The best new books I’ve read in the last month are
- (5.0) Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. Kendi (One World, 2026)
- (4.5) Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West by Bart D. Ehrman (Simon & Schuster, 2026)
- (4.5) Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and America Remade Christianity by Matthew Avery Sutton (Basic Books, 2026)
- (4.5) Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling: Women Clergy in a Still-Patriarchal Church by Alina Gayeuski (Chalice Press, 2026)
- (4.0) A Seat at The Table: Stories of Faith, Healing, and Rebirth by Dawn Bennett (Tehom Center Publishing, 2026)
- (4.0) Becoming Neighbors: The Common Good Made Local by Amar D. Peterman (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2026)
- (4.0) Distortions: How to Recognize and Refute False Christian Claims in American Culture by Michael Adam Beck (Abingdon Press, 2026)
- (3.5) Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate by Steven Garber (Paraclete Press, 2026)
Chain of Ideas
I was introduced to the work of Ibram X. Kendi when I read How to Be an Antiracist. Since I read it a couple of years after publication, I did not mention it on So What Faith. Based on what I learned then, I was quick to acquire a copy of Chain of Ideas, reading it only days after it was released. I soon realized it is a book everyone needs to read, especially if you would rather avoid learning more about the “great replacement.”
Kendi explores the lineage of ideas that animate today’s authoritarian movements, showing how fear-based narratives about identity and belonging have been deliberately constructed and sustained. By placing today’s rhetoric in historical context, he demonstrates that what feels new is often a reworking of much older arguments. Importantly, he not only explains how we arrived at this moment, but also proposes how these patterns can be challenged and changed.
Welcome Back
Two authors on this month’s list have been featured previously on So What Faith: Bart Ehrman and Michael Adam Beck.
I first learned about Bart D. Ehrman’s scholarship many years ago. Love Thy Stranger is his fourth book to be reviewed and/or rated on So What Faith. The first three all received ratings of 4.5 or 5.0:
- 2014: How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (rated 4.5)
- 2016: Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior (rated 5.0)
- 2020: Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (rated 4.5)
Michael Adam Beck first appeared in 2022 when I rated a book he co-authored, Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church, 5.0. He returned in 2024 with another co-authored book, Doing Justice Together: Fresh Expressions Pathways to Heal Racism in Your Church, which I rated 4.0.