We’ve heard it all before: church attendance is down; seminar registrations are down; Americans choose “none” when asked about their religious affiliation – headline after headline declares either the irrelevance or obsolescence of religion.
Bookselling, however, proved to be a force for the religious impulse. Religious publishing remains a billion-dollar industry, and as textbook publishers, academic religious presses make up a significant portion of the business. These houses all report challenges, but each agrees that the category is strong.
Even in the face of change, including AI and a growing antipathy toward the humanities, there are “pockets of life and energy” within religious academic publishing, according to Jim Kinney, vice-president. executive chairman of academic publishing at Baker Publishing Group. “I’ve seen many major changes over the years, both in publishing and in higher education, but none have been as catastrophic as some predicted,” he says. “So I think we will now find a way to deal with the changes on the horizon.”
James Ernest, vice president and editor-in-chief of Eerdmans, says university religious presses are affected by the same demographic and cultural trends that are testing seminaries and colleges today. “Some traditional areas of theological publishing are struggling or contracting because the schools that teach them are shrinking or being co-opted by political forces,” he says. “Religion remains a powerful force, for better or for worse. We must find the authors and books that the times demand.”
Richard Brown, editor of Religion and Spirituality at Rowman & Littlefield, says: “I am optimistic about the future, but only if we recognize the changing institutional landscape and provide hope and concrete solutions to despair morality and injustice. We need to meet readers where they are and where they are going, not where they were. »
Jon Boyd, associate editor and director of academic writing at IVP, is “more encouraged than ever that there is an audience interested in in-depth and advanced scholarship. We invest in experts who can communicate their ideas powerfully without dumbing down anything and without getting into old intramural arguments.”
Katya Covrett, Zondervan’s vice president and academic brand editor, says the health of the category is strong. “We resisted the pandemic well,” she explains. “But it is good to see academic publishing returning to a more “normal” rhythm, particularly with the upcoming annual meetings which are returning to a more or less familiar rhythm and energy level.
Exploring the flexibility of faith
New scholarship on religion highlights rapidly changing attitudes and the rise of secularism in the United States. Looking at American Christianity from the colonial period to the present, Turning Points in American Church History: How Defining Events Shaped a Nation and a Faith by Elesha J. Coffman (Baker Academic, January 2024) examines 13 events with the goal of helping “readers understand their own faith and the landscape of American religion,” according to the publisher. By studying people and events from the past to the present, Coffman hopes to demonstrate how Christians have found a way to live faithfully, despite major changes in the Church.
Focusing on current challenges associated with religious beliefs, Does Christianity still have meaning? A former skeptic responds to today’s harshest objections to Christianity (Tyndale, April 2024) by Bobby Conway, host of the YouTube channel One Minute Apologist, answers 20 questions, such as “Why are there so many scandals in the Church?” and “Why do Christians use God’s name to oppress others?” » – with the aim of strengthening the confidence of believers.
Portrait of Jesus: Jesus through medieval eyes: contemplating Christ with the artists, mystics and theologians of the Middle Ages by Grace Hamman (Zondervan Academic, available now) examines medieval depictions of Jesus in art and literature to demonstrate how contemporary cultural ideas about Christ are insufficient.
Practices associated with religion are also evolving. Hope is there! Spiritual Practices for Pursuing Justice and Beloved Community by Luther E. Smith Jr. (WJK, November) focuses on Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a community in which every person is safe and cared for, offering five spiritual practices aimed at achieving what the author calls “the work of hope.” The practices – contemplative prayer, prophetic remembrance, crossing identity boundaries, conflict transformation, and celebrating community – aim to prepare readers to engage with issues such as racism, mass incarceration, environmental crises, divisive politics and indifference that, according to the editors, “jeopardize justice and the beloved community.”
Bridgett A. Green, vice president of publishing and editorial director of WJK Books, says the book stood out to her because of its view that “spiritual practices, engaged personally and collectively, guide, inform and transform our commitments to justice as well as our personal lives. and society. »
While a number of scholars are interested in changes in American religiosity, cultural anthropologist Annika Schmeding conducted long-term ethnographic research on the religious landscape in Afghanistan for her book Sufi civilities: religious authority and political change in Afghanistan (Stanford University, November). Contemporary analysts suggest that Sufism is in decline, but by studying several Sufi communities, the author presents “the navigational strategies employed by Sufi leaders over the past four decades to overcome periods of instability and persecution”, according to the publisher. The book also examines how members of Sufi communities work “creatively and resourcefully to maintain and renew their community networks.”
Theology and family
The topics covered in academic books on religion often arise from theological debates or biblical events, but what can scholars tell us about more familiar topics, such as family life? Jennifer Bird Marriage in the Bible: what do the texts say? (R&L, December) presents an examination of the Bible stories, laws and sayings of Jesus, Saint Paul and Saint Augustine in their original contexts with the aim of “helping people know how to handle the Bible” in conversations about marriage. , according to the publisher.
Bird has been talking about what the Bible says (and doesn’t say) about marriage since 2012, when North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman. Marriage in the Bible “This explains why Christians who advocate ‘biblical marriage’ often don’t know what they’re talking about,” says R&L’s Brown. Specifically, he notes, Bird’s work “makes clear that marriage in the Bible is never entered into by two equals, nor is it based on love.” »
As a Parent: The Complex and Beautiful Calling of Raising Children (Baker Academic, January 2024), Holly Taylor Coolman, assistant professor of theology at Providence College and mother of five, offers theological and biblical commentary on parenting, positing that raising children can lead parents to bond deeper with God.
Intended for parents, youth workers and anyone working with children, The Kingdom of Children: A Theology of Liberation by RL Stollar (Eerdmans, November) challenges the Church’s treatment of children, who are often relegated to Sunday school or silenced during sermons aimed at adults. Drawing on children’s stories from the Bible, Stollar argues that young people can be leaders – even priests, prophets and theologians – in their communities.
Put women in the spotlight
Several new academic titles examine women’s religious perspectives and their role in the Bible. In Eve is not evil: feminist readings of the Bible to disrupt our assumptions (Baker Academic, available now), author Julie Faith Parker applies a feminist perspective to biblical texts. P.W. called the book an “intelligent and impressive analysis” in his review.
From the Shambhala Buddhist Press, Lifting while Climbing: Black Buddhist Women and Collective Liberation (February 2024) by Toni Pressley-Sanon explores what the editor calls “a new expression of Buddhism rooted in ancestry, love, and collective liberation” through the lives and writings of six leading Black Buddhist women. plan: Faith Adiele, bell hooks, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, Spring Washam, the angel Kyodo Williams and Jan Willis.
“My goal in this book is to explore the message of liberation offered by contemporary women of African descent,” writes Pressley-Sanon in the introduction. “I consider their work a legacy of our ancestors who, for centuries, used their voice, their pen and their body to defend our individual and collective physical, mental and spiritual freedom.”
The intertwining of Pressley-Sanon’s personal experience with literary and historical interpretation attracted Shambhala editor Matt Zepelin to the book. “I think she succeeds in showing how something that seems relatively new – the emergence of black women as Buddhist teachers in America – is actually an organic consequence of the long history of black religious creativity and their struggles to freedom at different levels,” he said. said.
Out now from IVP, Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament by Sandra Glahn is “a rigorous and much-needed reevaluation of a passage long used to silence women in the Church,” according to P.W.The starred review of. IVP’s Jon Boyd says the book “greatly expands the range of contexts for reading New Testament texts related to the Greek goddess Artemis of the Ephesians.”
Drawing on ancient texts as well as paintings, mosaics and sculptures, Glahn “retunes our ears to listen to the Greco-Roman conversation about who Artemis was and enriches our understanding of Paul’s words,” Boyd says.
A version of this article appeared in the 11/13/2023 issue of Publishers Weekly under the title: Meeting readers where they are
