Kaya Oakes

A Different Kind of Fast

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“In a time when consumerist pressure weighs heavily on all of us, Christine Valters Paintner's A Different Kind of Fast asks us to consider what 'giving something up' for Lent really means. Drawing on the wisdom of the desert mothers and fathers and their contemporary descendants, this book offers readers a multisensory approach to contemplation that is sensitive, thoughtful, and inclusive.”

Blessed Are the Nones

History & Biography

“In a time when the idea of a 'mixed marriage' increasingly means marriage between people of faith and the seekers, doubters, and religious wayfarers they find themselves partnered with, Stina Kielsmeier-Cook cracks open her own marriage in order to show us that these can be spiritual unions of great depth. And she also allows us a glimpse into the new kinds of religious communities that are forming all around us in a time when postinstitutional religion becomes a reality for many. Sensitive, observant, and wise, this is a book that brims over with compassion and care for the spiritually adrift.”

Eternal Heart

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“Mysticism and contemplation can feel abstract and challenging even to those of us who are most curious about them, but Carl McColman's Eternal Heart grounds these ancient practices in concepts familiar to everyone. Interweaving storytelling, scripture, and interfaith tools for contemplation, this book helps our hearts find a path toward the things they most long for.”

Just Faith

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Many of us have been in on a secret for years: progressive Christianity is alive and well in America. Just Faith lets readers in on the secret and supplies context for the revival of faith-based activism in America. In Just Faith Graves-Fitzsimmons assures us that none of us are alone as progressives within our denominations. Bold, prayerful, and full of knowledge, this is a book to help us find the way.”

Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“David Dark reimagines being religious as a collective action open to all and demonstrates that in a time skeptical of religion, it can be a source of meaningful work and life-giving pleasure and joy—and even of change.”

No One Taught Me How to Be a Man

“Desperately needed in our current conversations about gender is a deeper understanding of healthy masculinity. In Nobody Taught Me How to Be a Man, Shannon Kearns helps us to understand the social, cultural, and religious pressures men face from a trans man's point of view. Poignant and thoughtful, this book is a lifeline for those lost in the noise of contemporary ideas about masculinity.”

Sacred Signposts

Christian Living

“Benjamin Dueholm elegantly and thoughtfully moves us through a Christianity of resistance to our own torpor and into a Christianity of embodiment. Bold and necessary, Dueholm’s sacred signposts are the signs of our time.”

Tell Them Something Beautiful

“As the essays, blog posts, and talks in this book demonstrate, Sam Rocha is a philosopher/contrarian or contrarian/philosopher for our time. Nimbly shifting from politics to religion to music, race, and culture, Tell Them Something Beautiful is a symphony in many movements: lyric and occasionally barbed, but mostly soaring.”

The Habit of Poetry

Arts & Literature

“Since the Middle Ages, sisters and nuns have used religious life as a source of creative inspiration. In The Habit of Poetry, Nick Ripatrazone introduces us to an unlikely cast of characters: a group of mid-twentieth-century women who wrote dazzling, complicated, contemplative poetry and who corresponded with and befriended some of the greatest writers of their day. These women also happened to be sisters and nuns. Balancing engrossing biography and skilled literary criticism, Ripatrazone’s book offers us a snapshot of a surprising literary movement largely forgotten until now.”

The Writing on the Wall

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Eric Martin's The Writing on the Wall takes readers to the front lines in Charlottesville in order to pull back the curtain on the tangled histories of hate that led to that day. Deeply reported, thoroughly revolutionary, and theologically attuned to the crisis in American politics and religion, this book is a collective psalm for our times.”

Unruly Saint

History & Biography

“In a time when church leaders try to remake Dorothy Day's story in light of their own wants and needs, Mayfield instead asks us to meet a flawed but holy Dorothy Day pulsing with human life. A necessary book for our time, Unruly Saint will introduce many readers to Dorothy Day and deepen many others' relationship to her.”

Why Christians Should Be Leftists

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“An elderly priest once reminded me that the word ‘vocation" has at its root the word vocare, which does not just mean understanding your life as a calling, but understanding that you can call others to different ways of understanding the world. That is what Christman's book succeeds at doing.”

You Can Talk To God Like That

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“In a moment when many around the world are experiencing grief, it's also clear that many of us have forgotten how to lament. Abby Norman's timely and wise book will help anyone who struggles with the language and expression of lament, whether collective or individual.”