Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us

Robert D. Putnam, David E. Campbell · 696 pages

This book is a groundbreaking examination of religion in America. Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. But in recent decades the nation's religious landscape has been reshaped. America has experienced three seismic shocks, say Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In the 1960s, religious observance plummeted. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, a co

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

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

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

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

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

Kristin Kobes Du Mez · 352 pages

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

Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

Timothy J. Keller · 256 pages

Author of the New York Times bestseller The Reason for God and nationally renowned pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Timothy Keller with his most provocative and illuminating message yet. It is commonly thought in secular society that the Bible is one of the greatest hindrances to doing justice. Isn't it full of regressive views? Didn't it condone slavery? Why look to the Bible for guida

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

Michael Eric Dyson · 228 pages

Fifty years ago, when a white woman asked Malcolm X what she could do for the cause, he told her "Nothing." Now, Michael Eric Dyson believes he was wrong and responds that if society is to make real racial progress, people must face difficult truths-- including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.

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."

Annihilation of Caste: The Annotated Critical Edition

B.R. Ambedkar · 97 pages

"A new annotated critical edition of B.R. Ambedkar's speech "Annihilation of Caste.""--

Infidel

Ayaan Hirsi Ali · 353 pages

"Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress

Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

Miroslav Volf · 336 pages

"Life at the end of the twenty-first century presents us with a disturbing reality. Otherness, the simple fact of being different in some way, has come to be defined as in and of itself evil. Miroslav Volf contends that if the healing word of the gospel is to be heard today, Christian theology must find ways of speaking that address the hatred of the other. Reaching back to the New Testament metap

How Now Shall We Live?

Charles W. Colson, Nancy Pearcey · 574 pages

Christianity is more than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is also a worldview that not only answers life's basic questions--Where did we come from, and who are we? What has gone wrong with the world? What can we do to fix it?--but also shows us how we should live as a result of those answers. How Now Shall We Live? gives Christians the understanding, the confidence, and the tools to

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

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Reza Aslan · 336 pages

Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher walked across the Galilee gathering followers to establish the "Kingdom of God." He was tortured and executed as a state criminal. Within decades, his followers would call him God. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens

What's Wrong With the World

G.K. Chesterton · 176 pages

I originally called this book "What is Wrong," and it would have satisfied your sardonic temper to note the number of social misunderstandings that arose from the use of the title. Many a mild lady visitor opened her eyes when I remarked casually, I have been doing 'What is Wrong' all this morning. And one minister of religion moved quite sharply in his chair when I told him (as he understood it)

The Fire Next Time

James Baldwin · 120 pages

**From Amazon.com:** A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, *The Fire Next Time* galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

Richard Hofstadter · 434 pages

A book which throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society.

god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Christopher Hitchens · 307 pages

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloq

Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity

Paul Kingsnorth · 366 pages

Pakistan: A Hard Country

Anatol Lieven · 583 pages

Large, heavily populated, and strategically placed between Iran, Afghanistan and India, Pakistan is of vital importance to the world. This book looks at how Pakistan works, and rather than seeing it as a failed state, the author treats it as a viable and coherent state.

The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom

David Kupelian · 256 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