Leading authors launching books in 2021 include a members of evangelical “royalty;” a leader among young progressive Christians; and a Black theologian sharing the bedrock faith of her grandmother.
Sarah Bessey, the acclaimed author of numerous books and co-curator and co-host of the Evolving Faith Conference, an annual gathering of young, progressive Christians, offers a kind of literary prayer circle in A Rhythm of Prayer (Crown, Feb. 9).
She selected contributions from prayers by Barbara Brown Taylor, Amena Brown, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and other renowned artists and thinkers, and accompanies them with new essays. Editor Ashley Hong describes “deeply tender yet subversive prayers” that offer “rest, joyful resistance, and a call to act.”
Anne Graham Lotz, the powerful evangelizing daughter of Billy Graham, and her own daughter, Rachel-Ruth Wright have penned a personal guide to parents and grandparents who want to shape the future in Jesus Followers: Lessons in Passing the Baton of Truth to the Next Generation (Multnomah, Oct. 5).
Lotz, international speaker and a prolific author of bestsellers, and Wright, a Bible study leader, offer “a warm and inspiring glimpse into their family life, sharing stories that reveal spiritual wisdom and practical insight for raising the next generation of Jesus Followers,” according to the publisher.
Yolanda Pierce, professor and dean of Howard University School of Divinity, author of In My Grandmother’s House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit (Broadleaf, Feb. 16) knows all too well the lessons of survival needed in a world “hostile to Black women’s bodies and spirits.”
She’s a scholar of African American religious history and founding director of the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life at the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Reared by her grandmother in the faith inherited from enslaved ancestors, her book keys on “the experiences of those living on the underside of history, teasing out the tensions of race, spirituality, trauma, freedom, resistance, and memory,” according to the publisher.
