Book Recommendations: What I've Been Reading and Enjoying Lately

From my favorite deconstructioners, exvangelicals, and progressive Christians.

Images via Amazon

I love reading. I used to be a voracious reader and consumed books quickly and thoroughly. Books, whether fiction or nonfiction, have always tended to challenge me and change my life in a way that no other media form has managed. There’s something powerful about a book.

These days, reading only happens when I prioritize it. I currently have Ulysses by James Joyce out from the library (go to the library, everyone! Support all your public services!), and it’s overdue as of two weeks ago, and I’m only about a third of a way through the famously thick novel. Alas.

However, because I’m lucky to be surrounded by such talented people in real life and in my online community, I get access to quite a few books from my friends and colleagues. The progressive Christian publishing industry is doing pretty well, and hopefully, that’s good news as I continue to write my own book on polyamory and Christianity.

I wanted to tell you about these books instead of keeping them to myself because they’re really, really good. And if you want to read them, I hope you’ll do so. There aren’t any affiliate links or anything, and I didn’t get paid to recommend these books or anything like that. I just genuinely like them.

So here you go, in no particular order!

• Hell Is a World Without You by Jason Kirk. You know, I’m not everybody’s cup of tea. There is a subset of progressive Christianity that I’m a bit too raunchy for. It’s not just the polyamory thing — it’s also that I’m crass, love memes, love jokes, and not a huge fan of propriety or elitism. I mean, I’m the dirtbag in Dirtbag Christian, after all.
  
  Jason Kirk, a long-time figure in the progressive Christian world, is one of my favorites and has been ever since I first saw one of his tweets. A writer, cohost of the wickedly funny Vacation Bible School Podcast, and Baptist-turned-Christian pantheist, he’s got the irreverence and wit of a seasoned sports writer because he was one. As someone who writes and edits constantly in today’s media world, I think sports journalists make some of the best writers, and Kirk is proof of that.
  
  In his latest book, Hell Is a World Without You, anyone who grew up in the world of evangelical Christianity during the 2000s is going to have their mind fucking blown by how much the novel takes you back to that time and place. If you’ve heard of the band Underoath, this book is for you. It’s a coming-of-story about deconstruction. It depicts the joy and the loneliness of leaving all your beliefs and friends behind while also being self-forgiving of the things we all used to believe and say without even thinking about the harm we were enacting onto others.
  
  Hell Is a World Without You isn’t just a comedy, though. It’s got real heart, and I don’t say that lightly. Jason Kirk, you bastard, you made me cry my own tears. Nobody makes me cry my own tears.
  
  However, I think the real magic of this book is that you can give it to your friends and family members who are still in evangelicalism. It’s fiction, so it’s not like you’re handing them a book called Hey Mom, I Think You’re a Brainwashed Idiot and Everything You Believe Is Actually Stupid and Ruining the World. You’re giving them a book that’s just a story, with progressive theology snuck into it like you’re hiding veggies in your kids’ food. I can’t say enough good things about Hell Is a World Without You. If you can’t bear another nonfiction guide to deconstruction from some wannabe influencer, this book is for you.
  
  Oh yeah: if you preorder the book before February 13, Jason is donating 100% of the profits to the Trevor Project.

• Psalms of My People: A Story of Black Liberation as Told through Hip-Hop by Rev. Lenny Duncan. I have a confession, and it’s not much of a confession because I’ve told them this already, but I’ve had a crush on Rev. Lenny Duncan for a few years now. Not that it’s particularly relevant, but it’s just that there’s something so awe-inspiring about this person who calls themselves a they/them fatale. This ordained Lutheran pastor who dabbles in magicks and esoterics is one of the most insightful and genuine people I’ve ever talked to, and they believe in real revolution. They have so much integrity, not just in their words but also in their actions.
  
  They previously wrote Dear Church, United States of Grace, and Dear Revolutionaries, but their latest work is specifically about, by, and for the Black experience. We talk a lot about liberation theology, but you should know that liberation theology was championed and is primarily the result of Black theology, especially in the United States.
  
  Black art and Black theology are missing from predominantly white deconstruction and exvangelical spaces far too often — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a progressive Christian gathering and seen those perspectives largely missing. If you’re not Black, you don’t need to be Black to enjoy Psalms of My People; in fact, I think you should be wholly aware of how these movements and arts influence you, your beliefs, and American culture. I’m a huge fan of hip-hop, but most of the backstories and exegeses of these songs were entirely new to me. It’s an exciting and worthwhile read, encouraging you to pray to God to bring down empires.
  
  Lenny deserves so much more attention than they get, but I don’t know if that’s what they’re seeking. But you should buy Psalms of My People to get to the center, past, present, and future of what it means to champion Black liberation theology.
  

• The God Who Riots: Taking Back the Radical Jesus by Damon Garcia. Unlike the two previously mentioned authors, I’ve met Damon Garcia, had actual conversations with him, and seen him speak. This guy is for real, and his book was the first one I bought at Wild Goose Festival when I went for the first time in 2022.
  
  One of my strongest and least popular beliefs in the world of progressive Christianity is this: liberalism is terrible. We should be talking about revolution and liberation or nothing. We have to get capitalism out of Christianity. It’s not enough to hope that maybe one day, the most powerful nation on Earth and its most bigoted citizens will just decide to be friendly to those facing oppression, like LGBTQ+ people, PoC, sex workers, the homeless, the incarcerated, etc. Jesus didn’t want us to get into a comfortable speaking circuit and then live in a mansion, patting ourselves for having the right ideas and correct theological takes. Jesus wanted us to riot.

  
  There’s no sincerity in joining the part of progressive Christianity where you walk on stage and say, “God loves EVERYBODY!” and go home and cash in your check. It’s not enough to deconstruct from evangelicalism. You must form a theology or an ideology about what you want the world to look like and realize that it may be uncomfortable. Damon Garcia understands this, writes about it, and often makes YouTube videos about it. In a world of white-bread, polite-society, profit-first exvangelical influencers, it’s radical to point out that we need actual liberation and how to accomplish that. We need to make Jesus radical again. Reading The God Who Riots is the best way to get started.
  

• How to Begin When Your World Is Ending: A Spiritual Field Guide to Joy Despite Everything by Molly Baskette. The indomitable Molly Baskette is another person I met at the Wild Goose Festival. She’s incredibly kind, and joy oozes and emanates from her in a way that makes you want to be around her. (I’m pretty sure awkwardness and nonstop nervous talking are all that emanate and ooze from me.) She gifted me a copy of her book for free while I was there — and even signed it! — and I’ve been smitten since then. She’s a parish pastor in California, and the expertise and experience from being a hands-on, community-minded minister are evident in her life and this book.
  
  For those of us who miss the magic of prayer, belief, and faith in our lives — who have found cynicism in our religious lives after deconstructing and struggling to have those displays of intense, positive emotions that are common in more evangelical spiritual traditions — Molly’s book is a breath of fresh air. It’s like putting your hands up to worship while the clanging sounds of song and music move you into a spiritual state or sitting down to pray and believing that something magical can happen. And you don’t have to sacrifice progressive beliefs to have that kind of spiritual joy again.
  
  Molly faced so much in her life that would have easily destroyed me, and she did it without losing meaning or inner peace. I’m still so impressed by her and this book to this day. I hope you’ll consider picking up or ordering How to Begin When Your World Is Ending.
  

• Jesus Takes a Side: Embracing the Political Demands of the Gospel by Jonny Rashid. One interest I’ve kept for as long as I can remember is the art of political argument. I say “art,” but usually, in person, I’m just ranting or screaming to my partners how annoyed I am by something happening in U.S. politics. My family is highly political — the majority of them involve (conservative) politics in their careers in one way or another.
  
  Interestingly, one of the arguments I’ve heard from them was that Jesus wasn’t a Republican or a Democrat. They say this, despite so firmly aligning with the Republican Party and being unable to bring themselves to vote for even the most conservative DINO candidate, as if the (D) will somehow make them lose their spot in white Christian American heaven. (To be fair, I’m not a Democrat either. I think Democrats are far too similar to Republicans.)
  
  Jonny Rashid allowed me to read this book before it was released, and I was so eager to get my hands on it because it contradicts what moderates and centrists want to tell us about the life of Jesus. And that’s this: Jesus does take a side, and the side is always those who are oppressed. When we talk about politics, we all have to ask ourselves, how does this help the oppressed? What can we do to create the world Jesus wanted to see? Rashid argues correctly that it’s not enough to take a moderate, all-sides-are-valid-and-equal approach.
  
  An era of more subversive progressive Christianity is rising. It’s not just deconstructionism anymore; it’s how to take our politics and actually turn them into something meaningful. I think that anyone who thinks of themselves as a progressive Christian should be actively getting involved in politics in radical ways, starting right now. And if you want to know how to examine an issue and decide the most Christ-like path, snag yourself a copy of Jesus Takes a Side.

That’s it for now. What other progressive Christian books have made a massive difference in your life?