December 2023 | LISLE, IL—Christianity Today has released the winners of its 2024 CT Book Awards, and InterVarsity Press had seven titles recognized with Awards of Merit or as finalists in individual categories. The honorees from IVP include:
- Christian Living/Spiritual Formation Award of Merit: On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living by Alan Noble
- Church/Pastoral Leadership Award of Merit: In Church as It Is in Heaven: Cultivating a Multiethnic Kingdom Culture by Jamaal E. Williams and Timothy Paul Jones
- Apologetics/Evangelism Award of Merit: Humble Confidence: A Model for Interfaith Apologetics by Benno van den Toren and Kang-San Tan
- Bible and Devotional Finalist: Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal by Esau McCaulley
- Biblical Studies Finalist: Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament by Sandra L. Glahn
- Missions/Global Church Finalist: Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from a Chinese House Church Movement by Wang Yi, edited by Hannah Nation and J. D. Tseng
- Politics & Public Life Finalist: Just Discipleship: Biblical Justice in an Unjust World by Michael J. Rhodes
“We and others in our industry respect these awards due to the rigorous review that the content receives,” said IVP President and Publisher Terumi Echols. “It’s not a popularity contest. It honors what nourishes the soul, challenges the mind, moves the heart, and strengthens our walk as Christians.”
On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living, the CT Award of Merit recipient in the Christian Living/Spiritual Formation category, is a deeply personal essay by Alan Noble, who considers the unique burden of everyday life in the modern world. Sometimes, he writes, the choice to carry on amid great suffering—to simply get out of bed—is itself a powerful witness to the goodness of life, and of God.
Ethan McCarthy, Associate Editor at IVP, said, “The idea was to do a really short, widely accessible book that drew on some of Alan’s previous cultural criticism work (his book You Are Not Your Own in particular), but in a much more immediate and personal vein, applying some of those ideas to the particular experience of mental suffering. I think it’s Alan’s loveliest work to date: it’s got the kind of concision and clarity that show not only Alan’s skill as a writer, but also how much he’s wrestled with these ideas. It’s at once almost jarringly realistic about the reality of human suffering, but completely saturated in the sober hope of the gospel.”
Noble (PhD, Baylor University) is associate professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University, cofounder and editor in chief of Christ and Pop Culture, and an advisor for the AND Campaign. He has written for The Atlantic, Vox, BuzzFeed, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, and First Things. He is also the author of Disruptive Witness and You Are Not Your Own.
The Award of Merit recipient in the Church/Pastoral Leadership category, In Church as It Is in Heaven: Cultivating a Multiethnic Kingdom Culture by Jamaal E. Williams and Timothy Paul Jones, shows how multiethnic churches provide a unique apologetic for the gospel. Along the way, the authors tell the story of their own church—a majority-white congregation which is being transformed into a family that reflects the diversity of heaven. “This is as clear and compelling a book about the multiethnic church as I know of,” said McCarthy. “These guys bring not only real skill as writers, and a learned and compelling biblical basis for their model, but also a wealth of practical experience from their own church. This isn’t a bunch of nice-sounding ideas, or a ‘what if?’ kind of book. It’s coming out of the actual struggles and joys of working toward the multiethnic kingdom of God in our actual churches, with actual people.”
Jamaal E. Williams (DEdMin) serves as lead pastor of Sojourn Church Midtown in Louisville, Kentucky, and as president of the Harbor Network. Timothy Paul Jones (PhD) teaches apologetics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and serves as a preaching pastor at Sojourn Church Midtown. In addition, he has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books, including Finding God in a Galaxy Far, Far Away; Christian History Made Easy; and, with James Garlow and April Williams, the bestselling The Da Vinci Codebreaker.
Humble Confidence: A Model for Interfaith Apologetics received the 2024 CT Award of Merit in the Apologetics/Evangelism category. Coauthored by Benno van den Toren and Kang-San Tan, Humble Confidence provides a global, intercultural introduction to Christian apologetics. They present a model of apologetics as crosscultural dialogue and accountable witness, then explore how it plays out in relation to specific contexts and the major world religions—including primal religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, secularism, and late-modern spiritualities.
“I’m delighted that CT’s judges have recognized what a remarkable book this is,” said Jon Boyd, Associate Publisher and Academic Editorial Director. “Humble Confidence both inspired and stretched me in my thinking about crosscultural apologetics, so it doesn’t surprise me that the authors have been awarded this honor. Van den Toren and Tan’s very approach to apologetics itself opens up new territory in interfaith dialogue, and then they deliver on their title’s promise—with exemplary levels of both Christian humility and Christian confidence.”
Van den Toren (PhD, Theological University in Kampen) is professor of intercultural theology at the Protestant Theological University in Groningen, the Netherlands. He has taught in French-speaking Africa and at Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University, and his books include Christian Apologetics as Cross-Cultural Dialogue and Reasons for My Hope: Responding to Non-Christian Friends.
Tan (PhD, Aberdeen University) is general director of BMS World Mission. He is also chair of the Commission on Mission and provides leadership for the Global Baptist Mission Network of the Baptist World Alliance, and he has previously served as head of mission studies at Redcliffe College and executive director of AsiaCMS.
Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal by Esau McCaulley is the 2024 CT Book Award finalist in the Bible and Devotional category. In this short volume, priest and scholar McCaulley introduces the season of Lent, showing us how its prayers and rituals point us not just to our own sinfulness but also beyond it to our merciful Savior. Lent is part of the Fullness of Time Series which invites readers to engage with the riches of the church year, exploring the traditions, prayers, Scriptures, and rituals of the seasons of the church calendar.
The IVP finalist in the Biblical Studies category was Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament by Sandra L. Glahn. “It seemed highly unlikely to me that anyone could say anything fresh about 1 Timothy 2. Sandra Glahn has proven me wrong,” said Amy Peeler, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. “With its close attention to material culture and biblical text, Glahn’s evidence demands that we understand Artemis differently and therefore read this passage with fresh eyes. Immediately compelling through Glahn’s honest personal narrative, Nobody’s Mother kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t wait to see Glahn’s conclusions. Now that I’ve read them, I know I’ll be thinking about them, and changing how I teach this text, for a long time.”
Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from a Chinese House Church Movement was a CT Book Award finalist in the Missions/Global Church category. Featured here is a manifesto by well-known pastor Wang Yi (edited by Hannah Nation and J. D. Tseng) and his church, Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, to clarify their theological stance on the house church and its relationship to the Chinese government. Wang Yi is a leader of a Chinese house church. He is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for refusing to comply with PRC regulations regarding church registration.
The IVP finalist in the Politics & Public Life category was Just Discipleship: Biblical Justice in an Unjust World. Biblical scholar Michael Rhodes argues that the Bible offers a vision of justice-oriented discipleship that is critical for the formation of God’s people. Grounded in biblical theology, virtue ethics, and his own experiences, he shows that justice is central to the Bible, central to Jesus, and central to authentic Christian discipleship.
For a complete list of IVP award winners visit ivpress.com/award-winners.
Contact: Krista Clayton, kclayton@ivpress.com
