The Amish are everywhere, on bestseller, fiction, and nonfiction lists. This spring, two top names in Amish fiction offer different slices of the big shoofly pie. Beverly Lewis, who started all this with her novel The Shunning, compiles Amish Prayers; Bethany House is printing 75,000 copies. Novelist Cindy Woodsmall joins forces with Old Order Amish member Miriam Flaud to write about their relationship and their cultures in Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Hearts of Two Women. The element of women's friendship adds appeal.

Beyond this Shangri-la of plain and simple, religion has more than its share of eternally fascinating subjects. Getting to Heaven: Departing Instructions for Your Life Now by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey is Piper's first book in four years. His long-lived 90 Minutes in Heaven has sold more than four million copies.

Do you want to know a secret? Lots of people do, and they will be interested in Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman. The veteran journalist is a contributing editor to Rolling Stone, where in 2006 she wrote a lengthy piece on the faith. The book will break ground for journalists, social scientists, and the curious.

More demystification is on tap from religion scholar and occasional Colbert Report and Daily Show guest Bart Ehrman in his Forged: Writing in the Name of God—Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. Ehrman has a gift for bringing to life the dusty and scholarly, and the conspiratorial connotations of his newest title, as well as his bestselling track record, hold promise.

Speaking of platforms, Pope Benedict XVI's got one. The pontiff's Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week—From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, will be published in time for Holy Week. What the pope calls a "faith hermeneutic" on the climactic events in the life and death of the central figure of Christianity will be taken as gospel by many believers.

James Carroll, in Practicing Catholic, described his own Catholic faith journey. The versatile award-winning author and former priest takes on a problematic and passionate subject in Jerusalem, Jerusalem, an analysis of the place where faith and violence in the name of faith have a long and intertwined history. PW's starred review called his book "conceptually profound and richly detailed."

Religion publishing reflects the shifting of the guard occurring in congregations, and a new generation of clergy voices is coming to print. That vanguard includes Timothy Keller, whose socially committed Presbyterianism is flourishing in Manhattan. King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, is the first book in Keller's new Redeemer imprint at Dutton. Southern Baptist pastor David Platt's Radical (2010) took many by surprise when it landed on bestseller lists; Radical Together is his follow-up. Thirty-something Matthew Barnett is the son of a preacher—his father is megachurch pastor Tommy Barnett. The two cofounded the Dream Center in Los Angeles, which works with the homeless, and Matthew Barnett is senior pastor of Angelus Temple, where Aimee Semple McPherson once drew crowds. With its emphasis on social engagement, Barnett's The Cause Within You looks like a breakout book.

PW's Religion Top 10

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
Janet Reitman. HMH, July

Forged: Writing in the Name of God—Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are
Bart D. Ehrman. HarperOne, Apr.

Amish Prayers: Heartfelt Expressions of Humility, Gratitude, and Devotion
Beverly Lewis. Bethany House, Apr.

Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Hearts of Two Women
Cindy Woodsmall and Miriam Flaud. WaterBrook, Mar.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World
James Carroll. HMH, Mar.

Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week—From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection
Pope Benedict XVI. Ignatius, Mar.

Getting to Heaven: Departing
Instructions for Your Life Now
Don Piper and Cecil Murphey. Berkley, Mar.

King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus
Timothy Keller. Dutton/Redeemer, Feb.

The Cause Within You:
Finding the One Great Thing
You Were Created to Do in This World
Matthew Barnett and George Barna.
Tyndale/Barna, Feb.

Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God
David Platt. Multnomah, Apr.