I hope you’ve followed our last several BookNotes. As fellow-bookworms we bet you’ve enjoyed reading about so many different kinds of books. Spending a couple of minutes (okay, maybe more) with our suggestions can solve many of your questions about what to read next. There’s been scads of great stuff this summer, eh? We are glad that you read BookNotes and trust our almost 45 years of recommending good books.

(All our past BookNotes are available to read at our website so you can easily visit our past posts. You can see our recent lists of books about work, our hefty review of the forthcoming Live Love Laugh by Kristen Du Mez, paired with Bonnie Kristian’s critique of (some) critics of evangelicalism, In Defense of Evangelicalism.) You can skim back and see a BookNotes post that included a link to a podcast with some other booksellers and the classy indie press Slant Books and my survey of a few of their titles. Before that, you’ll find a dozen new books about church life and pastoring. Mid-summer I tipped my hand about two books that are surely among the best of 2026, including The Way of the Spirit by Jeremy Sims (who I will interview in a free webinar Tuesday evening, September 22 — stay tuned for details about registering for that great night.) The BookNotes post before that was rewarding to write and even more rewarding for the orders we got from our telling about Fire Weather (John Vaillant) and Before It’s Gone (by Jonathan Vigliotti) and an older favorite, At Home on an Unruly Planet by Madeline Ostrander. Before then, in early July, I did a bunch of books on play and hobbies and outdoor recreation — fishing and birding, for instance and ten very special novels suggested then for your summer reading. There were other catch-all lists of new books, one on indie press and self-published authors, and a powerful review of the powerful The Place Between Our Pain by KJ Ramsey (along with more than 20 others that fit that theme.) In late Spring we reviewed some about our dangerous political times and the shift towards extremism and we talked about an event we did with Mako & Haejin Fujimura, helping launch their book Beauty x Justice  Anyway, it’s been a good season and we are glad for those who catch up on missed BookNotes, anytime. The 20% off discount still holds for all of these. You’re very welcome.)

I now sense an urgency to tell you about some brand new titles. Here are 15 new, really excellent titles — culled from so many other new releases.

These are (most of) our favorites this month.

As always, don’t hesitate to use the convenient order form at the end of this column. Tell us what you want, put in the shipping info, and credit card digits if you want. We’ll confirm and send your order as promptly as we can. We appreciate your support. Happy ordering!

15 NEW BOOKS WE VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND

This Is the Main Event: Discovering The Life You Long For in the Life You Have Joshua Luke Smith $26.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $20.80

We discovered this theologically sound and very creative writer in his first little-known book a few years ago called Something You Once Knew: Waking Up to the Extraordinary in Your Ordinary Life (on the very cool, UK indie publisher Form) which was absolutely a cut above your average book about sensing God’s call and creatively living into a Kingdom vision for all of life redeemed. It was said to be rather” innovative and thought-provoking” that offers “reflections on finding your own unique voice and how to use it amid the chaos and confusion of modern-day life.” And it was a great little book.

This new hardback finds our man — who maybe looks at little like Jelly Roll without the tats — as the writer in residence this year at the creative, evangelical community in Nashville called The Rabbit Room; the Andrew Peterson likes him says a lot. That Jan Richardson (known for writing poetic blessings and prayers and a powerhouse memoir about the death her husband) likes him, too, is fascinating. She says he writes “like no one else I know; he tells the whole of this brutal and beautiful life.” Brainy writers like Elizabeth Oldfield (I raved bout her book Fully Alive) and Mako Fujimura appreciate him. ShaunaNiequist says This Is the Main Event is “a thoughtful, artful, soulful meditation life and faith and time and what really matters.”

Loaded with a blend of personal story and Biblical narration, with poems and prayers, Smith brings a potent sense of the holy to ordinary, even broken, daily life. It is arranged around three spiritual practices — lamentation (he says we are allowed to name our paint; consecration (we can let grace change us); and adoration where “you are invited to live in the wonder of God’s daily presence.”

For those who follow such things, as a songwriter, Joshua Luke Smith has been called “a poet for the people.” He is the founder of the record label Orphan No More and The Psalmist, a nonprofit that teaches creative expression and self-reflection among the incarcerated. He’s the real deal.

(I suspect I am not the only one that things the typography on this cover is a bit goofy. The book has plenty of gravitas and plenty of energetic joy along with the theme of lament. It’s a bad cover for this book, I’d say, but don’t worry. You’ll be in the book turn pages and won’t even care. Trust me; don’t judge this book by its light-hearted cover.)

Looks Like a Lady: Five Visual Tropes of Womanhood and How to See Ourselves Differently Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt (Brazos Press) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39

What an absolutely original and helpful and scholarly and fascinating bit of good, good writing this is. I’m thrilled to tell you just a bit about it. For anyone who loves good nonfiction, who loves to learn, who appreciates (even a little bit) what we might call art history or cultural studies. The book is so amazing it is almost hard to categorize.

Weichbrodt is a fabulous speaker and young leader particular in thinking Christianly about the arts. She has done presentations at places like the CCO’s Jubilee Conference, Rabbit Room gatherings and Square Halo events. She teaches at Covenant College in Chattanooga and her first book won (among other more prestigious accolades) one of our picks for Best Book of the Year a few years back. That was Redeeming Vision: A Christian Guide to Looking at and Learning from Art. That is one great book.

Looks Like a Lady, I presumed, was going to be mostly another exciting and educational tour of art history, with reflections on how women are seen in older and modern art. Which, I suppose you could say, this almost is. But her reflections are broader than just art, but include the messages and myths and meanings in popular culture, in music old and new, in images galore (like advertising, obviously.) So, really, it includes delightful semiotics, cultural criticism, worldview studies, aesthetic evaluations, social concern, and faith-based prophecy (yes, it really is.) So hear what the Lord might be saying through this good voice, his servant with a multi-ethnic name, Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt. Namely, that women the world over [not unlike men] are made in God’s image and created for a purpose and, alienated from that as they may be, can be redeemed by God’s own love and restored to a proper direction. Which is to say — get this — other stories of our origin or purpose or characteristics or temptations or strengths must be discerned as to their truth, their insight, their fruitfulness.

“Images tell powerful stories about how women should look and act,” she tells us. “And whether we notice them or not, those stories shape what women believe they’re allowed to be.”

Did you get that?  “Whether we notice them or not.” This is how cultural formation works; worldviews are caught more than taught. So this is a very good way to spend some (very enjoyable) time learning how to probe beneath the surface, unveil what might not be noticed, evaluate the primary myths stories about women that come at us all (women and men alike) and shape our assumptions about gender.

Jessica Hooten Wilson says that Weichbrodt “highlights counterstories that transform our imagination of women.”

Look Like a Lady is a title with layers of meaning — what is a woman supposed to look like? And what does it mean to look (and see) as a woman? As Karen Swallow Prior exclaims, this is “an astonishingly rich book — visual, imaginatively, and intellectually.”  There are some full color art plates but Elissa does a lot of her own pen and ink drawing of famous pictures (she explains why she did this and why it is hopefully enhancing in the introduction.)

She names five “visual scripts” that have “quietly malformed us.” She names them as Venus, Vessel, Maiden, Mother, and Monster. You’ll have to read Look… to see how she offers better stories (also from art history)  to deconstruct these common notions.  Better stories of women, for women, and for all of us.

Although the back cover presumes a female readership in saying there are “five stories you inherited as a woman — and five that can set you free” I think it is equally important for men. Jesus said you might have to pluck your eyes out for seeing badly. Give this book a try before it comes to that. Order Look Like a Lady today.

The Pace of Peace: Distraction: Attention, and the Gifts of an Examined Life Jay Y. Kim (IVP) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I ordered a stack of these sight unseen because I love the writing of pastor-theologian Jay Y. Kim. He is a pastor in Silicon Valley so hangs with some incredibly smart and cutting edge thinkers. He works with driven people who are very, very busy. I gather than his church is contextualized in meaningful ways as a faith community that is a safe and welcomed place for people following the way of Jesus, yes, even near Palo Alto.

His first two books came out before and during the worst of the Covid pandemic. Curiously, the first was about how we need real, embodied faith communities and in-person worship, written before the quarentine. (He is from the software world, remember, so this does not come from an idealistic reaction to digital culture. He’s no Luddite.) That first one was entitled Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age. Kim soon followed up that wise one with Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age which looked at everything from the commodification of our attention to the need for discernment about our use of phones and such. AJ Swaboda raves, saying these will “set Jay Kim up as an enduring voice for the church for this generation.” Listen to this:

What a marvelous invitation to the primal Christian movement that is solely and singularly focused on Jesus as Lord of all in our fragmented and distracted moment. Analog Christian gives voice to a part of all of us that longs for a day when Christians are known for their fruit over their fame. This work will set Jay Kim up as an enduring voice for the church for this generation. Highly recommended. A must-read.

Kim next did a book that I highlighted, curiously enough, in the latest “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” podcast last week, a profound, hardback volume called Listen, Listen Speak: Hearing God and Being Heard in a Noisy World. Watch that podcast (or listen at Spotify or Apple) to hear more of my description.

And so, he’s written about embodied communities, about attentive discipleship in a digital age, and about the ways to focus on hearing God (and others) by listening well. And now comes The Pace of Peace. This new set of short but meaty reflections on the “gift of the examen” seems a natural follow up. If you’ve read his others, I’m sure you’ll want this. If you’ve never read him before, this is a great entryway. It starts with his potent little study of the myth of multitasking (and ends with an allusive conclusion, “Panic Attacks and Nothing Is Everything.” Did I mention he’s a good writer?

I have not read these chapters yet but can’t wait to see what he has to say about the “Toil of Absence” and what he calls the “Wreckage of Reactivity” and the “Futility of Self-Will.” Whether it is his lovely-looking invitation to presence, gratitude, or “the Gift of God’s Will” or his critique of “striving for more” and “the Shackles of Pride and Shame”, I think The Pace of Peace is going to be thoughtful, reflective, and helpful. It seems like a journey from chaos towards something like simplicity of heart and mind.  He is thoughtful, even contemplative, but offers practice tools to help. He calmly channels Saint Ignatius as a “framework of all of life” (less a technique or even a practice.) The Pace of Peace looks fantastic. There is a foreword by John Mark Comer.

The Internet Will Die And So Will You: On Learning to Live in Our Digital Age John West (Here Below) $28.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.19

Speaking of digital culture and those who work in the tech world (as I noted the setting of Jay Kim’s books, above) this may be one of the most unique books of the zillion coming out about AI and the digital zeitgeist and our lack of attention in this high-tech culture. We bought a bunch of this one for a couple of reasons and I’ll tell you about two.

First, it is the among the very first of a new imprint lovingly put together by a friend of ours who works at the serious (and delightfully diverse) theological publisher, Eerdmans, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For years she has acquired and edited and championed writers writing out of some sort of theological imagination, if not a self-proclaimed Biblical worldview, and who, creative as they are, needed a publishing home that was, well, generous and literary. From heart-wrenching memoirs like Rift by Cait West and the exquiste Spiritual Direction for Writers by the fabulous Charlotte Donlon, to the forthcoming memoir of a linguist in the US military (Between the Light and Me: A Memoir of Beauty and Violence by Kathleen Kilcup) the new publishing line in the imprint Here Below is offering to the book buying world a certain sort of book — beautifully crafted writing, mature thinking about things that matter, honest and (it seems) captivating. If Eerdmans is doing this new imprint, we are here for it.

Secondly, besides the fact that The Internet Will Die is one of the first two books on this new imprint that is so full of literary potential, let’s face it: the title is nothing if not intriguing. All I knew about West is that he writes code for the Wall Street Journal and is, if I recall correctly, a recovering alcoholic who brings a group of mostly non-religious friends to his New York apartment to enact a “Lessons and Carols” service of sorts over the Christmas holidays [as told in his 2023 Eerdmans book Lessons and Carols: A Meditation on Recovery.] And now he’s writing about broken code and so much more.

A rare endorsement by the exquisite Sven Birkerts  — his The Gutenberg Elegies:The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age kept me in this business 20 years ago —won me over before I cracked the cover. That Phil Christman (an often dense columnist from the rust-belt mid-West and author of the lovely Why Christians Should Be Leftists) recommended it further deepened my interest.  So, could a book about the impermanence of the stuff on the internet be that interesting? If it is debuting on Here Below, I was guessing it would be spectacular.

Can a reflection on code and broken links and bottlenecks — from train wrecks to data jams — be an avenue into deeper questions of life and death? Could it be written with intellectual depth and yet be a nice read? PJ Vogt (host of a podcast called Search Engine) says it is “clear-eyed, alive, even quite funny.” It’s a book, he says, “about loss that’s somehow a pleasure.” I am about two thirds through it and I’m here to testify, even if some of it is beyond me.

Another respected author and tech analyst /critic (NYU professors Meredith Broussard, author of Artificial Unintelligence) says it is “a lovely meditation on what it means to reckon with one’s own mortality, the impermanence of the digital, and the mysteries of faith.”

When Children Imagine God: Conversations with Church Kids J. Bradley Winger (Eerdmans) $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59

Brad Winger had been legendary in at least PC(USA) circles and beloved among educators and parents for years. As a professor of Christian Education at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary (where he taught, among other things, childhood studies) he has also published lovely children’s books about prayer (like the Eerdmans picture book Thank You God.) We still sell his fabulous little Together We Pray and the thoughtful The Power of God at Home.

And now, this may be his most important book yet, an engaging read about how children relate to God. Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore says it is in the tradition of Robert Coles. Yes!  It explores children’s insights about how they feel God, how they talk about God, how the talk to God, stuff about their own spirituality and their own view of faith and church life. Based on tons of actual interviews and loads of attentive listening, Emeritus Professor Wiggers “centers space for children to lead us into fresh imaginings about age-old questions of who God is and who we are in relation to the Divine.”

It is a bit more academic and a bit more detailed than my personal gold-standard choice for this sort of project, Spiritual Conversations with Children: Listening to God Together by Lacy Finn Borgo (IVP; $22.99.) If you read that one, this would be a serious follow up.

When Children Imagine God ushers readers into a beautiful and creative space–a realm awash in spiritual wisdom. Refusing to treat children’s spirituality as simply a source for cute stories and giggles, Brad Wigger invites us to listen to children with patience and care. When we make time to attend to these observant souls, Wigger observes, we inevitably discover that they have a lot more going on spiritually than we may imagine. In fact, through these conversations, we discover reliable and winsome guides for our own spiritual journeys. — Scott Black Johnston, senior pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York

To Set the World Aflame: How Artists Bear Witness to the Fullness of God’s Creation W. David O. Taylor (Brazos Press) $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $21.59

I sure wish I had had an advanced copy of this so I could tell you so much more about it. Maybe I can do a fuller review later as it is, I’m guessing, going to be known as one of the great books of the year. Taylor is a theologian and a pastor and an advocate for the arts (and a scholar of aesthetics.) He has written widely and vibrantly, so I knew this would be top-tier. However, the subtitle caught my attention and I am confident that this really does do something that no other book has quite done, although many point towards this truth that God’s very good world was made for cultural development. Perhaps the potentialities of culture — that would be all things scientific and societal (see Andy Crouch’s seminal and still essential Culture Making)  — are there from God’s good hand in the beginning, waiting to be discovered, developed, cultivated. In this sense all of us humans called to steward the garden — now with toil and much that is broken — bear God’s creative image, working together to make something of the stuff we are given.

I’m not sure if Taylor is exactly saying that, but he is insisting that artists and makers (which is to say most humans) are “more than creatives; they are stewards of truth, goodness, and beauty.” In the redemption brought by Jesus Christ through his death, resurrection, ascension and sending of His Spirit, is, in a way, re-making the fallen world. We all get to participant in “God’s re-creative purposes” extending the cultural mandate to find ourselves amidst not only the glory of a wondrous creation but a glorious great commission, helping make all things new.

What we are all called to is, in a way, what artists embody best. They offer us “models of making” and (as Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt says on the back cover) explore how to “pursue virtues and disciplines that allow for flourishing, and to consider the communal, missional vitality of what we do.”

James K.A. Smith — a deeply spiritual philosopher with an artists heart and sensibility — says “This is unlike any other book. It is at once a manifesto and a tender work of pastoral care.” He says it is written with “beguiling prose” and that Taylor has, “the voice of a teacher who cares.”

That may be enough for many of our readers to take it up — do you want great prose? To you want to know how to teach? Are you wishing you articulated whatever you are articulating with a more graceful, pastoral, artful style? This book that is solid and visionary, serious but accesible, is a model.

Yes, it is about the complexity of being an artist. Mako Fujimura says “in this fine book we witness David Taylor’s ability to make the mystery of art accessible.” Indeed. But even my quick glance through makes it evident that Jamie Smith is right — this isn’t yet another theology of the arts or Christian perspective on creativity or a study of the role of beauty, or any of that, although it seems to be all that. This is about all of us, about the vision of the arts in a renewed Kingdom come.

There are three chapters each in six major sections — Vocational Perspectives, Aesthetic Perspectives, Biblical Perspectives, Theological Perspectives, Formational Perspectives, Missional Perspectives.  The concluding piece is “In the End: Art for Love’s Sake.” He includes an appendix of “Six Prayers for Artists.”

In the lovely foreword by singer-songwriter and recording artist Sandra McCracken writes with this book help we will cultivate our capacity to “discover what’s true and beautiful all around us.” She promises, “in the pages David has curated for us a feast of the finest offerings to share and enjoy together, not just artists but as the entire family of God.”

Listening Hands: Eavesdropping on the Sound of Life Martin Schleske (Eerdmans) $26.99 // OUR SALE PRICE= $21.59

Speaking of books about beauty and art and wonder (and creation) that would be so appreciated by artists and creative-types but really is aimed at a very broad audience, I am thrilled to announced the long-awaited arrival of the sequel to the astonishing Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty. That handsome hardback was the story of this German luthier and woodworker, telling of his craft (from choosing the trees to be felled to the making of instruments.) It was lovingly translated by Janet Gesme, a US cellist who met the unassuming artisan in Germany, and who dedicated herself to translated this one as well. The title and subtitle, especially — “eavesdropping on the sound of life” — indicate how this, too, is about embodied work and the ways in which beauty and wonder appear.

It has been called “a master class on discerning the sacred in everyday work” and it is what one critic called “a profound exploration of lived art and lived life.”  Tony Payne (of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music) says that “I have never seen someone so passionated and comprehensively express the relationship between calling and faith. Page by page, Schleske offers lessons along his violinmaking journey that are sure to inspire his readers.”

I am sure this new one will evoke similar sensations as you read. From his reflections on the craft of instrument design to the science of acoustical research, he is not only inspired, but inspiring. He draws on German journals and classic Christian mystics and a few world religion texts and spiritual writers.

Schleske (of course) makes woodblocks to do his own woodcuts that enhance each chapter. There are not precisely carved linocuts as we see in such fine detail in the work of some contemporary printers. These are old-school, woodblock, a tad bold and blurry. I love ‘em.

Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life Charlotte Donlon (Here Below) $24.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.20

Well, congrats to the team at Eerdmans for launching the first two books in their new imprint, the rather literary and allusive Here Below. The other title debuting in this new line of books is the above-mentioned The Internet Will Die and So Will You: On Learning to Live in Our Digital Age which is characteristically heady as you might expect from most Eerdmans titles, even their ones that are not overly theological as such. This other new Here Below release, though, is not dense or arcane but delightfully direct about attentive practices for writers that might be akin to spiritual direction. Or, at least to, well, as one critic puts it, “guide writers back to the deeper “why” beneath the work.” (That line comes from the fascinating Emely Rumble, author of Bibliotherapy in the Bronx.)

Ms. Donlan is herself a spiritual director and has been a customer here at Hearts & Minds. She’s written for Image (impressive, no?) and wrote a fantastic book on loneliness and connection and openness to God, published by Broadleaf, called The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. Congrats to her for the release of this new one Spiritual Direction for Writers.

Modern poet, former pastor and Christian justice advocate Drew Jackson (he wrote the Biblically-based poetry volumes God Speaks Through Wombs and Touch the Earth) says this book “manages to be both deeply practical and a portal into mystery. It should be a constant presence on the desk of eery writer.” Wow.

Contemporary novelists of no lesser calibre as Jamie Quatro has called this “an essential guidebook for anyone working at the intersection of the ordinary and the sacred.”

I have only dipped into this (it is brand new, of course) and I can say it is not a daily devotional, even though the chapters are short, perhaps designed for regular use. These aren’t Biblical meditations and while her guidance is generally Christian, her beautiful writing — even about praying and attending to the liturgical calendar or grace — is of the sort nearly any open-minded writer would appreciate. Some of the reflections are filled with common graces and good advice — learning to write anywhere and being part of a literary community and becoming friends of time and bestowing goodness upon others. There is a chapter about intercessory prayer for others and she invites readers to ponder the questions of the Ignatian Examen, but much of this sweet wisdom invites us to encounter art!  To become even more curious! Become familiar with openings and closings! It is, again, not the sort of guidance from a simply evangelical devotional.

And yet, one of the chapters admonishes readers to deeper faith and is called Belong to God. In it she tells of meeting one of my literary heros, Imani Perry, at a book signing for her exquisite Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People. I was nearly breathless.

A Rule for the Rest of Us: An Ancient Practice for Making the Daily Decisions That Shape Faithful Lives Jen Pollock Michel (Waterbrook) $28.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.40

Just out this week, Jen Pollock Michel may be the best she has done yet. I adored her first book, Teach Us To Want: Longing, Ambition, and the Life of Faith (did that really release in 2014? We haven’t been out of it since!) In maybe 2017 she released the one-of-a-kind Keeping Place: Reflections on the Meaning of Home, which, again, was very, very good. I think her 2019 book should have been a bigger seller — I bet even now some of you need it — as it was about paradox; it is called Surprised by Paradox: The Promise of “And” in an Either-Or World. She has gone on to do a 40-day devotional on being close to Jesus and a recent book on time use and more — In Good Time: 8 Habits for Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and Practicing Peace; it was good to see such a productivity book written by a woman. She’s been busy.

A Rule of for the Rest of Us is a tremendous read and I think really, really important for most of us. It is about the Rule of Saint Benedict and how to adapt such principles for creating a sort of manifesto for personal lifestyle choices. It is in the spirit of (but without any colored graphs and charts) Justin Earley’s popular The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction. It seems to me that if you are using that, you will love this deeper dive into the spirituality behind creating some of these sorts of practical guide-rails. It’s a very different writing style and somewhat of a different mood or theology, even, but it’s in that popular wheelhouse.

Another book that is more workbooky than many of us prefer is, nonetheless, a very helpful tool in this journey towards creating a rule of life. Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way by the very wise and interesting Steven Macchia. That one carries recommendations from the likes of Reuben Job, Adele Calhoun, Christopher Webb.

A Rule for the Rest of Us captivated me from page one, drew me into its narrative and vision more deeply than I had expected. I have loved Robert Benson’s lovely little books like A Good Life: Benedict’s Guide to Everyday Joy and A Good Neighbor: Benedict’s Guide to Community and we are proud of the dozen other books about Benedict’s famous “rule of life” that we have. Michel herself starts with a good citation from Sister Joan Chittister’s beloved Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today — nearly a classic in some circles.

But, hear this: A Rule for the Rest of Us by Jen Pollock Michel (and with a great foreword by Tish Harrison Warren) is, now, in my estimation, the best introduction to Benedict’s notion a rule and how it can be applied to ordinary modern follower’s of Jesus. It is written with charm and depth, and with an existential awareness of (and solidarity with) very busy modern people who feel overwhelmed by much of contemporary culture. I suppose it is less about Benedict and more about appropriating the notion of a “rule.”  I think it will be informative enough and very helpful for many. Even those of us who aren’t drawn to such pragamtic steps…

Drawing from years of leading spiritual formation workshops, Jen Pollock Michel will help you:

• Keep company with God — Establish practices that cultivate ongoing conversation with the One who sustains your life.
• Name your givens — Honestly assess your current season, roles, and limitations instead of fighting against them.
• Attend to your desires — Examine what your heart truly longs for as an important step toward faithful response.
• Articulate faithful habits — Develop specific, sustainable practices for your relationships, work, and daily rhythms.
• Review and revise — Create systems for ongoing reflection and adaptation as life changes.

This really is a “rule for the rest of us.” If you looking for a companion in your fall season’s wishes for spiritual growth and personal stability within your home and church, this will help. Try Pollock’s  A Rule for the Rest of Us: An Ancient Practice for Making the Daily Decisions That Shape Faithful Lives. Let us know how it goes.

Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy Robert P. Jones (St. Martin’s Essential) $30.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $24.00

We have carried each the books of this important public intellectual and scholar of American racism, Robert Jones, from his early academic text Spirit and Capital in an Age of Inequality (published by the scholarly Routledge) and his early popular ones that catapulted him to respected status as a historian such as The End of White America (which won in 2019 the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Religion.) Soon enough he released White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity (which won the American Book Award) and the most recently, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future. All are important, but I think this brand new one, Backslide, may be the most urgent, yet.

Although Jones is a scholar, he is a popularizer in the best sense, and wants the best sociological data to shape his articulation of his public theology. Some know that he holds a Ph.D. in religion from Emory University, and an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,  but his undergraduate work was in computing science and mathematics from Mississippi College. Hence his love for data. He is the founder and president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and works with a team of scholars of the history, philosophy, and habits of democracy including authors whose work we esteem: Kristin Du Mez, Obery Hendricks, The Rev.Jacqui Lewis,  Andrew Whitehead, Jemar Tisby, Fr. Bryan Massingale, and others.

In recent years Jones has written a popular newsletter called “Redeeming Democracy” and although the questions of institutional racism and white supremacy inform his work, his concern about the extremist and authoritarian nature of most evangelical Christian nationalists is most pressing in this new book. In a way it is his most personal — he was raised within the sub-culture of conservative Southern evangelicals — and hence the power of the title —Backslide. The Christian right is (as the data shows) hardly Christian at all anymore and the religious and church-going habits of those who claim to be modern evangelicals show that the movement has backslidden. This is a key insight of our best-selling book of this topic, Disarming Leviathan: Loving Christian Nationalist Neighbors; Jones brings the story up to date with sociological insight, data and story, and his own uniquely Christian take on the backsliding nature of much of his former tribe.

I didn’t know this but he shows that there is a lot of political science discourse these days about the backsliding of fundamental values that uphold a Republic and a democracy. That is, as authoritarian leaders are supported by populist movements around the globe, we ‘re finding that backsliding isn’t just a term referring to those who have drifted from their “first love” of Jesus and His ways but is also a term being used as those who are regressing towards authoritarianism. I have no doubt that there is a connection between the loss of Biblical principles among the so-called evangelical MAGA movement and the increasingly anti-democratic ways in a drift towards authoritarian regimes. Even if you’ve read a bit about the heresy and danger of extreme white nationalism, and even if you are aware that there is some sort of apostasy going on among ideologically-captive religious people, Backslide by Robert Jones is a must-have resource.

He opens the book with a meditation on what Nazi resister Martin Niemöller wrote about his regret in his silent years, before he spoke up against the Hitler regime. Jones asks, fairly, about what might be our “future regret.”

“We can no longer pretend we do not know where this path will lead,” Jones writes.

“We can and should know that any political ideology that demands the circumscription life and the extinguishing empathy has moved beyond the bounds of both pluralistic democracy and Christian faith. If we do not defend that truth with our lives, we will find ourselves unable to recover a democratic society I which we can all live together. And we will surely feel devasting regret.”

One Nation Over God Wes Crawford (Eerdmans) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

The books examining the ways in which religion is part of the landscape of American political  culture keep coming and many are, to be honest, riveting. And, I think, very, very important. In these serious times (as John Adams put it) we have to come to a deep awareness. Robert Jones is right: we must name and understand what is going on.  I am not necessary glad about it, but I have committed myself to reading regularly about this ongoing battle in the public square.

In the last week or so our store received several new book on this topic, one of the best being the lively and frightening: American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christendom by Keri Ladner (Bloomsbury; $35.00.) There’s the historical study Devils of Democracy: America’s Love Affair with Political Demons from the Revolution to Today by Michael Heyes (Broadleaf; $32.99), and another history, Stealing Elections, American Style by David Albert (Bloomsbury; $27.00.) I’m eager for the sophisticated Unity in Diversity: How Critically Recovering Our Sense of the Nation as a Body Can Offer Us New Paths Forward in an Age of Division by Donald Roth (Cascade; $26.00.) Roth is a prof at Dordt University in Iowa where he co-directs the Kuyper Honors College and knows a thing or two about the structures of society and the nature pluralism.) We just got the new Bradley Onishi release, the alarming American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords are Turning America into a Monarchy (St.Martin’s Press; $29.00) and a brand new one by an author I greatly respect, Matthew D. Taylor called Defying Tyrants (Broadleaf; $32.99.) You may recall he had written the powerful must-read The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy (Broadleaf; $32.99) on the history and increasing militancy of the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR. And, oh my, don’t forget Rick Pidcock’s eagerly awaited Weapons of Worship: How the Songs of Evangelicalism Form the Soundtrack of Extremism Broadleaf; $28.99) which at least some of our customers are going to have to read. Wow. We’ll deduct our 20% off any order for any of these.

Most of these, and so many more, are seriously aware that there has been in recent years a major surge of Christian people adopting a harsh sort of nationalistic ideology. (Bonnie Kirstian argues in her new In Defense of Evangelicalism that this is all overstated, but I am not so sure.) The polling data shows that a majority of conservative Protestants like evangelicals have supported a politics of vulgarity and violence. I’ve described dozens of books before about how that happened and why it is not only bad for the body politic, but bad theology as well. Some are pretty hard hitting and many of our customers should read them. But I get it that some are not that helpful in sharing with a friend who is deep in the mess of conspiracy theories and far right extremism.

One Nation Over God by a former pastor who is now a history prof and vice provost at Abilene Christian University, is not particularly hard-hitting.

Well, it actually is, but it is so charmingly written, so graciously understanding, and so moderately sensible that it is the sort of book that might make Christian sense to some who have gone overboard on the MAGA thing. Civil religion has been a constant in American history and some of us have denounced it as an inappropriate blending of faith and the flag, church and state, Christ and this culture, for a very long time. But with the high-octane version of extreme Christian nationalism now on the rise, gently saying we have to be careful about keeping the gospel first and thereby relativizing our civic patriotism, may be too little too late. But I hope not. I believe good people who have been formed too much by the likes of fundamentalist dominionists and too much of Fox News, really don’t want to betray their Lord and Savior. I think they don’t really want America as a theocracy. They may not like that the liberal media goes after Pete Hegseth and Doug Wilson but deep down they worry that this militancy seems a little off, if not outright wackadoodle. They know that when Jesus comes back he will not be riding an elephant or a donkey.

And so, I can’t say enough about this very, very good, easy to read, generous and gracious work that speaks about a wiser relationship between our spiritual identity and our national identity. One Nation Over God is a compelling and inspiring study of how civil religion developed in our unique country and why, as one reviewer put it, “the church’s witness depends on clear allegiance to the crucified and risen Jesus above every flag, party, or platform.” Wes Crawford is a good writer but has a light touch and the book is witty at times. It’s like a nice intro class on religion and public identity, with some nice stories thrown in.

Heretofore the best book to give to somebody with confusion about God and country was the altogether lovely and solid Your Jesus Is Too American: Calling the Church to Reclaim Kingdom Values Over the American Dream by Southern Baptist Steve Bezner (complete with a foreword by Beth Moore.) It wasn’t too radical and is nicely Biblical. Now, add in God Over Country which is a gentle, wise, historically-informed overview of civil religion by a long-serving, well-informed pastor.  We all need this, and it is one your diverse book club could study together. You could give it to a friend or relative. As Lee Camp put it, there are thousands of people looking for a book like this. Praise the Lord, One Nation Over God will be a real gift to our deepening understanding of our current faith crisis and might draw many back from the edge of some deeply troubling views and preoccupations. Kudos to Wes Crawford.

A Tale of Two Swords: In the Beginning was the Song Leonard Sweet (Salish Sea Press) $24.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.96

I don’t even know how to start this review, how to express my appreciation, surprise, and delight in this incredibly well written — fiesty, even — overview of the whole Bible by way of a particular set of ideas that are largely overlooked. How to tell you how I admire Len Sweet, a man who has given of himself for hundreds if not thousands of leaders who he has taught and mentored? How to tell you how smart he is, even though he isn’t particularly known in the deep end of the academy’s pool? How to tell you how darn witty he is — almost, sometimes, annoyingly so (there is hardly an alliteration on Earth he doesn’t like; he has cultivate a capacity to create them like none other.) And, if you’ve read almost any of his dozens of books, you know the footnotes (and bibliography) is half the fun. I rarely skip anybody’s footnotes, but with Sweet’s he carries on the energy of his teaching in his discussions with the authors who are genuine conversation partners. I’ve said these sort of things before but for those who love words, he will give you lot of them. Some maybe even unnecessary, but, you’ll enjoy the reading experience if you just buckle up and enjoy the ride.

So I’d read almost anything Sweet does. You might want to make that pledge too — life is too short to read boring books and it is too urgent to read the same old, same old. Sweet is expansive and fun, a thinker who will rock your world and drive you towards the things that matter most. His last pari of books were about the person of Jesus, fully human and fully God.

A Tale of Two Swords, though, he has said, may be his most important book ever. He maybe has said that before (or maybe I said it about one of his) but this is written with such urgency and detail and provocative power that I think he means it. For a guy who has written up towards 70-some books, this is one that you should not miss.

What’s it about? A million things, but circling around a vivid image of two swords mentioned in the Bible: the sword that guarded Eden after our human parents were exiled and the sword of the Spirit mentioned more than once in the New Testament. In a sense, a sword of judgement and a sword of grace, an enforcing blade and a healing one.

But here is the thing: he does some stuff, making linguistic moves worthy of Derrida (and easier to follow) about the sound of the swords. Your eyes will pop when you read his lines about the Hebrew words about the spinning nature of the sword keeping us East of Eden. It spins so much it makes a sound! It is so evident and sensible that I am amazed nobody that know of has ever said such a thing. How many millions of sermons have there been on Genesis 3? How many commentaries, erudite and technical? I don’t know if Sweet is the first person ever to say this stuff, but he just may be. The subtitle about the “sound” is no mere phrase to gussy up the cover. A Tale of Two Swords really is, in many ways, a theology of sound.

Is this a mixed metaphor, or what? Is the book about dangerous blades or gorgeous, saving music? Yes.

And you may intuit where this is heading. As he unfolds the drama of Scripture and keeps the big picture in our view, the moment is coming: only a deadly blade can stop the whirring of that first blade. The living Word sounds out a cry that is deathly and, finally, victorious.

What’s that Tolkien line, everything sad becomes untrue? Can the sound of the swishing leaves of that final tree (Revelation 21- 22, which is for the healing of the nations) be the sweet music to undo the millennia of human songs of lament? Blades and songs, gardens parched and renewed in a new Jerusalem with a healing tree and a new song. What manner of music is this that can sing this song?

I’m sort of trying to wax a bit poetic here, but not doing a good job. Len does it better and A Tale of Two Swords is going to go down as one of his best books ever. Certainly rich theological reflection and Bible-teaching, but with a fresh, faithful, postmodern edge. The brief surveys of music in theera of the kings (“Jericho and the Resonant Wall”,  “Jehoshaphat’s Choice and the Battle that Sung Itself”, and “David’s Harp and the Curdler” (on “therapeutic frequency and psycnological war”) are fascinating.Not to mention the connections with Psalm 149.  Maybe you won’t dig it fully, but it’s worth a read. With sections like “The Still Small Voice in the Age of Maximum Volume” and his ruminations on The Demon Hunters, K-Pop, the Mudang Tradition, this is a book you’ve got to read!

“Jesus is not merely truth to be believed but music to be heard.”

He says “Jesus is not merely truth to be believed but music to be heard.”  Amen to that, right?

Two other quick remarks: this is a book written, in part, it seems, to cut through the noise of our fast-paced distracted age. It is for those who are anxious in these digital days, full of overwhelm. I believe this is somewhat of an antidote.

And, for edification and a whole lot of fun, there is a playlist with each chapter, a couple of key songs — classical, rock, techno, folk, hymns and hollers — and listening in will be an intregal part of your reading experience. He names the “theological fit” of each song.  And there’s those footnotes! Buy A Tale of Two Swords today. Maybe God will use it to “tune your heart to sing his praise.”

Vulnerable God: How Jesus Upends our Assumptions About God — and Shows Us How to Be Human Kenneth Tanner (Brazos Press) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

Oh my, how to tell you quickly how incredible wonderful this profound book is. I did an episode (that just dropped, as we say in the podcast biz) in our “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” podcast that featured me waxing if not eloquent, at least insistent, that this book is a gem, a treasure that will point you to Jesus and thereby allow you to live well, to be fully human. It is a book of fairly deep but wonderfully written meditations on the life of Jesus and how this essentially (!) Divine One is also fully human. And how that mystery of the incarnation is not merely a doctrine to ponder during the Christmas season, but is a utterly bedrock teaching about who God is, what God is like, and therefore, also, who we are as men and women. Tanner is a rare breed — a down-to-Earth pastor in a small town (think Eugene Peterson, maybe) and yet a theologia. (Perhaps you have seen him online and if so, you know I’m not exaggerating to note his theological chops, his breadth knowledge of the church fathers, and yet knows how to show how that ancient wisdom is relevant today. As his friend the poet Malcolm Guite notes, it is “Accessible, mercifully free of jargon, and profoundly moving.” Yep, ends up the pastor/theologian is a bit of a poet. As well.

There is a spectacular foreword to Vulnerable God by the excellent writer and thinker and pastor Brian Zahn and you will not want to miss that. He notes why this question of the nature of Jesus as God is so important and why this meditation on the incarnation will, in fact, change not only how we see God (in Christ) but how we become like Christ — by beholding him.

Zahn writes:

In Vulnerable God we find a valuable and beautiful sustained meditation on Jesus Christ. This book does not read like a dry, academic, theological tome — it is far more like a poetic portrait.

He continues:

Thankfully, this book does not join the ranks of the ubiquitous catalogs of Christian pragmatism in which we are told “how to” do this or that. This book simply invites us to gaze upon the face of Christ until the miracle of inner transformation begins to occur. Christ does the saving; all we have todo is look upon him. “Turn to me and be saved” (Isaiah 45:22.) This book is not angry — we have far too many of those. This book is gracious. It doesn’t strike as lightening; it falls as gentle rain.”

Doesn’t that sound like a book you long to read?

Zahn shows that Tanner uses great ancient minds like Origen, Athanasius and others and makes them feel “bracingly contemporary.” Bracingly. Yes!

And, yes, every chapter (almost every page) is about Jesus, a God enfleshed who had to be held. And who gave himself to be killed, so that we, in our own bodies, can be someday fully restored.  The great book is arranged with creative reflections about the person and work and meaning of Jesus, explored in four main sections: A Human God, A Human Life, A Human Death, and A Human Future.

Again, it is about our humanness by way of the love of God.  And as Malcolm Guite puts it, Tanner “will take you there in the only way possible: in and through the vulnerable heart and healing wounds of Jesus Christ.”

Kenneth is pastor of Church of the Holy Redeemer in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He has written for outlets as diverse as Sojourners, Mockingbird and The National Review. He is part of the liturgically sophisticated Charismatic Episcopal denomination and is, simply, a delightful person, learned and kind. Vulnerable God is one of the best books of the year.

The Wisdom of Jesus: Meditations on the Gospels in Words and Paintings N.T. Wright (Zondervan) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

Although NT Wright has a short but important commentary on Isaiah coming in a month or so, his brand new one has caught many by surprise. The Wisdom of Jesus just came out and it is wonderful — only 100 before the footnotes and credits. Mostly it is wonderful because it has brief comment and rumination on key texts from the gospels illuminated by dozens of vibrant, often bright, contemporary paints from all over the world. The art pieces by mostly modern artists from Africa and Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America, Europe and North America. They are aesthetically pleasing, which is to say artful and striking. With glossy paper and nicely printed, these are worth the price of the book. Wright wouldn’t mind us saying this, either, as these paintings are not mere decoration but invite us to visio divina.

Beside the succinct but always helpful words of NT Wright, there are, in his New Testament for Everyone translation, the words of Jesus. As Tom puts it, “Take time, then, over the words of Jesus in this book. Roll the phrases around in your mouth. Taste their subtle flavor; refresh yourself with the freedom and love they contain.

Wright continues,

You might take a few pages each day and think and pray about how the wisdom they contain might work in your life. As you do, you might find yourself coming to recognize the person who stands behind the words…

There are nice devotional reflections here, five under each of five headings: True wisdom, True happiness, True love, True prayer, True God.

By the way, the two pages of artist credits and, for most of them, their websites, is also worth the price the book. You’ll be glad to have this unique collection of web addresses for (among other things) Biblical art at your fingertips…

ESV Four Holy Gospels Makoto Fujimura (Crossway) $49.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $39.99

I can hardly believe this amazing new (somewhat smaller and more affordable) gift edition of the four gospels masterfully illuminated with the art of modern Japanese-American artist Mako Fujimura first came out fifteen years ago. The very large size of that original edition has been made more manageable — although it is still  9” x 14” — and the cost is no longer $150. With our BookNotes discount making it just $39.99, it is not that much more than some major hardback bestsellers these day. Thanks be to God.

The elegantly produced Four Holy Gospels were highly acclaimed when they first came out. In a way they were honoring the celebration of the 500 years of publication of the seminal KJV but yet with the clean (if traditional) ESV translation and Mako’s classic modern abstract work in ancient Nihonga style paintings done originally for this Bible. That oversized original has been gifted to everyone from the Pope to Wendell Berry and we sent some even to other continents. And then it was out of print.

Thankfully, this new slipcased edition retains the beautiful art, the excellent typography, the handsome printing. It makes a very special gift (without being, well, as much as that first gloriously large edition was.) This, in my view, is a better edition for reading or displaying. We are delighted that it just came out and assume you will be too. Kudos to Crossway for doing such good work and thanks to Mako for his Biblically-guided modern artistic imagination. This is a pretty great literary event, it seems to me, and we should rejoice.

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