Book Reviews

Excerpts:  Jesus and John Wayne  something more than a book of cultural history. Du Mez is facing a problem that besets many ex-evangelicals and former fundamentalists these days: How did the people who taught us to love Jesus end up…

Excerpts: Du Mez argues, using an extensive amount of research, that white evangelical culture often glorifies the aggressive, patriarchal idea of manhood, which has become intertwined with what it means to be a conservative Christian in the modern age. Sooner…

Excerpts: Simple hypocrisy is the simplest answer. Others see evangelical support for Trump as nothing more than transactional politics. Kristen Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at Calvin College, isn’t buying either of these explanations. In Jesus and John Wayne: How White…

Excerpts: While much has been reported and written about the disenfranchisement of working-class America and white “fly-over country,” Ms. Du Mez digs deeper into the evolution (no pun intended) of the white, masculine, American-branded faith that most of the rest…

Excerpts: Du Mez’s brilliant and engaging Jesus and John Wayne traces how evangelicals used their power to protect patriarchy over the last few generations.Matthew Avery Sutton, The New Republic Trump’s victory, she writes, was “the culmination of evangelicals’ embrace of militant masculinity,…

Screencapture, Christ and Pop Culture, July 13, 2020 Excerpts: Du Mez keeps company with Christians who ask why Donald Trump speaks at their alma maters, screams through their parents’ television sets, and steals the allegiance of their pastors. Rather than…