SOME RESOURCES THAT HAVE HELPED ME
(These are resources I have read and studied, and have helped me better understand the relationship between religion, culture, and politics. Surely there are more. What books have helped you?)
This color highlight means: read these books first.
- Ryan T. Anderson, Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom
- Anderson, When Harry Became Sally (This excellent book is banned from Amazon.com.)
- Francis Beckwith, Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith (I read this book last summer and learned much from it. Beckwith’s chapter on human dignity is brilliant. [Christian Smith’s chapter on human dignity in What Is a Person? Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up is stunning.] Beckwith is Prof of Jurisprudence and Philosophy at Baylor U.)
- Beckwith, Politics for Christians: Statescraft as Soulcraft
- James Beilby and Paul Eddy, Understanding Transgender identities; Four Views.
- Brian Benestad, Five Views on the Church and Politics
- Greg Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church
- Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning, The Rise of Victimhood Culture: Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars
- Alisa Childers, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity
- Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel (In a discussion with Greg Boyd he strongly recommended this book of readings to me.)
- Amy Chua, Political tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations. Still reading - excellent!
- Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals (What should Christians do when allegiances to the state clash with personal faith?)
- Charles Colson, God and Government: An Insider's View on the Boundaries Between Faith and Politics
- James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree
- John Corvino and Ryan T. Anderson, Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination
- John Corvino and Ryan T. Anderson, Debating Same-Sex Marriage
- Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed.
- Ross Douthat, The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success.
- Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation
- Dreher, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents
- Robert P. George, Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism (George, Prof of Law at Yale U., and a follower of Jesus, is a brilliant scholar who teaches us, among other things, how to civilly discourse about hard issues.)
- Wayne Grudem, Politics – According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture
- Gustavo Gutierrez, We Drink From Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People
- Johnathan Haidt and Greg Lukionoff, The Coddling of the American Mind (The best book I read in 2019. Haidt and Lukionoff help us understand, e.g., microaggressions and hatred and the American culture of "safetyism.")
- Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion. Everyone should read this before opening their mouth about politics.
- Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
- Andrew Hartman, A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars (See this reviewed here - https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/that-new-time-religion/ )
- James Hoffmeier, et. al., Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith? A Critical Appraisal of Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Scripture
- Greg Johnson, Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church's Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality. Well-written, by a same-sex attracted follower of Jesus, who holds to the view that marriage is between a man and a woman.
- Robert Joustra and Alissa Wilkinson, How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, and Politics at the End of the World
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
- Al Mohler, The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church
- Harold Netland, Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God: The Evidential Force of Divine Encounters
- H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (Arguably, this is THE classic text which nicely forms intelligent discussion. How is Christ relevant to the world in which we live now?)
- Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism
- Pellegrino, Schulman, and Merrill, Human Dignity and Bioethics. Arguably the book to read on: 1) What is human dignity?; 2) Is there such a thing as human dignity?; and 3) If there is, does it make a difference? Collected essays by a great variety of scholars.
- Ronald J. Pestritto, America Transformed: The Rise and Legacy of American Progressivism
- Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody (An excellent book on the influence of postmodern thinking on culture.)
- John Piippo, Deconstructing Progressive Christianity
- Postman, Neil, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. This book is prophetic. I've read it twice.
- Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
- Robert Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
- Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
- Ronald Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity (In evangelical Christianity, this is one of the classics. Read the four gospels as background, making note of all Jesus says about our relationship to Money. See also Ben Witherington, Jesus and Money.)
- Snodgrass, Klyne, Who God Says You Are: A Christian Understanding of Identity
- Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? (If this book doesn’t break your heart and burden you for the poor, we’re going to have to give you an EKG.)
- Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. This is the book where Smith, famously, introduces the worldview of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.
- Smith, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults
- Smith, What Is a Person? Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up. Smith’s chapter on human dignity in is stunning.]
- Steven D. Smith, Pagans & Christians in the City: Culture Wars from the Tiber to the Potomac
- Ed Stetzer, Christians In the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is At Its Worst. Very helpful.
- Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited.
- Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (My book of the year in 2020.)
- Trueman, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution
- Zeynep Tufekci, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
- Dan O. Via and Robert Gagnon, Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views
- Jim Wallis, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and Why the Left Doesn’t Get It
- Jim Wallis, On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good
- David Wells, Above All Earthly Powers: Christ in a Postmodern World
- Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy.
- Mark Yarhouse, Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues In a Changing Culture
- George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk, One Faith No Longer: The Transformation of Christianity in Red and Blue America
- John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (This is essential reading for any who would engage in the discussion about how Jesus would have his followers respond to the political world we live in.)
And, I have said things that, upon reflection, have caused me to disagree with myself.
