Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer: The Church and the famine of grace by Jarel Robinson-Brown (SCM Press, £19.99 (Church Times SPECIAL OFFER PRICE £15.99); 978-0-334-06048-2).
“If the church is ever tempted to think that it has its theology of grace sorted, it need only look at its reception of queer black bodies and it will see a very different story. In this honest, timely, and provocative book, Jarel Robinson-Brown argues that there is deeper work to be done if the body of Christ is going to fully accept the bodies of those who are black and gay. A vital call to the Church and the world that Black, Queer, Christian lives matter, this book seeks to remind the Church of those who find themselves beyond its fellowship yet who directly suffer from the perpetual ecclesial terrorism of the Christian community through its speech and its silence.”
Mary Magdalene: Women, the Church, and the great deception by Adriana Valerio (Europa Compass, £10.99 (£9.89); 978-1-78770-327-8).
“Rediscover the crucial roles held by women within the heart of Christianity. Favourite disciple, influential woman, true believer and follower of Jesus: how do we see Mary Magdalene today? Witness to Jesus’s crucifixion and his burial, the first to announce the resurrection, she is without a doubt the most recognisable of the gospels’ female figures, a central character in Christianity’s foundational story. But centuries of alteration and resizing, of merging several female figures into one, have erased Mary Madgalene’s apostolic role and left us with a misrepresentation. They delivered the figure of a quintessential repentant sinner, one in whom sensual beauty and mortification of the body are combined. When we reflect on the “Magdalene case”, delving into the folds of history and the arts, and removing misunderstandings and manipulations, we rediscover the crucial roles women have always held within the heart of Christianity, despite their stories often going untold. Adriana Valerio’s engrossing retelling of Magdalene’s story, founded as it is in historical fact, is an unmissable opportunity to reclaim such roles in a church that remains largely patriarchal to the present day.”
Welcoming the Stranger: A Bible study for individuals or groups by Denise Cottrell-Boyce (DLT, £7.99 (£7.19); 978-0-232-53423-8).
“A Bible Study book for individuals or groups, which explores how the Bible today can help us better to understand our increasingly multi-cultural world and society, especially in light of those people fleeing war, poverty, and oppression. What does the Bible have to say about xenophobia? How can we contribute to the rebuilding of a world of peace in our lives and local communities today? Welcoming the Stranger is part of the new series, “How the Bible can Help us Understand”. These short books are aimed at ordinary people committed in their faith and wanting to live Christianly, but not brought up in a Bible-studying tradition. They prompt intelligent thought, reflection and guidance on issues that really matter to people, using illustrations from life and popular culture as well as studies of Bible passages. They are not ‘The Bible has all the answers’, but ‘How can the Bible contribute to my understanding?’”
Selected by Frank Nugent, of the Church House Bookshop, which operates the Church Times Bookshop.
