Book Reviews

[1] Christine Emba, in an insightful Opinion piece published by the Washington Post in July of 2023, presented a fascinating cultural problem that has been overlooked and underestimated by many in this country.[i] It has to do with a crisis of masculinity as a result of changing cultural and social values, a more expansive view […]

[1] In Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times: Justification and the Pursuit of Justice, Amy Carr and Christine Helmer are concerned with the polarization that runs through our country and congregations.[1] Though this polarization’s content is most often political—think of the red-blue state divide, or our siloing mediated by social media and cable news—Carr and Helmer […]

[1] Amidst a society wrenched apart by forces hell-bent on splintering the body politic as well as the Body of Christ, Amy Carr and Christine Helmer have co-written Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times which offers a theological framework for helping Christians engage in moral discernment and “justice-seeking.” For the authors, the concept of Christian identity […]

1] Though a self-proclaimed friend of Artificial Intelligence (pp.31,119), Cambridge University Professor of Global Thought Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is concerned about racism and sexism creeping into the algorithms governing emerging AI technology (pp.3-4,48-49).  This is an issue that is getting some attention among experts (notably in another new book by Calvin Lawrence, Hidden in White Sight, […]

[1] Article XVI of the Augsburg Confession affirms the responsibility of Christians to engage in civil affairs. However, engaging well and faithfully requires Christians to understand the civil and political contexts in which they are embedded. Many recent works in political theory have described various contemporary political crises and challenges: social fragmentation at global, national, […]

[1] In keeping with the theme of this journal issue, the books section consists of an annotated list of resources for further study on the important topic of Christian nationalism.  The resources are diverse and cover a range of perspectives and angles on the topic.  The first section addresses White Christian Nationalism in the United […]

[1] On the jacket, Al Gore calls this book “entertaining”—which stunned me.  Al, didn’t you rattle our cages fifteen years ago—inconveniently!—to the dangers of climate change?  So what are you thinking now?  Should we be seeking to be entertained when reading about extreme heat, which kills almost half a million people a year worldwide—twice as […]

[1] Quite often church leaders and academics find themselves challenged to interpret the theological dialogue on vocation to their colleagues or students. Some theologians make painstaking attempts to bring abstract theological concepts into modern contexts and everyday parlance.  Andrew Tucker is one of those theologians. When I learned that his book 4D Formation: Exploring Vocation […]

[1] Christian Wiman grew up in an evangelical church in Texas, living a dark childhood with “my father vanishing, my mother wracked with rage and faith, my siblings sinking into drugs.” [2] Now a professor teaching religion and literature at Yale Divinity School, he is the author, editor or translator of thirteen books of poetry […]

[1] Holiday seasons are among the most difficult for those in mourning.  Well-meaning platitudes fall short, leaving friends at a loss for words, not knowing how to accompany loved ones engulfed in sorrow or facing death. [2] Letters written by Rainer Maria Rilke from 1907 to 1925 offer an intimate glimpse into the great poet’s understanding […]