Category Archives: Books

2023 National Love Your Red Hair Day!

Posted on November 5, 2023 by carolyncustisjames

Every year we celebrate Love Your Red Hair Day for our beautiful red-head grand-ezer, Arden. As if we needed a national holiday to celebrate Arden or her little beautiful brunette sister Avery. They bring enormous joy to Frank and me. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, ezer, Lost Women of the Bible, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Fresh Approach to Bible Engagement

Posted on August 7, 2023 by carolyncustisjames

“As someone who grew up in the church, was raised on the Bible, and taught to read it from cover-to-cover, I struggled as a kid and as an adult to get through parts of the Bible that made no sense … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible Reading, Books, Immerse | Leave a comment

Tamar: The Righteous Prostitute

Posted on May 18, 2023 by carolyncustisjames

“Warring Brothers” is an appropriate subtitle for the book of Genesis. Fierce sibling rivalry among brothers dominates the entire Genesis storyline. Jesus warned that there would be “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6). History has played out exactly as he said with … Continue reading →

Posted in #MeToo, abuse of power, Books, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

DetermineTruth Podcast: The Blessed Alliance

Posted on February 23, 2023 by carolyncustisjames

God’s Spirit has a marvelous way of harnessing those painfully confusing stretches of our stories to take us deeper in our relationship with himself. Our struggles provoke new and different questions about God and life that we would otherwise never … Continue reading →

Posted in Blessed Alliance, Books, ezer, Half the Church, Theology, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Jesus, John Wayne, and the Malestrom

Posted on February 16, 2022 by carolyncustisjames

Every once in a while, a book is ahead of its time. In the years following the June 2015 publication of Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World, a torrent of unforeseen events transpired that have dramatically intensified … Continue reading →

Posted in #ChurchToo, #MeToo, abuse of power, Activism, Books, Brueggemann, Clergy Abuse, Covid-19, Hope, Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Du Mez, Malestrom, Michael Bird | Tagged Jesus and John Wayne | 6 Comments

No more Cinderella. We need hope!

Posted on March 31, 2021 by carolyncustisjames

“. . . this harmless looking little story . . . will awaken us to a whole new way of being human that will reconfigure our lives and leave us longing for more. . . . and will inject rich … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Finding God in the Margins, The Gospel of Ruth, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dismantling Patriarchy and Recovering the Blessed Alliance

Posted on March 25, 2021 by carolyncustisjames

Just as Covid won’t go away without effective vaccines . . . . As Christians, we cannot in good conscience adequately address this global crisis of Violence Against Women without exploring causative factors that increase female vulnerability and allow violence against women to occur within our … Continue reading →

Posted in #ChurchToo, #MeToo, Activism, Blessed Alliance, Books, Covid-19, Malestrom, Patriarchy, Violence against women | Tagged Violence | 1 Comment

Pursuing the Pilgrim Principle

Posted on February 24, 2021 by carolyncustisjames

One of the books I’m reading at the moment is Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s A New Gospel for Women: Katherine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism. Professor of History and Gender at Calvin College, Dr. Du Mez wrote this … Continue reading →

Posted in #ChurchToo, #MeToo, abuse of power, Activism, Books, Patriarchy, Power and Privilege, Theology | 1 Comment

Virus as a Summons to Faith

Posted on December 18, 2020 by carolyncustisjames

In the early days of Covid-19, Professor Aisha Ahmad, University of Toronto (who is no stranger to suffering) offered this insight: Global catastrophes change the world . . . the legacy of this pandemic will live with us for years, perhaps decades … Continue reading →