Books

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "The Scandal of the Gospel: Preaching and the Grotesque" by Charles L. Campbell. This book challenges us to look beyond the safe path and embrace the less orderly and more chaotic realities of the grotesque, which Jesus took on in the incarnation.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "A Gift Grows in the Ghetto: Reimagining the Spiritual Lives of Black Men" by Jay-Paul Michael Hinds. This book reimagines the ghetto, a place of separation and abandonment, in terms of the wilderness that Ishmael experienced after Abraham expelled him and his mother from their home.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming Badass Believers" by Miguel A. De La Torre. This book is a strongly worded prophetic statement calling for Christians of color to decolonize their minds, that is, set themselves free from the message drummed into them by white supremacist Christianity.

In his new book, David Hollinger argues that conservative evangelical churches flourished by providing a safe harbor for White Americans who wanted to be counted as Christian while avoiding a challenge that mainline leaders insisted must be faced: living a Christian life in a racially diverse and scientifically informed culture.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "The Arc of Truth: The Thinking of Martin Luther King Jr." by Lewis V. Baldwin with a foreword from Beverly J. Lanzetta. This book is a scholarly and focused look at King’s commitment to truth, underscoring that he was not only a civil rights leader and pastor, but was also a deep thinker.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race" by Luke A. Powery. This book draws upon theology, especially the theology of the Holy Spirit, to provide a theological foundation for responding to the racialization present in society.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Better Religion: A Primer for Interreligious Peacebuilding" by John D. Barton. This book provides a set of tools that can help us move toward a greater understanding of one another without jettisoning the distinctiveness of our faith traditions.

Historian and former denominational executive Lee Spitzer spent years researching for his new book Sympathy, Solidarity, and Silence: Three European Baptist Responses to the Holocaust. The book tells inspiring and disappointing stories of how Baptists in England, France, and Germany reacted to Hitler, the Holocaust, and the war’s refugees.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Father Abraham’s Many Children: The Bible in a World of Religious Difference" by Tyler D. Mayfield with a forward from Eboo Patel. This book invites us to read Genesis from the perspective of religious pluralism as it pulls from the stories that unite Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Unruly Saint: Dorothy Day's Radical Vision and its Challenge for Our Times" by D.L. Mayfield. This book recognizes a degree of saintliness about Day's life but fears she might get domesticated by a church that might use her memory in ways that do not reflect who she was.