Books
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir
In Where the Light Fell, I reveal the details of my impoverished upbringing in the South and a secret that set me on a search to understand the truth of my family and the culture in which I was raised. It’s a kind of prequel to everything else I’ve written, the story of my widowed mother finding security and purpose in a strict fundamentalist faith that fought against everything: integration, Communism, the social changes of the 1960s, her wayward sons. By reading this previously untold story, you’ll understand why my books have so often centered on the themes of suffering and grace.
Undone: A Modern Rendering of John Donne’s Devotions
In 2020, as the world entered a long dark night of the soul, I returned to a nearly 400-year-old manuscript for guidance. In it, I found a trustworthy companion for living through a pandemic ̶ or any other crisis. The words leaped out at me from the very first page of John Donne’s Devotions…nothing had prepared me for his raw account of confrontations with God.
What Went Wrong?: Russia’s Lost Opportunity and the Path to Ukraine
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a tumultuous period for Russia and Ukraine. The Soviet Union broke apart, Communism was exposed as morally bankrupt, and Russian leaders turned to the West for help. In an astonishing development, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin invited a group of American evangelicals to give advice on restoring morality to Russia. The nation was moving toward democratic and religious freedoms until, one decade later, Vladimir Putin abruptly reversed course.
What’s So Amazing About Grace?
I had originally conceived a book called What’s So Amazing About Grace and Why Don’t Christians Show More of It? in order to speak to the growing enchantment of American Christians with right-wing politics. Christians were becoming known mainly for what they were against: pornography, homosexuality, abortion, etc. That disturbed me, as I see grace as one of the great, often untapped, powers of the universe that God has asked us to set loose.
Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image
We live in divided times. Politically, racially, and religiously, the United States is experiencing a severe strain on its unity. Similar factiousness has spread around the world. Although Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and its sequel, In His Image were published over 30 years ago, we still have much to learn from Dr. Paul Brand. This fascinating man studied medicine during World War II, when virtually the entire world was at arms. He then began his medical career during a cataclysmic event in India that caused more than a million deaths and created fourteen million refugees. Brand’s insights come not as sermons, but as observations of how cells work together in community and what we can learn from them.
The Jesus I Never Knew
How does the Jesus of the New Testament compare to the “new, rediscovered” Jesus—or even the Jesus we think we know so well? Thousands of books have been written about Jesus, and yet still he remains an elusive historical figure. For several years I taught a class on Jesus that relied on movie depictions of his life. Out of that class came this book, for teaching it gave me a new and different perspective on his work—his teachings, his miracles, his death and resurrection—and ultimately, who he was and why he came. In this book I emphasize the relational and personal rather than the scholarly.
Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World
“Why does the church stir up such negative feelings?” I have found that this question is more relevant now than ever. In a twenty-year span starting in the mid-nineties, research shows that favorable opinions of Christianity have plummeted drastically—and opinions of Evangelicals have taken even deeper dives. Yet while the opinions about Christianity are dropping, interest in spirituality is rising. Why the disconnect? Why are so many asking, “What’s so good about the Good News?”?
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
Prayer can be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery. I probe such questions as: Is God listening? Why should God care about me? If God knows everything, what’s the point of prayer? How can I make prayer more satisfying? Why do so many prayers go unanswered? Do prayers for healing really matter? Does prayer change God? I began with a list of such questions, then I studied all 650 prayers in the Bible and interviewed scores of people about their own experiences with prayer.
Disappointment with God
After writing one of my first books, Where Is God When It Hurts, I got letters from readers who said something like this: “Thanks for your reflections on physical pain. My situation is different, though. My child has severe disabilities, and I face a constant battle with depression. Prayer doesn’t seem to help my emotional pain. When it comes to God, I feel something like betrayal.” I settle on three questions, “Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden?” and scour the Bible methodically, looking for clues.
Where Is God When It Hurts?
As I look back on my first real book, I shudder that I had the audacity to tackle one of the most daunting theological questions, the problem of pain, in my late twenties. Yet suffering was one of the impediments to my faith, and it poses questions that confront all of us at some point. This was a book I could not not write. Thirteen years after its initial publication, I went back and revised it in view of all I had learned since.
The Question That Never Goes Away
Where is God when it hurts? That question formed the title of my first real book, more than 30 years ago. In 2012 I was asked to speak on this topic in three places of great suffering: in Japan, for the one-year anniversary of the tsunami that killed 20,000; in Sarajevo, which endured the longest siege in modern warfare; and in Newtown, Connecticut, a town in sorrow after a gunman killed 20 school children at Sandy Hook.
The Gift of Pain
The Gift of Pain tells the story of my coauthor Dr. Paul Brand, a renowned British surgeon who discovered that painlessness is the root cause of the damage leprosy patients incur. He led the most fascinating life of anyone I’ve ever interviewed. Pain is not something that most of us would count as a blessing. However, Dr. Paul Brand’s work with leprosy patients in India and the United States convinced him that pain truly is one of God’s great gifts to us.
Soul Survivor
Sometimes I’m asked, “What is your favorite, of the books you’ve written?” Each time I point to this one. Why? I got to write about my heroes, some of the people who have most deeply affected me. Everyone should have the opportunity to write a book about their heroes!
A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith
In A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith, previously titled Rumors of Another World, I write: “I am where you are . . . an ordinary person trying to figure things out. I love, I experience beauty and pain, my friends die, I weep, I live. And as I live I try to figure out if there is a God, and what difference would that make . . . This book comes out of my own search and is written on behalf of those who live outside of belief—that borderlands region between belief and unbelief.” In this book I attempt to explain why I believe, keeping in mind a person who does not share my faith.
What Good Is God?
The idea for the book came to me in late November 2008 as the plane I was traveling in took off from the Mumbai, India, airport. I had been scheduled to speak on a book tour downtown the very night terrorists attacked the Taj Mahal Hotel and ten different sites, killing 165 people. The city went under lockdown and we had to cancel the scheduled event. Instead I spoke at an impromptu service at a small church in the suburbs in an atmosphere clouded with fear and grief.
Reaching For The Invisible God
My most personal and introspective book, this one explores times of doubt, silence, and confusion that occur in the Christian life, and gives practical hints on how to cope with the inevitable problems that arise in a relationship with a God who is invisible. It serves as a kind of sequel to Disappointment with God.
The Bible Jesus Read
Like most Christians, I have been baffled and disturbed by parts of the Old Testament. Its books comprise the majority of the Christian Bible, but how should we read them? I select sample books (Deuteronomy, Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Prophets) and describe how I have struggled and then come to terms with each. In the process my own understanding of and appreciation for the Old Testament undergoes a startling change.
Church: Why Bother?
This short book addresses a question that seems more and more widespread. How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m spiritual but not religious”? Churches are morphing into new forms–emergent churches, shopping mall churches, megachurches–yet surveys show that an increasing number of believers are opting out altogether. Is involvement with a local church really that important?
Finding God in Unexpected Places
This book, more than any other, reflects my career as a roving journalist. (A journalist is a generalist, someone who knows a little about many things but not a lot about any one thing.) It has short chapters based in a variety of settings from around the world. I investigate such varied topics as polar bears, sex surveys, Shakespeare, South American prisons, fund-raising appeals, and lousy praise music–basically, anything I felt like writing about at the time.
I Was Just Wondering
In this book I write on a diverse range of topics that touch on the fields of history, science, religion, ethics, and more. It came about after I wrote a column in Christianity Today magazine consisting of questions sparked by reading the novelist Walker Percy. I’ve always felt more comfortable with questions than answers.
Grace Notes: 366 Daily Inspirations from a Fellow Pilgrim
Grace Notes collects 366 daily readings from my books and articles, and travel reports. Each entry takes only a few minutes to read. Together, the readings communicate my understanding of God, the world, and faith. I hope they especially speak to the disillusioned, doubters, sufferers, and out-of-the-mold believers.
The NIV Student Bible
In a research project, my colleague Tim Stafford and I discovered that although many people have a high view of the Bible and want to read it, often they never get around to it? Why not? We identified three major reasons, and designed a Bible with notes that addresses the three most common complaints.
Meet The Bible
For three years my colleague Tim Stafford and I worked on an edition of the Bible known as The Student Bible, which we dubbed “a study Bible for people who would never use a study Bible.” Those months of immersion in the Bible nourished the soil for all of my future writing. This book sets out a daily reading program of Bible highlights, drawn from my notes in The Student Bible and additional notes written by Brenda Quinn.
What Went Wrong?: Russia’s Lost Opportunity and the Path to Ukraine
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a tumultuous period for Russia and Ukraine. The Soviet Union broke apart, Communism was exposed as morally bankrupt, and Russian leaders turned to the West for help. In an astonishing development, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin invited a group of American evangelicals to give advice on restoring morality to Russia. The nation was moving toward democratic and religious freedoms until, one decade later, Vladimir Putin abruptly reversed course.
Undone: A Modern Rendering of John Donne’s Devotions
In 2020, as the world entered a long dark night of the soul, I returned to a nearly 400-year-old manuscript for guidance. In it, I found a trustworthy companion for living through a pandemic ̶ or any other crisis. The words leaped out at me from the very first page of John Donne’s Devotions…nothing had prepared me for his raw account of confrontations with God.
What’s So Amazing About Grace?
I had originally conceived a book called What’s So Amazing About Grace and Why Don’t Christians Show More of It? in order to speak to the growing enchantment of American Christians with right-wing politics. Christians were becoming known mainly for what they were against: pornography, homosexuality, abortion, etc. That disturbed me, as I see grace as one of the great, often untapped, powers of the universe that God has asked us to set loose.
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir
In Where the Light Fell, I reveal the details of my impoverished upbringing in the South and a secret that set me on a search to understand the truth of my family and the culture in which I was raised. It’s a kind of prequel to everything else I’ve written, the story of my widowed mother finding security and purpose in a strict fundamentalist faith that fought against everything: integration, Communism, the social changes of the 1960s, her wayward sons. By reading this previously untold story, you’ll understand why my books have so often centered on the themes of suffering and grace.
Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image
We live in divided times. Politically, racially, and religiously, the United States is experiencing a severe strain on its unity. Similar factiousness has spread around the world. Although Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and its sequel, In His Image were published over 30 years ago, we still have much to learn from Dr. Paul Brand. This fascinating man studied medicine during World War II, when virtually the entire world was at arms. He then began his medical career during a cataclysmic event in India that caused more than a million deaths and created fourteen million refugees. Brand’s insights come not as sermons, but as observations of how cells work together in community and what we can learn from them.
Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World
“Why does the church stir up such negative feelings?” I have found that this question is more relevant now than ever. In a twenty-year span starting in the mid-nineties, research shows that favorable opinions of Christianity have plummeted drastically—and opinions of Evangelicals have taken even deeper dives. Yet while the opinions about Christianity are dropping, interest in spirituality is rising. Why the disconnect? Why are so many asking, “What’s so good about the Good News?”?
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
Prayer can be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery. I probe such questions as: Is God listening? Why should God care about me? If God knows everything, what’s the point of prayer? How can I make prayer more satisfying? Why do so many prayers go unanswered? Do prayers for healing really matter? Does prayer change God? I began with a list of such questions, then I studied all 650 prayers in the Bible and interviewed scores of people about their own experiences with prayer.
The Jesus I Never Knew
How does the Jesus of the New Testament compare to the “new, rediscovered” Jesus—or even the Jesus we think we know so well? Thousands of books have been written about Jesus, and yet still he remains an elusive historical figure. For several years I taught a class on Jesus that relied on movie depictions of his life. Out of that class came this book, for teaching it gave me a new and different perspective on his work—his teachings, his miracles, his death and resurrection—and ultimately, who he was and why he came. In this book I emphasize the relational and personal rather than the scholarly.
Disappointment with God
After writing one of my first books, Where Is God When It Hurts, I got letters from readers who said something like this: “Thanks for your reflections on physical pain. My situation is different, though. My child has severe disabilities, and I face a constant battle with depression. Prayer doesn’t seem to help my emotional pain. When it comes to God, I feel something like betrayal.” I settle on three questions, “Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden?” and scour the Bible methodically, looking for clues.
Where Is God When It Hurts?
As I look back on my first real book, I shudder that I had the audacity to tackle one of the most daunting theological questions, the problem of pain, in my late twenties. Yet suffering was one of the impediments to my faith, and it poses questions that confront all of us at some point. This was a book I could not not write. Thirteen years after its initial publication, I went back and revised it in view of all I had learned since.
The Gift of Pain
The Gift of Pain tells the story of my coauthor Dr. Paul Brand, a renowned British surgeon who discovered that painlessness is the root cause of the damage leprosy patients incur. He led the most fascinating life of anyone I’ve ever interviewed. Pain is not something that most of us would count as a blessing. However, Dr. Paul Brand’s work with leprosy patients in India and the United States convinced him that pain truly is one of God’s great gifts to us.
The Question That Never Goes Away
Where is God when it hurts? That question formed the title of my first real book, more than 30 years ago. In 2012 I was asked to speak on this topic in three places of great suffering: in Japan, for the one-year anniversary of the tsunami that killed 20,000; in Sarajevo, which endured the longest siege in modern warfare; and in Newtown, Connecticut, a town in sorrow after a gunman killed 20 school children at Sandy Hook.
What Good Is God?
The idea for the book came to me in late November 2008 as the plane I was traveling in took off from the Mumbai, India, airport. I had been scheduled to speak on a book tour downtown the very night terrorists attacked the Taj Mahal Hotel and ten different sites, killing 165 people. The city went under lockdown and we had to cancel the scheduled event. Instead I spoke at an impromptu service at a small church in the suburbs in an atmosphere clouded with fear and grief.
Grace Notes: 366 Daily Inspirations from a Fellow Pilgrim
Grace Notes collects 366 daily readings from my books and articles, and travel reports. Each entry takes only a few minutes to read. Together, the readings communicate my understanding of God, the world, and faith. I hope they especially speak to the disillusioned, doubters, sufferers, and out-of-the-mold believers.
A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith
In A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith, previously titled Rumors of Another World, I write: “I am where you are . . . an ordinary person trying to figure things out. I love, I experience beauty and pain, my friends die, I weep, I live. And as I live I try to figure out if there is a God, and what difference would that make . . . This book comes out of my own search and is written on behalf of those who live outside of belief—that borderlands region between belief and unbelief.” In this book I attempt to explain why I believe, keeping in mind a person who does not share my faith.
Soul Survivor
Sometimes I’m asked, “What is your favorite, of the books you’ve written?” Each time I point to this one. Why? I got to write about my heroes, some of the people who have most deeply affected me. Everyone should have the opportunity to write a book about their heroes!
Reaching For The Invisible God
My most personal and introspective book, this one explores times of doubt, silence, and confusion that occur in the Christian life, and gives practical hints on how to cope with the inevitable problems that arise in a relationship with a God who is invisible. It serves as a kind of sequel to Disappointment with God.
Meet The Bible
For three years my colleague Tim Stafford and I worked on an edition of the Bible known as The Student Bible, which we dubbed “a study Bible for people who would never use a study Bible.” Those months of immersion in the Bible nourished the soil for all of my future writing. This book sets out a daily reading program of Bible highlights, drawn from my notes in The Student Bible and additional notes written by Brenda Quinn.
The Bible Jesus Read
Like most Christians, I have been baffled and disturbed by parts of the Old Testament. Its books comprise the majority of the Christian Bible, but how should we read them? I select sample books (Deuteronomy, Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Prophets) and describe how I have struggled and then come to terms with each. In the process my own understanding of and appreciation for the Old Testament undergoes a startling change.
Church: Why Bother?
This short book addresses a question that seems more and more widespread. How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m spiritual but not religious”? Churches are morphing into new forms–emergent churches, shopping mall churches, megachurches–yet surveys show that an increasing number of believers are opting out altogether. Is involvement with a local church really that important?
Finding God in Unexpected Places
This book, more than any other, reflects my career as a roving journalist. (A journalist is a generalist, someone who knows a little about many things but not a lot about any one thing.) It has short chapters based in a variety of settings from around the world. I investigate such varied topics as polar bears, sex surveys, Shakespeare, South American prisons, fund-raising appeals, and lousy praise music–basically, anything I felt like writing about at the time.
I Was Just Wondering
In this book I write on a diverse range of topics that touch on the fields of history, science, religion, ethics, and more. It came about after I wrote a column in Christianity Today magazine consisting of questions sparked by reading the novelist Walker Percy. I’ve always felt more comfortable with questions than answers.
The NIV Student Bible
In a research project, my colleague Tim Stafford and I discovered that although many people have a high view of the Bible and want to read it, often they never get around to it? Why not? We identified three major reasons, and designed a Bible with notes that addresses the three most common complaints.
The Bible Jesus Read
Like most Christians, I have been baffled and disturbed by parts of the Old Testament. Its books comprise the majority of the Christian Bible, but how should we read them? I select sample books (Deuteronomy, Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Prophets) and describe how I have struggled and then come to terms with each. In the process my own understanding of and appreciation for the Old Testament undergoes a startling change.
Church: Why Bother?
This short book addresses a question that seems more and more widespread. How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m spiritual but not religious”? Churches are morphing into new forms–emergent churches, shopping mall churches, megachurches–yet surveys show that an increasing number of believers are opting out altogether. Is involvement with a local church really that important?
Disappointment with God
After writing one of my first books, Where Is God When It Hurts, I got letters from readers who said something like this: “Thanks for your reflections on physical pain. My situation is different, though. My child has severe disabilities, and I face a constant battle with depression. Prayer doesn’t seem to help my emotional pain. When it comes to God, I feel something like betrayal.” I settle on three questions, “Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden?” and scour the Bible methodically, looking for clues.
Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image
We live in divided times. Politically, racially, and religiously, the United States is experiencing a severe strain on its unity. Similar factiousness has spread around the world. Although Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and its sequel, In His Image were published over 30 years ago, we still have much to learn from Dr. Paul Brand. This fascinating man studied medicine during World War II, when virtually the entire world was at arms. He then began his medical career during a cataclysmic event in India that caused more than a million deaths and created fourteen million refugees. Brand’s insights come not as sermons, but as observations of how cells work together in community and what we can learn from them.
Finding God in Unexpected Places
This book, more than any other, reflects my career as a roving journalist. (A journalist is a generalist, someone who knows a little about many things but not a lot about any one thing.) It has short chapters based in a variety of settings from around the world. I investigate such varied topics as polar bears, sex surveys, Shakespeare, South American prisons, fund-raising appeals, and lousy praise music–basically, anything I felt like writing about at the time.
The Gift of Pain
The Gift of Pain tells the story of my coauthor Dr. Paul Brand, a renowned British surgeon who discovered that painlessness is the root cause of the damage leprosy patients incur. He led the most fascinating life of anyone I’ve ever interviewed. Pain is not something that most of us would count as a blessing. However, Dr. Paul Brand’s work with leprosy patients in India and the United States convinced him that pain truly is one of God’s great gifts to us.
Grace Notes: 366 Daily Inspirations from a Fellow Pilgrim
Grace Notes collects 366 daily readings from my books and articles, and travel reports. Each entry takes only a few minutes to read. Together, the readings communicate my understanding of God, the world, and faith. I hope they especially speak to the disillusioned, doubters, sufferers, and out-of-the-mold believers.
I Was Just Wondering
In this book I write on a diverse range of topics that touch on the fields of history, science, religion, ethics, and more. It came about after I wrote a column in Christianity Today magazine consisting of questions sparked by reading the novelist Walker Percy. I’ve always felt more comfortable with questions than answers.
The Jesus I Never Knew
How does the Jesus of the New Testament compare to the “new, rediscovered” Jesus—or even the Jesus we think we know so well? Thousands of books have been written about Jesus, and yet still he remains an elusive historical figure. For several years I taught a class on Jesus that relied on movie depictions of his life. Out of that class came this book, for teaching it gave me a new and different perspective on his work—his teachings, his miracles, his death and resurrection—and ultimately, who he was and why he came. In this book I emphasize the relational and personal rather than the scholarly.
Meet The Bible
For three years my colleague Tim Stafford and I worked on an edition of the Bible known as The Student Bible, which we dubbed “a study Bible for people who would never use a study Bible.” Those months of immersion in the Bible nourished the soil for all of my future writing. This book sets out a daily reading program of Bible highlights, drawn from my notes in The Student Bible and additional notes written by Brenda Quinn.
The NIV Student Bible
In a research project, my colleague Tim Stafford and I discovered that although many people have a high view of the Bible and want to read it, often they never get around to it? Why not? We identified three major reasons, and designed a Bible with notes that addresses the three most common complaints.
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
Prayer can be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery. I probe such questions as: Is God listening? Why should God care about me? If God knows everything, what’s the point of prayer? How can I make prayer more satisfying? Why do so many prayers go unanswered? Do prayers for healing really matter? Does prayer change God? I began with a list of such questions, then I studied all 650 prayers in the Bible and interviewed scores of people about their own experiences with prayer.
The Question That Never Goes Away
Where is God when it hurts? That question formed the title of my first real book, more than 30 years ago. In 2012 I was asked to speak on this topic in three places of great suffering: in Japan, for the one-year anniversary of the tsunami that killed 20,000; in Sarajevo, which endured the longest siege in modern warfare; and in Newtown, Connecticut, a town in sorrow after a gunman killed 20 school children at Sandy Hook.
Reaching For The Invisible God
My most personal and introspective book, this one explores times of doubt, silence, and confusion that occur in the Christian life, and gives practical hints on how to cope with the inevitable problems that arise in a relationship with a God who is invisible. It serves as a kind of sequel to Disappointment with God.
A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith
In A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith, previously titled Rumors of Another World, I write: “I am where you are . . . an ordinary person trying to figure things out. I love, I experience beauty and pain, my friends die, I weep, I live. And as I live I try to figure out if there is a God, and what difference would that make . . . This book comes out of my own search and is written on behalf of those who live outside of belief—that borderlands region between belief and unbelief.” In this book I attempt to explain why I believe, keeping in mind a person who does not share my faith.
Soul Survivor
Sometimes I’m asked, “What is your favorite, of the books you’ve written?” Each time I point to this one. Why? I got to write about my heroes, some of the people who have most deeply affected me. Everyone should have the opportunity to write a book about their heroes!
Undone: A Modern Rendering of John Donne’s Devotions
In 2020, as the world entered a long dark night of the soul, I returned to a nearly 400-year-old manuscript for guidance. In it, I found a trustworthy companion for living through a pandemic ̶ or any other crisis. The words leaped out at me from the very first page of John Donne’s Devotions…nothing had prepared me for his raw account of confrontations with God.
Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World
“Why does the church stir up such negative feelings?” I have found that this question is more relevant now than ever. In a twenty-year span starting in the mid-nineties, research shows that favorable opinions of Christianity have plummeted drastically—and opinions of Evangelicals have taken even deeper dives. Yet while the opinions about Christianity are dropping, interest in spirituality is rising. Why the disconnect? Why are so many asking, “What’s so good about the Good News?”?
What Good Is God?
The idea for the book came to me in late November 2008 as the plane I was traveling in took off from the Mumbai, India, airport. I had been scheduled to speak on a book tour downtown the very night terrorists attacked the Taj Mahal Hotel and ten different sites, killing 165 people. The city went under lockdown and we had to cancel the scheduled event. Instead I spoke at an impromptu service at a small church in the suburbs in an atmosphere clouded with fear and grief.
What Went Wrong?: Russia’s Lost Opportunity and the Path to Ukraine
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a tumultuous period for Russia and Ukraine. The Soviet Union broke apart, Communism was exposed as morally bankrupt, and Russian leaders turned to the West for help. In an astonishing development, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin invited a group of American evangelicals to give advice on restoring morality to Russia. The nation was moving toward democratic and religious freedoms until, one decade later, Vladimir Putin abruptly reversed course.
What’s So Amazing About Grace?
I had originally conceived a book called What’s So Amazing About Grace and Why Don’t Christians Show More of It? in order to speak to the growing enchantment of American Christians with right-wing politics. Christians were becoming known mainly for what they were against: pornography, homosexuality, abortion, etc. That disturbed me, as I see grace as one of the great, often untapped, powers of the universe that God has asked us to set loose.
Where Is God When It Hurts?
As I look back on my first real book, I shudder that I had the audacity to tackle one of the most daunting theological questions, the problem of pain, in my late twenties. Yet suffering was one of the impediments to my faith, and it poses questions that confront all of us at some point. This was a book I could not not write. Thirteen years after its initial publication, I went back and revised it in view of all I had learned since.
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir
In Where the Light Fell, I reveal the details of my impoverished upbringing in the South and a secret that set me on a search to understand the truth of my family and the culture in which I was raised. It’s a kind of prequel to everything else I’ve written, the story of my widowed mother finding security and purpose in a strict fundamentalist faith that fought against everything: integration, Communism, the social changes of the 1960s, her wayward sons. By reading this previously untold story, you’ll understand why my books have so often centered on the themes of suffering and grace.
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir
In Where the Light Fell, I reveal the details of my impoverished upbringing in the South and a secret that set me on a search to understand the truth of my family and the culture in which I was raised. It’s a kind of prequel to everything else I’ve written, the story of my widowed mother finding security and purpose in a strict fundamentalist faith that fought against everything: integration, Communism, the social changes of the 1960s, her wayward sons. By reading this previously untold story, you’ll understand why my books have so often centered on the themes of suffering and grace.
Where Is God When It Hurts?
As I look back on my first real book, I shudder that I had the audacity to tackle one of the most daunting theological questions, the problem of pain, in my late twenties. Yet suffering was one of the impediments to my faith, and it poses questions that confront all of us at some point. This was a book I could not not write. Thirteen years after its initial publication, I went back and revised it in view of all I had learned since.
What’s So Amazing About Grace?
I had originally conceived a book called What’s So Amazing About Grace and Why Don’t Christians Show More of It? in order to speak to the growing enchantment of American Christians with right-wing politics. Christians were becoming known mainly for what they were against: pornography, homosexuality, abortion, etc. That disturbed me, as I see grace as one of the great, often untapped, powers of the universe that God has asked us to set loose.
What Went Wrong?: Russia’s Lost Opportunity and the Path to Ukraine
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a tumultuous period for Russia and Ukraine. The Soviet Union broke apart, Communism was exposed as morally bankrupt, and Russian leaders turned to the West for help. In an astonishing development, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin invited a group of American evangelicals to give advice on restoring morality to Russia. The nation was moving toward democratic and religious freedoms until, one decade later, Vladimir Putin abruptly reversed course.
What Good Is God?
The idea for the book came to me in late November 2008 as the plane I was traveling in took off from the Mumbai, India, airport. I had been scheduled to speak on a book tour downtown the very night terrorists attacked the Taj Mahal Hotel and ten different sites, killing 165 people. The city went under lockdown and we had to cancel the scheduled event. Instead I spoke at an impromptu service at a small church in the suburbs in an atmosphere clouded with fear and grief.
Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World
“Why does the church stir up such negative feelings?” I have found that this question is more relevant now than ever. In a twenty-year span starting in the mid-nineties, research shows that favorable opinions of Christianity have plummeted drastically—and opinions of Evangelicals have taken even deeper dives. Yet while the opinions about Christianity are dropping, interest in spirituality is rising. Why the disconnect? Why are so many asking, “What’s so good about the Good News?”?
Undone: A Modern Rendering of John Donne’s Devotions
In 2020, as the world entered a long dark night of the soul, I returned to a nearly 400-year-old manuscript for guidance. In it, I found a trustworthy companion for living through a pandemic ̶ or any other crisis. The words leaped out at me from the very first page of John Donne’s Devotions…nothing had prepared me for his raw account of confrontations with God.
Soul Survivor
Sometimes I’m asked, “What is your favorite, of the books you’ve written?” Each time I point to this one. Why? I got to write about my heroes, some of the people who have most deeply affected me. Everyone should have the opportunity to write a book about their heroes!
A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith
In A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith, previously titled Rumors of Another World, I write: “I am where you are . . . an ordinary person trying to figure things out. I love, I experience beauty and pain, my friends die, I weep, I live. And as I live I try to figure out if there is a God, and what difference would that make . . . This book comes out of my own search and is written on behalf of those who live outside of belief—that borderlands region between belief and unbelief.” In this book I attempt to explain why I believe, keeping in mind a person who does not share my faith.
Reaching For The Invisible God
My most personal and introspective book, this one explores times of doubt, silence, and confusion that occur in the Christian life, and gives practical hints on how to cope with the inevitable problems that arise in a relationship with a God who is invisible. It serves as a kind of sequel to Disappointment with God.
The Question That Never Goes Away
Where is God when it hurts? That question formed the title of my first real book, more than 30 years ago. In 2012 I was asked to speak on this topic in three places of great suffering: in Japan, for the one-year anniversary of the tsunami that killed 20,000; in Sarajevo, which endured the longest siege in modern warfare; and in Newtown, Connecticut, a town in sorrow after a gunman killed 20 school children at Sandy Hook.
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
Prayer can be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery. I probe such questions as: Is God listening? Why should God care about me? If God knows everything, what’s the point of prayer? How can I make prayer more satisfying? Why do so many prayers go unanswered? Do prayers for healing really matter? Does prayer change God? I began with a list of such questions, then I studied all 650 prayers in the Bible and interviewed scores of people about their own experiences with prayer.
The NIV Student Bible
In a research project, my colleague Tim Stafford and I discovered that although many people have a high view of the Bible and want to read it, often they never get around to it? Why not? We identified three major reasons, and designed a Bible with notes that addresses the three most common complaints.
Meet The Bible
For three years my colleague Tim Stafford and I worked on an edition of the Bible known as The Student Bible, which we dubbed “a study Bible for people who would never use a study Bible.” Those months of immersion in the Bible nourished the soil for all of my future writing. This book sets out a daily reading program of Bible highlights, drawn from my notes in The Student Bible and additional notes written by Brenda Quinn.
The Jesus I Never Knew
How does the Jesus of the New Testament compare to the “new, rediscovered” Jesus—or even the Jesus we think we know so well? Thousands of books have been written about Jesus, and yet still he remains an elusive historical figure. For several years I taught a class on Jesus that relied on movie depictions of his life. Out of that class came this book, for teaching it gave me a new and different perspective on his work—his teachings, his miracles, his death and resurrection—and ultimately, who he was and why he came. In this book I emphasize the relational and personal rather than the scholarly.
I Was Just Wondering
In this book I write on a diverse range of topics that touch on the fields of history, science, religion, ethics, and more. It came about after I wrote a column in Christianity Today magazine consisting of questions sparked by reading the novelist Walker Percy. I’ve always felt more comfortable with questions than answers.
Grace Notes: 366 Daily Inspirations from a Fellow Pilgrim
Grace Notes collects 366 daily readings from my books and articles, and travel reports. Each entry takes only a few minutes to read. Together, the readings communicate my understanding of God, the world, and faith. I hope they especially speak to the disillusioned, doubters, sufferers, and out-of-the-mold believers.
The Gift of Pain
The Gift of Pain tells the story of my coauthor Dr. Paul Brand, a renowned British surgeon who discovered that painlessness is the root cause of the damage leprosy patients incur. He led the most fascinating life of anyone I’ve ever interviewed. Pain is not something that most of us would count as a blessing. However, Dr. Paul Brand’s work with leprosy patients in India and the United States convinced him that pain truly is one of God’s great gifts to us.
Finding God in Unexpected Places
This book, more than any other, reflects my career as a roving journalist. (A journalist is a generalist, someone who knows a little about many things but not a lot about any one thing.) It has short chapters based in a variety of settings from around the world. I investigate such varied topics as polar bears, sex surveys, Shakespeare, South American prisons, fund-raising appeals, and lousy praise music–basically, anything I felt like writing about at the time.
Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image
We live in divided times. Politically, racially, and religiously, the United States is experiencing a severe strain on its unity. Similar factiousness has spread around the world. Although Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and its sequel, In His Image were published over 30 years ago, we still have much to learn from Dr. Paul Brand. This fascinating man studied medicine during World War II, when virtually the entire world was at arms. He then began his medical career during a cataclysmic event in India that caused more than a million deaths and created fourteen million refugees. Brand’s insights come not as sermons, but as observations of how cells work together in community and what we can learn from them.
Disappointment with God
After writing one of my first books, Where Is God When It Hurts, I got letters from readers who said something like this: “Thanks for your reflections on physical pain. My situation is different, though. My child has severe disabilities, and I face a constant battle with depression. Prayer doesn’t seem to help my emotional pain. When it comes to God, I feel something like betrayal.” I settle on three questions, “Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden?” and scour the Bible methodically, looking for clues.
Church: Why Bother?
This short book addresses a question that seems more and more widespread. How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m spiritual but not religious”? Churches are morphing into new forms–emergent churches, shopping mall churches, megachurches–yet surveys show that an increasing number of believers are opting out altogether. Is involvement with a local church really that important?
The Bible Jesus Read
Like most Christians, I have been baffled and disturbed by parts of the Old Testament. Its books comprise the majority of the Christian Bible, but how should we read them? I select sample books (Deuteronomy, Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Prophets) and describe how I have struggled and then come to terms with each. In the process my own understanding of and appreciation for the Old Testament undergoes a startling change.