Conquering Mountains is a book written by a friend who is also a Sister in Christ. It is a mother’s brutally honest description of her battle with faith and doubt, joy and discouragement, during her daughter’s amazing recovery from a life-threatening car accident while serving as a missionary in Malawi, Africa. A copy of this book can be obtained at the link below:

Conquering Mountains by Joni O’Connor Jenson

These are some books I have found to be very useful in my study of the Bible:

• Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible - James Strong

• The Jewish Study Bible - The Jewish Publication Society, Berlin, Brettler & Fishbane

• The New Bible Commentary Revised - Guthrie, Motyer, Stibbs & Wiseman

• The NIV Exhaustive Concordance - Goodrick & Kohlenberger III

• True to Our Native Land - An African American New Testament Commentary - Blount, Byron & Powery

This list of books on the topic of human suffering was highly influential when I was preparing the Bible Study Wrestling with Suffering.

• Christ and Human Suffering - E. Stanley Jones

• Is God to Blame? - Gregory A. Boyd

• When Bad Things Happen to Good People - Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

• Disappointment with God - Philip Yancey

• The Question that Never Goes Away - Philip Yancey

• Where is God When it Hurts? - Philip Yancey

These books on the Right vs. Left Political divide helped clarify my thoughts on this subject.

• God and other famous liberals – F. Forrester Church

• Lies my teacher told me – James W. Loewen

• Prius or Pickup – Hetherington & Weiler

• Strangers in their own land – Arlie Russell Hochschild

• Thou shalt not be a jerk – Eugene Cho

These books were useful in helping me better understand and interpret the Bible and how to apply it to my daily life.

• Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz Shaped Faith - Robert Gelinas

• Martin Luther King Jr. on Leadership: Inspiration & Wisdom for Challenging Times - Donald T. Phillips

Rachel Held Evans is one of my favorite authors. Her writing style full of humor and humiltiy is delightful. She helped me better understand how to interpret the Bible. She died way too young.

• Braving the Truth: Essential Essays for Reckoning with and Reimagining Faith - Rachel Held Evans

• Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again - Rachel Held Evans

• Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church - Rachel Held Evans

These are some books on the subject of the proper role of Christianity in politics that I have found enlightening. They reassured me that I’m not imagining things about Fundamentalist Christianity and Christian Nationalism.

• Bring back your people – Aaron Scott

• Hell Bent - How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love - Brian Recker

• How to End Christian Nationalism – Amanda Tyler

• Losing our Religion – An Altar call for Evangelical America – Russell Moore

• Misquoting Jesus - Bart D. Ehrman

• Separation of Church and Hate - John Fugelsang

• The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory – Tim Alberta

Here are books I’ve read about racism that opened my eyes to the systemic nature of this problem and its continued impacts in 21st Century America:

• Caste - Isabel Wilkerson

• How to be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi

• So you want to talk about race – Ijeoma Oiuo

• Stamped from the Beginning – Ibram X. Kendi

• Waking up White – Debby Irving

• White Fragility – Robin Diangelo

• White too Long – Robert P. Jones

These books impacted in a sigificant way the attitudes I have towards the LGBTQ+ community.

• Love is an Orientation – Andrew Marin

• Unclobber, Rethinking our misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality – Colby Martin