Books
What if Christianity never existed?
Walter Scheidel’s tour de force of world history is based almost entirely on counterfactuals.
N. T. Wright insists that Jesus is the starting point of natural theology
Wright’s rereading of scripture is brilliant. Too bad he’s so disparaging of other viewpoints.
Are we idol worshipers?
Stephen Fowl’s fresh approach to the study of idolatry
What makes an American home?
A literary look at the walls that protect us—and keep us captive
Brian Doyle’s rivers of words
A new collection of Doyle’s nonfiction overflows with wonder.
Learning to face the doctrine of discovery
I wish I’d had Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah’s book when I was in college.
Pope Francis’s vision of a wounded church converted by mercy
How can the church become less of a citadel and more of a field hospital?
In the beginning, God created difference
Theodore Hiebert’s deft reading elicits a fresh awareness of the legitimacy of the other in Genesis.
Religious freedom in America
Melissa Rogers considers what a healthy role for religion in American public life might look like.
New books in theological education
Reformulating the landscape in changing times
Rachael Denhollander’s account of standing up against sexual abuse
The gymnast who brought down Larry Nassar tells her story.
What we can learn from medieval views of the human body
Some ideas have morphed while others have strangely stayed the same.
How the security culture has burdened women
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz shows how the post-9/11 US has intensified control of women’s bodies.
Poems of hope, gratitude, and perspective
The devotional, political poetry of Barbara Crooker
Working through collective sin
Susan Neiman considers how Americans might learn from Germany.
Examining whiteness through “reparative writing”
Jess Row asks what happens when alienation turns to rage.
How wealth and unjust tax policy erode democracy
Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman distill a complex topic into manageable takeaways.
Shaping a place where people can become more like Christ
Scot McKnight looks to Paul to define the pastoral task.
When liturgy embraces difference
Rebecca Spurrier’s study of a “disabled church” and its lessons for all Christians
How should the church respond to the colonialism that runs through its blood?
Robert Heaney believes the first step is penance.