WESTMONT, IL—Carmen Joy Imes, author of Bearing God’s Name and Being God’s Image, has signed a contract with IVP Academic for the Fall 2026 release of a third book titled Becoming God’s Family.
Imes (PhD, Wheaton) is associate professor of Old Testament at Biola University. A graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, she is the author of Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai, Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters, and the editor of Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends.
Imes is a regular contributor to The Well, a fellow of Every Voice, and serves on the advisory council for the Bible Literacy Conference. She is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Society of Biblical Literature and serves on the board of directors of the Institute for Biblical Research.
Following up on her two previous books with IVP Academic, Becoming God’s Family is Imes’s call for the West to recover the “multicultural nature of the people of God and the way the presence of God dwells among us.”
Imes says, “The first book sought to recover the value of the Old Testament, particularly the law at Sinai, for believers’ identity and vocation. The second book, a ‘prequel,’ broadened the scope of inquiry to the identity and purpose of all humans by going back to Genesis 1–11. This third book aims to recover what in the West is a neglected dimension of biblical faith, hiding in plain sight from the beginning to the end of the biblical canon. Our Western individualism prevents us from appreciating the truly communal and multicultural nature of the people of God and the way the presence of God dwells among us. Biblical salvation is not just another and more effective means of self-actualization, as though God were freeing us from slavery to sin so that we could pursue our individual dreams unhindered. Rather, the Bible invites us into a group project and offers us a place to belong. Becoming God’s Family will offer a robust biblical theology of community, highlighting God’s intention to dwell among us collectively. When we attend to these themes in Scripture—God’s presence among the community—we discover that we were never meant to walk alone.”
Becoming God’s Family was acquired by Rachel Hastings, associate academic editor of IVP Academic. She said, “We need more books with a constructive and hopeful vision for the church, and I can think of no scholar more equipped for the task than Carmen. Her scholarly expertise coupled with her ability to speak in a way that resonates with both the academy and the church will undoubtedly make this book a valuable addition to her work in Bearing God’s Name and Being God’s Image.”
