Please join us in celebrating our members on their professional news and accomplishments!
As a reminder, AAR publishes member accomplishments including new publications, award announcements, and media mentions. Share your wins with us!
Awards and Accomplishments
James McGrath
John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer Named Best Book in New Testament by the Biblical Archaeology Society
“The first study of its kind, John of History, Baptist of Faith sheds light on the historical John the Baptist and his world. James F. McGrath applies historical-critical methodology not only to the New Testament but also to the Mandaean Book of John, a holy text of the last extant gnostic sect. McGrath uses the teachings of John’s pupil, Jesus, as a window into his mentor’s beliefs. Along the way, he brings new clarity to questions of contention among scholars, such as John’s use of immersion as a substitute for temple sacrifice.
Bold in its claims yet careful in its method, John of History, Baptist of Faith lends fresh insight into John, Jesus, and their world. McGrath’s pioneering monograph will challenge and intrigue students and scholars of the New Testament and Second Temple Judaism.”
Books and Publications
Melanie Dobson
Belong: Group Spiritual Direction for Christian Friendship and Communal Discernment
“By embracing the rich tradition of early Methodist class meetings, early monasticism, and Ignatian and Quaker traditions, this book offers practical guidance on spiritual direction for your community. Learn how to navigate conflicts with grace and create a space for genuine community and spiritual wholeness. An appendix with guidelines, schedules, and more provides helps for implementation, is available online with purchase.
In a world filled with loneliness and division, sow seeds of belonging with group spiritual practices that foster unity and consensus. Journey towards God’s preferred future, where connection brings us together as one in faith and love.”
Salih Sayilgan
Following the Prophet: The Life and Spiritual Legacy of Muhammad
“Biographies of the Prophet Muhammad often focus on his historical context in seventh-century Arabia. Yet understanding the Prophet solely through the lens of ancient history fails to capture the significance and meaning of this individual, whose teachings have shaped the world and continue to guide nearly one-quarter of the global population today.
With this book, Salih Sayilgan provides a loving portrait of the Prophet as he has lived in the hearts of Muslims across the centuries: as a religious light and spiritual guide. Drawing on a diverse body of Islamic literature on the Prophet, Sayilgan offers a vista onto the expansive and variegated legacy of this vitally significant religious figure. Examining how Muslims have remembered and reimagined the Prophet’s spirit in different ways as expressions of their love for God and His messenger, this book highlights the central place of the Prophet Muhammad in the religious lives of Muslim believers.”
Timothy Stanley
Understanding Religion through the Eyes of Others: Case Studies of Key Thinkers
Contemporary theologians tend to associate the Holy Spirit with the formation of local communities, social movements, and fluid relational networks-and not with institutions such as denominations or global church bodies. In this work, Jamie Pitts argues that this pneumatological-sociological picture misses important aspects of the Spirit’s work.
Pitts draws on a wide range of theological and theoretical resources to depict the Spirit as organizing the complex, dynamic, and relationally entangled structures that constitute creation. Human organizing that seeks to participate in the Spirit can take a variety of analogous structural forms, including formal organizations or institutions. Organizational participation in the Spirit is not a function of an organization’s scale, mobility, or relative informality, but rather of its practical orientation toward the Spirit’s goals of life, solidarity, healing, and inclusive justice. A series of case studies clarifies and extends the implications of the argument in connection to organizing for environmental, gender, sexual, and racial justice. In the final chapter, Pitts addresses the role of a political theology of the organizing Spirit in imagining organizational alternatives to the global neoliberal order.
Darryl W. Stephens
Trauma-Informed Christian Ethics: Bearing Witness through Love, Justice, and Solidarity in Community
“This work examines Christian ethics sensitive to the trauma histories that are already present individually and collectively in and among our faith communities.
Stephens encourages us to see that Christian ethics is real, perspectival, dialogical, participatory and purposeful – he reconceives the entirety of Christian ethics through trauma-informed lens, recognizing that many people wrestle with significant trauma histories every day. He explores the theological implications of trauma-informed approach to a wide range of social issues, and engages with Wesleyan, feminist and liberationist perspectives.
Designed for classroom use, it includes a number of pedagogical features, such as case studies and questions for discussion, engaging with key areas of contemporary concern.”