Bible teacher Allen (Get Out of Your Head) argues in this flimsy guide to rebuilding one’s self-esteem that each person is shaped by a “core lie” that prevents them from truly connecting with God and living authentically. She leads readers through the process of identifying their core lie—often that one is helpless, unlovable, or worthless—and how to vanquish it. Steps include determining where the lie originated (damaging family dynamics, traumatic experiences), paying close attention to negative self-talk, getting closer to God, and exchanging the lie for a holier vision of one’s life. Such a vision involves becoming part of a God-focused community and connecting with God in small, everyday ways, like praying and attuning to his will when making choices. Readers may appreciate Allen’s candid disclosures about overcoming her own core lie but will be turned off by the dearth of concrete examples and her penchant for bizarre, sometimes judgmental tangents, as when she recounts drawing on “God’s spirit” to ward off the “curses” of an agitated plane seatmate who she assumed was a “witch.” Readers seeking spiritual self-help would be better served elsewhere. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink

Wenger (We Have a Religion), a history professor at Yale Divinity School, unpacks in this comprehensive account the complex relationship between Indigenous resistance, secular governance, and American Christianity in the 18th and 19th centuries. She explains that the U.S. government used religion as a tool to secure power, by morally justifying its conquest of Indigenous lands and setting up networks of churches to support settlers. Yet she overturns ideas of Indigenous peoples as passive subjects, explaining how Native leaders “actively reshaped both Christianity and their own Indigenous traditions” within the “imperial frame” by, for example, reciting Catholic chants in tribal anguages and forming relationships with missionaries. Such activities helped Indigenous peoples cultivate a “respectable” image in the eyes of political elites, benefit from bonds with missionaries, and sometimes actively resist colonial power (some tribal leaders “educat[ed] missionaries in the realities of settler colonial violence and the values of Indigenous life”). Drawing on extensive research, the author convincingly overturns the fiction of American religion as divorced from secular governance, framing it instead as a central part of the country’s structural and moral foundations and a site where power and resistance were negotiated. The result is a scrupulous look at the entanglement of empire, sovereignty, and belief in early America. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Strobel and Coe (Where Prayer Becomes Real), theology professors at Biola University, outline in this resolute guide how readers can strengthen their faith when they feel isolated from God. They argue that life is divided into joyous, abundant seasons of “consolation” in which believers feel connected to God and confident in their faith, and periods of desertion and desolation from which God appears to be absent. While painful, the periods of desolation allow believers to assess their flaws and brokenness, fostering an appreciation of God’s mercy and a deeper spiritual development. To tackle these seasons, readers must abandon notions that spiritual “progress” is linear, predictable, or subject to human control, and instead focus on bringing their pain, guilt, and despair to Christ “for love and forgiveness.” Strobel and Coe eloquently give voice to the doubts that arise when one’s faith flags, even if the solutions on offer—bringing one’s pain to God and resisting expectations of straightforward spiritual development—are easier said than done. Still, Christians who feel spiritually stuck will get plenty out of this. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Bible teacher LaValley (Even If He Doesn’t) recounts in this spirited memoir how she rebuilt her faith in the wake of “church hurt.” The author grew up in a toxic New Jersey Pentecostal church that unceremoniously pushed out her pastor father when she was a kid, eroding her faith and forcing the family to move. They settled in Tennessee, where LaValley, eager not to be seen as a “screw-up,” “recommitted herself to Christ” at age 15. Still, she remained dogged by feelings of insufficiency, which were amplified by later betrayals like being denied a ministry position at a church because of critiques of her mothering choices. After being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, she realized her inability to conform was rooted in traits designed “by a God who knows what he’s doing” and set about shaping an individual faith centered on God’s unconditional love. LaValley wisely never pretends to have all the answers, acknowledging that she remains committed to the church in spite of its institutional flaws because believers must exist in communities to “grow in righteousness and be the hands and feet of Christ.” It’s a brave look at what it means to find a faith of one’s own. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Pastor Groeschel (Winning the War in Your Mind) teams up with psychologist Chappelle for an optimistic, faith-based guide to tackling mental health issues. He debunks myths that prevent Christians from seeking help, including that depression and anxiety stem from inadequate faith or repressed sin, arguing instead that God intimately understands believers’ pain and can serve as a source of stability amid personal crisis. Drawing from his own recovery from a burnout-induced breakdown and interspersing advice from Chappelle, the psychologist who helped him get better, Groeschel unpacks how readers can handle anger, trauma, and anxiety with a mix of faith-based and therapeutic interventions. These include praying, keeping a gratitude journal, and reframing negative feelings as “signals... to make adjustments” to ineffective habits and thought patterns. Groeschel’s at his most enlightening when drawing links between faith and psychology. He explains, for example, how consistently focusing on Bible verses can create new neural pathways that override negative thought patterns, citing research suggesting that praying for 12 minutes a day over an eight-week period creates neural changes profound enough to be measured on a brain scan. The result is both a down-to-earth guide and a welcome corrective to a church culture that’s often silent on psychological health. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Influencer Mariah chronicles in her intimate debut guide how she found her way to a faith that embraces doubt. As a young girl, Mariah studiously followed the rigid rules of her Southern Christian culture, but doubts set in as she began noticing the contradictions inherent in religious life. She recalls, as a third grader, sitting in on a church budget meeting in which the amount of money spent on decorations caused her to publicly question the church’s values. Speaking up in the meeting, she writes, “sparked something in me” that fueled a life of “challeng[ing] the status quo” in ways that have enriched her faith and carried her through such personal trials as handling her infant daughter’s medical emergency when her husband was deployed in Iraq. With a series of probing questions, she aims to help readers uncover their own faith values—rather than the ones modeled for them—to guide their spiritual growth. Drawing candidly from her life, Mariah convincingly frames “friction” points as uncomfortable but fruitful opportunities to push beyond old beliefs as God “reestablishes us for something even better.” The result is an impassioned challenge to a church culture rooted in compliance. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Peterman, a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago Divinity School, debuts with an optimistic call for readers to build more cohesive communities. Faith, he argues, should spur believers to connect with their neighbors and is, in turn, strengthened as communities work together to enact a “vision of the common good” reflecting God’s love. Readers can create stronger communities by showing compassion toward friends, enemies, and strangers alike; acknowledging how community members of all backgrounds are interconnected; and communicating across cultural divides in ways that make “God’s presence” known without evangelizing. Peterman also advocates for building physical spaces, like community centers or gardens, that foster a sense of mutual belonging. Such practical suggestions are crowded out by abstract theological musings and the occasional strained metaphor (readers are encouraged to recognize possibilities for renewal in the world that mirror how a compost pile transforms food scraps into “new life”). Still, Peterman’s passionate vision for a more connected and harmonious society inspires. Christian do-gooders will find this worth a look. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Burton, director of global supplier diversity and inclusion at McDonald’s, aims in her empowering debut guide to help Black women thrive in a discriminatory business world. She calls on readers to dismantle limiting beliefs that constrain their success, like the advice once delivered to Black women not to wear red lipstick to avoid exaggerating the “size of their lips” (an admonition, the author writes, to minimize themselves in the business world and beyond). Once readers have dismantled such beliefs, they can harness their strengths to improve their work performance, including using faith and prayer to make values-led decisions, prioritizing self-care to boost productivity, and fostering “grace and toughness” to more confidently lead. Drawing from her own experience, the author is frank about the ways racism impacts the corporate world but remains refreshingly optimistic about how readers can utilize their unique skills and experience to succeed within an unequal system. As antagonism toward workplace diversity initiatives climbs, this serves as an especially valuable resource for Black Christian entrepreneurs and professionals looking to get ahead. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Haines-Eitzen (The Gendered Palimpsest), a professor of religion at Cornell, traces in this robust account the complex “afterlives” of the gospel of John. As she notes, the gospel became a site of debate for early religious groups and philosophers, with the Gnostics and such theologians as Augustine of Hippo seeking “hidden meanings” in its stories and Protestant Reformation–era thinkers using its vivid depictions of the eucharist to quibble over the literality, utility, and significance of the practice. Later, its language informed the American evangelical movement, where the term “born again,” which was drawn from the gospel of John, was used to support the idea that one must embrace Jesus to receive eternal life. On a darker note, the gospel’s anti-Jewish rhetoric (“the Jews” are referenced some 70 times in the text, generally as hostile antagonists calling for Jesus’s crucifixion) was harnessed throughout history to bolster antisemitic sentiment, including legitimizing Nazi propaganda and justifying violence against “heretics” during the Crusades. The author comprehensively catalogs the gospel’s role in Christian history and reveals how religious texts serve as vital sites for thinkers and movements to negotiate their theories and differences. The result is a robust study of a foundational Christian text. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Butler University religion professor McGrath (John of History, Baptist of Faith) outlines in this pensive guide how former Christian evangelicals can refashion their faith. Characterizing evangelical Christianity as a narrow religious framework that harnesses “bits of the Bible” to support rigid principles often concerned with “tear[ing] down the beliefs of others,” he offers advice for shaping a more flexible, individualized faith. Suggestions include practicing “compassion and empathy” toward friends and enemies alike, developing an appreciation for the divine by seeking beauty in music and nature, and starting open-ended, nonjudgmental conversations about faith with members of one’s community. He also wisely encourages readers to release their “illusion of certainty” and approach faith as a lifelong search for “the truth about God,” which might involve elements of their past faith practices (readers should take the time to “go through the rubble, brick by brick, because there is a lot in there that was actually good and which would be a shame to walk away from”). Curious exvangelicals will get a lot of mileage out of this. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink