We are pleased to announce Reading Religion‘s recent (and positive) reviews of three Wipf and Stock titles.
The first review, of Owen F. Cummings’ John Henry Newman and His Age (Cascade, 2019), comes from the pen of Kevin M. Scott, PhD candidate in philosophy at Notre Dame. Scott writes, “Cummings’ focus on Newman’s historical context makes this an especially valuable introductory text for students and scholars who want to read Newman but lack significant background in 19th century religious history. . . . Even for those who possess basic familiarity, Cummings’ engagement with scholarship on Newman, manifested in his impressive bibliography, will serve as a solid guide to contemporary Newman studies.” The volume on Newman adds to Cummings’ impressive (and continuing) theological ouevre, which includes several books published with Wipf and Stock, including Eucharist and Ecumenism: The Eucharist across the Ages and Traditions (Pickwick, 2013) and Cummings’ latest, Popes, Councils, and Theology: From Pope Pius IX to Pope Francis (Pickwick, 2021). Read the full review here.
Also recently reviewed was Pickwick title, Reading In-Between: How Minoritized Cultural Communities Interpret the Bible in Canada, edited by Néstor Medina, Alison Hari-Singh, and HyeRan Kim-Cragg. Reviewer Sheng Ping Guo is visiting researcher at Cambridge Center for Christianity Worldwide, United Kingdom. Guo writes, “This book is the first kind of those embodied Canadian peoples with complex matrix of minoritized ethno-cultural identities who cry out their own needs to interpret the same scripture differentiating from the traditional lens of ‘the dominant Euro-North American biblical hermeneutics’ (4).” Moving beyond traditional approaches to biblical hermeneutics steeped in Euro-normativity, the book features Canadian scholars from Latino/a, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Cree, and AfriCaribbean backgrounds, who draw on their respective locations to articulate how their communities engage the Bible. Together they show that ethnicity and cultural tradition enrich how different communities weave their life stories with the biblical text in hope of finding wisdom within it. For the full review, visit here.
Finally, the latest RR review is of Paul Galbreath’s Re-Forming the Liturgy: Past, Present, and Future (Cascade, 2019). “The volume gathers Galbreath’s engagement with liturgical theology for over fifteen years and must have taken much thought to seamlessly craft the sections following a sort of a three-step movement. Readers will experience movement, journeying through liturgical lessons of the past (part 1), present experiences (part 2) and earth as guide for the future (part 3),” says reviewer Michael N. Jagessar. Galbreath is Professor of Theology at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is also an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). The review can be found here.