James K. A. Smith

"God Is Dead" and I Don't Feel So Good Myself

Apologetics

“The very shape of this book is a response to the New Atheism precisely because it refuses their narrow imagination and rationalist fundamentalism. Instead of playing by their rules, this book imagines faith otherwise in a stunning collection of poetry, prose, interviews, and images. It is an intellectual feast which seats us at the table with some of the most significant voices of our day.”

3000 Miles to Jesus

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“Who hasn't sometimes felt like Jesus is three thousand miles away? You are not alone. That is the encouragement of this honest yet hopeful book, inviting us to join saints of old on a journey as long as the Christian life itself.”

A Radiant Birth

Bible Studies & Devotionals

“Who better to lead us to the mystery of Word become flesh than writers? Who better to help us sing songs of yearning and joy than poets? This wonderful collection from some of my favorite writers and poets is a space for the imagination to contemplate the incomprehensible gift of the incarnation during the journey through Advent and Christmastide.”

Abraham Kuyper

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“This marvelous little book pulls off an astounding feat: though it is both compact and accessible, it also gives us the whole Kuyper. Too often we get Kuyper in slices: folks gravitate to a 'side' of Kuyper, adopting his theology of culture but neglecting his emphasis on the church, or picking up common grace but neglecting antithesis. But Mouw, with typical wit and warmth, introduces us to Kuyper in all his multifaceted richness. A gift for the next generation.”

Abundantly More

Theology

“As only Jeremy Begbie can do, this book weaves theology and music, philosophy and poetry, science and Scripture to explore and celebrate the uncontainability of the triune God and the irreducible complexity of creation. Beginning with an astute analysis of our modern tendency to reduce, flatten, and de-complexify the beautiful, swirling kaleidoscope of divine and created reality, Begbie articulates a creative, constructive pneumatology that deepens our understanding of the resonance between theology and the arts. A remarkable achievement that breaks new ground.”

Advent

Preaching & Worship

“My not-so-secret hope is that Fleming Rutledge’s Advent would become required reading in our seminaries and the focus of vestry book clubs, elder retreats, and worship leader workshops. Because that would give me hope for an apocalyptic renewal in the church—that we would learn again how to live as an Advent people, hoping in a God who acts and is making all things new. Taking this book to heart would teach us how to live wisely, faithfully, and prophetically in the Time Between.”

Be Still and Know

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Our capacity to learn depends on our ability to attend to what puzzles and perplexes us. That is why distraction’s diminishment of attention is so disastrous for education. In this timely book, Manning reintroduces us to pedagogical treasures buried in ancient disciplines of contemplation. At once visionary and concrete, this book does something remarkable: it speaks to an urgent need by inviting us to non-anxious rest as the fount of learning.”

Becoming Neighbors

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Between Babel and Beast

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“When I read a critique of the heresy of 'Americanism' from someone who nonetheless 'loves America,' I take notice: this is not the usual predictable boilerplate. In this important book, Leithart brings his usual verve, erudition, and nuance to bear on one of the central idolatries of our age.”

Bezalel’s Body

Arts & Literature

“In this ranging, evocative book, Katie Kresser reframes the way we approach art. Every encounter with a painting is an encounter with otherness, a reminder of a world beyond myself and of a mystery beyond the world. To stand before a painting or a sculpture is to be called into a relationship, one that aims to change me in the process. After this book, you’ll never walk through a museum in the same way again.”

Called to the Life of the Mind

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Too many Christian responses to anti-intellectualism end up endorsing what Augustine calls curiositas — the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake. This marvelous little book from one of my heroes, Rich Mouw, is a distinct call for the faithful cultivation of the mind in the service of Christ. It will help a new generation to love God with heart, soul,and mind.”

Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Creator Spirit

Theology

“We have seen a spate of books offering an ‘incarnational’ affirmation of the arts or a ‘sacramental’ aesthetic. But in Creator Spirit Guthrie gives us something we have been waiting for in discussions of theology and the arts: a pneumatology. Unafraid to engage popular conceptions of spirituality and art, Guthrie challenges the latent gnosticism in so much talk of ‘spirituality,’ returning Christian spirituality to the rehumanizing work of the Holy Spirit. The result is a kind of chemical reaction of mutual illumination: I have a new appreciation for the Spirit’s work and a new excitement about the arts. I hope this book finds many, many readers.”

Delivered from the Elements of the World

Theology

“When you read Peter Leithart, you suddenly realize how timid most Christian theologians are, tepidly offering us a few 'insights' to edify our comfort with the status quo. Leithart is like a lightning strike from a more ancient, more courageous Christian past, his flaming pen fueled by biblical acuity and scholarly rigor. In this book, he does it again—here is the City of God written afresh for our age, asking a question you didn't know to ask but now can't avoid: Why is the cross the center of human history? Couldn't God have found another way? Leithart's answer—this book—is a monumental achievement.”

Digital Communion

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“We’ve achieved enough distance from McLuhan to revisit him afresh. In this engaging book, Nick Ripatrazone deftly shows how McLuhan’s prescience means he can still show us our future. As we emerge from a global pandemic, during which we have been digitally baptized in unexpected ways, McLuhan’s insights about incarnate faith in a virtual world are more timely than ever. Ripatrazone, who combines sparkling prose with theological insight, is an ideal guide.”

Digital Life Together

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Here, finally, is wisdom about the role of technology in Christian teaching and learning that is neither blind enthusiasm nor defensive dismissal. Rooted in empirical research rather than anecdotal impressions, this remarkable book helps us learn from what is happening to better frame what we hope might happen. This is an excellent catalyst for a conversation that all faith-based school communities need to have. Highly recommended for teachers, administrators, and the families investing in Christian schooling.”

Divine Sex

Church Leadership & Ministry

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture is part bombshell, part pastoral epistle. . . . Both Kierkegaard and Crump have a way of chopping a path through all the brush of hermeneutical debates and academic wrangling about historical criticism to remind us of a simple but still disconcerting truth — that the point of Scripture is to encounter Jesus. . . . Students and other interpreters need to read this book to be reminded that what's at stake in biblical studies is an encounter with the Lover of our souls.”

Enjoying the Bible

Theology

“What if reading the Bible is a matter not just of discerning what it says but of attending to how it speaks? Then reading the Bible is more like experiencing a poem than processing a rule book. In this marvelous game changer of a book, Matthew Mullins invites readers to encounter the Bible as literature, not to diminish its revelatory authority but to break open its luminary capacity. I'm so glad this book is in the world.”

Evangelical versus Liturgical?

Preaching & Worship

“This is a book that many of us have been waiting for. It is winsome without being wishy-washy; critical yet profoundly charitable. Above all it is both sharp and wise. Instead of the usual invitation for evangelicals to grow up and become 'liturgical,' Ross empowers free-church evangelicals to see the liturgical wisdom already implicit in their practices - and presses liturgical theologians to appreciate the same. In doing so, she also invites evangelicals to become newly intentional about worship by drawing from the deep wells of liturgical theology. This book is a win-win-win.”