Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism
by David P. Gushee
Why You'll Love This
He spent decades as a respected evangelical insider — then one theological shift got him excommunicated from the movement he helped build.
- Great if you want: an honest reckoning from someone who survived evangelical culture wars
- The experience: brief and reflective — reads in one or two focused sittings
- The writing: Gushee writes like a theologian who has finally stopped being careful
- Skip if: you want theological debate rather than personal memoir
About This Book
What does it mean to stay Christian when the community that shaped your faith ultimately rejects you? David P. Gushee has spent decades at the center of American evangelical life — as a scholar, ethicist, and insider — and this memoir traces the full arc of that journey, from a Catholic childhood through Southern Baptist conversion to the moment evangelicalism effectively showed him the door over his support for LGBT inclusion. It's a story about belonging, conscience, and the cost of changing your mind in public, and it speaks directly to the millions who have found themselves spiritually homeless within traditions they once called home.
At just 151 pages, the book is tightly constructed and moves with the focus of someone who has thought carefully about what to include and what to leave out. Gushee writes with the precision of an academic who has learned to be honest on the page — candid without being bitter, self-critical without being self-flagellating. The result is a rare kind of religious memoir: one that takes theology seriously while never losing sight of the human beings theology affects. Readers navigating their own complicated relationship with faith will find it quietly clarifying.