B AY L O R UNIVERSITY P R E S S 2026-2027
Greetings from Baylor University Press! We are delighted to present our new titles for the 2026–27 release season. This year’s list features Cambria Kaltwasser’s groundbreaking study on the theme of friendship with God in Karl Barth’s theology; a new translation of Barth’s Theological Existence Today, edited by Philip Ziegler; and Keith Johnson’s riveting account of Barth’s role in the German church struggle. Jaime Konerman-Sease mines Jane Austen’s novels for insights into the problem of cure culture. Philip Jenkins explores how religion abetted American imperial history. Micheal O’Siadhail and John Greening return with new additions to our family of poetry titles. This spring we will launch the Pro Mundo imprint with Julie Canlis’s beautiful book on the church calendar. And this season marks the first full year of our partnership with SPCK Group, which represents our books in Europe, Asia, and the Indo-Pacific region. As the academic press of Baylor University, an R1 institution known for its research activities and initiatives, BUP is committed to the public dissemination of advanced scholarship. Our team of publishing experts serves a diverse and international community of scholars in the vanguard of research in numerous disciplines. With a peer-review process aligned with industry standards, a well-earned reputation for producing beautiful print books, and a commitment to innovation in marketing and publicity, our entire publishing enterprise is designed to build bridges between authors and readers. Baylor University Press is a mission-driven, not-for-profit organization. Our activities and operations are made possible by sales of our books, the generous support of Baylor University, and gifts from our donors. By scanning the QR code below, you can partner with us in our mission by donating to the Press. All gifts go into the Baylor University Press Excellence Fund and are used to support the acquisition, publication, and promotion of cutting-edge works of scholarship like those found in this catalog. Your generosity also enables us to provide opportunities to students and young professionals pursuing careers in publishing.
With appreciation,
R. David Nelson Director
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Prayer, Partnership, and Transformation
Cambria Kaltwasser God’s self-humbling toward us in Jesus Christ is widely recognized to be the crux of Karl Barth’s theology. Rarely are the implications of that move traced all the way to the Christian life. Cambria Kaltwasser explores those implications through the motif of friendship with God. For Barth, God enters a relationship of reciprocity with human beings in prayer, a relationship Barth names friendship. Tracing this theme across the Church Dogmatics, Kaltwasser shows how Barth’s appeals to friendship paint a distinctive picture of the Christian life as mutual love and shared agency. However, this is threatened by Barth’s abstract account of sanctification, which resembles less a friendship than a relationship of paternalism. To embrace Barth’s portrait of the humble Lord and the friendship it enables, Kaltwasser argues, we must discard the paternalism and retain the friendship. ISBN 978-1-4813-2534-9 $44.99 | Hardcover 249 pages 5.5 x 8.5 October 2026
THEOLOGY & LITERATURE THEOL. & LIT.
Karl Barth on Friendship with God
CAMBRIA KALTWASSER is Associate Professor of Theology at Northwestern College, Iowa. She currently serves as co-president of the Karl Barth Society of North America and project editor for the Barth Translators Seminar. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
“A carefully argued and deftly critical study of a topic that has suffered undue neglect. This wise, rich, and creative book compels on multiple levels.” —PAUL DAFYDD JONES, University of Virginia “Not shying away from naming and critiquing Barth’s tendency to paternalism, Kaltwasser nevertheless steadily and compellingly draws out the equally present vision of friendship with God.” —HANNA REICHEL, Princeton Theological Seminary
20% OFF ALL TITLES AT BAYLORPRESS.COM USING CODE 17CTLG27 excludes handbook bundles | expires May 2027
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Theological Existence Today and Other Essays Karl Barth, edited by Philip G. Ziegler
Translated by A. David Lewis, Lewis W. Spitz, and Philip G. Ziegler
ISBN 978-1-4813-2530-1 $24.99 | Hardback 168 pages 5.5 x 8.5 April 2027
“This new translation of Barth’s early political theology is an extremely important resource in a time when many Christians find it difficult to find the right words to speak in the face of the cooption of Christianity by politics.” —BRIAN BROCK, University of Aberdeen “These texts have never lost their urgency; but in our present situation, they immediately impress by their timeliness—even more so than in the past decades. To have these texts available in current English is therefore no luxury, but a downright necessity.” —EDWARD VAN ’T SLOT, Protestantse Theologische Universiteit, Utrecht
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REVD. A. DAVID LEWIS was a Cambridge trained Presbyterian minister and translator deeply interested in the theology of Karl Barth. LEWIS W. SPITZ was William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History at Stanford University. PHILIP G. ZIEGLER is Professor of Christian Dogmatics at the University of Aberdeen.
Shortly after the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in early 1933, Karl Barth penned Theological Existence Today, an emergency pamphlet for German churches, pastors, and theologians. In response to the nationalist authoritarianism of the new regime, Barth urged the church to return to the “heart of the matter” by focusing in the first instance on the responsibility to bear witness to the Christian gospel. Only by prioritizing its allegiance to the triune God of the gospel could the church offer resistance in the political sphere. Tacitly here, Barth argues that the rise of Nazism constitutes idolatry, for, by demanding that all German citizens swear their allegiance to Hitler and the party, the regime had effectively displaced true Christian worship with acquiescence to a false god. This is the first English translation of this seminal text since 1933. It is presented here along with three other key texts from Barth’s struggle against Nazism, including a new translation of the Barmen Theological Declaration. In a world witnessing yet again the rise of Christian nationalism, these essays have immense relevance to the theological task in our own day.
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Karl Barth and the Idolatry of the Nation Confronting Christian Nationalism
Keith L. Johnson
ISBN 978-1-4813-2029-0 $42.99 | Hardback 370 pages 6x9 32 b&w images October 2026
“If you want to learn what theological resistance looks like today then start with this book.” —WILLIE JAMES JENNINGS, Yale Divinity School “Simply riveting, both in its descriptive detail and in its theological clarity. The encouragement to Christians in our own century is profound and timely. A must read!” —BEVERLY ROBERTS GAVENTA, Princeton Theological Seminary and Baylor University “A compelling vision of the challenge Christian faith must raise against any and all efforts—whether vulgar or sophisticated—to recruit it into the service of ethno-nationalist politics.” —PHILIP ZIEGLER, University of Aberdeen
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KEITH L. JOHNSON is Professor of Theology at Wheaton College. He is the author of The Essential Karl Barth and Theology as Discipleship.
Karl Barth and the Idolatry of the Nation: Confronting Christian Nationalism tells the story of Karl Barth’s theological resistance against German nationalism in the period 1930-1935. In the early 1930s, the German Christians merged loyalty to God with loyalty to the state, blurred divine and national identity, and replaced God’s law with human law. Barth spent years resisting this false theology. The content of this resistance is presented in a fast-paced narrative built upon close attention to Barth’s sermons, lectures, essays, letters, and church-political meetings. Johnson explains why Barth believed that Adolf Hitler did not create but simply exposed the German church’s theological crisis: a centuries-long theological “both-and” method that set Jesus Christ alongside other authorities and left the church vulnerable to false gospels. Against this captivity, Barth called the Protestant church back to the Reformers’ “either-or” decision for Christ alone, defended the freedom of the gospel, and summoned the church to a theological existence determined solely by the risen Christ’s address through Scripture. The implications are not information or imitation, but transformation. If the path Barth walked with the German Christians feels hauntingly familiar in the United States, the driving question facing readers is Barth’s own: what must the church become in order to remain faithful to Jesus Christ?
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The Wound of Unknowing A Dogmatic Christology
Chris E. W. Green The Wound of Unknowing is a dogmatic Christology focused on Christ and the question of truth. The book follows the timeline of Jesus’s life, considering the meaning of his birth, ministry, and death in the light of his Passion. Deeply indebted to the neo-Chalcedonian tradition, and engaging with a wide range of ancient and modern theologians, including Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, Nicholas of Cusa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Rahner, and Robert Jenson, it attempts to face the questions and implications forced by the scandalously simple confession that Jesus of Nazareth— Mary’s son and Pilate’s victim—is truly the Son of God and so the truth of all things, created and uncreated. The work provides a dogmatic grounding for preaching, catechesis, and pastoral care, as well as philosophical reasoning and speculation.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2486-1 $47.99 | Hardback 292 pages 6x9 November 2026
CHRIS E. W. GREEN is Professor of Public Theology at Southeastern University.
“Drawing deeply from numerous Eastern and Western theologians, The Wound of Unknowing joins the kataphatic and apophatic in the dazzling darkness of the transfigured Lord.” —HANS BOERSMA, Nashotah House Theological Seminary “This fine piece of work brings to culmination the innovative trilogy of aesthetic, biblical, and dogmatic Christology.” —VELI-MATTI KÄRKKÄINEN, Fuller Theological Seminary and University of Helsinki Also by Chris E. W. Green: All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology, 978-1-4813-1558-6, $44.99 The Fire and the Cloud: A Biblical Christology, 978-1-4813-2050-4, $52.99
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Human Flourishing in Early Christian Theology Creation and Transfiguration in Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine of Hippo
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INTRODUCING STUDIES IN PATRISTIC THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY
STUDIES IN PATRISTIC THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY
Thomas Breedlove and Alex Fogleman foreword by John Behr Human Flourishing in Early Christian Theology brings central constructs in the social-scientific study of human flourishing into conversation with two key voices in early Christian theology— Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine of Hippo. Engaging topics such as health, emotion, virtue, community, and friendship, each chapter traces how each theologian understood such phenomena within their vision of human nature and its telos. THOMAS BREEDLOVE is Director of Ad Fontes at Trinity Anglican Seminary. ALEX FOGLEMAN is Associate Dean of Special Programs and Assistant Professor of Theology at Trinity Anglican Seminary.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2122-8 / $44.99 / Hardback / 284 pages / 6 x 9 / November 2026
“Demonstrates that these two master theologians may yet speak of the healing of the soul to those with hearing ears.”
—ELLEN T. CHARRY, Princeton Theological Seminary
Christian Martyrdom and the Unity of the Church Jeremy M. Bergen
Christian Martyrdom and the Unity of the Church is a critical assessment of the claim that the stories Christians tell about martyrdom advance the unity of the church. Stories of Christian martyrs ought to foster Christian unity but in fact often undermine it, creating new patterns of division and harm. An ecumenical lens provides a new perspective on the potential harms in the theology of martyrdom, such as the justification of killing, nationalism, colonialism, triumphalism, and the silencing of victims. Thus, this book offers a critical-constructive contribution to the theology of Christian martyrdom as well as to contemporary ecumenical theology. JEREMY M. BERGEN is Dean and Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Theological Studies at Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo. ISBN 978-1-4813-2318-5 / $52.99 / Hardback / 334 pages / 6 x 9 / May 2027
“A much-needed spark to the ecumenical goal of Christian unity.”
—RUBÉN ROSARIO RODRÍGUEZ, St. Louis University
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Teaching Theology
Reflections Personal and Theological Adam Neder, editor
ISBN 978-1-4813-2126-6 $39.99 | Paperback 262 pages 6x9 September 2026
“The essays in this collection are themselves an education—not just in how to teach, but in what theology is when it’s taught well, in what it does for students and teachers when it comes to life.” —C. KAVIN ROWE, Duke Divinity School “This work is well worth reading for every theology teacher, every theology student, and anyone who cares to reflect on what theology is.” —HAN-LUEN KANTZER KOMLINE, Western Theological Seminary “The reader will come away knowing the writers not only as scholars they have long admired but as persons profoundly committed to awakening a lively faith in the students they clearly love and respect.” —BRUCE MCCORMACK, University of Aberdeen
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ADAM NEDER is Professor of Theology and University Theologian in Residence at Belmont University. He is the author of Theology as a Way of Life: On Teaching and Learning the Christian Faith and Participation in Christ: An Entry into Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics.
Theologians today write theology and teach theology, but rarely do they write about teaching theology. Compared to the extensive literature on teaching, education, and theological education in general, contemporary theologians have given very little sustained theological attention to the practice of teaching theology. This is especially puzzling when one considers the sheer quantity of time most theologians spend teaching theology, how theologically interesting the practice is, and how valuable a more thoroughly theological pedagogy would be. Teaching Theology: Reflections Personal and Theological responds to that need. It brings together reflections by leading theologians and biblical scholars, each of whom offers a personal and theological interpretation of their career as a classroom teacher. Representing a wide range of approaches and theological perspectives, each essay provides a distinct angle of vision on the art of teaching and learning the Christian faith. Together, they invite readers to imagine pedagogies animated by the truth theology seeks to explore.
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Singing Theology from the Ground
Indigenous Hymnody and Global Christianity
Xiaoli Yang and William A. Dyrness, editors Singing Theology from the Ground amplifies voices from the ground by listening attentively to indigenous songs from around the world. Across the disciplines of ethnography, history, and missiology, the book presents and analyzes these songs followed by theological and missiological reflections. It looks into the role of indigenous patterns in order to learn what these might mean for missiology/ evangelism but also for their role in spiritual formation as a part of worship. It examines hymns, especially sung prayers, as an expression of “primary theology” which is foundational for contextual theology.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2298-0 $64.99 | Paperback 330 pages 6x9 b&w images December 2026
XIAOLI YANG is Adjunct Faculty and Research Fellow at the University of Divinity, Australia. WILLIAM A. DYRNESS is Senior Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary.
“This is practical theology crafted with committed, decolonial care, listening with hope for the unexpected melodies of the Divine.” —JERUSHA MATSEN NEAL, Duke Divinity School “These global reflections contribute to conversations on theology, missiology, postcolonial issues, and much more. This will be an important textbook in our graduate programs!” —ROBIN HARRIS, Co-founder, Global Ethnodoxology Network
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The Five Distinctives of World Christianity A Framework for Understanding a Global Faith
Ryan T. Ramsey and Anna Redhair Wells, editors foreword by Justo L. González The Five Distinctives of World Christianity: A Framework for Understanding a Global Faith proposes a model for conceptualizing the processes and themes shared across World Christianity. The volume builds out of and honors the work of Carlos Cardoza-Orlandi who, through a career’s worth of engagement with World Christianity, has identified the following distinctives as essential to the ways in which Christianity interacts with its cultural contexts: (1) cross-cultural diffusion, (2) translatability, (3) polycentricity, (4) indigenous expressions of the divine, and (5) biography. This volume draws together a range of World Christianity scholars in critical and collaborative discourse about these distinctives, built around their own research areas. The volume is designed for teaching, with ten essays from an array of scholars of World Christianity focused around these five themes. ISBN 978-1-4813-2129-7 $32.99 | Paperback 230 pages 6x9 b&w images October 2026
RYAN T. RAMSEY is Visiting Assistant Professor of History and World Christianity and Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. ANNA REDHAIR WELLS is Visiting Fellow at Central Seminary in Overland Park, Kansas.
“This collection of essays contributes significantly to current debates on methodological approaches to World Christianity scholarship.” —KLAUS KOSCHORKE, University of Munich (LMU), Germany “This innovative volume both honors the groundbreaking work of Carlos Cardoza-Orlandi and contributes to the teaching of World Christianity.” —DANA L. ROBERT, Boston University
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Resisting Cure Culture
Illness and Neighbor Love in Jane Austen’s Theology
STUDIES IN RELIGION, THEOLOGY, AND DISABILITY
Jaime Konerman-Sease foreword by Devan Stahl Patients with chronic and incurable illnesses feel abandoned by medicine. Resisting Cure Culture: Illness and Neighbor Love in Jane Austen’s Theology explores why medicine fails to adequately care for those with chronic illnesses, focusing on chronic fatigue, through examining the cultural obsession with cures (cure culture) and its origins in long eighteenthcentury British consumer culture. Jaime Konerman-Sease turns to the novels of Jane Austen to find ways to resist cure culture through her theology of illness and neighbor love. Drawing on Austen’s approach to virtue and orienting health care around neighbor love radically transforms medicine from cure-focused to care-focused—fully able to care for those who cannot be cured. This book will interest scholars of disability, theology, bioethics, and medicine and literature, along with anyone interested in Austen’s novels. ISBN 978-1-4813-2460-1 $39.99 | Paperback 185 pages 5.5 x 8.5 b&w images March 2027
JAIME KONERMAN-SEASE is a Clinical Ethics Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics.
“The overall moral, medical, and theological framework is helpful for clinicians, caregivers, and people living with chronic illness.” —KIMBELL KORNU, Belmont University “Showcasing the relevance of Jane Austen’s novels to bioethics and health humanities, Resisting Cure Culture provides a sterling example of rigorous and interdisciplinary conversations.” —MATTHEW L. REZNICEK, University of Minnesota Medical School
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The Poet’s Wife
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Emily Tennyson REVISED EDITION
Ann Thwaite Emily Sellwood knew Alfred Tennyson from her childhood. She would not marry him until almost thirty years later. What happened during those three decades—and what ultimately led them to one another? Ann Thwaite tells the story in this abridged version of her classic biography of Emily Tennyson. With elegance, tact, and wit, Thwaite establishes in detail the person Emily Tennyson was, painting anew the picture of her relationship with the poet. Emily Tennyson’s story reveals an extraordinary woman and family. Thwaite brings this overlooked character into the foreground in her retelling of this absorbing story. ANN THWAITE is a British writer who is the author of five major biographies.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2327-7 / $49.99 / Paperback / 360 pages / 6 x 9 / b&w images / April 2027
Praise for the first edition: “Meeting Emily Tennyson in the pages of Thwaite’s enthralling book is pure delight.”
—SUNDAY EXPRESS
When the Light Begins to Flicker A Journey Through Love and Alzheimer’s
D. Thomas Hanks, Jr. When the Light Begins to Flicker records Carole Hanks’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease. It contains her husband Tom’s writings chronicling his daily visits and the aging couple’s response to Carole’s decline. This book addresses those who, like him, are or were confused and frightened—and who feel unprepared to meet with the disease in one they love. D. THOMAS (“TOM”) HANKS, JR. (PhD) is Professor Emeritus of English at Baylor University. Dr. Carole Hanks died in 2023 after seven years of Alzheimer’s Disease. “Manifests what Tom has said in his legendary classes—that at the heart of all great literature is total, unflinching honesty.”
—ROBERT F. DARDEN, Baylor University ISBN 978-1-4813-2524-0 / $24.99 / Paperback / 240 pages / 5.5 x 8.5 / b&w images / December 2026
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Helen Barrett Montgomery The Global Mission of Domestic Feminism SECOND EDITION
Kendal P. Mobley Helen Barrett Montgomery (1861-1934) was a social reformer, a Baptist luminary, and a prominent intellectual of the American women’s ecumenical missionary movement. In this second edition of his definitive biography, Kendal Mobley analyzes the intellectual development of a fascinating woman and locates her in the context of her rapidly changing times. Montgomery believed that Christianity gave women equal spiritual and social status with men. Consequently, she saw “woman’s work for woman” as the cutting edge of a global movement for women’s emancipation. KENDAL P. MOBLEY is Professor of Religion at Johnson C. Smith University. “Offers pioneering insight into the life and contribution of one of the most significant, yet overlooked, women of her time.”
ISBN 978-1-4813-2191-4 / $54.99 / Paperback / 406 pages / 6 x 9 / November 2026
—REV. DR. LACEYE C. WARNER, Duke Divinity School
Faithful Reading
Religious Allegiances in Early Modern Literary Scholarship
Katherine Calloway and Chanita Goodblatt, editors Faithful Reading: Religious Allegiances in Early Modern Literary Scholarship explores how the religious identities and critical work of literary scholars reciprocally shape each other. The past hundred years of literary scholarship have seen a vigorous correction of the idea that academic study is conducted in a preconception-free vacuum. Despite this increased selfawareness, scholars are often quite reserved about their own religious or irreligious beliefs and backgrounds. Faithful Reading discusses how these shape which texts scholars choose to study, the questions they ask about them, and the kinds of experientially informed answers they can provide. KATHERINE CALLOWAY is Associate Professor of English at Baylor University. CHANITA GOODBLATT is Professor Emerita of English and Comparative Literatures at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. “A remarkable and original exercise in the study of literature and religion.”
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—DAVID JASPER, University of Glasgow
ISBN 978-1-4813-2309-3 / $59.99 / Paperback / 312 pages / 6 x 9 / b&w images / October 2026
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Finding Belonging Under the Bridge Melody V. Escobar
For three decades, a church has gathered beneath an interstate highway in Waco, Texas, creating an unlikely sanctuary where those society overlooks find genuine belonging. Practical theologian and research scientist Melody V. Escobar presents this groundbreaking year-long ethnographic study of Church Under the Bridge, a nondenominational, multicultural congregation that scores an extraordinary 8.7 out of 10 for fostering belonging among its members. Through first-person narratives and participant-captured photographs, members reveal how they become essential contributors to the church’s mission and spiritual vitality. MELODY V. ESCOBAR is Associate Research Scientist in the Center for Disability and Flourishing at Baylor University. “Many of us need help reimagining faith enfleshed and transformed in communities of justice and mutual care. Finding Belonging Under the Bridge promises to do just that.”
ISBN 978-1-4813-2456-4 / $39.99 / Paperback / 242 pages / 5.5 x 8.5 / May 2027
—REBECCA F. SPURRIER, Columbia Theological Seminary
Bible Stories for Living Daily Prayers, Wisdom, and Guidance
Mark Lanier A trial lawyer by trade, a Christian by heart—author Mark Lanier has trained in biblical languages and devoted his life to studying and living the Bible. Living daily with the tension between the demands of his career and the desire for a godly life, Lanier recognizes the importance and challenge of finding daily time to spend in God’s Word. He has discovered in the narratives of the Old Testament a storehouse of wisdom and inspiration essential for his continued growth in faith, obedience, and understanding. In Bible Stories for Living, Lanier guides us through a portion of the Bible marked by weighty theology, ethical instruction, and practical wisdom. MARK LANIER is a nationally renowned trial lawyer; founder of the Lanier Theological Library and the Christian Trial Lawyers Association; and author of Minor Prophets for Living, Psalms for Living, Torah for Living, and Jesus for Living. ISBN 978-1-4813-2618-6 / $39.99 / Hardback / 378 pages / 5.5 x 8.5 / December 2026
“Lanier knows the accounts well and guides us to a deeper understanding of how they shape our thinking and our actions.”
—TREMPER LONGMAN III, Westmont College
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A Disruptive Witness
Intellectual Disability and the Christian Life STUDIES IN RELIGION, THEOLOGY, AND DISABILITY
Daniel Rempel foreword by Brian Brock A Disruptive Witness: Intellectual Disability and the Christian Life develops a constructive theological account of the Christian witness of people with intellectual disabilities. Rempel proposes that people with intellectual disabilities witness to the God who has acted in history on our behalf, as they are empowered by God to do so. Finding an ally in Karl Barth’s theology of witness, the claim of this book is not that Christians need to find new ways to empower people with intellectual disabilities in the practice of witness; rather, it levies a challenge to Christians to presume that people with intellectual disabilities are currently witnessing even today. It is thus a call to pay attention to the mysterious ways God may be at work through people with intellectual disabilities. ISBN 978-1-4813-2482-3 $59.99 | Hardback 261 pages 6x9 November 2026
DANIEL REMPEL is Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Providence University College & Theological Seminary.
“Pastors, theologians, and congregations will be both challenged and enriched by this book’s careful scholarship and pastoral sensitivity.” —DEVAN STAHL, Baylor University “By attending closely to the experiences of those with disabilities, Rempel offers a theology of witness that humanizes the doctrine for us all.” —CAMBRIA KALTWASSER, Northwestern College
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A Post-Christendom Faith, Volume 3 Theology in the Wilderness
Philip A. Rolnick The final volume of A Post-Christendom Faith, Theology in the Wilderness is a theological anthropology, an account of the nobility of the human person loved by God. It begins by drawing analogies between the trinitarian Persons and human persons made in their image. It then focuses on aspects of the human person: sinfulness, being made in the image and likeness of God, and a Christian understanding of the soul. The book then turns to the response to grace— the development of the cardinal and theological virtues. The final section examines responsible reference to God, for understanding how words refer to God is incumbent on ministers, priests, teachers, and leaders. The section concludes with an understanding of logos—the reason that there is reason, and the reason that there is science—the gift of the Logos who loves us. ISBN 978-1-4813-2520-2 $52.99 | Hardback 314 pages 5.5 x 8.5 October 2026
PHILIP A. ROLNICK is Professor of Theology and Director of the Science and Theology Network at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
“For those who wonder what the Christian theological tradition can offer to contemporary persons, this book makes a number of timely and important proposals.” —MARK MCINROY, Oxford University
ORDER THE FULL SET TODAY AT 30% OFF AT BAYLORPRESS.COM! SEARCH FOR 978-1-4813-2644-5 OTHER VOLUMES IN THE SET: (Volume 1) A Post-Christendom Faith: The Long Battle for the Human Soul. ISBN 978-1-4813-0892-2, $34.99 (Volume 2) A Post-Christendom Faith: Tradition Awakening. ISBN 978-1-4813-2171-6, $49.99
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O Love, as Long as Love You Can Micheal O’Siadhail
“How love is all when all is said and done” is at the heart of this distillation of a lifetime’s experience shared across the generations with a grandson. That love relates to the whole of life, and the poet ranges through marriage and friendship, literature, music and art, justice and power, vocation and career, the dynamics of grandfather-grandson and father-son relationships, grief and death, and “celebration’s sweet excess.” These themes are concentrated into a moving, intimate address to twenty-two-year-old Eoghan, an imagined grandson sensitively portrayed as someone representing the rising generation. Eoghan’s past, present, and especially future are the springboard for a week of deep sharing, each day with its own themes. The days of sharing are preceded by both O’Siadhail’s personal prose preface and a poetic prologue, and followed by an epilogue, and the form throughout is superbly crafted in Dantean terza rima, rhyming and rhythmic. ISBN 978-1-4813-2389-5 $19.99 | Hardback 96 pages 5x8 October 2026
MICHEAL O’SIADHAIL is an internationally acclaimed poet whose works include One Crimson Thread, The Five Quintets, and Desire.
“This book will be a classic in terms of the power of poetry to counter reality with a better version of itself.” —EUGENE O’BRIEN, Mary Immaculate College “This is everything we have needed and longed for to reset the futures of our beloved children and grandchildren.” —MARY MCALEESE, President of Ireland, 1997–2014
Also by Micheal O’Siadhail: The Five Quintets, 978-1-4813-0709-3, $39.99 Desire, 978-1-4813-2006-1, $23.99 Testament, 978-1-4813-1628-6, $24.99
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John Greening
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Crowning As the title suggests, Crowning, by British poet John Greening, represents the culmination of a life’s work that includes more than twenty full collections. These new poems are sometimes free, sometimes formal, but always musical and take us into previously unexplored spiritual territory. The short title poem recalls the birth of a granddaughter while King Charles III’s coronation was taking place. Another describes the experience of having a dental crown fitted. There is a “corona” of sonnets, as well as some longer poems such as “Empire,” a candid examination of the British colonial legacy. Crowning includes several sequences covering Christmas, Italy and Ancient Rome, Egypt, and even four poems written after a visit to Waco, Texas. Several poems to his daughters and a final sequence prompted by themes from friends show that, above all, this poet is concerned with the search for love and meaning in a fractured world.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2455-7 $24.99 | Paperback 150 pages 5.5 x 8.5 November 2026
JOHN GREENING is an English poet, critic, and teacher.
“Greening’s works attest in every line to an aware openness and infinite sensitivity to the world.” —PENELOPE SHUTTLE, poet and author “This is an extremely exciting body of work, engaging heavily with tradition but unburdened by it.” —RORY WATERMAN, Professor, Nottingham Trent University
Also by John Greening: The Interpretation of Owls, 978-1-4813-1734-4, $24.99 New Poems, 978-1-4813-2354-3, $27.99
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RELIGIOUS STUDIES & HISTORY
The Calendar Is Christ How the Church Year Makes and Remakes Us
Julie Canlis There are two misconceptions about the church calendar. The first is that it is about Jesus. The second is that it is a biography of his life. This little book hopes to change people’s minds about this. In one of the earliest recorded whispers of a liturgical year—Hippolytus, 215 AD—Easter seems to be an afterthought, and there is no discussion of the Christian year as such. But one clue reveals the secret to the church calendar: in this early reference, the context of the calendar is baptism. The church calendar is an accessory to the greater mystery of our being “in Christ.” The sacred year is not about Jesus or the details of his life alone. The church calendar is about us. It is about participation, and our participation in Christ.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2622-3 $24.99 | Paperback 220 pages 6x9 color images May 2027
JULIE CANLIS runs the nonprofit Godspeed. She is author of Calvin’s Ladder: A Spiritual Theology of Ascent and Ascension (Eerdmans, 2010), which won the award of merit from Christianity Today.
“In this unprecedented and vivid account, we find that we are folded by the calendar into the Son of God.” —KENNETH TANNER, pastor and author of Vulnerable God “The calendar does more than remind us of Christ or keep his story alive: it makes him present and habitable.” —CHRIS E. W. GREEN, Southeastern University “This book will change not just how you keep time, but how you understand what time is for.” —JOHN BEHR, University of Aberdeen
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Baylor University Press is proud to announce a new imprint, Pro Mundo! While maintaining the caliber of writing and intellectual rigor that has always marked our publications, Pro Mundo books will be written for a general audience, taking the highest quality scholarship to the popular reader for global impact. In 2025, Baylor University added the phrase “Pro Mundo” to its motto, and Baylor Press seeks to contribute to this global vision through this newest imprint. We are excited to publish The Calendar Is Christ by Julie Canlis as the first Pro Mundo book. This exceptional study combines theology, art, and history to examine the ways Christians share in Christ’s work in the world in the normal cycles of the Christian year. Future publications include books on global hunger, women in scripture, and many more. Stay tuned for exciting new publications under the Pro Mundo imprint!
20% OFF ALL TITLES AT BAYLORPRESS.COM USING CODE 17CTLG27 excludes handbook bundles | expires May 2027
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REL. STUDIES & HIST.
American Empire, American Faith Conquest, Christianity, and the Shaping of a Nation
Philip Jenkins
ISBN 978-1-4813-2425-0 $44.99 | Hardback 341 pages 6x9 31 b&w images August 2026
“Philip Jenkins is one of the very best historians writing today. American Empire, American Faith is an eye-opening book which recovers so much of the past that has fallen out of our collective memory.” —TIMOTHY LARSEN, Wheaton College “Jenkins challenges everyone to grapple more honestly with the legacies and ongoing realities of US empire.” —TISA WENGER, author of Spirits of Empire: How Settler Colonialism Made American Religion “Essential reading for everyone who wants to understand how the legacy of the nation’s imperial past continues to shape spiritual and political life today.” —THOMAS A. TWEED, author of Religion in the Lands That Became America: A New History
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Throughout history, religions and religious ideas have contributed powerfully to making successive empires, and in turn, the history of those empires is crucial for understanding the development of religious systems worldwide. Although Americans have often been reluctant to admit the fact of their empire, it has always been a reality, from initial contacts with Native peoples through later expansion into new territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and subsequently into the Cold War era. Throughout this imperial history, religion has played an essential role. Religious beliefs originally justified the colonial enterprises into the New World, while later generations claimed to trace the divine will in a Manifest Destiny to conquer the whole continent. In turn, missionary dreams provided the justification for overseas expansion and often supplied the practical means for undertaking such ventures.
REL. STUDIES & HIST.
PHILIP JENKINS is Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University.
But the relationship between religion and empire in the American context is anything but a story of cynical alliances between church and state, between faith and political power. To the contrary, religious beliefs have often provided the conquered with an essential basis for resistance and have mobilized anti-imperial movements. Without understanding empire, we are missing a vital part of the history of American religion. Acknowledging that fact is all the more urgent in a United States increasingly populated by the descendants of nations and societies that were themselves the subjects of that sprawling American empire.
Also by Philip Jenkins: Kingdoms of This World, 978-1-4813-1993-5, $42.99 A Storm of Images, 978-1-4813-1822-8, $42.99 Fertility and Faith, 978-1-4813-1131-1, $34.99
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REL. STUDIES & HIST.
Baptist Missions Worldwide History, Music, and Theopolitics
João B. Chaves and T. Laine Scales, editors
ISBN 978-1-4813-2382-6 $64.99 | Paperback ISBN 978-1-4813-2528-8 $79.99 | Printed Case 448 pages 6x9 4 b&w images, 3 maps October 2026
Baptist Missions Worldwide reappraises Baptist missions by challenging narratives that center Western missionaries as the primary agents of Christian expansion. Bringing together scholars from the Américas, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Europe, this interdisciplinary volume highlights the decisive roles of migrants, local Christians, Indigenous communities, and women in shaping Baptist life worldwide. Through historically grounded and theologically informed case studies, the book reintroduces Baptist missions as a multidirectional, border-crossing process deeply entangled with empire, colonialism, and coloniality, even if not entirely defined by such entanglements. Contributors analyze case studies ranging from Baptist women missionaries in Asia to religious resistance in Catholic-majority Latin America to the role of hymnody in Africa to theological reflections from Europe and the Caribbean, aiming to reframe how we think about missionary enterprises. JOÃO B. CHAVES is Associate Professor of the History of Religion in the Américas in the Department of Religion at Baylor University. T. LAINE SCALES is Professor of Social Work in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University.
“As emerging reverse-mission dynamics continue to shape our globalized yet polarized world, these essays will help readers to understand and critically assess the variety of Baptist expressions and mission endeavors.” —REV. DR. LINA TOTH, International Baptist Theological Study Centre, The Netherlands “At long last, a volume on Baptist missions that reflects the changing demographics of Baptists over the last century, not only in content but also in authorship.” —ELIZABETH FLOWERS, Baylor University
Also by João B. Chaves and T. Laine Scales: Baptists and the Kingdom of God: Global Perspectives, 978-1-4813-1719-1 (paperback), $59.99 | 978-1-4813-1965-2 (printed case), $69.99
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REL. STUDIES & HIST.
The Gospel in the Whole World
Studies in International Evangelicalism
David W. Bebbington, editor The Gospel in the Whole World: Studies in International Evangelicalism explores how evangelicalism forged international connections, making it a global phenomenon. The movement has attracted attention in the United States in the recent past by its political role since 1979, but it is far from exclusively American. Its roots are in Britain and America, but from an early date it attracted adherents in continental Europe. The types of connection between different lands varied. The best documented links were those created by the missionary impulse that marked the movement from an early stage. There were also shifts of population, so migration and empire were major forces in the process of evangelical diffusion. Individuals, furthermore, could have a crucial role, for a movement that produced star preachers sent them to new lands. The outcome was a multiform global phenomenon. ISBN 978-1-4813-2490-8 | $54.99 | Paperback ISBN 978-1-4813-2549-3 | $64.99 | Printed Case 269 pages / 6 x 9 / October 2026
DAVID W. BEBBINGTON is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Stirling.
“Demonstrates clearly that evangelicalism’s leaders have hailed from many different people groups and maintained conflicting global aspirations.” —DOUGLAS A. SWEENEY, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University “This fine book explains why ‘evangelical’ has meant much for the world, far back in time, and with varied political associations.” —MARK NOLL, co-author of Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia
Other titles in this series: The Gospel in the Past, 978-1-4813-2139-6 (paperback), $54.99 | 978-1-4813-2262-1 (printed case), $64.99 The Gospel in Latin America, 978-1-4813-1723-8 (paperback), $39.99 | 978-1-4813-1722-1 (printed case), $49.99 The Gospel and Religious Freedom, 978-1-4813-1886-0 (paperback), $49.99 | 978-1-4813-1930-0 (printed case), $59.99
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REL. STUDIES & HIST.
Imperium The Fall and Rise of the Roman Empire in the Third Century
Michael F. Bird
ISBN 978-1-4813-2084-9 $42.99 | Hardback 320 pages 6x9 75+ images & maps October 2026
“Imperium is an excellent book, drawing on fine scholarship which is consistently presented in an accessible way; the author knows how to tell a good story! The very readable and lively tone make it natural for the general reader, and using it to teach in class would be a joy.” —PHILIP JENKINS, Baylor University “Clear, fast-paced, often insightful, and at times unapologetically provocative, the book is an engaging first step for the uninitiated reader.” —NATHANAEL ANDRADE, Binghamton University “In his inimitable style, Mike Bird brings us all the drama of the fall and rise of the Roman Empire in the third century.” —EDWINA MURPHY, Australian University of Theology
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Theology at Ridley College, Australian University of Theology.
REL. STUDIES & HIST.
MICHAEL F. BIRD is Deputy Principal and Lecturer in
Imperium is a fast-paced and action-packed history of the Roman empire in the tumultuous third century. Too many readers fixate on the golden age of Rome and its apogee under Marcus Aurelius in the second century and then rush to the seismic revolution introduced by Constantine in the fourth century. But the period in between, from the political chaos following the assassination of Commodus to the ascendancy of Constantine, is no mere excursus, but one of the most bloody, brutal, and vital times in Roman history. Telling such a story with all its complexity, this book weaves together imperial intrigue, military upheaval, the fratricide and fracturing of the empire, plagues and popes, and the remarkable growth of Christianity during times of intense persecution. The book takes readers on a journey from the marshes of Germany, to the banks of the Euphrates, from the frozen wastelands of Scotland, to the fertile Nile valley of Egypt. It brings to life the emperors, soldiers, martyrs, bishops, and barbarians who shaped a world on the brink of collapse, showing how the fortunes of Rome and the church became increasingly intertwined. This is a book about the making of the Christian church and the remaking of the Roman empire. Also by Michael F. Bird: Jesus Among the gods: Early Christology in the Greco-Roman World, 978-1-4813-1675-0 (hardback), $59.99 | 978-1-4813-1676-7 (paper), $44.99 A Handbook to Second-Century Christianity (with Scott Harrower), 978-1-4813-1415-2, $64.99
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BIBLICAL STUDIES
Hebrews
A Handbook on the Greek Text BAYLOR HANDBOOK ON THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT
Cynthia Long Westfall and David I. Yoon CYNTHIA LONG WESTFALL is Associate Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College. DAVID I. YOON is Research Fellow at McMaster Divinity College. ISBN 978-1-4813-1840-2 / $47.99 / Paperback / 443 pages / 5.25 x 8 / October 2026
“For scholars and students alike, this volume is an indispensable resource.”
—JASON A. WHITLARK, Baylor University
These most recent handbooks in the BHGNT series—1 & 2 Thessalonians, by Kelly R. Iverson, and Hebrews, by Cynthia Long Westfall and David I. Yoon—provide foundational examination of the Greek texs. The exposition in these handbooks is a convenient pedagogical and reference tool that explains the form and syntax of the biblical text, offers guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engages important text-critical debates, and addresses questions relating to the Greek text that are frequently overlooked or ignored by standard commentaries.
1 & 2 Thessalonians A Handbook on the Greek Text
BAYLOR HANDBOOK ON THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT
Kelly R. Iverson KELLY R. IVERSON is Professor of New Testament in the Department of Religion at Baylor University. ISBN 978-1-4813-1097-0 / $39.99 / Paperback / 217 pages / 5.25 x 8 / October 2026
“A thorough, constructive, clear grammatical commentary on the Thessalonian correspondence.”
—BEVERLY ROBERTS GAVENTA, Princeton Theological Seminary and Baylor University
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Twenty-three years ago, the first Baylor Handbook on the Greek New Testament published, launching a multi-decade effort to bring a set of comprehensive, detailed, and up-to-date resources for students, teachers, and researchers of the language of the New Testament. With the publication of the handbooks on 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Hebrews, the series is now complete. Every book of the New Testament now has this fine linguistic and pedagogical tool available.
BIBLICAL STUDIES
The Baylor Handbook on the Greek New Testament series is now complete!
To celebrate this accomplishment, we are making the entire set available at an extraordinary discount. Available October 2026. Search ISBN 978-1-4813-2645-2 at baylorpress.com to order the entire series at 40% off.
20% OFF ALL TITLES AT BAYLORPRESS.COM USING CODE 17CTLG27 excludes handbook bundles | expires May 2027
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BIBLICAL STUDIES
Deuteronomy 27-34 A Handbook on the Hebrew Text BAYLOR HANDBOOK ON THE HEBREW BIBLE
Bill T. Arnold and Paavo N. Tucker In this volume, Bill Arnold and Paavo Tucker provide a foundational examination of the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy 27-34. The authors’ exposition is a convenient pedagogical and reference tool that explains the form and syntax of the biblical text, offers guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engages important text-critical debates, and addresses questions relating to the Hebrew text that are frequently overlooked or ignored by standard commentaries. This handbook proves itself an indispensable tool for anyone committed to a deep reading of the biblical text.
BILL T. ARNOLD is Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary. ISBN 978-1-4813-1790-0 $44.99 | Paperback 278 pages 5.25 x 8 August 2026
PAAVO N. TUCKER is Adjunct Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Lipscomb University.
“Provides a bridge between the traditional terminology of classical grammar and the newer approaches of linguistics.” —BERNARD M. LEVINSON, University of Minnesota “An information goldmine.” —BRENT STRAWN, Duke University “An incredibly useful resource for a broad readership.” —BRUCE WELLS, University of Texas at Austin “An indispensable tool.” —M. DANIEL CARROLL R., Wheaton College
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Ethan C. Jones Psalms as Poetry takes the book of Psalms and listens to its language. Its poetry is inescapable. But more importantly, it is revelatory. Moving beyond standard taxonomies and tropes, this book explores the imagination, sound, metaphor, lines, form, and theology of poetry. Distinct from other approaches, Psalms as Poetry reads the Bible alongside modern poetry: George Herbert, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Micheal O’Siadhail, Seamus Heaney, and more. In attending to the nature of modern poetry we are ready to leave entrenched positions and see what has always been in the poetry of Psalms: a language latent, lucid, and generative.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2385-7 $54.99 | Hardback 276 pages 6x9 7 color images September 2026
BIBLICAL STUDIES
Psalms as Poetry
The Language of Wonder, Prayer, and Praise
ETHAN C. JONES is Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
“While not diminishing the Psalms’ well-known parallelisms or the absence of regular end rhymes, Jones shows us their ‘poetry’s magnitude.’” —MICHEAL O’SIADHAIL, author of The Five Quintets and Desire “Jones calls us to appreciate anew the richness of the Psalms as poems that have beautiful sounds, vivid images, compelling rhythms, and complex structures.” —REBECCA POE HAYS, Baylor University “Jones invites us to taste and see the Psalms as poetry—to slow down and enjoy their rich, dense, and luxurious ways with words.” —RICHARD S. BRIGGS, Lindisfarne College of Theology
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BIBLICAL STUDIES
Light Within Light
Psalms and the Arts of Insight Ellen F. Davis, Makoto Fujimura, and Shai Held foreword by David F. Ford
ISBN 978-1-4813-1680-4 $32.99 | Paperback 273 pages 5.5 x 8.5 color images October 2026
“Light Within Light is gorgeous and austere, dynamic and arresting, complex while speaking simply to the spirit. It is a gift to the scholar, to the art-lover, and to anyone seeking to live faithfully in a difficult world.” —NATALIE CARNES, Duke Divinity School “As expected, this is a magnificent feast: rich with insight, copious in its wisdom, and luminous in every sense of the word. It is rare to witness a collaboration of this quality and depth.” —JEREMY BEGBIE, Duke Divinity School “We are indebted to Davis, Fujimura, and Held for reintroducing us to an old and intimate friend, allowing the Psalter to speak to us anew.” —BENJAMIN D. SOMMER, The Jewish Theological Seminary
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MAKOTO FUJIMURA is a widely celebrated artist with paintings in galleries across the United States, as well as internationally (including in Japan and Israel). He is the author of Art + Faith: A Theology of Making (Yale University Press, 2020) and Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering (InterVarsity, 2016), as well as the founder of Fujimura Institute.
BIBLICAL STUDIES
ELLEN F. DAVIS is the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School.
RABBI SHAI HELD is a philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar. He is president and dean at the Hadar Institute.
In a multifaceted collaboration that reaches across differences between faith traditions, cultures, and artistic and academic disciplines, the three authors offer a deeply integrated reading of twelve psalms. Each psalm is interpreted from multiple perspectives—visual, literary, and liturgical—as they explore the texts through the “slow arts” of poetry, painting, translation, theology and prayer, preaching, and collaborative thinking. The selected psalms highlight the physical elements light and earth, and the ever-surprising process of human transformation through longing for and encounter with God. These themes, which are central to the Psalter altogether, are explored somatically through Fujimura’s paintings, many of them using the materials and meditative technique of Nihonga, traditional Japanese art. New dimensions of familiar texts appear as the authors explicate aspects of their own personal, artistic, and liturgical experiences of hearing and dwelling upon them. Fresh translations with accompanying essays illumine some of the semantic choices made by the ancient poets, the complexity and integrity of each of these small theological works, as well as profound ambiguities that are often obscured in translation. Sermons, meditations, and theological essays suggest how these texts have figured prominently in the thought and prayer of Jews and Christians through the ages and why those exploring and practicing contemporary spirituality in its various expressions can still find here fresh, even countercultural voices that speak to the challenges we face with honesty, clarity, and hope.
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BIBLICAL STUDIES
Apprentices of the Messiah Discipleship, Authority, and the Teaching Mission of Jesus
Bruce Henning Who has the right to interpret and teach Scripture? Bruce Henning looks to the Synoptic authors to reveal how they approached this vexing question. Jesus remaps hermeneutics around his person and work to wield his divine authority, and this teaching vocation was passed on in apprenticeship. Jesus’s mission of education and interpretation not only is bestowed upon the disciples but becomes the church’s main calling as well. The Christian community’s commission then is to read Scripture rightly, proclaim the kingdom, and apply God’s Word in the world. BRUCE HENNING is Associate Professor of New Testament at Cornerstone Theological Seminary.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2283-6 / $49.99 / Hardback / 278 pages / 6 x 9 / August 2026
“Bruce Henning’s clear and convincing study demonstrates that Jesus’s disciples were given a share in Jesus’s own messianic teaching authority.”
—NATHAN EUBANK, University of Notre Dame
The Parables Then and Now
The Teachings of Jesus in Historical and Contemporary Contexts
Mikeal C. Parsons and Lanie R. Walkup, editors The parables of Jesus are considered the bedrock of the Christian tradition. This collection highlights the continuity of Jesus’s teachings within both the larger Greco-Roman context and the Jewish context. The contributors explore questions such as: What is the relationship between parables and ancient fables? How do we explore distinctive features of Jesus’s teaching without denigrating his originating Jewish context? How can we best incorporate Jesus’s teachings into the life of contemporary Christian communities? MIKEAL C. PARSONS is University Distinguished Professor and Macon Chair in Religion at Baylor University. LANIE R. WALKUP is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religion at Baylor University “As this volume recognizes, the ‘truth’ in Jesus’s parables emerges in the story of how we live out our lives.”
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—DAVID B. GOWLER, Emory University
ISBN 978-1-4813-2363-5 / $54.99 / Paperback / 280 pages / 6 x 9 / April 2026
BIBLICAL STUDIES
The Wrong Tree
The Myth of Eden in the Age of Superintelligence
EXPLORATIONS IN THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION
Zoltán S. Schwáb In the story of the Garden of Eden, God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. But they could not resist. Another part of the Bible, the Book of Proverbs, likens wisdom to a Tree of Life. This volume offers a “Proverbian” interpretation of the Eden story, suggesting that while the Tree of Life represents wisdom, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil stands for a form of rationality, the power to set goals, solve problems, and claim independence. Without wisdom, this wonderful ability becomes a loaded weapon in the hands of humans playing god. Today, our eyes are fixed again on a fruit that promises rational powers of divine proportions: artificial superintelligence. Should we reach out and take it?
ISBN 978-1-4813-2467-0 $54.99 | Hardback 301 pages 6x9 November 2026
ZOLTÁN S. SCHWÁB is a Hebrew Bible scholar and independent researcher.
Explorations in Theological Interpretation
“Fruitfully brings together ancient text with contemporary challenges of life. An important and thought-provoking work—and a great read!” —WALTER MOBERLY, Durham University “This is a stimulating work of biblical theology in a fully contemporary mode. It should find interested readers throughout the humanities, as well as in biblical studies and theology.” —STEPHEN B. CHAPMAN, Duke Divinity School
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BIBLICAL STUDIES
Wisdom for the Nations
A Missional Reading of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job PARCHMAN LECTURES
Christopher J. H. Wright Jennifer Matheny and Michael W. Stroope, editors Convinced that a missional hermeneutic, if it is to be truly “whole Bible” in its validity, must be capable of application to any part of Scripture, Wright asks how Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job could be relevant for mission. He first proposes a suite of heuristic questions that can uncover the missional dimensions of any biblical text, such as: Where does this text fit into, and how does it relate to, the grand narrative of the mission of God? What does this reveal about the God who is on mission and about the people he calls to participate with him? Wright then addresses these questions by turning to the texts, suggesting that the answers may be both surprising and fruitful in deepening our understanding of the mission of God, and our theology and practice of mission as God’s people today. ISBN 978-1-4813-2541-7 $24.99 | Hardback 163 pages 5x8 October 2026
CHRISTOPHER J. H. WRIGHT is a missiologist, Anglican clergyman, and Old Testament scholar. He is an International Ambassador of Langham Partnership International. JENNIFER MATHENY is Associate Professor of Christian Scriptures at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University. MICHAEL W. STROOPE is Professor of Christian Missions and Holder of the M.C. Shook Chair of Missions at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University.
“Wisdom for the Nations is an excellent, groundbreaking, and laser-focused work.” —J. D. PAYNE, Samford University “Wright demonstrates that Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job are thoroughly missional texts.” —KEVIN J. VANHOOZER, Wheaton College
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PARCHMAN LECTURES
M. Daniel Carroll R. W. Dennis Tucker, Jr., editor
BIBLICAL STUDIES
Of God and Idols
Reflections on Old Testament Political Theology from South of the Border
Of God and Idols: Reflections on Old Testament Political Theology from South of the Border explores the nature and phenomena of the religious life in ancient Israel through the lens of Latin American history, religion, and literature. On the one hand, this lens can provide insights into what we read in the Old Testament and so can be helpful in being aware of and evaluating the relationship between religion and politics today. This is not a full-blown political theology, hence the subtitle: Reflections on Old Testament Political Theology. On the other hand, one aim of the volume is to underscore the usefulness of a Latin American point of view.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2545-5 $27.99 | Hardback 117 pages 5x8 October 2026
M. DANIEL CARROLL R. is Professor of Old Testament Emeritus in the Litfin Divinity School at Wheaton College. W. DENNIS TUCKER, JR. is Professor of Christian Scriptures at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University.
“A model for all engaged in contextual biblical interpretation.” —BO H. LIM, Seattle Pacific University “This book is a must read; a prophetic critique for all who claim the name of Jesus.” —LISSA M. RAY, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto
Also in the Parchman Lectures Series: By the Word Worked: Encountering the Power of Biblical Preaching by Fleming Rutledge, edited by Kimlyn J. Bender, 978-1-4813-2175-4, $19.99 Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Shalom: Toward a Deeper Practical Theology of Mental Health by John Swinton, edited by Angela H. Reed, 978-1-4813-2471-7, $27.99
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BIBLICAL STUDIES
The Mystery of Existence God, Hebrews, and the Unity of Scripture
EXPLORATIONS IN THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION
Christopher R. J. Holmes Christopher R. J. Holmes champions the importance of God for Scripture’s spiritual vision. By focusing on Hebrews, Holmes explains how God is key to unfolding the unity of the Testaments. Holmes retrieves the insights of modern and premodern exegetes to show how God functions as the principle of Scripture’s coherence, generating a positive valuation of the Old Testament. Hebrews rather jarringly contrasts Old and New, and so taking up the language of obsolescence, inferiority, and abrogation, Holmes advances in a resolutely constructive way the promise of God for articulating afresh how such motifs encourage rather than discourage reception of the Old as the living Word of the Lord. A proper theocentrism as motivated by Hebrews holds profound promise for retrieving Scripture’s literal sense, and for rethinking Christology’s place in receiving the Old as the Word of God. ISBN 978-1-4813-2580-6 $44.99 | Hardback 264 pages 6x9 April 2027
CHRISTOPHER R. J. HOLMES is Professor of Systematic Theology in the Theology Programme at the University of Otago. Explorations in Theological Interpretation
“This is an excellent book—a refreshing engagement with Scripture that imitates (and instructs in) Scripture’s own goals.” —MATTHEW LEVERING, University of St. Mary of the Lake
Also by Christopher R. J. Holmes: Hearing and Doing: The Speeches in Acts and the Essence of Christianity, 978-1-4813-1786-3, $42.99
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The Apostle’s Theology in Context
Jörg Frey Jacob Cerone, editor and translator
BIBLICAL STUDIES
Pauline Perspectives Pauline Perspectives presents key contributions from over twenty years of work by Jörg Frey, one of the world’s most influential New Testament scholars. The aim is to highlight the apostle’s own perspective and message amid the confusion of perspectives on Paul. Frey brings old and new perspectives from European research and Reformation readings into current discussion and makes Paul’s core message conceivable for theology and for the church today. In its main part, the book exposes the core of Paul’s message, the salvific significance and efficacy of Jesus’s death from a post-Easter perspective. Pauline Perspectives is a fresh attempt to bring together new and old views on the hero of Protestantism for theology and Christian life.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2266-9 $74.99 | Hardback 504 pages 6x9 November 2026
JÖRG FREY is Professor of New Testament in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Zurich. JACOB CERONE is in house editor of EBR at De Gruyter and series editor for Classic Studies on the Apostolic Fathers as well as for Patristic Essentials.
“Frey’s essays are essential reading on Paul in his Jewish context.” —JUDITH M. GUNDRY, Yale University “A seminal and indispensable reference work for future research on Paul.” —JENS SCHRÖTER, Humboldt University Berlin
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BIBLICAL STUDIES
Perpetual Fire
Temple, Ritual, and Biblical Theology
Mark Giszczak Perpetual Fire seeks to understand why Levitical law commands the priests to keep a fire perpetually burning on the altar of sacrifice. The unquenchable fire inaugurated by God comes to function as a cipher for temple legitimacy and a token of divine presence. Adam, Moses, and the high priest all come to share in this radiance. The New Testament picks up the theme in the transfiguration of Jesus and Paul’s theology of resurrection. Finally, this theology of fire envisions Christian spirituality as an assimilation to divine fire.
ISBN 978-1-4813-2322-2 $49.99 | Hardback 286 pages 6x9 2 b&w images September 2026
MARK GISZCZAK is Professor of Sacred Scripture at Saint Paul Seminary, University of St. Thomas.
“Tracing the unquenchable fire across Old and New Testaments, this book will help readers see fresh and underappreciated connections across the canon.” —NATHAN MACDONALD, Cambridge University “In this innovative book we see biblical theology at its finest, solidly anchored in rigorous historical scholarship and providing clarifying insight.” —STEPHEN D. RYAN, O.P., Dominican House of Studies
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baylorpress.com Image credits: (catalog front cover) artwork by Mick O’Dea, instagram.com/mickodeaartist | (p. 6) artwork by Chris E. W. Green | (pp. 8–9) Summer Sanctuary, by Julie Davis | (p. 11) “Protestant missionary map of the world,” by Edward Gover, courtesy of the Texas Collection, Baylor University | (p. 16) “Chinese Spring Blossom,” by Richard Wawro, 1982 | (p. 20) “Tapestry of Creation,” Girona Cathedral Museum, Wikimedia/Kippelboy, CC BY-SA 3.0 | (pp. 22–23) John Gast, American Progress, 1873, Wikimedia | (p. 24) Pexels/Marina Leonova and Laura Meinhardt | (p. 35) Pexels/Rahime Gül | (p. 37) Bernard Gagnon, Wikipedia.
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