The best new books I’ve read in the last month are
- (5+) Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood (Chalice Press, 2024)
- (5.0) Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for A World Falling Apart by Brian McLaren (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2024)
- (5.0) Move Fast & Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023)
- (4.5) American Leftovers: Surviving Family, Religion, and the American Dream by Eric Wilson, Shaun Wilson, and Heidi Wilson Messner (Chalice Press, 2024)
- (4.5) Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies by N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird (Zondervan Reflective, 2024)
- (4.0) Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis by Charles L. Marohn, Jr. and Daniel Herriges (Wiley, 2024)
- (4.0) I Respectfully Disagree: How to Have Difficult Conversations in a Divided World by Justin Jones-Fosu (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2024)
- (4.0) Breakthrough: Trusting God for Big Change in Your Church by Dawn Darwin Weaks (Chalice Press, 2022)
Baptizing America
I’ve read more than my fair share of material on Christian Nationalism. I’ve even reviewed and/or rated a number of book length considerations of the topic here on So What Faith, including The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming the Faith, and Refounding Democracy by Jim Wallis (2024), The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide (2022), The Flag + The Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy (2022). None of these volumes, however, adequately prepared me for the timely and challenging volume by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood. Originally published as a Word & Way essay, Baptizing America offers an expended treatment of a topic that has been kept silent far too long: the many ways mainline Protestants contributed to the formation of what we now call Christian Nationalism.
The authors effectively argue, “Not only do we believe that the mainline church’s role in advancing Christian Nationalism is an overlooked story, but we believe that calling attention to it will lead to positive change” (p.194). I trust that your willingness to read, discuss, learn from, and act on what you find in this volume will contribute to the important work of expelling Christian Nationalism from the mainline and from all forms of Christianity.
Note: Baptizing America is only the second book in 2024 to receive 5+ stars from So What Faith (only 3 books received this honor in 2023).
Welcome Back
Two authors on this month’s list have appeared on So What Faith in the past:
- N.T. Wright is a prolific author who has appeared when I reviewed or rated a number of his books, including God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath (2020), How God Became King (2012), and Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (2009).
- Brian McLaren was recently named one of So What Faith’s top authors over the last 15 years (2024). He is a two time recipient of So What Faith’s top book of the year: Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It (2021) and The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World’s Largest Religion is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian (2016). Additionally, he appeared when I reviewed some of his other books: Do I Stay Christian? A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned (2022), We Make the Road by Walking (2014), and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha & Mohammed Cross the Road (2012).