Turn off your TV and read a good book!
Here are some books I highly recommend. Please note that in recommending these books I do not agree with everything the authors write. I tend to read books by people who are either to the left or the right of my own perspective because I want to be challenged in my thinking. Even though I strongly disagree with some of what these books contain, I still find much that causes me to recommend them.
RELIGION
The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church. By Reggie McNeal. This is a book that should be read by every minister, staff person and anyone concerned about the future of the church. Reggie really nails some of the critical issues facing the church in a book that goes beyond recommended to being absolutely essential. Memorable quote - The current church culture in North America is on life support. It is living off the work, money, and energy of previous generations from a previous world order. The plug will be pulled either when the money runs out (80 percent of money given to congregations come from people aged fifty-five and older) or when the remaining three-fourths of a generation who are institutional loyalists die off or both...The death of the church culture as we know it will not be the death of the church...The imminent demise under discussion is the collapse of the unique culture in North America that has come to be called "church." This church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside the church and out (page 1).
A Generous Orthodoxy. By Brian McLaren. A leader in the "emerging church" movement, this book has been criticized by some for reasons that I still can't understand. Some people evidently believe McLaren is pushing universalism, which he absolutely refutes. This book is very much in the vein of The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey, which seeks to strip away the layers of tradition we have placed upon Jesus. Some important points in a thought-provoking book. Memorable quote - The more I study the Bible and reflect on the life and teachings of Jesus, the more I think most of Christianity as practiced today has very little to do with the real Jesus found there (page 79).
The Rivers North of the Future: The Testament of Ivan Illich as told to David Cayley. By David Cayley. Maybe my brain is just too small, but this book blew my mind and I'm still trying to figure it out. Maybe it's not the most captivating title, but it held my interest enough that I read most of it laying on the beach and it held my interest over the surf! Illich was an amazing thinker and his central thesis that "the corruption of the best is the worst" leads him to some very interesting conclusions, especially his contention that we are not living in a post-Christian world at all. Illich makes the claim that most of the institutions of Western society are really a corruption of the purposes of the church. A fascinating book. Memorable quote - This is what I call the "perversio optimi quae est pessima" (the perversion of the best which is the worst)...Because I consider this evil to be the result of an attempt to use power, organization, management, manipulation, and the law to ensure the social presence of something which, by its very nature, cannot be anything else but the free choice of individuals who have accepted the invitation to see in everybody whom they choose the fact of Christ (page 56).
The Church of Irresistible Influence. By Robert Lewis with Rob Wilkins. Lewis writes an important book about ways churches can build bridges to their community. Lewis believes, and I agree with him, that most churches are terribly isolated from their communities and his passion is helping churches bridge the gap between congregation and community. More importantly, Lewis is a rarity among evangelical writers (maybe the only one?) who will admit to the fact that in spite of preaching love, most evangelicals have condemned society and failed to engage the world at large. Memorable quote - This is the church of the New Testament: a church that loves its enemies rather than mocking them (Romans 12:17-21); a church that gives more than it receives (Acts 20:35); a church that moves courageously "out" rather than retreating comfortably "in" and in that process proves its authenticity (Matthew 5:16) This New Testament vision must find its way back into our congregations! (Page 74).
The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering A Life of Faith. By Marcus J. Borg. Borg is similar in perspective to Karen Armstrong, John Crossan, John Shelby Spong and others who are theologically linked to a perspective best demonstrated by The Jesus Seminar. Probably not for those who are traditionally conservative - and a book most fundamentalists would like to ban or burn - this book will have troubling conclusions to those who cannot think beyond an evangelical mindset. Borg makes a very interesting comparison between what he calls the earlier paradigm of Christianity and the emerging paradigm. The earlier paradigm is traditional Christianity and the emerging paradigm is what Borg identifies as an emerging Christian tradition that will speak to those who are skeptical of traditional Christianity. He would be considered quite liberal by evangelicals, but many of his conclusions contain very valuable and meaningful information that should not - and cannot - be easily written off. As liberal as Spong, but not as condescending and off-putting. A very interesting and highly recommended book. Memorable quote - It began with the Roman emperor Constantine's embrace of Christianity in the fourth century and lasted until recently. During these centuries, the "powers that be" were Christian. So long as the wedding of Christianity and dominant culture continued, Christians seldom engaged in radical criticism of the social order. Instead, personal salvation in the hereafter was the primary message, an emphasis that continues to this day in many parts of the church. This emphasis incidentally (or not so incidentally) mutes the political voices of the Bible, thereby domesticating its political passion (page 127).
Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. By Marcus J. Borg. Another great book by Marcus Borg. Although Borg is considered too liberal by most evangelicals, there is a wealth of great material in this book even for those on the more conservative end of the theological spectrum. His discussion of Conventional Wisdom versus Subversive Wisdom, for example, is worth the price of the book. Memorable quote - To put it boldly: compassion for Jesus was political. He directly and repeatedly challenged the dominant sociopolitical paradigm of his social world and advocated instead what might be called a "politics of compassion." This conflict and this social vision continue to have striking implications for the life of the church today (page 49).
The Last Week. By Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan. Yeah, I'm kind of heavy on Marcus Borg here, but he has some great stuff. This is a very interesting book on the last week of the earthly ministry of Jesus. Some fascinating insights. Memorable quote - Jesus' procession deliberately countered what was happening on the other side of the city. Pilate's procession embodied the power, glory, and violence of the empire that ruled the world. Jesus' procession embodied an alternative vision, the kingdom of God. This contract - between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Caesar - is central not only to the gospel of Mark, but to the story of Jesus and early Christianity (pp 4 - 5).
The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible. By James L. Kugel. A challenging book that looks at humanity's developing and changing insights into God. His work on how the later Old Testament writers changed the earlier parts of the Old Testament is very interesting. Memorable quote - There are not two realms in the Bible, this world and the other, the spiritual and the material - or rather, these two realms are not neatly segregated but intersect constantly. God turns up around the street corner, dressed like an ordinary person. He does not "enter the soul of a righteous man," He appears in an actual brushfire at the foot of a mountain. And it is not even that, on such occasions, He enters the world as we conceive of it from somewhere else. Rather, it seems that the world itself as we conceive of it (at least the Biblical world) has little cracks in it here and there (pp. 35-36).
The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition. By Huston Smith. I picked up this book because I found so many references to the writings of Huston Smith in other books; I was not disappointed. Smith writes about the basic and essential teachings of Christianity and why belief still matters in our increasingly secular world. The first section - The Christian Worldview - is rather slow-going and technical, but don't give up, because in section two - The Christian Story - Smith really hits his stride and writes passionately about the Christian faith. Confounding easy categorization, Smith criticizes a hard, literalistic faith of the right but is equally hard on the lifeless faith so often found on the left. For section two alone, which makes up most of the book, it gets a rating of an essential read. Memorable quote - The second revolution - through which we are now living but which remains undernoticed - is constructive, for it brings God back into the picture. It is occurring because we now see clearly where secularism went wrong. It equated two things, absence-of-evidence and evidence-of-absence, which, once one stops to think about it, are very different. The fact that science cannot get its hands on anything except nature is no proof that nature (alternatively, matter) is all that exists. Moreover, it is self-evident that other things do exist (pp. xv - xvi).
Exiled: Voices of the Southern Baptist Convention Holy War. Edited by Carl L. Kell. A difficult book to read if you are, like me, not a fan of the current leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention. The book is a collection of essays by people who give their personal perspectives on the turmoil that took place within the Southern Baptist Convention during the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC. Some, denominational employees and seminary professors among them, tell stories of being fired as the new leadership purged all of the SBC institutions. The treatment of these individuals was nothing short of cruel and cold-hearted and it is difficult to imagine that people could be treated with such contempt. A criticism of the book by those on the other side of the conflict will no doubt be that the book is one-sided. Well, it is one-sided, but it's a side that for too long has been buried under the heavy hand of control and domination of the fundamentalists who took over and dismantled America's largest Protestant denomination. For those of you who don't like that statement I should add that I witnessed much of the damage myself during the early 1980s while a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. There were many days when "guests" were present in the classrooms to tape record lectures in the hope of capturing a statement that could be used against a professor. One of my professors at the time - Paul Simmons - was a prime target of such tactics. Though Paul was never one to back down (and thus made his situation more difficult - and I say that with all due respect) his treatment and subsequent forced exit from Southern crosses into the realm of immorality. I know some will recoil at that statement, but I stand by it, and though I would not agree with Paul on every topic, he is a fine man who never deserved such shabby treatment. The same could be said about many others as well. Memorable quote - By action, I chose to leave the Southern Baptist Convention. In reality, I was left without any other choice. I could not have remained a Southern Baptist and been at peace with myself. I am saddened that the denomination, in which I was birthed to faith, called into ministry, and educated, no longer had room for me. As I look back, I am surprised that the anger, which I occasionally experienced, did not persist. Anger was not even the most prominent emotion that I felt. Far more prominent were emotions of sadness, disappointment, abandonment, and grief, all flowing from a growing sense of homelessness. For me, all these emotions are mostly in the past. I have entered a promised land and am discovering that there is more than enough here to occupy my energies (by Michael R. Duncan, Pastor of the Eminence Baptist Church, Eminence, Kentucky, page 105).
The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authentic Contemporary Faith. By Marcus Borg. I know, another Marcus Borg book; it's just that I liked the first one I read and so I read several more. There is much to like (and some would say plenty to dislike) about Borg's theology. Borg makes a lot of very interesting points, especially in the chapter The Dream of God: The Politics of Compassion. Most of us read the Gospels without realizing that Jesus was extremely political during his ministry, and it was a politics that emphasized compassion. That's a word that gets tossed around a lot these days (i.e., compassionate conservatism), but was does it mean to truly be compassionate? It's the dream of God, what the world would be like if God were the king and compassion reigned. Memorable quote - I begin with a clarifying remark about compassion. It strikes some people as being a "weak" value, particularly in the context of politics. Thus it is important to underline that compassion does not mean simply being "nice." Nor does it mean "letting people off the hook," as if one would say in every situation, "I understand," and never hold anybody accountable. The strength of compassion as a value can be seen by looking at its opposites: hatred, abuse, brutality, injustice; indifference, selfishness, self-righteousness (in religious or secular form), hardness of heart; racism, sexism, classism, militant nationalism, and so forth. To advocate compassion is to stand against these. Thus it is not a "weak" value that tolerates everything (page 150).
Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life. By Alister McGrath. McGrath is one of the first to write a book length refutation to Richard Dawkins' books, especially The God Delusion. McGrath, who like Dawkins is a professor at Oxford University, is a former atheist turned theologian who also possesses a PhD in molecular biophysics, which makes him uniquely qualified to critique Dawkins. McGrath knows his stuff, although some of the writing seems a little technical - at least to me, who passed my college biology course by one slim point - but this is a very important book and I place it at the top of my recommended list.
The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World. By Alister McGrath. I had not read anything by McGrath until I began work on my Confronting the Skeptics sermon series; he's at the top of my list now. McGrath's thesis is that far from spreading, unbelief is actually on the wane, and gives a well-reasoned argument as to why he believe religious faith will continue to grow and in the face of scientific challenges. Anyone who studies apologetics and is concerned with formulating a response to the "new atheists" will find this book an essential read. Absolutely recommended.
God The Evidence: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason In A Postsecular World. by Patrick Glynn. A postsecular world? A very interesting book by another former atheist who writes of the evidences that led him from unbelief to belief. Very readable and highly recommended.
ATHEISM AND UNBELIEF
You may be wondering why I would include this section in my Recommended Reading. In preparation for a sermon series titled Confronting the Skeptics I did some reading to better understand this point of view. Anyone who is at least moderately religious should be familiar with the literature of unbelief, including these titles. I will not do a full critique of these books on this page, although at some point I hope to write a critical response to each of them. If you are interested in this topic, I encourage you to navigate to my sermon page link to the series Confronting the Skeptics - Confronting the Skeptics.
Why I Am Not A Christian. By Bertrand Russell. A classic in the field of unbelief, this book set the template for many others to follow. Russell lists many of the now familiar arguments that you would encounter were you to dialogue with someone who rejects both belief and God. All Christians should be familiar with these arguments and know enough to give a basic refutation.
The God Delusion. By Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is arguably one of the great science writers of our time. When it comes to religion, though, he is hysterical and illogical. His writing, when confined to science, is concise and brilliant; when he writes of religion he goes off the rails. Because Dawkins is probably the most well-known atheist writing today, every believer should be familiar with his arguments.
The End of Faith. By Sam Harris. After Dawkins, Harris is probably the most well-known atheist today. Not as hysterically illogical as Dawkins, Harris is a sharp writer and is very readable, even when it is impossible to agree with him. Like Dawkins, though, he is most definitely an "evangelistic atheist" and will not be content until every last trace of religion is wiped from the face of the earth. Also, like Dawkins, there are a lot of holes in his logic, such as his inability to understand religious metaphor and his reluctance to deal with the evils brought to us by science - which, in my opinion, is his god. Harris has also published Letters To A Christian Nation, if you need more faulty logic and bad history.
God: The Failed Hypothesis - How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist. By Victor J. Stegner. Stegner is a third or fourth tier Dawkins, and like both Dawkins and Harris fails to deal with the problems brought to us by science. If religion has to answer for its evils, I would like for one of these writers to speak to the issue of scientific evil, that is, the existence of atomic weapons and similar evils brought to us in the name of science.
How We Believe: The Search for God In An Age of Science. By Michael Shermer. Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and director of the Skeptics Society, writes with a more moderate tone than the above writers - who are all very strident in their opposition to religious faith - and takes a slightly different approach. He asks the question of why, in an age of science, would anyone feel the need to believe in God? With a more even-handed approach and more accessible style, Shermer asks some interesting questions about the nature of belief.
POLITICS
How the Republicans Stole Christmas: The Republican Party's Declared Monopoly on Religion and What Democrats Can Do to Take It Back. By Bill Press. In spite of what many people think, I am not really a radical when it comes to religion and politics; actually, I consider myself to be a conservative traditionalist when it comes to religion and politics, and certainly when it comes to the issue of church/state relations. I am, though, increasingly alarmed at the willingness of many evangelicals to bow at the altar of national religion and can't understand why more Christians aren't upset at the combining of religion and partisan politics. I am even more disturbed at the tendency in the evangelical world to equate "Christian" and "Republican." Bill Press makes a very compelling case for separating religion and partisan politics and this book should be read by all those concerned about the difficult issue of church and state. It probably won't be read by anyone on the Republican side of the aisle, but it should. All ministers should read this book, regardless of their political persuasions, and think very hard about what Press has to say.
God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. By Jim Wallis. Jim Wallis, of Sojourners, is the original liberal evangelical (if there is such a thing). In an even-handed look at the sins of both the right and the left Wallis charts a different course, and one that holds much more promise than many of the traditional religious/political categories. Wallis will certainly challenge your thinking, and thank God that he is challenging the evangelical world in such important ways.
Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis. By Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter has arguably had the most respected post-White House career of any modern President. While some presidents speak quite a bit about faith, Carter's life is a shining example of faith impacting one's daily life. Setting a high standard of public service, President Carter demonstrates that an ex-President can have a career that goes far beyond setting up a library, writing a memoir and doing well-paid speaking tours. This is a book that could have easily been placed under the heading of Religion, but since Carter is a political figure I placed it here. In this great book, President Carter warns of a political and religious fundamentalism that endangers us on many fronts. Whether or not you have agreed with the politics of his White House tenure or his more recent years, this ranks as an essential read.
American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. By Jon Meacham. In the extremely divided world of faith/politics, church/state, and religion/history Jon Meacham has penned a remarkably helpful book. Of course, that could depend upon your personal perspective, as do so many things when it comes to the aforementioned categories, or it could be that Meacham has found a middle way that will probably suit most Americans very well. The problem with most writing about the Founders is that one extreme wants to mythologize them as conservative, evangelical Christians in the mold of Billy Graham or at the other extreme as godless politicians who wanted religion to be completely voided from the public square. Meacham makes the case that both extremes are, to put it plainly, extremely wrong. For evangelicals, there is a mythology that errs in making the Founders something they were not, namely evangelicals. But neither were the Founders interested in removing religion from the public life of America. The difference, as Meacham explains, is the contrast between public and private religion. Private religion is the realm of sectarian theology; public religion is the religious symbolism and language that reinforces America as the land of liberty and faith. The Founders sought to keep the private/sectarian religious views out of the political sphere in order to protect against the kind of religious tyranny that bedeviled so many throughout Europe. But the Founders also saw the benefits of a religious underpinning to government, and it was a belief in a God-given liberty that fueled the ideology of political liberty. For those who want to mythologize the Founders, it is important to understand that when our religious beliefs can help extend freedom and liberty they can join with the power of government to pursue this shared goal, a goal that would most certainly have been embraced by the Founders. When it comes to imposing a narrow, sectarian theology, the genius of the Founders becomes self-evident. I recommend this as an essential read.
Citizenship Papers: Essays by Wendell Berry. Although I have a separate section for Wendell, I have included this book in this section because it is, in my opinion, one of the most important books speaking to our post 9/11 world. In it, Wendell bravely and prophetically calls into question our fears, our rational for war and other issues that seem to be falling on deaf ears in the world of Washington. The first essay, A Citizen's Response to "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America" ranks among his best and most important work. It should be required reading for anyone in politics and is essential for everyone else.
FICTION
Gilead. By Marilynne Robinson. A book about an older minister writing a journal of his life to his young son. Very touching and full of wonderful theological insights. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Light From Heaven. By Jan Karon. I love the Mitford books as the setting is so similar to mine - a minister in a small town and the daily encounters he has with a fascinating cast of characters. The Mitford books always make me feel better about what I do. This is the most recent, and final, book in the Mitford series. The others are, in order - At Home In Mitford; A Light In the Window; These High, Green Hills; Out To Canaan; A New Song; A Common Life: The Wedding Story; In This Mountain.
WENDELL BERRY
Wendell Berry is one of our great national treasures and you will be enriched by reading any of his writings. Wendell truly lives what he believes and we would do well to listen to him. Among my favorites, in their respective categories, are -
Fiction - Hannah Coulter; The Memory of Old Jack; Jayber Crow; Nathan Coulter; The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership; Fidelity.
Essays - The Way of Ignorance; Blessed Are the Peacemakers; Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community; The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural; Another Turn of the Crank; Life Is A Miracle.
Poetry - A Timbered Choir; The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry; Collected Poems 1957 - 1982; A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979 - 1997.
To visit a nice web site that has a thorough lists of Wendell's writings and many helpful links click here Mr. Wendell Berry of Kentucky
For More Information Contact:
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