GOD'S POLITICS: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it
Jim Wallis
HarperSanFrancisco,
416 pp., $24.95

Did you feel conflicted while voting in last November's election? Jim Wallis, activist and founder of Sojourners magazine, makes a compelling case for why Republicans and Democrats are both off course, and urges a return to a "moral center."

"The real question is not whether religious faith should influence a society and its politics, but how." It's time to take back our faith, he believes—from politicians who love to say how religious they are but who ignore the poor, and from liberal secularists who want to banish faith from public life.

With the image of God in every person as his litmus test, Wallis tackles myriad issues: the poor ("pushed … off the agenda"), war (in Iraq, "wrong from the start"), AIDS/HIV (treatment and prevention are a "moral imperative"), homosexuality ("gay civil and human rights must also be … defended"), and abortion (Democrats need to take a more respectful approach to the issue). A personal God, he writes, demands public justice as an act of worship.

Wallis supplements his chapters with his sermon texts, letters, speeches, and columns.

IN SEARCH OF SACRED PLACES: Looking for Wisdom on Celtic Holy Islands
Daniel Taylor
Bog Walk Press,
171 pp., $19.95

Daniel Taylor, a Bethel University professor and author (The Myth of Certainty), describes himself as a tough sell when it comes to shrines and sacred places. Nevertheless, he sets off on a spiritual pilgrimage to the island of Iona in Scotland and other nearby places, believing that "the journey itself is as important as the place."

Unlike the early pilgrims, however, his pilgrimage ...