4 Books Published by InterVarsity Press on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

The more you understand someone’s history, the better you can see their humanity. This is true for individuals as well as for society at large. Race relations have suffered because of the erasure of important Black history and cultural context. As we fill in the gaps of our collective knowledge, communities can grow in understanding, empathy, and solidarity.

Terence Lester shares the buried history of the struggles Black people have faced against unjust systems. He tells powerful stories of courage, injustice, pain, and triumph, including ones from his own history. He also unpacks the sociological and cultural dynamics of unconscious bias and inattentional ignorance that keep us apart, and how they can be overcome. This honest account of what it’s like to be Black in America paves the way for the church to move beyond showing support from a distance toward loving one another in long-term solidarity, advocacy, and friendship.

Jerry Pinkney Children’s Book Award

When Josey wonders why people are so different, Dad helps her understand that our differences aren’t a mistake. In fact, we have many differences because God is creative!

Josey is spending the day with Dad—getting her hair braided at Monique’s Beauty Shop, and picking out a new red dress for Sunday. Because Sunday is Pentecost! In the process, she learns to celebrate the differences she sees all around her as part of God’s plan for his creation.

Children and the adults who read with them are invited to join Josey as she learns of God’s wonderfully diverse design. Also included is a note from the author to encourage further conversation about the content.

Discover IVP Kids and share with children the things that matter to God!

Jerry Pinkney Children’s Book Award

No longer is church a divided space
Now it’s a celebration place!

Church is more than just a building—it’s a gathering of God’s people to celebrate who he is and all that he has done. It’s also where we learn about God’s vision for justice and unity. That was the message that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared, and it continues to be an important message for us today. Because of God’s great love, church should be the best celebration place!

This delightful rhyme, accompanied by colorful illustrations, will be enjoyed by children and the adults who read with them. Also included is a note from the author to encourage further conversation about the content. Discover IVP Kids and share with children the things that matter to God!

Christian Book Award® program
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist
Outreach Resources of the Year
Christianity Today Book Award
The Gospel Coalition Book Award
Emerging Public Intellectual Award

Growing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but it has something vital to say.

Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times. He advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery.

Ultimately McCaulley calls the church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social location as well as the cultures of others. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward.