books

How not to comfort the mourning: Hospital chaplain J.S. Park talks grief in new book

By Kathryn Post — April 16, 2024
(RNS) — ‘The biggest myth I see is that grief is a poison to get past,’ said Park.

A memoir explores a shattering childhood and narrow escape

By Yonat Shimron — April 15, 2024
(RNS) — 'Between Two Trailers' is part of a growing genre describing in harrowing detail the abuse and neglect of parents caught in a maze of mental illness and religion.

Death, justice, love: Three rabbis open up Judaism for beleaguered readers

By Beth Kissileff — April 3, 2024
(RNS) — A trio of new spring books written by rabbis demonstrate the strength of the adage that no two are alike.

Does forgiving an abuser mean staying with him?

By Kathryn Post — March 26, 2024
(RNS) — In her new book, 'Forgiveness after Trauma,' Susannah Griffith writes that Christians often misapply forgiveness, especially in cases of abuse.

In ‘Exvangelicals,’ Sarah McCammon looks at the fragility and power of religion

By Bob Smietana — March 20, 2024
(RNS) — While covering Donald Trump, NPR correspondent Sarah McCammon discovered a community of people who, like herself, no longer felt at home in the evangelical world they'd been raised in.

In ‘God’s Ghostwriters,’ scholar Candida Moss looks at the hidden hands behind the Bible

By Bob Smietana — March 13, 2024
(RNS)— In her new book, Moss argues that slaves and other lower-status workers played a key role in producing and preserving the Christian Scriptures.

Carrie Sheffield’s journey to forgiveness after childhood in cultlike family

By Kathryn Post — March 5, 2024
(RNS) — In ‘Motorhome Prophecies,’ Sheffield chronicles her path toward forgiving her father, a self-declared Mormon prophet.

A decade after Reverend Ike’s death, his son writes about his impact on Black church

By Fiona André — March 1, 2024
(RNS) — Writing this book was an occasion to place his father's legacy in the lineage of religious Civil Rights figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, said Reverend Ike's son.

‘Interspiritual’ former pastor talks faith beyond church in new book

By Kathryn Post — February 29, 2024
(RNS) — Felicia Murrell’s ‘And: The Restorative Power of Love in an Either/Or World,’ is an invitation to explore an untethered spirituality where God doesn’t belong to any one institution.

‘Black Liturgies’ book offers prayers for Black-centered spiritual liberation

By Kathryn Post — February 16, 2024
(RNS) — Cole Arthur Riley on doubt, embodiment and writing a prayer book to a God she’s not convinced exists.

In new book, Tim Alberta sees another way for evangelical Christians in politics

By Mark Silk — January 30, 2024
(RNS) — His new book summons fellow evangelicals to reclaim their faith.

A Mormon faith beyond the performance checklist

By Jana Riess — January 26, 2024
(RNS) — 'When we really stop and reflect, we realize that in our religious performance, we're nurturing the very part of ourselves that the gospel instructs us not to feed,' says meditation teacher and LDS author Thomas McConkie.

New book draws from Torah’s wisdom to help recovering alcoholics

By Fiona André — January 25, 2024
(RNS) — The book gives daily reflection exercises, drawing on AA's famous 12-step method and portions of Jewish Scripture.

The top religion and spirituality books of 2023

By RNS staff — December 22, 2023
(RNS) — These stories of tenacity from people of several faiths and no faith offer guidance for surviving tough times.  

Shaul Magid on reviving Jewish exile as a counterweight to Zionism

By Yonat Shimron — December 21, 2023
(RNS) — In a new book, the Dartmouth scholar argues exile can be seen as an equally positive and constructive Jewish identity.
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