Ending Abusive Theologies: Beginning again with love by Adrian Thatcher (SCM Press £30 (Church Times SPECIAL OFFER PRICE £24); 978-0-334-06768-9).

“Following various church abuse scandals, there is now a growing realization that bad theology and bad outcomes are deeply connected. Ending Abusive Theologies attributes the widespread decline of Christian belief in the West in part to harmful, indeed abusive, doctrines. At the same time, there has been a widespread failure of theology to equip the Church to engage with a world that has lost interest in, and patience with, the Church, while retaining its interest in all things ‘spiritual’.”

Stories of Faith, Hope and Love: The Church of tomorrow — imagining the Kingdom of God, edited by Charlie Baczyk-Bell (DLT, £14.99 (£13.49); 978-1-917362-24-5).

“A hopeful and generous scan of the horizon for the Church of England, collecting critical state-of-the-moment original chapters by some of the leading progressive writers in the Christian Church today. The contributors are: Mark Oakley (on a poetic and prophetic Church), Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley (on hopeful endurance), Simon Cuff (on Catholicity and wholeness), Rachel Mann (on cherishing trans lives), Luke Larner (on the Church and money), Bishop Anderson Jeremiah (on racial justice), Carl Turner (on ministry), Sharon Prentis (on collective wisdom), Alice Goodman (on being a parson in a mortal church), and ‘Views from Without’ by Bishop Sandra Fyfe, Gemma Simmonds and Winnie Varghese. The collection’s editor, Charlie Baczyk-Bell, has written a chapter on the Gospel imperative of hospitality. Lord Rowan Williams has written the Foreword, and Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy has written the Afterword.”

The Eucharistic God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by Ralph McMichael (Cascade Books, £26 (£23.40); 978-16667-0219-4).

“The celebration of the Eucharist has taken place throughout the history of Christianity and continues today throughout a variety of churches. The Eucharist, along with Baptism, is central to lives of most Christians throughout the world. Yet, we have not asked who is this God that we approach through the Eucharist, as the Eucharist? We have allowed our theology and doctrines to go on their course, while the celebration of the Eucharist takes a different course. This book presents the Eucharist and the confession of the Triune God as one reality. The purpose of this book is to re-imagine God from within the Eucharist, to confess the eucharistic God.”

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