Most Anticipated Books of 2016

This first list is a short one, but no less strong on that account.

• Robert Jenson, A Theology in Outline: Can These Bones Live? (Oxford UnivPr, April ’16). A new title from Jenson is always something to look forward to. There’s a reason he’s widely praised as America’s finest living Protestant theologian. This book is based on a 2008 series of undergraduate lectures he gave at Princeton University. The lectures were “lightly polished” into their current form with the help of Yale Div School lecturer Adam Eitel.
• Ephraim Radner, Time and the Word: Figural Reading of the Christian Scriptures, (Eerdmans, Aug ’16). Another title I’d suggest deserves a spot on your must read list for the year. Will likely be a challenging read for beginning theology students, but will certainly reward the extra efforts it will require.
• —, A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life, (Baylor UnivPr, July ’16).
• Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, (Baylor UnivPr, June ’16). The long-awaited sequel to Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. Need I say more?
• C. Kavin Rowe, One True Life: The Stoics and Early Christians as Rival Traditions, (Yale UnivPr, March ’16). For folks who consider philosophy a way of life, and not just something for academics.
• Rowan Williams, On Augustine, (Bloomsbury, June ’16). Rowan meets Augustine. Yes please!
• —, Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life, (Eerdmans, 2016).
• —, The Tragic Imagination: The Literary Agenda, (Oxford UnivPr, Nov 2016).
• Charles Taylor, The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity, (Belknap Press, March ’16).
• Francis Watson, The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological Reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus, (Baker Academic, April ’16).
• James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, (Brazos, April ’16).
• John Bowlin, Tolerance among the Virtues, (Princeton UnivPr, Aug ’16). Sure to be excellent.
• Michael J. Buckley, What Do You Seek?: The Questions of Jesus as Challenge and Promise, (Eerdmans, Aug 2016).
• Gilbert Meilaender, Not by Nature but by Grace: Forming Families through Adoption (Univ Notre Dame Pr, Sept 2016)

And A Few Edited Volumes Worth Noting

Essay Collections can be tricky endeavors. Often they deliver an uneven product. They might have really only one or two essays that command your attention, while the rest of their contents don’t quite follow suit. The following collections, however, I consider exceptions to this rule. They all feature rosters of leading theologians working at the top of their game on some of the hottest topics in contemporary academic theology. So if you’ve got any interest in questions related to topics in theological ontology, God’s (in)capacity to suffer, divine providence, or the character of the Christian life, here are some titles worth considering.

• Trinity and Election in Contemporary Theology, Ed. Michael Dempsey, (Eerdmans, 2011).
• The Analogy of Being: Invention of the Antichrist or Wisdom of God?, Ed. Thomas J. White, (Eerdmans, 2010).
• Divine Impassibility and the Mystery of Human Suffering, Eds. James Keating and Thomas Joseph White, (Eerdmans, 2009).
• The Providence of God: deus habet consilium, Eds. Francesca A Murphy and Philip Ziegler, (T&T Clark, 2009).
• Sanctified by Grace: A Theology of the Christian Life, Eds. Kent Eilers and Kyle Strobel, (T&T Clark, 2014).