Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy

Columbine

Dave Cullen · 417 pages

On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma-City style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine." When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat

To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World

James Davison Hunter · 358 pages

Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject

Saba Mahmood · 260 pages

"Politics of Piety is a groundbreaking analysis of Islamist cultural politics through the ethnography of a thriving, grassroots women's piety movement in the mosques of Cairo, Egypt. Unlike those organized Islamist activities that seek to seize or transform the state, this is a moral reform movement whose orthodox practices are commonly viewed as inconsequential to Egypt's political landscape. Sab

Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made

Kristin Kobes Du Mez · 352 pages

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer · 399 pages

Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they receive

Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture

Daniel Radosh · 320 pages

From the Publisher: What does it mean when a band is judged by how hard they pray rather than how hard they rock? Would Jesus buy "Jesus junk" or wear "witness wear"? What do Christian skate parks, raves, and romance novels say about evangelicalism-and America? Daniel Radosh went searching for the answers and reached some surprising conclusions. Written with the perfect blend of amusement and resp

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion

Jonathan Haidt · 473 pages

A groundbreaking investigation into the origins of morality, which turns out to be the basis for religion and politics. The book explains the American culture wars and refutes the "New Atheists."

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

Geraldine Brooks

America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America

Jim Wallis · 255 pages

America's problem with race has deep roots, with the country's foundation tied to the near extermination of one race of people and the enslavement of another. Racism is truly our nation's original sin. "It's time we right this unacceptable wrong," says bestselling author and leading Christian activist Jim Wallis. Fifty years ago, Wallis was driven away from his faith by a white church that conside

In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church

Gina Welch · 333 pages

Ever since evangelical Christians rose to national prominence, mainstream America has watched them with a nervous eye, but our understanding hasn't gone beyond the caricatures. Who are evangelicals, really? To find out, Gina Welch, a young secular Jew ("born atheist") from Berkeley, joined Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church. Over the course of nearly two years, Welch immersed herself in th

Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions

Phil Zuckerman · 276 pages

Over the last twenty-five years, "no religion" has become the fastest-growing religion in the United States. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people have turned away from the traditional faiths of the past and embraced a moral yet nonreligious--or secular--life, generating societies vastly less religious than at any other time in human history. Revealing the inspiring beliefs that empower

Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics

Ross Douthat · 352 pages

As the youngest-ever op-ed columnist for the New York Times, Ross Douthat has emerged as one of the most provocative and influential voices of his generation. In Bad Religion he offers a masterful and hard-hitting account of how American Christianity has gone off the rails—and why it threatens to take American society with it. Writing for an era dominated by recession, gridlock, and fears of Ameri

Secrets and Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy

Sanjiv Bhattacharya · 367 pages

What do we really know about modern polygamists? We've seen the news storiesin recent years about the underage brides in prairie dresses, but that's just the FLDS, one of many groups who practice polygamy in the Mormon tradition. There's also the Order, the TLC, the AUB and thousands of independents. It's estimated that over 40,000 Mormon fundamentalists live underground in the American West. In S

Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement

Kathryn Joyce · 258 pages

Provides an intimate view of the patriarchy movement. They believe the "biblical" woman wears modest, feminine dress and avoids not only sex but also dating before marriage. She doesn't speak in church, or try to have authority over men. She is a submissive wife who bolsters her husband in his role as spiritual and earthly leader of the family.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · 456 pages

From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What hap

unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters

David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons · 256 pages

Based on research conducted on 16- to 29-year-old non-believers, and featuring responses from a vast array of Christian leaders, shows how modern society perceives Christians and explores what can be done to reverse those negative perceptions.

Daughters of Another Path: Experiences of American Women Choosing Islam

Carol L. Anway · 215 pages

Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England

Keith Thomas · 716 pages

Witchcraft, astrology, divination and every kind of popular magic flourished in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the belief that a blessed amulet could prevent the assaults of the Devil to the use of the same charms to recover stolen goods. At the same time the Protestant Reformation attempted to take the magic out of religion, and scientists were developing new explana

The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism

Karen Armstrong · 442 pages

"In The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong shows us how and why fundamentalist groups came into existence and what they yearn to accomplish.". "We see the West in the sixteenth century beginning to create an entirely new kind of civilization, which brought in its wake change in every aspect of life - often painful and violent, even if liberating. Armstrong argues that one of the things that changed

A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837

Paul E. Johnson · 232 pages

The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries

Rodney Stark · 246 pages

The idea that Christianity started as a clandestine movement among the poor is a widely accepted notion. Yet it is one of many myths that must be discarded if we are to understand just how a tiny messianic movement on the edge of the Roman Empire became the dominant faith of Western civilization. In a fast-paced, highly readable book that addresses beliefs as well as historical facts, Rodney Stark

Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead

Christine Wicker · 288 pages

In Lily Dale, New York, the dead don't die. Instead, they flit among the elms and stroll along the streets. According to spiritualists who have ruled this community for five generations, the spirits never go away—and they stay anything but quiet. Every summer twenty thousand guests come to consult the town's mediums in hopes of communicating with dead relatives or catching a glimpse of the future.

The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation

Rod Dreher · 275 pages

In a radical vision for the future of Christianity, New York Times bestselling author and American Conservative columnist Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life. From the inside, American churches are hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo-Christianity. From the outside, they are beset

Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening

Diana Butler Bass · 294 pages

"In her latest book, religion expert Diana Butler Bass offers a fresh interpretation of this transformation and identifies a new spiritual awakening taking place inside and outside the church. Based on new research and a careful reading of history, CHRISTIANITY AFTER RELIGION argues that traditional Christianity has focused on three prescriptions, in this order: - This is what to believe (theology