The best new books I’ve read in the last month are
- (5.0) Migrant God: A Christian Vision for Immigrant Justice by Isaac Samuel Villegas (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2025)
- (4.5) From Pulpit to Public Square: Faithful Speech Beyond Church Walls by Richard W. Voelz (Westminster John Knox Press, 2025)
- (4.5) The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson (Orbis Books, 2025)
- (4.5) Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds by John Fugelsang (Avid Reader Press, 2025)
- (4.0) Food Theology: Nourishing Faith in Local Communities by Kellie Lisi and Martin J. Lohrmann (Fortress Press, 2025)
- (4.0) Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide by Karl Forehand (Desert Sanctuary, 2025)
- (4.0) Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm Into a Tool of Healing by Zach Lambert (Brazos Press, 2025)
- (3.5) I Hardly Knew Me: Following Love, Faith, and Skittles to a Transgender Awakening by Nia Chiaramonte (Lake Drive Books, 2025)
Migrant God
Isaac Samuel Villegas writes with pastoral sensitivity and prophetic courage about what he knows best: the lives and struggles of migrants. As an immigrant justice community organizer, an ordained Mennonite minister, and a PhD student in religion at Duke University, Villegas crafts a work that educates, encourages, and empowers.
While many Christians are moved to act by Scripture’s clear and consistent call to care for the migrant, Villegas invites those who follow the Way of Jesus to take a further step by seeing God as a migrant. Migrant God offers an experientially rich, theologically grounded, and deeply relevant exploration of a timely topic.
Welcome Back
One author on this month’s list is returning to So What Faith: Wesley Michaelson-Granberg. He was honored as the author of one of my top two books of the year for the year 2018: Future Faith: Ten Challenges Reshaping Christianity in the 21st Century. In the 2019 Fall semester I taught a course on this book at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas (for the chapter study guides and other materials I created visit Future Faith here on So What Faith). More recently, he was featured in 2020 when I rated his then newly published book, Without Oars: Casting Off into a Life of Pilgrimage, 4.5.