In Reorganized Religion, journalist Bob Smietana examines the evolution of America’s Christian institutions.
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Power to Harm and to Heal
A veteran religion writer considers the changing church
David Dark
Toward Justice
Anthony Ray Hinton’s The Sun Does Shine comes to young readers
In a new young readers edition, Anthony Ray Hinton’s memoir The Sun Does Shine shares his story of wrongful imprisonment and triumph over injustice. Hinton will appear at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on September 22 and at Belmont University in Nashville on September 25.
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Making Believe
God’s Rascal examines the life of fundamentalist J. Frank Norris
“If fundamentalism had not existed,” Barry Hankins tells us, J. Frank Norris “would have invented it.” In God’s Rascal, Hankins offers a portrait of a talented, abusive man whose fiery rhetoric shaped a major U.S. religious movement.
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Wolves in Shepherd’s Clothing
Jesus and John Wayne considers the “evangelical cult of masculinity”
Calvin University historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez analyzes a toxic mythology of manliness at the heart of evangelical culture in Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. Du Mez will appear at a virtual session of the 2021 Southern Festival of Books on September 30.
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Calling Evangelicals to Account
Anthea Butler speaks with prophetic candor in White Evangelical Racism
In White Evangelical Racism, Anthea Butler identifies a racist agenda at the heart of rightwing evangelical politics. Butler will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on March. 25.
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She Had a Dream
Freedom Faith examines the little-known influence of civil rights leader Prathia Hall
Prathia Hall was a minister, activist, and academic who played a critical but largely unknown role in the civil rights movement. Memphis church historian Courtney Pace recounts her pivotal influence in Freedom Faith: The Womanist Vision of Prathia Hall.
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