Brad Stoddard
Spiritual Entrepreneurs: Florida’s Faith-Based Prisons and the Carceral State. Published April 2021
It is surprising to learn that as many as half of U.S. correctional departments offer government-funded and supported faith-based correctional departments within the prison walls. Stoddard demonstrates that Florida is an essential place for understanding the history, development, impact, and implications of the larger trend to empower “faith-based” social service providers and their favored solutions in key areas of the public sphere.
Jodi Eichler-Levine
Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community. Published October 2020.
Exploring a contemporary Judaism rich with the textures of family, memory, and fellowship, Jodi Eichler-Levine takes readers inside a flourishing American Jewish crafting movement. As she traveled across the country to homes, craft conventions, synagogue knitting circles, and craftivist actions, she joined in the making, asked questions, and contemplated her own family stories.
Tony Tian-Ren Lin
Prosperity Gospel Latinos and their American Dream. Published August 2020.
In this immersive ethnography, Tony Tian-Ren Lin explores the reasons that Latin American immigrants across the United States are increasingly drawn to Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism, a strand of Protestantism gaining popularity around the world. Lin contends that Latinos embrace Prosperity Gospel, which teaches that believers may achieve both divine salvation and worldly success, because it helps them account for the contradictions of their lives as immigrants.
Lauren Kerby
Saving History: How White Evangelicals Tour the Nation’s Capital and Redeem a Christian America. Published April 2020.
Millions of tourists visit Washington, D.C., every year, but for some the experience is about much more than sightseeing. Lauren R. Kerby’s lively book takes readers onto tour buses and explores the world of Christian heritage tourism.