Books, popular writing,
& academic writing
Intellectually, My greatest strength is that there is nothing in which I am not interested. IntellecTUally, my greatest weakness is that there is nothiNG in which I am not interested.
— Stanley Hauerwas
Hip Hop Theology: ONLY THE lover Raps
Co-edited with Claude Athco
Hip-hop has crossed boundaries in recent years—from comic books (Into the Spiderverse) to Broadway (Hamilton). For over fifty years, hip-hop has grown as a cultural icon. There’s no escaping it. How does hip-hop fit within Christianity? Can hip-hop beats be sanctified? Can perverse lyrics serve the kingdom? In other words, “What has Jerusalem to do with the Bronx, or Compton, or the South Side of Chicago, or the west side of Houston?” Senior scholars, emerging scholars, and practitioners have joined voices to help answer to these questions. Less driven by swag and beats, this volume analyzes thoughtful artists exploring redemptive, complex, and sometimes problematic themes
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“Hip-Hop Theology will deepen your appreciation for the ways God is using this Black American music genre to cultivate prophetic faith. By sitting with the harrowing antiblack realities addressed by these lyrical poets, these essays lift theological insights from music too often dismissed by the church as irrelevantly profane. The compassion and curiosity modeled in this volume has widened my understanding of biblical texts and my own artistry. I pray your ears open too.”
—Julian Davis Reid, Musical Artist and Contemplative Theologian
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“Hip-Hop Theology is an unflinching look at the challenging, sometimes controversial, complex, nuanced, brilliant, poetically layered, and eschatological power of hip-hop music and its indelible impact upon culture, the built environment, faith, and our individual walk toward salvation. This text beckons us to look, listen, and witness the historical significance of hip-hop music and its birthing from the rich roux of the streets with echoes of field songs and spirituals from people who have made a way out of no way.”
—Steve A. Prince, Director of Engagement, Muscarelle Museum of Art, William & Mary University
A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation
Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Community
In a society always seeking the new and novel, Christians can become more grounded and mature through a retrieval of our common tradition. Alex Sosler sets forth the “transcendentals” of truth, goodness, and beauty–along with community–to help readers follow the way of Jesus.
Weaving together church history, theology, and devotional practice, Sosler offers a holistic introduction to spiritual formation, encompassing biblical truth, the pursuit of the good life, the contemplation of God, and communal belonging. Each section includes a biblical and historical precedent for the tradition and highlights an exemplar from church history: Augustine on truth, Dorothy Day on goodness, Teresa of Ávila on beauty, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer on church commitment and community.
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“[This] book doesn’t hit us with abstractions but with specific, concrete counsel on how to recognize and to pursue truth, goodness, beauty, and community. You will leave this short book not burdened down with a sense of all the things you can’t ever seem to do. You’ll instead start to see the possibility of how you, in your own life, can seek holiness and formation.”
—Russell Moore (from the foreword)
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“Spiritual formation with substance and depth! Alex Sosler gives a thick account of Christian growth in holiness and wholeness shaped by a biblical-theological-ecclesial vision of truth, goodness, beauty, and community. Anyone who’s sung the Augustinian cri de coeur of Bono’s ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’ but found the modern spiritual formation literature too light and fluffy will be glad for this winsome retrieval of classical theology in service to a practice of discipleship that can take shape in real communities. This is one to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest and then share with another pilgrim on the way of the restless heart.”
—Alex Fogleman, assistant research professor of theology, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University; director, Catechesis Institute; author of Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation
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“A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation is a true retrieval, rooting Christian practice in the wider Christian tradition while remaining attentive to the needs and questions of the present moment. This fresh account of Christian spiritual formation will captivate students and seekers while reminding seasoned leaders of the many gifts that the Christian tradition offers to our weary souls.”
—Kaitlyn Schiess, author of The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here
The Artistic Vision
Co-authored with Gary Ball
There are two ways that the modern art world is fragmented. Either the focus is on the material alone or the material does not matter but it is only the meaning or spiritual reality behind the material. We label these misconceptions “Mere Materialism” and “Superficial and Sentimental Spirituality.”
We will contend that the primary way to address the gap between material and spiritual, faith and practice is a sacramental imagination: seeing through the material to the spiritual but honoring and recognizing both. When God gives us a sacramental imagination, we grow to see the way earthly images conceal and reveal deeper spiritual realities. As the spiritual perception of the material world increases, artists should begin to take a more symbolic approach in their art. Just as Christ uses images in the parables and throughout creation to veil truths until we are fit to receive them, in participation with God, the Christian artist adopts an analogical mode of interpretation. A symbolic view should deepen “Christian Art” as we know it, drawing observers into contemplation of the images we portray, and subsequently, condition their perception of God in the world.
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“The sacramental imagination proposed by Alex Sosler and Gary Ball is nothing less than a way of being in the world that recognizes divine presence in created things. Rejecting modern rationalist and spiritualist approaches to the arts, The Artistic Vision aims to rejoin earthly and spiritual realities. While notably inspired by the Oxford Movement—particularly the poet Christina Rosetti—Ball and Sosler have drunk deeply from the entire well of the church’s Great Tradition. Those struggling with questions regarding faith and the arts find in this book a faithful and inspiring guide to the beauty of mystery.”
—Hans Boersma, chair in ascetical theology, Nashotah House Theological Seminary -
“Both theologically astute and grounded in the bloody, toiling, tear-inducing, sweaty work of practicing artists, this book presents readers with an integrated vision of art and faith that is sorely needed in a world that prefers to keep such matters separated and separable. Rooted in a sacramental vision and keenly attuned to the God who meets us in the very flesh of Christ, The Artistic Vision represents a beautiful gift not just to artists and creatives, but also to teachers, pastors, and ministers of the faith.”
—W. David O. Taylor, associate professor of theology and culture, Fuller Theological Seminary
Learning to Love
Christian Higher Education as Pilgrimage
Oftentimes, students enter the classroom bored and disinterested, because they’ve never been given a vision of education worth pursuing. In Learning to Love, Alex Sosler provides a rich vision of college by rooting education in love and affection. Sosler bridges the gap between the Christian faith and academic learning by encouraging students to love deeply and widely. College, first and foremost, is about becoming a certain type of person–one full of charity, wonder, and wisdom.
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While providing a concise, accessible, and clear overview of the historical developments within higher education, Solser offers a winsome and wise case for the reorientation of the Christian college and Christian higher education. I know that board members, administrators, faculty members, parents, and students will all find this important proposal to be quite helpful. I am happy to recommend Learning to Love
–David S. Dockery, Ph.D. President, International Alliance for Christian Education
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So many of the best books on Christian learning were written long ago, but we need living authors to gloss those texts to make their meaning clear for us now. Alex Sosler’s Learning to Love reminds us of the journey that is education: life-long, full of joy, love, and other people. If you’re entering college or you know someone who is, this book should act as an invitation to the pilgrimage that is Christian education.
–Jessica Hooten Wilson, Ph.D.
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For people launching into college, and from college into the world, here is an intriguing guide to consider what that education is about, and to embrace it responsibly. Appropriately central is the theme: we love in order to know. The goal of college is to cultivate lovers—lovers of the real.
–Esther Lightcap Meek, Ph.D. Author of Longing to Know: The Philosophy of Knowledge for Ordinary People; Loving to Know: Introducing Covenant Epistemology; and A Little Manual for Knowing.
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“Sosler makes the text interesting, and, insofar as he exposes wrong ideas and values and style of learning, he is offering something radical. In the very best way.”
Theology and the Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers sing of a spiritual yearning present in modern culture. Without being overtly religious, theological underpinnings are prevalent in their music. The contributors in this book delve into the Avett Brother’s explicit and implicit theology with an eye on how they help make sense of our secular age. Theology and the Avett Brothers offers a rich contemplation on how these brothers from North Carolina help listeners navigate the religious consciousness of today’s world, exploring themes like the good life, virtue formation, empathy, ministry models, and dying.
Discount Code: LXFANDF30
popular writing
Alex has written for publications such as Christianity Today, Plough, Front Porch Republic, Mockingbird, and Fathom Magazine. Here are a few of his recent essays:
Christianity Today, October 28, 2024
Plough, November 28, 2023
Mockingbird, January 26, 2024
Front Porch Republic, February 3, 2021
Fare Forward, September 2, 2022
Christ and Pop Culture, July 27, 2022
Plough, November 25, 2024
Front Porch Republic, March 9, 2022
academic writing
Ahhh I See”: Educational Philosophy and Pedagogy from 1 Corinthians 13.12
Christian Education Journal (Winter 2024)
Eros and Belonging: Reading Marilynne Robinson’s Jack with Jean-Luc Marion.
Christian Scholar’s Review (Fall 2023)
With No Will, There is No Way: John Calvin on Education.
Christian Education Journal (Summer 2023)
Going to School with Marilynne Robinson: A Sacramental Education.
Christian Scholar’s Review (November 2022)
A Typology of Christian Higher Education: Analyzing the Purposes of Learning.
Christian Higher Education Journal. (September 2022).
Going to the Morgue with Andres Serrano: Provocation as Revelation.
religions. June 16, 2022
Reason, Love, and Morality: The Limits of Reason in Kohlberg and the Importance of Love in Augustine and Smith.
Religious Education 114.1 (January 2019).
Leading by Love: Leadership and Practice in the Gospel of John.
Journal of Applied Christian Leadership (November 2018).
Chapters in Collections
Culture Wars and Lord of the Rings: Models of Christian Engagement
Theology and the Blues
