Books

Ian McFarland's book on the doctrine of creation is a book about nothing. It has a lot to say about it.

Jonathan Merritt writes books and articles that change people. He’s a senior writer for the Religion News Service and just last week, he won the 2014 Religion Commentary of the Year from the Religion Newswriters Association.  I had the pleasure of asking Merritt a few questions about books that have influenced him.

Using powerful stories, Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu equip us to address deep questions about forgiveness, wholeness, and new life.

Jean-Pierre Filiu rightly places Gaza at the center, not the margins, of Palestinian history. But he fails to let Gazans speak for themselves.

Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon sparked a lively debate about church, ministry, and identity. How does their book read 25 years later?

We gather that some of our readers still don't want to talk Christology with us. But it's because of Jesus that the church has trouble in the world.

The books I've read repeatedly are the ones that have probed my heart and expanded my vision.  

John McKee Barr constructs a persuasive narrative of Lincoln loathing—by Lost Causers, neo-Confederates, libertarians, and even some liberals.

What happened to the civil rights movement? David Chappell offers a carefully wrought study of a nation's fitful waking from a beautiful dream.

John Morreall's book is modeled after Peter Abelard's Sic et Non. Morreall wants Christians to ask questions of their beliefs and practices.

Juan Cole tells the backstory of the revolutions in North Africa, exploring events in the context of their cultural setting. His conclusions are optimistic yet grounded in realism.

10 books that have "stayed" with me or have had a long lasting impact.

Peter Watson sketches in the lives and thoughts of an array of scientists, artists, and philosophers who offer ways to cope with the death of God.

June Carbone and Naomi Cahn follow the life trajectories of two couples with much in common—but not marriage.

Many current meanings of spirituality have nothing to do with the spiritual or the spirit, but Lucy Bregman doesn't write them off. Instead, she wants to find out what "makes spirituality so appealing."

J. Denny Weaver is steadfast in his conviction that any conception of God found in the Bible must first be compared to the person of Christ himself.