Fall books: Reviews

Cover Story in the October 15, 2014 issue

Jesse Kuhn

Our fall books issue includes the following reviews:

David A. Hollinger: America’s Pastor, by Grant Wacker

Timothy Renick: Deeply Divided, by Doug McAdam and Karina Kloos

Edward J. Blum: Religion, Race, and the Making of Confederate Kentucky, 1830–1880, by Luke E. Harlow; The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation, by David Brion Davis

Michael S. Hamilton: American Apocalypse, by Matthew Avery Sutton

Gordon Marino: The Deepest Human Life, by Scott Samuelson

Walter Brueggemann: David, by David Wolpe

Jason Byassee: Fail, by J. R. Briggs

Matthew Bowman: Way Below the Angels, by Craig Harline

Amy Frykholm: All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews

Jill Peláez Baumgaertner: Once in the West, by Christian Wiman

This article appears in the October 15, 2014 issue.

Dear Jesus, Am I broken enough yet?

At youth group and church camp, I learned to perform my own unworthiness. It took years to recognize the spiritual harm this caused.

by McKenzie Watson-Fore

Features

The Scopes Monkey Trial and the evolution of fundamentalism

A staged legal proceeding in a small town became the catalyst for a century of culture wars.

by Michael A. Smith

Feature

Body counts: The dark side of Christian history

With its long coastline, rugged mountains and haunting sand dunes, Oman is a paradise for desert lovers, hikers and boaters. Muscat, the capital city, is a gem—its arched white buildings and flat roofs squeezed between the blue ocean and black mountains. Yet call me an egghead, but what I remember most from a trip to Oman is a booklet I read there with an ominous title: Body Count: A Quantitative Review of Political Violence Across World Civilizations (2009). In it, author Naveed Sheikh claims that “the Christian civilization emerges as the most violent and genocidal in the world history.” Compared to Islam, Christianity is a clear winner: 31.94 million deaths by Muslims to 177.94 million deaths by Christians.

by Miroslav Volf

Features

Bishop Budde among the Swedes

In September, Episcopal bishop Mariann Edgar Budde will travel to her mother’s homeland at the invitation of the Stockholm Cathedral.

by Gary G. Yerkey

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