Leading Pastors Recommend These Books For Christians In 2021

As Leftist ideologies increasingly saturate American culture, many Christians are considering what their response ought to be.

In particular, Christians have witnessed the rising tide of critical race theory and the growing strength of the sexual revolution — both of which fundamentally contradict the Bible’s teachings on the nature of man and God’s design for human society.

In an op-ed for The Daily Wire, Pastor John MacArthur dubbed critical race theory “the vicious, pernicious, and virulent brand of identity politics that results when neo-Marxist social philosophy is blended with postmodern theory.” He likewise noted that the LGBT movement is “vying for evangelical acceptance under the rubric of ‘social justice.’”

What resources could be beneficial to American Christians as they seek to understand and confront these trends, which seem to increase in prevalence with every passing day?

The Daily Wire asked leading evangelical pastors for book recommendations that could aid Christians living through the emergence of what appears to be a leftist religious revival.

Here are their responses.

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution

Nearly every pastor contacted by The Daily Wire recommended The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman, who teaches biblical and religious studies at Grove City College.

According to its description, the book “analyzes the development of the sexual revolution as a symptom — rather than the cause — of the human search for identity.” Trueman “surveys the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives guidance for the future as Christians navigate the culture in humanity’s ever-changing quest for identity.”

Tom Ascol — President of Founders Ministries and pastor of Grace Baptist Church — called The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self “the most profound book I have read in over 20 years.” He appreciates Trueman’s efforts to trace “the historic, philosophical foundations of the rise of the LGBTQ+ movement and its implications for biblical Christianity.”

Scott Aniol — the worship doctoral studies director at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary — called The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self “probably the most important book of the year.” He appreciates that the book detailed “how the modern identity politics and revolutions in gender, sexuality, and race are actually symptoms of far deeper problems rooted in a rejection of God’s authority over creation.”

R. Scott Clark — a church history professor at Westminster Seminary California and host of the Heidelblog — directed The Daily Wire toward similar praise of Trueman’s work.

“I receive a lot of books in the mail. Some are worth reading. Some are not my cup of tea but only a few are important. This is one of those,” Clark wrote in a recent blog post. “It is not an easy book but it is a good book because it explains brilliantly what happened and why.”

Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe

Ascol and Aniol also recommend Fault Lines by pastor and apologist Voddie Baucham.

“Christians nationwide, eager to fulfill their God-given calling to bring peace and reconciliation, took to pulpits and social media in droves to affirm that ‘black lives matter’ and proclaim that racial justice ‘is a gospel issue,’” says the book’s description. “But what if those Christians, those ministers, and those powerful ministries don’t know the whole story behind the new movement that’s been making waves in their congregations? Even worse: what if they’ve been duped into adopting a set of ideas that not only don’t align with the Kingdom of God, but stand diametrically opposed to it?”

Dr. Ascol says that Baucham “weaves his own story into explaining and dissecting the errors of the modern critical social justice movement,” explaining “how various evangelical leaders and ministries have responded — or failed to respond — to the threats that movement is to western civilization and Christian churches.”

Dr. Aniol called the book “a superb Christian evaluation and response to the ideas underlying the modern social justice movement.”

The book will be made available to the public on April 6.

Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity ― and Why This Harms Everybody

Dr. Trueman recommended Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, who document the evolution of the dogma that informs critical theory “from its coarse origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields.”

Trueman endorses Cynical Theories to readers seeking to investigate the claims of intersectionality — an ideological framework that is “beginning to exert a powerful effect on public discourse and indeed on all areas of life, from families and schools to places of employment.”

“It is vital that people realize how and why race, gender, and queer theory are converging,” he added.

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity

Trueman and Aniol also recommend The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray — a book similarly lauded by prominent non-Christians such as Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan.

Murray investigates “the dangers of ‘woke’ culture and the rise of identity politics,” as well as “the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of ‘wokeness,’ the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive.”

Trueman says The Madness of Crowds presents an “understanding of the background” of intersectionality. 

Aniol called the book “a very helpful, in-depth explanation of the roots and movements surrounding contemporary identity politics.”

Race and Covenant: Recovering the Religious Roots for American Reconciliation

A variety of authors contributed to Race and Covenant — a work that “explores the theme of national covenant in scripture, history, and contemporary American society as well as the theology and practices of covenant communities.”

“For most of the last two thousand years Christians have believed that God deals with nations as nations and enters into closer relations with societies that claim him as Lord,” explains the description. “This belief in the national covenant, only recently out of fashion, is where Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. turned when faced with such questions in their own time.”

Trueman believes that editor Gerald McDermott “has gathered together a fine team on the specific issue of race to offer some positive proposals for the future with regard to how to address the matter of social justice,” while refraining from theories “that are long on criticism and very short on positive proposals.”

Strong and Courageous: Following Jesus Amid the Rise of America’s New Religion

Ascol suggests Strong and Courageous, which he wrote alongside Jared Longshore to help church leaders “understand what is happening with the recent infiltration of critical race theory and intersectionality in evangelicalism.”

The book explores “the tension between obeying God rather than men while being subject to the governing authorities,” inducing “thinking about how the Christian should honor the governing officials that God has given us while we take seriously the task of pressing and educating them to see that they are finally responsible to God and his law.”

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.