https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/11/samuel-alito-oil-gas-assets-supreme-court-analysis
I remember listening to the confirmation hearings for Alito back in January 2006 on NPR. I also recall being less than impressed, especially when compared to John Roberts who had undergone the same process just a few months earlier.
I was eager to pick up Matthew Avery Sutton's 'Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War', hoping to find an account of reflection and regret, of ethical wrestling and theology. I guess I was a bit overly optimistic if not naive.
The book started out rather interesting touching on some of the controversies of the day in terms of the Church in Germany, American Fundamentalism, and the heretical spectre who repeatedly haunts the pages - Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). Niebuhr's so-called realist ethics affected not only Mainline Christianity, but post-war Anabaptism as well. Even figures like James Comey and Barack Obama cite his influence.
For some time I've received recommendations of Joseph Loconte's 'The War for Middle-Earth: JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933-1945'. I was dubious, and so when I was recently in a Barnes and Noble and saw the book, I picked it up and spent some time perusing it. It was what I had feared, a Right-wing attempt to hijack these authors and appropriate them to contemporary political struggle. It immediately reminded my of the kind of skewed historical work produced by Eric Metaxas, most famously with his Bonhoeffer biography which despite being discredited, continues to sell.
https://cne.news/article/4772-seven-books-to-sharpen-your-christian-worldview
The article's set-up leads me to believe that once again the evocation of 'worldview' is not in the sense of a comprehensive and coherent system of thought but rather the rubber-stamping of an agenda. As such, it is in keeping with its frequent use within American Evangelicalism.
https://g3min.org/book-review-the-puritans-in-africa-by-w-de-klerk/
Cantrell offers some insightful commentary regarding Afrikaner Theology and how it devolved into Apartheid. I'm not sure I buy the True/False Calvinism distinction though. First, there's the issue and question of Calvinism which is broad and difficult to define. Second, there is the Dutch Calvinist legacy and its heavy emphasis on an integrated culture - seen particularly in the thought of Abraham Kuyper.
I picked up Timothy Egan's A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of Faith, because I have enjoyed such travel books in the past. Years ago I read many of HV Morton's travel works, particularly those in the 1930's and enjoyed the narrative, historical information, and the style of writing. Morton was not a Christian (that I could see) but was clearly interested in Christianity and its place in history.
