This Spring, President David Gushee solicited recommendations of "best first books" by SCE members in Christian ethics that were "published in 2014 and later or are in the publishing pipeline for release in the next eighteen months."

Many dozens of books were recommended, not all of which met the president's intended criteria: authored, not edited, books; solo authorship, not jointly authored; with a settled text, not in the manuscript review process.

The list below includes the 37 books submitted that met all criteria. President Gushee will select three "best first books" by September 15. Authors will be invited to speak for 15-18 minutes on their books in the second presidential plenary session in Portland.

SCE Best First Books Initiative

Bibliography

Arbo, Matthew, Political Vanity: Adam Ferguson on the Moral Tensions of Early Capitalism. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014.

Astorga, Christina A. Catholic Moral Theology & Social Ethics: A New Method. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2014.

Brocker, Mark. Coming Home to Earth. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2016.

Clair, Joseph. Discerning the Good in the Letters & Sermons of Augustine. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Clark, Meghan J. The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity and the Praxis of Human Rights. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014.

Cox, Kathryn Lilla. Water Shaping Stone. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2015.

Daniel, Joshua A., Transforming Faith: Individual and Community in H. Richard Niebuhr. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2015.

de Graaff, Guido, Politics in Friendship: A Theological Account. New York, NY: T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2014.

Decosimo, David. Ethics as a Work of Charity: Thomas Aquinas and Pagan Virtue. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014.

Fitzgerald, John J. The Seductiveness of Virtue. New York, NY: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017.

Grimes, Katie Walker. Fugitive Saints: Catholicism and the Politics of Slavery. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017.

Guth, Karen. Christian Ethics at the Boundary: Feminism and Theologies of Public Life. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015.

Hollowell, Adam Edward, Power and Purpose: Paul Ramsey and Contemporary Christian Political Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2015.

Kiess, John R., Hannah Arendt and Theology. New York, NY: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2016.

Morris, Daniel A., Virtue and Irony in American Democracy: Revisiting Dewey and Niebuhr. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016.

Moses, Sarah M., Ethics and the Elderly, The Challenge of Long-Term Care. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2015.

Moultrie, Monique. Passionate and Pious: Religious Media and Black Women’s Sexuality. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Manuscript.

Newson, Ryan.Radical Friendship: The Politics of Communal Discernment. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2017.

Peppard, Christiana Z. Just Water. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2014.

Rajendra, Tisha. Migrants and Citizens: Justice and Responsibility in the Ethics of Immigration. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Forthcoming August 2017.

Rice, Lincoln. Healing the Racial Divide. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2014.

Scheid, Anna Floerke. Just Revolution: A Christian Ethics of Political Resistance and Social Transformation. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015.

Scheid, Daniel P. The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Senior, John E. A Theology of Political Vocation. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2015.

Sensenig, Peter M. Peace Clan: Mennonite Peacemaking in Somalia. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2014.

Sohn, Michael. The Good of Recognition. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014.

Stephens, Darryl W. Methodist Morals: Social Principles in the Public Church’s Witness. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 2016.

Stewart-Kroeker, Sarah. Pilgrimage as Moral and Aesthetic Formation in Augustine’s Thought. Manuscript. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Forthcoming 2017.

Sullivan Dunbar, Sandra. MS for Human Dependence and Christian Ethics. Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming 2017.

Thompson, Andrew R. H. Sacred Mountains: A Christian Ethical Approach to Mountaintop Removal. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015.

Tuininga, Matthew. Calvin’s Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Vasko, Elisabeth T., Beyond Apathy: A Theology for Bystanders. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015.

Werntz, Myles. Bodies of Peace. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014.

Wiebe, Joseph R. The Place of Imagination. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2017.

Williams, Reggie L. Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014.

Young, Thelathia Nikki. Black Queer Ethics, Family, & Philosophical Imagination. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.