Histories of faith, philosophy, and the lives of those who sparked great spiritual movements are classic territory for religion and biblical studies scholars. Academic publishers are releasing titles tracing the birth of Judaism, mapping the global sweep of Christianity, portraying centuries of Black Christian life in America, finding new ways to read Jesus’s words, delving into the rise of Buddhism, and more.

Jennifer Banks, a senior executive editor at Yale University Press, calls Buddhism: A Journey Through History (Jan. 2025) “the fullest account yet of the global spread and diversity of Buddhism.” Author Donald S. Lopez Jr., a scholar of Buddhism and Tibetan studies, follows 25 centuries of this philosophy’s evolving ideas and practices and what it has to say about topics from art and science to identity and sex.

Studies of the historical Jesus were all the rage a few decades ago but went out of fashion when scholars couldn’t find accord, says Eerdmans acquiring editor Trevor Thompson, who notes that today there’s a new push to “reengage” with the subject. He points to The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (out now), edited by New Testament and Bible scholars James Crossley and Chris Keith. They look at the topic, Thompson says, “with a sense of humility, a sense that some things we absolutely thought—and taught—as true may not have been so.” Eerdmans is also looking afresh at John the Baptist in John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer (out now) by James F. McGrath, a scholar of New Testament language.

How far back are scholars looking? Millennia, in the case of Karel van der Toorn. A scholar of ancient religions, he starts with the Iron Age in Israelite Religion: From Tribal Beginnings to Scribal Legacy (Yale Univ., Apr. 2025). The publisher calls it a “panoramic, thousand-year history of Israelite religion,” which, through a millennium of persecution, oppression, exile, and the encroachment of Hellenistic culture, evolved into an “elegantly literate tradition built on sacred text.”

Scholars also dive into the historic background of the Bible. Lexham Press offers Lost Words and Forgotten Worlds: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls (Apr. 2025), by ancient religions scholar Andrew Perrin, who tracks the origin of, myths about, and controversies surrounding the parchments. Baker Academic’s Behind the Scenes of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts (out now), edited by scholars Bruce W. Longenecker, Elizabeth E. Shively, and T.J. Lang, is what the publisher calls a comprehensive “one-stop introduction” to the history of the New Testament.

Paula Fredriksen, historian and a professor emerita in comparative religion, populates her book, Ancient Christianities: The First Five Hundred Years (Princeton Univ., out now) with “not only theologians, bishops, and emperors,” the publisher says, “but also gods and demons, angels and magicians, astrologers and ascetics, saints and heretics, aristocratic patrons, and millenarian enthusiasts.” Cambridge University Press picks up the Christian history timeline at the Gutenberg Bible and takes it up to today in Christianity at the Crossroads: The Global Church from the Print Revolution to the Digital Era (fall 2025). The author, religion historian David N. Hempton, tracks the impact of communication systems on what the publisher calls “the rise of empires, transformation of gender relations, and demographic shifts in world Christianity from the West to the Global South.”

IVP Academic’s new two-volume work by theologian Walter Strickland II, Swing Low: A History of Black Christianity in the United States, is being billed by the publisher as a groundbreaking theological-intellectual portrait. Volume one traces Black believers’ contributions to history and culture from 1600 to today. Volume two is a companion anthology of primary source documents and interviews ranging from a 1776 sermon to the words of rapper and record producer Lecrae.