Tim Alberta: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory

Staff writer for The Atlantic follows up his New York Times bestseller American Carnage with this rigorously reported, and deeply personal examination of the divisions that threaten to destroy the American evangelical movement.

About the book:

The son of an evangelical minister, The Atlantic staff writer Tim Alberta was sickened when, on the day of his father’s funeral, some members of the congregation eschewed compassion at this moment of grief and took him to task for what he had written about the rise of Donald Trump in his New York Times bestseller American Carnage. “What the hell is wrong with these people?” his wife asked—an off-the-cuff question that grew in Alberta’s mind and inspired the journalist in him to attempt to find answers. In THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY: American Evangelicals in the Age of Extremism (Harper; December 5, 2023), Alberta—a practicing Christian—investigates the corruption of American Christianity and the subsequent fracturing of individual relationships and church congregations alike.

In search of answers, Alberta spent some four years embedded inside the modern evangelical movement. From the highest echelons to struggling congregations, he toured half-empty sanctuaries and standing-room-only auditoriums while shadowing big-city televangelists and small-town preachers. Reporting from inside hundreds of churches, Christian colleges, religious advocacy organizations, denominational nonprofits, and assorted independent ministries, Alberta offers a definitive account of American Christianity's decline. What he describes is a faith cheapened by partisan subterfuge and stained by scandal. The idea of America as God’s blessed land has abruptly given way to a right-wing nationalist fervor that merges two kingdoms into one and trivializes the witness of Jesus Christ. The Trump presidency and pandemic bolstered long-held church teachings pointing toward disaster.

Alberta finds that many of today’s believers are desperate for power that is frivolous, fleeting, and runs counter to New Testament teachings. “The crisis of American evangelicalism comes down to an obsession with … worldly identity,” he writes. “Instead of fixing our eyes on the unseen, ‘since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal,’ as Paul writes in Second Corinthians, we have become fixated on the here and now. Instead of seeing ourselves as exiles in a metaphorical Babylon, the way Peter describes the first-century Christians living in Rome, we have embraced our imperial citizenship. Instead of fleeing the temptation to rule all the world, like Jesus did, we have made deals with the devil.”

If the American evangelical movement has ceased to glorify God, then what is its purpose? THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY offers a thoroughly reported and deeply personal exploration that meets at the intersection of real cultural displacement and perceived religious persecution.

About the author:

Tim Alberta is a staff writer for The Atlantic, the former chief political correspondent for Politico, and has written for dozens of other publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. He co-moderated the final Democratic presidential debate of 2019 and frequently appears as a commentator on television programs in the U.S. and around the world. He lives in Michigan with his wife and three sons.