School of Theology Faculty Books
The School of Theology faculty has published more than 50 books, on topics that include global Christianity, missiology, theodicy, pneumatology, ecclesiology, discipleship, women and Christianity, Christian ethics, popular culture and Christianity, Christian imagination, race and Christian identity, Christian reconciliation, and Wesleyan studies — as well as commentaries and scholarly monographs on numerous books and topics of the Bible.
Miriam Adeney
Kingdom Without Borders: The Untold Story of Global Christianity
InterVarsity, 2009
"A visceral call to Christians worldwide to engage in something bigger than their own culture and church...Adeney's work can be read by adherents of any religion as a primer to a new view of world Christianity...Not primarily a book about American Christians and what they should do, this is a humble and complex anthem to the diverse kingdom of Christ found in worldwide cultures." (Publishers' Weekly, 10-12-09).
How to Write: A Christian Writer's Guide
Regent College Publishers, 2006
Daughters of Islam: Building Bridges With Muslim Women
InterVarsity Press, 2002
Received an award from the International Bulletin of Mission Research as one of the 15 best mission books of the year. More than 30,000 copies sold in five languages.
God's Foreign Policy: Practical Ways to Help the World's Poor
Regent College Publishers, 1993
Received an award from the International Bulletin of Mission Research as one of the 15 best mission books of the year.
Brian Bantum
Redeeming Mulatto: A Theology of Race and Christian Hybridity
Baylor University Press, 2010
"[M]ulatto/a bodies allow us to look upon the life of Christ anew and grasp the depth of his work more profoundly. Through the fissures of discourse that render 'mixed' possible we can see Christ’s own life as the ground of this peculiar personhood, even as he is its salvation." (83)
Daniel Castelo
Revisioning Pentecostal Ethics: The Epicletic Community
CPT Press, 2012
Revisioning Pentecostal Ethics revisions Pentecostal ethics by means of a moral-theological proposal. Privileging the early years of the American Pentecostal Movement as a way of garnering "institutional memory," he seeks to establish a basis by which to evaluate historical and theological continuity and divergence. Specifically, he argues that early Pentecostals harbored certain impulses and intuitions that were quite important but were diminished or reconfigured in light of a number of pressures that arose over time. The practice-orientations of "abiding" and "waiting," drawn from the conceptual frameworks of the affections and virtues, enable Castelo to offer a sustained critique and reconstruction of holiness/sanctification and eschatological expectancy, both of which are currently in disrepair within the tradition. Throughout the work, a salutary reconfiguration of what it means to inhabit the Pentecostal ethos as a doxological and pneumatic existential is offered.
The Apathetic God: Exploring the Contemporary Relevance of Divine Impassibility
Wipf and Stock, 2009
"As Christ 'suffered impassibly,' believers too are called to 'suffer impassibly' with one another as a way of pointing to the world that sin and suffering do not ultimately determine the value and significance of existence." (145)
Kerry Dearborn
Baptized Imagination: The Theology of George MacDonald
Ashgate Publishing, 2006
"The imagination has been called 'the principal organ for knowing and responding to disclosures of transcendent truth.' This book probes the theological sources of the imagination, which make it a vital and reliable tool for knowing and responding to such disclosures. It approaches this study through focus on the theological and imaginative writer George MacDonald." (1)
Jeffrey Keuss
Your Neighbor’s Hymnal: What Popular Music Teaches Us About Faith, Hope, and Love
Wipf and Stock, 2011
"Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman once sang, 'Why should the devil have all the good music?' In reality, most of the good music belongs not to the devil but to our neighbor — those that Jesus calls us to love as ourselves. 'Your Neighbor’s Hymnal' is an opportunity to spend some time reflecting on the wide bandwidth of popular music that our neighbor listens to across the many genres of the FM dial and iTunes catalog — jazz, folk, pop, rock, electronic, and others — and see that our neighbor is not only listening to the music that many Christians listen to but also listening for the very things that animate the hearts and minds of those sitting in the pews on a Sunday morning." (5–6)
A Poetics of Jesus: The Search for Christ in Nineteenth-Century Writing
Ashgate Press, 2002
Sara M. Koenig
Isn't This Bathsheba?: A Study in Characterization
Pickwick, 2011
"I offer a reading of Bathsheba that critiques some other readings of her, specifically those that see her as simple, stupid, seductive, or unchanging. I offer this different reading, first, because the text suggests it. But second, those other readings of Bathsheba are misogynistic, with harmful and even dangerous implications for the way women are viewed." (2)
Douglas Koskela
Ecclesiality and Ecumenism: Yves Congar and the Road to Unity
Marquette University Press, 2008
Eerdmans, 2008
"Douglas M. Koskela reflects on ecclesial reconciliation as a healing practice. With attention to both ecumenical and intra-ecclesial relationships, he examines the impetus toward and patterns of reconciliatory practice ... He suggests that, by approaching reconciliation in a posture of humility and attentiveness to its own canonical riches, the church has genuine hope of restoration and revitalization." (x)
Eugene Lemcio
Navigating Revelation: Charts for the Voyage: A Pedagogical Aid
Wipf and Stock, 2011
The Past of Jesus in the Gospels Society for New Testament Studies (Monograph Series 68)
Cambridge University Press, 2005
The New Testament as Canon: A Reader in Canonical Criticism (with Wall, Robert W.)
Academic Press, 1992
"A New Testament theology of the church, then, must be the yield of an interpretive strategy that seeks to relate the parts together as an interdependent whole; only then can the biblical theologian create a dynamic portrait of how the whole New Testament defines the church, which we argue is a truer and more useful portrait than merely describing the sum of the definitions found within the New Testament letters." (22)
David Leong
Street Signs: Toward a Missional Theology of Urban Cultural Engagement
Pickwick, 2012
Street Signs is an engaging missiological inquiry into the cultural and theological meaning of the city. Through the lens of Seattle's Rainier Valley, one of the most ethnically and socioeonomically diverse communities in the US, this work constructs an urban, missional, and contextual theology shaped by the local realities of urban neighborhoods but relevant to cities everywhere. Focused on the themes of incarnation, confrontation, and imagination, Street Signs explores the contours of missional theology in urban contexts marked by physical density, social diversity, and economic disparity, utilizing creative research methods such as urban exegesis, cultural semiotics, and theology of the built environment.
John (Jack) R. Levison
Sex, Gender, and Christianity (with Priscilla Pope-Levison)
Wipf and Stock, 2012
Should women be priests? Should women submit to their husbands? Is premarital sex okay? This volume contributes an unprecedented collection of first-rate articles from a variety of disciplines — from the social sciences to history, from literary criticism to theology — that will challenge college administrators, professors, and students to address, in an atmosphere of scholarly inquiry, these and other such questions that have splintered Christianity and polarized the church.
Eerdmans, 2009
"With this claim to an anointing that teaches all things, with this conviction that the spirit of truth resides exclusively within this community, the Letter of 1 John breaks new ground, leaving behind Israel's belief that education plays a pivotal role in the passion on and application of earlier Scriptures. The author of this epistolary sliver also leaves behind the Fourth Gospel, in which the promised spirit of truth teaches by reminding believers about Jesus' sayings and by guiding the community into the full significance of Jesus' death and resurrection." (420)
Of Two Minds: Ecstasy and Inspired Interpretation in the New Testament World
D. & F. Scott Publishers, 1999
Bo H. Lim
The 'Way of the LORD' in the Book of Isaiah
T&T Clark, 2010
"The focus of this study will be to define the way of the Lord and to trace the development of this theme in conjunction with the growth of the book of Isaiah." (3)
David Nienhuis
Eerdmans, Nov. 2013
Through a detailed examination of the historical shaping and final canonical shape of seven oft-neglected New Testament letters — James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1-2-3 John, and Jude — Reading the Epistles of James, Peter, John & Jude as Scripture introduces readers to the historical, literary, and theological integrity of this indispensable apostolic witness. It is the only treatment of the Catholic Epistles that approaches these seven letters as an intentionally designed and theologically coherent canonical collection.
Not By Paul Alone: The Formation of the Catholic Epistle Collection and the Christian Canon
Baylor University Press, 2007
"This book makes a brilliant and original and (to my mind) convincing contribution to the current attempt to rethink the relationship between text and community, Scripture, and church" –Francis Watson
"This book proposes that the letter of James was written with the nascent apostolic letter collection in view, in order that it might forge together a discrete collection of non-Pauline letters, one shaped according to a particular logic of apostolic authority (that is, 'not by Paul alone') in order to perform a particular function in the larger Christian canon (the correction of Paulinist misreadings of the whole apostolic message)." (5)
Priscilla Pope-Levison
Sex, Gender, and Christianity (with John R. (Jack) Levison)
Wipf and Stock, 2012
Should women be priests? Should women submit to their husbands? Is premarital sex okay? This volume contributes an unprecedented collection of first-rate articles from a variety of disciplines — from the social sciences to history, from literary criticism to theology — that will challenge college administrators, professors, and students to address, in an atmosphere of scholarly inquiry, these and other such questions that have splintered Christianity and polarized the church.
Turn the Pulpit Loose: Two Centuries of American Women Evangelists
Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
"Although hundreds of American women left home, often as prodigal daughters, wives, and mothers to join this great company of evangelists, theirs is a forgotten history. Their significant contribution to American religious life, past and present, has yet to be seriously considered… The present anthology… allows these women to speak in their own voices." (5-6)
Return to Babel: Global Perspectives on the Bible
Westminster John Knox Press, 1999
Jesus in Global Contexts (with Levison, John R.)
Westminster John Knox Press, 1992
"Through listening and interpreting, we have begun to see the world through others’ eyes. These Christologies have broadened our vision, so that we are asking now the questions that we have heard these theologians ask… Perhaps most important, we have begun to ask about the adequacy of our own Christologies. Have we separated Jesus from the economic, political, and racial sphere in order to keep him personally relevant? In short, these conversations in Christology have unsettled us." (21-22)
Brenda Salter McNeil
The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change (with Rick Richardson)
InterVarsity Press, 2009
Frank Spina
The Faith of the Outsider: Exclusion and Inclusion in the Biblical Story
Eerdmans, 2005
"If someone were going to invent a story designed to make a people look good and therefore deserving of divine election, the result would never have been the Old Testament depiction of Israel... Just as Israel did not deserve to be divinely elected, the world did not deserve to receive the benefits of God’s grace either; but in both cases God’s limitless and amazing grace was operative." (7-8)
Les Steele
Richard Steele
I've Been Wondering: Conversations With Young Theologians
Paternoster Press, 2007
"[P]aradox cannot be resolved 'on paper,' that is on purely exegetical and dogmatic grounds. It can only be resolved in the living of the Christian life, where gratitude for undeserved mercies merge with a commitment to public service." (76)
"Heart Religion" in the Methodist Tradition and Related Movements
Scarecrow Press, 2001
"This volume defends the cogency of [Methodism’s conviction that 'authentic knowledge of God is both an ineffably delightful experience and a life-transfiguring process'], and argues that a better understanding of what it does and does not mean may help us to overcome some of the chilling fractiousness which it has spawned. We take it that our founder would approve, for he insisted that Methodism is the religion of the heart warmed by divine grace and employed in neighbor love." (xxxviii)
Gracious Affection and "True Virtue" According to Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley
Scarecrow Press, 1994
Douglas M. Strong
Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition: John Wesley's Sermons for Today
Discipleship Resources, 2007
Perfectionist Politics: Abolitionism and the Religious Tensions of American Democracy
Syracuse University Press, 1999
They Walked in the Spirit: Personal Faith and Social Action in America
Westminster John Knox, 1997
Readings in Christian Ethics: A Historical Sourcebook
Westminster John Knox, 1996
Robert W. Wall
Eerdmans, Nov. 2013
Through a detailed examination of the historical shaping and final canonical shape of seven oft-neglected New Testament letters — James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1-2-3 John, and Jude — Reading the Epistles of James, Peter, John & Jude as Scripture introduces readers to the historical, literary, and theological integrity of this indispensable apostolic witness. It is the only treatment of the Catholic Epistles that approaches these seven letters as an intentionally designed and theologically coherent canonical collection.
Eerdmans, 2012
This theological commentary powerfully demonstrates the ongoing relevance and authority of the Pastoral Epistles for the church today. This innovative yet reverent volume will help revive the interest of students, pastors, and other Christian leaders in the Pastoral Epistles.
Called to Lead: Paul's Letters to Timothy for a New Day, with Anthony B. Robinson
Eerdmans, 2012
Featuring both exegetical study and dynamic contemporary exposition, each chapter of Called to Lead first interprets the text of 1 and 2 Timothy as Scripture and then engages 1 and 2 Timothy for today's church leaders. The book covers many vexing issues faced by church leaders then and now — such issues as the use of money, leadership succession, pastoral authority, and the role of Scripture. Through it all, Called to Lead shows how Timothy remains a text of great value for the church today.
For a taste of this important book, read “Preachers of Least Resistance” (PDF), a brand-new chapter, on 2 Timothy 3:1-9, not included in the book.
The Acts of the Apostles: The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary
Abingdon Press, 2002
Commentary on Colossians & Philemon, IVP New Testament Commentary
InterVarsity Press, 1993
The New Testament as Canon: A Reader in Canonical Criticism (with Lemcio, Eugene)
Academic Press, 1992
"A New Testament theology of the church, then, must be the yield of an interpretive strategy that seeks to relate the parts together as an interdependent whole; only then can the biblical theologian create a dynamic portrait of how the whole New Testament defines the church, which we argue is a truer and more useful portrait than merely describing the sum of the definitions found within the New Testament letters." (22)
Revelation (New International Biblical Commentary)
Hendrickson, 1991
"At the very center of Revelation the good interpreter will always find the simple (not simplistic!) gospel of God. In this way, any interpretation worthy of the gospel will bear witness to the slain, yet exalted, Lamb through whom the salvation of God breaks into and radically transforms those who depend upon his dependable work; it will celebrate the triumph of God's kingdom, which is already realized in the Lamb's shed blood and which will be fully realized at its return." (2)
Kevin Watson
A Blueprint for Discipleship: Wesley’s General Rules as a Guide for Christian Living
Discipleship Resources, 2009
"This book will not only argue that it is possible to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, but it will also provide practical, straightforward suggestions for how to allow God to enter more and more deeply into your life until you find that it is difficult to tell where you end and God begins." (12)