Early in my journey of leaving the church, I was still a stay-at-home-mom. In those days I read an average of a book a week and preferred bound books and had several shelves full. After starting work full-time and commuting, I shifted to audio books and podcasts. Some of these were read with the full intent and desperate hope that they would resurrect something of my former faith. But that was long gone. Instead, I found intellectual peace unlike I had previously known along with a reassurance that I was on the right path and that I was not as alone as I felt.

The following is a list of books, podcasts, blogs, and social media outlets of a wide variety from fiction, self-help, and memoir to treatises on ethics, church and American history, human psychology, and politics. Nearly all of it will be information and understanding that evangelical and fundamentalist churches carefully exclude from their preaching and teaching in Christian and home school curriculums, colleges, and seminaries.

Books

The Sin of Certainty – Peter Enns
Jesus and John Wayne – Kristen Munoz
American Apocalypse – Matthew Henry Sutton
Unsettling Truths – Charles and Rah
Misquoting Jesus – Bart Ehrman
Harvest of Hope – Juan Gonzalez
Caste – Isabel Wilkerson
Crazy for God – Frank Schaffer
Losing My Religion – William Lobdell
Why I Believed – Kenneth W. Daniels
Trusting Doubt – Valerie Tarico
Women Beyond Belief – Edited by Karen L. Garst
Why I am Agnostic – Robert Ingersoll
Man’s Search for Meaning – Vicktor Frankel
Humankind – Rutger Bregman
Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart – Bayer and Figdor
How to Be Perfect – Michael Schur

The Body Keeps Score – Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
Healing from Hidden Abuse – Shannon Thomas, LCSW

Leaving the Fold – Marlene Winell, PhD
Braving the Wilderness and I Thought It Was Just Me – Brene Brown
Nine Parts of Desire – Geraldine Brooks
Half the Sky – Kristof and WuDunn
Good and Mad – Rebecca Traister
Feminism is for Everybody – Bell Hooks
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
Traveling Mercies and Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott
Flight of the Sparrow – Amy Belding Brown

Podcasts and Blogs

Powers and Principalities
A Little Bit Culty
Exvangelical
Godless in Dixie
Homeschoolers Anonymous

Social Media

Recovering Grace
Kaitlin Shelter Poetry
Dr. Laura Anderson, PhD LMFT
Room to Thrive
Religious Trauma Institute