BECOMING GOD’S FAMILY WHY THE CHURCH STILL MATTERS
Ecclesiology New from Biblical Scholar Carmen Joy Imes October 28, 2025 RELIGION / Christian Theology / Ecclesiology 978-1-5140-1032-7, 240 pages, PBK, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, $22.99
After waves of disillusionment, #churchtoo movements, and political divides, it’s easy to question the value of investing in the church. Yet Carmen Joy Imes offers a profound answer that resonates through the pages of Becoming God’s Family . Exploring the familial and communal identity of the church, Imes traces the thread of God’s presence in the gathered community of faith across the entire Bible. She invites readers into a vision of the church that is rooted deeply in Scripture and speaks directly to the challenges we face today. Imes reminds us of a powerful truth—God delights in the global, intergenerational family he has created. Becoming God’s Family : • Traces the theme of God’s presence through the entire biblical text, gaining new understanding of his communal and familial design for the church. • Provides a constructive and hopeful perspective that addresses the disheartening realities of scandals, political polarization, and deconstruction. • Offers rich insights while staying accessible to a wide audience. • Encourages communities to discover the global and intergenerational nature of God’s family and the joy of his presence among his people.
“Carmen Joy Imes has given the church the gift of a rousing call to take seriously our belonging to one another.” Kaitlyn Schiess, author of The Ballot and the Bible “ Becoming God’s Family is one of the great and necessary works of our time . . . We need one another, and we need the community of God for our complete flourishing. The entire trilogy of Carmen’s work is required reading for laypeople and church leaders alike.” Joy E. A. Qualls, professor and associate dean at Biola University
Carmen Joy Imes (PhD, Wheaton) is associate professor of Old Testament at Biola University. She is the author of Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters , Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters , and the editor of Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends .
“Dr. Imes has the rare gift of being a biblical scholar that can speak to the academy, clergy, and people in the pews at the same time. In this book she demonstrated the ability to translate a lifetime of learning into accessible writing without being simplistic or assuming that her audience cannot handle complex ideas. ”
BEARING GOD’S NAME BEING GOD’S IMAGE — Also by this Author —
From the foreword by Esau McCaulley, associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College
IVP ACADEMIC CATALOG
SUMMER & FALL 2025
4
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