New Books in Religion

Tune in to this interview about Body Language: Voice, Embodiment, and Textuality in the Hebrew Bible (Yale UP, 2026). Jacqueline Vayntrub is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University in the Divinity School. She holds a Ph.D. with honors in Northwest Semitic Philology from the University of Chicago. Her research operates at the intersection of biblical philology, poetics, and the history of biblical scholarship. She is the author of Beyond Orality: Biblical Poetry on its own Terms (Routledge 2019), Body Language: Voice, Embodiment, and Textuality in the Hebrew Bible (Yale University Press, 2026), as well as the co-author of Hebrew Funerary Inscriptions from Iron Age Judah (Society of Biblical Literature Press, forthcoming). Her current major projects include a commentary on Ecclesiastes for the Old Testament Library series (Westminster John Knox Press), and serving as Project Director for an NEH-funded international collaboration investigating the institutional history and anti-Jewish scaffolding of modern biblical criticism.
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Since time immemorial, water has been a major theme in myth, religion
and folklore throughout the world. With its 12,000-mile coastline, as
well as a plethora of rivers and lochs, Scotland is a particularly
rewarding place in which to explore the spiritual dimensions of what is
both the most commonplace and yet the most mysterious of all chemical
compounds.

Liquid Faith: Scotland's Sacred and Supernatural Waters
(Birlinn, 2026) by Ian Bradley is a journey from healing wells,
springs, river sources and bogs to the seashore, islands and whirlpools,
to discover the legends, superstitions and rituals that have grown up
around them. Drawing on spirituality, philosophy and faith as well as
history and tradition, Professor Bradley highlights the crucial
importance of water over thousands of years, and emphasises its
preciousness and vulnerability today and in the future.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
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It is a curious fact that among the first Yiddish books ever printed was a translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1540, only 18 years after Luther's famous translation (which it shamelessly cribbed). In the centuries that followed, another dozen or so missionary translations directed to Yiddish-speaking Jews followed. This talk will explore a dramatic change in the character of these translations in the twentieth century, when new conceptions of the Yiddish language, new cosmopolitanism in Yiddish culture, and new understandings of Jewish-Christian conversion converged to create new translation styles that aimed to express Jesus's Jewishness through a rich and haymish Yiddish.

Join YIVO for a very Jewish Christmas celebration featuring a talk on Yiddish translations of the New Testament by Naomi Seidman.

This lecture originally took place on December 21, 2023.
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Should willingness to kill be a requirement for U.S. citizenship? Girl Without a Country: The Untold Story of a Landmark Fight for U.S. Citizenship (Purdue University Press, 2026) by Rick Ramseyer tells the compelling, confounding story of Martha Graber—a Mennonite, registered nurse, and conscientious objector who in 1929 was twice denied citizenship because she refused to say she would take up arms to defend the United States. The unexpected denials, which came despite Martha's pledge to give her life for her adopted country, caught the attention of a diverse group of peace advocates, religious leaders, lawyers, and politicians, setting up a climactic third court appearance.

Martha’s nineteen-month fight for citizenship made national news, featuring dramatic testimony, historical insights, and interesting backstories that stretched from Alsace-Lorraine in western Europe to America’s heartland. Elegantly written by Martha’s maternal grandson with never-before-published details and closely connected with a controversial Supreme Court decision, Girl Without a Country surfaces an array of topical issues, ranging from immigration and naturalization to conscientious objection and patriotism. Perhaps most importantly, Martha’s story considers what it truly means to be an American.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

Who Is a True Christian?: Contesting Religious Identity in American Culture (Cambridge UP, 2024) examines how American Christians have tried to determine who qualifies as an authentic Christian and which beliefs should be treated as authoritative. Congdon approaches the question historically, tracing debates over terms such as orthodox, historic and biblical Christianity across the twentieth century and into the present.

The book distinguishes between describing Christianity as it has existed and prescribing what Christianity ought to be. It considers how theological disagreements, cultural identity and political conflict have influenced the boundaries Christians draw around their faith.

In its conclusion, the book proposes a more plural understanding of Christian identity through the ideas of polydoxy and religious autonomy. These proposals form the author's alternative to fixed definitions of a single, universal Christian norm.

Key Ideas:

The meaning of “true Christian” has remained contested rather than historically uniform.

Descriptive accounts of Christianity do not necessarily settle prescriptive questions about what Christians should believe.

Labels such as orthodox, historic and biblical Christianity developed within particular historical and cultural debates.

Religious identity in the United States is often connected to broader questions of culture, authority and politics.

The book closes by considering polydoxy and religious autonomy as alternatives to a single fixed standard of Christian identity.

Takeaway From the Conversation:

The conversation centers on the difficulty of defining authentic Christianity in a diverse and divided religious culture. Congdon's analysis raises questions about who has the authority to establish religious boundaries, how those boundaries have changed over time and what happens when one group claims the power to determine who belongs.

About Podcast Host

Angela Marie Hutchinson is the author of “Create Your Yes! When You Keep Hearing No,” named a Forbes No. 4 book to advance your career. She is a podcast host for New Books Network, where she leads conversations for the neuroscience and Christianity channels. Hutchinson is also a talent and intellectual property executive, former social media professor and BBC commentator. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.
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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion