On the Lived Theology Reading List: Heidegger in Ruins

Posted on by

Between Philosophy and Ideology

One of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, Martin Heidegger remains deeply controversial for his sustained nationalist and antisemitic commitments before and after World War II. Much like contemporary debates over separating an artist’s work from their personal beliefs, Richard Wolin reexamines Heidegger’s philosophy by situating it firmly within its ideological and historical context.

By focusing on Heidegger’s postwar writings and conduct, Wolin criticizes his prolonged silence on the crimes of Nazism as a deliberate evasion of moral and political responsibility. This evasion is made explicit through Heidegger’s Black Notebooks, which reveal his continued antisemitism and commitment to National Socialist ideas of German and Jewish identity. Wolin argues that Heidegger purposely hid his ideology through silence and omission. For example, by removing incriminating passages or the mistranslation of his work to a more universal language, Heidegger has evaded criticism, consequently revealing a sanitized and misleading overview of his ideology. As philosophy cannot be taught without a moral accountability, Wolin reframes Heidegger’s writings of large abstract philosophical constructs as mechanisms to avoid ethical responsibility for his beliefs.

Reviews and Endorsements of this publication include the following:

“Combines close readings of Heidegger’s key writings with a rich cultural, literary and political history. . . . Wolin’s evidence-based work is its own riposte to the ludic mythomania of the philosopher’s political fanboys.”

—Lyndsey Stonebridge, New Statesman

For more information on this publication, click here: 

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Preparing for War

Posted on by

The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next

To many, watching the January 6th insurrection unfold was both jarring and unthinkable; however, for Brad Onishi, it was the logical outcome of long-standing tensions within Christian nationalism. As a former conservative evangelical, his horror was two-fold: one response shared with most Americans, and another shaped by the unsettling question of whether he himself might have been present had he continued in his former faith. In Preparing for War, Onishi traces the history of Christian nationalism and its buildup to the Capitol riot, drawing on his personal story to illuminate the emotional and cultural pull of this ideology.

By situating January 6 within its broader historical context, Onishi begins by humanizing those in the movement through reflections on his own past. Converted to evangelicalism at fourteen and serving as a youth pastor in a megachurch in his early twenties, he was deeply embedded in a Christian nationalist worldview before leaving Christianity during his graduate studies at Oxford. For Onishi, the roots of Christian nationalism are not only culturally significant but personally revealing, emerging from grievances held by white nostalgic Christians. The coalition built in the 1970s on these racial and cultural anxieties—fortified by purity culture and political organizing—transformed this sentiment into a powerful movement. As politics took on an increasingly ritualistic and identity-defining role, the Obama presidency intensified fears within the movement, setting the stage for January 6 as the culmination of decades of escalating tension.

Onishi concludes with a call to action: without a renewed commitment to democratic plurality, Christian nationalism will not fade but reorganize, continuing to shape and destabilize American culture. Overall, Onishi elicits that reckoning with Christian nationalism’s past is a necessary step towards safeguarding America’s future.

Reviews and Endorsements of this Publication include the following:

“In this compelling and scholarly mix of memoir and cultural and political history, Onishi brings to bear his experience as a former Christian nationalist movement insider to expose the radicalism behind the January 6th insurrection. Gripping and essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the threat that this movement poses to American democracy.” 

– Katherine Stewart, Author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous World of Religious Nationalism

“In Preparing for War, Bradley Onishi traces the history of White Christian Nationalism from the John Birch Society to the Big Lie and the January 6 terrorist assault on the U.S. Capitol, a narrative enlivened by the author’s own occasional intersections with the movement. This is an excellent and important book, both chilling and prophetic.” 

– Randall Balmer, Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College and Author of Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right

“Onishi takes us on a sweeping yet personal journey through modern American religious and political history to understand the violent, extremist strains of white Christian America that led to the January 6th insurrection. With insight from hundreds of interviews, deep scholarship, and his own escape from white Christian Nationalism, Onishi’s Preparing for War is a clear account of what happened and clarion warning about what is coming. Compelling and timely.” 

– Andrew Seidel, Constitutional Lawyer at Americans United and author of American Crusade: How the Supreme Court Is Weaponizing Religious Freedom 

For more information on this publication, click here:

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: The Emancipation of God

Posted on by

Postmarks on Cultural Prophecy

“There is no longer Jew or Greek,
There is no longer slave or free,
There is no longer male or female,
for all of you are one in Christ” (Galatians 3:28).

In modern times, Scripture is meant to be read interpretively. One of the longest-standing debates in religion is homosexuality—one that, depending on where you look in the Bible, is either shamed or accepted through God’s love of all His creations. The text from Paul above is one example of God’s boundless nature and a theme of Walter Brueggemann’s essay collection. By freeing readers from literal interpretations of the Bible, interpretation liberates not only individuals but also their communities as a whole.

Organized into three parts and 26 essays, Brueggemann composes his work to elicit the freedom of God, the church, and the neighborhood. To start, he offers an interpretive system of reading the Bible whereby we pick and choose texts based on our vested interests, fears, and hurts; rooting readers within this lens allows him to urge an individual relationship with Scripture and away from religious establishments that claim to hold a singular “truth.” Reading the Bible in this way ultimately guides readers toward a humanitarian and universal outlook, including environmentalism, political crisis, and inclusiveness.

While Brueggemann encourages a personal relationship with the Bible, the church offers a communal outlet that embraces vulnerability and diversity. In the second part of his collection, his essays focus on the aim of churches as community leaders pursuing diversity and inclusion, and how corrupt establishments within the church have diluted this message.

Concluding with the individual responsibility of Christians to advocate for the disadvantaged within their community and the church as a whole, Brueggemann liberates God from the constraints of institutional interpretation and guides readers toward an individual reading of the Bible in line with Paul’s text, whereby differences are unified by God’s universal love.

Reviews and Endorsements of this Publication include the following:

“This collection is a rare gift for all interpreters and proclaimers of biblical texts for church and culture. Walter Brueggemann continues to be the most significant biblical theologian speaking to church and culture in our day. The Emancipation of God gives us all the revealing opportunity to see him at work; he clearly identifies his method and then illustrates it immediately in the first essay on the debate over the Bible and human sexuality. Brueggemann regularly shows tensions in biblical texts and how he navigates those tensions. In three parts he mingles pieces on the emancipation of God, the church, and the neighborhood. Don’t miss this jewel of delightful and remarkably crafted biblical interpretations.”

—H. Bellinger Jr., professor Emeritus of Religion, Baylor University

“Newer approaches to biblical interpretation can address the multiple (and sometimes contradictory) biblical traditions, the significance of different communities of readers and their respective histories and contexts, interdisciplinary insights, and the theological implications of our interpretations, among other things. It is a daunting task, but in The Emancipation of God: Postmarks on Cultural Prophecy, Walter Brueggemann uses these specific approaches to offer new insights on the Bible and its meaning for a life of faith amid today’s seemingly intractable divisions. This book is an important resource that will serve us well.”

—Cheryl B. Anderson, professor emerita of Old Testament, Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary

For more information on this publication, click here:

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: American Apocalypse

Posted on by

A History of Modern Evangelicism

The imminent end of the world has a longstanding history of bringing out the worst in people. From Y2K to the COVID-19 toilet paper debacle, viewing the world as racing toward catastrophe changes not only people’s behavior but also their politics, media consumption, and institution-building. In evangelicalism, premillennialism builds on this sense of urgency through its focus on Christ’s imminent return and the end of the world. Sutton argues that modern evangelicalism is fundamentally rooted in this apocalyptic and prophetic mindset, which has shaped evangelical identity, purpose, and activism.

Sutton begins in the late 1800s with William Blackstone, whose teachings about the end of the world and Christ’s immediate return became central to evangelical identity. Throughout subsequent eras—World War II nationalism, the rise of fundamentalism, Cold War anti-communism, and the cultural upheaval of the 1960s civil rights movement and Vietnam War—apocalyptic themes consistently reappear. According to Sutton, each new crisis strengthens “end-times” thinking among both evangelicals and the broader American public.

Overall, Sutton offers compelling arguments for the pervasive influence of apocalyptic language and attitudes in shaping not only evangelicalism but American culture more broadly.

Matthew Avery Sutton is a distinguished professor and chair of the Department of History at Washington State University. In addition to his current work, his other notable publications include Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity and Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War.

Reviews and Endorsements of this publication include the following:

“The history Sutton assembles is rich, and the connections are startling.”
―New Yorker

“American Apocalypse relentlessly and impressively shows how evangelicals have interpreted almost every domestic or international crisis in relation to Christ’s return and his judgment upon the wicked…Sutton sees one of the most troubling aspects of evangelical influence in the spread of the apocalyptic outlook among Republican politicians with the rise of the Religious Right…American Apocalypse clearly shows just how popular evangelical apocalypticism has been and, during the Cold War, how the combination of odd belief and political power could produce a sleepless night or two.”
―D. G. Hart, Wall Street Journal

“American Apocalypse is the best history of American evangelicalism I’ve read in some time…If you want to understand why compromise has become a dirty word in the GOP today and how cultural politics is splitting the nation apart, American Apocalypse is an excellent place to start.”
―Stephen Prothero, Bookforum

For more information on this publication click here:

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Complete London Writings

Posted on by

Meditations on the Goodness and Mercy of God

From despair to faith, Johann Georg Hamann’s encounter with the Bible in 1758 London reveals the transformative power of Scripture. Destitute and despondent, Hamann took up the Bible and experienced a profound conversion. Drawn from his journal, The Complete London Writings—newly translated by John W. Kleinig—collects Hamann’s interpretations, meditations, and reflections written during this decisive period of renewal.

Offering the first complete English translation of these writings, the volume illuminates the origins of Hamann’s distinctive philosophical faith: the conviction that all human reason is grounded in God’s Word, and that language and revelation are inseparable. For Hamann, Scripture is a living Word meant to be read spiritually rather than rationally. Through his own biography—his fall into hubris and material need, and his restoration through divine grace—he demonstrates the revelatory power of the Bible.

Overall, The Complete London Writings provides a comprehensive presentation of the texts that form the foundation of Hamann’s later thought. Rooted in autobiographical confession, they unveil both the transforming power of the Word and Hamann’s emergence into a new vocation as a thinker of faith.

Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788) was a German Lutheran thinker whose reflections on faith, reason, and human complexity offered a sharp critique of Enlightenment rationalism and later shaped post-Kantian philosophy.

John W. Kleinig received his phD from the University of Cambridge, is a former lecturer at Australian Lutheran College, and an ordained pastor in the Lutheran Church of Australia. In addition to his current work, he is the author of the following: Wonderfully Made: A Protestant Theology of the Body.

Reviews and Endorsements of this publication include the following:

“Reading the reflections of Christians from the past is an excellent way to strengthen us in times of doubt and uncertainty. Hamann’s reflections on Scripture, God’s grace in Christ, and the church’s hymnody offer readers a wonderful way to think deeply upon the truths of Scripture.”

—J. V. Fesko, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi

“Hamann offers resources for engaging both rationalists and ‘spiritual but not religious’ outlooks today. This expert translation of his London Writings gives us access to the piety that inspired Hamann’s innovative philosophical and hermeneutical labors.”

–Michael S. Horton, Westminster Seminary California

“This wonderful translation of Hamann’s London Writing exposes readers to a central theme of his life: the passionate encounter with the word that reads us and our world. Here we see Hamann captivated by the perplexing simplicity of God’s word, modeling true enlightenment that sees through a glass darkly.”

–Tyler Wittman, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

For more information regarding this publication, click here:

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On The Lived Theology Reading List: Shame

Posted on by

Theory, Therapy, Theology

Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas regards shame as a positive signal towards virtue development, with moral puritanists such as John Locke likewise considering it an essential component of moral character. While acknowledging this positive assessment, Stephen Pattison focuses his work on the dysfunctional and chronic shame prevalent in religion and pervading society. For him, the relationship between shame and morality is negative, with traumatic personal experiences deeply tainting one’s psyche. Drawing from his personal experience, he emphasizes the importance of community in both perpetuating and healing shame.

Pattison begins by acknowledging the positive role of shame that previous theologians argued. He then structures his work into three parts: approaching shame, encountering shame, and exploring shame in Christianity. Focusing on chronic shame, he defines it as a condition of “polluting, defiling unwantedness that alienates people and groups from themselves and from society” (186). The destructive connotation of “polluting” underscores the deeply disturbing and elusive nature of shame. It is rarely investigated apart from guilt or purely individual psychological processes. Rather, shame is situated within a network of relational, social, and cultural dynamics, with chronic shame becoming a persistent and self-effacing condition.

Christianity acts as an inadvertent instigator of chronic shame, yet also offers the opportunity for reform, since the same community that creates shame can repair it. The Christian tradition maintains a complex relationship with shame, both within the Bible and in the expectations projected onto christians. Since this conversation ultimately concerns the reconciling work of God, healing can be pursued through an emphasis on acceptance, belonging, and restoration. Overall, Pattison concludes by encouraging readers to seek communities in which shame is openly addressed and transformed through practices of healing and acceptance.

Stephen Pattinson is a professor of theology and Religion at Emeritus University. Specializing in the relationship between beliefs and values both in and outside standard religions, some of his other works include the following: “Seeing Things: Deepening Relations with Visual Artefacts”(2007), “Saving Face: Enfacement, shame, theology” (2013), and “The Challenge of Practical Theology: Selected Essays” (2007).

For more information on this publication, click here:

“For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On the Theology Reading List: Spirit and Trauma

Posted on by

A Theology of Remaining

From the reading. . .

“I think if the devil doesn’t exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.”
— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky wrestles with the problem of evil and asks: How does faith account for the suffering of innocents? In a similar way, Rambo seeks to address this question through the lens of Holy Saturday, defined as the space between death and resurrection. For her, this in-between moment becomes a contemplative space of tension, silence, and absence that mirrors the experience of trauma. Because trauma touches every aspect of human life, this space offers comfort and solidarity in the shared realities of life and death.

Rambo grounds her work in the question: How can theology speak meaningfully about trauma when life continues amid devastation? Drawing on survivor testimonies from Hurricane Katrina, she presents trauma as an ever-present and persistent past, where time is fractured for those who have endured it. Within this disruption, theology finds its place. Holy Saturday is not an empty interval but a sacred space that reveals the texture of trauma . Through examples from scripture, Rambo shows how the biblical narrative acknowledges trauma as ongoing and multifaceted. To remain present in the midst of such pain, she argues, is a fundamental act of love. The community’s role is not to fix or repair, but to accompany and bear witness. Ultimately, Rambo’s work is a profound reflection on the power of presence — a theology of remaining with those who suffer.

Shelly Rambo is a Professor of Theology at Boston University School of Theology. In addition to her current work, she is the author of the following work: “Resurrecting Wounds: Living in the Afterlife of Trauma.”

For more information on this publication, click here.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: The Sacred in Music

Posted on by

Music, regardless of context, is a powerful medium of connection and transcendence. In church, it accompanies the believer’s journey toward God, while in secular settings, the experience of impactful music carries its own kind of spiritual authority. Similarly, Albert Blackwell unites the secular and religious profundities of music by framing music and religion as “complementary resources” for interpreting human life. By approaching music through both Pythagorean and Incarnational lenses, his work presents a distinctly Christian aesthetic of music.

Blackwell begins by delineating these two lenses: the Pythagorean, which emphasizes music as silent order, harmony, and cosmic ratio; and the Incarnational, which regards music as an embodiment of deeper meaning and emotion. Drawing parallels between musical and religious universals, he suggests that the inner architecture of music points toward the divine. He then describes the Incarnational tradition as expressing transcendence through emotion and meaning. Throughout, Blackwell explores the communal bond that music fosters through beauty, holding both spiritual and secular promise. Ultimately, the mystical experience of listening to music transcends not only language but even the boundaries of this world, leading toward an inner sense of final bliss. In this way, The Sacred in Music reveals the persistence of Christian asceticism within both the mathematical and spiritual dimensions of musical experience.

Albert Blackwell is a Reuben Pitts Professor Emeritus of Religion at Furman University. In addition to the current work, he has authored numerous works, including the following: “Every Valley” (2014), and “Frederich Schleiermacher and the Founding of the University of Berlin.”

For more information on this publication, click here:

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Money, Lies, and God

Posted on by

Inside the American Movement to Destroy American Democracy

“They speak the language of democracy while practicing the authoritarian politics of coercion and exclusion.” — Jennifer Szalai, New York Times

This summarizes the current state of our political climate: one under attack from wealthy funders, ideologues, religious nationalists, and streams of disinformation. In her newest work, Katherine Stewart delves into these attacks on American democracy, diagnosed as “reactionary nihilism.”

Placing herself in strategy meetings, religious gatherings, and disinformation conferences, Stewart sets the stakes for the impact of this corruption on democracy. By structuring her work around the three pillars of corruption—money, lies, and God—Stewart dives into each to explore how they have shaped the current sociopolitical climate. Concentrated wealth pours money into privatization, deregulation, and tax cuts; censorship and disinformation projects are strategic to dismantling opposition; and Christian nationalism is a moral justification for anti-democratic ideals.

Overall, Stewart’s comprehensive reporting and political analysis diagnose the political collapse of democracy in America and stress the warnings of an authoritarian future.

Katherine Stewart is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Washington Post, and other major outlets. She focuses on the intersection of faith, politics, and power. Her books include “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children” and “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.”

Reviews and Endorsements of this Publication include the following:

“An eerily prescient guide to the phantasmagoria of our political moment.” –The New York Times Book Review

“American democracy isn’t simply dying. It is, as Stewart observes, being murdered.” –The New Republic

“Meticulously researched, elegantly written, and hard-hitting.”–Kristin Kobes Du Mez

“Katherine Stewart has written what may be the most important political book of the day, exposing the networks of dark money funded, ultra right-wing subversives who have already done enormous damage to our Constitution and the rule of law and are now perilously close to overthrowing the American government as we know it”–Sean Wilentz

For more information on this publication, click here:

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: After Lives

Posted on by

A Poignant Memoir Collection That Examines Biographies as a Genre, Reflect on Life’s Lessons Through Compelling Stories

Throughout her life, Megan Marshall has sought to “learn what [she] could from others: how to live, how not to live, what it means to live.” As a biographer, these lessons have culminated in years of research and investigations into rewriting women into history — from pioneers in the rise of American Transcendentalism to more personal accounts, such as her former professor, Elizabeth Bishop. While these works earned critical acclaim, Marshall often remained apart from the stories she told, until her most recent work. After Lives is a poignant memoir in which she turns inward, meditating on the lessons she has drawn from both her life and career.

Marshall begins by reflecting on the impact of writing a biography, where one simultaneously resurrects and recreates another’s life while acknowledging their death. Structured as six essays, it chronicles her personal and professional experiences, from growing up with an unstable father to her year in Japan as a visiting professor. Woven through each piece is a call to question and seek answers, whether in another’s life or one’s own. She also reexamines her legacy, as in her essay on her grandmother’s portrait, where the figure is shown as right-handed rather than left-handed, revealing a long-standing prejudice against left-handed individuals. These small revelations lead to larger reflections on life, death, and loss. Ultimately, Marshall’s introspection invites readers to grapple with their own stories and consider the legacy they wish to leave behind.

Megan Marshall is a professor of nonfiction writing and archival research at Emerson College. She has received numerous accolades, including the Pulitzer Prize for her 2013 biography Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, and was a Pulitzer finalist for her first biography, The Peabody Sisters. In 2022, she was honored with the Biographers International Organization Award for her contributions to the art of biography, as well as the Thoreau Society’s Walter Harding Distinguished Service Award for her work on American Transcendentalism.

Reviews and Endorsements of this publication include the following:

“This is not a typhoon-like book that will knock you over with its coherence, but irregular winds blowing this way and that, some hotter than others … Like decorating a house, Marshall suggests with this book, the act of crafting a biography is never really finished, and certain odds and ends can be hard to clean up.”

— Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times

“Ms. Marshall is at her best when a piece of material evidence—a letter, a photograph, a forgotten artifact—piques her interest … Perhaps the most poignant chapter of After Lives is set in Kyoto, where Ms. Marshall spent a few months as a visiting professor and found herself on the trail of Japan’s version of Henry David Thoreau, the poet Kamo no Chōmei.”

— Christoph Irmscher, the Wall Street Journal

“Poignant … She draws sustenance from the women in her biographies, all of whose lives were bordered with calamity and loss.”

— April Austin, Christian Science Monitor

For more information on this publication, click here:

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.