Books
Why are rural white Americans willing to prioritize cultural whiteness above all else?
Jonathan Metzl offers useful data and analysis, if not much empathy.
For women in the church, not nearly enough has changed
Kate Bowler explores the world of evangelical Christian women celebrities
A former Jehovah’s Witness tells her story
Amber Scorah’s memoir has a breathless quality that makes it compulsively readable.
Politics, parenting, and other secular things we put our faith in
We’re religious about lots of things, says David Zahl. Just not God.
What the Bible actually says about abortion, slavery, and other controversial topics
Should scripture inform our ethics? How, and which parts?
Why did Lyz Lenz’s church fail? Why do so many others?
The former church planter’s melancholy journey through the Midwest and its faith
When forgetting is more useful than remembering
Some things are better forgotten, says Lewis Hyde.
Advent is coming. Are you ready?
These six new Advent devotionals may help.
The suffering Jesus in Shawn Copeland’s theology
African American spirituality and God’s act of solidarity
The problem with specialization
Chess players and golfers might benefit from an early, singular focus. Most people don’t.
The many varieties of anti-Semitism
Deborah Lipstadt shows how anti-Semitic sentiment can spring up where we least expect it.
FDR’s faith
John Woolverton addresses a gap in Roosevelt scholarship with elegance and insight.
The man who volunteered to be imprisoned at Auschwitz
In the face of evil, we tend to keep our heads down. Not Witold Pilecki.
Flannery O’Connor’s letters with Caroline Gordon and other friends
Two new collections add to the landmark volume The Habit of Being.
The unmodern Luther
Christine Helmer threatens to dash to pieces the pieties of modern Luther scholarship.
Take & read: Practical theology
New books that are shaping conversations about practical theology
Hope, oppression, and Ta-Nehisi Coates
Can Christian hope survive the onslaught against black life?
The fundamentalists, the modernists, and the oil they both swam in
Darren Dochuk shows how oil and American Christianity have long shaped each other.
Simone and André the obscure
The Weil siblings and the dense worlds of their minds
Children’s books for tough conversations
We asked 11 writers to tell us about a book that opens up space for adults and children to discuss important questions.