Shamans serve as mediators between the human world and the spirit world. They communicate with spirits to achieve certain aims for individuals or communities, such as physical healing or alleviation of a disaster.

Unlike Buddhist monks or Hindu priests, shamans embrace spirit possession, said Chansamone Saiyasak, founder of Mekong Evangelical Mission in Thailand. “Shamanistic practices address basic needs, from health and security to social belonging and self-esteem, similar to Maslow’s hierarchy,” Saiyasak said.

In other parts of the world, an encounter with mystical forces beyond human comprehension may occur through consuming psychedelics like ayahuasca, a South American Indigenous concoction with hallucinogenic properties, or when seeing a sangoma, a South African witch doctor, to connect with an ancestor.

In Asia, engaging with spirits or divine entities is an activity that is often centered on the role of the shaman. Seeking counsel from a shaman is often seen as a legitimate and effective way to deal with everyday matters in life, from deciding who to marry to removing bad luck and healing diseases or illnesses.

Belief in the supernatural is widespread in the region: A majority of adults in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam say they believe in a god or unseen beings, according to Pew Research Center. Having an otherworldly experience is commonplace as well. “We often experience evil spirits before we experience the Holy Spirit,” said author Justin Tan in a CT piece on the Hungry Ghost Festival.

Christianity Today interviewed seven scholars on how shamanism shows up in certain Asian contexts, what its key sources are, how it has influenced their churches, and what Bible verses challenge it.

In South Korea, shamanism is growing in popularity as younger shamans work through YouTube and other social media platforms to assuage citizens’ anxiety for the future. In Japan and Thailand, animistic beliefs form the bedrock of shamanistic rituals. In Indonesia, people may regard pastors as “spiritual shamans” who wield special powers. And in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam, folk religion, folk Catholicism, and Daoism (Taoism) have helped shamanism to thrive because many of their rituals encourage people to appease a spirit or venerate a deity.

While shamanism has helped to develop a greater awareness of the spirit world across many parts of Asia, engaging in shamanistic rituals or practices invites syncretism, opens up room for evil spirits to influence a person’s life, and goes against God’s injunctions on spiritism and sorcery, say these Christian leaders. Their responses can be found in the drop-down list above or linked below:

Indonesia Kristian Kusumawardana, head of the bachelor’s degree program in theology at Bandung Theological Seminary

Japan Martin Heisswolf, author of Japanese Understanding of Salvation: Soteriology in the Context of Japanese Animism

Philippines Dave Johnson, editor of the Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies at the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary

South Korea Yohong Roh, instructor of religious studies at Louisiana State University

Taiwan Tony Chuang, author of Religiosity and Gospel Transmission: Insights from Folk Religion in Taipei

Thailand Chansamone Saiyasak, president of Mekong Evangelical Mission

Vietnam Saralen Tran, Christian education lecturer at Hanoi Bible College

The post Shamans, Sorcerers, and Spirits: How Christians in Asia Grapple with the Supernatural appeared first on Christianity Today.

The average Filipino sees no contradiction between going to a Catholic priest for forgiveness of sin and to a witchdoctor for healing. Many grow up doing both, as the Catholic church does not take a hard stand against folk rituals and practices.

Instead of shamans, Filipinos use the term witch doctors. Witch doctors are generally seen as honored members of society who care well for people seeking treatment for physical and psychological ailments. Sorcerers, meanwhile, are the “bad boys” of society who place curses and hexes on people.

There are two types of witch doctors in the country. The albularyo use divinatory practices to determine and diagnose illnesses, prescribe herbal remedies, and use various incantations in their healing processes. They will often write out a mantra called an oración—from the Spanish word for prayer—that can be written on paper and swallowed with water. In some cases, the mantra is tattooed on the client’s skin.

Another kind of witch doctor, the espiritista, will often be possessed by a spirit and go into a trancelike state before prescribing a remedy. When the spirit leaves their body, they remember nothing about what they did during that time. Some are also known to be able to put their hand inside of a human body with no medical instruments, no incision, and no scars left behind to allegedly perform healing.

The practice of seeing a witch doctor persists in the Philippines because modern society doesn’t address people’s deepest felt needs: How do I know my children are going to be successful or healthy? How do I know what the right day to get married is? The desire to connect with the supernatural is very strong, and no amount of cell phone technology or the internet is going to alter that.

Filipinos shouldn’t lose their desire for the supernatural. Christian leaders can redirect this desire toward God alone, not the Virgin Mary, the saints, or spirits. The goal is not to eradicate the worldview of the Filipinos but to transform it. The amulets, talismans, and paraphernalia used in witch-doctor practices ultimately have to be confronted and destroyed, but that process won’t happen right away.

People need time and discipleship needs to happen, especially as evangelical Christianity in the Philippines has tended to ignore issues relating to shamanism. Pentecostal missionaries, however, had a greater openness to the spirit world when they arrived in the country, even if they came with the same biases as other evangelical missionaries.

One verse in Scripture that challenges shamanistic practices is Exodus 12:12, where God says, “I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.” God reveals the utter impotence of the other gods. Another Bible verse I often refer to is Colossians 2:15, where Jesus publicly held up the powers of darkness for display at the Cross, much like a Roman conqueror dragging slaves with him into town when he returned victorious in battle.

These verses strengthen my faith and my resolve that we deal with these issues. I encourage pastors to teach in ways that deal with a person’s worldview instead of just addressing behavioral issues. A theology of creation is critical to dealing with worldview, because many Filipinos think that the spirits control the weather, fertility, and other experiences they face. 

I interviewed 70 witch doctors in the Philippines as part of my master’s thesis research in 1997. All but one allowed me to observe their ceremonies and pray for them. The witch doctor who wanted us to leave her healing session had entered an altered state of consciousness but found it “too noisy” with us there. My team and I were excited because we felt that the demon spirit she claimed was possessing her could not move with the Spirit of God dwelling in us while we were present.

Another time, as we observed a group of fellow witch doctors going into a trance, I asked an espiritista, “Do we know what spirit is occupying and possessing them?” She replied, “Well, it could be the spirit of Saint Peter, San Antonio di Padua [Anthony of Padua], or the Holy Spirit. We won’t know until the end of the session when the spirit reveals itself.”

As long as people get healed, they very seldom question the source, which is one of the things that makes these practices dangerous—because people don’t realize what spirits they are dealing with and that these supernatural forces are in rebellion against God.

Dave Johnson is the editor of the Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies at the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary. Read more in our series’ lead article, Shamans, Sorcerers, and Spirits: How Christians in Asia Grapple with the Supernatural.

The post Shamanism in the Philippines appeared first on Christianity Today.

November 20, 2024

• Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Morning Star: A Novel (Penguin)
• David W. Gill, Peter the Rock: Extraordinary Insights from an Ordinary Man (Wipf & Stock)
• Sergii Bulgakov, Philosophy of the Name (Northern Illinois University Press)
• Karl Barth, Letters, 1961-1968, transl. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Eerdmans)

Russell Moore

Editor in Chief, Christianity Today

The post Moore to the Point – 11-20-24 appeared first on Christianity Today.

The new initiative, first reported by the Jewish news outlet The Forward, was formally unveiled on a conference call organized by Intercessors for America and led by longtime Trump adviser Paula White.

The Pentecostal megachurch pastor said the new effort, which includes participation from “70 executives,” is intended to continue the “great work that we have done,” referring to efforts she oversaw as head of the Trump White House’s faith-based office.

White drew parallels to the creation of a previous “faith advisory board,” a likely reference to a group of largely evangelical Christian leaders who advised the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and operated as an informal council on religion matters throughout his presidency.

“It grew to the most robust coalition in modern-day history,” White said of the board’s work. “Our unity brought unprecedented victories, influence and access.”

White was joined by Jennifer Korn, who previously served as a special assistant to then-President Trump through his White House Office of Public Liaison. Korn told listeners the new national faith advisory board would be “continuing the work of the White House Office of Public Liaison on the outside to make sure that we are one strong voice.”

Trump took up most of the rest of the call with lengthy remarks in which he oscillated between critiquing President Joe Biden’s record on faith-based issues — “a lot of things have happened with respect to faith and religion, and they’re not good things” — and praising his own tenure, saying, “One of my greatest honors was fighting for religious liberty and for defending the Judeo-Christian values and principles of our nation’s founding.”

He listed various Trump administration accomplishments popular with conservative Christians, such as designating Jerusalem the capital of Israel, founding a new White House faith office, declaring churches “essential” during the coronavirus pandemic and appointing conservative judges to the federal bench and the Supreme Court.

Trump alluded to last week’s decision by the Supreme Court not to block a controversial Texas abortion ban, saying, “Even last night, you’re getting some very powerful decisions, more powerful than anybody would have thought.”

He also reiterated the claim he “totally obliterated” the Johnson Amendment, a section of the U.S. tax code that bars religious groups and other nonprofits from endorsing candidates. (Trump’s 2017 executive order sought to hinder its enforcement but did not eliminate the statute.)

Trump then fielded questions from leaders of various faith organizations—most of which are focused on politics—including Jason Yates, CEO of My Faith Votes; Brian Burch, head of CatholicVote.org; Dave Kubal, head of Intercessors for America; Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values; and Dave Donaldson, co-founder of CityServe.

In answering their questions, Trump criticized Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it “a mad rush” and bemoaning the Taliban’s seizure of US military equipment.

Trump referenced hypothetical future scenarios “if we’re able to get back in,” while repeating the widely discredited claim the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. In discussing the Catholic vote, he acknowledged he had lost ground with the bloc in his four years in office.

“I’m a little bit surprised that we didn’t do better with the Catholic vote,” Trump said. “I think now they would give us a vote. I think we got about 50 percent of the vote. And yet, we did a lot for the Catholic vote. So we’ll have to talk to them. We’re gonna have to meet with the Catholics.”

According to a recent election analysis published by Pew Research, Trump drew support from 50 percentof Catholics overall in 2020, a dip of 2 percentage points from 2016 (Biden took 49%, up from the 44% Democratic contender Hillary Clinton claimed in 2016).

The shift was more dramatic among white Catholics, a key constituency in battleground Rust Belt states: Trump’s share of that vote dropped from 64 percent to 57 percent between 2016 and 2020, whereas Biden won 42 percent— an 11-percentage-point improvement over Clinton in 2016.

The former president expressed frustration with the lack of support from Jewish voters, despite his administration’s support of Israel. “Look what I did with the embassy in Jerusalem and what I did with so many other things. … Israel has never had a better friend, and yet I got 25 percent of the vote,” Trump said. “I think they have to get together. There has to be a little bit more unity with the religious groups all represented on this call.”

Polls of Jewish voters during the 2020 election varied, with a Republican Jewish Coalition survey finding 30 percent support for Trump and a separate poll conducted by liberal group J Street reporting just 21 percent.

Trump made similar remarks while answering a question from Yates of My Faith Votes.

“All I can tell you is that I think we have to have a great election and we have to have a powerful vote,” Trump said. “If we don’t have a very powerful vote, then Jason, I’ll be talking to you in the future, but it won’t be very positively.”

Trump, a former Presbyterian who converted to nondenominational Christianity near the end of his time in office, was also asked directly about his belief in God.

“It’s all based around God—it’s so important,” he replied. “God is so important to the success of what we’re doing. Because without God, we have nothing.”

The call ended with a prayer from Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church near Dallas, which Trump visited during his 2020 campaign. Morris was among the religious leaders who gathered in the White House Rose Garden to celebrate Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court in September of that year, a maskless affair later called a COVID-19 spreader event.

Morris prayed for Trump and his family, saying they “have taken more of an attack from the enemy than any president we can ever remember.” He added: “And yet, Lord, he continues to stand strong for Jewish people, and for Christians, and Lord, for the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation.”

Morris then closed by echoing Trump’s criticism of Biden and reiterating the debunked suggestion the election was “stolen.”

“I pray for those Americans that voted the wrong way,” he said. “I pray, God, that they would see what … poor administration, what that does to a great nation. I pray, Lord, that you will do something even, also, Lord, for our election system. That we will never have another election stolen from the American people — from the American people. We should be concerned about that. So Lord, whatever we need to do to fix the electoral process, I pray for that.”

As the session ended, White told listeners there would be monthly calls and to keep an eye out for “instruction.”

“Thank you for this unity coalition that has always had such influence and power to move things,” she said. “We are in a great battle, but I sense we have the ability to bring some great victories.”

White House Appoints Paula White to Oversee Faith Outreach

Kate Shellnutt

Paula White-Cain’s Evangelical Support Squad Isn’t as Surprising as It Seems

Leah Payne and Aaron Griffith

The post Trump’s Faith Advisers Reconvene in New Initiative appeared first on Christianity Today.

That’s a good start! But there are other things you (probably) don’t have. Like easy access to paper and ink reserves, a commercial printing press, and a fleet of trucks to haul your handiwork across the country. Even then, more hurdles await, like convincing the people who run libraries and bookstores (and Amazon sales teams) to stock an item with your name on the cover.

In our era, new technologies and services have emerged to lower these barriers. Just as social media sites and Substack pages allow writers to bypass traditional media gatekeepers, avenues exist for publishing books outside the orbit of pedigreed institutions with fancy offices.

For good reason, though, many aspiring authors seek out established, experienced publishers to supply the resources, contacts, and know-how they lack. Authors and publishers often squabble over touchy subjects like payment rates and creative liberties. But the partnership brings undeniable advantages: editors who sharpen prose and catch errors, artists who arrange pleasing covers and typography, and marketing mavens who drum up excitement among readers and tastemakers.

In any given year, I hear from lots of independent authors hoping attention from CT will boost their profiles. I always encourage them to send their books and see what happens. But the brutal truth is that traditional publishers furnish nearly all the titles that garner review coverage.

The same goes for our annual Book Awards. That’s why it intrigued me, as I reviewed the current slate of honorees, to spy a few party crashers: one second-place showing in the Fiction category (plus another finalist), and the outright winner in Politics and Public Life. Leave it to trend-watchers and soothsayers to decide whether this represents a one-year blip or augurs a more democratized publishing age to come. In the meantime, let the ranks of unheralded scribblers take solace in the possibility, however remote, of standing out amid buzzier names and bigger budgets.

Publishing, as a human enterprise, is hardly a fine-tuned meritocracy, flawlessly elevating the most deserving ideas and voices. At its best, however, it presents an appealing literary picture of iron sharpening iron. (I sure wouldn’t want to “self-publish” any articles in CT!)

Our Book Awards affirm the biblical wisdom that “two are better than one” (Ecc. 4:9). They also celebrate the irreducible fact of individual genius and creativity, given by God and then amplified however he chooses. As long as he gets the glory, we can stay easygoing about who gets the credit. —Matt Reynolds, CT senior books editor

(Read CT’s choices for Book of the Year.)

Apologetics/Evangelism

Winner

On the Resurrection, Volume 1: Evidences

Gary R. Habermas (B&H Academic)

Words like epic and monumental can be so overused as to be nearly meaningless. But they truly apply to Habermas’s first thousand-page volume of a projected four-part series. Paul tells us that if the Resurrection didn’t happen, our faith is useless. What, then, could be more crucial than establishing its historical factuality? With compelling arguments that treat opposing views with unwavering fairness, paired with meticulous research presented in readable prose, Habermas offers the bountiful fruits of a lifetime of investigation. —Andrew T. Le Peau, writer and former editor with InterVarsity Press

With this volume, Habermas has written what might be the most important book on the Resurrection in the current century. In methodical fashion, he presents the most widely agreed-upon set of facts concerning Jesus’ emergence from the grave. And he accounts for the most reasonable explanation of those facts, both historically and philosophically. The result is a monumental contribution to Christian apologetics. —William Roach, professor of philosophy at Veritas International University

Award of Merit

A New and Ancient Evangelism: Rediscovering the Ways God Calls and Sends

Judith Paulsen (Baker Academic)

Paulsen draws practical insights on evangelism from several biblical conversion stories in Scripture, including those of the apostle Paul, Cornelius, Lydia, and the Samaritan woman at the well. The book taps into her extensive experience teaching evangelism and her careful attention to the background of biblical conversion narratives, resulting in an engaging narrative packed with the kind of wisdom that, if heeded, could truly turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6). —Robert Velarde, author of Conversations with C. S. Lewis

Finalists

Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships?: Examining 10 Claims About Scripture and Sexuality

Rebecca McLaughlin (The Good Book Company)

Critically evaluating ten arguments for affirming same-sex sexual relationships on biblical grounds, McLaughlin combines cogent, accessible, and convincing exegesis with testimonies from those (like her) who experience same-sex attraction but believe that faithfulness to Christ precludes acting on it. Beyond defending relevant biblical prohibitions, she sketches a positive vision of life and opportunity within the church, grounded in an ethic of friendship love encompassing all believers. With its marriage of compassion and intellectual rigor, this book equips us to respond thoughtfully to the cultural confusions of our age. —Greg Welty, professor of philosophy at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

(Read CT’s review of Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships?)

Faith for the Curious: How an Era of Spiritual Openness Shapes the Way We Live and Help Others Follow Jesus

Mark Matlock (Baker)

This book is based on fascinating and thorough Barna research on the spiritually curious. While written from an evangelical perspective, it paints a compelling picture of how people outside the church think and feel. Matlock clearly understands spiritual dynamics in the United States, and he manages to wrap genuine human flesh around his statistics. For churches wondering how to appeal to those who are spiritually curious but uninvolved in institutional religion, his book abounds with practical and workable suggestions. —Hannah Steele, director of St. Mellitus College, London

Missions/Global Church

Winner

Islam and the Bible: Questioning Muslim Idiom Translations

Edited by Ayman S. Ibrahim and Ant B. Greenham (B&H Academic)

To the uninitiated, the subject of Muslim Idiom Translations (MITs) of Scripture might seem trifling. Yet for anyone who has followed the decades-old controversy over these translations, it makes for thrilling reading. Time and again, Christians whose first language is Arabic have spoken against the liberties taken by MIT proponents, only to be disregarded. But this book clarifies the dangers of incorporating quranic words into Scripture, a practice that lends credence to Muslim claims that the Bible is corrupted (and that Christians are deceptive about its meaning). Islam and the Bible is a crucial resource for everyone looking to fulfill the Great Commission in the Muslim world. —J. Mack Stiles, director of Messenger Ministries Inc.

This book, with chapters from missiologists, theologians, linguists, and biblical scholars, makes an important contribution to ongoing debates about Bible translation and missions in the Muslim world. On the subject of translation decisions related to the person of Christ, especially as they pertain to the title Son of God, Islam and the Bible is without parallel in its depth and breadth. It should prove invaluable for those seeking to reach Muslims for Christ, but without misappropriating Islamic-friendly terminology and themes. —Scott Hildreth, associate professor of missiology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Award of Merit

You Will Be My Witnesses: Theology for God’s Church Serving in God’s Mission

Brian A. DeVries (Crossway)

DeVries has written a well-researched book that gives insight into the Reformed view of missiology, highlighting our work as witnesses to the gospel message. Throughout the book, he references a wealth of Bible verses, and he provides helpful discussion questions at the end of each chapter. I would recommend You Will Be My Witnesses both for Bible study groups and for students in Reformed seminaries. —Mike Morris, senior professor of missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Finalists

Soul by Soul: The Evangelical Mission to Spread the Gospel to Muslims

Adriana Carranca (Columbia Global Reports)

This book surprised me! Because Carranca writes from a secular journalistic vantage point, it took me a while to warm to her perspective on non-Western evangelicals sharing Christ in the Muslim world. By the final few chapters, I was weeping over the sacrificial witness of the Latin American and African missionaries she follows. Soul by Soul gave me a deeper appreciation for the global church’s resourcefulness in reaching hard places. —Jen Haddox, former director of global engagement for ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians

(Read CT’s review of Soul by Soul.)

Crossing Cultures with the Gospel: Anthropological Wisdom for Effective Christian Witness

Darrell L. Whiteman (Baker Academic)

People are moving across the globe at unprecedented levels, including missionaries from everywhere journeying to reach everyone. Building on decades of teaching and experience, Whiteman, a respected missiological anthropologist, provides wise insights on culture and worldview, inspiration for incarnational ministry, and guidance for navigating intercultural communication. (His in-depth material on culture shock is especially valuable.) In our multicultural world, books like this help us cultivate faithful and effective gospel outreach to neighbors near and far. —Jennifer Collins, associate professor of intercultural studies at Taylor University

(Read CT’s review of Crossing Cultures with the Gospel.)

Biblical Studies

Winner

The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary

Edited by Esau McCaulley, Janette H. Ok, Osvaldo Padilla, and Amy Peeler (IVP Academic)

Recent years have witnessed a surge in theological books on racial reconciliation, featuring exhortations to “do the work” of dialogue and engagement. Meanwhile, many voices have called for more theological and exegetical writing that centers nonwhite and other historically marginalized perspectives. This book, in which four major scholars pull together contributions from over two dozen authors, marks a major step forward. Not only does it sketch out the rationale for doing biblical exegesis from Black, Native American, Latino, or Asian standpoints. It reveals what the results look like, showcasing how scholars from diverse backgrounds read the same Bible while attending differently to its applications and implications. —Gregory Lanier, New Testament professor at Reformed Theological Seminary

As the editors of this volume state in their introduction, “The chorus can create a beauty the soloist cannot.” In this analogy, the choir is singing about the meaning of Scripture, but too many ethnic-minority members have been left standing silent in the loft. The editors deserve thanks and congratulations for producing a groundbreaking Bible commentary that amplifies their voices and perspectives. I hope it prompts more of its kind. —Michael Kibbe, associate professor of Bible at Great Northern University

(Read an excerpt from The New Testament in Color.)

Award of Merit

The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading

Patrick Schreiner (Baker Academic)

This is a thoroughly researched book that makes welcome strides in recentering the glory revealed in Jesus’ transfiguration, one of few vignettes that appears in all four Gospels (as well as 2 Peter). Schreiner’s engagement with early church understandings of this episode brings Protestant thought into conversation with a wealth of wisdom recognized in Eastern Christianity for centuries. Crucially, his book attempts to rehabilitate the Quadriga, a Medieval word denoting a fourfold reading of Scripture for its literal, allegorical, moral, and eschatological meanings. —S. D. Giere, professor of biblical interpretation at Wartburg Theological Seminary, author of Freedom and Imagination

(Read Patrick Schreiner’s CT article on the Transfiguration.)

Finalists

Resurrection Remembered: A Memory Approach to Jesus’ Resurrection in First Corinthians

David Graieg (Routledge)

This is a fascinating reading of 1 Corinthians, lending further support to the Bible’s Resurrection accounts based on a compelling application of groundbreaking philosophical and psychological studies of memory. As an adapted doctoral dissertation, this volume might be less accessible to regular readers. But its profound contributions shouldn’t be overlooked. —Brittany N. Melton, associate professor of Old Testament at Regent College

Jesus, Contradicted: Why the Gospels Tell the Same Story Differently

Michael R. Licona (Zondervan Academic)

In Jesus, Contradicted, Licona demonstrates how ancient Greek biographies provide a framework for reading the Gospels on their own terms. Rather than attempting to harmonize conflicting details and historical incongruities, he recognizes these features as expected elements of the genre. Without sacrificing a high view of Scripture, Licona details what readers should and should not expect from Gospel writers. Any informed doctrine of the inspiration and authority of Scripture must take this book into account. —Kyle Greenwood, independent biblical scholar, author of the Dictionary of English Grammar for Students of Biblical Languages

(Read CT’s review of Jesus, Contradicted.)

Bible and Devotional

Winner

Nearing a Far God: Praying the Psalms with Our Whole Selves

Leslie Leyland Fields (NavPress)

We often find comforting words from the Psalms stitched on pillows or hung on walls. With powerful prose and stunning imagery, Fields takes us beyond their surface-level emotional draw. By reading the Psalms with our whole selves, we learn how to bring every emotion—the good, bad, and ugly—to a Father who longs to show his unfailing love. Approachable and practical, this book will bless generations to come. —Jessica Mathisen, Bible teacher, author of An Overwhelming Hope

As someone who often struggles with prayer, I appreciated this book’s fresh perspective on immersing ourselves in the Psalms. Nearing a Far God illuminates both the art and technique of rehearsing and living out these biblical prayers. Fields helps readers cultivate a bold, vibrant, expressive faith that mirrors not only the heart of David but most fully the heart of our Father God. —Mikella Van Dyke, founder of the ministry Chasing Sacred

Award of Merit

Conquerors Not Captives: Reframing Romans 7 for the Christian Life

Joseph R. Dodson and Mattie Mae Motl (Lexham Press)

Who is Paul talking about when, in Romans 7, he emphatically declares his inability to do the good he wants to do? Is he describing himself as a mature Christian, or the person he was before his conversion? Is he adopting the persona of a devout Jew seeking righteousness through the law, or a devout Christian being drawn back toward law-observance? If you’ve ever puzzled over these questions, then Conquerors Not Captives will stretch your mental muscles. While Dodson and Motl take decided positions, they treat alternative viewpoints with clarity and charity. —Norman Hubbard, Navigators staff member, author of More Than Christians

Finalists

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded: A Liturgy for Daily Worship from Pascha to Pentecost

Jonathan Gibson (Crossway)

Evangelicals sometimes overlook the period between Easter and Pentecost. In this 48-day devotional, Gibson gives it the depth it deserves, compiling prayers, hymns, and readings drawn from Scripture and the riches of church history. The design is stunning—beautiful illustrations and subtle touches of color enhance not only the book’s visual appeal but also its capacity to inspire reflection and worship. I’ll eagerly return to it year after year. —Kathryn Maack, cofounder of Dwellings and author of Whole

Story, Ritual, Prophecy, Wisdom: Reading and Teaching the Bible Today

Mark W. Hamilton and Samjung Kang-Hamilton (Eerdmans)

What a fascinating book, which reflects well not only on biblical literature but also on modern culture and the contemporary church. It is creative, wide-ranging, engaging, thought-provoking, and challenging, bringing freshness and energy to the task of understanding Scripture. —Nat Schluter, principal at Johannesburg Bible College

Christian Living/Spiritual Formation

Winner

A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation: Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Community

Alex Sosler (Baker Academic)

This book should appeal both to those just starting to explore the subject of spiritual formation and those further along in the journey. Sosler’s holistic approach helps us see how true spirituality is grounded in theological truth, sustained by a longing for holiness, and worked out in the context of Christian community. With so many distractions in life, we must be deliberate in our search for God, and Sosler’s book gives masterful guidance. —Paul Mallard, former president of the Fellowship of Individual Evangelical Churches in the United Kingdom

The brilliance of this book lies in approaching four pillars of the Christian life—theology, virtue, contemplation, and community—through a trio of lenses. We gain fresh perspectives on these pillars as we consider what Scripture says, how others understand it, and the testimony of individual Christian lives. Augustine, Dorothy Day, Teresa of Avila, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer pursued holiness despite being far from perfect. Sosler helps us pause and look upward and outward before looking inward. —Lynda MacGibbon, vice president of people and culture for InterVarsity Canada, author of My Vertical Neighborhood

(Alex Sosler chooses 5 underrated books on spiritual formation for CT.)

Award of Merit

Waiting Isn’t a Waste: The Surprising Comfort of Trusting God in the Uncertainties of Life

Mark Vroegop (Crossway)

Some writers have a gift for delivering the right book at the right time. At a moment when both our culture and our churches drive home the notion that we are what we produce, Vroegop reminds us that God, in his grace, ordains periods of uncertainty and delay that draw us closer to him. He makes a winsome case for waiting as an essential spiritual discipline. —Brian Fisher, host of the Soil and Roots podcast

Finalists

The Thing That Would Make Everything Okay Forever: Transcendence, Psychedelics, and Jesus Christ

Ashley Lande (Lexham Press)

I could hardly set this book down. I would wake up in the morning thinking about what I’d read the night before. Lande is a refreshingly imaginative and honest writer who drew me into her story of transformation and grace. Her account of being rescued from the world of psychedelics is a compelling testimony to the power of idolatry and the even greater power of Jesus to redeem. —Derek Vreeland, discipleship pastor at Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri

Letters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry

Brad East (Eerdmans)

In this collection of 93 letters, East takes your hand and points out the beauty of Christian faith. Even when I disagreed with his theological viewpoints, I appreciated his humility and felt inspired to learn more. This book would make a great gift for new believers or anyone needing a new outlook on their faith. As it built to a resounding crescendo in the last few letters, I found myself weeping for joy. —Jessica Thompson, pastor of church life at Risen Church in San Diego, California

(Read CT’s review of Letters to a Future Saint.)

Church/Pastoral Leadership

Winner

When the Church Harms God’s People: Becoming Faith Communities That Resist Abuse, Pursue Truth, and Care for the Wounded

Diane Langberg (Brazos Press)

Langberg’s compassion and insight, the fruit of decades spent helping sexual abuse victims, are apparent in this excellent book: a solidly scriptural call to better understand and address the multidimensional blight of sexual abuse in Christian ministry. Her tone is marked with genuine passion for the glory of Christ, our Good Shepherd. Langberg aptly exposes the tendency in many quarters of modern church life to protect established systems rather than confront wolves hiding among the sheep. By reading this book, ministry leaders can gain the heart, wisdom, and skills necessary for restoring the church as a place of protection and care. —Daniel Henderson, founder and president of Strategic Renewal

This is a heartbreaking but necessary book. Langberg is effective at marshaling biblical arguments, describing real-life abuse cases, and distilling the sort of practical wisdom that flows from a long career of serving both abuse victims and churches where abuse was perpetrated. Hopefully, her work will help churches identify the telltale signs of abusive situations and individuals before the worst comes to pass. —Jeremy Meeks, founding director of the Chicago Course on Preaching

Award of Merit

De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What’s Next

Karl Vaters (Moody Publishers)

Vaters doesn’t approach this book as a determined opponent of megachurches or a blind cheerleader for small churches. Instead, he calls for faithful churches guided by biblical values rather than mere growth campaigns. With a wealth of research and an engaging manner, his book considers American applications of the Church Growth movement, analyzing how they cultivated a misplaced priority on “numerical quantifiers.” Yet he closes on a hopeful note, suggesting pathways toward recovering a biblical paradigm of being the body of Christ. —Eric Schumacher, pastoral ministry director of the Baptist Convention of Iowa, author of The Good Gift of Weakness

Finalists

Reckoning with Power: Why the Church Fails When It’s on the Wrong Side of Power

David E. Fitch (Brazos Press)

Fitch masterfully defines and unpacks the concept of power, examining how it can be wielded and experienced in different ways: power over (which involves dominance or control), power above (which reflects hierarchical structures), power under (which emphasizes humility and service), and power with (which signifies collaboration and mutual empowerment). As he argues, each form of power can be corrupted and misused, but the church is at its best when it aligns itself with the Holy Spirit’s power rather than seeking worldly influence. —Jamaal Williams, lead pastor of Sojourn Church Midtown in Louisville Kentucky, coauthor of In Church as It Is in Heaven

(Read CT’s review of Reckoning with Power.)

Estranged Pioneers: Race, Faith, and Leadership in a Diverse World

Korie Little Edwards and Rebecca Y. Kim (Oxford University Press)

For many years, pursuing multiethnic churches has been considered a worthy endeavor for modeling unity in the gospel. Yet as Edwards and Kim demonstrate through careful research, the challenges of multiethnic ministry have taken their toll on many individuals and communities. They convey this difficult truth with a blend of concrete data and personal stories, helping readers see the real people at the center of this movement. I finished this book with greater respect for those doing the hard work of leading multiethnic churches. As Edwards and Kim assert, it is “not for the faint of heart.” —Amy Whitfield, executive director of communications at The Summit Church in North Carolina

(Read Korie Little Edwards’s cover article on multiethnic churches from the March 2021 issue of CT.)

Children

Winner

Arlo and the Keep-Out Club

Betsy Childs Howard (Crossway)

In Arlo and the Keep-Out Club, Howard creates an authentic narrative of a child trying to balance his desire for belonging with his sense of what’s right and wrong. When Arlo’s new friends goad him toward bullying another child, his objection is rooted in his family’s Christian faith, as witnessed in his father’s clear, sensitive, biblical-yet-not-preachy assurance that Jesus will stand with Arlo even when the right choice is the hard choice. The book helps children navigate difficult moral dilemmas while modeling support strategies for parents. —Bob Hartman, author of YouVersion’s Bible App for Kids

Award of Merit

Go Bible: A Life-Changing Bible for Kids

(Tyndale)

The Go Bible for kids hits all the right notes. It features helpful introductions, concise applications, interesting facts, thoughtful questions, and colorful sidebars that help children develop a framework for approaching the Bible. The NLT is a fantastic choice for a children’s Bible, since it is closer to their reading and comprehension level than many other popular translations. —Tyler Van Halteren, founder of Lithos Kids and author of the Little Pilgrim series

Finalists

My Tender Heart Devotions

Laura Sassi (Paraclete Press)

Habits formed in the early years stand the chance of becoming lifelong habits, and books of simple devotions like this one, designed for children under age 6, can help busy parents establish a Bible-time habit with their little ones. Sassi presents Bible stories and concepts simply, as if speaking to a child. Original poems introduce each devotion, which is something of a twist for the genre. Another twist: The accompanying Bible verses seem chosen for depth rather than mere ease of memorization, which does add a nice seriousness to the book. —Diane Stortz, editor and children’s author

Strong: Psalm 1

Sally Lloyd-Jones (Zonderkidz)

Lloyd-Jones’s unique perspective on Psalm 1 takes a complicated concept—strength—and applies it in a relatable, encouraging way. Through the illustration of a tree planted near nourishing waters, it portrays the life-giving power of Scripture while teaching kids to draw their strength from God. The book’s rich, earthy illustrations help it stand out from the rest. —Michelle S. Lazurek, author, speaker, and literary agent

Young Adults

Winner

The Miracle Seed

Martin Lemelman (Eerdmans)

The Miracle Seed is a beautiful book full of engaging curiosities. When it comes to historical fiction, approaching younger readers through art and design is key. Lemelman captures the imagination through comics and character development. He achieves a good balance between enticing readers with interesting facts and drawing them into an engaging narrative. Learning is much more fun when you don’t know it is happening! —Melina Luna Smith, executive director of StoryMakers NYC

Award of Merit

More to the Story: Deep Answers to Real Questions on Attraction, Identity, and Relationships

Jennifer M. Kvamme (The Good Book Company)

For any high schoolers looking for answers to their honest questions about sex, attraction, identity, and romantic relationships, this book is a one-stop shop. Kvamme is poignant, authentic, empathetic, winsome, and above all biblical in her approach to topics that teens talk and think about all the time. Beyond its friendly and effective countering of secular messages, More to the Story helps readers see the goodness of God and the life of holiness his Word commands. —Shelby Abbott, author, speaker, and campus minister

Finalists

The Found Boys

S. D. Smith (Harvest Kids)

The Found Boys begins as a familiar childhood adventure before delving into deeper themes, as three boys face their own naive prejudices after meeting characters with entrenched views on race, religion, and power. The fast-paced, cleverly plotted story builds to a surprising and thought-provoking climax. Smith skillfully balances humor and lighthearted banter with explorations of the darker aspects of human nature, ultimately pointing to gospel-centered themes of hope and reconciliation. —Dave Boden, executive director of Grace Foundation

Longing for Christmas: 25 Promises Fulfilled in Jesus, Advent Devotional for Teens

Edited by Chelsea Kingston Erickson (New Growth Press)

A Christmas devotional for the anxious generation, Longing for Christmas holds out the hope of Jesus in clear, compelling, and beautiful ways. By connecting God’s Old Testament promises to their fulfilment through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, these daily devotions paint a vivid picture of a God we can trust to bring his peace, hope, and provision to bear on all the complexity of life. —Chris Morphew, school chaplain in Sydney, Australia, author of Who Am I and Why Do I Matter?

Marriage, Family, and Singleness

Winner

God’s Grace for Every Family: Biblical Encouragement for Single-Parent Families and the Churches That Seek to Love Them Well

Anna Meade Harris (Zondervan Reflective)

Harris knows that even though the church can be a painful place, there’s hardly a community better suited to provide what single-parent families long for. Drawing from her survey of others and her own painful memories, she teaches us what not to say and how to best serve single-parent families in practical ways. Yet she shares this in a spirit of generous love, not resentment. Her book exhibits a hard-won confidence in God’s goodness in the face of devastating circumstances. —Michael Gembola, executive director of Blue Ridge Christian Counseling in Virginia

God’s Grace for Every Family combines solid biblical content, relevant statistical analysis, and personal interviews, all woven around Harris’s own story of loss and struggle. The book provides sympathy and encouragement for single parents, along with pastors and all others ministering to their needs. I appreciate how Harris reframes one possible question—How do we accept single parents without endorsing divorce or sex outside marriage?—with a reminder not to judge them more harshly than any other sinner saved by grace. —Adam Mason, minister of counseling services at Houston’s First Baptist Church

(Anna Meade Harris chooses five books to encourage single parents for CT.)

Award of Merit

Loving Your Adult Children: The Heartache of Parenting and the Hope of the Gospel

Gaye B. Clark (Crossway)

Parenting adult children comes with certain complexities, especially when they have drifted away from the Christian faith. Clark offers empathy, practical advice, and biblical wisdom for parents navigating this season. I especially appreciated her insightful explanation of repentance and reconciliation, which emphasizes restoring relationships without sacrificing personal convictions. —Jennifer Pepito, founder of The Peaceful Press and author of Mothering by the Book

Finalists

Family Discipleship That Works: Guiding Your Child to Know, Love, and Act Like Jesus

Brian Dembowczyk (InterVarsity Press)

This book is an accessible, readable resource for families seeking practical ideas about engaging in discipleship together. It has deep theological roots, along with a variety of good stories to make the lessons stick. I enjoyed laughing along with the author and sighing at anecdotes that brought back memories of when my own kids were growing. After finishing the book, I happily gave it to my youngest brother, whose own “littles” are still young. —Jennifer Ripley, psychology professor at Regent University

Solo Planet: How Singles Can Help the Church Recover Our Calling

Anna Broadway (NavPress)

The church in America is decidedly geared toward married couples, and if they have children, even better. So, in a church full of families, where do singles fit? In Solo Planet, Broadway introduces readers to an international, multidenominational group of single Christians and invites us into their stories of finding life in Christ. We learn about the particular struggles singles face, but also how their pursuit of spiritual maturity and Christian community helps all of us better understand who God is and how he works in the world. —Joel Fitzpatrick, pastor, speaker, and author of Between Us Guys

(Read CT’s review of Solo Planet.)

Culture, Poetry, and the Arts

Winner

Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church

Abram Van Engen (Eerdmans)

Van Engen teaches a gentle and grace-filled method of reading poetry, an art form that can frighten the uninitiated. Word Made Fresh accompanies readers on a leisurely, conversational walk through this terrain, exposing them to a range of poems across eras and places. Rather than offering a straightforward apologetic for poetry, Van Engen meets poetry novices where they are, inviting them to share in his genuine, exuberant love. I can see this book being extremely useful in college literature departments—especially, though not exclusively, on Christian campuses. —Pamela Rossi-Keen, executive director of The Genesis Collective

Reading poetry requires focus. In Word Made Fresh, Van Engen invites us to slow down and make space for contemplation. In particular, he asks us to pay close attention to why a particular poem might stir our hearts or awaken curiosity. In so doing, he writes, we learn to “practice thinking and noticing at a different speed.” As Van Engen sees it, a poem is not an explanation but a way of revealing that engages our senses, relaxes our pace, and compels us to wonder. —Gary Ball, rector of Redeemer Anglican Church in Asheville, North Carolina

Award of Merit

Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress

Jessica Hooten Wilson (Brazos Press)

In this study of Flannery O’Connor’s last, unfinished novel, Wilson showcases a deep love for O’Connor’s work, a scholar’s attentiveness, and a respect for eternal things. The book, featuring scenes from O’Connor’s original manuscript, gives readers a privileged look into her artistic process. Wilson’s introduction and commentary frame important background elements, like O’Connor’s perspective on the civil rights activism and racial violence of her era. Readers see a sincere admiration of O’Connor’s moral character and literary gifts alongside gracious and honest acknowledgments of her faults, both on and off the page. —Alicia Pollard, writer and creator of the Leaf by Lantern podcast

(Read CT’s review of Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage?)

Finalists

Becoming by Beholding: The Power of the Imagination in Spiritual Formation

Lanta Davis (Baker Academic)

This is a marvelous, theologically rich work. As an educator who values the tradition of classical Christian thought, I appreciated Davis’s emphasis on uniting Christian doctrine and practice with rightly formed imaginations. Her book takes an integrated approach to the arts, considering their visual, architectural, and literary expressions, among others. Well-researched and eminently practical, Becoming by Beholding is an excellent introduction into the world of classical Christian creativity—and a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship of imagination to Christian devotion. —Brian Nixon, professor of education and pastoral studies at Veritas International University

(Read an excerpt from Becoming by Beholding.)

Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of Our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age

Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, and Rachel M. De Smith Roberts (Baker Academic)

In Deep Reading, the three authors model a love of reading that moves beyond simply consuming established canons of literature or extracting information with maximum efficiency. Instead, they portray reading as an ongoing process of reflection and action that builds virtuous character. Drawing on their classroom experience, their commitments to loving God and neighbor, and their reflections on everyday life, they go beyond theoretical insights to show how deep reading habits help us manage distraction and bring about individual and communal flourishing. —Stephen Garner, senior research fellow at Laidlaw College in New Zealand

Fiction

Winner

This Ain’t No Promised Land

Tina Shelton (Kregel)

This book is ambitious in scope, navigating comfortably between the 1960s Deep South and South Side Chicago two decades later. Shelton’s impressive cast of characters, male and female, spans a wide range of ages, ethnicities, attitudes, and (believable) motivations. The plot is too intricate for brief summary, but it paints a richly textured picture of time, setting, and emotion as each character searches for answers and struggles to forgive. This Ain’t No Promised Land documents the perennial nature of human waywardness, the tragedy of inherited shame and abuse, and the enduring hope of knowing a God whose mercy knows no bounds. —James Cooper, novelist, creative writing professor at Tabor College in Adelaide, Australia

Award of Merit

40: A Collection of Modern-Day Parables

John Cleveland (Publish Authority)

In this eclectic mix of stories, Cleveland gives Jesus’ parables a modern twist, applying a range of genres and situations that resonate across a spectrum of interests and lived experiences. He presents biblical teachings in imaginative ways that are faithful to Scripture and always point back to Jesus. I can imagine these stories launching lively conversations with fellow believers and nonbelievers alike. —Sara Brunsvold, novelist, author of The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip

Finalists

American Inheritance

Nathan Nipper (Post Hill Press)

When I first climbed into the ’79 Airstream RV with Tom, an America-hating socialist whose conservative grandfather has prepared a patriotic cross-country voyage, I considered napping on the couch instead. I braced myself for political posturing wrapped in familiar road-trip tropes. But I’m happy I pressed on. Yes, there is pointed political commentary, but Nipper does a wonderful job weaving believable dialogue and deeper themes throughout. In a contentious age, this book ministered to me. —Buck Storm, novelist and musician, author of the Ballads of Paradise series

Prisms, Veils: A Book of Fables

David Bentley Hart (University of Notre Dame Press)

Hart’s collection of fables features characters who encounter worlds beyond their present “shadows of reality.” As these characters embrace, reject, or hesitate upon the thresholds to these worlds, we see the range of our own humanity reflected in their responses: primal and pragmatic, tender and receptive. These tales drew me in with the enchantment of their language and left me with much to ponder. —Amy Baik Lee, member of the Anselm Society Arts Guild, author of This Homeward Ache

History/Biography

Winner

God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music

Leah Payne (Oxford University Press)

This is an utterly compelling book that not only narrates the history of contemporary Christian music (CCM) but also demonstrates deep connections with the larger “industry of American evangelicalism.” As an Australian reader, I was surprised by the extent to which the book resonated with my own upbringing in evangelical churches of the ’80s and ’90s. I immediately recognized the songs, artists, and theological themes Payne discusses, which only confirms her impression of CCM’s far-reaching influence. —Nicole Starling, academic dean at Morling College in Australia

If you’ve ever pondered how and why American Christians created a sprawling parallel soundscape to the mainstream music industry, this book is for you. In it, Payne presents a riveting, rollicking, textured account of contemporary Christian music, as well as its accompanying aesthetic and commercial culture. Drawing on interviews with industry insiders and a large survey of CCM listeners, the book demonstrates how music has formed American Christians’ lives and shaped their cultural commitments. It will leave you reaching for that Spirit FM dial, primed to listen more intently and shrewdly. —Daryn Henry, assistant professor in the department of religious studies at the University of Virginia

(Read Kelsey Kramer’s McGinnis’s CT article on Christian Contemporary Music.)

Award of Merit

Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China

Glen L. Thompson (Eerdmans)

This exacting, accessible, and illuminating study demonstrates that Christianity is not Western but universal, and was so from the start. Its implications run deep not only for American evangelicals unaccustomed to thinking about Eastern Christianity but also for Chinese Christians whose government justifies their persecution on the theory that Christianity is a Western import. And it affirms the importance of Eastern cultures to the Christian story in ways that can bless Asian American believers. —Beth Barton Schweiger, historian, author of A Literate South

Finalists

The Reformation of the Heart: Gender and Radical Theology in the English Revolution

Sarah Apetrei (Oxford University Press)

In this highly original study, Apetrei shows that theological radicalism and women’s activism reinforced one another during the 17th-century English Civil War. Women preachers were anything but passive recipients of doctrine. Through polemics and visions alike, they advanced important English Protestant emphases, seeking a “reformation of the heart” that rejected external forms of liturgy and loyalty to civil authorities in favor of authentic interior faith. Providing prehistory of some strands in American evangelical life, the book speaks to matters of “heart religion,” mysticism, gender equality, and women’s roles in ministry. —Agnes Howard, humanities professor at Christ College, Valparaiso University

Turning Points in American Church History: How Pivotal Events Shaped a Nation and a Faith

Elesha J. Coffman (Baker Academic)

With a title and a narrative structure that evoke Mark Noll’s Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity, Coffman’s study of American church history tells textured stories about key individuals and events, rooting them in the ancient Christian past and connecting them to recent developments. Her engaging prose makes the book a page-turner. These qualities, plus the inclusion of songs and prayers in each chapter, elevate Coffman’s work above the typical historical survey. —James Gorman, professor of history at Johnson University

(Read CT’s review of Turning Points in American Church History.)

Politics and Public Life

Winner

Curious: A Foster Mom’s Discovery of an Unexpected Solution to Drugs and Addiction

Christina Dent (Throne Publishing Group)

Curious tells a compelling story of a conservative Christian mother’s remarkable journey toward embracing a more consistent and compassionate pro-life approach to drugs and addiction. Seamlessly blending her own story with those of others she encountered along the way, she makes a persuasive case for confronting this crisis with more humane public policy, coupled with a change of heart toward those in addiction’s grip. In her commitments to humility, courage, open-mindedness, and perseverance, Dent models the intellectual virtues I try to instill in my students. —Chan Woong Shin, associate professor of political science and international affairs at Gordon College

Award of Merit

Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor

Caleb Campbell (InterVarsity Press)

While I am deeply concerned about a sudden uptick in Christian nationalist rhetoric and the harm it does to Christian witness, I’m also sensitive to the ways this threat can be overhyped. Campbell navigates the topic with prudence, not to mention the credibility that comes from his experience as a teenaged white supremacist turned pastor with firsthand knowledge of the pain and dissension extremist politics brought to his church. Disarming Leviathan was personally convicting, as it forced me to acknowledge that flapping my gums against Christian nationalism has far less kingdom impact than actually loving people who have been drawn into its orbit. —Rachel Ferguson, director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia University Chicago

Finalists

The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life

Michael Wear (Zondervan)

As a remedy for our ailing political discourse, Wear turns to the teachings of Christian philosopher Dallas Willard, finding in them a blueprint for the kind of spiritual formation that can overcome divisiveness in our churches and communities. In short, semi-devotional sections, he encourages readers to think about voting and political engagement as extensions of Christian faithfulness and love of neighbor. God, he assures us, is more interested in cultivating enduring spiritual fruit than in shaping our positions on temporal matters. —Jennifer Walsh, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Hawaii Pacific University

(Read CTs review of The Spirit of Our Politics.)

Faithful Reason: Natural Law Ethics for God’s Glory and Our Good

Andrew T. Walker (B&H Academic)

In this primer, Walker introduces evangelicals to natural law theory, giving Protestant grounds for appreciating a body of thought more often associated with Roman Catholics. Faithful Reason is an invitation to consider the order in which God has formed all of life, one aimed at securing a common good for Christians and non-Christians alike. Natural law testifies that faith and reason are not at odds, and that Christian ethical reasoning doesn’t pit our deeply ingrained moral instincts against the special revelation of Christ in Scripture. —Paul Morrison, assistant professor of Christian ethics at Emmaus Theological Seminary

Theology (popular)

Winner

What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church

Gavin Ortlund (Zondervan Reflective)

Amid increasing signs of Gen Z Protestant men converting to Catholicism and Orthodoxy, many evangelicals wonder: How can we explain the truth and goodness of the Protestant tradition to those who see it as fractured and weak? Ortlund answers this question in What It Means to Be Protestant. The book educates leaders engaged in conversations about the branches of the Western church, and it equips Protestants to answer Catholic and Orthodox objections to their movement. Ultimately, it calls us back to the Reformation ideal of an “always reforming” church that stands on inherited traditions while showing grace and affection for those around us. —Phylicia Masonheimer, author, speaker, and founder of Every Woman a Theologian

Award of Merit

Cultural Sanctification: Engaging the World Like the Early Church

Stephen O. Presley (Eerdmans)

In many ways, today’s church is encountering the same ostracization, derision, and outright persecution faced by Christians in the earliest centuries of the church’s history. In response, some believers look to fight for the cultural dominance to which they feel entitled, while others retreat in despair from a corrupted culture. Presley’s book teaches us to emulate the early church in resisting these impulses. Following the example of our earliest brothers and sisters, we can rediscover the hope, humility, and patience that come from knowing we are pilgrims called by a faithful Savior to bless the world as salt and light. —Simonetta Carr, author, educator, and translator

(Read CT’s review of Cultural Sanctification.)

Finalists

Know the Theologians

Jennifer Powell McNutt and David W. McNutt (Zondervan)

As Christians, we stand on the shoulders of our theological predecessors, but most of the time, we have little idea who those people are. This is often especially true of contemporary Christianity, which—like the culture around us—tends to prioritize the present over the past. With a great deal of substance and touches of levity, the McNutts introduce key figures in Christian history, pointing to their continuing relevance in Christian life and thought. The authors’ choices reflect the breadth and diversity of the global church, reconnecting us with our forefathers and foremothers in the faith. —Wendy Widder, author, teacher, and Bible commentator

Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology

Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)

This is the book I wished for when I first started on my journey into the world of Reformed theology. It could only be written by someone like DeYoung, a pastor and popular author who serves as a bridge between the academy and the pew, combining a depth of study with an awareness of what beginners can handle. The book quotes Scripture, scholars, confessions, and philosophical works, always situating them within the history of the church. It handles terms of art in a simple, accessible manner, complete with familiar (and humorous) illustrations. DeYoung doesn’t hesitate to stretch his readers, but he always gives them a boost. —Paige Britton, creator of Grass Roots Theological Library

Theology (academic)

Winner

Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically

Kevin Vanhoozer (Zondervan Academic)

Can biblical interpretation change the world? In this carefully crafted study, Vanhoozer answers in the affirmative by exploring the relationship between biblical authors, canonical texts, and believing readers. By guiding our gaze to Christ’s transfiguration, he makes illuminating connections between the literal sense of the Bible’s words, their place in the biblical canon, and the glory of the risen Christ that shines all the brighter when we read God’s Word theologically. Deeply rooted in decades of incisive scholarship, this volume captures the distinctive voice of a creative and faithful virtuoso in theology. —Ched Spellman, professor of biblical and theological studies at Cedarville University

Mere Christian Hermeneutics is a masterpiece. With nuance and depth, Vanhoozer examines the implications of believing that the divine author of Scripture is also the sovereign author of history. In outlining a properly theological interpretation of God’s Word, he writes as a seasoned scholar whose mature perspective manifests decades of careful reflection. On many pages, I found at least one sentence most other theologians would work a lifetime hoping to write. Perhaps my highest praise is that the book truly helped me understand what the Bible is, how I want to read it, and the person I want to become as I grow in discerning its glory. —Trevor Laurence, executive director of the Cateclesia Institute

Award of Merit

Gender as Love: A Theological Account of Human Identity, Embodied Desire, and Our Social Worlds

Fellipe do Vale (Baker Academic)

Gender as Love offers a theologically sophisticated take on contentious contemporary debates about gender, steering between the “essentialist” and “social constructivist” positions. Do Vale shows why human beings cannot do without some fixed sense of what it means to be male or female, regardless of time or place. While the book aims to preserve essential distinctions between men and women, it leaves space to critically evaluate the distribution of gendered goods and roles within a given society, carefully discerning which ones are detachable or inseparable from our male and female bodies. In this way, do Vale helps Christians escape entrapment in abstract debates too wooden to do justice to the complexities of creaturely life. —Brian Brock, professor of moral and practical theology at the University of Aberdeen

(Read CT’s review of Gender as Love.)

Finalists

Thinking Through the Problem of Hell: The Divine Presence Model

R. Zachary Manis (Cascade Books)

If you’ve ever found yourself backed into a corner trying to articulate the doctrine of hell, this book is a game-changer. Most Christians can readily say yes to the justice of God. But many wonder whether a loving God can impose eternal retributive punishment. With logical precision and welcome accessibility, Manis examines the problem of hell in a way that holds human freedom and divine sovereignty in genuine tension. His book has aided my own theological journey immensely, renewing my confidence that the doctrine of hell reflects both the depth of God’s love and the weight of his eternal glory. —Haley Goranson Jacob, associate professor of theology at Whitworth University

Why We Pray: Understanding Prayer in the Context of Cosmic Conflict

John C. Peckham (Baker Academic)

If God is benevolent and all-powerful, why does Scripture command us to lay our requests before him “without ceasing?” Peckham answers this question with an elaborate theological vision in which God, granting significant moral autonomy to his image-bearers, is engaged in a cosmic battle between good and evil, with prayer affording him the moral right to intervene without violating human freedom. Theological traditionalists will object—perhaps rightly—to Peckham’s treatment of doctrines like divine immutability (which affirms the unchangeable nature of God’s will). But this book remains a pastorally sensitive inquiry into why prayer matters. —David Rathel, associate professor of Christianity theology at Gateway Seminary

(Read John C. Peckham’s CT article on Jesus’ prayers in the garden of Gethsemane.)

The post The Christianity Today Book Awards appeared first on Christianity Today.

Encouraging to see believers who understand immigration and border issues are not black and white and are doing God’s work in the middle of it!

@EdTechSandyK

“Every teenager I’ve ever walked with is navigating the fallout of this broken world” . . . that is a concept worth some serious consideration.

Annette Johnson

Refocusing on the Great Commission

There may be some problems with the idea of using terms like unreached or unengaged. But the concepts and the actual research to identify those who have not had an opportunity to hear the gospel or who do not have a viable witness has been immensely helpful.

Dave Hyatt

Repenting of Identity Politics

Agree professing Christians should repent of their Christian nationalism. But I don’t fully equate identity politics with Christian nationalism. Just white identity politics. Civil rights aren’t GIVEN to minorities. Minorities demand them. That happens through some form of identity politics.

@socofthesacred

As one brought up in the evangelical tradition who has been utterly baffled and saddened by the severe nationalistic and anti-immigration positions of others who claim to follow after Christ, “Repenting of Identity Politics” clearly states what in my view is wholly consistent with Holy Scripture and the kingdom-building our Lord Jesus taught and modeled. Thanks for your boldness, unmistakable conviction, and the call for repentance. Indeed, God forgive us.

Patricia Long Canton, OH

Christian nationalism is a non-sequitur. There is no such thing. Anyone who joins Christianity with nationalism has already abandoned the former in favor of the latter.

Christopher Adams

Small Groups Anonymous

I require every student in my high school leadership class to attend an AA meeting. While extremely hesitant at first, they come back and proclaim how much they loved attending and why can’t every interaction they have be that genuine and authentic. As technology-addicted young people, they yearn for this type of openness and transparency. Dunnington presents the key aspects of AA in a pragmatic, practical, and concise manner. I too have always yearned to be part of a small group that mimics the environment of an AA meeting, while at the same time I appreciated the honest self-reflection as he ends the article. Once the church reflects the intentionality of AA, its buildings will be standing-room only, just what Jesus wanted.

Rafe Vecere Columbus, NJ

John Wesley’s small “bands” in the early days of the Methodist movement filled this role. In today’s society, the kind of interpersonal trust necessary for such groups to survive in the local church has been lost. People do not want to share deep things in these groups for fear it will end up on the church grapevine or as a sermon illustration.

Mike Stidham

This article shows disturbingly deep insight into the reasons that our home groups generally fail to be radically transformative. This bears much examination and discussion among Christians who are serious about seeing their own lives and the lives of others demonstrably transformed by God’s grace. I will never think about home groups the same way again.

Alan House Spring, TX

As a member of Celebrate Recovery, I can personally attest to the rigorous honesty and true fellowship that occurs in 12-step meetings. People are free to be real and flawed without judgment.

Rich Rodriguez

We Set Off to Reach a Remote Amazon Tribe

I loved how the story shows the missionaries’ obedience was met with God’s providing for them and blessing the people they came to serve by allowing them to serve the missionaries. He knows what we need. All of us—if we just trust him.

Carol Rollo Pensacola, FL

Telling the Wrong Poverty Story

As a worker in an inner-city church, is my job to help lift people out of poverty and help them have money or is it to do life together with them and lead them to abundant life in relationship with Jesus? I was challenged that I have been measuring ministry success by the economic gains that people make, when maybe that should never have been the goal in the first place.

Pauline Dillman Benner

The post Reply All appeared first on Christianity Today.

Then came the second episode, entitled “God.”

Dre Johnson (played by Anthony Anderson) responds to his teenage daughter Zoey’s (Yara Shahidi) growing spiritual doubts. It’s a dramatic shift for a show that usually plays faith for laughs, with Dre’s overbearing mother Ruby and her exclamations about Jesus and other outlandish churchy behavior.

As Dre explains in the narration, faith has been a vital part of the African American historical experience, so it makes sense for viewers like me to assume the whole Johnson family believed in God. (Stats back this up too. About 8 in 10 African Americans say religion is very important in their lives, reported Pew Research in 2009, compared with 56% of the general US population.)

When Zoey begins doubting God’s existence in a world filled with injustice, her father experiences his own crisis of identity. After noticing a lack of faith among his white affluent coworkers, Dre associates his daughter’s wavering belief with her proximity to affluent white suburbia (a recurring theme on Black-ish).

Dre’s suspicion of white affluence is partially rooted in his distrust of his biracial brother-in-law Johan. Freshly returned from Paris, Johan (Daveed Diggs, in an homage to his roles in Hamilton) embodies the European stereotype—sophisticated, worldly, and atheistic. Overreacting like a typical sitcom dad, Dre attempts to ban anything in the home that feels too white—including almond milk, radicchio, and even hummus.

Growing up in Portland, Oregon, one of the whitest cities in America, I can relate to Dre’s panic. I’m the son of a black evangelical pastor who felt the intellectual bias at my secular private high school. Most of my friends saw my blackness as distinctive and cool, but my faith as inexplicable and inscrutable. When I watched members of the white Braverman family on ABC’s Parenthood struggle to understand why Jasmine’s mother wanted to take her grandson to church instead of a baseball game, I immediately thought of my friends from school.

The most predictable response to a perceived cultural attack is to panic—then launch a counteroffensive.

Consequently, it took me until well into my 20s to shed the idea that white affluence was synonymous with secular views. On a certain level, it makes sense, though: If you’re educated enough and wealthy enough, you don’t need to ask God to meet your needs—you just need to make sure to stay on track with your investments and career goals.

But we can’t eliminate race from the equation. African Americans and other people of color, like Dre Johnson, are forced to deal with it on a day-to-day basis. I experienced Dre’s panic in a visceral way, because I understand what it’s like for any slight against religion to feel like a cultural assault.

When I told my teenage friends about Christian rap—in the days before Lecrae’s popularity—they thought I was joking. I felt embarrassed and marginalized by their incredulous response.

I see it on TV and in the news. I remember a Daily Show segment that included Jon Stewart singing in front of a swaying choir of black performers singing profanities, which ended up characterized as a gospel choir, as if what makes a song gospel has only to do with its style and has nothing to do with its message.

When Portland city planners authorized a major construction project on an arterial street in a historically black neighborhood without seeking input from any of the various black churches adversely affected by the loss of street parking, it felt like a slap in the face.

The most predictable response to a perceived cultural attack is to panic—then launch a counteroffensive.

On Black-ish, Dre enlists his mother, Ruby—the most overbearing presence in the Johnson family—to coerce Zoey into reciting a bungled version of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s not until later that his wife convinces him to stand down; bullying someone into belief is not exactly a winning strategy.

Even though we may have the same kind of experiences, our overreactions will not all have the same long-term ramifications.

It’s actually Dre’s attempt to assert his religious blackness that demonstrates how the struggle for cultural significance is universal. White people do this too; a certain segment of white evangelicals are drawn to strong, authoritarian personalities, especially in seasons when they perceive their faith is under attack.

Whether those strongmen are pastors, entertainers, or politicians, the allure is the same. They promise to keep you safe by protecting you from the dangerous other, they make you feel better by belittling your perceived opposition, and they pledge to prioritize your beliefs over and above others. Their collective message is, “You are important. I will fight for you.” They almost always leave devastation in their wake.

In the “God” episode, Dre only abandons the strongman approach once his wife lovingly intervenes, helping him to see the futility of his approach. Her mediation makes him pause and later begin praying with an earnest, fumbling desperation as he realizes that he’s not as good of a Christian as he thought. Eventually, hope arrives, in the form of an audible “Thank you, God!” from Zoey, uttered in the aftermath of a serious health scare. Only in a moment of true crisis does her Christian upbringing—inconsistent as it might’ve seemed—begin to bear fruit.

Dre’s relatability in the “God” episode stems from reality that many of us have experienced what we perceive as cultural assault. Lashing out after feeling like we’re on the outside is a normal part of the human experience.

Even though we may have the same kind of experiences, our overreactions will not all have the same long-term ramifications. In the case of Dre, the victims of his frustration are the almond milk he dumped down the drain and the hummus lovers in his family. But we also know that many times lashing out can come from those with the power to affect the lives of others in important, permanent ways… people like doctors, educators, police officers, or politicians.

And even though America is a diverse place, the higher you get up the chain of command in most of these institutions, the more likely it is that person in power will be white. Even though the urge for a strongman-type response may be universal between black and white people, the ramifications of that response can end up with quite disproportionate consequences.

What do we make of this difference in power? And when it comes to both our personal spiritual lives and the institutions that support them, how can we proactively look to the gospel rather than overreacting to perceived cultural assault?

For starters, we need a healthy dose of introspection and humility.

Like Dre, some of us people of color need to hear his wife’s pragmatic wisdom. Not every conflict can be solved by diagnosing racial prejudice. Not every microaggression deserves a snarky response or a formalized escalation. On the other side, many white Christians must lean into conversations around race and class. They must take on a humble posture and ask difficult questions about privilege, institutional racism, and how this affects their own perception of what constitutes cultural attack.

Despite the hurt, violence, entrenched inertia, and partisan craziness, God’s vision for racial unity the church is possible. We as American Christians are capable of experiencing race not merely as something that divides us, but as another available dimension to explore the imago dei in each of us. Executing this vision will require us to dig deep, invest in eternity, and truly learn how to know and love one another.

But if that seems too overwhelming, maybe we can start with just laughing at a sitcom together.

My vote goes to Black-ish.

Jelani Greenidge is a writer, musician, communication consultant, and stand-up comic based out of Portland, Oregon. He's currently looking for a seminary that will offer transcript credits for Xbox achievements.

The post Losing Your Religion While ‘Black-ish’ appeared first on Christianity Today.

Mica May, founder and CEO of May Designs, took in what she just heard. The stern instructions came to her from Tory Johnson, a regular contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America. She needed samples of May’s notebooks for a feature she was hosting on gift ideas.

At the time, May was a staff-of-one, a scrappy entrepreneur working from her home. Thrilled about this opportunity for increased publicity, she shipped off a few of her classic notebook designs.

But then the show aired.

When millions of viewers saw the May Designs notebooks on that Tuesday morning four years ago, her business exploded. In less than ten hours, more than 33,000 new customers ordered May Designs notebooks.

“I thought I was going to die,” May reflected about that crazy day. “I had no idea how I was going to do it. But I knew the customers were counting on me. I had their money and their trust, and I knew I could not let them down.”

May started recruiting staff, kept rolling out new products, and continued to answer phone calls. Over the next few years, May Designs showed up on The Today Show and inElle, People, Glamour, and“Oprah’s Favorite Things” in O Magazine.

Today, her growing company employs 11 people at their sleek headquarters in downtown Austin, Texas. Last year May Designs grossed $4 million and today is on the brink of expanding their product line from notebooks and stationery into fashion and homewares.

“I feel called by God to be an entrepreneur,” May said.

Waging War (on Ugly Stuff)

For May, the idea of creating just another lifestyle brand is uninspiring. For her company, the vision is nothing less than bringing joy to their customers, staff, and community.

“I want to delight our customers with incredible products they really believe in,” May said, “down to even the envelopes, emails, and packaging.”

May started her company because she was frustrated with the dearth of beauty in the notebook aisle. Her frustration extends beyond bland journals, though. She’s tired of the “throwaway shopping culture” in which consumers buy cheap stuff devoid of any enduring meaning or beauty.

“One of the most powerful sources of cultural fragmentation has grown out of the great successes of the Industrial Revolution,” wrote artist Mako Fujimura in his book Culture Care: Reconnecting Beauty to Common Life. “Modern people began to equate progress with efficiency. Despite valiant and ongoing resistance from many quarters—including industry—success for a large part of our culture is now judged by efficient production and mass consumption.”

Even the word consumer is provocative. Consumers are not investors in the items they own. No, for modern Americans, we just consume what we buy. Buy, (ab)use, trash, repeat. It’s amid this voracious shopping landscape that entrepreneurs like May aim to not just sell trendy products, but actually challenge the way men and women think about what they buy and own.

“Mica’s is a typology of entrepreneur that is underappreciated in our Silicon Valley world,” reflected Dave Blanchard, co-founder of Praxis. May Designs is a fellow in the Praxis business accelerator. “Instead of starting with millions in venture capital and plans to take over the world, she started simply with a product she loved that the market around her asked her to make more of.”

May and her team create enduring products that are well-made, priced for the masses, and fun to look at and use. And May infuses her values into her products, offering gratitude journals and meal journals to help drive her customers to imbue meaning in their daily routines.

“I created May Designs because I believe everyday moments should be more lovely,” May said. “Our culture says, ‘Have more, be more, do more.’ It’s a crazy consumption world. That’s what we’re battling as a company.”

May’s view of beauty comes not from a desire to grow a bigger business, but from her convictions about her Creator.

“Isn’t God the most ultimate creator?” May asked. “He wants to delight us. The sunsets, water, movement; I believe all of it has come from God. And God has equipped us to be artists. We’re co-creators with him.”

Paper in a Digital Age

In some ways, a company creating paper notepads is a bit of a modern conundrum. As the world increasingly gravitates digitally, May Designs stands athwart popular culture by encouraging their customers to work offline.

“I’m on my screens all day long,” May said. “But I process, learn, and remember more deeply when I write things down. It’s not as efficient, but in the digital world, we’ve lost something as we’ve moved away from pen and paper.”

While some technologists believe everything everywhere will move digital, there are reasons to believe pen-and-paper isn’t going away quickly.

In the book industry, for example, the number of brick-and-mortar bookstores has increased 21 percent in the United States over the last five years. While e-books are certainly not a fad, printed book sales have remained very resilient.

Similarly, in schools, many teachers and professors are now banning laptops from their classrooms, requiring students take notes by hand. These educators cite a number of recent studies illustrating how students writing their notes by hand learned more deeply and tested better than their digital note-taking peers.

“Like so many others in today’s overly wired society, [students] are perpetually distracted, never fully present,” wrote Stuart Green, a law professor at Rutgers University who recently outlawed laptops in his classroom.

As the world’s interactions increasingly move digital, a wave of educators and entrepreneurs challenge us to not miss the power of working offline. Christians understand the importance of the tactile. In the bread and wine of communion, the mud used in healing, the oil for anointing, and the waters of baptism, Jesus created extraordinary moments with ordinary elements. It's this same conviction undergirding the work of May Designs.

“When you’re interacting with something physical, it’s just a different experience,” she said.

Entrepreneur from Birth

The entrepreneurial itch started early for May. When she was six, she filled notebooks with drawings of dresses and other fashion concepts. At seven, she had launched her own handcrafted perfume business. By middle school, she was running an afterschool childcare center for kids in her apartment complex.

Over the last four years, May Designs has grown well beyond her home office. Today, May takes joy in creating opportunities for the 11 members of her team to use their gifts and abilities in her company.

Photo courtesy of Mica May / May Designs

“I feel like a mother hen,” May said. “These are my people, and I feel really protective of our environment, our finances, and our culture. It’s a huge responsibility.”

She loves the generosity her business success has enabled. Already, her company has given over $80,000 to schools and organizations committed to early childhood intervention for children with special needs like Rise School of Austin, where May’s son, Jackson, is a student.

Stepping into her calling as an entrepreneur and a Christian has not been without its challenges, though.

“It’s challenging,” May said. “When I became a Christian, I felt an internal struggle, because I felt like I should be an overseas missionary, but I didn’t feel at peace about it.”

May felt an often unspoken pressure from the Christian culture around her to pursue a different type of work—to join a nonprofit or go serve overseas. But over time, she began to understand the unique way she was wired was not an accident. She began to feel burdened to serve her neighbors through doing what God designed her to do—create beautiful things and delight her staff, customers, and community.

“This is my calling,” May said. “I can’t believe I’ve been given the opportunity to steward this business and the opportunity to create joy in people’s lives.”

Chris Horst is vice president of development at HOPE International, author of Mission Drift, and founder of dadcraft. You can connect with him on Twitter, @chrishorst.

The Work of Our Hands is a CT web series that spotlights Christians bringing truth, goodness, and beauty to their workplaces and sectors of influence. Read our first article in the series here.

The post A Well-Designed Journal Can Change Your Life appeared first on Christianity Today.

My not-so-strategic delays with this spring training/opening day review have taken us almost six weeks into the season, a fair but fragile sampling. A number of things are certainly clear by this point: the Cubs are for real, maybe even better, and that despite the loss of Kyle Schwarber's Gehrig-like presence with the ACL tear. Bryce Harper is finally living up to his hype—wait a minute, he's still one of the youngest players in the league! Chris Sale can pitch, and his stuff is nasty enough to at least provoke a glance over the shoulder at Gibson's 1.12 ERA mark. A Chi-Town series with irresistible force meeting unhittable object? Wait, not so fast, Stevens! Will the Sox outrun the Royals in the AL Central? Will Baltimore run away with the AL East, buoyed by Manny Machado's charismatic swagger? Will the Mariners keep it up out west, sustaining their surprising start? Should the Cubs and Nats already start sharpening swords for a clash in the NLCS? And why can't I care about the NL West—wait, I just got a D'Backs ballcap at a garage sale for free—is it an augury?!

How to sort out all these imponderables? I can answer that with a single number: 1983. Yes, the pine tar incident is our talisman to understand where this present season is heading, and so I have dredged up the opening-day rosters from that fabled (or not-so-fabled) season now 33 years past, to use as palimpsest for predicting.

Let's start in the NL East, where the Nationals began in torrid fashion, with Bryce Harper offering an apocalyptic week of homeruns (including pinch hit shots) to buoy up the boys, though they've staggered a bit lately. I've always liked Dusty Baker as a skipper, so the Nats should stay solid, and the one-two punch of Max Scherzer (joining the 20 Strikeouts in Nine Innings Club) and Stephen Strasburg is formidable, but their solid #3 starter, Jordan Zimmerman, is now excelling on the Tigers, and the pressure of expectations can impinge. Still, when I look back at 1983, hope springs in lively fashion from the north country, as the Nationals' antecedent, the Montreal Expos, fielded a powerful lineup of perennial stars, with Gary Carter catching, Al Oliver playing the one-bag, and an outfield of prowess: Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, and the later icon of Japanese baseball, Warren Cromartie. All but Cromartie played in the '83 All-Star game, and ace Steve Rogers pitched in it—the die is cast, the Nationals are formidable and Montreal is not forgotten (rumor has it that, along with Mexico City, the jewel of Quebec is at the top of MLB's list for expansion). The Mets are solid again this season after a surprise World Series run, with a stirring rotation that includes Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard, and the savage bat of Yoenis Cespesdes. Once again, '83 looms large—we already know that Gary Carter, cog of the '86 world champs, was still with the Expos, but it's also clear that Daryl Strawberry hadn't yet been called up, since the big sluggers were the quixotic Dave Kingman and the fading George Foster. Sure, Tom Seaver started on opening day, but his battery mate was Ron Hodges, who had 12 extra base hits in 110 games. As it turns out, Seaver had a respectable 3.55 ERA, and still went 9-14. Sorry to my brothers-in-law on Long Island, but the Mets fade this year by August. The Phillies of 2016 are confounding expectations so far despite being a band of relative unknowns anchored by the now veteran Ryan Howard. On the mound, Vincent Velasquez and Aaron Nota have shined—could they be the John Denny and Steve Carlton one-two punch from '83? But something's disconcerting here—together Denny and Carlton totaled 25 losses, and the opening day lineup appears a bit like the re-heated Big Red Machine, with Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose all on the other side of the hill. I don't like the implications—I say the '83 effect has the Phillies stumbling in August. The Miami Marlins are hanging in there, though their sparkplug Dee Gordon is now suspended for PED's (was someone mentioning how much the game has changed?), and they didn't exist even in antecedent form pre-1995, so we need to let them go. Forgive me, beloved Don Mattingly, but what are you doing with the tropical color-scheme on your uni? The Atlanta Braves are off to a nightmarish start (they just won their second game at home in 18 tries), their current roster seems filled with players on their second or third or fourth time around (A.J. Pierzynski, Kelly Johnson, Nick Markakis)—and 1983 has an aging Chris Chambliss at first base and the bearded wonder Glenn Hubbard at second, a thin line of appeal. The great but dull MVP Dale Murphy did go .302/36/121 (what the heck, he also scored 131 runs and stole 30 bases!), but it won't be enough—this team will lose 95 games.

The NL Central did not exist in 1983, but all its teams did, and the Cubs were rising then as now. This is an example of a double whammy—Leon Durham, Ryne Sandberg, the productive bat of Bill Buckner (pre-trauma), the productive glove of Larry Bowa, Jody Davis behind the plate—wait, was this a super-productive lineup? Well, 2016 is, featuring not only Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant and Javier Baez but also newly acquired Ben Zobrist, not to mention role-players like Tommy La Stella (credit Joe Maddon for getting reps for everyone on the roster). Jake Arrieta has reached Bob Gibson's stratosphere: the no-hit stuff, the 6-0 record, the outlandish ERA, the supreme confidence. Despite questions about 1983 (an aging Fergie Jenkins was the opening day starter), and dark memories of 1984, the Cubs will be a factor to the very end. Meantime, the Pirates hover, hoping the Cubs will slow down.Their star Andrew McCutcheon not yet heated up, but other guys are wielding hot bats, and they have a lot of young pitching, led by Gerrit Cole and Juan Nicasio. There is much to like here (watch out for former Tiger lefty Kyle Lobstein working out of the bullpen), but a glance at the '83 Opening Day lineup sends a shiver, as this was clearly an interregnum between Willie Stargell's 'We are Family,' and the early '90's Barry Bonds-led teams. I see corner infielders Jason Thompson and Dale Berra at an underwhelming glance, and Lee Mazzilli in center doesn't change the prognosis for 2016: third place, hovering at 83 wins. Right now the Cardinals are only above .500 by a tick, but that means nothing—this team rises from the ashes on a regular basis to play in the World Series, and though the personnel changes, the ethos does not. By the way, could we have another Smokey Joe Wood or Rick Ankiel on our hands with Adam Wainwright? If his surgically repaired arm doesn't hold, the upper-deck mammoth shot he hit a couple of weeks ago indicates he could move into a power-hitter role and platoon in right. This team has other sources of pop, and with young guns like Michael Wacha complementing Wainwright, why the sluggish start? Weren't the '83 Cardinals a force to be reckoned with, defending World Champs? George Hendrick, twenty years ahead of his time in wearing his baseball pants all the way down to the shoe-top, was a force that year, going .318/18/97, with the hirsute Ken Oberkfell and the crazy-legged Willie McGee both hitting at a decent clip and scoring runs ahead of him. So where does the bad vibe come from? Aha! I note that the Opening Day first baseman was the non-pareil field general Keith Hernandez, and that the mustachioed one hit .297 with 42 extra base hits—but he was traded to the Mets mid-season, and took his mighty presence away. I think that will haunt the St. Louisians one last time this year—they'll fade in late September. The Brewers were in the AL back in '83 and had just played in their only World Series ever. Were I using the 1982 season as a measuring stick, this might all be different, but they're already more than 10 games back, and though Ryan Braun has returned to form, hitting .380 with seven HR's, and formidable first baseman Chris Carter is enjoying a power surge, there is a bit of anemia, a sagging will in Milwaukee, that will make for an arduous summer. The Cincinnati Reds have lost a considerable slugger in Todd Frazier (more on this later), and starting pitching is as tempestuous as Tim Melville's surname, but it's really the '83 lineup to blame—what was Johnny Bench doing at third base, and what hope springs from Ray Oester starting at second? Sure, Mario Soto went 17-13 with a 2.70 ERA (one shudders at the lack of run-support), but he also gave up 28 home runs. The last puffs of the Big Red Machine, causing the 2016 edition of the team to stall as well.

The NL West is wrapped in mediocrity this season (or competitive parity, perhaps?); at the moment, everyone in the division is at or below the .500 mark. The Dodgers seem the team to beat, with Clayton Kershaw off to another outlandlishly good season, complemented by Kenta Maeda. Is there a 1983 connection to boost this rotation into the post-season? Through the fog I see a connection emerging, an erstwhile but not insignificant nostalgia—the Dodgers current pitching coach, Rick Honeycutt, won the American League ERA crown in '83, junkballing his way to a 14-8 record with a 2.42 ERA (on only 56 strikeouts in 175 innings!)—that stalwart of bad Mariners and Rangers teams will now help the Dodgers compete for the NL West crown. Should we bring up Steve Sax? No, let's move on to San Francisco, where the Giants are neck-and-neck with their arch-rivals. Their rotation looks like an A-list of potentiality—the Series veteran Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Jake Peavy, Jeff Samardzija—but they've struggled, and no wonder. The Opening Day starter in '83 was Dave Krukow—enough said. But wait, Atlee Hammaker won the NL ERA crown that year with a strong 2.25! Yet he finished 10-9, dogged by an inconsistent offense (though Jeffrey Leonard was fearsome and Darrell Evans serviceable). This year, Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, and Angel Pagan have all been cooking, but somehow Johnny LeMaster as starting shortstop in '83 gives me pause. It won't be the Giants 'every other year' World Series title this year. I want to think it could be the Rockies year, because of the outrageous fun of the Trevor Story arrival, as accidental starting shortstop, with 6 HR's in his first four games. There's a lot more to like on the mile-high team, starting with Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez, and the Rockies have a fine young arm in Tyler Chatwood. Still, with no 1983 back story to go on, I'm worried about the long-term chances. Manager Walt Weiss came a bit too late to bolster the 1983 creds—I think the Rockies fade to 90 losses. The Diamondbacks are also plagued by a lack of history—batting instructors Mark Grace and Dave Magadan don't quite reach back to 1983—but also by a lack of production from their stars thus far. Zach Greinke, nearly unhittable last year, gave up two of Trevor Story's early HR's in the desert, and has struggled since. All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt is well below his usual level of performance, which is dangerous. Maybe a .500 season, but not much more, I'd say. The Padres are struggling at five games below .500, but they're fresh off a day/night doubleheader sweep of the Cubs (the first time the Cubs have lost two consecutive games this season). On the mound, Drew Pomeranz is a bright spot, and there's plenty of theoretical punch in the lineup. Can 1983 help? If it were 1984, a World Series year for the Padres, I'd have hope, but '83 was still centered around Gary Templeton's glove and bat at SS (think Ozzie Smith trade … ), and though catcher Terry Kennedy came up with a respectable .284/17/98 for the squad, and Dave Dravecky battled to 14-10, I'm not feeling a strong gravitational pull for this year's team—the will finish in the cellar.

Now, to the American League, and the additional X-factor which I must add to the mix, namely, who were the starting DH's on Opening Day of 1983, the tenth anniversary of the DH, and at this time (and maybe always) the place for aging sluggers to extend their arms and their careers? In the AL East, the Orioles are off to a strong start, clearly fueled by the vapors of their 1983 World Championship—a youthful (was he ever really young?) Cal Ripken went .318/27/102 that year, while his fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Murray went .306/33/111. Whatever Rich Dauer and Gary Roenicke contributed was gravy at that point. Mike Boddicker and Scotty McGregor finished in the top five in ERA and won 16 and 18 games, respectively. Okay, there is a strong edge from the past, but what about the 2016 Birds? Manny Machado is hitting .350 with 7 HR's and stellar defense at third, and Mark Trumbo has come over from the Angels, switched to RF, and is currently .337/8/22—and this with sluggers Adam Jones and Chris Davis not heated up yet. If Chris Tillman emerges as a bona-fide ace, this is a team to reckon with. That being said, the Red Sox are right alongside, with old guys like Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz doing damage, and up-and-comers like Xander Bogaerts contributing as well. Former Tiger young-gun Rick Porcello has come into his own, while David Price, also late of the Tigers (and Rays and Blue Jays), has been inconsistent, suffering a couple of shellackings. The Bosox should compete with the Orioles, especially when I weigh in 1983 DH's Carl Yazstremski vs. Ken Singleton—I'll go with the Hall of Famer, and predict that the Red Sox will overtake Orioles in the last week. Last year's division champs, the Blue Jays, appear on the road to struggle, despite the powerful presence of Josh Donaldson with his MVP numbers in the middle of the order and an outfield of Jose Bautista, Kevin Pillar, and Michael Saunders, all solid offensive producers. Could the 1983 outfield of Terry Collins, Lloyd Moseby, and Jesse Barfield buoy this up? What about Dave Stieb's stalwart 17-12 campaign? Maybe. But the tipping point of Butch Johnson as the 1983 DH? Despite the formidable mustache, I don't think it's enough. Tampa wasn't around in '83, and they appear to be fading this year as well—sign of the times, another former Tigers lefty, Drew Smyly, had a 2.60 ERA after his first 5 starts but a win-loss record of 1-3. No pop. And the Yankees look worse. Even their invulnerable bullpen for 100+mph arms has been roughed up (though now Aroldis Chapman is back from his suspension), and the aging knees of A-Rod, Carlos Beltran, and Mark Texeira can be heard creaking throughout the Bronx. Starlin Castro has emerged as a top-of-the-order hitter and fleet second baseman, but darkness has begun to descend. Can 1983 help, despite the fiasco of the pine tar game and the implosion of the Steinbrenner-Martin 're-re-re-re-marriage'? Don Baylor was the opening day DH, so that's something—and Ken Griffey, Sr., and a peaking Dave Winfield were in the lineup on Opening Day—but Don Mattingly wasn't yet in the everyday mix, which has augury written all over it—it hurts to say it, but the Yankees feel George Brett's wrath once more, and cellar-dwell.

The AL Central has been my milieu for the past two decades, and here the 1983 vibe is heavy, though 2016 has absolutely belonged to the White Sox thus far. Were it not for Jake Arrieta across town, Chris Sale would seem superhuman, and Jose Quintana is off to a great start. Melky Cabrera, Brett Lawrie, and Adam Eaton are slapping it around, but Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier got off to slow starts—though Frazier just drove in a bushel of runs and may be heating up with the weather. Can 1983 help them? Tony LaRussa was at the helm in those days of yore, with Jim Leyland by his side, in the umpteenth hideous uniform style in a row. The offense was pretty ugly back then too—Carlton Fisk basically led the team in everything, going .289/26/86, with 85 runs—but their pitchers were horses, with Lamar Hoyt going 24-10, and Dotson and Bannister combining for 38 more wins and 450 more innings to match Hoyt's 260. Pitching then and pitching now—a solid combination. But is there a single lowering cloud in the sky? Greg 'Bull' Luzinski as Opening Day DH in '83 … hmmmm. The Tigers are muddling along, three games below .500 and seven behind the Sox. Even upbeat and unparalleled radio play-by-play man Dan Dickerson, whose voice in my car or kitchen is part of our familial summer fabric, has let slip tattered phrases of despair on the performance of Mike Pelfrey, the off-season acquisition to shore up the rotation. But the arrival of Jordan Zimmerman from the Nationals has been revelatory, as he has been superb, balancing out the inconsistency of Justin Verlander and Anibal Sanchez. In an odd twist of fate, Miguel Cabrera has struggled with sliders and strikeouts and making good contact, while 3B Nick Castellanos, who used to flail at sliders, has become Cabrera-like. (Will the foul ball my son retrieved from the bat of the 18-year-old Castellanos during his season here with the Low A West Michigan Whitecaps someday be a cog in our family financial plan?!) Victor Martinez and Ian Kinsler are both experiencing veteran rejuvenation at the plate, and a glance back at 1983, the year before their World Championship, shows a Tigers team ready to bolster from the past. Whitaker and Trammell, purveyors of a million DP's together over the years, finished third and fourth in the batting race, at .320 and .319, while Lance Parrish and Larry Herndon provided some pop (Herndon was a strong .302/20/92 that year). Entering his peak moment, Jack Morris was 20-13, struck out 232, and shouldered a hair under 300 innings—a horse. But I have a concern, and his name is John Wockenfuss, DH on Opening Day of '83. Even if the 2016 bullpen stays strong, this blow from the past might be enough to take down the Tigers. I hope not, but I worry. Strangely, I'm not worried about Kansas City, World Champs but for the moment a mediocre team with pitching problems and, other than Eric Hosmer, sketchiness at the plate. Still, maybe I should worry. The 1983 factor, the 'ya gotta believe redux' factor in Kansas City, suggests that the ship will right itself. Willie Mays Aikens, Frank White, U.L. Washington, and George Brett—a solid infield, with Brett going .310/25/93, even with the pine tar HR stripped away, while the DH factor was strong, with Hal McRae hitting .311. The Royals will rise again. The Cleveland Indians will not rise, though they should—that rotation, with Carrasco, Kluber, and Salazar, is formidable, and the young DP combination of Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis can flat our field and flat out hit. But '83 revises me (to misquote Li Young-Lee)—Ron Hassey, Bake McBride, Manny Trillo—I'm not feeling it. Wait, Julio Franco opened the season at shortstop—isn't he still playing somewhere?! I like Rick Sutcliffe as the ace, but he ended up peaking for the Cubs. Toss in the DH factor, and you get a strong Christian force in MLB ranks in Andre Thornton—but is his big swing and high K total enough to carry the 2016 team. Not quite. The Twins are in deep, deep trouble, 17 games under .500 after an abysmal start. And no wonder—Kirby Puckett. The sparkplug of their '87 and '91 title runs had not yet been called up on Opening Day, and though several of the champion cogs were in place—Hrbek, Gaetti, Brunansky—the fact that Randy Bush was the starting DH bodes ill. Maybe Byron Buxton will get called back up to fulfill the destiny set for him as the next Puckett—but right now he's on a minor league bus, and the Twins will continue to struggle.

And hence we arrive in the AL West, with a great surprise in store, perhaps the ultimate surprise that 1983 holds (or would it be "held," or "will have held"—complexities of verb tense). This year's surprise is that the Mariners are leading the pack, though Robinson Cano's sweet swing is no surprise. With Nelson Cruz, the ageless free-agent, crushing 450 foot shots behind Cano in the lineup, the Mariners have discovered how to score. They already know how to pitch, with King Felix Hernandez and Taijuan Walker leading the way. There's bad news for the Pacific Northwest, though—1983 is not your friend. In a year when your twin pitching duo of Young and Beattie finished in the top 20 in ERA but were a collective 21-30, and when your best hitter might have been Al Cowens, things look slim. The DH factor is a non-factor—it was Richie Zisk (did anyone else of my age demographic seem to get three Richie Zisk cards in every pack?!). Seattle will fade in the long summer. The Rangers, well, I already stole their '83 magic by designating Rick Honeycutt's stats for assignment elsewhere, though they can keep Charlie Hough's 15-13 record with the league's fourth best ERA at 3.18. The issue of run support obviously surfaces, a point punctuated by Danny Darwin going 8-13 and Mike Smithson 10-14 that year, though both had ERA's under 4. The bats were 'led' by Buddy Bell and Larry Parrish—I think Jim Sundberg might have batted up in the order. The DH on Opening Day was one Hostetler—lost to history! This year they have a young RF, Nomar Mazara, hitting well, and the stellar Adrian Beltre joins Elvis Andrus around .300, but where's the power (Prince Fielder, I'm calling to you!)? Top-of-the-rotation excellence from A.J. Griffin and Derek Holland should keep them around, but not quite on top. And the reason for this is the LA Angels. This is my dark horse pick out of the West, though they are seven games below .500 right now. Why, you may ask? Is it the astronomical talent of Mike Trout or the Hall of Fame punch of Albert Pujols hitting behind him? Yes and Yes. The new table-setters in Yunel Escobar and Kole Calhoun? Double yes. The gritty rotation with Garret Richards anchoring? Yes. But it's really about '83. The California Angels didn't win it all that year, but they stacked the All-Star roster with no less than six personages (few of whom I primarily identify with the Angels, by the way): Bob Boone (defense first, clearly, since he hit .256 that year), Doug DeCinces, Rod Carew (a pedestrian, for him, .339 season), Fred Lynn, Brian Downing (re-inventing the open batting stance), Bruce Kison as the Opening Day pitcher and relative ace. And the DH on this squad? Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, a tad diminished, but still vicious on balls down and in. I like the 2016 Angels to finish the task their forebears could not—hurtling into the postseason as a juggernaut. Wait, I still have to deal with Oakland and Houston, two teams on the wrong side of .500. The Athletics are in a down phase; their best pitcher is Rich Hill, a thirtysomething journeyman who's barely pitched in the last 5 seasons, and their best hitter is Jed Lowrie. A glance at '83 shows a team in pre-'Bash Brothers' mode, with Davey Lopes, Carney Lansford, and Dave 'Hindu' Henderson as the lead-dogs. DH—big bopper Jeff Burroughs. Once hit four home runs in a game. But not a factor in this calculus. The A's take a plunge this year. But why has Houston flopped so far this year, after rising from squalor to the postseason last year, the darlings of developing young talent and putting it all together the 'right way'? Well, one thing is their swing-for-the-fences mentality. No one on the team is in the top 20 in the AL in batting average, and their best young players, George Springer and Carlos Correa (both five-tool phenoms), are struggling to make contact. Plus, the pitching, a strong suit last season, has slid a bit—Dallas Keuchel is a legitimate ace, but will Doug Fister work out, or the almost but not yet Collin McHugh? But let's be frank—the real problem is found when we cross the years and the leagues and locate the 1983 Houston Astros in the NL West. At first, the journey yields great promise—Jose Cruz was third in the NL in batting, with a stellar .318/14/92 line, and two notches down, the counterintuitive presence of Ray Knight (he was the Astro's first baseman?!) hitting .304 with 36 doubles seems to swell the possibilities. Don't forget Dickie Thon, before the brutal beaning that damaged his vision, hitting .284, scoring 81 runs and stealing 34 bases. There's a lot of energy here, so why can't Astros resurge in 2016? I will attribute my angst to the switch of leagues—with no DH, no matter how obscure, to infuse energy from afar, the wheels come off. Even a saving throw of Terry Puhl, with his perennial league-leading pinch hits, can't salvage the season for Houston.

So what do we have here? The postseason will begin in the AL with the hateful and confusing one-game wildcard between Baltimore and Detroit, and before Cal Ripken can be summoned to show his hoary, tonsured head to the crowd to summon the old championship magic, the Tigers will dispatch the Orioles, moving out west to take on the shocking Angels. Meantime, the two Sox will battle, with the Red Sox riding David Ortiz's wizened playoff wizardry to a seventh-game showdown with the White Sox in a frenzied Southside Chicago. Look for one of the three Tigers castaways—Alex Avila, Avisail Garcia, or most likely Austin Jackson—to play a crucial role in felling Boston. The White Sox have the vibe, and the pilgrim-collared uniforms of '83 might re-appear (but not the short pants, please!). The Angels will batter the Tigers faster than you can spell 'DeCinces,' as Detroit continues its long-term struggles in Southern California, and then the icy winds will descend on Chicago, as the Angels shiver and slip through sleet, slashing at Sale's sliders (Gerard Manley Hopkins finally makes it to the ballpark!). The White Sox will scratch and claw in the bad weather, then erupt on the Angels home field, but mighty Pujols and the leaping Trout will hold serve, and back at what was once Comiskey, in a Game Seven played in autumnal chill, with Bobby Grich present in the crowd, the Angels will earn the right to play for the World's Championship, with Jered Weaver matching Chris Sale pitch by gangly pitch, for ten innings, until Pujols quiets the crowd with a slider deposited deep in left-center. '83.

In the NL, the Cardinals surge, and no matter what I said before, they make the wildcard and clash with the Pittsburgh (Lee Mazilli, I've decided you did make the difference!)—the Cardinals emerge swinging bats and punches, ready for the rival Cubs, while the Nationals and the Dodgers cross the country to cross swords. The Cubs will be ready, emotionally and baseball-wise, to take down their longtime foe, as Arrieta provides a Bob Gibson-esque lesson in sustained postseason dominance, and Kyle Schwarber miraculously returns ahead of schedule from his ACL tear for one limping, Kirk Gibson-esque late home run. Wrigley will be electric, and twice Chicago will host games in the north and south sides on the same night—a vigor for the windy city not felt in the baseball world since a century ago. The Nationals will ride the Francophonic winds of Montreal mystique straight through the hearts of the Dodger fans, with an NLDS sweep that leaves an old refrain migrating west from Brooklyn to L.A.: 'Wait until next year'—and wait until $250 million on the payroll! Gio Gonzalez, Strasburg, Roark, Scherzer—this rotation is formidable and will be at its strongest when the Cubs come to town. Strength on strength, mano a mano, a Strasburg heater cutting in on Rizzo's hands, Arrieta 3-2 on Bryce Harper, an NLCS for the ages, with ghosts and echoes and tintinnabulations resounding through D.C. and the Northside. Back and forth, until Arrieta and Scherzer meet in Game Seven, in Wrigley, the World Series a few hours away. Steve Bartman in exile, the curse of the billy goat exorcised, the futility of the both sets of Washington Senators now rescinding, and then Jayson Werth twists all 6'5" into a fastball and the Cubs dreams must wait another year. The El-Series, the ChiTown Twinbill, the Cubs-White Sox miracle series, will have to wait for another year.

Washington vs. Anaheim—not phrasing to stir the hearts of the baseball faithful—but many of us should fault our younger selves, or our parents' generation, for stocking the ranks of the 1983 All-Star Game with Angels and Expos. I say the World Series is a denouement. Dusty Baker and Mike Scioscia shake off the nostalgic dust of Dodgers glory, of teammate bonding, and stare each other down from the dugout steps. Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, neither yet eligible to serve in the House of Representatives or, according to T. S. Eliot, to pursue the title of poet (in both cases, one must be 25 years old), will shine like blazing young stars. Speaking of blazing, Strasburg will bring all his vast heat to bear. Nationals in five. Two complete games for Strasburg. Bob Gibson in the stands, smiling. Tim McCarver on the radio, reminiscing. Chicago baseball fans, not watching, not listening, not caring. Until next season.

Michael R. Stevens is professor of English at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Each of our regular critics came up with a list of "best" films in categories of their own choosing, and we'll be running them over the next week. These aren't necessarily the year's best films, nor even the best movies these critics saw all year—just a sampling of the riches of 2013. We hope you'll find something to love.

Annapurna Pictures

Best Movie With Theological ResonanceHer (Rated R for language, sexual content, and brief nudity)

This is tied with the last film on this list for my favorite movie of the year, and when I saw it a second time this week, I realized that it's far more complex than it appears on the surface, with thought-provoking themes about love and friendship, technology and media, reality and artifice, and more. But it's okay, because the story sweeps you along the first time through and leaves you breathless. Brett McCracken's excellent review for CT points out the theological resonances, particularly regarding incarnation, and I blogged a little more about some of the interesting bits I noticed the second time around. (No spoilers in either of these, of course!)

Most Heartbreaking MovieThe Spectacular Now (Rated R for alcohol use, language, and some sexuality)

This movie flew under my radar and I wasn't going to cover it at all, until my husband sat me down and made me watch the trailer—and Shailene Woodley (who will be starring in Divergent next year and, I think, is the next Jennifer Lawrence) sold me on it. After I saw the film (and sniffled a bit at the end), I found out it was based on an equally excellent YA novel, and the adaptation is particularly well done. The film is also notable for how it deals with one (teen) character's high-functioning alcoholism. And though it's ultimately a life- and love-affirming film, it dwells on how we hurt one another with our choices—friends, lovers, and children alike. (Alissa's review for CT.)

Best Post-Mumblecore Film (and Best Answer to When Harry Met Sally)Drinking Buddies (Rated R for language throughout)

Though Frances Ha probably could have easily taken this category, I think, in the end, that I like Drinking Buddies a little more. Mumblecore, in case you never encountered it (and that's pretty likely, since it wasn't so easy to watch) was a school of filmmaking in the last decade or so that featured a lot of improvisation, low budgets, naturalistic dialogue, and amateur actors—sort of like the French New Wave without most of the social commentary.

Drinking Buddies stars professional actors you have heard of—Olivia Wilde and Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston and Jake Johnson (aka Nick from New Girl)—but it's directed by Joe Swanberg, one of mumblecore's princes, and boasts the best parts of the genre. That is, it's about relationships among vaguely hipster-y urban twentysomethings, and about navigating the world we live in today. The acting feels natural; it's the sort of movie where you think they had fun making it. Two of the characters, in particular (who work together at a microbrewery) have to confront the age-old question of whether men and women can be friends, especially when it seems like they're perfect for each other. It's also about whether commitment makes us happier. The answers might surprise you.

IFC Films

Best Repackaging of the Bonnie & Clyde MythAin't Them Bodies Saints (Rated R for some violence)

I'll admit that this wasn't high on my list when I first saw it (partially because the screening I was in involved a major technical snafu in the middle), but I find that the measure of a good film is often whether I'm still talking and thinking about it months later—and with this one, I am. It's particularly notable for how it treats the Bonnie and Clyde-style story: rather than glorify it or revel in their violence, it shows all the ways that their life of crime led to sorrow, while also focusing on the strength of love between a husband and wife. We ran an in-depth profile of director David Lowery this summer and discovered there are both cinematic and Biblical resonances intentionally planted throughout the visually poetic film. And I'll watch nearly anything that stars Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, and Rooney Mara.

The Movie I'll Watch Over and Over AgainInside Llewyn Davis (Rated R for language, including sexual references)

I love this movie. I love it so much that it was a nightmare to write about it, and I wished I had much more time to think about it. It richly rewards a rewatching, and its soundtrack is superb; even if you don't want to see the film, you'll like the soundtrack if you like folk at all—it's got folk legends on it, including Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, and also some of our best new guys, like Marcus Mumford and Punch Brothers (the band where Nickel Creek's genius mandolinist Chris Thile now plays) and the film's star, Oscar Isaac, who turns in unbelievable performances both as an actor and as a singer.

But really, what Inside Llewyn Davis does for me is remind me first that the work of making things is hard, that we can't predict the future, that the best thing to wish for is to keep good company on our journey. And maybe a cat. (Alissa's review for CT.)

The One Movie I Wish Everyone Would SeeShort Term 12 (Rated R for language and brief sexuality)

I really did not expect to like this movie when I went to the screening; all I knew was that it was low budget and about a foster care facility for teens, which didn't sound like something I wanted to see at 10 in the morning on a sunny summer day.

Turns out this is one of the best films I saw all year, starring the prolific Brie Larson (who was also in The Spectacular Now) and John Gallagher Jr. (from The Newsroom). Writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton originally wrote this as a short film that was nominated for a Student Academy Award, then won a fellowship from the Academy to develop it into a full-length movie. The result—which can be hard to watch, since it's about kids whose parents utterly failed them—is nothing short of stunning, and I haven't stopped collaring people and telling them to see this movie all year. You'll just have to read my review for the rest.

Alissa Wilkinson is Christianity Today's chief film critic and assistant professor of English and humanities at The King's College in New York City. She tweets at @alissamarie. Her full top ten list is on Letterboxd.

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