Books of the Year

Two new books are important responses to the rapidly growing promotion of theistic- or, more properly, deistic-evolution | Marvin Olasky

Photo by James Allen Walker for WORLD

WORLD has chosen a Daniel of the Year since 1998 and a Book of the Year since 2008. Since the variety of candidates is enormous, sometimes we look at where the battle is hottest and pick someone who stands firm in Christian witness when it would be easier to duck. For example, in 2007 we chose Wanda Cohn, director of a Florida pregnancy care center, both for her own work and as a representative of the thousands who offer counsel to abortion-prone young women. Several times we've chosen Christians who persevere against Islamic aggression.

It's also hard to choose a Book of the Year, so here as well we tend to see what's under assault. In 2008 and 2009 the "new atheism" of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins was picking up speed, so we chose Tim Keller's The Reason for God; in 2009, the ESV Study Bible. Last year, following passage of "Obamacare," the drive to expand Washington's power had still not suffered a major setback, so Arthur Brooks' The Battle, which described federal governmental expansion and proposed ways to stop it, was our Book of the Year.