Love Makes No Sense: An invitation to Christian theology by Jennifer Strawbridge, Jarred Mercer, and Peter Groves (SCM Press, £12.99 (£11.70); 978-0-334-05728-4).
“Each chapter engages central issues of theology but remains focused on the Christian life. Although it is a book about doctrine — Christian teaching — it insists that one cannot present a doctrine of the Trinity, or Incarnation, or anything else in the abstract.”
What We Talk About When We Talk About Faith by Peter Stanford (Hodder, £9.99 (£9); 978-1-473-67829-3). New in paperback.
“Peter Stanford has been interviewing people of faith during his thirty-five years as a journalist at national papers including The Daily Telegraph, Independent and The Guardian, as well as for the church press. What fascinates him in such conversations is how creating a space to talk unguardedly about faith unlocks so much more: what shaped and continue to shape the public and private lives of high-profile names; how those values connect with the work they are best known for; and why they believe the search for faith makes them who they are.”
Growing and Flourishing: The ecology of church growth by Stephen Spencer (SCM Press, £19.99 (£18); 978-0-334-05734-5).
“Mara is one of the most marginalised regions in Tanzania, which in turn is a country in the most marginalised continent on the planet, and yet, Spencer argues, the church in the region has exhibited remarkable growth.”
Ways to Go Beyond and Why They work: Spiritual practices in a scientific age by Rupert Sheldrake (Coronet, £20 (£18); 978-1-473-65343-6).
“Dr Rupert Sheldrake, writing as both a scientist and a spiritual explorer, looks at seven spiritual practices that are personally transformative and have scientifically measurable effects.”
Shameless: A sexual reformation by Nadia Bolz-Weber (Canterbury Press, £16.99 (Church Times SPECIAL OFFER PRICE £14.99); 978-1-78622-135-3).
“Raw, intimate, and timely, Nadia Bolz-Weber’s latest book offers a full-blown overhaul of our harmful and antiquated ideas about sex, gender, and our bodies.”
Selected by Frank Nugent, of the Church House Bookshop, which operates the Church Times Bookshop.