Pines and Plains Libraries

"Set in Arco, Idaho, in 1970, Val Brelinski's powerfully affecting first novel tells the story of three sisters: young Frances, gregarious and strong-willed Jory, and moral-minded Grace. Their father, Oren, is a respected member of the community and science professor at the local college. Yet their mother's depression and Grace's religious fervor threaten the seemingly perfect family, whose world is upended when Grace returns from a missionary trip...

"A journalist recounts his upbringing and eventual break from an influential evangelical church to diagnose broader political and cultural issues"--

A history of the Evangelical movement in America traces the revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that rendered evangelism a dominant religious force, describing the rise and fall of denominations and how they influenced American agendas.

The author recalls his life as a controversial Washington, D.C. evangelical minister and spiritual advisor to America's political class. He begins with his conversion from Judaism to born-again Christianity, and then finding his calling in public ministry. He chronicles his years as an activist leader of the most extreme wing of the anti-abortion movement, brazenly mixing ministry with Republican political activism. Finally he reflects on his unconscious...

The story of a stubborn, lost young girl whose remarkable trials and errors drastically alter the events of her life and everyone she meets, ultimately helping her find the secret of how to find true love.

Chas Smith grew up deeply enmeshed in the evangelical Christian world that flourished in Southern California in the late 1960s. His family included famous missionaries and megachurch pastors, but his cousin Daniel Courson was Grandma's favorite. Smith looked up to Cousin Danny. He was handsome, adventurous, and smart; earned a degree from Bible college; and settled into a family and a stable career. Needless to say, it was a big surprise when Cousin...

The Kingdom of God Has No Borders offers a daring new perspective on conservative Christianity by shifting the lens to focus on the world outside US borders. Melani McAlister offers a sweeping narrative of the last fifty years of evangelical history, weaving a fascinating tale that upends much of what we know-or think we know-about American evangelicals. She takes us to the Congo in the 1960s, where Christians were enmeshed in a complicated interplay...

"A scholar of American Christianity answers perhaps the most bewildering question of our time: Why are evangelicals "the Donald's" most fervent supporters? Donald Trump is a libertine who lacks even basic knowledge of the Christian faith. Yet in 2016 he won 81 percent of the white evangelical vote, and continues to rely on white evangelicals as his base of support. While we assume the religious right has pragmatic reasons for backing Trump, in truth...

Frank Schaeffer has a problem with Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, and the rest of the New Atheists-the self-anointed "Brights." He also has a problem with the Rick Warrens and Tim LaHayes of the world-the religious fundamentalists. The problem is that he doesn't see much of a difference between the two camps. As Schaeffer puts it, they "often share the same fallacy: truth claims that reek of false certainties. I believe that there is an alternative...