Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore

A New Old Spirituality?

Church Leadership & Ministry

“What a wonderful book! Few authors pull off its double accomplishment—a book that at once offers fresh ways for pastors to understand their spiritual lives and a great model for researchers on how to do empirical study and interpretation.”

Accompanying Disability

“Intrepidly joining his father on his difficult journey from avid hiker to quadriplegic, minister and theologian Topher Endress invites us to think anew about accompaniment and disability theology from the perspective of the caregiver. A powerful testimony to how to give care and keep company with those in need.”

Addiction and Pastoral Care

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“Simply put, this is the best book out there for any health professional or individual who wants to understand the spiritual and political complexities of addiction.”

Calling in Context

Work, Money & Leadership

“Rarely do experts on calling urge people to consider how God's action in our lives is shaped by race, gender, class, and much more. In honest, profound, and biblically informed prose, Susan Maros opens up a whole new horizon on calling, revealing its complexity and brilliantly translating complicated concepts into everyday language so that all of us can grapple with vocation in more culturally sensitive and faithful ways. An invaluable addition to literature on calling!”

Children's Ministry in the Way of Jesus

Church Leadership & Ministry

“Finally--a design for children's ministry that actually takes children seriously! Incisive, thoughtful and creative, David Csinos and Ivy Beckwith have written a wonderful guide, packed full of constructive ideas, for fostering a 'new ecclesial culture' in which children are full and lively participants in Christian life and community.”

Church Abuse of Clergy

Church Leadership & Ministry

“Gene Fowler not only tackles a tough issue; he brilliantly transforms the discussion, revealing oversights and limits in the dominant literature and its language (e.g., ‘clergy killing’) and drawing on group psychology for refreshingly new understandings of congregational dynamics and the need for clergy solidarity. All told, an incredibly helpful resource capable of making a genuine difference.”

Deadly Real

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“This incredibly heartfelt and helpful book will draw you in immediately. Sabrina Müller, a wise and compassionate theologian, offers an immense gift, breaking the silence and taboos around her close friend’s suicide and around suicide in general despite its prevalence. In taking us through the guilt, blame, outrage, bitterness, accusations, abandonment, despondency, doubt, and achingly reconstructed faith, Müller shows those left behind and caregivers alike a way forward amidst the pain.”

Hope Deferred

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“Compelling, even riveting, vividly honest, courageous, eloquent and profound. What a welcome antidote to a culture obsessed with biological motherhood and a church largely silent on reproductive loss!”

Injustice and the Care of Souls, Second Edition

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“The value and importance of this groundbreaking collection has only increased since its first edition. Stellar essays by inside experts cover an expanded number of contexts and provide concrete steps to advocate for those facing adversity amid ongoing inequity, intolerance, and harm. An absolutely essential guide for today's caregiver and for all those who care.”

Interdependence

Theology

“In this wonderfully disruptive and transformative book, HyeRan Kim-Cragg breaks new ground, employing interdependence as a plumb line for Christian realignment. Pushing aside the veil of North American colonialism, she deftly reminds readers that all of us depend on the mercy of others for our very lives, and, suddenly, we see anew those repeatedly cast aside—children, mixed-race and queer youths, multinational immigrants, multi-religious persons, and nature itself. A much-needed contribution!”

Introducing Practical Theology

Christian Living

“Grounded nicely in Ward's expertise in ecclesial ethnography and reflecting his evangelical background, this book will especially appeal to those looking for an overtly church- and gospel-centered approach to practical theology. Written in a down-to-earth style for a wide audience, the book provides a useful guide to the field, offering novices an understanding of what has happened in practical theology, with particularly helpful advice on small-scale empirical research and theological reflection.”

Kids and Kingdom

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“To say Jesus may not have loved little children (as much as people assume) is daring. But to make children visible in biblical interpretation--even essential to it--is a real contribution. With incisive analysis of a range of scholarship, James Murphy reveals just how much their inclusion transforms sentimental assumptions about the 'kingdom,' and, as important, he heightens our concern for the plight of real children.”

Living Devotions

“This is simply a wonderful book. Beautifully written, captivating in its detail, wise in its analysis, pastoral in its sensitivity, Living Devotions offers an illuminating 'ethnographic narrative' of an Italian Catholic immigrant community 'told in a pastoral theological voice.' For all those who hope to understand religion as it is woven richly into life--religion scholars and practitioners alike--this book is a must-read. It will equip scholars to enter the world of lived beliefs while enhancing the imagination of those in ministry.”

Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals

Church Leadership & Ministry

“Bonnie Miller-McLemore, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture”

Misunderstanding Stories

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“McGarrah Sharp insists that to understand we must grapple with our misunderstanding, a misunderstanding heightened by complicity within Western colonialism. The book is unique in its creative use of postcolonial theory to correct basic assumptions about identity development and empathy and its new model of care with a step-by-step analysis of relational breach, crisis, redress, and reconciliation.”

More Lasting Unions

Marriage, Family & Relationships

“Stephen Post draws on an amazingly wide array of biblical, moral, theological, and social resources to make a strong case for the immense value of lasting marital commitments. Most helpful, he elaborates the 'genius' of Christianity— its holding together a reverence for parent-child, husband-wife, and brother-sister familial love along with the extension of this intimate love beyond the family to our neediest neighbors.”

Overture to Practical Theology

Theology

“Drawing on years of pastoral experience and scholarly wisdom, Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner uses creative metaphor, case study, and historical vignette to create a readily accessible introduction that will especially appeal to seminarians preparing to serve the church and those already leading congregations.”

Postfoundationalist Reflections in Practical Theology

Theology

“Brian Macallan invites readers on a journey he knows well from foundationalist assertion of inerrant biblical truth to a 'chastened' and humble postfoundationalist affirmation of Christian faith, discovering along the way practical theology's turn to local knowledge as a fruitful resource. His book will be especially useful to those caught in similar binds and curious about practical theology as a potential road forward.”

Practicing Theology

Theology

“All too often, when people hear the word 'theology' they immediately think of abstract academic theories unrelated to real life. Each author in this book challenges this age-old notion about the split between church and academy and suggests that good theology captures a way of faithful living in all its complexity and beauty. As a practical theologian, I welcome efforts of systematic theologians — those most associated with obscure theorizing — into the enterprise of understanding faithful practices in a trying, challenging world.”

Raging with Compassion

Theology

“This is the new practical theology at its best — engaging theology not as some kind of distant abstraction but in the midst of the most dire human struggles with evil and suffering. Not only does John Swinton bring theology and theodicy down to earth with verve and sensitivity, but he also offers a plethora of wise advice about practices that ward off evil — lament, forgiveness, thoughtfulness, friendship — which warrant our full and lively engagement.”