The most recommended books about the Christian right

Who picked these books? Meet our 9 experts.

9 authors created a book list connected to the Christian right, and here are their favorite Christian right books.
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Book cover of Money, Possessions and Eternity

Scott LaPierre Author Of Your Finances God's Way: A Biblical Guide to Making the Best Use of Your Money

From my list on finance books for biblically conservative Christians.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the teaching pastor of Woodland Christian Church, a role I've held since 2010. I preach God’s Word 1 to 3 times weekly, and I'm also a conference speaker and author. While I do some counseling and discipling, my main focus is on teaching and preaching, which involves studying God’s Word for 20 to 30 hours per week. I've learned biblical financial principles and I'm passionate about equipping people with them. With ten children on a single-income pastor’s salary, I've had to apply these principles in my own life, which has reinforced their importance and effectiveness.

Scott's book list on finance books for biblically conservative Christians

Scott LaPierre Why did Scott love this book?

I have been a fan of Mr. Alcorn for years, not just as an author and pastor but as a Christian. He has applied his own financial teaching and an incredible way. When he was sued for picketing at an abortion clinic he didn’t want to because he knew the proceeds would go toward abortionists. This caused him to learn to live on very little.

In this book, he provides an eternal view of our temporary wealth and possessions. The primary focus, spread over the course of the book, can be boiled down to one point: the heavenly perspective we should have will help us be good earthly stewards. In Mr. Alcorn’s own words, the book is “thoroughly researched…a biblical comprehensive view,” and I completely agree that it is.

He strives to cover every conceivable topic related to money, such as investing, retirement, gambling, inheritances, giving, and the list goes…

By Randy Alcorn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Money, Possessions and Eternity as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This practical and refreshing theology of money contains topical and Scripture indexes, a study guide, and five helpful appendixes.

Randy Alcorn presents a biblical and comprehensive view of money and possessions, including the following: Why is money so important to God? How can we be liberated from materialism? What should we do about debt? How much does God want us to give? What about gambling? Investing? Insurance? Saving? Retirement? Inheritance?Who wants to settle for fleeting treasures on earth . . . when God offers everlasting treasures in heaven? It’s time to rethink our perspectives on money and possessions. In this…


Book cover of The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs

Peter S. Henne Author Of Religious Appeals in Power Politics

From my list on religion’s messy impact on international relations.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a religious person, I’ve always believed religion is a force for good while being constantly reminded of the horrors it causes. This became a real-world concern with the 9/11 attacks (which happened my second week in college) and the faith-tinged US response. I spent ten years in Washington, DC working at the intersection of faith and counterterrorism, hopeful religion could solve our problems but worried it will only make things worse. I’ve continued that work as a Professor at the University of Vermont. This book reflects that tension and my desire to resolve it. 

Peter's book list on religion’s messy impact on international relations

Peter S. Henne Why did Peter love this book?

A mix of memoir and international relations analysis, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in religion and international relations.

Albright—Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration—discusses the secular biases that permeated US foreign policy and how they left us unprepared for the seeming resurgence of religion after the end of the Cold War. Her reflections range widely, from African politics to al-Qaeda.

She’s a bit more optimistic about the world than I am, but this is an essential starting point for any exploration of how states incorporate religion into their foreign policy. As I discuss in my book’s introduction, her work was one of the inspirations for my study.

By Madeleine Albright,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Mighty and the Almighty as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Does America, as George W. Bush has proclaimed, have a special mission, derived from God, to bring liberty and democracy to the world? How much influence does the Christian right have over US foreign policy? And how should America and the West deal with violent Islamist extremists? Traditionally, politicians have sought to downplay the impact of religious beliefs in international affairs. In this illuminating first-hand account, Madeleine Albright examines religion and foreign affairs through the lens of American history as well as her own personal experiences in public office, with a preface and opening chapters specially written for the UK…


Book cover of Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right

Kyle Burke Author Of Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War

From my list on the history of American conservatism.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a professor of modern US and global history at Hartwick College in upstate New York. I have been reading and researching the history of conservative and right-wing movements in the United States and the wider world for almost two decades. My first book, Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War, was published by University of North Carolina Press in 2018. My articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in Jacobin, Diplomatic History, Terrorism and Political Science, H-War, and H-Diplo. I’m currently at work on two projects: a history of the transatlantic white power movement and a film documentary about the short-lived white supremacist nation of Rhodesia and its contemporary legacies.

Kyle's book list on the history of American conservatism

Kyle Burke Why did Kyle love this book?

This is a field-defining work. First published in 2001, McGirr’s book prompted a generation of historians to reexamine the rise and evolution of modern American conservatism. Focused on the suburbs of Orange County, California, Suburban Warriors explored how grassroots conservative activists mobilized to reshape the politics of the nation. Through the stories of ordinary people--housewives and defense workers, evangelical worshippers, and anti-communist activists--we learn how the modern American right evolved from a fringe movement into arguably the most powerful political force in the United States.

By Lisa McGirr,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Suburban Warriors as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the early 1960s, American conservatives seemed to have fallen on hard times. McCarthyism was on the run, and movements on the political left were grabbing headlines. The media lampooned John Birchers's accusations that Dwight Eisenhower was a communist puppet. Mainstream America snickered at warnings by California Congressman James B. Utt that "barefooted Africans" were training in Georgia to help the United Nations take over the country. Yet, in Utt's home district of Orange County, thousands of middle-class suburbanites proceeded to organize a powerful conservative movement that would land Ronald Reagan in the White House and redefine the spectrum of…


Book cover of The South and the North in American Religion

Frances FitzGerald Author Of The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America

From my list on understanding the ethos of the Christian right.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a correspondent in Vietnam in 1966, 1971, 1973, and 1974. I worked for The New Yorker on the last three dates, and I have been back several times since the end of the war. My book, Fire in Lake won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize for history, and the National Book Award, among other prizes.

Frances' book list on understanding the ethos of the Christian right

Frances FitzGerald Why did Frances love this book?

Strangely, very few books about the Christian right explain the differences between southern and northern evangelicals. Hill’s book is an eye-opener. It links theology directly to politics. A historian, Hill is a wonderful writer.

By Samuel S. Hill,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The South and the North in American Religion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this comparative history of religious life in the South and the North, Samuel Hill considers the religions of America from a unique angle. Tracing the religious history of both areas, this study dramatically shows how a common religion was altered by hostilities and then continued to develop as separate entities until recently. Coming almost full circle, both North and South now find their religions again to be highly similar. Two factors, Hill believes, were major influences in the diversification of the regional religions: the presence of Afro-Americans as an underclass of people with a distinctive role to play in…


Book cover of The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America

Kathleen Wellman Author Of Hijacking History: How the Christian Right Teaches History and Why It Matters

From my list on the Christian Right as a political power.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a history professor at Southern Methodist University. When some students in my university classes believed that the Enlightenment was so evil I should not be allowed to teach it, I wondered what they were taught in high school. I became more directly involved when I spoke before the State Board of Education of Texas against the ahistorical standards they stipulated for history, including that Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin were central to the Enlightenment and Moses to the founding documents of the United States. These standards distorted history to emphasize the role of religion in the American founding. I wondered: How could a state school board stipulate such ahistorical standards? Where had they come from? Who supported them and why? I wrote Hijacking History to address these questions.

Kathleen's book list on the Christian Right as a political power

Kathleen Wellman Why did Kathleen love this book?

This Pulitzer prize-winning history, thoroughly researched and engagingly written, is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the history of American evangelicalism. While it now defines the religious right, evangelicalism has espoused different religious and political positions from its eighteenth-century founding to the present, as Fitzgerald thoroughly documents. Initially, a populist rejection of established churches, in the nineteenth-century evangelicals split over the issue of slavery; Southern evangelicals insisted that the Bible endorsed it. In the twentieth century, evangelicals separated from fundamentalists and became more politically engaged as American business interests used religion to wrest evangelicals from the Democratic Party and political conservatives identified abortion as the issue most likely to galvanize them.

Since the 1980s evangelicals have become a dependable voting bloc for the Republican Party, but Fitzgerald concludes, younger evangelicals are more open and concerned with climate change and gender equality. There is no book I can recommend…

By Frances FitzGerald,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Evangelicals as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

* Winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award
* National Book Award Finalist
* Time magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of the Year
* New York Times Notable Book
* Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017

"A page turner...We have long needed a fair-minded overview of this vitally important religious sensibility, and FitzGerald has now provided it." -The New York Times Book Review

"Massively learned and electrifying...magisterial." -The Christian Science Monitor

This groundbreaking book from Pulitzer Prize -winning historian Frances FitzGerald is the first to tell the powerful, dramatic story of the Evangelical movement in America-from the Puritan…


Book cover of How to Manage Your Money: An In-Depth Bible Study on Personal Finances

Scott LaPierre Author Of Your Finances God's Way: A Biblical Guide to Making the Best Use of Your Money

From my list on finance books for biblically conservative Christians.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the teaching pastor of Woodland Christian Church, a role I've held since 2010. I preach God’s Word 1 to 3 times weekly, and I'm also a conference speaker and author. While I do some counseling and discipling, my main focus is on teaching and preaching, which involves studying God’s Word for 20 to 30 hours per week. I've learned biblical financial principles and I'm passionate about equipping people with them. With ten children on a single-income pastor’s salary, I've had to apply these principles in my own life, which has reinforced their importance and effectiveness.

Scott's book list on finance books for biblically conservative Christians

Scott LaPierre Why did Scott love this book?

Larry Burkett founded Crown Financial Ministries, had an accompanying radio show, and wrote many financial books. I am thankful for Mr. Burkett and all of his contributions to God’s kingdom. His program has been used by many individuals and churches and is the closest rival to Dave Ramsey’s program.

He has many wonderful books I could have chosen, but I stuck with this one because of the foundation in Scripture. As the subtitle communicates, it is “An in-depth Bible study on personal finances.” I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how to manage their finances according to biblical principles.

By Larry Burkett,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Manage Your Money as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

People often try managing their money apart from God's plan. Bad plan.

Until people have an attitude change about money, it will continue to control and confuse them. How to Manage Your Money is an excellent tool to get readers on track toward a liberated financial life. This newly repackaged bestseller contains updated material and a step-by-step, in-depth study of God's principles for money management.


Book cover of God's Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention

Frances FitzGerald Author Of The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America

From my list on understanding the ethos of the Christian right.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a correspondent in Vietnam in 1966, 1971, 1973, and 1974. I worked for The New Yorker on the last three dates, and I have been back several times since the end of the war. My book, Fire in Lake won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize for history, and the National Book Award, among other prizes.

Frances' book list on understanding the ethos of the Christian right

Frances FitzGerald Why did Frances love this book?

A liberal Southern Baptist, Leonard describes the fundamentalist takeover of the largest Protestant denomination. The take over accompanied the South’s transformation into a Republican stronghold and made the Christian right a serious force in American politics. Leonard is one of the best-known historians of the Convention and of contemporary religion in the South.

By Bill J. Leonard,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked God's Last and Only Hope as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Analyzes the recent controversy between moderate and fundamentalist Baptists from an historical perspective


Book cover of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism

Andrew L. Whitehead Author Of American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church

From my list on Christian Nationalism in the United States.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been fascinated by the relationship between Christianity and the United States for decades. Much of my work in the area of Christian nationalism is the result of my personal religious history and experiences, as well as my work as a social scientist. I’ve always been fascinated by how religion influences and is influenced by its social context. Christian nationalism in the US is a clear example of how influential religious ideologies can be in our social world.

Andrew's book list on Christian Nationalism in the United States

Andrew L. Whitehead Why did Andrew love this book?

This book painstakingly traces the powerful people and groups that support and perpetuate Christian nationalist ideologies and efforts across the United States. This book pairs well with social science texts in that it highlights the powerful networks that mobilize the millions of Americans who embrace Christian nationalism. 

By Katherine Stewart,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Power Worshippers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right's rise to political power.

For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America's religious nationalists aren't just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy.

Stewart pulls…


Book cover of 30 Days to Taming Your Finances

Scott LaPierre Author Of Your Finances God's Way: A Biblical Guide to Making the Best Use of Your Money

From my list on finance books for biblically conservative Christians.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the teaching pastor of Woodland Christian Church, a role I've held since 2010. I preach God’s Word 1 to 3 times weekly, and I'm also a conference speaker and author. While I do some counseling and discipling, my main focus is on teaching and preaching, which involves studying God’s Word for 20 to 30 hours per week. I've learned biblical financial principles and I'm passionate about equipping people with them. With ten children on a single-income pastor’s salary, I've had to apply these principles in my own life, which has reinforced their importance and effectiveness.

Scott's book list on finance books for biblically conservative Christians

Scott LaPierre Why did Scott love this book?

Ms. Pegue is a speaker and television host on TBN. She made a splash in 2005 with her book, 30 Days to Taming Your Tongue, which she then capitalized on by publishing a “30 Day Series.” This book was second in the series.

We want authors to have credibility, and Debra was an accountant for many years and a certified behavioral consultant. This has helped her understand not just finances but people’s behaviors. She brings those together in this book to help people manage their finances well.

By Deborah Smith Pegues,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 30 Days to Taming Your Finances as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Deborah Smith Pegues, author of the popular 30 Days to Taming Your Tongue (over 500,000 copies sold), now offers friendly, doable money management strategies in 30 Days to Taming Your Finances.

Giving readers the benefit of her many years' experience as a public accountant and certified behavioral consultant, Deborah sheds light on the emotional and practical side of putting finances in order. The wealth of information readers will gather includes how to

forget past financial mistakes and start fresh stop emotional spending and still be content fund future objectives with confidence

Each day's offering will inspire and motivate readers to…


Book cover of This Is Our Message: Women's Leadership in the New Christian Right

Katie Gaddini Author Of The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women Are Leaving the Church

From my list on women’s voices.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up reading books that featured strong women, including Little Women and Anne of Green Gables so it only made sense that I would go on to write a book featuring four strong women. As much as I love reading fiction, since I am a professor, my writing is mainly academic and/or non-fiction and I aim to make research translatable and interesting to all – including mainstream audiences. Currently, I am working on a new book about evangelical Christian women and politics, which I started in 2020 right before the presidential election. No matter where I live or work, exploring the various facets of women’s lives will remain my driving pursuit. 

Katie's book list on women’s voices

Katie Gaddini Why did Katie love this book?

I don’t usually enjoy reading historical books – especially not academic historical books, which can tend to be quite dry, but Johnson’s book had me riveted.

She (re)introduces us to four key women in the US Christian Right’s history yet presents their stories in a way that makes the historical feel incredibly present. Moreover, by sticking close to the women’s own voices, she avoids simplistic characterizations.

By Emily Suzanne Johnson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked This Is Our Message as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Over the past 50 years, the architects of the religious right have become household names: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson. They have used their massively influential platforms to build the profiles of evangelical politicians like Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, and Ted Cruz. Now, a new generation of leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr. and Robert Jeffress enjoys unprecedented access to the Trump White House.

What all these leaders share, besides their faith, is their gender. Men dominate the standard narrative of the rise of the religious right. Yet during the 1970s and 1980s nationally prominent evangelical women played essential roles…