I hope you realized from the last BookNotes that as I complimented Mako & Haejin Fujimura for their new book called Beauty x Justice that their fascinating book is not merely sharing the vocations of Haejin (a human rights attorney) and Mako (an artist) but that the two of them, together, are uncovering the integral nature of these two aspects of God’s promised shalom. Beauty and justice are not fully separate things and not just blended; I’m thinking, for what it’s worth, of Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd’s notion of “enkapsis” and the interlacing of aspects of God’s world. Mako and Haejin are helping us see two related dimensions of God’s multi-dimensional sturdy but broken creation.

I love books that help us (in whatever aspect of life or society) live into the broad scope of Christ’s redeeming work. To live well in God’s world we must be rooted in God’s own story, which points us towards a certain hope of the restoration of creation in all its varied anticipatory aspects. Kudos to Mako & Haejin for helping do that.

If you missed that epic BookNotes explaining all of Mako’s books, I hope you check it out HERE.

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In this BookNotes we will revisit a theme that I have written about on and off for nearly as long as we have been doing BookNotes. We’ve long protested the admixture of far right ideology with religious faith and reject what used to be called rather tamely “civil religion” which now is seen for the ugliness that is often is: white Christian nationalism. Starting with Jerry Falwell (who I talked with about this very worry) and Pat Robertson’s  accommodation of evangelical faith to the hard right in the 1980s, the so-called religious right has in recent years devolved into a horrible caricature of Christian truth and life. It simply must be renounced by all Christians and certainly by evangelicals whose sisters and brothers are behind much of the most troubling accommodation of faith to toxic, corrupt, and often violent politics.

This ideology is not the same as the national socialism of Nazi Germany as some kooks on the far left say, but it does have frightening similarities in tone and content with a sort of authoritarian racism. We’ve seen it for years, now. It is unarguable (even if many claim otherwise) that just like Falwell affirmed the racists who targeted brothers like Desmond Tutu and Alan Boesak in South Africa (or the US trained assassins who murdered Oscar Romero in El Salvador) the current Republican and MAGA leadership are often equally cavalier in joining the stage with literal neo-Nazis.

These are among the most urgent socio-political facts of our age.

Brothers and sisters: what follows is not some knee-jerk, cranky “Trump Derangement Syndrome” tantrum. Anyone who tosses that term at everyone who protests Trump’s many vile positions and statements and golden statues is not being morally or intellectual serious.

I suppose there may be troubled, impulsive people with something like a mental health disorder who blame every single thing wrong with the whole world on Trump, but these books I am about to recommend to not do that. They are impressive, studying the trends of far-right thinking and how that could be a harbinger of even deeper ideological moves towards something akin to fascism. Certainly we’ve seen Republican leaders fail to criticize their leader when he suggests he need not follow the law. It is unbelievable and we haven’t seen anything like this in my lifetime.

I’ve been reading the 12 listed further below (and many more, actually) for months and this is my report. I hope you follow along and I hope you order some, sooner rather than later.

BUT FIRST

Allow me to start with ten quick recommendations of books I’ve mostly mentioned before that might frame our thinking about all this, including your evaluation of my recommendations. This handful are mostly positive, almost timeless, in offering Christian insight about public life. One is a pre-order that looks to be excellent, coming next month. I hope you’ve got a few of these for starters.

More could be said, but here are 10 preliminary good ones for living well in these days:

Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling James Sire (IVP) $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59

I do not think that we are all called to become what some call intellectuals, but, as John Stott put in, in a book we gave away during our grand opening four decades ago, “your mind matters.” We do have to use whatever gray matter God gave us and steward our ability to think and make choices about the issues of the day. Sire had spend nearly a lifetime reading widely and learning to think about learning; this classic has so much in it that it would be helpufl for almost anyone, from younger Christians to life long amateur learners to esteemed college professors.  We have to think well, especially in this age of propaganda and disinformation and ideological bromides. We have a whole self of books on the Christian mind; this one is fascinating and wise, and I wanted to recommend it see here as we start.

So many of the problems of the failures of our public witness have to do, I think, with the lack of appropriate categories and Kingdom vision to inflame our intellectual habits. We aren’t “radical” — from radix, meaning “the root.” We haven’t thought through foundational questions from a Christian orientation. We must not view faith as a nice little blessing on top of our own ideas, like some kind of Christian icing on the cake; rather, our approaches to everything — in this case, we’re talking about politics and civic life — should be oriented around the good news of the gospel of God’s Kingdom and the light the Scriptures show on the reality of the world that we know. We all would benefit by reading Sire, or something along these lines as we need “renewed minds” (Romans 12: 1-2 ) so we can “take every thought/ theory captive” (1 Corinthians 10:5.)

Reviving the Golden Rule: How the Ancient Ethic of Neighbor Love Can Heal the World Andrew DeCort (IVP Academic) $32.99 //  OUR SALE PRICE = $26.39

Little did Andrew DeCort know I was working on this very column when I had reason to cross paths with him recently, but I am delighted to now call him more than a Facebook friend. He’s even more energetic and passionate and lovely than I realized, even though I’ve touted this book here and there over recent months. Hooray.

I have mentioned it in a previous BookNotes and find it hard to describe easily. It is, simply put, a serious, semi-scholarly, detailed study of the implications of living by the so-called Golden Rule. It is an exploration of what theologians sometimes call “the Love Command” which is, of course, central to all that Christians (not to mention Jews and Muslims and most Buddhists) are called to embody. Loving others (without exception!) Is at the heart of the Jesus way, and by exploring everybody from Bonhoeffer to Romero to Mother Teresa, Andrew invites us all to care better for our neighbors.

Neighbor love, of course, is not only the heart of the Jesus way but can be a key to unlocking movements of nonviolent social change, authentic change.

David Gushee says that this is “one of those exceedingly rare ‘big books’ in Christian ethics that traces a crucial concept historically while advancing the normative discussion for today.”  Which is to say this shows us where this principle of love of neighbor comes from and where it has been lost. It is historical and constructive. It offers a diagnosis of our problem and offers a Christ-centered cure.

I name this for two big reasons: when thinking about how we arrange our public lives and what we think of Christian voices in politics and offer systemic civic reforms we have to be guided by love. Justice, some have said, is love gone public, how we love our neighbors, politically. But further, we must be guided by love even when offering critique to neighbors with whom we profoundly disagree. Can we resist those who we think are dragging the name of Jesus through the mud of right-wing hatred? How to do love those who think sharing stages with neo-Nazis is okay? How do we love those who suggest women ought not have the right to vote? Can we refuse to “other” them and learn to live by love, in our politics and policy initiatives, and in our discourse and conversation and debate? Reviving the Golden Rule and its study of this ancient ethic is hefty and complex and a major work you could work through this summer and beyond. Highly recommended.

The Justice of Jesus: Reimagining Your Church’s Life Together to Pursue Liberation and Wholeness Joash P. Thomas (Brazos Press) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

There are many more books about a Biblical view of justice these days than there used to be and we are grateful. Like other key notions in the Bible — sabbath, prayerfulness, church — we should read a book perhaps every year to remind us anew. From Ron Sider’s classic (must-read) Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger to the amazing personal favorite, The Justice Calling by Bethany Hoang  & Kristen Johnson to the remarkable Just Discipleship by Michael Rhodes, there are so many foundational books equipping us to know well the Biblical basis for justice ministry. This recent one is simply one of the very best in recent years, full of Biblical passion and pastoral care.

Filled with truth an grace, The Justice of Jesus invites Western Christians to rethink what it is that God requires of us.… It is theologically grounded and refreshingly practical. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez,  author of Jesus and John Wayne

Light for the Way: Seeking Simplicity, Connection, and Repair in a Broken World Sojourners (Broadleaf Books) $28.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.19

Forty some years ago we brought to the shop our first author for an in-store event the founder of Sojourners magazine (and pastor, then, of an intentional community formed in urban DC), Jim Wallis. I have read Sojo since its founding and this marvelous recent book is a celebration of their best pieces from the last fifty years. There are old, old pieces here, some which I nearly know by heart, and others from their more middle years, and many from the last view years. It offers a progressive sort of ecumenical faith that takes following Jesus seriously and relates a broad and generous faith perspective to all manner of issues the day. From serving the poor to eco-theology, from advocating for Christian feminist to bold anti-racism, Light for the Way has it all.

With pastorally sensitive writers like Henri Nouwen, Richard Rohr, Walter Brueggemann, and Barbara Brown Taylor, there are soul-strengthening encouragements here. Highly recommended for those wanting to flesh out a broader Christian worldview as it relates to public theology or for those brand new to the orientation of Sojo. One need not agree with every piece in their vast anthology but you will be glad for the stimulation and even refreshment found within.

At the moment, I cannot think of a better tonic for the spirit than this new collection from Sojourners, which has been in the business of encouragement for as long as some of us have been alive. Whether you are ready for refreshment from some of your favorite authors or on the lookout for new sources of inspiration, you will find them here.  — Barbara Brown Taylor, author of An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark

In a world teetering on the edge of division, injustice, and despair, Light for the Way is the kind of book we need now more than ever–a guide and companion on the journey toward repair, renewal, and a justice revival. In these pages, you will find not just theological reflection but a morally rooted call to action, inviting us to practice as we preach and to learn as we lead. Light for the Way is for all those looking to cultivate a faith that is both deeply personal and powerfully collective, for the sake of the world and the flourishing of all God’s people. — Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, author of We Pray Freedom: Liturgies and Rituals from the Freedom Church of the Poor

Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies N.T. Wright & Michael F. Bird (Zondervan) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39

Wright, of course, is a British Biblical scholar and Bird is an Aussie, similar keen on Biblical study and theology. Yet, they know that one cannot read the Bible without hearing implications for socio-political visions and that there are at least two big theme to grapple with, Biblically-speaking. The Bible speaks of ideologies that go haywire and seem to be taken over by evil, perhaps demons, maybe Death turned institutional. Sometimes these are called “the powers” and we are told, secondly, that they have been exposed and defeated by the risen and ascended Lord of the universe.

In what ways has Jesus defeated the powers? In what ways might institutional evil still be loose in the world? What is the role of the church, and of Christian citizens, to work against the dysfunctions of our political spaces?

What does the theme of the Kingdom of God have to do with the realities of political upheaval (even globally) in our day?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez (author of the must-read Jesus and John Wayne) says that readers from across religious and political spectrums will benefit from it, calling it a “sharply written text.”

Nicholas Wolterstorff (author of the classic Until Justice and Peace Embrace) says, “I know of no other book that comes even close to locating, so insightfully and in such rich detail, Christian political activity within the context of God’s coming Kingdom.”

“I know of no other book that comes even close to locating, so insightfully and in such rich detail, Christian political activity within the context of God’s coming Kingdom.” — Nicholas Wolterstorff

Political Visions & Illusions: A Survey & Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies David Koyzis (IVP Academic) $36.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $29.59

I have mentioned this so often some of you may be tired of hearing this but Dr. Koyzis’s book is practically one-of-a-kind. He studies, explains, and critiques the deepest guiding presuppositions of the right and the left, conservatives and progressives and noting how neither “camp” or ideology is consistent with a distinctive and deep Biblical worldview. In other words, we need to have some intellectual (dare I say, spiritual) distance between us and the standard ideologies shaping most Republicans and Democrats these days.

Koyzis’s more practical guide to how to live responsibly in this world of distorted ideologies (Citizenship Without Illusions: A Christian Guide to Political Engagement (IVP Academic; $19.99 // $15.99) gets us part way towards faithful citizenship, and his principled but realist approach, non-aligned as it is, informs my heart. I think Political Visions & Illusions is a must read. I’m not sure his moderate, academic tone is adequate for confronting the idols of the age these days, but it is a foundational book and you should read it.

Please read these interesting, informative endorsements carefully as they explain well why this book is so rare and needed.

Political nostrums fly thick and fast in contemporary life — from print, radio, TV, pulpits and (perhaps most of all) casual conversation. David Koyzis’s welcome effort uses wise biblical reasoning as well as the hard-won experience of Dutch Calvinists to winnow through the modern world’s blizzard of competing political claims. Koyzis’s analysis is both an effective survey of the world’s contemporary political options and an encouraging Christian word on how to discern the critical differences. This book’s combination of readable theory and wise Christian thinking is a first-order contribution to Christian political thought in its own right. — Mark A. Noll, Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College, author The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

This second edition of David’s great book is a gem. The brighter light he now shines on his assessment of modern ideologies comes from an in-depth assessment of the story each tells and the idolatry exhibited in each one. This also pushes Christians to examine the extent to which we may be compromising our dedication to God by bowing (even unconsciously) to other gods for political guidance. In this day of heightening nationalism, racism, terrorism, and sheer ignorance, the message of this book could not be more urgent or important. Read and discuss it carefully even if it takes weeks to do so. The multiple forces at work in our homelands and around the world will not be thwarted or redirected by one election or one major event. Christian love of God and neighbor demands responsible civic service and that requires the kind of understanding provided by Political Visions and Illusions. — James W. Skillen, found of the Center for Public Justice; author of The Good of Politics

Faithful Politics: Ten Approaches to Christian Citizenship and Why It Matters Miranda Zapor Cruz (IVP Academic) $25.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.39

I have for years suggested that all Christian citizens get under their belts a few solid reflections on faith and citizenship. I’ve been disappointed when loud-mouthed advocates or politically-involved pastors (not to mention Christian candidates or those working in public service) couldn’t name a single solid theological book that guided them. I’ve promoted the impeccable Just Politics: A Guide for Christian Engagement by Ron Sider, for instance, that guides us through a process of thinking Christianly and Biblically about society, politics, and policy issues with a humility that is lovely. This recent one, Faithful Politics by Miranda Cruz, is now a go-to to understand and live out various themes and strengths of a handful of different approaches. Two approaches she describes are not acceptable, she warns (so-called Christian dominionism and Christian nationalism) and those chapters are themselves nearly worth the price of the book.

The most comprehensive understanding of the role of the Christian believer in national politics from a biblical, theological, and historical perspective to date. A classic for generations. Research in Faithful Politics is extensive yet reads with ease. This is an essential book for leaders in all walks of life to have depth of understanding in public morals and social concerns impacting decision-making of the same. — Jo Anne Lyon, general superintendent emerita of The Wesleyan Church

The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor Kaitlyn Schiess (IVP) $20.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.79

I highlight this small work about spiritual formation and our public lives almost any time I can as it is wise and smart and broad-thinking — a really great read. I can’t say enough about it. It is about how we form the political values that we do, and what might be appropriate for Christians. (For starters, we should not primarily be fed by Fox News of CNN, right?)   Can our faith be nurtured in ways that speak to our political context? Can we become so deeply shaped by the gospel that we naturally reject cultural and partisan conformity? What really shapes our civic imaginations? The Liturgy of Politics explains so much and will give you ways to share these concerns with others.

This is a clear-eyed look at the forces of spiritual formation inside and outside of church–and the political discipleship that American Christians too often accept without thinking about it. Schiess offers a powerful call to examine hidden assumptions and false idols, and to explore the whole two thousand years of Christian tradition in order to breathe new life into twenty-first-century evangelicalism. — Molly Worthen, associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author of Apostles of Reason and Spellbound

This is a powerful challenge from a young heart and a mature mind. Schiess seems to touch every unexamined habit of Christian thought, work, leisure, and worship. With a wide sweep of life’s liturgies and church liturgies, of spiritual formation and political responsibility, of Bible reading and communication with others, Schiess goes straight for the heart in relaxed conversation that packs a prophetic punch about our complacency, ignorance of Scripture, cultural conformity, and more. Her urgent message is for communities of Christian faith to repent and turn ourselves over entirely to God, as disciples of Jesus Christ have always been called to do. It is hard to imagine how this young woman has been able to read so widely and think so profoundly about so much of life. Here you’ll find fresh insight and compelling hope that will renew your labors for the coming of God’s kingdom. Young people, old folks like me, and everyone in between, read this book now! — James W. Skillen, author of The Good of Politics, former president of the Center for Public Justice

Kingdom and Country: Following Jesus in the Land That You Love edited by Angie Ward (NavPress) $16.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59

What to be challenged to think deeply with an inspiring collection of essays, lovely pieces helping us learn to enter better conversations about what it means to “follow Jesus in the land that you love.” What does it mean that we are firstly loyal to God’s (international) Kingdom? What might a truly Christian view of patriotism look like and how does that shape our role as citizens and public activists? Many of the ten chapters here are by people of color and their unique contributions are so, so helpful.  I love the series of “Kingdom Conversations” of which this book is a part done in collaboration with Missio Alliance. And I really appreciate Angie Ward’s good curation of great chapters (and the evocative discussion questions) by these thoughtful Christian folks, pushing us further along in this vital conversation.

PRE-ORDER NOW Reimagining Biblical Politics: What Scripture Says About Public Life and Why It Matters Michael J. Rhodes (Baker Academic) $26.99 // OUR PRE-ORDERED SALE PRICE = $21.59 – due June 23, 2026

I have been wanting to see this as much as a few others who have pre-ordered it but I’ve not seen anything on it yet. But I can assure you — from the reputation of the author and the amazing endorsing blurbs on the back — it is going to be a tremendous resource. You really should get on the waiting list. Hopefully, we’ll have it a bit early — mid June, at least.

This lively and timely book fills out in wonderful biblical detail what I sketched in broad and aspirational strokes in my chapter ‘Politics and the Nations’ in Old Testament Ethics for the People of God, but does it much better than I could, not least by decisively demolishing the idea that Jesus and the New Testament had nothing to say about ‘politics.’ The breadth of biblical sources and the subtlety of how they are used are richly enlightening and challenging. Rhodes rightly does not tell us what or who should get our political support, but he invites and excites us to find the Bible showing us, far more than we imagined, how we should think and act in the political sphere in ways that embody God’s own priorities and the way of Christ, the world’s true King.  — Christopher J. H. Wright, Langham Partnership, author of Here Are Your Gods: Faithful Discipleship in Idolatrous Times and The Great Story and the Great Commission: Participating in the Biblical Drama of Mission 

Scripture declares, ‘God reigns’ and ‘Jesus is Lord’ — political language from Genesis to Revelation. But what do such claims mean and not mean? In readable, perceptive (and provocative) prose, with real-life examples and practical guidance, Michael Rhodes invites us to reimagine the Bible’s varied political texts as manifestations of ‘outpost politics’ and ‘pilgrim politics.’ This is a timely and much-needed book as political division and even political idolatry pervade countries and churches. — Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Chair in Biblical and Theological Studies, St. Mary’s Seminary & University, author of Reading Revelation Responsibly and Life Transfigured: A Contemporary Pauline Theology

This is the book I have been looking — and praying — for! Rhodes blends rich biblical exegesis with robust theological insight and practical wisdom. I will personally reach for Reimagining Biblical Politics often, and I will recommend it to pastors, small groups, and any Christian seeking biblical wisdom for political life. — Kaitlyn Schiess, author of The Ballot and the Bible and The Liturgy of Politics

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12 VITAL BOOKS TO HELP US LIVE IN THIS CURRENT AGE OF RELIGIOUS SUPPORT FOR THE DRIFT TOWARDS FAR-RIGHT AUTHORITARIANISM

I cannot easily express how important I think these sorts of titles are. You should review a post we did on books about Christian Nationalism two years ago which are certainly still urgent and quite timely. SEE HERE.  In a way these new twelve add more to that analysis, deepening it.  I find these titles compelling.

Rather than naming more titles offering critiques of Christian Nationalism as such, these (mostly) recent titles bring new nuances, historical data, urgent and eye-opening reporting about the shift away from the rule of law and towards authoritarianism. Some of these books were years in the making and are very well done.  A few are page-turning memoirs or journalistic encounters, others more scholarly. I will say which ones are a bit more academic and which are more spritely written, captivating, even.

I know the term fascism is a bit complicated — I learned that years ago reading the entertaining, if confounding, and nearly brilliant (if often wrong-headed) Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Change by Jonah Goldberg (Forum Books; $27.00 // $21.60.) Even Goldberg’s conservative publisher called his thesis “startling” and the book “contentious.”

So, yes, these topics are complicated and the discussion must be adequately nuanced. We ought not call those with whom we disagree “brownshirts” or “jackbooted stormtroopers.” Unless, of course, like the jacked up, masked and booted ICE agents illegally kidnapping some of our fellow citizens, they are, in fact, jackbooted stormtroopers. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Christian Past That Wasn’t: Debunking Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History Warren Throckmorton (Broadleaf) $32.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $26.39

This is a hefty hardback and you’ll be glad for its strong binding because it is the sort of book that will have you paging around, looking at the footnotes and appendices, quoting stuff for friends, copying paragraphs. It is eminently readable and quotable. There’s almost too-much to quote. You will be underlining a lot.

I would like to do a longer review of this showing chapter by chapter the good stuff he explains about how the past as portrayed by many in the right-wing and Christian nationalist movements is simply wrong. Erroneous. Sometimes blatantly so. But for now, I’ll try to summarize.

He tells of his long-standing debunking campaign, looking up the full quotes and stories of Washington or Jefferson or Franklin, taking up the layperson’s task of fact-checking history. (Dr. Throckmorton was until his recent retirement, a psychology prof at the conservative Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania, not a historian.) Those of us that have followed and appreciated his yeoman efforts to skewer those misquoting or half-quoting American leaders have applauded when he documents how conservative Christian leaders — James Dobson’s  American Family Association, for instance, on the guys in the news this week in DC — talk about America as if it was clearly a Christian nation. It was not. He proves it.

What started out as Facebook posts and fact-checking speakers and websites and right-wing rallies, has slowly matured into a well-organized book. And what a chock-full book it is.

What’s often maddening is when he tells of correspondence with leaders of the religious right showing how they misquote the founders and how they do or do not alter their publications. (A few have moderately clarified a few of their errors while some simply deny the facts and keep preaching a false “history that wasn’t” as Throckmorton puts it.) And to think these are culture warriors who fretted so loudly against truth being eroded by postmodernism and the relativism that secular humanists were bringing to our land. They are, as Throckmorton shows, guilty of fabrication and dishonesty, over and over and over. It’s sad.

The Christian Past That Wasn’t is not a thorough, scholarly history text on the question of the ways in which the Christian worldview may have influenced our 18th century Founding Fathers. For that, he cites (among others) the award winning, impeccably balanced classic by Dr. John Fea (Was America Founded as a Christian Nation 2nd edition) and the older chestnut The Search of a Christian America by the then-young, now retired and esteemed, triumvirate of evangelical historians, George Marsden, Mark Noll, and Nathan Hatch.

Warren is righteously repulsed by how civil religionists and white nationalists nowadays still try to minimize the horror of the colonialist’s land-grabbing and mass murder of indigenous peoples and the sin of chattel slavery in which many of the Founders were involved — the founding ethos and era of our America surely can’t be considered Jesus-like knowing what little we know about the non-stop brutalities perpetrated by many of the colonialists. But he is not writing a broadside against the virtues of Founding era. His project is more simple and specific. He is debunking dishonest stuff the Christian nationalist movement keeps saying that just isn’t true.

One could list example after example and if you care about history at all, or the ethics of public discourse these very days (or the new patriotic book from Fox News staff) but I must restrain myself. I promise you that you’ll be turning the pages over and over to get the facts, documented impeccably, solid and clear, bit by bit. And it really is interesting. You can tell he’s a good teacher.

Randall Balmer says the book is written “with prodigious research and surgical precision” and that Throckmorton “dismantles the misrepresentations, falsehoods, and outright fabrications perpetrated by Christian nationalists.”  Exactly.

(As an aside, I’ll note, again, that Throckmorton isn’t a trained historian, but he has allowed this calling on his heart in recent years to nearly take over his life. For years, now, he has been tenacious in going to libraries and historical archives, searching academic history websites, looking for original documents, finding real copies of the stuff that the likes of David Barton show and tell, sometimes with literal slight of hand. Warren co-wrote a book that was so damning with evidence against the errors of Barton (and Glenn Beck who wrote the foreword) that Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies was pulled from publication. I don’t know if Thomas Nelson’s editorial team wasn’t used to doing academic fact-checking but it was a huge embarrassment to Christian publishing that it took a couple of amateur historians a couple of weeks to expose the multitudinous errors. Yet Barton continues to speak at MAGA events and the religious right leaders seems to not care that he is nearly a charlatan. Throckmorton’s co-written critique of Barton and books like The Jefferson Lies first came out in 2012, then called Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson.)

In The Christian Past That Wasn’t a handful of key conceits are exposed. Some are fairly well known topics but he goes into the weeds to explain historical facts, court documents decisions, and more. For instance, can we really say American was founded as a Christian country because they early on endorsed a state church? (His brief study of disestablishment is excellent, citing Disestablishment and Religious Dissent, the definitive collection of state-by-state histories edited by Carl Esbeck and Jonathan Den Hartog.) Did the Founders really create a Christian government? What’s with that “oath” we hear about? Are the charter documents based on the Bible? Should we promote Christianity in public schools — and is that what the earliest leaders wanted? Do America’s virtues somehow justify our sins? Were most of the Founders orthodox Christian?

Some of this is, as I said, maddening. He shows Charlie Kirk’s errors of historical fact and debunks Kenneth Copeland’s often repeated errors about George Washington’s 1789 Oath. He critiques Donald Trump’s executive order that history education must be “patriotic” and “ennobling.” The shallow Christian mind (and a lack of integrity) seems sadly evident and while I’m not sure Throckmorton is altogether gracious about it, he is not mean-spirited as he takes on this nonsense. Some of the book has some wit and sarcasm and it makes for a good, engaging read.

Other parts of this, though, are tackling admittedly thorny matters, unanswered questions, even, about the shape of pluralism and what it looks like to have “freedom from and freedom for” religion in these United States. The State’s debates about the “no religious test” clause is fascinating and detailed. His exploration of how the Constitution mandated education to be done by states and local governments and shows how the role of the Bible or prayers in schools varied, historically as the nation expanded. It was great reading, even if briefly, about what nonsectarian schooling meant in say the 1840s in New York or Boston or Baltimore. Did you know there were riots in May of 1844 that killed at least fourteen people in Philadelphia when some states mandated KJV Bible reading? Catholics didn’t go for it.

Separation of church and state has a complicated history (and the famous “wall of separation” is not from a binding founding document.) But it is one of the great innovations of the brilliant Founding thinkers and framers. Will this book help us keep our Republic free? I think it could.

Of course it must be said — and Warren does say it, although maybe not clearly enough — that many who fall for these “Christian America” cliches that are, in fact, inaccurate, are fine earnest folks. They are told by people they trust about this prayer or that oath or they hear a (half) quote and hear charming speakers like Eric Metaxas, say something seemingly inspiring, and then they repeat what they’ve heard. Preachers quote other pseudo-scholars and citizen activists who are well intended read devotionals with these inaccurate stores reprinted. We shouldn’t treat too harshly those who have fallen for this shoddy exaggeration of America’s religious founding. And to insist that gospel Christians speak the truth is in no way is a criticism of evangelical faith. We need not pile on, bashing conservatism as such, or traditional faith. as sicj. But we do have to help counter the false myths that lead us to an inappropriate view of our beloved country.

While it may not be a formal and knowing disinformation campaign but here in May of 2026, the “history that wasn’t” has been preached so brazenly that we really need this book now more than ever. Can we use it gently to correct our friends and neighbors?  Will you help learn the truth of American history and set the record straight?

To defang the idols of Christian nationalism we have to debunk these myths that undergird that wrong-headed ideology. This book brings — with “scholarship and panache”, as Katherine Stewart put it — facts to the table, helping those who have been misinformed by those who preach dishonest history.

In The Christian Past That Wasn’t, Throckmorton takes on the whole project of Christian nationalist mythmaking. From exploring why mythic narratives are appealing to showing how damaging they are to democracy, this book couldn’t be timelier. — Julie Ingersoll, author of Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction

With a clarity of purpose and pen, Throckmorton unveils how the most pernicious lies that perpetuate the myths of Christian nationalism are just that: lies. I know I will refer to this book time and again to quickly and easily remind myself of our collective truth–America’s heritage is one of religious liberty, tolerance, and pluralism. — Andrew Whitehead, author of American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church

Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right Laura K. Field (Princeton University Press) $35.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $28.00

This is one of the more academic books I’ve read lately and it will reward your diligence if you give it a serious try. Furious Minds is a very thorough and complex exploration of the philosophical background and scholarly influences of some of the various camps and movements that have embraced (and often provided support for) Trumpian policies. From the heavyweights who studied under Leo Strauss — trust me, he is important! — and the Claremont school to the intellectual architects of the Heritage Foundation (you’ve heard of Project 2025; you know, the detailed policy document candidate Trump said he never heard of even as he promptly appointed many of it’s key writers weeks later) she explains their theories and tells about their movement.

If you have the fiesty expose When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How American Cracked Up in the Early 1990s (fabulously written by John Ganz) this will resonate, but offer more substantial intellectual underpinnings. If you’ve read another I’ve recommended, the great book The Right: The Hundred-year War for American Conservatism by (conservative) writer Matthew Continetti, you will know how, for instance, William Buckley fought to keep anti-semitism and rowdy right-wingers like the John Birchers out of the broader conservative movement. Those two books (one by a liberal writer the other a conservative) offered big and splendid social history of so much of the various streams and factions (and funders) of conventional conservatism. Furious Minds, in a way, picks up where those leaves off, studying the wild-eyed visionaries and revolutionary spirit of the very far right. It’s stellar.

Laura Field was herself involved in some of these scholarly debates there in the deep end of that ideological pool. She is careful as a reporter but also can be colorful as she tells of her observation of conversations and speeches and back room meetings. She studied with first-generation Straussians and was often with the exceedingly important thinker and formative leader Harry Jaffa, for crying out loud. (Jaffa, we learn, was widely read and compelling on political philosophers from Aristotle to Aquinas to Lincoln. He wrote the famous line of Goldwater’s in 1964 that “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”) Furious Minds is both a memoir-like story of on the ground investigative journalism and a scholarly discussion of the ideas and debates on the recent far right ecosystem.

Much of this discusses the context of what is called post liberalism and she tells about Sohrab Ahmari, for instance. There are those who call themselves National Conservatives and she writes a lot about Michal Anton (connected to Bannon, by the way, but also the likes of the famous online “Bronze Age Pervert.”) She looks at the German legal scholar Carl Schmitt and (as I noted) Harry Jaffa. She tells of the shift from what she calls “Alt-right to Hard Right.” She explains the America First movement (which is anti-war, generally) and explores those “laying siege to the institutions” and the virtues and demerits of “common good constitutionalism.” She looks at Yoram Hazony and the likes of Gladden Pappin, a “Catholic integralist.” There’s a chapter on the evangelical-ish Christian Nationalists and Pentecostal notions of revival — Mike Johnson, of course, comes up, as does Stephen Wolfe. It’s miles apart but she looks at the thoughtful Catholic thinker Robby George and guys from Hillsdale.

One reviewer says “there is no Ivory Tower tall enough or corner of the internet dark enough to escape Field’s critical eye.” Yep the cast of characters ranges from brilliant and classy to dangerously weird, from Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom and Robert George and Patrick Deneen and R.R. Reno to creeps like “Raw Egg Nationalist” Charles Cornish-Dale  and Peter Thiel and Curtis Marvin and the “Bronze Age Mindset” movement. This is the scholarly survey of the intellectual sub-flooring and money and energy of far right populism.

This may seem arcane (and some of it is, I suppose) but it is much of what drives the second Trump administration. These fanatical characters have access to the corridors of power (and many are, in fact Trump or Vance’s advisors.) As Elizabeth Anderson of the University of Michigan notes “Readers should be rushing to this book to understand how and why conservative elites embraced extremism.”

By the way, not surprisingly, some, like the current head of the Claremont Institute, have told people not to take her book seriously. Are you kidding me? Read the 325 dense pages and then the 55+ pages of footnotes and her first hand accounts and you tell me if she is worth taking seriously.

Shadows of the Republic: The Rebirth of Fascism in America and How to Defeat It for Good Omer Aziz (Broadleaf Books) $32.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $26.39

I realize I could be presuming on your valuable time and I do not mean to say too much about these books but I want you to know about them and discern if they are important for you or anybody you know. This is another I could write much about — I’ve cut a lot out of my first draft review — but I want to say just a few important things about this very impressive study. Award winning journalist Bob Woodward says it is “comprehensive” relating fascism and American democracy. Another reviewer called it “unflinching.”

Shadows is a fascinating history of fascism, what it is, how it works, and what might be driving the up-tick in authoritarian governments around the globe. Aziz notes, too, that “fascism is not coming to America; it has been here for a long time.” Gulp.

The back cover says, “with astringent clarity, Omer Aziz traces the flaring up of fascist ideas in both American history and our current moment.”

Author Stephen King, who has a rave blurb on the back, notes that this is “a book that should be an alarm bell announcing that the American house is on fire.” He’s not wrong.

His exploration of fascism in the US was eye-opening to me. Learning vividly about the pro-Nazi rallies at Madison Square Gardens, 22,000 strong, for instance, is nearly worth the price of the book. Learning about the ways in which Hitler admired Mussolini, and how they both inspired many Americans is frightening. His deft teaching about how fascist ideas emerged here and there over time and place is important and helpful.

I hate to say this — I am not much an alarmist, I don’t think — but I think this is going to be a topic we are going to be called to understand, perhaps in the not to distant future. Now is the time to start reading and this is the place to start.

Mr. Aziz, by the way, grew up in a working-class immigrant family and went to Yale Law School and has been admired for his work and writing. He got a MPhil degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. His own story is threaded throughout the pages (if only just a bit) and it is inspiring. He cares about democracy, the rule of law, a decent world, and the scourges of racism and antisemitism and such. Authoritarian rule is often related to anti-semitism and it is ungodly to think religious people would not cry out against neo-Nazis and pushy authoritarianism that often is linked to fascism. But here we are.

Is there a difference between Italian fascism and the National Socialism of Hitler’s Germany? Of course. Have either of these been ascendent in American culture? Certainly. We have to know our history, Aziz notes often. But knowing the dangers is only part of our moral imperative — we have to defeat the fascists intellectually and “in narrative terms” as he puts it. People are drawn to fascist and authoritarian regimes for a reason. He argues for economy solidarity and concern for ordinary folks, but, first, we need to “tell a better story than the fascists” and elect those who can “govern in an ethical way such that people can again believe democracy can get big things done.”

We seems to suggest that we need to guard our Republic with a vibrant (and big tent) pro-democracy movement. He doesn’t say this, but in this year of civic education and underscored patriotism, now is the time to speak together about the spread of  support for authoritarianism. Knowing how fascism is seen in the far right of say, India, or Hungary, is urgent.

Aziz dreaming of how to make a difference is not that unusual and is a fine shot in the arm. But the strength of Shadows of the Republic is this detailed study of fascism and its current appeal in too many quarters. It is creepy and offensive that our President insults admirable Americans yet praises the likes of Vladimir Putin. It should give us all pause that he, and many in his administration, admire the likes of Viktor Orbán. We have to understand this, and, Aziz is right: we have to tell a better story, one that rejects anything resembling fascism. This book is urgent and will help.

Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping A Democracy Joyce Vance (Penguin) $28.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.40

I read this pretty quickly over two days and I’m not going to lie. It isn’t colorful or sexy or fun. I enjoyed it as much as any good civics lecture or handful of great TED talks — informative and mildly inspiring. At times it seemed almost tedious.

So why suggest it here – besides the great title? Because it is a shot in the arm full of facts, lots of facts, about little known court cases and judiciary stuff. Because she is a patriot who cares about the rule of law. Because she documents the shenanigans and insists we ought not tolerate them. This is a call to arms and I think it will appeal not only to those geeky folks who read jurisprudence or like legal briefs, but for anyone who loves knowing how the balance of powers really works. This. Is It.

The lovely author was a heroic former Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama (an office she held during the Obama administration.) She served for twenty-five years as a career federal prosecutor. She puts away bad guys and has stories of how law works. Now she is a Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. My hat is off. She reminds us, over and over, that we are a country designed to have no kings. We believe in the rule of law, the U.S.Constitution. Oddly, the right-wing talkers who claim to believe in the Constitution have allowed things to go really hay-wire and don’t protest when our current President has said he may not listen to court rulings he doesn’t like.

If I were his boss he’d be fired for saying such a thing. Nobody, in my view, who gives the approving nod to Trump’s often-spoken suggestions that he will disobey the law is a bad American (and certainly not being faithful to Christ in that moment.) But don’t take my opinion for it — read the court cases learn about how democracy works for us, study how “the Founding Fathers did believe in a strong executive branch, even as they emphasized that the president but be accountable.” Vance is a fan of the Federalist Papers and she quotes them a lot. Given Up Is Unforgivable is a “manual” drawn from the likes of Hamilton and others. She’s big on understanding the origins of the constitution, which she says is “essential.”

It’’s admittedly a little bit nerdy, but she has a popular Substack called “Civil Discourse.” You should know it but it is no substitute for the book, “a Manuel for Keeping Democracy.”

Professor Vance also draws on some great stuff from the civil rights era, talking with leaders who were on the bridge in Selma in 1965. She cares about voting rights, about civil rights, about American rights. She’s a bit geeky, glowing about Law Day (and she quotes former President Reagan on how to keep American freedoms alive by being persistent. Nice!

Presidents, by the way, cannot amend the Constitution. Just saying. Perhaps we need to remind some of our MAGA leaders of that since they never cry out when our President suggests as much. Her final “Postscript” tells about the 2025 Supreme Court “ending its term with a bang. One of its final decisions, Trump v CASA, stalled the use of nationwide injunctions.” If you don’t know what that means or why it matters, Giving Up Is Unforgivable may be for you. I know I needed it. Come on.

Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age Ibram X. Kendi (One World) $35.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $28.79

I admit I haven’t read much of this yet. I think Stamped from the Beginning was grueling and I respect his How to Be an Antiracists and the Four Hundred Souls collection. Even if some reactionaries hate him, and even if thoughtful evangelicals have some concerns, there is no doubt he is a formidable public intellectual. He won the National Book Award and teaches history at Howard. (He is also, importantly, is the inaugural director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, “an interdisciplinary research enterprise examining global racism.”)

This is hefty stuff, and it’s a big, sturdy volume, a long-awaited one.

The gist is that there has been an authoritarian strain of American thinking and practice — uh, yeah, slavery is hard to miss, even though so many do — and the fascism that we worry about has been seeded here since the beginning. This “chain of ideas” is vital, it seems to me, to appreciate. Which means we have to take up this book and do the hard work connecting the dots. I don’t want to, but I’m going to. Maybe you should get some good-hearted, sturdy friends and tackle the thing, all 550 pages.

One of the primary organizing principles of this book is an exploration of that chant from Charlottesville, “You will not replace us.” The string of mass shootings across the globe that followed — Oslo Christchurch, Buffalo, El Paso, Pittsburgh — have this in common. The murderers (and sometimes their supporters) said their crimes were a defense again “White genocide.”

Oh my. This is no coincidence — Kendi documents how business leaders and media figures “cultivated anxiety and furor over demographic change.”

He claims that “popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world have expressed some version of great replacement theory, eroding democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change.” It is not exactly the same thing, but related, that our current President, long before his first campaign, became known as a “birther” offering wacky and cruel conspiracy theories about Barak Obama.

Did you know that the term was coined in 2011 by a French novelist who argued that Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, brought by “shadowy elites to replace the White population”?

This train of thought is unsettling but an indispensable global history of how this weird theory evolved and how it is now adding fuel to the racist sand even fascist fires, and how we can resist this — freeing ourselves from this bondage, he might say. Chain of Ideas is an important contribution to our thinking of why things are happening — from Indonesia to Potsdam to  Ukraine to Madagascar to your home town.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century Timothy Snyder (Crown) $14.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.20

Some of our good customers follow the excellent Substack of Kristen Du Mez. Her Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation is a critical must-read to understand evangelicalism’s ethos of masculinity which, as she shows, shaped some of its connection to conservative politics and the rise of what used to be called the New Right and then the religious right. (We are taking pre-orders, too, for her forthcoming Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made due this mid-September.) Anyway, she and some other friends at Toronto’s Institute for Christian Studies convened an online study group using this little book, On Tyranny. We were delighted to get a few orders last summer (and at least one webinar discussing it can be found at the ICS YouTube channel.) This is just to say that reasonable Christian folks that I admire are fond of it and are doing their part of help people learn how to have good conversations around its punchy points.

On Tyranny is pocket-sized, and could be read in one sitting. Each chapter has larger-than usual font size on the first page of the chapter to make the point (and some of the chapters are only a few pages.) It’s a set of propositions and action plans, helping us discern what tyranny looks like, the dangers of authoritarian leaders eroding the rule of law, and what ordinary citizens can do in their efforts to offer wise civic engagement. One of the chapters, by the way, invites us to “make eye contact and engage in small talk” and another reminds us of the joy of reading.

Snyder is a historian so he covers (ever so quickly) some of the stuff discussed in the above-mentioned Aziz book, even noting (as does Furious Minds) the influence today of thinkers who were important in the rise of twentieth century fascisms. I get why Du Mez, herself a historian, appreciates this. Further, her reformational worldview certainly would approve of Snyder’s chapters “Defend Institutions” and “Take Responsibility for the Face of the World.” He has a good chapter on professional ethics and I cheered when he wrote about “standing out.”  Not unlike Marilyn McIntyre’s lovely and vital Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, Snyder says to “be kind to our language” and has another bit on “listen for dangerous words.”

We simply have to, in this era, be on guard against totalitarian, the very sort that the Founding Fathers tried to protect us from.  In accessing threats, Snyder notes,

“We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.”

The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging Noelle Cook (Broadleaf Books) $28.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.19

In a matter of hours yesterday I saw a car loaded with Bigfoot stickers (and we wondered if it was a joke or was the driver a true aficionado) and then had a customer order an outlandish book full of conspiracies about the alleged bad guys behind Covid, and then we heard a nutty, accusatory story I needn’t go into. Across my Facebook feed came Eric Metaxas insisting that Christian truths from American history are being systematically erased — erased! — by, I guess, a cabal of bad historians and progressive Christians. Then we saw an interview with Stephen Spielberg about his new flick assuming, in the story, that there are conspiracies to cover up UFO sitings.

Why do folks go off the deep end in falling for bizarre theories? Sure, from nutritional advice to geo-politics to the evaluation of the meaning of history, good folks can make reasonable arguments for alternative perspectives (and, in fact, it seems that thoughtful Christians should be attentive to views other than the most mainstream.) But when a President routinely says that ordinary journalists are “the enemy of the people” (even using degrading language used by Hitler’s propaganda ministers) we ought to be worried. At what point does legitimate interest and curiosity turn into dysfunctional speculation and being caught up in stuff like Q-Anon?

I read this book recently about a new kind of conspiracy thinking that I didn’t know about.  Although this book (written by a social psychologist) is interested rather generally about how it is that ordinary women become extremists (and how to “reach across the conspiratorial divide?”) the two women she ends up tracking from her research have both gone off the deep end of mystical new age conspiracy stuff.

Noelle Cook is an ethnographer, documentarian, and an adequate writer who tells these stories with zest. She struggles a bit about professional journalistic ethics as she comes to befriend these two women (both of whom attacked the US Capitol on January 6th.) As she gets involved in their lives — one went to a Pennsylvania jail after her conviction for her crimes during the J6 riot — she learns their back stories, their family contexts (of poverty, abuse, drug addictions, mental health issues and more) and offers genuine empathy and support. It becomes a remarkable story as Cook offers not only what one scholar called “this eye-opening account of the vulnerabilities and vitriol that have dragged so many women into unimaginable beliefs” but of ordinary Trump followers who are not what you’d expect. How representative are these women of the MAGA base? I’d think not very. But this book makes a case.

Here is the important thing to realize: the two women are part of a movement (which, through Cooks deep reporting and research we learn is more widespread than we may care to realize) that is called conspirituality. It is an embrace of J6 and Trumpian authoritarianism because New Age and the extremes of online wellness culture (laced with racism and all manner of conspiracy theories) believe that we are heading into a spiritual awakening which they call the “fifth dimension.” From “quantum healing” to stuff about “starseeds” — yep, starseeds — these former evangelicals have bought into the wildest faith in new age weirdness and have staked their fortunes and lives on these words from Pleiadeans, Luerians, and Ascended Masters. Have you heard of Kryon of the Magnetic Service? The health benefits of colloidal silver? Shape-shifting reptilians?

Two quick comments. First, I don’t like the cover and I do not think that the author means any disrespect with that creepy mask; she is truly trying to understand these women as she explores why they would get wrapped up first in Q-Anon conspiracies, then attack the Capitol, and then fall away from Christian faith and move into hyper New Age conspirituality.

Secondly, and this is not a concern of the book, but is my own concern — as I am sure it will be with most BookNotes readers — what sort of Christian formation can not only give way to MAGA violence like we saw on January 6th and then leaving their church homes so angrily and then adopting such eccentric views that seem so far away from the gospel of Christ and his grace? What are we in so many churches doing wrong? Years ago Dallas Willard wrote a book called The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teaching on Discipleship and that “omission” should weigh heavy upon any in conventional church leadership: what can we do to help congregants build their lives upon the rock and be shaped for a mature “long obedience in the same direction”? The women in The Conspiracies are one slice of those leaving traditional Christian faith but it is emblematic. Read it not only to appreciate something of the vibe of the restless right and those drawn to extremism. But read it, too, as a cautionary tale of how church folks can lose their way.

Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis Jared Stacy (HarperOne) $27.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.39

If The Conspiracists is sort of an ethnography and first-hand account of a few women involved in nearly cult-like conspiracy stuff, Reality in Ruins is a sobering study of how conspiracy thinking as been part of the American evangelical experience and has helped cultivate a tendency towards outlandish speculation, which tended to feed the current experience of culture wars and conspiracy thinking. Stacy is a sharp young scholar with a PhD in moral theology from the University Aberdeen; he has pastored evangelical congregations and now specializes in the study of this stuff — dare I say he’s gone down a rabbit hole about rabbit holes. And it has paid off. This book is passionate but not mean-spirited. Publishers Weekly rightly says it is “empathic” as he shows the inner workings of some of the evangelical subculture.

Karen Swallow Prior, who I trust immensely, says it is “an eminently trustworthy voice… and urgently needed.” Mako Fujimura says it is a “must-read book for our times.”

Again, the question haunts: how do people come to adopt such fearful and twisted views of things. How are evangelicals, of all people, often drawn to such odd stuff?

The book is studious and careful. It is not outlandish — Prior is right to say he is trustworthy as a heartfelt guide to this subculture, a world and a worldview.  Stacy shows how some of this disposition started during the Great Awakening. He looks carefully at D.L. Moody. He looks at the Scopes trial. He shows how some fundamentalist Christians bought into the ugly and fraudulent “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (published in 1903, prior to the Russian Revolution.) Of course he works his way into Cold War conspiracy, from John Birch on down to Carl McIntyre, who I have had a run-in with face-to-face.

And you know he’s going to explore the social implications of the Left Behind novels, based on Timothy LaHaye’s explicitly conspiratorial theology, which Jared calls a “prototype” for “the suspicion that so dominates our current moment.” I hope you know of the awful, vicious, The Clinton Chronicles VHS that Jerry Falwell sold on his Old Time Gospel Hour show.

Do you know what the Council for National Policy, or CNP, is and its connection to Christian radio like Salem Media or American Family Radio? Did you know the unhinged Sidney Powell spoke to them and other such outlandish conspiracists?

Much of this is stuff I’ve heard before but, to be honest, it was eye-opening and even jolting. Some have called the contribution of Reality in Ruins groundbreaking.

The book starts nicely enough, almost too carefully, as he explores the ways in which story shapes truth-telling. One doesn’t need to read Alasdair MacIntyre to know this, but the notion that all facts are only understood in the context of a story is significant to his particular excavation of the notion of conspiracy. I liked “The Power of Story” chapter which set the stage for the amazing chapter called “An Untold Story.” He is building his case, bit by bit, and then starts talking about “the plot devices of holy paranoia.” Wow.

Dr. Stacy links it to the Matrix movie’s “red pill” notion in a chapter called “Red-Pilled Evangelicalism” and it is not far-fetched. Perhaps you are aware that this “take the red pill” lingo is all over the far right internet and the dark web where racists and conspiracists and weird fundraisers for MAGA happen. (See Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics by Elle Reeve for some dreadfully creepy stuff about far right actors on the dark web.) This sort of tone and content draws people to Q-Anon type radicalism with that exact Matrix metaphor: the “red pill.”

If we are to be people claimed by the truest truths of the universe, revealed to us in the Scriptures that point us to Jesus the Christ, who said He was, in fact, the Truth, what do we do with this scandal of untruth, leading to a breakdown of a common reality? How do we calm down the people who are fed theologies of end time zeal and fearful antagonism against “them”? What can we do to dislodge “end times fascism”?

Stacy does not cite the new Jamie Smith book (Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark) that I so love but he does have a little section on certainty and uncertainty at the heart of things. He brings a bit of a philosopher’s mindset to this helpful section near the end. We can subvert the “holy paranoia” by telling a better story, not merely countering with facts and figures and data. There are harmful things going on and it hurts people and damages our witness in the world and actually provides cover and motivation for extremist action that hurts the civil society and culture. But, “can we resist Christianities that promote harm over healing,” he asks. Can we learn how to do wise truth-telling in a world where reality really is in ruins?  Buy Jared Stacy’s Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis.

On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right: A Personal History Josiah Hesse (Pantheon) $32.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $25.60

If one wants a personal glimpse at how fear and zeal and spiritual extremism can shape a community, and damage a soul, this memoir is riveting, heartbreaking, and bitter. From the first page with his vivid telling of a charismatic church camp and youthful experiences of what is obviously heavy-handed, manipulative, weird, religious compulsion, we know this is going to be one heck of a read.

Hesse now resents so much of his church experience — he was part of that movement that had spectacular “Hell Houses” that scared people with grotesque religiosity on par with the most secular haunted house extravaganzas. I know some fundamentalists and Pentecostals make a big deal out of Hell and the fear of God but, man, I don’t know if I know anybody who went through the constant haranguing as the exploitive churches and ministries that so shaped Hesse. And the obsession with the so-called rapture and end times leads to certain sorts of apocalyptic fears, setting the stage for the sorts of right-wing culture wars that have given us populistic authoritarianism. It a person memoir and it is a culture history. I feel sorry that he was stuck in such a repugnant sort of religion.

On Fire… is one of the most potent memoirs I’ve read about brutal religion, and not because it told of direct, physical abuse. (Those memoirs are horrific in a different way.) Much of the point, though, is not just his own story of fundamentalism and his emerging away from the trauma he experienced, but the way in which all of this “ensnared a generation and reshaped America’s political landscape” as one critic put it.

Yes, this toxic, odd religiosity has caused too much truly awful anxiety among so many (not least of which are LGTBQ kids) and in gripping prose Joshiah Hesse offers chapters on end times fears, pyramid schemes and false promises of wealth, anti-gay phobia, fear of demons, and other quirky aspects of his sort of Iowa Pentecostalism. We feel first hand how this is more than strict religion but a recruiting ground for extremism. As Frank Schaeffer notes, “We are living in a world shaped by voters who are themselves shaped by the apocalyptic theology and culture Hess lived through and documents, chapter and verse.”

The exceptional Frances Fitzgerald is a Pulitzer prize winner for her now dated study of evangelicals. She writes:

“Hesse is a wonderful writer, who narrates his own life with wit, intelligence, and sophistication, making what could have been an almost unbearable story something exceptional. Of all the books I’ve read about young people devastated by the fundamentalist religion they’ve grown up with, this one stands out.”­

End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America Chris Jennings (Little, Brown) $30.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00

Forgive me for being crass, but holy shit. Man, this book was riveting, a page turner. It explores some truly unholy awful stuff, and is the best thing written about the evangelical backstory of an awful episode in American history. It reports on the radicalization of Randy Weaver and his families leadership in exceptionally perverse right wing extremism, starting reasonably enough in Iowa and ending up in rural Idaho hanging with Nazi-militias and cultists.

Younger readers may not recall the couple of years in the early 1990s that were already fraught with domestic terrorists of a Christian-ish far-right movement. Everyone surely recalls when a right wing racist blew up a downtown office building in Oklahoma City killing nearly 170 people. Others in those xenophobic circles — they hated immigrants, Jews, liberalism, democracy, even, and were clearly connected to neo-Nazi types of white supremacists — did battle with the IRS insisting they wouldn’t submit to what now Trumpians call “the deep state.” Randy Weaver was enamored with notions of the rapture and was convinced the end times were coming soon. Which lead him to disdain the US government, eventually locking arms with outlandish rebels who viewed themselves as patriots. That white supremacist anti-government ideology increasingly crowded out any sense of conventional Christian faith.

Ruby Ridge was that place in Idaho where apocalypse-ready Randy and Vickie Weaver and their children and another friend took matters into their own hands to help agitate for the end. Again, these are folks who have been radicalized to unspeakably evil things but who started out as the sorts of Christians described in On Fire for God. Soon enough they attracted attention of the Feds (Randy had sold a saw-off shotgun illegally to undercover agents) and in August of 1992 while trying to serve arrest warrants at their (well-armed) home, FBI agents inexcusably shot a child of the Weaver family. The subsequent battle and fearful stand-off was national news for weeks (until an even worse government overreach happened a few months later when the FBI and ATF under Janet Reno (of the Clinton administration) caused a tear-gas fire at the compound of a cult-leader in Waco, Texas, killing 76 members of the Branch Davidians.

End of Days deserves to be on this list of fire-alarm books because it pre-shadows the dangerous extremists populating around the MAGA movement now, including some indicted for J6. From brilliant but often racist intellectuals (as describe in Furious Minds) to those leaning towards fascism (as described in Shadows of the Republic) to those engaged in what might seem to many unsensational conspiracy thinking as described in Reality in Ruins) we live among dangerous movements, ideologues preaching against democracy and affirming violent uprisings, often tainted with the sins of racism and antisemitism. Much is based, importantly, on myths about America and The Christian Past That Wasn’t (described above) is a key resource  help us expose the ideological roots of disordered patriotism.

I am not at all suggesting that citizens who appreciate some of Trump’s policies are in league with the likes of the Weavers or that anyone with a dispensational theology will end up as fearful “doomsday preppers” but as this End of Days story so movingly shows, the Weavers started out as fairly ordinary evangelicals that talked about Jesus, read Hal Lindsey books about the end times, and increasingly became obsessed with cryptic speculation about the end times and only supported odd churches that only focused on that. This stuff doesn’t always lead to right wing weirdness but it often does and a story like this helps us see those possible connections.

It’s a long and complicated and well-told story and it brings to my mind a question I asked in my comments on The Conspiracists (above.) How are people discipled, mentored, spiritually directed, pastored, formed (use the phrase you want) to be shaped in ways that can allow them to deepen in Christ-like compassion and Godly virtues and Holy Spirted fruits? Can people be wildly in love with Christ and fully dedicated to His Kingdom without getting weird and going off the rails? How can we encourage a robust and vibrant faith that doesn’t get unhealthy, let alone toxic? How can we encourage social and political engagement without it turning ugly? How did the Weaver’s evolution from being evangelical fundamentalists to eccentric house church religious prophets to self-appointed leaders of an armed network that associated with thugs and neo-Nazis and the cult of the Christian Identity? Read it and weep.

As our President pardons some of these exact sort of people from January 6th, this, sadly, is as relevant to read now as when it happen in the earlier days of the movement we call the religious right.

Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small American Town Michael Edison Hayden (Bold Type Books) $30.00 // $24.00

I could write about this for hours as I enjoyed it immensely even as I pondered and second-guessed the author and his passionate story that unfolds over a few years. And what a drama it is, full of adventure and scary stuff and a whole lot of relational drama. Michael Edison Hayden is a good reporter and throughout the book he not only focuses on his exposé of a far-right millionaire with racist connections (and virulent anti-immigration zeal and a very combative presence on social media) who buys a famous landmark castle in a tourist town in West Virginia but also tells about the toll he pays travelling from his home in New York to this town being torn apart by those opposing the mysterious outfit that is now headquartered in said Berkeley Springs castle. So the book reads like a couple years-in-the-life of this brave but broken journalist and researcher.

Hayden is no slouch on these things and worked for years for the Southern Poverty Law Center researching mostly neo-Nazi types, true hate groups, and others who have dark money funding and connection to extremists, some who might be considered domestic terrorists. He doesn’t say all that he used to do but I am sure it was noble, if dangerous work.

He did some public facing work, too, talk shows and columns and sharing his research and reports.

As has been in the news this very month, SPLC has been accused of mismanagement of funds for a now discontinued multi-year project of using spy-show-like undercover agents to infiltrate these dangerous hate groups. (Some of you may recall my breathy review  a year or two ago of a thriller of a book called The Hate Next Door by Mason Browning, this exact kind of a deep-cover investigator.) Anyway, Michael Hayden worked for the complicated SPLC and had subsequently gotten regular death threats — regular death threats! —at his home address and on his email and social media and on his private cell phone with the most evil (often sexual) threats against his wife and children. To say he was stressed and that his family paid a severe price for his line of work researching far-right extremists is putting it mildly. Fighting such evil takes a toll.

We learn about Hayden’s mental health breakdown and his hospitalization (in the middle of researching the new owners of the castle in Berkley Springs) and we learn a bit about his pending divorce. He is candid and writes with admirable vulnerability. We learn about his advocating for change within the terribly mismanaged and unhealthy but important SPLC, although that is only a small sub-plot. He was getting it from all sides, and yet kept driving to Appalachia to hang out with people on various sides of the polarization that came to the fore when the Brimelow family and their controversial white nationalist organization moved there.

Hayden made friends with decent MAGA folks who held pro-American rallies (that turned ugly with supportive nasty Confederates and Nazis.) He became close to progressives in the town who paid a price for flying a PRIDE flag. He loved the local business owners who wanted to work on local development projects and keep the town a nice destination for tourists and guests — even as they fought among themselves. As the Brimelow’s infamous VDARE group becomes more vocal in the community and the castle hosts some white power type events and those who thought this was bad for the town protested, more drama ensued. The subtitle of the book is putting it mildly.

There is a whole genre of books these days about how such extreme polarization is damaging small town school boards and libraries and churches and, not unlike Berkley Springs, W.V., there are good people on various sides. And some pretty bad people. There seem to be some who favor pluralism and civil dialogue and there are those (on both sides) who do not. For understandable reasons, too. Can we even have civil discourse with people who send texts saying they are going to rape your children or burn your house down? Should decent conservative folks attend meetings where they know they are gong to be called Nazis or worse? I get that this is complicated and Strange People on the Hill doesn’t offer much evaluation of the way out of this mess. But it is one heck of a story.

I admire Michael Edison Hayden and wish him well. He grew to like many of the people in Berkeley Springs and he tells the story earnestly. Readers of BookNotes might be interested in knowing what sort of church presence there was in the town and what sort of contribution gospel-centered voices might have made in this contested community. Apparently not much, unless Hayden was just tone deaf. He mentions an active United Methodist clergy-person who sides with those resisting the influence of the Brimelow’s VDARE organization and their propaganda in the community, but there is no sense there was a faith element to his work or any unique motivation other than basic human decency and a desire to keep his town safe. I wished there had been more exploration of the deeper motivation of those on either side. Maybe when you’re in the trenches that deeply it is clear: one favors far-right white nationalism or one doesn’t. In any case, Strange People on the Hill is a powerful read and another cautionary tale.

Between Two Gileads: Christian Nationalism, Fundamentalism, Romans 13:7, and the Future of Political Theology Henry Walter Spaulding III (Cascade) $33.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $26.40

I will end with this one as it is brand new and I have only read the excellent introduction by the great Rodney Clapp (who is as enthused about this as I think I’ve ever seen him in his often thoughtful endorsements) and the first chapter by Spaulding. It looks to be nothing short of a major work and many of our customers should be aware of it. I’m excited, even if I can’t say much yet.

I can say this much in three quick points.

First, Hank Spaulding is a friend who visits our store sometimes and orders on-line on occasion. He travels east from Ohio to scholarly confabs on the theology of Karl Barth at Princeton Seminary where he is involved and respected — not bad for a young Nazarene guy, from a small Christian college and a smaller country church, eh? His father has been a leader in Christian higher education so he gets his wide reading and serious learning not far from the tree. Henry has written several other books on Christology and sex trafficking and justice issues and co-wrote a book with his father (Henry Walter Spaulding II) called The Rhythm of Grace: A Broad Vision for Wesleyan-Holiness Theology. He is an author you should keep an eye on, and we are honored to call him a friend. And with this new one — man! This is serious. Even Andrew Root says he is a scholar to watch.

Secondly, Between Two Gileads plays with a great idea, a brilliant literary contrast — why didn’t anyone else think of this sooner? It compares and contrasts the Gilead of The Handmaid’s Tale — written by Margaret Atwood in 1983 when she worried it seemed too extreme — and the Gilead of the lovely Marilyn Robinson novels.

As Clapp puts it, after observing that the American church desperately needs an intervention:

Hank Spaulding in these pages offers exactly the sort of intervention so desperately needed. He immerses himself and his readers in Atwood’s dark and frightening Gilead. But he sees and hope in another fictional Golden — the small, Iowa town of Marilynn Robinson’s novelistic quadrilogy. In Robinson’s vision, the Christian faith encompasses complicated, patient and impatient, sometimes broken people. They attempt not to lord it over one another, but to live together amid their imperfections.

He continues,

To great effect, Spaulding juxtaposes these two fictional Gileads, both of which have much to suggest about our real world today.

Like I say, brilliant!

Thirdly, that is the heart of the book, it seems, but to get there he has a chapter on the rise of white Christian nationalism that, he argues, is based in a certain sort of story, an ideology of facts and data inspired by a unique and particular view of the strict inerrancy of the Bible. This forms in fundamentalists, and conservative evangelicals, too, a certain sort of worldview and a certain hermeneutic (yes, he uses a lot of fancy words — it is semi-scholarly, so get ready.) This reductionistic and scientistic (my words, I suppose) sort of hermeneutic yields a misreading of the Bible, often, and, in particular, of the likes of Romans 13.

(Aside: that Hank doesn’t quote the marvelous Romans Disarmed by Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh is an unfortunate omission. That is one heck of an urgent book!)

In Between Two Gileads, Spaulding tells the story of the day a Trump-appointed (and then fired, I believe— it’s hard to keep up) Attorney General (Jeffrey Sessions) foolishly insisted quite publicly on a wooden reading of Romans 13 to persuade citizens — to demand that citizens— not resist the Trumpian policy on immigration. I took to video live that very night, standing in our store’s side room that holds Bible commentaries, and named a handful of studies on Romans 13, showing that even conservative readings of the text would not support the manipulations of the guy in power, implying he knew his Bible and we had to do what he said. Anyway, I was thrilled to see Hank discuss this more carefully and with better scholarship than my quick video. He asks questions— it seems like maybe in Barthian fashion — about the words of the Bible, the Word of God, and the “primal narrative of Scripture.” I get that.

The popular brainiac and churchman Andrew Root says, ”This is a book we all need.” He also says, “Hank Spaulding is one of my favorite up-and-coming theologians; not only are this thoughts always rich and extensive, but his ideas are always moving.”

William Cavanaugh (a fabulous and important Catholic scholar at DePaul) is right on when he says that “Hank Spaulding argues that the simultaneous rise of fundamentalist readings of Scripture and Christian nationalism in American is not a coincidence.” Exactly. I think Cavanaugh might sound rather Barthian as he reads Hank in saying, “both subordinate God to a particular cultural vision of control of social space.”

Between Two Gileads: Christian Nationalism, Fundamentalism, Romans 13:7, and the Future of Political Theology by Henry Walter Spaulding III isn’t simplistic and breezy. But it is worth wading through, I am certain.  We’ve got it at 20% off, now. Thanks for caring.

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