Publishers Weekly, the international trade journal of book publishing, has selected Public Faith in Action: How to Think Carefully, Engage Wisely, and Vote with Integrity by Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, published by Brazos Press, as one of the Best Books of 2016. The list of the year’s best books is featured in the October 31 print edition and online.

Publishers Weekly previously gave the book a starred review, calling it “a helpful, concisely written guide to help Christians through this election season….a must-read for anyone contemplating debating the issues during this election cycle, and especially those who want to do what is right without being ‘unfriended’ along the way.”

In what has turned out to be a remarkably timely volume, Volf, director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, and scholar McAnnally-Linz illustrate how the life and teachings of Jesus should shape Christian voters. “The Christian faith is a public faith,” the authors contend. “Christ must be the center and norm for Christian public engagement.” Specific principles grounded in the life and message of Jesus must guide Christians in thinking about hot topics such as immigration, same-sex marriage, poverty, jobs and the minimum wage, abortion, healthcare, and torture. Volf and Linz have contributed election season op-eds to the Washington Post, including one that asserts that Christians can forgive Donald Trump, but should not vote for him.

“Amidst this maddening election season, we are thankful that PW has honored Public Faith in Action,” says Jeremy Wells, Director of Marketing for Brazos Press. “Volf and McAnnally-Linz’s guidance on practicing faithful public life in a pluralistic society could hardly be more relevant and necessary.”

Miroslav Volf (DrTheol, University of Tübingen) is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School and founding director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture in New Haven, Connecticut. He has written more than fifteen books, including A Public Faith, Exclusion and Embrace (winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion and selected among the one hundred best religious books of the twentieth century by Christianity Today), After Our Likeness, and The End of Memory.

Ryan McAnnally-Linz (PhD, Yale University) is an associate research scholar at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. In addition to his scholarly writings, he has coauthored articles with Miroslav Volf for Sojourners, The Christian Century, and The Huffington Post. He is the cofounder of Just Apparel,   a nonprofit fair-trade clothing initiative.

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