A major part of the ministry of CBE International is providing resources—blog, journal, magazine, podcast, book reviews, curricula. . . . CBE, however, does not shy away from promoting resources produced by other authors, even other organizations. As an example, my summer 2021 editorial listed five books and five articles or chapters published by members of our Peer Review Team, none of which were published by or reviewed by CBE. The previous editorial, spring 2021, listed nine books of interest to our readers.
As we read in Ecclesiastes, quoting from the KJV, “of making many books there is no end.” The author of Ecclesiastes bemoans the weariness of studying endless books. Though that weariness is palpable to me, it is not my point here. Instead, I continue to marvel at the vast egalitarian library arising around us and all the more at those who are creating it. Please read on for a few examples.
First, I want to call attention to the book Grounded in the Body, in Time and Place, in Scripture: Papers by Australian Women Scholars in the Evangelical Tradition, edited by Jill Firth and Denise Cooper-Clarke (Wipf & Stock, 2021). This book, which is available from CBE’s online bookstore (cbe.today/bookstore), gathers excellent scholarship from nineteen women with a variety of specialties.
Second, Mandy Smith (also Australian) has published two important books. In both cases, the title aptly forecasts the content. Mandy first wrote a book about ministry and leadership, The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry (IVP, 2015), which has been especially well received. More recently, she has written about Christian living in Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith beyond the Baggage of Western Culture (Brazos, 2021).
A collection of resources that is freely available online is Leaven: A Journal of Christian Ministry, published quarterly from 1990 to 2017 in cooperation with Pepperdine University in southern California (https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/). Leaven covers several topics, many of which reflect the editors’ commitments to unity, worship, and the ministry of women. Though its articles promoting women are too numerous to list here, I will single out a ministry resource for your consideration—a choral reading for public worship, written by Lee Magness, titled, “I Have a Name: Readings on Women Through Whom God Worked.”
Marion Taylor, a member of our Peer Review Team, has co-authored a brand-new book with Joy Schroeder: Voices Long Silenced: Women Biblical Interpreters through the Centuries (WJK, 2022). At least two other Peer Reviewers have books forthcoming from IVP Academic: Susan Howell, Buried Talents: Overcoming Gendered Socialization to Answer God’s Call, and Nijay Gupta, Hidden Christian Figures: Bringing the Women Leaders of the Early Churches Out of the Shadows.
I am constantly reminded that the high-quality resources that promote women in Christian leadership and stand against injustice toward women in its various forms are too numerous to all be reviewed by CBE. I wish you well as you are blessed by these many resources—those listed above and others as well.
