The Political Theology Network is pleased to announce new and forthcoming books in political theology.

John Corrigan, The Feeling of Forgetting: Christianity, Race, and Violence in America, (Chicago, Jul 2023) “”With unabashed frankness and unrelenting truth-telling, Corrigan offers much-needed clarity to the ongoing attempts to account for enduring racism and religious hatred that too often portray the coexistence of Christianity and racism as an unfortunate contradiction or oversimplify the relationship between ideology and violence. A game-changing study.” — Sylvester Johnson, Virginia Tech

Lucas Miles, Woke Jesus: The False Messiah Destroying Christianity Hardcover – (Humanix Books, June 6, 2023) “”Everyone knows that wokeism is a disease, but most have not understood it properly enough to offer a cure. WOKE JESUS provides us with the historical facts and biblical insight necessary to dismantle the lies of wokeism, as well as offer a solution to eradicate it, rooted in a true understanding of truth, justice, and freedom in Christ. This is a must read for every Bible-believing American.” — Kevin Sorbo, Actor, Director, Producer, and Author   

Emanuel Fiano, Three Powers in Heaven, The Emergence of Theology and the Parting of the Ways (Yale University Press (June 1, 2023) “groundbreaking study on the intellectual and cultural history of early Christianity, this book will serve as a new starting point for any study on the subject of the parting or never-parting of the ways.”—Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Kevin W Hector, Christianity as a Way of Life, A Systematic Theology (Yale University Press, September 5, 2023) A sophisticated and compelling account of Christianity as a salutary way of life rather than a mere system of coherent beliefs. Reading it carefully will be time very well spent.”—Miroslav Volf, Yale Divinity School

To Speak a Defiant Word, Sermons and Speeches on Justice and Transformation, by Pauli Murray, Edited by Anthony B. Pinn, Foreword by Michael Eric Dyson (Yale University Press (August 1, 2023)- Though she stepped into the pulpit late in life, Pauli Murray was a prophetic preacher throughout the 20th century, confronting the principalities of sexism and racism with her typewriter and her direct action. She confronted both the white supremacists who defended segregation and the Black men who thought they knew better, always with a certitude that made clear she drew from deep wells. In this collection of Murray’s sermons and lectures, we get to see how her trailblazing life of proclamation was rooted in both the Scriptures and a powerful understanding of God’s love for all creation. Drink deep from the wisdom that sustained this giant of the Movement.”—William J. Barber, II, author of We Are Called To Be a Movement

Juliet Hooker, Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss, How race shapes expectations about whose losses matter (Princeton University Press (October 3, 2023) “This fascinating book provides a rich and timely dialogical space that goes beyond our polarized politics. Juliet Hooker’s subtle analysis gets inside the complex dynamics of the Black and White worlds in order to deepen our commitment to democratic possibilities.”―Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary

Robert Wuthnow, Faith Communities and the Fight for Racial Justice: What Has Worked, What Hasn’t, and Lessons We Can Learn‎ (Princeton University Press (November 14, 2023) ““Faith Communities and the Fight for Racial Justice captures the quotidian rhythms of racial justice work by otherwise unheralded laborers. Wuthnow’s powerful research reveals that the arc of the moral universe may be long, but those who engage in the gritty work of advocacy and community organizing bend our nation toward justice.”—Jonathan Lee Walton, president of Princeton Theological Seminary

 

Kelley Fong, Investigating Families: Motherhood in the Shadow of Child Protective Services  (Princeton University Press (October 10, 2023) “Investigating Families expands our understanding of how social programs that should offer support to families who are struggling instead further destabilize them, often making them even more precarious. Using rich data, Fong shows how ongoing CPS involvement pushes mothers—often already facing trauma, hardship, racism, isolation, and stigma—further to the margins in ways that have immediate and far-reaching effects on children, parents, and communities.”—Jennifer A. Reich, author of Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System

Beatriz Nascimento, The Dialectic Is in the Sea: The Black Radical Thought of Beatriz Nascimento (Princeton University Press (November 7, 2023) “Beatriz Nascimento’s groundbreaking activist scholarship exemplifies the theories and praxes of Black liberation in Brazil. The Dialectic Is in the Sea helps us reflect on the Black condition from a local and global perspective. Due to linguistic barriers, many writers of African descent remain inaccessible to Anglophone readers. This timely translation of Nascimento’s writings is a moving tribute and a major intervention in discourses on race, class, gender, labor, sexuality, and trauma. Her outstanding transdisciplinary contribution to the Black radical tradition expands our understanding of Black humanity while also wrestling with the discontinuities and the continuities inherent to the historical becoming of the Black Atlantic.”—Nathalie Etoke, author of Black Existential Freedom

Neil Van Leeuwen, Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity, (Harvard University Press, November 21, 2023) This is a bold and persuasive effort to show that religious beliefs should not be conflated with straightforward factual beliefs. The argument is vigorous and combative. It will provoke lively and helpful discussion, especially among scholars of religion and philosophers willing to venture beyond standard analyses of belief. — Paul L. Harris, author of Child Psychology in Twelve Questions (central)

Peter Scott, A Political Theology of Nature, (Cambridge University Press, 2003) “This new work by Peter Scott makes a powerful case for a social and political basis for ecological theology…The book is elegantly written and precise in its criticisms of contemporary theologies influenced by deep ecology.” – The Journal of Religion Mark I. Wallace, Swarthmore College

Nathan S. Chapman (author), Michael W. McConnell, Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience, (Oxford University Press (June 27, 2023), “The First Amendment prohibition on religious establishments was one of America’s most original contributions to Western constitutionalism. But it has become deeply controversial in recent Supreme Court cases and culture wars. In Agreeing to Disagree, two of the nation’s leading scholars of religious liberty call for a return to the American founders’ cardinal insight that liberty, justice, and civic peace are best served when government remains neutral toward religion and avoids coercing or inducing any religious beliefs or practices. Judges, scholars, and interested citizens alike will find much to savor in this bracing and brilliant text.” — John Witte, Jr., co-author of Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment