Six New Things – Week of March 25, 2025
God’s stories call us to and empower us for empathy – which moves us to heal traumas, reconcile divisions, and work for justice – especially with and on behalf of creation and people being pushed further and further to the margins.
ONE
The right Children’s Bible can establish deep roots of faith that grow in strength for living the Gospel. We highlighted The Just Love Story Bible (Beaming) and The Book of Belonging (Penguin) a few weeks ago. They are joined by God’s Stories as Told by God’s Children: An Illustrated Storybook Bible (The Bible for Normal People), which ‘features stories from over 50 leading biblical scholars, theologians, faith practitioners and storytellers’ – all contributing to a Bible that ‘welcomes [children’s] questions’ as it ‘illuminates the Bible’s historical contexts, embraces its weird bits, and celebrates its many storytellers’. See its accompanying website for resources for parents and faith leaders.
Find more in our Faith Formation: Bible with Children & Families lib guide.
TWO
The above provide a counterpoint to Angela Denker’s, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood (Broadleaf), ‘a comprehensive look at the rise in radicalization among young white men in America, especially focused on the role of right-wing Christianity in the increase of religious-based hatred and violence’, which includes a, ‘deep dive into the online rabbit holes of right-wing Christian influencers and conservative Christian ideology to understand how the preaching of “traditional gender roles” and “submission of women” has led to anger, outrage, loneliness, depression, and limiting identities for young white Christian men across America’.
To say this is essential readings these days is an understatement.
THREE
It may not be a radicalization remedy, but empathy at least offers a Christian counter-narrative.
Got Empathy? (Illustrated Ministry blog), explores how empathy is having a ‘moment’, right now – and offers some pretty cool stickers for countering empathy’s current negative press.
For more concrete support for redirecting unhealthy emotions, How We Heal: A Journey toward Truth, Racial Healing, and Community Transformation from the Inside Out (Disruption), ‘serves as a testament to the power of transformation and a blueprint for how each of us, no matter who we are or how we lead, can use racial healing to bridge the empathy deficits in our communities’.
Find more in our Faith, Love, Compassion, & Forgiveness and Anti-Racism: Healing – Intersectionality lib guides.
FOUR
And there is definitely more healing that needs to be done.
King of the North: Martin Luther King’s Freedom Struggle Outside of the South (New Press), ‘speaks directly to our struggles over racial inequality today’, as it, ‘radically expands our understanding of King’s life and work — a vision of justice unfulfilled in the present.’ The Zinn Education Project provides additional resources here.
Nowhere is that ‘vision of justice’ more unfulfilled than at our borders. The Asylum Seekers: A Chronicle of Life, Death, and Community at the Border (Broadleaf), ‘offers a rare narrative of the horror of the US-Mexico border’, as it reveals ‘the trauma [asylum seekers] carry, the community they create, and the faith they maintain.’
Find more in our MLK & Civil Rights Era and Immigrants & Refugees lib guides.
FIVE
People with neural and physical differences also live amidst our unfulfilled vision of justice. Blessed Minds: Breaking the Silence about Neurodiversity (Chalice) invites us to create an ‘inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and understood’ as we ‘foster a church that truly reflects the love and acceptance of Christ’.
A surprise ‘bombshell bestseller in Japan’, long listed for the International Booker Prize, Hunchback: A Novel (Hogarth), is a ‘defiant, darkly funny debut novel about a young woman in a care home seeking autonomy and the full possibility of her life’. Discover the intersections of disability justice, women’s rights, and global questions about self-determination.
Find more in our Special Needs & Neurodiversity and Ableism & Disability Rights lib guides.
SIX
Empower adults and young people together to rediscover and live into Christ’s vision of justice:
- for creation – through women’s leadership – with Rachel Carson’s Wonder-Filled World: How the Scientist, Writer, and Nature Lover Changed the Environmental Movement (Calkins Creek). It’s great for Women’s History Month!
- for community transformation and safe spaces for all – with Once for Yes (Feiwel & Friends) – a teen novel that is ‘a testament to the endurance of love and the people we carry with us, wherever we go’.
- for the multitude of people and issues around whom injustice is growing every day – with Rise Up! Powerful Protests in American History (Barefoot) – a nonfiction picture book designed to ‘inspire young activists’ through an exploration of 25 moments of protest, resistance and revolution throughout American history’.
Find more in our Climate Care and Arts, Protest, & Justice lib guides.
AND find more in our NEW Tweens & Teens: Fiction lib guide. If you know of a book for Tweens & Teens we should include in this new curated collection, please let me know!
