Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  TheKingdom, The Power, And The Glory The Era of Evangelical America By Tim Alberta Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton Looking back, I see that the year 2016 marked the baptism of millions of evangelicals into the Republican faith they had been attending for decades. Massive numbers of white evangelicals voted for the 45 th US president. Today, the blended self-identities of faith and politics seem as strong as ever. Tim Alberta’s book, The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory illustrates the widespread wedding of white evangelical Christians and conservative Republican party members. ***** Tim Alberta, a journalist with deep roots in the evangelical community, provides a nuanced and critical examination of the movement. The book is part memoir, part investigative journalism, and part historical analysis. Alberta’s personal background as the son of a Presbyterian megachurch preacher in Michigan gives him a unique perspective on the subject. Alberta begins by tr...

  Assessing Spirituality & Religiosity: A Handbook Beliefs, Practices, Values, & Experiences The Assessment of Spirituality and Religiosity is a handbook for clinicians and researchers who explore this importance dimension of self-identity. More than 7 billion people express their spirituality as members of one of the world’s great religions. In recent decades, the assessment of religiosity and spirituality has filled journals with informative studies. This handbook aims to provide clinicians and researchers with a way to organize hundreds of these instruments. Reviews There are very, very few psychologists I admire as much as my long-time friend, Geoff Sutton. I emphasize long-time because I’ve had the opportunity to know Geoff and learn from him for almost 50 years. He’s a person of deep faith, psychotherapist, teacher, and independent scholar par excellence.  Assessing Spirituality & Religiosity: A Handbook , Geoff’s latest work, is near the pinnacle of his...

  Doubting Brian Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It By   Brian D. McLaren Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton Faith After Doubt reads like a spiritual memoir and, no doubt, many will find Brain’s ideas helpful. He writes well, and judging by various reviews online, he has met the needs of a lot of followers. For young thoughtful Christians doubt can be an unwelcome guest who stays too long and keeps returning as if doubt were oblivious to the not so subtle rejection of a hostile host. McLaren embraces doubt as a catalyst to spiritual growth. His welcoming attitude toward doubt may help those struggling to close the door. Some readers appear to have appreciated his four-stages of faith, which are frequently referred to in the book. Here’s a quick look. 1. Simplicity- Christians accept the simple faith they have been taught and many remain in that stage their entire life. 2. Complexity- Christians are learning abo...

                                                               Do I Stay Christian?    By Brian D. McLaren   Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton   “He’s an atheist now.” “She came home from that church in tears.” “We’re agnostic. We just don’t know.”   In the past decade, it seems like young adults have been fleeing church as if there was an active shooter in the sanctuary. I am privileged to remain friends with former university students on social media. I see some have left evangelical churches and some declare themselves atheists. I interact with older friends across the USA whose adult children have given up their evangelical beliefs. Some felt welcomed in mainline congregations but others appear to be in some vague spiritual place that I couldn’t quite locate.   Brian D...

   Pray Away By   Kristine Stolakis   Jessica Devaney     Anya Rous   Carla Gutierrez Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton Pray Away is a documentary film about the experience of American Evangelicals who identify as LGBTQ and conversion therapy. I watched the show last week on Netflix and I recommend the film to those interested in the topic. One of the leads is a man named Jeffrey who identifies as ex-trans. He no longer identifies as trans as he says, “I lived transgender but I left it all to follow Jesus.” The film tells part of the Exodus story. Exodus was a large Christian organization based in Orlando Florida. It began in 1976 and quickly expanded to help people who identified as gay or lesbian change their same-sex attraction. The process was called conversion therapy or reparative therapy. Exodus closed in 2013. The film, Pray Away , tells the story of people who continued to struggle with same-sex attraction, which never went...

  THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO: WHY DEFENDING SCRIPTURE HAS MADE US UNABLE TO READ IT      By    Peter Enns (2014) Reviewed by     Geoffrey W. Sutton Bloody violence, talking animals, mysterious beings, rules for slave holders, and managing your bodily fluids challenge anyone who makes a New Year’s resolution to read the Bible. I could have used a book like The Bible Tells Me So when I was a teenager attempting to make sense of this holy book I was dutifully bound to read. And in those days, the Bible sounded even more removed from my reality in the language of Shakespeare. Even with modern translations, some old stories still sound quite strange and leave an intelligent inquirer wondering about what kind of God kicks people out of their home for eating a bit of fruit, changes his mind about creating people because they’ve turned out so bad, or orders his people to kill an entire tribe of other people so his tribe can have their land? ...