Home is Right Where You Are: Inspired by Psalm 23
By Ruth Chou Simons
Tommy Nelson, age 3+
Published September 24, 2024
“Look up, my darling. In the dark of the night the Lord guides your steps — And keeps you in sight.” It’s so simple, yet parents may find themselves a wee bit verklempt as they make their way through the stunning artwork and moving words of Ruth Chou Simons. Inspired by Psalm 23, Home is Right Where You Are weaves together the protective love of our Creator with the hopes we carry for our children: May they be safe, may they know they are loved, and may they go from our care with the understanding that they have been knit together in the image of the Divine.
— Reviewed by Jesy Littlejohn, Outlook’s social media producer and parent to Tobias and Charlie.
You Will Always Belong
By Matthew Paul Turner, illustrated by Lauren Gallegos
Convergent Books, Preschool – grade 2
Published March 12, 2024
From the first bright illustration of a child in a crib to the community members interspersed throughout the child’s young life, You Will Always Belong proclaims a message of welcome and authentic personhood. The proclamation of belonging comes not only from the human community that extends compassion and recognition, but also from an interspersed refrain of God’s radical love from the moment of birth and first breath. The rhythm and rhyme of the text stumbles occasionally, but Matthew Paul Turner’s warm message of beloved welcome and belonging for every child is so essential to their growth and thriving. This book reminds children and adults alike of the love that surrounds us each moment
we draw breath.
— Reviewed by: Rev. Jessica Hawkinson Dorow, ordained PC(USA) pastor, library school graduate,
and current stay-at-home parent.
High Hawk
By Amy Frykholm
University of Iowa Press, 242 pages
Published October 8, 2024
High Hawk is the story of Father Joe, an avuncular priest “banished” to an isolated parish on the edge of an Indian reservation after expressing concern about the behavior of his fellow priests. Amy Frykholm introduces a satisfying mystery that forces Joe to relive old questions and decisions, leading us to wonder what he has done … and what he has left undone? High Hawk is, at its core, about loneliness and love, the belonging of family and chosen family, and the grace of God that weaves it all together.
Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit
By Eugenia Anne Gamble
Westminster John Knox, 232 pages
August 13, 2024
This accessible study invites individuals or small groups to locate and nurture the fruit of the Spirit that lies within. Eugenia Gamble describes the Holy Spirit first as a kind of gardener, planting and tending the seeds of the gifts and graces Paul describes in Galatians 5; the Spirit then becomes a midwife, coaxing seeds until they bear fruit. Gamble shares her own challenges (which are significant) and describes how she experienced God providing pathways through her own pain with compassion, inviting us to join her.
A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church (Year C)
By Wilda C. Gafney
Church Publishing, 400 pages
July 2, 2024
“What does it look like to tell the Good News through the stories of women who are often on the margins of scripture and often set up to represent bad news?” Wilda Gafney asks. The Woman’s Lectionary series is her response, and it is full of rich imagery, poetry, and language to renew our experiences of and relationship with God. As a womanist biblical scholar and Episcopal priest, Gafney recognizes that gendered biblical language and lectionary choices center men and exclude women’s stories; if we are to proclaim liberation and the fullness of “God-story,” we need to revisit familiar passages with a fresh eye and draw shadowy passages into the light. A Woman’s Lectionary is flexible – it can be used instead of or in addition to the Revised Common Lectionary, in preaching and worship, study and more – and Gafney’s volume for Year C completes this essential series.
A Whole Life in Twelve Movies: A Cinematic Journey to a Deeper Spirituality
By Kathleen Norris and Gareth Higgins
Brazos Press, 192 pages
October 15, 2024
Kathleen Norris and Gareth Higgins choose 12 life phases or experiences, pair them with films (ranging from famous to obscure), and then invite us to listen in as they “invite all of us to a deeper understanding of human nature and spirituality and will inform our desire to live better and more fulfilled lives.” A Whole Life could be a useful resource for a church’s film discussion group or to mine for sermon illustrations; it was also a delight to be reminded of favorite films (“Paterson” and “Babette’s Feast”) or to realize that a film I remembered as truly awful (“Wonder Woman 1984”) provided sufficiently rich fodder to engage these esteemed authors.
The Kingdom of the Poor: My Journey Home
By Charles Strobel
Vanderbilt University Press, 178 pages
September 17, 2024
Ann Patchett wrote so warmly of Father Charlie Strobel,
advocate for the unhoused and founder of Nashville’s Room at the Inn, that I wanted to know him. Shortly before his death in 2023, he reminisced with colleagues and relatives until a memoir was born. The Kingdom of the Poor is the result — a lifetime of stories illustrating Strobel’s belief that “we are all poor and we are all worthy of love.” His folksy stories are often amusing, yet memories of the segregated South, the example of family members who live to serve others, and folks who know how to “make do” even when times are tough explain how Strobel’s faith and character were formed.
Imitating Christ: The Disputed Character of Christian Discipleship
By Luke Timothy Johnson
Eerdmans, 224 pages
August 6, 2024
What does it mean to follow Jesus? It’s a simple enough question, but New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson contrasts the historical belief that Christians are to become sanctified through imitation of Christ’s self-sacrifice with the more modern understanding (articulated by his seminary students) that discipleship calls us to follow Jesus by standing with the oppressed. Johnson argues that our changing understanding of discipleship began in the Enlightenment Era (which emphasized reason over revelation, weakening the authority of Scripture) and in the rancor of the Reformation (as a single unchallenged version of Christianity was replaced by competing sects with multiple “truths”). Imitating Christ takes a brisk walk through these historical forces before turning to liberation theology and the more contemporary belief that working toward social justice is foundational to following Jesus. Those who do not share Johnson’s concerns – even those who vehemently disagree and/or find him overbearing – will benefit from his comprehensive approach to answering such a thoughtful question.
Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes our World
By Sara C. Bronin
W.W. Norton & Company, 240 pages
October 1, 2024
Zoning is one of the primary tools local governments use to shape their communities, professor and policy analyst Sara Brown writes. In Key to the City, she looks at case studies of specific cities, from Hartford, Connecticut, to San Diego, California, as well as broad historical trends: suburban sprawl, White flight and increasingly segregated neighborhoods, and urban decline. Brown lifts up communities that bucked these trends by changing zoning and streamlining permits, building housing in close proximity to employment (reducing traffic and pollution), encouraging walkable neighborhoods, reclaiming cities that were once abandoned for suburban malls, etc. Christian leaders determined to work for the flourishing of our neighborhoods, as well as those wondering where to situate a ministry or worshiping community will find Key to the City a fascinating resource.
The Black Utopians
By Aaron Robertson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 400 pages
October 1, 2024
“What does utopia look like in black?” Aaron Robertson asks. He begins with his grandparents’ home in Promise Land, a historic all-Black town in rural Tennessee, and expands to include varied examples of Black professionals and leaders seeking to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth (or, at the very least, to create communities of safety and dignity). The Black Utopians is also part memoir, as Robertson overlays his family’s story with the stories of Black liberation movements, including those from his hometown of Detroit (where Rev. Albert Cleage Jr. and his Shrine of the Black Madonna were at the center of the Civil Rights Movement). By choosing varied examples, Robertson demonstrates the diversity of Black visions; by lifting up these stories, he offers hope for new ways of living in community.
