Pedagogy of the Ancestors is a practical and inspiring guide for anyone called to teach, mentor, and shape future generations with intention, humility, and compassion, knowing that our daily choices are the rain that waters the seeds of tomorrow.Ancestors embody the past, and they also offer spiritual guidance and friendship to those coming of age. We see this across cultures and religious traditions. Communities rely on ancestral wisdom to educate and nurture future generations, but oppres...
Are you a clergy member called to speak on faith, justice, and activism beyond church walls? From Pulpit to Public Square is your essential guide to finding your authentic voice in public, non-ministerial settings.
From Pulpit to Public Square equips preachers to offer prophetic and pastoral witness beyond the pulpit, navigating the challenges of speaking with integrity from a faith perspective. It offers bold strategies for speaking in ways that make a difference. Through insightful reflections...
"A sobering assessment of the evolution of Christian nationalism." -Publishers Weekly"A timely and clarion call to action if we are to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and our American style democracy against the rising tide of home grown fascism, authoritarianism, civic corruption, and political violence." - Midwest Book Review"Awareness must precede action. Boedy’s book is a superb resource for raising awareness more widely among those who care about religious freedom...
Organizations have a responsibility to ensure that people who come there to work, worship, or volunteer won’t experience harm.At a time when diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts are being systematically dismantled—stripped from government agencies, corporate initiatives, and institutional policies—the need for genuine, sustainable culture change has never been more urgent. Superficial checklists and one-time training sessions are not enough. True transformation requires a trauma-inform...
Turn the traditional generational groupings on their head through this examination of Black life, culture, and the struggle for racial justice in the United States. The Shaping of Black Identities explores the generations of African Americans who have lived in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and the impact that living in the United States has had on them. Jimmie R. Hawkins examines how identity is formed and shaped by internal and external forces. He investigates collective memory...
A 2024 Foreword INDIES Award FinalistMany people are aware of the injustices Black Americans have suffered over the centuries but feel powerless when it comes to repairing the harm done.The inequality remains even after laws and policies have been corrected. Calculating and implementing financial reparations will require large-scale government action, which can feel out of reach or overwhelming for the average person. Robert Turner provides an accessible guide for individuals and groups wanting ...
A 2024 Foreword INDIES Award Finalist"An urgent and passionate commentator, [John Pavlovitz] lives in the tension between despair and hope." - Presbyterian Outlook
"John Pavlovitz's Worth Fighting For is a stirring playbook for Christians who strive to ensure that kindness triumphs over toxicity. Forthright and encouraging, Worth Fighting For envisions a grassroots revolution of love led by a 'compassionate coalition of those who give a damn.'"-Foreword Reviews
John Pavlovitz has inspired mill...
Joyful and daunting opportunities to live into God's dream of justice and beloved community are compelling and available. Hope, says Luther Smith Jr., is essential to the needed personal and social transformations that prepare us for such sacred opportunities. Yet genuine hope is often confused as merely wish fulfillment, optimism, or perceiving better tomorrows. In Hope Is Here! Smith describes how we truly perceive and join "the work of hope" enlivening us to a life that is oriented toward imm...
Of all the things modern people of faith overlook or choose to ignore in the Bible, stories of sexual exploitation are near the top of the list. This isn’t so different from our world today, when victims of trafficking, rape, and harassment are dismissed and disbelieved, their stories twisted and erased. Trauma-informed educator and minister Camille Hernandez dives deep into the Bible’s stories of exploitation and abuse to name the difficult truths buried in Scripture, address the forms such vio...
Austen Hartke’s groundbreaking, best-selling book is now updated and expanded with new insights and terminology, plus new materials for study groups, preaching, and pastoral care.In 2014, Time magazine announced that America had reached “the transgender tipping point,” suggesting that transgender issues would become the next civil rights frontier. Years later, many people—even many LGBTQIA+ allies—still lack understanding of gender identity and the transgender experience. Into this void, trans b...
The United States is suffering through a season of social and political division unseen since the Civil War. Unrest over long-standing social (especially racial) injustices are confronting new, antidemocratic perspectives and practices. So much is at stake. Will this country fulfill or abandon its historic commitment to equality and civil liberties? Can a nation so divided come together again? These questions cut to the core of the beliefs articulated by Christian communities. How can we as peop...
2023 Winner of the Wilbur Award for Book of the YearBlack Americans’ resilience during centuries of racially motivated violence is beyond remarkable. But continuing to endure this harm allows for generations of trauma to fester and grow. Healing has to be the priority going forward. For decades, Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts clung to her upbringing in the church, believing that racial reconciliation would come through faith and discipline, being respectable, and doing what’s right. But when her...
2023 Award of Excellence, Religion Communicators CouncilLike most Americans, Presbyterians in the United States know woefully little about the history of slavery and the rise of anti-Black racism in our country. Most think of slavery as a tragedy that “just happened,” without considering how it happened and who was involved. In What Kind of Christianity, William Yoo paints an accurate picture of the complicity of the majority of Presbyterians in promoting, supporting, or willfully ignoring ...
Armed with only six passages in the Bible—often known as the “Clobber Passages”—the conservative Christian position has been one that stands against the full inclusion of our LGBTQ siblings. UnClobber reexamines each of those frequently quoted passages of Scripture, alternating with author Colby Martin’s own story of being fired from an evangelical megachurch when they discovered his stance on sexuality. UnClobber reexamines what the Bible says (and does not say) about homosexuali...
As the cultural conversation around race, gender, and sexuality has evolved, straight, white men are becoming increasingly aware of their privilege. But many may be left thinking, “OK, what am I supposed to do about it?” “We need a way forward beyond feelings of guilt, overwhelmingness, anger, and denial.” “We are looking for transformative guidance that helps us be the good guys we want to be.” Straight, white, male pastor Chris Furr offers a guide to deconstructing that privilege in Straight W...
A “Be-It-Yourself” Guide to Anti-racism for Churches and Church Leaders Whether you have been an ally for years or just recently opened your eyes to racial injustice, guiding your predominantly white church toward anti-racism is a daunting task. Where do you even begin? White churches especially feel an urgency to respond but at the same time suffer a sense of overwhelmingness and futility, as if no one action, sermon series, or service project will solve the problem of racism in America. And ...
In this compelling and informative volume, Jimmie R. Hawkins walks the reader through the many forms of Black protest in American history, from pre-colonial times through the George Floyd protests of 2020. Hawkins breaks American history into five sections, with subsections highlighting how Black identity helped to shape protest during that period. These protests include slave ship mutinies, the abolitionist movement, the different approaches to protest from Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. Dubois, and...
"Robertson’s words may pry open the hearts of those who have been closed to this conversation because they don’t see themselves as privileged. He makes it clear that privilege is morally neutral, not negative. It’s what we do with our privilege that matters…" – The Christian Century
"Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself . . .' - Philippians 2:5–7a
These anci...
Too often, all oppressed people in America are lumped together under the moniker “people of color,” as if each group’s experience under the yoke of systemic racism has the same economic and social repercussions. But the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) hold a unique claim to economic and reparative justice: for ADOS, after all, is the only group whose ancestors were forcibly brought to America, enslaved, built much of the wealth of the country, yet continue to be specifically excluded from...
The first biography of its kind about Desmond Tutu, this book introduces readers to Tutu’s spiritual life and examines how it shaped his commitment to restorative justice and reconciliation.
Desmond Tutu was a pivotal leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and remains a beloved and important emblem of peace and justice around the world. Even those who do not know the major events of Tutu’s life—receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, serving as the first black archbishop of Cap...
The first biography of its kind about Desmond Tutu, this book introduces readers to Tutu’s spiritual life and examines how it shaped his commitment to restorative justice and reconciliation.
Desmond Tutu was a pivotal leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and remains a beloved and important emblem of peace and justice around the world. Even those who do not know the major events of Tutu’s life—receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, serving as the first black archbishop of Cap...
Recent events in the United States have demonstrated the urgent need not only to discuss issues of racism in this country but to move toward meaningful antiracist work. Protestors in the street demand demonstrable change, and around the country, pastors, congregations, and other concerned Christians are looking for ways to clarify terms and issues around racism and discern how to respond.
Originally published in 2016 as Race in a Post-Obama America, this updated edition offers contributions fro...
A Bigger Table invites readers to envision a church that is big enough for everyone, by holding up a mirror to the modern church and speaking clearly on issues at the heart of the Christian community: LGBT inclusion, gender equality, racial tensions, global concerns, and theological shifts. John Pavlovitz shares moving personal stories, his careful observations as a pastor, and his understanding of the ancient stories of Jesus to set the table for a new, positive, more loving conversation on the...
Howard Thurman was famously known as one of the towering giants of American religion in the twentieth century. His writings have influenced some of the most important religious and political figures of the last century, from Martin Luther King to Barack Obama. Theologians such as James Cone and Cornel West regularly signal their indebtedness to him. He was a mystic, a preacher, an educator, a theologian, and much more. It is impossible to understand the African American church today without an a...
Winner of the 2020 Goddard Riverside CBC Youth Book Prize for Social Justice2021 Winner of the Wilbur Award for Children's Book of the Year
A Top Ten Selection of the 2021 In the Margins Book AwardsA Texas Institute of Letters 2021 Finalist for Best Picture Book A Picture Book Discovery Prize Winner for the 2020 Writers' League of Texas Book Awards“Dad, what happened?”“Why are they shooting?” “What is this vigil for?”
The shootings keep coming, and so do Jeremiah’s questions. Dad doesn’t h...
