Eight books: Moral clarity and the lies of the world

Christian living

Relaxed

Megan Fate Marshman
Zondervan

This book offers a simple message: “Forgo autonomous faith.” The author uses her story of recent widowhood to unpack Proverbs 3:5-6 phrase by phrase, urging us to rely on God for sanctification instead of trying to sanctify ourselves. Marshman wants us to think of anxiety not as a wall separating us from God but as a door to His presence. She says her book “is about not doing anything on your own” and “about the incredible potential of bringing everything out of hiding and giving it to the Lord, who already knows about it.” The book is heartfelt but feels structurally clumsy, frequently using four sentences where two would do and resorting to rhetorical tricks that imply impact where little exists (e.g.: “Read that last line again.” “One more time?” “You’re welcome.”). But it would be a shame for a reader to be stymied by the book’s beginning—which, like many Christian books aimed toward women, can feel woefully like eating a box of oatmeal dry. The best parts lie after the halfway mark, where Marshman gets deep into the discussion of grief and how to nurture open dialogue with the Christ who shares our suffering. —Chelsea Boes

Fiction

The Best Short Stories 2024

Amor Towles
Vintage

Bestselling author Amor Towles edits this year’s collection of the 20 O. Henry Prize–winning short stories. Towles arranges the works chronologically to showcase the stages of life, and authors like Kate DiCamillo and Jess Walter offer ordinary moments—losing soccer balls, adopting cats, decorating sandcastles—filled with wonder and humor. But despite moments of grace, taken as a whole the collection highlights a bleak portrait of American life, describing failed marriages, fragile men, and reluctant mothers. Instead of dealing with their problems, some characters passively accept a new, disappointing normal. But in the best stories, characters don’t throw up their hands at heartache. “Orphans” by Brad Felver was my favorite. In it, a reclusive carpenter who lives outside of town mentors a foster-­home reject. Felver surprises readers in this story about characters who don’t miss their chance at belonging. There’s some gold in these stories, but there’s also plenty of dross. Some of them include bad language. And Christian readers will definitely want to skip the stories by Dave Eggers, Emma Binder, and Robin Romm. —Bekah McCallum

Political theory

The Social Contract in the Ruins

Paul R. DeHart
University of Missouri Press

We often speak about the American government in terms of a social contract. Conventional social contract theory states that for a government to be legitimate, it must gain the consent of the governed. Paul R. DeHart’s new book suggests social contract theory is in jeopardy because consent of the governed is no longer sufficient to hold the polity together. We need moral norms that transcend society’s willingness, agreement, and conventions. Only moral norms can provide coherence to social contractarianism. DeHart doesn’t want to do away with social contract theory. He wants to reconstruct it on a firmer foundation—rejecting conventionalism and replacing it with moral and metaphysical realism. DeHart explains that many theorists pit a theory of consent against moral and metaphysical realism, assuming one has to choose sides. He presents a third way that envisions how these can be harmonized. This harmony is grounded in his ­argument that social contract theory divorced from moral reality is fundamentally incoherent. —James R. Wood

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Social policy

Evangelicals and Abortion

J. Cameron Fraser
Wipf and Stock

In Evangelicals and Abortion: Historical, Theological, Practical Perspectives, pastor and author J. Cameron Fraser makes the case that political action is important but not sufficient for the pro-life movement. What’s truly needed is renewal in the Church along with Biblical compassion toward those wrestling with or affected by the issue of abortion. Fraser unfolds his topic in three parts: the history of evangelicals and abortion (for instance, how ­former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, theologian Francis Schaeffer, and the egregiously decided Roe v. Wade focused evangelical attention to what had previously been a largely Catholic issue), the theology of why evangelicals should be pro-life, and the practical aspects of the pro-life position in mainstream society. Along the way, he explores the evolution of the Church’s and society’s views on abortion since Biblical times. He considers “ensoulment”—the point at which what’s in the mother’s womb becomes a person and not just abortable tissue—and what it means for humanity to be made in God’s image. He also looks at men’s role in abortion and why some evangelical approaches to the issue are ineffective and alienating. —David Beard

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Christian living

You’ll Make It (and They Will Too)

Amy Betters-Midtvedt
WaterBrook

Teacher and mom of five Amy Betters-Midtvedt guides parents through teen dating, chores, smartphones, mental health, and finally letting teens go. This breezy but helpful book brings readers into the company of an honest mom who has faced it all and learned from her mistakes. The big takeaway: Seek connection over control. “This book is born from a journey of loving so much that it made me afraid,” Betters-Midtvedt writes. This fear led her toward exerting authority—but each time she sought control, her kids veered away from her love. The dichotomy between connection and control continues through each chapter, as the author tackles a subject then explains what parents can’t do (pick out all our teen’s clothes, ignore the vastly changed world of teenage dating, force teens to pray) and can do (look for the beauty in teens’ fashion choices, weep with brokenhearted teens, and question alongside teens and deepen our own faith). The author urges us to expect our kids to make mistakes as they become adults. Some parents will want Betters-Midtvedt to come down harder in certain areas, and the prayer segments at the end of each chapter tend toward treacle—but her book offers real wisdom: “God didn’t make [our teens] to be trophies for us to hold up to show the world how great we are doing. And He didn’t make them to be in our image … only in His.” —C.B.

Spiritual formation

The Heart of Jesus

Dane Ortlund
Crossway

Theologically, we know that Jesus loves us, but do we really understand what that means? In an abridged version of his bestselling book Gentle and Lowly, titled simply The Heart of Jesus, Pastor Dane Ortlund uses key passages of Scripture to help readers see exactly what Jesus is like. Christ’s traits of compassion, friendship, beauty, and mercy are explored with the help of writers such as Charles Spurgeon, Thomas Goodwin, and John Bunyan. It’s a short but refreshing read, reminding both new believers and senior saints of the love of the One who died for us. —Daniel Darling

Science

The Singularity Is Nearer

Ray Kurzweil
Viking

Nietzsche knew that a world without God would have to make one. Nietzsche’s candidate was man, not as we currently find him, but as he is after re-creating himself. It’s an unreachable goal for most people, but not for a truly exceptional man—what Nietzsche called the Übermensch, the “overcoming man.” Ray Kurzweil, our contemporary herald of the Übermensch, is an inventor and visionary who has written a string of books all sharing the same premise: Humanity can be upgraded like we upgrade a computer. The point of his most recent book is clear in the title: The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge With AI. Spoiler alert: This will happen when we connect the neocortex to the “cloud.” Once we’ve done that, we will no longer fear artificial intelligence, we will be one with it. At that point, our augmented intelligence will transcend what even the most intelligent person can do today. Don’t chuckle. I’m more afraid of success than failure. Mountains of cash are being thrown at this, and even the Lord said that nothing would be impossible if we worked together. For the most part the book is upbeat, relentlessly so. The best feature of it is Kurzweil’s easy-to-follow description of how AI “learns.” To his credit, he mentions some of the perils of AI—things like runaway AI and the obsolescence of much of the human workforce. But he misses transhumanism’s true peril, which is that it is dehumanizing. —C.R. Wiley

Memoir

All That Glitters

Orlando Whitfield
Pantheon

Inigo Philbrick has been described as the Bernie Madoff of the art world—a talented, charismatic art dealer known for making his art-collecting clients heaps of money, until his fraud caught up with him. Orlando Whitfield’s engaging memoir tries to reconcile the author’s long friendship with Philbrick to the crimes Philbrick would eventually commit. But All That Glitters isn’t just another true-crime tell-all. It’s an honest, and sometimes raw (Whitfield uses occasional vulgar language), look at the lunacy of the world of buying and selling contemporary art. Whitfield loves art and artists, but the outrageous sums spent speculating on the latest hot trend left him sick. We’re introduced to a shadowy world in which anonymous “collectors” buy and sell artwork at a dizzying rate in a totally unregulated market that thrives on obfuscation and creative accounting. Inigo Philbrick was a scammer, but Whitfield suggests the entire contemporary art market might be a Ponzi scheme. —Collin Garbarino