During the first month of 2020, I read ten great new books (published in 2020):
- (
5.0) Where Goodness Still Grows: Reclaiming Virtue in an Age of Hypocrisy by Amy Peterson (W Publishing Group, 2020) - (4.5) We Were Spiritual Refugees: A Story to Help You Believe in Church by Katie Hays (Eerdmans, 2020)
- (4.5) Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Knopf, 2020)
- (4.5) Another Way: Living and Leading Change on Purpose by Stephen Lewis, Matthew Wesley Williams, and Dori Grinenko Baker (Chalice Press, 2020)
- (4.0) Abundance: Creating a Culture of Generosity by Michael R. Ward (Fortress Press, 2020)
- (4.0) Jesus Wasn’t Killed by the Jews: Reflections for Christians in Lent edited by Jon M. Sweeney (ORBIS Books, 2020)
- (4.0) What Is Jesus Doing?: God’s Activity in the Life and Work of the Church edited by Edwin Chr. van Driel (IVP Academic, 2020)
- (3.5) Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott (Portfolio, 2020)
- (3.5) The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century by Adam Davidson (Alfred A. Knopf, 2020)
- (3.0) Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory with the Most Powerful Methods in History by Lynn
I also read an excellent book published on the last day of 2019 (well beyond my cut off for 2019 recommendations)
- (4.5) The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It by John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister (Penguin Press, 2019)
So What?
Evangelicals speak frequently enough and loudly enough about their views that the American public often assumes they constitute a larger percentage of the population than they actually do and that their views represent the views of all Christians. Many former Evangelicals have written books that challenge widely held Evangelical beliefs and practices either seeking to reform or broaden Evangelicalism or to reflect on experience after leaving Evangelicalism.
Amy Peterson was raised in an Evangelical homeschooling family and is now a postulant in the Episcopal church. Where Goodness Still Grows: Reclaiming Virtue in an Age of Hypocrisy is an honest, personal, and theologically rich volume that details some of the many ways Peterson’s views on key virtues have evolved over time.
Kindness, purity, modesty, authenticity, hope have meanings beyond those promoted by Evangelicals. Rather than discontinue using these words, Peterson encourages her readers to reclaim them.
Peterson does for virtues what Marcus Borg (1942-2015) did for the Christian vocabulary more generally nearly a decade ago in Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power –And How They Can Be Restored.