Books

(A)theologies, BooksMay 30, 2012

Cornel West, Using His Powers for Good

By Edward J. Blum

In many ways, The Rich and the Rest of Us is political sustenance for the already converted to liberal and leftist causes. Quoting historian Howard Zinn and looking to the insights of filmmaker Michael Moore probably will not convince many conservatives to rally to the cause—and when Smiley and West rely on Barbara Ehrenreich, they are drawing upon a fellow dissident. Put simply, they are preaching to the choir—but choirs need encouragement too. This is what Smiley and West accomplish: they provide the Occupy generation with a text to rally around.

Books, Politics/LawMay 17, 2012

A Neoconservative Jesus, Certified Kosher

By Ira Chernus

After some perfunctory praise of the last three popes, Boteach gets down to his Glenn Beck-ish business: “The American Evangelical community has proven the most stalwart and reliable friend of Israel in the United States.” Christians and Jews are now “brothers” because “together they confront the implacable foe of Islamist terrorism.”

Books, Culture, Israel-PalestineMay 17, 2012

What if Israel Were in Germany? An Alternate History

By Haroon Moghul

In The Mirage, 9/11 is actually 11/9, the day when Christian fundamentalists from Texas slammed airliners into Baghdad skyscrapers, sparking a war on terror that rages across a nearly unrecognizable North America. Will Americans go for a book where the world power is the United Arab States and the lead characters are almost all Arabs and Muslims?

(A)theologies, BooksMay 17, 2012

Religion for Atheists for The Rest of Us

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

I was excited to read Religion for Atheists—really I was. Here’s a confessed atheist, pop philosopher Alain de Botton, who nonetheless actually believes that religion is worth looking at, unlike his more militant friends in the New Atheist camp. .

Books, RD10QMay 17, 2012

Evangelicals Struggle With the Role of Churches in Society

By Omri Elisha

Some people think that evangelicals only do charity out of a selfish desire to convert non-believers. Others insist that evangelical faith-based organizations are secretly installing a Christian theocracy. Both assumptions are misguided in my view because they are too narrow. Moral Ambition seeks to broaden (and refine) our sense of what everyday evangelicals believe they are doing, or would like to be doing, when they engage the public sphere.

Books, Israel-Palestine, Politics/LawMay 17, 2012

Peter Beinart’s Controversial The Crisis of Zionism: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Treatment

By Shaul Magid

Not since The Israel Lobby has a Jewish book evoked so much ire and criticism from the American Jewish community.

(A)theologies, Books, Sexuality/GenderMay 17, 2012

Transgender, Scientologist, “Cult Hero”

By Jay Michaelson

Kate Bornstein’s new book recounts the years before Scientology was considered a religion, when it gave her all the answers on gender, loss, and addiction she needed not to hear. Sounds just like… bad religion.

(A)theologies, Books, Israel-PalestineMay 9, 2012

Heaven On Earth: A Non-Hysterical History of Shari’ah

By Haroon Moghul

Sadakat Kadri’s Heaven on Earth is the kind of book that can appeal to the curious, as well as the intellectually serious—that strange product which actually leaves you knowing more about Islam than you did before you started.

(A)theologies, Books, Israel-PalestineApril 25, 2012

Inventing Jesus: An Interview with Bart Ehrman

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

It’s usually clear to Bart Ehrman who loves him and who hates him. Evangelical Christians have been raking Ehrman over the coals for years for his rejection of biblical inerrancy—and atheists and humanists have embraced his writing as ammunition in the fight against the evils of organized religion. In his new book, Did Jesus Exist?, Ehrman debunks the work of so-called “mythicists”—writers who have argued that a man named Jesus who taught about the coming Kingdom of God never really existed, and that the religions created around him are nothing but fantasy.

Archive, BooksApril 19, 2012

Scientology: All-American or Aging Hoax?

By Gordon Haber

Given the spotty history of L. Ron Hubbard’s life and the church’s well-documented vindictiveness toward critics, there’s a great deal of criticism to be found on Scientology. But two new books examine the history of the church without sensationalism or facile mockery.