“In a world that often rewards performance and hides weakness, Jesus does the opposite. He draws near to the brokenhearted,” asserts pastor Sauls (Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen) in this openhearted invitation for believers to accept God’s grace. Jesus’s mercy, Sauls writes, is “stronger than our shame and more patient than our doubts,” a salve for believers’ unmet longings, suffering, and hopes. He explains how readers can seek this mercy in different situations—like remembering that God is with them in periods of suffering, and “resting” in Christ’s unconditional love during periods of anxiety—rather than endlessly striving for earthly accolades and external fulfillment. Sauls brings his message alive with energetic retellings of biblical stories, recounting how Jesus dined with the disgraced tax collector Zacchaeus, and how the prodigal son was unquestioningly embraced by the father he’d spurned, to emphasize that Christ extends his grace to all, including “the outlaws, the overlooked, the unexpected.” Readers will be reassured and reinvigorated. (June)

Reviewed on 04/17/2026 | Details & Permalink

Pastor Giles (When God Speaks) issues a haphazard call for readers to overcome spiritual adversity and build a better life. He addresses those who feel stranded in a spiritual “night” of despair, confusion, and disconnection from God, asserting that, while painful, these periods can serve as a “proving ground” for faith. During dark times, readers should pray, practice being thankful, and lean on Jesus for support, allowing God to “refine our character and prepare us for the blessing that’s coming at daybreak.” This “daybreak” will initiate a period of renewal during which, the author writes, believers can more easily make other shifts, like moving from poverty to prosperity or from victim to victor as one defeats inner demons and embraces “who God says you are.” Unfortunately, Giles’s passion too frequently shades into meaningless hyperbole (“Shift your mind, and you’ll shift your life, for in Christ, you have the mind of God Himself”), repetition, and ill-fitting tangents, coalescing into what feels more like a series of reheated sermons than a coherent spiritual program. Believers seeking motivation to endure difficult moments would be better served elsewhere. (June)

Reviewed on 04/17/2026 | Details & Permalink

In her empowering debut, Christian educator Neely promises readers struggling with their mental health that God is “with us through the shadows, no matter how long the night, no matter how deep the abyss.” The author’s struggle with bipolar disorder in high school led to a stay in a psychiatric ward, an endless battery of medications, and pervasive anxieties that her mental suffering stemmed from weak faith. Through the years, she grappled with both her disorder and spiritual disconnection, but gradually found peace in clinging to hope and opening up to others and to Jesus about her challenges. “There’s no part of our human experience that can scandalize God,” she notes, citing how he helped biblical figures deal with emotional struggles, as when he sent “an angel... with water and warm, freshly baked bread” to the prophet Elijah when he begged for death. She intertwines her story with a potent call for reforming a “triumphalist” church culture that frames mental suffering as a marker “of sin and shame,” leaving little room for frank but necessary conversations about mental wellness and faith doubts. Believers wrestling with emotional challenges of their own will feel seen and heard. (June)

Reviewed on 04/17/2026 | Details & Permalink

This rigorous study from Wuthnow (Nurturing Happiness), an emeritus sociology professor at Princeton, offers a sweeping overview of the religious left over the past 25 years. Originating in the 19th century with movements that focused on addressing “the inequitable distribution of power,” the religious left today comprises organizations of numerous denominations that operate on local, state, and national levels and spearhead interventions ranging from directly aiding disadvantaged groups to lobbying legislative bodies to shaping public discourse online. Unlike the religious right’s focus on strong internal “bonding” within congregations, Wuthnow contends, the left adopts a more decentralized approach toward political action, forging interdenominational alliances and strategic networks with an array of activist groups, some of them secular. In Wuthnow’s view, this lends the religious left an agility that the right lacks and enables it, in spite of limited resources (and often an absence of the overt passion displayed by the right) to influence issues ranging from worker’s rights to gun control. While the author’s recommendations for how the left can augment its approaches are relatively paltry, he lucidly outlines how the movement’s apparent weaknesses can serve as strengths and pinpoints some of the key issues that face it, like declining funding and oppressive government policies. Scholars of contemporary U.S. religion and politics will be edified. (June)

Reviewed on 04/17/2026 | Details & Permalink

Singer-songwriter Bassalé argues in his uplifting debut guide that making friends can help bridge the world’s divisions. Drawing from his experience facing xenophobia as a Senegalese immigrant in the U.S., Bassalé contends that befriending people, especially those from “othered” groups, is a way of recognizing the divine image in others and carrying out “God’s work of reconciliation and restoration.” Stations on his road map to forging such connection include courageously tackling one’s biases, using curiosity to initiate interaction, and showing compassion and care even when it’s difficult. More broadly, he offers advice for making friends across social and cultural boundaries, as well as fostering new friendships within organizations. While the periodic inclusion of the author’s song lyrics can be awkward, he effectively uses biblical examples, including Jesus’s ability to reach out to the marginalized, to show how making connections can spur “growth and liberation” on small and large scales. The result is an inspiring faith-based program for broadening one’s social circle. (June)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

War is “entirely incompatible with the spirit and teaching of Jesus,” argues pastor Daniel (Thoughtful Christianity) in this timely manifesto. He contends that a society-wide epidemic of “loneliness and fear” has driven American Christian communities toward an idolatrous worship of the nation and its “weapons of war.” This not only contradicts Christianity’s core command to love one’s neighbor, it’s also illogical, he writes, since history shows that wars generally beget endless cycles of violence, that the presence of a robust military fails to deter other countries from starting conflicts, and that crimes against humanity are committed by the same countries that purport to prevent such atrocities. (Further, he argues that the money spent on the military would do much more social good if allocated toward alleviating problems like homelessness.) With this in mind, he puts forth a philosophy that centers grace, advocating for peaceful solutions to global conflicts, and communities that prioritize connection and inclusion. The author effectively balances his optimistic vision for a peaceful world with a clear-eyed look at how the church has historically aligned itself with empire in ways that contradict its foundational philosophy (“For most of its history the church has not been the siblings Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, leading their people to freedom, it has been the enslaving pharaohs”). Christian pacifists will find much to chew on here. (June)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Fields (When Faith Disappoints), CEO of the Jude 3 Project, an apologetics organization, outlines in this flimsy guide how to recover from betrayal at the hands of a pastor, parent, or other person one looks up to. She argues that putting such “heroes” on a pedestal obscures their weaknesses, suggesting that readers embrace a more “nuanced” view that acknowledges their flaws along with the ways God has used them to “do good in your life.” Readers are advised to grapple with the pain of betrayal through therapy, journaling, and community support; work to extend forgiveness to the person in question; and pray for their redemption or, when appropriate, “check in regularly as we gently and humbly point them back to God.” Believers are also reminded to strengthen their faith and look to Jesus for wisdom rather than placing too much stock in inherently fallible human leaders. Unfortunately, much of the author’s argument feels familiar, and she bolsters it with odd examples (ranging from Sean “Diddy” Combs to King David) and questionable suggested practices like fasting to help the fallen hero work toward redemption. Hurt believers would be better served elsewhere. (June)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

“The Bible was inspired for us, [but] it’s not directly addressed to us,” argues pastor Ollerton (The Bible: A Story that Makes Sense of Life) in this comprehensive reassessment of core scriptural issues. Employing a nonliteralist lens, he surveys seven topics. These include how life on earth began, which he argues need not be a matter of debunking the creation story, as it’s less an objective report than a means of explaining, in a faith-centered way, “the origin and purpose of everything.” Instead, he invites readers to find God in the “unimaginably precise” conditions necessary for life to emerge. Elsewhere, he tackles the age-old conundrum of why God allows suffering, writing that God didn’t create evil, but can “bring good out of it” in ways that are unknowable within finite human lifespans. Despite a few ill-fitting elements, including the letters addressed to his children that conclude each chapter, Ollerton offers balanced, thorough takes on difficult scriptural issues and generally resists pat explanations in favor of leaving things open-ended. Curious Christians, especially young people, will get a lot out of this. (June)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

“Today’s athletes are doing more than thanking God in postgame interviews,” writes sports journalist Eubanks (All American) in this scattershot polemic. “They are changing the culture of teams, leagues, sports, communities, and nations.” Eubanks begins by celebrating high school football coach Joe Kennedy, who was disciplined in 2015 by his school district in Washington State for leading prayers at midfield but vindicated in 2022 when the Supreme Court deemed his prayers protected speech. For Eubanks, this signals a welcome thinning of “the wall separating church and state,” fueled in no small part by the rise of “sports-driven evangelism” that finds athletes using their platforms to praise God and coaches leading prayers in locker rooms and on sidelines. The movement has emerged at a moment when trust in institutional churches has plummeted to historic lows, putting athletes in a unique position to organically spread their faith to fans, especially young men, who now outnumber women in identifying as Christian. The author sees this “revival” as an antidote to a secular culture rife with sin and starved of positive Christian American values. Unfortunately, most of the account is spent scare-mongering about everything from “goat-headed statues of Satan” on U.S. state capitol grounds to the supposed proliferation of “drag queen story hours” in schools, leaving little room for Eubanks to develop his thesis about athletes and Christianity in depth. This misses the mark. (June)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

Country music artist Wilson (My Jesus) issues a strident call for readers to “speak up and speak out” for Christ. Noting that Jesus was a rebel of his time who defied conventions by associating with social pariahs and flouting laws to spread his message, Wilson calls on readers to use his example as inspiration to stand up for godly principles. On a broad scale, that means finding meaning in Christ rather than in fame or money, while on a day-to-day basis readers can choose to dress modestly, avoid cursing, and stand up for political causes that reflect traditional Christian teachings. Throughout, the author memorably chronicles how she’s gone against the grain by spreading her faith through her music even when it meant defying industry conventions, and reflects on grieving the death of her brother as a teen. While Wilson’s passion is undeniable, her message often gets lost in hyperbolic warnings about Christianity being “under attack across the globe” and odd interpretations of what it means to “speak up” for God, as when she implores readers to be “ready to lay it all down for Jesus the way Charlie Kirk did.” This is best suited for conservative believers already in agreement with Wilson’s views. (June)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink