NOTE: This piece was originally published at our Substack newsletter A Public Witness.
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it won’t hear an appeal from Texas citizens challenging their county library commissioner’s decision to remove 17 books on transgender issues and slavery. That means the books will remain banned. Last month, a judge in Missouri struck down a 2022 state law that forced public school libraries to remove books. If it stands, the books can come back.
While some politicians seek to ban books, we instead prefer to lift them up. We think people should read more, not less. That’s one reason we’ve reviewed and given away an autographed book we like every month to a paid subscriber. In many ways, we’ve slowly created, one month at a time, a list of some of our top books of the year:
January: Money, Lies, and God by Katherine Stewart February: To Love Our Neighbors by Joe Blosser March: Disciples of White Jesus by Angela Denker April: Blessed Minds by Sarah Griffith Lund May: Pilgrim by Tony Campolo and Steve Rabey June: Accompanying Disability by Topher Endress July: The Anti-Greed Gospel by Malcolm Foley August: Rereading Revelation by Greg Carey September: The Bible According to Christian Nationalists by Brian Kaylor October: The Seven Mountains Mandate by Matthew Boedy November: Thriving Church by Erin Cash and Kory Wilcoxson & Holy Disruption by Amy Butler and Dawn Darwin Weaks
Obviously, we still recommend those books. But for this issue of A Public Witness, we’re going to briefly highlight 15 books beyond those from our longer giveaway reviews. As in previous years, the table of contents is as follows: 1. Five books featured on our podcast Dangerous Dogma, 2. Five books recommended by Brian (that haven’t led to Dangerous Dogma episodes), 3. Five books recommended by Beau, and 4. A succinct conclusion.
5 Books Featured on Dangerous Dogma
1. Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza by Munther Isaac (Eerdmans). A Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem — yes, that Bethlehem — Isaac has been a leading prophetic voice crying out in the wilderness amid war, famine, and death in Gaza. In a time when many U.S. Christians back an Israeli government that persecutes Palestinian Christians in Gaza, the West Bank (where Isaac ministers), and in Israel, this broadside against a theology of empire is desperately needed. You can listen to a conversation with Isaac in episode 179 (or watch a video version here).
2. America’s Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State by Randall Balmer (Steerforth). Long a trusted guide for understanding religious history in the U.S., Balmer’s short, accessible new book is an important work as a Christian Nationalistic administration tries to tear down our experiment of church-state separation. As we near the U.S.’s Semiquincentennial on the Fourth of July next year, we’re going to hear a lot of fake historical claims to frame the U.S. as a “Christian nation.” Balmer’s book is an essential resource for understanding the past more clearly and for appreciating why the separation of church and state is good for both. You can listen to a conversation with Balmer in episode 189 (or watch a video version here).
3. Getting Jefferson Right: Fact-Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson by Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter (Salem Grove Press). Like Balmer’s book, this one is also a helpful resource for pushing back against false claims about the U.S.’s founding. Throckmorton and Coulter have spent years debunking inaccurate Christian Nationalistic arguments by pseudo-historian David Barton and others. The special third edition of their book, out this year, includes a lot of helpful new sections on prominent but false claims. You can listen to a conversation with Throckmorton in episode 184 (or watch a video version here).
4. Authentic Christian Freedom: Deconstructing the American Gospel of Liberty by Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty (Orbis Books). Hinson-Hasty is an accomplished theologian and author. She’s also the daughter of a prolific Baptist historian — Glenn Hinson, who passed away earlier this year — who also found himself caught in history-making changes as fundamentalists took over his denomination and seminary. Hinson-Hasty combines both her personal and academic selves in this work. And she offers much to chew on in thinking about the contested idea of “freedom.” You can listen to a conversation with Hinson-Hasty in episode 186 (or watch a video version here).
5. The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power by Brian Kaylor (Chalice Press). Technically, this book was one of our featured giveaway reviews this year, but it’s our list so we can break the rules and include it again here. We really want to highlight this book, which you’ll find to be a helpful and even humorous guide to recognizing political misuses of Scripture and how to read the Bible better. And it’s the most popular episode of Dangerous Dogma so far this year, so it seems right to highlight that. You can listen to guest host Beau’s conversation with Brian about the book in episode 188 (or watch a video version here).
5 Books Recommended by Brian
1. Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound by Kate Kennedy (Pegasus Books). This book was published at the end of last year, but it was after our books of the year list so it only seems fair it can make this year’s. Because I enjoy playing the cello, I thought it would be interesting, but I didn’t expect it to be so incredible. Kennedy, an accomplished author and cellist, takes readers on a journey in Europe as she retraces the lives of four cellists who reached significant professional heights but also suffered persecution or other misfortune. She also weaves in other short stories about cellists and cellos today. It’s part biography, part history, part music theory, and part travelogue, which Kennedy swirls together in a beautiful tale about the best instrument. I was hooked from the opening line: “What better instrument than a cello, half thunder, half prayer, to listen to the world?”
2. Beatitudes and Terror: A Ukrainian Theological Response to Russian Aggression edited by Oleksandr Geychenko, Yevgeny Ustinovich, and Roman Soloviy (Langham Global Library). The Beatitudes in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount are often preached about. But how do you read, interpret, and apply them while your nation is being invaded and bombed? This book brings together nine Ukrainian theologians to consider that question. Each chapter explores one Beatitude, looking at the text, how it’s been interpreted historically, and considering it now in light of the Russian invasion. Seeing them wrestle with the texts helps us living in peace see things we would otherwise not consider. This is especially a must-have for any pastor to consult before preaching again through the passage.
3. Sunrise of the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press). I was excited to see this fifth volume in the Hunger Games series coming out, and I’m looking forward to the movie next year. This is the second prequel to the original trilogy — and I’ve enjoyed all of them. Collins is a masterful storyteller. And she’s particularly skilled at prequel writing, which is not something all good writers do well. She develops them to add layers to the preexisting tales. Thus, her books should be read in the order she wrote them, not the chronological order of the storyline. So as much as I would suggest picking up this book, start with the others first if you’ve not read them yet.
4. Sparking Peace by Teresa Kim Pecinovsky and Hannah Rose Martin with illustrations by Gabhor Utomo (Herald Press). I’ve long been a fan of the prophetic work of RAWTools as they take seriously the prophetic dream of Isaiah and Micah by beating guns into garden tools. Written by two pastors, this children’s book is inspired by RAWtools. It’s a beautiful way of helping address gun violence with kids, as well as teaching them about working to make a better world.
5. More Than a President: Sundays with Jimmy Carter edited by Andrew Greer. Nearly one year ago, former President Jimmy Carter passed away. The tributes that poured in and the state funeral that followed reminded us of a different kind of leader. A moral president who took seriously his Christian faith and his commitment to the nation’s people. He was also the most famous Baptist Sunday School teacher, with people traveling from across the country and around the world to hear him dig into a text. This volume gives us 15 of Carter’s lessons from his more than five decades of teaching in Plains, Georgia. As a bonus, there are many photos sprinkled throughout the book. In a time when many exalt a president who never attends church, it’s refreshing to explore the Bible with a politician whose faith actually mattered.
5 Books Recommended by Beau
1. A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance by Diana Butler Bass (St. Martin’s Essentials). This selection is cheating in at least two ways. First, anything Diana Butler Bass writes is self-recommending. There are few who are more astute and inspiring about the way Christianity and public life intersect. Second, this is a “spiritual diary” that offers sage reflections structured according to the liturgical calendar. So, I didn’t choose it because I read it at some point in 2025. Rather, I’ve started reading it now during Advent and will carry that practice with me into 2026. I’d strongly suggest you do so as well.
2. The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball by John Miller (Avid Reader Press). Baseball is my guilty pleasure. Lamentably, professional and scholarly responsibilities tend to crowd out my ability to follow and study the game. I noticed how much attention The Last Manager garnered when it was released in March and forced myself to make time for reading it, which proved a great reward. Not only does it provide a rich portrayal of a managerial icon, but Weaver’s career coincides with some of the dramatic evolutions in baseball as a game and business. Those are illuminated through the life of someone who watched the game change before his eyes.
3. Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America by Robert Reich (Knopf). In this populist moment, Reich has proven a keen observer and explainer of the forces animating the anxieties and angers of our politics. He combines practical experience in politics, deep knowledge of policy, and a passionate communication style in making his case against the corruptions and incoherencies of this Trumpian era. At the same time, he doesn’t provide simplistic answers. Instead, this memoir is about how his life’s story serves as a paradigm for understanding how we arrived here and how his generation’s failures shoulder a significant portion of the blame for what’s currently wrong with America.
4. Staying at the Table: Being the Church We Say We Are by Terri Hord Owens (Chalice Press). As a pastor within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), I am acutely aware of the numerical, financial, and spiritual struggles facing mainline Protestant denominations. Given the cultural headwinds and the structural challenges, the last job I would want right now is the task of leading one of these traditions. This book offers a call by one of those leaders to reclaim a sense of identity and remain committed to a distinct way of being Christian. There’s no easy answer for the plight of organized religion, but we need more voices reminding us of why the institutional church matters and encouraging people to renew their devotion to the richness and diversity of its work and witness.
5. Company Men: The Invention of Shareholder Value & the Splintering of the American Economy by Sean Delehanty (University of Chicago Press). This is the nerdiest book on my list. You’ve been warned. It’s an intellectual account of how the concept of “shareholder value” came to dominate American corporate life. It’s not a given that a business would be managed for the sake of investors rather than its employees, local community, or some other social good. Yet, that narrow understanding of what private enterprise is all about has become an assumption held by capitalism’s champions and critics. Delehanty explains how this happened, what the consequences have been, and what could have been different along the way.
Keep Reading
Hopefully, you’ll find a book or two on this list worth picking up and reading. And whether it’s one of these books or something else, we hope you’ll keep reading. In a time when too many people seek to silence books, may we be among those who support a better way. We can do that by speaking out against book bans, supporting our local libraries, and simply sitting down and opening up another book.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor & Beau Underwood
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