CALLING ALL BOOK WORMS

Here's a list of books I've read over the last six weeks or so. Some I've mentioned before on this blog, some are new. I wish I could write a blog about each book.

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Blood Done Sign My Name. Timothy Tyson’s story of growing up during the height of tension in the Civil Rights Movement. His father, a Methodist minister, stood for equality and dialog when it wasn’t popular or kosher.

The Elements of Style. A classic on the basics of writing well. It’s stood the test of time.

Writing to Change the World. A little bit of everything, this books dares you to imagine writing as a form of changing hearts and minds.

How Not to Speak of God. Written by a new favorite author (Rollins)—I love the way in which he holds the world in one hand, and the story of God in the other. If you are not into philosophy, don’t touch this book.

On Writing Well. Another classic, this is the gold standard for the basics of writing.

Bird by Bird. This book is written by Anne Lamott, need I say more?

This I Believe. A collection of short essays, This I Believe captures core principles people live their lives by in five hundred words or less. Excellent stuff.

An Altar in the World. Part-mystic, part post-modern description of spiritual disciplines—BBT has written another provocative book.

Justification. N.T. Wright’s latest work in which he responds to John Piper’s critique of his overall theology. Why Piper wants to spend his last best days of ministry going after Wright, I can’t understand. Piper represents a group of neo-Calvinists (which includes Marc Driscoll) who want to take on the emerging church and other post-modern expressions of Christianity (as if you can do church outside of culture). Scot McKnight sums up Wright’s work in a powerful way: “Tom Wright has out-Reformed America’s newest religious zealots—the neo-Reformed—by taking them back to Scripture and to its meaning in its historical context. Wright reveals that the neo-Reformed are more committed to tradition than to the sacred text.”

The Unlikely Disciple. The best surprise read of the summer, this memoir chronicles an Ivy League students’ journey to Falwell’s Liberty University. Fantastic read. A must for any young adult serious about their faith. Or any person seeking to minister to the young adult demographic. There's enough in this book to offend you, no matter where you find yourself on the political spectrum of church doctrine.

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus. Interesting book (in a line of other books put out by Zondervan) providing rich historical background per the Jewishness of Jesus. There are others, better written, but this is excellent popular level reading.

Tell it Slant

Eugene Peterson's Tell it Slant is a provocative book. I've been reading it over the last week or so . . . and it's making me remember why I love the teachings (and teaching style) of Jesus. A careful student of language (he is, after all, the catalyst behind The Message), Peterson walks the reader through the teachings and stories of Jesus (from Luke) reminding us that Jesus did not spend his public ministry using abstract theological proofs. Rather, he spoke plainly (albeit "on a slant") in language that farmers, peasants and lawyers could understand.

I'll write more on this later.

Drinking Deeply

Drinking deeply from good books is one of the vital spiritual disciplines I've implemented in my life over the last ten years. I have been a reader of autobiographies since high school. Once I entered college, my world exploded by reading novels, history, theology, philosophy, science, postmodernism, memoir, etc. Staying up late or getting up early is a small sacrifice for immersing yourself in a great book.

I recently read three excellent books that might catch your interest.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison is outstanding. Pilgrim Heart by Darryl Tippens was solid. Origins of an Urban Crisis will challenge everything you think you know about urban decline and white flight (with Detroit as the backdrop).

The on-deck list is formidable. Outliers is already rocking my world. Tell it Slant promises to be another great Peterson book. Little Chapel on the River is supposed to be a book about church that isn't about church. Tepper Isn't Going Out sounds bizarre but I love the premise. Craig Kocher told me "you have to read" Blood Done Signed My Name. The Black Swan looks to be similar to Outliers--a book that will challenge my thinking about the way I think. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus quenches my thirst to continue to understand Jesus' Jewish context of the first century world.

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If you've read anything recently that you want to share, feel free to post.

Book Worms Beware

This blog is for the book worms. Holla. Hope this helps and encourages. Here are some books I read in January:

Like You'd Understand Anyway (Shepard). A terrific collection of short stories, this book is an amazing example of what it truly means to be able to write from the inside of a character/story/particular setting. From a nuclear meltdown in Russia, to a cataclysmic tidal wave in Alaska, this writer can weave a tale with the best of them. I highly recommend this for aspiring story-tellers and emerging writers.

Soul in Society (Dorrien). WARNING: This book is highly academic. Dorrien does an excellent job of capturing one segment of Christianity in America in the 20th Century: mainline Protestantism. It was a great read for me as I'm largely under-read in this area. From Hells Kitchen to the Ivory Tower of Columbia University, Dorrien captures the major players and movements that shaped Christianity from 1900 to present day. First rate primer for those interested in the intersection of history, religion and the public sphere.

Emerging Churches (Gibbs and Bolger). I read this in grad school and thought it was good. I picked it up a few weeks ago and was impressed with the authors' ability to survey emerging movements in U.K. as well as the U.S. Thoroughly researched and carefully crafted, this is the standard survey of the way different groups of Christian faith are choosing to engage contemporary culture with an ancient story.

A Theology of Public Life (Matthewes). Another WARNING: highly academic. The entire work is written for those who have a working knowledge of Augustine's writing and thinking. I know just enough Augustine to get me in trouble. Ha. Anyways, there are sections of this book which help contemporary debates come along. Make no mistake. Pack your lunch for this book. It's a heavyweight fight for 12 rounds.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians (Bell and Golden). Overall, a phenomenal interpretive work bringing the Exodus Story in contemporary American religion discourse. Missional to the core, this is Bell's most "political" book. Of course, by "political" I don't mean Republican or Democrat. I am thinking of the idea that the church is a political force. That is, they are interested in how people construct values, practices, and care.

These are the books I'm reading currently/about to read.

A Mercy (Toni Morrison). Compelling novel set in 17th century America. There are no good characters or bad characters. Every character is complex, full of potential for good and evil. I'm told by others who read a lot of Morrison that this is her best book in years.

An Altar in the World (Barbara Brown Taylor). If you read this blog, it will not surprise you when I say that BBT is perhaps, the best writer of our time. Period. Of course I realize that's an incredibly subjective statement (not to mention I get to study under her this summer). Since 2001, Taylor has been my voice for faith in the midst of doubt. After just getting into the beginning sections, I can tell I'll be reading this book a few times over . . . this year.

Praying Like Jesus (Mulholland). Recommended by this great blogger, Mulholland's ability to capture the mystery of The Lord's Prayer without making things too complex is appealing to me. Mulholland gives particular attention to the way in which The Lord's Prayer critiques consumer culture.

The Great Emergence (Tickle). Rave reviews have passed my ears on this book. Haven't started it yet. Looks powerful. I assume this will be written in the same vein as McLaren's trilogy: A New Kind of Christian, Story We Find Ourselves In, and The Last Word.

Acedia, Movies, and Keeping Sabbath

I just finished Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris. Overall, the book pales in comparison with The Cloister Walk and A Vocabulary of Faith. Norris has established her as one of the top spiritual writers of our day. I think she took a step backwards with this book. However, many of her insights into acedia (apathy, indifference rooted deep in the soul), depression, anxiety, and the "dark night of the soul" are helpful. As always, she provides a historically rich perspective of spirituality.


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Here's one movie critic's top ten all-time U.S. films. My list would've been totally different. It would have lots of Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, and Robert Duvall. Apparently, this person is infatuated with all films in the 1940's and 1950's.

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Rubel Shelly spoke in the opening chapel at Rochester College yesterday. He talked a great deal about the recent financial scams in NYC with Bernard Madoff. Here's an excerpt:

Rabbi Benjamin Blech, a long-time professor of philosophy at Yeshiva University, made this interesting comment about the whole sorry episode: “Just because you eat kosher and observe the Sabbath does not make you good. If you cheat and steal, you cannot claim you are a good Jew.”

Rabbi Blech’s observation is consistent both with what the Old Testament prophets said for centuries before the birth of Jesus and with Jesus’ own comments about religion. He called some of his contemporaries hypocrites and told others to their faces that they were guilty of observing the minutiae of the Law of Moses about tithing their garden herbs and neglecting the “more important matters of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness.”

Why do those of us who publicly embrace religious devotion – Muslim or Jew, Catholic or Protestant, you or me – so frequently expose our piety to be a shallow veneer for a life that is so self-serving that it is willing to exploit others? It is certainly not distinctive to Judaism. I might echo the good rabbi this way: “Just because you have been baptized and go to church does not make you a good Christian. If you break the moral law, you are not honoring Jesus as Lord.”

Authentic religious devotion is not about private, otherworldly spiritual practices that have nothing to do with our political, ethical, and social lives. Quite the contrary, the God of Abraham who was incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth cannot be separated from the concrete realities of how we treat one another in our particular time, place, and culture. The partitioning of faith from reason, spiritual from practical, and private devotion from public behavior too often yields a sort of wicked selfishness that embarrasses even unbelievers.

Book Reviews

I've been able to catch up on good reading the last month or so. Yes, I have a job . . . but I'd rather read at night than just about anything else (save hanging with KG or working out with KG). I am still trying to practice "middle reading"--reading from as wide a perspective as possible.

Some books that might interest you for 2009:

The Plot Against America (Roth). Outstanding novel asking the question what would have happened to America had the Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh defeated FDR just prior to America's entrance into WWII. Written from the perspective of one of America's most influential Jewish thinkers.

Life of Pi. All the rave the last few years. You can't go wrong with this novel. It's a modern Old Man and the Sea/Moby Dick meets Lost. Sort of. There are some great moments in this book. My two favorite . . . both of which I'm using in my book this year (Jesus Feast--shameless plug) . . . 1) The conversation with his three religious leaders (Buddhist, Christian, Muslim) near the beginning of the book--that was interesting. I would have added some different things had I been the spokesperson for Christianity :) 2) His section on fear is brilliant. Overall that's the strength of the book I think. Fear is woven into creation, humanity and how we "cope" is shaped by our ability to be okay with dying. Dying, after all, isn't the worst thing that can happen to us. That will preach!

Writing for Story. If you are a writer or storyteller or preacher or simply want to read about the way in which good stories are constructed, you have to check out Jon Franklin's book. The two short stories included are worth the price of the book alone.

Ultramarthon Man. Not my typical read but I promised my brother (who's becoming a top-notch triathlete) I would read it. Overall, crazy read. You can read it in a day. It's wild. If you love to read about extreme feats, the connection of our physical bodies and spirituality, this is a book you'll enjoy.

Everyman (Roth). There is some adult content (beware). But if that bothers you, don't read half the Old Testament. Roth tells a story like very few. This book is about meaning, narcissism, death, religion, the afterlife, the meaning of God, and family. Powerful story of the "everyman" in American culture and how we cope with mistakes, loss, and death.

Becoming a Dad (James and Thomas). Great book. I absolutely loved it. For any new dads out there (like moi), it is a pastoral guide to finding your voice as a dad and husband in a time of transition.

Out of the Darkness (Rice). Anne Rice's memoir, as memoir's go (one of my favorite genre's), is a decent read. Rice is the author (among other books) of Interview with Vampire. This memoir is essentially about returning to her Roman Catholic roots. Deeply insightful.

Last and perhaps least. If you are really feeling brave, you might want to check out A Theology of Public Life and Soul in Society. Both are highly academic but full of insight, historical perspective and new ideas about plowing ahead as the church struggles with her identity in American culture.

UPDATED: I forgot to mention the leadership analysis book, The Four Colors. It's based on the Birkman test, for leadership guru's out there. I am a lock, stock, and barrel "green" category. Good read. Thanks to my friend John Laster for this book.

The lineup for the next few weeks looks like this:

Acedia and Me (Kathleen Norris--one of my favorite writers on the planet).
The Four Agreements (Ruiz)
Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson and Relin)
Like You'd Understand Anyway (Shephard)
A Mercy (the great Toni Morrison).

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What books moved you the last few months?

LIFE OF PI

For the book junkies out there . . . if you want an incredible read for the coming weeks, check out LIFE OF PI. I cant' get enough of this book. I'm going slow because I don't want to come to the end.

Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth").

Home: Return of the Prodigal Son

Last week, I mentioned the acclaimed novel, Home.

Click here to read an excellent review of what might be one of the better novels of the last decade.

An excerpt:

“Home” is a book full of doubleness and paradox, at once serene and volcanic, ruthless and forgiving. It is an anguished pastoral, a tableau of decency and compassion that is also an angry and devastating indictment of moral cowardice and unrepentant, unacknowledged sin. It would be inaccurate to say that the novel represents yet another breathless exposé of religious hypocrisy, or a further excavation of the dark secrets that supposedly lurk beneath the placid surface of small-town life. When Robinson writes that “complacency was consistent with the customs and manners of Presbyterian Gilead and was therefore assumed to be justified in every case,” she is not scoring an easy, sarcastic point. There is real kindness and generosity in the town, and its theological disposition is accordingly tolerant and charitable.

These ugly facts complicate the beauty of “Home,” but the way Robinson embeds them in the novel is part of what makes it so beautiful. It is a book unsparing in its acknowledgment of sin and unstinting in its belief in the possibility of grace. It is at once hard and forgiving, bitter and joyful, fanatical and serene. It is a wild, eccentric, radical work of literature that grows out of the broadest, most fertile, most familiar native literary tradition. What a strange old book it is.

Home

When it comes to reading, I can be a bit of a snob. By "snob" . . . of course . . . I mean I'm selective. I read what I'm told to read by my teachers. I also have entrusted my reading to a select group of people who bat around .900.

One of my inner-circle reading friends suggested I check out this novel a few years ago. It blew me away . . . I think I read it in two days. Which, for me, is not normal.

Then I found out that the author of this novel was one of Barbara Brown Taylor's favorite writers. BBT is one of the best writers in all of Christianity. Period.

So, another novel by MR just came out. I picked it up on Saturday. It is doing surgery on me. Scot McKnight recently reminded me of one of my favorite sections in the novel.

“There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding. Her [Glory’s] father had said this more than once, in sermons, with appropriate texts, but the real text was Jack, and those to whom he spoke were himself and the row of Boughtons in the front pew, which usually did not include Jack, and then, of course, the congregation. If you forgive, he would say, you may indeed still not understand, but you will be ready to understand, and that is the posture of grace.”


The book is called Home. Check it out. You won't regret it.

Same Kind of Different as Me

I won't spoil the plot . . . but, if you get a chance, check out the book Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.

All I'll say is this. I was exhausted last night. I picked up to read a few chapters and ended up staying up halfway through the night to finish. I laughed, cried (but hey, I watch Chick Flick's . . . remember?), and I felt a sense of deep hope for this broken world.

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana... and an East Texas honky-tonk... and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda... an upscale New York Gallery... a downtown dumpster... a Texas ranch. Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, it also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.

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In the spirit of Elie Wiesel (see posts from last week), I've decided I'm not going to blog about politics until after the election. There are many reasons, some good, some not so good . . . however . . . the venom being unleashed by Christians (right and left) is disturbing and I don't want to contribute to that in any way these next twelve plus weeks. So, that's my promise. I'm fasting from blogging about politics. If you are Republican, Democrat or independent . . . please show humility and grace to those around you.

Springsteen, Herod, and One Hot Preacher's Wife

. . . That just might be my favorite blog title to date.

If you want to have a thin-space moment (the British phrase for the times and places in our lives when heaven and earth kiss), listen to these three songs on Bruce Springsteen's LIVE IN DUBLIN: When the Saints Go Marching In, This Little Light of Mine (yes, you read that correctly), and We Shall Overcome.

The third verse of When the Saints goes like this: "When the new world is revealed . . . when the new world is revealed, oh when the new world is revealed. Lord, how I want to be there on that morning . . . when that new world is revealed."

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I just finished reading Eugene Peterson's THE JESUS WAY: A CONVERSATION ON THE WAYS THAT JESUS IS THE WAY. The last three chapters are vintage Peterson: He looks at the historical/biblical characters of Herod (and his counterpart: Essenes), Caiaphas (his counterpart: the Pharisee's), and Josephus (and his counterpart: the zealot's) in light of the spirituality Jesus embodied in his hown life. This completes his trilogy on "spiritual theology"--it's a must read for anyone who's interested in following Jesus in a world as complex as ours.

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The last three months has been a great time for family, friends, local church work, reading, writing (draft one of my first book, Jesus Feast, is complete!), and Sabbath Rest. Like all seasons, that time is now coming to an end.

Writing projects are intensifying, travel increases, and new church endeavors are just on the horizon. I feel rested and ready to see what God is up to in 2008. However, things are a changin'-- the next six months is going to be a great adventure: ZOE, DETROIT MISSION WEEK, TULSA WORKSHOP, TEACHING AT RC, TWO MAJOR WRITING PROJECTS, UGANDA TRIP, and LIPSCOMB SERMON SEMINAR, DOCTORAL WORK AT COLUMBIA--it all heats up now. Too bad the state I live in can't say the same.

I'm just glad I get to share the path with the most beautiful woman in the world.




Seriously, she's a hot preacher's wife.

The Shack

I read several good books in 2007. I read a few great books. And then, due to a friend's strong urging, I read a book that I'll cherish for a long, long time.

The book is simply titled The Shack. Click here to read more about the project and impact of the book.

Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answer Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him.

I would give this book to a Ph.D. as well as the blue-collar factory worker. It's that good.

Potter (part deux)

If the Harry Potter pot wasn't stirred enough last time, here's an interesting article on "Searching Truth in Harry Potter." The author is a former missionary to West Africa.

What do you think?

What are the strengths of her arguments? What are the weaknesses or inconsistencies?

UPDATE: Wade has an interesting article on his blog discussing whether or not Harry Potter is a Christian!?