Seven books for the spiritually starved

For The Daily Beast, Spencer Bailey tagged seven new books for the spiritually starved.

One title on the list:

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt

In Radical, Alabama megachurch Pastor David Platt suggests something is seriously wrong with the Christian faith in America today. Christians have, as he puts it, “embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical but that actually contradict the gospel we claim to believe.” Most of all, Platt argues, American churchgoers skewer the biblical Jesus, rendering him as a “nice, middle-class, American” everyman ideal. “We may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible,” he writes. “Instead we might actually be worshiping ourselves.” Full of spiritual pronouncements readers of any religion can appreciate (“there are infinitely more important things in your life than football and a 401(k)”), Radical caters mostly to Christians, as a fervent manual to the faithful. If you’re stuck in the American dream of “self-advancement, self-esteem, and self-sufficiency,” as Platt describes it, then the book could be a good fit for you, too.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue