The best new books I’ve read in the last month are
- (5+) Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why It Matters by Bob Smietana (Worthy, 2022)
- (5.0) Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec (Broadleaf Books, 2022)
- (5.0) Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church by Michael Adam Beck and Tyler Kleeberger (Abingdon Press, 2022)
- (4.5) Hope: A User’s Manual by MaryAnn McKibben Dana (William B. Eerdmans, 2022)
- (4.5) Low Anthropology: The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself) by David Zahl (Brazos Press, 2022)
- (4.0) All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell (St. Martin’s Press, 2022)
- (4.0) Church Communications: Methods and Marketing by Katie Allred (B & H Academic, 2022)
- (3.5) Last Rites: The Evolution of the American Funeral by Todd Harra (Sounds True, 2022)
Reorganized Religion
If you were to tell me you’d only read one book I’ve read thus far this year that was published in 2022, I’d recommend Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why It Matters.
In the introduction, Bob Smietana – a well-known, award winning religion writer who has covered American religion for more than twenty years and who currently serves as a national reporter for Religion News Service – explains that the book is about
organized religion: why it matters, why it is in trouble, and why the decline of organized religion – in particular, Christian churches in the United States – will affect us all, no matter who we are or what we believe. It is also a book about why organized religion can and should be saved – and what it might cost for that to happen.
Smietana is brutally honest. He presents a well researched case for what has happened, and provides modest proposals for what could come next. He recognizes that the future may be a continuation of the recent past, but suggests this continued decline is far from a given. As both a religion writer and a person of faith, Smietana encourages his readers to be and become a part of the resurrection.