Reading Religion’s Standout Pieces of 2025
Some Suggested Titles from AAR's Reading Religion
Reading Religion is an openly accessible book review website published by the American Academy of Religion. The site provides up-to-date coverage of scholarly publishing in religious studies, reviewed by scholars with special interest and/or expertise in the relevant subfields. Reviews aim to be concise, comprehensive, and timely.
This month’s reading list is a little different; instead of a single theme, we’re looking back at the book reviews, essays, and film reviews that stood out at Reading Religion over the past year. The list includes our first three film reviews, two compelling essays in our “Four Books” series, and several book reviews that offer sharp insight into the books under review and into ongoing conversations in the field of religious studies.
– Kimberly Davis, Senior Editor
Reviews to Read
African Ecological Ethics and Spirituality for Cosmic Flourishing: An African Commentary on Laudato Si’
Edited by Stan Chu Ilo
From the review:
“At the heart of the book is the authors’ invitation to African readers to reclaim a legacy specific to the continent that will allow them to creatively bypass the destructive development practices so many other regions have already begun [...] May this excellent volume initiate many more conversations about how the earth-based wisdom of African cultural traditions might transform Africa’s current ecological and social challenges, as well as provide guidance for the rest of us in contexts only beginning to feel the impacts of our privilege.” – Rachel Joy Wheeler
Shared Devotion, Shared Food: Equality and the Bhakti-Caste Question in Western India
By Jon Keune
From the review:
“Shared Devotion, Shared Food is arguably the single best—most nuanced, insightful, and in-depth—historical study of the relationship between bhakti and caste published to date. For scholars of South Asia’s bhakti traditions, it is necessary reading . . .” - Patton Burchett
Startling Figures: Encounters with American Catholic Fiction
By Michael O'Connell
From the review:
“O’Connell’s thoughtful analyses of these eight American Catholic writers in Startling Figures offer invigorating readings of their work and will encourage many readers to look more closely at their stories and novels.” - Henry L. Carrigan, Jr.
Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion
By Evelyn Alsultany
From the review:
“Through detailed analysis and concrete examples, Alsultany convincingly demonstrates that diversity initiatives in various neoliberal institutions fail to address systemic racism and often perpetuate the issues they aim to solve. Her call for a paradigm shift and a deeper understanding of the root causes of anti-Muslim racism is both timely and necessary, making the book a valuable contribution to discussions on diversity and inclusion.” – KD Thompson
Sinners
Directed by Ryan Coogler
From the review:
“[I]t’s ambition is undeniable. It confronts theologies of white supremacy and offers, through sound and story, an alternative soteriology rooted in Black survival. In a world where vampires quote scripture, and Klansmen speak in financial metaphors, Coogler ultimately interrogates the very grammar of salvation, pressing us to consider who gets to be saved, who must be sacrificed, and who defines sin in the first place.” – Amber Lowe
Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King
By Patrick Olivelle
From the review:
“For scholars of religion, ethics, and political philosophy, Ashoka is a valuable resource, not only for its content, but also for its method. It is a book that rewards close reading, generous inference, and sustained contemplation—a worthy companion in thinking through the prospect of wisdom in public life.” – Patrick Horn
Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality and Politics
By Walaa Quisay
From the review:
“Quisay is particularly attuned to how race, gender, and class shape these tensions. Her interlocutors are not passive recipients of spiritual authority. They actively negotiate, challenge, and reinterpret the moral frameworks they are offered.” - Tazeen M. Ali
Sugarcane
Co-directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
From the review:
“Sugarcane showcases the insidious power of religious violence, institutional hierarchy, and information gatekeeping. It interrogates the festering rot that Catholic cruelty left behind, which communities have to live through and fight against, daily. It also suggests best practices for historians, theologians, and scholars in related fields: support Indigenous communities in their caretaking work. – Zara Surratt
When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species
By Rafael Rachel Neis
From the review:
“Overall, this is a deeply informative and nuanced text, textured at all times by Neis' deep care for all manner of creaturely life. Boundaryless mammals, hybrids, and humans assemble an offering for revitalized kinship, invoking worlds past. It is a compelling, challenging exploration of alternative ways we can be—and be together—on this planet.” – marion eames white
Up Against a Crooked Gospel: Black Women's Bodies and the Politics of Redemption
By Melanie Jones Quarles
From the review:
“Her blending of memoir and scholarship makes her theological claims reverberate beyond the academy, opening her work to readers hungering for a theology that integrates lived experience. This work contributes to existing scholarship on multiple fronts, but mainly in how it centers Black women’s stories as an integral, potent source of knowledge production.” – Desiree McCray
KPop Demon Hunters
Co-directed byMaggie Kang and Chris Applehans
From the review:
“KPop Demon Hunters stands as a compelling case study for scholars of religion interested in how popular culture reimagines ritual, art, and community. The film bridges the shamanic past and the K-pop present, redefining what religious experience can mean in the age of digital fandom.” - Minjung Noh
Four Books Essays to Read
Four Books on Buddhist Modernism
By Jack Meng-Tat Chia
From the essay:
“For scholars of Southeast Asian Buddhism, these works offer both conceptual rethinking and methodological diversity. They remind us that Buddhist modernism is best understood not as a singular trajectory but as a constellation of practices shaped by local histories and global exchanges.”
Four Books on “Signifying” Black Religion and Culture
By Juan Floyd-Dixon
From the essay:
"These four books have profoundly shaped my intellectual journey, deepening my understanding of how Black religion signifies creativity, resistance, and survival. Engaging with Long, Chireau, Callahan, and Pinn continually renews my passion for exploring the sacred, the cultural, and the transformative ways Black life redefines meaning and modernity.”
