There are intentional forms of racism, but race also works as a social force that structures our perceptions, values, practices, institutions, etc. We need to distinguish between the intentional and structural varieties.

Reviews of important books—classic and contemporary.
There are intentional forms of racism, but race also works as a social force that structures our perceptions, values, practices, institutions, etc. We need to distinguish between the intentional and structural varieties.
There is no question that a number of mysteries and tensions lie at the heart of the Christian faith. How should we live “in the world, but not of it”?
As I, like the narrators of his albums, work out the big questions, Springsteen’s music has been both a puzzle and provocation. Not every album was a home run, but for him, that wasn’t really the point as much as it was a true chronicle of his own questions and pursuit of better answers.
What is the relationship between the Bible and theology? Gregory Lee’s Today When You Hear His Voice is a delightful companion on this journey, both in what it gets right and where it exposes where we often go wrong in our use of the Bible.
Like many of the writers in the collection, it took leaving the church I grew up in to find my way to a new understanding of God. But in fact, this “faith journey” was a kind of return—to something my childhood church community had once known, but forgotten.
Books can help us better understand the world around us, to confront our issues or find comfort in the stories of others. Here are five books that do just that.