Coming attractions

I have a number of exciting projects that are all about to be published, mostly between now and the end of the year, plus one more thing next spring. I’ve been sitting on most of them, but now I’m in a position to make all of them public. What follows isn’t everything I’m doing in the next few months, but it’s certainly what will be taking up space (rent-free, as they say) in my brain.

First, following the publication last month in The Point of my essay on Wendell Berry and George Scialabba, I have four long essays coming out this fall:

1. In The New Atlantis, a review of Jason Blakeley’s We Built Reality: How Social Science Infiltrated Culture, Politics, and Power.

2. In The Hedgehog Review, a review of Eugene F. Rogers Jr.’s Blood Theology: Seeing Red in Body- and God-Talk.

3. In The Christian Century, an essay on the blackness of the Jewish Christ, reflecting on the theology of James Cone, the Basilica of the Annunciation, and the iconography of George Floyd.

4. In Commonweal, a review of Timothy P. Jackson’s Mordecai Would Not Bow Down: Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and Christian Supersessionism.

Second, about 15 months ago, right at the outset of the pandemic, Vincent Lloyd contacted me about editing an issue of the academic journal Political Theology dedicated to Karen Kilby’s new book, God, Evil, and the Limits of Theology. I’m happy to say that the issue has gone to press and will be published next month. The forum of responses consists of six major scholars:

1. Andrew Prevot

2. Kathryn Tanner

3. Katherine Sonderegger

4. Rowan Williams

5. Sarah Coakley

6. Miroslav Volf

It’s as though the lineup of theologians unspooled from my dreams.

I have an essay that introduces the series of contributions to the forum, and Kilby has a lengthy response that replies to each of them in one place. Trust me: You will not want to miss this issue. Not one of the pieces falls short of what you would expect (except, well, mine; but then you already knew that). I simply cannot wait to see what people make of the whole conversation.

Oh, and go buy and read the book in advance of it.

Third and finally, my first two books are set to be published this fall and next spring, respectively.

1. The Doctrine of Scripture (Cascade) is set to come out this fall; there’s not a hard publication date yet, but I’d estimate November 1, give or take a few weeks. Though it’s coming out first, I wrote this book after the book that will come out in the spring; I drafted it quickly, in the fall of 2019. It’s just over 80,000 words. It was originally going to be in the Cascade Companions series, but it spilled over the ideal size for those books, and my editor was kind enough to permit me to publish it as a stand-alone work. I am extremely proud of the final product. If you want to know what I think—if you want to see me at my best, whatever “my best” is—this is it. It is a six-chapter spiritual and theological presentation of the church’s theology of Holy Scripture: ecumenical in tone, catholic in substance, evangelical in aim. And I’m humbled and overjoyed to announce that Katherine Sonderegger has written the foreword to it.

2. The Church’s Book: Theology of Scripture in Ecclesial Context (Eerdmans) is set to come out next April. This is a major revision of my doctoral dissertation at Yale, written under my advisor Kathryn Tanner. This one is double the size of my Cascade book; and whereas the latter was written with a view to an audience that might include seminarians and pastors, this book is a work of scholarship (or so, at least, I intend it to be): though I earnestly desire it to build up the church, its audience is fellow scholars in theology, Bible, and hermeneutics. It is an analysis of the role of ecclesiology in bibliology, that is, the role of the doctrine of the church in the doctrine of Scripture. It traces a line from Barth to the present, studying the work of John Webster, Robert Jenson, and John Howard Yoder in order to show how distinct ecclesial logics—magisterial reformation, catholic, and radical reformation—underlie and inform one’s understanding and interpretation of the Bible. Think of this book as the theoretical scaffolding that supports the positive constructive work of the first book. Which makes sense, since this one was written first (though it’s coming out second—confused yet?). I’m also chuffed and humbled to announce that Stephen E. Fowl has written the foreword to it.

All of a sudden these many myriad projects—some involving weeks or months of work, some years upon years in the making—are coming out, one on top of the other. And there’s more to come! (Not least that third book manuscript, due December 2022…) But I’ll leave it at that. I couldn’t be more thrilled to share these with the world. I hope they do a smidgen of good. And I hope you’ll give them a chance, and maybe even read a few.