David P. Gushee - Changing Our Mind: Definitive of the Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBTQ Christians with Response to Critics

Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, forthcoming, August 2017.

Letter to My Anxious Christian Friends: From Fear to Faith in Unsettled Times. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016.

Evangelical Social Ethics: Converting America and Its Christians, 1944-2014 (Library of Theological Ethics). With Isaac B. Sharp. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.

In the Fray: Contesting Christian Public Ethics, 1994-2013. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014.

Evangelical Peacemakers: Gospel Engagement in a War-Torn World. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013.

Glen Harold Stassen: Baptist Peacemaker, Global Christian Ethicist ( Festschrift ), Co-Editor/Contributor, with Reggie L. Williams. Perspectives in Religious Studies. Vol. 40, no. 2 (Summer 2013).

The Sacredness of Human Life: Why an Ancient Biblical Vision is Key to the Worlds Future. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013.

Yours is the Day, Lord, Yours is the Night, with Jeanie Gushee. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012.

A New Evangelical Manifesto: A Kingdom Vision for the Common Good. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2012.

Religious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul. With Jillian Hickman Zimmer and J. Drew Zimmer. Macon: Mercer, 2010.

The Scholarly Vocation and the Baptist Academy. With Roger Ward. Macon: Mercer, 2008.

The Future of Faith in American Politics: The Public Witness of the Evangelical Center. Waco, TX: Baylor, 2008.

Only Human: Christian Reflections on the Journey toward Wholeness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

Getting Marriage Right: Realistic Counsel for Saving and Strengthening Marriages. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, with Glen H. Stassen. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 2003. Second Edition: Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016. Translations: Japanese, Bulgarian, Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Finnish.

Christians and Politics Beyond the Culture Wars: From Despair to Mission. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000.

Toward a Just and Caring Society: Christian Responses to Poverty in America. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999.

The Future of Christian Higher Education. Co-Editor and Contributor, with David S. Dockery. Broadman & Holman, 1999.

A Bolder Pulpit: Reclaiming the Moral Dimension of Preaching, with Robert H. Long. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1998.

Preparing for Christian Ministry: An Evangelical Approach. With Walter Jackson. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996.

The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: A Christian Interpretation. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1994. German Translation: Die Gerechten Des Holocaust: Warum nur wenige Christen den Juden halfen . Wuppertal: One Way Verlag, 1997. Second Edition: Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: Genocide and Moral Obligation. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2003.

I have now written or edited 22 books. Each of these books, like all books, has a composition history. Any author can tell you by what process a book was inspired and written, what goals animated a work and what its audience and message were intended to be. Most authors have total or at least considerable control over that part of the publishing process. Still, there can be surprises.

The composition history of Changing Our Mind began with a series of weekly blog posts in the online news service that is now called Baptist News Global (BNG). These posts commenced in the summer of 2014 and ended that October. My intent was to think out loud, using as a platform my weekly column in BNG. I believed that as a thought-leader in the Baptist world it was time for me to think and write my way through the issues associated with LGBTQ rejection and inclusion, and to do so until I felt that all major concerns had been addressed.

This was by contrast with my (and most mainstream Baptist and evangelical Christian leaders) silence or at best only very partial and tentative efforts to address this sensitive issue to that point. I had concluded that this silence was, at least for my part, cowardly and irresponsible, and that I had the freedom in my position at Mercer University to perhaps offer some leadership, especially to the Baptist community, by writing out my somewhat preliminary but unhindered reflections.

As the summer moved into the fall, attention to these 1500-2000 word weekly posts began to intensify. People reached out to me from within and far outside the Baptist world either urging me on or warning me away. Churches told me that they were studying the posts in group sessions. LGBTQ Christians began contacting me and expressing thanks.

My friend Ken Wilson (pastor, and author of the important book Letter to My Congregation) put me in touch with his publisher, David Crumm of Read the Spirit, to discuss the idea of an almost instant book compiling these posts in one place. This had not been the original plan, but it made sense, and David Crumm was enthusiastic. I remain deeply grateful for his past and current support and collaboration.

Meanwhile, young LGBTQ Christian leader Matthew Vines invited me to present at his Washington, DC Reformation Project (RP) conference in November 2014. Superstar blogger Jonathan Merritt and I agreed on an exclusive interview timed for the conclusion of the series, the publication of the book, and the RP speech, all of which occurred in late October and early November.

Everything exploded. The series ended in BNG, with me having gone all the way to full LGBTQ inclusion. The Merritt interview went viral. The video and news coverage of my Reformation Project speech also went viral. Evangelical ethicist David Gushee goes pro-gay became an international story.

To review: the book that became Changing Our Mind happened accidentally, providentially, or demonically, depending on what one thinks of the book. It began as a series of blog posts. There was one week between posts, with all research and composition for each post having to happen within that one week, in most cases. The whole series was intended as a kind of thought-experiment, explorations of a tough issue, thinking out loud. As the series developed, it took on sufficient momentum and was found sufficiently important that a book developed out of it. The Merritt interview and Reformation Project speech made the series/book international news, especially in the largely outraged evangelical community.