I didn’t expect World magazine to like my new book, The Bible According to Christian Nationalists. But I did anticipate that if the influential conservative Christian publication reviewed it, they would at least do so honestly. Apparently, that was expecting too much.
Brian Kaylor
I started subscribing to World in high school and have read it off-and-on ever since. For that whole time — until 2021 — Marvin Olasky served as editor. A respected conservative journalist and editor who influenced George W. Bush’s embrace of “compassionate conservativism,” Olasky left suddenly four years ago in protest of the publication’s board launching an opinion section and picking Trumpian apologist Al Mohler to serve as opinions editor. That was a few months after Mohler called me “a liberal nitwit” (but I don’t think that’s related to why he got the World gig). Olasky is now at Christianity Today.
So I wasn’t surprised to see World didn’t like The Bible According to Christian Nationalists. But I thought a book review would at least, well, review the book. For instance, in the “review” titled “Another Scholarly Smear,” there’s this claim: “[Kaylor] plays a cheap trick. He never defines ‘Christian nationalist’ clearly, which lets him lump violent extremists in with your Methodist neighbor who happens to vote Republican. Confederate apologists get mixed with soccer moms who support school prayer.” Putting aside your Methodist neighbor (who votes Republican or otherwise) and soccer moms (who may or may not love the Confederates), I guess the reviewer skipped pages five, six, and seven in the introduction. There I not only offered my definition of Christian Nationalism but also quoted Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry’s definition as well as an explanation from the group Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
More bizarrely, there are no quotes from the book in the “review,” even though book reviews — favorable and otherwise — generally do include at least a few lines. Readers of the piece, however, would be forgiven if they think it does quote from the book. Consider, for instance, this sentence: “The book’s approach to dissent reveals its true nature. Pro-life advocacy becomes ‘white supremacist theology.’ Supporting religious liberty signals ‘dominionist plotting.’” Despite the quote marks around “white supremacist theology” and “dominionist plotting,” neither of those phrases actually appears in The Bible According to Christian Nationalists!
Elsewhere in his piece, the writer complains that the book “cherry-picks episodes where Christians behaved badly. Slavery apologetics and segregation theology get heavy coverage. These sins were real and shameful. But where’s the context? Where’s the balance? Christians also led the abolitionist cause. They built the Underground Railroad with their own hands. They marched in Selma and stood on the front lines of civil rights.” That’s an odd claim because the only time I dealt with slavery beyond a passing reference is in the conclusion when I quoted Frederick Douglass as he distinguished between “the slaveholding religion” and “the Christianity of Christ.” Douglass, the person I quoted and lifted up, was … checks notes … an abolitionist Christian (and he’s being recognized more and more).
In lieu of quotes from the book or serious engagement with my arguments, the “review” instead just offers a bunch of attacks. With no examples given as evidence, the author makes claims like, “The contempt drips off every sentence from the first page.” I will say that if contempt really “drips from every sentence,” that would be quite an impressive feat, even if unenjoyable to read. I’m also accused of painting Christians as “feral fascists” and “crypto-authoritarians.” I didn’t say that in the book, but let me check with the troops rolling into U.S. streets to see if there’s a problem.
Again, I didn’t expect a positive review from someone who in August wrote a whole piece attacking the rise of women getting tattoos (while defending men getting them) and another piece lamenting women making more than their husbands.
Despite what some may say, I wrote The Bible According to Christian Nationalists with the hope that Christians will read the Bible more and learn ways to read it better. So I hope you’ll find out for yourself by grabbing a copy. And I apologize in advance to your Methodist soccer mom neighbor who just wants to save Confederate monuments and put coercive government prayers back in public schools.
Brian Kaylor is president & editor-in-chief of Word&Way. You can follow him on Bluesky and YouTube.
