This season’s offerings explore well- and lesser-known religious histories, tackle timely social issues, and advise readers on how to boost their faith in an increasingly cynical world

Top 10

Four Red Sweaters: Powerful True Stories of Women and the Holocaust

Lucy Adlington. Harper Paperbacks, Mar. 18 ($19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-06-337513-0)

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz author provides a “moving” account of four Jewish girls whose fates became intertwined with a simple article of clothing during the Holocaust, according to PW’s starred review. 150,000-copy announced first printing.

The Girl Who Baptized Herself: How a Lost Scripture About a Saint Named Thecla Reveals the Power of Knowing Our Worth

Meggan Watterson. Random House, July 22 ($30, ISBN 978-0-593-59500-8)

Recovering the story of Thecla, a first-century teenager who risked death to follow the apostle Paul, theologian Watterson explores Christianity’s radical founding principles and calls for their renewal.

Heaven Help Us: How Faith Communities Inspire Hope, Strengthen Neighborhoods, and Build the Future

John Kasich. Zondervan, Apr. 8 ($29.99, ISBN 978-0-310-36882-3)

Religious institutions play a vital role in fortifying communities by bridging interfaith divides, providing social services, and more, according to former presidential candidate Kasich.

Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity

Diarmaid MacCulloch. Viking, Apr. 15 ($40, ISBN 978-1-9848-7867-0)

NBCC award winner MacCulloch covers 3,000 years of Christian views on sex, gender, and marriage, highlighting diverse and often contradictory perspectives and those who espoused them.

Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land

Rachel Cockerell. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 6 ($32, ISBN 978-0-374-60926-9)

Cockerell recounts how her great-grandfather helped found a “temporary homeland” in Galveston, Tex., for Jewish refugees fleeing antisemitic violence in early-20th-century Eastern Europe, underscoring how the community struggled between retaining its identity and assimilating into American culture.

Migrant God: A Christian Vision for Immigrant Justice

Isaac Samuel Villegas. Eerdmans, Mar. 13 ($22.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8028-8443-5)

By advocating on behalf of migrants, Christians can build a “beloved community” where people of all sexes, races, and identities are cared for, minister Villegas suggests.

Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus

Elaine Pagels. Doubleday, Apr. 1 ($30, ISBN 978-0-385-54746-8)

National Book Award winner Pagels digs through scripture to reconsider contested elements of Jesus’s life, arguing that many were embellished or papered over in the gospels by disciples eager to gain new followers. 200,000-copy announced first printing.

Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table

Brandan Robertson. St. Martin’s Essentials, May 27 ($30, ISBN 978-1-250-32134-3)

Sketching out an inclusive theology, pastor Robertson debunks scripture-based arguments against homosexuality, celebrates queer figures throughout Christian history, and offers support to those who feel alienated by their church communities.

Shamanism: The Timeless Religion

Manvir Singh. Knopf, May 20 ($30, ISBN 978-0-593-53754-1)

New Yorker contributor Singh traverses the globe to uncover the origins, traditional healing practices, and modern relevance of the ancient spiritual tradition.

A Simple Guide for a Better Marriage: Quick, Practical Insights Every Couple Needs to Thrive

Gary Chapman, with John Hinkley. Moody, Feb. 4 ($16.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8024-3406-7)

The Five Love Languages author explains how improving conflict management, intimacy, and communication can make for more godly marriages.

Religion & Spirituality Longlist

Fiction

Bethany House

Green Pastures by Patricia Johns (Mar. 18, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-7642-4417-9). Three sisters in Lancaster County, Pa., grapple with professional and romantic trials while struggling to uphold their Amish community’s traditions.

Shattered Sanctuary by Nancy Mehl (Mar. 18, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-7642-4336-3) follows an ex–police officer as she reluctantly joins the search for a cunning serial killer and unpacks the trauma of her former partner’s murder.

Two Seconds Too Late by Dani Pettrey (Apr. 15, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-7642-3849-9). An idyllic New Mexico spa becomes
the chilling backdrop for an undercover investigation when a guest vanishes after a fight with her boyfriend.

Kregel

The Dreams We Knew: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties by Rachel Scott McDaniel (Feb. 25, $16.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8254-
4814-0) centers on a private investigator with secrets of her own who teams up with a former flame to solve a fashion model’s murder in New York City.

Written in Secret (The Art of Love and Danger #1) by Crystal Caudill (Mar. 11, $16.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8254-4907-9). A Cincinnati crime novelist gets entangled in a murder investigation—and an unexpected romance with its lead detective—after her latest thriller appears to predict a series of grisly murders.

Revell

Across the Crying Sands by Jane Kirkpatrick (May 20, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8007-4609-4). A woman mourning a miscarriage finds hope and fulfillment in taking over a demanding postal route.

Break My Fall by Lynn H. Blackburn (Mar. 18, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8007-4537-0). The latest Gossamer Falls suspense novel sees a good-hearted dentist become the unwitting target of a vast criminal network.

Midnight on the Scottish Shore: A Novel of World War II by Sarah Sundin (Feb. 4, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8007-4186-0). This “pulse-pounding tale of divided loyalties” follows a double agent whose life is imperiled when her Nazi contacts start to suspect she’s hiding something, according to PW’s review.

Tyndale Fiction

As Sure as the Sea by Jamie Ogle (Feb. 11, $32.99, ISBN 978-1-4964-7971-6). In the Eastern Roman Empire, 20-year-old Demitria struggles to deliver aid to Christian communities persecuted by Emperor Diocletian. An unexpected crisis forces her to accept help from a handsome stranger.

WaterBrook

Hope’s Enduring Echo by Kim Vogel Sawyer (Mar. 25, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-60083-2). Romance blooms between a resourceful pipeline maintenance worker and a paleontology student as the pair hunt for dinosaur bones buried alongside the Arkansas River.

Nonfiction

Baker

Jesus Revealed in the End Times: Hope for Today from the One Who Holds Our Future by Robert Jeffress (Mar. 4, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-5409-0050-0) unpacks the biblical prophecy for the end-times with a focus on Christ’s role in those events.

Balance

Ask Your Spirit: Receiving Life Changing Wisdom from Your Elevated Intelligence by Christine Lang (June 10, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5387-7391-8) explains how readers can use their inner spiritual compass to navigate life’s challenges.

Bantam

The Year God Died: Jesus and the Roman Empire in 33 AD by James Lacey (May 20, $32, ISBN 978-0-593-35522-0). Bestseller Lacey contextualizes Jesus’s life against the backdrop of a politically volatile first-century Roman Empire, shedding new light on Christianity’s beginnings.

Beacon

A Lamp unto Yourself: A Beginner’s Guide to Asian Spiritual Practices, from Advaita and Buddhism to Yoga and Zen by C. Pierce Salguero (Apr. 22, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8070-2039-5) discusses the historical and philosophical foundations for such practices as tai chi and insight meditation, and provides basic guidance for new practitioners.

BenBella

God Was Right: How Modern Social Science Proves the Torah Is True by Mark Gerson (June 3, $39.95, ISBN 978-1-63774-617-2).
The Hebrew Bible offers trenchant answers to modern questions about happiness, personal transformation, diversity, and peer pressure, according to the author.

Brazos

The Anti-greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money Is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward by Malcolm Foley (Feb. 11, $21.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-58743-630-7) analyzes how the pursuit of profit has fueled racism in America and how Christian values can counteract such forces.

Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry by Beth Allison Barr (Mar. 18, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-58743-589-8) argues that the rising importance of the pastor’s wife has provided women with a new area of influence in the church, while also reducing their independent leadership opportunities and solidifying rigid gender hierarchies.

Broadleaf

Church Camp: Bad Skits, Cry Night, and How White Evangelicalism Betrayed a Generation by Cara Meredith (Apr. 29, $26.99, ISBN 979-8-88983-100-6) contends that Christian summer camps inculcate campers with toxic ideas of God while exploiting their faith for money and power.

The Secret Despair of the Secular Left: Our Fraying Connections with Our Communities, Our Bodies, and the Earth by Ana Levy-Lyons (June 10, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-5064-8625-3) posits that the gradual weakening of religious institutions has created a spiritual emptiness in modern society and outlines alternate forms of connection to fill it.

The Wounds Are the Witness: Black Faith Weaving Memory into Justice and Healing by Yolanda Pierce (Feb. 4, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-5064-8533-1) draws on scripture to probe the historical wounds sustained by Black Americans and consider how they might be repaired.

Cambridge Univ.

Silence of the Gods: The Untold History of Europe’s Last Pagan Peoples by Francis Young (July 31, $39.99, ISBN 978-1-009-58657-3) uncovers how pagan communities like the Sami and Finno-Ugri covertly practiced their religious traditions for centuries after Christianity became the official religion of all European countries.

Chosen Books

When Women Support Women: Embracing God’s Call to Be Yourself and Build Ladders for Others by Jessika Tate (Mar. 25, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8007-7301-4) encourages Christian women to forge supportive relationships through which they can help reform their churches and communities.

Convergent

The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage by Richard Rohr (Mar. 4, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-73581-7) mines the writings of Jewish prophets for advice on navigating today’s divided world by prioritizing such values as human connection and divine love.

Eerdmans

The Fearless Christian University by John W. Hawthorne (Feb. 13, $24.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8028-8456-5). Today’s Christian colleges are fueled by a philosophy of fear—of culture wars, public relations crises, demographic shifts, and more—that leave their students unprepared to navigate an increasingly secular world, according to the author.

Judeophobia and the New Testament: Texts and Contexts, edited by Sarah E. Rollens, Eric M. Vanden Eykel, and Meredith J.C. Warren (Apr. 24, $44.99, ISBN 978-0-8028-8288-2), details how Christian scripture has been weaponized to spread antisemitism and supersessionism—the idea that Christians have replaced Jews as God’s true people—from the church’s early days to the present.

Pilgrim: A Theological Memoir by Tony Campolo, with Steve Rabey (Feb. 25, $23.99, ISBN 978-0-8028-8494-7), recounts the late evangelical church leader’s life and theological evolution as he grappled with questions about capitalism, racism, and politics.

The Experiment

The Jewish Way to a Good Life: Find Happiness, Build Community, and Embrace Lovingkindness by Shira Stutman (Mar. 25, $22.95, ISBN 979-8-89303-017-4) shares how ancient Jewish values can help those of all faiths to live more meaningful, joyful lives.

Fair Winds

Sacred Ceremony for a Sacred Earth: Indigenous Wisdom for Healing and Transformation by Aniwa Council of Elders (May 6, $39.99, ISBN 978-0-7603-9212-6). Indigenous elders from various traditions share ancient teachings, stories, and practices for connecting with nature and one’s community.

Faith Words

The Keys to a Happy and Healthy Marriage by Joyce Meyer (June 17, $12, ISBN 978-1-5460-4697-4) explains how couples can use scriptural insights to build successful relationships that prioritize God.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s by Paul Elie (May 27, $33, ISBN 978-0-374-27292-0) traces the origins of today’s “postsecular age” to artists who renegotiated notions of religiosity in 1980s popular culture in individualized, noninstitutional ways, from Martin Scorsese in The Last Temptation of Christ to Madonna in “Like a Prayer.”

Fordham Univ.

Grace of the Ghosts: A Theology of Institutional Reparation by Jeannine Hill Fletcher (May 6, $29.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5315-0987-3) discusses how Catholic institutions can repair harms wrought by their historical ties to white supremacy, including slaveholding at Georgetown University and forced assimilation at Indian Boarding Schools.

Harvard Univ.

For I Have Sinned: The Rise and Fall of Catholic Confession in America by James M. O’Toole (Mar. 4, $35, ISBN 978-0-674-29452-3) charts the rite’s rise in the early 20th century through its 1970s decline (thanks in part to decreased trust in the Catholic church and the growing popularity of counseling) and speculates on its future.

Herald

God Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God by Gregory Boyd (May 27, $14.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5138-1551-0) suggests that God’s true nature is embodied by Christ’s self-sacrificial, other-focused life and ministry.

Hodder Faith

Unmaking Mary: Shattering the Myth of Perfect Motherhood by Chine McDonald (July 8, $22.99, ISBN 978-1-3998-1463-8) studies depictions of the Virgin Mary in art and literature to debunk notions of the ideal mother that permeate Christianity and popular culture.

Inner Traditions

Return with Elixir: Four Maps for the Soul’s Pilgrimage Through Death and Rebirth by Miles Neale (Apr. 1, $29.99 trade paper,
ISBN 978-1-64411-843-6) integrates Tibetan Buddhist philosophy with the work of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung to help guide readers on a path to self-realization.

IVP

Black Woman Grief: A Guide to Hope and Wholeness by Natasha Smith (Feb. 25, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5140-0964-2) frames faith as a source of healing for Black women who’ve endured racism, oppressive social systems, and other traumas.

You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World by Alan Noble (July 8, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5140-1095-2) posits that the burden of determining one’s purpose creates an individualistic and disordered society, and suggests that people instead find their meaning in God.

IVP Academic

Global Christianity and Islam: Exploring History, Politics, and Beliefs by Wafik W. Wahba (Feb. 4, $40 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8308-5195-9) traces the faiths’ intertwined histories and the narratives that have shaped them.

Jewish Publication Society

Planting Seeds of the Divine: Torah Commentaries to Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice by Yiscah Smith (June 1, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8276-1571-7) provides scriptural excerpts and commentaries designed to help foster one’s ability to seek the divine in the everyday.

Knopf

Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church by Philip Shenon (Feb. 11, $35, ISBN 978-1-101-94641-1) chronicles the history of the modern Catholic church and its shifting attitudes toward mercy and forgiveness, its sex abuse scandals, and its ties with other faiths.

Kregel

Brave Woman, Mighty God: 30 Things You Can Do by Laura L. Smith (Mar. 11, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8254-4892-8) spotlights 30 biblical women who persevered through difficult circumstances thanks to God’s help, and promises that readers can do the same.

NavPress

Befriending God: How We Are Undone, Changed, and Made New by Tanya Godsey (Feb. 11, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64158-867-6) recommends that readers cast aside performative religious rites and seek intimacy with God in life’s challenges and complexities.

Stop Trying to Be Successful: The Seemingly Illogical and Sometimes Completely Baffling Call of God by Pete Portal (Feb. 18, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64158-962-8) encourages Christians to discard individualistic notions of professional success and find value in God.

New York Univ.

Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake by Judith Weisenfeld (Apr. 29, $35, ISBN 978-1-4798-2978-1) reveals how, in the decades after emancipation, white psychiatrists pathologized Black modes of religious practice like embodied worship, shaping damaging theories of Black mental health that were harnessed in racist ways.

Paulist

Why I Remain a Gay Catholic: A Spiritual-Sexual Journey by Paul F. Morrissey (June 3, $32.95, ISBN 978-0-8091-5725-9) recounts how the author embraced his identity as a gay priest thanks to a renewed understanding of God’s character.

Princeton Univ.

American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt and the Jews by Andrew Porwancher (June 10, $35, ISBN 978-0-691-20366-9) examines the president’s complicated relationship with the Jewish people, including how he garnered early support from immigrant Jews and contended with an influx of European Jewish immigrants and the xenophobia it engendered.

Reaktion

Light on Darkness: The Untold Story of the Liturgy by Cosima Clara Gillhammer (June 16, $25, ISBN 978-1-83639-043-5) details the Western European history of religious liturgy, highlighting its influence on art, music, and literature.

Red Wheel

Naturally Modern Magick: The Essential Compendium of Spells and Rituals for Health, Happiness, and Prosperity by Lacey Burbage (Mar. 3, $22.95, ISBN 978-1-59003-584-9) gathers charms, spells, and practices that utilize such ingredients as crystals,
flowers, and water to harness the power of the natural world.

Revell

Am I a Better Christian on Zoloft? And Other Questions About Faith I Should Probably Keep to Myself by Mark Tabb (June 3, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8007-4628-5) invites Christians to get curious about their faith and tackles some uncomfortable questions (“If I believe God is in control, why am I upset about politics?”).

Shambhala

How Confucius Changed My Mind: And What He Can Teach You About the Art of Being Human by Charles B. Jones (May 20, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64547-299-5) considers how Confucianism sheds light on life’s most enduring questions, including what it means to be human.

In This Body, in This Lifetime: Awakening Stories of Japanese Soto Zen Women by Sozen Nagasawa Roshi, trans. by Kogen Czarnik, edited by Esho Sudan (June 17, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64547-358-9), illuminates the personal and spiritual lives of 30 Japanese nuns and laywomen who practiced under female Zen master Roshi in WWII-era Japan.

Sourcebooks

How to Be a Saint: An Extremely Weird and Mildly Sacrilegious History of the Catholic Church’s Biggest Names by Kate Sidley (Apr. 29, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-7282-7741-7) takes a comedic jaunt through Catholicism’s history, highlighting the saints who shaped the church and the doctrinal quirks it developed along the way.

St. Martin’s Essentials

The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) about Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues by Daniel McClellan (Apr. 29, $30, ISBN 978-1-250-34746-6) corrects common scriptural misconceptions about abortion, monotheism, modesty,
and more.

Tuttle

The Spirit of Shinto: Finding Nature and Harmony on Japan’s Sacred Path by Hector Garcia, trans. by Russel Andrew Calvert (May 20, $15.99, ISBN 978-4-8053-1840-9), overviews Japan’s indigenous religion, touching on its history, influences on Japanese and Western societies, and present-day applications.

Tyndale Elevate

Why I’m Still a Christian: After Two Decades of Conversations with Skeptics and Atheists—the Reason I Believe by Justin Brierley (Apr. 22, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4964-6693-8) explores how the author’s conversations with Philip Pullman, Richard Dawkins, and other atheists have reinforced his faith.

Tyndale Momentum

If the Ocean Has a Soul: A Marine Biologist’s Pursuit of Truth Through Deep Waters of Faith and Science by Rachel G. Jordan (June 3, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 979-8-4005-0584-3). Studying the natural world through a spiritual lens, the author considers what the sea reveals about God’s power and how humans might heal a damaged environment.

Univ. of Notre Dame

Women in the Orthodox Tradition: Feminism, Theology, and Equality by Ashley Marie Purpura (Apr. 15, $55, ISBN 978-0-268-20922-3) deconstructs the patriarchal traditions and values that uphold orthodox Christianity, and offers in its place a theology that centers women’s perspectives and voices.

Univ. of Pennsylvania

Longing and Belonging: Jews in the Modern Islamic World, edited by Nancy Berg and Dina Danon (Feb. 25, $64.95, ISBN 978-1-5128-2711-8). Contributors explore the rich history of Jews in Islamic countries during the first half of the 20th century, revealing complex forms of connection and exchange.

Univ. of Wisconsin

Chai Noon: Jews and the Cinematic Wild West by Jonathan L. Friedmann (June 3, $42.95, ISBN 978-0-299-35210-3) unpacks how Jewish filmmakers have shaped the Hollywood Western, often by imbuing the films with a distinctly Jewish sensibility despite the absence of characters who are recognizably of the faith.

Upper Room

Sacred Tension: Embracing Dissonance and Dialogue in the Old Testament by William P. Brown (Mar. 1, $24.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8358-2080-6) contends that the apparent contradictions in the Hebrew Bible are an invitation into an ongoing debate about scriptural issues and ethics.

Verso

Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism and the Cultures of the American Jewish Left by Benjamin Balthaser (July 22, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-80429-137-5) connects some Jews’ support of Palestinian liberation in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel and the war in Gaza to a broader progressivist Jewish history in America.

W

Before You Climb Any Higher: Valley Wisdom for Mountain Dreams by Jonathan McReynolds (Feb. 18, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4003-3887-0). The gospel artist issues an “upbeat” invitation for “burned-out believers to find comfort in their ‘true, core identity as a son or daughter of God,’ ” per PW’s review.

Jesus Doesn’t Care About Your Messy House: He Cares about Your Heart by Dana K. White (Feb. 11, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4003-4437-6). Untangling false links between cleanliness, morality, and faith, the author reassures readers that God’s love transcends earthly issues like disorganization.

WaterBrook

Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls, and Generational Trauma by Melanie Shankle (Feb. 18, $26, ISBN 978-0-593-60120-4). Reflecting on her childhood with a verbally abusive mother, Shankle recalls how faith helped her to heal her emotional wounds and raise a daughter with a stronger sense of self-worth.

Wayne State Univ.

East End Jews: Sketches from the London Yiddish Press, edited by Vivi Lachs, trans. by Vivi Lachs and Barry Smerin (Apr. 22, $34.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8143-5134-5). Selections from 26 Yiddish writers open a window into the Jewish East End Community from 1850 to the 1950s, capturing interactions between Jews and their British countrymen while probing other challenges and debates of the time.

Weiser

The Tarot Architect: How to Become the Master Builder of Your Spiritual Temple by Lon Milo DuQuette (May 5, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-57863-854-3) provides a holistic introduction to tarot, including the practice’s history, its role in Western mysticism, and the spiritual significance of specific cards.

Worthy

Your Pain Has a Name: A Therapist’s Invitation to Understanding Your Story and Sorting Out Who You Are from What Hurts by Monica Dicristina (May 13, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5460-0642-8) shows how readers can harness their faith to dismantle false narratives that are holding them back.

Zondervan

Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious by Ross Douthat (Feb. 11, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-310-36758-1) constructs a “stimulating but flawed” argument for religious belief that touches on supernatural phenomena and the complexities of human consciousness, according to PW’s review.