David Jasper

Arts & Literature

“Lori Kanitz has written a deeply learned and sensitive account of Dillard’s immersion in Hasidic and Kabbalistic mysticism which brings theology, both mystical and sacramental, into the very heart of her texts. The themes of creation, evil, and redemption are explored through Dillard’s Judeo-Christian sensitivities and reveal her profound and humane scholarship within both the Jewish and Christian traditions. Kanitz’s book itself is theologically and ethically challenging, a beautifully written essay on a major writer.”

A Sacerdotal Poetics

Arts & Literature

“This original book draws together an astonishing wealth of thought and scholarship. At its heart is a study in poetics and the vision of two great poets, W. B. Yeats and Yves Bonnefoy, as one translates the verse of the other. Two great sacramental visions are revealed, Protestant and Catholic in their origins, each explored through the thought of the French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.”

A Theology of Literature

Theology

“Well known for his distinguished work on mysticism and the apophatic, in this new monograph William Franke offers a remarkable development in the field of literature and theology. Building on the foundations laid by earlier scholars in both biblical studies and literature, Franke examines different genres in both testaments, from myth, epic, the prophetic, the apocalyptic, and the gospel, to offer a biblical theology that is inherent within the text rather than imposed externally upon it. It is a brilliant example of what Paul Ricoeur once called thinking biblically, and will be a profoundly important book for anyone within the humanities as well as theologians, liturgists, and biblical critics.”

Beauty

Theology

“Natalie Carnes has written a remarkable book--in its range, its learning and its imaginative sweep. All good history and theology thrive on imaginative engagement--while beauty is most enticing when it is veiled and presented as a mystery. Gregory of Nyssa emerges from these pages as a writer and theologian for our time, at once ancient and postmodern.”

Being and Creation in the Theology of John Scottus Eriugena

Theology

“Sergei Sushkov’s book, for which we should be deeply grateful, is the result of meticulous scholarship and makes clear to the reader the thought of a major, and often unjustly neglected, figure in Christian theology, a careful thinker towards unity within broad reaches of culture that provides a model for reason in our present world, fragmented as it is by religious differences and intellectual incoherences.”

Cosmic Prayer and Guided Transformation

Theology

Foreword

“This is a deeply Christian meditation that speaks to the world. It needs to be heard and reflected upon.”

Desert Spirit Places

World Religions

“I have found these personal writings of Father Karelius deeply moving and inspiring at many levels. The desert is here never less than a real place, but within its harsh and beautiful landscape we find also the wisdom of deep spirituality—learnt also from St. Ignatius of Loyola and many others. Innocence and wisdom come together in this wise for book our troubled age.”

Facing the Fiend

Arts & Literature

“Even as the nature of evil in a world created and redeemed by a loving God remains a profound mystery to theology, through the pages of literature Satan wanders as a character beyond redemption. Never more so than in the blood-soaked fiction of our own time, Satan lives through the lives of others--a fearful presence brought to our attention by this haunting and timely book.”

Fictions of God

Arts & Literature

“Here are conversations with God and the self in the dense, inescapable pages of fictions that reflect the courtesy demanded of the other, the brutality, the sound and the silence of God. Close readings of novels exchange with references from Dame Julian of Norwich, Plato, Wagner, Rublev, and many others. Here theology is ever present, embedded in the stuff of human existence, not explanatory but living and always real. God in fictions is never easy but so hard to escape or ignore. This is a book to be deeply pondered.”

God and Wonder

Theology

“This rich collection of essays draws upon the abundance of the arts and the imagination to recover a sense of wonder in the world, in the church, and before God. The variety of the contributions from scholars, artists, writers, and teachers produces a book that from Coleridge to Spike Lee explores the challenge of wonder and excites the reader with the riches of the imagination, from the visions of children to the wisdom of Scripture and theology.”

James Baldwin and the Short Story

Arts & Literature

“This fresh and original appraisal of the short stories of James Baldwin from a religious perspective is theologically astute and theoretically deeply grounded. Drawing on thinkers such as Girard and Levinas, as well as the Bible and Christian theology, Ushedo unpacks the intensity of Baldwin’s prose in a series of close readings of his most powerful stories.”

Liturgical Liaisons

Arts & Literature

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Making Memory

Theology

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Mother Tongue Theologies

Arts & Literature

“"This book presents the reader with a remarkable array of essays on Christianity in world literature outside the Western tradition, from Christian communities both ancient and modern. It demonstrates the power of poetry and fiction to illuminate the riches of a religious tradition that is capable of extraordinary cultural adaptations in a diversity of political and historically defined contexts. It should be widely read in the West as a brilliant illustration of imaginative and intellectual capacity of the Christian churches both new and old throughout the world.”

Not Beyond Language

Philosophy

“Addressing the difficulty of speaking about God, and religious language more broadly, Khay Lim brings together an astonishing range of theological and philosophical issues. Around his central discussions of Wittgenstein and Lindbeck he weaves an intricate tissue of references, drawing upon thinkers from Aristotle to Augustine, Aquinas, Hume, Heidegger, Rorty, and D. Z. Phillips. This is a deeply learned and profoundly knowing discussion of the matter of ‘God talk.’”

Reading Daniel as a Text in Theological Hermeneutics

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Aaron Hebbard's new book is a genuinely interdisciplinary exercise that will be of immense help to scholars in literature, theology, and biblical studies. It offers a wholly new perspective on hermeneutics through a highly creative reading of the book of Daniel that introduces Daniel himself into the company of interpreters as relevant and immediate as Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer. This is scholarship of the highest quality and sharpest imagination.”

Sex, Sin, and Our Selves

Theology

“Anna Fisk presents the reader with not merely an adventure in contemporary feminist literature, but also the possibility of a new theology that is creative and alive to the postmodern condition. She achieves this through a form of writing that is at once academically disciplined and at the same time deeply rooted in her own life and experience. This is a remarkable achievement for a scholar in the early years of her career. This is a beautifully written and original work.”

Sigurd’s Lament

Arts & Literature

“This is a very serious book that has to be read three or four times: the prefatory material, the poem, the footnotes – all fictional worlds that interweave with high humor, serious criticism, and profound religious insights. From anticipatory plagiarism to distention in reading, this book cuts across boundaries and is one of the best essays in literature and theology for a long time. As one of the footnotes disarmingly remarks, “What a wonderful idea . . . .”

Spirit of Liberality

Theology

“Liberality, inclusiveness, hospitality, generosity--the words that characterize the theology and writings of George Newlands. He carries his profound learning lightly and with a wit and grace that returns theology to the corners of human experience and embraces the wide world from China to Scotland and the broad highways of Los Angeles. Newlands sustains a liberal tradition in theological reflection that we cannot afford to forget or ignore.”

The Artist as Divine Symbol

Arts & Literature

“In this densely written and learned study of nineteenth-century and fin de siecle aesthetics, Adam Carnehl recovers Chesterton as an important figure in theological mysticism after Ruskin, Pater, and Wilde. Rooted in German Idealism and Romantic thought in Blake and Coleridge, this book deftly re-evaluates Victorian aesthetics culminating in Chesterton, in the recovery of the imago dei, and in God as divine artist.”