Elizabethtown College Professor of Sociology Conrad Kanagy recently released his book, “A Church Dismantled–A Kingdom Restored: Why is God Taking Apart the Church?” 

The book is available at both Amazon and Masthof as both a paperback and an ebook.

Based upon his yearlong podcast series that emerged at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book is the first in a series of four books to be released this fall. The remaining books are entitled, “To Tear Down or Build Up? Ministry in a Church Dismantled,” “The Light Still Shines: Discovering Good News in a Church Dismantled,” and “My Story, My Song: A Dismantled Life Within a Church Dismantled.” All four books are being published by Masthoff Press.

Episodes from Kanagy’s popular podcast, “A Church Dismantled — A Kingdom Restored,” have been downloaded nearly 50,000 times in more than 80 countries and nearly 1,600 cities.

“This podcast brought together various areas of my professional and personal life that had been disparate entities in the past,” said Kanagy, who produced 275 episodes. “It allowed me to draw upon nearly three decades of research and teaching, 20 years of ministry, my childhood and coming-of-age in a conservative Mennonite-Amish community, my life-long struggle with a terror of God’s wrath exacerbated by obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the diagnosis, four years ago, of Parkinson’s disease.” 

A Kindle short book that introduces the series and includes 14 chapters from the four books is also available for download.

Etown Distinguished College Professor and Senior Fellow Emeritus Donald Kraybill provided a foreword to the book.

“The Parkinson’s dismantling gave Kanagy the courage, the guts, and the grit to strip off his masks and speak the truth,” said Kraybill. “It empowered him to say and write things that most of us might think but would never say. 

“Whatever your identities—religious, skeptic, political, racial, gender, class—you will find his essays provocative.”

Nationally recognized Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggeman (Columbia Theological Seminary) shared his endorsement for Kanagy’s book.

“I would label the writing style of this book as ‘breezy,’” said Brueggeman. “In that mode, Conrad Kanagy is able to say things and cross many boundaries not possible in a more sober mode. As a result, he is able to juxtapose odd partners, push the extremities of exposure, and do a broad sweep of scripture.”Five workshops/book signings are being planned for fall 2021, with more information available at achurchdismantled.com.