My latest list of great books features ten volumes published in 2020:
- (5.0) Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (Liveright, 2020)
- (4.5) Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton (Public Affairs, 2020)
- (4.5) Coach the Person not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry by Marcia Reynolds (Berrett-Koehler, 2020)
- (4.5) The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power by D. L. Mayfield (IVP, 2020)
- (4.0) A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America by Philip Tucker and Carol Leonnig (Penguin Press, 2020)
- (4.0) Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity by David W. Swanson (IVP, 2020)
- (4.0) Our Time is Now by Stacey Abrams (Henry Holt and Company, 2020)
- (4.0) Teach Us to Pray: The Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church and Today by Justo L. Gonzalez (William B. Eerdmans, 2020)
- (3.5) Faith in Cities: How Better Places Make Better Neighbors by Chris Lazaro (2020)
- (3.5) Everywhere you Look: Discovering the Church Right Where You Are by Tim Soerens (IVP, 2020)
Jesus and John Wayne
This is the first time Kristin Kobes Du Mez has appeared on So What Faith. She is a professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. She is the author of numerous articles and one previous book: A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism (Oxford University Press, 2015).
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation is a disturbing read offering a detailed historical account of the rise of White Evangelicalism from Billy Graham to Donald Trump emphasizing the intentional refashioning of Jesus and the Christian religion into something more masculine, patriarchal, authoritarian, and John Wayne-like. Devotees of this new form of Christianity are resourced by a commercial empire extending well beyond the local church to ensure that this new approach reaches any and all areas of life.