Sojourners has named A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church (Year 1) one of the Best of Faith and Justice Books of the Century (So Far).

Rose Marie Berger, Sojourners senior editor, wrote on January 15:

“Gafney, one of our greatest biblical interpreters, delivers fresh voices and perspectives out of scripture’s ancient texts. As a Hebrew biblical scholar, Black womanist theologian, and Episcopal priest, Gafney fuses the intellectual, prophetic, and pastoral vocations through her monumental work of a new Christian lectionary focused on women.

“What would it look like to tell the Good News through the stories of women who are often on the margin of scripture and often set up to represent bad news?” To build her response, Gafney first had to establish “a female canon within the broader canon” of scripture, map these scriptures with the liturgical year, and sort passages with shared themes for each Sunday. And the selected texts were drawn from Gafney’s own highly skilled, probing, and thoughtful original translations. For example, the Good Friday readings pair Jesus’ crucifixion with the brutal deaths of Jephthah’s daughters, revealing themes of a feminine Christ who suffers. An Easter passage from Psalm 18 declares: “The Rock Who Gave Us Birth is my rock!” keying beautifully with the full then empty tomb. Gafney’s lectionary series is strong at every level; it also includes text notes and preaching prompts. “I was (and remain) convinced it ought to be possible to tell the story of God and God’s people through the most marginalized characters in the text,” writes Gafney. More than 1 billion Christians worldwide receive their weekly exposure to the Bible through a lectionary. How different the world would be if those readings centered the experiences of women and girls.”

Since their earliest issues, Sojourners has maintained that culture coverage is just as much a part of our mission to articulate the biblical call to social justice as news stories and commentaries. And after reviewing the list below, we suspect you’ll see why. The books on the list span many genres, but they all circle the same core question: What does our faith call us to do in the face of injustice?

See the entire list online.