The best new books I’ve read in the last month are
- (5.0) Jesus and Justice: Organizing for God’s Reign on Earth Then and Now by John Dominic Crossan and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz (Amna Press, 2026)
- (4.5) Church Tomorrow? What the ‘Nones’ and ‘Dones’ Teach Us About the Future of Faith by Stephanie Spellers (Morehouse Publishing, 2025)
- (4.5) The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans by Maya Shankar (Riverhead Books, 2026)
- (4.5) Staying at the Table: Being the Church We Say We Are by Terri Hord Owens (Chalice Press, 2026)
- (4.0) Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian by Miroslav Volf and Christian Wiman (HarperOne, 2026)
- (4.0) The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them by Daniella Mestyanek Young and Amy Reed (Otterpine, 2026)
- (4.0) On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right – a Personal Hiistory by Josiah Hesse (Pantheon Books, 2026)
- (3.5) Swimming with the Sharks: Leading the Full-Spectrum Church in a Red-and-Blue World by Jack Haberer (Cascade Books, 2025)
Jesus and Justice
John Dominic Crossan has long earned his place on my short list of all-time great authors here at So What Faith. Three of his previous works have already been named So What Faith Books of the Year in their respective years of publication: How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Violence from Genesis through Revelation (2015), The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction About Jesus (2012), and The Greatest Prayer Ever: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord’s Prayer (2010).
Jesus and Justice is a timely and compelling exploration of the historical Jesus, bringing him to life not as a distant religious icon but as a deeply engaged figure whose message confronted the moral and political realities of the early first century and continues to speak powerfully to those same realities today. In this new work, Crossan and Okinczyc-Cruz invite contemporary followers of the Way of Jesus into personal and active engagement in justice work, reminding us that such participation is precisely how we “follow the revolutionary path of the historical Jesus and continue the Reign of God movement” (p. 128).
Welcome Back
Three author on this month’s list, in addition to Crossan, are returning to So What Faith:
- Stephanie Spellers was featured in 2021 when I rated her then new book, The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community, 4.5.
- Miroslav Volf has been mentioned numerous times, including with reviews or ratings of four prior books: The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse – 4.0 (2025), Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, co-authored, 4.0 (2023), A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good – published and reviewed in 2011, and Captive to the Word of God: Engaging the Scriptures for Contemporary Theological Reflection – published in 2010 and reviewed in 2011.
- Christian Wiman has appeared once following the publication of Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, which I rated 4.0 (2023).