Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Cross Purposes : Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy - Jonathan Rauch

Cross Purposes

Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy

By: Jonathan Rauch

Paperback | 10 April 2026 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $26.95

$24.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $6.25 with

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

Why the crisis of Christianity has become a crisis for democracy

"Concise and elegant. . . . Rauch applies careful research and incisive prose to examine, diagnose, and prescribe a cure for the maladies afflicting contemporary religious-political dynamics."—Michael M. Rosen, Commentary

What happens to American democracy if Christianity is no longer able, or no longer willing, to perform the functions on which our constitutional order depends? In this provocative book, the award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch—a lifelong atheist—reckons candidly with both the shortcomings of secularism and the corrosion of Christianity.

Thin Christianity, as Rauch calls the mainline church, has been unable to inspire and retain believers. Worse, a Church of Fear has distorted white evangelicalism in ways that violate the tenets of both Jesus and James Madison. What to do? For answers, Rauch looks to a new generation of religious thinkers, as well as to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has placed the Constitution at the heart of its spiritual teachings.

In this timely critique Rauch addresses secular Americans who think Christianity can be abandoned, and Christian Americans who blame secular culture for their grievances. The two must work together, he argues, to confront our present crisis. He calls on Christians to recommit to the teachings of their faith that align with Madison, not MAGA, and to understand that liberal democracy, far from being oppressive, is uniquely protective of religious freedom. At the same time, he calls on secular liberals to understand that healthy religious institutions are crucial to the survival of the liberal state.

More in Politics & Government

Angertainment : How social media outrage ruined everything - Ed Coper
Demagogues and Despots : Democracies on the brink - John Keane

RRP $32.99

$28.75

13%
OFF
Entitled : The Rise and Fall of the House of York - Andrew Lownie

RRP $27.99

$23.75

15%
OFF
Operation Paperclip : Nazi Scientists in America - Annie Jacobsen

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
The Future Is Peace - Aziz Abu Sarah

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
The Beginning Comes After the End : Notes on a World of Change - Rebecca Solnit
Gold Standard? : Remembering the Hawke government - Frank Bongiorno

RRP $39.99

$33.75

16%
OFF
A Different Kind of Power : The internationally bestselling memoir - Jacinda Ardern
When the World Sleeps : Stories, Words and Wounds of Palestine - Francesca Albanese
US grand strategy and the Madman Theory : From Nixon to Trump - James D. Boys
The Infinite Game : From the bestselling author of Start With Why - Simon Sinek
A Different Kind of Power : A Memoir - Jacinda Ardern

RRP $55.00

$29.99

45%
OFF