Ten Theology Books to Watch For – May 2023

The Theology of Mercy Amba Oduyoye: Ecumenism, Feminism, and Communal Practice

Oluwatomisin Olayinka Oredein

(U of Notre Dame Press)

This illuminating study explores African theologian Mercy Amba Oduyoye’s constructive initiative to include African women’s experiences and voices within Christian theological discourse.

Mercy Amba Oduyoye, a renowned Ghanaian Methodist theologian, has worked for decades to address issues of poverty, women’s rights, and global unrest. She is one of the founders of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, a pan-African ecumenical organization that mentors the next generation of African women theologians to counter the dearth of academic theological literature written by African women. This book offers an in-depth analysis of Oduyoye’s life and work, providing a much-needed corrective to Eurocentric, colonial, and patriarchal theologies by centering the experiences of African women as a starting point from which theological reflection might begin.

Oluwatomisin Olayinka Oredein’s study begins by narrating the story of Mercy Oduyoye’s life, focusing on her early years, which led to her eventual interest in women’s equality and African women’s theology. At the heart of the book is a close analysis of Oduyoye’s theological thought, exploring her unique approach to four issues: the doctrine of God, Christology, theological anthropology, and ecclesiology. Through the course of these examinations, Oredein shows how Oduyoye’s life story and theological output are intimately intertwined. Stories of gender formation, racial ideas, and cultural foundations teem throughout Oduyoye’s construction of a Christian theological story. Oduyoye shows that one’s theology does not leave particularity behind but rather becomes the locus in which the fullness of divinity might be known.

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Thomas F. Torrance and Evangelical Theology: A Critical Analysis

Habets / Stamps, Eds.

(Lexham Academic)

Thomas F. Torrance invites evangelicals to think more Christianly. Thomas F. Torrance and Evangelical Theology: A Critical Analysis brings Torrance into closer conversation with evangelical theology on a range of key theological topics.

• Thomas F. Torrance and the Evangelical Tradition (Thomas A. Noble)
• Torrance, The Tacit Dimension, and The Church Fathers (Jonathan Warren P. (Pagán))
• Torrance and the Doctrine of Scripture (Andrew T. B. McGowan)
• Revelation, Rationalism, and an Evangelical Impasse (Myk Habets)
• Theology and Science in Torrance (W. Ross Hastings)
• A Complexly Relational Account of the Imago Dei in Torrance’s Vision of Humanity (Marc Cortez)
• Barth, Torrance, and Evangelicals: Critiquing and Reinvigorating the Idea of a “Personal Relationship with Jesus” (Marty Folsom)
• Torrance and Atonement (Christopher Woznicki)
• Torrance and Christ’s Assumption of Fallen Human Nature: Toward Clarification and Closure (Jerome Van Kuiken)
• Torrance, Theosis, and Evangelical Reception (Myk Habets)
• Thinking and Acting in Christ: Torrance on Spiritual Formation (Geordie W. Ziegler)
• ‘Seeking Love, Justice and Freedom for All’: Using the Work of T.F. and J.B. Torrance to Address Domestic and Family Violence (Jenny Richards)
• Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Work (Peter K. W. McGhee)
• Torrance and Global Evangelicalism: Some Potential Generative Exchanges with Contemporary Indian Evangelical Theology (Stavan Narendra John)

Thomas Forsyth Torrance (1913–2007) was one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century, yet his work remains relatively neglected by evangelicals.

A diverse collection of contributors engage Torrance’s pioneering and provocative thought, deriving insights from theological loci such as Scripture, Christology, and atonement, as well as from broader topics like domestic violence and science. These stimulating essays reveal how Torrance can help evangelical theologians articulate richer and deeper theology.

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