Here are some excellent new theology books * that were released in April 2026 :
* broadly interpreted, including ethics, church history, biblical studies, and other areas that intersect with theology
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Parenting Beyond Boundaries in Mark’s Gospel
Sung Uk Lim and Amy Lindeman Allen
(Eerdmans)
A paradigm-shifting study of parenting in the New Testament
Challenging popular attempts to mold the Bible into a single fixed model for parenting, New Testament scholars Sung Uk Lim and Amy Lindeman Allen explore the fascinating range of parent-child relationships depicted in the Gospel of Mark. By examining the multifaceted roles of parents in the biblical text while also attending to the agency of children, Lim and Allen illuminate approaches to parenting that have rarely been discussed in biblical studies: collaborative parenting, politicized parenting, borderless parenting, and vulnerable parenting. Their findings reveal biblical parenting to be surprisingly diverse, adaptive, and flexible, with parents in the Markan narrative deftly navigating boundaries of gender, class, ethnicity, and dis/ability.
While much has already been written about women and children in the New Testament, Lim and Allen’s book fills a significant scholarly gap regarding relationships between mothers and children, fathers and children, and mothers and fathers. The book also stands out for its engagement with childist, feminist, and womanist biblical scholarship, and its in-depth analysis of parenting power dynamics. For biblical scholars, seminarians, and anyone seeking a fresh perspective on family and household dynamics in early Christianity, Parenting Beyond Boundaries in Mark’s Gospel is an innovative study that is sure to generate lively discussion and renewed insights.
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Seeing, Knowing, Becoming: Sense Perception as Metaphor in Augustine
Amanda C. Knight
( Baylor UP )
Augustine stands tall in the history of Christian thought as theologian, pastor, and philosopher in equal measure. His work, with its masterful use of language and depth of conceptualization, continues to challenge and resource the theological task. A particular mark of his brilliance lies in his appeal to the commonplace metaphor that the soul is an eye, a move that is not mere ornamentation but rather indicative of a larger, implicit schema. Tracing this schema not only yields an account of what Augustine thinks but also how he thinks.
Amanda Knight presents this aspect of Augustine’s thought as an entry point for his understanding of the reformation of the soul, or “psychological” reformation. To demonstrate this claim, Seeing, Knowing, Becoming divides Augustine’s theory of sense-perception into three major premises or loci held up as analogs for major theological notions pertinent to psychological reformation: the ontological basis that occasions sensory pleasure or pain and the psychological states that afford delight or repulsion in the encounter with God; the psycho-physical mechanism that causes sensory pleasure or pain and the theory of action and of the will; the way in which two psycho-physical intermediaries make vision possible and the way that two epistemological intermediaries, reason and the incarnate Word of God, make the apprehension of God possible.
Pushing beyond the outdated bias that Augustine’s figurative language is merely rhetorical, Knight’s study is consonant with current research in cognitive science indicating the centrality of metaphor to everyday thought and affectivity. Seeing, Knowing, Becoming contends that Augustine’s figurative language is worth plumbing and offers a holistic account of Augustine’s view of redemption, bringing together aspects of Augustine’s view of personal transformation, moral psychology, ontology, and epistemology.
*** Which of these theology books of April 2026 do you want to read first?
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C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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