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2024 Book Review Roundup: Journal of Ecumenical Studies

In 2024, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies reviewed a whopping 31 titles. Working across traditions and borders, these texts speak to the continued breadth of ecumenical and interreligious study. 

WINTER ISSUE 59:1 

We began with Dan Polish reviewing Marcus Braybrooke’s book Interfaith Pioneers, 1893-1939: The Legacy of the 1893 World Parliament of Religions.

Eugene J. Fisher called Alan L. Berger’s Elie Wiesel: Humanist Messenger for Peace (Routledge) “important, indeed vital” in his review.

Minjung Noh reviewed two titles in our Winter 2024 issue. The first was Benjamin Hebblethwaite’s A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, published by the University Press of Mississippi.

The second was Vodou and Christianity in Interreligious Dialogue, edited by Celucien L. Joseph, Charlene Desir, and Lewis A. Clormeus and published by Wipf and Stock. 

Mark Ellingsen reviewed Michael Mitias’s Human Dialogue, published by Peter Lang. 

SPRING ISSUE 59.2

Our spring issue reviews began with Overcoming Orientalism, edited by Tamara Song and published by Oxford University Press. Seth Ward reviewed it, describing the insights as “achingly relevant.”

Jeffrey Dudiak reviewed José Francisco Morales Torres’s Wonder as a New Starting Point for Theological Anthropology, Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in Religion and Theology, published by Lexington Books, a “sprawling set of studies, heavy in references to, and quotations from, an impressive range of material across several disciplines.”

Zev Garber reviewed The JPS Tanakh: Gender Sensitive Edition, a new translation by the Jewish Publication Society in partnership with Sefaria. 

Roberta Sterman Sabbath’s Sacred Body: Readings in Jewish Literary Illumination (Rowman & Littlefield) was also reviewed by Zev Garber, who called the chapters “appealing and well-written.” 

Joe Loya reviewed Faith, Reason, and Theosis, edited by Aristotle Papanikolaou and George E. Demacopoulos and published by Fordham University Press. 

Daniel Polish describes chapters of With the Best of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps and Mistakes as “even more compelling now than when they were written.” The book was edited by Lucinda Mosher, Elinor J. Pierce, and Or N. Rose, and published by Orbis books.

Rachel Mikva reviewed Everyday Wisdom: Interreligious Studies in a Pluralistic World by Hans Gustafson, published by Fortress Press.

Zev Garber reviewed Idolatry: A Contemporary Jewish Conversation, edited by Alon Goshen-Gottstein and published by Academic Studies Press. 

Angelina Berliner reviewed Religion and Broken Solidarities: Feminism, Race, and Transnationalism edited by Atalia Omer and Joshua Lupo for the Contending Modernities series from the University of Notre Dame Press. 

“Okpaleke offers here persuasive insights to help readers understand the state of ecumenism and interreligious relations in Nigeria.” Effiong Udo reviewed Ecumenical and Interreligious Identities in Nigeria: Transformation through Dialogue by Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke, published by Rowman & Littlefield. 

In his fifth review for us this year, Zev Garber called Contemporary Catholic Approaches to the People, Land, and State of Israel a “well-balanced, highly informative work.” The book was edited by Gavid D’Costa and Faydra L. Shapiro, and published by the Catholic University of America Press.

Our spring issue ended with Gene Fisher’s review of Alan Race’s My Journey as a Religious Pluralist: A Christian Theology of Religions Reclaimed, published by Wipf and Stock.

  • Read the full review here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/931515

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SUMMER ISSUE 59.3

Our summer reviews began with Sandra Bearsall’s review of Moving into the Ecumenical Future: Foundation of a Paradigm for Christian Ethics by John W. Crossin, published by Pickwick Publishing.

Dennis Feltwell reviewed J. Stoutzenberger’s Mystery and Tradition: Catholicism for Today’s Spiritual Seekers, published by iPub. 

“Though gathered on the same path, Christians will walk it differently, drawing on different resources and pursuing different praxes. The ability to explain ourselves to one another as Whalon does seems a gift and practice unto itself.” Mike Smith reviewed Pierre Whalon’s Choose the Narrow Path: The Way for Churches to Walk Together, published by Peter Lang.

Zev Garber additionally reviewed Bruno Latour’s If We Lose our Earth, We Lose Our Souls, published by Polity Press. 

“By erasing the histories, stories, cultures, and religions of colonized populations, the colonizer gets to define what and how we learn.” Angelina Berliner reviewed Decolonizing Interreligious Education: Developing Theories of Accountability by Shannon Frediani. The book was published by Rowman & Littlefield.

The Origins of New Testament Christology: An Introduction to the Titles and Traditions applied to Jesus was reviewed by Glenn B. Siniscalchi. The book was written by Stanley E. Porter and Bryan R. Dyer, and published by Baker Academic.

Our final summer review was The Many Faces of Jesus Christ: Intercultural Theory by  Volker Küster, published by Orbis Books. Glenn B. Siniscalchi reviewed it, calling it “an excellent example of the models approach to theology.”

FALL 59.4

Our first fall review was Donovan Schaefer’s Wild Experiment: Feeling, Science, and Secularism after Darwin, reviewed by Samantha King. The book was published by Duke University Press.

  • Read the full review here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/943897

Zev Garber reviewed Danya Ruttenberg’s On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World. The book was published by Beacon Press.

  • Read the full review here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/943896

Jake Wumkes reviewed Coloniality of the Secular: Race, Religion, and Poetics of World-Making by An Yountae, published by Duke University Press.

Axel Takacs reviewed Marianne Moyaert’s Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other: A History of Religionization (Wiley). 

  • Read the full review here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/943894

Joey Baker Reviewed Holiness and Pentecostal Movements: Intertwined Pasts, Presents, and Futures, published by Penn State University Press and edited by David Bundy, Geordan Hammond, and David Han. 

  • Read the full review here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/943895

Finally, Gene Fisher reviewed Patrick Riordan’s Human Dignity and Liberal Politics: Catholic Possibilities for the Common Good, published by Georgetown University Press. 

We seek reviewers!

We had a truly terrific set of reviews this year and are excited to see what comes next in 2025. If you want to review a book with the J.E.S., visit https://dialogueinstitute.org/book-reviews for more information and recommended books to review, or contact book review editor Che Pieper at reviews@dialogueinstitute.org.

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2023 Book Review Roundup: Journal of Ecumenical Studies

As 2023 comes to a close, we are happy to report that the Journal of Ecumenical Studies reviewed 14 books this year! We had a great selection of important interreligious and ecumenical works highlighting the diversity of the fields in 2023. 

Our year started with Eugene Fisher reviewing Fred Lazin’s book American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry: A Call to Conscience, published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Read it here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/890324.  

 

Glenn B. Siniscalchi reviewed David Bentley Hart's That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation, published by Yale University Press, commenting that “This book is a mesmerizing defense of the claim that everyone will freely submit to the Christian God…” Read it here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/890325. 

 

Seth Ward reviewed Susanne Scholz’s and Santiago Slabodsky’s edited volume, The New Diaspora and the Global Prophetic: Engaging the Scholarship of Marc H. Ellis, published by Lexington Books/Fortress Press. Review: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/890326 

 

"The supreme value of the book is Kasimow’s remarkable gift of self-portraiture.” Peter A. Huff reviewed Harold Kasimov’s book Love or Perish: A Holocaust Survivor's Vision for Interfaith Peace, published by iPub Global Connection.

Read it now at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/890328. 

 

Jonathan C. Friedman reviewed Peace and Faith: Christian Churches and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Cary Nelson and Michael C. Gizzi and published by Academic Studies Press. The review is available here at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/890327.

 

Journal of Ecumenical Studies co-editor David Krueger reviewed Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry’s book The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy, published by Oxford University Press. Check it out at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/890329  

 

Our summer edition included three reviews, starting with Joseph Loya’s review of Catholics without Rome: Old Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and the Reunion of Negotiations of the 1870s by Bryn Geffert and Leroy Boerneke and published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Available now at at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/902009 

 

“What is most interesting about this impressive, multi-authored volume is its genuinely ‘catholic’ character.” – Robert Nicastro in his review of Marc Pugliese and John Becker’s Process Thought and Roman Catholicism: Challenges and Promises published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Read it now at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/902010 

 

Eugene Fisher reviewed Teaching the Shoah: Mandate and Momentum by Zev Garber and Kenneth L. Hanson for @CamScholars. You can read it on our ProjectMUSE at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/902011!  

 

We finished the year strong with 5 reviews in our winter edition! Zev Garber returned with a reviews of @RMikva’s Interreligious Studies: An Introduction published by @CambPressAsses Read it here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/914311

 

Zev Garber additionally reviewed Kenneth Hanson’s Luke: Illuminating the Sage of Galilee for @centergcrr.

Read it at the JES now! https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/914312 

 

“This book is an emotive and critical reflection by Jewish and Christian clergy and academics on To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven (TDW)” Zev Garber’s review of From Confrontation to Covenantal Partnership: Jews and Christians on Orthodox Rabbinic Statement of "To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven Read it hear at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/914313 

 

Nathan Maroney reviewed A Handbook on the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by @DrCraigAEvans and David Mishkin, published by @hendricksonpub.

Available to read now at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/914315

 

Finally, Zev Garver also reviewed The Nun in the Synagogue: Judeocentric Catholicism in Israel by Emma O'Donnell Polyakov for @PSUPress.

You can access it like all other reviews on our ProjectMUSE at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/914314 

We had a great selection of books and are excited to see what 2024’s releases offer. If you are interested in reviewing a book with the JES, visit https://dialogueinstitute.org/book-reviews for more information and our recommendations of books to review. See you in 2024!

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