Jeff Hood-priest, public theologian, activist, and one of the nation's most outspoken anti-death penalty voices-has taken theology out of the academy and into the streets, execution chambers, hospital rooms, post-genocide landscapes, and the forgotten corners institutional religion often ignores.
This landmark omnibus gathers eleven foundational works (2013-2023) that together form a daring, cohesive vocation of public theology. Hood operates as prophet (naming harm in God's name), priest (staying present in suffering), and witness (testifying unflinchingly to what is actually there). The result is theology that is dangerous, accountable, embodied, and relentlessly honest.
Included in this volume:
- The Prosperity Gospel & Malpractice (2013) - A fierce prophetic takedown of metaphysical and televangelist prosperity teachings as spiritual malpractice.
- The Complicated Legacy of Cesar Chavez (2013) - Honest reckoning with a hero's flaws on immigration and labor justice.
- Toxic Masculinity (2013) - Personal and systemic critique of evangelical men's movements from the inside.
- Tales from the Crypt: Verbatim from Clinical Pastoral Education (2014) - Raw, unfiltered hospital and psych-unit pastoral encounters.
- 6 Days in Guatemala: A Journal (2015) - On-site reflection after evangelical complicity in Mayan genocide.
- The Basilica of the Swinging Dicks (2016) - Prophetic satirical novella finding the sacred in the profane.
- High Country Theology (2021) - Wilderness revelations that strip away sentimentality.
- Out of My Head: Freed Thoughts (2021) - Unedited late-night theological stream-of-consciousness.
- The Gospel of Mary: A Modern Commentary (2022) - Reclaiming Mary's suppressed authority for silenced voices today.
- The Is of Is (2022) - Philosophical theology of tangibility, presence, and refusal of abstraction.
- Science Fiction Theology (2023) - Speculative stories probing coerced faith, compelled salvation, and liberation under invisible chains.
Hood's work has been called haunting, prophetic, and unflinching. It refuses hagiography, tidy systems, and comfortable distance. Instead, it insists that real theology is tested in rooms where people die, suffer, resist, and hope-and it must hold there or it is not theology at all.
Whether you're drawn to liberation theology, queer theology, anti-capitalist critique, death-penalty resistance, feminist reclamation of scripture, speculative spiritual fiction, or radical pastoral honesty, this collection offers a sustained vision of a public theology that shows up, sees clearly, speaks truthfully, and stays.
About the Author :
The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Catholic Priest (Old Catholic) and nationally recognized theologian and spiritual advisor to death row inmates nationwide. He has accompanied eleven men to their executions, including the first and eighth nitrogen hypoxia executions. Widely regarded as the leading spiritual voice on the death penalty, his work has been profiled in outlets ranging from the New York Times to a Rolling Stone documentary, The Spiritual Advisor. For his service and scholarship, he was nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr. Hood holds degrees from Auburn University (BA), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv), Emory University's Candler School of Theology (ThM), the University of Alabama (MA), Creighton University (MS), Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University (DMin), and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the American Institute of Metaphysics. His primary interest has always been the power of spirituality to bring about liberation.
Ordained to ministry in 2006, Dr. Hood was incardinated into the priesthood of the Old Catholic Church in 2022. The author of over 100 books - including The Courage to Be Queer, named one of the best religion books of 2016 at the Independent Publishers Book Awards - he regularly partners with men on death row to co-produce original works of theology.
On July 7, 2016, Dr. Hood organized and led a Dallas rally against police brutality that ended in the shooting deaths of five police officers. He saved lives by using the cross he was carrying to force people away from the gunfire. The Dallas Public Library honored his role in that event and his wider work by opening the Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood Collection in its archives.
In January 2024, Dr. Hood became the first spiritual advisor present in an execution chamber for a nitrogen hypoxia execution. Amid the international media attention that followed, he kept the memory of Kenneth Smith at the center of the story while demanding that such an execution never be repeated. No other spiritual advisor in the country has been present in the execution chamber for as many executions.
Believing that traditional theological education is increasingly inadequate, Dr. Hood founded The New Theology School, where he serves as Dean and as the Rev. Charles Moore Professor of Prophetic Theology. With many arrests and assaults, he is not afraid to give his body to the struggle for justice.
