Theological Thriller Novels

Cruel Logic

Recommended books that analyze Wokeness, Critical Theory, Social Justice and Western Civilization

Notes From the Christian Underground by Brian Godawa
These essays are inspired by and related to the theological thriller novel, Cruel Logic: The Philosopher Killer. The essays explore the crisis of Western Civilization vs. the woke Left, Christian apologetics and Christian deconstruction, the origins of wokeness and its war on reality, ethics and the moral argument for the existence of God.

Why It Might Be Okay to Eat Your Neighbor: If Atheism is Right, Can Anything Be Wrong? by Gary DeMar
DeMar repeatedly raises the issue of accounting for the conscience, good and evil, and loving our neighbor. It’s shocking to read what atheists say about a cosmos devoid of meaning and morality.

Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe by Voddie Baucham Jr.
In this powerful book, Voddie Baucham, a preacher, professor, and cultural apologist, explains the sinister worldview behind the social justice movement and Critical Race Theory—revealing how it already has infiltrated some seminaries, leading to internal denominational conflict, canceled careers, and lost livelihoods. Like a fault line, it threatens American culture in general—and the evangelical church in particular.

Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell
Discrimination and Disparities gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. 

Social Justice Fallacies by Thomas Sowell
However attractive the social justice vision, the crucial question is whether the social justice agenda will get us to the fulfillment of that vision. History shows that the social justice agenda has often led in the opposite direction, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. 

Black Rednecks & White Liberals by Thomas Sowell
This explosive new book challenges many of the long-prevailing assumptions about blacks, about Jews, about Germans, about slavery, and about education. It presents eye-opening insights into the historical development of the ghetto culture that is today wrongly seen as a unique black identity–a culture cheered on toward self-destruction by white liberals who consider themselves “friends” of blacks. 

Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country by Shelby Steele
the roots of our current social political impasse can be traced back to the 1960s decade of protest, when in the act of uncovering and dismantling our national hypocrisies — racism, sexism, militarism — liberals internalized the idea that there was something inauthentic, if not evil, in the America character. Since then, liberalism has been wholly concerned with redeeming modern American from the sins of the past. Steele argues, post-60s liberalism has utterly failed to achieve its stated aim: true equality. Liberals, intending to atone for our past sins, have ironically perpetuated the exploitation of this country’s least fortunate citizens.

White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele 
Through articulate analysis and engrossing recollections, acclaimed race relations scholar Shelby Steele sounds a powerful call for a new culture of personal responsibility.

America’s Cultural Revolution by Christopher Rufo
America’s most effective conservative intellectual proves once and for all that Marxist radicals have taken over our nation’s institutions.

Social (In)justice: Why Many Popular Answers to Important Questions of Race, Gender, and Identity Are Wrong–and How to Know What’s Right by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
Specifically, this is a book about the evolution of a certain set of ideas, and how these ideas have come to dominate every important discussion about race, gender, and identity today.

Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology—Implications for the Church and Society by Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer 
In Critical Dilemma, authors Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer illuminate the origins and influences of contemporary critical theory, considering it in the light of clear reason and biblical orthodoxy. While acknowledging that it can provide some legitimate insights regarding race, class, and gender, Critical Dilemma exposes the false assumptions at the heart of critical theory, arguing that it poses a serious threat to both the church and society at large.

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman
How did the world arrive at its current, disorienting state of identity politics, and how should the church respond? Historian Carl R. Trueman shows how influences ranging from traditional institutions to technology and pornography moved modern culture toward an era of “expressive individualism.” 

The War on the West by Douglas Murray 
It is now in vogue to celebrate non-Western cultures and disparage Western ones. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning, but much of it fatally undermines the very things that created the greatest, most humane civilization in the world. Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric

Recommended websites that analyze Wokeness, Critical Theory, Social Justice and Western Civilization 

Neil Shenvi – Apologetics

New Discourses by James Lindsay

Christopher Rufo on Substack

Culture Warrior by Mark Tapson on Substack

Recommended books on the apologetics used in the novel Cruel Logic

Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis by Greg L. Bahnsen
This is the best academic book on apologetics ever written. The 20th century’s greatest apologist Greg Bahnsen explains the apologetic approach of his mentor, Cornelius Van Til who created a Copernican Revolution in apologetics. Beware, it is very intellectual and scholarly, so only get it if you can handle philosophical discourse.(By the way, the astute reader will notice that I named my detective hero in the novel Cruel Logic after Cornelius Van Til.)

Against All Opposition: Defending the Christian Worldview by Greg L. Bahnsen
Volume 1 of the Bahnsen Apologetic Trilogy
This trilogy of books by the best Christian apologist of the 20th Century is a game-changer for your Christian faith and defense.

The Impossibility of the Contrary: Without God You Can’t Prove Anything by Greg L. Bahnsen
Volume 2 of the Bahnsen Apologetic Trilogy
This trilogy of books by the best Christian apologist of the 20th Century is a game-changer for your Christian faith and defense.

Pushing the Antithesis: The Apologetic Methodology of Greg L. Bahnsen by Greg L. Bahnsen
Volume 3 of the Bahnsen Apologetic Trilogy
This trilogy of books by the best Christian apologist of the 20th Century is a game-changer for your Christian faith and defense.