Fortress Press Research Articles

Storied Witness: The Theology of Black Women Preachers in 19th Century America. By Kate Hanch. Fortress Press, 2022. xiii + 196 pp. $28.00 paper.

Storied Witness: The Theology of Black Women Preachers in 19th Century America. By Kate Hanch. Fortress Press, 2022. xiii + 196 pp. $28.00 paper.

Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days by Gracia M. Grindal

Reviewed by: Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days by Gracia M. Grindal Philip Nesvig Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days. By Gracia M. Grindal. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 369 pp. Drawing upon the long Christian tradition of harmonizing the life and ministry of Jesus, Gracia Grindal has expanded this form by writing 366 gospel sonnets to match any modern calendar year. Using the harmony provided by Johannes Thorbjørnson Ylvisaker (1845–1917), Grindal astonishingly wrote her sonnets on a daily basis for an entire year. One could assess Grindal's success with the sonnet form, but poetry does not take pride of place in this remarkable [End Page 202] collection. Proclaiming Jesus does! Grindal is preaching to us on every page. The reader is aware that the iambic pentameter rhythm is the structure for each poem. Yet the form is the servant of the proclamation. Each sonnet is one piece of a comprehensive sweep of the biblical message. On one level, the entire Bible story drives each sonnet with a selected gospel pericope plus two additional biblical texts per poem. On another level, the preaching and devotional proclamation of each sonnet reveal the enduring value of Grindal's masterpiece. The reader meets Jesus before and after his public ministry. As such, the starting point for the devotional use of this work is the Advent-Christmas season with but 24 sonnets. The public ministry portion of Grindal's book begins with John the Baptist's pointing to "the Lamb of God" and concludes with the Johannine "These were written so you might believe in Jesus." (Jn 20:31). The same could be said about the sonnets. The reader will be impressed by the Christocentric focus of the sonnets. As the supporting non-Gospel Bible passages are read, Jesus appears in the sonnets much as Luther discovered him in all of Scripture. The result is a profound appreciation for the "red thread of salvation" (xvii). The sonnets proclaim the paradoxical glory of Jesus' death. Lutheran theological themes and points of emphases enrich the texts. Poetic paraphrases, puns, allusions, turns of phrase, slogans, artfulness, wry humor and metaphors provide both profundity and play. They delight the reader. Names of Christians throughout the centuries appear with some occasional surprise as an echo of the texts in their witness. We meet St. Francis, Hieronymus Bosch, Flannery O'Connor, Joseph Conrad, Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as well as some lesser knowns who gave their ordinary but impressive witness. This sonnet collection is best appreciated by those who have worked the biblical texts for years, namely, experienced preachers and all students of the Bible. Having said this, all readers will benefit from engaging the three daily texts as well as the sonnet. The true goal of each sonnet is to evoke the living Word, thereby preaching Jesus to the reader. Some books require a slow read because the thought process and the argument presented are intricate and [End Page 203] intellectually demanding. Other books require a slow read because they are so rich in meaning that they must be absorbed in due time. Grindal's work is the latter type. Jesus the Harmony deserves to become a devotional classic. Philip Nesvig Tacoma, Washington Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Free in Deed: The Heart of Lutheran Ethics by Craig L. Nessan

Reviewed by: Free in Deed: The Heart of Lutheran Ethics by Craig L. Nessan Ned Wisnefske Free in Deed: The Heart of Lutheran Ethics. By Craig L. Nessan. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. 165 pp. This book is an introduction to Lutheran ethics written for theology students, pastors, and thoughtful lay readers. It succeeds in that, leaving readers with a coherent vision of the way a Lutheran approach to Christian ethics analyzes issues, illuminates them, and inspires us to act on them. Nessan claims that love of neighbor is the overriding concern of Lutheran ethics. "Neighbor" is interpreted expansively to include all people, especially those who are in danger of being disregarded as neighbors, even encompassing all living things. Nessan owes his formation, he writes, to Bonhoeffer's Christocentric theology and to the Christopraxis of liberation theologians. Eight short, readable chapters lay out key Lutheran insights concerning biblical authority, the authority of tradition, reason and experience, the two kingdoms, justification and sanctification, the priesthood of all believers, the theology of the cross, and Christian freedom. Nessan's exposition of these traditional Lutheran themes is [End Page 244] clear and on-the-mark. Often, he distinguishes a Lutheran point of view from other Christian perspectives, or distinguishes among various Lutheran viewpoints. This helps orient the readers' understanding. For example, he contrasts a Lutheran view on biblical authority with literalism and deconstruction; a Lutheran from an American understanding of freedom; contemporary Lutheran views on sanctification in Lazereth and Mannermaa. He presents how the theology of the cross is misunderstood by both triumphalism and trivialization, and how a privatized view of charitable assistance as well as religious identity politics misconceive political advocacy. By the author's own assessment, his chapter "Luther's Two Strategies and Political Advocacy" offers an original interpretation of how Luther's concept of the two kingdoms contributes to our understanding of Christianity and politics. Wanting to avoid past misinterpretations that led to the subservience of the church to political order, or to the rigid separation of church and state, he proposes that God rules one kingdom with two strategies. What emerges is "neighbor politics." Christians participate in God's left-hand strategy by speaking out and engaging in the political process as citizens who advocate for the well-being of the neighbor, using reasonable arguments that appeal to the consciences and common sense of others, building coalitions wherever possible with those who share a common vision, and avoiding special pleading based on a "Christian" agenda narrowly understood (124). A long-standing problem, the "Achilles' heel" for Lutheran ethics (81), is the move from justification to sanctification. Other ways of stating the "unfulfilled promise" (91) of Luther's Reformation is to see that "freedom from" sin, death, and the devil turns to "freedom for" love of the neighbor, or whether we need a "third-use" of the law in Lutheran ethics to motivate Christian living. In Nessan's view, "Only the retrieval of Luther's robust understanding of vocation and the universal priesthood can give expression to the social holiness that is the final goal of the Christian life" (80). Among his suggestions [End Page 245] in this regard is to reimagine the "priesthood of all believers" as the "neighborliness" of all believers (87), and to utilize worship practices to imprint on us "both a way of being and a way of serving neighbors" (89). Nessan's contribution to this long-standing problem is important and energetically pursued. From this reviewer's perspective, the solution to this ethical problem is finally theological. As he notes, what sets up Luther's thinking on the two kingdoms is his view that the world is a battleground between God and Satan. What sets up Luther's freedom from/freedom for dialectic is the acknowledgement that I am convicted by the law as a condemned sinner. This theological confession likely challenges our contemporaries more than does Lutheran ethics. Ned Wisnefske Roanoke College Salem, Virginia Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day by Anna Madsen

Reviewed by: Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day by Anna Madsen Phil Ruge-Jones Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day. By Anna Madsen. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. 174 pp. This book speaks poignantly to the times we live in. Madsen offers a vision that will speak to any time, but with the Black Lives Matter protests of recent years and the effects of the pandemic, this book cries out as a voice that needs to be heard. She shows how a profound, reflective dive into what is personal can contribute to very public issues. Madsen begins by rooting her reflections in a specific moment of loss that shook her family's life at every level. In 2004, her husband was killed in an accident that also left her son with a traumatic brain injury. As she sat in the funeral service, she found herself in a community, singing familiar words that took on new depth in this crisis, "Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child, or spouse, though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day." In the death of her beloved, Luther's words connected to a very concrete reality. The rest of the book engages in a theological quest to unpack what "win the day" meant as Madsen sought to rediscover the gift of joy. The titles of the five chapters give a good sense of the themes and flow: The Absence of Lamenting the Absence of God, Joy Comes in the Mourning, Finding Hope When You're Losing Your Grip, Justified for Joy, and Holy Saturday Living. Those familiar with Luther's theology of the cross will recognize something of the trajectory she develops. Her theology joins Luther's in naming "a truth that makes every theologian paying attention gulp" (65). [End Page 237] One of the strengths of this book is the conversation partners she has invited around the table. Many are the usual suspects for theologians of the cross: Martin Luther, Walter Brueggemann, Jürgen Moltmann, and Miroslav Volf. But others are also invited to shape the conversation: Cornel West, Soraya Chemaly, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Toni Morrison. Exchanges she has had with co-conspirators throughout her ministry as a public theologian enrich the dialogue. The result is deepened discourse that offers relevance, reverence, and renewal to the church and the world (the three Rs that guide her theological work at the OMG Center (https://omgcenter.com/). The final chapter witnesses to how her own journey has led her to joyful defiance in the face of real death. We see what each of the concepts she has explored more abstractly looks like as she has lived through her struggle for healing and hope. She ends in a joyful place, "But I can write, with full integrity and honesty, that I can now, almost two decades hence, declare that every moment is sacred, every moment is to be savored, every moment is a possibility to plant a tree, to plant a promise, to plant joyful defiance. … Death is real. … But life, on this eve of whatever tomorrow will bring, is real-er" (165). While her theological and cultural conversation partners add depth to her reflections, in the end the courage with which she charts her own journey makes her claims compelling. Her book is a lively testimony to Luther's great confession, "One becomes a theologian by living, by dying, and by being damned, not by understanding, reading, and speculation." Phil Ruge-Jones Grace Lutheran Church Eau Claire, Wisconsin Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

The Augsburg Confession: Renewing Lutheran Faith and Practice by Timothy J. Wengert

Reviewed by: The Augsburg Confession: Renewing Lutheran Faith and Practice by Timothy J. Wengert Suzanne Hequet The Augsburg Confession: Renewing Lutheran Faith and Practice. By Timothy J. Wengert. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2020. 349 pp. This commentary on the Augsburg Confession (CA) aims to do what it says in the subtitle—to renew Lutheran faith and practice. Written by a coeditor of the Book of Concord (2000), the author demonstrates deep knowledge of the context and contents of this key Lutheran confessional document. Robert Kolb, fellow coeditor of the Book of Concord, writes in the Foreword that this commentary focuses on "the living voice of the gospel and its application in the world in which believers experience the blessings of God" (ix). This book, then, is much more than just another commentary on the CA. In the introduction, the author stresses the importance of the confessional nature of the CA. It is far different from a series of doctrinal articles. "Luther put readers on notice that the real point of the Augsburg Confession was not simply stating correct doctrine or compelling compliance to such doctrine … but rather as a moment of confessing" (1). An overview of the context and history of events leading to the writing and public reading of the CA on June 25, 1530, follows. The book has twenty-eight chapters, one for each article in the CA. These chapters are divided into two parts. The first covers the preface to the CA plus articles I through XXI (13–203). Each chapter follows a pattern. After what this reviewer terms a "teaser" chapter title, the author shares a personal experience or observation, drawn from his years as a scholar, teacher, and pastor. In part one, translations of both the German and Latin texts follow. Thereafter the author shares phrase by phrase reflections or commentary. Each chapter closes with "We Teach and Confess," which links the doctrine to present day teachings and practices. Of interest for this reviewer is the title of the fourth chapter, "The Christian's Two Religions," and its longer first section on Article IV (49–57). The author [End Page 90] expands on the terms "Up Religion" and "Down Religion" to set the context for understanding the unconditional nature of God's grace, as set forth in this key article on justification "on account of Christ through faith" (52). Part two is entitled "Practicing the Faith" and focuses on articles XXII–XXVIII (215–299). The chapters follow the same pattern as earlier chapters, but reflections are limited to key sections of these much longer articles, with the text of the articles in an appendix with the German and Latin translations side-by-side on two-page spreads (300–343). The epilogue, entitled "We Confess and Teach," begins with a chilling first sentence. "They were caught in the act of confessing their faith" (293). A list and brief description of each of the signers of the original document follows. "This act of confessing shaped not just the document but also, more importantly, their witness within the church catholic down to the present day" (294). While the author then mentions ordination practice in the 1950s in the New York Ministerium where candidates were required to subscribe their names to the Augsburg Confession, this reviewer has witnessed this same requirement for ordinands in the current Lutheran liturgies for ordination. The Augsburg Confession is as vibrant a confession now as it was in the sixteenth century! Throughout, the author threads articles with common themes together, resulting in a beautiful confessional fabric, e.g., IV to III and VI (53–54), V to XVIII (59), VII to VIII and XV (83). This unifies the confession, thus discouraging reading the articles as a list of disparate doctrines. Less key but helpful is the shift to sans serif typeface for longer quotations, as well as footnotes and an index to aid study of the text. This book was a delight to read. For teachers, pastors and all interested in the distinctive nature of Lutheran confessions, this commentary, together with A Formula for Parish Practice: Using the Formula of Concord in Congregations (Wengert, Fortress Press, 2006), should be included as standard for classes on...

The End of College: Religion and the Transformation of Higher Education in the 20th Century by Robert Wilson-Black

Reviewed by: The End of College: Religion and the Transformation of Higher Education in the 20th Century by Robert Wilson-Black Robert Benne The End of College: Religion and the Transformation of Higher Education in the 20th Century. By Robert Wilson-Black. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 281 pp. This book is an adaptation of one of the last dissertations advised by the great American historian of religion and distinguished Lutheran, Martin Marty. His student, Robert Wilson-Black, has been CEO of Sojourners since 2013 but earlier served as an administrator at the University of Chicago and then as a college and seminary vice [End Page 99] president for a decade. He has written widely and serves on the board of Lynchburg University. The book describes the great debates about if and how religion ought to be taught in the constantly changing face of American higher education from the beginning of the 20th century to its midpoint following World War II. Its scope and depth of research are truly remarkable. The author seems to have covered the thoughts on this subject of almost every elite intellectual in every elite university in America from the turn of the 20th century to its mid-point. Early on he develops a typology of thinkers who argue their vision of the nature of religion and how it ought to be presented in academia. The types are "skeptics," "pious true believers," and "those who functioned primarily as reconcilers between them for each college or discipline" (xx). After World War II, as after World War I, many educators were so shaken by the collapse of civilization in the Christian West that they thought deeply about how higher education should wrestle with the civilizational crisis illuminated by the wars. Christian and secular humanist movements existed in both periods; members of those movements wondered how young Americans should be shaped as good citizens by higher education. For them, the role of religion in education was crucial. But how to go about it? This book plumbs that question in great detail, especially among the best and brightest in the educational world. Wilson-Black traces the many debates that took place in the elite colleges. Some atheists and skeptics from outside the Christian humanist movement argued that secular humanism could supply the moral fiber needed in the new generation. Most, however, saw an important role for religion, especially Christianity, for such a task. Should religion be presented through a department of religion at the undergraduate level? Should it be spread throughout the curriculum as kind of a tutoring in natural law? Should it be limited to a graduate school of divinity? Should it be embedded in other departments? Further, should religion be taught objectively and scientifically as religious studies? Or should it have a persuasive dimension to its teaching? These questions have not gone away by any means. Indeed, it seems that "religious studies," with no privilege [End Page 100] offered to Christian studies, is increasingly dominant, even in our church-related colleges. The powerful "diversity, inclusivity, and equity" movement ensures the demotion of Christian perspectives, especially of an orthodox Christian sort. The book covers the role of religion in higher education up to the 1950s. Interestingly, that period featured many intellectuals who thought that the Christian faith was crucial in the moral development of young Americans. Such intellectuals are fairly rare now, with many instead believing that orthodox Christianity should be banished from an influential role. Other movements—ecological, sexual, anti-racial, multicultural, and "diversity"—are seen as far more promising in shaping young minds. Perhaps the author's next book will take up that great change. One limiting factor in this book is its exclusive attention to elite higher education. It does not discuss at all the role of religion in the many ethnic, evangelical, and Roman Catholic colleges of the time. In those places, Christian faith—not only in its moral dimension—played a robust role in the shaping of millions of non-elite Americans, whose important story should also be told. Robert Benne Institute of Lutheran Theology Brookings, South Dakota Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

A Review of Textual Rivalries: Jesus, Midrash, and Kabbalah

A Review of Textual Rivalries: Jesus, Midrash, and Kabbalah Sharon Carson (bio) and Gilad Elbom Elbom, Gilad. Textual Rivalries: Jesus, Midrash, and Kabbalah. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. Pp. 210, $39.00, hb. This isn't a book review in the usual sense, but rather an exchange between Gilad Elbom, the author of Textual Rivalries: Jesus, Midrash, and Kabbalah, and myself. Both Gilad and I serve as editors for NDQ. We are friends and colleagues, and we have talked about textual and cultural interpretation of religious and other texts for many years. Gilad brings his considerable talent as a literary scholar, a translator, a comparativist in religious studies, and a fiction writer to this beautifully written book, and we at NDQ are delighted to see Textual Rivalries in print. No doubt like others among his readers, I lack some of the deep-dive experience in linguistics—and all of the deep-dive experience in the Hebrew language and Kabbalah studies—that a full critique would require. But happily, Textual Rivalries is interdisciplinary, comparative, and accessibly grounded in questions central to the humanities and central to pluralistic communities of interpreters. In fact, a key strength in Gilad's work is that he opens and sustains the reality of interpretive multiplicity. He does this in Textual Rivalries across diverse interpretive traditions and texts within Judaism and Christianity. He very successfully opens this world of "multiples" for serious readers across a spectrum of interests and backgrounds. Gilad's prose is philosophically, artistically, and existentially engaging, whether one has a theological stake in the narratives of the Torah, the Talmud, the New Testament texts, the Kabbalah textual traditions (and the endlessly unfolding commentaries on all of these), and/or a literary or interpretive stake in the same texts, or some other stake altogether. Readers should also be prepared to embark on their own tangential interpretive adventures sparked by the remarkably sharp conceptual and textual detail in every chapter. Just one example: Gilad has me off again reading the late and indefatigable Jewish studies scholar Jacob Neusner, especially his work on the life and thought of Yohanan ben Zakkai, a key [End Page 34] Jewish thinker of the first century. Textual Rivalries is especially successful in bringing some of the cultural and interpretive issues of the past into a clear dialogue with concerns of our present. It's a truly generative book on many levels. I asked Gilad a series of questions, and our exchange is reproduced below. Hopefully the questions I tossed to Gilad will indicate some of the range in the book itself and his thoughtful responses will offer a collaborative invitation for readers to head off and find their own way along the many interpretive paths he created in Textual Rivalries. sharon carson (sc): Your book unfolds as a multilayered call for interpretive openness: a resistance to making texts or meaning static and closed. It's clear that this call has a particular context for you in the realms of human interpretations of scripture, but you also talk about metafiction. I'm curious: to whom are you speaking via this rhetoric of "call to openness"? How is your book an engagement with particular audiences (emphasis on the plural), with particular agents in culture, and with particular historical stresses? What contemporary concerns moved you to craft such an intricate engagement with the problems created by interpretive closure? gilad elbom (ge): I'm very suspicious of people who know, people who hold opinions, people who look for answers. I'm even more suspicious of people who know the answers. I prefer questions. If I can read a text, any text, and come up with five different interpretations, I'm happy. If I can come up with ten different interpretations, I'm happier. I'm fascinated by possibilities, new combinations, multiple perspectives, clashing points of view. But I don't think we live in a society that values this kind of openness. We live in a society that teaches persuasive argumentation: how to formulate a clear thesis, how to support a personal opinion, how to defend a main argument, how to win a debate. In this context, metafiction offers a good alternative. It rejects the idea...

20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America by Ryan P. Burge

Reviewed by: 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America by Ryan P. Burge Mark Mattes 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America. By Ryan P. Burge. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. ix + 249 pp. Avoid this book if you do not like hot button topics! But if you want some clear-headed, evidence-based reasoning about how faith intersects with public life, this book is valuable. Both a professor of political science and an American Baptist pastor, Ryan Burge corrects widespread perceptions about matters as diverse as how religious groups tend to vote, whether religion is in decline in America, how Christians view Donald Trump, whether education leads to secularism, as well as flash points like immigration, abortion, and same-sex marriage. Once you start, this book is hard to put down. It is impossible in a short review to describe every myth that Burge busts. I can only share highlights. He notes that Republicans assume that as much as 36% of Democrats are atheists when in truth it is only 9%. The flipside is that Democrats assume that 44% of Republicans are 65 or older when in reality it is 21%. Likewise, Democrats assume that 50% of Republicans earn $250,000 or more annually when in fact just 2% do. Burge is committed to a statistics-driven "empirical worldview" precisely because it is able to cut through caricatures. [End Page 114] Many of the false perceptions that Burge challenges deal with Evangelicals. This is not due to any bias against other groups like Muslims or Mormons. Accurate statistics require a sizable pool to assess. Evangelicals, along with Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants, have sufficient numbers to provide such information. Interpreting such statistics, however, also requires a knowledge of history and political dynamics. Burge has all these skills. Burge counters the claim that Evangelicalism is in decline by noting that it experienced a "short-lived burst" in the 1990s (15) and that its recent waning is a return to pre-1990s levels. In response to the view that Donald Trump was not the choice of devout Republicans, a stance which assumes that over time the Republican Party is less religious, Burge notes that in 2011 30% of Americans felt that elected officials who are privately immoral could still fulfill their duties in public life while by 2016 the number had changed to 72%. In other words, for many Americans, politicians' private lapses matter little with regard to their ability to deliver in public. Strangely, some people identify as Evangelical but seldom attend church. Burge contends that it is likely that non-church-going Republicans assume that Evangelicalism is congenial to their political platform and so self-identify accordingly (94). Burge notes that the number of Americans who identify as Christian has dropped by 20% since the 1970s. Interestingly, higher levels of education do not contribute to this drop. There is no evidence that college-educated young people are more likely to lack religious affiliation (57). The assumption that people return to faith late in life is not born out by the facts. What appears to be true is that those who stick with church never left it in the first place (118). That said, there is no doubt that secularization is growing in America. But note: "Of those raised nones, about 20 percent became evangelical as an adult, with another 9 percent becoming mainline and 6 percent becoming Catholic. Summed up, over 35 percent of people raised nones became Christians as adults" (168). Problematic is that political divisiveness defines the church: "Thus, many people who would like to find a church home are left with a landscape that is either theologically conservative and incredibly devout on one side or completely irreligious on the other. Left with those choices, [End Page 115] many Americans seem to be choosing to become a none rather than an evangelical or conservative Catholic" (183). Burge's is a refreshing voice because he does not follow a script from either the right or the left. Instead, like Sergeant Friday in Dragnet, "just the facts" is his motto. His goal is to help produce a humbler and gentler America. Mark Mattes Grand View University Des Moines...

THE MAGI: WHO THEY WERE, HOW THE'VE BEEN REMEMBERED, AND WHY THEY STILL FASCINATE. By EricVanden Eykel. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2022 . Pp. xxi + 218. Hardback. $28.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 49, Issue 1 p. 74-74 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Christian Origins THE MAGI: WHO THEY WERE, HOW THE'VE BEEN REMEMBERED, AND WHY THEY STILL FASCINATE. By Eric Vanden Eykel. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2022 . Pp. xxi + 218. Hardback. $28.00. First published: 24 April 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.16294Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume49, Issue1Special Issue: Unique Approaches to Christianity in Africa and BeyondMarch 2023Pages 74-74 RelatedInformation

Aging and Loving: Christian Faith and Sexuality in Later LifeJames M.Child's, Jr.Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 150 pp. ISBN: 978‐1‐5064‐6641‐5 (paper); 978‐1‐5064‐6642‐2 (eBook). $21.00.

DialogEarly View BOOK REVIEW Aging and Loving: Christian Faith and Sexuality in Later Life , James M. Child's, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 150 pp. ISBN: 978-1-5064-6641-5 (paper); 978-1-5064-6642-2 (eBook). $21.00. Ernest L. Simmons, Corresponding Author Ernest L. Simmons [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-3588-841X Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, USA Correspondence Ernest L. Simmons, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN 56562, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author Ernest L. Simmons, Corresponding Author Ernest L. Simmons [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-3588-841X Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, USA Correspondence Ernest L. Simmons, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN 56562, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author First published: 14 February 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/dial.12784Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

The Psychology of Christian Nationalism

ABSTRACT This paper was presented at the Society for Pastoral Theology annual study conference, Montgomery, AL, June 10, 2022. It is based on the author's book The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide (Fortress Press, 2022). Cooper-White defines Christian nationalism as a social and political movement with the goal of restoring the US to a fictional origin as a ‘Christian nation’ with a not-at-all fictional origin in white, masculinist supremacy. Christian nationalism is a fanatical, radical departure from the teachings of Jesus and any faithful reading of the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament, and it is also dangerously anti-democratic. The paper offers an overview of current sociological research on Christian nationalism and its adherents; a discussion of conscious and unconscious motivations that draw people into extremist beliefs, including individual and group psychodynamics and the role of narcissistic demogogues (citing Freud); and how and under what circumstances to talk with people across this current extreme divide in American religion and politics without resorting either to disrespectful dialogue or to superficial appeals to unity.

A Widower’s Lament: The Pious Meditations of Johann Christoph Oelhafen by Ronald K. Rittgers

Reviewed by: A Widower’s Lament: The Pious Meditations of Johann Christoph Oelhafen by Ronald K. Rittgers Glenn K. Fluegge A Widower’s Lament: The Pious Meditations of Johann Christoph Oelhafen. Translated by Ronald K. Rittgers. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 318 pp. “O living God and consoler of all the sad-hearted, I have lost my most beloved treasure on earth, for you have torn away a piece of my heart” (57). With these heart-wrenching words, Johann Christoph Oelhafen (1574–1631) begins his Pious Meditations, a personal journal of lament recording his year-long journey (1619–1620) through the grief and anguish caused by the death of Anna Maria, his beloved wife of eighteen years and the mother of his eight children. The loss of “my dear AMICO” (122)—the pet name he gave his wife, made up of their joint initials—left him “a sad and miserable widower” (57) and his children as “poor orphans” (59). History books often speak broadly of trends, controversies, and developments. Stories of individuals, if they are included, are often told from a distance. That is not the case here. Here one encounters in first person rhetoric a man from four hundred years ago from Nuremberg revealing his heart with haunting candor as he cries out to God in prayerful sorrow, despair, repentance, faith, and hope. The entries vary widely. Some appear measured, while others are obviously marked by raw emotion. Johann Christoph was a rather skillful song writer and several entries are hymns composed of multiple verses addressing God. In one poignant entry, on the day of their wedding anniversary, he composed a song with the verses arranged in the form of a dialogue with his precious AMICO in heaven: “[Verse 1:] AMICO, beloved darling, where have you gone? . . . Speak or cry out, and help me lessen my heart’s sorrow. [Verse 2:] In this world, ICO, you shall not find me . . . for I am, praise God, without pain, in the hall of joy; so now let your worry completely pass away.” (124) [End Page 438] Rittgers’ translation of Johann Christoph’s Pious Meditations is much more than a mere devotional for those today confronted by personal tragedy and sorrow. Indeed, it is rare to find a book like this that can be used for personal devotions (as this reviewer did), while at the same time serving as an invaluable primary source for academic research into early modern lay spirituality in the midst of suffering. In this regard, it is an important complement to Rittgers’ earlier work The Reformation of Suffering: Pastoral Theology and Lay Piety in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany (Oxford University Press, 2012). This is no mere translation. Yes, Rittgers has prepared a fluent translation that maintains the flow and rhythm (and color!) of the original text. But he has also prefaced it with a well-researched introduction including copious annotations situating the work within the wider context of current research on early modern “piety theology” (Frömmigkeitstheologie), consolation literature, the ars moriendi, evangelical lament literature, Lutheran funeral sermons, the Protestant duty of self-consolation, the place of self-narratives in historiography, an intriguing possible connection to the Unio Christiana brotherhood (an evangelical revival group found in surrounding cities), and much more. Useful translation notes are located conveniently at the end of each journal entry, including specific dates, biblical references, translation conundrums, possible interpretations, and connections and allusions to existing hymns, songs, poems, and liturgical ordinances. While studies of seventeenth-century Lutheranism have grown in recent years, a dire need persists for “micro-historical narratives” to clarify, adjust, and augment the existing and, at times, less than accurate “macro-historical narrative” of this time. This book does precisely that. It is an exceedingly rare and valuable find precisely because it allows a glimpse into lay spirituality. Although surely not a common villager, Johann Christoph was also not an academic theologian, like Johann Gerhard, who wrote copious volumes of loci theologici, nor was he a pastor, like Johann Arndt, exhorting his parishioners toward pious faithfulness. His is a lay perspective, and yet his Pious Meditations are exceedingly rich with Reformation theology, deeply rooted in Luther’s evangelical re-discovery...

Liberating Luther: A Lutheran Theology from Latin America by Vítor Westhelle

Reviewed by: Liberating Luther: A Lutheran Theology from Latin America by Vítor Westhelle Philip Ruge-Jones Liberating Luther: A Lutheran Theology from Latin America. By Vítor Westhelle. Translated by Robert A. Butterfield. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 238 pp. This collection of eleven essays by the late, great Vítor Westhelle consists of articles primarily published in Estudios Teológicos between 1978 and 1998. The translator notes that Westhelle referred to his own writing style as baroque (xiii). The reader will feel a baroque level of complexity, attention to detail, and invocation of transcendence in terms of both the style and substance of his writing. In the Foreword, his colleague Roberto Zwetsch comments that Westhelle’s “legacy will continue to disturb us, disquiet us, and make us think” (vii). He does all of this throughout the book, but I would emphasize the third gift. Westhelle’s work is demanding, not providing a simple and pat proposal, but requiring us to give significant attention to his argument, to push back, and ultimately to do some of the intellectual heavy-lifting on our own. Of the many themes in this book—pick a Lutheran theme and he addresses it in surprising ways,—I will focus on language. Language for Westhelle rarely is direct. Truth communicates through language ironically or paradoxically rather than descriptively. In an intriguing chapter on the story of Cain and Abel, Westhelle shows how language functions within the story. The only communication between Cain and Abel is Cain’s deceptive invitation that lures his brother to a deadly place. Communication always is tempted to destroy the other. So we must tell of the murderous story of communicatively destroying the other because that telling itself is a [End Page 470] shield that keeps us from enacting the violence. “Between me and the other, there is the other story that protects me from communication and does not permit me to speak the genocidal word” (78). And, again, “The beauty of the paradox is that we create the narratives that confront us with our own inviability as creatures, and in so doing, rationally but in amazement, we encounter our own irrationality” (77). This destabilizing of our own sense of security, an exposing of the “imperialism of a language that imposes power” (51), leaves us open to the alternative that we cannot construct for ourselves. What is true of language might be said of any human potential. Lutherans will not be surprised that a theologian of their brood emphasizes that God’s word threatens and destabilizes our false sense of security. But Westhelle demonstrates the error of much of our systematic attempts to enact this commitment: we never get to the place of self-recognition and the necessary confession via generalities. The problem of much Lutheran theology lies in its quick absorption of particular sins into broad universal sin (230). We want to allow the law to speak its accusing voice in generalities, but we are only truly addressed by God’s word in our particularities. Cain had to hear the very specific question about the sin he committed, “Where is your brother Abel?” This is the word that shatters him to his core and throws him upon God’s mercy and what freedom divine shelter will afford him. This, too, is true for the people of God wherever they are. Westhelle says, “hope can be named only by the voice of a people who know and narrate the history of their error, their vileness, their fall” (233). In their hopelessness regarding their own resources, the opportunity for doxology faithfully arises. Westhelle’s book participates in this charged moment of kairotic encounter. Thus his “legacy will continue to disturb us, disquiet us, and make us think” (vii). While those accustomed to graduate level bibliographies might take this on, others might better begin by reading another of his books. [End Page 471] Philip Ruge-Jones Grace Lutheran Church Eau Claire, Wisconsin Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc

Return from a Distant Country by Alister McGrath

Reviewed by: Return from a Distant Country by Alister McGrath Mark Mattes Return from a Distant Country. By Alister McGrath. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2020. 92pp. This slim volume belongs to the Fortress “My Theology” series which, according to the back page, allows thinkers “a platform to reflect on the meaning of God in their lives and the way they have constructed their life of faith.” McGrath is a well-known theologian, intellectual historian, and Christian apologist currently serving in a religion and science chair at Oxford University. As a youth, McGrath was an atheist. He became a Christian after he read thinkers who challenged the notion that knowledge is reducible to the scientifically verifiable (since, after all, that view is not itself scientifically verifiable), such as Karl Popper, as well as experiencing ambiguity through Marxism. Marxism helped McGrath appreciate a “Big Picture” approach to reality but as he started reading theology, he found it less satisfying than Christianity. While earning a doctorate in Molecular Biophysics in 1978, he concurrently read C. S. Lewis. Although Lewis was a popularist, his thinking was rich, grounded in decades of reflection on how faith and wider culture intersect. [End Page 456] After becoming a Christian, McGrath studied with Gordon Rupp and published books in historical theology, offering interpretations of Luther’s theology of the cross, the history of justification by grace alone through faith alone, and the perspectives of first- generation Reformers. Additionally, McGrath contributed to late twentieth-century discussions about the relationship between science and religion and defended faith against Richard Dawkins’ attacks. As a result, he helped Anglican clergy understand and convey the rationality of religious belief (22). The most important factor in McGrath’s appreciation of the Christian faith is precisely its ability to offer a satisfying, comprehensive approach to reality. That said, theology is best seen as discerning mystery throughout the world and not particularly as an exercise in “problem solving” (34). With respect to science, McGrath contends that science deals with how things work while theology deals with what things mean (66). Currently theologians should direct clergy and laity to immerse themselves in the tradition and discover treasures there that address people in their needs today. This volume is valuable because it offers a pithy summary of how a man who is both a theologian and a scientist finds compatibility between the two when so many do not. Mark Mattes Grand View University Des Moines, Iowa Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc

KeithW.Clements. J. H.Oldham and George Bell: Ecumenical Pioneers. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. 235 pages.

International Review of MissionVolume 111, Issue 2 p. 372-373 Book Review Keith, W. , Clements, J. H. Oldham and George Bell: Ecumenical Pioneers. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. 235 pages. Eleanor M. Jackson, Corresponding Author Eleanor M. Jackson [email protected] Search for more papers by this author Eleanor M. Jackson, Corresponding Author Eleanor M. Jackson [email protected] Search for more papers by this author First published: 08 December 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12438Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume111, Issue2November 2022Pages 372-373 RelatedInformation

Biblical Spirituality of Exile

The paper explores the dynamics of exile and restoration both in the old and new Testaments through Biblical Spirituality. Paying attention to the dynamics of spiritual relation, the paper traces the Divine-human relation beginning from Genesis 3, the fall of Adam and Eve to the Patriarchs specifically Abraham. It also explores the time of the kingdom and temples leading to the Assyrian and Babylonian Exile. Taking a cue from the beginning of the Gospels, the paper shows the continuity of exile in the New Testament as it shows the connection between the Passover, the last supper, the passion and death of Jesus, Resurrection, and Ascension, and the celebration of the sacrament of Eucharist.
 
 References
 Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction. New York: Paulist Press, 1984; 2nd ed., revised by Richard Clifford and Daniel Harrington, 2012.
 Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
 Carvalho, Corrine L. Primer on Biblical Methods. Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2009.
 Carvalho, Corrine L. Encountering Ancient Voices: A Guide to Reading the Old Testament. Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2006; 2nd ed., 2010.
 Ceresko, Anthony R. Introduction to the Old Testament: A Liberation Perspective. New York: Orbis, 1997; 2nd ed., 2001.
 Collins, John J. Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2004; 3rd ed., 2018.
 Dictionnaire de spiritualité. ed. Marcel Viller, Charles Baumgartner and André Rayezin, Paris : G. Beauchesne et ses fils, 1932-1995, Tomme 1-17. Sheldrake, Philip. Images of Holiness.
 Duggan, Michael W. The Consuming Fire: A Christian Guide to the Old Testament. 2nd ed. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2010.
 Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
 Gorman, Michael J. Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers. Revised ed. Baker Academic, 2010.
 Gottwald, Norman K. The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002.
 Green, Joel B., ed. Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010.
 Harrington, Daniel J. Interpreting the Old Testament: A Practical Guide. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991.
 Harrington, Daniel J. Interpreting the New Testament: A Practical Guide. Rev. ed. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990.
 Johnson, Luke T. The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation. 3rd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010.
 Montague, George T. Understanding the Bible: A Basic Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2007.
 Stenger, Werner. Introduction to New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993.
 Stuart, Douglas. Old Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors. 4th ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009.
 The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version. UK: Bible Society Resources Ltd., 2011.
 Waaijman, Kees. Spirituality: Forms, Foundations, Methods. Leuven: Peeters, 2002.
 Welzen Huub. Contours of Biblical Spirituality as a Discipline, Acta Theologica, 15 (2011), 37-60.
 The Roman Missal. 3rd ed. 2010.

Michael Edwards: A Poet’s Vision of the Untimely Message of God

Michael Edwards, professor of English literature at the Collège de France in Paris, poet, critic, and the first British subject to be elected to the French Academy, has turned his attention in recent years to biblical literature. In 2016 he published Bible et poésie (Paris, Fallois). A translation of the sequel, Pour un christianisme intempestif (Paris, Fallois), was released in February of 2022 by Fortress Press under the title, Untimely Christianity. In the same year, the English translation of his 2016 volume, under the title The Bible and Poetry, will be published by New York Review Books. This study examines the poet-scholar’s perspective on scripture, on theology, on the art of translation and his opinions of various modern translations of the Bible and highlights the most useful insights he contributes. The notion of Christianity’s radical alterity is an important key to Edwards’s work. Christianity is foreign to us, it is strange, so the scriptures that reveal it are also radically other. We Christians have been so desensitized to that otherness by our familiarity with the text that we seldom are challenged by it with the force that energized it originally. Its immense countercultural potential for transforming us and our world is blunted so that we don’t truly hear the voice of God in it. Edwards’s essential purpose is to help us reawaken our ability to hear the Bible in its untimely, countercultural power.

Ein Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, [or] An Open Letter on Translating by Howard Jones

Reviewed by: Ein Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, [or] An Open Letter on Translating by Howard Jones David A. Lumpp Ein Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, [or] An Open Letter on Translating. Translated by Howard Jones. Treasures of the Taylorian, Series One: Reformation Pamphlets. Taylor Institution Library, Oxford University, 2017 47. pp., + 20 pages of introduction, followed by 20 facsimile pages. The anniversary celebration of the publication of Martin Luther's "September Testament" invites consideration of a booklet devoted [End Page 370] to that pivotal work and to its theological and linguistic defense. It is a challenge to encapsulate the contents of this booklet in a brief review, for it includes a short discussion of the nature of the facsimile itself by Henrike Lähnemann, a helpful (and more technical) "note on the transcription" comparing some medieval and modern German terms, an introduction to the Sendbrief by the translator, the "Open Letter" itself in both German transcription and English translation on facing pages, a short glossary of names, and the facsimile itself. Readers who want to delve into the technical matters concerning the facsimile and the transcription even more thoroughly are encouraged to explore the appropriate Oxford website: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/taylor. Luther's "Open Letter," written while he was at the Coburg Castle during the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, includes a great deal of New Testament and Reformation theology in a relatively short essay (21 pages in the American Edition of Luther's Works, vol. 35, 181–202). Most famously—and importantly—this letter represents Luther's spirited defense of his addition of "alone" in his rendering of Romans 3:28 (for Luther, "we teach that a person is justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law"). Luther contends that his translation is demanded by considerations of sound German grammar and translation theory (15–17), as well as by St. Paul's originally intended meaning (especially 29–33). The former is the language argument, the latter is the argument from theology. Along the way, one finds some of Luther's clearest and strongest statements of his mature understanding of justification as being altogether dependent on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and to the exclusion of both works of the law and good works. In the course of this discussion, he refers once to his never completed treatise "On Justification." Luther spends less time disposing of the question as to whether the departed saints pray for those still living, telling the unnamed recipient of his letter that the Word of God is silent on the matter but steadfastly directs Christians instead to the saving work and the intercession of Christ alone. In this way, he ties the two topics together. Still more is packed into this "Open Letter," including a discussion of the challenges of translating in general and his priorities in [End Page 371] particular, an attack on Hieronymous Emser (who published his own competing, plagiarized translation of the New Testament), a claim of patristic support for his doctrine of justification, and a rebuke of the scholastic method and Roman fealty to Aristotle. The polemics notwithstanding, near its conclusion the letter includes Luther's eloquent and moving statement that even under the papacy, "Christ has, through his power, preserved baptism, as well as the simple text of the Gospel read out from the pulpit, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed, and in doing so he has preserved large numbers of his Christians and therefore his Christendom" (43). Those who seek to understand the more technical matters in connection with this letter should read this booklet. Nevertheless, those who wish to study the letter in a contemporary context should consult the version provided in volume 6 of The Annotated Luther: The Interpretation of Scripture, well annotated by Volker Leppin (Fortress Press, 2017; 19–40). [End Page 372] David A. Lumpp Concordia University Saint Paul, Minnesota Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

The Wittenberg Concord: Creating Space for Dialogue by Gordon A. Jensen

Reviewed by: The Wittenberg Concord: Creating Space for Dialogue by Gordon A. Jensen David A. Lumpp The Wittenberg Concord: Creating Space for Dialogue. By Gordon A. Jensen. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018. 235 pp. Students of the Lutheran Confessions routinely encounter the Wittenberg Concord of 1536 when they are introduced to the [End Page 354] Formula of Concord's discussion of the Lord's Supper in Article VII (Kolb-Wengert, Book of Concord, 595–596). And often that is the extent of their exposure to this underappreciated confession. The author has addressed this deficiency with a fine study of a three-page confession (191–194) that draws into its orbit, either directly or indirectly, all of the key players of the Reformation's first generation. The Wittenberg Concord provides an instructive case study in early sixteenth-century theological argument, conversation, and negotiation. Jensen's skillfully woven narrative draws together the people, theological positions, and geopolitical issues in play in high-stakes, complicated discussions, where doctrinal precision and nuance were taken very seriously by all of the participants. Theologians, territorial and imperial politicians, and geography (most notably, but not exclusively, North Germany over against South Germany and Switzerland) are all important to the twists and turns in this work. Luther, Melanchthon, and especially Bucer feature most prominently in the stories that come together in the Wittenberg Concord. Jensen unfolds their positions and priorities—they were not always identical—with care and sympathy. Luther's recurrent suspicions of Bucer, Melanchthon's maddeningly elusive positions, and Bucer's tireless attempts to mediate two different theological worlds are on full display in Jensen's third and fourth chapters, which detail the dialogue and negotiations from 1530 to 1536 that finally resulted in the Concord itself. These two chapters, with their complicated chronology, breakdowns and breakthroughs, demand much from the reader. But they also serve to highlight the fact that in these theological negotiations, much depended on the words and phrases chosen. Consider exhibere, usually rendered as "offered" or "distributed," and cum pane, "with the bread," together with language that was avoided, such as the prepositions "in" and "under" used with real presence. Throughout, the goal was to say enough to affirm what was considered necessary, both doctrinally and politically, but not so much as to alienate needlessly. This reviewer is aware of no comparable English-language volume that so lucidly unfolds these back-and-forth exchanges, and the related theological issues underlying them. [End Page 355] Jensen's book also includes arguably less difficult but no less instructive chapters on baptism and absolution and on the much-contested jurisdiction of civic authorities over church properties. There was sufficient agreement on baptism and absolution to warrant brief affirmative articles in the Concord, but the issue of the control of church property proved to be more elusive and hence is absent from the final document. The same strategy is on display in the articles on baptism and absolution: affirm what we can and must (infant baptism, the necessary connection of baptism and faith, the centrality of absolution), and elide some ancillary matters for which there may be no readily available formulation. In the final chapter, Jensen moves to more contemporary ecumenical conversations. He sees the Wittenberg Concord as comparable to the "differentiated consensus" (178) achieved by Lutheran World Federation and Roman Catholic Church in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (October 31, 1999), inasmuch as both documents did not foreclose conversation but instead "creat[ed] space for dialogue" (178). Here Jensen's own ecumenical sympathies are most clearly evident. He also incorporates discussions of important voices of those past and present whose regard for this approach is, in different ways and for various reasons, less positive (Krauth, Sasse, Schoene, Mattes). As a result, Jensen has offered an expert study in historical theology that may inform the present and not ecumenical propaganda. Jensen complements his study with six appendices and an extensive bibliography. Readers less familiar with these sometimes daunting debates will likely find Appendix Five the most helpful, as it provides brief biographical sketches of 23 persons who play a greater or lesser role in this complicated but captivating story. Given the topic, scholars, seminarians...

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines