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F e a t u r e R e l i g i o n U p d a t e

WWW . P U B L I S H E R SW E E K L Y . C OM 1

Biblical Scholarship:Old Characters, Fresh

ReadingsB K S

Theres a scene early in the recent

filmNoah in which Noah plants

a seed from the garden of Eden.

It sprouts and spreads into a lush

and glorious forest as quickly as

critics scrambled to find biblical

precedent. The movie garnered righteous

indignation over its fast and loose use ofGenesis, but it reflects a two-part quest

that is evident this year even in the most

serious publishing on the Bible: to recon-

sider how we read and interpret biblical

texts, and to illuminate biblical charac-

ters who endure as subjects of interest.

THE PROBLEM OF THE

BIBLE

Fundamental to understanding the Bible

is appreciating its problematic nature. In

Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables

of a Controversial Rabbi(HarperOne,

Sept.),Amy-Jill Levine revisits the para-

bles with an eye to how even these simple

and straightforward stories unsettle and

challenge. The success ofSeriously Danger-

ous Religion: What the Old Testament Really

Says and Why It Matters(Aug.) by Iain

Provan might indicate that todays read-

ers are especially willing to wrestle with

such problems; Carey Newman, director

of Baylor University Press, reports it has

been a popular textbook adoption.

and the Fourfold Gospel Witness (Baylor,

Nov.), Richard B. Hays investigates how

the gospel writers located Jesus identity

in the Hebrew scriptures. He pushes

readers to read backward with the

Evangelists to appreciate anew the mys-

tery in Israels story. In The Gospel of theLord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story

of Jesus(Eerdmans, Aug.), Michael F. Bird

asks not only how the gospels took shape,

but also how they shaped the early Chris-

tian movement. And the development of

a single, favorite trope is at the heart of

The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Jour-

ney from Psalm 23 to the New Testamentby

Kenneth E. Bailey (IVP, Dec.) The book

is sure to get a lot of attention, says

Andrew Le Peau, associate publisher.

Reading anew for new times and

exploring how the Bible might illumi-

nate issues of contemporary concern is at

the heart of N.T. WrightsSurprised by

Scr ipture: Engaging Contemporary Issue s

(HarperOne, June). He asks, what does

the ancient text have to do with contem-

porary issues such as ordination of

women, environmental problems, and

terrorism? Race and class in modern

America receive thoughtful treatment in

Bonhoeffers Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance

Theology and an Ethic of Resistance(Baylor,

Oct.). Author Reggie L. Williams shows

how Bonhoeffers experiences in Harlem

churches furthered the theologians

understanding of a Jesus who defies

racial supremacies in standing with the

oppressed.

STARRING ROLES

One notable current trend is reflected in

books about major characters in the biblical

narrative. The complexity of Herod the

In The Bible Tells Me So... Why Defend-

ing Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read

It (HarperOne, Sept.), Peter Enns

addresses the problems of scripture from

the position of an evangelical Christian

who observes with candor and fresh

humor that too often faithful readers

approach the Bible with expectations itis not set up to meet. Michael Maudlin,

senior v-p and executive editor at Harp-

erOne, says that Enns deals with all the

problems [that come] with an overly lit-

eral understanding of the Bible without

sounding like he is being merely critical

or liberal.... Instead, [Enns] takes a C.S.

Lewislike stance of [asking], what

would any reasonable, faithful Christian

do when confronted with the facts?

THE BIBLES BEGINNINGS

The Bibles intriguing challenges and

promise for readers today are not unique

to our modern context, but reflect its

deepest past. A number of new books

discuss the Bibles origins during prob-

lematic times. Jennifer Banks, executive

editor at Yale University Press, calls Holy

Resilience: The Bibles Traumatic Originsby

David M. Carr (Nov.) a fascinating and

provocative reinterpretation of the

Bibles origins that tells of how the Jew-

ish people and Christian community had

to adapt to survive multiple catastro-

phes. Paul N. Andersons From Crisis to

Christ: A Contextual Introduction to the

New Testament(Abingdon, Aug.) also

explores various historical crises that

provide the interpretive backdrop and

context for the faith of Israel and the

communities that produced the New

Testament texts, says David Teel, senior

editor at Abingdon.

InReading Backwards: Figural Theology


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R e l i g i o n U p d a t e | F e a t u r e

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY O C T O B E R 6 , 2 0 1 42

tifaceted biblical narrative. However

critics evaluated the movie, there is gen-

eral vindication for his approach in this

years crop of books about the Bible. Plas-

ticity of characters and an earnest inves-

tigation of the ways we read the Bible

today can bring new insights to the

ancient book.

The Bible continues to matter, and

because the Bible is enormously com-

plex, bears multiple meanings, and is as

dynamic as the world in which it lives,

biblical scholarship also matters.

Kristin Swenson is visiting associate professor

of religious studies at the University of

Virginia and the author of Bible Babel:

Making Sense of the Most Talked About

Book of All Time(Harper Perennial).

The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus Divine

NatureA Response to Bart D. Ehrman

(Zondervan, Mar.). Jesse Hillman, senior

director of marketing at Zondervan, says,

This [conversation] will be a big topic

at the SBL.Author Stephen J. Davis

writes that how memories of

the past are shaped by present

day concerns[italics in origi-

nal] is at the heart of his

Christ Child: Cultural Memo-

ries of a Young Jesus (Yale,

May), which in exploring the

extrabiblical Paidikais not

so much about the Christ

child himself as about how,

and by whom, he was remem-bered.

Among biblical characters,

the winner for scholarly atten-

tion in 2014 appears to be

Paul. Thinking Through Paul:

A Survey of His Life, Letters, and

Theology by Bruce Longe-

necker and Todd D. Still

(Zondervan, Sept.) provides

an introduction, while Fram-

ing Paul: An Epistolary Biography by

Douglas A. Campbell (Eerdmans, Nov.)

asks not only what the letters might

reveal of Paul the historical man, but also

about the letters own biographies.Paul:

Apostl e and Fellow Travele rby Jerry L.

Sumney (Abingdon, Nov.) also investi-

gates the apostle through his letters, but

concentrates on what they reveal of Pauls

theology and beliefs.Remembering Paul:

Ancient and Modern Contests over the Image

of the Apostleby Benjamin L. White

(OUP, Oct.) shows how modern efforts to

recover the historical Paul reflect ancient

debates about the real Paul. And Barn-

abas vs. Paul: To Encourage or Confront?by

C.K. Robertson (Abingdon, Mar. 2015)

brings the lesser-known Barnabas into

conversation with Paul in an effort to

understand each man anew.

No ah director Darren Aronofsky

eschewed a literal reading of the biblical

text and allowed modern ecological con-

cerns and contemporary preoccupations

to inform his screen adaptation of a mul-

Great drives two new titles: The Many

Faces of Herod the Greatby Adam Kolman

Marshak (Eerdmans, Nov.) and The True

Herodby Geza Vermes (Bloomsbury,

May). David, arguably the most devel-

oped human character in the Old Testa-ments sprawling cast, also

receives varying degrees of

attention in two new books.

David Wolpe contributes

Davi d: Th e Div id ed Hear t

(Sept.) to Yales Jewish Lives

series as a brief introduction.

Joel Baden writes that he

seeks to uncover the histori-

cal David by reaching back

through the accumulated

legend [and the] agenda ofthe biblical text, into the

ancient world in which

David roamed. Roger Freet,

executive editor at Harper-

One, says of Badens The His-

torical David: The Real Life

and Invented Hero(July) , now

in paperback, that he has

high hopes for course adop-

tions in the coming years.

Joseph of Arimathea: A Study in Reception

Historyby William John Lyons (OUP,

May) is one of the books in Oxfords new

Biblical Refigurations series, which asso-

ciate editor Steve Wiggins explains are

not straightforward biographies. The

series seeks new angles of approach to

traditional characters, some of whom

have received less attention than the

usual suspects.Deborahs Daughters: Gen-

der Politics and Biblical Interpretationby

Joy A. Schroeder (OUP, Mar.) investi-

gates how the biblical Deborahs story

has driven and informed gender debates

throughout history.

Bart D. Ehrmans How Jesus Became

God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher

(HarperOne, Mar.) has been a strong

success, says Freet. HarperOne distrib-

uted a pre-publication edition to evan-

gelical scholar responders by mutual

agreement between all of the authors,

Freet reports, so that HarperOnes sister

imprint, Zondervan could publish a

counterargument, How God Became Jesus:

Among the fall books publishers

hope will end up in personal and

university reference libraries:

The Fortress Commentary on the Bible(Oct.), two hefty volumes, on the NewTestament and Old Testament.

Daniel: A Commentary(Westminster JohnKnox, Nov.) by Carol A. Newsom.Acquisitions editor Bridgett Green callsit a powerhouse reference tool and text-

book.

The New International Dictionary of New

Testament Theology and Exegesis, edited by

Moises Silva, revision editor (Zondervan,Nov.), in five volumes.

The first of three volumes of The Acts ofthe Apostles: A Newly Discovered Commen-taryby J.B. Lightfoot (IVP, Nov.), editedby Ben Witherington III and Todd D.

Still.

The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms, editedby William P. Brown (May), andTheOxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature,edited by John J. Collins (May) are vol-

umes in a new Oxford Handbooks seriesthat provides critical background andexamines contemporary issues and cur-rent debates. K.S.

In Reference to


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Globalism and race are hot in history;evangelicalism makes a comeback

Fromthe Marginstothe CenterB J R

A

generation ago, church history

was the trending topic in Amer-

ican religious history books,

with Protestant titles dominat-

ing. Sidney Ahlstroms 1972

doorstopper,A Religious History

of the American People (Yale), was the

granddaddy of them all, exploringAmerican Christianity in a magisterial

fashion from its European antecedents to

its post-Puritan flowering. The tome

offered brief nods to Judaism and Afri-

can-American religion, but next to noth-

ing about Islam or Asian religions.

Ahlstroms approach hasnt entirely

disappeared from the landscape of schol-

arly publishing on American religious

history; in fact, the book is Yales all-time

bestselling backlist title in this category,

with more than 60,000 copies sold in all

editions. But the relative simplicity of

Ahlstroms narrative, which placed

mainstream Christianity at the center

and other forms of religion on the mar-

gins, has been turned on its head by a

crop of new titles that redefine the fields

scope and methodology.

The s tory o f

American religious

history is now being

told bothaboutthose

who live at the mar-

gins and bythose liv-

ing at the margins,

says Carey Newman,

director of Baylor University Press.

Popular topics in American religious

history reflect that movement toward the

margins, with a new emphasis on global-

ism, expanded attention to race, and

growing interest in atheism and Islam

(see A Scholarly Boom in Islam in this

issue). Meanwhile, evangelical Christian

exemplifies this trend.

Robert Wuthnows

Rough Country: How

Texas Became Americas

Most Powerful Bible-

Belt State

(Aug.) mayappear on the surface

to be a straightfor-

ward sociological study of red America,

but Wuthnows keen attention in this

book to issues of migration and immigra-

tionand in particular how attitudes

toward new immigrants from the south

and overseas have shaped Texan culture

typify the more global perspective of

recent scholarship, says Appel.

There are advantages to a global out-

look, according to Jennifer Banks, execu-tive editor at Yale University Press. The-

matically, she says, People seem to be

looking at how religion crosses borders,

both theoretically and in practice. Yales

winter titleA Path in the Mighty Waters:

Shipboard Life and Atlantic Crossings to the

New World(Jan. 2015) explores the spir-

itual and cultural conversions that some-

times happened on board in the 18th

century.

Pushing the boundaries of American

religious history is not just better schol-

arship but better business, Banks says.

In an era of global publishing, we are

trying to find books that will work well

in our export markets, and we are slightly

less domestically focused. That said, we

do still see American history as a key part

of our publishing program.

RACE AND BORDER

CROSSINGS

Scholars are also looking to the topic of

race to investigate histories that have not

been told beforeor to rediscover old

stories through new lenses. For example,

there is practically a cottage industry of

historical books about WWII theologian

and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but vir-

tually nothing until now about the criti-

cal period he spent studying at Union

Theological Seminary in New York,

where he attended the Abyssinian Bap-

tist Church in Harlem week after week.

Reggie L. Williamss Bonhoeffers Black

history titles are enjoying a comeback,

but with a twist.

A GLOBAL OUTLOOK

I get feedback from manuscript review-

ers that while theyre interested in Amer-

ican history, our world is so connected,

and it has been for so longeven thoughwe havent always recognized itthat

global/transnational perspectives really

should be considered, even if a books

focus is more explicitly on the United

States, says Sarah Stanton, senior acqui-

sitions editor at Rowman & Littlefield.

R&Ls fall book The Jesuits: A History from

Ignatius to the Presentby John W. OMalley

(Oct.) takes just such a global approach,

emphasizing the international reach of

the Jesuits missionary work and the fact

that the Argentine Pope Francis is par-

ticularly Jesuit.

Elaine Maisner, senior executive editor

at University of North Carolina Press,

cites global movement of religions as a

topic where she is seeing lots of activity.

One of UNCs lead titles for fall, The Call

of Bilal: Islam in the African Diaspora

(Oct.), covers black Muslim experiences

in the Americas, northern Africa, the

Middle East, South Asia, and Europe.

Fred Appel, executive editor at Princ-

eton University Press, agrees that

American religious history, like the

field of American history more generally,

has developed a much more global out-

look in recent years. Younger, up-and-

coming scholars are more inclined to

adopt transnational perspectives and

examine how key moments in American

history have been informed by people,

events, and networks that transcend the

boundaries of this country.

One of Princetons lead titles for fall


Carey Newman

Fred Appel

MICH

ELLEKOMIE


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R e l i g i o n U p d a t e | F e a t u r e


Overall, attention to race has paid off

for many presses. At Princeton, the best-

selling backlist title in American religious

history continues to be Gods Long Summer:

Stories of Faith and Civil Rightsby Charles

Marsh. First published in 1997 andrepackaged in 2008 with a new preface by

the author, the book has sold 16,700 cop-

ies in all editions. The civil rights move-

ment is of course much studied at the col-

lege level, and the strong religious under-

pinning to the movement makes it a

popular object of study in departments of

religious studies and in seminaries and

divinity schools, says Princetons Appel.

And more recently, UNCs The Color of

Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race

in America

by Edward Blum and Paul Har-vey has sold around 8,000 copies since it

was released in fall 2012.

ATHEISM ON THE RISE

Although the trend is still small, books

on atheism and secularism are gaining

ground in scholarship on American reli-

gious history. NYU now has a Secular

Studies series edited by Phil Zuckerman,

whose 2008 bookSociety Without God:

What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell

Us About Contentmentwas a surprise

strong seller for the press, Hammer says.

The series first installment will be out

next year, examining how religiously

unaffiliated parents choose to address

religion in raising their children.

Stanford University Press has Faith as

an Option: Possible Futures for Christianity

(Sept.), Hans Joass argument for reli-

gious and secular perspectives to mutu-

ally enrich one another. But not all uni-

versity presses are jumping on the secu-

larism bandwagon. There is a slight

uptick in this area, says Georgias

Gusinde-Duffy, but in the U.S., many

booksellers, librarians, and citizens

remain deeply suspicious and uncom-

fortable around the topic of atheism.

EVANGELICALS ARE

BACK, WITH A TWIST

Books on evangelical history have never

gone away, but they did lose steam after

the upsurge in evangelical scholarship in

Ramn Lint Sagarenas interdisciplinary

studyAztln and Arcadia: Religion, Eth-

nicity, and the Creation of Place, an innova-

tive book from NYU Press (Sept.). After

the Mexican-American War, many differ-

ent ethnic groups had to renegotiate their

sense of identity to make sense of their

place in North America, says NYU

senior editor Jennifer Hammer. The vol-

ume not only makes a contribution to the

growing field of Chicano/a religious stud-

ies but also to the study of religion and

race in America more broadly.

Immigration studies is a trend within

the overall study of race, say some editors.

Why, where, and when do people cross

borders? Once here, how do they respond

to existing residents and to other immi-

grants? At the University of Georgia

Press, Deborah Dash Moores Urban Ori-

gins of American Judaism(Oct.) is as much

about urban and immigrant experiences

as it is about Judaism in America, says

editor-in-chief Mick Gusinde-Duffy.

Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and the

Ethic of Resistance(Baylor, Sept.) traces

how Bonhoeffer was influenced by Adam

Clayton Powell Sr. to consider race and

justice, and how Bonhoeffer applied that

knowledge to his Christian life after he

returned to Germany.

At Penn State, a two-volume history

aims to chronicle the relationship

between gospel music and freedom in

American history. Robert DardensNoth-

ing but Love in Gods Water: Black Sacred

Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights

Movementstraddles several academic

fields (religion, African-American stud-

ies, music); the first volume releases in

October. Acquisitions editor Kathryn B.

Yahner says one of her greatest challenges

in the field of American religious history

today is to meet the growing demands

of readers looking for a more nontradi-

tional telling of the story of religion in

the life of America.

Nontraditional could describe Roberto

The Society of Biblical Literature has long published

books, but on July 1, 2014, the society renamed its

publishing program SBL Press, creating a new identity asa scholarly publishing house. The AAR/SBL conference in

San Diego marks the official launch of the new press.

SBL executive director John Kutsko says SBLs publish-

ing program has always served its members by publishing

books that would help them get tenure and other promo-

tions, as well as contribute to the work of the academy. But in 2013, we began to

see real growth, especially in the library market, Kutsko says, and SBL Press

will make our members work more visible in the wider book market.

From 2010 to 2014, SBL publications saw nearly 30% growth in net book sales

revenue. With the rebranding as SBL Press, a focused institutional strategy to

libraries, and the publication of every new frontlist title simultaneously in hardcover,

paperback, and digital formatsrather than only in paperback, as had been the case

beforeKutsko expects to build on that growth. In 2014, SBL Press will publish

37 new titles, almost twice the number the society published in 2010.

At this years AAR/SBL, SBL Press will debut the first critical edition of the

Hebrew Bible to follow an eclectic text-critical approach; it will also announce or

release books from several new series. And demonstrating that the moderns have

no corner on lustful stirrings, Peter Bing and Regina Hscheles translation of

Aristaenetuss Erotic Letters (Apr.)or, as SBL Press likes to call it, Fifty Shades of

Greekin the Writings from the Greco-Roman World series has already

received particular attention. Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

SBLs Publishing Program Evolves

John Kutso

D

ANIELDUBOIS


9/24

F e a t u r e | R e l i g i o n U p d a t e

WWW . P U B L I S H E R SW E E K L Y . C OM 7

slated for November,American Apocalypse:

A History of Modern Evangelicalismby Mat-

thew Avery Sutton, shows evangelical

prophecy beliefs becoming mainstream.

If books on evangelicalism are chroni-

cling the overall movement from themargins to the center, this especially

includes segments of evangelicalism that

have historically been even further out on

the periphery. UNCs Maisner observes

that Pentecostal studies is an up-and-

coming field, and Baylors Newman pre-

dicts Pentecostal theology will be par-

ticularly important. Amos Yongs

Renewing Chri st ian Theo logy (Baylor,

Aug.) vividly reflects the explosion and

creative influence of Pentecostalism in

America, he notes. The fortunes of theChristian church in America are tied to

the future of what was once at the

edgesthe renewal movements of char-

ismatic and Pentecostal traditions. Mar-

gins now matter.

But todays books on evangelicalism

are as likely to focus on the ways that

evangelicals themselves, once on the

margins of the American religious estab-

lishment, have become consummate

insiders. Joyce Seltzer, senior executive

editor for history and contemporary

affairs at Harvard University Press, says

Americas Pastor : Billy Graham and the

Shaping of a Nation by Grant Wacker

(Nov.) will trace the evangelists endur-

ing influence on American theology and

media. Another Harvard release, also

the 80s and 90s. Some publishers con-

tinue to reap the benefits of that renais-

sance period. Oxford, for example, says

its strongest backlist title in American

religious history is George Marsdens

Fundamentalism in American Culture, first

published in 1980, which has sold tens

of thousands of copies in two editions.

Also at Oxford, Randall Balmers popu-

larMine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey

into the Evangelical Subculture in America

has just been repackaged in a special

25th-anniversary edition (Sept.)

A MODERNHISTORY

of an ANCIENT PLACE

[A]n indispensable guide. Publishers Weekly

NOW IN PAPERBACK!

Oxford has emerged as the major player in Mormon studies

and has been releasing several titles a year. Senior editorTheo Calderara identifies Paula Kelly Harlines The Polyga-

mous Wives Writing Club: From the Diaries of Mormon Pioneer

Women(June) as one of the presss top-selling religion

books of 2014.

Hes also excited about a new title from Terryl Givens (profiled in this issue),

whose previous Mormon studies books (By the Hand of Mormon; When Souls Had

Wings, etc.), have succeeded commercially and critically for Oxford. Givenss

November release takes Mormon studies into terra nova: theology. Terryl is

attempting to do for Mormonism what has been done for Christianity for centu-

ries, to lay down in somewhat magisterial form the intellectual tradition of the

faith, Calderara says.

Also in the works at Oxford is historian W. Paul ReevesReligion of a Different

Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness(Feb.). Oxford calls the book the

most thorough telling to date of Mormonisms tortured relationship with black-

nessincluding the religions racial priesthood ban, in place until 1978, as well

as white Mormons own struggle with being perceived as racially inferior. The

press also has the essay collection The Oxford Handbook to Mormonismin the pipe-

line for late next year.

Cambridge University Press published the multi-author bookSeeking the Promised

Land: Mormons and American Politics(July). Editor Lewis Bateman says it is one of

the first books to analyze the impact of Mormons on politics, and it is timely given

the emergence of Mormons like Mitt Romney onto the national political scene.

The University of Georgia Press has a manuscript in development about a mur-

dered Mormon missionary in Appalachia. According to editor-in-chief Mick

Gusinde-Duffy, it explores interesting questions of faith, class, and gender.

Meanwhile, Harvard has released the paperback version of John G. Turners 2012

biography, Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet(Oct.). Joyce Seltzer, senior executive edi-

tor for history and contemporary affairs, says the cloth edition has sold around

10,000 copies and is the presss top-selling book in American religious history.

Whats next for Mormon studies? Calderara foresees disciplinary diversification

as the field expands from its core in American history to encompass international

perspectives, sociological research, and philosophy. Jana Riess

Mormon Studies SeesSteady Growth


10/24


The Business of Scholarly PublishingB H L. C J.

The shape of publishing contin-ues to shift, but academic presses

still face the perennial ques-

tions: audience, sales, course

adoptions, a shrinking library

market. There are new issues,

too, such as how to use evolving digital

formats and how to price them. Although

a rarified enterprise in some ways, pub-

lishing scholarly books in religion is a

business like any otherits all about

identifying the customers and figuring

out how to get them to buy, all while run-ning a commercially viable operation.

EVERYMAN VS. THE

PROFESSOR

As the library channel contracted and

online used booksellers began to raid sales

of course books, many scholarly presses

turned to publishing trade books, hoping

to reach general, nonspecialist readers and

expand their markets. Some continue that

enterprise, but others are refocusing on

their core audiences: scholars, libraries,

and students. As Jeff Crosby, associate

publisher and director

of sales and market-

ing at InterVarsity

Press, says, We are

virtually 50-50 aca-

demic versus trade,

and academic has

grown as a percent-

age steadily over the past decade, with far

more emphasis now on textbook adop-

tion. Patrick Alexander, director of Penn

State University Press, points to the

presss religion list as about 30% trade

and 70% scholarly.

Other publishers have broadened their

definition of trade to include church pro-

fessionals. Westminster John Knoxs

executive editor, Robert A. Ratcliff, says

WJKs fall list is balanced pretty evenly

between books for academic, church-

professional, and general-interest readers,

and title output for all three audiences

without sacrificingquality. Jim Kinney,

associate publisher

and editorial director

of Baker Academic

and Brazos Press,

agrees: We think a

little more about the

tactile appeal of print editions. Our pro-

duction departments attention to quality

is perhaps more important now than it

was 20 years ago, when readers had only

one choice of medium. He adds, Westart a few more books in hardcover than

we used to, so book lovers will be able to

own a really nice copy.

Religion presses also look more closely

now at prices and discounts. Penn States

Alexander says that with the drop in

library and institutional sales, Weve

had to print more copies to realize cost

savings, discount higher to allow others

to resell, and price lower to encourage

more individual sales. Eerdmanss Pott

says, Were having to be more aware

than we used to be to price in a way thats

savvy. Oxford senior editor Theo Calde-

rara adds, We are more concerned about

list price than about discount. Getting

the price right is much more important

to the ultimate success of a book.

All scholarly religion publishers pro-

duce e-books and Web-based reference

products, but not all are convinced that

sales justify production costs. According

to Alexander, Were seeing more costs

for creating new formats and new work-

flows, but have not noticed a correspond-

ing increase in purchasing for those new

formats. Users just dont seem to want

e-books for research. Newman states it

bluntly: We are just as e-innovative and

e-aggressive as any other publisher, but

we also remain committed to print,

cloth, quality. This is counter to market

forces, but we are seeing real growth in

what the so-called gurus are saying has

already died.

has grown in the past three years. JonPott, editor-in-chief at Eerdmans, notes,

Our bona fide academic books are at

perhaps 60%, with most of the remain-

ing targeted at a quite educated reader-

ship. Were very interested in bridging

the academy to the church.

About audiences, Carey Newman,

director at Baylor University Press, says,

We will do books in traditional subject

areas from senior scholars, but also from

emerging scholars, as well as books and

authors at the margins. We fold in a fewtextbooks and then one or two surprises.

However, Newman says that after mov-

ing aggressively into the general trade

over the past several years, Baylor has

refocused its efforts. We believe in books

by scholars, for scholars.

HarperOne sells books into courses,

but doesnt segment its list into trade

and scholarly. Executive editor Roger

Freet says, Publishing the work of top

scholars remains a vital feature of our

program and core to our mission. All of

our projects are acquired, developed, and

promoted as books for the general

reader. Perhaps trying to move in that

direction, senior acquisitions editor Tony

Jones at Fortress Press says he is acquir-

ing trade books written by scholars, but

also accessible to general readers; the new

line will be announced at the joint annual

meeting of the American Academy of

Religion/Society of Biblical Literature.

TO PRINT, OR NOT TO

PRINT?

As the emphasis swings between trade-

like academic and formally academic

books for many religion publishers, and as

the demand for e-books slowly increases,

these presses seek ways to capture their

content in whatever format readers want

it. WJKs Ratcliff says, We now produce

all but a few of our books on a print-on-

demand basis, and we continue to look for

more cost-effective ways to publish books


Jeff Crosby

Jim Kinney


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A Scholarly Boomon Islam

B M Z. N J R

One rarely uses the term booming

in publishing these days, but

its fair to say that academic

publishing about Islam is

doing just that. New books are

diverse in subject matter and

house of origin, as this major religions

world-shaping influence is being more

closely examined.

University of North Carolina Presshas three installments in its Islamic

Civilization and Muslim Networks

series. Sahar Amers What Is Veiling?

(Sept.)will be joined in April 2015 by

Ebrahim Moosas What Is Madrasa?and

Bruce Lawrences Who Is Allah? Elaine

Maisner, senior executive editor at the

press, says more books are in the works

to join this series. Islamic studies is con-

tinuing to trend, she notes. We are

interested in Islamic studies beyond the

conventional link with fundamentalism,

and we are finding some interesting work

in the area of lived religion, and of pro-

gressive Islam.

For publishers that can successfully hit

the sweet spot in books on Islam in

Americathey need to be fresh enough

to merit scholarly attention, but also

mainstream enough for course adop-

tionthe rewards can be great. At NYU,

the 1998 titleServants of Allah: African

Muslims Enslaved in the Americashas sold

nearly 20,000 copies and was reissued in

2013 in a 15th-anniversary edition.

Oxford University Press has long had a

deep list on the subject, and several key

themes characterize its new titles in the

field. Senior editor Theo Calderara says

OUPs newest releases investigate the his-

tory of Islam (In Gods Path: The Arab Con-

quests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire

by Robert G. Hoyland, Oct.) and consider

the complex relationships of Islam and

politics (What Is an American Muslim?

possible approaches to global Islam. I

see a new focus emerging on the concept

of the global public sphere, she says. The

Lives of Muhammadby Kecia Ali (Oct.;

Reviews, p. 20; Profiles, p. 12), an associate

professor of religion at Boston Univer-sity, examines the ways in which stories

about Muhammads character and life

have repurposed early materials for

new cultures and circumstances. Sen

also has observed in the past decade a

turn away from Arab-centered scholar-

ship to the study of Islam in other

regions where the faith has flourished.

Harvard has a book forthcoming on

Islamic influence in West Africa, Tim-

buktu and Beyond: Rethinking African

Intellectual Historyby Ousmane Kane,who teaches contemporary Islamic

religion and society at Harvard Divinity

School.

Sarah Stanton, senior acquisitions editor

at Rowman & Littlefield, agrees on the

importance of assessing Islams global

impact. The press is publishingReasoning

with God: Reclaiming Shariah in the Mod-

ern Ageby Khaled Abou El Fadl (Oct.),

who chairs the Islamic studies program

at UCLA. The hefty book (580 pages)

takes readers into an in-depth discus-

sion of ethics in Islam, she says, weaving

into the narrative personal stories about

Islamic jurisprudence.

The wave of publishing about Islam is

likely to keep building as a cohort of new,

younger scholars comes of age in the

academy. Amir Hussain, editor of the

Journal of the American Academy of Reli-

gion, remembers his first time at AAR in

1992, when fewer than 100 people were

specializing in Islamic studies. Fast for-

ward 20 years, and now there are 400 of

us specialists in Islam, he says. Some of

those scholars will undoubtedly produce

informed yet accessible books for the

general trade. How do you tell that

story and write in a way thats engag-

ing? asks Hussain, who is himself work-

ing on a book for Baylor University Press

about Muslim contributions to Ameri-

can history and culture. What you need

are authors who have the training and

expertise.

Embracing Faith and Citizenshipby Abdullahi

Ahmed An-Naim, Feb.). In addition to

producing its signature hefty handbooks

on aspects of Islam, the press is adding to

its Quranic studies program with such

titles as Feminist Edges of the Quranby

Aysha A. Hidayatullah (May).

The International Quranic Studies

Association, which will meet for the sec-

ond time November 2124 as the Amer-

ican Academy of Religion and the Society

of Biblical Literature hold their concur-

rent conferences on November 2225 in

San Diego, signals a vigorous global

interest in Quranic studies. At Baylor

University Press, Michael Birkels Quran

in Conversation(Aug.) is a lead title for fall.

According to press director Carey New-

man, the author tags along with younger

American Muslim scholars and clerics as

they read and interpret Islams sacred

text. The result is to watch the Quran

become an American scripture right

before your eyes. Trade publisher White

Cloud Press, which offers an Islamic

Encounters series, is releasingStructure

and Quranic Interpretation: A Study of Sym-

metry and Coherence in Islams Holy Text by

Raymond Farrin (Oct.), who teaches at

the American University of Kuwait.

Sharmila Sen, executive editor-at-large

at Harvard University Press, says Amer-

ican scholarship takes only one of many



13/24


14/24

R e l i g i o n U p d a t e P r o f i l e s

Kecia Ali

In Search ofthe RealMuhammadDepending on whom you ask, Muham-mad may be either the last prophet or

merely an ambitious man. Now, in The

Live s of Muhammad (Harvard, Sept.;

Reviews, p. 20), Kecia Ali, associate pro-

fessor of religion at Boston University,

tries to fill in the missing pieces and

shape a complete portrait of the founder

of Islam.

The book has two target audiences, Ali

sayscolleagues who study religion and

Islam, and laypeople, Muslim and other-

wise. Muslims and non-Muslims often

view each other as decadent or repres-

sive, but they really are speaking the same

language, says Ali. They just dont know

it, because so many of todays ideas about

Muhammad have been influenced over the

past two centuries by Western thought.

Supporters and critics both assume

they know the story of his life, says Ali,

adding that her purpose isnt to prove

anyone wrong, but to show the diverse

aspects of Muhammads life and how the

story has changed over time.

For early Muslim authors, for example,

Muhammads first marriage to the pros-

perous widow Khadija served as a key

point on his journey to becoming a

prophet, while non-Muslim authors

cited it as evidence of his calculating

ambition, says Ali, noting that today the

marriage is seen instead, by both Muslim

and non-Muslim authors, as a portrait of

Muhammad as a man and husband.

Ali, who converted to Islam in college,

INProfileis president of the Society for the Study ofMuslim Ethics, and previously published

Sexual Ethics and Islam(2006);Marriage

and Slavery in Early Islam(2010); and

Imam Shafii: Scholar and Saint(2011).

Though scholars debate whether draw-

ing an accurate picture of the historical

Muhammad is possible, a standard narra-

tive, drawing on a handful of early

Muslim sources, has come to dominate

nearly all accounts of his life, she says.

Previously, Muslim thinkers wrote about

Muhammad in a variety of genres withattention to his cosmic role and glory.

Christian writers did not attempt to retell

his life in full, but tried to refute his doc-

trines by denigrating his reputation.

From medieval speculation about

whether Muhammad was demon pos-

sessed to early modern questions about

whether he actually received divine rev-

elation, views of Muhammad changed

dramatically over the centuries. The

Enlightenment led to a new perspective

on religious figures, she says, and from

about the mid-19th century on, accounts

of his life, both pro and con, are virtually

indistinguishable.

Todays Muhammad, she writes, is a

shared creation illustrating not a clash

of civilizations but a common, if con-

tested, modernity. Lauren Yarger

Lynn Davidman

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instructed to reject, among people you

might have been taught to think of as

morally inferior. Imagine no longer

belonging in the company of those who

claim to embody the will of God by their

words and actions. This is the experienceof those who find themselves no longer

able to obey the dictates of their Haredi

(ultra-Orthodox) communities and must

come out, leaving behind everything

and everyone they have known.

In her new book, Becoming Un-Orthodox:

Stories of Ex-Hasidic Jews(Oxford, Nov.),

Lynn Davidman, the Robert M. Beren

Distinguished Professor of Modern

Jewish Studies and professor of sociology

at the University of Kansas, reports a

series of conversations with defectorsfrom Hasidic and other ultra-Orthodox

communities. What causes the dissonance

between their personal worldview and the

idealized worldview of their community?

What makes them abandon their

obedience to sacred communal rules and

compels them to leave their communities?

In Becoming Un-Orthodox, Davidman

concludes that the things that define us

religiouslywhich can shift and fail

are not just beliefs but habitual practices

that symbolize the values of the commu-

nity, such as ritual bathing, particular

modes of dress, and rules of comport-

ment. She observes that those who leave

ultra-Orthodoxy go through similar

stages of divesting themselves of such

observances.Those practices no longer

make sense, and they begin to adjust their

behavior to the rules of the wider culture.

Davidmans interest in the topic is

deeply personal: she is herself ex-Ortho-

dox, although she was raised Modern

Orthodox in the 1950s and 60s, in a

denomination that was then more liberal

than any form of Orthodoxy is today.

When her mother died when Davidman

was very young, she began to question

her faith and over time became vocal

about the moral hypocrisy she saw in the

community. Finally, during her under-

graduate years at Barnard, Davidman

decided to live in the dormitories, as

many other college students did. She

says, I wanted a life of my own, but to

my father this choice amounted to leav-

ing my family, and he believed I was

already too heavily influenced by general

culture. Her decision finalized the break

in Davidmans own commitment to

Orthodoxy. She was disowned and disin-herited, left to navigate life on her own.

Her courage must have been consider-

able, but as wrenching as her situation

was, says Davidman: I had not grown up

isolated from the general culture like

Haredi Jews were. I knew how to com-

port myself and could negotiate a way to

finish my education. By contrast,

Davidman writes of one young Haredi

woman who told her, It wasnt clear to

me how you left. I mean how you physi-

cally did it. Where you went. How yougot money. How you even had the right

clothes to go.... I didnt know a soul out-

side of my community. Davidmans own

struggles inform this moving collection

of stories of those who, in leaving their

ultra-Orthodox life behind, needed cour-

age of an even higher order.

Chana Thompson Shor

Terryl Givens

UnlikelyMessenger ofMormonismIf anyone had told Terryl Givens 30 years

ago that he would one day be a renowned

scholar of Mormon thought, he might

have laughed. But while his articles on

Byron and Romanticism seem like dis-

tant memories, Givenss early work in

comparative literature laid the ground-

work for a flourishing career as an intel-

lectual historian of Mormonism. His new

book, Wrestling the Angel: The Foundation

of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity

(Oxford, Nov.; Reviews, p. 20), is the cul-

mination of that groundbreaking work.

In his first book, The Viper on the Hearth,

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published in 1997, Givens, professor of

religion and literature and James A.

Bostwick Chair of English at the

University of Richmond, plumbed how

depictions of Mormonism in popular fic-

tion shaped cultural understandings ofthe faith and its vexed relationship to

American society. That book altered the

trajectory of my career, Givens says, for

I realized I could use the tools of literary

analysis to begin to look at religious

texts, especially the Book of Mormon,

and their impact on culture.

In the years s ince, Givens has

approached the history of the Mormon

faith not through the lens of theological

analysis but with close readings of the

scriptures of Mormonism, producing suchbooks as By the Hand of Mormon: The

American Scripture That Launched a New

World Religion(2003) and The Book of

Mormon: A Very Short Introduction(2009).

In contrast to his earlier books, which

focused on the history and development

informed study of Mormon thought.

Wrestling the Angelis an intellectual his-

tory, Givens says, an attempt to situate the

development of that thought in the wider

history of ideas of the 19th century.

Givens says his training in comparativeliterature equips him to ask broad ques-

tions about the relationship of scriptural

stories to cultural ideas, and his work in

literary analysis of texts enables him to

probe specific themes and meanings

embedded in the stories. Im really

happy that my training as an intellectual

and literary historian allows me to be at

the intersection of such an exciting and

growing interest in the Mormon faith.

Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

Jennifer HarveyLetters to White Christians

Jennifer Harvey knows its complicated

being a white scholar working on the

fraught subject of race. Her third book on

the topic isDear White Christians: For

of the Book of Mormon itself, Wrestling

the AngelGivens unearths in that scrip-

ture key elements of Mormon theology

a cosmology that locates human identity

in a premortal world; a view of human life

as an enlightening ascent rather than acatastrophic fall

Theology has never found a comfortable

place in Mormon thought, Givens points

outthe religion is focused more on proph-

ets and revelation than on dogma. But

through his close readings of the Book of

Mormon, Givens says it became apparent it

contained any number of theological topics.

Mormonism doesnt have a magisterium

or an official catechism, he says. I had to

sift out doctrines, dogmas, and practices.

Wrestling the Angelis Givenss examina-tion of Mormon religious history and

theological development through the

Book of Mormon. [It] is the most widely

distributed book in American history, he

notes, and by looking at its reception and

its impact on culture we can have a better


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Those Still Long-

ing for Racial Rec-

onciliation(Eerd-

mans, Nov.). Anyone who is white and

working within a set of visibly anti-racist

commitments worries about getting it

wrong, says Harvey, who is an associate

professor of religion at Drake University

in Des Moines, Iowa, and an ordained

minister in the American Baptist Church.

My job is to show as much authenticityas I can. If Im wrong, someone will tell

me, and Ill respond.

Harveys title,Dear White Christians, is

intended to be a direct challenge. In the

book, she says, Im urging people to stop

asking the same questions weve been

Briggs distinguished professor of system-

atic theology at Union Theological Seminary

in New York City. That prompted her to

attend Union, where she began to contend

with her whiteness. I had teachers and

student peers who said, Thats great youlove liberation theology and want to talk

about the Black Christ. But youre white.

What does that mean to you? You cant

talk about it the same way we do.

Harvey does worry about the excessive

attention given to white people who write

about race; it is misplaced, in her opinion.

White scholars willing to talk about race

get attention for saying the same things

that scholars of color have been saying for

a long time, she notes.

Writing about race and whiteness hasoften pulled Harvey into controversy,

because of the events in Ferguson most

recently, but also because some of her

Huffington Postblog posts have gone viral,

particularly the August 2013 post, For

Whites (Like Me) on White Kids, which

asking for 40 years, like, How can white

communities become more diverse? If we

knew our history wed know that the

African-American community answered

this back in the 60s. Instead, Harvey

encourages church communities toengage in what she calls concrete repair

of racial harm, which might mean that

white churches in Ferguson, Mo., give

their time and energy to holding the

police department accountable.

Harveys interest in issues surrounding

race began while she was an undergradu-

ate in the late 80s and early 90s. I

became very serious about what it meant

to follow Jesus, she says. To me, follow-

ing Jesus meant thinking about home-

lessness, and racial and gender justice. Bythe time I graduated, racial justice was

something that kept me awake at night,

and Ive never stopped thinking about it.

During college Harvey encountered

liberation theology and fell in love with

the work of James Cone, the Charles A.

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Acclaimed National Geographic author Dr. Jean-Pierre Isboutsbrings you the ultimate reference to the rich social and culturalhistory of Christianity through the ages. Meticulously researched,this exquisite volume features lavish photographs, illustrations, andmodern and historic maps. Perfect for the library of any scholar ofancient and religious history.

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Isbouts

2014 National Geographic Society


20/24

than 70 books, about half of which are for

a general audience (the other half are for

scholars).

Raised an evangelical Christian in the

D u t c h R e f o r m e d b r a n c h o f

Protestantism, Kreeft converted toCatholicism at age 21. Though he has

questioned God, both intellectually

and personally, he says he has never

stopped being a theist, or one who

believes in God. There was no rebellion

or disillusionment at the root of his

conversion, Kreeft notes. In fact, I am

more, not less, evangelical as a Catholic

than I ever was as a Protestant.

But despite his consistent belief,

there were many times when I ques-

tioned God, both intellectually and per-sonally, he says. The two are not mutu-

ally exclusivedoubts are the ants in the

pants that keep faith alive and moving.

Kreefts comfort with doubt led him,

inLetters to an Atheist, to dive into some

of the most difficult-to-resolve reasons

many people dont believe in God, such

as the existence of evil in the world and

violence committed in the name of reli-

gion. He also delves into reasons to

believe, such as miracles, love, and what

he sees as a highly compatible relation-

ship between religion and science.

The tone of the book is conversational,

warm, and intended to read as an exchange

between friends, something Kreeft says

distinguishes his book from the work of

the popular but controversial new athe-

ists, whose writing he calls purely

polemical and shallow and unmoving

compared with the classic atheists Hume,

Voltaire, Nietzsche, and Sartre.

Kreefts book is, he says, simply the

result of a request he received at a confer-

encea request he took very seriously

because he believed he could be of help

to this young man and others on the idea

of God, which he says is the most impor-

tant in human history.

We dont know the stakes of the

theist-atheist debate, he says. Thats

why they are infinitely high: because

they may bewe just dont knowthe

difference between heaven and hell.

Holly Lebowitz Rossi

got 10s of thousands of likes and hun-

dreds of comments. Addressing Dear

Parents of White Children, Harvey

argued that white parents must stop

using the sugary language of color

blindness with their kids. Children cansee that people are not all the same, and

parents should stop pretending they are,

she wrote.

Harvey has decided to expand those

thoughts: My next project is underway

and its a book for the parents of white

children. Asked whether shell ever tire

of the subject, Harvey says, I suspect Ill

be writing about race and whiteness for

the rest of my life. Donna Freitas

Peter Kreeft

PhilosophicalPersuasionA philosophy professor meets a Christian

woman at a religious conference. During

their brief conversation, she says she is

worried about her brother, a young man

who is smart, kind, inquisitiveand an

atheist. Would the professor please write

to her brother and try to persuade him of

the existence of God?

So begins the imagined conversation,

known in academic lingo as a supposal,

between Peter Kreeft and the young man

he calls Michael in his new book,Letters

to an Atheist: Wrestling with Faith

(Rowman & Littlefield, Oct.). The young

man is real, as was the encounter between

Kreeft and Michaels sister. Although he

never contacted Michael personally, and

the letters that compose the book never

got posted, emailed, received, or

answered, Kreeft offers them to readers,

who he invites to become Michael, to

read and consider for themselves.

Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at

Boston College, where he has taught

since 1965. He is also the author of more


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Lerone A.MartinPulpits of WaxIn the early half of

the 20th century,

many black preach-ers discovered a new

toolthe phono-

graph. Sermons recorded on vinyl (or, at

first, wax) enabled them to reach beyond

their local churches and market their sermons to other eager

listeners. The records often outstripped the sales of those by

popular blues singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, and

while many preachers went to places like Chicago to get record

deals, record company executives began traveling from church

to church in the rural South in search of the next celebrity

preacher. InPreaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Shaping of

Modern African American Religion(NYU, Nov.; Reviews, p. 20),Lerone A. Martin illuminates this little-known chapter in

American cultural history.

Martin, a postdoctoral research fellow at the John C. Danforth

Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in

St. Louis, understands this desire for the spoken word. I grew

up in a home where we watched preachers on TV, and my mom

would always be ordering tapes of the sermons to listen to over

and over again, says Martin. When he got to graduate school,

Martin was so intrigued by the pioneering use of media by black

preachers that he focused his dissertation on Rev. James Gates

and the phonograph records that made him a celebrity beyond

his home church in Atlanta in the 20s and 30s.

InPreaching on Wax, Martin widens his view from one preacher

to analyze the culture-shifting technology of vinyl recordings: I

tried to make the phonograph the main character, he says. In

the years before WWII, especially in the rural South, a number

of forces drove black preachers to records rather than the radio to

reach listeners, Martin says. Most people could afford a phono-

graph, and it did not need electricity to run. Radios were expen-

sivethey might cost around $50and many people did not

yet have electricity. In addition, most radio stations worried they

would lose revenue if advertisers found their products associated

with black preachers.

The phonograph and the preachers records helped shaped

modern African-American religion in significant ways, Martin

argues. Examining this phenomenon helps us to see that our

own contemporary experience of religion, media, and com-

modification is not new, he says. A preacher like T.D. Jakes,

for example, uses television, film, books, and audio not only to

reach a lot of consumers, but also to ground his authority as the

pastor of a larger flock beyond his own church. Looking at the

advent and development of preaching on phonograph records,

Martin says, helps us to think about celebrity and the way it

bestows authority upon these religious leaders.

Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

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R e l i g i o n U p d a t e R e v i e w s


A New Heaven and a

New Earth: ReclaimingBiblical EschatologyJ. Richard Middleton.Baker Academic,

$26.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-

8010-4868-5

Theologian Middleton tackles a hugequestion: is a glorious afterlife the besthope Christianity can offer, or does the

promise of a new, redeemed Earth give

humans hope for today? His biblically

grounded answer is the latter. To make a

convincing argument for what he calls

holistic eschatology, he goes throughboth testaments of the Bible, deep down to

its Greek- and Hebrew-language roots, and

also takes on the received wisdom of many

a Christian hymn that extols the far-off

heavenly shore, provocatively calling the

latter singing lies in church. Most of the

book is more carefully footnoted than pro-

vocatively put, in keeping with the rules for

academic persuasion. But the implications

for lived faith are bold, and the air this

brings into theological discourse about

what God intends for human creation is

fresh and bracing. (Dec.)

Wrestling the Angel:The Foundations ofMormon ThoughtTerryl Givens.Oxford Univ., $34.95

(416p)ISBN 978-0-19-979492-8

Givens (By the Hand of Mormon), possi-bly the most significant voice in thefield of Mormon studies, has previously

explained Mormonism by way of scripture,

history, and philosophy. Here, he turns his

attention to theology, a more difficult prop-

osition than it sounds, since Mormons tend

to emphasize practical living rather than

theological speculation and believe in con-

tinuing revelation. Although scholars will

appreciate the sweeping way in which Giv-

ens (Profiles, p. 14) provides context to

Mormon cosmology, rank-and-file LDS

members will likely resonate more with the

books brief, discrete chapters on what Mor-

mon leaders have taught about specific

Religion in Review the only book to do so comprehensively.She concludes that, as sensibilities evolvedin the t ime since Muhammads life, the

biographies of the prophet expanded or

even altered in keeping with prevailing

mores. Ali refrains from assessing theveracity of the variant readings, although

some of the more obvious sinkholes would

stun even the moderate Muslim reader or

casual Islamic scholar. (For example, the

man named Muhammad probably origi-

nally had a pagan-sounding name that was

whitewashed by later historians.) Such

views shatter the standard and much-cher-

ished life story of the prophet, which, as Ali

herself argues,has grown organically from

the moment Muhammad died. This book

calls into question most of Muhammadsbiography, leaving the frustrated believer

to wonder what really is true if such core

understandings are shaky. (Oct.)

Life After Faith:The Case for SecularHumanismPhilip Kitcher.Yale Univ., $25 (200p)

ISBN 978-0-300-20343-1

Y

ales annual Terry Lectures have

yielded another elegant book that

addresses contemporary concerns. Kitchers

well-organized presentation ranges widely

in drawing together sources from litera-

ture, philosophy, and the sciences to

respectfully make a persuasive case that a

secular outlook on life can produce value,

meaning, and solace, all functions that

religion has traditionally filled. He reasons

sans broadsides, finding that religion is not

so much violent or evilas many of todays

atheists argueas it is improbable and,

more important, unnecessary. He is a kind

critic of religion, conceding that refined

religion, the highest form of belief and

practice, has at least the advantage of

being better organized to act for human

improvement, since there are as yet no

numerous or vast bodies of secular human-

ists doing disaster relief. (Give it time, he

suggests.) Kitchers real strength is his

sensitivity to human suffering and mortal-

ity, and the ways in which those concerns

must be addressed by a robust secular ethic.

(Oct.)

issues: the Godhead, theosis, Heavenly

Mother, the Fall, premortal life, the HolyGhost, salvation and the afterlife, and other

topics. What emerges is a complex, nuanced

picture of a dynamic faith. (Nov.)

Preaching on Wax:The Phonograph and theShaping of Modern AfricanAmerican ReligionLerone A. Martin.NYU, $24 trade paper

(240p) ISBN 978-1-4798-9095-8

Although histories of American reli-

gion have focused on the relationshipof radio to the growth of preaching in

America, especially among white clergy,

there has been no study of the impact of the

phonograph on the development of black

preaching in the mid-20th century. Martin

(Profiles, p. 19) draws deeply on record

company archives to explore how the pho-

nograph sermons of black Protestant

preachers between 1925 and 1941 signifi-

cantly shaped African-American religion

and culture. With no access to radio, more

than 100 black clergymen teamed up with

Columbia, Paramount, and RCA-Victor,

among other labels, to record and sell their

sermons, creating records that sold in num-

bers often rivaling those of Bessie Smith and

Ma Rainey. Martin demonstrates that

preaching on wax made black Christianity

a mass-produced commodity, and phono-

graph religion laid the foundations of mod-

ern religious broadcasting in black Christi-

anity. Martins vital study contributes sig-

nificantly not only to the history of religion,

but also to the lively, ongoing discussion of

race records by African-American musi-

cians in early 20th-century America. (Nov.)

The Lives of MuhammadKecia Ali.Harvard Univ., $29.95 (342p)

ISBN 978-0-674-05060-0

A li, an associate professor of religionat Boston University (Profiles, p.12), takes an innovative approach to a biog-

raphy of Muhammad, comparing the vari-

ous accounts of his life in what is probably


23/24

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