Books

Rob Bell fights every impulse in our culture to domesticate Jesus, reminding readers that Christians do not believe in Christianity; they believe in the Christ who wants to "draw all people" to himself.

"I wanted to open a bookstore that would contain the best of what had been thought and written," says Warren Farha of Eighth Day Books. It's "an impossible goal, but that was the guiding telos of the store."

Our spring books issue includes the following annotated lists of top new titles: Kathleen O'Connor on Old Testament, Amy Plantinga Pauw on theology and Brent Laytham on ethics.

Our spring books issue includes annotated lists of top titles on religion and the nation's founders, religion and the Civil War, evangelism and youth ministry.

Our spring books issue's reviews include Jason Byassee on David Ford, Shirley Showalter on Carlos Eire, Dennis O'Brien on Terry Eagleton, LaVonne Neff on Elias Aboujaoude and others.

A manifesto hardly seems like the right genre for David F. Ford. The Irish Anglican theologian has made a career partly with the splendid encyclopedia The Modern Theolo­gians, a book regularly blessed by graduate students facing their exams.

The most famous farewell addresses in the history of the American presidency are those delivered by two of the greatest military leaders to occupy the office: George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower. Both warned of the threat that military power and its interests posed to the nation.