My head is spinning, my feet and back hurt but my heart is so full, so very full of that which can only be described as love —love overflowing; gratitude and hope. The annual Jubilee conference out in Pittsburgh had us devoting weeks in mind-boggling prep, taking several days there to set up, a few extra to tear down, not to mention the actual adrenaline-filled three days with over 2000 college students and incredibly gifted speakers and teachers and CCO staff who grace our big book display there. For the record we had some really great helpers, both major volunteers and others who chipped in as they could, unloading or boxing up, and some good helpers waiting on students at the book display, actually doing the work. I most gabbed and gabbed until my throat grew hoarse.

I won’t say much about this Jubilee college-age conference (or the fancy pre-event for adults, Jubilee Professional, affectionately known each year as JPro) other than to say it is unlike most youth ministry events, church camps, college retreats, or evangelical conferences in that it is quite specifically inviting students into the wholistic, redemptive Story of God’s work in the world. With teachings on the goodness of creation, the seriousness of sin, the scope of redemption, and the grand hope of restoration through Christ’s reconciliation of all things, Jubilee highlights topics about higher education, the life of the mind, vocation, calling, employment, and, of course, contemporary discipleship with an eye to faithful social and cultural engagement. Not too many well-known gatherings talk about racial justice and have an altar call for first time commitments to the saving grace of Christ; not too many emphasize the Biblical drama and relate it to callings and careers; many find it extraordinary that we show off over 125 categories of books on everything from engineering to nursing to ecology to sports, prayer to politics, sex to spiritual formation, the arts and architecture and AI as well as all manner of self-help practical stuff, offered through the lens of a winsome, Godly, faith perspective. Students (and speakers!) eat this stuff up, giving me a sense that they just don’t hear this sort of “all of life redeemed” and “whole-life discipleship” in their own churches and rarely see these kinds of books all side by side. That God cares about their majors, the issues they care about, the real world in which we live? It’s great news, eh?

As I said at my own home church recently, if we hope to attract younger adults and young professionals we simply have to present this kind of big vision, wide-as-life, relevant, incarnational vision of God’s Kingdom. If you don’t believe me, read, for instance, chapter four in Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon by David Kinnaman & Mark Matlock (Baker; $21.99 // this week only on sale for 30% off = $15.39.) It mentions our work at the Jubilee book display, in passing, to make a bigger point about the practice of offering vocational discipleship for this particularly ambitious generation.

Other years I wrote more about the conference and its impact and why we should care about such things HERE, HERE, and HERE or even way back to this one HERE. I’d invite you to check it out. Reviewing past post-Jubilee columns makes me teary, so I hope you enjoy the links.

Also I chatted a bit about the event in our “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” podcast two weeks ago, if you want to watch or listen to that. In a special episode of “Three Books…” that just dropped, my host Phil Schiavoni turned on his camera and asked a bunch of students what book they bought and what they liked about Jubilee. It was pretty darn nice, down-to-Earth and sweet, so check that out, too. You can watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

BOOKS ON SALE — 30% OFF, ONE WEEK ONLY.

SALE ENDS AT MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY, MARCH 9th, 2025.

(After that, they are still sold at our regular BookNotes discounted price of 20% off.)   

Here, then, are a handful of some of the books we seriously highlighted at Jubilee. We’ve got extras and we’re happy to sell them now at 30% off, while supplies last or up until the end of the day, Sunday, 3-9-25. Buy now and get that extra deal.

As always, you can order anything by clicking on the ORDER link at the end of this column. That takes you to our secure order form page at the website. 

I hope this gives you a picture of the sort of bookselling we do and inspires you not only to read widely but to support Hearts & Minds. Thanks for caring. Let’s go!

Birds in the Sky, Fish in the Sea: Attending to Creation with Delight and Wonder Matthew Dickerson and Matthew L. Clark (Square Halo Books) $25.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $18.19

This listing of this brand new compact paperback serves two glorious purposes — first, this was maybe the second biggest seller we had at Jubilee, just because of one quick announcement I made Friday night as we were about to explore the topic of the good, durable, wondrous nature of God’s creation. The gathering loved that I said they were the first customers in North America (the world, really) to see this thing as we had an advanced batch with permission from our friends at Square Halo to feature it at Jubilee. The book will officially be launched this coming weekend at their artsy conference in Lancaster, PA, so this is our first BookNotes announcement of it to the broader Hearts & Minds community. We seriously endorse almost all of the titles from SH and are beyond thrilled to officially celebrate this one. My only complaint is that I didn’t get to add my name to the many exquisite writers who endorsed this lovely little release.

Matthew D is such a fine writer and astute observer of the teeming outdoors and artist Matthew C, himself a bit of a naturalist, does some very, very impressive lithographs and woodcuts for this handsome volume. Its layout and design is really impressive — it captivated me from the first glance as one of the best of the always excellently created SHB titles. So, three cheers — for Square Halo, for Jubilee book buyers, and for the author and artist who actually did this great little book.

Whether you rarely venture into woods and wild or revel in nights under starlight, or simply love the local park, this visually lovely and richly thoughtful book will invite you to look again and be amazed and delighted at the creatures with whom we share the planet and the mystery of being at all, including those “formed to frolic.” The rare combination of personal reflection, poetry, biblical understanding and exquisitely detailed images makes it a book to linger over, reread, and share.
—Marilyn McEntyre, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies and Midwinter Light: Meditations for the Long Season

On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books Karen Swallow Prior (Brazos Press) $23.00 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $16.10

This is truly one of our most-often mentioned books and for anyone who enjoys reading, or longs to read better, or wonders why we make a fuss about literary fiction, or wants to settle into a wiser, more formative, reading life, this book is simply a must-read. My friend Jonathan Merritt says it is “an engrossing work that will appeal to book nerds and casual readers alike.” Valerie Weaver-Zercher (a Mennonite writer and editor working for Broadleaf Books) notes that she “makes us hunger for a literature — and thus a life — of the good, the beautiful, and the true.”

Each chapter explores a particular classic Christian virtue and how a certain novel might enhance our experience of that virtue. She doesn’t promise that if you read this great work, of literature you will end up with that particular virtue — obviously, it isn’t that simple — but she does relate great writers and serious readers with the process of deepening our ethical worldview, our virtue, and our faith, hope, and love. I had a blast hosting a conversation with Karen at Jubilee Professional; it was well received, I gather, but, wow, was it ever enriching for me. Nicely, my friend Ned Bustard did a striking linocut for each novel mentioned, so it is an artfully enhanced volume. You really should buy this book!

Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues edited by Karen Swallow Prior & Joshua Chatraw (Zondervan) $39.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $27.99

Karen, as you’ve heard, was at Jubilee (and JPro) and did an outstanding job, as you would guess. She co-edited this and it is a great handbook of the very things many of us (including many young adults) care about: discerning the contours of a generous, faithful, view on being salt and light, thinking about cultural renewal — there are great chapters on the arts and work and apologetics and such —  and specific hot button issues (like war and peace, racism, same-sex relationships, global warming, medical ethics.) In each topic they have more than one voice sharing insights and in some cases they offer conflicting views, showing more than one view on an issue. Wow. This makes Cultural Engagements a virtual handbook of fair-minded and fascinating resources, good to have and to study and to discuss. Very highly recommended.

What If Jesus Was Serious About Heaven? Skye Jethani (Brazos Press) $ 16.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $11.89

I’m always on the lookout for books that are really easy to read, even fun, and yet challenging, provocative, relevant to the radical life of faith. We’ve read every Skye Jethani book since his first was written years ago and we profoundly respect (and enjoy) him. I’m not much of a podcast buy [even though I do one, “Three Books from Hearts & Minds”] but my good friends all listen to his Holy Post pod. He’s the man.

His What If Jesus Was Serious… series presents us with a bit of a dilemma — do we line them all up together, cool-looking and colorful as they are, or put them in their respective categories? Naturally we had several of each of these serious (but incredibly playful) titles, What If Jesus Was Serious? (which is about his teachings, like the Sermon on the Mount), What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?, What If Jesus Was Serious About Church?

The one I highlighted up front — What If Jesus Was Serious About Heaven? — is a fabulous, fabulous read, with great illustrations and cartoons, a bit of color and really solid information informed by the likes of world-class scholars like N.T. Wright. I maybe said this was “Wright for Dummies” but meant no insult — it presented fairly sophisticated Biblical interpretation and theology made super fun. This really does help us recapture the meaning of Jesus’s understanding of God, God’s reign, heaven, and, yes, the Kingdom of God, coming “on Earth as it is in Heaven .” This is a Christ-exalting study about the new heavens and new earth (as Derwin Gray puts it) and I figured it was ideal for Jubilee kids learning about the Kingdom. Maybe you too? Why not buy a couple.

By the way, when we got back from the big event you know what was awaiting us? Our orders of the brand new one What If Jesus Was Serious About Justice? That would have been a winner at Jubilee, too, but even though we got it early, it just wasn’t here until after the event. The subtitle is “A Visual Guide to the Good News of God’s Judgement and Mercy.”  We’ll sell it now for 30% off, this week only. Like the other one mentioned, it goes for $16.99 and our sale price = $11.89.  Never has such good teaching come in such a creative, fun package. Yay.

Faithful Is Successful: Notes to the Driven Pilgrim edited by Nathan Grills,  David Lewis, and S. Joshua Swamidass (Outskirts Press) $18.95 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $13.26

It was a blast meeting Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass, an MD with a PhD who teaches at the prestigious Washington University in St. Louis. We’ve followed his work over the years (and, of course, had plenty of his thought-provoking The Genealogical Adam and Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry; that is now out in paperback from IVP Academic. It goes for $25.99 but our 30% off sale this week makes it $18.19.)

The provocative title of this says much — for those of us driven to achieve and succeed in our careers or service, we need not bow to conventional metrics of how to define success. To be faithful is enough. This is good news, but with a challenge — dare we discern what fidelity looks like, how we can be Christianly successful by working for “an audience of One.” This book —with over a dozen excellent chapters by women and men who have much to offer — is a handbook on integrating faith and working and encouraging practitioners. From the academy to business, from government to the arts, we all labor in various sectors and God calls us to make a difference, wisely, and fruitfully. Some of these chapters are really, really good, by folks who are doing everything from working in disability and chronic disease prevention overseas to teaching history to working for civility between various, conflicting, religious groups to coping with questions of ambition and (yep) the meaning of success.  Very, very nice stuff; highly recommended.

Color Courageous Discipleship: Follow Jesus, Dismantle Racism, and Build Beloved Community Michelle T. Sanchez (Waterbrook) $18.00 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $12.60

We take a lot of books about racial justice issues to Jubilee; CCO has long been committed to thinking about racial reconciliation and multi-ethnic ministry. Old names like Tom Skinner and Carl Ellis and John Perkins (and not so old Lisa Sharon Harper, Ekemini Uwan, and, this year, Lisa Fields) help us understand the Biblical perspective. In this age when DEI and even the word justice have become bad words in some odd circles, we are proud to offer God’s multi-colored worldview and to recall Christ’s bold inclusion of all, and Paul’s mighty counter-cultural stance against forces of Roman hegemony. So, yes, as this book brilliantly explains, race has a lot to do with ordinary Christian discipleship. I could tick off the benefits of this useful, inspiring book, and I hope you trust me that it is one of the berst offers “hope, creative answers, and a path forward both individually and as beloved community.” Highly recommended.

This endorsement by pastor and contemplative Ken Shigematsu puts it nicely:

Poetic, personal, and immensely practical, this book will first awaken you to the sheer wonder of your belovedness and then empower you to engage in the gritty, glorious work of bringing our racially divided world into harmony with Christ and each other. — Ken Shigematsu pastor of Tenth Church, Vancouver, BC, and bestselling author of God in My Everything

Black Women Grief: A Guide to Hope and Wholeness Natasha Smith (IVP) $18.00 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $12.60

I’m sure the Jubilee folks will be sharing online videos of the four main-stage speakers and maybe my three 10 minute book announcements. That’s embarrassing! But I have no regret as an old white guy holding this up Saturday morning and suggesting that it (a) helps black women in their unique American grief, (b) helps any and all of us understand our sisters and be better friends and neighbors to them, and (c) just offers another glimpse of how the wiley forces of evil worm their way into our culture, our imaginations, our souls. Systemic racism is a classic example of what the Bible refers to as “principalities and powers” and if you want to explore one illustration of this structural malformation and what might be done as we attempt to reverse the curse, this is a very, very useful read.

Black Women Grief has been called a “life-line” and a “road-map” and a “love letter.” I so appreciate the many pastors, scholars, counselors and black women who have highlighted how this book has touched them. Listen to this:

Natasha Smith’s voice is safe, prophetic, and deeply necessary. With gravitas and love, Black Woman Grief honors the depths of pain that Black women carry and the collective experience of suffering, while moving the reader towards unapologetic kingdom hope and healing. — Aubrey Sampson, The Louder Song

Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty Isn’t the American Dream Brian Fikkert & Kelly M. Kapic (Moody Press) $15.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $11.19

Kapic did a fabulous job Friday night at Jubilee guiding us through his excellent book You’re Only Human which makes the case that God made us as creatures, with limits, and that that means we don’t have to expect to “do it all” and burn ourselves out trying to take on more than we possibly can. Man, did students ever resonate with that. We really like that important hardback and are taking pre-orders for the forthcoming devotional version, coming next month, called You Were Never Meant to Do It All: A 40-Day Devotional on the Goodness of Being Human (Brazos Press; $19.99 // this week only 30% off sale price = $13.99.) However, at Jubilee I also highlighted from up front this lesser known one of his called Becoming Whole. It’s so good. Here’s the simple backstory:

You may know Brian Fikkert’s important When Helping Hurts that makes a case that we have to be wise and empowering in helping our poorer neighbors. It has helped scores of anti-poverty ministries, informed many social reformers, guided global development works and those fighting domestic poverty alike. Kelly’s Becoming Whole book asks, simply, if we are helping people out of poverty, what are we inviting them into? What vision of the good life should replace the dysfunction and chaos and addiction and hardships of those living in the underclass? For anyone in anti-poverty work, it is a very, very live question.

Kelly and his co-author ask, “what if we’re spreading our own brokenness to the very people we want to help?” In other words, our own materialism must be renounced, our own loyalty to the idols of the American dream must be renounced, our secularized, pull-yourself up by your own bootstraps ideology must be renounced. In order to offer a full-orbed, grace-based, visionary view of faithful human flourishing, we must help those we serve and influence truly embrace the values of the Kingdom of God. In other words, I think Becoming Whole is, essentially, one of the best easy-to-apply handbooks you are going to find to the shape of a Christian world and life view.

The book is handsomely designed with some color and pizzaz, there’s lots of stories, and it suggest that we really have to reject some of the grand assumptions of the story of Western civilization, refaming the meaning of success and the good life, so we can all find what it really means to be whole and happy. What a book. There’s even a workbooky Field Guide that you can get to go with it if you want. Yes!

Creation-Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping Is an Essential Christian Practice Steven Bouma-Prediger (Baker Academic) $25.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $18.19

You know, I hope, that we have a huge environmental science section in our store, next to a category about nature writing and even titles on outdoor education, adventure, and wilderness work. Some of the eco-stuff is truly lovely, others more academic, some offering hope in our time of despair for those knowing the pressures of modern climate change. Some are science-heavy, others mostly Biblical. Some are basic, others more sophisticated.

Of all the many books we have on this topic we are most likely to show off to anyone interested the four or five books by our friend Steve Bouma-Prediger. Of all his books — from the must-read For the Beauty of the Earth ($28.00 // $19.60) to a personal favorite, the excellent Earthkeeping and Character ($27.00 // $18.90) — we were so glad for this recent one that came out last year. We named it a Book of the Year and were thrilled that he was speaking at Jubilee 2025. It is a decisive work, making the case that creation-care is no mere sideline hobby or even a specialty ministry for those called to such things. No, creation care is intregal to — not incidental — to our daily discipleship. If we want to be a faithful follower of King Jesus, part of the big story of God’s redemptive work in the world, working to serve and protect (and restore) our planet is simply part of the calling. It is a delight, come to think of it, but a true part of the job description.  We were honored to have this Hope College professor and wise guy about both outdoor experiential education trips and working within institutions and places for sustainability projects.

Steve’s a great thinker, a very good writer, a beloved prof and mentor and outdoorsman. Creation-Care Discipleship should be on your shelf and — if you’re that kind of reader — in your rucksack to take along on a day hike. You’ll love it. And, by the way, if you are in the business of mentoring others, discipling them formally or informally, get this on your list, helping you expand the very notion of discipleship for those you guide.

It Is What You Make of It: Creating Something Great from What You’ve Been Given Justin McRoberts (Thomas Nelson) $18.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $13.29

I know and really commend Justin, a cool and passionate poet and life coach and indie-folk musician (and, maybe, a soon-to-be recognized playwright and comic.) He may not like it, but I sometimes think he is a hip young mash-up between Bob Goff and Brennan Manning.  Okay that’s weird, but our friend Bob Goff is funny and optimistic and charming, always ready for an adventure of service and whimsy while Brennan (who I was fortunate enough to meet and share a stage with) was intense, focused, deeply loyal to those messed up by their human condition. Justin is hilarious and serious, visionary and yet personal and kind, a tad earthy yet deeply spiritual. I love that guy and would read whatever he writes.

Here, McRobert offers stories of what it means to be creative, teaching about the capacity we have to make a difference, nearly a memoir of his own journey into Christian leadership as an artist. He has even travelled, maybe a bit oddly, with some very hard rock bands, so he knows about life on the road as a performing artist. He knows how to get stuff done.

In this fabulous book he shows that it is not helpful to say “it is what it is.” It is, actually, what it could be, and your own creative agency, fueled by the Spirit of God, just might allow you to say yes to some cool, daunting stuff, and no to being stuck, wound tight from your own failures and regrets. Can you do that, with God’s help, say no to what’s holding you back?

Part soul-shaping storytelling (that will make you laugh), part creative manifesto, and part guide book to taking some steps towards healing, personal growth,  It Is What You Make of It is a hoot and more serious than the goofy cover suggests. And you’ll see why there is a cactus shown on the cover — you won’t want to miss it. I loved this book,

See also, by the way, his extraordinary book called Sacred Strides: The Journey to Belovedness in Work and Rest ($18.99 // $13.29) about the rhythms of work and rest, growth and movement, coming to be animated by God’s very deep and personal love. I adore that book, and active, restful study of the implications of Sabbath.  As noted, it’s 30% off, too, while supplies last or until next week when we go back to the more customary 20% off BookNotes discount.

3 Big Questions That Shape Your Future Kara Powell, Kristel Acevedo and Brad Griffin (Baker) $17.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $12.59

We don’t usually take books for teens to Jubilee since collegiates are now reading serious texts and don’t need youth resources, really, but this is so very good I was intending on bringing it anyway, only to realize that one of the coauthors, Kristel Acevedo, was speaking this year at the conference. What a joy to meet her — we chatted about her forthcoming women’s Bible study coming out from IVP in April (A Way in the Wilderness: Meeting God in the Desolate Places of Scripture–A 6-Week Bible Study that comes with video access.) It was so good to hear her talk about her co-writing 3 Big Questions which offers astute and fun devotional-type reflections on three of the biggest questions high-school and college-age students (or any of us) must ask and answer. 3 Big Questions is a great resource!

The first set of 20 ruminations is on the question “Who Am I?” Who doesn’t need to answer that? The second key question is “Where Do I Fit In?” asking the perennial question of belonging. Thirdly, there are 20 more reflections asking about calling and vocation, so to speak, under the rubric of “What Difference Can I Make?”  If you are like me you may be asking “Where was this book when I was a kid?” We are blessed to have this multi-ethnic team of scholars, spiritual formation leaders, and leaders (from the Fuller Youth Institute) offering these fun, manageable pieces to help readers embrace God’s best answers to these really big questions.

Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious Ross Douthat (Zondervan) $29.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $20.99

Douthat is a sometimes cantankerous, often witty, conservative Catholic, a fine, clear-headed writer (for the New York Times) and the sort of thoughtful guy I want to read regularly. I adored his memoir about having Lyme disease (The Deep Places) and was grateful for his more recent study of / jeremiad against our social disrepair, The Decadent Society. Here, in this brand new one, he offers intellectual humility and a sense of wonder to invite others — whether atheist, agnostic, honest seeker, or serious Christian with doubts, it will (as Tish Harrison Warren puts it) “not only engage your mind and strengthen your convictions but also may even lead you into wonder and worship.” As Stephen Meyer says, he “renders plausible and compelling what many today assume is implausible and untenable.”

I’ll be honest — young students at Jubilee didn’t gravitate to this, although we had a much-perused section on “finding faith” and seeking students got a lot of good resources to help them through their journey. I suspect they don’t know this author, and at the handsome hardback price, wasn’t quite their speed. But I’m sure some of our readers will love it, especially at the 30% off.

Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology Derek Schuurman (IVP) $20.99  // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $14.69

Oh my, we cycle back to this modern classic from time to time insisting that it is simply the best book about computers or for computer users (which is almost all of us, eh?) Granted, some of it seems to be oriented towards those who are in the field of computer science but, again, this question of what bits and bytes have to do with Christian believes and how a Christian framework can help us — engineers or not — grapple well with the little machines we all hold in our hands. As James K.A. Smith notes, “Schuurman roots technology in a biblical theology of culture” and is, I’d say, essential for those wondering how best to think about our everyday digital lives.

Does your church encourage people to live out their faith when they leave the worship space on Sunday? Do they offer any resources to folks on actually how to do this? I think every church in America should have a few of these on hand, inviting us to responsible use, within the framework of the big picture of the Biblical story. Yay.

Science and Faith in Harmony: Contemplations on a Distilled Doxology Sy Garte (Kregel) $21.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $15.39

Well, speaking of Douthat’s call to religiosity (and Christianity, particularly) Dr. Garte was an avid atheist who, fascinatingly, came to faith by his own study of the literature of atheism, and particularly the scientism of Dawkins. (Sy Garte’s first book was essentially his conversion story, called The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith; the brilliant Alister McGrath, with PhDs in science and in theology, wrote the forward to that one. ($18.99 // $13.29.) We keep it in the faith and science section here at the store, but also under memoir and autobiography.  It, too, is on sale, this week only and while supplies last, for 30% off.

I am currently reading Science and Faith in Harmony as it has been short-listed for an ECPA award (for which I am a reader) and I can see how it came to be nominated as one of the best books of 2024. It is, I’d say, just a great, classic, thoughtful, open-minded evangelical engagement with science and what he calls his “distilled doxology.” It isn’t too academic but it is well-informed — hooray.  I really have enjoyed this passionate book by this fine biochemist and I was so looking forward to meeting him at Jubilee, but we didn’t cross paths. Maybe next time. In the meantime, get this book and be inspired. If you know any science-lovers, it’s a great book to share…

Citizenship Without Illusions: A Christian Guide to Political Engagement David T. Koyzis (IVP) $18.00 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $12.60

Speaking of people I didn’t meet at Jubilee, I was really glad we had Professor Koyzis scheduled to speak this year as both workshop leader and panelist at the fabulous CPJ panel (If you don’t know our friends at CPJ, check them out here.) I so respect his scholarship and his humble demeanor and his remarkable work serving scholars around the globe. Alas, he got quite ill and was unable to join us. Drats.

You probably know that I have raved about his previous political science book, an almost perfect text, the extraordinary Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey & Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies ($35.99 // $25.19 — this week only) which calls us away from ideologies of the right and the left, exploring the landscape of political theorists and movements to help us be discerning about them, following by the shattering, compelling claim that followers of the Lamb are not fundamentally loyal to any of these secularizing visions and unwise principles. (I say almost perfect as I might nitpick a bit with some of his astute claims and I might wish it wasn’t quite so academic/philosophical. It is, nonetheless, a very, very important volume!) We have pressed it into the hands of poly sci majors and politicos, but these days we all need to dive deeper into political theory so we’re glad to have it at 30% off this week. I can hardly think of a more important book to read in this season of political and constitutional crisis.

This past fall, right before the election, you probably saw me highlight his new one, Citizenship Without Illusions, the more practically-minded and equally non-aligned, robust study of the nature of ordinary citizenship and how to take up our civic habits without idealistic illusions based on wrong-headed assumptions and expectations.  Man, what a book!

I think this generic overview of the responsibilities of citizenship and David’s generous, wise, and impeccably balanced approach is a good way to offset our typical dispositions of leaning too hard to the right or left. Now that we are in a crisis of statecraft and are facing the largest crisis of our Republic in our lifetimes, I was very eager to hear the calm voice of Dr. K. Now, you can buy his books, sound and careful as they are, and the best price around. Please order a few.

The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior Steven Garber (IVP) $24.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $17.49

Speaking of exceedingly careful authors, writers who have no loyalties to this or that secularizing ideology, but who are truly wanting to think about everything through a Biblically-informed, deeply wholistic, Christian lens, Steve Garber is a one-of-a-kind hero in my book, a dear, dear friend, and a writer who has honed his exceptional word-smithing capacities.

My, my, I do love his books, from his collection of short pieces in the lovely Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work ($20.99 // on sale this week for $14.69) to the popular Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good ($20.99 // on sale this week for $14.69.)

Fabric of Faithfulness, though, was his first and in it he interviewed bunches of folks approaching their midlife years, asking them to recall their cares and commitments in their college years, asking, over and over in different ways, how their first concerns and faith experiences shaped their enduring “long obedience in the same direction.” That’s not a bad question, is it, asking how your earlier days got you going on a certain path (or not)? Interestingly, almost everybody said the same three things and they are — in his nifty, philosophical examination, underscored with literature and films and lots of real-life stories — three things our culture tends not to emphasize (and sometimes outright opposes.) What a book, both reporting how conversion stories influence life-long discipleship and how study and learning shapes our questions and integrity to do something responsible with what we’ve come to know!  There is no book like it.

Garber shows tenderly and thoughtfully what theologians, philosophers, novelists, and activists might hold up as a better way to navigate these big concerns; they knowing it will be a bit of an upstream struggle to endure against the times; the stories of the mid-life interviewees sure get it. Can we really “weave together” what we say we believe with how we live? Can we hold on to truth as a way of life in community with others? How does that work? Steve ran the Pittsburgh Jubilee conference decades ago and his imprint still is present, his thoughtful approach, his care about relating work and worship, liturgy and life, is in our very vocabulary of how we describe the important yearly Pittsburgh gathering.

This rather heavy Fabric book is one that serious students should read — I said so up front! — but I find that some are not yet prepared for its big picture, deeply literate, eloquent approach. Maybe their CCO staffers or church pastors can walk them through it.  I’m sure serious readers and older adults will get it even more. Blurbs are from everyone from James Davison Hunter to Stanley Hauerwas; truth be told, there’s a page about me in there, too. Come on, friends! Garber’s books are on my all time favs list — you should check them out.

The Missional Disciple: Pursuing Mercy & Justice at Work Redeemer City-to-City (Redeemer City to City) $14.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $10.49

Although we have tons of every sort of small group guides and Bible study books here in the shop we don’t often take study resources like that to events. But this — wow! — it is not only designed to help people not only integrate faith and work (it was created by the famous Redeemer Center for Faith & Work) but also to guide readers through a process of discerning where they can make a difference, how and where God might be calling them to show his mercy and justice. We not only have to think Christianly about the ideas that shape our field and the ethos of our workplace but we also have to step up to show kindness and a desire for just practices. There is simply nothing like this out there.

The Missional Disciple is not only a six session workbook sort of study guide, with lots of good questions to ponder, it has links to videos of teaching and testimony from Redeemers sharp folks scattered in several industries and career areas. These are fantastic and this nice study is worth much more than it sells for. It is so good it almost makes me cry — please consider giving it a try.

Kudos to the exceptional leader, Missy Wallace, who was involved in this and graced us at Jubilee Pro and the Jubilee conference. We so love this workbook so while we’re at it we’ll put on deep discount the other handsome Redeemer City-to-City study, too: Go Forth: God’s Purpose for Your Work (Redeemer City-to-City) ($12.99 // this week only, $9.09.)

We are now taking pre-orders, by the way for Missy Wallace’s forthcoming book (coming within the month), co-authored with Lauren Gill, which will be called Faith & Work: Galvanizing Your Church for Everyday Impact (100 Movements Press.) There will be a substantive foreword by their main mentor, the legendary Katherine Leary Alsdorf. Send us a note and we’ll get you on the waiting list; we’ll let you know of the price and our sale offer as soon we know.

 

Calvinism for a Secular Age: A Twenty First Century Reading of Abraham Kuyper’s Stone Lectures Jessica Joustra (IVP Academic) $28.99 // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $20.29

I am aware that most 20-year-olds at Jubilee don’t know much about the history of theology, let alone the somewhat obscure neo-Calvinism of Abraham Kuyper, spiritual leader of early 1900s Holland who was, for a while, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. His influential “Stone Lectures” at Princeton in 1898 slowly shaped a worldviewish vision of “all of life redeemed” and God’s gracious rule over “every square inch” of life and culture that has been a quiet but viable counter to the right-wing dominionist “Seven Mountains” take-over lingo as well as the too-often less than theologically-sound social gospel movement, now turned progressive.

This “in but not of” the world / beautifully generous orthodoxy, inviting students to surrender to Christ in all of their personal and public, family and vocational choices, is beyond robust, it is transformational. For CCO, its healthy orientation upholding (the best they know how) the broad scope of Christ’s far-reach redemptive story, all began by some early CCO staff reading the dry Eerdmans’s classic edition of Kuyper’s old Stone Lectures in the 1970s and the annual Jubilee gathering is its clearest fruit and flagship event. To be honest, most current CCO staff don’t even understand all this, but their use of Al Wolters’s Creation Regained:The Biblical Basis for a Reformational Worldview (dedicated to CCO in the first edition, btw) underscores their unique space in the campus ministry landscape. Jubilee really is a stand-out event and folks come from all over North America to check it out. In part, because some folks read an old theology book and took its claim seriously.

As you might guess, I was thrilled that Jess Joustra spoke at Jubilee and Jubilee Professional, not only doing am upbeat workshop on one of Kuyper’s comrades and influences (Herman Bavinck) but doing the dynamic the main-stage message on how the future hope of God’s final restoration of all things might shape us now, giving us hope and purpose and grit and grace.

Joustra is the co-editor (with husband Rob) of this fantastic study of what we know about the actual Stone lectures, how they were received, and, importantly, how they have been interpreted and lived out over the last century and, even more importantly, how we might embody such a multi-faceted worldview in our hot-wired twenty-first century today. With authors like theologian Rich Mouw and scientist Deborah Harms and art historian Adrienne Chaplin and public thinker Vincent Bacote (offering a good chapter on what Kuyper didn’t address, namely race and racism) and more, this big volume is a true gem and a great resource. It doesn’t hurt to know this historical stuff, but the application insights are a treasure-chest for all.

Of course, it didn’t sell much at Jubilee. Maybe you can remedy that for us. Come on! If you like what we do here at Hearts & Minds and read BookNotes, you’ll dig this. Yay.

With one eye on Kuyper’s own context and another on the challenges facing Christians attempting to bring their faith to bear on public life today, this volume of essays offers an essential guide to the relevance — and limitations — of Kuyperian thought in our contemporary moment. — Kristin Kobes Du Mex, yahoo of Jesus and John Wayne

Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living Cornelius Planting (Eerdmans) $19.99  // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $13.99

If one wants a gracious, elegant Christian author who is in the neo-Calvinist tradition of Kuyper and his Stone Lectures, one could hardly find a more lovely example than the ecumenically minded and ever-worse Cornelius Plantinga. (Many know how we have promoted his fabulous Reading for Preaching, and Jubilee-folks know we promoted from up front his Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, the best book on sin and its horrible “vandalization of shalom” that I’ve ever read.) We have enjoyed his 2024 devotional Under His Wings and his very impressive book Gratitude which is well worth having.

This, though, is one that is custom-made for college students wanting to think Christianly about their vocations and callings in the Kingdom of God. Comprised of a few key chapters on creation, fall, and redemption, Plantinga walks readers through the delights and challenges of the project of relating faith and life, learning and living. I have read it several times and my copy has underlinings on every single page.

Curiously, an esteemed prof of Lancaster Theology Seminary assigned it for a lay-person’s theology course not long ago and I was delighted for this ecumenical nod. Talking to some mainline denominational adults who really enjoyed it reminded me that this book about Christian learning in light of what we might call a Christian world-and-life view is not just for college students. I sometimes offer this with a money-back guarantee. It’s a great, great read.

The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis Karen Swallow Prior (Brazos Press) $26.99  // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $18.89

The previous two listings, above, noted how this particular image of Christ redeeming all of life — claiming every square inch, as Kuyper so colorfully put it — shapes the CCO’s evangelistic and disciple-making work. In cooperation and collaboration with local churches and other redemptive organizations, they partner to invite students to this wide-as-life view of the Kingdom coming and invite all to a theology of place (as some of the founders of CCO put it in the 1970s.) We are called, all of us, to invest in our communities and build networks of reformation within the institutions around us. Like Jesus Himself, our ministries are incarnational.

That, my friends, is, frankly, a different image of what the Christian faith is about than one finds in some other sectors of evangelical history. The Jubilee vision, shaped by particular images and ideas, is, I think, an antidote to theologically sloppy mainline ecumenism, fly-away, rapture-ready fundamentalism, and domineering, Dominionist white MAGA nationalists. But why isn’t that Jubilee vision the heart-beat of most Bible believing evangelicals, at least?

Karen Swallow Prior, nurtured in the heart of conservative evangelicalism herself, who taught literature to beloved students at the increasingly troubling Liberty University, grossly demeaned and abused by (some) Southern Baptists when she worked for a think-tank ministry at one of their institutions, is very well situated to explore the history of the images that have driven this important 20th century movement. The Evangelical Imagination is one of the best contemporary church history studies we know — and it is such a very good read!

Karen, of course (as shown in her lovely On Reading volume, above) is a lit lover so it is no surprise that this elegantly-written volume focuses less on the bad press evangelicals have gotten of late but, rather, she looks at the Victorian roots of the movement, the literature and art and analogies that have driven past evangelical advocates. This is a book that we have raved about in previous BookNotes and, be assured, that others sharp critics have applauded — there are truly lovely endorsements on the back from Mako Fujimura, the famed artist, Mark Noll, the award-winning historian, Tish Harrison Warren, writer and priest, that, as Tish says, this hardback is “an insightful work of love that aids a holy transformation of our imaginations.”

By the way, don’t miss Karen’s one-of-a-kind biography of the great writer and anti-slavery activist Hannah More, one of the influential members of the early-to-mid-1800s Clapham group of William Wilberforce. Called Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More: Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist published by Thomas Nelson; $24.99 — our 30% off sale price this week = $17.49.) Of course we had it at Jubilee and we only wish we had had time to highlight its true importance. Hooray.

 

Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place Ben Lansing and D.J. Morotta (IVP) $24.00  // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $16.80

I’ve highlighted this before as a classy and creative art book full of devotions next to illustrations of some of the “ground cloud of witnesses” that surround us. Drawing on all eras of church history, and folks from all over the world, there are here fifty-two profound images and reflections, showing not only the big world-wide reality that is the global Body of Christ but how the historic witness of older believers is relevant for us today. Their stories reveal to us God’s story and how others have counted on God’s promises as they struggled for contemporary relevance and fidelity.

Last year D.J. (who is an Anglican priest in Richmond whose church orders from us a lot, btw) spoke about his very helpful little book Liturgy in the Wilderness: How the Lord’s Prayer Shapes the Imagination of the Church in a Secular Age (Moody; $14.99 — this, too, is also 30% off this week, making it $10.49.) Artist Ben Lansing attends Redeemer Anglican as well and obviously loves studying, teaching about, and drawing the stories of these saints from all times and places. Kudos to all.

Welcome to the Revolution: A Field Guide for New Believers Brian Tome (Thomas Nelson) $12.99  // OUR 30% OFF SALE PRICE = $9.09

We hope that you appreciate how the curation of our bookstore’s BookNotes newsletter tends to invite folks to live out their faith, using books to explore culture and study up on all manner of things. Even this overview of just a few of the books we featured at Pittsburgh’s Jubilee event shows the “every square inch” of creation being reclaimed by Christ and the need for a seven day a week faith lived out in but not of the world’s cultures. We are often recommending cultural studies, Biblical theology, poetry, books about reading, the arts, and more.

Still, though, I hope some of our readers are the sort of Christians who do evangelism, that see folks come to faith anew, that are mentoring (some call it “discipling”) others into more sustainable patterns of faith formation. Do any of you know brand new Christians or those wanting to start a faith journey from nearly scratch?

This is a book I often highlight at Jubilee for just these sorts of folks. First, I love the feisty title and the energetic writing vibe. Faith is exciting and Christian discipleship is, essentially, signing up for a transforming movement that might be considered akin to a revolution of sorts. So I like the visionary zeal.

More practically, Welcome to the Revolution has upbeat chapters on how to read the Bible, how to pray, why and how to be involved in a local church community, and how to find one’s place in the bigger mission of God’s projects in the world. Nuanced and wise as Tome is about this, that’s it — reading the Bible well, praying and listening for God, being part of a worshipping community and active in church, and joining the mission. Right on! I hope you need a book like this for new believers you may know.

Listen to this from one of the architects of Jubilee in the last century, our beloved and greatly missed friend, and evangelist par excellence, Dr. Tony Campolo:

We need this kind of writing. It’s simple in style, profound in its message. It makes possible for the new Christian to get a handle on what it means to be a follower of Christ in a time when there is much confusion as to what that is all about. — Tony Campolo, Eastern University

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