This diligent if somewhat impractical study from Gupta (Strange Religion), a theology professor at Northern Seminary, mines Paul’s letters for insight into how Christians can faithfully conduct their everyday lives. The first part criticizes the notion that the proper Christian response to the world’s “corruption” is retreat, “thumb-twiddling” anticipation of eternal glory, or pursuit of an otherworldly spirituality. According to Gupta, Paul rejected such ideas, insisting believers work to ensure that “God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.” The second part explores what this means, practically speaking. Gupta is most convincing when considering matters like friendship (which he contends is “serious gospel business” and a key anchor for Christian life) and psychological “wellness” (Paul’s commands to rejoice, hope, and be at peace aim to bring a “deeper awareness of what we hold dear and where our lives are heading”). Less successful are Gupta’s attempts to draw lessons on larger issues like socioeconomic justice; he rarely finds in Paul’s letters guidance more concrete than to avoid greed or recognize that “the secret to happiness is hidden in simplicity and generosity.” While Gupta helpfully contextualizes Paul’s teachings and how they diverged from dominant Greco-Roman values and beliefs, the counsel on offer leaves much to be desired. It’s a mixed bag. (May)

Reviewed on 02/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Rodriguez, cofounder of Church Clarity, an organization that helps queer people find gay-affirming congregations, debuts with a moving memoir about his struggles to “keep my faith without losing my soul” as a queer Christian. The author grew up feeling like a perennial misfit in Peoria, Ill., and found a sense of belonging with a Christian youth group as a teen, though his faith began to crack when he saw a youth leader “rejected” by the church after coming out. After high school he followed another group leader to Washington State to help him build a church youth group, but the mentor found gay porn on Rodriguez’s laptop, outed him, and framed him as a “dangerous predator.” Still committed to the church, Rodriguez signed up for conversion therapy that promised to help him overcome his “sexual brokenness” with a bizarre mix of “disciplined effort, behavior modification, and divine intervention” that involved, among other things, growing a beard and joining a gym. After eight years of conversion therapy, the author found a support group that sought to build “bridges between the church and the LGBTQ+ community.” Rodriguez’s brutal honesty is affecting, and he powerfully draws out how the evangelical church weaponizes Christian doctrine to “other” gay people and convince believers salvation is conditional on rigid adherence to conservative values. The result is an unflinching account of finding a faith that fits. (May)

Correction: An earlier version of this review contained inaccuracies about when the author moved to Washington State and how long he was in conversion therapy.

Reviewed on 02/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

By challenging “our ordinary ways of understanding the world and our place in it,” suffering provides Christians with an opportunity to reevaluate and strengthen their faith, according to this meditative guide. Kapic (You’re Only Human), a theology professor at Covenant College, teams up with Hall and McMartin, psychology and theology professors, respectively, at Biola University, to argue that crises destroy one’s “assumptions” about the world, freeing up the mind to discard “unhelpful or untrue beliefs” and formulate a “better way of understanding the world and our place in it.” Drawing from research and personal experience—including Hall’s struggle with breast cancer—the authors explain how suffering brings people closer to God as they bump up against their own fallibility, reevaluate priorities, and build empathy toward others. They also detail how readers can grow during such periods by praying regularly and working to forgive oneself and others for past transgressions. The authors differentiate their advice from similar religious guides with their methodical approach and robust research, which includes interviews with nearly 100 Christian cancer survivors. It adds up to an insightful testament to the unexpected ways faith can be born from struggle. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

The Awkward Mom blogger Breitenstein (Permanent Markers) provides pragmatic, faith-infused guidance on how moms can better regulate their anger. Dismissing notions of a “godly femininity” that means sublimating one’s feelings in order to serve others, she reassures readers that their emotions are legitimate, acknowledged by God, and should be tackled from the root up, as anger can be a secondary emotion sparked by fear or rejection. She offers strategies for handling anger in the moment and in the long term, including by working through past family traumas that have shaped one’s parenting approach. She also wisely clarifies that anger isn’t in itself a negative emotion and touts the benefits of bringing one’s difficult emotions to God. While the author’s stress-reduction tips aren’t new, she does valuable work in highlighting the insidious ways in which women often suppress their emotions, in dismantling reductive stereotypes about Christian femininity, and in reassuring readers that experiencing a full spectrum of emotions is part of being alive. The result is a compassionate resource for mothers seeking peace of mind. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

In her penetrating debut, physician Lee uses the Japanese art of kintsugi, the practice of mending broken pottery with gold lacquer, to illustrate how she repaired a faith fractured by a childhood steeped in Western theology. Lee grew up in an immigrant church in Iowa that practiced Chinese customs but hewed to white, patriarchal religious tradition—she imagined Jesus as white well into adulthood—and remained captive to a “very rigid form of Christianity” until her faith began to break down in college. In 2015 she came across blog posts from Glennon Doyle, spurring a quest for a more “legitimate, authentic faith.” Seeking out the works of feminist and BIPOC theologians, she learned to dismantle the strictures of Western Christianity and bring her culturally specific experiences as a Chinese American to reading scripture and connecting with God. Lee draws out with particular care how she’s used challenging parts of the Asian American experience to deepen her faith, contending that marginality can foster a closeness to Jesus, allowing believers to uniquely empathize with other groups that American Christianity “has silenced and negated.” Combining vivid personal experience with broad-ranging theology, it’s a smart, searching look at the need for more inclusive forms of Christianity in the U.S. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Addiction recovery advocate Beidler (Downstairs Church) provides a down-to-earth guide for readers with loved ones in addiction recovery. She frames recovery as a process that rests on four core pillars: hope (research shows that “when family members believe in and have hope for their loved ones, they are more likely to maintain recovery”); physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness (a strong faith identity promotes resilience and a solid sense of self); community; and giving back to others. Using that framework, addicts can construct an individual path to recovery that fosters fulfillment and renders addiction less necessary as a coping mechanism. Along the way, the author wisely reminds readers that recovery isn’t “one size fits all,” and provides valuable clarification on how to support a loved one with addiction without “enabling” their harmful habits. (Small acts, like providing a hot meal, “assure our family member or other loved one that no matter what happens, we know there is a pathway of change waiting for them once they are ready to take action.”) This compassionate, gently faith-infused guide will inform and empower friends and family of those suffering from addiction. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

The right to freely practice one’s religion is among the strongest predictors of societal peace and success, according to this lucid study from political scientist Hertzke (Religion and Politics in America). He marshals evidence that countries with fewer religious restrictions experience the most substantial economic growth, enjoy greater social cohesion, and experience lower incidences of violence and terrorism. In Hertzke’s view, this is because religious freedom taps into the core of “human personhood and experience: the right to be who we are, to act on our ultimate commitment, and to be treated with equal worth and dignity.” He also contends that freedom of religion promotes agency and social value, empowers marginalized communities, attracts the immigration of skilled workers, and promotes social cooperation, among other benefits. (Societies that privilege majority faiths, on the other hand, incite repression as governments distort religious principles to secure power.) Hertzke calls for the adoption of a “covenantal pluralism” that trades passive religious tolerance for respectful relationships between faith groups who actively recognize one another’s faith differences. Hertzke’s zeal for his thesis is energizing, and his analysis of religious freedom as a core element of democracy is illuminating. Readers will be persuaded. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

ESPN college football analyst Pollack (The Won’t Quit Kid, a picture book) outlines in his upbeat adult debut how he’s used unexpected setbacks to “make the most of the time the Lord ha[s] afforded me.” The author grew up with dreams of NFL stardom that propelled him to the University of Georgia as a linebacker and the Cincinnati Bengals as a first-round draft pick. After playing in the NFL for just two seasons, a routine tackle left him with two fractured vertebrae, forcing him to “slow down enough to listen to God.” The author describes how he regrouped by setting small, achievable daily goals; adhering to healthy eating and exercise habits; and—most significantly—viewing the setback as an opportunity from God to pivot to becoming a sportscaster. While much of Pollack’s advice is familiar, his lessons on recovering from injury are both encouraging and appealingly matter-of-fact (“Sure, I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get to play football again, but I was excited I had another opportunity for whatever was coming. There is hope when God is fighting for you”). Sports fans will get a lot out of this solid guide to shoring up one’s resilience through faith. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

The biblical Joseph’s path from slave to savior of Egypt is instructive to modern-day believers enduring hardships of their own, according to this flimsy offering. Bible teachers Lotz and Wright (coauthors of Jesus Followers), daughter and granddaughter of the late televangelist Billy Graham, recount how Joseph was sold to slavery by his scheming brothers and imprisoned in Egypt. After correctly interpreting Pharaoh’s dream as a harbinger of seven years of prosperity and seven years of famine, he stockpiled grain that helped save Egypt and his family from starvation. The authors use the story to contend that suffering is a means through which God “get[s] us where He wants us to be and develop[s] us into the people He created us to be.” With that in mind, they advise readers to stay alert to “the purpose the Lord may be preparing you for” and “stand firm... in your commitment to holiness.” Unfortunately, that’s as far as their insights go; most of the book reiterates this message, relating Joseph’s story in highly embellished fashion and stitching in platitudes (“People will fail us, but God never does”) and unrelated potshots at the queer community (Satan, the authors contend, is “relentlessly attacking young people through gender confusion”), among other topics. This fails to shed new light on the biblical story. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink

University of Pennsylvania religion professor Weitzman (The Origin of the Jews) traces in this sweeping account how the story of the 10 plagues of Egypt has been interpreted and imagined across time and space. More concerned with the story’s reception than its historicity, Weitzman juggles a sweeping range of perspectives on how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars have wrestled with, and found comfort in, the narrative. Some medieval European Jewish communities, for example, used Goshen, an area of Egypt where the Israelites are said to have sought refuge from the plagues, to symbolize their own search for safety in their homelands. Goshen also served, for Black writers like Zora Neale Hurston, as a symbol of spaces that, “rendered invisible by their marginality,” afforded Black people a measure of “limited autonomy” within the Jim Crow South. Elsewhere, Weitzman documents how poets, politicians, activists, and other groups mapped their own interests onto the narrative. He explains, for example, that changing portrayals of the cattle plague reflected evolving attitudes toward animal rights, and that God’s “hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart against the Israelites launched debates about autonomy and free will. Weitzman skillfully unearths hidden connections between theology and culture, showing how biblical texts have served as sites for thinkers and communities to negotiate identity, persecution, and meaning. It’s a comprehensive overview of a foundational biblical narrative and its complex legacies. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink