Traditional Western theology, according to O’Murchu, has been rooted in an understanding of sinful humanity in a flawed creation. Over the centuries this paradigm has engendered co-dependent relationships among the people of God. Even worse has been an imperial image of God, which, after Constantine, which affirmed imperial models of human authority, whether in the church or society.

Here O’Murchu shows how it is in the power of that Spirit of evolution that Jesus incarnates afresh God’s embodied presence in our midst, and encourages us on the way to becoming creative participants in God’s unfolding mission. 

Readers who are familiar with O’Murchu’s work will find much to ponder, and those seeking a new understanding of faith, church, and world, an evocative voice.

Diarmuid O’Murchu is the author of many pioneering books that include Evolutionary Faith, Ancestral Grace, Inclusivity, Beyond Original Sin, and When the Disciple Comes of Age (all Orbis). He lives in Ireland and speaks throughout the world.

For most of this nation’s history, religious socialists made their case to a population that was, for the most part, hospitable to religion and resistant to socialism. Today, those trends are moving in opposite directions. A majority of young people and persons of color in the U.S. express support for socialism. At the same time, even as religious affiliation has dropped, most Americans still say religion is important to them.

 Religious Socialism provides an introduction to how those powerful forces come together in the form of religious socialism, the intersection between a devotion to God and a system that promotes social justice in the world. Many of its champions would embrace the words of Eugene Debs, who ran for president several times on the Socialist ticket: “Socialism is Christianity in action.” Most of the figures in this book are Christian, including contemporary figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Cornel West, but others profiled are Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim socialists.

 Fran Quigley is a former journalist, now teaching as professor at Indiana University McKinney School of Law, where he directs the Health and Human Rights Clinic. He is an active member of the Religion and Socialism Working Group of the Democratic Socialists of America, where he contributes to and helps edit their blog and podcast.

“Offers a vibrant spirituality based on a rereading of Christian tradition through a lens of love for the Earth and all its creatures. It is a joy to read!”—James Corkery, SJ, Gregorian University, Rome

Renowned theologian Donal Dorr explores the interplay between an ecological spirituality and our traditional Christian faith at this critical juncture in the twenty-first century. Rather than seeing ecological spirituality as an adjunct to Christian doctrine, Dorr views it as central to our understanding of Christianity today, and integral to understanding our relationship with the natural world.

In building this creed, Dorr lays out a compelling vision for how we should live at both a spiritual and practical level in terms of our Christian faith and our attendant role as stewards of the Earth.

Donal Dorr is an Irish theologian and missionary priest who has served as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and as a resource person for the Irish Missionary Union. He is the author of ten books, including the Orbis titles Option for the Poor and for the Earth and Mission in Today’s World.

Arson and vandalism at houses of worship. Bullying at schools and harassment at the grocery store. Political scapegoating and institutionalized discrimination. Muslims in the United States–and beyond–have faced Islamophobia in a range of forms. This ground-breaking book argues that Christians should be at the forefront of efforts to end the prejudice, discrimination, and violence, that Muslims face.

Writing for Christians of all denominations, Jordan Denari Duffner offers an introduction to Islamophobia, discusses the unfortunate ways that Christians have contributed to it, and offers practical steps for standing in solidarity with Muslims. Viewing Islamophobia as both a social justice and a religious freedom issue, Duffner makes the case that Christian faith calls us to combat religious discrimination even when it is not directed toward our own faith community. She weaves together insights from Catholic social teaching, examples from Protestant leaders, and expertise from Muslim scholars and activists, resulting in a compelling book that will be of interest to academic and lay audiences alike.

Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination

Jordan Denari Duffner is a doctoral student in theology and religious studies at Georgetown University and an associate and former research fellow at the Bridge Initiative, a research project of Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. A 2013 Fulbright scholar, she is author of Finding Jesus among Muslims: How Loving Islam Makes Me a Better Catholic (Liturgical Press) and many articles in print and online media, including The Washington Post, America, and Commonweal.

“When leaders live up to their solemn responsibilities and commitments, they can be the difference between light and darkness, hope and despair, life and death for the people whom they have the privilege of serving and protecting. In the final analysis, true leadership is forged in the vicarious crucible of crisis.”

Through an examination of Pope Francis’s words and actions during the coronavirus pandemic, Fr. Orobator finds a model of leadership for a suffering world.

Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, SJ, is president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar. He is author of Religion and Faith in Africa: Confessions of an Animist and Theology Brewed in an African Pot; editor of The Church We Want: African Catholics Look to Vatican III; and co-editor (with Linda Hogan) of Feminist Catholic Theological Ethics: Conversations in the World Church (all Orbis). He lives in Nairobi, Kenya.

The actual meaning of the word “apocalypse” is not “disaster” but “unveiling.” Drawing on John’s prophetic Apocalypse, Keller unveils a “dreamreading” of our current global crisis—particularly the threat of climate change and ecological devastation. John’s text is not a foretelling of future events, but a parable of our present reality, which exposes the deep spiritual roots of these threats.

“Catherine Keller succeeds in confronting the terminal forces of destruction of our present time with the message of the mysterious and terrifying Book of Revelation. A brilliant work taking the apocalypse in the double sense of the word as revelation and end-time seriously, full of surprising discoveries.”—Jürgen Moltmann

“This book plays wonderfully between ‘the overstated and the unspeakable,’ to reveal deep patterns between the world of John’s apocalypse and our own, calling us to the possibility of a last chance for our increasingly uninhabitable planet.”—Kathryn Tanner, Yale Divinity School

“Delivers a chilling, occasionally thrilling, and always arresting rumination on that most alien, yet never more relevant, biblical book—the book that tells us we must mend or end.”—Stephen D. Moore, author, Untold Tales from the Book of Revelation

“Catherine Keller is one of the greatest living theologians and in Facing Apocalypse she opens up that oft-hidden and neglected text of John’s Apocalypse, horses, dragons, and all. . . . Read this book and don’t be left behind.”—Tripp Fuller, host, Homebrewed Christianity Podcast

Catherine Keller is George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology in The Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University. She teaches and lectures across a broad spectrum of pluralist, ecofeminist, process and political theology. Books she has authored include From a Broken Web; Apocalypse Now & Then; God & Power; Face of the Deep; On the Mystery; Cloud of the Impossible; and most recently, Political Theology of the Earth: Our Planetary Emergency and the Struggle for a New Public. She has also co-edited several volumes of the Drew Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium, most recently Entangled Worlds: Religion, Science and the New Materialism.

The first Westerner to be ordained as a monastic disciple in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Vietnamese Zen lineage Sister Annabel Laity was given the Dharma name Chan Duc, which means True Virtue. Now a much-loved senior Dharma teacher in the Plum Village community, Sister Annabel teaches and leads retreats worldwide. She is the author of True Virtue: The Journey of an English Buddhist Nun (Parallax Press).

About Mindfulness: Walking with Jesus and Buddha

How in our busy daily life can we have the opportunity to stop running and come back to the present moment? God is always present. It is we who have wandered off somewhere forgetting to be there for God.

Sister Annabel Laity, an English-born Buddhist nun in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh, offers this unique introduction to the principles and practice of “mindfulness” for a western, Christian audience. Opening each chapter with a quote from scripture, Sr. Anabel uncovers the surprising parallels between Zen and the teachings of Jesus.

First, Sister Annabel applies these lessons to the basics of daily life, learning to breathe, to walk, to eat mindfully, and how we can bring this mindfulness to the experience of our lives: work, activism, suffering, death, and love. In the second part she outlines principles of “double-belonging,” showing how it is possible to be at home in more than one spiritual practice.

Learn more about the book, Walking with Jesus and Buddha

“The Jesus we see here is the mystic, the one who can spot wholeness in all our ruin and brokenness.”—From the Foreword by Greg Boyle

Bill Cain’s The Diary of Jesus Christ is a first-person recounting of the life of Jesus, a new lens through which to see the familiar stories of the gospel—including the Passion.

The story begins with the healing of the leper, heralding the remarkable spirit that flows through the diary accounts—a spirit of discovery, surprise, learning, doubt, failure, and new life.

Bill Cain, SJ, is a Jesuit and an American playwright, whose work wrestles with the great themes of Catholic faith. He is a Peabody Award-winning screenwriter and the creator of the TV show Nothing Sacred, and lives with his Jesuit Community in Brooklyn, NY.

In this companion to her popular Hidden Women of the Gospels, Kathy Coffey offers thought-provoking stories of women who appear in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles.

How might these women experience their encounters with Jesus? As in her first book, Coffey presents women of the New Testament, in the style of “midrash,” which adds depth and context to their stories. She retells them using the first person, so we “meet” these women as individuals, even those without names, such as “the woman who called out” or “the woman who caught crumbs.”

For readers seeking to encounter these figures and their stories in a new way this book will open the door.

Kathy Coffey is the author of thirteen award-winning books and many articles. She has spoken at national conventions and many diocesan gatherings and gives retreats and workshops nationally and internationally. Kathy taught for fifteen years at the University of Colorado, Denver, and Regis Jesuit University. A mother of four and grandmother of four, she now lives in California.