being ecumenical and reading widely. One of the small things that seems to be appreciated by many of our Hearts & Minds customers and friends is that we invite folks to read outside their comfort zones. Maybe conservative political thinking for progressives? Maybe mainline Protestant theologians for evangelicals? Maybe some Russian Orthodox spirituality for Mennonites? And who doesn’t love Henri Nouwen and Mother Teresa, just two of the hundreds and hundreds of Catholic authors we stock. We are all made richer as we expose ourselves (sometimes carefully) to new authors and fresh ideas. Right?

And so, a book about two minority and historically persecuted churches, together? Win-win!

Dr. Hart is a partisan, as a scholar of the black church standing within the Anabaptist tradition. But this book is an informative and valuable read even if you don’t buy his thesis that these two faith traditions are, in a way, the answer to the obvious problems of generic, evangelical, mega-church spirituality. Not to mention the often bland mainline Protestant practice. If (and these are my words, not his) mainline, ecumenical Protestant theology has the tendency to erode Biblical truth and lose a gospel centeredness ending up leaning towards a milquetoast accommodation to whatever, and zealous evangelicalism goes off the rails towards a legalistic fundamentalism, then (unless one becomes Catholic or Orthodox) how do we regain a beautiful and socially relevant mere Christianity? Maybe to keep us honest (whether we are liberal Protestants or conservative evangelicals or something else yet again) we need the witness of our brothers and sisters in the historic black church and our brothers and sisters in the historic peace churches.

Making It Plain has that agenda, making a vibrant and sensible case that these traditions, insofar as they haven’t bowed the knee to cultural idols and the political zeitgeist, have healing waters from which we can all drink. Hart shows how their unique tendencies and postures and lifestyles is in some ways more faithful and helpful than bland Protestantism or fiery but overly personal evangelicalism. He’s on to something, ya know.

Part of what drives this insightful story — I hardly have to say it — is that corroding the Biblical vision of his previous two books (racial justice, say, and shalom-building liberation activism) are the blights of white supremacy and Christian nationalism. If these idols and ideologies have been centuries in the making, maybe we need equally ancient ways to provide a counter to them. Maybe the black church and the Anabaptist tradition, both who were shaped by their being on the margins, have something to offer to counter the domination and violence, even the colonialism and power-mongering that exists today. I very highly recommend this book as a creative and even exciting little thought experiment, as an example of humility in learning. Stretch yourself, learning about the spiritual impulses of these two faith traditions — faith traditions that are known, at least, for taking Jesus seriously. That’s a good start, eh?

Latasha Morrison (author of Be the Bridge) is a black Christian leader who notes that “Hart doesn’t just critique the church. He equips us to live the gospel with courage and clarity.”

 

And one of his good friends (and his podcast partner) Jarrod McKenna, calls this “an incendiary invitation to Anablacktivism” and says it shows “the fire of radical discipleship that our Lord wishes were already ablaze.”

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In my latest “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” podcast I am interviewed by a CCO friend about these three Drew Hart books; watch the half hour impromptu conversation at YouTube or listen in, true podcast style, at Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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BookNotes

It is gratifying to get orders and encouraging remarks, always, but it was especially fun hearing the comments about the last BookNotes. I listed some books on the need for a renewed imagination and how poetry can help. I introduced you to the great British poet and literary critic and pastor, Malcolm Guite, and offered autographed copies of his marvelous first volume of the four-volume set of “Merlin’s Isle” Arthurian stories told as an epic poem; an epic ballad, to be more precise. No one of note as done such a thing for over a century and Guite joins the ranks of some of our most esteemed writers in the bold project. Kudos to Rabbit Room Press for creating (with the help of linocut artist and designer Stephen Crotts) such a gorgeous, sturdy volume. As I hope you recall — please visit www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/booknotes if you missed it — that it is called Galahad and the Grail (Rabbit Room Press; $34.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $27.99.) 

In that BookNotes, before highlighting all of Malcolm’s essays, studies, and poetry volumes, I commended Discipling Our Diseased Imagination: Spiritual Formation and the Healing of Our Heart which is a faith formation resource wonderfully written by Dordt College prof Justin Ariel Bailey (Baker Academic; $24.99 // OURS SALE PRICE = $19.99.) I am working slowly through it a second time after a quick skim and it is amazing. It is less about creativity and the arts, I’ve said, but it is profound. No narrow reductionism or cheap sentimentality, but a Biblical call to be fully human as we learn to see “with the eyes of our heart” and perhaps pray with our eyes wide open.

For a more mind-blowing imaginative experience I might have recommended David Dark’s new and improved (if I can swipe a phrase from old-school capitalist marketing) edition of Everyday Apocalypse: Art, Empire, and the End of the World (Vanderbilt University Press; $24.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.96.) It is widely re-done, showing is growth as a writer and cultural critic. And a dreamer!

David is one of the most imaginative guys I know and I would buy any book he writes. This one, on popular culture — a very serious re-doing of an earlier one — is awe-inspiring. I mean that.

In that last column I also wanted to work in a reference to the very new James K.A. Smith book, Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark: Mysticism, Art, and the Path to Unknowing (Yale University Press; $28.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.40.) When I described it before I had explained how this reformational philosopher tells his story of a renewed encounter with the mysteries of mystics like Saint John of the Cross and the unknown writer of The Cloud of Unknowing. I briefly explained his insights about rejecting certainty and dogmatic confidence — sort of a natural extension of his work in You Are What You Love which argued that the center of gravity of the human person is not the cognitive mind. What I didn’t say as much about is that Make Your Home…also spends much time and glorious writing ruminating on the power of art to help us enter this space of a different kind of knowing. He’s not exactly talking about the sublime (that seems to have a somewhat different intellectual genealogy) but he offers glorious examples of how the arts (visual and written word and music, too) can be transformative. If you’re interested in exploring matters of the imagination, this book is going to make you think.

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Two years ago I had the great privilege — almost a life-time bucket list thing — to speak at the legendary Calvin University’s Festival of Faith & Writing. I was so nervous sitting on a couch with expert writers Ann Bogle and Karen Swallow Prior to be interviewed by the conference director, Jennifer Holberg, author of the wonderful Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story of Shape Our Faith (IVP Academic; $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59.) Another workshop, rambling on about our work here at the store, was well-received and it was such an honor.

With Beth’s chemo treatment ongoing, we decieded we needed to stay closer to home this season so we missed the conference this weekend. We’re in awe that Calvin is able to bring in such amazing writers, authors, thinkers of various sorts for a wonderful, generative event. You should go two years from now. I hope we will!

To wit: here are a handful of books that strike me as good reads for those of us who couldn’t be in Grand Rapids last week. I bet Warren had some of these at the also legendary Eighth Day Books book display at FFW. In any case, here are fifteen suggested reads (almost all recent) in honor of the fruitful FFW, whether you were there or not. Consider this my hat-tip to them and, equally, a follow-up to last week’s BookNotes about poetry and Malcolm Guite. On we go.

FIFTEEN BOOKS ABOUT STORY, WRITING & LITERATURE

Liturgies of the Wild: Myths That Make Us Martin Shaw (Sentinel) $30.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00

This is a hard book to explain but it has been getting so much publicity you may have heard of it. He’s an amazing storyteller and fine writer inviting us to a life that matters by embracing the right myths. The right dreams. Rejecting staid stories. Malcolm Guite calls him a “harbinger, a sign of the shift in consciousness that all of us, trapped in our techno-bubbles, so desperately need.” It is magical at times, a remarkable testimony; the first pages tell of this UK wild guy who meets a Lakota medicine man named Wallace.  As we learn in the book, there is something about open-heartedness, sometimes tender and often powerful.

From our greatest living storyteller, a validation of all that is awe-inspiring and implicit in a world where we are confined by the explicit and banal. — Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary

A book that will help seekers, doubters, and believers alike appreciate faith anew, not by reinventing Christianity, but by retelling its story through the experience of a thousand other stories. Read it . . . then read it again. It will do your soul so much good. — Justin Brierley, author of The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God

Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences Neal Allen & Anne Lamott (Averly) $27.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.60

I was hooked by the first pages, as you, too, might be, if your want some wise and punchy advice from a former journalist and the always-interesting Anne Lamott. Neal Allen writes the bulk of this, sharing the rules for writing he’s developed over his career, with his wife Anne — you’ll recall she tells of falling in love and marrying late in life in Love Always — adding snarky annotations and sometimes brilliant clarifications. Neal and Annie are a great time, each offering a bit of insight with lots of examples. Their chapter on not showing off (let others be erudite; your job is to befriend your reader”) is worth the price of the book for those tempted in such ways. Their bit about “which Beatle are you” is clever; Neal says Anne is a Paul, although she wishes her style to be like John’s.

They are mostly down to earth and when they do delve into the realm of grammar or the philosophy of rhetoric it’s pretty painless. It is very practical. Neal advises we “remove the clutter of short words (pronouns, prepositions, connectors) and they both make a case for strong verbs. Wow. Buy it!

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

I love Anne Lamott as a writer but deeply respect Marilyn McEntyre who I’ve had the pleasure of being with on a few occasions. I’ve read her poems, her essays, her polemics. We love her book about being a medical patient and cite (almost in every talk I do) her classic Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies. She’s elegant and gracious and charming and smart. I have only just started this — the first chapter is “Read Like a Writer” — and intend to savor every word soon.

The chapter titles are as interesting as they are in Caring for Words with these notions that are sometimes allusive and sometimes very clear (from “Move the Camera” and “Find Out Who’s There” to “Develop and Digress” and “Address Your Dear Reader.” Not to mention “Know When to Stop.” ) I’m eager to see what she means by writing “from the inside out” and eager to explore how to “Tell the Public Part.”

Here is how the publisher describes this project:

After decades of writing award-winning books on subjects ranging from poetry to art to liturgical seasons, celebrated author Marilyn McEntyre turns her attention to the vocation that has shaped her life. Start with a Word: On the Craft and Adventure of Writing is a literary masterclass that eschews drills and formulas in favor of close readings and refreshingly playful advice.

A veteran teacher, Marilyn understands that the best writing instruction doesn’t come from rigid rules or rote approaches to filling the blank page. Instead, she demonstrates how the writers whose works we have enjoyed can become our tutors. She calls us to move beyond asking “What does this text say?” to a more revealing question: “How does this text work?” This shift in perspective — from passive consumption to active apprenticeship — transforms how we encounter literature and how we create it.

More than a how-to manual, Start with a Word is an invitation into a way of being that honors both the precision and the mystery of words. It offers short lessons on essential elements of literary craft, close readings of passages from a range of works, writing prompts, and, above all, encouragement for authors to find their unique path into work only they can create.

Writing, Creativity, and Soul Sue Monk Kidd (Knopf) $29.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.20

Do you remember her older books on spiritual formation like God’s Joyful Surprise or When the Heart Waits? They are still in print and lovely and useful. Kidd became more widely known, though, after the blockbuster Secret Life of Bees, followed by a good handful of other stellar novels. She is beloved for her stories, The Mermaid Chair, the spectacular The Invention of Wings, The Book of Longings, and a memoir she wrote with her daughter Traveling with Pomegranates. Her earlier memoir Dance of the Dissident Daughter explored feminism and faith; you can see she has written widely in several genres.

Now she tells us how and why she does it. Part memoir with uplifting storytelling, part reflection on the spirituality of creativity, part masterclass in the process of writing (with some fabulous sections on reading and the reading life as well) Writing, Creativity, and Soul is a very nice book for her fans whether they want to be writers or not.

The book is pleasantly arranged in four segments, Moorings, Mystery, Method, and Meaning. I’ll admit I jumped first to the last section and read “The Curative Power of Writing” and then dipped into her piece “Hurry Slowly” in the Methods section. Yep.

Kirkus is a review source that is highly regarded and their “starred reviews” are a very good sign. Here is what they wrote about Writing, Creativity, and Soul.

Kidd is one of America’s most evocative memoirists of the spirit. Her new book looks back over a life of writing to explore the nature of human creativity and the urge we have not just to do something but to make something. Kidd digs deep into the archetypes of consciousness. . . . Memory becomes a box of precious finds. Kidd can write some of the lushest clauses in American prose. She can also write a simple declarative sentence. At such points of contact, writing thrills. But it can also heal the fractures in our lives. A gorgeous memoir of the creative life, designed to bring out the writer’s voice in all of us.

The Beauty of Souls: Aesthetic Encounters with Marilynne Robinson Mark S.M. Scott (Fortress Press) $36.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $28.80

Few deny that Marilynne Robinson is one of the great writers of our time. From her several novels (including Gilead, which earned the Pulitzer Prize), several collections of astute, dense essays, to her creative rendering of Genesis, she is a public top-shelf intellectual and deeply Christian thinker. In this detailed thesis, Mark Scott explores particularly her aesthetics — excavating her sense of beauty. By which he means to behold her work, making connections with her themes of “perception, contemplation, growth, loss, brokenness, wonder, and redemption” as “a literary journey into the spiritual life.”

Obviously, her fiction and most of her prose are not overtly theological but yet Scott argues that “Robinson’s writings spiritually sensitize her readers, preparing them for deeper levels of soul-discovery and soul-formation.” Can we learn more of what it means to be human and what human spirituality is like by reflecting on the magisterial Gilead saga? Can we learn to care for our own souls — and, perhaps, the souls of others — as we move beyond a literary or even theological reading of her signature works? His point becomes clear early on when he admits to the lack of action (and even conventional plot) in these slow stories that seem off-putting to some and exceptional to others. He makes a case that this, actually, is where the action is.

All Swirling and Weaving: Reflections on Reading Fiction and Growing in Faith Douglas Basler (Wipf & Stock) $19.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $

This amazing little book — which ought to be well known among us! — would be a great book for a book club or ongoing adult reading group, doing one chapter each time. Each chapters offers a  generously Christian reading of a popular novel. If you enjoy the well-written book reviews in places like The Christian Century, say, or the detailed study of contemporary fiction in literary journals, Douglas Basler’s recent book is one you will love. Whether you’ve read the novel he explores (as a way to see how this story can enhance our faith formation and discipleship) or not, the chapters are enjoyable, informative, provocative, and inspiring.  That the great Marilyn McEntyre wrote a lovely forward makes good sense and it, too, is a great read.

McEntyre says of this book by a Presbyterian pastor (who, by the way, is very much in the spirit of Eugene Peterson, that pastor who so valued novelists and reading as essential to the vocation of pastoring) that “you who read these chapters will find yourself as you finish them ministered to, that you have experienced epiphanies and ‘shocks of recognition’ along the way…” Indeed.

The exciting introduction starts with Pastor Basler’s reading of Wendell Berry’s older classic, The Memory of Old Jack. He explains, then, that the title of this collection (All Swirling and Weaving) is a line from Brian Doyle’s Mink River, which is one of the great chapters here. It’s a great set-up for this lovely set of reviews written by a caring pastor. (He doesn’t have a chapter on Memory of Old Jack but gives us one on Berry’s Nathan Coulter.)

All Swirling and Weaving offers “reflections on reading fiction and growing in faith” from the likes of the aforementioned Berry and Doyle, but then Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, Niall Williams’s This Is Happiness, The Bean Trees (Kingsolver), The Heaven and Earth Grocery Story (McBride) and Leif Enger’s Virgil Wander. He looks at the “playful excess” of Andrew Peterson’s The Wingfeather Saga and the “circles of sorrow” in Toni Morrison’s Sula. He studies The Brothers K (by the great David James Duncan) and Alice McDermott’s The Ninth Hour. And, yes, he has a chapter on Marilynne Robinson, exploring Jack. He obviously has good taste, as a book lover and as a pastor.

Language As Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon Toni Morrison (Knopf) $32.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $25.60

Toni Morrison, by any account, is one of the most significant authors of our time. She was not only a working novelist but a critic and professor, a Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner (for Beloved.) These dense but passionate reflections are essentially from a “dazzling series of lectures from her tenure as a professor at Princeton University.” In these chapters, she interrogates famous works by respected authors in the American literary canon and exposes racial bias and how racial identity is created and projected.

She writes about, as the cover tells us, “the reflection of the author’s own deepest fears, insecurities and longings.” She does this with profound erudition but also with considerable wit. This is deep and serious stuff.

As the flyleaf notes:

To read these lectures, collected here for the first time, is to encounter Morrison, not just the writer but also the teacher, in the most penetrating and subversive way yet. With a foreword by her son Ford Morrison and an introduction by her Princeton comparative literature colleague Claudia Brodsky, Language as Liberation is a revelatory collection that promises to redefine the American canon.

Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature Nadra Little (Fortress Press) $26.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $20.80

I must admit I did not know much about Toni Morrison and while religious and spiritual themes are obviously present in her work (including overtly Christian language), I have never presumed to know anything about her own faith orientation.

I do not know of any other book that explores Morrison’s “spiritual vision” — her worldview and religion — as this does. It a way, it is a way to discover her work through the lens of her faith.

The question is, of course, what the contours of her faith were. She was obviously a black feminist and her spirituality was complex and inter-faith. One writer (Del Sandeen) who has written on the activism of Maya Angelou says this is the “must-have, for a deeper diver into what made the later writer’s stories so compellingly magical.”  Little has done serious research and explores the background of Black Roman Catholics that shaped Morrison. There are some excellent portions looking at African folktales that have informed the shape or tone of certain novels.

There are some good and helpful biographical insights (a white mob lynched two of her fathers older friends when he as young which “traumatized him for life.”) Her mother was an excellent storyteller.

Nick Ripatrazone, a literary critic for Image, and himself Roman Catholic, insists that this is a book we need. “For too long,” he says, “Morrison’s significant spiritual influence has been unspoken or, at best, misunderstood. No more.”

Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision is the seminal text for anyone who wants to gain a deeper understanding of an under-appreciated yet central part of Morrison’s life and literature: her Catholic faith. –Ekemini Uwan, public theologian and co-author of Truth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation host of Truth’s Table podcast

The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Creation Michael D.C. Drout (Norton) $35.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $28.00

Of the shelf-full of books we have about Tolkien, this is a stand-out for two or three simple reasons. First, it is a memoir, mostly, a story about reading Tolkien’s mythic volumes. Yet, there is a “ribbon of memory” in the book, reflecting on the author’s childhood, his own family, his own faith. As such, the book invites us into Middle Earth and invites us onto the Hobbit’s journey by way of his own first, fresh encounters. Don’t you love it when you read about a person falling in love with a book, with a story? We who are bookworms and we who send out BookNotes believe deeply in the transformative power of books. Call this a great example, exhibit one, perhaps. As famous Tolkien scholar and fanboy Tom Shippey notes of The Tower and the Ruin, Drout shows that Lord of the Rings, “is not just a story. It’s a life-changer.”

Also, it is hefty and big. This isn’t always a plus in weighing the value of a book, but in this case it is extensive and thorough and full of joy and yet appropriate gravitas; one reviewed called it “deeply felt.” I wouldn’t list here, now, a cheap bubble-gum intro (although these may have their place for the right readers.) In this column, though, I want to highlight truly excellent books for serious readers; trust me, this is one that is important. It is pitched as “a leading scholar draws on fifty years of reading and studying J.R.R. Tolkien to explain how he created an entire world.” And, I might, add, asking how it is that this story has felt, for many, like truly entering another world, perhaps unlike hardly any other reading experience.

Thirdly, again, Michael D.C. Drout is not only a memoirist reporting of his own reader’s journey but he is am esteemed scholar, a professor of Medieval Studies, and some would say he is shining new light on these classic stories. There is sharp analysis and profound reflection on what makes these tales good. As a study of the impact of these epic stories and the unique fantastical world JRR created, it is learned and scholarly. This guy knows his stuff.

Michael D. C. Drout combines his reader’s journey through the major works of Tolkien with his personal journey as the son of a reading father and the reading father of a son. The result is an erudite and insightful discussion that shines new light on old stories. ― Verlyn Flieger, author of Splintered Light

The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life Suleika Jaouad (Random House) $30.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00

Speaking of books making an impact and the serious transformation one can have through the habits of the reading life, this is a book by a woman whose book (Between Two Kingdoms) has been named by many as one of the best memoirs they’ve ever read. Suleika was a young adult at Princeton when a rash appeared and she was eventually diagnosed with a very rare and deadly sort of cancer. It’s a big and captivating book — I read it last summer when Beth first got her breast cancer diagnosis — but that is another story. The Book of Alchemy is an anthology she created, almost like a big devotional or reader, in which she offers journalling prompts to reflect on one’s own life, inspired by the text she shares.

The pieces are diverse and not often overtly religious, but they are examples of excellence craft in the essay form. There are 10 essays in 10 different units, under the rubric of On Beginning, On Memory, On Fear, On Seeing, On Love, On the Body, On Rebuilding, On Ego, On Purpose, On Alchemy. Within each section there are pieces you’ve never seen, by authors many of us may not know. But a few are by author’s some of us have read, such as Ann Patchett, John Green, Beth Kephart, Kiese Laymon, Jedidiah Jenkins, Salman Rushdie, Kate Bowler, Mavis Staples, Anif Abdurraquib. And, oh, her husband Jon Batiste.

Call this “a guide to the art of journaling” or “a meditation on the central questions of life.” Buy it now and you’ll be using it for a year, at least. Wow.

Living Logos: The Fiction of Michael D. O’Brien Greg Maillet (Pickwick) $34.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $27.20

Pope John Paul II wrote in 1999 a lovely “Letter to the Artists” which we used to stock. He suggested there that “art can be a bridge to religious experience.” Michael O’Brien is a very prolific, conservative Roman Catholic author who has given us over a dozen novels, each full of honest searching, struggle, faith and doubt and grace. We have at least one customer — a Protestant, actually, who orders them one by one, working though his considerable literary oeuvre.

Interestingly, his publisher, Ignatian Press, did a small, handsome paperback which we have touted in previous BookNotes columns about the arts entitled Art and Sacrificial Loe: A Conversation with Michael D. O’Brien in which a painter (like O’Brien, a Canadian Catholic) discuss the role of love and mercy and suffering in their work in an interview format.)

Greg Maillet’s recent book, however, is a more focused study, exploring his fiction, his popular character Father Elijah, and goes into greater detail on two of O’Brien’s most recent novels, By the Rivers of Babylon and Letters to the Future. What is going on in these stories, and how do they “stretch reader’s imagination into an eternal, sacred world in which the Living God has the final word”?

Maillet is a professor of English at Crandall University in Moncton, New Brunswick Canada. He was the co-author (with Baylor’s David Lyle Jeffrey) of the weighty, major work in IVP Academic’s Worldview Integreation series called Christianity and Literature: Philosophical Foundations and Critical Practice. So he has a superb framework for evaluating thoughtful, faith-infused literature.

Listen to this great endorsement by a Catholic professor of literature, Natasha Duquette, who says:

Greg Maillet accurately describes Michael O’Brien’s faithfulness and orthodoxy as a Catholic writer living and creating from the margins. His analysis of O’Brien’s critical clarity from the sidelines implicitly places O’Brien’s work alongside great Catholic satirists of the past, such as Alexander Pope and Dante Alighieri. By approaching O’Brien’s novels through the lens of theological aesthetics, Maillet does justice to their literary and spiritual heft.”

The Divided Soul: Duty and Desire in Literature and Life Heidi White (Goldberry Press) $29.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.20

Goldberry Press is a small, new outfit that has, so far, done solid work releasing some great resources on art appreciation and this new title that looks to be nothing sort of glorious.  I was hooked on the first page of the introduction as the author (in a piece called “Stories as Icons: How Literature Reflections the Divided Soul”) tells about a dying grandparent and how Anne of Green Gables saved her life.  “Right away,” she says, “I recognized that young Anne Shirley, red hair notwithstanding, was just like me — lonely, grieving, disoriented, unguarded, bewildered, stranded in a universe of insoluble contradictions. How can a world be simultaneously laden with such deprivation and beauty?”

The linkage in the introduction of literature to icons is deliberate. She, indeed, does think stories can be iconic (“visual representations of spiritual realities.” There are elegant and nearly universal patterns that can show up in good literature and she is going to explore these wondering what makes stories so powerful. And here is one of her major theses:

“I think the world’s great stories (including our own) dwell upon the mystery of one immense dilemma — the fallen nature of the world and our innate longing for restoration.”

Is there a division between duty and desire? What is the nature of our fallen reality? She gets at that (again, in the rich introduction) by reflecting on a stunning interaction from Perelandra.  She draws from this that “every real life person and every fictional character is fractured along the fault line of duty and desire.” That is what she means by “the fractured soul.”

This is going to be a very rewarding read, I am sure. It is a delight to tell you about it, and hope that you enjoy learning about it here. As the flyleaf says, it is “one part memoir, one part literary excursion, one part ode to the value and beauty of stories.”  Put Homer and Shakespeare in conversation with Isaiah and the Apostle Paul and throw in a pinch of deep medieval spirituality. Can stories shape our souls? Of course.  Children’s storyteller S.D. Smith says “Heidi White is a phenomenal writer and her book is a gift.”

Women of the Catholic Imagination: Twelve Inspired Novelists You Should Know edited by Haley Stewart (Word on Fire) $24.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.96

Haley Stewart is a fine writer, herself (she opens this with a chapter called “A Good Novel Can Change Your Life” and has curated and compiled what looks to be an excellent introduction by a variety of thoughtful women and men, to a handful of distinctively Catholic novelists, some of whom you will know and some, I bet, some of us have not heard of. I’m sure there will be new doorways into new authors for you if you give this a try.

And, to be honest, I’m not sure if all the authors were practicing and faithful Catholics. They were shaped, at least, by a Catholic imagination.

The endorsers on the back of this are vibrant and enthusiastic and include some lovely, wise writers I trust — evangelicals like Joy Clarkson and Jessica Hooten Wilson, for instance (see their blurbs below) and Thomas Hobbs, the brainy cultural critic and philosopher from Baylor, who says it is “a terrific volume that demonstrates the way Catholicism has informed and intern been enriched by the imaginative works of a number of female authors, most of whom have been unduly neglected.”

It also bears the endorsement of Marcie Stokman, founder of the Well-Read Mom and author of the wonderful Catholic paperback The Well Read Life. If she likes this, it surely is a winner.

Women of the Catholic Imagination looks at (among others) the great Nobel Prize winner, Sigrid Undset, Caryll Houselander, Rumer Godden right up to contemporary writers such as Muriel Spark, Toni Morrison, Alice McDermott, and, in a chapter I can’t wait to read, Donna Tartt. Wow.

Each essay in this book beams a light on a Catholic luminary who may have been overshadowed by her male contemporaries. Now, thanks to this book, the brilliant women of the Catholic imagination shine forth. Reading this collection not only introduces you to more friends in the Church but also extends your reading list! — Jessica Hooten Wilson, author of The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints 

This exciting collection of essays on the life and work of Catholic female literary figures calls out not only to Roman Catholic readers but to those who are interested in the way that literature can evoke those truths we find it difficult to speak about without the help of story, and the legacy of women throughout history who have done just that — Joy Clarkson, author of You Are a Tree: And Other Metaphors to Nourish Life, Thought, and Prayer—A Contemplative Meditation on Language in Scripture and Poetry to Find Meaning and Understanding in Our Words 

The Books That Made Us: Deconstructing the Modern Christian Classics Rebecca Britten Weiss (Orbis Press) $24.00 //OUR SALE PRICE = $19.20

Orbis Press, you may know, is a publishing ministry of the Maryknoll Father and Brothers and broke into the religious (and even wider, mainstream) publishing world in the 1970s by becoming the chief global voice of liberation theology. All the early liberation theologians  such as South and Central American Catholic leaders like Gustavo Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff, Oscar Romero and Jon Sobrino, at first, and then black Protestants like James Cone and now even some evangelicals do culturally engaged and theologically punchy, provocative works published by the storied publishing house.

The Books That Made Us fits their publishing agenda, although it isn’t liberation theology. It is, however, a provocative critique of famous Christian writers who have largely not been critiqued for their racism, classism, anti-Semitism, and the like. Rebecca Britten does a brave and interesting job showing what’s wrong with some of these otherwise great authors.

Two quick things: she does not say that should be cancelled or fully condemned and she finds good, even wonderful stuff in their (sometimes) flawed writing. Also, she is not the first to bring a critical (faithful?) lens to some of these writers. (I recall a particular challenging piece in The Other Side magazine in the 1970s showing the racism and sexism in Narnia.) I have not seen in a long while a concise and appreciative clique as found in The Books That Made Us.

What are the “modern Christian classics” she dissects? After two good chapters in the section called “OUr Problematic Christian Literary Landscape” in which she invites us to “deconstruct the imagination” by looking critically at “the books that made us and marred us” she offers chapters on a bunch of classic writers. She studies G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy.

The book then offers two pieces — “How We Read Matters” and “So Why Read These Books?” Followed by a plea to do better. You may not know all of these authors, and if you do, you may not agree with her reading of them. But this is good stuff, energizing and challenging. One reviewer, a Lutheran, calls it “an earthquake” that “tears down idols.” Weiss has been on a transforming journey in own faith and life (and reading habits) and she is an important conversation partner.

Serious Comedy: The Philosophical and Theological Significance of Tragic and Comic Writing in the Western Tradition Patrick Downey (Davenant Press) $44.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $35.96

Davenant Press is an academic think tank and publishing venture that produces exceptionally well-done and exceptionally obscure / arcane titles, drawing on church history and early Anglican thinkers (think Richard Hooker, for instance) with titles on canon law and historic orthodoxy and public theology. For those drawn to this stuff they are a rare find. This one at first glance, seems a touch out of their wheelhouse but yet it is like them — deeply academic, drawing on historical theology and infused with learned philosophical rumination. We have more engaging studies of humor, most of which are not funny, but a few that are making a fun case that humor is a good thing for human flourishing. I’d say this is not one of those.

Serious Comedy has an emphasis on the seriousness of both tragedy and comedy in Western modernity. While it might bring to mind Buechner’s famous Telling the Truth is does not have the charm of that little classic. However for anyone who wants a comprehensive (430+ pages) overview, starting with Aristotle and a lot of Plato, on through Hegel and Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, this is said to be “a masterful overview of the Western literary tradition” in conversation with the literary nature of the Bible itself.

Dr Louis Marko, the renowned classicist from Houston Baptist, says it is “bold and original” and that “it left me intrigued, chastened and grateful.” We are glad to stock it here at Hearts & Minds.

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BookNotes

I know last week’s big book list about living as “resurrectionaries” had enough good stuff to keep our bookworms busy for months there is one more aspect of a resurrectionary life that I want to highlight and that is nurturing a redeemed and lively imagination. I’ll name a good handful that will be very helpful here (including a few on poetry) which will lead into our reader’s guide to the work of poet-priest-literary scholar, the Reverend Malcolm Guite. We’ve been a fan and promoter of his poetry for maybe fifteen years; I think the first collection we discovered was Sounding the Seasons (and one of our very first buyers may have been the late Leslie Bustard of Square Halo Books.) Guite’s brand new first volume of his Merlin’s Isle four part “Arthuriad” is called Galahad and the Grail and it is getting rave reviews. We have autographed copies. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

You see, to live in the power of the resurrection surely means more than ginning up enthusiasm for dedicated discipleship; sure we need commitment and zeal but it seems that if Jesus’s defeat of Death means anything, it means that we are in a whole new world or “new creation” as 2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it. We need to be able to imagine what it looks like for Christ’s regime to break into human history. I’m convinced we need to learn to see through Godly lenses which means we need to reboot our imaginations. They need “baptized” as C.S. Lewis famously put it. Hence, the practice of reading, including fiction and poetry and literary memoir.

(And this really is the premise of all of Guite’s remarkable books, that we must “lift the veil” to discover a sacramental world being renewed by and in and for the Risen Christ.)

I have highlighted here before a stunning book called Discipling the Diseased Imagination: Spiritual Formation and the Healing of Our Hearts by Dordt College professor Justin Ariel Bailey (Baker Academic; $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99.) I wish it had explored a bit more of the essentially aesthetic aspect of this, but, nonetheless, is is a rich and deep study of praying well, deeply, for the transformation of the “eyes of our heart.” As Alex Sosler puts it on the back cover, “the imagination is the center of our discipleship” and this book helps us reimagine in a way that offers “the moral imperative of possibility.”  Highly recommended.

Discipling the Diseased Imagination will help readers understand just how powerful and formative the imagination is to mind, heart, and spirit. This book will inspire readers to refill and reform the imagination in everyday ways that will restore it to its glorious, God-given purpose. — Karen Swallow Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis

The modern sickness of the soul runs deeper than most diagnoses are able to reach. 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. — Joshua Chatraw, Beeson Divinity School and Samford University, author of Telling a Better Story: How to Talk about God in a Skeptical Age   

Another book that might be in a similar wheelhouse is the wonderful Becoming By Beholding: The Power of Imagination in Spiritual Formation by Lana Davis (Baker Academic; $27.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.39.) Davis got her PhD from Baylor and teaches at Indiana Wesleyan University. This is a very rich and deeply thoughtful book.

Listen up:

Becoming by Beholding is a work to behold. Not only is this book a study in beauty, imagination, and spiritual formation; it also models the very practices it preaches. To read it is to witness beauty and imagination at work and thus to leave its pages better formed and more ready to be formed by all the goodness the world has to offer. — Karen Swallow Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis

Becoming by Beholding ushers us into a rich, strange, and beautiful art gallery that unveils our own hearts and minds. Davis’s engaging tour draws deeply from the Christian tradition of spiritual masters to show how the architecture of Chartres Cathedral, iconic imagery of Jesus, Station Island’s stations of the cross, and the literary genius of Dante teem with spiritual insights that reveal Christ and his life in us. — Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Calvin University; author of Glittering Vices

Do you think nonfiction is more serious, grown-up, and useful than moving stories, beautiful buildings, and pretty pictures? Let Davis guide you through the Christian artists and makers who testify across the centuries that the stories and images we behold indelibly shape our souls. — Jeffrey Bilbro, Grove City College; editor-in-chief, Front Porch Republic, author of Reading the Times

Beauty and Justice: Creating a Life of Abundance and Courage by Haejin Shim Fujimura and Makoto Fujimura (Brazos Press) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99. I have written about this already, inviting folks to pre-order it (and it is one of our personal favorites this season, now out) but it deserves to be named here as we think about how new creation theology brought in by the power of resurrection might play out in our culture. Beauty and Justice: Creating a Life of Abundance and Courage by Haejin and Mako Fujimura  is a perfect book to help us think and be inspired to care not only about aesthetics, the arts, creativity, and our holy imaginations but how that might be informed by the Biblical call to do justice. In a world of tragic hurt and war do we have time for beauty? Give the virtues of beauty, though, can we harness goodness to fight injustice? Written by a thoughtful lawyer /activist and world-class visual artist — both very good writers, too! — this certainly reminds us of the glories of living after the resurrection with “abundance and courage.” Wow. I am in awe.

Maybe my favorite way into thinking about the redemptive role of a redeemed imagination for ordinary Christian resurrectionaries is the lovely, delightful, must-read guide to reading widely, the wonderful World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading by Jeff Crosby (Paraclete; $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19.) I named it a favorite book of 2025 and started the new year off with a fun online webinar with Jeff chatting about the book and the nature of the reading life. (You can watch or re-watch that HERE.) I suppose I ought not overstate this but I am sure it is nearly an axiom for many of us: the very best models of faith, the most noble people we know, the prophets and mystics and leaders and quiet servants are all readers. I can hardly imagine growing as a person of faith without books as tools for spiritual formation and the reformation of my  desires. So, yes, buying and reading books matters, especially if we have a wide diet to exercise the mind and widen the heart. World of Wonders will inspire and guide you.

There is a chapter in World of Wonders that is tremendously important, and I suspect one that is under appreciated among us. It is the chapter called “The Power of Paying Attention: Reading Poetry” (with a closing reflection by Luci Shaw.) The previous chapter (“The Power of Story: Reading Fiction”) is really, really good, but my hunch is that nobody skipped that chapter. But the poetry one? Come on, you can admit it…

Re-visit those two chapters and you will better understand what I mean here when I talk about allowing God to give us a renewed mind and a transformed imagination. Deeply rooted in the aesthetic dimension of life — perhaps as discussed so colorfully in the famous Rainbows for the Fallen World by Calvin Seerveld — the art of reading poetry can help.

After that chapter of Jeff Crosby’s in World of Wonders if you want a serious dive into how to appreciate poetry as part of your spiritual formation and Christian life, I highly recommend Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church by Abram Van Engen (Eerdmans; $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59.) Jamie Smith calls it “a master class and love letter.” It really is the best comprehensive argument for why people of faith need to pay attention to poetry. It does inspire church folks to use poetry in worship and such but it really isn’t as much about the church, as such, but just how all of God’s children need the art of poetry.

What to know how some poets describe their work as a way of helping others see and imagine and feel and live differently?

You will love dipping into the many interviews found it the wonderful Rabbit Room project An Axe for the Frozen Sea: Conversations with Poets About What Matters Most by Ben Palpate (Rabbit Room Press; $18.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.40.) I’ve reviewed this before (noting how interestingly it is written, bringing you into the conversations with colorful description of the meetings) but wanted to suggest it again as it would be so good for anyone wanting to deepen their imaginative capacities. And, yes, there is a great interview with Malcolm Guite. This really is a fun book and highly recommended.

Speaking of great conversations with poets, Baylor University Press just released a remarkable work pulled together by two professors and working poets, George David Clark of Washington & Jefferson University in Western Pennsylvania and L.S. Klatt (a good, long-time friend) formerly of Pittsburgh and for many years, now, a beloved prof at Calvin University in Grand Rapids. It is called Playing with Fire: Christian Poets Reflect on Faith and Practice (Baylor University Press; $32.99 // OUR SALE PRICE =$26.39.) While I am positive this serious book will be of interest — that’s putting it blandly; it may be very exciting! — for ordinary readers, it is a must for poets and writers and English teachers.  It is so new I haven’t seen it yet, but it is shipping any day now. I trust the many rave reviews it has already gotten. Here are two you can trust that explain this smart work a bit.

These lively reflections on how faith and poetry intersect cover a surprising range. The writers’ deep appreciation of poets who preceded them infuses their essays with edifying gratitude. Poems, personal stories, and threads of theory offer readers rich food for thought, incentives to return to beloved poets, introductions to new ones, and ample reason to rejoice. — Marilyn McEntyre, author of When Poets Pray, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, and Start with a Word

This book is a symphony of words and a chorus of voices from which emerges a song about poetry. Hearing the singular Word echoing in the song of the Muses, these poets reflect on what it means to faithfully answer the call to create. Wonderfully oblique, bringing their poetic verve to prose, these essays are moving testimonies (the first paragraph of George David Clark’s contribution made me weep). Wander in their words and rekindle-or find-a devotion to poetry. — James K.A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin University, author of Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark

Nature Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets More Great Poetry Julian Peters (Plough Publishing) $29.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.96

Speaking of poetry and the imagination, one of the brand new and nothing-short-of-brilliant examples of a marvelously creative way to exercise our imaginations is to behold the amazing, new collection by Julian Peters who uses a variety of graphic novel / adult comic stylings to illustrate classic and contemporary poems. Like his previous (and equally amazing) Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry, the ever-interesting Plough Publishing invited Peters to re-interpret visually almost 25 poems of nature. In a variety of illustrative styles he does everything from “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening” to Hopkin’s “God’s Grandeur” to “Daybreak in Alabama” by Langston Hughes. From Emily Dickinson to Joy Harjo to Gwendolyn Brooks to Dylan Thomas to Wordsworth and Rossetti  and more — including some Asian writers of haiku, Nature Poems to See By is fabulous beyond words.

THE WORK OF MALCOLM GUITE

For a variety of reasons for this BookNotes column I want to highlight the work of Malcolm Guite. As you know from a previous BookNotes, we have been touting his new Galahad and the Grail which was so very handsomely produced by Rabbit Room Press. It released about a week ago. He’s an important literary figure, an ally and mentor in helping people of faith think deeply and nurture a sanctified imagination; he’s a working poet and writer at the top of his craft. Here are the books of his that you should know.

For what it is worth, my next “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” podcast (which you can watch on YouTube or listen to at Apple Podcasts or at Spotify) is a conversation with yours truly and my always energetic pal from the CCO, Phil Schiavoni, talking this time about Malcolm Guite. Google it in a few days and or watch our Hearts & Minds Facebook page where I always post the links. Enjoy!

Galahad and the Grail: Merlin’s Isle: An Arthuriad Malcolm Guite, illustrated by Stephen Crotts (Rabbit Room Press) $34.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $27.99

The accolades are building up, from the visionary sense of Guite’s project (the last person to do an large, epic poem of the Arthurian cycles was Tennyson over a century ago) to the sturdy and excellent craftsmanship of the book itself (kudos to Stephen Crotts for the amazing illustrations) to the poetically vivid storytelling. The award winning novelist (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and Piranesi) Susanna Clarke writes in the foreword that this is “an astonishing achievement, a ballad that picks you up and sweeps you onward into adventure, solemn magic, and beauty.”

The good folks at Rabbit Room note that Guite is in the epic footsteps of Spenser, Milton, Dante, and Tennyson “and is a story to be enjoyed by young and old alike, a story to be read aloud among friends and family, a story to be cherished for generations to come.” Will you take up the tale?

Our autographed copies are offered while supplies last.

Watch this beautifully filmed trailer for the book to see if it might inspire you. (It has some wonderful footage of a very, very old and exceptionally rare manuscript which you don’t want to miss.)

We are taking pre-orders for volume two in the Merlin’s Isle series, coming early November  2026, The Coming of Arthur, also illustrated by the exceptionally talented Stephen Crotts. (Rabbit Room Press) $34.95 // OUR PRE-ORDER PRICE = $27.99

Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God Malcolm Guite (Square Halo Books) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

I know I described this in my last BookNotes, thinking that reading about imagination would be a key aspect of discipleship informed by resurrection. I wrote that, for resurrectionaries needing a short but weighty reminder or some guidance about a faithful use of our imaginations, the four talks in Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God might be good for you.

The chapters are, “Imagination and the Kingdom of God”, “Christ and the Artistic Imagination”, “Christ and the Moral Imagination”, and “Christ and the Prophetic Imagination.”

In an epilogue Malcolm cites a Blake poem and reminds us that “all prophetic art is intended to arouse us and stir us to action. How do we awake from the deadly sleep?” This is the resurrectionary question — how wake up, how do we lift the veil?  Pondering this book is part of the answer.

The Word Within the Words Malcolm Guite (Fortress Press) $14.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.20

This little volume is in the fascinating “My Theology” series of short, compact-sized testimonials by aa vast array of contemporary thinkers, theologians, and scholars. I love this so much as it is a succinct introduction to the good insight that Christ Himself is the Word and therefore speech and language — words! — matter.  In Guite’s lovely prose he invites us to think how poetry itself (and, more widely, the poetic imagination) can help us (as it helps him) understand and interpret our faith.

There are short chapters on Scripture, liturgy, and sacraments, lots of Bible reflection, some theology and history and all kind of a sort of poetry, which after all, can help us stand in wonder at the Logos that “underlies all things.” As Guite nicely asserts, poetry is “capable of transfiguring our vision and transforming our lives.”

Mariner: A Theological Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge Malcolm Guite (IVP Academic) $42.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $34.39

This is in the great Studies in Theology and the Arts series that IVP Academic does (oh, they are all so good!) This may be Guite’s most academic study, a serious look at Coleridge and his famous poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

Guite shows that Coleridge’s own life paralleled the experience in his famous poem. As the publisher notes, “On this theological voyage, Guite draws out the continuing relevance of this work and the ability of poetry to communicate the truths of humanity’s fallenness, our need for grace, and the possibility of redemption.”

Malcolm Guite has established himself as one of the leading Christian poets of our time. This positions him to offer a distinctive reading of a poetic giant of the past, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. As expected, Mariner is exceptionally rich, penetrating, and absorbing. — Jeremy Begbie, professor of theology, director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts, Duke Divinity School, Duke University

Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination Malcolm Guides (Routledge) $62.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $50.39

If Mariner is one of the more magisterial gems of Guite’s scholarly work, this is certainly his crowing achievement in this genre. It is his breathtakingly vital poetics, a major contribution to theological reflection on the poetry and more. It is in the prestigious “Routledge Studies in Theology, Imagination and the Arts” line, for which serious students can rejoice.

Malcolm Guite, in this wide-ranging and original study, helps us see how poetry is — if we let ourselves be drawn in and shaped by it — a means of making connections with the fundamental way things are, and so too a way of connecting with a God who is himself a pattern of ‘connection’ as Trinity, open to share the divine reality with created life. Here are materials for a profound theology of the imagination, developed in dialogue with writers both familiar and unfamiliar, beautifully combining close reading with wide horizons. — Rowan Williams, author of A Century of Poetry: 100 Poems for Searching the Heart and Dostoevsky: Language, Faith, and Fiction.

• In Every Corner Sing: A Poet’s Corner Collection (Canterbury Press) $23.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.19
• Heaven in Ordinary: A Poet’s Corner Collection (Canterbury Press) $23.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.19
• Sounding Heaven & Earth: A Poet’s Corner Collection (Canterbury Press) $20.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.79

These three lovely volumes are each collections of Guite’s beloved back page columns from the UK The Church Times. Most of us here in the States don’t get to see these short essays but they are wonderul. It is said he offers acute observations, drawing together everyday events and encounters, landscape, journeys, poetry, stories, memory and a sense of the sacred.

On summary of one notes that it offers “more than seventy reflections that create momentary pauses in the bustle of life to take soundings, to savor an experience and hold it for a moment to the light before it slips away and ask, ‘Are there some hidden depths here?’”

Some of these “soundings delighting sound itself: in words, in sic, in bells and birdsong.” This is sweet, thoughtful, rich and reflective. No one is better, but each is a lovely collection.

POETRY

Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for Christian Year  Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $21.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.80

One of his most popular this offers lovely, useful poems in the sonnet form for the liturgical calendar. This is a somewhat expanded edition and his best-selling collection. Highly recommended.

The Singing Bowl: Collected Poems Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $16.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $12.80

This includes some of his earliest published work (from two out of print chap books.) It got a rave review in the importnt New Directions journal and has a blurb by Holly Ordway who says “we need Christian writers who can speak about both the dark and the light.”  Very good.

Parable and Paradox: Sonnets on the Sayings of Jesus and Other Poems Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $18.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.40

In a way, this is a return to the form of Sound the Seasons and while not exactly a sequel, does offer exceptional poems inspired by gospel texts. Hooray.

There are 50 sonnets that focus on many passages in the Gospels: the Beatitudes, parables and miracles, teachings on the Kingdom, and the ‘hard sayings’ – Jesus’ challenging demands with which we wrestle.

And, as it says on the back, “A sequence of five sonnets on ‘The Wilderness’, exploring mysterious stories of divine encounter such as Jacob’s wrestling with the angel, poetic reflections on music, hospitality and ecology.” There are seven short poems celebrating the days of creation. Nicely, there’s a biblical index pairing the poems with scripture readings for use in worship.

Love Remember: 40 Poems of Loss, Lament and Hope Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $21.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.80

Reflecting on the Holly Ordway quote, above, we are glad for this blend of works on loss and lament, and a grace-filled, sober hope. I wasn’t sure if I should list this here as it isn’t mostly his work but his selections, curation, and discussion of these forty amazing pieces. Some you will know, some you may not; there are lots of classic poets and some fresh voices.  This is a really, really valuable resource and I do suggest it..

After Prayer: New Sonnets and Other Poems Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $18.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.40

This is an extraordinary bit of work. Brit-lit geeks (and, well all of us, really) might enjoy knowing that the title sequence (as the book jacket explains) “is written in response to George Herbert’s beautiful and well-loved poem ‘Prayer’,and comprises twenty-seven sonnets which discover behind the poem’s quick succesion of dazzling images for prayer a deeper soul-story and a spiritual journey that reflects the heights and depths of human experience and mirrors the poet’s own journey.”

He’s up to something important here, standing on the shoulders of the elders, entering the conversation within the canon, even, but, at the end one realizes these are just lovely, even inspiring poems. Very nicely done.

David’s Crown: Sounding the Psalms Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $21.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.80

Oh my, this fairly recent collection is all inspired by the Psalms. It may be the one we’ve sold the most of and is well-loved by both seasoned poetry aficionados and newbies. There are 150 poems each one inspired by one of the Psalms.

As the publisher notes: “A corona is a crown, the pearly glow around the sun in certain astronomical conditions and a poetic form where interlinking lines connect a sequence. It is the perfect name therefore for this new collection of 150 poems by the bestselling poet Malcolm Guite, each one written in response to the Bible’s 150 psalms.”

Some of these are provocative, many are exquiste. The idea of a crown is cool  I’m not a fan of the cover, but the book is truly excellent.

Give it a try — and if it gets you more engaged in reading the Psalter, all the better, eh?

Word in the Wilderness: A Poem a Day for Lent and Easter Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $21.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.80

This is, in format, somewhat like the above-listed Love, Loss in that it is a devotional based on poems by others. He chooses a Lenten themed poem and reflects on it. Very good stuff, for sure. From Saint John of the Cross to Dante to Seamus Heaney to Czelaw Milosz to several of his own, this is fabulous.

If you get this now you may not be able to wait until next Lent, as so much of this is so rich and meaningful. Yes!

Waiting on the Word: A Poem a Day for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany Malcolm Guite (Canterbury Press) $16.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $12.80

This, too, is, like the one above for Lent and Eastertide, is a set of reflections inspired by poems, far flung from across time and space, as they say. Most are British but there are others, some are quite contemporary.

As above, there is an expert and often moving poem selected, then reflected upon. I hesitate to say it is “explained” as that isn’t quite it, but he ruminates bringing Advent waiting ad hope showing how these artful poems help us live into this season of the church calandar. There are pieces about Advent, yes, but some are classic Christmasy and on into Epiphany.

Nice choices, thoughtful stuff. I don’t know what I like better, his literary chops as a major critic or his priestly and pastoral work as a caring Christian leader. Bless the Lord, my friends!

Stations of the Resurrection: Encounters with the Risen Christ Malcolm Guite & Guli Francis-Dehqani, illustrated by Iain McKillop (Church House Publications) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39

Stations of the Resurrection offers reflections on each of the resurrection appearances described in the gospels from the bestselling poet Malcolm Guite and the much admired writer and bishop, Guli Francis-Dehqani, accompanied by color illustrations from the priest-artist Iain McKillop. Bishop Guli draws on her first hand knowledge of Middle Eastern culture to explore these stories and Malcolm Guite offers a sonnet in response to each of them – many published here for the first time – with reflections on the texts that inspired them. This imaginative and inspirational resource also includes the complete Stations of the Resurrection liturgies from Common Worship Times and Seasons that commemorate each of the nineteen events, allowing the book to be used for both personal devotional use and liturgical celebration.

…AND MORE

Wardrobes and Rings: Through Lenten Lands with the Inklings  Malcolm Guite, Julia Golding, and Simon Horobin (Canterbury Press) $21.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.80

Yes, this is a Lenten reader, a daily devotional with a full third of the pieces written by Guite. The whole book, though, exudes a fabulous familiarity with the Inklings and friends, with short, inspiring reading on Charles Williams and Dorothy Sayers, etcetera, etcetera. The title is fabulous, isn’t it? This is a must for fans!

Thank you, Malcolm Guite, for your Inkling-ish willingness to collaborate.

The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad edited by Jennifer Trafton, illustrated by Ned Bustard (Rabbit Room Press) $29.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.99

There is only one chapter here by Guite but as we now know he has been living in these Arthurian tales for a long time. This is a delightful and actually remarkable book — leather-covered with illustrations by Bustard, cleverly reported as recently found memoranda — with a handful of creative authors each offering an imagined new chapter of the Galahad stories. By turns whimsical and curious, spiritual and exciting, these are from the likes of Jonathan Rogers (a YA fiction wrier and Flannery O’Connor scholar, no less), Junius Johnson, Andrew Peterson, Doug McKelvey (famous for Every Moment Holy), Mark Bertram, Annie Nardone, and, of course, the 400-line ballad by Malcolm Guite. I had to list it here, eh?

Ordinary Saints: Living Everyday Life to the Glory of God edited by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

There’s a bit of a story here that’s fun and perhaps important. As you may know this is a big collection of inspiring (short) essays about how doing ordinary things can glorify God. Leaning into a spirituality of the mundane (and, I might add, the priesthood of all believers) common but Godly folks write about everything from gardening to making playlists to making love, from raising chickens to working in retail (by yours truly.) Some pieces are a bit serious (grand-parenting, mourning, Calvin Seerveld on knowing, Curt Thompson on being present) but one of the standouts is Malcolm Guite’s entertaining piece on smoking his pipe. In fact he created three poems about it, too (and explains why) so you not only get this rare essay by Guite on glorifying God through this relaxing practice but get three poems not published elsewhere.

And here, then, is the story: designer Ned Bustard used a great piece by Stephen Crotts of Guite smoking a pipe to illustrate that chapter and, or so I’ve heard, Guite liked it so much he ended up asking Stephen to the UK where they hiked around dreaming up the design for Guite’s Galahad. Everybody loves the Crotts’s black and white linocut and wood engraving in Galahad and the Grail (not to mention the cover design) and we might suggest this is where their collaboration began. That linocut first done for Ordinary Saints now graces the back flyleaf of the cover of Galahad the Grail. Hooray.

Every Moment Holy Volume III: The Work of the People compiled and edited by Doug McKelvey & Ned Bustard (Rabbit Room Press) 

standard edition – larger-sized leather-bound hardback $35.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $28.00 OR personal edition –  smaller-size leather-bound soft, flexible $25.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $20.00

Please remember to tell us which size you want.

Many know and love the four Every Moment Holy editions. The first three volumes are done in two editions or versions, the larger hardback or the smaller flexible compact one. Volumes I and II are both by McKelvey & Bustard but Volume III is a bit different. The art is by various illustrators using their own styles of woodcuts, linocuts and other black & white prints. And the prayers are by a variety of authors, writing out lovely litanies for ordinary life and daily things. What a way to sanctify the mundane, to liturgically offer prayer for real world episodes. Some of the prayers are older, classic, even, and some are crafted by modern writers. And yes, Malcolm Guite has more than one offering here. It’s a big book laden with lovely words and mature praying, but figured we should alert you that Guite is a contributor. So is Stephen Crotts. Thanks be to God.

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BookNotes

RESURRECTIONARY LIVING

Okay, I’ll admit. Maybe it’s hokey word.

I know it hasn’t caught on since I last used it here.

(Look back at some of the archived post-Easter BookNotes columns if you’d like; I’ve done a few on this very theme.)

I do kinda like the contrast with the over-used “revolutionary” word. (With apologies to N.T. Wright, whose book The Day the Revolution Began on the new-creation implications of the cross I truly, truly love.) I’m no political philosopher but I think Abraham Kuyper, the early 20th century pastor turned public theologian who became the Prime Minister of Holland, was on to something when he called his Christian political party the anti-revolutionary party. They were protesting the ugly “throw the baby out with the bathwater” overturning everything zeal of the French Revolutionaries, with their secularizing ideologies and guillotines. So Kuyper wanted reformation, not revolution. One doesn’t need to read Edmund Burke to see the wisdom of that.

But yet there is something pretty dramatic — in a way, revolutionary — about the claim that God came to Earth in a real human body, died, and was risen as a foretaste of the restoration of creation project God is all about. What Jesus called His Kingdom. What Wright calls, in his brand new one, God’s Homecoming. With Christ the crucified as risen King — “you can trust at God with scars” says Jared Ayers in his book by that name — we are, the Bible says, swept up in the movement, participants in the regime change, fueled by the Holy Spirit power that rose Christ out of the grave.

Here are a handful of books that come to mind that would help you double down on this essential truth. I know you’ll be told on Easter Sunday that the resurrection is everything. Maybe these books will help explore more of what that means and help you live it out.

You may know I love the old Rob Bell video simply called Resurrection. It is so spot on. There’s a line part way through when he stops amidst the visual sizzle and dramatic words about all of life being redeemed and he looks at the camera and asks Do. You. Believe. This?

As you’ve entered the story of God’s passion in these weeks we call Lent and especially when you experience the services of Holy Week and feel the horror of it all anew — for some of us it is reassuring that we are not alone in our suffering and the Holy Week church services are so very meaningful — you will then be primed for the mystery of Holy Saturday and the glories of Easter. It’s too early to say it now, but you know what we will shout on Sunday morning.

So if He is risen (indeed) then, so what?

Here are two handfuls of titles that could help connect some dots or inspire you anew. Some are for those who want sophisticated reading and others are a bit more basic; there is something for everyone. I won’t say as much about them as I could. Order them now and you’ll be glad next week to have some hefty help in being a resurrectionary.

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12 about the cross and resurrection

Resurrection: 8 Lessons on How God Restores Us Derek Vreeland (NavPress) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

“Never again will death have the last word.” This is large on the back of this “God in the Neighborhood” Bible study, a really fine and creatively done group study perhaps inspired by the Eugene Peterson paraphrase (from The Message) of John 1 where Christ “moves into the neighborhood.” The first excellent study in this series was Incarnation, followed by Crucifixion, and then this recent Resurrection which leads us through the Easter story where — as they put it — “God joins us in life anew.”

Life anew. I like that. Sounds resurrectionary. Or maybe like that line from the old Anglican and Lutheran liturgy (from Romans 8:4) about “walking in newness of life.”

I’m a fan of Vreeland’s books. He has a degree from Asbury and works with Brian Zahn at Word of Life Church in Missouri. I so appreciated his book Centering Jesus which reminds us that Christian discipleship is about conforming our ways to Jesus, becoming Christ-like. Anyway, he’s a good thinker and fine writer and in this 8-session study we explore the Easter story and how it leads to new life. Part of this newness, this study shows, is our own restoration to wholeness, with and in God.

There’s a small bit of reading and a closing prayer so even if you don’t have a group with whom to study this, you can use it devotionally or in your own bit of quiet time. The Message paraphrase of the Biblical texts keeps this fresh and applicable.

Journey into Joy: Stations of the Resurrection Andrew Walker (Paulist Press) $21.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.56

We only have a few of these in stock but it is a wonderful book — full color art on sturdy, glossy paper — that adapts the classic Roman Catholic “Stations of the Cross” with a set of studies that follow Jesus and his disciples after the resurrection. It’s designed for the 40 days between the Resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, highlighting the different places and ways in which Christ appears.

Not only is this richly illustrated with classic art, graphic quotes, and good design, there are Scripture reflections, poetry and prayer to help “lead the reader into an experience of the profound and transforming joy found in our risen Lord.”

Of the many paintings you’ll find pieces from Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, El Greco, Grunewald and more. Walker’s own good words are enhanced with lines from Chesterton, Kierkegaard, Niebuhr, Maya Angelou, and the powerful poem by Latin American poet and activist Julia Esquivel, “Threatened with Resurrection.” Very nice.

The Bedrock of Christianity: The Unalterable Facts of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection Justin W. Bass (Lexham Press) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

I could say a lot about this short (under 225 trim-sized pages) and punchy book, but suffice it to say it is a really solid argument explaining the evidence for and reliability of the historical information about the death and resurrection of Christ, the very bedrock of faith.  Bass is a good scholar (he’s been in friendly debates with everybody from Bart Ehrman to Mufti Hussain Kamani) and teaches New Testament at in Amman, Jordan.

This is an excellent succinct look at the historical data about Jesus, including a clear summary of what we know about the cruxificition, the resurrection, and the eye-witnesses who encountered him in his new body. The last big chapter is called “The Rise of the Nazarenes” and its a fabulous look at the influence of the followers of Jesus, including brief shou-outs to the great art, literature, music, and social reforms created by followers of Jesus or those in the wake of those living as resurrectionaries down through history. This is informative and useful for anyone, believer or not.

Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life Eugene Peterson (NavPress) $9.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $7.99

Speaking of brother Eugene. This little book by Peterson has three short chapters opening up the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. Resurrection wonder,  resurrection meals, and resurrection friends. There’s a truly memorable introduction by his son Eric Peterson.  Blurbs include lovely comments by Orthodox writer Frederica Matthews-Green, evangelical spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton, Catholic spiritual writer Susan Muto, Methodist preacher William Willimon, and more.

Easter: The Season of the Resurrection of Jesus Wesley Hill (IVP) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I’ve talked about the Fullness of Time series endlessly but for those who have missed it, they are a set of seven small, compact hardbacks (curated and edited by Esau McCaulley) reflecting on the history of one season of the church calendar. Done by different folks of a generally Anglican bent, they offers insights about Biblical teaching informing the season and how that shapes the liturgy, habits practices, and spirituality for those who enter into those phases of Christian living. They are not daily devotionals but they are concise and really, really inspiriting. From Advent to Christmas to Epiphany, from Lent and now to Easter, they are all fabulous. The Pentecost one — to be read anytime, of course, but we celebrate the “day of power for all people” in May — by Fr. Emilio Alvarez is good and the most recent — Ordinary Time: The Season of Growth by Amy Peeler is fantastic.

Anyway, if you want a reminder of the Biblical, theological, and spiritual basis of a resurrectionary lifestyle inspired by rituals and habits experienced at church — and why Easter is a full season, not just a single day — I can’t say enough about this wise and celebratory reflection by the great Wes Hill. Order it today.

Wes is an Episcopal priest and energetic professor of New Testament at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan.

Living Easter: 50 Days to Practice Resurrection Laura Kelly Fanucci (Ave Maria Press) $24.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.96

She starts with the words of St. John Paul II, who said, “We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song!”

What a great idea from this beloved Roman Catholic writer, speaker, and blogger (her Substack is The Holy Labor.) She has been on many Catholic media outlets as well as NPR’s Morning Edition, On Being, and The Kelly Clarkson Show. She is upbeat and down to Earth (and funny; her Substack on surviving cancer is called Not a Caring Bridge But a Compassionate Brigade.)

This is her new book which is a simple but clear-headed, wise set of Biblical reflections on the post-resurrection accounts of Jesus, each arranged with a reflection, a invitation to pray, and an (almost always very practical, do-able) action suggestion. There is brightly colored ink in the headlines and nice paper and a few colorful super graphics. Living Easter captures the spirit of living Easter. She has dual degrees from Notre Dame and an advanced MDiv but keeps this plainspoken and inspirational.

This book is not only thoughtful but also profoundly practical, offering ways to make Easter a daily reality. I recommend it to anyone who longs to carry the light of Easter into every corner of life. — Fr. Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP, cohost of the Gosdplaining podcast

The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross Brian Zahnd (IVP) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I have written a bit about this before, always saying how beautiful it is, how it includes full color art, that it draws in history and literature and Dylan, of course. (Zahnd is a famous preacher and writer and he knows his Dylan.)  He explains that theologians and anyone who speaks about God must do so at the foot of the cross, that in this singular event, all that we need to know about God is present. I’ve suggested this for Lent, of course, but I think it would be wise to visit it any time. The penultimate chapter is about resurrection  — “The Lamb Upon the Throne”— and the final piece is resurrectionary, a reflection on Christ holding all things together as it says so poetically in Colossians 1.

To the apostolic witnesses, the cross of Christ was never a theory to be solved by theologizing, as if the calculative mind could solve its mysteries through abstraction. The cross can only be narrated, beheld, and shared as a transforming testimony–proclaimed in sermons, symbols, and parables, in the poetry and hymns of lives it has rebirthed. For over four decades, Brian Zahnd has been a poet-preacher-prophet of the cross. I daresay he’s an eyewitness theologian who kneels at its foot. This book is his revelation of who he has seen there. — Bradley Jersak, St. Stephen’s University, New Brunswick,  author of A More Christlike Word

The Suffering and Victorious Christ: Towards a More Compassionate Christology Richard Mouw & Douglas Sweeney (Baker Academic) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

This short, older book is accessible if on a deep topic. It is asking how it is that the Christ who made all things — include his fellow humans — also suffers with them. That is, it is that “you can trust a God with scars” thing, again. Yes, it is about the cross, but it is also about who Christ is (that’s the “Christology” word in the subtitle) and how Christ’s suffering is part of His glory. And it is about his victory.

What are the lived implications (they have a chapter on “application”) of the idea that the victorious Christ is also the Christ who suffers? Shouldn’t any resurrectionary project or missional sort of discipleship be shaped by the very ways in which Christ is victorious?

Here’s the thing: they get at this bit of “divine empathy” by exploring African American images and the spiritual insights of people of color. They look at Japanese Christians and black theology and listen to the pain of the oppressed. There is an excellent afterword by one of the most astute thinkers about race, Willie James Jennings.

Arise: A 50-Day Journey into the Mystery of the Resurrection Laura Bedingfeld (Sophia Institute Press) $18.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.16

I have not looked at this big volume much but Bedingfeld’s biblical spirituality has been informed by years of Lectio Divina and careful, prayer and study. She is a dedicated Roman Catholic laywoman (in London) who has written widely about contemplative spirituality and living with theological understanding.

Alfred J. Freddoso, Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame says, “This book promises a depth of understanding that we can translate into concrete resolutions for the daily living out of our role as witnesses of the Resurrection.” Gayle Somers (author of Whispers of Mary: What Twelve Old Testament Women Teach Us About Mary) says it is so wonderfully done that “it will fill your heart with joy and exaltation.”

Resurrection and Renewal: Jesus and the Transformation of Creation Murray A. Rae (Baker Academic) $28.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.19

Murray Rae, with a PhD from the University of London, is a professor of theology and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church Aotearoa, New Zealand. He’s written a lot, and this new one on the renewal wrought by the resurrection is (according to Joel Green) “both learned and theologically formative, even edifying.” Lucy Peppiatt of the Westminster Theological Center says it is “beautifully written, biblically-rooted, and theological rich.” It is heady, but insists that the bodily resurrection truly changes everything.

Allan Torrance (emeritus at University of St. Andrews) says it is “the most important and, indeed, exciting book on the resurrection to have emerged in half a century.”  Wow.

Whispers of Revolution: Jesus and the Coming of God as King Michael Bird (Baker Academic) $39.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $31.99

There’s that revolutionary word, again, but I trust Bird so very much I’ll give him a pass. He certainly doesn’t imply we are sweeping away all of history; Bird explore’s how Jesus’s work is a fulfillment of ancient prophecy and that He is Israel’s savior. For him, this Kingdom “revolution” will be a restoration of all creation — not a demolishing but a healing. This is not as spicy and applicable as some of the stuff has done with N.T. Wright — think of Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies — but it shows his academic writing as a historical theologian.  It is said he “forges a path through the tangle of” theories and scholarly debates about the historical Christ to propose the compelling idea that “Jesus was driven by the conviction that through his words and work, his mission and message, God was unveiling his kingdom in a way that would rescue Israel and eventually restore the whole world.”

He studies and explains the relevance of archaeology and Judean history and apocalypticism and “scrutinizes the sayings of Jesus” to show how this man, crucified by the Romans, “became the catalyst for a movement that would defy and then consume the Roman Empire.”

Liberated at the Cross: Peace and Reconciliation in God’s Kingdom Kristel Acevedo (IVP) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

 I said something like this a while ago when I commended this as a Lenten study. But, just as much, it is ideal for your group to study together to learn to be cross-centered resurrectionaries. Listen:

I am telling you, I have never seen such a rich and thoughtful small group Bible study on the topic of the cross and the social implications of a theology of atonement for peace and public justice. Okay, I’ve never seen any kind of Bible study on this (although there is a huge body of often academic literature showing how the cross brings both personal justification and cosmic reconciliation, how Christ’s death defeats the principalities and powers, how the victory of Christ in resurrection leads to a Kingdom of healing and restoration, etc. etc. etc.)

If you know that vast literature — whether its the teaching about the cross from John Stott or Ron Sider or James Cone or Jorgen Moltmann or Brian Zahnd or Sylvia Keesmaat or NT Wright or others with their unique contributions — you may have longed for their full-orbed visions of the transformative power of the cross to be offered in accessible Bible study formats. This is it and I am excited and grateful to Kristel Acevedo and to IVP for daring to do such a helpful, radical, faithful resource. Get a bunch and spread the word. This helps unpack what we should have known all along (but usually missed) about the resurrectionary implications of this climax of the Biblical story.

Each section is enhanced with bold super-graphics and bright headlines and cool, colorful design and each week has QR codes that have amazing videos to watch; this is not your father or mother’s fill-in-the-blank Bible study booklet. Nope, this is chock-full of ideas and activities and good, good conversation starters to help you be rooted in the cross and dream for a better world. The best part, of course, is the solid Biblical study you’ll do for six or more sessions. There are review pieces, “self-check” notes, closing prayers and more. Kristel, by the way, is discipleship director at Transformation Church a multiethnic community (pastored by Derwin Gray, author most recently of Lit by Love) near Charlotte NC. Highly recommended.

12 that could be useful for resurrectionary living

A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance Diana Butler Bass (St. Martin’s Essentials) $28.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.19

I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t believe it, but I believe that thinking about time in a truly Biblically way, cultivating a deeply theologically and spiritually-imbued sense of our calendar is a key to living full of resurrectionary vigor. Hope isn’t a thing that is time-less, abstractly future, but something we live into anticipating the new creation that has actually begun. Now but not yet, we say. To think well about time we need philosophers like Jamie Smith (and his 2022 treasure, How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully in the Now) or studies of the church calendar like, say, Sr. Joan Chittister’s The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Advent of the Spirit Life. But for the most immediate way into thinking about time in a renewed way, to have your vision of your year shaped by the liturgical seasons, Bass’s A Beautiful Year is a can’t miss, fabulously written, oh-so-relevant set of reflections about just this. Yes, it starts in Advent but you can dip in anywhere, starting now in her excellent session about Holy Week and then Eastertide. These are very good.

This has been one of our biggest selling books of late last year and early this year, and I am very proud to call Diana a friend and supporter of our work here. I’m biased, true, but I think this book of weekly reflections is a great resource for anyone wanting to live wisely and fruitfully in these days.

In a blurb on the back cover, ecologist and activist Bill McKibben notes that in our cultural moment “many can’t summon the energy or hope required.” That’s why this book is important and how it can help. As Mariann Edgar Budde says, Bass is, “at once a teacher and fellow pilgrim” and “a wondrous guide.”

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

I won’t say much more about this as I’ve highlighted it a few times. It could be seen as a more thorough, deeply Biblical, sequel to his game-changing Surprised By Hope. The vivid and important subtitle of that one explains this new one, too, it seems: “Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.” You see, this bit about God’s offering future renewal — the very good news of a very wonderful second coming — is central. As it says on the back cover of God’s Homecoming: “Everything changes when you begin to believe God’s plan has never been to leave the world secreted and loves, but to dwell with us.”

Of course the cosmic (that is, creation-wide) restoration of all good stuff is shouted at loudly in bodily resurrection. We’re not waiting around until we die to get to heaven, we are living as new creatures now, full of grace with hints of glory.

I jumped ahead to peek at chapter 14 entitled “Life Beyond Death and the Calling of the Church.” What are we waiting for? We’re going to have to switch up the script a bit (as he notes in chapter 8) and learn to re-read texts more faithfully. We need to think about God, the Bible, and the human vocation in fresh ways. His chapter on worship, evangelism and pray gives plenty to chew on. His chapter on sacraments points towards a deeper understanding of a sacramental universe.  What a book!

What If Jesus Was Serious About Heaven? A Visual Guide to Experiencing God’s Kingdom Among Us Skye Jethani (Brazos Press) $16.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59

I’ve described these cartoony, multicolored, cleverly illustrated field guides to Christian living before. He did What If Jesus Was Serious which was about the Sermon on the Mount and follow that up with What if Jesus Was Serious About Church and What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer, all wonderful little books falloff resurrectionary zip and clever teaching. Teens would even get a kick out of them, I’d think. Eventually  he did one called What If Jesus Was Serious About Justice which, again, is fun and illustrated, a real visual guide, as he puts to what the Bible demands on us.

The one, What If Jesus Was Serious About Heaven is brilliant. It is about the theme of the Kingdom of God and how our final destination is not living as disembodied souls in heaven, but in the return of God to create the new city, a restored culture in a renewed world. This “new heavens and new Earth” is straight Bible, but new to many. To live out of the resurrection experience — as resurrectionaries, as I put it — we must embrace a Kingdom vision. We have to admit that we’ve missed much Jesus’s own teaching about His inauguration of the reign of God.

It may not be exactly right to say this, and I have no idea if Jethani would agree, but in a way, this book is N.T. Wright’s eschatology for beginners. Surprised by Hope and now God’s Homecoming are extraordinary books, accessible and yet a bit demanding. What If Jesus Was Serious About Heaven — that is, what he really said and meant — could be your quick introduction tooth’s big picture stuff. It exalts Christ and helps us (especially visual learners) with cartoons and arrows and illustrations and charts. So fun! Let’s go!

Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People Nicholas G. Piotrowski (Crossway) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

This is another in a series which we’ve sometimes highlighted, Crossway’s “Short Studies in Biblical Theology.” This one explores themes of exile and homecoming, the restoring grace shown to God’s people in several instances in Scripture as the plot unfolds towards the fulfillment of the promises of God. Humankind’s separation from God begins with Adam and Eve exiled from Eden and then “echoes in the events throughout the Bible.” From various characters and even the imagery of tabernacle and temple, there is a promise of return and hope of restoration.

As it says on the back cover, “All of this climaxes in Jesus as he restores his people from exile into the joyful exception of the coming renewal of all things.” In fact, one chapters is called “Jesus into and out of the tomb.”

This little gem of meaty thinking can offer at least one big metaphor for living in these resurrectionary times. Maybe we can start thinking of ourselves (as Walsh & Bouma-Predigar suggest in Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement) as stewards of renewed homes in restored places, anticipating cosmic homecoming from our displacement. The themes in Piotrowski’s little book of Biblical scholarship can fund insightful considerations of new ways to live into this central theme of return and renewal and restoration.

The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross Will Willimon (Abingdon) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

If I’d been more on top of things I would have realized this came out a few months ago, in time for a perfect Lenten read. Some of you (if your preachers follow the lectionary) were hearing sermons about the parables this season.  And if not, if you are a church-goer, or a Bible reader, you know a bit about the parables, right?

Willimon calls some of the riddles. Every page a blast. His moving introductory chapter I’ve read twice already, it is so rich. He offers these curious reflections on the parables (many quite brilliant) in the context of the time in Jesus’s life when he was heading to Jerusalem. He was heading towards the last supper. It is remarkable how this seasoned preacher and Bible exegete weaves the conversations Jesus was having with his disciples into the very actions of the last supper.

These “conversations that led to the cross” are so good, they are not to be missed. So what if you just did a sermon series of parables — all the better for this fresh take. So what if we’re in the season of Eastertide, living into the power of the resurrection. Part of resurrectionary living is always being grounded by our fundamental story, which certainly climaxes in what we now call Holy Week. So bring it on, anytime. I’ve read a lot of Will Willimon, and this is one of his best in a very long time.

If you journey with Jesus as he heads toward his last meal you’ll have to put up with his riddles.

What kind of Son of God, Prince of Peace, Savior of the World, would end up at super, the night before his death, with a cluster of losers, promising them a place at the table in his coming Kingdom?

This book is your answer.

Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom (revised edition) Walter Brueggemann (Santos Books) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

This was one of the earliest books by the great Walter Brueggemann, written for his UCC community in 1972 (that is, before his ground-breaking Prophetic Imagination or The Land.) It went through a reprint, and, then, a different publisher (Chalice) put it out under the title Peace (in their “Understanding Biblical Themes” series.) Now, Brueggemann’s late-in-life good friend, Conrad Kanagy, put it out in an expended, updated edition that has a new foreword by Walter. I wonder if it was the last major thing he wrote before his death last year.

I was deeply influenced by this book; most of my peace studies were by New Testament scholars and evangelical peaceniks. Brueggemann was not Anabaptist and a vibrant Old Testament guy. His words were life-changing for me, and I am delighted that Conrad got permission from Brueggemann to re-do this book with a fresh reprint.

It seems to me that for anyone who is living in the power of Christ’s resurrection, rooted in His reconciling work through His death on the cross, must work out what they think about being a peacemaker, working for shalom in this fracturedworld. Such peacemakers will help us resist the dangerous idols of Mammon and Mars, will “hunger and thirst” for the righteous of God which, in a word, can easily be summed up as shalom. If we don’t know the many usages of this in Scripture (and the contexts, often military and strategic) we will be ill-prepared to faithfully bear witness to the restoration of creation that God promises.

The Bible attests, writes Brueggemann in his new foreword, “that God is willing and able to tame, domesticate, and finally defeat the power of chaos…” Later, after naming the current threats of chaos, he proclaims that “the gospel is a summons and an empowerment to an alternative.” That’s resurrectionary! Get this book!!

To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times Alan Noble (IVP) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

We had highlighted this earlier as one to pre-order and it has now arrived (and we sent out copies to those who pre-ordered it.) Skip back a week or two if you’d like to see more of my initial comments. But trust me, Noble is a wise and good writer, somebody you will enjoy reading and appreciate for his clarity and insight. He’s culturally savvy, deeply Biblical, a bit of a philosopher — he’s a literature professor, actually — and yet deeply practical. His previous book was about emotional health and psychic and moral resilience, called On Getting Out of Bed, which I myself found reassuring and helpful.

This new one is fantastic, direct and no-nonsense, a study of virtue. If we are going to be resurrectionaries, pushing for God’s reform in all areas of life — honoring our place in history, making peace with the proximate, alive to the Spirit’s dreams — we are simply going to have to be deeper, better people. We have to live well.

One of the marketing pieces from the publisher said, “You were told to live a meaningful life but n one ever told you how.”  We are exhausted from the competing messages, with little clarity about what really matters and how to embody coherent values. In To Live Well you’ll be helped with explanations of our fragmented culture (and the mixed messages we get and the battering of our attention.) He writes about our moral imagination and true, human flourishing.

I love the simple structure of this with titles about renewed habits and conscientious practices. (That Justin Whitmel Earley wrote the foreword says something of the practical edge to this.) The chapters are Choosing Decisively, Acting Justly, Suffering Steadfastly, Living Moderately, Believing Soundly, Hoping Resolutely,  and Loving Rightly.

Near the end he writes, “As society continues to spin away from any sort of central moral standard, and as norms continue to shift, we will continue to feel an aching anxiety about what it means to live as a full human person.”  This means we need community, we need to be aware of our own failures embracing a God-based perseverance; we need grace.

Better Than Normal: Virtues for an Off-Script Life MaryAnn McKibben Dana (Eerdmans) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

If the carefully-written, sober book by Alan Noble (a Baptist university professor) seems a bit heavy, then this one— written by a mainline denominational pastor and stand up comic — might be more your speed. I love her assumption in this brand new release that “normal is a myth — and recognizing that truth can free us all.” If the world is obsessed with fitting in, Better Than Normal gives us a better image, a better way, a vision of knowingly not fitting in. (Didn’t the Bible say something about being “non conformed.”) Think of MLK’s call to be righteously “maladjusted.”

I was captivated by Dana’s first book, a fun memoir called Sabbath in the Suburbs and really enjoyed her book called God, Improv, and the Art of Living. A few years ago she did Hope: A User’s Manuel. She is an associate pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Herndon, VA, a generous PC(USA) church that underscores the essential dignity of all. It seems to be a “better than normal” community.

In Better Than Normal McKibben Dana shares a bit about the mental health struggles in her family and critiques how society shapes our understanding of worthiness and belonging. As it says on the back (I haven’t read it yet as it just came a day ago) “Her expansive vision encompasses anyone living outside society’s narrow bounds: neurodivergent individuals, LGBTQ+ people, racial minorities, those with disabilities and more. And she demonstrates that liberation comes not from adjusting to dominant culture, but from creating spaces where all people can thrive authentically.”

Here’s are the chapters, three in each of two sections.

• Part 1: Individual Values
• 1. From Certainty to Curiosity
• 2. From Comfort to Courage
• 3. From Productivity to Presence
• Part 2: Communal Values
• 4. From Artifice to Authenticity
• 5. From Blandness to Beauty
• 6. From Competition to Community
• Perhaps we could describe this as an upbeat guide to “the collective work of transformation.”

Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God Malcolm Guite (Square Halo Books) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

Oh my, surely we know that a part of bearing witness to the newness Christ is bringing to His fallen world is a renewed focus on goodness and beauty. We simply must have the renewed mind (as Romans 12:2 calls it) and more generally, must work to place ourselves under the influence of those who will stoke our imaginations in life-giving ways. There are so many books these days about the arts and creativity, about renewing our efforts to promote the allusive gifts of imagination and play. Not all of us are artists, of course, but we all are call to steward and cultivate the imaginative sides of our lives. We need novels and paintings, poets and singers, potters and playwrights. You get the picture.

Malcolm Guite is a world-class poet from the UK (we stock all of his poetry volumes) who has also given considerable time pondering a Christian aesthetic. He wonders about the imagination and seems to be on a quest. (Some think he may actually be some sort of hobbit.) His work, here, now in this lovely short book, was originally given as dynamic lectures at Regent College in British Columbia; these presentations have been handsomely compiled and illustrated with all kinds of great art — old etchings by Blake and modern charcoal by Wayne Forte and handsome woodcuts by Stephen Cross and a famous illustration of The Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, and more. He gives rightful kudos to Square Halo Books for releasing this important contribution, sort of a foundation for his poetic work.

You may recall that I invited folks to pre-order Guite’s now brand new Galahad and the Grail, so very handsomely done by Rabbit Room Press ($34.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $27.99.) It is the first time in over a century that a poet has done an epic ballad telling the whole Knights of the Roundtable, Guinevere, Lancelot and King Arthur stories. We heard him lecture on this last week and it fired our imaginations greatly. We have some autographed copies left, if anybody wants to order them at our 20% off. Galahad, by the way, is the first of a projected four volume set that will come out over the next two years. This first one is one of the most handsome and well-made books I’ve seen this year.

Anyway, for resurrectionaries needing a short but weighty reminder or some guidance about a faithful use of our imaginations, the four talks in Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God by Malcolm Guite might be good for you. The chapters are, “Imagination and the Kingdom of God”, “Christ and the Artistic Imagination”, “Christ and the Moral Imagination”, and “Christ and the Prophetic Imagination.”

In an epilogue Malcolm cites a Blake poem and reminds us that “all prophetic art is intended to arouse us and stir us to action. How do we awake from the deadly sleep?” This is the resurrectionary question — how do we lift the veil?  Pondering this book is part of the answer.

Made to Belong: Five Practices for Cultivating Community in a Disconnected World David Kim (Thomas Nelson) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

I suppose sometime I should do a whole BookNotes column about living in community, about relationships transformed and healed, about church life and such. From the classic Life Together by Bonhoeffer to the treasure Living Into Community by the late Christine Pohl, there are so, so many good ones. Just yesterday we got The Way Back to One Another: How to Live as People Created for Community by Jeff Galley & Phillip N. Smith (IVP; $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19. One of the authors is a central Pennsylvania guy and it looks really good.)

For this list, I want to list something for resurrectionaries who want to make a difference in their lives, living well for God’s Kingdom without falling into quietude and personalism on one hand or zealous revolutionary idealism on the other. How do we keep our spirits up in these crazy times? How do we discern what is ours to do? How do we continue on in spiritual practices that are hard (even if life-giving and transformative in the long haul.) Where can we find healing from our wounds and brokenness? How do we really become resurrectionaries in practice?

One part of the answer is that we simple have to have a band of friends around us to help us on the Christian journey. As every such books insists, we cannot go it alone. The Christian life is by definition a matter of being enfolded intern alternative community, a fellowship of friends, a support network, a life-shaped tribe. Each and every one of us needs supportive community.

David Kim’s book is one of the best we’ve seen on this question about how community can help shape our deepened discipleship. Sure, we have the felt need of a “great ache of loneliness” and community is the antidote to that. (Justin Earley’s Made for People: Why We Drift Into Loneliness and How to Fight for a Life of Friendship [$19.99 // $15.99] is a great resource on that — highly recommended. )

Made To Belong is ideal for reading alone or in a group, and it seems to me to have an air of resurrection about it. That is, you can do this! It is positive. These are practices taken up by those who believe God is at work in the world and want to participate in Christ’s redemptive mission. Kim draws from Biblical wisdom and has plenty of personal stories. It’s a good read. He has experience in pastoral ministry and he knows how to guide us into how to get involved with others, on how to really belong. From research about best practices to theology and spiritual formation to practical guidance, Made to Belong shares plenty.

He offers five simple, powerful practices for creating a meaningful and transformative community. I am sure that this book will help you deepen your relationship with others and you relationship with God.

Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate Steven Garber (Paraclete Press) $24.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.96

I quipped a previous time I highlighted Steve’s important and altogether lovely recent book that I was going to keep telling folks about it, over and over, if needs be. I really do think, in ways perhaps to complicated to explain here, that it is a very rare books, unique in it’s impact and extraordinary for the ways in which those who love it become very humble but devoted fans of Steve and his work. Part of it is that Steve evokes a seriousness of relationships on line and in his rigorous speaking schedule. If somebody wants to take ideas serious, if someone is seeking coherent and meaning and stamina for living meaningfully in our time, in their own ways and places, he will talk. He will stay in touch. He will recommend books and articles. (He will send them to us, sometimes, so we can be their personal bookseller.) He wants quite earnestly to be of service so the words he labored over come to life in the lives of readers.

The heart of this book seems resurrectionary to me. That is, he is asking, even if we are alive in the power of the Spirit, shaped by vibrant worship, aligned with the risen Lord, there is, for most of us, the very tough question of how we sustain what Peterson’s famous book calls us to: a long obedience in the same direction. How do we keep on keeping on, knowing what we know about the brokenness of the world. Can our story be sustained by framing it by the bigger Story of all stories?

The lovely cover hints at a story early in the book about Steve’s love of seashells. He’s eloquent in showing how beauty shines through the brokenness of each one. Drawing on great literature and film he draws us in, over and over, to visions that can sustain us for the long haul. He tells wonderful stories from around the world, many which are woven together in such as way that they would resonate deeply with each other. He will write of an urban doctor who cares for the homeless or a fabulous vignette about his hero John Perkins or a window into the lives of those working in the Telos Group who labors for peacemaking among Israeli’s and Palestinians, brave folks who offer goodness day and night, and then he’ll highlight the Japanese art form using broken pottery called kintsugi, as told by Mako Fujimura. The book covers so much — it meanders a bit, in the best way — but hangs together to help readers deeply understand and cultivate this way of seeing.

A chapter called “Love in the Ruins” (swiping from Walker Percy) maybe says it best.

The book looks hard at this sad world but it is — get this! — not bleak. It is full of hope and invites us to habits of hopefulness that will endure. His key is “making peace with the proximate” and you’ll have to read the book to get all the nuances and wisdom of that.

Can we continue on in hope of the coming restoration by living into the resurrection now, bit by bit, honoring the deepest realities of life? With gladness of heart, even, yes, indeed.  Without simplistic formulas or more to-do lists, Hints of Hope is a book to live with in this season of joy.

Resurrection & Contemporary Spirituality: Navigating Faith in an Uncertain World edited by David Ponta & Amanda Avila Kaminski (Paulist Press) $32.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $26.36

This is an academic book for serious scholars of theology and spirituality, maybe what might seem a tad arcane, but the title makes it too good not to share in this list. The overarching question in this anthology of 13 chapters (and a fine epilogue by Philip Sheldrake) is what the relationship is between the facts and creedal affirmation of the resurrection of Christ and our own spiritual lives in the “the secular age.” In the heady but captivating preface they suggest the book is seeking “A Resurrection Spirituality: An Easter Imagination for Everyday Life.” See what I mean! So apropos and so exciting.

The book Resurrection and Contemporary Spirituality offers a wide-ranging and appreciative conversation  with Sandra Schneiders,

The first major chapter is, in fact, by the world class scholar Sandra Schneiders, a nun with degrees in philosophy, patristics, New Testament, and spirituality from prominent Catholic institutions like Institute Catholique in Paris and the Gregorian in Rome who taught at an important Jesuit school in Santa Clara, California.  Her opening piece is called “Christian Spirituality in an Age of Uncertainty” which sets the stage. The next chapter is a response to Schneiders (by Bernard McGinn of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago) called “Insights from the Easter Sermons of Three Mystics” (which briefly looks at Easter messages from Augustine, Gregory, and Eckart.)

More substantive is “The Transfigurative Hermeneutics of Sandra Schneiders: A Strategy for Transformative Knowing in an Age of Deconstruction and Despair” by Amanda Avila Kaminski (who notes that trauma is “the zeitgeist of a generation” which calls forth “the theopoetics of possibility.” In her hands the Transfiguration becomes a metaphor for “seeing and unseeing.” Kaminski, like Schneiders, is attuned to the suffering of this world and yet says “her work is a tour de force in the theopoetics of hope, one not passively awaiting for further eschatological glory or triumphalistically proclaiming political power or economic might. She asks: if we cannot see here camped in the midst of misery then where?”

There are other good, academical pieces, laden with the strengths and weaknesses of this genre of writing. But a few are clear and delightful.  Lauren Winner has a wonderful chapter on resurrection and prayer. Her vignettes are super smart — as always she weaves together insights from her wide reading — and colorful. She prays in graveyards and art museums.

+++

BookNotes

We love selling books this time of year as folks think about children’s books to give as Easter gifts; we even hear about Easter baskets and books given out at egg hunts and more. What fun

I trust you saw last week’s listing of eight excellent books to pre-order (some of which, like the new James KA Smith (Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark), The Pastor as Gardener (by Matthew Erickson) and Mako and Haijin Fujimura’s Beauty & Justice have already arrived. Others on that list include the forthcoming Kate Bowler, Michael Gorman, Malcolm Guite, Alan Noble, and Tish Harrison Warren.

For now, here are a few newer Easter books for children. Did I hear something about Easter baskets??

By the way, I’ve written about children’s books for this time of year HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE (among other times.) The discounts on these remains 20% off even if the older prices may have changed…

(MOSTLY) NEW EASTER BOOKS

God’s Colorful Easter: The Good News Is for Everyone Esau McCaulley, illustrated by Rogeria Colho (Tyndale Kids) $16.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59

I hope you recall my enthusiastic highlighting of a handful of recent children’s Bibles (see HERE) in which we celebrated Rev. Esau McCaulley’s God’s Colorful Kingdom Storybook Bible which not only has multi-racial characters (as most kids books do these days) but draws out the multi-ethnic themes and trajectories in the Bible itself. From the very beginning, the back cover says, “God’s plan has been for a beautifully diverse family.” This new Easter edition has new content and a newly designed set of great illustrations from the bigger Bible. This engaging re-telling doesn’t start with Holy Week, but with Simon and the death of Jesus. Of course it explains the resurrection, the reaction of His followers, has a page on the Great Commission and a final page about how we are Christians today because somebody spread the good news. The story starts by pointing out that Simon, who helped Jesus carry his cross, had traveled from Northern Africa.The last pages ask kids if they remember that part of the story, recalling that Christ’s followers are all different colors from every continent! Yay.

The Great Waking Up: The Story of Easter Sarah Shin, illustrated by Shin Maeng (Waterbrook) $15.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $12.79

I love so many children’s Bible stories and appreciate so many great Easter tales. I listed some of our favorites in previous columns (see the links above.) Yet, I sometimes wonder how to communicate to little ones the remarkable news that Jesus came back to life, resurrected, after his death. Saying the tomb was empty may not make sense. New life can become a metaphor detached from Christ’s bodily resurrection and defeat of Death. This new one might be one of my all-time favorites.

Sarah Shin (author of the excellent Beyond Colorblind, by the way) did her previous children’s book about Christmas called The Deliverer Has Come. With Shin Maeng’s Korean art and Shin’s storytelling chops, this new one brings the Jewish girl Anastasia back as she tells about her favorite dream, which she calls “The Great Waking Up” (the day when there will be no more death.)

This amazing little book tells movingly about stories that should help us anticipate the resurrection and which informed Anastasia’s dream, namely  Ezekiel’s dream of dead bones coming to life, of the healing of Jairus’s daughter, and of the healing of Jesus’s friend, Lazarus. This girl knows the stories of hope from her Scriptures and friends but when Jesus is killed she is bereft. But, wait? Jesus is alive?? Is this the beginning of the “great waking up”? This nice book explains the big picture dream of dreams and how it comes true in Jesus’s resurrection. As a bonus there are a handful other Scripture’s she offers at the end, inviting kids to study more. And don’t miss the symbolism and special scenes embedded in the outfits and landscapes. This book is amazing.

Jesus’s Easter Journey: A Resurrection Story Carine MacKenzie, illustrated by Daniele Fabbri (Christian Focus) $13.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.19

This Scottish Bible teacher has done dozens and dozens of often small paperback children’s books, usually Bible stories, inexpensive and solid. As a conservative Reformed thinker, she is impeccable about being true to the text and yet has a charming storytelling style. Nothing clever or made up, just a re-telling of Scriptural stories. We appreciate her style and found this one to be pretty unique. It has the “cleansing of the temple” during Jesus’s last week, a goo description and explanation of the last supper, and other vivid scenes (the prayer in Gethsemane, is moving, the betrayal by Peter isn’t often told.) It’s a marvelous, accurate story with tremendously artful but pretty realistic art stylings.

Here is one unique feature and I hope this doesn’t turn you off; this publishing house, or at least this pair of writer and illustrator, don’t believe we should speculate on the look of Jesus. If we are Trinitarian and take the gospels and Christian theology serious, Jesus is God. And we dare not make images, they insist, so there are no illustrations of Jesus in these excellent, allusive renderings. The text is thorough but advisable and the artwork is good. Agree or not with their conscience on the prohibition of painting pictures Jesus, this book is very nicely done, and will make for nice conversations with children as you read it to them.

Sparrow’s Easter Garden Roger Hutchison, illustrated by Ag Jatkowska (Beaming) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

I’m not going to lie — I wasn’t sure about this one. Roger Hutchison has done some excellent books on depression, some about using the arts, allusive and thoughtful. He has another really great book for children called Sparrow’s Prayer (where other animals teach him ways to pray when he can’t quite work up the energy to sing or be grateful.) In this new one, Sparrow is eager to get the garden spruced up for Easter. They’ve got 40 days and every animal helps. (Kids will love seeing Buck, the deer, using his antlers to dig up the ground for seeds.) But on Good Friday, a storm blows in and all the creatures are scared. Will the garden even survive? It’s seems like the end of their dream. They’ve got work to do, but on “Holy Saturday they rest.”

As you might guess there is a moral to the story with the rain and wind helping to cultivate the ground causing the seeds to blossom just in time for an Easter celebration. The animal friends “gasp in joy.” “After forty days of tilling the soil, planting seeds, and waiting with hope, new life blooms in the morning light.” And what a happy, colorful scene it is.

The last spread has these words:

They share stories and bless their food, and the hardworking friends enjoy the gift of the garden with their neighbors.

Quietly at first, Sparrow begins singing. One by one, the others join in, their hallelujah’s filing the morning sky.

Twas the Morning of Easter Glenys Nellist, illustrated by Elena Selivanova (Zonderkidz) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

This is not brand new, like most I’ve listed here, but I had to share it. It came out in 2021 and yet somehow many don’t know it. It is richly illustrated — I love the style and respect the Russian illustrator very much — and it follows the cadence of the classic “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” It is not overly forced and it is not cheesy. But it does have that clever play on the famous piece by Clement Clark Moore. I hope you enjoy hearing about it here.

I was happy to previously highlight Nellist and Selivanova’s Twas the Season of Advent: Devotions and Stories for the Christmas Season and her most recent, The Season of Lent: Devotions and Stories for the Lenten and Easter Seasons.

You may know her tremendous “Love Letters from God” series of books that have little letters from God to the children tipped into a little envelope. They are so nice! Try the updated Easter Love Letters from God Bible Stories illustrated very nicely by Sophie Allsopp (Zonderkids; $16.99 // $13.59.)

Perfect Peace Child Steve Richardson, illustrated by Sarah Nunnally (William Carey LIbrary – Mission Kids) $16.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59

Do you know the true story of how God used the Sawi people’s own tradition — giving a baby to make peace with an enemy people — to show them that Jesus is God’s peace child? Set in New Guinea this tells this famous missionary story which, as they say on the back, “invites children to see how God’s love brings deep-down-forever peace anywhere in the world.”

I love how this story offers a creative way to understand the nature of Jesus’s reconciling work. Plus, there’s a little lizard on every page.

Jesus, Our True Friend: Stories to Fill Your Heart With Joy Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Jago (Zonderkidz) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

The last chapter of this lovely, recently released book from the beloved creators of The Jesus Storybook Bible (“where every chapter whispers his name”) is about the post-resurrection story about Jesus making breakfast on the beach for his disciples. It offers several other well told gospel stories and ends with this marvelous event.

Hooray for children’s writer Sally Lloyd-Jones (she has done over 40 books!) and the very creative designer and artist, Jago who has worked with her on The Jesus Storybook Bible.  As you can tell from the title, it is a more limited telling of a few stories about Jesus. And I’d say it is for younger children maybe 4 – 8 or so.

Jesus Our True Friend is slightly larger than most children’s picture books and the colors are vivid and while not exactly whimsical, certainly done with verve. Like the writing, which is bright and conversational, theologically informed, and utterly charming. It starts with a creative paraphrase of parts of John 1.  I love this.

As it says on the back,

The Bible tells the wonderful story of how God loves His children and comes to rescue them. And at the heart of that story is a young hero — the Great Rescuer, Jesus, God’s own Son. He stepped out of Heaven and came to live with us and show us what love is really like.

Stories include The Party That Went Wrong, Our True Friend, The Two Sisters Jesus Loved, Jesus and the Stone Throwers, Jesus and the Deadly Storm, Our True Older Brother, and Breakfast on the Beach.

As she notes in the beginning — on a wonderful page written to “children and their grown-ups” — these are seven Good News stories. “They come from the time when Jesus was on Earth. They start with a party and end with breakfast!” Then she says, earnestly, “I hope they fill your hearts with joy.”

We do too.

Keep Us This Day: A Morning Prayer for All God’s Children / Keep Us This Night: An Evening Prayer for All God’s Children Todd R. Hains, illustrated by Natasha Kennedy (Lexham Press) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

Here is what we wrote when we first announced this “Fat Cat” book:

This is one of these great flip books that can be read first one way, and then you turn it over and upside down and the second half is read, also front to back. A delight, no matter which end you start with!

Keep Us This Day / Night is one of the handful of FatCat books that we regularly promote and we’re glad for this gently liturgical resource, offering the rhythms of morning prayer and evening prayer for the child, her energetic family, siblings and, of course, the hidden cat on every page spread.

One need not be Lutheran to appreciate this, but the twin prayers in this book are drawn from Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, published in 1529. The simple phrases are drawn from Psalm 31:5, Psalm 91:11 and Psalm 121.  Hooray.

Another neat part of this book is that the family in the story is Korean, so there is some Korean language print besides the English type, and you will notice it in the home-life scenes. A fabulous book in so many ways, mature, if simple! Kudos.

The Art of Holy Week & Easter: Meditations on the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Sister Wendy Beckett (SPCK / IVP) $17.99  // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39ß

While this obviously is not a children’s book you may know older kids or teens who enjoy good art. This is a devotional rich in color, different styles of vital art pieces, with expert commentary by the late, great art historian, Sister Wendy. I hope you know the someone thicker The Art of Lent…

CHILDREN’S STORYBOOK BIBLES? Want a fresh new children’s Bible with great art and thoughtful re-telling of the Bible stories? Check out this column we did not too long ago. If you want a real, full Bible with study notes for kids, reach out to us on our inquiry page or shoot me an email at read@heartsandmindsbooks.com. Knowing what translation you prefer is a good start… we’re happy to help, eager to serve.

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BookNotes

I am deep in a reading groove on a couple of topics and I can’t wait to tell you soon; there are a couple of really captivating and important works I will be recommending soon enough.

For now, though, I’m very eager to promote a couple of titles that will be among the best of 2026. What a stellar early Spring we’re looking at, at least among the sorts of authors you expect us to highlight. There are others and I hate to exclude fine books, but I want to list the very best.

Here are 8 titles that you can pre-order from us now.

Use the order tab below.

I could have listed more good ones soon afoot but these are sort of the cream of the crop for our readers. Truly, you can’t go wrong with any of these. I’ve read several advanced manuscripts, and even among those we haven’t seen (some publishers are more helpful for their authors and bookstores than others) in most cases I know the authors and their unfolding work well enough that I can promise you that these are worth having.

If you are ordering more than one (as surely you should) please tell us if you want us to send one now and the others later or if you want us to hold off and consolidate them. Note the release dates shown.

ALL BOOKS MENTIONED ARE 20% OFF.  PRE-ORDER TODAY.

The Pastor as Gardener: A Renewed Vision for Ministry Matthew Erickson (Eerdmans) $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59  – RELEASE DATE MARCH 24, 2026

I say this sometimes and I really, really mean it. I’m not a pastor (not even close) and yet I adored this book, thrilled by its wonderful insights and its glowing prose. I knew it would be extraordinary a few paragraphs into the wonderful foreword by Winn Collier of the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination at Western Seminary in Hope, Michigan I almost want to say that Winn’s exquisite, solid, insightful, knowing words are themselves worth the price of admission. He sets us up with high expectations for The Pastor as Gardener and Erickson delivers.

Yet, this rhetoric of expectations and delivering isn’t even quite right as part of the thesis of this marvelous book is that pastoring and church work is not a matter of delivering the goods, let alone positioning for a career in which one can be measured with the typical American metrics of success. Gardeners mess in the dirt with hopeful patience. That’s my own cheesy illustration but you get the idea: Erickson draws the metaphor of gardener out in profound and wise way, inviting pastors — and those who they serve, maybe specially those who hire and oversee them — to see themselves as gardeners. Not that different than another agrarian rabbi in the first century who describe this work as shepherding.

Matthew Erickson, curiously —Wendell Berry fan that he is — pastors an urban church in Milwaukee. I believe the book will appeal to any pastor rural or urban or suburban, small or larger. Frankly, it’s a blast whether you like gardening or not.

Pastor and pastoral writer Mandy Smith (author of The Vulnerable Pastor) says The Pastor as Gardener, laden with the same kind of plant-life imagery Jesus used to explain his Kingdom, “helps us grow our capacity for embracing those kingdom ways and remembering how to partner with miraculous things.”

This is profound stuff, a counter-veiling voice against many of the expectations of pastoral service these days, inviting us all to slow down, to deepen our concerns about pastoral integrity and formation. It offers keen insights about how to nurture a “pastor-gardener.” Erickson says:

“We kneel with our hands in the soil of pastoral ministry, finding connection with those who have done this work before us and those who will do it after we are gone. We learn from Jesus, who is simultaneously the seed, the vine, and the gardener.”

To be clear, The Pastor as Gardener is not a simplistic read or quaint devotional. There is substance here, Biblical, theological, spiritual, and cultural. Think of some of the best work of Eugene Peterson — he’s in that mode, and it is rare for me to suggest as much. It is clear from his amazingly good recommended reading appendix that he has spent time with some of the best writers of our time (and plenty ancients as well.) His appendix has a dozen books or so under several categories from agrarianism to pastoral care to church life to ecotheology. It’s really wonderful.

He says that hope is the defining virtue of the pastor-gardener. Again, this is so good that if you are a pastor you need this book. If you are involved in church life, care about pastors, know anybody in ministry, you should buy this for them.  If you happen to be in a collegial pastors group, this would be a great book to read together.

The Pastor as Gardener is a lovely thing. We all know that a pastor is a shepherd, but the image of the Christian life as a garden–a garden that thrives with careful tending–is also embedded in Scripture and in Christian tradition, as Matthew Erickson shows us in this quietly, deeply, sweetly meditative book. His account is capable of bringing great refreshment to anyone called to ministry, but it is also illuminating for lay Christians, in or out of the pews. — Alan Jacobs, Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind

Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark: Mysticism, Art, and the Path Unknowing James K. A. Smith (Yale University Press) $28.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.40 – RELEASE DATE MARCH 24, 2026

Sometimes when I’m telling about an author that I’m terribly enamored with or think is important for all of us I explain his or her earlier works, why they were formative for me, why you should know them. I say something about where they worked, what caused them to write what they did and how it all matters. You can put Jamie Smith’s name into the search engine at our BookNotes archives at our website and discover several such missives. I’ve appreciated his books for decades and have read all his popular ones and a couple of his technical philosophic ones. (He is a professional philosopher and some his books are quite scholarly.) I say often that his You Are What You Love is a must-read for all of us.

Smith teaches philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids and he has done generative philosophical work, largely on the postmodern school of thought known broadly as phenomenology. And, importantly he had done popular level, collections of essays about cultural engagement, books on worship, on political life, on time.

One of his themes in recent years has been how our embodied life of habits and practices — he calls them “cultural liturgies” — informs how we life, shaping the story of which we think we are apart. As these cultural liturgies shape our vision, our imagination, the direction we have as we seek a good life (even the meaning of a good life) we move from a worldview of dogma and ideas to being propelled by a deeper sort of “under the hood” desire. We are not primarily what we think, but what we love.

Which, if you follow with even a little bit of philosophical awareness, leads to a question (some might frame it as a crisis) of knowing. What do we really know? Where does certainty come from? If truth (Biblically speaking) is less a set of ideas to intellectually assent to but a Person, if we know (as Proverbs 23 put it) with our hearts, doesn’t that sort of deconstruct the very foundations of much of Western philosophy? Does it leads us to embrace mysticism? Or at least an imagination shaped by the arts?

Exactly. Who would have thunk it, but this professional philosopher and expert reader of all manner of scholarly texts, came to a crisis —his description his depression is chilling and vulnerable — and he embraced books like The Cloud Unknowing and, of course, Saint John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila and The Interior Castle of Julian of Norwich.

Smith’s project in this book — I’m on my second time through — is to invite us to explore “how radical uncertainty can be liberating, opening us to another way of being.” In Make Your Home… he draws deeply on films, novels, poetry, and art pieces and his description of these is exceptional, informed and deeply felt. (Maybe you recall these sorts of moving deep dives from when he was the editor of the arts journal, Image.)

As the back cover of the advanced reader’s copy puts it, “Smith speaks to the fundamental. Yearnings that persist in late modernity, including the philosophical quest for knowledge and certainty.” But, brilliantly, I think, he shows that the gifts of the contemplative tradition (not to mention the allure of artists and their insightful, allusive work) can “embody a liberating spirituality that recovers the fullness of being human.”

Jamie opens the book with a vivid telling of his Pentecostal years as a very young itinerant preacher. He apologizes for some of his harsh sermonizing, in a way nodding to the damages many of felt in the past generation of combative evangelicalism. He may be alluding, too, what one of his mentors, Calvin Seerveld, discusses in a chapter called “The Hurts of Worldview” in a book called After Worldview. In any case, he is grieved that he once was that guy, and even has his reputation as a Christian postmodern scholar rose, he knew something was missing.  This is the journey of his discovery, reading medieval mystics (and moderns like Thomas Merton) in the twenty-first century.

I loved this book, even though it stretched me intellectually. You see, once he has given himself over to this contemplative spiritual posture, this being at peace with not knowing (at least not knowing in the modernist propositional sense) and knowing more deeply by way of allusion and mysticism, then his question is (if I might paraphrase) what does it mean for my vocation of being a philosopher? And how do I teach philosophy in light of what I now realize about this mystical epistemology?

So, again, Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark is not primarily an introduction to the contemplative tradition. We have books by and about the medieval mystics and lots of accessible books about the contemplative way — think of Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster or Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton or the deep trilogy by Martin Laird (Into the Silent Land, ) — but is more his grappling with the worldviewish implications of all of this, As such he explores the likes of Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Marion, Derrida, Heidegger. In the excellent introduction he cites the first line of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, “All men by nature desire to know.”

Despite these scholarly discussion, the book is lively and lovely. Early on he learns from the fiction Reverend John Ames, of Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead. And there is a spectacle transcript of a speech given by Leo McGarry in a memorable scene from The West Wing. And you’ll be fascinated as he tells of the “wild ride” of the opening sequence of Andrei Tarkovsky’s film, Andrei Rublev. I’d say this whole book is a wild ride.

Do you know what famous mystic counseled to “make your home in this darkness.. stay there as long as you can” from which Smith drew his title? Buy this book and you will. And maybe, just maybe, you will want to take him up on the advice. Hang on.

Beauty + Justice: Creating a Life of Abundance and Courage Haejin Fujimura & Makoto Fujimura (Brazos Press) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99 – RELEASE DATE APRIL 7, 2026

This is a book I’ve been eager to tell you about. I was so, so glad when Beth and I were with Haejin & Mako (at a conference for lawyers — that’s her gig and he just was along for fun) and they told us about this book they were doing together. She has long been a respected acquaintance, doing good work in the legal profession (and engaging in anti-trafficking efforts.) She understands deeply the call to serve God in one’s career and vocations and has been a leader in calling professionals to a Christ-like cost of discipleship in public life.

Mako, of course, is world-renowned as a visionary abstract painter and has written widely about faith and the arts; his last two, on Yale University Press, are Art and Faith: A Theology of Making (with a foreword by N.T. Wright) and Art Is…A Journey into the Light.

One of his first published pieces is an excellent chapter in a collection edited by Ned Bustard entitled It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God; I read it years ago and I was immediately drawn to it.

After the horrors of 9-11 happened in his neighborhood in lower Manhattan, Mako, already busy as a painter, started writing about art and peacemaking, how art offers an allusive, creative gift for those in grief, even in the rubble of the destruction. Those “refractions” as he called his post-9-11 essays we published beautifully by Navpress; they have recently been reissued in an anniversary hardback, still entitled Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture. Ever since those early pieces I knew Mako was an artist who cared deeply not only about aesthetics and his craft but also about what we might rather prosaically called the social responsibilities of the artist. Or, as Calvin Seerveld’s fine anthology puts it, how might we offer Redemptive Art in Society? Can art (again to site a title by Seerveld) “bear fresh olive leaves”, like the dove from Noah’s ark, indicating signs of life?

In 2016 Fujimura released Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering which is one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. It tells of his own conversion to faith, in part, while in Nagasaki, Japan (we know the horrors of the bombing there on August 9th 1945) and, more, encountering the place where Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo wrote Silence, which was later made into a movie by Martin Scorsese. Again, this shows his passion and wisdom about relating faith to the questions of creativity and the arts in the context of the harsh and broken world in which we live. Can faith be born of great suffering and can that faith offer something akin to beauty?

Perhaps even shalom?

To see a justice worker and an artist — who love each other deeply and work together wonderfully — combine to reflect together on the relationship of justice and beauty (with stories from all over the world) is so exciting and so needed. We praise God in heaven for this amazing couple and this extraordinary book.

(Interestingly, they note in the introduction that their marriage is cross-cultural. Mako was born in Boston from Japanese parents and Haejin was born in South Korea and moved to the states only as a teen. As they put it, “Japan and Korea have had an acrimonious relationship throughout their history; as such, our marriage represents beauty born out of the fractures of sister nations.” Nothing is as easy as it looks, eh? And yet even hard things can become signals of transcendence, point the way into God’s coming Kingdom.)

I suspect you may know this, but I’ll say it for the record: there is no other accesible book like this written from a deeply Christian orientation. They draw on the important, brief (and heady) book On Beauty and Being Just by Dr. Elaine Scarry (published in 1999 by Princeton University Press) but there is no title which does what this book does. There is no book that I know of that even comes close of Beauty + Justice.

When a global justice activist like Gary Haugen (founder and CEO of International Justice Mission) says Haejin and Mako “bring invigorating new insights that I hope will encourage many toward renewed partnership with God in his mission to end violence and make all things new” you know you have a very important book. Haugen travels the world fighting some of the worst evil that exists and he reads deeply and is a man of great prayerfulness. When he says that the reflections in Beauty and Justice have brought deep refreshment to my soul” that is really saying something!

I love the one-word titles of many of the chapters — they are attention grabbing but sometimes gentle, allusive and artful, even. After early chapters on experiencing and creating beauty and on experiencing and seeking justice, there are chapter titles like Estuary, Grit, and Generosity. There is a fascinating chapter largely about “creating beauty out of ashes” called “Generational Stewardship” and their bit on “New Wineskins” is not to be missed.

Can we trust God’s abundance? Can we foster “the courage to do the slow work of justice”? I wonder: is there a connection between the slow art of Mako’s Nihonga style and the patience needed for those who work for proximate justice?  Mako wrote the lovely, deep forward to Steve Garber’s much discussed Hints of Hope and that seems to inform some of Haejin’s insights about law and justice as well.

Her insights into the need for healthy, God-evoking rhythms in her law practice are exceptional and wise for any of us in hectic workplaces. She writes about her generative environment (including daily time for prayer) and her own “Emmaus Road experiences.” I so enjoyed hearing of her own call to the practice of law and her maturity in learning about mishaps and tsedaquah, Hebrew words rooted in the laws of God.

Their mutual reflections on paintings— especially the work of George Rouault — is nothing short of inspiring. I don’t get out much to museums and rarely see live art. But, oh, their telling of it was a gift.

They speak of the glories of the extraordinary and the mundane. They work for shalom, for the realization of God’s new creation. Beauty, in fact, can bring healing and hope and if you never fully understood that, this book will be a great joy and bring you confidence. Beauty + Justice is a great book, serious but not needlessly academic, and not too long. (It is under 150 pages.) You should pre-order it now and consider using it in an adult class, book club, or study group.

Joyful, Anyway: Finding Delight in Impossible Times Kate Bowler (Dial Press) $30.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00 – RELEASE DATE APRIL 7, 2026

Okay, if Smith is a bit heavy — philosophically, spiritually, living deeply in a world of a different kind of knowing —  and Haejin & Mako’s is, while lovely, very much about the brokenness of the world and what repair might look like as we work for shalom — then this book will supplement the gravitas of those with a different sort of heaviness. Kate Bowler, as I assume we all know, is dying. Aren’t we all?

She was given a terminal diagnoses several books ago and she wrote wonderfully (wonderfully) about the experience of being a young, upbeat theology professor (at Duke Divinity School, no less) while struggling with family, children, and a life-saving chance at demanding flights out of town to a cancer treatment place. The first book was Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) and if the cliche of the title strikes you as Christian common sense, you need this book. If you do appreciate that it is a dumb lie, then you’ll love it. She is biting and funny and sentimental and faithful. The sequel, another memoir, this one written when her life was miraculously extended, was equally blunt and funny and serious, No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear.) I sometimes say that she writes somewhat like Anne Lamott, but without the frizzy hair and playful whining about aging. Or like Nadia Bolz-Weber without the tats and cussing. One respected writer says her prose is “razor-sharp and tender” as she gives us “luminous clarity and unsentimental grace.”

She wrote two popular devotional books, one called Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection and an oversized “book of blessings for imperfect days” called The Lives We Actually Have. She did two scholarly books — one on women in the evangelical subculture and another called Blessed: A History the American Prosperity Gospel. She got to know some of these “name it and claim it” Pentecostals when she was researching that work and it was a small part in Everything Happens when they wanted to pray for her healing. She didn’t theologically agree with their thinking, but she sure appreciated their prayers. Ha.

Now, in this forthcoming one, she is back to doing memoir-like reflections on her life and times, living with this dangerous condition. As noted above it is called Joyful, Anyway: Finding Delight in Impossible Times. If almost anybody else tried to suggest that it is healthy or Godly to be cheery when going through hellish circumstances, I’d roll by eyes (at best.) But I trust Kate Bowler. She seems to have a Christ-centered joy that never minimizes our broken world and the hard stuff that happens. Jerry Seinfeld says she suffers no fools, “especially the toxic optimists.” But, yet, if she can charmingly remind us to be “joyful, anyway” I think I’ll give it a try.

You, too?

Paul and John in Harmony: A Theological and Historical Exploration Michael J. Gorman (Eerdmans) $27.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.39 – RELEASE DATE APRIL 14, 2026

I can’t say too much about this forthcoming book but I will say three quick things. First, Mike Gorman is one of the finest Biblical scholars working today; he is prolific (especially on work on Paul; his major volume on I Corinthians last year was fabulous) and he is a great, beloved teacher at Saint Mary’s Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore, MD. He has hosted men and women scholars from around the world, from Fleming Rutledge to N.T. Wright.

Secondly, not only is he a preeminent scholar, he’s a Sunday school teacher (in a United Methodist congregation) and sees his work, brainy as it is sometimes, as part of a calling to serve the church. He is ecumenical, global, cross-cultural, and has a servant’s heart. Not every scholar has such a gift for speaking with less academic folk, and he’s got a foot in the world of higher education and the Biblical studies guild and yet he loves God’s people in the churches.

Thirdly, even when his work is sometimes a bit technical, he has an obvious desire for it to translate into personal and corporate transformation. To see he has an eye for application is one way to put it. He knows that serious theology that funds serious Biblical research simply must change lives. I like his tone and even in his more scholarly works, how it always has a trajectory towards usefulness in the church and in our lives.

To wit, we’re going to have this. And, wow, I’m eager to see it.

I have not seen this yet but I know it is a signifcant hardcover making the case that Paul knew of John’s testimony. (Does this necessitate an early dating of John? I imagine so.) Gorman’s close reading of Paul shows four common aspects of his “locative language” and offers a good vision of where Paul got some of his ideas about participation with Christ. A major chapter will be “Paul, John, and Jesus: Christology and Its Implications for Discipleship.”

If there is a “spirituality of Paul”, Gorman seems to be saying, it comes, in part, from his familiarity with John. Marianne Meye Thompson, the important (Emerita) New Testament prof from  Fuller Theological Seminary (and author of The New Testament Library’s John: A Commentary) calls it “stimulating and provocative.” Cornelis Bennema (one of the world’s leading John scholars) calls it “a scholarly masterpiece” and “groundbreaking.”

Scholars have long studied John and Paul as though they inhabited mutually exclusive theological worlds. But recent work on both writers is now raising afresh the possibility that they are in fact closely related, even mutually dependent. Gorman is one of the wisest and most seasoned guides in these areas, and this book will open the eyes of a new generation of scholars and preachers to exciting and fruitful study and proclamation. — N. T. Wright, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, God’s Homecoming

Gorman has produced another scholarly masterpiece. The importance of this groundbreaking book cannot be overstated. While Gorman’s explanation of the commonalities in the theologies of John and Paul is pioneering, it is his innovative explanation of this phenomenon — namely, that John influenced Paul — that is truly revolutionary. This magisterial book is poised to challenge several long-standing scholarly consensuses. — Cornelis Bennema, London School of Theology, Encountering Jesus: Character Studies in the Gospel of John

Galahad and the Grail Malcolm Guite, illustrated by Stephen Crotts (Rabbit Room Press) $34.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $27.99 – RELEASE DATE April 20, 2026

One of the heralded literary releases of this year is by the world-renowned poet, Anglican priest, writer, rock star, and hero to many and will soon release. It is the first part in his Merlin’s Isle series (called, “An Arthurian.”) Trinity Forum in Washington DC will be hosting a major, early reading of this on March 23rd, by the way, and we will be there with the first batch of books, for early sale that evening. The incredible illustrator Steve Crotts will be there as well. If you’re in the area, you should get tickets — come and say hello and, more importantly, hear this legendary poet re-tell the first part of this legendary story of Sir Galahad and the other knights of the quest (they set out from Camelot, you’ll remember )as they search for the holy grail.

This story (including the hope of healing the wounded Fisher King) offers renewal for the land and culture and hearing it afresh in poem style — the first time this has been done in over a century — offers a creative glimpse not only into the Arthurian lore but the worldview of 13th century people faith. (Wasn’t it Tennyson who popularized it in the 1800s?) This is huge.

Rabbit Room will be doing an excellent job of this grand story and we cannot wait to see it. (They already did one creatively fictional volume with a padded leather cover with various authors offering (new) chapters, including one by Malcolm Guite, alongside Jennifer Trafton, Jonathan Rogers, Andrew Peterson, Annie Nardone, Doug McKelvey, illustrated by Ned Bustard under the title The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad, which itself is an incredible volume.) Pre-order this groundbreaking epic poetic rendition of Galahad and the Grail now from us and we might be able to get you an autographed copy from our gala with Trinity Forum.

(By the way, the second forthcoming volume, The Coming of Arthur, will be out in November of 2026. You heard it here first. Pre-order that now, too, if you’d like.)

To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times Alan Noble (IVP) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99 – RELEASE DATE APRIL 28, 2026

This is another one that I have not seen but can assure you that it will be fabulous, a great read, important and helpful and interesting. One impressive advanced reviewer has declared it one of the year’s best!

I know Alan Noble a bit having met him at conferences and heard him lecture. We follow each other on Facebook and that is revealing as well — he shares good stuff. He’s a fabulously nitrating guy, having started (before he became a book author) a very impressive blog and website back in the day called “God and Pop Culture.” I met just the other day a writer for them and was blown away by this guys credentials, scholarship, and passion for his sub-genre (of horror fiction.) Anyway, I’ve followed Alan for a long while and am nothing but impressed.

He is a literature profession at Oklahoma Baptist University and is not only sharp in his obvious field but has written about other more general topics. His first book was spectacular and I highly recommend it, Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age about how to talk about talking about faith in an age of screens and digital distractions. It works on many levels and covers a lot. His very popular next book, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World was a nearly luminous, mature, lovely reflection on that line from the famous Heidelberg Catechism (reflecting on 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 that I learned to love from a mi James Ward song.) Following up on Disruptive.. Noble again does astute cultural analysis, helping us grapple with what it means to resist the idols of individualism and autonomy. Yet, it’s hard to feel that assurance of God’s good rule in our lives (and the life-giving human flourishing it forms) in this secularized age when true human flourishing isn’t deeply understood or even valued. The two books were my kinds of reads — cultural analysis and person Christian growth, theology made read in our dubious times.

Next Alan did a book that surprised some, a small hardback that was about (for lack of a better phrase) depression. It was called On Getting Out of Bed and he both offered solace and understanding and bit of prodding for some to put one foot in front of another and carry on. It assured each and every reader that they matter, that they’ve got not only a personal life to live, but a culture to contribute to. Believe it or not, you are needed! You can do this! I have recommend On Getting Out of Bed often and have benefitted from it myself.

With this forthcoming one — I hope we get it early — Alan looks to be about his classic thing: observations about the chaotic times and wholesome (if substantive) advice on how to carry one. I wonder if this one is sort of a culmination of the previous three: this, this is what is has always been about — living well. Living well, practically, in this messed up world.

I do know this, too: To Live Well will be about the classic virtues. Here’s how the publisher tells it:

Contemporary life is confusing. We are overwhelmed with choices and given conflicting messages on how to live. This book uses seven traditional virtues as ways of reorienting our lives toward God: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, and love. Cultivating these virtues enables us to address practical issues that face us daily.

After a hefty introduction there is a sure-to-be great forward by the wise and upbeat Justin Whitmel Earley; here’s the table of contents. It’s going to be a very wise and compelling book.

1.  Choosing Decisively
2.  Acting Justly
3.  Suffering Steadfastly
4.  Living Moderately
5.  Believing Soundly
6.  Hoping Resolutely
7.  Loving Rightly

What a book! Each chapter brims with wisdom–drawn from Scripture, steeped in deep reading, and refined through life experience. I found myself not only nourished personally but also earmarking pages to send to family and friends wrestling with major decisions or simply trying to make faithful daily choices. Truly one of the year’s best. — Trevin Wax, The Gospel Way Catechism and The Thrill of Orthodoxy

What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience Tish Harrison Warren (Convergent) $26.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $20.80 – RELEASE DATE MAY 12, 2026

This has a strict street date on May 12th so I wasn’t sure if I should highlight this, yet, but it is one of the books I’m most eagerly anticipating. I’ve read the early version I got a while ago (I know, I know, a perk of the job) and I’m grateful for my helpers at Random House / Convergent Books. And I’m grateful to be in touch with Tish on occasion. I know how she worked hard to get this book into shape. It is spectacular.

I sure hope I don’t have to convince you of the value of her wonderful previous hardbacks, the lovely and wise (and for some game-changing) Liturgy of the Ordinary or her deeply moving and reassuring Prayer in the Night. These are among my favorite books in the years we’ve been book lovers. I wonder if, over time, What Grows in Weary Lands will also be among this upper shelf of important books for many of us. Some say it is her best yet.

The heart of this book is about resilience. It is evident to me that it is deeper (although not scholarly or arcane) than many fine pop psychology books, even Christian ones, on this hope for resilience. We all have issues; these are hard time; who doesn’t wish for greater stamina and grace in living into the hope we are suppose to have? As her last book put it, we are in the dark a lot of the time; we need that evening prayer for those who work or watch or weep.

Tish is a fabulous writer, a clear storyteller and I was captivated by her story — that ended up as a nice, instructive parable — on the first few pages. Describing weariness, burnout, emptiness it is grueling, yet she throws in a clever line. She’s trying to build a fire and remembers how much being “on fire” for God played into her church youth group and early formation. She says, “There was enough fire imagery in my early Christian formation to alarm a park ranger.’ Ha.

Columnists offer think pieces and article and podcasts about this, so ubiquitous is this languishing in late modernity. Maybe it’s capitalism, maybe the forces of our secularizing culture, maybe screens, even, but important as the big picture analysis is, it doesn’t help you get through your dreary days.

Sure, we need spiritual renewal. And certain practices help facility that — keep sabbath, love your dear ones, go to church. Whether one has severe writers block or a lack of creativity or have felt a listlessness in a prayer life, this anxiety about the doldrums is real and painful. We are all so tired.

She indicates early on that the book is mostly about perseverance of a certain sort. We hear a lot about conversions, as well we should. And these days, de-conversions. The drama surrounding a worldview change and a new sense of things is, well, dramatic. And we need stories of elders, sages, older mystics. But what about the middle; mid-life, mid-faith? Old timers used to call it fortitude. The “unsung virtues” that sustain this are, she says, “the most vital quality in a lifetime of discipleship.” She believes that “grit is an essential ingredient of grace, that resilience is indispensable if we are to become who we are made to be.”

If you are wondering about the medieval word acedia (about which the great Kathleen Norris wrote in Acedia and Me) you are right. That is part of what is going on when we feel so depleted.

Tish is incredibly vulnerable in her description of her desert season. She is not whining, not making things out to be worse than they are. She is, as I said, a good and careful writer, colorful but not excessive. Her explorations of these themes are mature, even sophisticated, and wise and I will cherish this book as I study it more carefully in the months to come.

I am not naturally drawn to the desert fathers and mothers, but a quick glance at her great footnotes — amid essays from The Atlantic and quotes from interesting theologians, citations of Ezra Klein podcasts and Taylor Swift lyrics — there is an abundance of names like Syncleica and Chryssavgis and Cassian and Evagrius of Pontus. Don’t let the ancient names throw you. This is rich, good stuff and she is introducing classic writers that have strengthen the backbone of many a saint over the years. Yes, she looks at John of the Cross (if only she’d had Jamie Smith’s manuscript described above) and the stuff about “desolation” in the Ignatian tradition. But she reads the memoirist and poet Mary Karr and the ecological wonders of Refugia Faith (by Debra Rienstra.)

She wrote this alongside three fascinating (and funny) growing children — one calls her new bit of gray hair her “tinsel” — a great husband with whom she squabbles a bit and a mom increasingly living in the fog of Alzheimer’s. Who wouldn’t long for a more felt faith, a bit of fire?

What Grows in Weary Lands is coming out in early May. You will read it quickly, I bet — it’s hard to put down — and then you will want to read it again over the summer. Pre-order it now; you won’t regret it, I promise.

This book is like a friend who reminds you who you are and who God is when you’re too weary to remember. It’s a theology of staying-put — a gospel for those of us in the long middle of faith who are tired not because we’ve lost our faith, but because we’ve kept it. —Jon Guerra, singer-songwriter

 

What Grows in Weary Lands is poised to become a modern spiritual classic and another must-read offering from one of the brightest spiritual writers of our day. — Rev. Claude Atcho, pastor of Church of the Resurrection (Charlottesville, VA), author of Rhythms of Faith and Reading Black Books

 

Honest, wise and persistent in imagination, this is a book to refresh the seasoned spiritual traveler. A beautifully crafted weave of both resilience and wonder. — Martin Shaw, author of Liturgies of the Wild

 

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BookNotes

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Most of our BookNotes columns celebrate new books or they highlight authors I think you should know about. Our curation is intentional, trying to find the sorts of authors and books we can champion and that our audience — that’s you! — might purchase. Sometimes I wax eloquent, sometime in full-on fan-boy mode. When I’m most long-winded, some love it. A few roll their eyes and skim. I get it.

For this edition I’d like to highlight some books to supplement our list about Lent from a few weeks ago. (Visit the archived BookNotes at our website if you want to scroll back and see those.)That post described more obviously Lenten devotionals and books about this liturgical season. As I walked around our shop this week I kept seeing titles that just seemed right to list for reading in this somber season; some are quite new, some are older. It’s a good list for the curious.

Most of you know the standard practices that accompany this season and the Lenten spiritual tone. If this is new to you or you are talking to someone who worked up the courage to ask what that ashen smear on your forehead was all about a few Wednesdays ago, I’d recommend Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal by Esau McCaulley. It is part of the “Fullness of Time” series which includes short volumes about the history and habits of each season of the church calendar.

Unlike some BookNotes I am not going to be too wordy. I’m going to name the book and say why I think it would be useful to read during this time of year. I’ll keep my comments brief (ish) so I have time to share a lot of titles. Maybe something here will speak to you.

As always, these are offered to you at our BookNotes 20% off. If you saw it here it would be good to remind us of that. We’ll reply promptly, do the discount, and send ‘em right out. Our order form page is secure for card info although, as we say there, we can also just send you an invoice and you can pay by check later. Hope that helps.

I’m saying to myself keep it brief, Borger.

Slow Theology: Eight Practices for Resilient Faith in a Turbulent World A.J. Swoboda & Nijay K. Gupta (Brazos Press) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

Two great, prolific authors offering lighter ways to think about faith in a slower mode, hearing God’s voice despite our fast-paced world. These everyday practices to resist our frenetic pace of living (and thinking) help us embrace our own theological journey, taking in wonder and mystery and rest, admit our pain and find an enduring spirituality, believing together with others. This is absolutely right, and perfect for slow reading these next weeks. One of my favorite recent books!

Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep Tish Harrison Warren (IVP) $23.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.19

I’ve often said how much I appreciate her clear but thoughtful style, her eloquence and honesty. This is a perfect Lenten read as it is about being honest with our doubts and pains and struggles — praying in the dark, in that metaphorical sense. But it is grounded in the literary evening prayer in the Book of Common Prayer and what compline is about as an evening practice. Do you ever feel all you can do is keep watch? This will accompany you and you won’t feel so alone. Highly recommended.

Liturgy in the Wilderness: How the Lord’s Pray Shapes the Imagination of the Church In a Secular Age D. J. Marotta (Moody Press) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99

DJ is a young Anglican priest in Richmond and I respect his work there immensely. You may recall him as the co-author (with artist Ben Lansing ) of Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place.) Anyway, this was his earlier book and it is on the Lords Prayer and is very nicely done in nine excellent (and succinct) chapters. I mention succinct as you might think this could be weighty, covering stuff about modernity, the wilderness of these barren times, how to use our imaginations and how what Jamie Smith calls “liturgies” might refresh our habits into life-changing new loves. Pray really does shape our believes which, of course, shapes how we live. This is subversive stuff, perfect for Lenten pondering.

With God in Every Breath: A Guide to Drawing Closer to Jesus Through Your Senses Whitney R Simpson (NavPress) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

I love that more and more authors about the contemplative life write that they affirm an embodied existence and creatureliness sense of living in God’s creation, even as we nurture our souls. Whitney Simpson has been at this for a while —an earlier book on Upper Room seems like a forerunner of this one (that handsome workbook is called Holy Listening: with Breath, Body, and the Spirit; she has an Advent one, too, called Fully Human, Fully Divine which underscored Christ’s incarnation’s implications for our “whole selves.”) Anyway, after a stroke at age 31, Whitney learned to attend to her body, pay attention to her breathing and more, and has now helped us all learn the practices of finding God and experience God through our senses. She is not the first to do this, but it is still rather rare, and this book is a wonderful guide and a good blessing. She writes like a mystic at times but is always aware of the really real in our very bodies. (He essays on why she uses The Message paraphrase is fantastic, by the way.) 30 short chapters have wonderful ideas, good exercises, sensory cues, short prayers — it is practical and inspiring. There’s helpful stuff like breath prayers and further ideas I bet you haven’t thought of; here are habits that could help us all live into Lent and Easter and beyond.  As she advises, “when life gets loud, get quiet.”

How the Story of Jesus Changes the Way We See Everything Andrew Arndt (Herald Press) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

When I reviewed this before I highlighted how wonderfully it is written. The foreword by Marilyn McEntyre says as much. It is about the liturgical calendar, about seeing all our life-time in light of the light of Christ, and how that can shape our own character in Christ-likeness. Winn Collier (who wrote that great biography of Eugene Peterson, A Burning in My Bones) says the sentences “sing and simmer.” What a joy. And what good idea to focus on Jesus during Lent. This offers a full picture of the full gospel, written with imaginative and nearly prophetic prose.

Seeing the Gospel: An Interpretive Guide to Orthodox Icons Eve Tibbs (Baker Academic) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

Everyone should know something about icons even if using them — perhaps I should say beholding them — isn’t part of your actual tradition. These religious renderings are designed as windows into eternal truths and many who write them (we learn that they iconographers don’t use the language of “painting” them) are deeply driven by a spiritual hope, offering these as gifts for the spiritual formation of others. This is as winsome and interesting and helpful a book on the topic as we’ve seen (and it is lavishly illustrated with icons to ponder.) As Hans Boersma  says, “Tibbs explores iconography as a divinely given exegetical guide.” There is great beauty and truth here. A fabulous foreword is by Reformed thinker Richard Mouw, offering an ecumenical touch. So good.

Holiness Here: Searching for God in the Ordinary Events of Everyday Life Karen Stiller (NavPress) $16.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59

Lent is a time to ponder holiness and this is one of the best books on the subject you will find anywhere. She invites us to ponder how holiness is “sacred and mysterious. It’s breathtaking and beautiful — and we’re meant to live it daily.”  Naturally, we ask: Really? And What does that look like? Here she offers insightful reflections oral sorts of mundane stuff and “stirs the spaces in your soul that need refreshment.” Not your typical book on virtue and repentance, although there is clarity about that. This is Biblical, humane, and fruitful holiness revisited. Perfect for this season of repentence.

When Life Feels Empty: 7 Ancient Practices to Cultivate Meaning Isaac Serrano (IVP) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

I suppose we could list a dozen books that might guide seekers or doubters or anyone struggling with faith but I wanted to suggest at least one really good new one for those with this particular ache. Serrano is a pastor in California and is on the leadership team of the ReGeneration Project (and is an adjunct prof at Western Seminary in Portland and California.) He’s a really good writer and an obviously thoughtful guy.

I recommend this for anyone who feel as if something is missing. As it says on the back, “like the story you’re living lacks purpose or direction.” The modern secular narrative, of course, erodes or negates meaning and transcendent purpose but even for those who believe in some higher power, we are living any differently because of it. Our lives feel languid, at best, even though we believe the gospel.

In this creative, elegant read, Serrano uses philosophical reasoning and lots of stories and good theology and wise insights to help us develop practical steps that can “replace the empty promises of materialism with the profound depth of a life center on God as Father.” This is wise and good, inviting us to embody the deepest meanings of church pratices and Christian discipleship in the world. It’s very good.

Why Did Jesus Have to Die? The Meaning of the Crucifixion Adam Hamilton (Abingdon Press) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

Some years during Lent I highlight a couple books about atonement theories, about deeper conversations about the meaning of the cross. We should read a book about the cross of Christ maybe every year or so since it is so central to our faith. I really books like the magisterial Cross of Christ by John Stott and the magnum opus by Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. The last two years I’ve given very serious kudos to Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross by Brian Zahnd.  Friends have insisted that I read Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death by Andrew Remington Roller. For a pocket-sized excerpt, beautifully made, see the wonderful (if traditionally formulated) What Did the Cross Achieve? by J. I. Packer. You know I’m a fan of The Day the Revolution Began by N.T. Wright which systematically looks at the verses about the cross in the writings of Paul, studying them afresh in light of the doctrine of new creation. Yes. All of those are 20% off.

Why Did Jesus Have to Die? is by one of the great communicators or nuanced faith in our day, a thoughtful and balanced United Methodist pastor who is respected by many folks from across the reasonable theological spectrum. In this new one, Adam Hamilton offers a variety atonement theories and seems to offer fair critique of some and fresh takes on others, offering a classic and yet very contemporary approach. Six chapters.

Redemptive Reversals and the Ironic Overturning of Human Wisdom G.K. Beale (Crossway) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99

This is one of many fairly dense but succinct volumes in the “Short Studies in Biblical Theology” done by the mostly Reformed and clearly evangelical, classy publisher, Crossway. These short books bring world-class conservative scholars to do relatively accesible versions of larger works of Biblical Theology. (That is, drawing themes from throughout the unfolding redemptive narrative or plot of Scripture rather than, say, using the decidedly un-narrative approach of Systematic Theology.) Beale is one of the most brilliant Scripture scholars around with a keen interest in eschatological visions and new creation hope in the Old and New Testaments. Here he does this marvelous little project of documenting ironic reversals, redemptive signals — the ironies of it all. The most obvious (besides the resurrection itself where death is undone by death) is that in the Christian life power is perfected in powerlessness. Get it? Perceptive and fascinating.

The Big Relief: The Urgency of Grace for a Worn-Out World David Zahl (Brazos Press) $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59

I’ve spilled some ink on this and highlighted some about it before. I’ll just remind you that it brings notions of grace in the Bible a very fresh and contemporary new coat of paint, using the language of “relief” — an emotion or gut feeling we all long for.  The gospel is obviously not about shame or burdens, and he calls us to embrace Christianity “as a refuge rather than as a project, a beacon of hope instead of a vehicle of shame.” Maybe refreshment? Give up a faith that demands performance and perfection and embrace the gospel as the gift of grace. Zahl, the head of Mockingbird Ministries, is pretty amazing.

You Can Trust a God With Scars: Faith (and Doubt) for the Searching Soul Jared Ayers (NavPress) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

I raved about this when I first wrote about it, saying out tender and funny and passionate and cool it was, citing rock music and cool films and serious literature, all pointing seekers and doubters to the reliability of a God so audacious as to come to earth to die. If you know anybody who sees no point in existence, I beg you to share this book with them. If you, yourself, need a reminder of the core of the gospel, told in honest and raw ways, I commend this wonderfully-written primer to you. It is unlike any other introduction to the faith I know and it is hard-earned by a good, good guy.

Speaking of scars, I guess Lent is an ideal time to read this, trusting again this sad, sacred story of the betrayed and murdered Lamb of God.

Any of us who have found ourselves in “the borderlands between faith and doubt” or suffering from church fatigue or unsure what to make of biblical claims will find in these stories and reflections a hospitable invitation to take a long second look. Maybe even to venture through the doors of a church. Jared Ayers meets readers in the shadowy places of uncertainty not with arguments but with stories that help even the deeply disenchanted reimagine a life in which faith is sustaining and a vigorous community of thoughtful believers is possible. — Marilyn McEntyre, author Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies

Bearing God: Living a Christ-formed Life in Uncharted Waters Marlena Graves (NavPress) $10.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $8.79

What does in mean in this season of Lent to discern God’s will and call in the midst of such turbulent waters, such turbulent times? What does it mean that Jesus might still the waters (as in Mark 4)? And what if — as Marlena Graves imagines powerfully — what if we are the boat in the story, bearing Jesus and the disciples? Aren’t we all vessels carrying Jesus, being a part of his Light? What does that mean, to carry Christ, to bear God?

This wasn’t written as a Lenten resource, but, man-oh-man, if you put a Lenten title on this, it would certainly be a wonderful book to ponder in this season of getting right with God and submitting to His ways in our stormy world. Marlena is a woman we like very very much and a writer and scholar we respect. Her book The Way Up Is Down is one I used in a Lenten reading group two years ago and it still haunts me. I adored her first one about a relatively poor, Pentecostal person discovering the desert fathers and mothers. She has done good work in public witness and has written and edited volumes speaking peace into our culture of injustice. In this little six chapter meditation, you’ll be invited to venture out to sea and to become a person of Christ-like refuge. We can be “Christ-formed” in these disorienting times!

Jesus and the Disinherited Howard Thurman (Beacon Press) $16.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $12.80

I hope you have heard of this twenty century classic, one of the books Martin Luther King carried with him to jail; Thurman was a very impressive educator and black leader and a writer of deeper spirituality. We stock most of his several Quaker reflections and a devotional of his work (and more than one important biography.) But this is his classic, one of the seminal books of public theology and liberative spirituality of our time. Rev. Otis Moss III says that “no other publication in the twentieth century has upended antiquated theological notions, truncated political ideas, and socially constructed racial fallacies like Jesus and the Disinherited.” First published by Abingdon Press in 1949, this more recent edition has a new foreword by Kelly Brown Douglas alongside a classic foreword by the great Vincent Harding.

I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People Terence Lester (IVP) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

One of the classic spiritual practices of the Lenten season is almsgiving — serving the poor. This book goes beyond mere giving (which is hard enough for some of us, I know) but to a richer, fuller sort of thing: seeing. What does it mean to actually recognize and “see” and befriend and come to know (and be known by) those who might be marginalized, stigmatized, such as those experiencing homelessness? There are a lot of myths about poverty and race and the poor in our culture and this lively book not only breaks down many assumptions about those who are sometimes called “the underclass” but it invites us to a Christ-like care, to enter real relationships with real people (who we often overlook.) There are lots of stories here, mature spirituality stuff, helpful sidebars and suggestions. Look: we don’t care much about what we don’t really see. This humbling (but also inspiring) book is ideal for this season. Love can open our eyes, perhaps even “the eyes of our hearts.”

As another bonus, if you like it you can then buy for a young one Terence Lester’s fabulous children’s picture book talking about these issues (with his own daughter, Zion) called Zion Learns to See (IVP; $18.00 // 14.40.) It’s very nice. Lester and his family live and work in Atlanta. He is the founder of Love Beyond Walls. His new book is an autobiography, From Dropout to Doctorate: Breaking the Chains of Educational Injustice.

A Hope Observed: Finding Solace Through Share Stores of Grief David Bannon (Paraclete Press) $29.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.99

I could write about this at length but I promised to be succinct this time. I’ll say this: years ago Bannon wrote a wonderful, wonderful book about artists who felt great pain and whose pain suffused their work. He wrote it as an Advent book and it worked well — you’ve heard of blue Christmas, of course. Bannon had suffered greatly and his honest struggle to find art and words to cope honest during the holidays was a great gift. It is sadly now out of print.

But his work continued and here he put together a marvelous collection of origins and stories of those who have suffered and those who have experienced loss. These stories are arranged nicely, with great art of lovely design touches.  The excellent writing and remarkable art are arranged in themes under the titles grieve, cope, hope, and love. Whether your grief is new and overwhelming or lingering, it is comforting to know you are not alone and it is good to read some of the wisest words. A very impressive endorsement on the back is from Gerald Sittser (author of the unforgettable A Grief Observed.)  That means a lot.

This is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith Darcey Steinke (HarperOne) $27.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.39

This is brand new and I have not read it. I read a few pages here and there and the prose is stunning. Her bibliography is very extensive and mostly unknown to me — except, maybe The Body in Pain by Elaine Scarry, a Dorothy Soelle book, and Merton’s Raids on the Unspeakable. And she has a section on Simon Weil. Steinke is an award-winning novelist and memoirist and has taught at many of the most prestigious universities in the world.  She here shares of her own physical pain after back surgery, journeys to Lourdes, meets sufferers of all kinds, including the mastectomy of her mother and the brain cancer of her preacher father. Despite the fluid, graceful prose and high-minded theory, she tells of a conversation she had, over hot-dogs, with Curt Cobain. I am not sure I am saying that this is a Lenten book, but if you are in pain this season, this could bring insight and solace of some kind.

Walking with God Through the Valley: Recovering the Purpose of Biblical Lament May Young (IVP) $28.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.40

If the above gift-book style collection of excellent writing on grief and loss and renewed hope isn’t quite your need, now, this rigorous study of lament in the Bible might be stimulating and important. The church needs the practice of lament. This book explores the topic and offers some insight about what it all looks like.  Can this practice of lament — protest and crying out — lead to healing and liberation? Young teaches at Taylor University and has written widely about the Psalms and about global Christianity. Very, very impressive in under 200 pages.

Crying Out to God: Experiencing Grace Through Psalms of Lament Wendy Alsop (IVP) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

This is a brand new 8-week Bible study experience in a line of IVP produced workbooks that are interactive, thoughtful, and more than simple inductive observations and questions. This study offers a deep encounter with God through Scriptures and it is the best (one of the very only) studies on the Psalms of lament I have seen. Wendy Alsup wrote a powerful, theological solid book called Companions in Suffering: Comfort for Times of Loss and Loneliness (and has often written in thoughtful, evangelical publications. Melissa Kruger of The Gospel Coalition says it is for “the weary, discouraged, the sick, and the suffering.” Although not directly a Lenten resource, what better time to explore how the Psalms cry out against all that is not right in our tragic world? As it says on the back, “Whether our response is rage or tears or numbness, the Bible offers an avenue for our paint: Lament.”

Crying Out to God offers a daily set of individual studies and reflections and then group sessions for once a week. It’s an excellent format with some pen and ink drawings as well.

Being Christian After the Desolation of Gaza edited by Bruce Fisk and J. Ross Wagner (Cascade) $39.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $31.99

With the US and the right wing administration of Israel joining in yet another brutal war, it is vital to ask — among lots of other questions worth debating about the ethics of war-fighting — what it looks like on the ground, among the victims. This book, obviously, is not about Iran, but it is a very recent release from many people of Christian faith who know the Palestinian battlefields well. These are essays by many who have worked in social service, Christian ministry, and peacemaking project in the Middle East for decades and some are exceptionally astute, almost rare. Lent is always a time to come before God asking for the Spirit to make our hearts more compassionate and for our vision to be ore Christ-like. Part of this must be to ask what faith means in these days of war. After the Desolation of Gaza is a groundbreaking book and although it is thick — almost 20 mostly hefty chapters in just under 375 pages — it is important.

Reviving the Golden Rule: How the Ancient Ethic of Neighbor Love Can Heal the World Andrew DeCort (IVP Academic) $32.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $26.39

I’ve been intending to write a major review of this but just can’t finish it. I want to say that this is one of the most important books in the field of social ethics and public theology I have read in a decade. Agree or not fully with his profound and Biblically-attentive study and conclusions, it is clear that he is right in insisting that we must love our neighbors. His Facebook posts are amazing (and often long, essays in their own rite) and he reminds us that we must not view others as the enemy, not any “other.” He is wanting to show God’s love to each and every person and in this he is nearly revolutionary. In Reviving the Golden Rule he traces the history of the idea from the ancient world to today.

If you’ve read any Martin Luther King or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, say, you will appreciate this. There is a great study guide, a short annotated bibliography on neighbor-love, and then a much more extensive bibliography.  Other ethicists have called it rare and impressive and masterful.

The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action Wesley Granberg-Michaelson (Orbis Press) $26.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $20.80

Again, this is one we’ve highlighted several times before and even named it as one of my personal favorites of last year. Granberg-Michaelson is a great guide to this vital topic — the spirituality of justice work — since he has first-hand experience in everything from public policy work with a US Senator to street protests and community organizing to years of working with ordinary church folks and global church leaders, not to mention a deep and abiding, grounded sort of spirituality. A previous book, Without Oars: Casting Off Into a Life of Pilgrimage (another favorite) documents his own journey as a pilgrim, learning an embodied sort of spirituality as he moves from what you might think of as church dogma (however good and proper) to a lived encounter with the Spirit. Anyway, Lent is a time to deepen ones spiritual habits and also a time of caring for the poor and working for justice. The Soulwork of Justice is ideal for these next weeks. I’d highly recommend it.

Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk, and True Flourishing Andy Crouch (IVP) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

I have decieded to read this during Lent this year as one of my own hopes to learn more about a Christ-like way to think about power and influence, suffering and humility. The apostle Paul famously said his strength is in weakness and this is truly one of the great (and needed!) upside-down ways of the Kingdom of God. It preaches well, but we need this marvelously written, very insightful book to show us (using a four way or 2 x 2 grid rather than a continuum) how to embrace both strength and weakness. Near the end of this invitation Andy wisely reminds us of Christ’s own suffering, his journey towards weakness, the brilliance of the gospel in all it’s counter-cultural relevance. This is what love looks like, how human calling takes its best shape, how following Jesus can allow us to be people who have the confidence to take risks, for love’s sake. This is one of the best little books I’ve ever read and Lent seems the perfect time to spend more time in it’s life-changing pages.

Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace Mark DeYmaz (NavPress) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

Yet another new one about which I should write much more, but which I will just tell you pretty quickly what it is about. The title and subtitle says it all — it is about a Protestant (evangelical) who has written much about multi-ethnic ministry and forming racially diverse congregations who discovers the powerful simplicity of the famous Prayer of Saint Francis. We all know it, but how seriously do we take it, line by line? And can praying this prayer with intentionality perhaps be a way (as the sub-title puts) to “become more like Jesus.” Isn’t that what Lent is about? Praying for spiritual formation, becoming Christ-like in a way that allows us to better serve others.

Can’t we all become a little more Christ-like this season? Doesn’t “Make me an instrument of Your peace” sound like a prayer we all need, now?  Leonard Sweet (whose recent book Jesus Imagination: Maker, Mender, Minder, Master I wrote about not long ago) says, “Mark DeYmaz doesn’t just write about peace — he hands you the tools to make it.”

Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Waged Peace Throughout Holy Week Jason Porterfield (Herald Press) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

I’ve written about this extensively in years past so won’t belabor it, although I am glad to remind youth it is brilliant, easy to read, ad a great way to follow carefully the story as the gospel-writers have it unfolded for us. It is well known how much emphasis the gospels place on the final passion week of Jesus and this book shows how the drama starts on what is often misunderstood and misapplied, the event often known as Psalm Sunday. Jesus comes into the City of Peace (which he soon enough wears over) not on a war-horse or chariot but on a donkey, a dramatic, prophetic gesture for those who have eyes to see. Porterfield unpacks the peace-making themes of Holy Week and there is no better book to help us live into and perhaps embody the story of Jesus’s final days.  There is a good group study guide included as well.

Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate Steven Garber (Paraclete Press) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I know I’ve pitched this to you before. I said in was one of my favorite books read in 2025 (although it came out just in January of 2026.) I reviewed it again, and told you much about it as I invited you to our online webinar where I interviewed the author for an hour or so. We hardly scratched the surface so I suggested it, yet again, in an early Lenten list, thinking this beautifully rendered book telling of Steve’s own carrying the weight of the world seemed right for this sober season. It is a sober book, but yet — believe me — there are glimmers of glory, the grand (Hobbit-like) adventure we are all on, bringing us thrills and pains, joys and sorrows. Until Christ comes in glory to do what the Bible and the creeds say He will do, we work with hints of hope. This conversation about the “proximate” — not expecting everything, not being utopian, not triumphalistic, but not complicit or cynical, either — is perfect for Lent. In Christ we hope. In Him we wait. In Him — the suffering King — we hold on the best we can, still not finding fully what we’re looking for. That can be devasting or it can be liberating. With Steve’s wise help, it can be a key to flourishing and health.  Read it now tapping into the virtues proper to the season. Or maybe right after Easter, in resurrectionary hope. Sooner or later, you’ll need this. We are delighted to suggest it to you now.

Killing a Messiah: A Novel Adam Winn (IVP) $23.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.19

I don’t have to say much about this other than to say it is a fictionalized account of the death of Christ as passover approaches in the city of Jerusalem. It is, as he puts it, a “political tinderbox.” Adam Winn is a professor and author of several scholarly works on the gospel of Mark, especially understood in light of the influence of first century imperial pressures. How was the early church’s Christology developed under Cesar and what is the relationship between the writing of the New Testament and the realities of Empire. Anyway, he knows his stuff and this is a fresh imagination of the events leading up to Jesus’s execution. What a better time to read a novel like this. Wow.

Shades of Light: A Novel Sharon Garlough Brown (IVP) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

Some of you who have followed us for a while will recall my rave review of this novel about a young Christian social worker who faces burnout from job stress, a broken heart from a relationship break-up, and, frankly a serious bout of depression. Wren takes refuge in a retreat center run by her aunt and in a story that Publishers Weekly called “heartbreaking and enthralling” she slowly finds some solace and healing with her aunts gentle spiritual direction and the retreat center’s calming influence. Shades of Light is a great story and there is a really good (six week) study guide for personal use or book clubs ($13.99 // $11.99.) I won’t give away a key plot event, although the next review gives it away.

Remember Me: A Novella About Finding Our Way to the Cross with the devotional and artworks “Journey to the Cross” Sharon Garlough Brown (IVP) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99

A novella, of course, is a very short novel. Longer than a short story, but not quite a full novel, this is just 100 pages. It is a story formed by letters sent by Katherine Rhodes, the director of the New Hope Retreat Center to her niece Wren who — as told in the fuller novel Shades of Light — finds a partial way to cope with her depression when her aunt invites her to paint contemporary artworks for an upcoming Stations of the Cross service. Remember Me picks up that story as Katherine share her own grief (coupled somehow with the pain of our savior) making this a perfect Lenten read.

But get this: the final chapters of Remember Me has the (fictional) program and artwork from the (fictional) Stations of the Cross as done by the fictional Wren. Ends up, this program of reflection and the full color art pieces (reproduced in full color on glossy paper inserts) makes a great Lenten devotional. The real life artist Elizabeth Ivy Hawkins stood in as the character Wren and painted these paintings of the Stations as she thought Wren might have and described them in this real devotional. The paintings are created in Shades of Light which causes Katherine to write what becomes Remember Me, where the art and devotional are included. What a great idea, eh?

Liberated at the Cross: Peace and Reconciliation in God’s Kingdom Kristel Acevedo (IVP) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

I am telling you, I have never seen such a rich and thoughtful small group Bible study on the topic of the cross and the social implications of a theology of atonement for peace and public justice. Okay, I’ve never seen any kind of Bible study on this (although there is a huge body of often academic literature showing how the cross brings both personal justification and cosmic reconciliation, how Christ’s death defeats the principalities and powers, how the victory of Christ in resurrection leads to a Kingdom of healing and restoration, etc. etc. etc.) If you know that vast literature — whether its the teaching about the cross from John Stott or Ron Sider or James Cone or Jorgen Moltmann or Brian Zahnd or Sylvia Keesmaat or NT Wright or others with their unique contributions — you may have longed for their full-orbed visions of the transformative power of the cross to be offered in accessible Bible study formats. This is it and I am excited and grateful to Kristel Acevedo and to IVP for daring to do such a helpful, radical, faithful resource. Get a bunch and spread the word.

Each section is enhanced with bold super-graphics and bright headlines and cool, colorful design and each week has QR codes that have amazing videos to watch; this is not your father or mother’s fill-in-the-blank Bible study booklet. Nope, this is chock-full of ideas and activities and good, good conversation starters to help you be rooted in the cross and dream for a better world. The best part, of course, is the solid Biblical study you’ll do for six or more sessions. There are review pieces, “self-check” notes, closing prayers and more. Kristel, by the way, is discipleship director at Transformation Church a multiethnic community (pastored by Derwin Gray, author most recently of Lit by Love) near Charlotte NC.

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BookNotes

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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If you enjoyed this newsletter feel free to share it with those who might enjoy it as well. If you want to purchase any of these we sure hope you’d send the order our way. All books mentioned are 20% off. Click on the link below. Happy reading in these hard times.