The Books I Read In 2021
Some were paradigm-shifting, others were uplifting
I set out to read six books this year. Between running a nonprofit, family, and settling into a new church home, I wanted to avoid being overly ambitious.
I ended up reading thirteen books. Many are theological or critically examine American Christian culture and history. One of my favorite things about being a post-evangelical Christian is that the full breadth of what the Church is doing in the world is more visible to me than ever before. This includes wider access to readings from other traditions within the Christian faith.
Other books were political or fiction. While each of these books is wonderful in their own way, here they are in the order of impact they left on me.
Jesus & John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith And Fractured A Nation
by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
I’m far from alone when I write this, but Jesus & John Wayne hit home like no other book I’ve read. It’s a sweeping history of the last 75 years of white American evangelicalism and reveals how evangelical gatekeepers worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged American masculinity and Christian nationalism. Entire sections of Jesus &…
