WATER Recommends: January 2024

Belser, Julia Watts. LOVING OUR OWN BONES: DISABILITY WISDOM AND THE SPRITUAL SUBERVERSIVENESS OF KNOWING OURSELVES WHOLE. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2023 (276 pages, $29.95).

Five star alert: Read this book that is so captivating in its creativity, so tough in its analysis, and so fluidly written that, like a good novel, this reader did not want it to end. Julia Watts Besler does not simply want the deaf to hear nor the lame to walk, as so many scripture passages would have it. Rather, she wants the Divine to sign and the rest of us to get with the program in terms of inclusive architecture and design. This is theology, disability activism, queer theory, feminism, and Hebrew Bible all put to the service of structural and personal change.

Coady, Mary Frances. CARYLL HOUSELANDER: A BIOGRAPHY. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2023 (166 pages, $28).

A singular figure in Catholic history, Caryll Houselander was both artist and theologian, both community-attracted and solitary, both creative and tradition-bound. This study of her life offers insights into her complexity and helps readers make sense of her work. Still, she is an enigma which makes her all the more intriguing.

Common, Kate. UNDOING CONQUEST: ANCIENT ISRAEL, THE BIBLE, AND THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2024 (208 pages, $28.00).

Kate Common’s book arrives at a propitious moment when an intractable conflict with scriptural roots cries out for new thinking. The Highland Settlement material is a “liberative origins narrative,” a “countermemory…that can help prompt radical imagination and social change.” This is Feminist Practical Theology at its best and just in the nick of time.

Eulinberg, Jerrolyn S. A LYNCHED BLACK WALL STREET: A WOMANIST PERSPECTIVE ON TERRORISM, RELIGION, AND BLACK RESILENCE IN THE 1921 TULSA RACE MASSACRE. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021 (248 pages, $18.00).

This terrible tale bears telling and retelling since it has been purposely obscured from most accounts of 20th century racist America. Lucidly written, the author brings a critical womanist eye and a keen justice agenda to this scandalous chapter which illustrates the deep and pernicious white racism that continues to plague the US.

Garling, Wendy. THE WOMAN WHO RAISED THE BUDDHA: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF MAHAPRAJAPATI. Boulder, CO: Shambala Publications, 2021 (256 pages, $18.95).

The Buddha had two mothers, his birth mother and his sister who raised him. This book about the latter is a delightfully written volume that adds a dimension oft en missing in Buddhist teaching. The mother nurtured the little boy as well as the early cadres of Buddhist women who laid the foundation for one of today’s major religious traditions. An important read to appreciate Buddhism in its fullness.

Moon, Hellena. LIBERALISM AND COLONIAL VIOLENCE: CHARTING A NEW GENEALOGY OF SPIRITUAL CARE. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications of Wipf and Stock, 2023 (260 pages, $32.55).

Decolonializing pastoral care and related issues is a radical project. Hellena Moo n handles it with scholarly precision and ministerial depth. New emerging paradigms can only make religion more useful in the service of global justice and freedom.

Moultrie, Monique. HIDDEN HISTORIES: FAITH AND BLACK LESBIAN LEADERSHIP. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023 (240 pages, $25.95).

The stories of these 18 women prove that those who are most marginalized often utilize amazing creativity “to do the work their souls must have” as the late Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon taught. Monique Moultrie is a trusted researcher whose skill and care shine  through this illuminating volume of LGBTIQ+ history.

Parker, Julie Faith. EVE ISN’T EVIL: FEMINIST READINGS OF THE BIBLE TO UPEND OUR ASSUMPTIONS. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2023 (224 pages, $19.19).

Julie Parker brings a scholar’s eye and a pastor’s heart to the complex questions of feminist biblical interpretation. Using solid academic foundations, she reconfigures mistaken assumptions about the Bible into insightful, accessible texts for prayer and action. Ministers who preach will benefit enormously.

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. VISIONARY WOMEN: THREE MEDIEVAL MYSTICS. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002, 2023 (79 pages, $11.35).

Taken from Rosemary Ruether’s Women and Redemption A Theological History (2002) this handy compendium of three mystics is a perfect introduction, refresher, or companion on a retreat. Hildegard, Mechthild, and Julian, like Ruether herself, were major contributors to refreshing worldviews and women’s ways of being fully human.