Rachelle Green

Tangible Grace

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“Tangible Grace is an essential, life-saving read for all religious leaders, communities, parents, and scholars who care about the well-being of teens. Evelyn L. Parker tackles a too-often-neglected critical issue in religious life—gender-based and intimate partner violence among teenagers. This book stuns with powerful questions such as: How is the faith and spirituality of a teenager shaped when [their] body hurts during Sunday worship—a site of Christian faith formation—from slaps and punches administered just hours before? With deeply moving narratives, Parker makes readers aware of the problem of violence in teenage romantic relationships, including same-gender teen partners, and offers practical guidance for how to teach, preach to, worship with, pastorally care for, and advocate on behalf of teens. Combining knowledge from her long history of working with and on behalf of young people with insightful wisdom from other leading practical theologians, Parker challenges us to see teenage bodies as tangible manifestations of God’s grace and provokes us toward emancipatory pedagogies that stand against gender-based violence. As a religious educator and practical theologian, I see Tangible Grace as the critical and creative book I’ve been missing in my courses.”

The Business of Incarceration

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“The authors of this text go beyond critiquing the exploitative systems of incarceration; they do the hardest work of all—they give us hope for actual Christian resistance and ignite our imaginations for building new worlds not governed by the business of incarceration.”