Jessica Hooten Wilson

A Radiant Resurrection

Bible Studies & Devotionals

Foreword

“The Chrysostom Society writers here have faithfully sought that good news language, desiring that together with the reader, we may enter again the enchanting truths: Christ is risen from the dead! He lives still in the world! He lives in us!... As we enter together the agonies and wonders of the Lenten season, may we be brought into the fiery presence of the Holy. May these words and pages remind us that though we are but dust, the radiant rising of our Savior Jesus is ours as well. Come enter the light and the promise!”

An Introduction to Christian Mysticism

World Religions

“Jason Baxter begins his story in the wasteland that is our culture. An Introduction to Christian Mysticism shows how the dark night of the soul has extended across society. For Christians who desire the light, Baxter argues, we must become mystics or die. Yet the light that draws us out of darkness will be blinding, painful, and shocking. Tracing the mystic experiences of God from the pagans to Julian of Norwich and Nicholas of Cusa, Baxter reorients us to the tradition that we lost after the Reformation and the Enlightenment. To ignore this book is to succumb to a weak, domesticated version of our faith. To read this book is to be lit up again by our bright, burning, wild, and unfathomable God.”

Be Still and Know

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Drawing from the wisdom of the Christian tradition, Patrick Manning reminds us of the one thing needful in education—the love of God. He offers simple practices, gestures, and habits by which to cull distraction and attend instead to God and our learning community. I recommend this book as essential reading for faculty and teachers at the beginning of the school year.”

Becoming by Beholding

Christian Living

“The church—Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox—should thank Lanta Davis for this book. It quickens the spirit and delights the heart. Each page reminds you of the astonishing breadth and beauty and magic of the kingdom of God. Through Dr. Davis’s exploration of Scripture, medieval bestiaries, poems, cathedrals, icons, and paintings, our imaginations are reignited! Becoming by Beholding reminds readers of our transcendent God and the absurd faith demanded of his people.”

Great Stage of Fools

Arts & Literature

“Too often guides are written by specialists who have zoomed in so closely and become so accustomed to the tone of their guild that they cannot see the forest for the rhytidome. Anyone familiar with Peter Leithart’s guides to literature—he’s written on Dante, Shakespeare, Austen, and Dostoevsky—knows to expect theological depth and literary astuteness without any scholarly pretense. Great Stage of Fools offers a Christian reading of five Shakespearean tragedies and two comedies with an eye on the character of the plays’ characters. Always the teacher, Leithart provides questions for reflection and deeper thought, so that this guide may not be the end of interpretation but the beginning of a conversation. If you know Shakespeare is important but fear that such literature does not come easy, here is your starting point—whether you’re a scholar, teacher, or student.”

Households of Faith

Marriage, Family & Relationships

“Finally, a book that actually looks for the blueprint for families from the words of Jesus! Emily McGowin does not pretend to put forward answers or formulas for the Christian family, but she relies on the verb 'practice' as a way of discovering what family means in God's kingdom. For those who desire to practice family as Christians, this book should be your guide.”

Imagining Our Neighbors as Ourselves

Arts & Literature

“McCampbell has given us a vision of a flourishing community: one full of art, music, film, and fiction that tells the stories of who we are and the diverse gifts we bring to the table.”

Jesus through Medieval Eyes

History & Biography

“Under Grace Hamman’s tutelage, readers enter a “school of love.” Jesus through Medieval Eyes challenges our assumptions about Jesus, expanding our vision of him with medieval images. After reading this book, we know Jesus as judge, lover, mother, and more. Contrary to books that offer contemporary solutions to contemporary problems, Jesus through Medieval Eyes illuminates an eternal and timeless Savior.”

Pierced by Love

Christian Living

“For a contemporary church that has worn away the point of divine love, Hans Boersma sharpens it again with the flint of tradition. In Pierced by Love, the title is more than metaphor; it indicates how we should experience lectio divina. The early and medieval church knew that reading the Bible meant being entered into as much as entering the text. Boersma reacquaints us with the dangers and costs as well as the fruits of divine reading.”

Practicing Life Together

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“The answer to our lament over the loneliness and isolation of our current culture is creating space for deep Christian community. That's what Brazos Fellows does, and it does so with intellectual vigor, religious devotion, and a passion for beauty. In this book, Paul Gutacker shares the story of this fellowship. Like a boot camp for the soul, Brazos Fellows refines those in its communion through carefully curated reading, focus on spiritual practices, and friendships that will last a lifetime.”

Reading Black Books

Theology

“Atcho opens his book with the acknowledgment, ‘Right now, Black voices are in.’ Thank God for that! But his claim also implies the embarrassing iihistory where Black voices were silenced. For the God who created all people, what a sorrow that churches have been divided and some voices amplified over others. Atcho’s book participates in redemption by handing the mic to Ellison, Wright, Hurston, Morrison, and others. Even more than extracting truth from their work or increasing our empathy with their characters, Atcho highlights how this literature discloses eternal verities. We dig into Countee Cullen’s portrayal of Christ, Wright’s depictions of sin and justice. By attending to Black books, we renew our faith in the God who did not leave us to carve our own path but who revealed himself through his creatures and the stories they tell as they reach for him.”

Reading the Times

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“I am so grateful for a book that steps back from the flash and distraction of headlines to think deeply about the purpose of the news and how Christians are called to engage. In Reading the Times, Jeffrey Bilbro provides readers with a theological framework for our contemporary discourse. He offers examples from the tradition, from the Old Testament to modern heroes of the faith, such as Frederick Douglass and Dorothy Day, that we might apprentice ourselves, as Bilbro puts it, before these models. Like a teacher, Bilbro questions readers about our ways of responding to media, and he leads us to consider how our participation with contemporary news forms us and our community. By contextualizing our reading of the news within kairos, Bilbro shows Christians how, as T. S. Eliot writes, 'to apprehend the point of intersection of the timeless with time.' A relevant and timeless book about how Christians should belong in but not of this world.”

Some of the Words Are Theirs

Preaching & Worship

“Our lives are interpretations of what we have read and experienced. In Some of the Words Are Theirs, Austin Carty explores this mystery in the context of his own pastoral vocation. More than an insightful book about how to write a sermon, Carty’s own words demonstrate how to give your talents back to the One who authors you.”

The Evangelical Imagination

History & Biography

“If you think you’ve read everything on evangelical culture, think twice: The Evangelical Imagination will blow your mind! As well as encourage your heart to desire what is beautiful again. Prior’s writing is sharp, substantive, and engaging. You will be quoting her to friends and sharing her insights with your family as you struggle to remember the false paradigms you used to live under. With her deep knowledge of the past three hundred years of history, literature, and philosophy, Prior unmasks our assumptions about evangelical culture and shows us both the good and the bad of our inherited social imaginary. You need this book to remind you why you love the evangelical church and to inspire you to be an active culture maker for the kingdom.”

The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis

Arts & Literature

“I am often lamenting about what our culture has lost. C. S. Lewis is one of our sages who revitalizes the premodern world so that we can again reclaim an enchanted vision of reality. In this book, Jason Baxter offers the church what we've longed for—the tools by which Lewis embodied the medieval worldview—so we too can imitate this forgotten way of seeing.”

The Poets and the Fathers

Arts & Literature

“This book answers a question you may have never asked but should have: How does modern poetry draw on the church fathers? Erudite yet accessible, The Poets and the Fathers surprises you, showing the influence Gregory Nazianzus had on Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Prudentius on T. S. Eliot and C. S. Lewis. For those keen on knowing the tradition, this book fills in beautifully gaps in our knowledge and encourages us to look more often for the ways that the past can speak into the present.”

The Way of Dante

Arts & Literature

“In The Way of Dante, Richard Hughes Gibson does not teach us about Dante; rather through Dante, we learn more about the reality of sin, ourselves, and God. By uniting Williams, Lewis, and Sayers's writings on The Divine Comedy, Gibson grants readers a blessed opportunity of a cotaught Great Books seminar, a dialogue of the dead orchestrated with vitality around one of the tradition's eternal poets!”

To Live Well

Christian Living

“Thank God for Alan Noble—for his voice and witness! Like all of Alan's books, To Live Well is a balm for the hurting, written with honesty, wisdom, and so much love. How can we piece together all the fragments of advice in our oversaturated world? To Live Well puts the puzzle together for us, cementing the broken bits of colored glass into a cathedral window through which we experience God's light.”

Word Made Fresh

Arts & Literature

“Why does God keep making poets? Because the church needs to wonder anew at God’s daily graces! Abram Van Engen gifts readers with a practical guide both for those who fear verse (that they will see how simple and lovely poems are), as well as for those who have never lost their delight in the grandeur of poetry. Within these pages, through the diverse assortment of spiritually thick poems that Van Engen chooses alongside his personal and clear explications, readers may taste freshly the joy of the Lord.”