An Announcement of the Greatest Kind

Ever since the summer, I have been hard at work outlining, pitching, and beginning the writing of my second book, currently tentatively titled Daily Bread: A Faith-Based Toolkit for Economic Justice. Inspired by my doctoral research at Seattle University, Daily Bread is a multidimensional Christian response to the inequality of our post-Great Recession era. It was designed specifically because of feedback in my research from respondents who overwhelmingly indicated that they felt the church has a role to play to facilitating conversations around economics and inequality.

Today, I can announce that I have signed a contract to publish it in the spring of 2020 with Church Publishing Inc., the press of the Episcopal Church, which did such a good job editing and designing my debut book, Oregon Trail Theology.

While OTT, as my first book, was very much the “book of my heart,” in which I basically chiseled open my heart, dumped its contents onto a page, and prayed that my editor could make it readable (he did), Daily Bread resides in both my heart and my head. The topic of the church’s relationship with economic (in)equality is something I am passionate enough to have written my doctoral thesis on, but it is also something that I want deeply to write about for an audience much larger than my thesis committee (and whoever happens to be browsing ProQuest).

Daily Bread will not be a dense academic treatise, however! I am writing accessibly for pastors and laypeople alike to examine Biblical texts, church and U.S. history, and contemporary experience in the search for ways to talk about economic inequality in whatever your faith context may be. Scripture commentaries, historical anecdotes, statistics, and storytelling will all come into play as I try to build a case for deeper Christian engagement on the congregational level with economic (and, by extension, as they intersect) racial and gendered inequality.

This is a topic which I believe is as timely as ever with the escalating concentration of wealth among a very fortunate few, and I believe that faith (and not just Christian faith!) can, and should, have something important to say in response, and to try to bring about a more equitable world as a part of our kingdom-building. Daily Bread  will be, I hope and pray, meeting a most important need for many of you--and, I know, for me as well.

I will be sure to share with you updates about Daily Bread’s progress over time--when my manuscript is complete, when the front cover is designed, and, of course, when it becomes available for pre-order, likely sometime in the autumn or early winter of 2019. Right now, the manuscript is close to 40% complete, and I am excited for the directions it will take—both for me in completing it and for you in (I hope) eventually reading it.

As ever, it is a blessing and a joy to be able to write for you. Thank you for the privilege of letting me into your lives with my words.