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Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

2020 · 356 pages · Narrative nonfiction

tense moodmoderate paceheavy and literary toneambiguous ending

How it reads

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation is narrative nonfiction (political cultural history, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in an international setting, in the recent past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are faith, power and politics and class and society. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 356 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.

Pick it up if…

  • you're in the mood for something tense
  • you want something to chew on
  • you want a complete story in one book

Maybe not if…

  • you need something cosy or heartwarming

All 15 dimensions

Author gender
female
Author experience
established
Setting: place
international
Setting: time
recent past
Mood / feeling
tense
Pace
moderate
Tone / weight
heavy and literary
Length
medium
Narrative style
third person, several viewpoints
Publication era
recent
Popularity
well known
Series vs standalone
standalone
Themes
faith, power and politics, class and society
Ending style
ambiguous

What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.

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