Book Reviews

[1] In 2019 the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee, WI., condemned white supremacy by declaring that (1) white supremacy is racism, and (2) violent rhetoric against persons of color in the name of so-called “Christian Nationalism” is not a true Christian faith. It is idolatry and the church condemns it.[1] The connection between Christian nationalism […]

[1] Four years after its inception, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America issued its first teaching document, The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective at its second Churchwide Assembly in 1991.[1] This statement, which passed by a two-thirds majority, signified that the newly constituted ELCA would “commit itself to serve God and neighbor in its […]

[1] Why would you want to take a deep dive into seeing and understanding the Pharisaic Paul of the New Testament? I will tell you up front that John Dominic Crossan’s Paul the Pharisee: A Vision Beyond the Violence of Civilization is that deep dive and you will want to take your time, and even […]

[1] In November of 2025, the ELCA approved a social message on child protection which calls for a number of reforms and greater theological engagement with the topic of child abuse. One of the resources cited in the social message is Here We Stand: A Lutheran Response to Child Abuse. This book is a collection […]

[1] Chad Lakies’s argument in his book How the Light Shines Through: Resilient Witness in Dark Times challenges the church to take seriously the pluralistic secular age we live within and approaches theology and faith in a new way but does not encourage the church to lose its own identity in the process. This book […]

[1] On Sunday, July 20, 2025, my Lutheran congregation sang these lines from “Lord You Give the Great Commission” (ELW #579): Lord, you show us love’s true measure: “Father, what they do, forgive.” Yet we hoard as private treasure all that you so freely give. May your care and mercy lead us to a just […]

[1] As Lutheranism in North America undergoes a discernible identity crisis and rediscovery, no one has seen the developments of the Lutheran church like Lowell Almen, who served over 20 years as the Secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Almen, ordained into the American Lutheran Church in 1967, oversaw the changing demographics of the Lutheran […]

[1] Robert Graetz’s memoir echoes through the years, from mid-1950’s Alabama, to the present. And we would do well to note the resonances in 2025, the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott. [2] Graetz wrote his memoir in his early 60s, reflecting on the tumultuous events that had happened 35 years prior. He could’ve […]

[1] Our church confesses: “As a church we confess that we are in bondage to sin and submit too readily to the idols and injustices of economic life. We often rely on wealth and material goods more than God and close ourselves off from the needs of others. Too uncritically we accept assumptions, policies, and […]

In this “Summer Books Issue” we include book reviews from a broad range of topics including history, philosophy, theology, ethics and spirituality. It is our hope that this broad range of topics finds an audience that is seeking for a diversity of topics. Included you will find a philosophical  exploration of the relationship between religion […]