2006 Book List
These are the books I finished reading in 2006:
- Jesus: Safe, Tender, Extreme
Adrian Plass - God's Life in Trinity
Miroslav Volf & Michael Welker, editors - Isaiah's New Exodus in Mark
Rikki E. Watts - The Potter's Rib:
Mentoring for Pastoral Formation
Brian A. Williams - From the Village to the City
Delbert L. Wiens - The Last Word
Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture
N.T. Wright - Free of Charge
Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace
Miroslav Volf - Longing to Know
The Philosophy of Knowledge for Ordinary People
Esther Lightcap Meek - Pop Goes Religion
Faith in Popular Culture
Terry Mattingly - Marriage Made in Eden
A Pre-Modern Perspective for a Post-Christian World
Alice P. Matthews
& M. Gay Hubbard - The Mountain of Silence
A Search for Orthodox Spirituality
Kyriacos C. Markides - The Sky is Falling!?!
Alan J. Roxburgh - Reframing Paul:
Conversations in Grace & Community
Mark Strom - Living the Resurrection
Eugene H. Peterson - The PAPA Prayer
Larry Crabb - Finally Feminist:
A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender
John G. Stackhouse Jr. - Now, Discover your Strengths
Marcus Buckingham &
Donald O. Clifton - Christian Reflections on The Leadership Challenge
James M. Kouzes &
Barry Z. Posner (ed) - Eat This Book:
a conversation in the art
of spiritual reading
Eugene H. Peterson - Spiritual Mentoring:
A Guide for Seeking and Giving Direction
Keith R. Anderson &
Randy D. Reese - the Emerging Church:
Vintage Christianity for NEW GENERATIONS
Dan Kimball - Christ Plays in
Ten Thousand Places:
a conversation in
spiritual theology
Eugene H. Peterson - Talking the Walk:
Letting Christian Language Live Again
Marva Dawn - Starting Well:
Building a Strong Foundation For a Lifetime of Ministry
Richard Clinton &
Paul Leavenworth - Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
Anne Rice - Plan B: Further Reflections on Faith
Anne Lamott
posted by In Process @ 10:43 a.m.
6 comments
6 Comments:
What did you think of the Anne Rice novel?
Which would you recommend reading?
Christa:
It was a while back when I read the Anne Rice novel — I think I got it last Christmas — but I remember that I quite enjoyed it.
The story starts in Egypt and follows Jesus and his extended family as they journey back to Nazareth, up until just after the trip to Jerusalem when Jesus is found conversing with the elders in the Temple. Obviously, there is not a lot of Biblical material there to build on, so the novel is of necessity highly imaginative and speculative. But Anne Rice does a great job of painting the cultural, social and political landscape of the time, even if some might find her inclusion of material from the so-called "infancy gospels" a bit disconcerting.
Most of all, though, I found the book to be a reflection on the very terse gospel statement "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." How did Jesus grow in his self-understanding, and particularly in his awareness of the unique relationship with the Father? Anne Rice gives us a highly readable excursion into one particular way of resolving those questions.
The biggest value of the novel is not whether it gets the answers right, but that it leads us to stand in wonder again about the great mystery of Jesus as both true Human and true God.
Joy:
You would ask for a recommendation, wouldn't you? But that's so dependent on what one's looking for, isn't it?
Looking back over this list, I'd have to identify Free of Charge by Miroslav Volf as the one that probably engaged me the most and left me wanting to explore more — I would have dearly loved to have gone to Regent to hear him deliver the Laing Lectures this past fall, but it just didn't work out.
The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos Markides was also a very thought generating book, although in a different way. It's basically a chronicle of Markides' conversations with Father Maximos, an Orthodox monk he'd met on Mount Athos and who had been sent out from Mount Athos to revive Orthodox monastic presence on Cyprus, Markides' original home.
Of course, anything by Eugene Peterson is worthwhile — these particular books, while newly published, are based on lecture series I actually heard Eugene deliver. So, while reading them was a good refresher, they didn't add much in the way of new new perspectives.
Of the two "personal journey stories" on the list, I'd put Adrian Plass' Jesus: Safe, Tender, Extreme ahead of Anne Lamott's Plan B — I liked her earlier book, Travelling Mercies, more.
As I look back now, there's probably a richer selection on the 2005 list — I wonder if there's any correlation between that observation and the higher level of tiredness I've felt this past year?
Anyway, those are my thoughts on last year's books, for what they're worth.
Thanks. I'll definitely check out the Volf. I agree about Plan B.
I may just have to pick up the Anne Rice book very soon. I've seen it, and have been intrigued by it, but haven't taken the plunge so to speak...
BTW... I just read a chapter of Brian McLaren's new book 'The Secret Message of Jesus' that he has willingly posted online to read. It looks like I'll be picking that one up as well. If you go to his website (brianmclaren.net) you can download the chapter, and a study guide for the book as well.
Happy reading!!
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