Tisa Wenger, Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal (University of North Carolina Press, 312pp., $35 cloth)

Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Atlantic Monthly Press, 240pp., $24 cloth)

Christian Smith, Religion: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters (Princeton University Press, 296pp., $35 cloth)

Philip Gorski, American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present (Princeton University Press, 336pp., $35 cloth)

Cécile Laborde, Liberalism’s Religion (Harvard University Press, 344pp., $35 cloth)

James L. Kugel, The Great Shift: Encountering God in Biblical Times (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 496pp., $30 cloth)

John F. Haught, The New Cosmic Story: Inside Our Awakening Universe (Yale University Press, 240pp., $25 cloth)

N. Katherine Hayles, Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Unconscious (University of Chicago Press, 272pp., $24 paper)

Jason A. Josephson-Storm, The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences (University of Chicago Press, 400pp., $32 paper)

David Benatar, The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions (Oxford University Press, 288pp., $25 cloth)

Jonathan Keates, Messiah: The Composition and Afterlife of Handel’s Masterpiece (Basic Books, 176pp., $25 cloth)