Best Church & State Religious Studies Books
Here you will get Best Church & State Religious Studies Books For you.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Author: by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Liveright (June 8, 2021)
English
384 pages
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe paradigm-influencing book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalismor in the words of one modern chaplain, with a spiritual badass.
As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sexand they have a silver ring to prove it.
Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroesmythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of Christian America.
2. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution
Author: by Carl R. Trueman
English
432 pages
1433556332
Carl Trueman explains modernity to the church, with depth, clarity, and force. The significance of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self … Is hard to overstate. Rod Dreher, from the Foreword Modern culture is obsessed with identity. Since the landmark Obergefell v.
Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trendsyet no historical phenomenon is its own cause. From Augustine to Marx, various views and perspectives have contributed to the modern understanding of the self. In this timely book, Carl Trueman analyzes the development of the sexual revolution as a symptomrather than the causeof the human search for identity.
Trueman surveys the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives guidance for the future as Christians navigate the culture in humanity’s ever-changing quest for identity.
3. DARK AGENDA: The War to Destroy Christian America
Author: by David Horowitz
English
224 pages
163006114X
“Read this disturbing but vital book.” Tucker Carlson One of the most intellectually compelling and rational defenses of Christianity’s role in America.” Gov Mike Huckabee “Exposes the intolerance of many atheists toward those who believe in God. As a Jewish agnostic, I think it is imperative that disbelievers not demonize believers and that believers not demonize disbelievers.” Alan Dershowitz DARK AGENDA is an extraordinary look into the left’s calculated efforts to create a godless, heathen American society and how these efforts must be stopped.
And it is written by David Horowitz, a Jew. A New York Times bestselling author and leading conservative thinker, Horowitz warns that the rising attacks on Christians and their beliefs threaten all Americans including Jews like himself. The liberal establishment and their radical allies envision a new millennium in which Christianity is banished, Horowitz argues.
He says that Judeo-Christian values are at the very root of America’s democracy. Kill off such values and all of our freedoms could perish. In Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America, Horowitz examines how our elites increasingly secular and atheist are pushing a radical agenda: How the left trashes Christian doctrines critical to the American Republic, much like radical Islam’s war on infidel cultures like ours.
4. The Harbinger II: The Return
Author: by Jonathan Cahn
English
304 pages
1629998915
NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Best-Selling Book From the author that brought you 6 New York Times best-selling books including The Harbinger, The Book of Mysteries, and The OracleIs America heading to judgment?What lies ahead? Discover what no book has ever revealed …Until now!
Are the unprecedented crises of our times, the signs and warnings of coming judgment? Does an ancient mystery hold the secret to the events of our times, and the future of America and the world? Is this mystery even behind the shakings that have now overtaken the world and America?
How much time do we have left? In 2012, Jonathan Cahn caused a worldwide sensation with the release of his first book and massive bestseller The Harbinger. It was hailed as stunning,’ prophetic’ mind-blowing,’ and astonishing.’ Cahn followed it with bestseller after bestseller but he has always held off on writing a sequel.
But now, for the first time, Cahn opens up what could not be unlocked before – the mysteries that couldn’t be revealed until the present time, the manifestations that have taken place since The Harbinger came out and up to the present hour, and the mysteries of what is yet to come.
5. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Author: by Jonathan Haidt
Vintage
English
528 pages
The bestseller that challenges conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to conservatives and liberals alikea landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself (The New York Times Book Review). Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings.
He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts.
If you’re ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind.
6. Weapons of Our Warfare: Unleashing the Power of the Armor of God (Pastor Greg Locke: Spiritual Warfare Series)
Author: by Pastor Greg Locke
English
280 pages
1735846228
Putting on the armor of God has become a battle cry in the Church, but most Christians have no clue how to put it on in a way that unleashes its supernatural, Holy Spirit power. You might have the armor memorized, but what good are words made lifeless by the lack of understanding or powerless by the lack of action?
In Weapons of Our Warfare, firebrand Pastor Greg Locke plumbs the depths of this divine arsenal in fresh new ways that will transform your life and equip you to defeat the enemy on every front. If you’re ready to suit up and boot up for Jesus and contend for the faith in these last of the last days, this book was written for you.
7. The Christian Left: How Liberal Thought Has Hijacked the Church
Author: by Lucas Miles
English
192 pages
1424562147
The church has been invaded. The Christian Left unveils how liberal thought has entered America’s sanctuaries, exchanging the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the trinity of diversity, acceptance, and social justice. This in-depth look at church history, world politics, and pop culture masterfully exposes the rise and agenda of the Christian Left.
Readers will learn how to:Identify and refute the lies of the Christian LeftUncover the meaning of love as Jesus defined itNavigate controversial subjects such as abortion, gender identity, and the doctrine of hellGain confidence in upholding biblical valuesCome face-to-face with the person of Jesus, who is neither left nor right but the embodiment of truth and graceBe equipped with a strong understanding of issues facing the church today and empowered to elevate God’s truth, justice, and wisdom.
8. Religious Liberty in Crisis: Exercising Your Faith in an Age of Uncertainty
Author: by Ken Starr
English
234 pages
1641771801
What was unfathomable in the first two decades of the twenty-first century has become a reality. Religious liberty, both in the United States and across the world, is in crisis. As we navigate the coming decades, We the People must know our rights more than ever, particularly as it relates to the freedom to exercise our religion.
Armed with a proper understanding of this country’s rich tradition of religious liberty, we can protect faith through any crisis that comes our way. Without that understanding, though, we’ll watch as the creeping secular age erodes our freedom. In this book, Ken Starr explores the crises that threaten religious liberty in America.
He also examines the ways well-meaning government action sometimes undermines the religious liberty of the people, and how the Supreme Court in the past has ultimately provided us protection from such forms of government overreach. He also explores the possibilities of future overreach by government officials.
The reader will learn how each of us can resist the quarantining of our faith within the confines of the law, and why that resistance is important. Through gaining a deep understanding of the Constitutional importance of religious expression, Starr invites the reader to be a part of protecting those rights of religious freedom and taking a more active role in advancing the cause of liberty.
9. The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
Author: by Jemar Tisby
0310113601
English
256 pages
A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller! An acclaimed, timely narrative of how people of faith have historically-up to the present day-worked against racial justice. And a call for urgent action by all Christians today in response.
The Color of Compromise is both enlightening and compelling, telling a history we either ignore or just don’t know. Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices. You will be guided in thinking through concrete solutions for improved race relations and a racially inclusive church.
The Color of Compromise:Takes you on a historical, sociological, and religious journey: from America’s early colonial days through slavery and the Civil WarCovers the tragedy of Jim Crow laws, the victories of the Civil Rights era, and the strides of today’s Black Lives Matter movementReveals the cultural and institutional tables we have to flip in order to bring about meaningful integrationCharts a path forward to replace established patterns and systems of complicity with bold, courageous, immediate actionIs a perfect book for pastors and other faith leaders, students, non-students, book clubs, small group studies, history lovers, and all lifelong learnersThe Color of Compromise is not a call to shame or a platform to blame white evangelical Christians.
10. White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity
Author: by Robert P. Jones
Simon & Schuster
English
320 pages
Drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience, Robert P. Jones delivers a provocative examination of the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy, and issues an urgent call for white Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.
As the nation grapples with demographic changes and the legacy of racism in America, Christianity’s role as a cornerstone of white supremacy has been largely overlooked. But white Christiansfrom evangelicals in the South to mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeasthave not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the dominant cultural power, they have constructed and sustained a project of protecting white supremacy and opposing black equality that has framed the entire American story.
With his family’s 1815 Bible in one hand and contemporary public opinion surveys by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in the other, Robert P. Jones delivers a groundbreaking analysis of the repressed history of the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and white supremacy.
11. Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future
Author: by Pope Francis
English
160 pages
1982171863
In this uplifting and practical book, written in collaboration with his biographer, Austen Ivereigh, the preeminent spiritual leader explains why we mustand how we canmake the world safer, fairer, and healthier for all people now. In the COVID crisis, the beloved shepherd of over one billion Catholics saw the cruelty and inequity of our society exposed more vividly than ever before.
He also saw, in the resilience, generosity, and creativity of so many people, the means to rescue our society, our economy, and our planet. In direct, powerful prose, Pope Francis urges us not to let the pain be in vain.
He begins Let Us Dream by exploring what this crisis can teach us about how to handle upheaval of any kind in our own lives and the world at large. With unprecedented candor, he reveals how three crises in his own life changed him dramatically for the better.
By its very nature, he shows, crisis presents us with a choice: we make a grievous error if we try to return to some pre-crisis state. But if we have the courage to change, we can emerge from the crisis better than before.
12. Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith
Author: by Obery M. Hendricks Jr.
English
232 pages
0807057401
A timely and galvanizing work that examines how right-wing evangelical Christians have veered from an admirable faith to a pernicious, destructive ideology. Today’s right-wing Evangelical Christianity stands as the very antithesis of the message of Jesus Christ. In his new book, Christians Against Christianity, best-selling author and religious scholar Obery M.
Hendricks Jr. challenges right-wing evangelicals on the terrain of their own religious claims, exposing the falsehoods, contradictions, and misuses of the Bible that are embedded in their rabid homophobia, their poorly veiled racism and demonizing of immigrants and Muslims, and their ungodly alliance with big business against the interests of American workers.
He scathingly indicts the religious leaders who helped facilitate the rise of the notoriously unchristian Donald Trump, likening them to the court jesters and hypocritical priestly sycophants of bygone eras who unquestioningly supported their sovereigns’ every act, no matter how hateful or destructive to those they were supposed to serve.
13. Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square
Author: by Bill Haslam
English
240 pages
140022442X
Two-term governor of Tennessee Bill Haslam reveals how faith-too often divisive and contentious-can be a redemptive and unifying presence in the public square. As a former mayor and governor, Bill Haslam has long been at the center of politics and policy on local, state, and federal levels.
And he has consistently been guided by his faith, which influenced his actions on issues ranging from capital punishment to pardons, health care to abortion, welfare to free college tuition. Yet the place of faith in public life has been hotly debated since our nation’s founding, and the relationship of church and state remains contentious to this day-and for good reason.
Too often, Bill Haslam argues, Christians end up shaping their faith to fit their politics rather than forming their politics to their faith. They seem to forget their calling is to be used by God in service of others rather than to use God to reach their own desires and ends.
Faithful Presence calls for a different way. Drawing upon his years of public service, Haslam casts a remarkable vision for the redemptive role of faith in politics while examining some of the most complex issues of our time, including:partisanship in our divided era;the most essential character trait for a public servant;how we cannot escape “legislating morality”;the answer to perpetual outrage; andhow to think about the separation of church and state.
14. How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice
Author: by Jemar Tisby
0310104777
English
240 pages
Racism is pervasive in today’s world, and many are complicit in the failure to confront its evils. Jemar Tisby, author of the award-winning The Color of Compromise, believes we need to move beyond mere discussions about racism and begin equipping people with the practical tools to fight against it.
How to Fight Racism is a handbook for pursuing racial justice with hands-on suggestions bolstered by real-world examples of change. Tisby offers an array of actionable items to confront racism in our relationships and in everyday life through a simple framework-the A.R.C.
Of Racial Justice-that helps readers consistently interrogate their own actions and maintain a consistent posture of anti-racist action. This book is for anyone who believes it is time to stop compromising with racism and courageously confront it. Tisby roots the ultimate solution to racism in the Christian faith as we embrace the implications of what Jesus taught his followers.
Beginning in the church, he provides an opportunity to be part of the solution and suggests that the application of these principles can offer us hope that will transform our nation and the world. Tisby encourages us to reject passivity and become active participants in the struggle for human dignity across racial and ethnic lines.
15. The Cost of My Faith: How a Decision in My Cake Shop Took Me to the Supreme Court
Author: by Jack Phillips
Salem Books (May 25, 2021)
English
256 pages
Why Not Just Make the Cake? That’s a question countless people across the country started asking in 2012, when Jack Phillips told two men who walked into his Masterpiece Cakeshop that he couldn’t create a custom cake for their same-sex wedding.
And the question only grew more urgent as Phillips had to defend himself first before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and then numerous courtslosing at every step of the way until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in June 2018.
Why not just make the cake? Submitting would have been less frightening than facing relentless harassment and death threats. It would have been less costly than losing a major portion of his business when the state demanded that he design cakes for same-sex weddings or none at all.
And it would have been easier than a decade of fighting for his rightsand his livelihoodin court, a fight he has been forced to continue even after his victory at the Supreme Court. But for Jack Phillips, there are deeper principles at stakeprinciples too precious to abandon for the sake of convenience and safety.
