Rethinking Paul, Protestant Theology and Pauline Exegesis by Edwin Chr. Van Driel (Cambridge University Press, £22.99 (£20.69); 978-1-108-74259-7).

“In this book, Edwin van Driel analyzes contemporary Pauline exegesis and its implications for Protestant theology. Over the last several decades, scholars have offered fresh interpretations of the apostle, including the New Perspective on and the apocalyptic reading of Paul. Van Driel juxtaposes these proposals with traditional Protestant understandings of Paul and argues that the crucial difference between these two readings lies not in how one understands isolated Pauline notions but in different assumed narrative substructures of the apostle's writings.”

The Persistence of Evil: A cultural, literary and theological analysis by Fintan Lyons OSB (T&T Clark, £24.99 (£22.49); 978-0567-71011-8).

“Recording the history of the belief in the existence of Satan, this book draws from the Bible, the poetry of Dante and Milton, the legend of Faust, and from modern novels and plays such as the works of Mark Twain and G.B. Shaw, and the spiritual writing of C. S. Lewis. Fintan Lyons O.S.B. chronicles the decline of that belief through the centuries as well as the attempts to treat the problem of evil philosophically, using the insights of thinkers such as Karl Barth.” 

Transgressing Race: Readings, theologies, belongings, edited by Jione Havea and Y. T. Vinayaraj (Pickwick Publications, £22.00 (£19.80); 978-1-66674-129-2).

“Dismantling racism requires challenging racialized oppressions and segregations in sacred texts and contexts, in beloved traditions and hallowed theologies. This book offers such biblical and theological discourses in order to transgress the discriminative segregations of racism in connection with other forms of exploitative systems.”

Selected by Frank Nugent, of the Church House Bookshop, which operates the Church Times Bookshop.