Content - Academic Category

15 Essential Books for New Seminary Students

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Unlock deeper understanding and spiritual growth with this must-have collection of books tailored to guide you through your seminary journey. These books will help you build a solid theological foundation, inspire spiritual reflection, and equip you for faithful service as you start your seminary journey.

Whether you are just beginning your theological education or seeking to further your scholarship, this collection has something for every new seminary student. These books provide the tools to build a solid foundation for faithful ministry and lifelong learning.

An Interview with the Author of "Swing Low"

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

An Interview with the Author of "Swing Low"

A Conversation with the Editors of "The New Testament in Color"

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 11:00:00 GMT

A Conversation with the Editors of "The New Testament in Color"

6 Ways Academics Can Care for Each Other Well

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 14:39:00 GMT

6 Ways Academics Can Care for Each Other Well

Navigating Evangelical Academia as an Ethnic Minority Scholar

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 14:39:00 GMT

Navigating Evangelical Academia as an Ethnic Minority Scholar

A Conversation on Old Testament Prophecy with John H. Walton

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 16:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on Old Testament Prophecy with John H. Walton

A Conversation on the Lawyer's Vocation with Robert F. Cochran

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 16:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on the Lawyer's Vocation with Robert F. Cochran

A Conversation on Christian Abolitionist History with Douglas M. Strong and Albert G. Miller

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on Christian Abolitionist History with Douglas M. Strong and Albert G. Miller

A Conversation on Anxiety and Worship with J. Michael Jordan

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 16:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on Anxiety and Worship with J. Michael Jordan

A Conversation on Oral Culture & Scripture with D. Brent Sandy

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 16:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on Oral Culture & Scripture with D. Brent Sandy

Fall Conferences Roundup: Noteworthy Titles from IVP Academic

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 17:48:00 GMT

Fall Conferences Roundup: Noteworthy Titles from IVP Academic

A Conversation on Luke-Acts with Michael F. Bird

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 15:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on Luke-Acts with Michael F. Bird

A Conversation on Evolutionary Science and Scripture with Dru Johnson

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 15:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on Evolutionary Science and Scripture with Dru Johnson

5 Ways Seminary Deepened My Appreciation of Different Theological Perspectives

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 14:39:00 GMT

5 Ways Seminary Deepened My Appreciation of Different Theological Perspectives

A Conversation on Greco-Roman Mythology and New Testament Studies with Sandra Glahn

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 15:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on Greco-Roman Mythology and New Testament Studies with Sandra Glahn

A Conversation with the Editors of Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 2nd Edition

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 15:08:00 GMT

A Conversation with the Editors of Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 2nd Edition

Being God's Image as a Woman in the Academy and the Church

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:00:00 GMT

By Carmen Joy Imes, Author of Being God's Image

What is it like as a woman in the world of Biblical Studies?

My experience in the academy has been largely positive. Sure, I have stories I could tell, like the faculty member who met with me when I was in seminary and wondered out loud which of his male colleagues would be willing to supervise a woman in the doctoral program. Or the colleague who accidentally referred to the faculty in our department as "the guys" or the other colleague who effused after a faculty hymn sing how wonderful it was to hear "all the men's voices." In moments like that, I feel erased. Invisible. The field of theology and biblical studies has long been one in which the vast majority of professors are male. Although more women have joined their ranks, we are still by far the minority. If my colleagues occasionally misspeak, it's understandable.

On the whole, I have felt well received as a student, faculty candidate, and faculty member, whether in the classroom, in the boardroom, applying for grants, or presenting at conferences. When I landed a tenure-track position, I found it so encouraging that my new institution recognized the value of the work I had been doing, counted time toward tenure, and committed to paying me fairly.

I don't share this experience to minimize or silence the voices of the many women who have felt sidelined, ignored, harassed, or even abused in academic contexts. Inequities persist in some form at many institutions, and we must continue to be vigilant about ensuring that women are fairly treated, fairly compensated, and taken seriously.

However, the more difficult venue for me personally has been church.

Women's Roles in Church Ministry

I am fiercely committed to the church. I can't imagine life without the weekly rhythm of gathering with other believers to worship and be sent back into the world. I felt a call to ministry at a young age. At eight I offered my life to God as a missionary. At twelve I sensed an unmistakable call to missions. In my first year of college, I realized that God had gifted me as a teacher and first tried it out on adults in my home church. During my junior year, I had my first opportunity to teach a course at the college level under the supervision of my professor. I found such deep joy in doing so. For a long time, the desire to teach in the classroom made it relatively easy not to think about women's roles in church ministry. I didn't have to form a conclusion about what the Bible taught on that because I was called to the academy. Preaching and teaching required somewhat different skill sets; I was called to teach. In seminary, that began to shift. God began stirring in me a desire to invest more deeply in the church. A desire and willingness to preach began to flower in my soul. I began to realize that the gendered hierarchy present in many churches does not reflect the vision of Scripture for partnership in ministry between men and women.

My vocation is to study and teach the Bible. I do it all week long in the classroom, on podcasts, on YouTube, and by writing for the academy and for laypeople. But for most of my life, on Sundays, when I walk into the church service, I no longer have a voice. My place is in the pew, not on the platform. I listen to sermons rather than offer them.

On most Sundays, I have more theological education than the man in the pulpit. Depending on the passage, I may even have spent more hours poring over it, taking or teaching classes on it, reading about it, and considering its claims. At the same time, on any given Sunday, pastors around the world are sharing with their congregations what they have learned from my books or podcasts. To be clear, I'm not bitter about learning from men. I bring my journal to church every Sunday as a spiritual discipline. I find that the Spirit of God consistently meets me and speaks to me in some way through our services. But I, too, sense a call to bring the Word of God to the people of God. In my current context, and in most contexts where I have worshiped, it is either not allowed or it is so unusual that it would cause a bit of a stir.

Some of you are wondering, "Why not find another church?"

It's not so simple. A woman's role in the church is only one point of doctrine or practice that I care about. Many other things also matter to me. Finding a church in my neighborhood that has a high view of Scripture and allows both men and women to faithfully teach the Word is nearly impossible. For a variety of historical and cultural reasons, conservative theology usually goes hand in hand with a hierarchy between men and women. Conversely, the churches who tend to champion leadership roles for women are often more progressive in other areas as well, holding views that don't align with a high view of Scripture as our authority today. It doesn't have to be this way, but it often is.

So where does that leave me? As a woman trained in Biblical Studies with a lifetime of experience in ministry, I carry with me a longing for the full inclusion of women in every aspect of the church. For me it's not a matter of equal rights but of faithfully responding to the call of God and the empowerment of the Spirit. No one has a right to the pulpit. Only those called by God and equipped to rightly handle the Word of God should be entrusted with the ministry of preaching. Those of us who sense this calling from God but are prevented from responding carry ongoing grief.

In my current church context, women participate in many ways, including as worship leaders, deacons, Scripture readers, members of the prayer team, and service hosts. This last role includes giving announcements, leading in prayer, leading the liturgy, serving communion, and offering a public reflection or response to the sermon. I have loved the opportunity to minister to our congregation in this way. Our church benefits greatly from the thoughtful voices of many women.

Two weeks ago we were out of town on Sunday, but after the service the elder who preached sent me a copy of his sermon manuscript. On "Holy Name Sunday" he had based his sermon on my book about bearing God's name. He told the congregation about my work and how it had helped him. Greg supports the idea of of women preaching, but our church is still thinking through this issue. It was beautiful to read Greg's sermon but bittersweet for both of us. We're both left with the gnawing question: why is it okay for him to stand in the pulpit and talk about my research, but it's not okay for me to do so? What qualities or qualifications does he possess that I do not? What calling or empowerment does he have that I don't? What is the difference between us?

Testosterone seems an odd basis for ministry leadership.

Scripture's Testimony of Women in Church Leadership

It's true that we don't always understand God's ways. We're called to a life of obedience even when we haven't put it all together intellectually. But the practice of barring women from preaching seems to me to downplay Scripture's testimony of what women have contributed and will contribute to the church.

Drawing on the prophecy of Joel, Peter announced at Pentecost, "Your sons and daughters will prophesy . . . even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy" (Acts 2:17-18 NIV).

Paul is often cited as the one who prohibits women from speaking in church gatherings, but Paul is also the one who says that women should have their heads covered when they prophesy (1 Cor 11:5, 13). Paul assumes that women will contribute to the church by using their voices to declare the Word of God to the people of God. If Paul assumes this, why don't we?

In Romans 16, Paul greets many women who were involved in ministry alongside him: Priscilla, Junia, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Julia, Mary. He says, "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae" (Rom 16:1). Most scholars believe that Phoebe was responsible for delivering Paul's letter to the church in Rome. As a benefactor, she had invested deeply in the church. As Paul's ambassador, her role would have included the public reading and interpretation of the letter. Just as Jesus entrusted the news of his resurrection to a woman, Mary Magdalene, so Paul entrusted his teaching for the church in Rome to a woman, Phoebe.

Besides Paul, the other place in Scripture that people point to in order to justify a gender hierarchy is Genesis 3:16. But should we look to the consequences of the fall for our paradigm rather than to God's vision in Genesis 1–2? In Genesis 1, women are clearly the image of God, ruling alongside men with no hierarchy between them. No human was told to rule another. In Genesis 2, Adam's lack is resolved through the provision of woman as an ally corresponding to him.

Why would we ground our vision of gender relations in the fractured disconnect resulting from sin rather than in the chapters that present to us the world as God designed it to flourish?

If Paul is right when he claims, "In Christ there is neither male nor female…" then why would we keep trying to preserve the fall?

To take seriously the testimony of Scripture means to lean into God's vision of gender partnerships in which both men and women rule creation side by side, ensuring the flourishing of humans as well as the rest of the created world (Gen 1:26-28). It's to recognize that God creates the first woman in Genesis 2 as the first man's suitable ally, not his minion (Gen 2:18). It's to notice the parade of faithful women who led, prophesied, judged, and offered theological reflection to the people of God throughout the Old and New Testaments. It's to read Paul's statements about women's silence in context of the rest of his letters, where it becomes abundantly clear that female followers of Jesus partner with male followers of Jesus in every conceivable role in ministry.

Being in the academy has made it possible for me to read more widely and study more deeply on the topic of women in ministry than I would have if I had pursued some other career. That privilege has enriched my faith, but it has also made my participation in church more difficult in some ways. I've come face to face with a robust vision of mutuality in ministry that I find compelling. And I'm left waiting in this liminal space in which my understanding of God's intentions for the church are partly unfulfilled.

I know I am not alone.

The history of the church is a story that includes innumerable women who God has called to participate in gospel ministry. Some of them were able to respond unhindered. Others encountered opposition, not because they were ungodly but because they were women.

I treasure their stories, and I long for a world where character, not chromosomes, will be the determining factor in whose voices we hear in church.

This article was edited on 3/20/23 for clarity per the author's request.

A Conversation on Early-Church Women in Ministry with Nijay Gupta

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 14:53:00 GMT

Nijay Gupta is a passionate ally of women in the church and academy, and he has harnessed that passion into researching the lives and situations of women named as leaders and ministers in the Bible. His book Tell Her Story harvests those insights from the early church—with real implications for today.

How did your vision for this book arise?

Nijay Gupta: Several years ago, I did a blog series called "Why I Believe in Women in Ministry." I had been on a journey of study on the subject for about twenty years, and I had come to a place of strongly supporting women in ministry, so I thought I would write up some of my reasons. The series got a lot of engagement right away, and I ended up doing over twenty posts in the series. Tell Her Story grew out of that experience, knowing that people are eager to better understand the women who participated in and led the early churches.

What are some of your favorite, underappreciated facts from the life of one of the early-church women?

Gupta: Junia, a female Christian leader in Rome, spent time in prison! That's a fact that often missed and is a pretty big deal. We know prison was very rough for men (torture, disease, malnutrition, suffocation), and all the more for women who very rarely were imprisoned. For Junia to endure prison and then go back into ministry is astonishing. She was also older in the faith than Paul, and probably older in age as well. She represents an earlier generation of Christianity than Paul, imagine that! I tell my students that Paul might well have called Junia "Auntie" and undoubtedly admired her greatly.

If you could sit down with one of the women in the book, who would it be?

Gupta: I mean, how can you pass up a chance to talk to Mary, the mother of Jesus? I would love to hear her talk about that fateful angelic visitation, her difficult pregnancy and the neighbors looking at her with suspicion. Learning over time just how special this Jesus kid is. Raising him, disciplining him! But then following him, seeing him suffer and die. And importantly—helping to lead the early churches. Talk about a Lifetime Achievement Award!

What changes do you see these days in how your peers engage with questions of gender in biblical studies and the church?

Gupta: When I was young, it was often considered natural to prohibit women from ministry and to use stereotypes as justification for that: "women are too emotional, they can't preach, they are more gullible," etc. Fortunately I rarely ever hear anyone use those explanations anymore. More commonly, I hear some scholars just say, "Women are meant to focus on the home" or "women aren't called to pastor," and "that's just the way it is," or "that's what the Bible says." Tell Her Story is really meant to paint a picture of the early Christians in the Roman world where women were everywhere, and they were able to do just about anything.

After they read your book, what do you recommend next for a reader who's gotten excited about the topic?

Gupta: I recommend Beth Allison Barr's The Making of Biblical Womanhood, which covers many eras of Christian history, from early Christianity through medieval Christianity and into the modern era. Also, Discovering Biblical Equality, now in its third edition, is a massive resource that's kind of a mini-encyclopedia on women, the Bible, church history, and theology. Then, Holly Beers's excellent A Week in the Life of a Greco-Roman Woman. Her historical fiction helps readers walk in the shoes of a woman in the first century.

Anything you're working on that we should look forward to?

Gupta: Currently I am writing a book called Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling. I compare early Christianity to state and popular religions in the Greco-Roman world. It is amazing how deviant those Christians were. Today, in America, I feel like Christians either just blend into the background and offer nothing refreshing or attractive, or they stand out for being mean, condescending, and judgmental. The early Christians went all-in for this weirdo named Jesus. So, my motto is #KeepChristianityWeird! (I live in Portland, Oregon, let the reader understand.)

A Conversation on Christian Singleness with Danielle Treweek

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 16:30:00 GMT

What does church history—and the Bible—have to say about the meaning of singleness? In this interview, Danielle Treweek (author of The Meaning of Singleness) talks about the misconceptions our society and the church perpetuates about single people and offers an eschatological vision of singleness that is both hopeful and profound.

Your book The Meaning of Singleness begins by examining the place of singleness in both society at large and the church in particular. What do you think is the most common misconception about singleness?

Danielle Treweek: Sadly, singleness really is the subject of a lot of misconceptions in both of those spheres. But what I find particularly concerning and disappointing is just how many of society's misconceptions about singleness are echoed in the contemporary evangelical church.

On that topic, there is a lot to explore (four chapters worth, in fact!), but if I were to boil it down to the most common misconception, I think it would be that both society and the church see singleness as a state of "lacking." Lacking in love. Lacking in sexual fulfilment. Lacking in relational intimacy. Lacking in purpose. Lacking in possibility. Lacking in belonging. Lacking in authentic self-realization. Both spheres typically define and characterize singleness by what it isn't, rather than by what it is. Or, to put it another way, singleness is primarily thought to be the absence of good, rather than a good in and of itself.

In the book, you offer a robust retrieval of singleness—exegetical, historical, and theological. What did you discover that was the most surprising or encouraging during that process?

Treweek: When I started my exercise of retrieval, I already had a broad understanding of the general landscape of singleness throughout church history. However, I soon found myself surrounded by a diverse cloud of witnesses who challenged me with insights about singleness in the Christian life and community that I had simply not ever encountered before. That was enormously encouraging, exciting, and energizing! But, if I'm being honest, there were times when I also found myself a bit saddened and bewildered by it, too. Why was all of this new to me? How had I not encountered so many of these profound insights before? What could possibly explain or justify the contemporary evangelical church having forgotten our own amazingly rich theological, exegetical, and pastoral inheritance in this regard? It was really a double-edged surprise.

You also cast an eschatological vision of singleness. What do you mean by that, and why is that good news for the church?

Treweek: As evangelical Christians, we are generally eager to emphasize the eschatological significance of earthly marriage—namely as the "mysterious" foreshadowing of the heavenly marriage between Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32). And that's a good thing! But it turns out that our own Christian ancestors were just as eager (if not more so) to emphasize the eschatological significance of earthly singleness. Rather than seeing it as a life of lacking, they understood it to be a life of profound eschatological possibility. You'll need to read the book to find out all the different ways they perceived that to be true! But in summary, those who came before us honored singleness as a life situation that intrinsically called God's people to remember we live in this creation as those who are already citizens of the next.

How has your experience as a single person informed your ministry?

Treweek: While my own singleness has obviously been important for the trajectory and shape of my work, I think it has actually been other single Christians who have most deeply informed my ministry in this regard. Walking in tandem with them; rejoicing when they rejoice; grieving as they have grieved; praying with and for them; empathizing in our shared disappointments; working through feelings of isolation; serving alongside them; exhorting them to keep trusting Jesus, and having them do the same for me. Ultimately, it's been their singleness that has most significantly informed my ministry.

What is your hope for those who pick up and read your book?

Treweek: One of my hopes is that those who read The Meaning of Singleness might be better equipped to love, respect, and value the single members of their church communities. And, of course, I hope it will encourage unmarried Christians (whether they be never-married, divorced, or widowed) to delight more and more in the intrinsic goodness of their singleness. But I also pray that those who read this book might better understand the vitally important and God-glorifying role singles have to play in the church's understanding of her own unique identity. I hope my book might help us all to better realize it's not simply that single Christians need the church, but the church who really and truly needs single Christians.

A Conversation on Renewal Worship with Steven Félix-Jäger

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 14:53:00 GMT

All Christian worship is led by the Holy Spirit. But is there a distinctive theology of Pentecostal worship? In this interview, author Steven Félix-Jäger discusses Spirit-led doxology, implications for the global church, and his own experience of sensing the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship.

Your book Renewal Worship argues that while all worship is Spirit-led, the renewal movement or Pentecostal church offers a distinctive theology of worship. What is distinctive about its doxology?.

Steven Félix-Jäger: Pentecostals and charismatics practice expressive, embodied worship that features an expectation for encountering the Holy Spirit individually and corporately in the communal gathering. They see worship as both the reception of and response to the Spirit's overflow and the visualization of what is to come. Renewal worship uses the Acts 2 account of Pentecost as a guiding theological motif to underscore a theology that is pneumatocentric, eschatological, and steeped in the Pentecostal narrative tradition. What Pentecostals hold to be true is expressed in their worship, and their worship informs what they know to be true.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that those who worship God must "worship in the Spirit" (Jn 4:24). Can you give one example of a time when you sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship?

Félix-Jäger: The primary expected outcome of Pentecostal worship is to sense the presence of the Holy Spirit, so there are countless examples of times when I sensed the Spirit's presence in worship. One moment sticks out particularly well for me, though. When I was eighteen years old, I was a junior high youth intern and worship leader at a large charismatic Southern Baptist Church in central Florida. On our way to a missions trip in Nashville, we stayed the night at a large Baptist church in Georgia. After settling in, me and about ten other students and youth workers decided to hold an impromptu worship service in one of the smaller rooms.

As was customary in those days, we got stuck singing "Let It Rain". . . for a long time! The Spirit was so tangibly present in the room—the air felt thick. At the end of our singing, we prayed and felt renewed and empowered, having dwelt in the presence of God together. When we left the room, the junior high youth pastor looked at us a bit askance and asked, "Did you know you were all singing in tongues?" We were amazed. Everything we heard was in English, but those outside the room heard something different. That was, for me, a pretty radical time of renewal worship.

Why do you think some Christians have difficulty attending to the Holy Spirit, and what are the implications of that for the church's worship?

Félix-Jäger: In our Western context, we've grown accustomed to appreciating artistic forms disinterestedly in stillness and reflection. Most cultures around the world, however, engage rituals and the arts holistically through embodied action. I think this is one of the reasons why Pentecostal worship resonates so well globally. Pentecostals also have a porous sense of the world, believing that the Spirit works in the miraculous even today. Pentecostals pray for and expect healings, signs, and wonders. Other traditions may have different theological emphases that give worshipers different points of focus. I believe every Christian tradition is valuable and offers something special to the kingdom of God, so the key is for each tradition to find its own authentic ways to worship in Spirit and in truth.

How do you think students, pastors, and worship leaders can benefit from your book and incorporate its insights into their ministry?

Félix-Jäger: After recognizing the lack of academic resources for renewal worship, I felt inspired—even called—to write on the subject. Studying renewal worship allows us to grasp what's going on with both the global Pentecostal movement and with Pentecostalism's influence on contemporary worship. This book offers a constructive theology of worship for Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, articulating theological language for commonly utilized renewal worship practices. By evaluating the worship practices of global Pentecostalism, this book can help students, pastors, and worship leaders understand the movement in general and global Christianity broadly.

What is your hope for those who pick up and read your book?

Félix-Jäger: I hope this book illuminates some of the many theological riches that are present in renewal worship. I like to apply Paul's image of church-as-body to Christian traditions. I believe every tradition is unique and significant and has much to offer the kingdom of God. Like the other traditions, Pentecostalism has much to offer as well. Let's find out what those riches are and learn from them. In true ecumenical spirit, I'd love to see worship traditions learn from each other and grow together. One day we're all going to worship together as we make up that great multitude in Rev. 7:9. Why not start now?