四月新書推介

Return to the heart : the biblical spirituality of St. Augustine’s confessions / Shane Owens

Steubenville, Ohio : Emmaus Road Publishing, 2025

St. Augustine's Confessions is the first autobiography in Western literature and a perennial classic of rhetoric, philosophy, and theology. It is also one man's journey away from and back to God, finding himself along the way. And though Augustine's sin and his desires for love, happiness, and peace are his own, in them we can recognize aspects of our own experience.

Return to the Heart: The Biblical Spirituality of St. Augustine's Confessions invites readers to follow in the footsteps of an enduring spiritual master. Bringing St. Augustine's wisdom to a new generation, Shane Owens reveals that it is only in the heart-to-heart encounter with God that we become whole and understand ourselves.

Return to the Heart gives convincing testimony from St. Augustine to the reality that an ever-present God is at work in our lives to bring us to conversion—and to eternal life.

"While much work has been done to reclaim a proper understanding of the intellect, there has been a dearth of engagement with the heart. Dr. Shane Owens shows us that Augustine is truly a master of the heart, mining the wisdom of his writing and helping us understand our own hearts, so that we might encounter ourselves and our Lord more deeply." Matthew Breuinger Founder of Wellspring Counseling & Coaching

"Dr. Owens hands down the richness of St. Augustine for the average person by going to the core of who this saint is. Return to the Heart is a beautiful, meditative, and thematic book that not only walks one through St. Augustine's thought and conversion, but ultimately is an invitation for one to have their own conversion to the Lord." Katie Weiss Founder of Behold Visio Divina

Rereading revelation : theology, ethics, and resistance / Greg Carey

Grand Rapids, Mich. : William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2025

A fresh theological encounter with the book of Revelation, informed by contemporary concerns and reading strategies

Greg Carey, a respected scholar of the New Testament and apocalyptic literature, shows how Revelation can speak meaningfully to today’s readers. He highlights themes in Revelation that resonate powerfully in our current era: the person of Jesus, hope in the face of death and adversity, resistance, authority, violence, gender, wealth, and more. In so doing, Carey invites readers to reconsider old assumptions about the book of Revelation and reread the text with openness to new and surprisingly contemporary insights.

Students, teachers, and pastors will find much to ponder and discuss here. Readers will come away with a deeper understanding of Revelation’s unique voice within the New Testament; an improved ability to articulate concerns and problems they may have with Revelation; and the resources they need to engage this complex book of the Bible in constructive and life-giving ways. Simply put, Carey’s Rereading Revelation is a paradigm-changing book.

The genuine Jesus and the counterfeit Christs : New Testament and Apocryphal Gospels / Simon Gathercole

Grand Rapids, Mich. : William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2025

“In the academy, the parish, and the public square, one of the most persistent and pressing questions revolves around the trustworthiness of the Christian Gospels. Gathercole responds to that concern with The Genuine Jesus and the Counterfeit Christs, an inviting conversation built upon complex scholarship. Readers are not only assured that the four canonical Gospels are trustworthy, but are given the tools to understand why because they come to understand who the evangelists proclaim Jesus to be. I cannot wait to recommend this rich and accessible guide to students, parishioners, and neighbors alike.” Amy Peeler Wheaton College

“Simon Gathercole’s The Genuine Jesus and the Counterfeit Christs gets to the heart of why the four Gospels are genuine: they embody the message of Christ and the apostles, a message that fulfills Old Testament expectations. The apocryphal gospels, though, don’t reflect this message. This learned yet accessible volume deserves wide readership and belongs on the shelves of lay people, students, pastors, and teachers. Highly recommended!” Benjamin L. Gladd The Carson Center for Theological Renewal

“In The Genuine Jesus and the Counterfeit Christs, Simon Gathercole debunks popular arguments about how various ancient sources rival the validity of the four New Testament Gospels. Gathercole concisely presents evidence that the four Gospels are early in composition, accurate in telling the story of Jesus, and united on the core truths about his life, teaching, and saving death and resurrection. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John deserve to be in a category of their own, and they belong in the New Testament as a fourfold witness to Jesus Christ. This is an excellent book to assign to students or share with fellow church members.” Nijay K. Gupta Northern Seminary

Judeophobia and the New Testament : texts and contexts / edited by Sarah E. Rollens, Eric M. Vanden Eykel, and Meredith J.C. Warren

Grand Rapids, Mich : William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2025

An essential resource for understanding the troubling role of the Christian scriptures in anti-Semitism

“Hostility to Jews and Judaism from the far right to the far left can be expressed in ways that draw, knowingly or unknowingly, on the New Testament and its reception. Judeophobia and the New Testament is a teaching tool that will enable those of good faith to more effectively spot and respond to this phenomenon.” Tzvi Novick University of Notre Dame

“There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to assessing the degree to which the New Testament manifests what is sometimes called ‘Judeophobia.’ The strength of this volume is the dedication of its many contributors to examining specific texts in specific contexts. Whether the desire is to condemn or to excuse or to problematize the rhetoric of early Christian writers, truth is not served by overgeneralizations.” Patrick Gray Rhodes College