Top 10 Books of 2025

In a year that saw Emily and I welcome our little girl, Zoe, into the world, and a year where I released my first book, reading was more haphazard than in previous years - tough to flip through the many-paged tomes I have historically been used to when you’re running on three hours of sleep!

That said, in looking back through my reading list from 2025, there are some real gems. Beyond the usual biblical commentaries I read for my work, it was difficult to select out 10 specifically - I truly don’t think I missed much in my choices.

Hope these can help strengthen your book lists in 2026 friends! Happy reading!

(These rankings come in no particular order - every book has its purpose!)

1. Amusing Ourselves to Death (Re-Read), by Neil Postman

A prophetic work that has only increased its value and accuracy over time. Postman diagnoses the ills of our society so succinctly and devastatingly that it becomes impossible not to see everything in the world today through the lens of his evaluation. The explanatory power, combined with the wit and research, is just remarkable. If you’re looking for explanations and reasons as to why our American culture is the way that it is (derogatory), pick this one up asap.

2. Is God To Blame? Moving Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Suffering, by Greg Boyd

At some level, every spiritual tradition is an attempt to deal with the problem of suffering in our lives and world. In recent years, certain versions of American Christianity have failed miserably at this task, opting either for a soft-soap sentimentalism that ignores or downplays the weight of suffering and circumvents lament, or for a vision of God’s “sovereignty” that amounts to making him a megalomaniacal puppet master devoid of love and bursting with indifference, or worse yet, “This is good for you” pain-inflicting instincts. Boyd tackles both of these inept (and unscriptural) depictions of God and suffering, charting succinctly a constructive and truer vision of the God that is revealed in Jesus. It will be one I recommend without hesitation for folks wanting to explore this question in more depth.

3. Beyond Immanence: The Theological Vision of Kierkegaard and Barth, by Alan J. Torrance

Maybe the nerdiest book I read this year, but I can’t pass on an analysis of two of my favorite philosophical/theological thinkers and their relationship to one another. Particularly helpful as a companion for skepticism and doubt, this one takes the critiques and insights of both Kierkegaard and Barth and integrates them into a constructive vision for the transcendent in a culture—and religion—too contained by immanence. Incredibly well-researched!

4. Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry

“All the world, as a matter of fact, is a mosaic of little places invisible to the powers that be. And in the eyes of the powers that be all these invisible places do not add up to a visible place. They add up to words and numbers.”

A book about heaven.

5. Not In God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence, by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Perhaps the magnum opus from the great rabbi Sacks, this beautifully deconstructs the notion that any of the Abrahamic religions promote violence, bringing together real-life examples with analyses of the Hebrew scriptures to free God from the abuses and misrepresentations that take his name.

6. The Politics of Jesus, by John Howard Yoder

Setting aside some of Yoder’s fraught personal life, his examination of Jesus’ teaching as a model for civic and political engagement is a perfect refutation of the damaging and anti-Christ visions of Christian nationalism so often tossed around in our time. Hard not to want to embrace the Anabaptist political vision fully after reading this one.

7. Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture, by Lesslie Newbigin

Newbigin remains the best commentator on Christianity and Western culture in the last century. This book is small and mighty: there is not a page in it that is not riddled with highlights in my copy. A must-read for anyone wanting to get a better grasp on the spiritual condition of the Western world and how the Gospel of Christ can speak in response.

8. Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West, by Andrew Wilson

Cleverly written and deeply researched, Wilson’s historical and sociological deep dive is as engaging as it is piercing. Should be required reading for all Christians in order to understand the legacy of Christendom and the condition remaining in our time.

9. The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why Love of Money is the Root of Racism, by Malcolm Foley

A perfect blend of accessibility and scholarship. Foley outlines the economic underpinnings of America’s racist past, weaving them together with the spiritual diagnosis of greed to produce a work at once socially telling and spiritually engaging. If you were to pick up one from my list, it’d be hard not to recommend this one.

10. A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, by Edwin Friedman

A book on leadership that reveals how all books on leadership are killing leadership. Any leader of any unit, from a family to a nation, must read Friedman’s work and put it into practice if we are going to have any hope of meaningful maturation and change as a culture.