I didn’t send out a BookNotes newsletter last week – thanks for noticing – because, well, I just didn’t want to add to the noise. We are all inundated with information. We are still working 12-hour days (more or less) six days a week and find it hard to keep up with the videos, Zoom meetings, news stories, Facebook posts, updates, calls to action, and articles I need to read. I’m sure many of our readers, customers, and friends are feeling it, too. It’s hard to read and write when one is anxious and exhausted.

So no big Corona Virus essay from me (other than the reminder to stay home the best you can. This is serious stuff and we love our neighbors well by minimizing contact, despite what our President has foolishly tweeted.)

We are, of course, closed for in-store business. Last week we were making mad dashes to the parking lot and doing curb-side deliveries, but we now believe that violates our Governor’s ruling about closing “non-life sustaining” businesses. We are now just doing mail order and some local deliveries. For now it is our hope to continue to ship stuff out daily, so send us a note or give us a call. We need the business, believe me… and maybe you need some books.

So let’s get to it. Here are a dozen or so new books (and one or two others I just have to mention.) I’ll try to keep it mostly brief, with hefty apologies to the good authors who deserve more extended reviews. These excellent titles are all of that deserving caliber of consideration and I could wax eloquent about them. If you order them, you’ll see for yourself…

As always, you can click on the link at the very bottom of this column to be taken directly to our secure order form page. Just tell us what you want and we’ll deduct the discount and take it from there. It is our pleasure to serve you in this way. All books are 20% off.

The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty Martin Schleske (Eerdmans) $24.99 Maybe once or twice a year I get an impassioned note from somebody in the book biz – a sales representative or editor that knows us – sending an early manuscript with a handwritten note insisting that this may be their favorite book in a long time, a stellar project, and they wanted me to be aware, etc. This is a true privilege and since it doesn’t happen often, I take such suggestions seriously. The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty came from a professional at Eerdmans saying mostly that it was just so beautiful, that it was gloriously exceptional and he was sure I’d appreciate it. The prose was beautiful and he promised that the publisher would be doing the book on high-quality glossy paper and two-color ink because the writing (and moody black and white photographs done by a respected German photographer) deserved such a weighty, handsome presentation.

That book is now in our hands and I suggested it to a very sharp customer and friend, a consultant and church leader, himself somewhat of an explorer and quite creative; you may know him because he is in the DVD series For the Life of the World. I knew he’d like this book but I didn’t know he’d call me twice in the next three days exclaiming how very, very moved he was, insisting this was one of the best books he’s ever read.

So, my guy at Eerdmans was right. The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty is beautiful and exceptional.

And, it is really interesting. Translated from the German (where it was a bestseller) The Sound… is written by a world-class luthier. That is, by a violin and guitar maker. It is a rumination on the art of crafting instruments, starting with picking the wood in the forest (and what a chapter that is where he listens to the trees!) but it is also about the glorious aesthetic dimension (my words, not his, exactly) that pervades all of life. (For those that like this notion, it is a insight explored by Calvin Seerveld, especially in his Rainbows for the Fallen World.) The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty is a book that helps us learn from this master craftsman how to attend to the deep beauty all around us.

Here is how the publisher describes it:

Are the sounds and signposts that direct us towards the meaning of life hidden? One of the greatest luthiers of our time reveals the secrets of his profession—and how each phase of handcrafting a violin can point us toward our calling, our true selves, and the overwhelming power and gentleness of God’s love.

When we are able to express the inexpressible, the unheard aspects of life, we become like a well-tuned instrument. As Schleske says, “In the final analysis, music is prayer cast into sound.”

Visual artist and writer Makoto Fujimura wrote a wonderful foreword, which is well worth savoring itself. Near the close of his few pages, Mako says,

So the words of this beautiful book do not just describe, explain, or share information; these words are, in themselves, part of the Sound, and I can hear it from the first paragraph. Then, after, the worlds begin to overlap with music; I wanted to savor every paragraph, as if I, too, am a tuner listening to the timbre.

Perhaps you know the book The World Beyond Your Head by philosopher/motorcycle repairman Matthew Crawford (who also wrote Shop Class as Soul Craft) where he interviews workers about the body-knowledge and insight about their jobs. I thought of that fine and profound work as I read my advanced copy of The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty and more so when the handsome hardback arrived and there was an blurb on the back from poet and essayist Marilyn McEntyre, saying,

Reading these richly evocative reflections, I found myself again and again ‘surprised by joy.’ And gratitude. I was reminded that when people live into their callings deeply and faithfully, they become beacons. Stories from Schleske’s work as a violinmaker, his knowledge of trees and music and even varnish, become heart-opening parables, not by preachment, but by the loving particularity with which he pays attention to the work he was given.

Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus: Exploring the World and Wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Laura M. Fabrycky (Fortress Press) $25.99 When I said that many of these wonderful, mostly brand new releases in this issue of BookNotes, deserve more extended reviews, Laura Fabrycky’s Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus is certainly one that should be honored with a very through discussion. It is, without a doubt, one of the best books so far in 2020 and I am confident will be on may “year’s best” lists when we get to year’s end. It is timely, beautiful, informative, and exceptionally profound. I loved it.

Timely? Did you know that this coming Maundy Thursday (April 9^th) is the 75^th anniversary of the martyrdom of the great German anti-Nazi leader, Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Much should be made of this and I hope many will be asking us for biographies of and books by Dietrich B this season. Keys to… isn’t precisely a biography as it is a memoir of an (American) woman who became a curator at the home – the haus – of Bonhoeffer in Berlin. It is a look into his world by way of being in his neighborhood and, literally, his house. In a way, this is an ideal window into the man and his role in history for those that don’t want to wade through a major, chronological biography.

Beautiful? Oh my, I should describe this with vivid and glowing words but cannot do this lovely book justice. Fabrycky is a very fine writer and has given us a book that is intelligent and eloquent and elegant and creative. That she is, in fact, a published poet doesn’t hurt. Those of us who enjoy memoir and creative nonfiction will enjoy these essays that are grounded in her own story, living in Berlin with her diplomat husband and young children, discovering this nearby house, being drawn to it time and time again, eventually learning to be a guide to the tours. We are enthralled as she increasingly feels at home reflecting on the story that is mid-twentieth century Germany, the complicity of the Church with Nazism, and the faithfulness of the underground Confessing Church movement. We learn much about the fidelity of this movement and this particular man who lived in the haus, but it is also (mostly?) the story of Laura’s learning, Laura’s own internalizing of the issues that pressed upon them in those hard years and what it may mean for our own faithfulness in our time, in any time. This makes for reflective writing and she is self-aware and artful in how she shares her story. It makes Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus a truly enjoyable and very stimulating reading experience.

I said it was informative. It certainly is because although it is a first-person narrative of the Fabrycky family in foreign service in Germany and Laura’s own coming to grips with what she was learning, she does share, in fact, what she was learning. So it is informative about big stuff – documents that she discovers, paintings, books, and a very clear report of her own study of the history of German culture – and it is informative about little things. For instance, there is a cigarette burn on the famous desk of Bonheoffer in his small bedroom. There is a clavichord there in the corner. (We know how much he loved music and many of us will recall that he commends singing as a body in his classic book Life Together.) She doesn’t just teach us that Bonhoeffer studied and valued music, she informs us about the clavichord. You really do learn a lot from this book, even if you’ve read Bonny’s own books and the standard bios about him.

Key’s To Bonhoeffer’s Haus: Exploring the World and Wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is, as I have said, timely, beautiful, and very informative. But it is the fourth trait that I mentioned – its profundity – that deserves critical conversation and I wish I had room to explore it more: the book is profound and wise and good as the author helps us learn to understand our own complicity in injustices and how we are implicated in the fallenness of our times; further, she deeply knows of the grace of the gospel which not only forgives but calls us all to take up – as her friend Steve Garber puts it – “visions of vocation” as we “weave together belief and behavior.” Or, as Bonhoeffer put it more tersely, as we die to self by taking up “the cost of discipleship.”

The book has been called “part biography, part travel memoir, and part call to action” and it is Fabrycky’s gentle, yet morally serious “call to action” that must be considered. She does not preach or cajole; she is not ideological, left or right. (I simply most note that, as Stephen Haynes explores in his book The Battle for Bonhoeffer: Debating Discipleship in the Age of Trump [Eerdmans; $19.99] many Bonhoeffer scholars and fans and biographers are themselves deeply committed to right wing or left wing assumptions and ideologies.)

Ms. Fabrycky is not unbiased, of course (no one is) and she is interested in our civic responsibilities and our public witness, but not merely around this cause or that issue. It is rare, I think, in the way in which the author invites us to allow Bonhoeffer to inform us, to speak to us anew, but profoundly and radically, which is part of the value of this extraordinary book. Her moral imagination has been shaped by other important writers and thinkers, again, making this a book from which you will learn much and be called to much. (What do we do with what we know she asks – especially in an unforgettable reflection on the skilled engineers who improved the efficiencies of the death camps and, of course, her reminder of the famous line by Arendt about the banality of evil.) She knows a bit about our own troubled times and she knows some of what we might discover when we study the details of Bonhoeffer’s life. That is, to put it rather simplistically, this book helps us learn what we do today to be faithful to Bonhoeffer’s legacy. How might we be responsible in our own time in history as he was in his?

As Dr. Victorian Barnett (the general editor of the esteemed Bonhoeffer Works English translation project puts it) Laura Fabrycky “offers a profound and moving reflection on what history can teach us about living mindfully and faithfully.”

I like very much the way Anne Snyder – now the editor of Comment magazine – describes Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus:

With self-awareness, vulnerability, humility, and historical rigor, Fabrycky captains a journey that is as engrossing as it is instructive. While Bonhoeffer’s times are not our times, there are echoes worth attending to: his keys to a discernment of public consequence, our keys to private sanity and civic hope.

I could say more, but I do believe this remarkable new book is – at least — timely, beautiful, informative and profound. And that is saying a lot. You should order it today.

Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life W. David O. Taylor (Thomas Nelson) $24.99 I hope you know this vivid author who has written or edited several volumes on the relationship between Christian faith and the arts. He has a few pretty academic titles such as Glimpses of the New Creation: Worship and the Formative Power of the Arts (Eerdmans; $22.00) and The Theater of God’s Glory: Calvin, Creation and the Liturgical Arts (Eerdmans; $30.00.) I raved here at BookNotes several times about his important, co-edited volume Contemporary Art and the Church: A Conversation Between Two Worlds (IVP Academic; $30.00.) I often tell people that his For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts (Baker; $20.00) ought to be in the hands of every pastor and church leader; it’s a great collection of talks by the likes of Andy Crouch, Jeremy Begbie, Lauren Winner, Luci Shaw and Eugene Peterson. I do hope you at least know that one.

Which bring us to this brand new one, a stunning, fascinating, and very useful commentary on the Psalms (although, I use the word “commentary” a bit lightly.) Perhaps you will recall a beautifully done video that was making the rounds on-line a year or two ago that was a nicely filmed conversation between Bono and Eugene Peterson, all about the Psalms; Taylor was the guy who created that, which gives you a bit of a glimpse into the nature of this very cool book. It has a marvelous foreword by Eugene (maybe the last thing he wrote?) and an afterward by Bono.

(The book is dedicated to the two of them, which is just so great. I suppose you heard the story – Peterson told it to me, personally – that the first time the great rock star called him to talk, he didn’t take the call because he didn’t know who he was and wondered about that funny name. Who doesn’t take a personal call from Bono? Ha.)

Bono has long loved the Psalms and David Taylor captures this fabulous blend of Peterson’s pastoral wisdom about praying these ancient prayers and Bono’s edgy sense of performing them and drawing strengths from them and offers this upbeat stew in this great new book.

Open and Unafraid is like that, appreciated by a wide sort of readership – it has endorsements from some of the world’s leading Old Testament scholars such as Ellen Davis, Walter Brueggemann, and Bruce Waltke, but also from artists and poets like Mako Fujimura, John Michael Talbot, and Malcolm Guite, as well as from all sorts of church leaders, from Reuben Ezemadu (of the Movement for Africa Initiatives) to charismatic Anglican bishop Todd Hunter, to British Vicar Sam Wells to the African- American preacher and Dean of Duke Chapel, Luke Powery, to the contemporary praise and worship leader Matt Redman. No matter who you are or what your faith tradition, I’m sure you will get a lot out of this. It’s a great read!

For the record, let me be direct: I hope you notice that this is a broad and diverse array of folks who with one voice rave about the book, indicating that this really is a contemporary classic with very wide appeal. It takes the Biblical text (in this case poems, songs, prayers) seriously but invites us to live into them in life-sustaining, faithful ways. This is good, good stuff.

And, also for the record: I am always impressed when the extraordinary Calvin Seerveld endorses something. Just listen to this:

This David Taylor book is open and unafraid, because it breathes and sings the grace of God to anybody who reads it, as do the psalms themselves. Open and Unafraid is marinated in God’s psalms, so its testimony is honest and direct, personal and heart-warming, and both magisterial and humble. The learning underneath the writing is worn lightly, and the conversational tone is engaging, opening up the encyclopedic richness of the biblical psalms (also for governments to hear.) The appended questions and exercises for each chapter are truly fruitful and fun. This book has a complete vade mecum character.

Help My Unbelief: 20^th Anniversary Edition Fleming Rutledge (Eerdmans) $25.99 I am sure you know of our fondness for the elegant Episcopal preacher, pastor, priest, and, increasingly, respected public intellectual, the Rev. Dr. Fleming Rutledge. We are not alone in having raved about her tour de force, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ (Eerdmans; $30.00) or her extraordinary, hefty collection of Advent sermons, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ (Eerdmans; $30.00) both which are essential volumes to own. I often say that her The Undoing of Death: Sermons for Holy Week and Easter (Eerdmans; $24.00) is one I read parts of every Holy Week season; I might suggest we need it now more than ever. She has a major book on Lord of the Rings called The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in “The Lord of the Rings”(Eerdmans; $24.00) which I know she loves and she has several collections of her theologically-rich and often rousing sermons.

This volume (which, as you can surmise, came out in its first edition two decades ago) is one of her anthologies of sermons that are collected to share a common theme. All of her work, in the words of Cornelius Plantinga, “shines with biblical intelligence and pastoral wisdom” but this volume is designed for those who need encouraged, who have doubts and fears and questions. As she puts it in the new preface, Help My Unbelief “speaks directly to the ‘faithful doubters’ and the ‘unbelieving believers’ of the church who wrestle with uncertainties…”

It is not a systematic book of apologetics, for which many of us will be glad. They are sermons, so they accomplish what many of the Q & A books about tough questions or arguments on the existence of God do not: they bring the Word of God fearlessly and beautifully (as Thomas Long put it.) “crackling with and stunning powers of expression”

Listen well to what the Christian Century says of it:

Among the many other blessings it brings, Rutledge’s book helps to restore our confidence that, both as a ministry and as a literary form, there is simply no substitute for good preaching. The need for such preaching is impossible to overstate. If we don’t have the good fortune to hear sermons like this very often, let us at least read them.

One of the curious things about Fleming is how widely she is being read these days. Mainline/liberal denominations claim her, despite her Barthian commitments to Jesus as true Word, and many evangelicals appreciate her. She speaks all over the world for those in various ministry contexts; she has even done a webinar with our friends at the CCO. While journals like The Christian Century rave about her, so does the conservative Baptist Southwestern Theological Journal, who has said of Help My Unbelief,

You will not be able to put this book down. Buy it, read it, and be refreshed in mind and Spirit.”

We would be delighted to get to send out any of Rev. Rutledge’s books as we stock them all. Don’t forget her two on the last words of Christ, the small paperback The Seven Last Words from the Cross ($13.00) and the handsome, compact hardback Three Hours: Sermons for Good Friday ($18.00.) The 20^th Anniversary Edition of Help My Unbelief, now in a sturdy hardback, is certainly deserving, rewarding, and a great place to start. For those who are perhaps not inclined to watch preachers on Facebook in these days of quarantining, having some sermons at hand would certainly be wise.

Stories by Willimon William Willimon (Abingdon) $19.99  I still remember the first time I heard Willimon, years ago, at a local preaching workshop. Among other things, he told stories (some true, some embellished, perhaps some invented) and it was utterly, amazingly, captivating. Those that know his award-winning sermons, his lectures, or his lively books, know how he has this exceptional gift of being both a Southern-type storyteller (with down home yarns that will make you laugh out loud or fight back tears) and an learned scholar, able to teach complex theological truths with the help of illustration and teacherly tales. He has long kept alive the habit of finding stories that “will preach” and preach them, he does.

This Stories by Willimon volume is a great paperback – with a handsome cover that tellingly shows us an etching of the famous Biblical sower – that simply collects a whole bunch of Will’s stories. Some are from articles, some are from academic journals, some are extracted from his many books. Most were preached as parts of sermons or homilies.

The stories, tales, anecdotes, and fables are arranged with some coherence (although it would be fun even if they were thrown together haphazardly.) Part One includes stories under the rubric of “Sowers.” Next comes a bunch about “Seeds”, followed by stories of “Senses.” Part Four offers Willimon stories under the heading “Secrets.” Wow. Including the indexes (a useful Scriptural index and a themed index) Stories by Willimon is over 240 pages. It is a joy to dip in to and, I’d think, a valuable resource to own for teachers, preachers, and anyone communicating the gospel to others. Enjoy!

Your Story Matters: Finding, Writing, and Living the Truth of Your Life Leslie Leyland Fields (NavPress) $16.99 This just came and I’ve been looking forward to diving in. I think Leslie is such a very interesting person and such a talented writer we’d read almost anything she did. (That best-selling and esteemed novelist Brett Lott calls it “magical” and “essential” doesn’t hurt either, eh?) She came to our attention when she wrote the brave and truthful Parenting Is Your Highest Calling — And 8 Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt (Waterbrook; $14.99) and then when she edited the absolutely exquisite The Spirit of Food: Thirty-Four Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God (Cascade; $32.00), one of my all-time favorite books, ever. Recently she edited The Wonder Years: 40 Women over 40 on Aging, Faith, Beauty, and Strength (Kregel; $15.99), which was put together very nicely and a number of our customers have really found help in her Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers: Finding Freedom from Hurt and Hate (Nelson; $15.99.)

We have gone on to follow all her books, including her popular book vividly describing her own work as a commercial fisherwoman off the coast of Alaska and a trip she took to interview fishermen on the sea of Galilee, called Crossing the Waters: Following Jesus Through the Storms, the Fish, the Doubt, and the Seas published by NavPress; $15.99.)

So, Leslie Leyland Fields is a great storyteller, and in her blog and elsewhere she has honed her craft as a writer, inviting us all to be aware of God’s presence in the mundane things of life, and to discern our own particular callings and vocations.

This book promises to do at least three things (besides surely being an entertaining and captivating read.) First, she reminds us that our lives unfold as a narrative; that is, we live out a story. And – I hope you see this coming – she shows that we can be aware that our lives find their meaning in the broader context of the “grander story of God.” That is, this book helps us understand our lives and tell about how we see God’s story enmeshed in our own. In this regard, I suspect it is something like a favorite of many Hearts & Minds customers, the great To Be Told: God Invites You To Coauthor Your Future by Dan Allender.

The third thing that Leslie Field’s Your Story Matters does – and this is what sets it apart and, I think, will make is really, really helpful for some of us – is that it is also a guide to being a good writer. In other words, this is, finally, a book about crafting a spiritual memoir.

I am eager to explore this and am sure many will enjoy it, whether we are actually writing a memoir or not. I looked at her bibliography and it includes a magnificent listing of superior spiritual memoirs (including a few that, I swear, we have stocked for years but few know about, such as Kathleen Finneran’s memoir of grief called The Tender Land, the gorgeously raw In the Wilderness by Kim Barnes, and our friend Margie Haack’s lovely story of growing up poor in Minnesota, The Exact Place) as well as some marvelous, better known books by memoirists such as Annie Dillard, Lauren Winner, Madeleine L’Engle, Thomas Lynch, Brennan Manning, Kathleen Norris, C.S. Lewis, Nora Gallagher, Nancy Mairs, Frederick Buechner, and so many more. I grinned and grinned when I saw this list.)

Catherine McNiel is a recent, young writer we like a lot, author of a great book about mothering called Long Days of Small Things and the recent best-seller, All Shall Be Well: Awakening to God’s Presence in His Messy, Abundant World.

Listen to what she says about Your Story Matters:

Whether you consider yourself a writer or are just beginning to find your story, I cannot imagine a more inviting mentor than Leslie Leyland Fields. The book you hold in your hands will take you on a journey. I’m convinced you’ll find your voice, and the tools to use it, along the way.

By the way, here is a delightful  DVD compliment to this fascinating book. Your Story for His Glory: The Companion DVD to Your Story Matters (Navpress; $19.99.) This is an 8-week curriculum (anybody doing home-schooling for teens; maybe this will inspired the sorts of self-reflection and inspiration needed to take up the art of writing well.) The DVDs featured the upbeat and impassioned teaching by Leslie Fields and includes some special guests like Ann Voskamp and 20 other writers, some of whom you surely know. Best of all, it is set in her visually-striking Alaskan landscape, so it is entertaining and, dare I say, awe-inspiring on a number of levels. Very nicely done.

What the trailer here and you’ll see more about what the book does and how fun the DVD will be. We have it at 20% off, of course.

Living In An Icon: A Program for Growing Closer to Creation and to God Robert Gottfried & Fredrick Krueger (Church Publishing) $12.95 and Living in an Icon Facilitator Guide Jerry Cappell & Robert Gottfried; $8.95 I wasn’t going to make a lot of direct mentions of our CoVid crisis, but this really is a sweet idea, isn’t it? Since we must be practicing “social distancing” and even quarantining, many of us should consider making our way to the out of doors for a bit. This book can help us be a bit intentional about listening to lessons creation night offer; the Bible actually commands, that, you know. (One of my favorite and mysterious verses is in Job where God says (in Job 12:8) that the earth will teach us and to “listen to the fish.” Uh-huh. Maybe you saw the viral video of the pastor teaching about Jesus’ instructing us to pay attention to the birds why he was holding a duck. I’m not kidding when I suggest that that’s taking the Bible seriously.

So, “Finding God in Nature” is not a cliché or silly notion, but a Biblically instructed pathway to sensing God’s glory. I needn’t rehearse all this, now, but it is true. And, even before the novel virus, there have been bunches of books lamenting our disconnect with the created world. One of our biggest selling Lent books this season, by the way, from our previous Lenten list, has been Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gayle Boss, with art from David Klein, published by Paraclete Press ($19.909.) These sorts of books are appealing for a reason, I think – most of us know the creation itself is groaning as it says in Romans 8. Maybe in these hard days, using the insights offered by Gottried and Krueger will be a blessing to your soul.

Again, to be clear, this recent book invites us not exactly to the practices and politics of stewardly care for creation, but guides us into actually experiencing awe and wonder and reverence and humility and such. Again, catch the beautiful, suggestive title and promising sub-title: Living In An Icon: A Program for Growing Closer to Creation and to God. Maybe you need this now.

The very nice Facilitator’s Guide is ideal for group use but could be adapted, now, perhaps, for your own solitary use. It has session plans and models, including a 21-week extended practice. This will give a boost to your spiritual disciplines, I’m sure. Dr. Gottfried, by the way, is the Director of the Center for Religion and the Environment at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee where he developed the center’s highly successful certificate program in Contemplation and the Care for Creation. Frederick Krueger has been active in ecumenical creation care work for years and as an Orthodox Christian co-founded (along with Orthodox theologian Vincent Rossi) the “Opening the Book of Nature” program upon which this book’s approach is based.

Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper Michael R. Wagenman (Lexham) $12.99 The author of this lovely little paperback, who got his PhD at the University of Bristol, first came to my attention in his chapter in a very important anthology about Kuyper and the implications of a Kuyperian worldview called On Kuyper: A Collection of Readings on the Life, Work & Legacy of Abraham Kuyper, edited by Steve Bishop & John H. Kok (Dordt College Press; $36.00.) Wagenman is now the Christian Reformed Church chaplain at Western University (in London, Canada). He also teaches theology at Western and New Testament at Redeemer University College (Ancaster, Ontario.) I am so glad to remind you of this again (it isn’t terribly new) as it is such a fine introduction to how some of us tend to think about cultural engagement. It is the second in a handsome little series called “Lived Theology” and serves not only as a guide to thinking about our role in various spheres of culture in faithful, fruitful ways but it is, obviously, a great introduction to the life and thought and social vision of the famous Dutch theologian turned statesman and Prime Minister of Holland.

If you follow BookNotes carefully you know that this Dutch scholar, pastor, activist and politician (who became Prime Minister in the early part of the 20^th century with a distinctively Christian political movement that honored pluralism for all) has been somewhat of an influence on us here. Our desire to create a Christian bookstore that carries books on the arts and sciences, on business and ecology, on sexuality and architecture, on prayer and politics, comes from this worldview-ish claim that Christ is redeeming “every square inch” of his good but fallen creation. For serious folks, James Bratt’s big volume Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat (Eerdmans; $43.50) is the classic biography of Kuyper the Dutch pastor, cultural activist, journalist, educator, and politician. For most of us – and I often beg people to read this little gem – Richard Mouw’s Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction (Eerdmans; $16.00) is the must-read introduction.The best introduction to the broader themes of this neo-Calvinist /reformational movement is the splendid hardback Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition: A Systematic Introduction by Craig Bartholomew (IVP Academic; $40.00.) I’m not very good at it, or slavishly loyal to this particular theological tradition, but I often tell folks that this explains a good part of what we are about here at the bookstore. And why we think reading widely and caring about the world is fundamentally religious activity. And, I suppose, why I am not always fully content with my zealous friends on the right or the left — always seeking some uniquely Christian embodiment of Biblical norms or principles, lived out with gusto “in the world but not of it.” But I digress.

Here is, now, another introduction, even more brief and perhaps accessible than Professor Mouw’s good one. Wagenman’s little book, Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper, is not really a biography or introduction to Kuyper’s colorful life but is specifically a guide to how we might live “in but not of” the modern world, taking cues from Kuyper’s interesting theology and robust social theories.

If you are troubled by the far Christian right or the so-called Christian left, if you sometimes despair of finding a third way that somehow captures a Christ-like alternative to the culture wars without opting out of the vocation to live for the sake of the world, this introduction to Kuyperian public theology is accessible and generative. I don’t know if he is right about every detail of Kuyper’s thinking and I am pretty sure most of us don’t want to be dogmatic about legalistic asking “What would Father Abraham do?” (Although, geesh, in these days, it might not hurt.) This guide is a good window into creative options and a step towards a recovery of older ways of leaning into the issues of the day. Highly recommended.

By the way – just a little heads up. This June we will be raving about a really, really interesting and important book exploring Kuyper’s views of what is sometimes called in neo-Calvinist circles, ‘common grace’ by the aforementioned Richard J. Mouw. It will be called All That God Cares about: Common Grace and Divine Delight (Brazos Press; $21.99) and it is very much a sequel, or extension, of his previous (2002) book on common grace called He Shines in All That’s Fair: Culture and Common Grace (Eerdmans; $15.50.) There are a few surprises in this forthcoming Mouw one, and we’ll be telling you more later this Spring. You can, of course, as always, PRE-ORDER it now. 20% OFF, too.

 

For now, why not prep yourself by buying a couple of books about Father Abraham? Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper is a fine place to start. 20% off, too.

Defiant: What the Women of Exodus Teach Us About Freedom Kelley Nikondeha (Eerdmans) $17.99 We were blown away by the wit and wisdom and radical insight from Kelley Nikondeha shown in her first book Adopted: The Sacrament of Belonging in a Fractured World (Eerdmans; $16.99) where she shared her own cross-cultural and multi-ethnic family story – she married a man from Burundi, and lives much of the year in Africa, where they adopted two children – as an entry and context for doing Biblical and theology reflection about belonging. This move from experience to Scripture and back, writing fascinating personal narrative that leads to deepened insight into the Bible’s relevance – in that case about being adopted by God and accepted into God’s family and all the implications of that inclusive theology — characterizes this brand new one, too.

Indeed, Ms. Nikondeha starts Defiant with a multi-layered story about her mother, about women in the church of her girlhood, and about a somewhat odd and broken friend of the family (which scholars might call a marginalized woman) and how liberating it was to see her mother join hands and facilitate this woman’s new life of wholeness and freedom. Liberation, indeed!

Who doesn’t know that liberation is a major theme of Exodus (that shows up over and over in law and prophets, Hebrew prose and poetry, gospels and epistles!)

But did you know (surely you do, but I suspect most of us haven’t paid enough attention) that some of the key actors in the liberation drama played out in God’s Holy Word in Exodus are women.

As it says on the back cover:

If it weren’t for the women in the Exodus narrative, there would be no Moses, no crossing of the Red Sea, and no story of breaking the chains of slavery. On both sides of the Nile, women exhibited a subversive strength to defy Pharaoh and lead an entire people to freedom.

I trust you know about the work of the (civilly disobedient) midwives, of Jochebed, of Pharaoh’s daughter, of the brave young sister Miriam, and the older one who danced about the political victory years later. And, of course, Zipporah. Kelley is right to say “These women created the conditions for liberation over decades. They saved Moses and they taught him what liberation practices look like.”

Defiant: What the Women of Exodus Teach Us about Freedom is written, it seems, to and for women. But guys should read it, too, I am sure. These are women who are described in God’s Word and Nikondeha, a great storyteller and trained Bible scholar, is perfect to help us appreciate them.

Listen to what the very colorful and talented writer Sarah Bessy says in the foreword:

In Defiant, Kelley lays out a feast for us of the truth about biblical womanhood: the resistance, the strength, the civil disobedience, the collaboration, the truth-telling, the drumming, the wit, the holy liberated power of women who know their God…. I believe that this book has important work to do in the world – it could not be more timely, more relevant, more necessary for women to read and understand this story and our place within it.

There are ten great chapters in this wonderfully-written Biblical reflection and some really solid and fascinating footnotes. The author really knows her stuff, tells her own story well (and the stories of others she knows) and, mostly, introduces us, again, perhaps for the first time, to the liberating power of these Biblical sisters who lead us to freedom through practices such as disobedience, relinquishment, leveraged privilege, youthful zeal, mothering, solidarity, sacrament, neighborliness, and by “beating out the rhythms of liberation.” With chapters like each of these, you surely know someone who will resonate with these freedom stories and pregnant insights. The beautiful oil painting on the cover, by the way, is itself worth beholding. It is by Shelby McQuilkin. Order Defiant today.

Spiritual Conversations with Children: Listening to God Together Lacy Finn Borgo (IVP/formatio) $17.00  We just got this great-looking book into the shop and given the stress and hecticness here, I haven’t had time to study it much. But I can tell you three or four quick things at least: firstly, books in the formatio imprint or line of IVP are among the best resources on spirituality being published today. Without fail they are well written and thoughtful, Biblical and grounded yet relevant and upbeat. Some are a bit more mystical than others, but all are rooted in the broad stream of contemplative spirituality and transformational practices seeking to nurture people into the ways of Jesus. This new book — on listening for and to God with children! — is in that formatio line, so you should know we trust it. I’m sure it is theologically reliable and well written.

It is not surprising, then, that Richard Foster writes about it glowingly, mentioning its “gripping story and vivid metaphor.” If he recommends it, that give you a good hint, eh?

Secondly, I can tell you that this author is herself remarkable. Check out her bio, here:

Lacy Finn Borgo serves on the Renovaré US ministry team (that is the spirituality ministry founded by Richard Foster.) She holds a doctor of ministry degree in leadership and spiritual formation and a certificate in spiritual direction from Portland Seminary, where she also teaches classes on spiritual direction and spiritual formation. In addition to her practice with adults, she provides spiritual direction for children at a place called Haven House. a transitional housing facility for homeless families. Lacy also wrote some fabulous devotional / curriculum guides for children and families that we stock called Good Dirt. ($15.99 each.)

By the way, we’ve got all three:

• Good Dirt: Advent, Christmastide & Epiphany 
• Good Dirt: Lent, Holy Week & Eastertide 
• Good Dirt: Kingdomtide

Thirdly, I know from a quick skim and the footnotes that she is well schooled in the best thinking about spiritually and children, about play and Christ-centered inner transformation, about the Bible and intergenerational learning. That is, she cites Sofia Cavalletti and of course “Godly Play” founder Jerome Berryman. She cites David Csninos and Ivy Beckwith’s Children’s Ministry in the Way of Jesus (IVP; $20.00) and other recent works, like Catherine Stonehouse and Scottie May’s important Listening to Children on the Spiritual Journey (Baker; $24.00.) It went to press before it came out, but I’d love to know if she appreciates Elizabeth Caldwell’s brand new Wondering about the Bible with Children: Engaging a Child’s Curiosity about the Bible (Abingdon; $19.99.) Anyway, Lacy Borgo knows her stuff and — what will become obvious from even a minute with this book — she loves children, and trusts them. She knows what Jesus says about that and she seems to have taken it to heart.

Fourthly, this book isn’t primarily an academic treatise on faith formation in children or even about children’s ministry as such. It truly is just what the title promises: it is about listening for God’s voice, sensing God’s presence, becoming shaped by an encounter with God’s love, with kids. It is about being what she calls a “listening companion” with children and she offers some skills and suggestions on how to do that. In a way, this is about doing spiritual direction with children. We were delighted to have it come in to the store this week and we are sure it is going to be considered a major contribution to the literature in this field and a beloved resource for anyone who cares about the spiritual lives of our little ones.

The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success Ross Douthat (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster) $27.00  I trust you know of Mr. Douthat, the outspoken and vibrant conservative columnist for the New York Times (and before that, senior editor of The Atlantic.) Douthat has written books such as Bad Religion (with the telling subtitle How We Became a Nation of Heretics (The Free Press; $17.00) where he critiques the less than adequate and often less than orthodox thinking prevalent in mainline liberal congregations, in high-energy evangelical churches, and in his own Roman Catholic world. The brilliant Alan Jacobs says of it, “Bad Religion is superb: sharply critical of the amazing variety of American religious pathologies, but fair; blunt in diagnosis, but just; telling a dark tale, but telling it hopefully. For those trying to understand the last half-century or more of American religion, and to strive for a better future, it is an indispensable book.”

Agree or not with Jacobs (or the Times assessment which called it a “lively convincing argument”) Douthat is, as a writer, as another reviewer put it, “probing and perceptive.” I think that is fair and a good description of this new one.

This new one, called The Decadent Society, is also a very well written analysis, so well-penned that the Wall Street Journal says it was written, “beautifully, with rare lyricism.”

The main case this book makes (in 250 erudite pages) is one that it seems the prophetic left and the conserving right might both agree upon: our modern world has been greedy and driven, eroding conventional values that might sustain a decent culture and this has causes a malaise; as Bruce Cockburn put it one of his popular songs, “The Candy Man’s Gone.” It was Marx, I suppose, who said that in late capitalism “everything solid melts into air.” That’s one way of putting it.

The left tends to decry the decadence of the opulent wealthy, of Trump and his type. The right, at least the older, classic sort, similarly warned against such worldly ways. It was the serious thinker Os Guinness who posited a “gravedigger” thesis, that we, relying upon our own skill and power, our technical prowess and marketing ingenuity. will suppose we no longer need God, hence, digging our own graves.

The Decadent Society, many BookNotes readers will be interested to know, has its roots in lectures given by Douthat at Regent College in Vancouver, BC several years back. That’s the place where any number of thoughtful, vital evangelicals work to form a unique learning community that isn’t exactly a seminary, but a life-giving Christian graduate school. (A few names you might know who have been involved there include James Houston, Paul Stevens, Marva Dawn, Eugene Peterson, Luci Shaw, and, for the last two years, Steve Garber. One of my favorite Walter Brueggemann books was first given as lectures there.)

And so, this is a remarkable thesis by Douthat, explored carefully and colorfully – it isn’t every book that cites sociologists and public intellectuals like Robert Bellah or Mark Lila or Thomas Piketty as well as pop culture icons like Back to the Future or Mad Men next to citations of classic literature, theology, and philosophy. I really like these kinds of intellectually stimulating works that are not dry and stuffy. I like that it moves deeply to the spiritual malaise we experience, including a symptom that he calls “sustainable decadence.”

“Beneath our social media frenzy and reality-television politics, the deeper reality is one of drift, repetition, and dead ends.” He notes that we live with disappointment and yet we fear catastrophe. This is very interesting stuff (and I have much pondering to do as I continue to read it and consider it) and so I do commend it for your consideration. It may sound pessimistic, but I think it may be very important for the living of these very days.

When Did We Start Forgetting God? The Root of the Evangelical Crisis and Hope for the Future Mark Galli (Tyndale) $16.99 I found this book to be very good and edifying reading, a fascinating reminder of so many things that make me still want to call myself an evangelical. I didn’t always concur with what I might call his pietism — not piety, which is good, of course, but overstating its role. More on that, later, pehaps. We are in confusing times these days, and few BookNotes readers will not know my own frustration – extreme at times – with how some conservative Christians (usually more fundamentalist than evangelical, despite what the media calls them) have so embraced our current President, despite his demonstrable lack of leadership wisdom and any sort of Godly ethic or Christian demeanor. This has given evangelicalism such a bad reputation it has evoked good conversations; I adored Richard Mouw’s must-read Restless Faith: Holding Evangelical Beliefs in a World of Contested Labels (Brazos; $19.99) and often have commended here the especially helpful collection of a variety of angles and voices on the question in Still Evangelical? Insiders Reconsider Political, Social, and Theological Meaning (IVP; $20.00) in which Mark Galli has a chapter.

However, this social and political crisis facing church members, and particular evangelical folk, is only one small part of the crisis Galli explores; in fact, that crisis is mostly a symptom of a deeper crisis. This is a deeper crisis that certainly faces all sorts of congregations and every theological tradition but Galli writes as an evangelical, mostly for evangelicals. (For many years he was the editor of the movement’s flagship journal, Christianity Today, or CT as it is popularly called.) Despite this specificity, we recommend it for one and all.

The title gives us the obvious big hint of what this is all about – and this is not unrelated to the “gravedigger thesis” popularized by Os Guinness that I alluded to above. Has the evangelical movement with its vast and often effective world-reaching mission agencies, its robust para-church organizations, its publishing empire, its prowess in marketing and media, its mega-churches and ministries and such become so successful that they no longer really need God? It’s a fair question.

I do not agree with some of this book (more on that in a moment.) I think Galli raises very good points – and we need to hear them. One way to explain his major theme is to use the often spoken, nearly clichéd sort of way of putting it: are are we so taken with doing the work of the Lord that we no longer care about the Lord Himself? That is, are we so dedicated (out of earnest and faithful zeal or, perhaps like the Pharisees of old, out of darker dysfunctions) to the mission of God that we have forgotten about God? That is his thesis; that despite good words and even good works, we are fooling ourselves if we think we know God well. I suspect he is sadly right and we need to hear his concern.

Here is what is also good about this. Galli explains how we got into this mess historically in a brief and readable overview of American, mostly evangelical, history, from the colonial era’s Great Awakening to the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800’s, pondering briefly the shift from Edwards to Whitefield to Wesley and their heirs, and, then in the next century to the revival at Cane Ridge onward to the crowd manipulation of Finney and on to the celebrity preachers of today.

Galli gets at this topic of our weak spirituality beautifully, not just assessing the past, but by inviting us to practices and disciplines and dispositions that would foster deeper intimacy with God. It makes very good sense and is indicative of much about the book to have the foreword by the important scholar and evangelical mystic, Richard Foster. Foster’s contribution is short but very impressive.

Another reason this book is useful is that it is not partisan (politically speaking.) He takes swipes at the way many in the church have accommodated themselves to the worldview and attitudes and habits and values of either the far right or the far left; he does not deny that faith informs our public lives or that we need to be outspoken agents of public justice, but he laments when we becomes firstly given to ideologies (of the left or the right.) But, again this is not the primary theme of the book; go to John Fea’s Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump (Eerdmans; $18.99) for that sort of study. Rather, Galli is wondering what is behind such secularizing accommodation; how did Bible believing Christians end up so far astray in so many ways? It is, he believes (get this!) our evangelical fascinating with transformation. This is really surprising and pretty darn interesting!

Since I am one who likes to say I’m somewhat informed by the broad scope of the teaching of Dutch Reformed neo-Calvinist Abraham Kuyper, who famously talked about “every square inch” of creation being claimed and transformed by Christ, I do not find Galli’s analysis of cultural critics like Newbigin or contemporary missional thinkers (like Christopher Wright) compelling. I don’t even agree with his assessment of Rauschenbusch and the so-called “social gospel’ although he is fair and reasonable about that. But that is for another review. I mention my disapproval of how he talks about social engagement and cultural reformation (wishing he’d grapple with the doctrine of the cultural mandate, for instance) even as I realize he is on to something.

Evangelical churches, like more mainline churches a generation or so ago, sans a full-orbed public theology, tend to think the local congregation must do everything – offer counseling, start schools, serve the poor, get involved as citizens, start gardens, amplify the arts, create businesses, even. Pastors these days are sometimes expected to be entrepreneurs. Galli is mostly right (and it is, actually, a Kuyperian insight): the church should do what the church is firstly called to, and allow God’s scattered people – both called and sent – to live Kingdom lives in all that they do. It sounds to me like Galli privileges the location and ministry of the local gathered church over ways and places to know God and experience God in service throughout the day in other spheres and callings, and I don’t think that is helpful or faithful. Is worship more spiritual than work? Is prayer more spiritual than politics? The Bible, I am sure, says no, our knowledge of God is dependent on our doing of justice, just for instance. (See Jeremiah 22:16 or, obviously, Isaiah 58.) Galli doesn’t seem to have a very well developed theology of the Kingdom of God, and, in fact, talks a bit about how some recent thinkers overestimate that theme.

It is my sense that often those who fail on the centrality of the theme of the Kingdom may not have an adequate view of creation itself. For Galli, at times, it seems like the telos of life is to be one with God. Which, of course, is not what the Bible says: our longed for ending is a restoration of all things, a re(new)ed creation. Yes, where God dwells, but it is substantive, with trees and animals and swords that are now plowshares, and other people, too, a new multi-ethnic humanity in the healed cosmos. This is the problem with both medieval mysticism and evangelical pietism: it is finally almost Gnostic. It is my conviction that one must never downplay creation in order to find God; God will not allow such disdain for his beloved handiwork. To love God one must love what God loves, it is as simple as that. Here’s what I’d say to Mr. Galli at this point: skip the beatific vision stuff and use the language the Bible itself uses: the Kingdom of God and the new.heavens and new Earth.

Still, he is right: the church, as church, should help us to worship well. And to do that we need God. It is no surprise he often cites the no-nonsense sobriety and non-sentimental gospel clarity of Eugene Peterson. We need God, not a feeling of God.

Mark Galli’s practical suggestions in this good book are remarkable. You have to read his section calling for pastors to declare a moratorium on sermon illustrations about themselves! He talks about Sabbath, he has a chapter about confession, he has a chapter called “Whatever Happened to Communion?”) He is a higher-church Anglican so he helps us realize the value in richer, thicker liturgy. (He doesn’t cite James K.A. Smith, which he should have (he has a whole section on shaping desire) but he writes about everybody from Thomas Aquinas to Hans Boersma to Julian of Norwich. Anybody that quotes St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s On Loving God deserves a hearing in my view anyway. In all of this he draws on great Christian writers and helpful congregational stories to help all of us re-focus our gaze on God, in Christ, through the Scriptures and sacraments. When Did We Start Forgetting God is, as Tish Harrison Warren concisely says, “Helpful, rich, and vital for any who care about the church.”

After an editorial in which CT editors called for President Trump’s impeachment, many conservative evangelicals, fundamentalists, rigorously “Truly Reformed”, and Pentecostals went wild in snarky protest. One well-educated leader said he might vote for Trump next time just out of spite against CT. A few people said the rag went downhill under Galli, who, I guess they thought, was not adequately evangelical: he held membership and ordination in the PC(USA) for years, he ended up slightly charismatic and then liturgical (having written a book for Paraclete Press called Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy ($16.95) and he even did an introduction on Eerdmans for evangelicals on the life and teaching of Karl Barth (Karl Barth: An Introductory Biography for Evangelicals (Eerdmans; $18.00.)For many evangelical and fundamentalist elites, I guess, that’s way too liberal. Alas, he has done bunches of others books, too including dear ones on the person of Jesus and on the work of the Holy Spirit and on the attributes of God.

Well, here, Galli shows how all that comes together – he is interested in culture, in theology, in worship, in mission; he calls us to prayerfulness, to deep expressions of faith and to solid service to our neighbors and our world. He wants to recover our understanding of the gospel, surely. He wants to place evangelical renewal within the broader context of God’s on-going work throughout church history, of which he has a good grasp and teacherly style. But there is nothing more urgent or more central, he says, for the Christian person and for the institutional church, than putting God first. He insists we in the evangelical church – those who of all people make a big deal about knowing about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ – have a crisis and it is a God crisis. When Did We Start Forgetting God: The Root of the Evangelical Crisis and Hope for the Future isn’t perfect, but it will help, I am sure.

BookNotes

SPECIAL
DISCOUNT

20% OFF

Earlier in the week I gave you detailed list of the books that we announced from up front at the big Jubilee conference in Pittsburgh (at an extra discount, too.) These were exceptional titles but not scholarly or eccentric; that is, I think most could be used in your book clubs or reading groups or adult Sunday school classes. Some you had most likely heard of, some were award winning, and some maybe surprised you; All Things New by Pete Hughes, for instance, was very new so are early adopters of that great read. In any case, if you didn’t peruse that BookNotes yet, don’t miss it.

We want to say thanks for those that shared it—it’s good for a wider audience to see this kind of a thoughtful but accessible list that had some flow and coherence to it, We’d like to think it is helpful to see why I highlighted those titles to the gathering of over 3000 young adults. (I sense there is some anxiety in many ordinary churches about retaining what few young adults they have as congregants, and maybe my words and the books I described will be helpful as you consider that.) In any case, we are very grateful for your interest and appreciate those who show their support for indie bookstores and our particular mission.

Needless to say, while we were in Pittsburgh, new books kept coming into the store. Here is a sneak peak into some of the brand new ones that we are most excited about. These are all amazing! What a good book year 2020 is turning out to be. These are all on sale, too at our BookNotes 20% off. We show the regular price and our sale price. We will deduct the discount when you order. We often send books out the least expensive way (media mail, which is a bit slower) but you can request anything at the interactive order form page. Just tell us how we can help.

You can use the link at the very end of the column which takes you to our secure order form. 

Showing: What Pregnancy Tell Us About Being Human Agnes R. Howard (Eerdmans) $21.00 / our sale price = $16.80 Just the other day my wife and I were talking with our staff about publishers that just consistently do great work and even surprise us sometimes. Our favorite publishers offer delightful topics, great writing, good covers, sometimes stunningly so. Eerdmans is surely one of those and although they are known for hefty, expensive, works of Biblical studies and theology, their more “trade” sorts of titles are almost always wonderful. Showing is a perfect example of this very thing – a really well-written book, filling the need for thoughtful rumination on something everybody should care about. And look at that cover – believe me, it’s worth getting this book for this little work of art itself!

Ms. Howard joins the ranks here of a handful of writers who have written a reflection on pregnancy that is part memoir, part theological study, part spiritual reflection, done so with literary pizzazz that just sings, even if a times rather academic. It is a hard book to describe but should appeal to anyone interested in our human experiences, on relating faith to ordinary life, on embodiment and family matters. Heretofore our favorite book on this was the (sadly now out of print) Great With Child by Calvin University literature prof Debra Rienstra. How glad we were to see a long glowing paragraph of Ms. Rienstra’s own prose on the back cover endorsing the writing and insight of Showing.

Although Ms. Howard is herself a mother and writes with intimate understandings of pregnancy, she is also a historian. As Rienstra notes, Howard “provides us with the historian’s best gift: perspective.” So, Showing looks at cultural stuff, medical and religious history and wonders how things have changed over time.

More urgently, though, she explores these broad matters in order to get to the heart of her project, asking what sort of virtues are practices in pregnancy. Courage? Duh, yes! Hospitality? Come to think of it, well, of course! And, as a scholar might, she talks about (get this) “embodied generosity.” Pregnancy involves all sorts of habits of heart and bodily habits and, yes, virtues. Attentiveness to these virtues just might shape women (as much as it births babies.) This is simply fascinating stuff.

Here are two things my quick skimming of this new book showed me. It avoids clinical discourse and it equally avoids sentimentality. It is not a how-to manual, of course, but it is not a gushing touchy-feely sermon, either. In fact, she says it is not fluffy. So there.

But Showing: What Pregnancy Tells Us About Being Human is amazing. I hope it is read by moms and dads (and moms and dads to be) who are somewhat serious readers and certainly by midwives and nurses and doulas and doctors. Maybe especially those sorts of medical providers as it will help give them a deeper, more wholistic vision of the humanness of it all.

Professor Howard teaches humanities at Valparaiso University and at their honors college (Christ College.) She is a senior fellow in the Lilly Fellows Program where she researches the history of childbirth, the culture of pregnancy, and women’s health movements in the United States. She has written for Commonweal, First Things, The Cresset and other significant publications.

Where Goodness Still Grows: Reclaiming Virtue in an Age of Hypocrisy Amy Peterson (W Publishing Group) $26.99 / our sale price = $21.59  Lauren Winner wrote the eloquent, compelling foreword to this saying she had read it multiple times (I suspect she was a writing mentor to the author) and that she will read it yet again. It is one of those brilliantly conceived, beautifully rendered, very special books that deserve this kind of recommendation. It will be touted as one of the best books of 2020, I’m sure.

Winner writes that “you will be charmed by and want to remain in the company of its narrator and will delight in the cunning and precise prose.” Cunning and precise prose? You want to order it now, don’t you, just to enjoy that kind of writing (whatever that means!)  Winner continues to talk about the once popular notion of “moral theology” and how Amy Peterson updates older, classic understandings of virtue and how virtue works. (Not reinvented, but recast, she assures us.) The current context – including iphones and climate change and Donald Trump – informs how we live out our virtue. “Amy Peterson shows us what a life of virtue looks like in a world of empire, inequality, dislocation, sexual violence, movement of people groups. What was good for the young lady of 1848 is good for us, too, but those goodnesses need to be recast because so many of our particulars are different from Miss 1848’s particulars.”

Where Goodness Dwells is exceptionally astute and, so far, for me, utterly captivating. Like her earlier Dangerous Territory: My Misguided Quest to Save the World, Peterson’s ruminations are rooted in a memoir-like telling of her own story. Shannon Martin calls it “exquisite” and Wesley Hill says it is, “one of the most genuinely hopeful books I’ve ever read.” As author earns these sort of impassioned comments not only because she is astute and thoughtful but because she tells her own vivid story with care and grace.

As you can tell from the subtitle, Where Goodness Still Grows isn’t just a reflection on integrity and virtue and goodness (and beauty) but also somewhat of an expose, a lament, a recognizance dive to investigate the church’s hypocrisy. For some this expose and confession will help them keep the faith (knowing there are authors and publishers and booksellers saying this kind of stuff.) For others it will be awkward, perhaps controversial; painful. Hard hitting as it may be, though, it is her story and her wisdom and that includes the virtue of being fair and civil. Although I am only part way through it, I think it is nothing short of spectacular. You really should read it.

Here are a few of the other remarkable endorsements by writers we admire. Please read every one; please:

If the church of your childhood has broken your heart — particularly, politically — if your faith foundations have been shaken by betrayal and complicity, it might seem quaint to turn toward virtues. And yet what are we yearning for but embodied goodness? Amy has given us a well-researched, beautifully written, strong book about the virtues necessary for the apocalypse. We need to lean in further to discernment, lament, love, and hospitality, not in a weak, be nice sort of way but in the muscular, lean way that holds on to hope out of faith disguised as sheer stubbornness. This book is one part lament, one part hope, and entirely necessary for these days. –Sarah Bessey, author, Miracles and Other Reasonable Things and Jesus Feminist

In this poignant, honest book, Amy Peterson confronts her disappointment with the evangelical leaders who handed her The Book of Virtues then happily ignored them for the sake of political power. But instead of just walking away, Peterson rewrites the script, giving us an alternative book of virtues needed in this moment. And it’s no mistake that it ends with hope. –James K. A. Smith, author, You Are What You Love, and editor, Image journal

Amy Peterson reflects the best of the church’s next generation. With biblical faithfulness and wisdom, Where Goodness Still Grows gently critiques the shortcomings of the generation who came before her, then lovingly points the way toward a more holistic and virtuous future for all who claim the name of Christ. –Karen Swallow Prior, author, On Reading Well and Fierce Convictions

Deconstructing is becoming a new normal; re-envisioning a path forward in the shadow of tradition is increasingly rare. Through gorgeous prose and widening her scope to a diverse array of voices, Peterson is doing the hardest work of all: stubbornly clinging to faith while holding it accountable at the exact same time. This book is vital reading. –D. L. Mayfield, author, Assimilate or Go Home and The Myth of the American Dream

I should say more. Where Goodness Grows is surely one of the best books of the new year! We have it on sale and are eager to send it out. Why not suggest it for your book group, church, or fellowship?

A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream Yuval Levin (Basic Books) $28.00 / our sale price = $22.40  I suspect this major work wouldn’t have sold well at Jubilee since it is a fairly scholarly hardback by a serious social critic (who is not a follower of Christ and most likely not well known in young adult circles.) Despite the breathy Kingdom vision at Jubilee that assures us that we can and should transform the world, most younger folks aren’t quite aware of how significant institutions are. A book about this isn’t going to really fly off the shelves anywhere, I’m afraid (since most Americans think they have an aversion to institutions) and most likely not among the rising generation.

Still, this vision about building up institutions and shoring up the things in our culture that help us flourish certainly is the sort of thing that we all must grapple with if we are to live out a restorative, redemptive care for the world that is lasting. From Andy Crouch’s must-read Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power to Steve Garber’s small but potent A Seamless Life to the brilliant chapter “structure and direction” in Al Wolters’ Creation Regained to the big picture discussions of Christ and culture among those following the work of Lesslie Newbigin to the inspiring stories in John Stonestreet’s All Things New: God’s Audacious Plan to Change the World Through Everyday People there is much Christian insight to motivate us to think deeply about what it really means to “engage culture” and work missionally for the renewal of God’s world, even in our mediating structures and institutions and civic spaces. Sooner or later we must, as Peggy Noonan puts it on the back of A Time to Build, “recommit to the great project of our common life” and Levin (an exceptionally respected public intellectual) is just the person to guide us to the most fruitful ways to think about this.

A Time to Build is an important book, in a way a follow-up to his important A Fractured Republic. It is serious and thoughtful, to say the least.

This endorsement (of a fundamentally conservative book by a liberal Democrat, I might note) explains it well:

Yuval Levin stands athwart the wrecking ball of anger that is smashing a democracy in desperate need of rebuilding and repair. A Time to Build sets forth an ambitious blueprint for how Americans can work together to strengthen broken institutions we cannot live without. — Bruce Reed, chief of staff to former Vice President Joe Biden

Here is what conservative pundit David Brooks said in the New York Times about the book as it related to the impeachment hearing a month back:

As Yuval Levin writes in his profound forthcoming book, A Time to Build, Trump is an example of a person who wasn’t formed by an institution. He is self-created and self-enclosed. He governs as a perpetual outsider, tweeting insults to members of his own cabinet. At its best, the impeachment process is an attempt to protect our institutions from his inability to obey the rules.

Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age Jay Y. Kim (IVP) $18.00 / our sale price = $14.40  When I saw the carton full of Jay Kim’s brand new book when we got back from Jubilee I smacked my head, exclaiming right out loud in less than admirable language, how I wished this had come a few days earlier. I would have promoted it from the main stage at the conference – it is surely that good and that urgent. And it would have been great to promote to these young adults and ministries that are so effective in reaching them.

The doctrine of creation? You get it here in this book about why we need down to earth, real stuff. Explorations of the fall? Oh my, if God’s good gifts can be distorted and God’s good world can be disrupted – by ideas, ideologies, disordered loves and unwise practices – surely we can see it in how we’ve shifted to our fetish with digital hyper-reality. Redemption? Of course, the saving power and sovereign grace of our Lord and Savior and Kingdom bringer Jesus the Christ is, renewing all things; He is Lord of the digital and can move us, as people and as a society, towards the really real. In Him all things hold together, Colossians 1 tells us, so how we think about and experience our digitally-saturated world can be shaped by Christ’s Kingship and healing wisdom emerging from those guided by His Spirit, who is still hovering over the deep. God is restoring not only our souls but our very lives and the structures and habits and cultures of the world, so we must ask: how then shall we live, in but not of a world that emerged from Silicon Valley?  Sorry to preach.

Although this is not the first book to ask these things, Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age is current and obviously important. No matter your place or context, if your church exists in the 21st century, you need this book.

At first I thought Analog Church was going to be a slightly more punchy and serious version of the fantastic, upbeat, interesting, Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate: Crafting a Handmade Faith in a Mass-Market World by John J. Thompson about resisting the mass market and buying local, fairly, face-to-face, supporting boutique shops and joining the creative “makers” movement. (See my review of that HERE.) And in a way, it is. As Ruth Haley Barton puts it in her lovely back-cover endorsement, Kim calls us to “come out of hiding from behind digital walls, to bridge digital divides, and to be human with one another in real time, real space, and real ways.” She notes that this is a shift from “relevance to transcendence” and she is right, although it may seem counter-intuitive or even ironic. We must (as Os Guinness notes) give up idols of relevance to be real, and thereby really relevant, and that is the path to authentic, human-scale transcendence.

But more than other localist or “small is beautiful” calls to resist the abstract and merely digital, Analog Church is, in fact, about the local congregation. It is actually asking the hard question of what it means to be an analog church in a digital age.

You may think this is just for those spiffy, on-line, hot-wired, mega-churches run by Gen Xers and that you, with your old building and conventional liturgy, don’t need this. (Jay Kim is pastor of a hip, evangelical church plant in Santa Cruz, after all.) But you would be wrong about this. I would guess that almost every church has members, and in many churches, many members, who are utterly enamored with their digital lives, taken up by it all, even. The data is clear about that. You may not have on-line Bible studies and use streaming services for your services, or even worry much about your website. But your people do. Some live in their e-world enthusiastically, while others are not even aware of how shaped they’ve been by the on-line cultural manners. As is well known, now, given research done and explained in books like Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, our electronic age and digital culture even effects how we read. How we experience the world – think of many books inspired by The Secular Age by Charles Taylor that explore this, certainly the vital work of James K.A. Smith on this exact thing  – influences our expectations and experience of the local church and our weekly worship. You think your flock and your local Bible study group hasn’t been influenced by these habits of reading on line, of being shaped by digital cultural? You don’t think they experience church differently now than they used to? Think again!

This amazing book pushes back against “digital faith” and calls us to embodiment, face-to-face, real relationships and experiences. But this isn’t just fuddy-duddy, holier-than-thou, Luddite stuff. It’s solid and interesting and helpful, maybe prophetic. It’s a very important new book.

Listen to these amazing endorsements:

We are clearly sitting within a technological and digital revolution―but a revolution against what? And to where? In this book, my friend Jay Kim serves us as a true pastor, showing us that this revolution is unparalleled in its spiritual implications. After reading this book, I have a much clearer understanding of how technology has shaped the church and how we can change. With an impressive bibliography, thoughtful exegesis of Scripture, and terrific prose, Kim shows us how the digital revolution requires an analog response―and why God’s church is the essential respondent. –Chris Nye, pastor and author of Less of More: Pursuing Spiritual Abundance in a World of Never Enough

Sometimes the best books about the future involve the ones that start with a look backward. In this very important work, Jay reminds us of God’s vision for the church as the plumb line for how we view and leverage technology. In making digital the servant of analog we are moving in the right direction. Reversing the two leads us to something fundamentally different than the deep journey God has called all of us to. The church was always meant to be waiting for us when everything else failed to live up to our deep longing for transcendence. This book is the map to that. –Nancy Ortberg, author of Looking for God

It’s a grave miscalculation for the church today to think relevance depends on the ability to keep up with the pace, gloss, and hype of our technological world. Our frenetic, fidgety age does not need a frenetic, fidgety church. Our Insta-perfect, polished age does not need a photo-shopped, inauthentic church. Our tech-weary world does not need a tech-obsessed church. Jay Kim’s Analog Church understands this, presenting a compelling case for the church’s most radical act in today’s world: not to be a trendy, shape-shifting, chameleonic copycat, but to be a transcendent Christ-centered community whose difference from the world is why it makes a difference. — Brett McCracken, senior editor at The Gospel Coalition and author of Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community

When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse Chuck DeGroat (IVP) $22.00 / our sale price = $17.60  Over the years we have had bunches of books on toxic faith, on dysfunctional churches, on recovering from spiritual abuse. They have not sold that well because not that many folks are in cult-like groups, not that many congregations are abusive, not that many, or so we thought, were caught up in heavy-handed discipling relationships or submitted to over-wrought hierarchies and super-strict, authoritarian religions leaders. With a few ugly exceptions (and the super weird outliers that really are cults) most churches have little going on in terms of authority structures; our individualist worldview allows us to (or insists that we) just ignore what our churches and pastors and leaders think, believing what we want and doing what we want.

When one of the most respected writers I know (Dan Allender of the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology) called this a “landmark” book, I have to admit I was skeptical. But since it was Allender, and since I so esteem Chuck DeGroat (having read his other brilliant books) I figured this one must be different. That IVP issued it in hardback indicates that they are taking it very seriously. After perusing it, I believe they are right. This is a landmark and serious book and we should take it seriously.

I think the difference that makes this new book so important is that it is, as Nancy Ortberg says, “a deeply thoughtful treatise on this subject that also points a healthy way forward.” And it is crafted by a stellar writer. Further – and this is important – DeGroat uses the insights of trauma studies and, particularly, the social dysfunction known as narcissism as a key to unlock the unhealthy relationships common in many churches. Why, he asks, does narcissism seem to thrive in our churches?

This increasingly common disorder (you may know the book The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean Twenge) is found, Chuck explains, not just among ministry leaders but is embedded in church systems. He’s a serious thinker, has done remarkable research, and this book is surely one of the most important congregational life titles in recent years.

Another selling point for this book for me (and I hope for you) is the very interesting and positive foreword by Richard Mouw. Rich writes, “I am in awe of how he combines pastoral experience with a grasp of psychological theory and therapeutic savvy. And he does this with solid theology.”

When you buy this, be sure not to skip Mouw explaining how Chuck probes beneath the surface, explaining different aspects and types of narcissistic personalities, and what might be going on, spiritually and theologically. (He draws on Augustine, of course.) Mouw notes what I, too, had noticed – that DeGroat makes use of the seminal work of Christopher Lasch. And he does break some new ground because there really doesn’t seem to be a lot of research on narcissism among pastoral leaders. Dan Allender is correct: When Narcissism Comes to Church is a landmark book.

Plus, you’ve got to love a book that has a page-long opening epigraph from none other than Thomas Merton, an important passage from New Seeds of Contemplation. Yes!

The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Jason Thacker (Zondervan) $22.99 / our sale price = $18.39  If there was any one book that I wish would have come a week and a half earlier so we could have taken it to Jubilee, it would have been this. There was a well-attended workshop there by a serious scholar of AI and practitioner of big data (and another on cyber security.) While these leaders were surely thoughtful about relating faith to their discernment of the issues in their field, none had a solid, go-to book that studies this stuff from a reliable, Biblically-informed worldview. Some professions have plenty of such books, but in emerging field, there is a drought. I actually tried to get this book a week earlier, hoping the publisher would be able to ship it early but that didn’t work out, so now that we have it, I want to spread the news.

Although Derek C. Schuurrman’s marvelous Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology is still the foundational book for any Christian thinking on computer science, this brand new one, The Age of AI, seems to be the next must-read volume. It looks into the not very distant future and shows how AI will influence our shopping, education, family life, medicine and wars. What are being called “the data industries” are more influential then ever and will continue to be. By drawing on the theology of the imago dei and the great commandment to love our neighbors, Thacker gets us thinking about big data in faithful ways. (And, happily, Derek Schuurrman has an endorsement on the inside, which further illustrates its importance.)

As the always-thoughtful Russell Moore puts it, “No ethical issue keeps me up at night as does the question of artificial intelligence. This book is a balm for anxiety in the age of technological disruption. The years ahead will require wise Christians in a time of smart robots. This book shows the way.”

For what it is worth, Zondervan is doing another book (in June 2020) on these concerns by scientist and philosopher John Lennox called 2084: Artificial Intelligence, The Future of Humanity, and the God Question (Zondervan; $19.99/our pre-order sale price = $15.99) which will also be a critical examination of technological enhancement, bioengineering, and AI.  Pre-order that forthcoming one now if you’d like. For now, though don’t miss The Age of AI by Jason Thacker. It’s important. And on sale here.

We Were Spiritual Refugees: A Story to Help You Believe in Church Katie Hays (Eerdmans) $24.99 / our sale price = $19.99  I am part way through this and it is, in many, many ways, thrilling. It is wonderfully written, captivating, and, as one who is often looking for new examples of healthy church life (including nonconventional faith communities) I was eager to read this story of the outreach to the so-called “spiritual but not religious” or “nones.” I assumed, and was right, that We Were Spiritual Refugees is a book that will appeal to those who loved (as I did) Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Accidental Saints or Sara Miles Take This Bread and Jesus Freaks or even Laura Truax’s Love Let Go and other reports of what we used to call emergent churches. That Doug Pagitt, founder of Solomon’s Porch, wrote the foreword makes perfect sense. As I have come to expect from him, the few pages he wrote that opens the book are fascinating and compelling.

The church Katie Hays founded – her passion emerges somewhat from the harm she experienced from her conservative, fundamentalist background – is located in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas and is called Galileo Church, which, in their own words, “seeks and shelters spiritual refugees.” The book tells in vivid prose how she got it started and their first several years. Of course, this desire to build Jesus-followers among those who may be merely curious or even reluctant – including disillusioned young adults and LGTBQ+ people, among others often not welcome in other faith communities – makes them a bit unusual and their style and approach may not be your own. But I still believe it is a good read. A few parts just made me weep, and more made me laugh right out loud. The story is somehow hopeful, a good story of a good effort, and we should be glad, even if it isn’t your wheelhouse. It is the report of an unusual church plant, complete with flashbacks of old facebook posts and emails and sermon ideas. As Brian McLaren puts it on the back as he celebrates this book telling the story of what he calls an “amazing church”, after you read it, “Who knows what you might be inspired to do?” And isn’t that one mark of a good book, that it might inspire you?

Krista Tippett (of the NPR radio show “On Being”) says,

Katie Hays’s radiant theology and being, and her fierce intelligence and integrity, are magnetic. So is her soaring, hard-won readiness to question and evolve, stretch and create, in response to the tenderness and tumult of this age. This account of ‘making a church’ lights my imagination about the new forms and meanings of Church, community, and belonging our world is giving birth to.

Truth We Can Touch: How Baptism and Communion Shapes Our Lives Tim Chester (with a foreword by Sinclair Ferguson) (Crossway) $17.99 / our sale price = $14.39  We have a very hefty and diverse collection of books about the sacraments and sacramental theology, here at the shop in Dallastown. Authors of various theological stripes and dispositions have weighed in – in part because for most of church history, in most quarters, this topic is essential and life-giving stuff.  Eating and drinking together in church, or seeing one pass through the waters of baptism – what some Lutherans now call The Bath – are physical rituals, but more than that. They are God’s own appointed signs. We all agree on that.

I must say I ordered this not because we really need more books on this (our shelves are jam-packed) but for two reasons: I really trust this gospel-centered, missional, British author and stock almost all of his many books.  And because I loved the title: Truth We Can Touch. You know? The book is short and might be inspiring for one who has read headier stuff or might be a good introduction for one who hasn’t read anything in this field. He is an evangelical free church guy (who has a PhD from the University of Wales and pastors Grace Church in North Yorkshire.)

Sam Allberry, a PCA leader and speaker for Ravi Zacharias, says, “This is hands down the best book on sacraments I’ve read.” He says it is, “warm, compelling, eye-opening, and saturated in gospel encouragement.” I love it when a well-read author says stuff like this: “ I hadn’t realized how much I needed it.” Maybe you, too? Why don’t you give it a try?

A Prayer for Orion: A Son’s Addiction and a Mother’s Love Katherine James (IVP) $16.00 / our sale price = $12.80  This stunning book did not just come out this week; I read it as soon as it came, more than a month ago but hardly felt worthy to review it. James is a noted and award winning novelist (her Can You See Anything Now? was published in the respected fiction line of Paraclete Press and both Beth and I enjoyed it.) Her husband has written books on living out faith in our culture and they have both become friends of ours. Years ago, Kate earned a fellowship at Columbia University and she taught fiction there. I say this to assure you that anything she writes is serious and well-crafted. She is a writer you should know.

But, oh my, what a sad and heavy story. I couldn’t put it down and related to its broadest theme of a parent’s love (even though I must admit I have not had much relationship to this particular sorrow of drug abuse.) I’ve read other narratives about addiction but this captured me completely. From the beautiful, strong cover and the very first page, I was taken in, wanting to know where this story would go and how it would end.

You see, Katherine and her husband are connected to an internationally known evangelical para-church ministry. She attended Wheaton College. They are solid, thoughtful, open-minded, caring evangelicals – the best of all worlds, it seems, well -read, devout, but not legalistic. Religion was real in their home, very real, but not toxic. They had a creative, cool family, and yet..

In a way, A Prayer for Orion is the story of any number of families Beth and I might have known. Had we been more hospitable and artistic, it could have been our own story, I suppose. As the reader soon learns, Kate and Rick hosted many neighborhood kids in their home. They created a safe place for them to hang out – a fixed up attic space above their garage — and taught art and read poetry and didn’t get fussy about the (perhaps marginalized, rougher) kids that showed up and their cigarettes and tattoos and attitudes. I thought of the sort of friendly space many wish to offer where honest questions can be asked and people of strong Christ-like faith can minister to the disaffected without shame or churchy pressure.  In a way, their place became a refuge. They accepted and tried to see the best in her son’s friends who they dubbed “The Lost Boys.”

And then they realized they had befriended drug dealers; that their son’s experimenting lead to overdoses and addiction. I am choked up even reporting this obvious fact about the book.

As it says on the back cover, “When Katherine James and her husband found out their son was using heroin, their responses ran the gamut: disbelief, anger, helplessness, guilt.” Even for those of us whose children have not been quite so wayward, this is nearly universal stuff. What parent hasn’t felt regret, anguish, fear? Who among us hasn’t blamed others, blamed ourselves, blamed God? Who hasn’t struggled to figure out how to show grace, to love well, to weep and laugh even in the hardest of times? In a very real way, A Prayer for Orion: A Son’s Addiction and a Mother’s Love is one of my all-time favorite parenting books, and certainly one of my favorite memoirs. It is intense and it is about addiction, true enough. But it is more than that, and it is good and gracious and I recommend it very, very much.

Forgive me for not saying more. I want to write more profoundly about this profound book but I also don’t want to spoil a thing. It is literate and lush, sure to captivate anyone who reads literary fiction or artful memoirs. It will offer insight for those who struggle with hard stuff with their families or loved ones.

A Prayer for Orion, as Jen Pollock Michel puts it in her lovely endorsement blurb on the back cover, reminds us that:

“…to know God is not to be spared the grief of this broken world. It is, however, to watch hope – as small and inconspicuous as Elijah’s cloud – grow heavier with rain.”

 

On Birth, On Marriage, and On Death Timothy Keller (Penguin) $10.00 each; small boxed set $30.00 / our sale prices = $8.00 each or $24.00 for the slipcased set These three small-sized paperbacks just arrived and they are provocative, wise, helpful. They are in what Tim and Kathy Keller are calling the “How to Find God” series and in the preface they note that many people are drawn to the biggest questions of life during times of transition. We catch ourselves pondering some of the deepest questions of our existence during major changes in our life stages — questions such as what am I really living for? do I have what it takes to face challenges? what do I believe about religion and do I have a relationship with God? — so these three books are designed to offer guidance to navigate some of these questions by pondering three pivotal life experiences.

Keller, it seems to me, is enough of a neo-Calvinist in the line of Kuyper, say, to want to invite us to think well and faithfully about all of life so it is natural that he would offer a uniquely Christian perspective on these almost mundane (if important) moments.  (He did a major book on a Christian view of work, after all.) But he is also enough of an evangelist and apologetics guy (think of his weighty books Reason for God and Making Sense of God) that he truly wants to offer a reasonable life-line of gospel hope to anyone pondering life’s most momentous occurrences. Significant events such as birth, marriage, and death are milestones, after all. As it notes on the back cover, these are times when we experience our greatest happiness and our deepest grief.

As to be expected, he starts with some sociological and cultural studies, citing classic literature and contemporary articles. In On Death he shows our tendency in our modern world (unlike most times in history) to either despair or deny. It’s so good.

As we note above, you can get any of these three or the little boxed set. (By the way, do notice the way the string on the cover art of each is different.) All are at our 20% off BookNotes discount.

Mother To Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope Jasmine L. Holmes (IVP) $20.00 / our sale price = $16.00  Oh my goodness, I’ve been waiting for this for months, and can hardly believe it is actually here. Jasmine Holmes is said to be a very good writer and, of course, the topic here is extraordinarily poignant, if not extraordinary. For people of color, these talks are not uncommon. For those of us in the majority culture, we still may not know this, but every black family I’ve ever asked about this assured me they have had “the talk.” And I’m not talking about the birds and the bees, but the talk about what to do when (not if) the police stop you for no good reason. Talking about race and racism is simply a must for all of us in these hard times and we all need as much help as we can get.

We stock a number of books like this, memoirs written by people of color about turmoil experienced in their inner and outer lives and many are exceptionally gripping. Some of these stories that are laden with racial injustice and struggle and the hope for redemption in this hard world are especially artful and moving. (I’ve mentioned often before how much I so esteem Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and named Heavy by Kiese Laymon and Black Is the Body by Emily Bernard and I’m Still Here by Austin Channing as some of the best books I’ve read in recent years.) As I’ve suggested, this is important stuff for all of us, seeing through windows into the lives of others.

Whether they are religious or not, vulgar or not, some books about coming of age as persons of color are simply brilliant.

This one, however, will stand above the crowd, I’m sure. It fills an interesting niche within this interesting niche – Mother to Son by Jasmine Holmes is, in fact (as the subtitle notes) about identity and about hope, by which she means that it is an overtly Christian take on these subjects. What is our identity? (I’m not sure she puts it so prosaically, but some might ask, “do you see yourself as a black person and a Christian, or a Christian who is black, or a black Christian?” Questions of class and gender make this quest that much more fascinating for us, don’t they? In any event, Jasmine writes these literate letters as a black Christian mother with hope that they will help her son navigate this hard world with hope and joy in the power of the Lord. The gospel clarity of the evangelical faith of Jasmine Holmes is deep and deeply informed. We have a lot to learn from her.

Interestingly, Jackie Hill Perry (who spoke at Jubilee 2020 last week in Pittsburgh) wrote the foreword. She has struggled herself with these questions of identity (her own memoir Gay Girl Good God reflects a bit on her own struggles and clarity about her own self-identity) and she, like Ms Holmes, is a seriously Reformed, evangelical thinker. Holmes teaches humanities in a classical Christian school in Jackson Mississippi. She writes for thoughtful, evangelical blogs and publications, from Fathom to Modern Reformation to The Witness and for the Gospel Coalition. And she does this as a strong black woman.

I have only skimmed Mother To Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope and can’t wait to start it in in earnest, one letter at a time. If you don’t care much about race issues in our culture (or think too much is made of such things) I beg you to read this. If you are aware of these things, I suspect you will want to read it right away. You are invited into this intimate conversation where a mother helps her son, Wynn, live faithfully as a young black boy becoming a young man.

Consider these wonderful endorsements:

The love of black mothers for their sons defies easy categorization. It’s at once fierce and tender. It’s folksy and sophisticated. It careens toward indulgence but insists on growing up. Black mothers somehow combine both the romance all mothers feel for their sons with the realism required in a racially cruel world. The love of black mothers for their sons is a gift to the world―and the church. In these pages you will see why, as Jasmine Holmes speaks to her sons and to the church about her sons, about black boys, about black mothers, about hope and pain, love and fear, justice and gospel. Anyone looking for an honest yet hopeful exploration of what it means to be black, a mom, a wife, and a Christian―in all the ways those labels interact―will find a witty, womanly, biblical, theologically sound guide in Jasmine as she talks with her boys, and ours. –Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church, Washington, DC

As I read Mother to Son, I couldn’t help but think of the many African American mothers who will read and be able to take a deep, long breath and say, ‘I am not alone.’ This book is rich in theological and foundational truth about God and about who we all are because of God. Yes, it’s for a mother and son, but anyone who reads will benefit. A treasure of a book. Trillia Newbell, author of Sacred Endurance and God’s Very Good Idea

Materiality as Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World Walter Brueggemann (WJK) $15.00 / our sale price = $12.00 The fantastic, vivid foreword by Jim Wallis (which recommends this for Sunday school classes and Bible study groups) might give you a hint, but if you know anything about Brueggemann you will love, even savor, how he uses words; can’t you just imagine his deep voice, drawing out words and phrases, using words such as materiality, like poetry. You may not always get what his allusive wording means at first, but stick with him and it becomes powerfully clear. This book is about how to care about human flourishing by attention to money, food, body, time, and place. He lays out very clear ways that we can reengage our materiality for the sake of our neighbors and the common good.

As Brandon Robertson (author of True Inclusion) puts it,

Walter Brueggemann has crafted a compact but potent call for the modern church to return to Christ’s message and model of living – one that seeks to bring tangible restoration and redemption to our world for the common good of absolutely everyone.

This potent little book is fabulous, I think, and could be a good introduction to Brueggemann’s other, heftier work. There are discussion questions, too, making it that much more useful for personal study or small group use. The publisher calls it a manifesto; I think they mean that besides a Brueggemann-esque call to a prophetic imagination that subverts the ungodly status quo, that it is in some ways a summarizing of much of his work. It is energetic and clear. As I mentioned, it’s about how we use our money and food, our bodies and our places. It is down to Earth stuff. As he does in other volumes (from Bible commentaries to theology texts to sermons and prayers) he insists that the Bible is a very material book and its teaching about this should shape our own sense of our own materiality.

He closes out the book with one of my own favorite passages that I have often preached and taught from – Jeremiah 22:15-16. In this specific passage about knowing God, about what we might call spirituality, the defining features of one who does or doesn’t know God is, in fact, connected to materiality, including real estate and housing practices. Walt is not making this stuff up. You should read this little book and learn in detail what it might be like to deepen your discipleship by stewarding your materiality more faithfully.

Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Time Walter Brueggemann (WJK) $30.00 / our sale price = $24.00  It seems WJK has done this before — issued a major, serious, expensive volume and a slim, potent, smaller book. I’m glad, since the above-listed Materiality one is brief (and useful) but to get the full range of Brueggemann’s deep insight one really should wade through his more dense essays. These articles, scholarly essays, reviews, and sermons are a gold mine, it seems, and we surely have to recommend them here, now. This sturdy paperback is 260 pages (that is, you really get your money’s worth!)

Want to see what I mean? Walt writes in the introduction:

The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann Volume 3 (WJK) $35.00 / our sale price = $28.00  By the way, speaking of WJK’s robust Brueggemann publishing program, they also just released the marvelous third volume of his Collected Sermons. They have a whole set of collected sermon volumes by a variety of important preachers, and this is the third volume of Walt’s in this series. It is called, simply, The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann Volume 3. There is a foreword by Barbara Brown Taylor, too (which is the only thing I’ve read in it so far. But, well, wow.) This collection features sixty sermons, preached mostly in the last five years. For his final public appearances, he preached at various churches and the famous Festival of Homiletics, including his last address there in 2018. Most of these collected here are based on lectionary texts, with numerous sermons on Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter.

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I’m sure you’ve heard that we just got back from the huge Jubilee conference where we serve each year by setting up a large book display for the nearly 4000 participants. Our Hearts & Minds Facebook page (and my own personal one) has featured some posts and pictures from the event and we’re grateful for the encouragement and prayers that sustained us. It’s always a bit stressful but it seemed harder than ever this year as we sensed the need for prayer. We cannot overstate how important this event is and how transformative it has been in significant ways for thousands over the years.

Just yesterday I got an email from a regular customer and a long-time friend, who recalled her first year at Jubilee and the first book she purchased from Hearts & Minds. She wrote:

I am thankful for my time at Jubilee. I remember going to my first one at the Hilton with Kristin Silva and getting a Ron Sider book with her. We read that book together the second semester of my freshman year. It changed my life: I got a mentor, I started reading more for the first time in my life, and it introduced me to a whole new world. I can’t imagine my life without good books from Hearts and Minds and the compassionate spirit of campus ministry staff.

One of the fun things I get to do is describe books from up front on the well-designed, creatively lit stage. The book spiel is in the format of an interview (which somebody apparently thinks is a good idea) and it was executed well by our good friends Tommy Scales and Emily Bingham. When I was getting passionate about the importance of books on racism, Tommy dug into his black church traditions and dramatically fanned me; I’m tellin’ ya, that wouldn’t have happened if I were up there on my own!  I’m glad Tommy and Emily (one of the most interesting and discerning readers we know) helped me get the job done. I wish you could have seen me tell about these books, up front, live and energetic.

ON SALE: ONE WEEK ONLY           30% OFF

Here’s what we’ll do: for one week only we’ll do a 30% OFF post-Jubilee sale. Until a minute before midnight, Saturday night March 7^th, the following titles (which I described up front at the conference) are 30% off. While supplies last.

After that, they will remain at our more customary BookNotes 20% off.

Like at Jubilee, I’m on a time crunch to fit these in, so let’s dive in, quickly. I will explain a bit more here, to our dear BookNotes readers, than I had time to in my Jubilee book interviews. I try to explain why these books are so important to our event, and perhaps to you, hoping you will considering ordering them from us now. Here we go.

WHAT I ANNOUNCED FRIDAY NIGHT

Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for A New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon David Kinnamen (Baker Publishing) $21.99.  SALE PRICE = $15.39 I kicked off the first Jubilee book talk with this one for a few obvious reasons. If you followed my first review of this before it came out, or my comments when we named it a “Best Book of 2019” you may recall that it mentions the Jubilee conference (and the book buying that goes on there) as a window into effective young adult ministry. This is an ambitious and visionary generation and we simply must offer a full-orbed gospel that relates faith to vocation and shows how work matters to God and is connected to our life in God’s Kingdom.  A book about Jubilee themes that mentions CCO and even the Jubilee book display by an author that was in the house? A no-brainer. Beth and I are glad to have David’s encouragement, too; he is such a good friend to us. His Sunday morning talk was powerful, too, given some serious sorrow in his own life. (Pray, please, for his wife Jill who has brain cancer.)

Faith for Exiles was a big seller at Jubilee, and we are glad to get it into the hands of young adults and those who care about young adults. It’s a great read and really, really important.

It’s Not What You Think: Why Christianity Is about So Much More Than Going to Heaven When You Die Jefferson Bethke (Thomas Nelson Publishing) $16.99. SALE PRICE = $11.89  Students like the young pastor and author and YouTube star Jefferson Bethke who is wise beyond his years. This feisty, fun, book offers a handful of fresh insights about the Christian faith and I announced it as a great one for anybody who wasn’t sure why there were there at this religious gathering or who wanted to know more than Sunday school clichés or pop culture stereotypes about what Christianity is really all about. While maybe not a full-on, worldviewish, reformational/Kuyperian perspective, it helps ordinary beginners realize that Biblical faith is, as Bethke says, “not what you think.”

The Big Story: How the Bible Makes Sense Out of Life Justin Buzzard (Moody Press) $13.99  SALE PRICE = $9.79 I have highlighted this one at Jubilee the last few years for a couple of reasons. It captures the theme of Jubilee that the overarching Biblical story is the story out of which we are to live (and in this sense is an apologetic for the relevance of a big picture view of the Scriptures and their formative power) and it nicely explains the big “chapters” of the Christian story, the “acts” of the Biblical drama that the conference itself is so faithfully built around – creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Buzzard is sharp and reliable and the book is short and sweet. Perfect for young students new to this approach.

Even Better Than Eden: Nine Ways the Bible’s Story Changes Everything About Your Story Nancy Guthrie (Crossway) $16.99  SALE PRICE = $11.89  Again, catch the sub-title illustrating that serious Bible study can be valuable for life, for our story. Not only does this resonant with young adults these days, but it is, we are convinced, the best way to approach the Scriptures – not as a law book (as fundamentalists and dogmatists might) or merely as old religious history (as some progressives and mainline liberals might) but as a historically redemptive, unfolding, Christ-centered, Kingdom story. Guthrie traces a handful of words or images or metaphors – garden, temple, Sabbath, city, clothing, and more – from Genesis to Revelation showing how these notions point to God’s faithfulness and as the gospel unfolds. Plus, it was nice saying this PCA woman is one of the best Bible teachers in America. Yup.

All Things New: Joining God’s Story of Re-Creation Pete Hughes (David C. Cook) $17.99 SALE PRICE = $12.59  If I were speaking to a baby-boomer crowd I would have said “who is that masked man?” I never heard of Pete Hughes or his spiffy church but I’m telling you, this is one of the best books of the year! And it is spot-on for the Jubilee vision, a perfect Biblical overview of the big story, of God’s work in the world, of our missional invitation to be agents of God’s own reconciliation and reformation.  That two Jubilee home-run hitters from previous years (Jon Tyson and John Mark Comer) both eagerly endorse it with rave comments on the back assure us that I’m not dreaming here. This is a fresh new take on a full-orbed Kingdom vision and a fine Biblical overview of God’s plan of restoration and hope. Join in, please! Spread the word.

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling Andy Crouch (IVP) $24.00  SALE PRICE = $16.80 Andy was our main-stage Friday night speaker. Here is a fabulously interesting previous talk he did at Jubilee a few years back which was similar, although he sang more this year, and did a four-way graph which not only affirmed a Biblical cosmology but nicely critiqued the mechanistic worldview and the resultant reductionism that emerged from the secularizing Enlightenment era. Anyway, I suggested we read all of Andy’s wise and well-written books – if you haven’t read him, you are in for a literary treat. We highly recommend Culture Making, Playing God, Strong and Weak, and his must-read, very insightful, handy-sized The Tech Wise Family.

Andy’s great talk Friday night set the stage for the rest of the conference, affirming the Biblical doctrine of creation which surely isn’t only about the mere act of creation ex nihilo (let alone a literalistic reading of the days of Genesis 1 that would oppose evolution) but a vision that this world is made, loved, that it is good, is ordered, and that we, made in God’s own image, have a task, a calling, a cultural mandate to open up and steward well God’s good creation. A robust, orthodox vision of creation and of our human calling as culture-makers is simply foundational for any faithful or sustainable Christian lifestyle. The lack of knowing this stuff is, in my opinion, one of the great weaknesses of contemporary Christianity (liberal, progressive, evangelical or Catholic.) I nearly shouted at the room – read Andy Crouch!

Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation Fred Bahnson & Norman Wirzba (IVP) $18.00 SALE PRICE = $12.60  If we live in a good creation that God so loves and our calling includes making something of it all, then surely tending the land itself and developing uniquely Christian views and coherent practices of growing food and eating is simply essential. I’m amazed how rarely we sell books from our “theology of food” section and how, most ordinary days, religious book buyers seem not to care about nurturing a faithful perspective on land, farming, food or feasting. This book is written by a Duke Divinity School professor and creation-care scholar and activist (Norman Wirzba) and a farmer (Fred Bahnson; we loved his memoir of visiting church-based garden projects called Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith.) This is, I said to the students, just one example of the implications of the sort of stuff that Andy was sharing. (I happen to know Andy loves Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Father Robert Farrar Capon and I admit that his chapter on onions is laden with as much good doctrine of creation as nearly anything since Gerard Manley Hopkins “dappled things” poem.) So, Making Peace with the Land is a fine introduction to creation and creation care but, truly, it is mostly about food and eating. You should read it. Enjoy!

Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey Sarah Shin (IVP) $17.00 SALE PRICE = $11.90  Ever since the days Beth and I worked with CCO in the 1970s, the organization was largely white, but eager to proclaim a multi-ethnic Kingdom vision as the Scriptures demand. We’ve talked a lot about racism within the organization and at the conference over the years and Jubilee is a beautiful example of how an organization and event can be intentional about amplifying the voices and perspective of people of color. Yet, as I explained up front, we sometimes view conversations about race (understandably) about the injustices of racism; that is, we seem to mostly talk about the sin and brokenness and ugliness of it all. By highlighting this book as a part of an evening exploring the doctrine of a good creation I wanted to frame our thinking about race and ethnicity by their essential goodness and validity. God made this world to be a world of color and diversity; our heritages, developed through the unfolding of history, though tainted by sin, are, indeed, a good thing.

So this fabulous book by Sarah Shin, without being glib about the great sorrows connected with racism, invites us to get beyond a Gnostic sort of dismissal of the facts of our ethnicities, and to honor who we are and our physical and cultural features as part of the good creation. The good creation which we are called to celebrate and steward well. I hope describing this book on Friday night helped; a number of people appreciated this, and I know they will find the book very, very useful. You too?

Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human John Mark Comer (Zondervan) $16.99  SALE PRICE = $11.89  For several years this has been a big seller at Jubilee and it captures well this teaching about the centrality of the cultural mandate, our call to exercise dominion by creatively opening up the goodness of God’s creation — by working and resting; this is what it means to be human. Comer is fun and easy to read, serious but playful, and due to the popularity and appropriateness of this book for our Jubilee event, he was asked to speak last year. His other books are all good – we sold out of his recent The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry – but this is a distinctively Jubilee-ish resource, a true must-read. What a joy.

The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love & Learning, Worship & Work Steven Garber (IVP) $20.00  SALE PRICE = $14.00  If you want to see a beautiful description of the Jubilee conference this year (with a lovely nod to our big book display) see Steve’s recent Facebook post where he honored us so. Steve directed the Pittsburgh Jubilee conference decades ago and in his Facebook column he noted that there is, still, simply no other event like it anywhere in the world. With that connection to Jubilee and his love of learning and his passion to gently help others see a coherent and integrated lifestyle of Christian discipleship, even in public matters, he embodies so much of what the CCO ministry is to be about. As I said when I first announced this before it came out in late December and as I explained when I named it one of the very best books of the year, the chapters are short but eloquent, the vision big and beautiful, and the insight nothing short of profound.

Describing this during my interview the first night at Jubilee was to be my big ending for the night, quickly shouting out that this was a Jubilee book if ever there was one, and that he deserves our attention, our support, our gratitude. The Seamless Life is a truly handsome little book with full color pictures, too, giving it a “report from the road” feel with Steve telling about his work and friends and projects in many different places around the world. Here, in short, accesible pieces, he fleshes out the perspectives found in his seminal Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior and the spectacular Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good. All three are on sale, here, now – 30% OFF. Each are profound, significant volumes.

WHAT I ANNOUNCED SATURDAY MORNING

The Louder Song: Listening for Hope in the Midst of Lament Aubrey Sampson (NavPress) $15.99 SALE PRICE = $11.19 Since the Saturday morning session at Jubilee was designed to explore the Biblical teaching of “the fall” – which is theological short-hand for the reality of sin and brokenness, of tragedy and sorrow, of idols and rebellion – I thought I’d start off with this exquisite story of significant loss and how the author grew closer to God by hearing the music beneath the sorrow, the music of God’s presence in suffering and, particularly, God’s response to our cries of protest and lament. This is a book of deep anguish and yet good hope, not because of any glib “God willed it” cliché but because of the sturdy (if not nearly known enough in many churches) Biblical practice of crying out in lament. Students, like everyone, everywhere, are hurting and all of us live East of Eden, so I thought this was a good suggestion. We’ve reviewed The Louder Song at BookNotes and we were glad to get to give it a hefty shout-out at Jubilee. Thanks, Aubrey Sampson, for using your considerable writing gifts to share this hard stuff with such prophetic imagination.

And Yet Undaunted: Embraced by the Goodness of God in the Chaos of Life Paula Rinehart & Conally Gilliam (NavPress) $15.99 SALE PRICE = $11.19 I almost announced this on Friday night as a great book to help explain the whole “creation-fall-redemption-restoration” story. These four themes are the four big units of this new book and I am so jazzed about it. (Although they use this precise language of these four high-points of the Biblical narrative, just like the four main-stage/plenary talks at Jubilee, they also put it this way (borrowing from CCO/Jubilee friend Mike Metzger of the Clapham Institute: What Ought to Be, What Is, What Can Be, What Will Be.) Oh my, this is a brilliant way to arrange a book of short readings of daily Christian living, shaping our discipleship by these suggestion-rich frames. We highlighted And Yet Undaunted here during the Saturday morning session because – as you can get from the title – it offers this big, hopeful, vision of God’s redemptive and restoring work to those who are hurting or confused. We may feel overwhelmed and that our lives are daunting, but we are, with this Jubilee vision of the Bible’s coherence, yet undaunted.  We named this as one of the Best Books of 2019 and I was thrilled to tell the Jubilee kids about it. Do you feel daunted? You need this lovely, conversational guidebook. On sale at 30% off, now, until March 7, 2020.

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism Jemar Tisby (Zondervan) $19.99 SALE PRICE = $13.99 I think this is one of the very best books for people to understand the complicity of the Christian religion in protecting slave holders and compromising the gospel for the sake of white supremacy. America is doubtlessly a great country, but this stuff has to be reckoned with. Our compromises must be acknowledged and this book was ideal to hold up as an example of how things go so very, very wrong because of our sin and idolatrous ideologies. In the Bible, sin is more than being naughty and the consequences of our unbelief and rebellion to God’s ways are often structural and systemic. This history book is a must read.

The rave recommendations continue to accumulate for this book, from various quarters, including Jubilee friend hip hop star Lecrae, the important Latisha Morrison, Calvin University’s Christina Edmundson, the always reliable Thabiti Anyabwile, and more. It just came out in paperback (although we have the hardbacks, too, on sale, if you’d rather. Those are usually $21.99; at 30% off they are $15.39, while supplies last.).

Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience Sheila Wise Rowe (IVP) $17.00 SALE PRICE = $11.90  I’ve written about this before, but thought you might want to know that this, too, is one we held up during Jubilee in the session designed to teach about sin, rebellion, alienation, and the grim facts of the human condition. We are glad that racism is more widely acknowledged than it maybe has been in our culture and in our churches; owning up to the hurt and complexities of racism means we have to understand some of what this book describes. Discussing everything from living with overt discrimination to routine micro-aggressions, from hosting fear and anxiety about things like police abuse or just the angst of being a minority in any majority culture group (even religious or church groups, by the way) Sheila Wise Rowe has given us all a great gift. To be offered a window into the lives of those who have been deeply hurt – she is not the only one who uses the phrase racial trauma – is so important in this damn fallen world. We who are white must “go there” if we want to really understand our friends and neighbors who suffer.

Interestingly, the book is upbeat at times, with good stories told in inspiring prose, even as it offers insights into trauma studies and provides coping mechanisms and healing options that move towards resilience. Unafraid to dwell in this hard space, Healing Racial Trauma is vital and highly recommended. Students at Jubilee were by turns baffled, intrigued, and very, very grateful. Glad to offer it to you here.

Intensional: Kingdom Ethnicity in a Divided World  D.A. Horton (NavPress) $15.99 SALE PRICE $11.19  Horton has a bunch of books and years of experience as a part Latino ministry leader; he’s a good voice to listen to. His own journey of learning to cope with his own mixed ethnic background and identity and also to address the (subtle and not so subtle) racism in our society is so very well told, I wished I had time to hang out more with this book on the main stage. I was hurrying and making the case that these books on race are but examples of the bigger teaching we were going to explore (with speaker and hip hop artist Jackie Hill Perry, author of Gay Girl, Good God) who expertly unpacked the primal narrative of “the fall” in Genesis 3.

Intensional is a lively and approachable book on racism written by a leader on multi-ethnic reconciliation. I noted how the title is a bit of a play on words – we are to be intentional about all this, even if we’d rather not, but it is spelled with that playful and important “s.” We are in tension, to be sure. This stuff ain’t easy. Filled with the love of God and guided by the Spirit or not, these conversations and this work can be tense. If you think otherwise I’d suspect that you haven’t gone very far into multi-ethnic friendships. We must be intentional and in-tension-al. Horton helps. On sale now at 30% off!

Better Together: How Women and Men Can Heal the Divide and Work Together to Transform the Future Danielle Strickland (Thomas Nelson Publishing) $18.99 SALE PRICE $13.29 I was so excited to highlight this brand spanking new book and I’m really eager to tell you about it here, now. I chose to highlight it Saturday morning, categorizing it under “the fall” since sexism and patriarchy – of the harsh, violent kind seen in rape culture or the subtle, softer kind found in many churches that marginalize women leaders — is, in fact, according to the Bible, an outgrowth of sin and sinful ideologies and attitudes. That the apostle Paul has to often remind us of “mutual submission” and that we men and women are one in Christ and that we should honor the women leaders he names is a reminder that in that Greco-Roman culture, women were demeaned and often casually abused and that the new community of Christ-followers were to have none of it.

(As Brian Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat explore in their powerful commentary Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire/Demanding Justice, domination is part and parcel of the Roman empire that much of the New Testament was written to counter. As an aside – they are speaking about the message of justice in Romans when they speak here about their book at the shop on March 24^th. Stay tuned.)

Had we had enough time I would have also held up the remarkable The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct by Ruth Everhart (IVP; $17.00) since that is a gritty study of pain caused by male church leaders and the sinful cover-ups.

The brand new Better Together seemed the right choice for Jubilee since it wasn’t just about sexual violence and #metoo abuse, but was more general about how our sinful assumptions about gender and leadership cause otherwise good men and woman to be ineffective and too often unfaithful in Kingdom mission. That kind of sexism is less dramatic, perhaps, but it is still sinful and stupid, and Diana delightfully calls us to own up to the problem and move towards a bigger, better vision. She did a main-stage talk at Jubilee a few years ago and it was spectacular (I’ve read a couple of her books including one called A Beautiful Mess: How God Re-Creates Our Lives and another using the book of Exodus as a guide for personal liberation and a British one about empowerment of Christian women. Oh yeah, and The Zombie Gospel: The Walking Dead and What It Means to Be Human.) She has worked in dramatic ways with the Salvation Army in Canada and is a spokesperson for Compassion International. Here Danielle brings her feisty, fun, evangelical feminist style to call us to work together and (as the subtitle says) “transform the future.” Jubilee favorite Bob Goff wrote the tremendous forward. This is a fantastic, new book and we highly recommend it. On sale for 30% off, remember, this week only.

I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People Lester Terence (IVP) $16.00 SALE PRICE = $11.20 With the rapid-fire shout out of the above books I made the case for Jubilee students on Saturday morning that there are many Christian books that look at the hard stuff of contemporary culture, that disarm the principalities and powers, that expose injustice, that give voice to those who are harmed by sin and idolatry. I knew that Jackie Hill Perry, as a solid, black, Reformed Bible scholar, would be very clear about personal sin and our individual need for repentance and return to God’s supremacy, but that she would also point us to the fact that our individual sinful dispositions yield a society in disarray. Our disordered loves lead to disordered cultures. And so, I highlighted books about racism and sexism. In this recent book, I See You, we back up to a very personal and very consequential sort of disposition: preferential blindness. That is, most of us are skilled – perhaps we are trained to be this way in school and by our entertainment – to block out the things that make us uncomfortable; indeed, the people that make us uncomfortable. The wonderful writer Lester Terence gives us a great gift with his new book about this, how it works and how God can help us overcome this tendency.

I See You might be a book that could be listed under “redemption” because it takes a God-given miracle to have the scales removed from our eyes and the hardness of our hearts softened. However it happens, the Bible calls us to this: to behold, to see, to know, to care. I See You is particularly about seeing (really seeing) the outcast and the hurting and how we rarely see (really see) the faces of those in need. I suppose this is mostly a book about poverty and about persons with financial insecurity, including the homeless.) Yes, it might take a miracle, but our self-centeredness, benign as it may seem, is sin, so I named it here by way of highlighting this good book. Can we repent of our attitude and posture towards otherwise “invisible” people? Can we be more hospitable to those who are on the margins, those who are outcast, lonely or alone? This book names our problem and offers great, great insights about how to be more loving. Who wouldn’t want a book that makes that promise? Who wouldn’t want a book that shows us the power of love? I See You by Terence Lester is on sale, now. Why not get some for your group to study?

Christian Worldview: A Student’s Guide Philip Ryken (Crossway) $11.99 SALE PRICE $8.39 Oh my, we had to switch gears up front during that book interview from describing books about the consequences of the fall into sin and our personal and social brokenness to remind students of resources that would be germane for the workshops they would be attending later that day. There too they would explore the implications of the “creation-fall-redemption” Biblical story, but applied to their major and their studies.

Much of the original vision for the conference and a part of it still today decades later is this outrageous idea that God cares about what some call our “academic faithfulness.” (CCO leader Vince Burens used the phrase in his welcome to the conference Friday night and I wondered how many students had heard that fabulous phrase or knew what it meant.) To think faithfully and in Biblical categories about the arts and sciences, about majors and classes and papers perhaps written (like Bach’s music) Soli Deo Gloria is part of the task of any Christian college student. Students are called to be faithful not just in the dorms and frat parties but in the classroom and library. (The very nice book King of the Campus by former CCO staffer Steve Lutz places the development of the Christian mind and the project of academic faithfulness in the broader context of honoring Christ as Lord over all of campus life. It’s really, really helpful; it is amazing to me how many publishers have released books for college students that don’t even mention their vocation as students!) CCO workers are not always able to broach this subject with as much depth as they’d wish with all their students – many young adults don’t even realize God likes them and couldn’t find the gospels in the Bible if they tried, let alone the minor prophets – so Jubilee is a time when this call to righteous academic rigor is held up as an ideal for students, integrating faith and learning, as we sometimes say. This is a strong suite of the Jubilee book table as we curate a display of titles in categories including Christian and normative perspectives on art, math, education, nursing, business, engineering, culinary science, psychology, law, politics, science, outdoor education, film making, fashion design, urban planning, sociology, special ed, economics, computer design, farming, sports, architecture, music, gender studies, history, environmental studies, marketing, and more.

But how does a 19 year old respond to some wild call to think Christianly and find a Biblical perspective on technology or art or biology or business when he or she has been taught – sometimes subtly, sometimes even overtly – that God doesn’t care about this world (you know, it all supposedly grows “strangely dim” in that “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” song)? How does a college student boldly develop what we call uniquely Christian scholarship when they’ve been told – sometimes subtly, sometimes even overtly – that in our society we’re supposed to keep religion to our private selves, that faith isn’t welcome in serious public discourse?  Yep, from both the church and the world, we’ve been told to disregard this very Raison d’être for the Jubilee conference.

No one book can undo the damage done by this double whammy — a privatized faith in a secularized culture — but this short little paperback could be a little stick of dynamite to blow up the dichotomies and dualism between sacred and secular, between faith and reason, between head and heart, between personal piety and public life.  I dared students to read it.

For some, by the way, the phrase “worldview” sounds too much like right-wing apologetics, as if it is merely an arguing tool to expose the deficiencies of other religions. Conversely, others think the concept of “worldview” is nearly postmodern with the tacit understanding that every idea is actually socially constructed, that pre-theoretical beliefs, such as they are, are most formative for any theory or fact. Neither assumption about worldview studies is fully fair, but both are somewhat true, I suppose. Being intentional about thinking about worldviews helps us understand other worldviews and what makes others tick, and it is, indeed, a move away from mere logic as determinative for how people see the world. (Pete Enns has a book called The Myth of Certainty which is actually pretty germane, here, but I didn’t mention it at Jubilee.)

The popular and respected James K.A. Smith has done great work on this, showing how our “social imaginaries” and stories (that is, our worldviews) are informed by our deepest loves, not firstly our ideas. Worldview studies are fascinating and generative – see, just for instance, Smith’s excellent Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview and Cultural Formation (Baker Academic; $24.99) or Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World by the novelist Mark Bertrand (Crossway; $22.99) or the big, definitive book by the great DBU philosophy professor Davey Naugle called Worldview: The History of a Concept (Eerdmans; $37.50) and, then, the provocative collection of deeper discussions called After Worldview edited by Matthew Bonzo (Dordt College Press; $13.00) for a deeper dive into the subject. Al Wolter’s Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Eerdmans; $15.00) is a classic in the field, cited by all of the above. Anybody who follows us carefully knows that we think The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview by Brian Walsh & Richard Middleton is the cream of the crop of these kinds of books (and it has a great couple of chapters at the end on how worldview funds the notion of communal Christian scholarship, a chapter every campus minister should read and re-read.)

The word, new to and rare in the English language in those years when the Jubilee conference began, (we then used the clunky phrase world-and-life view, a Dutchie rendering of the German weltanschauung) is, in a way, what got CCO going on the whole Jubilee vision thing. Before we came up with the idea of naming the conference Jubilee (from John Howard Yoder’s Politics of Jesus, by the way) we who were on the committee sometimes called it the “world and life conference.”

It simple wouldn’t be the Jubilee conference if I didn’t suggest to the crowd that they buy a book on the notion and nature of world and life views.  So Worldview: A Student’s Guide by Ryken it was.

This little book shows how the foundational notions of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation are not just keys to unlocking the unfolding, over-arching drama of the Bible narrative, but are world-and-life-viewpoint shaping. In Ryken’s little guidebook, students can learn to see this coherent vision of the nature of things as a pair of glasses. Through this lens we can increasingly see as God wants us to see. Faith is not just a compartment or as aspect of our lives, but the very heart of our seeing and making sense of the world around us. Worldview: A Students Guide is a gem of a little book, even if not nearly enough for a full exploration of this notion, so pregnant with meaning and loaded with implications. It’s a good start and I highly commend it to you for a quick but generative read. At 30% off, you can’t go wrong.

Your Minds Mission Greg Jao (IVP) $8.00 SALE PRICE $5.60  Oh my, how I wish we could give every person at Jubilee this handsome little staple-bound booklet. It is at once a worldview book, a book inviting us to use our minds well, a call to read widely, and a fabulous, upbeat, inspiring reminder that we can worship God as we think well about whatever we are studying. Our mind has a job to do, and we must learn to, as the Bible says, “take every thought captive.” Greg works with college students through IVCF and is a dear, dear brother in the Lord. He’s a friend of booksellers and a supporter of our work, so much so that he mentions Hearts & Minds in this little book. I sometimes forget that, and want to assure you that that isn’t why I push it everywhere I go. Although it is kinda cool that he so gets what we are trying to do here, what the Jubilee conference is about, and why reading, studying, learning, and becoming wise, more astute agents of social transformation is so very important. We are grateful for the things he cares so deeply about.

I know I circle back to this from time to time and some long time readers of BookNotes may tire of me asking you to consider this booklet. I wish somebody would buy a dozen for their youth group. I wish young adult groups would get it for their college-age folk. I wish pastors would master it so they know what the heck they should be calling their congregants to – thinking worldviewishly, multi-culturally, Biblically, for the sake of making a faithful difference in the world, across all zones of culture. What a rich vision is hinted at in this little volume! And what a critical piece of the puzzle it is.

I quickly told the Jubilee crowd that we can’t make a difference for God’s Kingdom in transforming the culture by good intentions or religious zeal alone. We have to think about this stuff, long and hard. Before anyone buys a book on Christian perspectives on nursing or pop culture or marketing or counseling or chemistry, they should read this little powerhouse on the role of thinking in an integrated and faithful manner. It is written for college students but I think many of our BookNotes readers will love it. On sale!

Learning for the Love of God: A Student’s Guide to Academic Faithfulness Derek Melleby & Donald Opitz (Brazos Press) $17.00 SALE PRICE = $11.90  Okay, I’ll be brief. I had to be brief in my one-stage interview last week as my allotted time was nearly up. I have touted (as I did at Jubilee) a little, easy to read book on worldview (Ryken’s) and a little easy to read book on the missional mind (by Greg Jao.) Both are jam-packed with implications but are necessarily brief. These are daunting subject and few folks take up our challenge to tackle worldview and the Christian mind as a topic of study as such. For those who do and want the “next step” or for those who think Worldview: A Student’s Guide or Your Minds Mission are too brief, then Learning for the Love of God is the next necessary step. I have raved about it before and I have held firm in my conviction that it is one of the few essential reads for any Christian college student. There are plenty of more rigorous texts but for undergrads, but start here.

Derek and Don are among my best friends and Beth and I are always delighted – truly – whenever we are in their presence. They care about young adults so can be light and whimsical but both are highly educated. (Derek has a Master’s degree from the Geneva college Higher Ed program and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon Conwell; Don has an advanced degree from Gordon Conwell and a PhD from Boston University, taken up under the tutelage of the sociologist Peter Berger. He is also ordained in the PC(USA) and serves as the chaplain at Messiah College near us here. Both of these gents are those rare breeds of super smart scholars who can be funny and gregarious and are always having a good time. Their whimsy and joy are on every page of this call to academic discipleship as they guide students to find greater meaning in their experience of higher education by honoring Christ in their classroom studies, in their homework and papers, in their life of learning across their collegiate experience. They translate heavy thinking – for those that care, they’ve read Dooyeweerd and Kuyper and Walsh & Middleton and Al Wolters and Nancy Pearcy; they cite Walt Brueggemann and Mark Noll and George Marsden (think of this as a youth version of his Oxford University Press book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship) and all sorts of interesting primary source stuff – into a guide for becoming critical thinkers, living worldviewishly, and using the categories of creation/fall/redemption as keys to understanding the learning that goes on in college. They even have a helpful “Student’s Creed” in the back and some learning liturgies included. The book is dedicated to me, which is one of the great privileges of my life.

I wish we could get more people to buy Learning for the Love of God for their college bound students. I wish every church with a college outreach used it. I wish every Jubilee student got it. Alas, we have some left in our post-Jubilee boxes, just for you to take advantage of so they are for this week going for 30% off. You know what? Even if you aren’t in college, I think you’ll understand Hearts & Minds better and see your own efforts of being a life-long learner more clearly if you pick up this exciting little book. I would be personally grateful if you ordered some. Shouldn’t we all want to be “learning for the love of God”?

WHAT I ANNOUNCED LATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON

(re)union: The Good News of Jesus for Seekers, Saints, and Sinners Bruxy Cavey (Herald Press) $16.99 SALE PRICE = $11.89  Bruxy is a pretty darn cool Brethren pastor from Canada, a kindred spirit to Shane Claiborne, maybe… a little less political, but all about being an incarnational community following the radical way of Jesus. I love this book in which he says one can summarize the gospel in one word: Jesus! But he means by that all that the Scriptures suggest – the saving work of the cross and the ethical necessity of following that same Savior into the world that so badly needs rescue. I love the clever writing, the high Christology, the strong ecclesiology, and non-conformist lifestyle (all traits of the Anabaptist heritage that Bruxy updates for our times.) This book is user-friendly in a helpful way because he doesn’t presume a devout reader – the subtitle is for real; it’s ideal for seekers. Beth and I like it a lot.

So, before the presentation late Saturday afternoon at Jubilee that would explain Christ’s atoning death and the spirit of adoption where God receives us as His children, into relationship with Himself and each other in a new family, I wanted to offer a book that was clear about the gospel but a bit different. Reunion explores that sense of adoption, that reconciliation, the happy re-uniting of lost ones with a heavenly Father. This is good news and it explains the Good News in ways that are personal and public, individual and communal, offering a nice glimpse of how the gospel re-union includes forgiveness and salvation and the joining of a missional movement empowered by the Spirit to allow us to follow Christ into the world. Bruxy gets it, and I am grateful for his work. A nice, fresh take.

Faith On the Edge: Daring to Follow Jesus Paul Tokunaga, Kevin Blue, Amy Brooke, Bobby Gross, and others (IVP) $20.00 SALE PRICE = $14.00  I give a hearty recommendation about this every year at Jubilee because it was first designed for new, youngish followers of Jesus who want short readings, nice reflection questions, and some guidance about many aspects of living well with Christ. The first few chapters are about knowing God, the next batch are about relationships – from parents to church members to neighbors, exploring new relationships with housemates and friends, the poor, the unchurched and more. The third part follows the trajectory from knowing God to serving those around us to rocking the world for Christ—there are chapters on global concerns, world missions, living out ones faith in the marketplace and more. Between the handful of chapters in each of these three sections, Faith on the Edge is one of the best little readers to introduce Christian views and beliefs and habits we know of. I’ve been impressed with this for years and it isn’t at all outdated. Wholistic, multi-faceted, solid, not daunting, written by a multi-ethnic team of women and men. I really recommend this.

In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character Jen Wilkin (Crossway) $12.99 SALE PRICE= $9.09  Before a message about re-uniting with God through His initiative to redeem and adopt us, I figured it would be useful to suggest a book about the attributes of God. Who is this God that loves us so? Bruxy Cavey’s Reunion makes the case that we are invited into relationship with Jesus and called to follow him, together, into the world. Faith on the Edge gives us insights, wisdom, teaching, and very practical guidance on how to do that. In His Image tells us two big things: who God is, based on Bible teaching about God’s character and ways, and teaches us how we are to image God by reflecting those characteristics. Some of God’s attributes, of course, we do not exactly reflect (we are not omnipresent or all powerful, after all.) But there are attributes of God we can be infused by and Ms. Wilkin explains all this with depth and charm and is exceptionally useful for those wanting to deepen their faith. I’d say it is very good for beginners, but really good for any who want to live into their discipleship with more Biblical depth.

Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life Tish Harrison Warren (IVP) $20.00 [the new hardback edition] SALE PRICE = $14.00 I’ve raved about this often and it was a special delight at Jubilee to have Tish and her daughter and new baby shopping in our Jubilee bookstore. (A few local Pittsburghers who were not at the conference came by to browse. Thanks to Jon & Kathy at WORD FM for helping with that.) Long before I knew Tish was showing up, though, we knew we’d feature this great book. I announced that Liturgy of the Ordinary is a perfect book for those wanting to accept their new status as redeemed and adopted children of God; with her great prose and vivid storytelling, Tish does two big things that not enough authors do: she reminds us that God is with us throughout the live-long day, even during seemingly mundane moments and certainly in hard moments. And, secondly, she does that by linking our Christian practices of being open to God’s presence to moments of worship. That is, she links liturgy to life; she explores how the formative practices of worship, liturgy and the practices of spiritual disciplines can equip us to be more faithful in the ordinary stuff of life. One of our favorite Jubilee speakers from the previous year and one of our all-time favorite books.  Lovely, thoughtful, wise and very well written… it is now only available in hardback, in part to celebrate its significance, but also to prevent Amazon from pirating it. Get it from us now on sale!

Do Something Beautiful: The Story of Everything and a Guide to Finding Your Place In It  R. York Moore (Moody Press) $13.99  SALE PRICE = $9.79  Oh man, what a handsome little book, with a striking cover and some full color design touches inside; it’s a fine-looking book. And, more importantly, it offers a beautiful vision and I highlighted it at Jubilee 2020 not only because York has been a staff trainer for CCO in the past and a keynote preacher at Jubilee (where he guided many into a new, saving relationship with Christ) but because this notion of doing something good and beautiful seemed such a fresh and good way to describe the response to the call to commitment that would be given in that hour. My friend Rev. Dean Weaver is a great communicator and solid preacher so I was glad he’d be presenting the truth of the redemption chapter of the Biblical story and I wanted to recommend a book that was clear about salvation and clear about the wholistic, good response we can make, heading into the world shaped in decisive ways by the Biblical story. York’s call in Do Something Beautiful for us to be agents of social change is wonderful, gracious, balanced, although it is delivered with urgency. (He is particularly passionate about fighting sexual trafficking and has done good, good work on that.) It is an honor to amplify his message and to highlight him as an evangelist who knows that salvation must bear fruit of justice and public righteousness and social change, colored by beauty. What a lovely, energizing book. Highly recommended

Made for These Times: A Start-Up Guide to Calling, Character, and Work That Matters Justin Zoradi (Zondervan) $16.99  SALE PRICE = $11.89        I like to tell the story that the first time I heard of this guy and his book, a CCO staff person had heard him speak somewhere and asked me about him. He sure sounded a lot like a Jubilee keynote speaker, she said, and did I know him? I did not. I picked up the book and on the first page it mentions – as it does a few other times – my best friend, Ken Heffner, then of Calvin College, in Grand Rapids. Ken and Gail are former CCO staff, Jubilee conference fans, and bear witness with every ounce of their being this very good news that God’s Kingdom is restoring all things in the creation, that we need to think Christianly about engaging the good and bad in everything from pop culture and music to ecological issues and public policy. Justin was mentored as he worked for Ken and was offered Heffner hospitality in GR, learning much about this whole-life sort of Kingdom discipleship. He went on to start a global non-profit, to deepen his passion about justice work and redemptive efforts in the nonprofit space as an award-winning social entrepreneur. Made for These Times passionately tells about his passion and honestly informs us how to move towards more intentional kinds of service in the world. My friend was right: Justin Zoradi would make a perfect Jubilee speaker! And his book is a great, inspiring read to become the kind of people who can (as Steve Garber might put it) live into visions of vocation for the sake of the common good. Yes, yes, yes! On sale at 30% off, now, this week only. Check it out!

Whatever You Do: Six Foundations for an Integrated Life edited by Luke Bobo (Made to Flourish) $7.99  SALE PRICE = $5.59 Made to Flourish is a classy church-based network founded by our friend Tom Nelson (who has spoken at Jubilee and the for-adults pre-conference called Jubilee Professional) teaching from his wise and useful book Work Matters. After diving into the work of pastoring in ways that equipped his congregants to be salt and light in their workaday jobs, he moved increasingly to equip other pastors with this vision, helping others to enhance their own missional footprint in the marketplace. This engagement with work and calling and vocation and business led him to think more about economics, and he wrote a lovely little primer to help churches move towards being agents of shalom for their needy neighborhoods (see his The Economics of Neighborly Love: Investing in Your Community’s Compassion and Capacity published by IVP; $18.00.)

Made to Flourish does amazingly good work and we were honored to be among the first booksellers to carry their own in-house materials such as this reader on wholistic integrated discipleship that gives an account of our call to serve God with our vocations. There are several great chapters by fabulous leaders in the faith/work movement in Whatever You Do, a compact and concise book about which I can’t say enough. Most of the contributing authors have spoken at Jubilee and Jubilee Pro over the years and I can affirm them without hesitation – authors such as Amy Sherman, Michael Goheen, Vincent Bacote, Greg Forster, Gary Black, and Tom Nelson. What a blessing to have Luke and his colleague Paige Wiley with us at Jubilee, and what a joy to tell you about these books that I suspect you may not know about.  Luke has written several other books which we stock, by the way, including Living Salty and Light-Filled Lives in the Workplace (Resource Publications; $16.00, but just $11.20 at our extra sale price), Race, Economics, and Apologetics: Is There a Connection? (Resource Publications; $9.99; on sale price = $6.99) and a nice and very helpful little guide to Bible reading called A Layperson’s Guide to Biblical Interpretation (also Resource Publications; regularly $22.00; on sale for $15.40.) We have them all here, and of course, have them at the special 30% post Jubilee discount.

Worked Up: Navigating Calling After College edited by Luke Bobo and Paige Wiley (Made to Flourish) $9.99 SALE PRICE = $6.99  This is a very cool- looking, thin but slightly oversized book that is so wonderfully designed with colorful graphics and print touches that I just want to tell everybody about it. There are pull quotes and sidebars — you really have to see it. Alas, it is a specialized market, but you should know about it. This is a workbooky sort of journal that asks very perceptive questions for the recent college graduate about discerning more about their calling and careers. We have bunches of books like this (drop me a note for a larger list including books like the energetic Your Vocational Credo by Deborah Koehn Loyd (my personal fav) or the more contemplative Consider Your Calling by Gordon T. Smith) but Worked Up offers two very important things: it includes space for writing in response to wise prompts and provocative questions and it is rooted in this all-of-life-redeemed, worldviewish vision that honors the high calling of a Biblical vision for work.  There are only a few faith-based vocational guidebooks and this is as solid on the framework for vocational discipleship and authentic flourishing than any tool I know. And it is honest, inviting some pondering about anxiety and discernment and such. It’s very nice for anyone, really, and ideal for those in transition, thinking afresh about their jobs, callings, work, and careers. Kudos to Made to Flourish for this fine, fine resource.

Serious Dreams: Bold Ideas for the Rest of Your Life edited by Byron Borger (Square Halo Books) $13.99 SALE PRICE = $9.79  Okay, can you blame me? This was my own contribution and I truly wouldn’t have announced it in our limited time up front at Jubilee if I didn’t earnestly belief it was great to this crowd.  I’m happy to remind you of it here, now. It’s a volume I edited, a collection of commencement speeches from Christian colleges that sounded a lot like big and motivational main-stage Jubilee-talks. Some chapters are literate and tender (I adore the one by Calvin College’s Claudia Beversluis quoting Wendell Berry poetry) and some offer Biblical explorations (my own reflections on being “sons and daughters of Issachar” for instance.)

This little volume is one I am really proud of and it seems like a perfect follow up to the Jubilee conference. Serious Dreams is designed for college grads, but we know that others have enjoyed its chapters – from authors like Richard Mouw, Amy Sherman, John Perkins, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Steve Garber and more. I did a long introductory chapter and our friend Erica Reitz Young (of Leaving College fame) did a short afterword. I think the discussion questions are pretty good, too. You could use this, you really could. And I’d autograph ‘em if you ask. How’s that?  Happy reading!

BookNotes

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We show the regular retail prices but will deduct 20% off when you place an order. You can use our secure order form page at another part of our website.  Scroll way down to safely use the link at the bottom of this column. May these recommendations stir you to make time during this upcoming season or Lent.

We love offering resources to help folks enter into the churches liturgical seasons. Whether you are a higher church Episcopalian or a free wheeling, hip mega-churcher or (like most of us) somewhere in between, all of us can appreciate the significance of being shaped less by the liturgical rites of passage like April 15th or the first day of school or the opening day of baseball season but by stuff that points us to Jesus. Advent and Lent, as least, help oriented our lives to a different sort of sense of the seasons and of the orientation of our life-times.

We love Bobby Gross’s lovely and thoughtful daily devotional called Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God: An Introduction and Devotional Guide (IVP; $18.00) that has a spectacular foreword by Lauren Winner that I read at least once a year. We have a host of other books on the church calendar, such as The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life by Sister Joan Chittister (Nelson; $15.99), Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year by Robert Webber (Baker; $20.00), or Sacred Days: Following Jesus Through the Christian Year byThomas Steagald (Upper Room Books; $16.99.)

For those that want to see how certain church year practices work out on our daily lives and why even non-liturgical church folk can take up this more catholic custom of “giving up something for Lent” we recommend The Good of Giving Up: Discovering the Freedom of Lent by Aaron Damiani (Moody Press; $12.99.) It is a very handsomely designed paperback that offers a good apologetic and some inspiration for trying out this practice.

We invite you to visit a few of our previous BookNotes columns HERE-2019 or HERE-2018 or HERE-2017 to learn about some long-time favorites that we routinely stock here during the season of Lent. (A few of the ones listed may not be available any more…) Great and perennial best sellers for us include the extraordinary anthology Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter by Plough Publishing ($24.00 ) or the great, great small sized The Art of Lent: A Painting a Day from Ash Wednesday to Easter by Sister Wendy Beckett (SPCK; $15.00) or the must-have classic God for Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter edited by Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe (Paraclete; $21.99.)

Now that we are in the Lectionary Cycle Year A we are glad to be able to sell Lent for Everyone: Matthew, Year A: A Daily Devotional by the always-interesting N.T. Wright (WJK; $16.99.) By the way, his Reflecting the Glory: Meditations for Living Christ’s Life in the World (Augsburg; $14.99) is pretty much a Lenten project, too, and is amazing! It includes a 7-week study guide. And don’t miss our remarks a year or so ago about the pocket-sized Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days by the amazing Trevor Hudson (Upper Room Books; $8.99) or the very useful 6-week study Forgiveness: A Lenten Study by Marjorie J. Thompson (Westminster John Knox; $13.00.)

I can’t wait until this time of year rolls around each year so I can remind you of one of my favorite books by a favorite memoirists, Sara Miles, who wrote a stunner of a book, a moving, feisty memoir structured around three Ash Wednesday services held on one day in 2012 (the main one celebrated and performed on the streets of San Fran.) It is called City of God: Faith in the Streets (Jericho Books; $15.99.) Our often-remembered, late friend Phyllis Tickle wrote of it:

Rarely, if ever, have I heard or read or experienced a more poignant or persuasive presentation of the city as metaphor and prototype for the Kingdom of God. Miles’s panorama is lived theology, and its result is a kind of holy magnificence.”                      — Phyllis Tickle, author, The Great Emergence

Of course, Sara’s good friend Nadia Bolz-Weber offered a great blurb, capturing much about City of God:

Gorgeously written, City of God takes Jesus from the walls of the church to the streets of the city, showing us that where two or more Anglicans or prostitutes or head-injured junkies or housewives are gathered, He is with us. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

SOME NEW RELEASE FOR LENT 2020

Lent 2020: Christ Is For Us: A Lenten Study Based on the Revised Common Lectionary April Yamasaki (Abingdon) $9.99   Every year we are glad to have this study in the “Scriptures for the Church Seasons” series which is designed for adult Sunday school classes or lectionary-based small groups. Unlike most Lenten devotionals which are designed for personal, daily use, this is a weekly Bible study to use in a class or group. Each of the seven lessons includes commentary and reflection on the readings for the week (the Old Testament, a Psalm, the Gospel, and the Epistle) and lots of discussion questions. There are some suggested activities or action steps. too, which is nice.

April Yamasaki is a pastor and author of books on spiritual growth. She has served as the pastor of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia. She has written several books, including Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for Personal Renewal and Four Gifts: Seeking Self-Care for Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength. The holds a Masters in Christian Studies from Regent College in Vancouver.

By the way, this had been released three years ago, so you might have that earlier edition.

Grace-Filled Wilderness: A Journey Through Lent Magdalen Smith (SPCK) $15.00 You may know that we import this British publisher through our good friends at IVP; many of the SPCK authors are rooted in the UK Anglican communion; Magdalen Smith, in fact, is not only an ordained priest but works in the office of helping future pastors discern their vocations and calls to the ministry. I have to admit I was first attracted to this book by the lovely cover and the allusive chapter headlines (which include provocative invitations to reflect on appetites and identity and calling and anxiety and pain and more.)  The title is pretty captivating, isn’t it?

As the publisher says, “The Grace Filled Wilderness connects contemporary encounters of wilderness with traditional themes of Lent and Jesus’s journey to the cross.” These six full week’s worth of readings help us move (if only gradually) from wilderness to grace to hope and the joy of Easter. This looks really, really good.

The Radical Reconciler: Lent in all of Scripture Chris Wright & John Stott (SPCK) $15.00  One of my favorite Advent books which we promoted here last December was Rejoice! Advent in All of Scriptures which, like this new one, coupled older classic pieces by the so reliable and helpful John Stott with newer words by Chris Wright. Wright is one of the preeminent Bible teachers today — you should read anything by him you can! — and he directs Stott’s ministry, The Langham Trust. This benevolent, wholistic, evangelical ministry gets all the proceeds from the sales of their books, too, so this is a wonderful choice.

It is a wonderful choice, further, because of the great gift it offers us in seeing the coherence of the Biblical story, bringing together so much “in all of Scripture” as the subtitle promises. How does the “mission accomplished” message in the pained cry “It is finished!” help us face with confidence our own struggles and pains. If evil powers are defeated, death is destroyed, sinners forgive and peace being made, how do we live in this “now and not yet” time when all of history has not seemingly been brought under Christ’s Kingship? If it is “mind-blowing but true” that “the whole of creation has been reconciled to God” then how, then, shall we live? And how can we understand the Scriptures unifying message in a way that helps us life faithfully in the face of the cross and resurrection?

Very highly recommended!

Lent in Plain Sight: A Devotion Through Ten Objects Jill J. Duffield (Westminster John Knox) $14.00  I love the idea of this — and what a great cover. Don’t you just want to spend some time with this next month?  And Ms Duffiled is a good writer (she has a couple of advanced seminary degrees, is ordained in the PC(USA) and is the fine editor of The Presbyterian Outlook.) I think this “ten objects” approach — which is sort of a thing these days in doing history writing — is really, really cool, and can be very illuminating.

Here is what the publisher tells us about it:

Uncovering the Love of Jesus: A Lent Devotional Asheritah Ciuciu (Moody Press) $12.99  I love it when evangelical publishers not known for much affinity with high church (let alone Roman) customs do good, surprising books like this, getting in on the practices of using Lenten devotionals and helping a broad readership take up this special season. This author was raised in the mission field of post-communist Romania and has seen a lot. And her passion for helping others understand the glorious love of Jesus is hard to miss. These forty devotions help us “reveal the love of Jesus poured out for us.” Each daily reading tends to look at some personal interaction of Jesus.

Chapter titles are plain and clear with headings like “Jesus Invites Us Close” and “Jesus Drives Out Fear” and “Jesus Offers Second Chances” and “Jesus Weeps” or “Jesus Loves His Enemies.” This really is what Lent is about, inviting us to enter directly into the narrative of Jesus’s life and times, his sacrifices and his service, helping us identify with him in his very death and resurrection.

By the way, this is a very handsome hardback with glossy paper and purple ink and some really nice touches. There are a few opening pieces about giving us something sacrificially during this time and it even, then, includes some optional family activities to help you “celebrate Jesus together.”  It is a beautiful companion volume to Asheritah Ciuciu’s Advent one called Unwrapping the Names of Jesus. Kudos!

The Way of Benedict: Eight Blessings for Lent Laurentia Johns OSB (SPCK) $14.00 Many of us have heard of the sixth-century Rule of St. Benedict and a few of us have even dabbled in thinking about a rule of life (see, for a really cool and very contemporary sort of spin-off, The Common Rule by Justin Early (IVP: $16.00) who will be with us in Pittsburgh at Jubilee 2020 in a few weeks.) inspired by Saint B and his monastic guidance for prayer and work, community and hospitality. But, to be honest, I suspect most could use a nice, accessible guide to what this rule says, in light of Scripture, that could be applied to Lent.

Sister Johns does just this with lots of quotes and insights about the Rule of Benedict. She guides us to the RB (as it is called) and invites us a more intentional sort of living with two very curious and I am guessing solid and reliable insights about where these habits might take us: first, in the prayerful Benedictine sort of spirituality, the whole of life has a certain Lenten character, so this isn’t an unusual or odd sort of season disconnected with our daily discipleship. And, this focus leads to freedom and joy, even as we long more diligently for the resurrection. This is a great little Lenten read and each chapter has ideas for reflection and action.

Living Into Lent  Donald K. McKim (Westminister John Knox) $14.00  This brand new release is a nice little volume, ideal for Presbyterians, especially. Dr. McKim was a beloved PC(USA) seminary professor, theologian, educator, and denominational leader in our big-tent Reformed communion and is the author of bunches of books, both big and smaller. (He’s known as a Calvin scholar, too, and just recently released Everyday Prayer With John Calvin [P&R publishers; $15.99.]) His is a 1971 graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and we have some mutual influences and friends; he’s a major thinker but has served as a small-town pastor, too, so knows how to communicate major themes in delightfully clear-headed ways. I think those who aren’t Presbyterian might like it, too, as it is so faithful and encouraging.

Here is how the publisher describes the tone:

The Lenten journey is a shared journey—Christians join with others along the way of faith, following Jesus and seeking to live out the will and purpose of God. Living into Lent, written by noted theologian, educator, and author Donald K. McKim, sets aside time during the Lenten season for readers to reflect on their Christian identities, listen to God’s Word and will, and engage in practices that deepen the Christian experience through discipleship.

Whether used for congregational study or personal reflection, each reading features Scripture, devotion, a theological quote, response, and prayer. Th theological quotes, drawn from the history of the Reformed church, will help readers better understand God’s Word and its implications for the Lenten journey. Readings are enhanced by a seven-session study guide and questions for conversation.

For the Beauty of the Earth: Lenten Devotional Leah D. Schade (Chalice Press) $5.99       I was hoping (as was a UCC pastor friend we talked to recently) for a Lenten book exactly like this, and we are so glad the Disciples of Christ affiliated Chalice Press offered brand new resource this year. It is a brief sort of daily guide, inviting us to the joy of recognizing the beauty of the Earth and to reflect on our call to care for creation. It draws on the lovely old hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth” and each week focuses on a different aspect of nature’s splendor. And its abuse and the needed outrage and commitment to be faithful in response.

This inexpensive study does call us to a renewed and reformed practice during Lent, reminding us and calling us to revive our commitment more ecologically wise lifestyles and to push towards making systemic changes. And, yes, then, to rejoice on Easter for the incredible saving gift God has given us in Christ, for the world God so loves.

I got to preach once at an Easter Sunrise service at the local Izaak Walton League and spoke about the creation groaning as described in Romans 8 and the completion of God’s plan to heal the planet accomplished on the cross and mighty resurrection. This nice devotional by a professor of homiletics — Leah Schade is a Lutheran who wrote Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology and the Pulpit — would have been helpful.

The short prayers at the end of each reading will seem for some, a bit unusual and the calls to action are sometimes rather serious. Which makes this a really good tool for anyone want to be more deeply committed to reflect about God’s care for all creation and its suffering during this season of the cross…

Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing Gayle Boss, illustrated by David G. Klein (Paraclete Press) $19.99 We so hope you recall our rave reviews in years past about this author/illustrator team’s wonderful All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings. That lovely book of artful woodcut illustrations of animals who hibernate evoked allusive reflection on winter and waiting and was ideal for Advent, wonderful for those who like nature writing and great for those whose Advent imaginations could see the metaphor and make the connections.

Well, this sequel and companion volume is very similar — with great, great writing, fantastic artwork (again, engravings or woodcuts) and a book laden with goodness and grace. The most obvious theme of this powerful — environmental activist and literature prof Bill McKibben calls it “overpowering” — Lenten book is the beauty and sorrow of endangered species.

As spiritual writer Christine Valters Paintner (founder of Abbey of the Arts) says:

Full of power and poignancy, love, and lament. Gayle Boss invites her readers to groan together with all creation in grief at the profound loss of species Lament is a cry of truth-telling, and in her portraits of these exquisite creatures, we hear the necessary and devasting truth of what we are losing.

Carl Safina, ecologist, NYT bestselling author of Beyond Words and Becoming Wild; MacArthur Fellow and founder of The Safina Center, writes:

Wild Hope is the only book whose table of contents alone gave me chills. Here’s the deal: the living world, life on planet Earth, is sacred. Author Gayle Boss yearns to show us that we live in a miracle. And she succeeds in showing us that we are not alone on this holy planet. This is a beautifully elegant, deeply excellent book, pursued by grace on every page, in every stunning illustration.

And listen to this endorsement from a first-class poet and Christian writer:

At first I wondered how a connection could be made between the Christian season of Lent and the human ravaging of Earth’s creatures in the wild. But Gayle Boss’s detailed, vivid accounts of an ark-full of wild lives in danger, as our climate changes, convinced and challenged me. In the stories, and with powerful woodcut images, the beauty of living wild beings is revealed to readers as designed and beloved of the Creator.  –Luci Shaw, author, The Thumbprint in the Clay and Eye of the Beholder, Writer in Residence, Regent College

Saying Yes to Life: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2020 Ruth Valerio (SPCK) $15.00  For years, now, we have happily stocked the famous Archbishop of Canterbury’s choice for their Church of England “all church” read. We’re not Anglican, but appreciate their effort to raise up theological and spiritual themes for the church that always have some implication for our public discipleship. These books are not for navel-gazing or only deepening personal piety during Lent, but to help us mature in our understanding and live well in a very needy world. Saying Yes to Life is surely one of those kinds of books. In fact, it is co-published and will profit Tearfund, a respected British relief and development agency. Thanks be to God.

Saying Yes captivated me right away — the embossed, raised printing on the cover gives it a delightful tactile feel that seems not just artful but somehow weighty. I wanted to take this book seriously, despite the cheery colors of the cover. And this is about right — it is lively and light even when it is grave and prophetic. It majors in teaching that we are made in the very image of God so are entrusted to share in God’s “joy and ingenuity in making a difference for good.” Nice and laden with implications, eh?

The book starts with Genesis 1 and explores the days of creation as Ruth Valerio imaginatively relates themes of light, water, land, the seasons, other creatures, humankind, and (of course) Sabbath rest. Her Lenten vision of eventual resurrection hope is allusively connected somehow to the very rest of the original garden. In that, it reminded me of the heavy, important book (which I named a “Best Book of 2019”) which explores this directly: God’s Sabbath With Creation by James W. Skillen.

Saying Yes to Life, like any contemporary theological or spiritual work should, offers God’s hope to matters of environmental, ethical, and contemporary social concerns. How could it not?

Ms. Valerio suggests (and this is good!) that “foundation to Saying Yes to Life is what it means to be human, and, in particular, to be a follower of Jesus.” Remember that line from the church Father who said the glory of God is seen in the person fully alive?

But, again, she organizes this creative set of chapters around the days of creation, so humankind must be seen in our glorious relationship to other creatures. Valerio is herself an environmentalist and works for the aforementioned Tearfund and in the acknowledgements thanks many women and men, a few who we’ve had the pleasure of knowing — Ed Brown, Elaine Storkey, Rusty Pritchard, and others. This is a lively, creative, solid, and wonderfully imagined call to prayer and transformation. Each chapter has voices and prayers from around the globe and offers ideas for contemplation and action (although it is not a daily devotional in format.) Saying Yes to Life is really good not just for individuals, but for classes or book clubs or small groups to think and reflect together. Wow.

Prizing His Passion: Why the Death of Jesus Christ Should Matter to You…a Forty-Six Day Journey John S. Oldfield (Resource Publications) $26.00  I wish this weren’t so pricey as I’d love to be able to promote this widely. I want to assure you that this is a rich and thoughtful, even a bit deeper, study, and would reward you with mature insight, even over multiple readings. At over 200 pages, it is a treausre.

John is an old friend who welcomed Beth and I to York when we moved to the area so many decades ago. I was involved in the anti-nuke movement, doing some protests and social justice organizing, and starting our ecumenical bookstore so to have this dear nearly fundamentalist brother invite me into his non-denominational, urban church was a bit refreshing and a real delight. He, I discovered, had studied at Denver Seminary under the legendary Christian gentleman and scholar, Vernon Grounds (who I had met and admired, also because I knew he had served Ron Sider well in helping start up Evangelicals for Social Action.) Before coming to York, John had served in global ministry (I think in Turkey and perhaps what they used to call Persia) and he maintains friendship with folks all over the world. One can’t be with him for more than a few moments without realize his heart for others, his desire to meaningful share the gospel, his passion for outreach and care. For years in York John continued to do old-school urban ministry, pastored a needy flock, did evangelism, radio ministry, thoughtful apologetics; he ran a friendly coffee house offering Christian music (before it became somewhat of a big-time industry; he’d have Phil Keaggy or John Michael Talbot doing acoustic sets and talking about Jesus to all sorts of seekers and skeptics.) John later joined the staff of the large First Assembly of God here in York and eventually moved away. His beloved wife of many years, Dagmar, died recently, and while in town we had opportunity to get caught up a bit. I say all this to put into context my encouragement for you to consider this no-nonsense, seriously Biblical, Christ-centered, gospel-focused, exploration of the passion and suffering and death of Jesus.

In John’s delightful, pointed way, he tells why he writes and his hope that it offers comfort and perhaps salvation to readers, as he points us all to Jesus,

Approaching the relevant biblical truths from multiple angles, it will provide you with a deeper understanding of what He experienced and said during the hours that culminated in His death on a first-century Roman cross. It will reveal the reality and relevance of it all for you as you struggle to find your spiritual footing here in the twenty-first century. Godspeed as you travel the road to Golgotha, to Calvary!

One of the most significant missionary leaders of our lifetime, I would say, is Greg Livingstone, the founder of Frontiers, that pioneered contextualized ministry among unreached people groups and seeking Muslims. Of course, John is friends with him, too.

Greg Livingstone writes of Prizing His Passion:

Every once in a while, we discover a treasure from a little-known pastor-writer-friend who offers us a penetrating thought-provoker. Prizing His Passion is an unhurried, meditative journey that causes us to look into the Father’s face and say, ‘Thank You!’ in true, overflowing gratitude. I found dwelling on its pages provoked a fresh outpouring of affection and appreciation to our Lord for His sacrifice, one I hadn’t experienced for far too long.

It is a joy for me to get to tell you about this Lenten book by an older brother in Christ, still running the race and publishing resources that can change people’s lives. Amen!

Lead Us Not into Temptation: A Daily Study in Loyalty for Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday Martin Shannon, CJ (Paraclete Press) $14.99 This brand new book may appeal to any of us that want to ponder the brokennes of the world, the temptations that afflict us, the real-world questions of fidelity and betrayal and sin. In our gut we know that this is part of the Biblical story, part of our own story, and stuff about which we should be honest about (in our lives and in our culture.)

As I skimmed the table of contents to see how this Episcopal priest (who is a liturgist and spiritual director and part of the Community of Jesus on Cape Cod, MA) handled all this, I was drawn in. It explores “examples of the problem” from the Bible, and moves from a week on the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden, which he notes is “The Curse” to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness which he calls “The Cure.”  He draws considerably on Bonhoeffer’s famous Creation and Fall and offers summary lines at the end of each days reflection. This is good stuff, succinct and nicely offered. I hope you like the work of Paraclete Press as much as we do!

“I will be using Lead Us Not Into Temptation for Lent, not only because it is filled with wisdom on a topic not often contemplated, but because the format–short but weighty daily entries, spiked with insights from Bonhoeffer–is ideal for the introspection which the season invites. As Martin rightly says, temptation not only can turn us, but it can teach us so that we come to Eastertide more spiritually healthy than we were on Ash Wednesday.” — Rev. Canon Dr. Dennis Okholm, Professor of Theology, Azusa Pacific University; author of Monk Habits for Everyday People

Remember Me: A Novella About Finding Our Way to the Cross Sharon Garlough Brown (IVP) $20.00  Oh my, how I want to tell you so much about this. But I cannot, as I dare not spoil surprises or insights… we can explain the basic nature of this remarkable, lovely, profound little novel, but you simply have to read it for yourself.

Because this is long, be sure to scroll down and read the whole thing. If your email or device crimps it, you may have to click “read more” to see it all, ending with the sale reminder (20% off) and order form link at the very bottom.

Earlier in the week I wrote, to begin PART ONE of this big list of favorite reads of 2019, “Between stupid Winter illnesses and out-of-store events and brand new or forthcoming books to read, our annual custom of announcing Hearts & Minds Best Books of the Year as been late in coming.”

That’s putting it mildly. Don’t ask what tied me up this week, but, for the record, this is slow, hard work, creating a list like this. I fret about What You Will Think and since our living depends on you sending us orders, I’m always tempted to pull my punches, as they say. I don’t even know what it means to literally pull a punch, and I can’t use the less violent metaphor of not showing my hand, because, well, friends, that’s exactly what I’m doing here, showing my hand, or at least some of the books I held in my hands this year. Few punches pulled, most of my cards on the table.

Here is PART TWO of the Hearts & Minds list of my favorite books, or books I felt I should honor, good titles or decent authors who contributed to making 2019 a good one for us and for book buyers and readers of all sorts. Thanks for caring about our work at Hearts & Minds and honoring us by reading this long, long epistle. Spread the word and send us some orders, please. Just use the link to the order form page at the end of the column. Happy reading!

Reminder: we show the regular retail price but will deduct our 20% OFF BookNotes discount when you place an order. Our order form page (see the bottom of the column) is certified secure.

A VITAL AND CONTEMPORARY STUDY OF SAINT AUGUSTINE – AND ONE OF THE VERY BEST BOOKS OF 2019

On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts James K.A. Smith (Brazos Press) $24.99 I will not belabor this, but refer you to my rave review which I wrote before the book came out in October. We pushed it at BookNotes as a pre-order and it became one of the top sellers for Hearts & Minds this year. And we are glad about that.

I suppose you know that I have often said Smith’s You Are What You Love was the Book of the Decade, which I announced several years ago. That book is a delightful, accessible, transformational book which in some ways summarizes the more substantial trilogy of volumes in what is called his “Cultural Liturgy” project. Those three are, in order, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works, and Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology. That Jamie was working on an introduction to the deep Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor (How (Not) To Be Secular) and editing Comment magazine during the writing of those three big ones, and the summarizing You Are What You Love is remarkable. Oh and don’t forge — in those same years he released and we have promoted a lovely collection of shorter essays called Discipleship in the Present Tense: Reflections on Faith and Culture which gives further insight into where this remarkable college professor is coming from and where his “all of life redeemed”-neo-Kuyperian-worldview stuff is going.

Yes, yes, you should read all of these volumes – some of the most generative (and in some of our circles) the most discussed books of recent years. It is a bit surprising that he has become such a widely admire author and presenter, but it’s true. You really should know his stuff.

Jamie was a kid of a working class family who married young and was vibrantly Pentecostal. He eventually studied Dutch neo-Calvinism (and the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd) at Toronto’s Institute for Christian Studies where he worked with scholars such as James Olthius, Al Wolters, Henk Hart, Calvin Seerveld, Brian Walsh, and others who have been important in my own life. And now he says what Wolters (and James Skillen, mentioned above) have all said: the all of life redeemed and “every square inch of creation” regained theological perspective of relevant Reformation teaching goes back to Augustine, the African bishop from the 3^rd century. This On the Road with Augustine is a book bringing Saint Gus into the post-modern era that Smith was born to write. It brings together so much of what he’s worked on in a marvelously readable manner. It is doubtlessly one of the most important books of 2019 and certainly one of my favorites.

You can read many reviews of it on various on-line sites and see several good videos of the author describing it; you can see how I enticed people to order it in my own BookNotes remarks about it, HERE. But just know this: Augustine, like many in the late 20^th century (most notably, Jack Kerouac, author the iconic ‘60s road trip book On the Road) thought that moving on would be the way to construe one’s new identity; to find oneself as we used to say. This is actually troubling in many ways (see Mark Sayer’s under-appreciated little book called The Road Trip That Changed the World: The Unlikely Theory That Will Change How You View Culture, the Church, And, Most Importantly, Yourself) and it is important to understand. Believe it or not, Smith is helping us understand this ethos by comparing it to Saint Augustine’s own travelogue and memoir about finding himself, published in serialized form between 397 and into 400 AD

Augustine, before his famous conversion, found himself in that same space—no-place but moving on, heading to various cities and jobs and hopes and dreams in Italy. He becomes, in Smith’s amazing prose and incredibly insightful observations and analysis, a hip 21^st century social entrepreneur, an artist, a world-changer and culture maker, all the stuff so many energetic young adults today are yearning to become. But yet, can we truly find and sustain a lasting identity in these grandiose schemes? Will we always be restless tying this and that? Will we ever learn to live well, be wise, grow up?

I cried for myself as an old guy, and for my grown kids, and for my friend’s adult kids, and for Jamie’s kids as he wrote with such empathy about what it is like coming of age in this secular age, in these confusing times. And I rejoiced in how he used the life and teaching of this memorable church leader from centuries ago to illuminate our calling to be in friendship, to relate to mothers and fathers, to find work, to learn to protest, to be an intentional character in our own (God’s?) story. He has a chapter on freedom, a chapter on ambition, a chapter on sex. My, my, how he turns this “refugee spirituality” of Augustine into a contemporary guide on the quest to find (truly) yourself.

“Everybody’s got a restless heart,” Springsteen sings. Baby, we’re Born to Run. Jamie gets this. Saint Augustine gets this. And the God of the church Augustine helped to form is the One who call us home, to stop our striving, to be at rest.

To help us figure it out, this tension between our longing and love for escape and our need and desire to be at rest, Smith and his beloved wife head off on a journey following some of the footsteps of Augustine. They go on the road, literally, with Saint Augustine, so to speak, so they can report back and help us along our (restless) way. Much of this was written literally in places like Milan and Rome. He tells of Augustine’s best friends and much about his mother, Monica. (Smith’s vulnerable telling of his own sense of fatherlessness is remarkable in a chapter about Augustine’s absent father.)

There are some fabulously (and surprising) full color-art plates included, pictures of architecture and paintings and renderings they saw on their trip which become important to the story. What a multi-faceted, learned scholar Smith is, and what a helpful travel companion. What a philosopher he is, but what a friend. This book, like many of his others, is filled with stories of history and philosophy and theology and culture, but it is down to Earth and (as far as a philosopher writing about Camus and Cicero and Augustine and Sartre can be, explaining stuff about existentialism and modernist ennui and how those thinkers have been influential in the air we breath, whether we know it or not.)

On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real World Spirituality for Restless Hearts is accessible for most educated readers. Many good friends loved it and have encouraged me to tell others how great it is. I highly, highly recommend it. It is one of the very top books of 2019.

A GREAT REMINDER OF THE GOODNESS OF CREATION (AND THE GOODNESS OF GOD)

The Soul of Wine: Savoring the Goodness of God Gisela H. Kreglinger (IVP) $16.00  I’m not sure when I first read the poem “As Once The Winged Energy Of Delight” by Rainier Maria Rilke but I recall having it commended to us for meditation at, of all things, a Faith & Work conference at Redeemer PCA Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. I needn’t rehearse it here but it came to mind as I was reading the truly lovely little book by wine-maker theologian, Gisela Kreglinger. Rilke writes about wonder and awe, and although I doubt this is what he was thinking when inviting us to this poem, I remember the line “To work with Things in the indescribable relationship is not too hard for us” and a bit about how “the pattern grows more intricate and subtle.”  Upon looking it up, I was astonished by the line that says to “Take your practiced powers and stretch them out” and thought that this is exactly what this book gives us an opportunity to watch, a craftsperson (a winemaker, in this case) taking her practiced powers, watching the patterns in intricate and subtle ways as she “works with Things” before God.

Okay, maybe I’m stretching. But the Bible teaches a sturdy and robust doctrine of creation — see some of the recent essays in the wonderful Creation and Doxology: The Beginning and End of God’s Good World edited by Todd Wilson (IVP Academic; $25.00) or Everyday Glory: The Revelation of God in All of Reality by Gerald McDermott (Baker Academic; $22.99) or the small but potent Theology of the Ordinary by Julie Canlis (Godspeed Press; $12.99) so working with the stuff of creation (indeed, allowing it to speak to us a la Psalm 19:1-4 or Job 12:8) is exactly what being human is all about. We are made in the image of a creator God and God places Adam and Eve in the garden. It is our culture-making vocation and task (to use Andy Crouch’s phrase from his book Culture Making) to make something of the raw stuff of creation. We “exercise dominion” by stewarding well the potential and possibilities of the wonderful stuff God has graciously put into the creation. We are to cultivate — eggs into omelettes, so to speak, and make something for the common good. It is the theological accounting for art and science, families and schools, businesses and governments, parties and rituals, policies and programs. And wine.

Ms Kreglinger gave a lovely account of her life as a girl growing up in a Lutheran home and vineyard, working in the winery, and realizing that God cared about it all especially when she realized that her own families grapes were used in the parish communion wine. Her discussion of a theology of wine and winemaking was solid and thorough in the much-acclaimed The Spirituality of Wine (Eerdmans; $24.00) I told folks about it gladly, as it was one of the one such books we knew about. When I heard this was coming out I wondered what else she could possibly say, and why we needed another book on a Christian view of wine.

And oh my, how glad I am for The Soul of Wine which helps us not just understand her theology and approach to wine (it’s lavish glory, its use, its abuse and more) as explained in that first big book, but this invites us to truly experience wine’s blessedness. And to explore precisely what the subtitle says — by savoring the goodness of creation and come to know something about the goodness of God. As singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken says on the back cover of it, The Soul of Wine “invites us to experience the abundance of God.”

I cannot here tell you all that this little book explores, but it is more than just a guide to the fermented fruit of the vine, although it does delightfully explain a lot that I enjoyed reading about. (And, by the way, a few important wine importers, a trained sommelier, and the author of the respected Wine Bible have all weighed in on this very informative resource. It even has a book discussion guide and a wine tasting guide making it ideal for small groups wanting to learn a bit about the nuances of this world-famous, ancient, complex beverage.) But there is more going on. She calls us to “convivial celebrations” and to learn about joy. She even has a small bit about sex, which, again, is pointing us in the direction of being attentive to the glory of our creaturliness, and the goodness of how God made the world to work. Her chapter called “making peace with wine and food” is wise and good.

Leave it to Andy Crouch to help us appreciate why this book deserves to be on our list of notable titles this season. Listen to what Andy writes:

I read The Soul of Wine with increasing delight and ever deeper emotion. This book offers wisdom not just about wine, but about our souls as well―about the joy, grief, and beauty that shape all of our stories, and that are so intertwined with the making of wine. It will help me drink more slowly and more meaningfully not just from my next glass of wine, but from life itself.

Isn’t that a beautiful comment about a book? Yes and Amen.

I like this observation, too, well-spoken by Kendall Vanderslice, who wrote the fabulous We Will Feast: Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God, who says:

 Kreglinger dispels the myth that wine appreciation requires a distinguished palate or an elite vocabulary. Rather she presents wine as a simple gift from God that, when stewarded well, offers a glimpse of creation as it is meant to be.

TWO GREAT BOOKS EXPLORING OUR SENSE OF PLACE AND BELONGING

Finding Holy in the Suburbs: Living Faithfully in the Land of Too Much Ashley Hales (IVP) $16.00  I almost listed this in the last post in our category of spiritual formation; Holy in the Suburbs is, indeed, about the shape of our faith, the call to holiness, the formation of our discipleship. I could have gone there.

Alas, despite the part of the subtitle about “living faithfully” I think one of the great contributions of this book to said faithfulness is found in the insights this author has about the concrete details of our built environment and the habits and customs (and values and dispositions) that flow from them. I raved about the deep and profound literary study (in our last BookNotes) called The Absent Hand which offers a detailed rumination on landscapes – natural and human-built – that is full of gravitas and philosophy. Hales isn’t a literary critic or professional analyst; she strikes me more as a soccer mom. That is, she is fairly ordinary, a smart suburbanite who is astute enough to realize that studying the mores of one’s place and the habitats thereof really is an important prophetic task. To “understand the times and know what God’s people should do” (from 1 Chronicles 12:32) isn’t just a call to a big-picture sense of the zeitgeist, but, also, a study of the daily details beneath our feet.

I nearly raved about this book when it first came out and I suggested to many, and here at BookNotes, that it was the best Christian study yet of the phenomenon of suburbia. Plus, it is gloriously written, making it a wonderful read. It was one of my favorite books of 2019 and, I believe, one of the most under appreciated. So many church folks could benefit from this deeper (and eloquent) dive into learning the deeper things that arise (spiritually and theologically) as we discern the times and places of our homes and cul-de-sacs and Pinterest-documented days of commutes and shopping and entertaining. I was going to say cue Joni Mitchell’s album The Hissing of Summer Lawns but Finding Holy in the Suburbs is not at all cynical. No matter where you live, think you will enjoy it and appreciate it.

Here is the Table of Contents as Ms Hales takes us into “A Story to Find Home in the Geography of Nowhere.” Some chapter titles are nicely allusive, but it gives you a nice glimpse into what will await you or your group if you take this one up. There are discussions questions, too, so it’s perfect for a book club or Sunday school class or book club.

• Worshiping Granite Countertops: Consumerism
• When Your Worth Is Measured in Square Footage: Individualism
• Circling the Suburbs in My Minivan: Busyness
• Beyond the Gated Community: Safety
• Where the Sidewalk Ends: Repentance
• You’re Not a Barbie, You Belong: Belovedness
• This Isn’t Pinterest-Worthy Entertaining: Hospitality
• Open Hearts and Open Hands: Generosity
• The Opportunity of Cul-de-sacs: Vulnerability
• Paper Birds and Human Flourishing: Shalom

Not from Around Here: What Unites Us, What Divides Us, and How We Can Move Forward Brandon J. O’Brien (Moody Publishers) $13.99 I can’t say enough about this little book and am excited to once again remind you of it and to honor it was one of the very good books of this past year. I think any time Brandon O’Brien does a book, it is worthy of celebration as he is a really fine writer and wise practitioner of church leadership. (He is working with Tim Keller in New York City now, even though he has served small churches and wrote the quite useful Strategically Small Church.) He co-authored the spectacular Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible and, in another curious bit of expertise, wrote in 2018 Demanding Liberty: An Untold Story of American Religious Freedom which is a very impressive study of a colonial era, Connecticut pastor and leader, Isaac Backus, who wrote and contended for freedom of conscience and religious liberty in a culture that seemed to be heading either towards theocracy or secularism. Backus had a “third way” and it is clear that O’Brien gets the significance of this older wisdom.

Not from Around Here is a fun, easy-to-digest book that seems to combine these various interests of O’Brien: it is about the increasing divide in our polarized times between urban and rural worldviews. Yes, he is convinced that what another author calls “the big sort” is a real thing – we are dividing ourselves in part by our sensibilities and inclinations that are shaped by our tending to be small town or big city. (Ahhh, and what does me make of the aforementioned suburbs? You’ll have to read Not From Around Here yourself to see that bit.)

O’Brien grew up in rural Arkansas and has worked in small town churches, served in the quintessential suburbs of Chicago, and, as I noted, and he now is working in the global City-to-City urban church planting organization. And he has written about public civility, pluralism, tribalism and the blind spots of race and culture (in the misreading the Bible book), public life and citizenship (in the Backus book.) I don’t know if any other reviewers have noted this, but this new book really is bringing together much of his expertise. He’s a scholar of these things, but in this book, he is offering helpful cultural discernment and practical guidance for faithful “salt of the Earth” discipleship. If we are to be leaven in the loaf, we have to know something about how the loaf works and what kind of yeasty influence we can be. He helps us understand a major (and not adequately recognized) feature of our time. Again, namely, how we are self-selecting ourselves into tribes and sorting ourselves by preference and seeing others as the “bad guys” – the troubling influences of the culture.

You know how this works – urban and seemingly sophisticated higher-brow people blame the rednecks, flyover country, the bumpkins. Those “deplorables” of the rural sort, despise the “elites.” (I would say, although O’Brien doesn’t get into it, that this hatred is so strong that this is why many are willing to put up with the arrogance and weirdness of Donald Trump who claims to know so much about so much, when, in fact, he doesn’t read or study or have competence to lead with wisdom in any field. But they love him!)

O’Brien is a Christian pastor and historian and is working here more like a prophetic sociologist, a son of Issachar, helping us understand this feature of our times. Some of it is funny – he has amusing stories and great illustrations to realize how even how we think about the faith and our discipleship.

And, perhaps a bit counter-intuitive to my description here (forgive me) he also notes that “tidy categories may suit the media, but people are more complex up close.”

Listen to what it says on the back cover (which I cited in my earlier BookNotes review.) I love this:

News outlets, historians, and sociologists can (and do) tell us all about the statistics, but they don’t (and can’t) tell us about what it’s really like in a given place–how the squish of creek water between your toes or the crunch of autumn leaves on a city sidewalk shape your sense of normal and good and right. To understand that–to understand the people in the places–we need stories. We need to listen, get to know the nuance of people, and have empathy for their way of seeing things.

Brandon O’Brien is, in many ways, a man, torn between places. Raised in the rural South, educated in the suburbs, and now living and doing ministry in Manhattan, he’s seen these places, and their complexity, up close. With the knack of a natural storyteller he shares what he learned about himself, faith, and the people who make up America on his own journey through it.

A LONG AWAITED SEQUEL by AWARD-WORTHY OS GUINNESS

Carpe Diem Redeemed: Seizing the Day, Discerning the Times Os Guinness (IVP) $20.00 You may know that I have said often that The Call: Purpose is one of my all time favorite books. There are chapters I have used in teaching and speaking and there are lines I’ve quoted, over and over. It’s eloquence, insight, and powerfully-rooted theological vision of God’s call to us all to serve the King everywhere and in everything offers a foundation and dynamism for anyone seeking purpose, meaning, a sense of vocation, and a direction to their seeking. Os is a pious and Godly man, a good thinker with an undergrad degree in philosophy from Oxford (and a PhD on the work of sociologist Peter Berger.) He travels and speaks and consults internationally and is a true global citizen; born in China, educated in Great Britain, Irish by descent, and living in the US (whose Founder’s ideas and ideals he would die for) Os is a friend to many and a much respected servant of the church. He sometimes says his own calling is to help explain the world to the church and to help explain the gospel to the cultured leaders of the world. He does so with integrity and considerable eloquence. His many books should be on your bookshelf.

Carpe Diem Redeemed came out in 2019 so it is obviously one I must name and that I want to honor. It isn’t simple, though, to explain, as it seems to have a complex thesis.

As I explained when I celebrated it earlier at BookNotes, Carpe Diem Redeemed insists that if we are to “seize the day” and make something of our lives, we as followers of Jesus must not merely mimic the way the world things about seizing the day. We aren’t Romantics wanting to merely tear pages out of the books and do our own things (as memorable as the famous Whtiman-esque scene citing O Captain My Captain in Dead Poets Society. We have to, as Guinness often says, “think it through.”

As we think it through, Biblically, Christianly, one of the big questions that face anyone wanting to make the most of their time is this: what is time? What time is it? How do we “discern the times?” And so, to “redeem” our quest to seize the day, we simply must be attentive to what it means to be timely.

Guinness is asking perennial questions, and, curiously, he is one of the few asking such things these days. He wants us to be relevant and faithful in our day – of course! But we dare not be so “relevant” that we risk being irrelevant because, well, we’ve failed to develop what he calls a “prophetic untimeliness.”

Os cites so many remarkable writers who have spoken good lines about time. (The first several pages are nothing but citations from all sorts of philosophers, poets, comedians, novelists, and business leaders and that is almost worth the price of the book for these collected quips and quotes.)

For instance, the poet Octavio Paz (in The Light of India) has said,

I believe that the reformation of our civilization must begin with a reflection on time.

Years ago Guinness had a little book worked with the old adage warning that “whoever sups with the devil should have a very long spoon.” (That book, Dining with the Devil had the subtitle “the mega-church flirts with modernity” and warned about our over-reliance or technology and marketing and data, becoming successful not by reliance on the gospel but by manipulation and efficiency. And so, we use, but must hold at some distance the forces and trends and artifacts of our fast-paced, technolopy culture.

And that is how best to redeem our quest to live out our callings, to find purpose and meaning, to make the most of things: by discerning the times, and being what some call intentional. We are not to merely be energetic entrepreneurs and eager culture makers making whatever we want in whatever way we want, but we are called to be salt and light and leaven, doing our best to serve God’s purposes with the gifts and talents and capacities God has given us, the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way. We are to be in but not of the world, after all. Even our view of time must be, somehow, counter-cultural. We must resist, as Os says in the second chapter, the hot-wired ethos of “Survival of the Fastest.”

I want to nominated Carpe Diem Redeemed as one of the most badly needed and perhaps least likely to be heeded books of our time. It is notable, well-crafted, thoughtful, rich, and learned. Is he fully right about every detail? Do the words inspire with vision and joy as they so famously did in The Call. Perhaps not. But it is certainly one of the best books of 2019, and we commend it for your consideration.

AN AWARD WINNING AUTHOR BRINGS HIS HOT DISCERNMENT OF THE TIMES TO OUR MILLENNIUM WITH BOTH BAD AND GOOD

Rings of Fire: Walking in Faith Through a Volcanic Future Leonard Sweet (NavPress) $17.99 Okay, this isn’t the thickest book I’ve lugged around this year – that would be Figuring by Maria Popova of the Brain Pickings blog fam a book about science and art that Len Sweet would like, I’m sure. But Rings of Fire was one of the thickest that isn’t designed for scholars or textbooks. And it reads like a dream, as you zoom through pages and pages of facts and data and theories and explanations. As I might have exclaimed in our first BookNotes review of this (which came out in November) – Len is back! This is the most invigorating, learned, stimulating, frustrating, upbeat, prophetic, weird and wonderful tome he has done since his late 1990s Soul Tsunami.

Sweet is my favorite trend-meister and futurologist, although as a historian, he looks both back and forwards. And his day job – when he’s not reading widely and writing books about how the church can face the future with grace and truth and style and guts –is mentoring students who study this stuff. He is legendary as a communicator and as a mentor and teacher. He loves equipping young, rising pastors and church leaders to not just be away of the ethos of the times and the trends of the future, but to enter into the habits and dispositions of those who see stuff in society and know what to make of it. He was one of the first church leaders that told us that the wave of technology would make TV more interactive. Soon, you could “vote people of the island” and shows the The Voice became a New Thing. He called it EPIC (experiential, participatory, image-based, and communal) and in books like Aquachurch and SoulSalsa and Carpe Manana and The Gospel According to Starbucks he gave advice for how churches can understand the times and perhaps embody a more faithful style – a playful dance, he’d say, rather than “working at it” – of cultural engagement.

He’s done a dozen or more other books lately, many which are quite nice. (From Tablets to Tables is just out in paperback, which is a nice corrective of his fascination with the digital, reminding us that real food and real friends with real stories is important. Len has talked about community and artifacts and analogue and being green for as long as he has been writing, making him a bit of a contradiction at first glance. He’s a futurist who loves the 1800s and a postmodernist who calls us to sit down and eat meals together.

Like him or not, Leonard Sweet is one of the North American churches most lively and prolific and punchy evangelical voices and you should know his work. Especially his big work where his broad knowledge and deep footnoting really shines. Rings of Fire is a spectacular, major release where he explores in sweeping fashion a half a dozen “hot zones” and about a dozen “hot topics” which should call forth a “hot church” equipped to walk through fire in this volcanic culture. Rings of Fire: Walking in Faith Through a Volcanic Future and deserves to be highlighted as a notable book of 2019.

THE BOOK SOME OF US HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FOR DECADES

If Jesus is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence Ronald J. Sider (Baker Academic) $24.99 I have often said that I got the bug of book reviewing when Sojourners magazine paid me $30 to do a short review of a book that was one of the best books I read in the late 1970s, Ron Sider’s Christ and Violence. I’m sure today I’d have other things to say about it, but I must even now say it is a compelling and important book. Sider, as you may know, was known for the seminal (and still in print and still very highly recommended) Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. His evangelical bone fides are impeccable; his commitment to standard gospel theology and Christ-centered Bible reading is second to none. He loves church history, takes a fair-minded view of reading widely and listening to his critics, and believes in forging a vision where faith is decisive in people’s lives and behaviors because Jesus is Lord. As an Anabaptist – that faith tradition made up of the likes of Mennonites and Brethren – he believes in the local church as essential, simple living, service to others, and, yep, Jesus-commanded non-violence. For this Christ-centered set of denominations, being in the military is considered sinful.

That Ron is a (gracious) Christian pacifist is vital to know about him, and that he wants to be consistent on that Godly sort of love for all, means he has been known for being “consistently pro-life.” He opposes killing the elderly, the prisoners, the enemies, endangered species, and, yes, the unborn. There are precious few who care about both the unborn in the womb and the enemy on the battlefield; he favors helping those in crisis pregnancies and keeping the poor from starving; he speaks about against those who would take away medical care for the sick and he speaks out against torture and pollution and sexism; he laments broken families and encourages both charity and justice in our ministry among the needy and hurting. Sider (now retired professor from Palmer Theological Seminary and founder of Evangelicals for Social Action) deserves our respect for his own efforts to be Biblically obedient, Christ-honoring, and ethically consistent.

Some liberals don’t appreciate his standard evangelical ethics about sex and the dignity of unborn life and many conservatives hate that he critiques unregulated capitalism and the military industrial complex and preaches about God’s love for creation and against pollution and racism. And war, all war.

As Stanley Hauerwas writes in the powerful preface to this powerful recent book, “Ron Sider has always defied categories.” When one is mocked by both sides, it seems one might be worth listening to.

I agree with Walter Brueggemann who has said “our long-term debt to Sider is deep and beyond calculation.” Amen to that.

And so, If Jesus is Lord, published by Baker Academic in July of 2019, didn’t get much publicity or acclaim when it came out, but I believe it is one of the most important books of the year, if not of the decade. It is, in a way, one of Ron’s great legacies, a life’s-work, a magnum opus.

One of the great insights in the little Christ and Violence that deepened my own pacifist commitments so many decades ago was how Sider rooted Biblical nonviolence not merely in Jesus’s own direct commands to love enemies or the Pauline injunction to do good to enemies (although that should be enough) but more; something theologically deeper: he underscores how non-violent, indeed, self-suffering love for others, is at the very heart of the gospel. Jesus took on the evil of the world on the cross and while we were yet God’s enemies he allowed us to kill him (Romans 5:10), thereby saving the world. God’s own work of reconciliation as seen in the atoning work of the cross reveals most of what we need to know about the attributes of God. The holy God of the Bible uses a towel and basin, a cross and a crown of thorns, to extend mercy to his own enemies; it is God’s preferred method. We are called to be agents of that same message and method of reconciliation. Yes, Jesus said, “blessed are the peacemakers.” Yes, he said to love even our enemies. But the sturdy ethics from Sider emerge from something even more profound: his view is rooted in the very character of God who shows us how the universe really works when He is King: the cross reveals it all.

And so, that theme was pivotal for me, and it emerges agin in this book – rooting the new call to peacemaking not just in the prophets saying to beat swords into ploughshares or Jesus’s command to love enemies or Paul’s call to do good to those who persecute us or even Peter’s direct reminder that Jesus left us an example in the garden when he didn’t fight back, but in the atonement, in the cross, in the gracious goodness of the Triune God’s forgiveness.

And many of us have been waiting for decades to have Ron flesh it out in a systematic, Biblical way. To connect his anti-war and anti-violence work for reconciliation in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Servant King of an Upside Kingdom.

Sider has been making major contributions to an evangelical sort of nonviolent activism consistently over many decades. (He has also, by the way, written on living simply, on evangelism, on consistently Biblical faithfulness, or service to the poor; he edited a volume of diverse views on economics, and wrote a fantastic book called Just Politics on citizenship and politics.)

In 1982 he co-wrote a major work on being faithful in the nuclear age that offered Biblical foundation for many of those of us involved in the nuclear freeze and disarmament movement. He did a book on being consistently pro-life. In recent years he invited us to learn about how nonviolent direct action might work (and that since the just war theory has always said that violence must be a last resort, he called on more traditional just war theorist to consider tying these other peaceful methods before blessing wars too quickly. Just war advocate Richard Mouw wrote a good foreword to that conceding that Sider was making a very good point.) A few years ago he wrote Nonviolent Action, a book – loved by some and contested by others – insisting that the early church condemned all killing. (See his The Early Church on Killing which shows that early followers of Jesus did not join the military and disapproved of abortion as it was practiced in those Greo-Roman centuries.)

But now, finally, in the Year of our Lord 2019, Ron Sider has written this 240-page book, replete with footnotes and scholarly citations, making his comprehensive case for the Biblical call to evangelical nonviolence. It is not the only book to read on Christian peacemaking or Biblical nonviolence. But it is the definitive work by Dr. Sider and certainly one of the great contributions to this topic in our lifetime.

Gabriel Siguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition has said it is “the most insightful and persuasive treatise for Christian peacemaking” and Scot McKnight says “I have been reading Sider for forty years and this is his best case yet.” Jim Wallis says of Sider’s explication, “for both individuals and society, it is one of the strongest I have seen.”

Miroslav Volf says about Sider’s claim that Jesus taught his followers that we ought not to kill that, after reading this “you will be able to reject this claim as unworkable in the real world, but you will not be able to dispute it. A compelling and challenging volume.”

If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies is serious, but readable, hefty, but not tedious or over-done. It looks at the Bible, of course, and church history and theology and culture and politics. Through it all, though, it has this mood, this earnest love for God who is revealed in the person of Jesus. In fact, one reader said “No one tackles the tough issues like Ron Sider. This book helped me draw closer to Jesus.”

Well, lots of others tackle tough issues. But few do so with as much plain devotion to the Bible and to the person of Jesus. For that you simply must be grateful. Finally agree or not with the call to resist all war as worldly and sinful or not, this studious book will help you focus on the Scriptures and the age-old creedal affirmation that Jesus is Lord. Any book that helps us with that with as much vigor and determination as this one does deserves all sorts of awards.

If Jesus is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence is a gift to the church, a call to faithfulness, and a very, very, important volume. Highly recommended.

FAVORITE MEMOIRS READ THIS YEAR

Some of you know this is one of my favorite genres, and it seems Beth and I always have a memoir or two on the bed stand. Some of these stories are so wild and well-written they are more fun than novels! (And, occasionally, I find myself saying that if a novelist tried to pull this off, we’d think it was implausible. Truth actually is, sometimes, stranger than fiction.) And so, a few of the favorite autobiographies that I read this year.

Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love: How a Violent Klansman Became a Champion of Racial Reconciliation Thomas A. Tarrants (Thomas Nelson) $24.99 I hope you recall our earlier comments about this as it is an edge-of-your-seat sort of page-turner, nominated for “best book” from the ECPA this year. (Those announcements will be made later this year.) We have had the pleasure of knowing Tom Tarrants and, to be honest, can hardly believe this vividly told story.

Consumed by Hate tells about Tom’s evil involvement, in the 1960s, with the KKK and worse. He went to jail for terrorism as he attempted to bomb the home of Jewish folks; his partner in crime died in the police shootout and he himself was very seriously wounded. The backstory of his ideological commitments – what today we might call the alt-right – is told plainly and one is still left pondering how someone gets to radicalized. Still the story moves on and the following chapters are even more dramatic!

Tarrants remarkably escaped from prison and was later apprehended (he was on the infamous FBI “Most Wanted” list.) While in prison (again) he became, slowly but surely, a transformed man, converted by Christ to the ways of the Lord Jesus. This is amazing stuff about amazing grace and left me in tears.

Through Prison Fellowship and other strategic leaders investing in him as a growing Christian prisoner, he was miraculously pardoned by the governor of the state and eventually released. Tom continued to study and minister to others as he took up the call to Christian ministry – co-pastoring a bi-racial, urban church, no less! Years later, the well-educated and utterly transformed Tarrants became the director of the C.S. Lewis Institute in Washington DC.

My prosaic and bare-bones outline doesn’t do justice to the suspense and power of this remarkable story as told in Consumed by Hate, Redeemed By Love. When authors as gifted as John Grisham rave about it, as he has, you know it’s good. This was one of those books I read this year almost in one long sitting – I couldn’t put it down! Thank God for the mercy of Jesus, and thank God for the conversion of this woefully misguided, truly awful person, redeemed and transformed by love. He has done good work in the subsequent years and it was hard for him to tell this story. We’re glad he did.

Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life David Giffels (Scribner) $16.00  Again, I’m listing this as a 2019 release because it came out in paperback this year. I had written a bit about it last year because the topic was so striking, I loved the hardback cover, and the blurbs were extraordinary. I skimmed it and recommended it – obviously it was very well written and a curious topic.

Now that I’ve read every word in earnest – many of the sections more than once! – I must say this is one of my favorite memoirs ever! What a book! It ranks up there with Lit, Cherry, Taste This Bread, Educated, Too Close to the Falls, and other such well written and fascinating memoirs.  You may recall the story: the author is a young, edgy English teacher at a community college in Akron, Ohio and is also quite the diligent word-worker, inspired and apprenticed by his dad, a truly excellent craftsman. As he is grieving the loss of his mother, and the loss of a good friend, Giffels decided to build a coffin with and for his dad. This is the story of that year making that coffin.

It sounds a bit morbid, but it isn’t, really. The two are close, the family is extended, the  poignant and wacky episodes worthy of some cross between some rustbelt version of This Is Us and Modern Family. Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son… is funny and sad and includes some rock and roll, and a lot about wood and sawdust. It is clever and whimsical and poignant and, indeed, about life and death, loss and love. I love the play on words in that last phrase of the subtitle, “the measure of a life.” As any woodworker knows, measuring figures into this story a lot.

As I’ve said, David Giffels is a rock music fanatic, so I really liked those portions, too. His rustbelt sensibilities and love for his own crummy town is pretty darn awesome to behold. I simply adored this book, realize what a great writer the author is, and I am sure I will read it yet again. I hope you do, too. Enjoy!

Congratulations, Who Are You Again? A Memoir and The World’s Largest Man: A Memoir Harrison Scott Key (Harper) $15.99 each Okay, these are not new books. But they are new to us, an author we never considered until a friend from down South named Jimbo told us about them. And I would say zooming through them were the most joyful, fabulous, fun-filled reading experiences of the year. I couldn’t stop giggling and guffawing and being astounded at the turn of a phrase or a miraculously remarkable sentence construction or the wildly odd storyline and character revelations of the self-deprecating author (that I so understood — embarrassing as it is to say so.) This was everything I wanted in a summer read – funny, honest, intelligent, a bit of cussing, much pathos, a little sex, ominous failure, sincere faith – he’s a Southern Presbyterian — and, curiously, did I mention really, really funny? Kay has won the prestigious James Thurber Prize (for literary-style humor for egg-heads, I guess,) So there’s that.

One can hardly say easily what these books are about, but here’s the quick version: in Congratulations the author ruminates on his life and his sense of calling to be a writer. He sets out to write a book, a good and famous and award winning, important book. (Why not?) He believes this is his God-given dream, a vocation and more. (He actually has some helpful stuff to teach us about all this, when one has a passion or a dream or a sense of call that borders on obsession.) Key is quite literate and smart and not too successful as he and his wife start a family in a hip Southern college town.

As it ends up – spoiler alert – the book he ends up writing is not the failed novel he intended but a memoir about his father, a legendary hunter and woodsman, a redneck sexist who didn’t seem to appreciate the sissified readin’ and writin’ of his youngest son who didn’t like to kill things and like to hug. There it is: Harrison Scott Key finally figures out what to write about, gets in done to some glowing reviews even if he fully blew the pre-interview with NPR’s Terry Gross. (Anyone who has hopes and dreams as an author has got to read this and will cringe through much of it. Trust me on this.) His cross country book tour was part Hunter Thompson, maybe, and not too successful and the writing about it was stunning. And some of what happens next? Well, again, you can’t make this stuff up.

And so, The World’s Largest Man is, in fact, that book that he tells about writing in Congratulations, Who Are You Again?  It came out in 2015 and Keys was somewhat famous, for a bit, even if it never quite became the great American anything. I really enjoyed reading Congratulations first as he told so much about the process of dreaming up this sense of calling, becoming a writer, and finally landing on a memoir about growing up with his colorful (to say the least) hunter father. World’s Largest takes us deep into the woods and it isn’t always pleasant, although it’s funny as hell. What a story.

Here is what the publisher explains it; come on, read this:

Harrison Scott Key was born in Memphis, but he grew up in Mississippi, among pious Bible-reading women and men who either shot things or got women pregnant. At the center of his world was his larger-than-life father–a hunter, a fighter, a football coach, “a man better suited to living in a remote frontier wilderness of the nineteenth century than contemporary America, with all its progressive ideas and paved roads and lack of armed duels. He was a great man, and he taught me many things: how to fight and work and cheat, and how to pray to Jesus about it, how to kill things with guns and knives and, if necessary, with hammers.”

Harrison, with his love of books and excessive interest in hugging, couldn’t have been less like Pop, and when it became clear that he was not able to kill anything very well or otherwise make his father happy, he resolved to become everything his father was not: an actor, a Presbyterian, and a doctor of philosophy. But when it was time to settle down and start a family of his own, Harrison started to view his father in a new light and realized–for better and for worse–just how much he was like the strange man who made him.

Neither Beth nor I can conclude surely which to read first nor can we conclude which we liked better. Buy ‘em both, read ‘em both.

Heavy: An American Memoir Kiese Laymon (Scribner) $16.00 This is a book that blew me away and although I read it in hardcover,and gave it a shout-out here at BookNotes before, the paperback recently came out, so it is now less costly. It is a book you should know about — it won the Andrew Carnegie Medal and was a Kirkus finalist, so has been widely lauded. Still, it is not for everyone and many traditionally conservative Christian readers will be put off by the barrage of foul language. Christian faith is actually a part of this story, as it often is for people of color in the deep south, it seems. That is, Laymon is not the militant atheist that Ta-Nehisi Coates is. But, like Coates, he was abused within his family and scorned by the mainstream white culture. And like Coates, he can name these tragedies and writes like a dream.

Perhaps I shouldn’t draw those mental connections; Heavy is not the same kind of story (or the same sort of writing) as Mr. Coates’ elegant memoirs, The Beautiful Struggle and Between the World and Me. But it is a very passionate, gritty memoir set firmly in the black culture (including poverty and racism and obsessions with race and status.) It focuses most poignantly on the author’s body, his sexuality and longings, his obsession with weight and weight loss. It includes a lot about his mother, his southern mother. It isn’t a conventional “rags to riches” story, although Kiese Laymon does move North and eventually gets a job as a college professor. Now he is back in Mississippi, speaking as a very contemporary black feminist writer in the land of Faulkner.

The review in O, The Oprah Magazine called it “raw” and “cathartic” and likened it to Pittsburgh’s John Edgar Wideman as Laymon “defiantly exposes the ‘aches and changes’ of growing up black.” The book was captivating for me (and I have read a fair number of memoirs by people of color) and stands out as one I will think about for a long time to come. Any of us who want to understand black families, the hardship faced including hardship from the police. His mother is intellectual and violent (like Coates’s Baltimore father) and he tells much about his parents, about broken families, about sexuality, about youth, about depression. It is a major and very vulnerable story about being a writer, about telling the truth and about being black in America.

As Roxanne Gay writes about it,

Oh my god. Heavy is astonishing. Difficult. Intense. Layered. Wow. Just wow.

Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace Christie Purifoy (Zondervan) $18.99 I keep coming back to this, dipping in, thinking about it, looking for a passage I liked or that was so well written, that I surely have to names this as one of our favorite reads of the year. Further, as we said when I announced this last summer, it was  (as I put it at BookNotes) “one of the great joys of recent months to have gotten the chance to finally meet Pennsylvania author Christie Purifoy, a memoirist and essayist of the finest quality, who can turn a phrase like nobody’s business.” We were with her at the lovely book launch party in Lancaster of our mutual friend Shawn Smucker, a novelist of some note.

We want to honor this distinguished book and figure I should just share what I wrote at BookNotes before. You should buy this book and spread the word — it’s surely a Best Book of 2019.

A few years ago Christie Purifoy wrote a lovely book about her spacious, old farmhouse “in four seasons” (Roots & Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons) and it was quite good. But this Placemaker book is extraordinary, delightful, compelling, enjoyable on many levels. The other evening at a book event she read movingly from a section about fermentation (you know, sauerkraut, kombucha, making pickles, even.) The Earth’s processes of death and decay, entropy, chaos and the like became a window for reflecting on our desires for control, for reigning in the chaos. She frets about these things as we do, but she also tends orchards and writes glowingly about trees. Creation and Fall and Redemption swirl together in her gorgeous reflective prose and a book about place becomes a vision for living into God’s healing ways, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Beth and I can’t say enough about our new friend Christie and her husband; we are eager to encourage you to buy this very handsomely made book — it has deckled pages, French folded covers, a slightly textured paperback cover with some tactile beauty — and to enjoy her reflections on home and gardening and beauty and life. Even amidst the ruins. What a book! The author has dirt under her fingernails, by the way. Oh, and a PhD in literature from the University of Chicago.

Kudos to Christie for working her craft and writing this lovely volume and to Zondervan for publishing it with beauty and charm. Cheers!

Separated by the Border: A Birth Mother, a Foster Mother, and a Migrant Child’s 3,000-Mile Journey Gena Thomas (IVP) $16.00 I cannot quite put my finger on all that moved me about this memoir although the awful policies of the Trump administration – children in cages, children deported without parents and parents deported without their babies and on and on – was in the air as I was reading this. That the publisher saw the urgency of this narrative and wanted to put a human face on it all is a major contribution. This book, I believe, should be in every bookstore and library in the country as it is just so very, very timely. And as harrowing as it may be, it’s a great read, a moving tale, a stunning and audacious journey that shows, at least, as the publisher reminds us in the description, “the power of motherly love.”

Here is the basic explanation of the remarkable story:

Thomas tells the story of five-year-old Julia, whose harrowing journey with her mother from Honduras to the U.S. took her from cargo trailer to detention center to foster care. Weaving together the stories of birth mother and foster mother, this work shows the human face of the immigrant and refugee, the challenges of the immigration and foster care systems, and the tenacious power of motherly love.

There is more to this book that an expose of the “challenges” of the immigration system, as it does explore the need for foster care parenting, and the blessings and struggles of offering one’s love for others in this poignant and sometimes painful way. And it shows how this author risked so much to re-united the separated mother and child. Oh my, what a holy adventure! What a story!

I think you can see why I found this story so compelling and wanted to name it here among the Best Books of 2019 when you read these endorsements written by authors I trust:

“Welcoming strangers is dangerous. All sorts of things might happen: it might radically alter your understanding of the world, change your politics, or your relationships. It will certainly affect your relationship with God. Gena Thomas’s book is testament to the wonderfully transforming power of hospitality. I recommend her story to you as a daring and dangerous read.”–Krish Kandiah, founding director of Home for Good, author of God Is Stranger

“When headlines and public policy debates filter down to the story of one mother, one child, and one US citizen willing to walk through the process, our focus changes from the macro to the micro. A story of grief, pain, politics, faith, endurance, laughter, separation, and reunification, this steps us out of the policy debate and into the individual experience. I wholeheartedly recommend Gena Thomas as a voice that has walked through real, sacrificial relationships using her Christian faith as a guide for each step of the process. If we want to understand how the policies and politics of the immigration debate impact real people, this is the place to start. This is a humanizing story that takes us beyond the talking points.”–Alexandra Kuykendall, author of Loving My Actual Neighbor, cofounder of The Open Door Sisterhood

“I adore this book! It is a shattering read about the journey asylum seekers take to reach our border only to have their children taken from them. Thomas’s book details the living hell Lupe, Julia, and Carlos experienced and how her family became part of the story. It rips out our stony hearts, giving us the opportunity to receive the fleshy heart of Jesus, the opportunity to receive grace. We endanger our souls and imperil the soul of our nation if we dare ignore this masterfully written account, the plight of immigrants, and our responsibility in all of it.”–Marlena Graves, author of A Beautiful Disaster

As Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, author of There Goes the Neighborhood, says of Separated by the Border,

In one powerful book Gena Thomas shares the trauma, hope, and love that is the migration of men, women, and children in today’s world. Wrapped around her own experience as a foster parent, Thomas helps us understand why one flees their home country, even though they want to return. It is truly a remarkable book.”

Love Anyway: A Journey from Hope to Despair and Back in a World That’s Scary as Hell Jeremy Courtney (Thomas Nelson) $17.00  This was one of the most eagerly anticipated books for those of us who loved his stellar Preemptive Love about doing medical missions with children among Muslims, Jews and Christians in war-torn Iraq. Jeremy has many followers and friends and many of us were eager to read this one.

As you may know if you know that first unforgettable book (Preemptive Love) his non-profit organization Preemptive Love did pediatric heart surgeries in Iraq which has the largest amount of children born with defective hearts anywhere in the world, most likely from the nuclear tipped, uranium-enhanced weapons the United States used in the first Gulf War.

How did this Christian NGO helping the impoverished turn into a medical mission that drew in interfaith coalitions and became a cross-cultural project of reconciliation—dare I say, a post-9-11, Middle Eastern, anti-war movement – in this dangerous part of the world?  Some of that is documented in Preemptive Love but the fuller backstory is now explained in riveting storytelling in Love Anyway. You can read my review HERE and perhaps you’ll see why I found this telling of Jeremy’s brave work to be so compelling. As I explain, Love Anyway is a harrowing story about Jeremy and his wife’s deepening their belief in the power of love and understanding and how this lead them to different sorts of networks and ministries from Iraq to Syria. It gets hard, the writing is tense, the story powerfully told. It is one of the few books this year that I read straight through hardly without a break; what a page-turner! You should read it.

There’s lots of good stuff on the internets about this organization and a good short film that came out about the time of the book. Maybe you could have a book group and do a fundraiser. I can hardly think of a more urgent need.

Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others Barbara Brown Taylor (HarperOne) $25.99 Some may not think of Barbara Brown Taylors story about teaching world religions as a memoir. It isn’t her whole life story, but like her other marvelously written, crisp, honest volumes of wonderful prose, she is – although weighing in on questions of the role of faith and convictions and believe and world religions – mostly telling here of her time as a teacher. If she has written about her calling into the ministry (The Preaching Life) and her sense of frustration and a pained exit from parish work (Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith) this is the first major book where she describes her second calling, that of a college professor. It is, as Mirabai Starr say, “Among the finest memoirs I have ever read of the life of a teacher.”

Yes, Barbara Brown Taylor is a fairly open-minded, typical Episcopalian priest, nurtured in the deep ways of the Anglican sacramental worldview and of the convictions of the Book of Common Prayer and the revolutions of liberal theology in the middle of the 20^th century when she was coming of age. It isn’t surprising that she is drawn to the mysteries of world religions and that she has come to be passionate about teaching, as a liberal Christian, the joys of learning about other faiths. At the heart of her teaching is not cheap knowledge about other faiths and certainly not cheap spiritual appropriation, but fostering “holy envy” (a phrase she swiped from a Lutheran Bishop in Sweden who said it is healthy to admire and even envy certain virtues of other faiths. This seems common sense to me, and nothing unorthodox. Of course we admire the Buddhists attentiveness or radical Muslim’s or Hasidic Jews dedication to their sacred food and prayer regimes. I’m nowhere near Amish, but surely there is good to be found in their expression of faith, right? There is nothing wrong with Protestants admiring the sense of mystery nearly unnamed in higher church Catholics and nothing wrong with liberal UCC folk admiring the warm-hearted piety of old school Methodists. We needn’t compare truth claims or adopt a cheesy universalism to truly admire and learn from other faiths. Okay?

But, oh my, how to do that, wisely and tenderly and fruitfully? And how does one do that when, as is the case in Ms Taylor’s situation, the students are mostly Southern Bible-belt fundamentalists.

I will never forget the scene in which Barbara has taken her college students to a (respectful, demur) visit to a worship experience of a non-Christian religion. One of the students, an earnest, traditional fundamentalist Christian, has to leave the room and she departs deeply weeping for the lost souls she is watching as they worship their false gods. How does Ms Taylor respond? As a good pastor and as a good teacher, I believe. The book is loaded with these remarkable moments.

The review journal Booklist gave Holy Envy a starred review, saying:

Taylor nudges her students away from spiritual appropriation and comparison, moving instead toward challenging discernment of their own faith and the faith of others. Taylor, like the best faith leaders, is a great storyteller. Highly recommended.

I reviewed this at BookNotes when it first came out and I have thought about it all year. She is a gorgeous writer and I’d read anything she wrote and even though my own faith convictions might be different than hers, I admire her writing and so, so appreciate her journey.

Here is some of what the publisher has written in describing it; I hope you can see why I call it one of my favorite books of the year:

Barbara Brown Taylor continues her spiritual journey begun in Leaving Church of finding out what the world looks like after taking off her clergy collar. In Holy Envy, she contemplates the myriad ways other people and traditions encounter the Transcendent, both by digging deeper into those traditions herself and by seeing them through her students’ eyes as she sets off with them on field trips to monasteries, temples, and mosques.

Troubled and inspired by what she learns, Taylor returns to her own tradition for guidance, finding new meaning in old teachings that have too often been used to exclude religious strangers instead of embracing the divine challenges they present. Re-imagining some central stories from the religion she knows best, she takes heart in how often God chooses outsiders to teach insiders how out-of-bounds God really is.

Throughout Holy Envy, Taylor weaves together stories from the classroom with reflections on how her own spiritual journey has been complicated and renewed by connecting with people of other traditions–even those whose truths are quite different from hers. The one constant in her odyssey is the sense that God is the one calling her to disown her version of God–a change that ultimately enriches her faith in other human beings and in God.

Miracles and Other Reasonable Things: A Story Of Unlearning and Relarning God Sarah Bessey (Howard Books) $26.00 When customers, friends, and the back cover blurbs align in insisting a book is one of the best ever, it is a must for me to review. Miracles… claims to be quite a story and yet I put off getting to it, thinking I’d like it, but it wouldn’t be extraordinary.

Granted, we love her first lively book Jesus Feminist (although nothing new, we’ve been selling books about evangelical feminism since we opened in the early 1980s) and I really appreciated Bessey’s first memoir, Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith about her own changing faith (not unlike, say, the story of her dear friend, the late Rachel Held Evans) as she narrates her journey out of the Word of Faith Pentecostal faith of her girlhood. Nearly everyone’s faith shifts and matures, deepens or softens, but her journey was particularly striking (she’s a great writer and, well, she really was in some super strict, bodaciously unconventional stuff, at least for most Christians, making her shift particularly dramatic.) Making room for change and doubt and open-mindedness is a big deal for some traditions so Sarah blogs and speaks and writes about this stuff at no little cost to her, I’m sure. We are grateful for her candor and grace.

These writers doing books about being raised in shaming, strict, and sensationally religious families who are now being set free to be more normal and balanced in their expression of faith, allowing doubt and honesty, reasonable worship and non-fanatical public opinions, is quite the genre these days. I like them, really, even if that isn’t exactly my own experience. It’s close enough, though, to resonate. Out of Sorts really is a fine phrase to describe how many of us describe our religious sense these days, eh?

And so, Miracles and Other Things is plowing that same field again. She starts off with a preface so earnest about taking our hands and loving us as readers, carrying our own stories with her as she does her work. I get it – she is a beloved public speaker and she gets emails and letters and people stay late into the night at conferences saying (among other things) You too? She connects, truly connects, with so many (often disenfranchised) mostly young woman of faith and she invites them to rise up. It sounds a bit breathy – and for those who don’t have this experience of being excluded or misunderstood, her earnestness may impress or maybe just annoy a bit. But she is a rock star, with the book endorsed by the usual cast of characters such as good writers like Jen Hatmaker, Shauna Niequist, Glennon Doyle, and others on a journey away from fundamentalism like Mike McHargue and Peter Enns and Jonathan Martin, who calls it a “trail blazing, bush-burning book.” Happily, mainline denomination folks rave, too – Kate Bowler (of Duke, and the must-read, best-seller Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I Believed) and yep, Barbara Brown Taylor.

Barbara Brown Taylor writes,

“Sarah Bessey is a writer of remarkable gifts. Beyond her ability to make a breath-taking sentence, and to tell the truth about the dying and rising of faith, she can tell a story as if she is whispering it straight into your heart. She is, by her own definition, a dangerous woman, with wisdom to spare about learning to love the broken miracles God offers us once we’re honest about where it hurts.”–Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Learning to Walk in the Dark

So there you have it: Saint Barbara BT herself affirms what any of us who have read Bessey already knows. She’s a great writer and an honest, important leader.

But wait: we thought she had left her Pentecostal Word of Faith stuff. What’s this about miracles?

You see, this is not the book that Sarah intended to write. She tells us that she pounded out another huge manuscript, amidst grief from miscarriages and then several births, and a hard, hard labor and a dad that was dying, and that book was not what she finally wanted to write. What she did was tell this much more honest story. It is a story of her evolving faith, and – this is harrowing, to say the least – an awful car accident that nearly killed her, causing immense pain and chronic issues that got worse as the months of recovery wore on.

She writes honestly about this and I am sure those of us who have been in serious accidents (I have) or who have had loved ones in serious accidents (we have) will be deeply moved by her story and the pain of her recovery. But even as she can hardly walk, get this: she gets a bone fide invitation to be on a team of charismatic Christians (old friends) to celebrate a Jubilee with the Pope.

As a woman whose family economic status is such that she hardly even dreams of international travel, let alone a trip to Rome, she is both ecstatic and, understandably, unsure. Although pleasantly ecumenical, she has deep principles that oppose the patriarchy and hierarchy and abuses of the Catholic Church. (She wrote a book called Jesus Feminist, she wonders if they recall!) Like many of us who long for a greater congeniality within the Body of Christ, she mourns that they have a closed communion table and she could attend as a guest of honor but still be barred and banned from receiving the sacraments. And, more bluntly, she is not sure she can make the trip – once-in-a-lifetime gift that it is – due to her physical disabilities.

I will not tell you the rest, but know that this story of pain and loss and travel and mission and ministry and love and family is truly miraculous. It is a wonderfully fun read, compelling, engaging, well written, and inspiring.   One doesn’t have to have her same experiences to find the book pulling you in as you yourself experience the Spirit as she herself does.

As Shauna Niequist says in the preface, Miracles and Other Reasonable Things is:

A grown-up, clear-eyed story of faith, told with so much soul and laughter and grit and elegance and plainspoken truth that it leaps off the page, straight into your heart. What a gift.

The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey Brian D. McLaren (Fortress Press) $16.99  I was thrilled the minute I heard about this marvelous idea, a new series of faith-based travelogues called “On Location” kicked off by the very fine writer Brian McLaren. Those that follow Brian know that he wrote a set of novels (now recently re-issued by Fortress, by the way) in which Darwin’s work and a visit to Galapagos figures into the story. McLaren loves the outdoors, loves his reptiles and tortoises, so, yep, he’s the man for this job. And what a good, good job he did.

I am sure I will never travel to South American, let alone to these Ecuadorian islands, but I do love travel books. Memoirs about adventures are a way to live those adventures and when a writer is bringing spiritual and theological insight along the way, what joy. That this is a spiritual pilgrimage, in many way, to one of the world’s most known and fragile ecosystems is itself a great gift and, yet, is fraught with concern.

I enjoyed this compact paperback and even though I’ve met Brian several times and consider him an acquaintance, I felt like I got to know him better. He writes about his son’s cancer just a bit, he is frustrated when he misses cell-phone connection to talk with his wife, and he reports on some talks he gave after he came home, talks that sounded truly interesting and important. I really liked catching up with him, even if it was when he was far, far away, keeping a diary for us all to enjoy.

Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963 Sharon Robinson (Scholastic Press) $16.99 I read fewer YA novels this year than I sometimes do (and when I think of so many good ones, I wonder what I was thinking!) I want to sneak this one in here, which I read at the start of the new year, as an exceptionally strong, truly notable book of 2019. Although written as a youth book, many, many of us will enjoy it. Sharon Robinson turned 13 the night beforeGeorge Wallace declared on national television ‘segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever’ in his inauguration for governor of Alabama. Can you imagine? This book will help as it is written from the viewpoint of a child. I highly recommend it.

Child of the Dream is, obviously, a story of a young woman and her coming of age in 1963, a remarkable year by any account. The book is heart-warming but honest, vivid, even, and, as Andrea Davis Pinkney (of Martin Rising: Requiem for a King) wrote about it: it is a “deeply personal portrait of her childhood during one of the most pivotal moments in America’s history.” Pinkney continues, “She lets us walk in her shoes so that together we experience how it feels to see a dream on the horizon — and to reach for it.”

Do you realize who Sharon Robinson is? She is the daughter of famous baseball play, number 42 himself, Jackie Robinson. It’s why Jason Reynolds writes that this book tells of her own understanding of her place in the fight for civil rights. Reynolds says “This is a home run, not just for her, but for us all.” Exactly!

Listen to Christopher Paul Curtis (Newbery Award-winning author of the National Book Award finalist, The Journey of Little Charlie, who has this delightful, fabulous endorsement:

Sharon Robinson has pulled off an impressive trifecta: She has given us priceless, behind-the-scenes access to perhaps the most tumultuous year in modern American history; she has written a touching, compelling, coming-of-age story; and she tops the whole enterprise off with a tribute to her upbringing by an exceptional pair of African Americans, her parents, Rachel and Jackie Robinson.

This is My Body: A Memoir of Religious and Romantic Obsession Cameron Dezen Hammon (Lookout Books) $17.95 A friend who knows this author alerted me to this book before it came out and when if finally was released I knew I had to take the recommendation of my writer friend seriously; she is creative and thoughtful and she assured me I’d be captivated by the prose and the stunning story. Indeed, I was mesmerized by the first page, drawn in to a gripping story about, well, as the subtitle says, religious and romantic obsession. What up-front worship leader is having sexy texts from a lover in the middle of a set? What church leader entertains sorrow and doubts and regrets and anger has no place to share them? What evangelical Christian working for mega-churches and hipster outreaches finds her very body assaulted even as she is attempting to serve them by playing Godly, passionate music?

Apparently – it breaks my heart to say this – Cameron Dezen Hammon is not the only one who has experienced distress and sexism, religious confusion and artistic and theological difficulties within the leadership of modern evangelicalism. (See my review a week or so ago of The#MeToo Reckoning by Ruth Everhart for a study of mostly mainline Protestant congregations to be reminded of the pervasive cover-ups of sexual misbehaviors within faith communities.) Ms. Hammon does not name the (famous?) pastors of the well-known “gospel-centered” churches in which she experienced gross patriarchy and serious injustice, but it doesn’t matter; we can imagine.

Still, this memoir is not all expose and lament. It is, as the foreword says, “a valuable look at the social structures of evangelical Christianity” but it is also about the author’s own deep desire for God, for connection. While not a typical spiritual memoir, it truly is just that. Ms. Hammon, like nearly every mystic in church history, sees some convergence between romantic love and religious faith, between sexuality and spirituality. Desire? Ecstasy? Love? Belonging? Are we seeking romance and intimacy and home, or faith and forgiveness and heaven? Or both. Maybe faith indeed leads us home, into authentic community and real love, here on Earth. Perhaps grace offers eternal things that show up in the mundane. If so, Ms Hammon is a seeker for that reality, and her beautiful raw story will be a guide for many. This is My Body: A Memoir of Religious and Romantic Obsession made me sad but it one of the most memorable, striking reads this year.

I find it hard to say just how deeply this good writing moved me, how curious I was and how engaged as a reader; I suspect not everyone will be as generous or caring as I was; it is not for everyone. Jessica Wilbanks (memoirist and author of When I Spoke In Tongues) says of This Is My Body that it is “Unflinchingly honest and searingly lyrical.” She is right – it is “a song of a book.”

Cameron Hammon’s own conversion story from a New York Jew-ish punker is compelling and will resonate with any who came to a lively faith within a para-church organization or house church situation. Her struggle as a musician and artist will resonate with many who feel like the church has not used their gifts well. Anyone who has left upbeat evangelical or Pentecostal faith to find a more nuanced spirituality will understand the mixed feelings of her journey. This memoir will be important to many, an edgy and artful telling of a story that many others are writing these day. It is, in my view, one of the more remarkable and startling examples of these kinds of faith deconstructions and journeys out of popular evangelicalism.

And yet, through all of this, one of the biggest aspects of the story of This is My Body is the marriage one, the romantic longings and her relationship with her husband. How does one evolve spiritually and religiously (especially when one’s work and paycheck are dependent on the church) when one is married? How does one grow or change as an individual when one’s spouse is on his own faith journey? How does one think about sexuality and intimacy in marriage when talking about spiritual intimacy and singing about Love is how one makes one’s living? How does a shift away from fundamentalism towards doubting faith and re-embracing feminism effect a marriage? That is a major part of this tale. Remember, the book is called This Is My Body.

Lacy Johnson (author of an award winning collection of essays called The Reckonings and a previous, harrowing memoir of her own abuse by a boyfriend) says:

There is a deep and insatiable longing at the center of Cameron Dezen Hannon’s spellbinding debut memoir: to love and be loved with honesty and abandon, to follow a spiritual path toward clarity and truth.

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth Sarah Smarsh (Scribner) $17.00 This was another book that just came out in paperback that I read earlier this year in hardback. It was, interestingly, one of the “One Community Reads” selections this fall for many towns here in central PA. One recent customer understandably connected it to Hillbilly Elegy and Nickel and Dimed. Smarsh is a gifted writer and amazing storyteller – and what a story she has to tell of her extended family in the heartland. Set among poor, rural folk in Kansas, she tells of parents and grandparents, using a device that some find endearing: the book is an extended letter to her unborn child. In the hands of a lesser writer it might have been smarmy or sentimental, but this telling is full of regret and longing and pride and chutzpah; she does come from colorful, sturdy, resilient, if at times troubled stock.

Ms. Smarsh can be wickedly funny and tender but I see her also as a biting social critic. She is relentless in talking – appropriately and insightfully – about wealth and privilege and power and poverty. This isn’t a “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” sort of story a la Hillbilly Elegy; it is, perhaps, closer to Nickel and Dimed with its critique of the culture’s misunderstandings of the working poor – especially farmers, ranchers, the rural mid-Westerners who work hard under hot sun and freezing cold, usually white, too often poor. There’s a bit about agriculture policy and big business although she’s not quite a Wendell Berry agrarian.

For what it’s worth, the parts of her story about going to college as a not very cultured or even well-educated farm girl – her elementary school and school days are unbelievable! – is very, very telling. Any BookNotes readers who work in higher education ought to be aware of the huge gaps and obstacles facing many rural and small town first-generation collegiates; this story could help you understand this sort of privation. Read Heartland: Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest County on Earth

In so many ways, for so many reasons, this well written tale was one of my favorite books of 2019.

To Stop a Warlord: My Story of Justice, Grace, and the Fight for Peace Shannon Sedgwick Davis (Spiegel & Grau) $27.00 You may recall this publishers name as they are the wonderful imprint that brought Just Mercy to the world, the book by Bryan Stevenson. (If you haven’t read that Award Winner, you simply must!) So I’ve been wanting to publically acknowledge them for their cutting edge work and for bringing yet another intriguing, well-written, and honorable book about social change to the literary reading public. We are honored to get to carry books like this and we are delighted to honorably mention it here and now.

Alas, I’m not sure what to think about this amazing memoir. It is the story of a woman, a mom and a lawyer, who, as I’ve said at BookNotes before, was a leader in an NGO doing good charitable work in Africa. She is a person of action, a person motivated by faith, a Christian worker in hard places who has worked with our friends at International Justice Mission (IJM.) She is now the CEO of Bridgeway Foundation which is “dedicated to stopping mass atrocities.” She is an Advisory Council member of The Elders, the group of global statesman founded by Nelson Mandela. You could profitable read any account of her efforts and be challenged and stimulated.

But this? Oh my. Here’s the gist – just read what Adam Grant (author of Orginals and Give and Take, that we also recommend, btw) wrote in then New York Times review.

How far would you go to stop a murderous Ugandan warlord who had turned thousands of children into soldiers? As the head of a human rights foundation, Shannon Sedgwick Davis did something unprecedented: She hired private military contractors to train an army to stop him. This is an extraordinary memoir by an extraordinary leader–it’s impossible to read without feeling moved to do more to help those with less.

Okay, do I need to say more? She “hired private military contractors to train an army” to stop the evil Ugandan warlord. Jospeh Kony.

You can’t make this stuff up. To Stop a Warlord is wonderfully written and well paced so is one of those books you can hardly put down. It is driven by deep compassion, I think, and what Blake Mycoskie (her friend from Toms Shoes) calls her “relentless determination, motherly protective instinct, and steadfast courage.”

Look: To Stop a Warlord has rave reviews and lovely endorsements on the back from Betty Bigombe (and leader at the World Bank who was the chief mediator in peace negotiations with the Lord’s Resistance Army in the late ‘90s and into the early 2000s) as well as from the U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Ambassador Henry Crumpton. Former President Jimmy Carter offers his endorsement calling is a “remarkable” book. Archbishop Desmond Tutu says it is “compelling and inspiring.”

Will this help us all, as these endorsements all say, beautifully move us all to take action for the vulnerable? Most of us aren’t on philanthropic boards and few of us have any clue about these sorts of global details. But, whew, this is unprecedented work, and “an unforgettable journey on an unexpected path to peace.”

It is without a doubt one of the most memorable books of 2019.

THREE WONDERFUL EXAMPLES OF A BIGGER or BETTER FRAMEWORK FOR THE GENRE OF BASIC CHRISTIAN LIVING

…And Yet, Undaunted: Embraced by the Goodness of God in the Chaos of Life Paula Rinehart & Connally Gilliam (NavPress) $15.99 This was one of my favorite books this year in part because of the fine wisdom and down to Earth sisterly sort of advice these women offer. Paula Rinehart has been speaking and writing on woman’s issues for decades and we have stocked other books of hers over the years. We always felt they were just a cut above some of the other sort of standard fare advice and inspiration for the religious marketplace. Connally Gilliam is younger and also works in outreach and disciple-making with the para-church group, The Navigators. She is know for what I’m told is an excellent book for those that read books in the field of being an unmarried Christian woman. That is called Revelation of a Single Woman: Loving the Life I Didn’t Expect. Again, better than many, well written, and thoughtful.

But this: it’s fabulous; very smart, engaging, helpful. But the biggest reason I was so taken with this, why we promote it and think it is so very unique and worthy of our Best of accolades is because of the structure. Hear me out.

You may know that there has been a bit of a shift in the frame of understanding of faith and discipleship in recent years. Some trace it to Dutch neo-Calvinists like Kuyper, popularized by authors like Al Wolter’s Creation Regained, others to NT Wright, but many are using language informed by two chief ideas. First that we live out our lives in light of a story – what some use to call a “worldview” but is now seen as more imaginative and towards a telos, or end – and that, secondly, that story of ours ought to be shaped by the Biblical story. Calling the Bible (and our life informed by it) a story is heard in titles like The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story or God’s Story, Our Story, or The Story of God, The Story of Us. It’s a good trend to see the Bible as something other than a repository of doctrine or a bunch of disconnected episodes. There is a redemptive storyline to the Bible and the only way to read God’s Word well is to see that Big Picture. And the only way to follow Jesus as agents of His Kingdom is to see our lives unfolding as part of His ongoing mission to complete the redemptive plot.

Enter Rinehart and Gilliam, who have given us one of the best basic Christian living sort of resources that frame our own lives in light of the four major themes of the plot of Scripture, the “acts” of the drama, so to speak. From Al Wolters on, many have seen the key highpoints of the sacred play to be the act of creation, the radical fall into sin and rebellion and dysfunction, the decisive promise and accomplishment of redemption, and the future hope of “all things renewed.” Creation/fall/redemption/restoration is the large theme of our Jubilee conference out in Pittsburgh that each February invites college students to “live a better story” by entering into that cosmic drama. Rinehart and Gilliam tell that story in the four units of their book. They allow the big picture of God’s Biblical drama to inform how we understand our daily lives, our personal hurts and fears, and how to learn to trust not just that God is good, but that God is up to something good: the fulfillment of His promises to renew and restore the cosmos. Our daily lives find health and hope by placing ourselves between the creation and the new creation, the garden and the city.

It is implied and suggested and spoken and explained that we are good, part of God’s very good creation, but we are hurting, not as we were meant to be because of our complicity in this fallen and distorted world. Christ has brought us back to life and redeemed, in principle, His beloved creation, but yet the hopeful end is not yet seen. We walk by faith, into the newness of life, realizing that the Kingdom is already but not yet. Lot’s of big picture Scripture studies say that these days and lots of theology books assume it. But precious few books about the oddness of our lives, the broken things, the pain and the failures and the foibles invite us to this Larger Story of hope for a renewed Earth. And Yet, Undaunted gets it just right, and this is a rare gift indeed.

There are folks that will not read Transforming Vision (Walsh & Middleton) or Creation Regained (Al Wolters) or Surprised by Hope (Tom Wright) or Heaven is a Place on Earth (Michael Witmer) or Not Home Yet: How the Renewal of the Earth Fits Into God’s Plan for the World (Ian Smith.) That Kingdom vision stuff would take them a long way towards deeper more faithful and sustainable discipleship, I am sure, but few people read these overarching narratives about our narrative.

But tons of people want a simple book that helps them learn how to believe in God, to follow Jesus, to care about spiritual things, to make better choices, to cope and flourish. Who doesn’t want a life of deeper meaning and guidance on finding God in our hard times?

Again, this is a genre of book – short chapters, conversational, wise, warm women writers – which are huge in most Christian bookstores. It just seems to be a nice and easy to read book about living the life of faith. And so it is.

But, hold on, this gets at the creation-fall-redemption-restoration worldview story and helps us frame all of our lives and all of our sorrows (and all of our successes and joys as well) within the context of this big, true, Story of God.

And here is how they do it — and this little bit of literary genius makes it award winning itself: they translate the words “creation”-“fall”-“redemption” and “restoration” into phrases that I think were coined by the super smart worldviewish teacher (of the Clapham Institute in Annapolis, MD) Mike Metzger, namely,

• What Ought to Be ((Creation)
• What Is (Fall)
• What Can Be (Redemption)
• What Will Be (Restoration)

The chapters are almost devotional in nature, with lots of Bible-based encouragement to live into this “ought-is-can-and-will be” framework. This slant, this take, this narrative, this Story is how to get the Biblical worldview into your bones and into your imagination. As Bruce Hindmarsh of Regent College in British Columbia notes,

This book exposes our longings for a better world and then points us forward to the way things can and will be redeemed by Jesus Christ. Because of that, we can live realistically and joyfully – even undaunted – in this beautiful but broken world. Sharing openly about their own lives, Paula and Connally invite us to do the same and live not our best life not, but our real life now.

That is why I want to celebrate this book and insist it is one of the best books of 2019. It quietly pushes us in the right direction, against goofy theologies and unhelpful ideas and unwise promises and super spiritual tones that are subtle but present in so much Christian literature. This helps give us vocabulary and categories to be realistic and joyful, to explain what’s wrong and what’s right, to discern the times and live well within them.

As Cherie Harder of The Trinity Forum writes about it,

This wise, beautiful book will undoubtedly serve as a guide and friend through the dark valleys of life, a balm and a spur to those weighed down with regret, disappointment, and unmet longing. And Yet, Undaunted shows the possibilities of finding courage and joy in your life story, by pointing at the Larger Story– what ought to be, what is, what can be, and what will be–and the ways in which Love himself unites the plot and pervades each scene.

Listen to Vaneetha Rendall Risner (The Scars That Have Shaped Me) who says:

Connally and Paula’s writing makes my heart ache–ache for the way things ought to be and ache for the way things will, one day, be–all while dignifying the longing, disappointment, and suffering wrapped up in the now. I am so grateful for these two women: for their wisdom, honesty, and call to hopeful courage. This book will faithfully point you to Jesus as you are drawn in to engage with the deep longings and questions rumbling inside your heart.

Surprised by Paradox: The Promise of AND in an Either-Or World Jen Polllock Michel (IVP) $16.00 Funny how covers that don’t appeal to me keep me from what might be really good books. Thank goodness I had the good sense to refuse my instinct to boycott this dull, jumbled up cover because it is a great, great, artfully rich and beautiful book. I knew it would be because this author’s two previous books Teach us To Want and Keeping Place are among the best books of the last few years. She’s a great writer, a born storyteller, and a fine thinker.

As one reviewer warned, “Don’t confuse this as a call for the mushy middle…” As Russ Ramsey (himself a thoughtful pastor and great wordsmith and author) says in the foreword,

Studied rightly, theology should lead to awe and wonder. To that end, my friend Jen Pollock Michel has given us a gift.

Perhaps, like me, you are drawn to books that people who like and respect recommend. (Uhhh, I hope so! Ha.) On the back of Surprised by Paradox we have rave reviews by Karen Swallow Prior, Emily Freeman, Tish Harrison Warren, and Marlena Graves. That’s enough to warrant an award right there!

The mysteries and paradoxes Michel explores in upbeat and nicely crafted chapters are Incarnation, Kingdom, Grace, and Lament. This isn’t exactly the creation-fall-redemption-restoration meta-narrative that so nicely shapes And Yet Undaunted but it is close. There is good stuff in here about wonder and goodness; there is hard stuff about brokenness and injustice; her insights about the Kingdom include good ruminations on this already/not yet mystery (and well as the upside down “blessed are” passages of Jesus. (You’ve got to read a chapter called “The High Treason of Hallelujah.”

And so, this book, too, offers what we might think of as a guide to basic Christian living, an ordinary sort of spirituality book that helps us with common stuff of faith and life. But yet, it is such a cut above the typical – graciously written, wisely construed, profoundly approached, with great questions for reflection and discussion that are really good. I mean, when a book is dedicated to “Jonas McAnn and the pastors like him” who are found “preaching the truth and trying not to miss the wonder” you’ve got to take notice.

(That is, if you know who Jonas McAnn is. He is, of course, the fictional preacher in a novel we highly acclaimed and awarded a few years back, Love Big, Be Well by Winn Collier. You see – she is using a literary character even in her dedication. How cool is that? This book deserves an award for the cleverness of the dedication page – I’ve never seen that before!)

Truly, in a world filled with ambiguity and confusion on one hand and overly dogmatic, strict and reductionistic views of truth on the other, it is lovely (indeed, it is necessary) to have voices of beauty and mystery that call us beyond binary black and white to the complexity of paradox. As it says on the back cover (which I am sure I cited in my earlier BookNotes review when this first came out)

Jesus invites us to abandon the polarities of either and or to embrace the difficult, wondrous dissonance of and.

I’m not sure I’m good at that. Maybe you aren’t either. That’s why we need this book. Thanks Jen Pollock Michel and thanks, IVP Books! Hooray.

Sacred Endurance: Finding Grace and Strength for a Lasting Faith Trillia J. Newbell (IVP) $16.00  We hope you know Ms. Newbell as a great children’s writer. Her book about multi-ethnic reconciliation in the context of God’s faithfulness to the redemption of the creation, God’s Very Good Idea, is such a favorite because it helps children (and parents) to appreciate the “creation-fall-redemption-restoration” four chapter gospel that we talked about above, and it is passionate about diversity and multi-ethnic ministry from a gospel-centered perspective. She has written other good stuff and I trust her, also as a black woman, for offering a certain slant of insight that many of us might miss.

And so, when she did a book on endurance — on keeping on keeping on, as we used to say (or running the race as the Apostle Paul puts it) — I was interested. But I wasn’t sure this was going to be extraordinary. There are lots of books about hanging in there. Although it is about other stuff as well, I find Visions of Vocation by Steve Garber very hard to top (which makes much of loving the very messy and hurting world in the same manner that God does, and not growing cynical or jaded in that journey.) It is a live question: how do we keep on loving well, serving, being faithful until the end? How about that line from the Eugene Peterson book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction? Nurturing a long haul sort of faith is needed now more than ever.

And so I turned to Trillia Newbell’s book, realizing there were great blurbs on the back from people of color I respect, like Bryan Loritts and Christiana Edmondson.(I do hope you know the podcast she helps with, Truth’s Table.) And I realized that Ms. Newbell has so much insight and frames this question so wholistically that it stands not only as a good example of faithful Christian guidance on the topic (endurance) but as an example of how to do a thoughtful, substantive, faithful sort of Christian self help book. This is “basic Christian living” 101 and more. I’m excited to name it as a great book in this genre.

You see, while it offers standard fare advice — good advice! — about turning to Jesus and being faithful, and trust in God and the like, it offers this advice in ways that are framed by the bigger story of God using suffering and God redeeming the ordinariness of our days. There is no breathy promises but no let-it-all-hang out and revel in the rawness, either. She’s honest, but she wants to help people grow in their maturity. She is equipping us to think well and live well. We are called to a race and she wants us to finish it well.

And she covers content that some basic Christian living books miss. For instance, she has a chapter about the role of the mind, and she talks about enduring in society. (Yes, questions of race and racism are part of basic Christian living!) She calls us to do life with others in community and insists (as my friend Alan Noble who wrote Disruptive Witness says of it) that we can be faithful “without denying or downplaying the reality of suffering and evil we face in this life.”

I was heartened that my instinct that this is framed by a bigger picture and better story when I saw this review by Paul David Tripp (author of the popular devotional, New Morning Mercies) who writes this. Notice the second line — he new it was going to be different, “deeply wise.”

“This is the best book on endurance I have ever read. As I began, I knew this book was going to be different–Trillia Newbell has given us something that is deeply wise, practical at every turn, and laden with illuminating illustrations. Again and again she points us to Jesus and reminds us each time that the hope for our endurance is not found in our faithfulness but rather made possible because of his. You don’t have to dread the race ahead; you can look at the road ahead with anticipation and hope. This book will tell you why.”

There are lots of great little books to help ordinary Christians learn about their faith, grow deeper in their spiritual formation, get the gospel in their bones in a way that helps them deepen their discipleship. But many are laden with less than stellar writing or overpromising or cheap sentimentality. We tip our hat to Trillia for offering good counsel and fresh encouragement that is sold and good and true, even for those who are struggling on this leg of the journey.

VITAL BOOKS ABOUT MISSIOLOGY AND MISSIONS

Although it isn’t a hugely popular section of our store, we are proud to keep old and new titles on global missions packed into our shelves in that important category. Good publishers continue release volumes in this robust conversation about the nature of mission and the ways Christ’s church can be expanded around the globe. Of course, with the majority of Christians now living in the “two thirds” world, mostly in the global South, those who train Western missionaries have considerable re-thinking to do. Those in mainline churches and those in evangelical traditions are all doing vibrant work in producing scholarship to equip those doing engaged in missionary endeavors. Here are just three we want to honorably mention this year.

Global Arts and Christian Witness: Exegeting Culture, Translating the Message, and Communicating Christ Roberta R. King (Baker Academic) $26.99 Scott Sunquist and Amos Yong are among the sharpest missiologist in North America and they are the senior editors of an on-going series called “Mission in the Global Community” published by Baker Academic. If you are interested in this high level, academic work in missiology, you should order them all from us. This is the latest and is a notable example of the interesting sort of cutting edge work done at the interface of anthropology and linguists and culture studies and gospel presentations.

Before I explain that one, I must say this: IVP Academic has a similar and equally scholarly and truly fascinating line of edgy missiology volumes in their “Missiological Engagements” series. And Roberta R. King (along with William Dyrness) have edited a companion volume to Global Arts and Christian Witness that has appeared on this IVP Academic series. That one is called The Arts as Witness in Multifaith Contexts edited by Robert King & William Dyrness (IVP Academic; $35.00.)

Here is what the publisher says about this amazing, breath-taking collection of essays from all over the world:

In search of holistic Christian witness, missionaries have increasingly sought to take into account all the dimensions of people’s cultural and religious lives—including their songs, dances, dramatic performances, storytelling, and visual arts.

Missiologists, educators, and practitioners are cultivating new approaches for integrating the arts into mission praxis and celebrating creativity within local communities. And in an increasingly globalized and divided world, peacemaking must incorporate the use of artistic expressions to create understanding among peoples of diverse faiths. As Christians in all nations encounter members of other religions, how do they witness among these neighbors while respecting their distinct traditions?

The Arts as Witness is a primary source sort of first-hand collection by missiologists and artists. There are chapters with titles like these:

“God Moves in a Mysterious Way: Christian Church Music in Multifaith Liberia, West Africa, in the Face of Crisis and Challenge” (by Ruth M. Stone) and “Sounds, Languages, and Rhythms: Hybridized Popular Music and Christian-National Identity Formation in Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia” (by Sooi Ling Tan) or “Art as Dialogue: Exploring Sonically Aware Spaces for Interreligious Encounters” (by Ruth Illman.) This stuff is a far cry from the caricatures of missionaries in novels like The Poisonwood Bible, say. These are evangelical missionaries and musciologists, doing stuff that ends up in chapters like this: “Simba Nguruma“: The Labor of Christian Song in Polycultural, Multifaith Kenya” as told by (Jean Ngoya Kidula. Okay?

Man, this is fascinating, whether it is a ground-breaking chapter by Dyrness on the poetic faith of Zapatistas in Mexico or how contemporary art can critiques neocolonialism (in the chapter “Wild, Wild China by Joyce Yu-Jean Lee.) These are just so amazing, collecting pieces that “speak of the power of art in making peace, contextualizing theology, and aiding in the evangelization of peoples.”

But, whaaat? Is this too much, too specific, too much arcane detail? I understand. Which is why we also are honoring Global Arts and Christian Witness: Exegeting Culture, Translating the Message, and Communicating Christ. It is also meaty and substantial but perhaps more foundational.

In this one, as you can see from the title, it does, in fact, explore how artists are part of this global missions movement. Needless to say (as we often do) art needs no justification in God’s good world, so artists don’t “need” to be evangelistic or missionary-minded. In fact, good artists informed by wise, Christianly conceived aesthetics, would say art is to be allusive and imaginative and, well, artful, so doesn’t “have a message” in any prosaic sense. (Otherwise, it isn’t art, after all, but more akin to propaganda.)

But yet, for some few artists, they are called to hook their artistic gifts to global missionary efforts, and when they do it is spectacularly interesting, and often fruitful. Global Arts and Christian Witness (complete with full color plates and photographs) is an up-to-the moment report from the field by this good thinker about how artists can be part of the global work of sharing the good news of God’s Kingdom.

Dr. Roberta King is a professor of communication and ethnomusicology in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. She is a great scholar and activist and writer.

Here is what hip hop activist and Christian scholar Daniel White Hodge (whose book Homeland Insecurity: A Hip Hop Missiology for the Post-Civil Rights Culture we’ve award as notable book last year) says:

It has been said that music is a universal language, but its meaning is not. King has given us an in-depth analysis adding to the ethno-musicological lexicon in great detail. In a world where everyone has some type of favorite music, King’s astute inquiry gives us a better glimpse into the complexity of music from around the world. Very much worth the read!”

Discipling in a Multicultural World Ajith Fernando (Crossway) $19.99 This book is remarkably complex and multi-faceted, covering so much. I want to celebrate it and award it and promote it here, even if I realize too few really want to study up on this detail. But it is a detail we increasingly need to learn and this is pioneering and wise. Fernando is an amazing Sri Lankan leader (and has served the global Youth for Christ movement for years.) I would trust any book he wrote about anything (such as his must-read The Call to Joy & Pain: Embracing Suffering in Your Ministry or his inspiring NIV Application Commentary on Acts.)

Here he is insisting that our multicultural world needs countercultural disciplers. Hmmm. Let that sink in.

Of course, this presumes – and I suppose some of our readers here, if you are still with me, may not resonate with this assumption – that new believers need to be mentored, guided, that we all need spiritual guides, directors, coaches, pastors. That we are to “make disciples” suggests that some of us, at least, should be learning how to “disciple” others into the ways of Christ-honoring discipleship. Whether that is a process of catechism or spiritual direction or Bible study, we simply must help shape and care for and guide and led those who under our watch come to want to follow Jesus. Healthy evangelism always must lead to follow-up and a process of mentoring new believers.

And so, if this is true – and it obviously is – how does this “discipling” happen in the ever-more-common cross-cultural situations. Global missionaries have to think about this and missiologists are endlessly hoping to find the answer to a fruitful “contextualized” way to relate Christ and culture. But anyone in almost any town in North America, now, must take up this discussion. We all must wonder how to be sensitive to cultural and ethnic concerns as we make disciples.

Ajith Fernando’s great, provocative, fascinating book asks how we do spiritual guidance, mentoring, teaching, and leading (what he calls discipling, for short) in contexts such as among those from cultures that are oriented around honor and shame; what about honoring family commitments, if the family is of another religion (or no religion as such?) What about dealing with persecution. This is a practical guide to disciple-making as we help others grow into faithful followers of Christ within their own social and religious contexts. Some of these stories may be set in South Asia, but you will learn much from them and it just may keep you from harming those from other cultures you are befriending even now.

On Mission Together: Integrating Missions Into the Local Church Richard Noble (Falls City Press) $14.99 There are a small handful of books about how local missions committees or missions advocates or other leaders (pastors, but not just ministers) can navigate the admittedly complicated context of the local congregation and its needs and make clear the need for an emphasis on mission. And even for those mission-minded churches (like those famously documented in Tom Telford’s wonderful Today’s All Star Missions Churches) or those only wanting to be, On Mission Together by Rich Noble is just what you need!

As the globally recognized leader Peter Kuzmic writes in the remarkable foreword, it is written in what Billy Graham once called “the spirit of Lausanne.” That is, in the spirit and wholistic ethos of the famous Lausanne missionary conferences and statements that guided the best of a generation or more of thoughtful, contextualized, evangelical missionaries leaders. Kuzmic rightly says it is “almost comprehensive, well-organized, Manual for Missions” and that it almost burns with the beloved heart and vision and passion of Richard Noble for helping churches deepen their commitment to the Great Commission.

We want to celebrate and honor this book as notable because there is so very little like it out there. That may not sound rather prosaic, but it is said with gusto and joy: we rarely get to say that there is precious little in a field or genre, and this book deserves this big accolade. Our Mission Together is both a primer and a handbook, a guide and a big set of thoughtful suggestions, helping any given local church become more adept at educating about, supporting, and sending global missionaries. It is “a clear and concise guidebook for any church wanting to make global missions extend beyond an annual offering or a Minute for Missions.” Ya know?

Three big cheers for this classy, boutique Western Pennsylvania publisher and for Richard Noble, a well-known and widely-respected Christian Missionary Alliance missions mobilizer. He is the founder and director of the Center for Missional Engagement and deserves to be heard.

A BEAUTIFUL, QUIET GEM

Faithful Friendships: Embracing Diversity in Christian Community Dana Robert (Eerdmans) $19.00 I’m not sure what first alerted me that this would be a quiet gem, a great little book, perhaps too unsung, but important and wonderful. Perhaps it was the sub-title, or the fact that a foreword was offered by Christine Pohl, who wrote the seminal, essential Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition and Living Into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us and Friendships at the Margins: Discovering Mutuality in Service and Mission. If Pohl says something is important, we should listen.

I realized early on by reading Ms Pohl’s good foreword that this is, indeed, a book about friendship. I thought maybe the word “friendship” in the title was just useful for an image, but that it was mostly about community, about church. And it is, I suppose. But Dana Robert’s is working deeply here – even though the book isn’t academic or arcane – in the questions of virtue and relationships and character. What kind of people are we in our communities of faith? What kind of relationships form us? That is, what kind of friends do we have?

We don’t know whether to put this book under our section about racism and multi-ethnic ministry because it is about cross-cultural diversity. But is is also about diversity within the church, so we surely should shelf it in our section about community, next to ecclesiology. But, you know what? It also is a book, as Pohl reminds us, about friendship. So it goes under friendship, over in the self-help sort of personal growth section. I almost listed in in that category in the PART ONE of BookNotes Best of 210-9.

Faithful Friendships came out of lectures given at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Virginia, a lively and wonderful place. The ideas were first shaped by a series of talks she gave at Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary. Currently, she teaches World Christianity and History of Mission (and is the director of the Center for Global Christianity at Boston University.) So she gets around – Baptist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic. (And Pohl, who studied at L’Abri, with Francis Schaeffer, teaches at Asbury, a fine United Methodist institution.)

Isn’t it nice that such ecumenical voices have so much to tell us, to teach us about Jesus and his tender call to care for others? This book is deeply Christian, rooted in the gospels, and yet if full of contemporary stories, examples and illustrations of lasting friendships and cross-cultural initiatives. You can see more of why we love it, and why I insist on honoring it here as a lovely release from 2019 by hearing these other important figures who commend it:

“Dana Robert has been that rare combination of renowned scholar and committed church mission leader. In this book, Dr. Robert does a marvelous job of reclaiming the practice of friendship as essential to Christian ethics and church life. I’ve just returned from a bruising at the United Methodist General Conference, full of talk of division and schism. I’m thinking, ‘Dana Robert’s guidance and wisdom, just when we need it. What a gift.'” Will Wiilimon, Accidential Preacher

“What a remarkable–and unusual–book Dana Robert has given us! Though esteemed as a scholar of church history and mission, she has ranged far beyond academic categories to explore the deepest human needs and to reflect on the models of friendship she has seen in Christian communities. This is not a sentimental book; her copious illustrations depict Christian commitment across boundaries, often in peril. Preachers and church leaders of all stripes will value the way she has woven biblical and theological insights together with her own warmhearted message. Dana Robert is herself a friend in the church’s need.” Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion

“Refusing to be torn apart by wars, revolutions, and systemic injustice and oppression, the individuals in Faithful Friendships manifest their faith and humanity in noble acts of friendship that defies the boundaries of race, nationality, class, religion, and culture. An inspiring read.” Xi Lian, Duke Divinity School

SURPRISING, POWERFUL, HONEST, HEART-BROKEN: A CRY FROM THE MAINLINE CHURCH, IMPORTANT FOR US ALL

Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the Us Lenny Duncan (Fortress Press) $16.99  I wasn’t sure how to honor this hot love letter of a book that came out this summer. It is, as the subtitle reveals, a book mostly for mainline Lutherans. The ELCA is said to be one of the whitest denominations in the US, but it is, I’d say, a stand in for most mainline denominations. I know a number of clergy of color in our own Lutheran Synod and have only had the briefest of conversations with some about how they navigate their own embodiment within their mostly white region and mostly white congregations. Some are, as you’d expect, more outspoken about racial justice issues, while others perhaps do not feel called to that particular ministry or do not want the burden of hosting that conversation. Maybe they are content, maybe not.

I used to sell books as one of the only white people at an all African American conference for black men and women – clergy and congregants – in my own PC(USA) denomination. Like the ELCA, we’ve made all sorts of statements and public commitments to ethnic diversity and racial justice. Our mainline denominational publishers have done radical books and our leaders have issued declarations. But only as I was privileged to be an insider to the conversations within the safe spaces of the black Presbyterian caucus, so to speak, did I realize that despite the right messages (sometimes) from leadership, people of color have huge barriers and frustrations within largely white organizations, even those that say they are mostly progressive on these issues. As I started to read Rev. Lenny (the Lutheran) Duncan’s Dear Church I could almost hear my black Presbyterian brothers and sisters from years ago. This stuff is talked about in public a bit more these days, but the issues of race and class have not gone away.

(That Duncan add passion for inclusion of those other than cis-gender folk would make it controversial in some black churches, of course and in this, he does not speak for all people of color, or course.)

In his love letter to the ELCA, Duncan offers the church a “new vision for the future.” I’m not so sure what is so “new” about fighting white supremacy, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, and economic injustice. He stands with immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community and while we don’t do it very well, the call to do so isn’t new, certainly not from this publisher. But in all this heart-felt anguish and hope, Duncan calls us to consider deeply and forthrightly just how willing we are to truly and faithfully enter that struggle for the long haul.

The writing in Dear Church is shall we say, a bit colorful and Rev. Duncan is (perhaps at first glance) a surprising character to lead the church of Luther to a new reformation. Lenny Duncan is, as he says, “the unlikeliest of pastors.” He was formerly homeless, he drifted all around the country. He was very seriously un-churched. Incarcerated. So he has some of that rough past experience and brings some history and struggle and hardship to his work as pastor at Jehu’s Table in the heart of Brooklyn. This radical social and spiritual transformation isn’t uncommon among Pentecostal and evangelical church leaders, but it is more rare in the more middle American mainline churches. Ya know? This story almost sounds, well, Biblical in proportion.

I agree (perhaps in a slightly different way than Duncan means it) when he says that the problems with the declining membership church facing shifting demographics and shrinking congregations “are not sociological, but theological.” Right on; in fact, I wish he’d have explored that more.

In this heart-felt open letter to the mainline church, Reverend Lenny Duncan calls us all to renewal, to revival. He invites us to rise up in God’s Spirit – yes, in terms of a radical vision of a fully open and inclusive church and a wholistic mission that subverts the idols and ideologies of the day, and of status quo congregations, but it is a spiritual renewal about which he writes. This really does mean turning to God and getting serious about our discipleship in the way of Jesus and His counter-cultural movement. He’s right about that, you know, and he brings this challenge with lots of energy and color and spicy storytelling. It’s worth reading, and it has a lot of integrity.

Even if you disagree with Duncan’s progressive sort of theology and his liberationist hermeneutic and lefty sort of politics, you should agree that this feisty read is better than the passionate (manicured) voices calling us to a safe sort of mega-churchy pseudo-revolution. I’m tired of hip and breathy evangelical voices calling us to cool zeal and making a difference and changing the world, when, frankly, they don’t even touch the big issues of structural and systematic idolatry in our society; they’ve co-opted the language of revolution but don’t really mean it. Dear Church means it. Rev. Duncan may not have every analysis fully right – read it and conclude for yourself – but he is pointing us in the right direction, calling us out, inviting us to be serious about faith and action, and to not give up on God’s work in the mainline churches. His diagnosis is severe and his proposals are radical.

I don’t know how my BookNotes fans will take this, but here are how some in his own beloved ELCA have responded:

Rev. Lenny Duncan is a voice calling in the wilderness. I am deeply grateful for the comfort and the discomfort his book brought me. I dare you to read this book, church. I dare you to be open to the repentance it calls for, to the grace it manifests, to the pain it witnesses to. I dare you to be changed by the truth in its pages. I dare you to not look away. It’s time.

Marrying stunning, reverberant personal stories with little-known Lutheran history, Duncan makes readers laugh out loud in grim recognition. His critiques of our beloved church strike a tender spot in the heart, not because they are harsh, but because they are true.

The Reverend Lenny Duncan writes with a searing message urgently rooted in true love. His deep commitment to speak the truth to his white siblings in the church reads as a desperately clarion call. Dear Church isn’t just a good idea for a book study–the grace-filled ferocity that overwhelms its pages reminds one of early writings from the Latin American base communities that formed liberation theology as we know it today. Duncan has written a necessary addition to the corpus of Christian writings in the twenty-first century. We ignore his plea at our own peril.”

FAVORITE BOOKS and DVDs ABOUT THE BIBLE

I love reading books about the Bible and do my fair share of informal Bible teaching, here and there. There seems to be a rising tide of fresh, new Bible scholars these days and we saw remarkably important books by authors like Nijay K. Gupta and Brant Pitre and Michael Bird and Douglas Campbell, all who are writing on Paul, perhaps in conversation with leaders in the field like Michael Gorman, who published this year Participating in Christ: Explorations in Paul’s Theology and Spirituality (Baker Academic; $30.00.)

There has been quite an interest in Paul studies this year, and we’re excited. One important and interesting one that we announced at BookNotes last winter was Preaching Romans: Four Perspectives edited by Scot McKnight & Jospeh Modica (Eerdmans; $20.00.) It offers four different “takes” or approaches to the famous epistle and then suggests how preachers should proclaims the message of Romans. There are not only essays about the four different approaches, but sample sermons.

Some of the esteemed scholars and preachers who are included in this good resource are Michael Gorman, Fleming Rutledge, Michael Bird, Douglas Campbell, Richard Hays, Tara Beth Leach, William Willimon and others, all indicative of one of the four interpretive perspectives

This is a really interesting, very useful, and I think inspiring volume and recommend it for anyone interested in Bible study, in Paul, or in preaching. Kudos!

Later in the year, Scot McKnight himself did a freshly conceived but careful commentary on Romans entitled Reading Romans Backwards: A Gospel of Peace in the Midst of Empire (Baylor University Press; $29.99 — no discount available on this one; sorry.) It, of course, emphasizes the ecclesiological context and implications and has gotten very good reviews. It is a notable volume, for sure, but if you’re going there, stay tuned (below) to see me once again rave about the astounding and energetic Romans Disarmed.

Although it has a very different style and approach, I have to admit I enjoyed much of the little paperback by John Piper called Why I Love the Apostle Paul: 30 Reasons (Crossway; $14.99.) I spend a lot of my own time in the Old Testament, so it’s good to hear him say “Besides Jesus, no one has kept me from despair, or taken me deeper into the mysteries of the gospel, than the apostle Paul.)

Zondervan’s useful “Story of God Bible Commentaries” (edited by Scot McKnight & Tremper Longman) saw several new volumes this year (for instance, Joshua by Lissa Wray Beal and Acts by Dean Pinter.) They’ve added more to the excellent paperback “Biblical Theology for Life” series – see Nicholas Perrin’s Biblical Theology of Life: The Kingdom of God.

Zondervan made a real mark in 2019 as they released two different video curriculums by N.T. Wright and Michael Bird and a major, major textbook This is amazing — what riches we have to use among our churches and small groups and Bible studies and fellowship groups. First, last winter, there was the upbeat and fabulous “live from the Holy land” 8-session DVD The New Testament You Never Knew Video Study: Exploring the Context, Purpose, and Meaning of the Story of God ($39.99, or $51.99 for a DVD/Participant’s Guide combo package.) It’s perfect for almost any group that wants solid teaching that is accesible and clear.

Then, in the fall, they released Wright and Bird’s massive (992 page) text The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians (Zondervan Academic; $59.99) that surely deserves the acclaim it has been getting. It is superb; perhaps the best volume of its kind! There is a large companion workbook, too, The New Testament in Its World Workbook, that can be bought to go through this big text which is useful as a study resource; the workbook regularly for $22.99. We are real fans of this fabulous, serious contribution to New Testament studies.

The matching DVD set of The New Testament in Its World Video Lectures offers 37-lesson seminary level video lectures and shows them as good professors not just in the classroom but, again, live in the holy land. As you can imagine, given how lovely and helpful actually hearing N.T. Wright is (and Bird is pretty great as a speaker, too) this hefty set of lectures is highly recommended for those wanting a deeper study. It is, I’d say, almost unprecedented and, although seminary level, could be made available for somebody at almost any church. The 37 lessons on four DVD discs sells for $49.99.

The release of this major book (not to mention the workbook and the DVDs) is simply momentous, what we truly might call a publishing event.

“The big, bold theological interpretation of the New Testament that N. T. Wright has been building, piece by piece, in monographs and commentaries over the years now appears here in an accessible, single-volume New Testament introduction.”  –Dr. Matthew V. Novenson, senior lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

So, a very special shout out to Zondervan thanking them for their role in bringing this new N.T. Wright teaching to us all.

A month ago I described at BookNotes two new Walter Brueggemann books written for a popular audience. First there was the short but delightfully useful From Judgment to Hope: A Study on the Prophets (WJK; $14.00) which I highly recommend. Also released in October was  An On-going Imagination: A Conversation About Scripture, Faith, and the Thickness of Relationships (WJK; $18.00.) It is a fabulous transcript of the honest conversations between Clover Beal and Walt over a period of months together. It’s a must for any Brueggemann fans.

Something that delighted many with joy and surprise, even, was the Brueggemann book that WJK released last January — A Glad Obedience: Why and What We Sing (WJK; $18.00.) As we explained at BookNotes, it includes a number of studies on the role of music and hymns in our lives by way of studying a handful of typically mainline Protestant hymns, followed by a handful of chapters studying various Psalms that were firstly sung. It was so useful that it was given a foreword by the head of the wonderful and widely respected Calvin Institute on Christian Worship, John Witvliet.

Tremper Longman released a major work to through his hat into the ring of the genre of books that help us understand the hard and complicated stuff of the Bible in his Confronting Old Testament Controversies: Pressing Questions about Evolution, Sexuality, History, and Violence (IVP; $19.99.) He is as trustworthy as they come, it seems to me, so this deserves attention and appreciation.

I’ll admit that I really, really enjoyed and I learned a lot from Pete Enn’s witty and mostly helpful How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How an Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers–And Why That’s Good News (HarperOne; $26.99.) It doesn’t answer all the questions of a faithful hermeneutic, and revels in the loose ends a bit too much for my taste, but it’s a really good read. It deserves a very honorable mention. I know some think he’s gone way too ambiguous about the perspicuity and authority of the Word of God but I don’t think that is fair. He’s just trying to help us, as he says, see how the literature we’ve been given in our Sacred texts actually works.

It isn’t easy to pull off faithfully, but I adored The Old Testament in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic by the impeccable Christopher J.H. Wright (IVP Academic; $16.00.) I co-taught an overview of the Old Testament course at our church and read a lot of Hebrew Scripture stuff this past fall. This little volume was really good. Also released in 2019 was The New Testament in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic by the very astute Wheaton prof, Gary M Burge (IVP Academic; $16.00) As always, InterVarsity Press has this knack to create good books that are thoughtful and informed without being overly academic. They do lots of books for the “thoughtful layperson” alongside their extraordinary scholarly imprint. IVP Academic. (These two are, by the, in their “IVP Academic” imprint which I guess they suppose will allow them be adopted as college-level introductory texts. I suppose, but they aren’t nearly as scholarly as many in that academic imprint, so don’t let that scare you away. These make great books for any reader.

I think IVP Academic did the most consistently interesting Biblical studies and other academic output this year (see HERE for their Fall 2019 catalog, which is much more than Biblical and theological books and includes rigorously scholarly work as well as less technical volumes but that are still fairly academic; we stock many of these, of course, and can get them all.) See HERE for the interactive Baker Academic Fall 2019 catalog to see their remarkable listing of serious scholarship as well as the less formal but fairly academic listings as well.)

I hope you notice the 2019 IVP releases in their great “Week in the Life of…” series, such as A Week in the Life of Rome by James Papandrea, A Week in the Life of a Greco-Roman Woman by Holly Beers, or A Week in the Life of a Slave by New Testament scholar John Byron. These tremendous little books appeal to those who want an easy read (part fiction, part non-fiction, actualy) that puts us right into the social context of the New Testament. Congratulations to them for offering this kind of good work.

God’s Sabbath With Creation: Vocations Fulfilled, the Glory Unveiled James Skillen (Wipf & Stock) $35.00  I sadly suspect that you may not have heard of this stellar 2019 release (unless you saw my shout out about it at BookNotes) nor its fine author, Dr. James Skillen.  Skillen often works in the higher scholarly levels of political philosophy and is respected in a circle of political thinkers in the line of the Dutch Christian statesman Abraham Kuyper (and even more specifically, among those who studied legal theory or social philosophy in the tradition of Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd, like, say, David Koyzis, Jonathan Chaplin, Paul Marshall, John Witte, Elaine Botha, Bob Goudzwaard, James K.A. Smith, Stanely Carlson-Thies, Robert and Jessica Joustra, Matthew Kaemingk, Richard Mouw, and even Nicholas Wolterstorff. ) And yet, Skillen’s passionate, deeply thoughtful, generative scholarship isn’t as known as it might be. His 2014 The Good of Politics A Biblical, Historical, And Contemporary Introduction is still a must read for our times as it offers a positive theological articulation of Godly statecraft and the legitimate role of government, offering a foundation for the civic organization he founded decades ago, Citizens for Public Justice. It’s an organization we value and look to for a way out of the tired stalemates. So Skillen has done as much well-balanced thinking about Biblically-informed statecraft and citizenship and a deeply religious public faith than almost anybody I know.

So, therefore, when Skillen offers this first major collection of writings since his retirement from CPJ, Christians interested in redeeming the vocation of citizenship and politics amidst the clanging gongs of the religious right and the Christian left, we should listen. But, know this: God’s Sabbath for Creation showcases Jim’s love for Scripture and his deep awareness of important themes in the Bible. He draws on sources as profound as Meredith Kline and Karl Barth and Jorgen Moltmann and Abraham Kuyper, on Biblical scholars from Walter Brueggemann to Craig Bartholomew to Raymond Van Leuween.

God’s Sabbath for Creation has intriguing chapters, rich Biblical insights, new ideas, wild dreams, good hopes rooted in the Bible’s own story and its description of the creations purposes and the fulfillment of those purposes. It is one of the unsung books of the year by one of the unsung heroes of our time. It is not commonplace and at times it is challenging; as I think I noted in my previous review at BookNotes there is meaty Biblical exposition here, coupled with astute political theory and social analysis. But mostly Bible. It is truly extraordinary and one of the urgent tracts for our time, inviting us to image God’s redemption of His world in Christ and what it means to enter into the ultimate Sabbath of the healing, restoring, reign of God.

The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong Karen Gonzalez (Herald Press) $16.99  We have occasionally shared that this author met an acquisitions editor for Herald Press at our store and while we were trying not to eavesdrop, they signed the contract for this very book. (And then, naturally, I sold her some books on immigration issues.) But while that is lovely and fun, the attention for this book must be turned upon Ms Gonzalez, who is a great storyteller, a great Bible teacher, and an immigration advocate who has been there. We have joked (as we often do with these kinds of books) that need to keep on under immigration issues, but also under the study of Bible characters, even though, it is also a memoir. And what a riveting story she has of seeking safety in another land. As it says on the back, “Here is a gripping journey of loss, alienation, and belonging.”

In picking this up again this week it dawns on me that I want to name it as a notable book and personal favorite this year, but that I want to suggest that it is award-winning in the Biblical studies category. Yes, she is one of the few Christian writers about immigration issues who herself if an immigrant, and yes, she tells a lot of her poignant story, making this a heckuva a great read. But alongside the personal narrative and the natural advocacy, there is, at the heart of the book, a study of characters in Scripture who have fled their homelands. Seen though the lens of migration,Ms. Gonzalez studies Hagar and Joesph, Ruth and, yes, Jesus.

There is, as many of us have come to realize in recent decades, a lot in the Bible about how to be welcoming to strangers and to have gracious policies about immigrants. And there are narratives of refugees and those who are our “intrepid heros of the faith who cross borders and seek refuge.”

Kudos to Herald Press for doing these fine kinds of books that are a bit genre-bending but ultimately very, very helpful. Good Scripture study and inspiring Biblical reflection should be mixed with real life narrative and should lead to real life social change. Karen Gonzalez gest this, and The God Who Sees tells her own story, and how it opened up her insight into God’s Word. I love the cover, too. Highly recommended.

BIBLICAL STUDIES BOOK OF THE YEAR

Romans Disarmed: Doing Justice/Resisting Empire Sylvia Keesmaat & Brian Walsh (Brazos Press) $26.99   There is no doubt in my mind that the most interesting and, I believe, the most important book of Biblical studies this year is Romans Disarmed: Doing Justice/Resisting Empire. In fact, I think it was my very favorite nonfiction read of 2019; certainly it was the most provocative and intellectually stimulating. You can study my lengthy explanation of it at our BookNotes review HERE, but you may want to know a few quick things, now: this is one of these rare books that is lively and culturally engaged with side trips into racial justice and creation care and urban poverty even as it diligently (if creatively) grapples with the exegesis and interpretation and meaning and application of the Biblical text.

Years ago when thinking about Colossians with their friend N.T. Wright, they came up with the idea of an “anti-commentary” (which became 2004’s Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire; IVP Academic; $28.00.) It is a commentary; not quite line by line, but almost page by page. It is a commentary that points us to why we read the ancient Scripture in the first place and how in the world we interpret it well and live it out: it’s a “so what” sort of practical application reflection, read in light of and forged by their ministry making the world a better place. It’s not really an “anti-commentary” but a Biblical commentary as they are meant to be done with life and passion and color and controversy. That is, it isn’t about arcane history and syntax and word meanings in some abstract dogmatic sense, but it is about communities of fait (then and now) that are transformed by the story of God unfolding as they encounter the living Word. There is a lot of background scholarship and a lot of very contemporary cultural analysis and vivid, radical application. I bet it will offend you but I bet that it will bless you even more.

Their explanations of first century Roman life and how Paul’s pastoral letter would have been received and discussed and applied is spectacular. Their storytelling puts you into the culture of the day and even if it is a bit speculative (despite pages of studious footnotes) it makes the old book come alive. Their insistence that we strip the layers of accrued theological jargon from the letter and allow it to call us today into a Romans-like faith community that brought together rich and poor, the sexually conventional and those less so, slavers and those trafficked, Jews and Gentiles, is stunningly powerful, unlocking a revolutionary sort of application that is truly transformational. That is, it can be, if you are willing to be open to a new reading and consider that it may be a faithful, fruitful reading. And find some others to discuss it with and pledge to allow God to guide you towards experimenting with living it out, Romans style.

Sylvia is a creative and immensely talented Bible scholar and professor (whose work is cited by scholars like Richard Hays and others who write about echoes of the Old Testament found in the New, which she wrote about in her own PhD thesis under N.T. Wright decades ago.) Brian is an activist and campus pastor and prolific writer, having released books that are personal favorites of mine such as Transforming Vision, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be, Subversive Christianity, Beyond Homelessness, Kicking at the Darkness, St. John Before Breakfast and Habakkuk Before Breakfast. (Many of these, quite intentionally, I suspect, are co-written with others.) Brian and Sylvia steward a permaculture-based farm while experimenting with sustainable agriculture and hospitable homesteading, even as he does campus ministry at the University of Toronto and works with several social justice organizations in the city.

Perhaps it is their faithful, generous praxis (as the scholars like to put it) that gives rise to their deep insights about the social location and anti-Empire themes in Romans or maybe it is their years of close attention to the Scripture that pushed them towards increasingly radical forms of counter-cultural lifestyles; perhaps a bit of both. In any case, Romans Disarmed just shimmers with passion for Word and world, for the Pauline epistle and the powers that deform our own world, for Romans and for modern resistance. In all its complicated, ambitious glory the hefty, provocative Romans Disarmed is akin to their wonderful and much-debated Colossians Remixed. I believe it is one of the most important contributions to Biblical studies in quite a while and certainly my favorite and most pondered book of 2019.

BRIAN WALSH & SYLVIA KEESMAAT TO SPEAK AT HEARTS & MINDS MARCH 23, 2020

You can learn more soon at our Hearts & Minds Facebook page but we are pleased to announce that Sylvia and Brian are coming to Hearts & Minds to present some of their ideas from Romans Disarmed. It is a great, great honor to have these two authors with us. It will be a generous and stimulating conversation, we’re sure…

Please join us here at the shop in Dallastown on March 23, a Monday night, at 7:00 pm.

BEST CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN LITERARY CRITICISM

When Poets Pray Marilyn McEntyre (Eerdmans) $19.99 How can I not name this as a favorite this year, an award-deserving contribution to not only faith-based perspectives on literature, but, more, showing how ordinary readers can come to appreciate poetry more. Of course poetry does not need to be prayerful or prayed for people of religious faith to appreciate it – that would fly against all we stand for her, suggesting some cheap baptizing of so called “secular” work with some splash of the sacred. No. But still, this is a creative and generative experiment, a playful and maybe helpful suggestion of what it might be like to use these poems in this manner, to help us attend to them, and to allow them to point us to God and God’s graceful care for the world around us. This is not an essential use of poetry, but it is appropriate

Marilyn McEntyre knows all this, of course, and meanders her way into explaining (beautifully, in pages I’ve read out loud more than once in programs and preaching this year) how words matter, how God can use language and literature. So. Here is Ms McEntyre’s earnest treatment of a handful of poems (most of which were most likely not firstly written as prayers, although perhaps some were) and how we might pray them. What a great way to deepen our appreciation of some of these poets and their poems – a few which you may know, a few which you, like me, may not. And what a creative way to use God’s good gift of words and language and poetry to deepen our prayer life. When Poets Pray is very nicely done by an author we very much respect. It made bookselling in 2019 that much more special.

Reading Buechner: Exploring the Work of a Master Memoirist, Novelist, Theologian, and Preacher Jeffrey Munroe (IVP) $18.00 If we were being creative and playful and I had the energy to come up with clever-sounding award names, I’d award this something like “The Best Book Which Does Something We’ve Been Waiting For The Longest” or the “Finally, Somebody Did This in 2019” Book Award. In other words, we are thrilled to see this released into the marketplace and hope you, too, appreciate its wonderful significance.

There have been some fine compilations of Mr. Buechner’s various works; the daily devotional called Listening To Your Life is still a sturdy and fine suggestion and there is a great compilation of his eloquent sermons (Secrets in the Dark) but heretofore the only introduction to his work is the quite serviceable and wise (and pricey) hardback The Book of Buechner: A Journey Through His Writings by Dale Cooper (WJK; $30.00.) I don’t think there has yet to be a really good and accessible guide to his life and work for beginners, including – as the subtitle suggests, his memoirs, his novels, his theological work, and his preaching. Reading Buechner: Exploring the Work of a Master Memoirist, Novelist, Theologian, and Preacher by Jeffrey Munroe is that book. Hoooray.

There are four good chapters under the first memoir section, exploring, in order, Buechner’s famous and beloved The Sacred Journey, Now and Then, Telling Secrets, and The Eyes of the Heart. Part II looks at Godric and Son of Laughter (but oddly, no Brenden.) Part III explores Wishful Thinking and Peculiar Treasures while the three chapters in Part IV are Telling the Truth: Tears with Great Laughter and Secrets in the Dark: The Wonder of Words, followed by a nice closing chapter called “Reading Buechner Today.” There is a fine epilogue and a good appendix offering an annotated bibliography. Kudos to Jeffrey Monroe (who is ordained in the RCA denomination) and who is the Vice President at Western Theological Seminary where he also teaches writing.

There’s a very nice foreword to Reading Buechner by artist Makoto Fujimura, too, which makes this all the more special. Even the warm cover seems just right. Thanks to all who played a part getting this book to us. What a gift.

A BOOK I MUST AWARD – BUT IN WHAT CATEGORY?

Seasoned Speech: Rhetoric in the Life of the Church James E. Beitler (IVP Academic) $25.00 Okay, I’ve already said that I don’t know what to do with this amazingly interesting, brilliantly conceived, one-of-a-kind book. Kudos to IVP for bringing such stimulating and thoughtful books to us, even if, as I suspect, many stores just won’t carry it. I hope that is not the case, as this book deserves to be widely read, seriously considered, discussed and somehow applied. Although it isn’t a book that is easily “applied” even though it is chock-full of wisdom, full of insights, and oh so very, very needed. Rhetoric? Yes, yes, you know: how do we “speak the truth in love” as the Epistle commands? How do we speak in a way that is relevant and timely and gracious and clear and profound and good and stimulating and… well, you get the picture. How we speak, persuade, honor the image of God in others, denounce evil and highlight beauty and goodness – whether we are in ordinary, everyday conversations or whether we are novelists or essayists, bloggers or preachers, we simply have to think harder about how to learn to be wise and compelling. Form follows function, I think somebody said so we should know that how we speak is as important as what we say. Seasoned Speech helps us explore that in amazingly healthy, thoughtful, good ways. And that’s half the fun!

As I said in my previous review in BookNotes when this came out last Spring (even then I intuited it was genius and hoped it was as good as it looked) the title itself draws from Colossians 4: 6 where Paul wrote “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.” In this sense, it stands somewhat with that great book from a few years ago Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion by Os Guinness, even if that works a bit with satire as a element of faithful communication in presenting compelling Christian truth in a skeptical, post-Christian world. Beitler brings a different approach and it is nothing short of award winning.

As you perhaps can see from the cover, what this author is doing in this grand and thoughtful work, is exploring different (faithful) rhetorical styles as evidenced by several different public intellectuals, faithful Christians who have made their mark before the watching world.

Seasoned Speech used as case studies the rhetorical and communication stylings of C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Desmond Tutu, and Marilyn Robinson. What a great idea for a book, and what a splendid array of thinkers, writers, and communicators to help us grapple with how to have seasoned speech in different complicated settings.

I am sure we don’t have to explain to BookNotes fans that Lewis was the BBC apologist an intellectual Oxford don and a children’s storyteller. whose Mere Christianity explained faith as intellectually sound and a “myth which is also a fact,” His friend Dorothy Sayers was a playwright who said “The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination.” Bonhoeffer – wow. But you know he mostly talked about Jesus in his humility. And Tutu – helped bring down apartheid by talking about justice and our interconnectedness, not unlike the great MLK, I’d say. Robinson is as Beitler notes, a complex figure, doing very intellectually profound essays in places like The New Yorker (and collection in heady volumes published by serious houses) as well as her more popular Pulitzer Prize winning novels like Gilead. Reminds me of Mr. Lewis in a way – Christian apologist, novelist, and essayist.

How does it all get said, by writers, dramatists, activists, public speakers and introverted authors? Can we speak truth, salty and seasoned with grace, even if we are denouncing public stupidity and great evil? Can we be winsome and strong, prophetic and persuasive? What can we learn from these great public saints of the 20^th century?

This is truly one of the Best Books of 2019, notable and persuasive and, even though I fear it won’t be adequately studied, very, very important.

BOOK I MOST HATED TO LOVE / LOVED TO HATE

Shameless: A Sexual Reformation Nadia Bolz-Weber (Convergence) $25.00 Some years I use this playful heading to highlight a book I have very conflicted feelings about but which deserves to be named as a major book of the year. This captivating book surely fits that category and I know I’ll annoy both conservatives and progressives by saying I both truly loved and yet somewhat disapproved of this very moving, very tender, often right and sometimes troubling book. I couldn’t put it down, found myself cheering much of it, and was deeply moved by the reading experience and the great empathy and compassion it strives to engender. And that is true – Nadia is a caring pastor and advocate for those who don’t fit the mold – her own story, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint and the story of the church she founded (House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver) called Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People are books I truly love. We’ve been to the church more than once, and was significantly blessed by the communal experience, the singing, the interesting Lutheran liturgy offered in a serious if campy aesthetic and the very good preaching. You may not like her cussing or her bohemian ethos, but it just made me weep to see so many who would be excluded and made to feel unwelcome in so many places so obviously safe and loved and called together around the gospel in that place. Fans or haters – and this author has plenty of both – I hope you’ll respect me naming this 2019 book in public. Although I found some parts unhelpful and inadequate, I mostly loved this amazingly written, very raw and touching exploration of a new sexual ethic, free of shame and joyful about the goodness of God’s gift of erotic pleasures.

I am mostly with her in a call for a new sexual reformation, for a rejection of shame and embarrassment and an obsession with what some evangelicals call “purity.” We could use an honest admission that the Bible is less than perfectly clear about some things (including “purity”, the codes about which Jesus regularly dissed.) We need some pastoral encouragement for coping with the fact that many people are wounded around issues of sexuality (often by the church) and many are just different enough in their own funky inclinations and affections that we simply can’t just shame everyone and insist on legalistic compliance with attitudes and rules that are more Victorian than Biblical. I’m with Nadia that the church hasn’t had a robust doctrine of creation, or the body, or awe and beauty, and we haven’t taken the longings and relationships of younger adults as seriously as we might, either. For these and many more reasons, Shameless was a hard but important book for me to read.

Nadia’s stories are beautifully told and her empathy is inspiring. I think I’d read almost anything of hers because she is such an entertaining writer. (By the way: we stock her first, lesser-known book Salvation on the Small Screen: 24 Hours of Christian Television, so there ya go.)

Her extreme minimalism about all sexual ethics – basically do no harm – has been critiqued by those who cared enough to engage Bolz-Weber’s work seriously (see Wesley Hill’s fair response HERE for one good example) which illustrates some of my frustration with her shoddy thinking about it all. But as a caring storyteller and really good, colorful writer, as an earnest friend of the marginalized, and a pastor working for full inclusion in the church of those some might label deviants, she nearly wins the day, making reading Shameless a moving and poignant experience and unlike anything I’ve ever read. I don’t like it, fully, but I’ll never forget it.

BookNotes

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This first Part One of my annual favorite book awards is long… you may have to scroll down in your device to read it all and to see the order link at the very bottom. Thanks for pursuing this. We are immensely grateful for your interest and support.

Between stupid winter illnesses and out-of-store events and brand new or forthcoming books to read, our annual custom of announcing our Hearts & Minds Best Books of the Year has been late in coming. 2019 was a good one for readers of all sorts (even if nation-wide book sales were down) and I’m eager to honorably mention as many great titles as I can in this ramble through the halls of memorable reads.

It’s going to take me a few parts, so here is PART ONE, at least. It’s long, so be sure to hang in there until the bottom, a few yards down from here.

Most years I keep up the playful façade that these are Real Awards, but let’s face it. Not that many really care what this wordy bookseller from a small-town, family-owned business thinks and we offer no cash prizes. So let’s just say this: for our faithful tribe of customers who send us orders we are glad for your eagerness to hear our favs. A few regulars have told us they’ve been waiting; thanks for that. It’s hard, though, you know: I’ve had so many blessed hours with my nose in a book (as has Beth and the rest of our staff) that is hard remembering them all. Come on along, though, and I’ll share some of our favorites from that year of our Lord, 2019.

ALL BOOKS NAMED ARE ON SALE FOR 20% OFF.                                            PLEASE USE THE SECURE ORDER FORM LINK AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN.

Okay, we’re going to start off strong with a fun and notable one. Happily, this has become our best seller of 2019, even though we received in only a few weeks before Christmas.

THE BOOK THAT MADE ME HAPPIEST TO SELL THIS YEAR: ONE OF THE BEST OF 2019 and SURELY OF 2020

The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love & Learning, Worship & Work Steve Garber (IVP) $20.00  It is hard to declare decisively what my one favorite book was this year, but Garber’s A Seamless Life is up there, certainly among the top few. I read it twice, at least, and savored every page. The smallish, compact size and the textured paper and the vivid color photos makes me glad, the exquisite writing and the honest, sensible, yet radically integrated faith captures so much of my own heart. Is it fair to celebrate this as the Book of the Year if Steve is such a dear friend? I try to sort out if others will love it as I do if they don’t know Steve and Meg personally. I think so.

Certainly, this is a truly wonderful release and it is being taken seriously by good folks. (The endorsements on the back and inside cover are breathtakingly good, from advanced readers all over the globe.) We’ve gotten re-orders on it, which is always a good sign, that it is finding its readers and that others are longing for this sense of integration, a seamless life, a connection between work and worship, between Word and world. If you like Hearts & Minds, if you value BookNotes, I can say surely that you should order this book.

As I said in my big review HERE (please visit and read my comments it if you haven’t) these chapters in A Seamless Life are literally reports from the road, insights into Steve’s life and teaching and travels and observations written out from along the way. He brings so much good context to his stories (whether it is a reflection on his rancher grandfather or a film review or a story from his beloved Pittsburgh or a telling about a workplace he visited where healthy, faithful efforts were being made for the common good.) He finds much to celebrate, even as his heart is heavy with the brokenness of the world, and he affirms such goodness and beauty. There is a coherence to all of this, really, a seamlessness that the reader is drawn in to as these short essays gel into a big picture of a life well lived.

Here is just a bit of what I said when I was enticing folks to pre-order it from us here at Hearts & Minds:

Steve’s a born storyteller; he loves to hold up the work and witness of others to help us all be inspired to live more creatively and faithfully in-but-not-of this broken, broken, already-but-not-yet world. Yet, still, the movies and stories and exemplars in his other bigger books are arranged to illustrate the big points of the book, so, interesting as they are, they are mostly connected to that particular theme and illustrative. In The Seamless Life, however, Garber covers more topics which allows him to introduce to us even more of his friends, his favorite writers, his discoveries about family and friendship and church and business and more. The stories are front and center. In a way, these pieces are just more of the same we’ve come to expect from Steve but the scope is a bit more broad, and the short form allows him to dip in to this topic or that, tell this episode or quote that lyric or explain that movie with even more personality and obvious wisdom. It makes for very inspiring and interesting and energetic reading, urgent reports from the road. I don’t want to overstate this, but it is almost devotional, doxological.

FAVORITE BOOKS FOR CHURCHES AND PASTORS

There are dozens of books that come out every month about congregational life, pastoral ministry, denominational vibrancy, worship, renewal, missional vision, outreach, education, leadership, and more. 2019 has seen plenty of good ones and when we are at pastor’s retreats or conferences we highlight many of these. From really helpful, practical guides like How Change Comes to Your Church: A Guidebook for Church Innovations by churchy geniuses Patrick Keifert & Wes Granberg-Michaelson (Eerdmans; $16.99) to the great Peter Steinke’s Uproar: Calm Leadership in Anxious Times (Rowman & Littlefield; $19.95) to the edgy and rare work by missional wild guys Alan Hirsch and Mark Nelson released this year called Reframation: Seeing God, People, and Mission Through Reenchanted Frames (100 Movements Publishing; $19.99) there has been a richness of new thinking and important publishing. I could list many that are worth honoring, but besides these, we wanted to mention these five exceptional ones at least:

A Big Gospel in Small Places: Why Ministry in Forgotten Communities Matters Stephen Witmer (IVP/Praxis) $18.00  I am always on the look-out for books about smaller churches since, frankly, most congregations are not mega-churches and most are in smaller towns and are fairly, well, ordinary. Rural and rustbelt places without a lot of potential for growth, towns with “brain drain” and not many jobs for younger adults, you know. Sometimes we feel like we are in “forgotten places” and, in this book, Stephen Witmer cares. Not everybody may need this book, but for many small town clergy, this will be a huge inspiration. For most serving in rural and out of the way places, this will be a tonic. For those in these places, it may be obvious that God is with you but having a vibrant, thoughtful pastor remind you and further equip you may be just what you need.

There are a few things that make this book important. Firstly it is about what our culture deems insignificant places. Small towns and out of the way spots don’t have the sexy appeal of urban locations, and their problems are sometimes seen as less dramatic (even if no less painful) We’ve heard mission speakers and authors talk about extraordinary inner city work, about being peacemakers among rival urban gangs, or much needed, edgy racial reconciliation campaigns. We’ve heard about faith and work initiatives and big university outreaches – all strategic and exciting, even among the prestigious and powerful. That kind of drama and potential may not be prevalent in small places, and when we make a big deal out of big city work, we some how overlook those who live in more mundane contexts. How do we think big about small places? How can we resist the “Go Big or Go Home” mentality in our culture?

And that is another thing about A Big Gospel in Small Places: it does help us think about a sense of place. One chapter is called “Why Small Places are Better Than We Think” and another is “Why Small Places are Worse Than We Think.” Witmer neither demonizes nor idolizes but offers a fresh look, offering some intellectual insights to frame our work in out of the way places.

The middle, major part of the book has six chapters about how we can minister fruitfully in smaller places. That is, it develops a theological vision for small-place ministry. It is gospel-centered and offers a robust, orthodox view of how the gospel can be transformational, even amidst what he calls “joy killers in small-place ministry.”

The last three chapters are splendid for pastors or leaders wanting to be intentional and discerning about their calling to small places. He offers “Good and Bad Reasons to Do Small Place Ministries” and “Good and Bad Reasons Not to Do Small Place Ministries” and “Common Responses to Prioritize Big-Place Ministry.” This should be read by mission boards, denominational execs, moderators and Bishops and conference ministers and regional superintendents. It’s useful for those used to strategizing and thinking big, and it is useful for those who don’t really strategize much at all, like many mid-level judicatory folks already juggling so many balls in the air. I think this stuff will be useful, if not perfect, for many, many folks in church leadership these days.

Listen to Echard Schnabel, Distinguished New Testament professor at Gordon Conwell; I quote it because it is so good and right. Consider this:

This is one of the more important books written about the gospel and missions in recent decades. Stephen Witmer takes the gospel seriously: he is more interested in the good news than in church-planting strategies. He takes people seriously: he is more concerned for people than for programs. He understands success in terms of faithfulness to God’s calling rather than in terms of fame, in terms of the transformation of people’s lives rather than in terms of the numerical size of a congregation.

Here writes an academic who wears his scholarship lightly, a pastor who challenges his audience to think deeply, a follower of Jesus who follows Jesus to all the places where people live. Witmer explains that strategic thinking about ministry must acknowledge one of the great truths about God who lavishes his grace on city people, on small-town people, and on village people alike. This book is a pleasure to read, indeed a must-read for professors, students, and pastors who think about gospel ministry in the twenty-first century.

Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon David Kinnaman & Mark Matlock (Baker) $21.99  This is for anyone who is interested in retaining the young adults at their church – and who isn’t? – and is an exceptionally interesting, clear, and helpful resource. It offers an overview of the extensive research and evaluation Kinnaman’s organization (The Barna Group) has done on what keeps young adults from saying “you lost me” (as in Kinnaman’s 2011 must-read book that explored what goes wrong in young adult ministry, You Lost Me.) This new one shows what we might do right – five things needed to keep younger folks vibrant in faith and interested in your church.

I know there are more philosophically dense and theologically mature studies of this vexing topic. But none are as interesting and action-able and useful as this. It is simply a must-read, one of the most important congregational books of the year!

Here is some of what I wrote about this at BookNotes before. It was in a Labor Day column, I think, about books about faith and work, so I highlighted that particular aspect (one of the five practices explored) of Faith for Exiles. That it mentions us is just extra special, but, sincerely, that’s not why I celebrate and honor it here as one of the best books for church use this year.

After a little reminder that we had been taking pre-orders, and a Labor day wish for prayers for our package handlers and mail delivery folks who get books to us, and then you, I wrote:

As I explained in those previous BookNotes comments, this book reports on the latest Barna-based research on the sorts of practices and theological visions offered by churches that tend to keep and attract twenty-somethings. In a way, Kinnaman has done two previous books on stuff churches do wrong, attitudes and churchy habits that tend to discourage the emerging adults in their midst. This new one describes what works. In the “starred review” by Publishers Weekly it says it is a “wonderful, thoughtful book that conveys difficult truths in a spirit of humility.” They suggest, if widely read, it could influence the church for years to come.

Here is why I mention this now in the special Labor day issue of BookNotes: one of the five key practices that churches that maintain their relationship with their young adults and attract that age group is “To ground and motivate an ambitious generation, train for vocational discipleship.”

Did you get that? We must Train. For. Vocational. Discipleship.

This chapter — which, okay, I’ll admit I’m proud about, since it mentions the Jubilee conference and calls Beth and me “booksellers par excellence” — highlights the data that shows that a younger generation “gets” this vision of whole-life discipleship and longs for meaningful labor. They have grown up hearing about making a difference, about paying it forward, with work-world heroes like the founder of Tom’s Shoes. The book has some fascinating data about what millennials think of work (around their claim that God calls us to work in order to create abundance, order, and beauty.) Younger adults these days are ambitious and want to shine and we in the church simply have to connect this unique generational vision and energy with Biblical foundations and Christian theology and a robust perspective on work, vocation, and calling. We in the established churches have older work-world leaders that could mentor these younger ones in “vocational discipleship” (and Matlock and Kinnaman explain how) but, to be honest, perhaps some of the older ones might have to learn from some of the younger ones. I sometimes tell eager 21year-olds at Jubilee that they now, having heard what they’ve heard there and having read a book or two that they bought, may know more about this all-of-life-redeemed, vocational, Sunday/Monday work-world ministry stuff than their home pastors and parents and beloved youth ministers. Maybe we in the church need these kids as much as they need us.

In any event, that the Barna research group and Kinnaman & Matlock have identified this as one of the key practices that is necessary for effective shaping of those in this new generation in “digital Babylon” is significant. And, after all, aren’t we all in that same boat? We all need to hear this stuff. I highly recommend Faith for Exiles, and, certainly, that chapter on vocationally oriented discipleship.

I honor this as a notable book this year for another reason. Not only is it essential for anyone wanting to work with young adults or keep younger adults in their congregations, I think it is good for those who work with youth. Further, it is a book you can put into the hands of college-age or twenty-somethings; it will impress them, I am sure, help them, and, at the very least, you can ask if it resonates, if this sort of stuff would help them understand God’s purposes for their lives and help them realize their own need for the gospel, the church, and what Garber calls a “seamless life.” Faith for Exiles is relevant for those living in the i-Gen world of “Digital Babylon” and we commend it, urgently.

Fertile Ground: Faith and Work (Field Guide) for Youth Pastors edited by Luke Bobo (Made To Flourish) $7.99 This very small book is handsome and nicely made, a collection of five key chapters that help youth workers develop among their kids a robust and faithful foundation for thinking Christianly about culture, calling, work, and careers. We have written plenty about this topic in these BookNotes columns and have offered dozens if not hundreds of titles over the years that call us to deepen our appreciation of the value of work and to nurture a distinctively Biblical vision of both our perspective on and practices within our job sites. There has been precious few resources to wisely help youth take up this vision and hardly anything of book length to equip youth workers to talk to teens about all this,

Luke Bobo is developing curriculum and resources through the wonderful Made to Flourish network, an organization founded by Tom Nelson, author of Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work and The Economics of Neighborly Love: Investing in Your Community’s Compassion and Capacity. This is foundational stuff, drawing on Nelson and broader worldview writers (Al Wolters, Richard Mouw, James K.A. Smith) helping youth workers develop a cultural theology, create formative liturgical practices to shape young imaginations, and offering a integrated vision of the meaning of labor, the discernment of call, and the vision of social transformation. Think of the thoughtful book The Call by Os Guiness or the moving work of Steve Garber, say, appropriated for youth pastors. Think of the solid stuff of Amy Sherman (such as her must-read Kingdom Callings) or the nice Bible study by Bob Robinson, Reintegrate Your Vocation with God’s Mission made plain for teens. This is the overall vision and deep connection to the faith-and-work movement Luke Bobo has; Made to Flourish is to be honored and celebrated for offering their many services, and this kind of much-needed resource, specifically. What a substantive and thoughtful (and really handsomely designed) little book. A truly notable book of 2019!

The Pastor in a Secular Age: Ministry to People Who No Longer Need a God Andrew Root (Baker Academic) $26.99 Oh man, oh man, this is surely one of the most interesting and notable books of the year! We’ve had great conversations with many customers (okay, maybe not many) who have found this to be an exceptional study, provocative and one that has created space for deep and valuable conversations. The idea of it is brilliant, and Andrew Root is an author we always, always, recommend (whether you end up agreeing with his conclusions or not.) He is a Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary and is increasingly a very, very important thought leader. Happily, he seems to have the ear of both more conservative evangelicals and of mainline denominational folk. Just last week I highlighted it in a book talk with local friends from the United Church of Christ, encouraging pastors to work through it.

So what is this book about, really, and why is it deserving of a shout out here in our listing of best, favored, or most important reads of 2019? I’ll just say this: it comes on the heels of a previous much-discussed and awarded volume called Faith Formation in a Secular Age which came out in 2017. That book began a process of inquiry where (among other things) root explored the significance of Charles Taylor’s massive work The Secular Age for congregational life. (I trust you know that many of our favorite books in recent years have been in conversation with Taylor’s hefty volume and considerable analysis: see, for instance, How (Not) To Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor by James K.A. Smith, Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age by Alan Nobel, In Search of the Common Good by Jake Meador, Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What to Do about It by David Zahl, and Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism which has an excellent chapter on Taylor.)

In any case, in Faith Formation in a Secular Age Root brings a remarkably fresh critique of youth ministry and our fascination (in this secular age) with youthfulness. What a remarkably generative bit of insight, plumbing how our culture and our churches have failed in thinking well about our generations (and about the crisis of young adults drifting from the faith.)

So, here, now, in The Pastor in a Secular Age Root continues to draw on his very interesting social analysis and Taylor-esque imagination about our culture and then asks what people are seeking in their religiosity these days. And then – and here it gets interesting – if that is part of what is going on, then what, then, is the role of the pastor?

The first section of this book – 8 serious chapters – is called “Welcome to the Pastoral Malaise” and he moves from Thomas Becket to Augustine to the history of great shifts in pastoral roles (Henry Ward Beecher and Harry Emerson Fosdick) and what happens when the search for purpose (a la Rick Warren) and authenticity “becomes king.” He uses the famous sociologist Durkheim to explore all of this… and it is fabulously interesting. I have told pastor groups that they really ought to be reading this and I am confident it is the most important book (at least in this genre of studying about the nature of pasturing in our social context) for clergy in quite a while.

Part 2 includes a lot of creatively construed Bible study and suggests that God is “a ministering pastor.” You will have to decide if this major work is useful in helping you re-imagine your role in more faithful and effective ways, but there it is. This is important stuff. I think it is good not only for pastors, but for anyone who is seriously involved in church, cares about religious leadership, and wants to pursuing faithfulness together with their congregational leaders.

Listen to these two astute blurbs and see why I’m insisting this is such a vital book to be reading:

Good books help you see what you couldn’t see before–like why pastoring is so difficult. Better books help you see the work of God despite the millennia of obstacles we have thrown up against divine agency. Root thinks the living God can break through our pastoral malaise. Reading him, I found myself not only agreeing but learning and delighting and looking anew for the God who pastors us all.”
— Jason Byassee, Vancouver School of Theology

“In a world longing for enchantment but too cynical to accept it, pastors can understandably feel irrelevant and confused. Root provides a helpful overview of how our world became so disenchanted and what it might look like to attend to God in a world that has forgotten how to do so.”
— Danielle Shroyer, spiritual director and author

Every Ancient Ever New Winfield Bevins (Zondervan) $16.99  Bevins has written a lot over the years – he is a wise and admired United Methodist professor and director of church planting at Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. I didn’t need to glance at this for more than a second to know that it is one we should think about and one that many should be reading. Many have poked holes in the old chestnut among church people that young folks want “contemporary” worship and that “seeker sensitive” worship must necessarily be informal and pop-rock. Alas, as anyone who has been involved in these discussions for the last 25 years knows, it isn’t that simple. Exceptions abound. Liturgical services attract young people and sometimes when churches who have more conventional Protestant worship styles start a “contemporary” service, (with the often-spoken hope that it will attract the youth) the kids aren’t interested. Been there, friends?

Or you send your non-denominational kid off to college and she comes back talking about collects and homilies and Eucharist and the church calendar and the cool, gospel-centered Anglican priest whose church all the college kids are attending.  Yup.

Welcome Ever Ancient Ever New with its vital subtitle “The Allure of Liturgy for a New Generation.” Blevins is wondering a few things in this book, much of it learned from the likes of the late, great, Robert Webber (who coined the phrase “ancient future” back when many churches were grappling with the unsettling we called postmodernity.) He is wondering why young adults leave the church (mainline Protestant and more evangelical ones) and he wonders if a concern for mystery and ritual and beauty and something more somber and thick and deep might be attractive to these restless post-moderns  He is wondering in this quick read if there are insights from the creedal and higher liturgical churches and their sacramental worldview that might be useful even to congregations less informed by classic liturgy. He is wondering if there could be some kind of intentional admixture of the best of both worlds, evangelical and lively and liturgical and full of substantive beauty.

Listen to these great quotes that explain the importance of this book:

Despite all the confident, boisterous pronouncements that old forms of worship are dying or dead, liturgical worship — anchored by ancient prayers, enlivened by historic hymns, and centered on the Eucharist — quietly refuses to disappear. In this personal, journalistic look at some of the young adults finding their way back to it, Winfield Bevins helps explain liturgy’s beguiling persistence. This book chronicles a remarkably hopeful trend in today’s churches.”
Wesley Hill, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, Trinity School for Ministry

“There is a hunger among this generation to recover the historic roots of the Christian faith for discipleship and mission. Winfield Bevins’ new book offers a clear and compelling account of why young adults across North America are embracing liturgy. If you want to learn more about this movement and why it matters, this book is for you.”
Alan Hirsch, Author of the Forgotten Ways

“Winfield Bevins is an expert on the mission and renewal of the church–and with the research for this book, he is now well versed in the attitudes and practices of young people regarding liturgy and sacrament. Ever Ancient Ever New brings together the best of Winfield yielding something like a field guide to the mix of Gospel, culture, church, young people and liturgy. This is a must read if you are trying to reach and disciple young people in liturgical forms.”
Bishop Todd Hunter, Author of Giving Church Another Chance

Younger Christians are being spiritually renewed today through ancient Christian worship, community, and spiritual practice. Weaving wide-ranging research with scholarly wisdom, Winfield Bevins tells us their stories — and we find ourselves renewed, as well.
Joel Scandrett, Director of the Robert E. Webber Center, Trinity School for Ministry

MY TWO FAVORITE BOOKS of NARRATIVE NONFICTION – CREATIVE, VIVD REPORTING and ASTUTE REFLECTION

I love books that tell a story, but aren’t exactly a memoir, what some call “personal journalism.” Over the years we’ve touted many, some that have gone on to win Pulitzer Prizes and find their way to best sellers lists. What category are books like Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local – And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy or Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams or Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold or the stunning The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland by Dan Barry or Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age by Dan Zak that tells the story of protestors at a nuclear weapons site in ways that is informative and inspiring. These are some of my favorite reads in recent years, lively, well written, and powerful testimonials.

Well, this first book is the best of this sort I read this year, newly issued in paperback in 2019. What a delight to get to award this as one of our Hearts & Minds favs.  What follows is less reporting, but a collection of essays, observing a variety of locations. It is marvelous, if hard to categorize. I love these books!

The Library Book Susan Orlean (Simon & Schuster) $16.99  Do you know the work of Susan Orlean, a staff writer for The New Yorker since the 1990s? She has written bunches of books, from travel writing to The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup which is subtitled: My Encounters with Extraordinary People and is an unbelievable good writer. She is best known for the international best seller The Orchid Thief: A Story of Beauty and Obsession. Perhaps you’ve seen the film “Adaptation.”

And so, this is not just a quirky book lovers pick because it has “library book” in the title. Nope, this is so well written, I read pages and pages out loud, for night after night to Beth while we were supposed to be doing other things. I was captivated, and she was too – Orlean’s pages about going to the library as a child just captured our hearts and reminded us of our youth. (Beth’s mom was a librarian, after all.)

But, yet, The Library Book is closer to a true crime story because, well, it actually is about the investigation of the largest fire in the history of Los Angeles and the largest library fire in American history. On April 29^th, 1986 it would have been on the front pages of every paper in the country as the enormous blaze consumed more than a million books (including rare archives, maps, and so much more) except that was the day of the world-threatening Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union, which stole all the headlines that day.

The Library Book has been called “irresistible” and “a meandering masterpiece” and “a sheer delight” in part because it does tell the broader story of the role of books and libraries and librarians in a remarkably fresh way. But thirty years after the fire in the Los Angeles Public Library, the crime had not been solved. Orleans used her investigative journalistic chops to explore the story and reconstruct not only the awful day (what writing that entailed – you could feel the heat!) but launched a further investigation into if the fire was intentionally set (as was suspected) and if so, who, and why.

Of course anybody who loves books will, surely, find this endearing, as much of it is a lovely tribute to the power of books and their writers, readers, and sellers and purveyors. Come on, what book person can resist a book called The Library Book, researched and written by a woman one prominent critic called “a national treasure.” Ms Orlean travels widely in this journey, so it is more than just about the fire and the loss of books and services at the library, but that fateful day (and the mystery of its failed investigation) grounds the narrative.

One kind of funny sort of thing for some of us popped up early. As a clever device that she uses, the author (or book designer) has at the front of each chapter the library-card-looking Dewey Decimal-ish rendering of a book title and author, properly listed, I guess conjuring up images of the lost books from the fire, each offering some random hint of what that chapter is about. In the first chapter – I gather merely because of the overt title – a book title appears that is entitled To Begin At the Beginning. Well, that is actually one we stock now published by Eerdmans, written, as she notes, by Martin Copenhaven, a popular writer for Christian Century and a beloved UCC leader and seminary President. To see that book that I have held in my hands quit recently listed – presumably an early edition lost in the 1986 L.A. tragedy, was haunting. Who knew an obscure theology text by a UCC pastor would make its name into the chapter heading of one of the best-selling writers of recent years? Interesting, eh? Kind of like that time the Multnomah book Radical by David Platt made its way into a scene on the hit NBC show “Madame Secretary.” Sorry to digress; we book people take little joys in these serendipities.

Anyway, we are very happy to celebrate and honor The Library Book by Susan Orlean and commend it to our Hearts & Minds friends. You’ll love it.

The Absent Hand: Reimagining our American Landscape Suzannah Lessard (Counterpoint) $26.00 I try to pay attention to the releases from this important publishing imprint (known for doing some of Wendell Berry’s best work) as they always do handsome books that are well written and substantive. This one was by a writer who has done highly respected, well-crafted pieces of journalism for The New Yorker for decades and was a founded editor of The Washington Monthly and who was known for the very wonderful The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Desire in the Stanford White Family.

That she was doing the kind of work that I imagined might be likeJames Howard Kunstler (Geography of Nowhere and Home from Nowhere) or Jane Jacobs, or, in admiring the natural landscapes, maybe Annie Dillard or Terry Tempest Williams or those authors that enjoy telling us about their sense of place like Scott Russell Sanders. When I heard that in one of her chapters – about King of Prussia, a few hours away from us near Philadelphia – she was inspired by Joel Garreau’s Edge City: Life on the New Frontier (which I was always intrigued about but never read) I was sure I’d want to read this.

The rave reviews on the back from Bill McKibben, who promises of this author with such a penetrating intelligence, “Reading this book will, no kidding, let you look at the world in a new way, and that is a remarkable gift” didn’t hurt, either. That the president of the Foundation for Landscape Studies said that Lessard immersed herself in particular landscapes “in order to parse their broader underlying meanings ranks her style with Thoreau’s experiential mode of writing” helps explain the experience I had enjoying it so. It was one of the most memorable and pleasurable and informative experiences with a book I had this year.

In truth, one of my fondest memories this entire year is sitting outside under a nearby backyard tree with an almost adequate light, sipping something and savoring the rich, thoughtful writing and this demanding, sublime prose.

Elizabeth Barlow Rogers says of The Absent Hand,

The book is pitch-perfect and filled with cogent philosophical interpretations, a loving and shrewd appraisal of the physical fabric of our once-and-still beautiful but fraught country.

Witold Rybczynski wrote in The Wall Street Journal:

Unusual and engaging . . . A subjective, Whitmanesque meditation on the way we live today . . . What makes this book compelling is not so much where the author goes, but how she reflects on what she sees when she gets there . . . Her wonderfully trenchant observations cast new light on the everyday.

Ms Lessard is asking of herself and of us to ponder what is beautiful in what we see in our world around us (from beach plums to Ramada Inns) and why we care, why it matters. Whether we are observing a wilderness or rural area, a small town, a standard-fare development in a suburb, a dense urban city or that now common, previously mentioned “edge city” (between the exurb and the city proper, a sprawl of businesses and malls and industry that has a zip code but no residents) we must wonder: what is good, what is bad, what was lost, and what night be renewed?

Her keen observations “explaining the details most of us skip past” (as James Fallows notes) are substantial but beautifully crafted. The places she visits and what she sees and reflects upon in those places is estimable, surprising, at times.

Lessard visits so many places and finds so much endearing and perplexing. The first part is called “Listening to the Fields” and she spends time in her upstate New York village, explores suburbophobia, has a splendid chapter about Gettysburg, another about Natchez, and  more.

Part Two is called “The Hollowed City” and she spends much time in her beloved New York (including a chapter called “The Pumpkins of Bergen Street”), has a great piece on markets, and then goes to Youngstown, Ohio. There is more about urban life and the interface of the natural landscape and the built environment.

Part Three is splendid, seriously studying “The Absent Hand” and she writes about “The Corporation in the Woods” and “Atopia” and questions “Whose Hand?” My, my, you’ve got toe read the allusive and powerful chapter called “The Inverted Cradle.” This isn’t cheap or breezy, but it is rich and luminous and, at times, grave.

The Absent Hand was one of my very favorite books of 2019 and, I believe, a very important one. Order it today. There will be a paperback edition coming in March, which will be less expensive. Pre-order it today if you’d like…

PSYCHOLOGY AND PERSONAL GROWTH

The Louder Song: Listening for Hope in the Midst of Lament Aubrey Sampson (NavPress) $15.99 When we promoted this as a pre-order early last year we called it “stunning.” Here is what else we wrote about it:

The Louder Song by Aubrey Sampson is very well written and exceptionally thoughtful. I will admit, there are oodles of spiritual books that tell of the great suffering people have gone through. God helps folks cope, and it is a great grace. Some of the stories are heart breaking and heart warming. Whether they are beautifully rendered or plain, there is something moving about reading the stories of others journey into the depths and coming back out, chastened, sobered, but alive and still loving God and God’s people.

I have an allergy to books that offer clichés, though, or answers that sound too easy. Some of these sorts of books about making sense of suffering tend that way and we avoid recommending them. It is hard to match the pained, spare eloquence of Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Lament for a Son or the hard-won but faithfully raw insight of Gerald Sittser’s A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss.

And so, I’ll admit, when I read the long list of tragedies that befell this young woman — herself struck with a painful, chronic illness — I feared it would just be another rather sentimental story of God’s love for her through it all, fine but not terribly substantive.  But, my-oh-my, is this a strong, thoughtful, gripping book. Yes, Aubrey Sampson has suffered more than most, and yes, she tells about her grief and loss and struggle and pain. But this is also an apologetic for and study of lament, one of the few very good, accessible books on this topic. In The Louder Song she explores what it is like to have exploding grief and to be able to cry out; how, indeed, God uses lament to lead us between (as she puts it) “The Already and Not Yet.”

Ms. Sampson says,

God sings a louder song than suffering ever could, a song of renewal and restoration. Lament helps us hear God’s louder song. 

I really appreciate her shameless honesty, her devout piety, her robust faith, and mature spirituality. I liked her stories. And I commend her good scholarship — she is not just writing out of her own experience, rich and formative as it is, but she’s done the reading and thinking and processing of good Biblical and theological scholarship. How many evangelical testimonials of this sort integrate the insights about lament from, say Claus Westermann [who I first read because Brueggemann cited him so much] or the old Puritan Thomas Watson or modern thinker N.T. Wright? To see an author quoting Bono and Soong-Chan Rah and Lament for a Son and Marva Dawn and, of course, Michael Card’s Sacred Sorrow shows she’s got a thoughtful, balanced, creative, approach. To see Tim Keller and Anne Lamott in the same book makes me smile. To draw on progressive Africans like Mpho Tutu and stuffy Anglos like C.S. Lewis (and a quote from the Jeffrey Eugenides novel, The Marriage Plot) shows this is super interesting and well-edited.

There is a good listing of Bible verses on which those who are suffering can draw upon. There’s a thorough guidebook full of discussion questions for personal or group use.

The Louder Song is a strong, important book and we highly recommend it. After reading so many good books about personal health and well-being, growth and grief and such, it stands out as one of the very best of the year. Kudos!

Signs of Life: Resurrection Hope Out of Ordinary Losses Stephanie Lobdell (Herald Press) $16.99 There are so many books written about coping with life’s hardships, with grief and loss and moving on and getting buy. So many tell hard stories, or they tell fairly ordinary stories in dynamic ways. A lot of them are pretty energizing and some have deep wisdom. But something often seems off; they are too glowing or too formulaic. Even the ones promising passion and authenticity and guts and grit are written by pretty bloggers who, if their lives were as raw as they claim, wouldn’t have time or the stomach for that kind of photo shoot and platform. There are a lot of fine books that are popular and helpful, but I’m impressed most with ones like this. This is wonderfully written without a lot of extraordinary drama or visionary zeal. She’s what we sometimes call “the real deal” or “salt of the Earth.”

I was hooked already by the table on contents but the first few pages were so well written and so honest about a befuddling interpersonal conflict misunderstanding that I knew this was going to be a book I wanted, needed, and was artful enough to keep my attention. I love the notion of “ordinary losses” a phrase I’ve only seen in a precious few books. On the back cover of Signs of Life it says “every day we lose a little bit of something.” And what she wants to know – what she and her husband were asked by their pastoral supervisor in the conflicted churched, is: Is the resurrection enough? Is God’s grand saving action in the cross and resurrection enough to bring life to weary folks, those whose career plans have withered or whose friendships have falters or whose zeal for faith has waned.

“In candid and artful prose, Lobdell shares stories of her own depression, loss of confidence, and disillusionment with the church,” She also does good Bible explorations, telling of biblical characters who faced “ordinary death and also God’s reviving power.” It’s a good, good book, honest and one I found unusually helpful. As Courtney Ellis puts it, Signs of Life offers “hard-earned hope for the weary soul.” As Beth Felker Jones of Wheaton College writes, “Lobdell helps us confront the hard realities of daily life and points us to the unchanging goodness of the God who brings life out of death.”

Not only is she a good writer, but (as is important to me) she offers great quotes from important authors. A quick glance at the footnotes shows citations from everybody from Martin Lloyd-Jones to Phyllis Trible, from Henri Nouwen to Walter Brueggeman, from The Jesus Storybook Bible to Barbara Brown Taylor. Not bad for a Nazarene pastor on a Mennonite publishing house.

This was one of my favorite books of 2019 not only because of the fine, honest writing, but because of the topics. She explores a certain “ordinary” loss in each chapter: the death of zeal, the death of her sense of the future, of plans, expectation, hope. She continues in chapters that are poignant and helpful, admitting to the “death” of her hopes for revival, for beauty, of invincibility and of image. This is remarkable stuff, and it’s a truly insightful read.

And, of course, again, the antidote to these little losses and daily deaths is life, life abundant, the resurrecting power of Jesus. It isn’t cheesy or triumphalistic but it is good, good news. I recommend it.

The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction Justin Whitmel Earley (IVP) $18.00  I do not do well with time management books, admittedly to my detriment (and the detriment of those who have to wait for me, or live in my unsettled wake. I know.) I do not think I’m alone in finding guidebooks and manuals, workbooks and formulas, rules of life and programs for this or that a bit off-putting (and, in any event, not very effective.) How can we live into a balanced and thoughtful way of life that makes sense of things, helps us say yes and say no to stuff, live well with such a grand quest for margin and balance turning into a shtick or formula?

Taking the old Benedictine rule of life notion into a 21^st century, on-line world, Earley started thinking of helpful ways his community could help each other be what they most deeply wanted, by entering more fully into a communal practice of discerning life-giving habits. He’s been influenced by the notions of “cultural liturgies” as found in Jame K.A. Smith and “finding God in the ordinary” (a la Tish Warren.) He’s thought well, experimented faithfully and consciously, and is a good writer, reporting back what he has learned. In so doing he has written what I think is one of the best books in this genre in many a year; it is interesting, based on serious cultural and theological considerations, but really, really practical. It will help you find focus and balance and health, I am sure.

Earley created this tool as a way to help us in human-scale, healthy, (and, I might had, fairly hip and artful) ways. With some nice color and some great graphics and lovely little charts, Common Rule warmly invites us to this kind of intentional Christ-centered life.

I wrote about all this at BookNotes when it first came out, suggesting it wasn’t just solid and useful, like eating your vegetables, but is truly nice, artful book with the graphics and colored ink and gentle guidance and all. Soon, we heard reports of those who wanted to work through it together, of on-line book clubs and small groups and webinars and family meetings. The book was taking off and it seems like it is increasingly appreciated, bearing fruit, being used to help folks settle down, form roots, craft a good life. That Justin is speaking at our upcoming Jubilee conference this February in Pittsburgh is cool, too, and indicative of how this book is resonating with younger audiences. Common Rule: Habits of Purpose in an Age of Distraction is no doubt one of the “books of the year.”

The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life David Brooks (Random House) $28.00 If you haven’t heard of this, you should know it – Second Mountain has been a big seller across the country and Mr. Brooks is known widely (as a fairly conservative columnist for the New York Times and a regular on NPR and PBS as a political pundit.) We have adored his many New York Times best-selling books – I still count Bobos in Paradise as one of my all time favs – and have admired how he brings together some of the best instincts of those on both sides of the political spectrum. For many liberals he is their favorite conservative and for many conservatives, they jokingly call him their favorite liberal.

As was evident in his previous, serious book on virtue (The Road to Character), Brooks is drawn to religious questions and seemed to be increasingly drawn to Christianity. As he says in this amazing new book about emotional and spiritual health as one moves beyond “success” to meaning, perhaps in mid-life or later, he is “a wondering Jew and a confused Christian.”

Yep, in his own “second mountain” David Brooks has found friends among generous scholars at places such as Wheaton College and has sought counsel from the likes of PCA Pastor Timothy Keller and now professes Christian faith. Quiet and nuanced as it may be, this may be the most unsung but notable “celebrity conversion” of many a year. Move over, Kanye, David Brooks is carefully sharing about his new-found faith, citing the influences of William Wilberforce and Dorothy Day and Bonhoeffer and Romero.

Second Mountain is not a perfect book and not all have loved it as much as I do, but it is a very thoughtful study of the quest for meaning in our post-religious age, a secular Jew searching, finally, for purpose and goodness and grace. His embrace of Christianity (as a case study of the search for purpose undertaken after one moves from summiting the “first” mountain towards a second, is one of the most breathtaking stories of the year, explored in mature prose and thoughtful sociological reporting. I suppose it will come out in paperback sometime later this year, but you should read it soon.

A WONDERFUL REPRINT IN A NEW EDITION, DESERVING AN AWARD

Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image updated and combined edition Dr. Paul Brand & Philip Yancey (IVP) $25.00  We, of course, as any good bookstore would, stock all of Phil Yancey’s thoughtful and often exquisite books. One of his good friends and heroes (he was, by all accounts, a hero to anyone who knew him) Dr Paul Brand, was a missionary doctor (who specialized in hand surgery, learned in the hard school of treating leprosy in India.) The two of them team up to create to books that ruminated on the physiology of the human body – blood, skin, bones, cells, eyeballs and the like, studying things like breath and balance and pain. Their two books were called Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and In His Image. I had given the first as gifts before we even opened the bookstore, so we, naturally, have long loved these studies.

Although they are ideal for anyone in health care related fields, they are lovely for any of us with bodies (especially if said bodies don’t work quit as we wished.) Moreover, the draw wise and compelling insights from the endlessly fascinating secrets of the human body and apply them to the Body of Christ and our lives in a diverse world seeking unity and shalom. Praise the Lord that 2019 saw this lovely reissue, adapted and combined – complete with a study guide, created, in part, by one of our own local customers here in Dallastown. Hooray!

TWO NEW BOOKS BY THOMAS LYNCH RELEASED in 2019

Whence and Whither: On Lives and Living Thomas Lynch (Westminster John Knox Press) $18.00 You know the way it is with us book lovers when we adore an author. We love his or her writing, sigh deeply over the word choices and remarkable sentence structure, admire his or her craft, and eagerly keep eyes peeled for new essays, perhaps, magazine pieces, or, please, maybe even a new book. Or – stop by beating heart! – two books.

Whence and Whither is a very handsome hardback with textured paperback cover and deckled edges. Lynch deserves a well-made book because he is, doubtlessly, one of our finest wordsmiths writing these days. His Undertaking: Life Notes from the Dismal Trade and Bodies at Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality are extraordinary and seminal in the development of contemporary thinking about the vocation of being an undertaker and among my all time favorite reads. Teaming with Presbyterian minister and legendary preacher Tom Long in 2013, they wrote The Good Funeral, which is the definitive book on the subject.

As you may know, Lynch is a memoirist as well (see his great work Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans) and a poet. Whence and Whither is, as the title suggests, essays about all manner of living which, naturally, includes death and dying, grief and loss, funerals and dispatching the dead. I can’t say enough about Mr. Lynch’s humble style and his eloquent prose and his bold insights about the meaning of his work and of all of our lives and deaths.

You should buy this new book. I might note that I was introduced to Lynch’s first book by one of my dearest friends, the Reverend Thomas Osenbach, who died unexpectedly this Spring and it was one of the last books Tom bought from us in his weekly visits to the shop. He stopped in at least once a week for over 30 years, always buying books, always talking about why people should read, always awaiting good words on good paper.

I read an excerpt about the dignity and value of attending funerals from Whence and Whither at Tom’s packed funeral at a local United Methodist church and knew he’d have thought it fitting. Whence and Whither has become one of the most memorable books of the year for me. Lynch helped me when my own father died in a car wreck in 2000 and he helped us when Tom passed in 2019. We are grateful and commend his rare sort of writing to you.

The Depositions: New and Selected Essays on Being and Ceasing to Be Thomas Lynch (Norton) $27.95 Imagine, if you are a serious music fan, consider: if your favorite group, critically acclaimed, intelligent, and a blast to enjoy, did a big, double greatest hits album with some new material (not just one new cut, but five!) You’d just have to get it, right? We are happy to promote this hefty, handsome hardback, a greatest hits release with new content. The publisher calls it “a wry and compassionate” collection so I mean nothing demeaning by calling it a greatest hits double album; it is mature and wonderful and valuable. One reviewer reminds us, plainly, that “for nearly four decades, poet, essayist, and small-town funeral director Thomas Lynch has probed the relations between the literary and mortuary arts…” which is true and notes his “signature blend of memoir, meditation, gallows humor, and poetic precision.” So much more could be said.

The Depositions really is an essential set of selections from Lynch’s various sorts of writing and includes remarkable memories, such as a piece about riding in the hearse with the beloved body of Seamus Heaney, and great stuff about his own family of Catholic priests and undertakers and alcoholics and travel and work, not to mention excerpts from The Good Funeral. There are five new chapters that weave together some of his poems and how he came to write them. One, “Miracles” tells more about his own faith and an ecumenical Bible study he attends, even if he doesn’t attended services much these days.

In one of these he is lamenting the loss of several friends, including many from Irish literary circles. He writes:

The witness of these things draw a catch in my breath, that New Year’s Eve morning when we buried Dennis O’Driscoll, in the new row of St. Corban’s Cemetery. Watching his pallbearers lower him into the vacancy of the grave, these mundane mortuary chores replicating the miraculous narrative of the Gospels where the paralytic’s pals lower him into the place of his healing, the “slight lightheadedness and incredulity” perfectly articulated in Heaney’s poem, remains caught in my chest, not yet exhaled, and like the scribes in Capernaum, that day in Naas, though I’d seen such things all my workaday life, I’d “never seen anything like this before.”

A BOOK REVIEW I WANT TO SEND OUT TO THE LATE REV. TOM OSENBACH

One Long River of Joy: Notes on Wonder Brian Doyle (Little, Brown) $27.00  I mentioned above that it was my friend Tom Osenbach that first encouraged me to read undertaker Tom Lynch. Brian Doyle is another author that we carried (well, at first at least a few of his quirky, artsy books, years ago) who was one of Tom’s favorites, an author that I knew was lovely and creative, but that I just didn’t quite read. In his many years coming in here before his unexpected death this past year, Tom reminded me how much he loved Brian Doyle, his novels, his essays, his poetry, his articles, his short stories. Doyle was an expansive thinker, at turns gentle and quiet, sometimes very funny, often unexpectedly furious, usually gentle and winsome and tender and wise.  Tom read almost everything Doyle wrote; he often said that he sent donations to a Catholic College just so he could could get their brilliant alumni journal, a literary mag called The Portland Review for which Doyle regularly wrote and edited. Talk about a loyal reader. When we got One Long River of Joy this December I shed a tear or two, knowing I would have called Tom the day it arrived and he would have come in promptly for it.

And so, with some sadness and also great joy I want to tell you that my late pal Tom would have purchased this One Long River of Joy and would have exclaimed that this collection of essays by the late Doyle — he, too, passed this year, at age 60, of a brain tumor — was one of his favorite books of 2019. It is hardback, sturdy, handsome and maybe the nicest collection of Doyle’s work we’ve yet seen. It has received (not surprisingly) glowing reviews from writers and reviews, calling his essays “mystical” and “astonishing.”

Jane Ciabattari writes that it is “Both ecstatic and sober… it dances on the edge of mortality, tossing out exaltations and questions, and offering a fresh, playful, slant on spiritual writing…a celebration of life, love, and waking each day.”

Here is what the publisher says about it:

When Brian Doyle passed away at the age of sixty after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted readers who regard his writing as one of the best-kept secrets of the twenty-first century. Doyle writes with a delightful sense of wonder about the sanctity of everyday things, and about love and connection in all their forms: spiritual love, brotherly love, romantic love, and even the love of a nine-foot sturgeon.

Here is another thing Tom, and others who have a cult-like devotion to another writer, David James Duncan (author of The Brothers K and The River Why, as well as a short story collection and a passionate set of ecological essays, My Life As Told By Water that I loved more than Tom did) would have been thrilled to know. Said David James Duncan wrote the foreword to One Long River. He, too, celebrates wonder and goodness and quirky grace in this God-haunted, sad, destabilized planet. Having DJD in on this posthumous project was genius. One Long River of Joy: Noes on Wonder by Brian Doyle is truly one of the great books of 2019. RIP Brian and Tom.

BEST NEW BOOK ABOUT FAITH IN THE WORK-WORLD

Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work Denise Daniels & Shannon Vandewarker (Hendrickson) $24.95 Many years there are bunches of books vying for my attention to name and mention at the end of the year. This year is no exception, as you can see – it is hard to name the best book in a given category. However, in this field, although there’s been other very good ones, this book is such a stand out, I must name it as a clear award winner. In our large selection of books in this field (some old, some fairly recent, and some quite new) Working in the Presence of God brings some very, very good contributions and even correctives. We are glad for it, and I must say I enjoyed it quite a lot.

I’ve given a sincere shout out about Working in the Presence of God in a previous column, so I will be brief. I can say three important things about this well written and thoughtful resource.

Firstly, it offers a framework and staring foundation point about work that is essential, excellently explained, and rock-solid. I find that some books in this whole faith-in-the-marketplace field, books about calling and vocation and occupations and careers are sometimes less than clear or a bit sloppy in there framing their enthusiastic story about living out Kingdom ways on the shop floor or in some marketplace ministry. Daniels and Vanderwarker have done the primary source reading and can articulate the best Biblical and theological foundational truths and cite the very best books and leaders for their project. I’m glad for that and commend them for their healthy worldview and their opening chapters.

Secondly, this book does, in fact, strive to help us “practice the presence of God” in our modern workplaces, which is an audacious goal and a much needed assist to those of us who talk about finding God in the science lab, the classroom, the shop floor, the lawyer’s office, the marketplace, the arts studio, or sports field. We say these things and it preaches well – indeed, God is Lord of all creation and there is no sacred/secular divide; we can find God everywhere and serve God in all we do. But, really, at least in terms of a sense of the Spirit’s presence, what does that actually look like? How do we integrate “praying without ceasing” into the hectic world of our jobs and careers? So, yes, this book helps us learn to be mindful of the very holiness of God in our midst.

As Richard Mouw puts it in his back cover blurb:

We’ve had some wonderful studies in recent years about the theology of work and also about spiritual formation. In this book, the two come together in marvelous ways. The authors aren’t just telling us that we should be workers who also happen to have a spiritual life. They help us to practice the presence of God as we engage the real stuff of our working lives. . . . Practical wisdom abounds in these pages!

We are glad for books that study the ethics of market-driven capitalism and about finding Kingdom values in how we pursue our work-world practices and choices. But this book on spiritual formation in the work world adds a great component to the larger faith at work movement.

Congratulations to Henrickson (who has done Bible studies and other books resourcing this movement for years) for doing this good book. I’ll admit I wish the cover was more attractive, and I don’t like that it’s an expensive hardback. But still, it’s a gem – and with endorsements on the back from Tom Nelson of Made to Flourish and Katherine Leary Alsdorf (Vice President of Redeemer City to City’s Global Faith & Work Initiatives) I’m sure this book will become increasingly known in our movement. Remember, you saw it here, celebrated as one of the best books of 2019.

BOOKS OF PUBLIC THEOLOGY, POLITICS, and PERSPECTIVES IN SEARCH OF THE COMMON GOOD

In Search of the Common Good: Christian Fidelity in a Fractured World Jake Meador (IVP) $23.00 As you know, I really like books about faith and public life, those whose Kingdom vision is about the Lordship of Christ over all of life. We are avid church folk and are mildly involved in the lives of several denominations and countless pastors, but I’m really most interested in the non-churchy aspects of Christian discipleship – missional, wholistic, what Steve Garber calls “seamless.” And so, I naturally was immediately drawn to this.

And then I read the glowing rave review in the typically moderate style of Presbyterian pastor and thinker and urban church planter Tim Keller, who spent several pages summarizing much that he’s learned about the “Christ and culture” discussions of recent years and lamented the polarizing (and secularizing) impact of the religious right. Keller knows his Charles Taylor and understands our current “God-haunted” 21^st century more than most pastors half his age; he brings an astute insight worthy of Bonhoeffer, Kuyper, or, better, Lesslie Newbigin, in these few concise introductory pages. They are really very wise and good.

And then Keller says:

If you are looking for a way forward, I can think of no better starting point than this book.

He then he goes on to say three things, at least, that he likes about Jake Meador and his new book. After spends another good page summarizing various chapters, Keller continues,

So read this book – and then discuss it with someone. Advance the conversation we must have if we are going to make real changes. There’s no more urgent topic for the church in the West than this, and that’s especially true for Protestants and evangelicals. In Search of the Common Good is an important contribution, and I’m glad to recommend it to you.

I echoed Keller’s recommendation and did a long review of it when it came out last June. I noted that he tells a lot of stories about his own rustbelt sort of background, why he loves Wendell Berry and wants to reinvigorate our own ministries of place, and why both a high calling understanding of the vocation of work and a deeper commitment to the local church and Christian community may, in fact, help us heal the frayed and fracture body politic. Meador is super smart but writes so nicely, I could hardly put this down, even as he’s walking us through theories of Charles Taylor and why we have this angst in our secularizing culture and what sorts of virtues are needed to renew “the world outside our heads.” I may have said that I knew it would be on my list of Best Books of 2019.

By the way, yet another reason to visit the CCO’s Jubilee conference website and consider attending (whether you are a college student or not – make the trip to Pittsburgh this February!) Jake will be there, doing a workshop on this book. After all, the wonderful wordsmith and profound theologian Wesley Hill has said that “Jake Meador is one of the most insightful evangelical writers of his generations.” Of course he’ll be at Jubilee!

TWO IMPORTANT BOOKS ON THE QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Free To Believe: The Battle over Religious Liberty in America Luke Goodrich (Multnomah) $24.00  I have read a number of books (from several perspectives) about this thorny question of faith-based conscientious objection, about whether or not there should be religious freedom exceptions (such as the bi-partisan policies set in place during the Clinton years which later were codified as RIFRA.) Luke Goodrich works for the fair-minded, pro-religious liberty legal group (The Beckett Fund) that wants to preserve the freedom of religious conscious in a pluralistic society. For instance, his organization (along with other such advocates for religious toleration such as the Christian Legal Society) have worked for the rights of (just for instance) Muslim prisoners to maintain beards while incarcerated as a matter of their religious practice and for the right of certain Native tribes to use otherwise illegal peyote for their religious ceremonies. Naturally, they have sided with the likes of Hobby Lobby and Masterpiece Cake insisting that, agree or not with their conservative convictions about certain sorts of birth control or marriage equality it’s unjust for the State to compel people to betray their deepest, religiously held principles.

Thoughtful citizens should immediately ask a few questions about this “religious liberty” claim. It seems pretty obvious (I would think) that the evangelical Masterpiece cake designer shouldn’t be forced to use his talents and artful skills to create cakes that celebrate witchcraft (although he gladly sells his ordinary stuff to anyone, he doesn’t want to be compelled to celebrate the occult by making special cakes; that is one of the cases being considered in Colorado even now, after the Supreme Court ruling in his favor about making cakes for same-sex marriages, of which he disapproves.) But when and where should a citizen’s convictions become protected (being a bigot of any sort isn’t illegal, of course) and at what point is there a compelling public interest for the state to get involved insisting on certain sorts of behavior. Should a Jewish deli owner be forced by law to cater a neo-Nazi party, or may she discriminate and say no? Should a civil rights leader who rents audio equipment be forced to rent to a KKK rally, or should she have the right refuse to serve that customer? What about renting houses to the unmarried or to immigrants? What about the Civil Rights Act of 1964? It’s complicated, eh?

And, further, what about the rights of organizations as such? Should a Young Democrat club on a college campus be required to allow anyone to be their officers or is it discrimination to say one has to be a young Democrat to be a leader in the club? Is it wrong for an environmental club to on campus to insist that their leaders be committed to an ecological viewpoint? As the courts have been debating in recent years, should a Christian student group who takes money as any other official club on campus does on be required to forfeit, as they sometimes are, their by-laws that say they have to hold to the faith statement they have adopted? Can Christian colleges on non-profits hold to their own, distinctive beliefs and hiring practices if their students take government funded student loans? As you know, this has been a major concern of many Christian institutions of higher education and even small Roman Catholic orders of nuns (like the Little Sisters of the Poor who were sued by the Justice Department of the Obama administration when they – duh—didn’t provide birth control coverage in their Order’s insurance policy.)

(I just have to say — you really should read Goodrich on this case, the famous Little Sisters of the Poor v Azar. Of course, the HHS “Affordable Care Act” had given thousands of religious exemptions as per the law of the land — to the likes of Exxon and VISA and Pepsi — but somehow went crazy litigating against this small order of mostly elderly nuns. You can’t make this stuff up.)

I explain all this not because Goodrich describes all of these exact situations (although he does, actually) but because these are the contested matters that are increasingly tying up the courts and it most often gets ugly; good people disagree, but few have studied the topic carefully. It has been my experience that most of the best books on religious pluralism are general (like the excellent University of Chicago title Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference by John Inazu) or are very scholarly and arcane, diving deep into precedents and constitutional law. Free To Believe is not a difficult read and is really interesting.

The incivility on this topic is thick; both sides are often blustery. The forces who oppose this pluralistic openness to religious freedom make anyone who doesn’t tow the politically correct line out to be mean-spirited bigots and the religious right who use these episodes as fund-raising for their culture warring war chests make anyone who disagrees with them sound like totalitarian, atheistic nuts. There is plenty of heat on both sides of this debate and there have been missteps, I think, from both sides. Yet, there is reasonable work being done by people like those at the Beckett Fund that deserve a hearing.

This is why I think I want to name Free to Believe by Luke Goodrich as one of the valuable books of 2019. I think I mostly agree with most of this, but that’s not my point. My point is that liberty of conscience is vital for our republic and these questions require great thoughtfulness when it comes to religion in the public square. The rights of individuals and of faith-based organizations need to be adjudicated in light of concern for the common good. Although writing for evangelical Christians, mostly, it seems, he is clear that his organization advocates for all, shoring up the rights of conscience for all (whether you like or agree with their views and practices or not.)

Goodrich is a fine chap – we met him at an event this fall – and we’ve followed his organization (founded by the thoughtful, kind, public intellectual Kevin “Seamus” Hasson) for years. He has argued before the Supreme Court and is one of the most knowledgeable attorneys working in this arena today. Agree or not, this is a valuable book to help frame the conversation about the common good, public justice, and freedom of conscience for people and organizations.

Listen to Professor Robert George of Princeton University (a brilliant scholar who, by the way, goes on the road with his friend African American activist Cornell West, to talk together and illustrate how serious people of differing social visions can be respectful and find common ground.) Dr. George writes:

“As a top attorney with Becket, our nation’s premier religious liberty appellate advocacy law firm, Luke Goodrich has been on the front lines in the battle to protect the rights of people of every faith and shade of belief. With the basic human — and constitutional — right to religious freedom under assault from many different quarters, it is a difficult and ongoing struggle. As Goodrich recounts in his marvelous new book, there have of late been some important and exciting victories in the Supreme Court and other federal and state tribunals. But enormous challenges lie ahead. In meeting these challenges, having an informed and engaged citizenry is critical. That’s why Free to Believe is such a blessing.”

Here’s an endorsement  of Free to Believe by a prestigious law professor at Harvard Law:

“With the religious freedoms that Americans have long taken for granted now under fierce attack, Luke Goodrich not only sounds an alarm about the challenges ahead but also offers practical guidance on how to confront them. This wise, faith-filled, and eminently readable book should be in the hands of everyone who values religious liberty.” –Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and author of A World Made New

And this, from a Constitutional law expert and former judge from Stanford:

“Free to Believe is a book for Christians struggling to understand biblical principles of freedom of religion — a freedom that extends to all faiths and even to unbelief. Authors who truly understand the principles of our First Amendment are rare, and those among them who know and love the Scripture are rarer still. Luke Goodrich, one of America’s top litigators in religious freedom cases and a devoted servant of Christ, is both, and his book offers insight, faith, passion, and above all clarity.” –Michael McConnell, director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and former circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Set Free: Restoring Religious Freedom for All Art Lindsley & Anne Bradley (Abilene Christian University Press) $27.99 You may know my fondness for collections of essays, anthologies which you can dip into and read a chapter or two and move on to yet another chapter or two from a different author or with a different angle. Such collections are not big sellers, oddly, because they seem so very useful. Set Free is just this kind of invaluable resource. Neither Lindsley nor Bradley are lawyers or Constitutional scholars but they contracted some kind of a grant to do this project and set out to find those who could best help us all understand the foundational questions, the solid theology and the controversies around how to build “liberty and justice for all” in our pluralistic culture.

And so, they put together a fabulous cast of players, inviting each to contribute original material.

And what wonderful thinkers and writers are in this Set Free volume – illustrious and important, even if many you may not know. There are some well-known public intellectuals – cultural critic and beloved speaker Os Guinness, who has long worked on the importance of the First Amendment, and Daniel Dreisbach (whose J.D. is from the University of Virginia and PhD is from Oxford, and who now teaches in the department of Justice, Law, & Criminology at American University and is well known as a historian of jurisprudence and a researcher on church-state relations.) Other great chapters include a several on the Biblical teaching about religious freedom, several on the history of religious freedom, and – from Lindsley & Bradley themselves — a bit on the relationship between religious, economic, and political freedom.

Another question taken up is if and in what ways religious freedom is at risk in today’s culture and what can be done about it. Jennifer Marshall Patterson has a great chapter on how preserving religious freedom for all is part of a broader vision of the common good. Mark David Hall has an important piece on the vexing question about religious accommodations and the common good.

One of the very important pieces is by our respected friend Stanley W. Carlson-Thies (who has learned much, by the way, from Dutch statesman Abraham Kuyper’s civic experiment with social and religious toleration in early 20^th century Holland) who gives us a chapter called “Free to Serve: Safeguarding Churches and Ministries as They Contribute to Justice and the Common Good.” Stanley runs the Center for Public Justice’s Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance (IRFA) which helps organizations and ministries (of all faiths) maintain their own organizational distinctiveness and understand their own rights in hiring and other institutional practices. His work is profound and extensive – he knows more about the faith-based social service organizations that work in partnership with the government (and the legal basis of all that, based on, for instance, the Charity Choice act from the mid-1990s) and those who have served the common good for decades) than anybody I know.

So, kudos to Art Lindsley & Anne Bradley for compiling this thoughtful reader, this fine introduction to a principled commitment to pluralism and civic, legal toleration. Set Free may not be at your local bookstore or be flying up the charts of the better known on-line dealers, but we want to celebrate it and invite you, regardless of your own position on this complex matter, to check it out, give it some consideration, and discern what you can do to help us all live with our deepest differences in ways that foster respect, civility, and freedom of conscience.

For what it is worth, this question of religious liberty and freedom of conscious is also tied up with what the historians call disestablishment — that is, the separation of church and state, as such. Beth and I had the opportunity to premier an amazing book on this with our friend Dr. Carl Esbeck this fall in Chicago. See the new and notable book he co-edited with Jonathan J. Den Hartog Disestablishment and Religious Dissent: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776-1833 University of Missouri Press; $45.00.) Congrats to him for editing such a fine book which studies each of the early colonies and how they moved towards this important, essential status. (Perhaps, though, I should get an award for dumbest move of a bookseller this year. When I first heard about this coming out I tried to sell it, sight unseen at that point, to Dr. John Fea, a customer and noted colonial historian. Little did I know at that point that John has a good chapter in it — chapter two, on New Jersey.  Well, I tried. Ha.)

Becoming Whole: Why The Opposite of Poverty Isn’t the American Dream Brian Fikkert & Kelly M. Kapic (Moody Press) $15.99 I described this beautifully made paperback book at great length at a BookNotes column when it came out last Spring. I thought then, and continue to think now, that it is one of the best books of this sort I read this year. It is about worldviews and narratives and social imaginaries, so to speak, and it is a critique of the way in which too many church folks have allowed false stories such as the American Dream to shape our orienting principles, our own story. Yes, Becoming Whole is a prequel to the famous When Helping Hurts so it does get into anti-poverty ministries and alleviating brokenness from the lives of the marginalized. But it is more than a ‘social justice’ manifesto or a handbook for helping wisely. It is a grand vision of how to think about life from God’s perspective. What a clear-headed, helpful teaching tool it is for any of us tempted by the false hopes of the American dream, consumerism, individualism, autonomy, and self-actualization. There really is a better story.

I am eager to insist that this is one of the very good Christian books of this year, and I’m happy to promote it, wishing it would get a wide hearing. It’s important. Here is what people I respect have said about it:

The big story (or the meta-narrative) that one lives by is not benign; rather, it really, really matters. Our brothers Fikkert and Kapic show us how to identify and jettison false meta-narratives, like the American Dream, expressive individualism, and consumerism; so that, we can wisely appropriate and live by the True Big Story found in Scripture for the sake of escorting the poor from their impoverishment to a flourishing position, for the sake of our flourishing and personal wholeness, and for the sake of the flourishing of our communities and cities.                                                                              Luke Bobo Made to Flourish, ediitor of Fertile Ground: Faith and Work Field Guide for Youth Workers and Living Salty and Light-filled Lives in the Workplace

Thanks to the principles of love and leadership as articulated in this book, as well as in the related work, When Helping Hurts, the church I serve has been able to come alongside disadvantaged, vulnerable, oppressed, and marginalized communities in more informed, life-giving, and sustainable ways. Backed with sound biblical theology and practical guidance and stories, Becoming Whole is a must for any Christian community aiming to make a difference. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
Scott Sauls, Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville, author of Befriend and Irresistible Faith.

The kingdom of God is about life as God intends. In Becoming Whole, Brian Fikkert and Kelly Kapic help us understand the robust narrative that the kingdom creates and supports. Unfortunately, we have settled for puny competing storylines that make people poor—in every way. The Spirit is shouting to the Western church to abandon the worldviews and idols that are keeping us from becoming whole. This book serves as a gracious but prophetic invitation to partner with God in his mission to enable us to become fully human.
Reggie McNeal, author of Kingdom Come and Kingdom Collaborators

Broken We Kneel: Reflections of Faith and Citizenship second edition Diana Butler Bass (Church Publishing) $18.95  Oh my, I almost started a separate category for this award — “The Best Book to Be Re-Published This Year” or a gold medal for “the most important book I’ve wanted to see come back in print that finally did.” I’m glad for this (and gladly honor it here as I look back at 2019) in part because I just so very much loved it when it came out amidst the war cries and patriotism post-9-11. As a reasonable, thoughtful, Christ-like study of church-state stuff, it is fine. But it is written nearly as a memoir (the sort of personally embedded journalism Diana Butler Bass did so well in her spiritual memoir of various congregations she had been a part of in the lovely and insightful Strength for the Journey: A Pilgrimage of Faith in Community.) In Broken We Kneel she writes poignantly and even painfully about losing a church position because of her disagreements with the flag-waving in the sanctuary. Idolatrous civil religion and “my country right or wrong” dogmatism apparently are not only found among Southern Bible belt evangelicals, but among those who are sophisticated and liturgical and read Bonhoeffer and such. And so she quit.

This new, expanded edition of Broken We Kneel has a new foreword by one Robert W. Lee, a relative of Robert E. Lee who has just of late become known for renouncing white supremacy and religious sorts of nationalism, which, not unlike Diana, has cost him dearly. Diana has penned a new chapter as a long introduction and a powerful “Fifteen Years Later” afterward entitled “Love — Not Hate — Makes America Great.” If it sounds like a chant, it is because it was; Diana opens the chapter by saying she did not expect to be at a protest against neo-Nazis in Virginia along with parishioners from Christ Church, “protesters clad in Lilly Pulitzer and Brooks Brothers, the preppy seasonal attire of Episcopalians” — the sort of detail that makes Butler-Bass such a fine writer and makes this book an enjoyable read, despite its intensely important heft.

You see, the 2019 edition of the book ends with a church-related controversy not unrelated to the flags in the sanctuary fiasco that precipitated the 2004 edition; historically complicated civic plaques (of Washington and Lee) were taken out of the church sanctuary and relocated  to another space on the parish property. Diana puts it mildly when she says “it did not go over well” and it became a larger issue when it became a national media story. Interestingly, she applauds the church’s feisty disagreements as they worked through the conflict. She honors the painful process and observes that the church “was not static, not a chapel to civic piety. No, this was a living place, one that houses a living argument about faith and citizenship. I think they do their best work when the argue,” she writes.

As I explained in my first review of the book a decade and a half ago, and then again early this year when I celebrated Church Publishing reissuing it, the title, Broken We Kneel was a clever alternative to the popular pro-war slogan of the early 2000s, “United We Stand.” Diana insists that there is something in our brokenness and Christ-like humility that draws us to kneel, to pray, that is better than the hoo-rah of hubris. I think she is on to something. I am grateful for all of her books appreciate her as a writer, and rejoice that this book is available in this expanded edition. Highly recommended.

The Possibility of America: How the Gospel Can Mend Our God-Blessed, God-Forsaken Land David Dark (WJK) $17.00  I have been pondering this book for years, it seems. A somewhat different version with a different title came out in 2005 and we raved about it then. This is a considerably re-worked, expanded and obviously updated edition, and it deserves once again to be named as a grave and requisite voice.

I would like to share with you some of what I wrote about it earlier. I have to say, I think it was one of my own most memorable reviews – I worked hard on it and tried to honor David and his good work by being a bit feisty in my explanation of his body of work and this new one. I hope you like it; sorry it’s long. I hope it inspires you to buy the book, pronto.

Here goes, from the April 23^rd BookNotes:

One of the most stimulating, thoughtful, remarkably-written, and provocative books I’ve read about the state of our times and the state of our union in these times is The Possibility of America: How the Gospel Can Mend our God-Blessed, God-Forsake Land written by my friend David Dark.

David is a lover of words, a lover of truth, a lover of what some call common grace – gladly thanking God for the signs of life that pop up in even a secularized culture, offered up even by those who seem not to be religious. (Ahh, there’s an interesting idea: is anybody really not religious? Don’t we all live by and for something? That’s the theme of Dark’s fabulous book called Life’s Too Short To Pretend You’re Not Religious [IVP; $18.00.] What a fascinating read!)

Discerning the signs of life or signals of transcendence in the common grace gifts of popular culture is the theme of his only slightly dated first book Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons (Brazos; $20.00.) He has for many years been helping us understand how to understand the culture, how to see the good and the bad, the sacred and the profane. (Or, should I say, the sacred in the profane. And vice versa.)

In a way, then, this new one about America is a continuation of that project, finding how deeply wise and transformative insights show up in the best of our American dreams, from our politics to our classic landscapes, our shaping documents to our best literature and song. I joked to somebody in the shop that he should have called this Everyday American Apocalypse.

The Possibility of America: How the Gospel Can Mend our God-Blessed, God-Forsake Land is actually a considerable re-working and expanded edition of his 2005 book, The Gospel According to America: A Meditation on a Christ-haunted, God-blessed Idea. It is, for those who are familiar with that stimulating, much-discussed book, different enough that it demanded a new title; it is not just a “revised” edition. There’s so much new content in The Possibility of America that it earned a new title; not only is there considerable re-working and new content, the overall tone is a bit different. Understandably. We are in even more desperate times.

It seems to me that the very title indicates a change in the panic level of professor Dark, mirroring the anxiety many of us feel in this contested, Trumpian era. It was a bit easier (not that much, really, for those paying attention, but a bit) to see “the gospel” within America a decade ago. As the subtitle of that first book put it, we were in a “Christ-haunted” land…. These are awful times for the US of A, and it seems that anyone in touch with the Bible and the current political ethos simply has to wish things were otherwise.

Enter David Dark, who once was a bit less outraged and a bit less consumed by the dark antics of our leaders, and who has deepened his long standing passion for Biblical justice and relating prophetic truth to current realities. His writing is hot, on fire this time.

Relating faith to popular culture and current events, by the way, is not new to him. In a weighty introduction called “Notes on the New Seriousness” he talks nicely about his father, a father for whom “the Bible was always in the back of his mind.”

David tells us:

In his lifelong enthusiasm for candor, fair play, and the well-chosen word, freewheeling Bible study as a space in which everything could be talked about (war, celebrity, R-rated films, a living wage) was among my father’s favorite jams. Karl Barth’s dictum concerning life lived with a Bible in one hand and The New York Times in the other was an imperative he took up with glee.

He continues on about lessons learn from his father in this regard; I’m sure many of us envy being raised by a parent who, “as a conversation partner, treated words with an amused affection and reverence… “ Who offered a vibe of “conscience and candor.”

Dark describes his father, a lawyer, as one who understood how we fool ourselves, how we can use our virtue signaling for power, how we “can create or undo the impression of order and control through our use of language.” (Did his father read Derrida, or maybe just Amos and Jeremiah?) Dark talks about “disturbing the fixed scripts of the powerful.” And that “reverence and obsession are to one another near allied.”

“For better or worse,” David says, “I am a child of his obsessions.”

…After talking a bit about his role as a teacher, Dark continues,

I sit in classrooms with women and men in prisons and college campuses, and, together, we make assertions, put questions to one another, tell stories, read poems aloud, and wonder of our own words. They write sentences, I write sentences next to their sentences. And we get a conversation going somehow. We attempt truthfulness together. For some students, I sometimes have the feeling that this might be the first time someone’s calmly and respectfully urged them to think twice.

And, teacher that he is, obsessed with weighing in, he writes, furiously at times, hoping to help us think twice. Perhaps we need to see more clearly the shape we’re in, in this “God-forsaken” land. Or, perhaps, perhaps, we need to see the “possibility.” This book is his love letter to us all, even if it is more troubled and troubling than his first go at it in The Gospel According to America more than a decade ago.

The Possibility of America, as you can tell from the title, is not without hope. Dark believes in the resurrection of Jesus, after all, and he loves our land. He loves our land passionately, concretely, especially as many Southerners do. Although his writing is at times dense and loaded with metaphor and allusion, he is not, finally, an abstract writer. He’s a deep and colorful thinker, but his writing is full of specificity, of place and details, of vim and vigor, as we used to say, salt and vinegar, maybe even fire and brimstone. And empathy and love and the occasional dose of self-deprecation and honest humility. He speaks his mind, tells stories, explores American writers and singers and films, and helps us see what kind of deep patriotic wells we might draw from in order to become more Christ-like and more earnest in our civic lives.

In all this, he seems to be nearly a postmodern, twenty-first century Will Campbell. Campbell, you might know, was a wordsmith himself, published a theological journal, was a bit cantankerous, a Southern Baptist preacher who was a civil rights activist (the only white person at the founding of the SCLC) and yet friends with several Klansman. (“Jesus died for bigots, too,” he famously said.) It comes as no surprise that Dark cites Campbell’s classic memoir Brother to a Dragonfly.

…as he draws on great America literature! Oh my, he starts with James Baldwin, and June Jordon, a hefty sign of where this might be going. He quotes public intellectuals, from Lincoln to Thoreau, from Octavia Butler to Wendell Berry. He loves American lit, and explains Faulkner (a lot of Faulkner), Cormac McCarthy, Melville (and more Melville), Whitman, on to contemporaries Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip Dick, Ursula Le Guin, and Toni Morrison, among others. Who else these days recalls the televised conversation about poetry (and the detached judgment of analysis) between howling Allen Ginsburg and mumbling straight-man William F. Buckley?

David is a very creative writer and some may find him an acquired taste. This is a grand compliment – I regularly say it about two authors I adore, Calvin Seerveld and Daniel Berrigan (and, I suppose, James Joyce, although I haven’t acquired a taste for that kind of weirdness, yet.) It is interesting that David is a student of the poet, priest, and prophet, the late Daniel Berrigan. He thinks like him, it seems to me; he sounds like him.

…Importantly, Berrigan and his famous, activist brother Philip knew Martin Luther King and American resistors such as Howard Thurman and AJ Muste, were mentored by Thomas Merton, befriended by Dorothy Day. These are American icons that Dark is attuned to and to bring their witness into conversations with Faulkner and Stanley Kubric and Americana folk music and Star Trek and The Twilight Zone and rapper Kendrick Lamar is nearly genius; it’s a gumbo mix of high octane social theory, old school American literature, pop culture, and Biblical study yielding a prophetic public theology that could (please God!) lead us closer to Beloved Community.

Dark, by the way, did a marvelous chapter on Fr. Berrigan in an excellent anthology edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel Rhodes called Can I Get a Witness: Thirteen Peacemakers, Community Builders, and Agitators for Faith & Justice (Eerdmans; $26.99) that was created in conjunction with the Project of Lived Theology at the University of Virginia. It, too, deserves acclaim as a notable book of 2019. There are 13 different chapters by 13 excellent writers and thinkers, exploring the embodiment of faith and compassion among 13 faith-based community activists such as Cesar Chavez, Mahalia Jackson, Dorothy Day, and Richard Twiss.

It is Mr. Dark’s The Possibility of America, though, that I want to highlight here as we look back on the most memorable, important books of 2019. Please consider it.

Read the full version of that BookNotes review HERE. Be sure to come back and read the rest of our list of most notable books of the year.

NEW WAYS TO THINK ABOUT FAITH AND CARING FOR CREATION: BEST of 2019

Beyond Stewardship: New Approaches to Creation Care edited by David Paul Warners & Matthew Kuperus Heun with a foreword by Bill McKibben (Calvin College Press) $17.00  I hate to sound like a broken record but it isn’t uncommon that my favorite books of the year and my choices for the most important books of the year are, in fact, books I’ve already reviewed here at BookNotes. When I heard about this one being put together by a team from Calvin University, I knew it would be great. Because one of the dearest friends to Beth and me (Gail Guenst Heffner) was deeply involved in the project, I started to read it the hour it arrived. (Sorry to our staff who sometimes wonders why I’ve disappeared in the middle of the day.) It didn’t take long for me to realize these were ground-breaking, profound, serious, yet accessible essays, and that Beyond Stewardship would be one of the most important contributions to the conversations about Christian creation-care in many a year. A book of the year? Absolutely!

I was glad to honor this book when we first announced it so now allow me to offer our congratulations to the team that put together this innovative volume and who believed that they could (and should) posit something new for our theological vocabulary and imagination when it comes to ecology. In a way it is brave being innovators and reformers, and I hope no one faults them for trying to be faithful in bringing clarity to how we should think about our work in caring for the creation of which we are a part.

To put it (too) simply, the have come to believe – some perhaps more firmly than others in the diverse collection of more than a dozen contributors – that “stewardship” is perhaps not a helpful or accurate word to describe our God-given task to “tend and keep the garden” (Genesis 2.) Are we “over” the other creations and are we called to “manage” and “use” them (even if wisely and lovingly?) They suggest it is hard to be wise and loving when we see ourselves (as heirs to the heresies of the Enlightenment and the myths of progress and capitalism) as apart from and over nature. Not only must we replace “nature” with “creation” we must think of better more ecologically and Biblically honest ways to describe our task as God’s image bearers in God’s good but fallen cosmos.

So there it is. A new conversation suggesting new terminology. Beyond Stewardship covers a lot of ground (and air and water and animals and more.) it’s a gem of a book to read if you care about this topic, and it is a must if you are in any way involved in promoting religious education about creation care. We are all “embedded and dependent upon” the creation of God’s. As Calvin said, it is God’s theatre, God’s household. As professional Alaskan commercial fisher-woman and gifted writer Leslie Leyland Fields (author of Crossing the Waters and The Spirit of Food) says on the back cover, “this multiplicity of smart voices will lead us in new ways to think deeply, theologically, and practically about what it means to care for, nourish, and bless God’s creation.” Three big cheers for a very small press making a truly notable contribution!

Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring a Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic Steven Bouma-Prediger (Baker Academic) $24.99  I wrote about this tremendous book at BookNotes this fall and I am fully glad to loudly say this was one of the best books I read this year. I loved its semi-scholarly ruminations on virtue theory and character formation and how the writing shifted a bit in tone, just when the going might have been getting heavy, with a splendid story, a surprisingly beautiful Bible exposition, or a mature insight about spiritual formation.  In this sense, Bouma-Prediger reminds me a bit of his friend James K.A. Smith; that is, he’s a serious philosopher and a fully engaged cultural activist and a beloved, inspiring teacher with a gift of being a great communicator. He’s not an armchair philosopher or ivory tower thinker; deep as he may be, Bouma-Prediger does his ecological thinking fully immersed in the outdoors (and, it seems, in communion with a broader community of scholars, writers, activists and students.) The stories of taking students camping or backpacking or on ecological field tips make the book really come alive.

I cannot get enough of eco-theology and we have written about why we have a pretty hefty creation care/environmental studies section in our store, but, I will admit, many Christian Earth-keeping books are somewhat similar. Bouma-Prediger’s For the Beauty of the Earth remains a standard text, if not the gold standard; I hope you know it. But his new Earthkeeping and Character is fantastic, not least because it brings new stuff into the conversation; it is, in a sense pioneering. This question of character formation—what kind of people must we be if we are going to care well for the planet God so loves? – is essential. It may be one of the biggest questions of our time. How then shall we live? Indeed, even if we can answer that, the deeper question is can we live in such as way? What kind of fruits must we show, what virtues must we embody, what kind of character must we have; who must we be? This is a beautiful, urgent, interesting, very, very important book as this exact question, offering a batch of virtues needed to be the kind of people who can do what must be done. It includes wonder and courage and those chapters are worth the price of the book. Kudos to Baker Academic and the team that put this together.

ON RACE and RACISM

You know we carry a lot of books about racial studies, about black and Latinex and Asian-American and Native People’s books. I mention them a lot here, even if they don’t sell much. Many in the broad evangelical church, it seems to me, care deeply about this topic (and when I say evangelicals, I mean classic evangelicals, not the far right fundamentalists who the media calls evangelicals when they are writing about the religious right.) In any case, it is often evangelical presses that have done the best religious reflection on race. InterVarsity Press stands out, and we often offer kudos for their robust commitments to authors of color and for books about racial justice issues. Other evangelical and other religious publishers are doing good work, too, and we are grateful. Here are two that deserve special accolades this year. It’s a hard call but I want to honor these two, one from a conventionally evangelical publishing hose and the other from a mainstream, New York Times best selling author.

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism Jemar Tisby (Zondervan) $21.99  I hope you recall that we’ve mentioned this from time to time, reviewed it earlier at BookNotes and (if you have been with us at various events) may know we’ve pushed it hard. We sold out at Jubilee 2019 when it was new, and we hope the buzz on this book has not subsided. It truly is an historic book in many ways.

Jemar Tisby is a young African American who has studied at Reformed Theological Seminary and is working on his PhD in history. He lives in Jackson, Mississippi, and brings a deep commitment to social justice and an obvious awareness of the African American experience to his passionate writing. But yet, this isn’t only a call for the church to repent of its complicity in fostering white supremacy and racial injustices, not only a call to be more intentional about learning about race and white privilege and so forth, but it is, in fact, a history of the churches complicated role in racism in the US. It helpfully starts in the Colonial Era and moves into all the important periods, including the question of Christian slave owners, moves to the abolition efforts and then the Antebellum Period after the Civil War, the rise of Jim Crow and so on. It is lively and well written and even though this is harsh stuff, it is the best overview of this material I think I have ever read. I hope it is sold in every bookstore in the country and carried in every local library.

You may think you know something about these concerns, and I know many of our Hearts & Minds friends know more than we do. For many, though, it is a passing interest, we want to be well informed and our gospel-driven hearts are broken when we hear of the awful stuff people of color sometimes face, but we haven’t read too much. Maybe you’ve watched a documentary about the civil rights movement or read a book by Martin Luther King. Perhaps you’ve read some of the books we’ve named in these BookNotes columns before – I’m Still Here (Austin Channing Brown), White Awake (Daniel Hill), The Myth of Equality (Ken Wytsma), Beyond Colorblind (Sarah Shin), America’s Original Sin (Jim Wallis), Living in Color (Randy Woodley), Beyond Racial Gridlock (George Yancey), Anxious to Talk About It (Carolyn B. Heisel), Woke Church (Eric Mason), The Very Good Gospel (Lisa Sharon Harper) Waking Up White (Debbie Irving) White Fragility (Robin DiAngelo), or any of the many books by John Perkins. If so, good; good on you! But I believe we all, regardless of our political leanings or our own ethnicity, need to know this historic American story about how the churches in the US have been involved in racism and institutional injustices.

Although it is broader and more passionately feisty, I trust you recall us promoting Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith by Mae Elise Cannon, Lisa Sharon Harper, Soong-Chan Rah, and Troy Jackson (Zondervan; $22.99.) The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism should stand next to that one on your bookshelf as a go-to resource to recall what needs to be known and so you are readily able to tell these historical facts to others. Kudos to Zondervan for doing this significant book and to Mr. Jemar Tisby for working so hard on this important book. Check him out at his podcast Pass the Mic, part of The Witness Podcast Network.

Listen to one of our great evangelical thinkers and leaders, Rev. Thabiti Anyabwile, the pastor of Anacostia River Church in DC:

In giving us a history of America and the Protestant Church, Jemar Tisby has given us a survey of ourselves-the racial meanings and stratagems that define our negotiations with one another. He points courageously toward the open sore of racism-not with the resigned pessimism of the defeated but with the resilient hope of Christian faith. The reader will have their minds and hearts pricked as they consider just how complicit the Church has been in America’s original sin and how weak a word ‘complicit’ is for describing the actions and inactions of those who claim the name of Christ!

I am very confident to name this one of the Best Books of 2019, doubtlessly one of the most important. I salute this young historian for helping us all understand the compromises of the past, and how that has effected our present. Thanks to all you have purchased it.

**for what it is worth, we have a few hardbacks left at 20% off of the $21.99 price. Very soon, there will be a paperback edition selling for $19.99. Please let us know if you want the hardback or the paperback.

Also, there is now a 12-session DVD video curriculum with the articulate and passionate Jemar Tisby. It has nearly four hours of content on 2 DVDs. It is called The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism Video Study. (Zondervan) $29.99.

How To Be An Antiracist Ibram X, Kendi (One World) $27.00 You may know the 600+ page National Book Award-winning volume by Ibram X. Kendi called Stamped from the Beginning which was subtitled The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Bold Type Books; $19.99.) It received remarkable attention, even as it was a dense (but readable) study of American anti-black ideas in the history of race. It was important. I mean very important.

Now this young historian (Dr. Kendi teaches at American University) who used to be a sports journalist and is also a preacher’s kid, has given us a more personal book, a guidebook to antiracist work, but written partially as a memoir. (His New York  parents were Christians influenced by black liberation theology in the 60s who moved him to Northern Virginia as a youth.) I name this thrilling book as one of the most important books I’ve read this year because it pushes the anti-racism agenda directly and yet with personal stories. It made for an engaging and sympathetic read. How to Be an Antiracist has now been called “essential” by Kirkus Review and was given starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, who wrote, “With Stamped from the Beginning Kendi proved himself a first-rate historian. Here, his willingness to turn the lens on himself marks him as a courageous activist, leading the way to a more equitable society.” (This is true, by the way, as Kendi tells some embarrassing stories about his own prejudices and failures by not being an antiracist. Good for him in sharing these anecdotes as a preachers kid.)

Listen to these blurbs from rave reviews and see why I selected it to honor here, too:

“What do you do after you have written Stamped From the Beginning, an award-winning history of racist ideas? . . . If you’re Ibram X. Kendi, you craft another stunner of a book. . . . What emerges from these insights is the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind, a confessional of self-examination that may, in fact, be our best chance to free ourselves from our national nightmare.” —The New York Times

“Ibram Kendi is today’s visionary in the enduring struggle for racial justice. In this personal and revelatory new work, he yet again holds up a transformative lens, challenging both mainstream and antiracist orthodoxy. He illuminates the foundations of racism in revolutionary new ways, and I am consistently challenged and inspired by his analysis. How to Be an Antiracist offers us a necessary and critical way forward.” –Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility

BEST BOOKS ON WHOLISTIC MISSIONAL AND CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT

Call for Justice: From Practice to Theory and Back Kurt Ver Beek & Nicholas P. Wolterstorff (Cascade) $26.00 This book just came out at the end of the year and although there are a plethora of great books on social justice, wholistic evangelism, Kingdom mission, and such, there is simply no book we know of that does what this does. It is remarkable and deserves to be celebrated and honored. We are naming it one of the great books of 2019.

Allow me to briefly explain what this wonderful, inspiring, and informative book does, and why I think it is so very important.

The story of the book is pretty straightforward. Kurt Ver Beek, Jo Ann Van Engen, and some other professors and friends from Calvin College (now University) years ago starting doing service trips to Central America. They wrote a widely distributed, republished, and debated critique of the value of “short term missions trips” and, to flesh out their own sense of working with local folk, increasingly got involved in the lives and politics and trials and needs of local folks who were working for social change. As these new Honduran friends worked for fair wages, land reform, police protection, local voting rights, and other such basic human rights, they came under persecutions, the sort that are fairly typical among the right-wing despots supported by US military aid in central America. It became clear that perhaps the most urgent matter was not having youth come to do well-intended simple work projects but, rather, to find ways to accompany these local citizens in their efforts for justice for all. There needed to be organizational and institutional heft to their cries for the rule of law.

Ver Beek (who is still a Professor of Sociology at Calvin) and his wife Van Engen created a “Justice Semester” in Honduras for Christian college students. Soon, they helped form the Asociacion para una Sociedad mas Justa — a Honduran NGO “made up of individuals seeking to be brave Christians making the Honduran government work, especially for those most vulnerable” and, then, a US-based non-profit support group, ASJ.

Eventually, Ver Beek and Van Engen convinced their friend and supporter, widely respected Christian philosopher and outspoken justice advocate Nicholas Wolterstorff to join them in Honduras to observe their work. He was struck by the particularities of their civic engagement and wrote a piece about it in The Christian Century, noting some of the exceptional and unique emphases and approaches of the Asociacion. The rest, as they say, is history.

Except for the actual writing of the book, which they both dreamed of, but found it hard to do, since they lived in different parts continent. The holistic, public work of the Honduran citizenship advocacy group (and their US sister group, ASJ) are increasingly known and respected (small and controversial as they may be.) Authors and global Christian leaders like Gary Haugen (of IJM fame) and Ken Wytsma (founder of the Justice Conference) have honored their work creating institutions that can confront corruption and engage broken political systems, but neither Kurt nor Nick really felt like they could put it all in a book about the vision and work and approach of ASJ. What they came up with was genius: Nick and Kurt committed to doing a serious set of letter exchanges back and forth, discussing different aspects of public life, faith-based social change, justice advocacy, and particularly the on-the-ground stories of the efforts of ASJ.

It soon became clear that the flow and structure of the book would be Nick adding what he could from his vantage point as a philosopher of justice (he has written deep and scholarly works on political philosophy and on the nature and attributes of justice) and Ver Beek answering with more practical replies. Or, sometimes, it would go the other way: Ver Beek would start with a specific and concrete detail of their advocacy work and invite Wolterstorff to ruminate on the deeper theological or political implications of it all. Through it all – amidst tender asides and honest notes from obviously two good and Godly friends – there is this “theory to practice” and “practice informed by theory” vibe to all their epistles. The title and subtitle are exactly spot on in describing the flow of the book. That the two authors are among the most reliable voices in their respective contexts makes this an unprecedented collection of correspondence. It is one of the most important resources in this field that I have seen in a very long time.

Call for Justice: From Practice to Theory and Back has a moving and helpful foreword by Ruth Padilla DeBorst that is very, very good. It is dedicated to Dionisio Diaz Garcias who was “assassinated December 4^th 2006, a martyr to the struggle for justice in Honduras.” It adds some urgency and importance to a book with a dedication like that, doesn’t it? We are grateful to tell you about it. We are glad to honor it as one of our Best Books of the Year, hoping many NGOs and Christian mission or justice groups study it well. Enhorabuena 

Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues Joshua Chatraw & Karen Swallow Prior (Zondervan) $29.99 I am not always confident that these books that have a dozen different topics in them are that useful. The viewpoints may be shallow or overly biased in one or the other directions and the topics covered may or may not be the most timely. Happily, Cultural Engagement gets is pretty right on both scores.

First, there are several viewpoints offered in each section of this anthology and while all author seem to be orthodox believers committed to evangelical faith, the views are delightfully and helpfully diverse. There are fine scholars here, writing to a mostly conservative readership, it seems, but they cover a variety of viewpoints and take into consideration various nuances. That is, these are not cheap voices of the religious right who are not informed by thoughtful conservative views, and they are not emotionally-driven activists who haven’t thought through the theologically and Biblically material. Kudos to Joshua Chatraw (director of New City Fellows at Holy Trinity Anglican in Raleigh) and Karen Swallow Prior, friend of Hearts & Minds and author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More – Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist, for being willing to not go boilerplate with this, but to find thoughtful voices and interesting contributors. Granted, the views are offered within a certain evangelical sort of framework, so the voices don’t represent the widest offering available within the big tent of the Body of Christ, but it is more diverse and interesting than you might imagine. It’s a great resource to read up on various pieces on a given topic by thoughtful writers.

Some of these writers include Andy Crouch and Joel Salatin, Robert George and Tish Harrison Warren, Katelyn Beaty and Vincent Bacote, Makoto Fujimura and Ben Witherington. For instance, what a treat in a volume like this to see Rosaria Butterfield in the same section as Matthew Vines (who represent two very different viewpoints on the inclusion of LGBTQ persons within the church) or two see respectful disagreement about the language we use when talking about abortion.

Secondly, the topics are all germane and urgent. From socially contested topics such as creation care, human life and reproductive technologies, immigration, gender roles, war animal welfare, and capitol punishment, there are more general topics as well — thinking about a Christian view of work, for instance, and good stuff on the arts, and the posture we take regarding civic life.

I might wish for a few other perspectives and a few other chapters, but the book already has more than enough. I’m pleased to honor it, and glad to celebrate it.

This book is incredibly needed for ‘such a time as this.’ In this day and age, when rhetoric and worldviews are so divisive, and intelligence with grace and integrity is in short supply, Prior and Chatraw manage to bring together authors who nuance ancient biblical ideas with a wisdom that speaks to the ethical issues of our modern age. Pulling no punches in tackling all the toughest issues, this remarkable one-volume compendium is practically encyclopedic in its perspectives that exemplify goodness, truth, and beauty, while showing that Christians can also thoughtfully disagree on nonessential issues without losing unity in the essentials of the faith. Allen Yeh, associate professor of intercultural studies and missiology, Biola University

 FAVORITE BOOKS ON SPIRITUALITY

The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to the Our Father Wesley Hill (Lexham Press) $15.99 I want to be brief in my explanation of this because it is such a wonderful little book that deserves to be encountered by you, gentle reader, in a fresh way, without me citing too much. I will, as is sometimes my approach, just tell you a bit about the author and the book and invite you to trust me on this: it is a marvelous read, spiritually edifying, good for those who are just beginning to study the topic of prayer and good for those who want a brief but lucid theological account of the famous passage in Matthew now called “The Lord’s Prayer” or “The Our Father.”

You should know that I admire Wes immensely. He is a very good writer – exquisite at times – and although a deep scholar (with a PhD from the University of Durham) and a beloved New Testament professor at Trinity School for Ministry, he wears his academic insights lightly. It is evident, I think, that he has done serious work on Trinitarian theology (not every book on the Lord’s Pray is so significantly Trinitarian) and it is evident that he cares about liturgy (using, in the subtitle, the phrase “The Our Father” indicates his ecumenical sensibilities and give a nod to his Anglican affiliations. He is aware of the recent longings for community among younger adults, especially, and is committed to a Biblically-driven passion for social justice; these come out in the text in lovely, helpful ways, making me all the more eager to promote this fabulous study.

Not only is it thoughtful without being dense and relevant, so to speak, with real-world, very contemporary applications (including a helpful small bit about why saying “Our Father” is, in fact, troubling for some. I appreciate that a theologically conservative Anglican would speak out against patriarchy and invite us to a more well-rounded, Biblical image for the Godhead.)

Another nice touch in this book is its design: it is a slim, compact sized hardback without a dust-jacket with artful graphic design touches and reverse-color ink and classic art. (I am glad there is a black and white reproduction of the Rembrandt painting made famous by Henri Nouwen which serves to anchor Wes’s epilogue, “Praying the Lord’s Prayer with Rembrandt.” The Lord’s Prayer, by the way, is part of a developing series, the second in the “Christian Essentials” set. (The first was Ben Meyer’s exceptional The Apostles Creed (2018) and the third is the brand new The Ten Commandments (2020) by Peter Leithart. All three are really, really handsome.

And look what is on the back, among other equally persuasive endorsements:

Most Christians say the Lord’s Prayer with great frequency and familiarity, so that we scarcely know what we are saying. In this treasure of a book, Hill opens up the prayer with great freshness for the ordinary reader, so that we seem to hear Jesus himself speaking to us, showing us how to pray to his Father in the same spirit that he himself does. This little volume will enrich a reader’s life immeasurably. —Fleming Rutledge, author of The Crucifixion and Help My Unbelief

Kudos to Lexham and, in this case, congrats to Wes Hill for doing such a wonderful, succinct, surprisingly good book on prayerfulness. Highly recommended.

The Winding Path of Transformation: Finding Yourself Between Glory and Humility Jeffrey Tacklind (IVP/formatio) $17.00 We stock all the excellent and moving books in the formatio line published by IVP and they remain some of the best books being published these days on the interior life, spirituality, and walking deeply in ways shaped by the practices of faith that lead us into the ways of Jesus. Yes, that’s a mouthful and while we could just say books in the formatio line are about spirituality, they are not all about prayer and monasticism. As with The Winding Path by Jeffrey Tacklind, many of their books are beautifully written and as much about living a vibrant life in the world as finding that inner quietude that we sometimes think of as spirituality.

And so, The Winding Path (with the great, great subtitle – finding yourself between glory and humility) is exactly about the inner transformations that can be found as one is learning about the courage to follow Jesus. As this pastor (with a degree in philosophy and a doctorate in semiotics) learns to enter into suffering he help us all remember that “the way up is down.” He describes his holding various folks who are in conflict together in loving tension – entering paradox. Such a willingness to host tension and paradox and friction and suffering means, as most of us know but don’t often enough ponder, that our path towards God is “ever winding.”

I knew I’d like this book when I read the vivid foreword by the great writer Cathleen Falsani where she names the date Jeff preached the best sermon she ever heard.

She writes,

The Best. Period. Full stop. And I say that as someone who, as a religion journalist, has gone to church for a living for a couple of decades and has been “churched” in one Christian tradition or another from the day I was born. Homiletics (AKA preachin’) is my baseball.

His message that morning, exegeting the fourth chapter of the book of Job from Hebrew Scripture, was a humdinger. Humble, funny, literate, astute, accessible, compassionate, vulnerable, and profoundly, achingly honest. Quintessential Jeff, really.

So, who wouldn’t want to read a book by a guy like that? And then I see amazing blurbs on the back by Ian Cron and Leonard Sweet and J.P. Moreland and Alan Fadling and Jennifer Grant and I’m wondering, who is this guy and why haven’t I read this book yet? (And why does it have such a bland cover that doesn’t convey the electricity and energy and pathos of this vivid book? But I digress.)

Not surprisingly, The Winding Path of Transformation: Finding Yourself Between Glory and Humility challenged me even though it was a thoroughly enjoyable book to read. I honor it also because long after reading it, I find it is an important one to ponder. It has grand ideas but is really down to earth. There is stuff about “small prayers” and a chapter about living between “glory and humility” and one inviting us to be honest about living the questions. (I happen to know he did his doctorate on the theme of “humble epistemology” so his views about “knowing” are not over-confident, thank goodness.) There are plenty of citations from great theologians and plenty of allusions to pop culture yet with all this vim it is gentle, calling us to experience something with God that is authentic and transformative. I will revisit it again, I am sure; I skipped all the reflection questions but they looked excellent. I invite you to get it and enjoy the winding ride.

As Len Sweet says of it on the back, “you will shake your head in marvel and wonderment at its revelations. The promise of the title is real – your own journey will be transformed.”

Kudos to formatio and IVP and Pastor Jeffrey Tacklind for one of the best books on spiritual formation this year.

Learning from Henri Nouwen & Vincent van Gogh: A Portrait of the Compassionate Life Carol. A Berry (IVP/formatio) $22.00  For anyone who cares about Henri Nouwen and his gentle, often incisive insights into the interior life, a new book about his teachings would be seen as a notable book any year. Worthy of special celebration —  and kudos to IVP for helping bring this to light — is the extraordinary story behind Carol Berry’s Learning from Nouwen and Van Gogh book. You may know that Henri was early in his career a chaplain at Yale and he famously taught a few classes at the Divinity school there. (The fruit of one of those is the popular book Compassion that Nouwen co-wrote.) Just one year he taught a course on the virtues and pains of living a compassionate life and he drew in that class on the life, pain, vision, art, and spiritual of Vincent Van Gogh.  Many of often wondered what that class was like, but until recently no one who was actually in the class came forward.

As we explained in our BookNotes excitedly celebration this important book, Berry audited the course (her husband, the divinity student, was taking it for credit) and she took copious notes. She and her husband went on to be mentored by and good friends with Father Nouwen.  The Nouwen literary trust who is careful about these things authorized her to write the book based on her good notes and keen memories of this once-in-a-lifetime course.

The book is arranged in three parts and every part has three chapters. She writes beautifully about what she learned about Van Gogh, what she learned from Henri, and what she applied to her own life and her spiritual journey. The three units are on solidarity, consolation, and comfort.  It is truly one of the most lovely books about Nouwen we have seen in ages (even though the last few years have seen previously unpublished collections of his mature writings.)

Further, Learning from Henri Nouwen & Vincent van Gogh: A Portrait of the Compassionate Life is made as beautifully and arfully as the topic would demand. InterVarsity Press did a fantastic job with the cover, the page layout, the art pieces and color within, making this a special treat to behold, to study, to give as a gift. All in all, it is one of the most lovely and memorable books of the year!

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry John Mark Comer (Waterbrook) $23.99  This is a book that I’ve mentioned several times at BookNotes, so here is what I wrote right before Christmas when I was touting it as a great gift book. I’m happy to note it here, yet again, as one of my favorite reads of 2019.

I did a long, breathy review of this earlier this fall (HERE) and the book quickly became one of our best selling titles of the year. John Mark Comer is fun and cool, the design is hip and youthful, but the content — riffing on a line from Dallas Willard — is perennial, good for anyone who wants to deepen their spiritual lives by slowing down, learning to be mindful, and create transforming space to know God more intimately, so to be remade into the image of Christ. Fun and clever as this is, reading The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry becomes a great way into conversations about spirituality, lifestyles, pace of life, serenity, repentance, discipleship. He writes movingly about Christ’s (easy) yoke. About being an apprentice of the true Lord who shows us what it means to be human. Comer’s Garden City is about vocation and calling, work and rest. It is about being made in God’s image and you can see this new one as a natural follow up, focusing less on the call to work, and more on the call to rest. There is a great foreword by John Ortberg, who calls Ruthless Elimination… a “prophetic word for our time.” It is clearly pitched to young adult readers, but this old guy who turned 65 a few weeks ago (that would be me) thinks it is one of the books of the year!

Okay, I said it then, and I’m sticking to it. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer is of my favorite books of the year. Hooray! Buy it on sale, now — you can slow down after you hurry up and order the thing from us today.

My Heart Cries Out: Gospel Meditations for Everyday Life Paul David Tripp (Crossway) $24.99 This is a book that deserves some award, some honorary mention for a number of compelling reasons, I think. Kudos to the publisher for doing this book so nicely, in a larger sized paperback with full color photos includes. Perhaps a lesser-known author wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to do this outside-of-the box book, but we are glad. Tripp is the author of a number of books which offer a clear sense of the gospel – salvation through faith alone, justification through the Cross of Christ, healthy human restoration based on the hope of God’s mercy, inviting us to grit and glory inspired by gospel-centered teaching that is solid and profound. He’s a counselor and author of books about Biblical counseling. He has written about redemptive understandings to money, to sexuality, to marriage and parenting. He has a book on awe, a book on helping others. His biggest seller, though, is a year-long devotional called New Morning Mercies. It is very good. Here, though, he has given us a book of devotional poetry.

Yep, the heady thinker and systematic Bible counselor has moved to the other side of his brain and has given us an artfully created bit of free verse the comes back, over and over, to our great need – crying out to God – and God’s great grace. It’s a handsome and interesting book and we wanted to name it here. There are poem/prayers he has written over different seasons of his life, sometimes in joy and celebration but often in times of disappointment and confusion. Three big cheers for this vulnerable and creative guide to getting real with God.

If you don’t believe me, listen to rhyme-master hip hop artist and thoughtful author Lecrae, who says:

Poetry is the expression of the heart and mind of a person. When that person reflects on the person and work of Jesus, the expression is hopeful and redemptive. As an artist who uses words as expression, I found joy in reading My Heart Cries Out. This work connects with the human condition in a unique and awesome way.

Live in Grace, Walk in Love: A 365-Day Journey Bob Goff (Thomas Nelson) $16.99  We have mentioned this several times at BookNotes, from when we first announced it as a pre-order to suggesting it as a Christmas gift. I have to admit I didn’t read this an entry a day as you’re suppose to, but plowed through dozens of pages at a sitting. I just couldn’t stop – what fun, what good advice, how helpful, inspiring and challenging. I am confident I want to name it as a favorite book of the year, but not sure it should be listed here in this category of books about spirituality; it is not about contemplation or prayerfulness, really, doesn’t cite Henri Nouwen or Ruth Haley Barton or Richard Rohr. But it is (supposed to be) a daily devotional, so I’ll list it here, anyway. Read in prayerfully each day for a year, or swallow it in big gulps. Live in Grace… is a gem that will help you in your faith and discipleship, yes, your knowledge of God and your joy in the Lord.

Here is a slightly edited version of what I wrote back at BookNotes last fall: Bob is a friend and supporter (is there anybody he meets he doesn’t befriend and encourage?) As you know from Love Does and Everybody Always he is a consummate storyteller, a funny guy who lives in whimsy, and whose adventures – holy capers – are designed to create a better world of love and grace. From offering balloons to the sick to starting a girl’s school in the face of the Taliban in Afghanistan, how does he do it? Bob truly is one of the most unforgettable people we’ve ever met and his energy and cheer befuddles me.

He joked with me the last time we were together that he had thought he might get out of this (with a bit of tongue in cheek and faux bluster, I’m sure) book contract by writing just 30 days of devotions for a nice month-long reader. Oh no, no way! The publisher was not having it – they wanted a full-on 365-day reader of all new content. Stories, Bible studies, inspirational faith-building lessons? Yep, all of the above. An entire year’s worth. Bob Goff has a storehouse of adventures to draw upon and as an old Young Life guy, knows how to re-tell a Bible episode like the best of ‘em. Live in Grace, Walk in Love is a great, great devotional based on Scripture.

These stories will offer a glimpse into the zany and earnest care Bob has for others. For those that may not be familiar with Bob’s extraordinary style, I want to note just two quick things. He’s no theologian (but sure is smart; he does have a law degree and is pretty darn successful in that field.) But he does know the Bible. Some think he’s just all joy and balloons and smiles, but he quotes the Bible all the time. He just does. So don’t underestimate the Scriptural warrant of his dreams and visions of making the world a better place.

Secondly, as I’ve said, Goff does have a blast doing the unexpected, living well in gracious, good ways. That is, this new, yearlong reader could inspire those who are bored, those who are dreamless, those who can’t see that faith or spirituality might be real or exciting. Live in Grace, Walk in Love will be for many un-churched folks, I suspect, the best invitation to the Christ-promised “abundant life” that they’ve ever encountered. Buy it for the young and the old, the faithful and the faithless, the troubled and the overly confident, the light-hearted and the too serious. It will introduce almost anyone to a down-to-Earth faith that gets busy walking in love, relying on God’s good grace.

The Gift of Wonder: Creative Practices for Delighting in God Christine Aroney-Sine (IVP) $16.00 There are many books these days that invite us to find God in the ordinary. We have a whole section of books like this with more than a dozen mediations on the spirituality of the mundane. This is one that almost didn’t capture my attention – something about the cover really turned me off – but I know the author and respect her immensely. I’ve read other books of hers about contemplative spirituality and her great little morning and evening prayer book. I also respect her husband, Tom Sine, and appreciate his feisty books to be involved in social change (including the recent Live Like You Give a Damn – Join the Changemaking Celebration.)Together, Tom and Christine have forged an innovative life of service, justice, community, and celebration. If she has insights about living well in the real world, I want to hear them.

And what a great book this is, offering very special practices, ideas, proposal and guides for doing all kinds of creative activities to heighten our sense of the sacred, to learn to stand in awe, to deepen our wonder. She invites us to play — like a child! (Didn’t Jesus imply something about being like a child?) Christine is so atuned to the beauty of creation and the way God can speak to us through its speech (think of Psalm 19) she seems a proponent of something akin to a Celtic sort of spirituality (which maybe she learned in her native Australia, who knows?) She sees God’s handiwork all over and helps us lean into an appreciation for a sense of the sacred — and responds even with the occasional poem of doxology. Can we enjoy our faith, enjoy our days, celebrate the goodness (even as we hunger for greater hope and justice?) This book will be a life-giving aid to anyone who takes it up and you can spend years practicing the many suggestions and ideas she puts on offer in The Gift of Wonder. What a fun, good, healthy book.

Jesus talks about childlike trust in God. The apostle Paul writes about compassion and thankfulness. These themes play a big role in Christine Aroney-Sine’s new book. Using stories from the Bible, creative exercises, reflection questions, and her own beautiful poems, Christine addresses the questions of how we can bring joy to God and how we can live out the Christian faith as a journey of discovery. The topics of her book–awe, play, curiosity, creativity, imagination, adventure, and wonder–bring balm to the soul in this age of fear and polarization. She guides us on pathways to experience God’s generous gifts and to grow in contentment and peace in Christ. —Lynne M. Baab, author of Sabbath Keeping and Nurturing Hope

TWO GREAT BIOGRAPHIES

Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom David Blight (Simon and Schuster) $22.00  Okay, I’m not going to actually review this since I have not nearly finished it yet and am hardly competent to do so. (It is over 900 pages, after all; I’m not going to lie – I have a ways to go. But, oh my…) It came out at the end of 2018 and was a pricey, if gorgeous, thick, deckle-edged hardback. It had full-page ads in places like The New York Times Book Review laden with quotes saying it was one of the best books of our time, magisterial, etc. It sold out everywhere immediately and was unavailable for the rest of the year. Early in 2019 it won the Pulitzer Prize in History, earned the coveted Bancroft Prize and the prestigious Lincoln award. I had hoped the paperback would land in 2019 so I could name it as the best paperback release of a former hardback. Given its extraordinary attention and rave reviews (both as a wonderfully-written historical biography and as a every so timely, urgently important reflection on an under-appreciated racial justice warrior) it was highly anticipated and eagerly awaited. Alas, it came the first week of January bearing a 2020 pub date.

So, you get my quandary: I didn’t name it in 2018 as it simply wasn’t available the end of December and into January of 2019. And now, the paperback is a 2020 release. My (silly) publicity, awarding, dilemma; “cinematic and deeply engaging” as it is said to be, a “tour de force of storytelling” as it is, I couldn’t list it last year, so I figured I’d award it this year.

I’m raving here, anyway, happily announcing that we have the handsome, thick, beautiful paperback and it is one that I want to shout out about here, now. I honorably name it, as it feels like a book we’ve been thinking about all year long. It draws on new material that no other biography has worked through and is the first major work on “the most important African American of his century” in decades. Why not join me now and put it on your list of must-read biographies this year. Check out these endorsements which have some of the most superlative accolades I’ve seen in a book like this in a long time:

A stunning achievement.  Blight captures an icon in full humanity.  From riveting drama in slavery and Civil War, his Douglass rises into clairvoyant genius on the blinkered centrality of race in our struggle for freedom.” — Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of America in the King Years

Extraordinary. . . . In Blight’s pages, [Douglass’s] voice again rings out loud and clear, melancholy and triumphant — still prophesying, still agitating, still calling us to action.    — Adam Goodheart, The Washington Post

David Blight has written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass. With extraordinary detail he illuminates the complexities of Douglass’s life and career and paints a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the 19th century . . . . Magisterial.  — Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., The Boston Globe

Exactly As You Are: The Life and Faith of Mr. Rogers Shea Tuttle (Eerdmans) $23.99 I know I don’t need to tell you much about the beloved Mr. Rogers. This book has garnered rave reviews from the standard bookish reviewers – The Library Journal gave it a starred review calling it “warmly written.” Publishers Weekly calls it “delightful” and “satisfying” and more. Most importantly, Michael Long, who wrote the must read study Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Roberts says it is “By far the best book available on America’s beloved neighbor.” It becomes clear for those who have eyes to see it that Ms Tuttle has taken great (as she says in her delightful acknowledgements) encouragement from Mike Long and that she relied on some of his archival research into Fred Rogers’ letters where he often explained the meaning of various episodes. If Long gave us background and context for the Presbyterian clergyman’s television ministry, Tuttle fleshes it out in a full on, serious, wonderfully-written biography.

Tuttle, by the way, was a perfect woman for this job, or so it seems. She was part of the “Lived Theology” project under Charles Marsh at the University of Virginia and co-edited the multi-year project they developed into the book Can I Get a Witness? Thirteen Peacemakers, Community-Builders, and Agitators for Faith and Justice (Eerdmans; $26.99) which we reviewed appreciatively at BookNotes back last winter. That project, about those who live out their faith in public ways, who take the cost of discipleship seriously as they strive to serve others, certainly gave her eyes to see the work of Mr. Rogers in the light of Christian faith and public reformation. Again, that Fred himself was ordained and active in the Pittsburgh Presbytery, is hugely important. Exactly as You Are is as sweet as it needs to be, making it a lovely gift for anyone who is a fan of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, but it is honest and even profound at times. Just for instance, the section on Fred’s complicated views of the homosexuality of Francois Clemmons who played Officer Clemmons on the show, (not to mention his own sexuality) is nuanced but fraught. As lovely as a book it is (with some nice red ink on the chapter titles) it isn’t fluff or hagiography. It’s very well done.

But, it is inspiring. As it says on the flyleaf,

Tuttle explores this kind, influential, sometimes surprising man: the neighborhood he came from, the neighborhood he built, and the kind of neighbor he, by his example, calls all of us to be.

Reading Exactly As You Are you learn some fun stuff about Fred Rogers. Importantly, you learn how he was guided by “his core belief: that God loves children, and everyone else, exactly as they are.”

A VERY IMPORTANT BOOK ABOUT THE ARTS

Bezalel’s Body: The Death of God and the Birth of Art Katie Kresser (Cascade) $28.00 I am not positive this deserves a “Best Book of 2019” and I am not finished my work with it yet. But I can assure you that for anyone who has read in the “faith and the arts” movement, who is part of organizations like CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts), you will find Katie Kresser’s work to be an invaluable encouragement to your own on-going thinking and re-thinking about the very meaning and purpose and value of art. Dr. Kresser is Professor of Art History at Seattle Pacific University. She received her PhD from Harvard. This is a very studious and notable work.

I found the art piece on the cover of this book to be a bit creepy and off-putting. I don’t like the title, either, so I supposed I might have issues with the thesis. So I went into this admittedly with some suspicion. (I always check when reading books about faith and the arts to see if they cite Calvin Seerveld, and if they do not, I am even further discouraged and distrusting.) Alas, I was won over in just a few pages, even by the splendid foreword by the always interesting and always-reliable Bruce Herman. What a good painter, art instructor, writer, (and friend to many) he is! And in his opening comments, I was immediately put at ease about the insight and perspective of this obviously substantive work. Just listen to the first sentence of Bruce’s introduction:

Katie Kresser’s words consistently break open a space for the sustained human gaze – for seeing and responding afresh to the mystery of works of art in all their particularity and stubborn physical presence.

Of course, as Herman makes clear, Dr. Kresser is asking a very old question; namely, “What is Art?” It gets heavy, and within a page (not surprisingly) Herman is citing the last stanza of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (“just before the poet quotes Julian of Norwich…”) and it gets really interesting as he takes us to Catholic theologian and philosopher of aesthetics Han Urs von Balthasar. Finally, he says “The body in Dr. Kresser’s title is therefore also us.” And so it begins.

Bezalel’s Body has lots of full color art included, some that is lovely, some that is a bit disturbing. Some are classics — Caravaggio and Michelangelo and Bosch and Matisse and Picasso. And there are lesser-known old pieces and some contemporary artists that are well worth considering, as she does so well. I so enjoyed these parts when she showed what she was philosophizing about. By so doing is getting us to ask important questions about a faith-infused perspective on art history, art theory, and our own sense of psychology and self and spirituality as we encounter artworks. As it says on the back cover, “By examining how cutting edge art trends reveal age-old spiritual dynamics, Kressler helps recover an ancient tradition with vital relevance for today.” She is trying to help us understand, profoundly, what good art does. I still wish she’d have cited Seerveld…

As I was pondering citing this as a very important book this year, I saw this, which made me realize I was on to something in my naïve skimming of this substantive work. Listen to this:

“In this ranging, evocative book, Katie Kresser reframes the way we approach art. Every encounter with a painting is an encounter with otherness, a reminder of a world beyond myself and of a mystery beyond the world. To stand before a painting or a sculpture is to be called into a relationship, one that aims to change me in the process. After this book, you’ll never walk through a museum in the same way again.”                              —James K. A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin University, Editor-in-Chief of Image Journal

FAVORITE BOOK ABOUT CHRISTIAN FILM STUDIES

Cinematic Faith: A Christian Perspective on Movies and Meaning William David Romanowski (Baker Academic) $22.99  When I think back of the many long — some too long, I’m told — reviews I did in this past years, one of the ones I’m most proud of was done in mid-June 2016 and it was a pretty major review of a book by an old friend, an esteemed film scholar and professor at Calvin University. I had to mention a ton of other books first, and rumninate a bit on some other titles before, about half-way through that particular BookNotes column, I got around to the major task of explaining this extraordinary book. I don’t want to reprint it all here, but you may want to read it back at BookNotes, HERE. 

Here’s why I am nominating this now, naming it as one of my own favorite books of 2019 and why I think it deserves accolades. As I tried (feebly, perhaps) to say in my earlier review, Bill’s book sets out to do things that few books in the ever-growing genre of faith and film books do; namely, to study film (Christianly, to be sure) as an art work. (Another book I highlighted in the previous BookNotes column has some good work in this exact matter, making it a cut above most. See Deep Focus: Film and Theology in Dialogue by Robert Johnston, Craig Detweiler and Kutter Callaway (Baker Academic; $26.99.)

Study film as a work of art? Of course; there is an art and craft to film making, and just as a critic of paintings or dance or photography or sculpting (or football or cooking or comedy, for that matter) needs to know about the art form itself, the skills and craft of actually making something, making a movie also needs to be firstly understood as a artfully produced artifact by skilled craft people (albeit with unavoidable religious or secular or philosophic values and biases) who make artistic or technical decisions for a reason.

I adore books like Movies Are Prayers by Josh Larsen or Michael Cosper’s fine The Stories We Tell: How TV and Movies Long for and Echo the Truth, both which help film-lovers connect the worldviews of the stories told with the viewer’s deep faith. Fair enough; these are rich resources. And I also like, when I can muster the interest, the fairly heady stuff that talk about the “relationship” of film and theology, as if theologians somehow have to weigh in on the meaning of films.

But Romanowski’s book, if I may say so, seems to suggest that this film plus theology approach is flawed from the beginning, assuming as it does almost a secular vs sacred dichotomy, as if (secular) movies have to be given “meaning” by some religious scholars who can see it, mixing the two discipline of art and theology. I think it’s good for theologians to get involved in all kinds of human stuff, so this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but one doesn’t create a Christian view of this or that by asking theologians or pastors to add their religious knowledge to the seemingly neutral stuff of the artist. The Christian insight and perspective on this or that — science, art, sports, counseling, economics, or whatever — has to be forged by those who are in that discipline doing that work, not by putting two disciplines (science and theology or film and theology) together, as if those with the vocation to be scientists or film-makers are a-religious until the theologians show up to explain things. This is a difference that makes a difference, I think: it seems that Romanowksi’s project isn’t to add theology to the study of film, but to study film as a Christian who has, in fact, mastered the art of studying film-making.

And so, this brave book, deserves a big award for bucking the trend of merely critiquing the plot and message of a movie, as if the moral of the show is all that matters. With its bright, retro cover, Cinematic Faith is inviting us all to enjoy movies more, as believers, before God, certainly by being attentive to the story and meaning and morals of the film, but more foundationally, by knowing something about how movies are made. What is cinematography and how does it work to create a mood or aesthetic and tone, and how is that mood or aesthetic or tone shaped by the deepest instincts or worldview of the cinematographer? What does the director do? What about editing?  How does the acting help tell the story — in fact, why did the casting director choose the stars that he or she did? And on we go, deep into the curious facts and features and finances of the complex art of making a movie, exploring what Romanowski says are film’s “unique capabilities as an audiovisual medium.”

Prof Romanowski’s Cinematic Faith: A Christian Perspective on Movies and Meaning is a lot of fun — I wouldn’t name it one of my year’s favs if it was dry tome, especially since it is about something as entertaining as turning off the lights, heating up the popcorn and spending two hours suspending belief and entering an alternative world. Bill loves the movies (including silly and romantic and dramatic and popular ones.) His faith is deep and it shapes all of his thinking about the arts and aesthetics and entertainment and leisure, so this really is a great read for thoughtful Christians who want to have more pleasure at the cinema.  But if we are going to take our discipleship seriously, honoring the Kingship of Christ over all of life, then we have to do some thinking about all this.  As I note in my review, “reading enhances our faithful enjoyment.” I commend his book to you.

As I wrote last Spring:

One of the great delights of Cinematic Faith are a handful of (sometimes lengthy) “Movie Musing” sidebars where to illustrate his point in a given chapter, Romanowski explores some detail or theme in popular films.

From the “married life” sequence in Up to looking at “Dramatizing Drone Warfare in Eye in the Sky” to a brilliant analysis of history in the movie Lincoln to a fun interpretation of “time loop fiction” by way of a study of (what else?) Groundhog Day to one called “Boy Meets Girl in La La Land” these are all fascinating (even if you haven’t seen the film under consideration.)

Bill has spent considerable scholarly energy studying melodrama (and, for example, Titanic) and he loves Rocky (which, in a “Movie Musing” he calls “A Classical Hollywood Film.”) He offers musings on Blade Runner and The Imitation Game as metaphors, “art and ethics” in Rear Window, and a great piece called “Narrative, Character and Perspective in The Blind Side” – you’ve got to read that if you enjoyed this movie as much as we have. Through all of these excursions, you can tell that his tastes are not overly high-brow. (Remember his central thesis of Pop Culture Wars that all film and pop artifacts are religiously/philosophically laden and artfully serious, and his central thesis of Eyes Wide Open that we can find signs of life and Godly insight from even pagan popular culture.) Cinematic Faith is hoping to enhance your viewing experiences and help you get more out of your entertainment dollar, not bore you with academic discourse or shame you for enjoying the movies you enjoy. Please know, this isn’t highbrow scholarly theory for snooty cineastes but a thoughtful tool for all of us, whether you like The Kings Speech or the X-Men series or Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War.

Regardless of what kind of movies or Netflix shows you enjoy, you should learn a bit about the art of interpretation. This is a major theme of the book and I think it explains some important critical insights without being all alarmist (the secular bad guys are out to get you) or with too much professional film-critic jargon. He offers up-to-date insights about interpration and he roots in in four guiding Biblical principles. It has a chapter called “Movie Making Magic” and another that is pivotal, exploring the relationship of “form and content.” Oh yes, that. You knew that was coming, didn’t you?

As I wrote before, in lines I’m sort of proud of:

There’s plenty more in Cinematic Faith, from a strong reminder that the routine vision of American individualistic self salvation in many films is a far cry from the core tenant of being save by God’s grace, to a unique study of The Blind Side, to a wonderful epilogue that draws on Shrek. For those with eyes to see, all films can and do express meaning and “communicate life perspectives.” They can help us see and they can help us care.

Can knowing a bit about how they are made and how they work on us and how to critically engage them help us discern those that “resonate with a biblical outlook and so deepen our awareness of the ways that humans bear God’s image and flourish through acts of love, forgiveness, and generosity?” This book insists yes. We can truly enjoy movies and be challenged and grow through their artful style – especially if we know something about it all.

Cinematic Faith: A Christian Perspective on Movies and Meaning stands out as a large gift to anyone that who enjoys movies and film and certainly anyone who is attempt to be intentionally faithful in “finding God in popular culture.”

SPECTACULAR PHILOSPHY, HISTORY & THEOLOGY in ONE BIG AWARD-WORTHY VOLUME

History and Eschatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology N.T. Wright (Baylor University Press) $34.95 [no discount on this time, sorry.] This may be the most scholarly book yet done by N.T. Wright and certainly he is in exquisitely academic company in being asked to do the famous, prestigious Gifford Lectures. This book offers us all a chance to take in those lectures; in a clever personal note at the beginning (which I shared the last time I wrote about this at BookNotes, I believe) he explained the significance of this lectureship and what he hoped to accomplish in them. “My goodness,” his mother said, “I’m glad I didn’t have to listen to those lectures.” He good-naturedly invites his readers to abandon the book henceforth if they find it a bit obscure. I get that.

From the Gifford Lectures website, I copied this:

The prestigious Gifford Lectureships were established by Adam Lord Gifford (1820–1887), a senator of the College of Justice in Scotland. The purpose of Lord Gifford’s bequest to the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews and Aberdeen was to sponsor lectures to “promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term—in other words, the knowledge of God”.

Since the first lecture in 1888, Gifford Lecturers have been recognized as pre-eminent thinkers in their respective fields. Among the many gifted lecturers are Hannah Arendt, Noam Chomsky, Stanley Hauerwas, William James, Jean-Luc Marion, Iris Murdoch, Roger Scruton, Eleonore Stump, Charles Taylor, Alfred North Whitehead, and Rowan Williams.

It has been rare to have a Biblical scholar deliver these lectures (I’m told this is the first time in many decades, and certainly the first evangelical Bible scholar.) So this is a very big deal, with the publication of the volume obviously needing to be named as one of the most important books of 2019.

Here are two of the many rave reviews about this dense text:

This is Tom Wright at his best–an exegete, theologian, churchman, and public intellectual rolled into one. A creative and arresting contribution to ‘natural theology,’ this book argues for the plausibility of the Christian vision of the relation between God and the world by taking seriously the history of Jesus Christ, especially the promise contained in his resurrection of the new creation: the creation become God’s and humans’ home.

With a stunning breadth of research Wright takes his Gifford lectures as an occasion to deepen the paradigmatic shift in biblical studies that he has shaped over the last thirty years. Wright offers a model of historical exegesis that just might release us from our Platonic bondage. This book combines breathtakingly creative brilliance with a lovely eloquence. Since an ‘epistemology of love’ is at the heart of Wright’s natural theology, we wouldn’t have expected anything less. Read this book, then read it again. It takes its place in the esteemed tradition of Gifford lectures becoming classics.

THEOLOGY FOR THE REST OF US

Restless Faith Holding Evangelical Beliefs in a World of Contested Labels Richard Mouw (Brazos) $19.99 This was a year of some very important theological works and some were even fairly widely known and/or discussed. Think of the writer with an unparalleled vocabulary, the too-feisty Hart who wrote on Yale University Press the important That All May be Saved or

But Dr. Mouw is absolutely my favorite theologian and this is his reasonable, chatty, conversation about what it means to be an evangelical, how he, as an ecumenically-sensitive, Reformed thinker, uses that word to describe himself (even though he’s never been fully comfortable with the association) and why he thinks it is still worth holding on to.

Look: if you want to know what, really, this phrase means, without wading through the brand new (quite definitive) collection of essays called Evangelical this grand little book written almost as a memoir (almost a follow up to his memoir called Adventures in Evangelical Civility) Restless Faith is hard to beat. I am amazed how Mouw can take a story or episode or a book, calmly tell you something about it, use it as a springboard for another idea which he counters with a critique of that idea, smoothly helping us understand several viewpoints on a topic and why he favors this or that nuanced formulations. It is just wonderful being guided by him towards better thinking and a true joy of learning.

If you want to learn a lot about a lot of various theological themes and questions, Restless Faith is a way to get up to speed, painlessly. He’s a clear-headed and calm writer, interesting and fair and reliable. Until is amazing book on common grace comes out from Brazos Press next May (All That God Cares about: Common Grace and Divine Delight) read Restless Faith and then read it again. Very highly recommended.

For the Life of the World: Theology That Makes a Difference Miroslav Volf & Matthew Croasmun (Brazos Press) $21.99 Not all of us can wade through heady, abstract theology, and this book deserves our accolades here at year’s end because it was a book that, in fact, tried to address that. Not that they suggest all academic theology should just be less scholarly. No, they are asking a more fundamental question, it seems: what is the point of theology if it does not make a difference in help us, as individuals, churches, and society at large, more full of God’s shalom? That is, does it make us flourish? There are bold and some may protest, but they are asking if theology can actually address the actual question of what makes for human happiness. If some research on this has been done (and it has) then how can theology help us construe and live a life of meaning? Wow.

Here is what I wrote about it when I was inviting BookNotes readers to send us pre-orders. It came out, then, in late January 2019; we had the great joy of being with Volf again earlier this year (at Church of the Good Samaritan at an event hosted there for the Episcopalian Diocese of Pennsylvania. What fun!)

I hope you noticed my little shout out about this, ever so briefly, in the previous BookNotes newsletter. I was reviewing a book by and about the life of singer-songwriter and justice advocate and global peacemaker, recording artist and Anglican priest, Garth Hewett. I said something about his art and his theology intertwining somehow, and that he sang about stuff that mattered and that there have been recent books about an evangelical vision for the common good that explore the same sorts of themes that Hewett sings and writes about.  Theology, good theology, like healthy spirituality, must always bear fruit deepening our love for the world God so loves and equip us to be faithful in our engagement with our times. Professor Volf knows this and is an acclaimed “public theologian” whose books have this keen perception of the issues of the day and whose study yields deeper insights about being alive in and for the world.

This work is asking a huge question, and that is, if it doesn’t sound too grand, “what makes life worth living?” In fact, Volf is involved in the significant Yale Center for Faith and Culture where his co-author, Matthew Croasmun, directs the Life Worth Living program. They are doing research into this fundamental, human question and then — yes! — asking how to do theology in light of that, or in conversation with that human research. In a way, this must be a major concern of any theology that hopes to get a hearing in our pluralistic, pluralizing, post-Christian (post secular?) world. The question of what constitutes a flourishing life is up for grabs (or is just as often just neglected in our universities, business’s, and even churches!)

The vision for theology presented here is simple but not easy. Volf and Croasmun think our task as theologians is to be about the flourishing not only of the academy or the church but also of all peoples. Their work is tested in the hard laboratory of professors’ classrooms and church planters’ living rooms. I challenge you to read this book and not come away encouraged, enlightened, and renewed for our task of contemplating God for the good of humanity. So much of what passes for theology dies in intramural food fights and name-calling. This book calls us to a task more urgent, more dangerous, and more life-giving by far than that.
— Jason Byassee, Vancouver School of Theology

NOTABLE THEOLOGY: ONE I’M TOLD IS ESSENTIAL AND BRILLIANT

That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, & Universal Salvation David Bentley Hart (Yale University Press) $26.00 I didn’t read this. Okay, so sue me – I’m naming it, anyway. There is little doubt in my mind that there is no other theological books that was published this year that got as much scholarly attention, was as seriously reviewed, as hotly debated and became a big seller as this obtuse and heavy volume published by one of the most intellectually hefty writers of our time.

Hart is known for using too many big words, for seeming ostentatious, and for clearly being a pugilist when it comes to argument. I do not want to say he is uncivil, although calling him snarky sounds too soft and popular and fun. He’s forceful and arrogant. He’s blunt and (did I say) obtuse. He’s a writer many love to hate, or, as I sometimes say, hate to love. He is Eastern Orthodox, says he is a democratic socialist, and has been described by conservative writer Matthew Walther as “our greatest living essayist.” His deep first book (The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth) was published to extraordinary acclaim; he has published other fine books with Eerdmans and other important religious publishers, and is a contributing editor of First Things. Paul Griffiths says (on the back cover of That All…) “David Bentley Hart is the most eminent living Anglophone theologian.” 

John Behr of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary says, of That All Shall Be Saved,

 At last! A brilliant treatment – exegetically, theologically, and philosophically – of the promise that, in the end, all will indeed be saved, and exposing the inadequacy – above all moral – of claims to the contrary.

So many others have said these sorts of things – from popular writers like Rob Bell (do you recall my five part study of that book at BookNotes, writing more words about it than the book itself?) or Philip Gulley on one hand to heavyweight scholars like Moltmann, Barth, James Allison, or Robin Parry, on the other, while evangelical professors like Sharon Baker have books with titles like Razing Hell and Brad Jersak and Keith Giles and Brian Zahnd popularize these conversations afresh. Everybody brings in George MacDonald and how C.S. Lewis approached these things. My point is that even this year we’ve stocked a good number of books that explore this. Why did Hart take the cake?

I suppose it may be because, as Behr opines, it is brilliant, and covers Scripture, theology and philosophy. As John Milbank (!) writes on the back, “He calls us back to real orthodoxy, perhaps just in time.” I’m not sure what that means, but: Milbank! One reviewer says Harts argument is “gorgeously elaborated with unmatched force and brio.”

So, it’s being talked about in high-falutin’ circles and although that’s not fully our crowd, I respect scholars like Simon Oliver (of Durham) who says it is “some of the most exacting, perspicuous, and powerful theological writing I have read in recent years.” And ya have to love a book that is said to be written with “unmatched force and brio” which is sort of the same thing, although I can imagine that it is unmatched.

Okay, it deserves to be on our notable list. I suppose I should wade in. I’ve read a number of complex reviews and maybe you have too. Now, here’s your chance to buy the book, at our 20% off discount. Let us know what you think.

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As we move towards the celebration of Epiphany, we think, among other things, of Light. Of course that which “shines through” (the meaning of the word) is the person and work of Christ, His divinity and His redemptive plan to restore the cosmos. Themes of Christ being the Light from heaven are a central liturgical motif and a true word from Scripture. In John 1 it reminds us that the true Word has come into the world as light and the darkness has not be able to put it out.

Although, as we shall see, it tries.

Naturally, this is a time to refocus on Christ, on His saving power, his merciful grace, the way the Wise men culminate what we already know in the incarnation — that Christ comes also for those outside of Israel. (Ahhh, just think of those four women named in the genealogy in Matthew!). I was drawn this past season to a book we mentioned a week or so ago which was a hefty hardback full of great reproductions of renaissance paintings of Jesus. It is called Fair Jesus: The Gospels According to Italian Painters 1300 – 1650 by Robert Kiely (Paraclete Press; $39.99.)  We still have it at that announced 20% off  (making it $31.99) and it might be a good resource for your meditations this season, or any.

For this edition of BookNotes I’d light to run a bit of a riff on the Epiphany light theme, inviting you to join me in, in naming some things that need exploring in light of the Light; as the saying goes, “holding it up to the light.”

It is an exceedingly important role, investigative journalism or expose. Creatively done non-fiction that calls us to study and understand hard things is a gift; such work is prophetic some might even say, if it warns of idols and the consequences of our misguided ways. Here are four brand new books that are thoughtful and helpful and wise and bold in telling us – in light of the Light – about some distortions and dysfunctions, sins and sadnesses. If we are to live in the light of Christ’s truth, we have to face this stuff. We commend these authors to you, beseeching you to buy their books, born of love and tears, I’m sure. The publisher, naturally, will be encouraged to continue to take the risks of publishing this kind of (perhaps controversial) work if these sorts of titles actually sell. We want to support this kind of deeply Christian investigation into the shadows and hurts, and we hope you agree that you need to know this kind of stuff. Some religious bookstores don’t carry this kind of thing, so we hope we are offering you a service in highlighting at least these four. All are marked down 20% off and can be ordered easily by using the order tab link at the very bottom of this column. Thanks for caring. Happy Epiphany!

The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct  Ruth Everhart (IVP) $17.00  You may remember that we reviewed the amazing, gripping, important memoir, Ruined, Everhart wrote about being raped as a college student decades ago and how her conservative Christian college, admirable in so many ways, didn’t seem to have the heart or mind, the resources or interests, to help her much. As we learned in that book Ms. Everhart went on to get a seminary degree and was called into ordained ministry through the PC(USA.). She has served several churches in her calling (rural and suburban, multi-staff and smaller.) As a loyal shepherd in Christ’s church she continues to care for those who have been abused and has, in fact, be involved in churches where there has been sexual misconduct. Not every pastor faces this ugly stuff, but more do than you might realize.

Since the flood of stories that have come out since the #metoo movement started a few years ago, there have been other books highlighting sexual aggression against women and men, girls and boys, and this one may be the best book on this topic I’ve yet seen. Of course the child sexual abuse scandal and the scandal of cover-up within the Roman Catholic church has been catastrophic and there has been award-winning investigative reports, movies, and books about it.  Everhart’s book focuses on Protestant churches and, like most #metoo stories, is more about sexual harassment and abuse of women and less about the crime of pedophilia.

The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity is powerful and readable. The prose is straight forward and captures the reader easily—it is not lurid but neither is it bloodlessly clinical. It is not explicit or graphic but there is some awful stuff reported (if not described in detailed.) It has a pastoral tone of listening well, naming things clearly, caring for victims and of demanding justice. The notion of “complicity” in the book is important, as, like the #metoo movement, has exposed cover-ups and refusal to be honest about all this. Yet, Everhart still loves the church, is a dedicated follower of Jesus and is a Christian leader; she desires the best not only for wounded victims but for our religious institutions and faith communities as well. Shining the light is not an act of vindictiveness but of faithful truth-telling, offered in a spirit of righteousness — wanting to make things right. If you care about how women are treated in churches and have a hunch that some of these #metoo concerns are more prevalent than we like to admit, you need to read this book. If you are perhaps a bit naïve and can’t quite imagine that youth pastors or ministers or personnel committees or elder boards would commit these kinds of sins (or cover up misbehavior) you have to read The #MeToo Reckoning.

One of the great benefits of reading these hard stories, testimonials of clergy abuse, and other sexist acts of abuse of power, is that we are introduced to the victims and survivors, hearing their own stories in nearly their own voices. This is a must, and Ruth is a safe and trusted ally for these women to tell their own stories. This safe space has been a gift to the women, too, as many of these wounded sisters have reported that they weren’t believed or were not taken seriously. Their stories were minimized or silenced; sometimes, fearing this would happen, they just were never told in the first place. Holding this up to the light is good for the tellers and it is good for us to hear.

A second really good reason to buy this book is for the Bible reflections offered within each chapter. Each chapter is a telling of a certain sexual assault or #metoo type misconduct and as that story is told, a Bible story is told, in tandem. In a way, the Biblical narrative brings light to the victims story; the Scriptures are opened up in their relevance and power, even in the messy way a patriarchal culture (then) tells the stories of abuse and rape and aggression. While the stupid patriarchy of our churches is being described (including, I might add, denominations and judicatories that pride themselves in being progressive and justice-seeking!) the Bible’s own engagement with this stuff is explored. Ruth is really good in this back and forth, allowing the Light of the Word to shine on these contemporary injustice.

But there is more: in fact, she is doing much more in these Bible studies: she admittedly is reading and interpreting them through the lens of abuse. That is, since nobody reads the Bible plainly or without some lens or interpretive grid, she is trying to allow the pain of our sisters in these modern church settings to inform how we grappled with the meaning of the text. It’s not overly academic or abstract womanist hermeneutics, just good honest back and forth interpretation by a Bible scholar and pastor, in light of what she knows to be true about the world. Again, she has experienced this, even as an associate pastor, in a story she bravely tells about her own almost unbelievable situation.

In every chapter Ruth ends with a few key points, including insights into the Biblical text and then a hashtag point of what she is hoping the church will learn from these tragic fiascos. The take-aways are useful and every church needs to be attentive to these kinds of practical recommendations.

When we pre-ordered our copies of The #Metoo Reckoning we assumed we would want to tell folks about it. We have had a section of books about sexual abuse and domestic violence (also in the church) since the day we opened. We’ve always tried to facilitate conversations about what the Bible does and doesn’t say about gender justice and we’ve always carried a good amount of feminist theology, evangelical and Catholic and mainline. In our years of stocking this kind of stuff, I’ve not found in many years a fresh, new resource that is as gripping and as powerful and as prophetic and yet as deeply faithful with a wholesome sort of spiritual piety and pastoral sense as The #MeToo Reckoning by Ruth Everhart. Yes, we ordered a bunch and yes we intended to feature it. Now that I’ve read it in its entirety, I can’t say enough about it. We are ordering more now so we have plenty on hand. We hope you order a couple. It’s time this crisis in our churches, even in our best and seemingly most healthy, is understood and, where necessary, exposed.

Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah (InterVarsity Press) $17.00  This recent release has been a much-anticipated book, in part because Mark Charles, a man of Navajo and Dutch American descent, has been a tireless speaker, an inspiring and powerful teacher, and a helpful mentor to many, speaking out about Native issues for years. Soong-Chan Rah is also quite well known (he teaches Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary) and has published several important books. This recent one is perhaps the first in its genre being published within the evangelical world so it is, in a way, historic; it is a strong theological critique of the fifteenth century church edict which gave Christian explorers the right to claim territories they “discovered.” Exploration, missionary work and crass colonialism combined in ways that were hardly ever helpful for indigenous people. (See the powerful award winning film The Mission for a compelling, tragic, beautiful treatment.)

Many have documented how this kind of colonialism often lead to injustices and even genocide. (See, for instance, the important Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys by Richard Twiss or a few of the chapters in Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith co-edited by Rah, by the way) but few have tackled the fundamental legal question about this institutionalized legitimization of repression by church and state as has Mr. Charles in Unsettling Truths.

As Unsettling Truths — get the double entendre of the title — explains, such institutionalized “divine right” to grab land and subjugate indigenous peoples naturally led to other unhealthy and detrimental notions, from American exceptionalism and triumphalism to white supremacy and slavery. As Bruce Cockburn starts his song “Stolen Lands”, “From Tierra del Fuego to Ungava Bay/The history of betrayal continues to today…”

No one can ever justify to brutal treatment that many First Nations peoples faced but we have to do more than lament and shrug. We must understand and critique and deconstruct the powers that set this awful history of stolen land in place. We must figure out what to say about the “Doctrine of Discovery” and what to think about a church that would declare such thing.  It all has to be brought into the light of truth, the light of Christ, the light that can reveal ways to move forward.

There are amazing chapters in here — agree or not with all of them, you should read “The Doctrine of Discovery and Why It Matters” and “The Power of Narratives and the Imagination” and the beautiful “The Kingdom of God Is About Relationship Not Empire.” These authors explore the “Dysfunctional Theology Brought to the ‘New’ World” and explores not just settle colonialism but even stuff about Abraham Lincoln (including, then, the era of Native Genocide.” He asks about the complexities of American trauma in our historic story and invites a “truth and conciliation” project. The sharp words about the failure of “re-concilation” is urgent, I think. There is a lot of vital content in here.

I so respect the esteemed historian Mark Noll. I appreciate his thoughts here saying that he may wish for other interpretations of some of the events in described in this book and he finally does not fully agree with all of their conclusions. But yet, he endorses and recommend reading it. Listen to the always prudent Professor Noll:

“Why should I endorse a book when I do not agree with some of its historical judgments? Answer: for the same reason you should read it. Charles and Rah attack a pernicious principle (the Doctrine of Discovery), review an evil history (the United States’ treatment of Native peoples), challenge a persistent stereotype (American exceptionalism), and psychoanalyze white America (in denial about the nation’s history). The entire book, even when you think things could be evaluated differently, will make you think, and think hard, about crucially important questions of Christian doctrine, American history, and God’s standards of justice.”

Listen to these two passionate endorsements, among many:

Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience Sheila Wise Rowe (InterVarsity Press) $17.00  This is a brand new book and we must say that there is, to the best of our knowledge, nothing in print that approximates it. This is not a general book about racial injustices, not just a call to racial justice and reconciliation, not even a handbook for minority Christians to navigate the tensions of living and working in largely white culture and institutions. There are many good books on those topics, many done by this same publisher (who has by far contributed more to evangelical awareness of racial and ethnic concerns and ministries that any other publisher in the last 50 years) but this, this is something unique. It is, as the title plainly notes, a book about healing from trauma caused by racism. Ms Rowe’s Healing Racial Trauma is a rare and important book.

It has long been our custom to suggest gift giving — especially something like a book, which makes the perfect size and shape and price range for a special gifting in the middle of the holiday week. It isn’t mostly because we’ve got books to sell, although there’s that, but because we love the slow and mournful longing of Advent followed by the lavish celebration of the Incarnation. For years we’ve been encouraging Epiphany gift giving, too. It’s the feast in the church calendar when the Wise guys gave gifts to the baby king, after all.

So, if you want to give a book to somebody this season, or to hint at a New Year’s resolution for more learning and more reading in 2020, here are some ideas.

Send us an order and we’ll ship it out right away. We gift wrap for free, too, if you ask, we can mail something to your recipient with a little note tucked in. There’s a place at the website order form for you to tell us that if you’d like. We have shown the regular retail price but will take 20% off those prices when you place an order.

Happy reading, and happy gift giving.

Please, don’t write to tell us you wished we had released this sooner. We just couldn’t, but here’s some unique book ideas for now. It’s never a bad time to share books.

FOR THOSE WHO LOVE READING ABOUT FOOD AND WINE

The Soul of Wine: Savoring the Goodness of God Gisela H. Kreglinger (IVP) $16.00 This is one of those wonderful compact sized hardbacks, a less heady, more accesible, and more inspiring version of her fabulous Eerdman’s book, The Spirituality of Wine. This new one is great book for anyone who appreciates fine wine, or those who want a deeply Christian entre to the fermented fruit of the vine (reminding us and evoking a robust theology of creation, the goodness of God’s world and God’s good gifts, in both joy and grief.) Blurbs on the back include raves from Andy Crouch and Sandra McCracken and even Karen MacNeil (author of The Wine Bible.) There’s a wine-tasting guide and book club guide, too. This makes a perfect New Year’s Eve gift, too.

Tasting Grace: Discovering the Power of Food to Connect Us to God, One Another, and Ourselves Melissa d’Arabian (Waterbrook) $21.99  We have a large section of books about food and farming here in the shop and I’ve written before about many of our lovely favorites (and that doesn’t even mention cookbooks, from last year’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat to the old standby More-With-Less Cookbook.) Some are so, so good, mature and deep and well written. From the Episcopal theologian and food writer Robert Capon’s classic, Supper of the Lamb, to the extraordinary anthology The Spirit of Food: Thirty-Four Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God (edited by Leslie Leyland Fields — one of my favorite writers) we love telling people about these sorts of books. Tasting Grace is a new one by a writer that we did not know. She is apparently a bit of a celebrity chef, television host and the winner of The Next Food Network Star season five. She wrote two down-to-Earth books called Ten Dollar Dinners and Supermarket Healthy, illustrating her own passion for family meals and common food to nourish body and soul. Anyway, she has now offered this overtly Christian reflection, telling her own story, speaking with wisdom and goodness and grace. She’s seen a lot — from food addictions to the whole TV thing, so this helps us learn about life along with her, reminding us of delight and stewardship, about hospitality and comfort, about creation and redemption. She invites us to “lean into God” and find God in the ingredients, even as we worship only Him.

Here is what the great Norman Wirzba says of it:

If you thought eating food was little more than ingesting some calories as cheaply and conveniently as possible, think again. In Tasting Grace, d’Arabian invites us to take a personal journey into the deep meaning of eating and to discover the power of food to illuminate and heal life. This book will help you taste food and savor life in ways you may not have thought possible.”—Norman Wirzba, author of Food and Faith

FOR WRITERS, ARTISTS, CREATIVES, or THOSE WHO LOVE THE ARTS

When Poets Pray Marilyn McEntyre (Eerdmans) $19.99  Oh my my, this is a tremendous book, a must for poetry lovers and a helpful guide for those who maybe aren’t drawn to poems. (Or conversely, since it is also a book about praying, it might appeal to those who like prayer books.) Marilyn McEntyre, both a literate critic and a poet herself, imagines what it might be like if certain poems were, in fact, prayers. Or, at least, if we used them as such. What a great idea — a bit of literary insight, a creative reading of good poems, and a fresh way to enhance one’s prayer life. We recommend Ms. McEntyre regularly, including her must-read Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, the lovely word-oriented devotional called Word by Word, and the almost self-helpy handbook called Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts. These books are just a touch allusive and creative but not at all odd or eccentric, making them suitable to share with almost anyone. You’ll see When Poets Pray on our “Best Books of 2019” list soon… order one today!

The Courage to See: Daily Inspiration from Great Literature Greg Garrett & Sabrina Fountain (WJK) $20.00This is such a great idea, a lit-based daily devo. They aren’t the first to do this, but The Courage to See may be the best yet. It features inspiring words from Maya Angelou, Jane Austen, James Baldwin, Annie Dillard, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Zadie Smith, and more. Garrett has written memoir (Crossing Myself) and theological studies of various pop culture projects (The Gospel in Hollywood) and teaches English at Baylor. Fountain is a write on art and culture. Nicely done.

The Grace of Les Miserables Matt Rawle (Abingdon) $16.99 This is not super heavy but is a lovely, useful, starter guide to this great conversation — how does Christian theology show up in great literature, in this case, the enduring novel by Victor Hugo. Rawle has done other such books (a nice one on To Kill at Mockingbird and one on Scrooge and Charles Dickens. They each are available also as  a six-session DVD for small group use. What fun. (Yes, you can have a small group or Adult Ed forum on the DVD The Grace of Les Miserables and you can purchase a Leader’s Guide to utilize it.) The book, though, is fun to read on its own, in six good chapters covering grace, justice, poverty, revolution, love, and hope. Perhaps you should give it to someone now and they might consider it as a Lenten study. Nice!

The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Other’s Eyes C.S. Lewis (HarperCollins) $19.99 A perfect hand sized shape in a classy hardback offering insights from Lewis on reading, literature and the meaning of the literary experience.  Lewis reminds us, literature can “heal the wound”… and in reading great literature we expand our vision. Lewis writes, about taking up good books:

I see with myriad eyes, but it is still I who see.  Here… I transcend myself; and am never more myself when I do.

 

Sister Wendy’s 100 Best-loved Paintings Sister Wendy Beckett (SPCK) 35.00 Wow, what a book, a smallish coffee table book that has lovely reproductions of Sister Wendy’s most beloved and most often described artworks. She was putting the final touches on this one-of-a-kind anthology when she died in December 2018. The result is (as it says on the back cover): “this enthralling collection of 100 famous and lesser-known masterpieces of Western art, ranging from the sixth century to the present.” This is beautifully produced and, as British broadcaster Peter Stafford puts it, it is “a fitting tribute to the unique Sister Wendy. Prepare yourself to be surprised.”

Sister Wendy was known for often insightful and always delightful interpretations of art history trends, and readings of specific paintings. When she tells you what to look for, what this or that most likely meant, what the artist him or herself was considering in the years he or she did the painting, you just know you’ve got so much more to use to enjoy and appreciate the painting. She brings what Seerveld calls “rainbows for the fallen world” by using her discerning eye and her deep commentaries. If you know anybody who likes the visual arts, or is eager to reflect on spiritual themes within the art, this handsome book is the best. It’s 9.5 x 0.8 x 11 inches and about 225 pages, so it is substantial but not overwhelming

Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making Andrew Peterson (B+H Publishing) $16.99  This handsome paperback was award one of the coveted Books of the Year awards from Christianity Today and we heartily concur. Peterson is a smart, thoughtful, singer-songwriter (his Behold the Lamb of God is a great Advent/Christian concept album.) In recent years he is well known for his role in the Rabbit Room community and publishing venture in Nashville. He released a wonderful, witty, fantasy series called the Wingfeather Saga. (We still have some of the paperbacks of On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness and North! Or Be Eaten which will be coming out in hardcover editions in March 2020.) If you know any writers, storytellers, artists, or cultural creatives, this set of essays would be a wonderful blessing for them. What a line for an aesthetic manifesto — “adorning the dark.” Order one or two today and share generously.

No Avatars Allowed: Theological Reflections on Video Games Joshua Wise (Church Publishing) $18.95  Do you recall the review I gave this in BookNotes earlier this fall? There are hardly any books bringing together sharp, serious theology and gaming, and this is a valuable resource for anybody wanting to be intentional about their enjoyment of the gaming culture. Video games, the author (a professor of theology at Villanova, Saint Jospeh’s University, and Rosemont College, and founder of the “No Avatars Allowed” podcast) takes seriously “the idea that video games can challenge us to think more deeply about our reality, faith, and community.” The blurb on the back is by the insightful Kevin Schut (professor of Media + Communication and Game Development at Trinity Western University and author of Of Games and God.) The foreword is by Father Benjamin Gildas, a friend and popular podcaster who serves as a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

Cinematic Faith: A Christian Perspective on Movies and Meaning Years William D. Romanowski (Baker Academic) $ 22.99  Years in the making, we are very, very glad to remind you of a recent book by professor Romanowski of Calvin University in Grand Rapids. As an old college friend of the author, I am drawn to his work (and have read it twice, actually) but, I must say, even if he wasn’t a pal of Hearts & Minds, we’d be insisting this is very important and would be recommending it earnestly. For anyone who likes going to the movies or can’t wait for the next NetFlex DVD to show up (please don’t tell me you watch films on your little phone!) or streams movies often, this big book will be an education and a joy. It isn’t preachy and it isn’t simplistic but it isn’t overly academic. If you love movies, you need this book. It will help you understand the art of film and more.

After a long-winded ramble through a whole bunch of our backstory and stuff we’ve been promoting this year, in the BookNotes where I introduced this book I got around to explaining Bill’s other important books, which finally, half way down the column, led me to announce and explain the importance of Cinematic Faith. You can read that here if you’d like — I mention other books in this “faith and film” genre and suggest what is distinctive about Romanowki’s contribution. Check it out here, then come back and order one or two. We’ll send ’em right out.

THESE THREE ARE PERENNIAL CLASSICS IN OUR MOST-RECOMMENDED LIST:

It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God edited by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books) $24.99
It Was Good: Making Music to the Glory of God edited by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books) $24.99                       It Was Good: Performing Arts to the Glory of God edited by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books) $19.99

Give any or all of these three old chestnuts: we recommend them regularly, highlighting them as great, great collections of essays and exceptionally special for those wanting to think well and faithfully about the interface of their life of faith and their work in the arts. They are astute and interesting, and look really, really good, too. Seriously recommended. with great joy.

FOR THOSE WHO LOVE MEMOIR & BIOGRAPHY

Exactly As You Are: The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers Shea Tuttle (Eerdmans) $23.99 There is so much written, now, about Mister Rogers and we are grateful; he was a complex figure, important (and, in case you didn’t hear it yet, a Presbyterian minister.) This recent release is a delightful, serious, insightful biography, warmly written and (as Publishers Weekly put it) explored with “a keen sense of the deeply religious forces” behind “the classic TV show and its widely lauded creator.” One of the very best biographies of Roger’s yet, by a woman affiliated with the notable “Lived Theology” project at University of Virginia. She holds an MDiv from Chandler at Emory. Great!

Miracles and Other Reasonable Things: A Story of Unlearning and Relearning God Sarah Bessey (Howard Books) $26.00  What a great writer Sarah is — you may know her previous books (Jesus Feminist and Out of Sorts.) There is a foreword to this new one by Shauna Niequist and great blurbs on the back by Jen Hatmaker, Kate Bowler, Peter Enns, and the exquisite writer Barbara Brown Taylor. Miracles… tells a bit of her journey away from conventional, conservative, fundamentalism and towards a different sort of evolving faith, but then the whole thing takes a painful twist as she experiences an serious car accident, suffering with chronic pain and the like. And then, surprisingly, an extraordinary miracle of healing and what that means for her. There is so much going on here, it is hard to summarized. The narrative is filled with theological thinking but is rooted in her own story. She is a compelling writer, a beautiful writer, a fun and funny writer. Jonathan Martin (whose Prototype on Jesus is superb) says Miracles and Other Reasonable Things is “trailblazing and bush-burning.” I am grateful for her story and how she talks about sickness, hope, healing, and the like.

Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love: How a Violent Klansman Became a Champion of Racial Reconciliation Thomas Tarrants (Thomas Nelson) $24.99  This stunning story hardly needs the front-cover blurb by hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat author John Grisham who calls it “riveting” and a truly “remarkable memoir” since the very subtitle speaks volumes. But, for what it is worth, Grisham — who has seen his share of wild stuff and imagines even more — is spot on. This page-turner of a story is beyond remarkable, it is the sign of a miracle. Those of us who have had the pleasure of knowing Tom (he was the Director for many good years of the DC-area C.S. Lewis Institute) could hardly believe it when stories of his past came out. Humble, gentle, kind, impeccably orthodox in faith and behavior, Tom is a beautiful, generous friend and brother. As this book shows, it has not always been this way.

Tom was the sort of domestic terrorist who thought the KKK too mild. As an Alabama-based far-right activist he made bombs, terrorized people of color and Jewish families, was arrested after a shootout with the police (that included awful fatalities) and, later, escaped from prison, landing on the FBI’s “most wanted” list.  You will have to read Consumed by Hate for yourself to learn how he was “redeemed by love” and how — miracle upon miracle — he was graciously released from prison as a Governor commuted his life sentence.

After years in prison paying for his many crimes, and after a sincere and remarkable transformation into a Christian leader, Tom co-pastored an inter-racial, urban church, became friends with and co-authored a book with John Perkins. Needless to say, with the rise of the alt-right and virulent racism and xenophobia now on the rise, we need to understand how extreme ideology can become cult-like and violent. In these rancorous times, we need stories helping us see how all this works.

I love Russell Moore’s blurb, saying it is “a riveting narrative” and…

This is the path from burning crosses to the cross of Christ himself, from raging hate to amazing grace.

Burden: A Preacher, a Klansman, and a True Story of Redemption in the Modern South Courtney Hartgrove (Convergent) $26.00  Perhaps you’ve seen the powerful trailer about the film version of this that is coming out in March. (Watch the trailer here.) Or, maybe, you saw my brief review last week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Okay, maybe you didn’t, but I raved about it. Or maybe you saw my previous BookNotes review raving about what a well-written, honest, captivating story this was, months ago. It’s a story you’ll never forget. Read my BookNotes review here and then com back and order it quickly. This is one true story they will be talking about…

Accidental Preacher: A Memoir Will Willimon (Eerdmans) $24.99  If you’ve been around the broader Christian world at all in the last 40 years you probably know Will Willimon, renowned scholar, preacher, pastor, former Chaplain of the Duke chapel, United Methodist Bishop, and very, very prolific writer.  For years people have been bugging him to write down more of his own life stories, to draft a memoir, to tell about his life as he has seen it. We’ve been waiting for this, a fabulous book to crown the career (at least this part of it, since he ain’t dead yet) of this curious, brave, witty, Southern preacher. The endorsements are themselves a hoot — Lillian Daniels (a UCC preacher) says “If I believed in bishops, I’d want one like Will Willimon — flawed, fearless, and wickedly funny.” Richard Lischer (a Lutheran) says, “If Mark Twain had been a Methodist, his name would have been Will Willimon.) I like that the African American preacher and scholar now at Duke University Chapel, Luke Powery, says “Bishop Willimon is a Jesus-loving, story-telling, truth-talking, laugh-generating gift from God for the church.”

Powery continues:

This is a literary gem, an honest and holy revelation about vocation.

How to Burn a Goat: Farming With the Philosophers Scott H. Moore (Baylor University Press) $34.00  Okay, this isn’t exactly a memoir, but a collection of first hand, personal essays. I think of Farmer Moore as sort of a more brainy and professional Michael Perry, after all, besides working his farm, he’s a college prof. How to Burn… is a bit pricy although it is very well bound, nicely designed trim hardback. And it’s worth every penny, as it is amazingly eloquent, if plain-spoken, and a nearly brilliant set of farming essays that are intelligent, but not academic. Yes, Moore is a philosophy professor and on occasion brings in a theory of Wittgenstein or discusses the relationship of Plato and pigs. But it includes a lot of his own story, plenty of entertaining and even inspiring stories from his farm, and is less “philosophical” than the subtitle suggests. Texas pastor Kyle Childress is right to say it is a fun book — I so enjoyed it and read parts out loud to Beth. Listen to this great quote from Childress:

What a fun book! A self-described ‘inexperienced philosopher hobby farmer,’ Moore writes about chasing guinea fowl, the virtues of mules, the vices of geese, the sounds heard on a farm, or why it is important to watch grass grow, mixed with quotations by everyone from Wendell Berry to Wittgenstein all in a clean prose style reminiscent of E. B. White. Moore had me laughing out loud and then pondering his wisdom the rest of the day.

The Galapagos Island: A Spiritual Journey Brian McLaren (Fortress) $16.99  You could give this to any number of folks — anyone who reads McLaren, of course, will want this book which is a new genre for him — very much a memoir. A travel memoir, to be exact, reflecting on his journey to the famous islands. You may recall that the study of these famous South American islands (that figured into the research of Charles Darwin) figured into one of Brian’s earlier novels (A New Kind of Christian) but this report is for real. You get to travel with McLaren on what could be called “a spiritual pilgrimage to one of the world’s most fragile ecosystems.” So, gift it to anyone who likes reading about pilgrimages, or anyone interesest in either the interface of faith and science, or who is curious about ecological studies. This is part of a new series called “On Location” and carries blurbs on the back by Barbara Brown Taylor, Mike (Science Mike) McHargue, and Bill McKibben. Wow.

SPEAKING OF SCIENCE…

Science & Faith: Student Questions Explored edited by Hannah Eagleson (Hendrickson) $14.95  This little paperback deserves much applause and I’m sure you could give it to anyone interested in the basics of a serious explorations of the faith/science conversation these days. Created by the Emerging Scholars Network (a ministry of the Graduate Student and Faculty ministry of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship) it offers thoughtful essays by rising young scholars and is a great tool for conversations; there is a very useful discussion guide, with questions at the end of each chapter. The emerging scholars here are experts in the fields of aeronautics, molecular biology, chemistry, physics, philosophy of science and more.

Leslie Wickman wrote the foreword; she is the Executive Director of the American Science Association and a Professor of Engineering. Kudos to Hannah Eagleson, too, for managing this project and doing the compilation work. She’s an old customer of Hearts & Minds who, we suspect, had her own commitments to and explorations of academic discipleship deepened when she visited here often as a central Pennsylvania undergrad student. We’d be thrilled to have folks buy this from us and celebrate this good work.

Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image updated and combined edition Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey (IVP) $25.00  Perhaps you recall our announcement of this late last summer, a marvelous hardback combining newly edited versions of Fearfully and Wonderfully and its sequel, In His Image. Here the world famous hand surgeon and the talented and wise Christian writer combine to offer a uniquely Christian look at the glorious of the human body. Each chapter is on a part of the human body — blood, skin, eyeballs, brain, bones, etc — which opens up conversations about the richness of life, the role of community, the value of pain and more. The blurb on the back includes a lovely endorsement by Shane Claiborne and another by the famous former Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop.  There’s a study guide, too, done by one of our very own customers here in Dallastown. Give it to anyone interested in medicine, physical therapy, science, the body, athleticism, or the structures of God’s creation. It’s a great, great read.

ESSAYS and POEMS ON DEATH AND MORE…

The Depositions: New and Selected Essays on Being and Ceasing to Be Thomas Lynch (Norton) $27.95  We were so glad, earlier this year, to see the long-awaiting release of a new collection of essays by undertaker and poet and essayist Thomas Lynch, Whence and Whither: On Lives and Living (WJK; $18.00.) It was marvelous and I know book lovers and Thomas Lynch fans were delighted by it. It’s a paperback with a striking cover and deckled pages and makes a nice inexpensive gift.

The hardback The Depositions was just released late this fall and, as you can tell from the subtitle, is mostly an anthology of previously published pieces (including from his brilliant, essential The Undertaking and Bodies at Motion and at Rest.) But there is some new stuff, too. Yes!

The brand new collection has a rave review on the back by Billy Collins. Phillip Lopate says “Lynch is one of my favorite living essayists. His mordant humor and openness to grace and mystery are a tonic.”

As the Boston Globe review wrote, Lynch is able to take us inside the palpable business of blood, tears, and the final verse of life in a manner that is almost shocking in the relief it delivers.

FOR ONE’S DEVOTIONAL LIFE

Captivating Grace: 365 Devotions for the Reformed Thinker compiled by Susan Hill, with a foreword by Scott Sauls (Zondervan) $19.99  What a beautiful book, a solid cloth/embossed hardback with sturdy paper, offering a daily devotional full of thoughts and prayers and reflections from the likes of Luther, Calvin, Beza, Zwingli, Turretin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon and more… It is nicely arranged in five units, with devotionals themed in each section by the historic five “Solas” of the Reformation era — Christ alone, Faith alone, Grace alone, the Scriptures alone, and for the Glory of God alone.

Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans edited by Robert Elmer (Lexham Press) $23.99  As it says on the back promotional paper insert, “For the Puritans, prayer was neither casual nor dull. Their prayers were passionate affairs, from earnestly pleading for mercy to joyful praise. These rich expressions of deep Christian faith are shining examples…”  And indeed they are.

For those who are familiar with the very popular Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Banner of Truth; $17.00) it is clear that the Puritans illustrated a combination of warm piety and careful intellect. Piercing Heaven is a classy (embossed) hardback sans dust jacket and it is adapted around topical headings. Kudos to the publishers.

A Month of Sundays: Thirty-One Days of Wrestling with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Eugene Peterson (Waterbrook) $16.99 This is a never-before published collection of thirty one reflections on the gospel — a compact sized hardback, perfect for a monthlong journey into the life of Jesus — were first preached by Peterson in his role as pastor of Christ our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. These are not necessarily cozy, inspiring devotionals that offer cheap inspiration but are solid explorations of the “big ideas, hard choices, and intimate conversations” that help you wrestle along side Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Live in Grace, Walk in Love: A 365-Day Journey Bob Goff (Thomas Nelson) $16.99 This is a bargain price for this great, solid hardback. As we’ve described it at BookNotes before, it is a year’s worth of all new inspiring stories from Bob’s one-of-a-kind, dream-big, love does, kinda of life. The publisher says it offers “unexpected, thought-provoking teaching that will prepare Christians for the days ahead.” Yes, that’s true. But Bob would want you to live big and love well right now. There’s interesting Bible reflection here and tons of Goffian shenanigans, holy capers, stories of loving everybody always, offered with a whimsical nod and a gracious prayer. You could give this out to almost anybody as it is fun, humane, upbeat, and incredibly interesting. Yes!

FOR THOSE WHO APPRECIATE CULTURAL STUDIES AND ENGAGEMENT

Rings of Fire: Walking in Faith Through a Volcanic Future Leonard Sweet (NavPress) $17.99 I hope you have somebody in your circle of friends and loved ones or church members who are fans of Leonard Sweet. A futurist by trade, a United Methodist gadfly and instigator of studies and projects and leadership initiatives, Sweet is one of the most widely read, brilliant thinkers I’ve ever come across. He maps out trends and concerns of the future as it relates to the church, now, and invites us — insists! — that to be faithful we have to allow God’s Kingdom which is coming to pull us into the future. He calls us to less handwringing and more action, more stimulating (prophetic) critique and less simple accommodation. As I often say, he is witty, creative, delights in wordplay (and all kind of play, a theme that shows up in his many books) so he’s a hoot to read. Even his (copious) footnotes are an education in itself. This book is worth twice the price.

Rings of Fire captured my full attention in the first sentence, describing the island in the Pacific Northwest (Orca Island) which is, as part of the Pacific basin called the “Ring of Fire.” He talks about fault lines, tremors, and lava, working that as a metaphor easily into his forecast of our hot culture. The whole world is a global Ring of Fire.

The book is arranged in sections he calls “hot zones” and “hot topics” and “hot church” and throughout he has “hot takes” which are excursions into even more specific (“global refugees and migrants”, “acid baths of irony”, “identity crises galore”, and more. The “hot topics” cover so much — from sexuality, gender formation, suicide culture, race relations, scientism, ecological stuff, and more. He has clever names for most of these chapters and he dives deep, if only for a chapter or two. Between the big hot zones and the specific hot topics, it at times feels a bit disorganized and fragmented. Maybe that is as it should be as things are heating up and we’re getting a bit frantic, with “fires” smoldering everywhere. There are “eruptive and disruptive” blowing all around us. This may be Len’s most sweeping book since his seminal Soul Tsunami. 

Not From Around Here: What Unites Us, What Divides Us, and How We Can Move Forward Brandon O’Brien (Moody Press) $13.99  We’ve recommended books by this author before. He’s a curious fellow, brilliant, really, working now for Redeemer’s City to City with Tim Keller, but having written a book for small congregations which we like and another on a religious liberty advocate from during the colonial era Demanding Liberty: An Untold Story of American Religious Freedom and co-authored a near classic called Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible. He thinks widely about a lot and is Biblically informed, theologically reliable, and yet seems open to new ideas and is always learning. So when we heard about this new book, I couldn’t wait. It is not only about the fragmented nature of our polarized society, but, most foundationally, about the divide between rural and urban folks. We have these tidy categories, or at least it seems the media often presents tidy categories, but, as he says “people are more complex up close.”

So, Not From Around Here is trying to see what it’s really like in a given place — “how the squish of creek water between your toes or the crunch of autumn leave on a city sidewalk shape yours sense of what’s normal and write and good.” This is a hugely important and generative, if provocative, thesis, that these bodily sensations are part of how our places shape us to experience life in certain ways. This will appeal to those who have paid attention to James K.A. Smith’s “Cultural Liturgies” project, I’d think, or even books like Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch that remind us of bodily postures as we lean into life.  To be agents of God’s reconciliation, O’Brien says, we need to listen to the stories of people that emerge from their places. We need to “get to know the nuance of people and have empathy for their way of seeing.”

As it says on the back cover, “Brandon O’Brien is, in many ways, a man torn between places. Raised in the rural South, educated in the suburbs, and now living and doing ministry in Manhattan, he’s seen these places, and their complexity, up close.”

Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work Denise Daniels & Shannon Vandewarker (Hendrickson) $24.95  I suppose this isn’t exactly cultural criticism, but it does move us into the culture at large, helping us think about faith and vocations, the common good and the ways unbiblical dualism has kept us from thinking well about work and finances. These women work well in corporate America and while there has been a generous batch of books released in recent years on marketplace ministry and Christian fidelity in the work world, few have been as insightful as this, and even fewer have been written by women. My, my, you could give this to anyone interested in this faith and work movement, about whole-life spirituality, about how spiritual disciplines (sabbath, lament, solitude) can be useful in formation for our work-world service.

There are important endorsements on the back from important voices in this movement such as Richard Mouw and Katherine Leary Alsdorf and Tom Nelson and Jeff Hanaan and Lisa Slayton and Steve Garber. These are authors we admire and some of our favorite people so if these leaders also endorse this book, you can trust us that it’s a good one.

The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work Steven Garber (IVP) $20.00  If you saw the big celebration we did about this brand new book at BookNotes a week or so ago you’ll know it is one of the most amazing books we’ve discussed this year. It is a lovely collection of short essays on a variety of topics related by the deep desire of the author to live a coherent life, one that hangs together, with seamlessness. From church life to work, from global justice to family matters, from reading novels to speaking with corporate leaders about the meaning of just profits, Steve reminds us it is all worship, that it all matters. It should be obvious, but in this distracted consumerist age it may not be, that we hunger for meaning and purpose; the live well This book ponders these things without silliness or cheesy zeal; his struggle for a seamless life is hard-earned and has integrity. These elegant essays are accompanied by photos of Steve’s travels, giving this a “report from the road” sort of feel. (And he has seen some remarkable stuff, making this in its own quiet way, a real page-turner.) It is a hand-sized hardback, with textured paper dust jacket, and makes a truly beautiful little gift. I find it hard to express how much this book means to me, and Beth and I would be pleased if you ordered some to share during this holiday season.

For what it is worth, some who ordered it promptly last week have now lined up to (re)order more. That’s the sign of a very special book.

The Library Book Susan Orlean (Simon & Schuster) $16.99  I had heard such good things about this remarkably written, meticulously researched study of the largest library fire in the US (April 29th,1986) but for some reason waited until it recently came out in paperback to pick it up. What was I thinking — it took my breath away on the first page and didn’t let up; it has been a constant pleasure to read, page by page.  It is, without a doubt, one of the most captivating and well written books — heartbreaking and exciting, edge-of-your-seat, stuff as she investigates the arson accusations, the impact of the fire, and the remarkable civic spirit of the librarians.

Anyone who loves books, anyone who appreciates libraries, anybody who appreciates creative non-fiction — part memoir, part investigative/immersion journalism — will love The Library Book. This elegant report is a book somebody you know will love. The opening pages about the author’s memories of going to the library as a girl with her mother is gloriously poignant. Reviewers have called it “soul-expanding” and “mesmerizing” and “spellbinding.” Here are what a few of the many, rave reviews have said:

FOR THOSE INTERESTED ON WORLD MISSIONS

On Mission Together: Integrating Missions Into the Local Church Richard Noble, with a foreword by Peter Kuzmic (Falls City Press) $14.99  A very, very good friend out in Beaver Falls, PA (home of Geneva College) started a few years ago what he affectionately called a “micro-press.” (Sort of like micro-brew, I guess; small, local, tasty; indeed, Falls City is classy, thoughtful, unique — a boutique shop doing important little books that deserve a hearing. This is there latest and you should know about it.

The author of this book, Rich Noble, himself a friend of Geneva College and other important para-church ministries in Western Pennsylvania, has been leading “missional engagement” as a consultant for churches for years. He is especially known within his own Christian Missionary Alliance circles. So this book is very nicely published but you might not know about — it’s one of those “under the radar” titles. We are thrilled to get to amplify Noble’s good work, and introduce you to his helpful book. Come to think of it, there is no other book that we’d recommend as highly on this topic as this one; On Mission Together is savvy, practical, useful, creative, motivating, designed for anyone on a local church mission committee, a planning team for a missions conference, a mission pastor or anyone wishing for their local congregation to be more supportive of those on the global front lines of fulfilling the Great Commission. Our local faith communities (“from massive suburban churches to small rural parishes”) are central to the project of bearing witness to the expanding Kingdom of God and this book is a concise guidebook full of great ideas to mobilize your own worshipping body.

In On Mission Together there are 9 good chapters and half a dozen appendices, making this a go-to resource for anyone interested in developing their mission engagement.

The End of Hunger: Renewed Hope for Feeding the World edited by Jenny Eaton Dyer and Cathleen Falsani (IVP) $17.00  I raved about this earlier this fall and wanted to recommend it again, now. I guess it may not be the most common gift idea for seasonal gift giving but you know there are folks in your circles who are (or ought to be) very keen on learning about global justice. What missions committee doesn’t at least pay some attention to global development and world-wide poverty and starvation. As I said before, this truly is one of the best resources we’ve get seen — very engaging, lots of stories, plenty of big picture analysis and lots of concrete steps for taking up action on a special aspects of global hunger. This is a great little book and we highly recommend it.

ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF MEETINGS, LANDSCAPES, AND PLACE

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters Priya Parker (Riverhead Books) $28.00 What an amazing book this is, released this fall on the significant, storied publishing imprint. This is a book that is hard to describe but will be of interest to those who plan meetings, do programming, teach informal classes, whether in the work-world, the nonprofit sector, or, I’d say, in the local church or para-church. It is charming, fascinating, full of insight about the meaning of encounters, of gathering. What happens in meetings and how do the arrangement of the room matter? How does the mood and tone affect the participants? Why settle for lackluster and unproductive meetings? Why gather in ways that aren’t memorable (or even meaningful)? Parker is not a scold and although she is astute in her critique of many status quo kind of practices, she is upbeat and stimulating.

As it says on the flyleaf:

Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-[power gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn’t, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings — conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp — and explains how simple, specific, changes can invigorate any group experience.

I bet you know somebody in experiential education or group facilitation or Christian ministry that would get a real kick out of this book that has been described as “both journey and guide” that is full of “exciting ideas and real-world application.” Whether you are hosting a backyard barbecue or a professional conference, you won’t think of your next meeting in quite the same way, I guarantee  it.

The Absent Hand: Reimagining Our American Landscape Susan Lessard (Counterpoint) $26.00 You will see this shortly in our list of my favorite books of 2019. It is intellectually rich, beautifully written, elegant at time, fierce, heady, yet full of insight as she longs for what we miss when we lose natural landscapes. Lessard, who was a staff writer for decades at the New Yorker studies remarkable places (including the “geography of nowhere” in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and the nearly sacred, civic space in Gettysburg) Part Annie Dillard, part Howard Kunstler, part Witold Rybczynski (who, by the way, called it “Whitman-esque”) this is a book I savored.

Here is what the New York Times Book Review wrote:

Half memoir, half cri de coeur, Lessard’s lambent, thoughtful, exquisitely written collection of interconnected essays dissects–as an art historian would a picture, a literary critic a text, a medical examiner a cadaver–a diverse swath of America, from Gettysburg and the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania to Truth or Consequences, N.M.; from the seat of an airplane, 30,000-odd feet above Alaska, to the stoops and sidewalks of Brooklyn during the 1990s; from Georgetown, in Washington, where the author used to live, to Youngstown, Ohio…

 FOR THOSE WANTING TO TURN OVER A NEW LEAF THIS NEW YEAR

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry John Mark Comer (Waterbrook) $23.99  I did a long, breathy review of this earlier this fall and the book quickly became one of our best selling titles of the year. John Mark Comer is fun and cool, the design is hip and youthful, but the content — riffing on a line from Dallas Willard — is perennial, good for anyone who wants to deepen their spiritual lives by slowing down, learning to be mindful, and create transforming space to know God more intimately, so to be remade into the image of Christ. Fun and clever as this is, reading The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry becomes a great way into conversations about spirituality, lifestyles, pace of life, serenity, repentance, discipleship. He writes movingly about Christ’s (easy) yoke. About being an apprentice of the true Lord who shows us what it means to be human. Comer’s Garden City is about vocation and calling, work and rest. It is about being made in God’s image and you can see this new one as a natural follow up, focusing less on the call to work, and more on the call to rest. There is a great foreword by John Ortberg, who calls Ruthless Elimination… a “prophetic word for our time.” It is clearly pitched to young adult readers, but this old guy turning 65 this week thinks it is one of the books of the year!

Rhythms of Renewal: Trading Stress and Anxiety for a Life of Peace and Purpose Rebekah Lyons (Zondervan) $24.99  Perhaps this is a bit of a theme (see the JMC book above) as we tire of our fast-paced, hot-wired lifestyles. Like Comer, Rebekah Lyons isn’t just inviting us to be more healthy, avoid stress and burnout, being more calm and present. Although, heavens, we need help with that. For her, though, the “rhythms of renewal” are gateways to deeper, more wholesome and sustainable spirituality.  Comer admits that as the pastor of a large, multi-site church, and a global conversation partner around theme of social and cultural engagement, he has an unusual amount of stress. And in the past has struggled with depression and anxiety. This is Rebekah’s story, too — her anxiety and panic attacks are vivid and she is honest about how, even as a leader in the Q movement (her husband is Gabe, founder of Q) she is often debilitated by the stress of her callings. There are lovely blurbs on this book — clearly written in a woman’s voice — by the likes of Bob Goff, John Townsend, and Lysa Terkeurst.

The four major sections of Rhythms of Renewal are Rest, Restore, Connects, and Create. This is not your mother’s book on Christian living, but is, still, reliably solid as a guide to healthy Christian discipleship.

The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place Andy Crouch (Baker) $15.99  This is not new, but if you don’t know it, or haven’t given it, it ought to be on your own radar screen (to use an older technological image.) There are lots of books that have come out in recent years documenting the dangers of over-doing digital technologies and there are plenty of books for parents of teens or youth, helping offer guidance and prudence, strength and insight, about how to use technology well.

I won’t bore you with my views of the nuances of all of this but will just say as plainly and clearly as I can that this is still the best book on the topic and one that everyone should read, whether you are a parent or not. It is moving, thoughtful, wise, big-hearted, and plenty practical. I know you know that we really, really wish folks would read Andy’s three other books, Culture Making, Playing God, and the more recent Strong and Weak. We are fans. Don’t miss this one which brings a good framework and wise approach to this urgent matter.

FOR SOMEONE INTERESTED IN BIBLICAL STUDIES

The Old Testament in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic Christopher Wright (IVP) $16.00 There are plenty of books which offer fine, even fabulous overviews of the Old Testament and its coherent story. This one (in part because of the clever and succinct seven sentences approach) is fantastic. Chris Wright is one of the great Old Testament scholars of our time and an important leader in wholistic ministry (working out of the Langham Trust in the UK.) The publisher says about it:

It’s easy to see the Old Testament as confusing, out of date, or irrelevant. Using seven key sentences drawn straight from the Old Testament, Christopher J. H. Wright fits the pieces together, shows us the coherent whole, and points us toward Jesus. This short survey shows God’s faithfulness and love for his people and illuminates how the Old Testament Scriptures prepared for the identity and mission of Jesus.

The New Testament in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic Gary Burge (IVP) $16.00  A great companion to the one above, this, too, is a clever way to do a fabulous overview of the key plot and teachings of the entire New Testament. I like Burge a lot (and value his insight into the cultural backgrounds and contexts of Jesus and the rest of the New Testament.)

Here is how the publisher describes this one:

“To understand the breadth of the gospel’s message, we need to perceive the full tapestry of Scripture. Using seven key sentences from the New Testament, Gary M. Burge demonstrates how the themes of fulfillment, kingdom, cross, grace, covenant, spirit, and completion set a theological rhythm for our faith, outlining the broader pattern of Scripture that illustrates what God has done–and is bringing to fulfillment–in Christ.”

The Liturgy of Creation: Understanding Calendars in Old Testament Context Michael Lefebvre (IVP Academic) $30.00  At first, I wasn’t sure I should list this as it isn’t a very typical kind of gift, although written for those outside the academic guild, it is dense. The two (…Seven Sentences ones) that I listed above would be fun for almost anyone — beginners or not — and the one below (Romans Disarmed) is something I’m just telling everyone about, like it or not. It’s that impressive and important. This, though, may be an acquired taste for those interested in Genesis 1. The Liturgy of Creation is a serious, almost tedious study of something that may seem arcane — liturgical calendars in the ancient near East and time (and holidays!) in the Bible? This is not the place to explain in detail why this is important, but Old Testament scholars will immediately realize this is vital stuff. This book is nothing short of a gold mind of rare treasures, stuff that will pay off, earning readers knowledge and insight if they pay attention. It explores the rich (meta/poetic) style of creation narratives, brings in temple language and theories of history and time, and ties it together with other teachings on calendars in the Hebrew Scriptures. As the publisher explains, Lefebvre argues that “dates were added to Old Testament narratives not as journalistic details but to teach sacred rhythms of labor and worship.” Old Testament heavyweight John C. Collins has a brilliant, enticing foreword. 

As Carmen Imes, an Old Testament professor writes:

His reassessment of Genesis 1 moves beyond the stalemate in the creation debates without recourse to extrabiblical or scientific arguments. His thesis grows organically from a close reading of the biblical text. LeFebvre shows himself to be a master teacher with pastoral sensitivity, able to patiently explain what he has so carefully studied. This book will change the way I teach the Torah. I can’t wait to share it with my students!

Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire/Demanding Justice Sylvia Keesmaat & Brian Walsh (Brazos Press) $26.99  Well. I reviewed this audacious book at great length at a major BookNotes announcement about it when it first came out and said then that I’m sure it will be on our “Best Books of 2019” of the year award. It is a detailed, creative, imaginative, hard-hitting, insistent study of epistle of Paul to the Romans and insists that the bigger point and context was for Paul to encourage church unity as a witness to the coming upside-down Kingdom of Christ which was explicitly anti-Imperial. That is, this is a reading of the famous book of the Bible, a letter, really, that has been dis-armed or maybe newly weaponized for the nonviolent struggle for peace, justice, reconciliation, ecological sanity and full inclusion of all people in the open table of God’s own. Yes, the authors argue (convincingly, I believe) that Romans has been misconstrued as an abstract theological lesson and that reading has been used to bully people, shutting down the impulse of hospitality that is at the heart of the epistle itself. So the letter — or, more precisely, our interpretations and applications — needs to be disarmed. And they show us exactly how, but experiencing the letter as it first might have been experience, calling us to be the sort of justice-seeking community that grieves with the hurting and welcomes the marginalized, as the book of Romans tells us to.

This over 400 page volume (with a chapter which is essentially a fictionalized novella set among characters in the house church in Rome) may jokingly be called an “anti-commentary” because it is almost a new genre. Some said that about their rather similar Colossians Remix, released in 2014, too, for the way it wove together old context and contemporary stories and socio-political analysis. (And, heavy as this gets sometimes, intellectually and rhetorically, there is plenty here about the lives of Walsh and Keesmaat, their watershed discipleship at their organic farm, and their deep connections to urban folk in inner city Toronto and college students at Brian’s Wine Before Breakfast community and their friendships with many other more traditional church folks might shy away from (at best)  — unhoused street folks, oppressed indigenous people, LGTBQ friends.) Directly inspired by the text of Romans, they teach us much about the dysfunctions and injustices or our day, the idols of progress and the violence of late modern capitalism and the inequities due to white privilege and the like. This is an amazing book which will be seen as groundbreaking if disturbing to some. If you give this as a gift, or invite your small group to study it, be prepared for lots of honest conversation. Whew.

“Keesmaat and Walsh write into the headwinds of Trumpism, deepening social disparity, ecological crisis, and endless war. Building on recent scholarship, this brilliant study engages the original audience, who labored under the shadow of empire, in a way that brings its message to life for similarly struggling North American Christians. The result is a fresh and committed reading by two of our generation’s best interpreters of Word and world.”                         — Ched Myers, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries

The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy Timothy Keller (Viking) $20.00 Another one of these compact sized hardbacks that make a nice little gift. And, seriously, this is fascinating. Not only is Keller always clear and thoughtful and widely read, this is recent and provocative. It’s about the prophet Jonah, of course, and that’s always a blast, ending as it does under the unpredictable plant, as Eugene Peterson put it. Here, Keller makes a creative move and connects Jonah to the parable of the Prodigal Son. Nice!

FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN PRAYER AND SPIRITUALITY

The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father Wesley Hill (Lexham Press) $15.99 This is a very small, compact-sized guide that is more meaty and generative and useful than some books twice the size. Hill is a New Testament scholar and a dear man and a clear (but never stuffy) writer. He’s created a very solid, useful book.

There is a blurb on the back by Fleming Rutledge, another by New Testament scholar Matthew Levering. Marianne Meye Thompson says it is “a book worth savoring.” This little book, as Rev. Rutledge says, “will enrich a reader’s life immeasurably.” A small book in a matching formate to last year’s popular Apostles Creed by Ben Myers. Highly recommended.

May It Be So: Forty Days with the Lord’s Prayer Justin McRoberts & Scott Erickson (Waterbrook) $16.99 This will make a great gift for a special someone, but, admittedly, may not be for everyone. Justin McRoberts is a recording artist, writer, retreat leader who brings raw truth and hard-hitting insight about our longings for a better discipleship and Scott Erickson is an edgy sort of artists and graphic designer. So May It Be So has a very contemporary, design forward feel, with graphic art (with a silkscreen sort of appearance.) In fact, the hip art pieces are invitation to ponder — they are remarkably allusive and evocative, designed to help us enter into a more meditative and curiously thoughtful space, and Justin’s meditations are perfect supplements. These two guys are convinced that humans long for connections, for prayer, for a deeper sort of spirituality that may seem just beyond our reach. Good books on the theology of prayer are important, but they are not enough. We need prompts and on-ramps and stories so we can not sure think about praying, but actually do it.

This is a companion to their award winning, much-celebrated (and equally visual and provocative) Prayer: Forty Days of Practice. You could give ’em both and your recipient would be overjoyed.

Not sure? Listed to these good folks:

“Justin and Scott have compiled the most beautiful anthology of prayers and images, interwoven with suggestions for contemplation and spiritual practices. I’ve been using these words and pictures in my own devotional life for a couple of years. They have refreshed and renewed me. This book is a gift.”
–Michael Frost, author of Surprise the World and Keep Christianity Weird

“McRoberts and Erickson are flip artists: they take what is commonly assumed or known and flip it in unexpected ways, all for the sake of greater authenticity and deeper wisdom. Their book Prayer surprises, interrupts, explodes, confronts, and inspires. I encourage you to take up their invitation for Forty Days of Practice.”
–Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary”

“In my home we have a special shelf where we keep sacred things of beauty. On the shelf are a few icons, seashells, the Book of Common Prayer, and this book, Prayer. Each person in my family–from children to adults–sits in quiet wonder as they flip these pages. This meditative and practical book brings together prayer, practices, and visual art to provide a feast for the soul. McRoberts and Erickson have created something beautiful, thoughtful, and mesmerizing.”
–Tish Harrison Warren, priest in the Anglican Church in North America and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary

This Life That Is Ours: Motherhood as a Spiritual Practice Lauren Burdette (Upper Room Books) $12.99  What mom wouldn’t like a small, compact, meditatively written book about the spirituality of mothering? This is reflective, lovely, moving, even… a great gift. Lauren is part of a wonderful, small Presbyterian church we know in Pittsburgh — missional, visionary, yet deeply rooted in ancient spiritual practices. In this context she reflected on her own calling as a new mother, and how these habits of doing her daily mothering stuff were, in fact, shaping her, and have the potential to shape other moms, in profound ways.

This is really well written, poetic and inviting, warm and thoughtful. It is brief, and very honest about the swirling vortex of diapers and feedings and sleepless nights. In this new world, she observes, one’s identity can be in flux. And she assures us that God wants to meet us where we are.

An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation Martin Laird (Oxford University Press) $18.95  Again, a small hardback that is somehow weighty, serious, but yet a perfect shape in the hand to take on retreat or to a quiet chair. This is one that truly gets to be described as “beautifully written” combining scholarly awareness of the deepest mystical tradition and warm and enticing stories of his own life as a conetmpatlive and spiritual director.

As Rowan Williams says on the back cover, “Laird’s writings on this subject is simply in a different league of seriousness from most other books on ‘spiritual’ practice.” Sarah Coakley of Cambridge calls it “a new, modern classic.” This is the third in a uniform series, all quite nice, following Into the Silent Land and A Sunlit Absence. They are all gorgeous, compact, very sophisticated books that deserve multiple readings; an investment for a lifetime.

The Great Conversation: Nature and the Care of the Soul Belden Lane (Oxford University Press) $29.95  I hesitate to call this spirituality, proper — it is actually written as memoir, as most of it is in the first person as Lane — who has written similar books like Backpacking with the Saints — tells of his extraordinary adventures finding God in creation. (And they are extraordinary, spiritually, yes, but just in terms of the places he visits and tells about, literally all over the globe. Wow.) James Martin, S.J. calls The Great Conversation “luminous” and Presbyterian spiritual life professor Elizabeth Liebert says it is “scholarship born of passion, love, and commitment to the continuing existence and well-being of fellow creatures.”  He is a good writer, he is passionate, and his experiments in relating to the world around us as he hikes and attends are really fabulously interesting.

Lane realized long ago that he is implicated in the crisis of the planet and he knows that God’s good creation — or so the Bible and the mystics say — can speak to us. (See Psalm 19:1-4 or the command in Job 12:7-10 if you don’t believe him.) So in prose that is beautiful and haunting he tells of his journey to cherish and commune with fellow creatures. I understand that some of us (myself included, actually) will fret that this verges on pantheism; yet, a Franciscan priest says, “as a Franciscan, i can say that this is pure Gospel.” The Great Conversation is a heady and unforgettable story of a theologian and mystic learning to listen to creation, even as he uses books by great contemplatives to help him along the way. Just like he did with Backpacking with the Saints (combining one saint’s work with one hike) he here uses one particular book from a spiritual writer with one episode of relating well to a fellow creature. From talking to a beloved tree to standing in awe by a river to being aware of God’s voice in specific birds or wind, in wildfire or stars, in deserts or canyons, The Great Conversation is stunning. Somebody you know will really love it (even if others may think it a bit much.) We’re happy to stock all his books, and commend this one to be read with discernment to anyone who loves the great outdoors and longs to live into the vision of a lively creation we can really know.

Don’t forget, as we said at the beginning, we’ve shown the regular retail prices, but we will deduct 20% OFF any book mentioned. As we always say, our order form page is easy to use — just click on the link at the bottom which takes you to our secure order form page at the Hearts & Minds website. You can safely enter your credit card information and we’ll be sure to reply promptly and confirm all the details. As we say there, you can choose your shipping method (USPS is cheaper than UPS for smaller packages) and you can ask us to just send a bill if you’d like. Easy.  
Now, back to this list…

FOR FANS OF JAMIE SMITH, THOSE WANTING A CONTEMPORARY LOOK AT ANCIENT FAITH OR FOR THOUGHTFUL, SPIRITUAL SEEKERS

On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real World Spirituality for Restless Hearts James K.A. Smith (Brazos Press) $24.99  Okay, hear me out: this is one of the most important, and best, and most discussed serious Christian books of 2019. It’ll be on the top of our “Best of” awards list in a week or two. You should buy two to give away, and one for yourself (duh) if you haven’t yet. We are glad so many Hearts & Minds customers have ordered it this fall, and we hope to continue to promote it almost anywhere we go. It is just one of those books that discriminating buyers of religious books should get.

Yes, it’s a bit deep. Smith is a philosopher, after all. He has written books that are appreciative of postmodernity (see the heavy Live Theory on Jacques Derrida and the must-read, introductory-level Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism) and the always contested, situated nature of knowing (see The Fall of Interpretation and, more recently, Who’s Afraid of Relativism about what pragmatic philosophers call “contingency.”) Smith’s most popular philosophically-minded book is a heady introduction to the nearly impenetrable Harvard University Press book, The Secular Age by Charles Taylor. (That is called How (Not) To Be Secular and is an introduction to Taylor’s work and is important, if still a bit demanding.) His important “Cultural Liturgies” trilogy have been essential for many of us and we rejoice that those big three (Desiring the Kingdom, Imagining the Kingdom, and Awaiting the King) have been summarized in the popular You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit which I have touted as the “Book of the Decade.” Smith is a friend of Hearts & Minds and we have been influenced by him, and his own teachers.

Smith is a professor at Calvin University in Grand Rapids and studied previously at the neo-Calvinist Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, so has been influenced by that big stream of Christian cultural engagement that is the line of the Dutch theological and civic leader Abraham Kuyper. All of this, though, goes back (Al Wolters used to say this regularly) to the fourth century African convert and church Bishop, Saint. Augustine. His massive City of God is seminal for social and political thought in the West and his Confessions remains a classic in Western literature, often called the first memoir. Baptized by Ambrose after a walk on the wild side, his legacy is hard to underestimate. Yet few of us know much about him.

It is this self-aware reflection on Augustine’s own interior life and his “on the road” search for identity that Smith plumbs in On the Road with Saint Augustine. As Smith explains, many of the most important contemporary philosophers — Heidegger, Camus, Sartre, just for instance — studied and lectured and wrote on Augustine. In a way, Smith says that the bohemian and “on the road” counterculture (think Kerorouc and Ginsberg and Dylan, even) which was informed by the existentialists of the mid-twentieth century is almost directly connected to the road trips of the  ancient searching thinker who Smith calls “the patron saint of restless hearts.” Man, he knows how to connect the dots, joyfully.

There are prestigious and important blurbs on the back of this book, indicating that it is being taken seriously. (It’s not just me saying this!) What popular religious book carries raves from the likes of poet Christian Wiman and NPR interviewer Krista Tippet and Jesuit writer James Martin and one of the Avett Brothers band, yes, the philosopher Charles Taylor?

There are chapters on mothers and justice and sex and identity and friendship and death and conversion and more. His opening chapter “orientation” in this field guide is so helpful as he explains how Augustine is, truly, our contemporary. Smith expresses the zeitgeist in chapters like “Heart on the Run” (about “how to hit the road”) and “A Refugee Spirituality (about “how to live between…”

The heart of the book, as I’ve explained before at a previous description at BookNotes, is really this next section called “Detours on the Way to Myself” where he explores the meaning of freedom and ambition and enlightenment and other themes about authenticity and community and homecoming. There is stuff about “how to believe” and “how to hope” and what it means to aspire or connect and protest and hope. It is rare, I think, to have such a wise guidebook that is also so philosophical, drawing on history and telling about the lives of figures as diverse as Albert Camus and Leslie Jamison and books and films and pop music from Don Quixote to the movies of Wes Anderson the the haunting songs of The Postal Service.  That he is able to move so effortlessly between what feels like an upbeat, illuminated philosophy class and a quiet moment of spiritual direction and a rowdy conversation over drinks after hours is one of the glories of this book. For those willing to work through a few of the dense parts, there’s plenty of fun reading and lots of deep, profound Christian truth.

One of the reasons the book is so lively is that throughout there are narratives of the journey (ironically, an on-the-road pilgrimage, perhaps –ironic because the classic road trip is to get away, the opposition of a pilgrimage) that Smith and his wife made retracing some of the steps of Augustine. Dehanna figures into the book quite a bit. In an interview, Smith tells of how surprising it was to be there:

There’s something visceral about walking those worn stones of Ostia, seeing the mix of paganism and politics in Rome, feeling the light on the Mediterranean, that overcomes the distance between not only the fourth century and the 21st century but also the gap between the printed page and your own imagination. Augustine became less abstract, and more human.

There are great stories of their trip and some inserts of art and images and those are very nice, enhancing the book with the pieces he discusses. There are even some cool, free postcards (for your own journey on the road) that we can share for free, while supplies last. It’s a handsome, well-designed book that will help anyone open to thinking deeply about finding themselves.

Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion Rebecca mcLaughlin (Crossway) $24.99  If you want to give a gift for someone who wouldn’t resonate with Smith’s rambling, complex, beautiful guide through our search for identity and roots and hope by way of studying a third century seeker, maybe a more straight-away gift would be appreciated. Confronting Christianity admits that those who advocate and live out the Christian faith simply must cope with a few key, legitimate, important questions. Some of these are general questions being asked by secularists (“Aren’t we better off without Religion” and “Doesn’t Religion Cause Violence?” and the questions about religion and science) and others are questions specifically about the Christian religion — does the Bible condone slavery?, isn’t Christianity homophobic?, how can you say there is only one way?, and the like. These sort of collections of honest answers to hard questions are plentiful, but this one is very smart and fair-minded. It won a Christianity Today Best Book award a few weeks ago and has endorsements by the likes of Oxford University mathematics professor John Lennox and Harvard University epidemiologist Tyler Vanderweele. MIT prof Ian Hutchinson calls is “deep and caring” and “not an easy stroll through imagined virtual reality but an adventurous rocky pathway through true and abundant life.”

Confronting is written by woman with a PhD in Renaissance literature from Cambridge and a theology degree from Oak Hill, also in the UK. She has worked for Veritas Forum and is cofounder of Vocable Communications. Very impressive.  It’s got a great cover, too, with 12 die-cut circles on the cover.

FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN THE ENNEAGRAM

We have numerous good books on this ancient, and newly popular, personality profile. We have often said that The Road Back To You by Ian Cron & Susan Stabile is among our favorites. Richard Rohr’s is big and impressive, Chris Huertz’s The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth is really good and has a workbook, now. There are others, of course.

But, whew, if you want to gift somebody with a nice little book that explores their own unique Enneagram number, well, get a load of this. What a great idea!

We just got in this set of nine small hardbacks, one on each of the Enneagram types, each with a different foreword by a person who identifies as that E profile. These numbered guides are written by Beth McCord (“Your Enneagram Coach”) and are published by Thomas Nelson. They regularly sell for $14.99 each and you can order any of them individually. If you buy the whole set we’ll bump up our BookNotes discount of 20% off to 30% off.  How’s that?

Enneagram Type 1        Enneagram Type 2          Enneagram Type 3        Enneagram Type 4        Enneagram Type 5        Enneagram Type 6        Enneagram Type 7        Enneagram Type 8        Enneagram Type 9  

Beth McCord (Thomas Nelson Publisher) $14.99 each.  Note the extra discount (30% off) if you buy the whole set of nine books.

TWO NEW BOOKS ON MARRIAGE

Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage David & Constantino Khalaf (WJK) $16.00  I love the story about Mark Twain’s reply when he was asked if he believed in infant baptism. “Believe in it?”, he retorted, “Why, I’ve seen it.” Whether you “believe in” marriage equality or not, you most likely have seen it. You may have gay people you care about who are married. Why not wish them well and offer them some faith-based insight about the complexities of navigating their admittedly unusual marriage situation? This is the only overtly Christian book for gay folks (men or women) talking candidly about a Christian marriage. Most often, for obvious reasons, queer folks who are churched are involved in mainline or progressive sorts of congregations, but not always; in any case, this is no fundamentalist scold. The couple who wrote the book together themselves have to navigate their different religious backgrounds; one spouse was rooted in a more traditionalist mainline church tradition while the other was non-denominationally evangelical. I have to admit I read a lot of books about marriage (including memoirs of marriage) and I found this hard to put down.

We hope Modern Kinship blesses those who may find it difficult to locate reliable resources that might help them in their own context and ethos. I recommend it to straight couples, too, by the way; most of us need all the help we can get. Somehow the struggles and fears and joys of gay couples working out their faith and marriage in a counter-cultural way (perhaps too religious for many of their LGTBQ friends and too gay for their straight churches) just might offer some insight for others, as well.

The Meaning of Marriage: A Couple’s Devotional – a Year of Daily Devotions Timothy & Kathy Keller (Viking) $20.00  I have said that, with a few qualifications, I think Tim & Kathy Keller’s 2011 release, The Meaning of Marriage, is one of the better books on a theology of marriage I’ve ever read. It is interesting, Biblical, culturally aware, and quite thoughtful. We are happy to promote all of Keller’s many books (including the other two devotionals that he wrote with his wife, The Songs of Jesus, on the Psalms, and God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life on Proverbs) and were so very glad to see this gifty looking small daily devotional of 365 readings to supplement their Meaning of Marriage.

 This is a small sized hardback, lavish in a subdued sort of pastel way, with a nice ribbon marker, making it a great shower gift or a New Year’s gift for your spouse. Good, meaty stuff, gospel-based and often profound. This is a very nice book.

FOR FANS OF CS LEWIS & THE INKLINGS

Pursuing an Earthy Spirituality: C. S. Lewis and Incarnational Faith Gary S. Selby (IVP Academic) $22.00  I don’t need to say much about this. You know, I hope, that Lewis wrote much about the joy of human pleasures and the goodness of creation. He wrote the forward to a famous edition of Saint Athanasius’s On the Incarnation. His vision of the cosmic nature of sin and salvation makes his fiction so earthy. Without much bluster, he calmly reminded us in so many ways that gnosticism is not Christian.  So, if spirituality is “earthy” what, then, does that mean? What does it look like? Can the old Oxford don help us with a “down to Earth” holy worldliness? Can we live out of an incarnational worldview? What in this world is “Earthy spirituality”? This is a suburb book for anyone wanting to think more deeply about spiritual formation and whole-life discipleship, but it is a gem for anyone who likes drawing on Mr. Lewis. A great book, highly recommended.

Becoming C.S. Lewis: A Biography of Young Jack Lewis (1898 – 1918) Harry Lee Poe (Crossway) $22.00 With the slightly textured dust jacked, the old fashioned photo and the wallpaper-like flyleaves, this book itself is so handsome it almost feels vintage.  It is what is says, a biography of Lewis’s youth. It is the first part of what will be a massive and major three part biography. So far, it is off to a conspicuous start — some reviewers insist this is a must-read and more than one has observed that there is material in here that has not been explored in any previous Lewis biography.

When important Lewis scholars like Don King says it “breaks new ground” and Lyle Dorsett says it is “filled with glimpses… that cannot be found in any other biography” and Colin Duriez says it “stands out” you know this is a major contribution to the field. Fans will savor Becoming C.S. Lewis, we’re told, and I suspect they are right. Is there somebody you could give it to this Christmas? Remember: for Lewis, Christmastime surely was 12 days long.

Choosing Community: Action, Faith, and Joy in the Works of Dorothy Sayers Christine Colon (IVP) $16.00  Released under the auspices of the Marion Wade Center at Wheaton College, this is one of the most accesible and important new books on Inkling Dorothy Sayers yet done. Colon is a professor of English and a scholar of the Victorian Literary tradition and a sharp. popular instructor. Choosing Community was initially presented as part of the prestigious Hansen Lectureship series and it was very positively received. There is a lot here on the Lord Peter Whimsey detective novels so this could make a great gift for anybody who enjoys that mystery genre or that knows of Sayers’ literary work. (For instance, her significant work translating Dante.) The book cites unpublished letters of Sayers and works well with her religious drama and theatrical work, too. Nearly everyone who specializes in this field seems to shout “bravo” to Colon for her meticulous research, her good writing, and the urgently necessary vision of a broad and caring sort of beautifully orthodox faith.

By the way, for those who follow such things, the previous Hansen lectures were put out in a book that we celebrated at BookNotes, Timothy Larsen’s incisive George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles: Incarnation, Doubt, and Reenchantment (IVP; $18.00.) Know any George MacDonald fans out there?

Speaking of George MacDonald and Lewis’s appreciation of him, allow me to reprint my review of a book that we had shared a month ago at a BookNotes column about kid’s books:

The Light Princess George MacDonald with illustrations by Ned Bustard (Rabbit Room Press) $18.00  Those who have followed Hearts & Minds for decades know that we used to feature lots of the great novels — children’s and Victorian adult novels — of the brilliant writer, orator, preacher, and artiste, George MacDonald, may of which are now out of print. Many know of how C.S. Lewis even edited an anthology of his favorite MacDonald quotes. Sadly, many editions of many MacDonald books have been dropped by legitimate publishers and few stellar editions of his volumes are readily available. We are so, so glad that the classy and fun Rabbit Room crew of Rabbit Room Press released a new edition of the fairy story The Light Princess. 

This really is an exquisite edition, with a blue leather-over-board creation very much like their lush Every Moment Holy prayer book. Bustard’s art is, I believe, a style of relief printmaking. As Ned put it in an interview about his work Every Moment Holy, “The pieces were made using linoleum so they are called linocuts (in the same way that if they were made using wood they’d be called woodcuts.)”

Jennifer Trafton wrote an excellent foreword for which we can be grateful — what a gift to be reminded of the former renown of the Scottish author who has been so esteemed by everyone from Mark Twain to James Barrie to Maurice Sendak to Madeleine L’Engle, and how nice to have this story framed by this good background introduction.

Head Rabbity author and singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson did a fabulous afterword to this edition of The Light Princess. He writes about being “Gobsmacked” and reminds us of the Tolkien-Lewis-MacDonald-esque vision of true myths. Peterson writes,

MacDonald’s “The Light Princess” reminds us that the world is an unsettling place, and mystery clouds the corners of our days.That means strange and terrible things are bound to happen, whooshing in from the dark periphery without warning… But mystery also means that grace and light can come whooshing in, too, so you might as well keep an eye out.”

Kudos to all at Rabbit Room Books for doing this lovely edition of this great old tale. But we offer special hat tips to Mr. Bustard for his playful linographs, his titling characters, and his other design work on the volume, making it a most handsome, almost exquisite, edition.

In the foreword, Trafton writes about Bustard and what his art contributes to the book:

Artist Ned Bustard has paid homage to all the multilayered themes and resonances in MacDonald’s writing by threading visual symbols throughout the illustrations like little Easter eggs for you to discover. Some are images drawn from centuries of Christian iconography — seashells, dolphin, anchor, bread, wine, and more. He’s also hidden objects and elements from some of MacDonald’s other fantasy stories, such as The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, “The Golden Key,” and Lilith. To those of you who’ve read these other stories: look carefully! Do you spot the allusions?

FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN CIVIC LIFE AND CONTEMPORARY POLITICS

The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump Peter Wehner (HarperOne) $25.99 As we’ve shown at BookNotes, there are a bunch of books on civility, or finding common ground, but on also being principled and integrally Christian in our citizenship lives. You may know that Wehner worked in the Reagan administration has been a major voice in thoughtful Republican and conservative circles and because of his deep involvement with the Right is now outspoken about the vulgar and immoral ways of the current administration. He is frustrated about his own movement’s lack of coherent, abiding principles but he is also alarmed — as we all should be –about the fraying body politic, about culture wars and anger and fragmentation. He believe that politics can be a noble calling but that this has been corrupted, not least by Donald Trump.

The back cover of this remarkable book has blurbs by the likes of Mona Charen (a colleague of his at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center) and Mark Noll ( the esteemed evangelical historian) and public intellectual and writer Jon Meacham and a great, helpful endorsement by James K.A. Smith.  David Axelrod calls him “a literary Paul Revere, shining a light on the causes of the withering polarization that has seized our democracy.”

Them: Why We Hate Each Other– And How to Heal Ben Sasse (St. Martin’s Press) $17.99 We had reviewed this at BookNotes when it was still only in hardback and it has just recently come out in paperback (with a new preface from the author.) I think Mr. Sasse is a better thinker and writer than he is a Senator, but, no matter what you think of his voting record, he argues here that our crisis is deeper than partisan politics. He writes about the epidemic of loneliness and a path forward that is rooted in paying attention to place. In fact rootedness is a theme of the book. NPR says even if you disagree with his ideas, this book is well worth reading and we agree.

As the National Review notes:

Them is an attempt to diagnose and repair what has led us to this moment of spittle-flecked rage… a step toward healing a hurting nation.

Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation Ken Starr (Sentinel) $28.00  It seems that if one is following the ups and downs of the current impeachment controversy, it would be helpful and certainly interesting to compare it with the other memorable impeachment from a few administrations back. As you should know, Ken Starr, a conservative, Christian, kindly, constitutional law scholar, a thoughtful law professor and attorney (who, by the way, was under consideration for a nomination for the Supreme Court) was given the unsavory and complicated task of investigating financial shenanigans (of which people were indicted and went to jail) in which both President Clinton and the First Lady were deeply involved. There was legal stuff, grand juries, investigations, subpoenas, lawsuits, and, eventually pretty obvious contempt from the First Lady and, then, perjury from the President of the United States. The President’s own Attorney General (Janet Reno) commissioned Mr. Starr to lead the team doing the investigation into the President’s financial craziness that became known as the Whitewater scandal. As Starr says (and I have good reason to believe him) he did this a bit reluctantly, but out of civic duty as a public servant, knowing it would delay his own career goals and perhaps bring anxiety to his family; that is, it was not his great desire to become known for this. (Little did he know that he would soon have to have armed security guards, as would his young adult children when they went off to college, and that he would get pulled into years and years worth of complicated, controversial, even tragic work.)

It was in those years in the Arkansas investigation that the President perjured himself about a sex scandal in his home state (regarding an affair with Paula Jones) and the Attorney General wanted Starr — against his own best wishes and intuitions — to investigate that. The Clinton’s response was legendary. And then the Monica Lewinksy thing happened. Again, against his own wishes (as he explains in Contempt) Starr was assigned that investigation and the resultant obstruction of justice proceedings. Unsavory as Mr. Clinton’s sexual involvement was with his younger intern was — in the contemporary #metoo era this would have been seen in much harsher light, I am sure — it wasn’t until further perjury and obstruction and misuse of power came up that Starr pressed that part of the case. As Contempt shows, such grand jury investigations and hearings and procedures are byzantine and slow. (Oh, how this sheds light on the Trump hearings and eventual impeachment processes.) These things take time, and, in that case, the President clearly was in the wrong, legally. What the House and Senate would do with the final report was not Starr’s call, and he reports that he instructed the House to not release the un-redacted, salacious report to the public. (He asked Congress to not share the most embarrassing details, out of respect for the Presidents dignity and marriage. House leaders, famously, in an exceptionally rare and hurtful move, posted it unredacted on line within hours. Of course, Starr took the heat and was for a while the most hated man in America.) Even though the writing is straight-forward and not particularly artful, it was a page-turner, revealing all that goes in to holding public officials accountable under the rule of law. As Starr says often, and we must say today, no one is above the law.

Regardless of what you think you know about Mr. Starr’s work or the Clinton Whitewater case and the subsequent impeachment hearings, Contempt is riveting, what one reviewer called a “firecracker” of a book. After two decades of silence he finally tells his side of the story and the first-person account of the day to day tedium and flare-ups of high drama that became the legal warfare in DC. Our own current partisan polarization has something to do with these events, I am sure, and think it is a timely read for this very month.

Michael Wolfe, author of Fire and Fury says that,

Now, as we try to navigate another president’s epochal confrontation with the law and the Constitution, Starr is a national treasure.

Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus Jim Wallis (HarperOne) $25.99  I’ve heard a few conservative-leaning persons suggest that they know what Wallis thinks, don’t need the book, and that may mostly be so. He’s written books like God’s Politics and continues to edit the lefty, social justice rag, Sojo. But I’m not sure I get the ambivalence to this: each chapter is about a question Jesus asked and the implications such holy questioning might have on our body politic. Yes, it is an anti-Trump manifesto, but more, it is an insistence that we take Jesus seriously. He does admit that good people can disagree in good faith and he does not say that one cannot support Trump and be a sincere disciple. But if he leans towards those convictions, he tries to be civil and play fair, and he does continue to tell stories and make applications from the gospel texts. There are level-headed folks offering endorsing blurbs, from Senator Chris Coons to Princeton professor Eddie Glaude to Fuller Theological Seminary president, Mark Labberton.

When I reviewed this earlier at BookNotes I said I agreed with Brittany Packnett (of Campaign Zero) who wrote:

“For far too long, we’ve ceded the power and person of Jesus to political movements with no ambitions toward His radical love. Reclaiming Jesus is not only our responsibility, it is necessary now more than ever. This is a book for all God’s people.”

Can I Get a Witness: Thirteen Peacemakers, Community Builders, and Agitators for Faith and Justice edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel Rhodes (Eerdmans) $26.00  Do you recall the review I did of this earlier this fall? This isn’t about statecraft and government, as such, but it is about public life, about Christians whose faith motivated them to be involved in matters of civic life, public justice, social concerns. My, my, what a great book, created out of the “Project on Lived Theology” at University of Virginia. There are fabulous theologians and public leaders (Soong-Chan Rah, Daniel Rhodes, Becca Stevens, David Dark, and more) teaching us very much about Cesar Chavez, Howard Thurman, Dorothy Day, Mahalia Jackson, Richard Twiss, and others. This book is mature and thoughtful, profound, even. Can we work towards the transformation of American culture through better religious convictions? Can those with helpful beliefs be inspired to live them out in public life by learning about these others that did so in other places and times? Of course. This is a sturdy, serious book and could be shared with anyone who loves history, biographies, or wants to explore the depths of wholistic, radical faith. Highly recommended.

The Possibility of America: How the Gospel Can Mend our God-Blessed, God-Forsake Land  David Dark (Westminster John Knox) $17.00  One of the most stimulating, thoughtful, remarkably-written, and provocative books I’ve read about the state of our times and the state of our union in these times is The Possibility of America: How the Gospel Can Mend our God-Blessed, God-Forsake Land written by my friend David Dark.

David is a lover of words, a lover of truth, a lover of what some call common grace – gladly thanking God for the signs of life that pop up in even a secularized culture, offered up even by those who seem not to be religious. (Ahh, there’s an interesting idea: is anybody really not religious? Don’t we all live by and for something? That’s the theme of Dark’s fabulous book called Life’s Too Short To Pretend You’re Not Religious [IVP; $18.00.] What a fascinating book!)

Discerning the signs of life or signals of transcendence in common grace gifts of popular culture is the theme of his only slightly dated first book Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons (Brazos; $20.00.) He has for many years been helping us understand how to understand the culture, how to see the good and the bad, the sacred and the profane. (Or, should I say, the sacred in the profane. And vice versa.)

In a way, this new one about America is a continuation of that project, finding how deeply wise and transformative insights show up in the best of our American dream, from our politics to our classic landscapes, our shaping documents to our best literature and song. I joked to somebody in the shop that he should have called this Everyday American Apocalypse.

The Possibility of America: How the Gospel Can Mend our God-Blessed, God-Forsake Land is actually a considerable re-working and expanded edition of his 2005 book, The Gospel According to America: A Meditation on a Christ-haunted, God-blessed Idea. It is, for those who are familiar with that stimulating, much-discussed book, different enough that it demanded a new title; it is not just a “revised” edition. There’s so much new content in The Possibility of America that it earned a new title; not only is there considerable re-working and new content, the overall tone is a bit different. Understandably.

It seems to me that the very title indicates a change in the panic level of professor Dark, mirroring the anxiety many of us feel in these contested, Trumpian times. It was a bit easier (not that much, really, for those paying attention, but a bit) to see “the gospel” within America a decade ago. As the subtitle of that first book put it, we were in a “Christ-haunted” land. Now, with a vain sex offender known for his rude impetuousness and shameless dishonesty in our highest office, supported loudly by religious leaders who take pictures of themselves with him with photos of Playboy on the nearby wall, who say firmly, as Jerry Falwell, Jr. did, that he does not take his political cues from Jesus, who have actually affirmed inhumane treatment of immigrant families — tearing children from their parents – we are in, shall we say, a different position then we were before. These are awful times for the US of A, and it seems that anyone in touch with the Bible and the current political ethos simply has to wish things were otherwise.

Enter David Dark, who once was a bit less outraged and a bit less consumed by the dark antics of our leaders, and who has deepened his long standing passion for Biblical justice and relating prophetic truth to current realities.

Relating faith to popular culture and current events, by the way, is not new to him. In a weighty introduction called “Notes on the New Seriousness” he talks nicely about his father, a father for whom “the Bible was always in the back of his mind.” He tells us:

In his lifelong enthusiasm for candor, fair play, and the well-chosen word, freewheeling Bible study as a space in which everything could be talked about (war, celebrity, R-rated films, a living wage) was among my father’s favorite jams. Karl Barth’s dictum concerning life lived with a Bible in one hand and The New York Times in the other was an imperative he took up with glee.

He continues on about lessons learn from his father in this regard; I’m sure many of us envy being raised by a parent who, “as a conversation partner, treated words with an amused affection and reverence… “ Who offered a vibe of “conscience and candor.”

Dark describes his father, a lawyer, as one who understood how we fool ourselves, how we can use our virtue signaling for power, how we “can create or undo the impression of order and control through our use of language.” (Did his father read Derrida, or maybe just Amos and Jeremiah?) Dark talks about “disturbing the fixed scripts of the powerful.” And that “reverence and obsession are to one another near allied.” “For better or worse,” David says, “I am a child of his obsessions.”

No wonder he wrote a fascinating, stimulating book a few years ago called The Sacredness of Questioning Everything (Zondervan; $15.99.) (I might add, although it doesn’t add much, that I am honored to have a back-cover blurb on that one, sharing endorsement space with the late Eugene Peterson, who notes that Dark finds Jesus in surprising places and “he is also a reliable lie detector. And there isn’t a dull sentence in the book.”)

Dark is not only obsessed with lie detecting, with principles and words and “of who said what and how generalizing statements hide specific atrocities.” He is also obsessed – although it seems to come naturally to him – to say things in creative ways, putting side by side words that are not often combined, phrases that raise the eyebrow, that sometimes are jarring, sometimes amusing. (His sneaky little dropping of pop culture allusions, lines from rap songs or phrases from criticism or novels may go unnoticed by most – how many such “Easter eggs” did I miss, I wonder?) Which is just to say he’s a good, colorful, playful, if at times intense writer.

For instance, in that same serious introduction he describes his role as a teacher as the common good of attempted truthfulness. The paragraph-long explication of that sacred space is nearly worth the price of the book. “It could be the most insanely presumptuous task undertaken by any member of our species,” he writes. “I actually attempt to help people with their own thinking.”

I sit in classrooms with women and men in prisons and college campuses, and, together, we make assertions, put questions to one another, tell stories, read poems aloud, and wonder of our own words. They write sentences, I write sentences next to their sentences. And we get a conversation going somehow. We attempt truthfulness together. For some students, I sometimes have the feeling that this might be the first time someone’s calmly and respectfully urged them to think twice.

And, teacher that he is, obsessed with weighing in, he writes, furiously at times, hoping to help us think twice. Perhaps we need to see more clearly the shape we’re in, in this “God-forsaken” land. Or, perhaps, perhaps, we need to see the “possibility.” This book is his love letter to us all, even if it is more troubled and troubling than his first go at it in The Gospel According to America more than a decade ago.

The Possibility of America, as you can tell from the title, is still not without hope. Dark believes in the resurrection of Jesus, after all, and he loves our land. He loves our land passionately, concretely, especially as many Southerners do. Although his writing is at times dense and loaded with metaphor and allusion, he is not, finally, an abstract writer. He’s a deep and colorful thinker, but his writing is full of specificity, of place and details, of vim and vigor, as we used to say, salt and vinegar, maybe even fire and brimstone. And empathy and love and the occasional dose of self-deprecation and honest humility. He speaks his mind, tells stories, explores American writers and singers and films, and helps us see what kind of deep patriotic wells we might draw from in order to become more Christ-like and more earnest in our civic lives. In this, he seems to be nearly a postmodern, 21^st century Will Campbell. Campbell, you might know, was a wordsmithy himself, published a theological journal, was a bit cantankerous, a Southern Baptist preacher who was a civil rights activist (the only white person at the founding of the SCLC) and yet friends with several Klansman. (“Jesus died for bigots, too,” he famously said.) It comes as no surprise that Dark cites Campbell’s classic memoir Brother to a Dragonfly.

Did I mention he draws on great America literature? Oh my, he starts with James Baldwin, and June Jordon, a hefty sign of where this might be going. He quotes public intellectuals, from Lincoln to Thoreau, from Octavia Butler to Wendell Berry. He loves American lit, and explains Faulkner (a lot of Faulkner), Cormac McCarthy, Melville (and more Melville), Whitman, on to contemporaries Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip Dick, Ursula Le Guin, and Toni Morrison, among others. Who else these days recalls the televised conversation about poetry (and the detached judgment of analysis) between howling Allen Ginsburg and mumbling straight-man William F. Buckley?

If you know David (or read his Everyday Apocalypse) you know he’s going to cite Bob Dylan, and he does. Alongside Patti Smith, Chance the Rapper, and the lovely young alt-folkie Julien Baker.

David is a very creative writer and some may find him an acquired taste. This is a grand compliment – I regularly say it about two authors I adore, Calvin Seerveld and Daniel Berrigan (and, I suppose, James Joyce, although I haven’t acquired a taste for that kind of weirdness, yet.) It is interesting that David is a student of (saying a “fan of” would trivialize the matter) the poet, priest, and prophet, the late Daniel Berrigan. He thinks like him, it seems to me; he sounds like him.

Berrigan (for those who weren’t taught it in school) was until his death last year a radical Catholic priest known for speaking truth to power by way of symbolic gestures of civil disobedience, disrupting state events, exposing the ludicrous idolatry of nuclear weapons (among other shameful atrocities, from torture to abortion to our neglect of the ill.) His poetry and Biblical commentary were held in great esteem among a rag-tag group of followers, many who joined him in non-violent civil disobedience and symbolic actions to dramatize the Bible’s call to repent from social injustice, such as throwing their blood on the pillars of the Pentagon, or chaining the doors shut of multi-national corporations profiteering from cluster bombs which knowingly target little children.

Importantly, they knew Martin Luther King and American resistors such as Howard Thurman and AJ Muste, were mentored by Thomas Merton, befriended by Dorothy Day. These are American icons that Dark is attuned to and to bring their witness into conversations with Faulkner and Stanley Kubric and Americana folk music and Star Trek and The Twilight Zone and rapper Kenrick Lamar is nearly genius; it’s a gumbo mix of high octane social theory, old school American literature, pop culture, and Biblical study yielding a prophetic public theology that could (please God!) lead us closer to Beloved Community.

FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN THEOLOGY

That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, & Universal Salvation David Bentley Hart (Yale University Press) $26.00  I may be one of the only half-way aware observers of contemporary theological conversations who doesn’t care much about this book, for whatever reason I can’t quite say, but for what it is worth, I can’t recall a bone fide book of serious academic theology that has been so hotly contested and greatly appreciated and widely reviewed. Hart is a good writer, except for when he’s showing off, drawing attention to his imposing vocabulary. HIs ideas are serious as you would expect from someone called “the most eminent living anglophone theologian” and his writing has been called “exacting” and “perspicuous.” The sensible, super smart Robert Louis Wilken says it is “original and lively.” Hart is Orthodox, used to write for First Things, and is discussed by the likes of John Milbank. Know anybody who wants to join the fun? We’re sitting on a small stack here.

The Cross Before Me: Reimagining the Way to the Good Life Rankin Wilbourne & Brian Gregor (Cook) $22.99  Although this is tackling a meaty and nearly un-utterable mystery — the Cross of Christ — it is a topic that is endlessly open to new insights and always vital. For the Apostle Paul, it seems the like “the cross” is shorthand for the saving work of Christ, his suffering, his atonement, his resurrection power, the cosmic scope in his redeeming work, and the reality of the church as a sign of the Kingdom coming. Whew. Can all of that — that is, the cross — help our life flourish? Help us find meaning and even joy?  Does understanding more about salvation help us find the way to what Jesus called “the abundant life”? Wilbourne and Gregor think so, although, like Jesus and Paul, they define “glory” in an upside down way. This is not a self help book, let alone a guide to “success” but it helps redefine the good life “as we learn to delight in losing ourselves to embrace the life-giving weakness of the cross.”

Wilbourne’s previous book was Union with Christ. About it, Tim Keller said it was “simply the best book for laypeople on the subject.” John Ortberg weighed in about that one, saying:

I’m trying to remember the last time I was more excited about a new book or a new author.

Evangelicals: Who They Have Been, Are Now, and Could Be edited by Mark Noll, David Begginton & George Marsden (Eerdmans) $29.99  I would very much like to review this in greater detail once I spend more time with the many interesting chapters by so many remarkable scholars. Allow me to say that it is the opinion of many who read advanced copies, and my own hunch, that this will be known as the definitive study of this lively and diverse and important sub-culture on the conservative end of the theological spectrum. That many of us identify as some sort of evangelical (in distinction from harsh and often not too cultural savvy fundamentalism on one hand and an often bland and unbiblical sort of theological liberalism on the other) makes this that much more important. (For a really readable and lively collection by a group of concerned evangelicals about whether or not that phrase is worth holding on to, re-captured from the far right political folks who use it, see Still Evangelical?: Insiders Reconsider Political, Social, and Theological Meaning edited a year ago by Mark Labberton (published by IVP; $16.00.) I gave it a good review at BookNotes last winter.)

So, the next level up for those reading in this field is surely this remarkable 325+ page anthology. Historian Grant Wacker (who wrote an important, recent biography of Billy Graham, by the way) says it may be the benchmark book. Heath Carter (reminding us that this debate has been around for decades and have intensified in the wake of Donald Trump’s election) says those looking to get their bearings in this bewildering topic should “start here” — in part because Evangelicals is a brand new book that “sheds welcome light on a subject that too often generates only heat.” Join voices younger and older, from various social locations, each different sorts of Christian scholars with affection for the term, evangelical, but as diverse as Kristin Du Mez and D.G. Hart, Timothy Keller and Amanda Porterfield, Jemar Tisby and Molly Worthen, Thomas Kidd and Mark Noll, and more.

Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper Michael Wagenman (Lexham) $12.99 Readers of our BookNotes newsletter may have noticed that we often recommend authors who are somehow connected to the heritage of the fascinating, unstoppable, pious leader of a cultural renewal in Holland at the turn of the 20th century, Abraham Kuyper. We’ve highlighted books that explain the broadest Kuyperian tradition (Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition by Craig Bartholomew is magisterial) and Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction by RichMouw that offers a great, but brief introduction to the robust thinker, leader, who eventually became Prime Minister. We’ve offered collections of articles about Kuyper and, of course James Bratt’s definitive biography published by Eerdmans, Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat .

But yet, I’ve wished for an even more basic book that highlights just a bit about the man and his theology, and a bit about the unique Kuyperian approach to culture and renewed social spheres. How might his thought guide us today — especially if we are disillusioned (or, as a matter of principle, opposed) to the first principles of the so called left and right? That is, if we are wanting to be somehow uniquely loyal to Christ in our civic lives, what insights might Kuyper bring us. This little book offers just that sort os exploration of what Kuyper meant (and what we might learn from) by insisting that Christ is Lord over “every square inch” of his beloved creation. Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper illustrates nicely just why so many folks are learning to appreciate this “neither left nor right” alternative approach and are yearning to explore fresh ways the gospel can permeate all aspects of society.

Live the Questions: How Searching Shapes Our Convictions and Commitments Jeffrey F. Keuss (IVP) $17.00  Admittedly, this isn’t precisely theology. It’s not academic or scholarly, But the author teaches undergrads in Christian ministry, theology, and culture at Seattle Pacific University, so I wanted to list it here. I read a book years ago that Keuss wrote about pop music (Your Neighbor’s Hymnal) and know he’s a good writer and a creative thinker. I am very, very impressed with this vital book about questions in Scripture.

I suspect you know folks who want to be more thoughtful in their faith and they may call this “theology” when it is just fairly normal thoughtfulness, nurturing an informed and self-aware worldview. Call it what you want, Live the Questions is raising great (theology-like) questions and inviting us — using the famous Rilke quote — to not just sit around pondering big questions, but to live into them, to experience the struggle and pain as well as the goodness and joy of discovery. Lively Biblical faith is not about settling on tired certainties, anyway, but (as a review of it by Walter Brueggemann put it) “on ongoing, deep, and unflinching travel into deeper wonderment and open-ended trust.” Now there’s a theological claim, eh?

Tod Bolsinger (a bone fide theologian) says of Live the Questions,

If you are ready for a more authentic faith and a more meaningful life, then Professor Keuss is the right guide and his good is a good tool.

Give Live the Questions: How Searching Shapes Our Convictions and Commitments to anyone who is open to delving deeper, who wants to learn to ask better questions about ourselves, about God, and our world. As the author himself says:

Life is best shaped by good practices that build good habits for human flourishing, and asking good questions is one such habit, one that’s often overlooked.’

There are eight key chapters, each exploring a certain sort of question — about identity, about shame, about justice and evil, about loss, about community, and more. The author has been a mentor to many college age students and many older adults esteem him greatly. For instance, the evangelical elder statesman John Perkins writes:

Over the years, I have had so many questions of God. How long will injustice go on? Where is God in our pain? But my friend Jeff Keuss says that we make our spiritual journey through wrestling with the questions, not just getting easy answers. This book will help you live the questions. If you ask good questions on your knees in prayer listening to God, then God will speak to you. And within his body of the church, together we can transform the world.”

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We’ve got so many great kids books, we wanted to highlight a handful of mostly recent ones.

We show the regular retail price and then our sale price. Order today. Supplies may be limited. If your looking for something else, send us an email (read@heartsandmindsbooks.com) or give the store a call at 717-246-3333.

How to Read a Book Kwame Alexander, illustrated and art by Melissa Sweet (Harper) $17.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39  Ms Sweet has been a Caldecott honoree for her amazingly creative art and her colorful paper cut patchwork style here (utilizing, among other things, actual printed pages) is a wild and sensational match for this poetic, almost zany (if at times tender) tribute to the art of opening and reading and power of a book. This is one energetic, fun, complex picture book that finally invites kids to dream and hope. Ages maybe 4 to 8 or 9… wow! If you want kids to value the beauty and joy of entering a world of imagination, this is a great, great gift. Let’s create young book lovers!!

How Great is Our God: 100 Indescribable Devotions About God & Science Louie Giglio, illustrated by Nicola Anderson (Tommy Nelson) $17.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39  One of our popular children’s books this past year or so was Giglio’s 2017 release Indescribable: 100 Devotions About God and Science. This new one is more of the same, perhaps even better and for slightly older kids. There are full color photos and nicely done art illustrations and great storytelling and plenty of whimsy as the author reminds us of fun facts about the creation that help us learn science while recalling that it comes from the hand of a good, good God. There are upbeat lessons that are so interesting about space and time, about earth and weather, about plants and climates. You will thrill to learn about our bodies, emotions, and imaginations even as we learn a bunch about animals (“from their habits to their habitats.”  This does not (as far as we can tell) enter the debate about creationism or evolution, although it is clear that Giglio wants us to see scientific facts as pointers to the God of the Bible. This is great fun and inspiration for boys and girls in elementary school. Some have said it is best for ages 6 – 10, although maybe it’s a bit broader than that.

Friends Around the World Atlas: A Compassionate Approach to Seeing the World Compassion International, illustrated by Emma Trithart (Tyndale Kids) $24.99 OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99  Children’s books showing in full color the way other kids live, guides to other countries and their geography and culture are a stable of globally-aware educators (and should be in the homes of your kids and grandkids and on the shelves of every Sunday school classroom.) Every now and then a new one comes out that is just stellar, up-to-date, colorful, interesting and we just have to rave and rave.

Very big kudos to Compassion International for producing this pleasantly informative and upbeat picture book that gives kids a chance to “travel around the world — no passport required!” This includes a fold-out map, a prayer “passport” and more. We have an 112-page, spiral-bound very handsome Friends Around the World Activity Book that goes with it, too, if you want to order that as well. That’s also created nicely by Compassion International and sells usually for $12.99, but at our sale price, it would just be $10.39. Nice.

By the way, we’ve suggested other years and wanted to remind you again of the splendid, essential children’s prayer guide for praying about countries all over the globe called Window on the World: An Operation World Prayer Resource which was revised a year ago. It is published in the US by IVP and sells regularly for $25.00. (OUR SALE PRICE = $20.00.) Window on the World goes through the world alphabetically and gives details of important things to pray for in those various countries. It would make a great and more detailed pray guide and companion to the Atlas.

Far From Home: A Story of Loss, Refuge, and Hope Sarah Parker Rubio, illustrated by Fatima Anaya (Tyndale Kids) $14.99 OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99 Please, please, consider this. There is no doubt that immigration, migration, and refugee resettlement will be an important part of the life of your children as they grow up so you should prepare them now to have a compassionate, realistic understanding of the plight, fears, joys, and humanity of migrant families. It is hard to do a kids book that is colorful and interesting, honest and engaging without being dour or overly tragic. This book is brilliant in that regard and you’ll love the vivd art by Anaya. I’m not sure if stuffed animal rabbits are part of the real culture of the family illustrated here, but the child’s love for his toy is sweet and will surely resonate with your young one. As Mike Nawrocki (a co-creator of VeggieTales) says, Far From Home is “a fresh and inspired perspective on the refugee that will resonate with kids.” Beyond that, it will shape and form them in good, tender ways. By the way, there is this allusive few pages where an old lady tells the child about another person who had to leave his home — the illustrations make it clear it is about the incarnation of Jesus — and that brings another layer of moving thoughtfulness to discuss. It isn’t a Christmas book, but the last page does show a touching painting of the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt with the words of Matthew 2:13-14.) Highly recommended.

God’s Big Plan Elizabeth Caldwell & Theodore Hiebert (Flyaway Books) $17.00  OUR SALE PRICE = $13.60  We complimented this at BookNotes when this colorful gem came out last Spring, noting that Libby Caldwell is an esteemed Christian educator who has done research on how children learn, how they imaginatively engage the Bible, and, has, in fact, lead a team that created the fabulous children’s Bible Growing in God’s Love. We stock that big children’s Bible and Caldwell’s books about children and youth for adults.

This new, bright picture book offers an intersting look at the Tower of Babel story and celebrates diversity, affirming that difference — between races and cultures, languages and genders, abilities and preferences, etc. etc. etc. — is part of God’s good plan. God’s renewal of the world through God’s own grace and plan of reconciliation does not wipe out our uniquenesses, but helps us honor and embrace God’s amazing world. This gets at “unity within diversity” but more — it reminds us to wonder.

Alma and How She Got Her Name Juana Martinez-Neal (Candlewick) $15.99 OUR SALE PRICE = $12.79 This remarkable book won the esteemed Caldecott Award this past year (and our copies have the lovely silver seal.) At first one might wonder if this pencil (charcoal, maybe?) sketching — with pastel pink colors added — is deserving of a coveted Caldecott, but the more one explores it, looks and looks, reads and re-reads, one surely sees its creativity, its artfulness, its genius. What’s perhaps even better than the simple, sketchy, yet illuminating drawing art is the story itself– a young girl tracing back her ancestry and learning the varied relatives and their places who become part of her own name. You’ll learn to care for Alma and her family.  Here is how the cover puts it:

“How did Alma Sofia Esperanza Jose Pura Candela end up with such a long name? As Daddy tells the story of her many names, Alma can almost feel herself growing into them!”

By hearing how this little girl learns a big story, author-illustrator Martinez-Neal opens a treasure box of discovery for children curious about their own names.  Nicely done.

The Undefeated Kwame Alexander & Kadir Nelson (Versify/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $17.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39 This is one of the most bright and vividly illustrated children’s books of the year, and it is strong, powerful, informative, enlightening. What genius to bring these two creators together, the poetic Alexander and the vivid visual artist Nelson! The Undefeated tells of jazz musicians and athletes and activists and writers and leaders and ordinary folks, those African American people who survived as they had to, who became “dreamers and doers.” Kwame Alexander has written nearly 30 books, some New York Times bestsellers and many award winners. Kadir Nelson, the artist, similarly is highly regarded (and has won two Caldecott Honors) and is a favorite of ours. (Maybe you know his cool book We Are the Ship which is an illustrated kid’s book on the Negro Baseball League, or the big, striking picture books on Coretta, on Martin, on Mandela, or the one on Harriet Tubman (simple called Moses) among many others. I can’t say enough about this powerful, righteous, book, and commend it to families across the land. Very nicely done, showing joys and hardships, tenacity and resilience.

Jesus and the Lion’s Den: A True Story About How Daniel Points Us to Jesus Alison Mitchell, illustrated by Catalina Echeverri (The Good Book Company) $14.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99  I am sure that those who follow BookNotes remember that we announce every new release in this fabulous series (“Tales That Tell the Truth”) that remind us that Christ is the center of the Biblical story and that creatively unpacks key Biblical stories in ways that delightfully point kids to a gospel-centered reading, a gospel-centered life. So, no, this isn’t a typo — as many Bible scholars remind us, the story isn’t about Daniel, after all, nor is it about King Darius. It is about the real King, the one whose birth we are celebrating this month.  Happily, the book — like the others in the series such as the The One O’Clock Miracle or The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross or God’s Very Good Idea (go here to see the whole list) — isn’t preachy, but nicely invites kids to look for clues to the ultimate meaning of the story in the text. It’s an outstanding and creatively illustrated book, great for ages 4 to 8 or 9.

Drawing God Karen Kiefer, illustrated by Kathy DeWit (Paraclete) $17.99 OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39 This is, I think, a charming book, with fairly traditionalist little kids artwork and a profound story that is, on the face of it, pretty simple.  A group of children go on a field trip to an art museum and young Emma is inspired to draw like Picasso, but wants to draw something really spectacular. She decides to draw God but immediately realizes that this is tricky. What does God look like?  Here is how one reviewer summarized the story:

Emma draws the brightest sun and feels she has drawn God because God is light, but her best friend disagrees. She drew a loaf of bread because it reminds her of God’s grace, but another friend says that bread is not God. Next she draws a huge heart because God is love. Her friends tell her God is not a Valentine. She goes home and prays that somehow she can draw God so that her friends will see Him.

So, this story about a girl drawing a picture of God ends up inviting readers to consider how they might draw a picture of the Divine. The author is a catechist in the Roman Catholic church and a staff person at Boston College. (And the popular Jesuit Father James Martin has a nice endorsement on the back.) The prestigious Kirkus Review liked Drawing God and reminded us that “it closes with suggestions for faith-based activities for children that connect with Emma’s story. A simple, easily understood, and welcome book about children’s relationships with God.” Could be used in an interfaith setting.

En la escuela de los Salmos/At Psalms School John D. Witvliet & Maria Eugenia Cornou, illustrated by Joel Schoon-Tanis (GIA Publications) $18.95 OUR SALE PRICE = $15.16 What an amazing new book, bi-lingual (obviously, in Spanish and English) offering a guide to using Psalms in worship. “Reading Psalms is kind of like going to school,” they write. “They teach us how to listen to and talk with God in worship, at church, and every day. What do we learn at Psalms School? Let’s read and find out!”

The tone and vision and the acrylic art by Schoon-Tanis reminds us of their previous bi-lingual project, En La Mesa de Dios/At God’s Table published by Calvin College Press in cooperation (as this one is, too) by the Calvin Institute on Christian Worship. There is simply nothing like this in print and we are proud to recommend it.

Child of Wonder Marty Haugen, illustrated by Stephen Nesser (GIA Publications) $16.95 OUR SALE PRICE = $13.56  While we’re recommending titles we carry from GIA, allow us to give a very large hat tip to this gloriously attractive, warm, evocative book of wonder. Marty Haugen is an old folksinger who was one of the pioneers of early contemporary liturgical songs (maybe known by those who remember the St. Louis Jesuits, David Haas, or the Monks of Weston Priory or more recently, say, Bryan Sirchio. Marty is a member of the UCC but writes music often for the Lutherans.) This lovely children’s book shows childhood rituals from all over the world so although it was composed for the baptism of his godson, the lyrics “celebrate the sacredness of human life and delight in the lives of children.” It’s tender and touching, beautiful and nicely multicultural. Included in the volume is a free mp3 download of the song itself, although one hardly needs to song to appreciate the lyrical cadence of the words of the book and the wonderful pictures.

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom Gary D. Schmidt, illustrated by Daniel Minter (Roaring Brook Press) $18.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19   I wish I had time and energy and space to tell you the many details of why Beth and I think this is one of the very best children’s books of recent years — it should have been nominated for a Caldecott, at least! (And it has won a number of great accolades and awards!)  You may know Gary Schmidt, a beloved English professor at Calvin University in Grand Rapids who has given us great middle-school age stories like the fabulous Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, The Wednesday Wars or Okay for Now among many others. Here Schmidt uses his great wordsmithing gifts to craft a moving tale about a woman named Isabella who took a new name: Sojourner Truth.

Written with luminous prose (called “poetic and soaring”) complimented by artful, moving, water color illustration and good design, it’s very engaging for even older children. (There is a poem unfolding within the book itself, a sentence set apart every few pages, that is stunning and extraordinary, itself worth the price of the book!) So Tall Within is a book that is powerful, moving, transformative, a fitting biography of this American Christian hero. There is an excellent biography in the back for parents, teachers, or older youth.

“Schmidt’s fluid prose is nicely suited to reading aloud to primary-grade audiences, but Minter’s arresting artwork extends the age range… Even picture-book collections in which [Sojourner Truth] is well represented will surely make space for this engrossing work.” – Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Frog’s Rainy-Day Story and Other Fables Michael James Dowling, illustrated by Sarah Buell Dowling (Carpenter’s Son Publishing) $19.95  OUR SALE PRICE = $15.96  Beth and I love the look of this recent book, and offer our congratulations to the author who worked on this a long time to get it just right. In a way, this is a playful effort to teach the values of a classic Christian worldview — using the device of these fables and parables, Biblical wisdom lived out by animals (have you heard of Aesops? Of course!) In one of the clever stories, Frog tries to write a story the letters decide to walk off the page, thinking they can make their own story without a Creator. Ha! In another, Gander gets an invitation from a King that upsets his plans. There are eight imaginative tales designed actually for the whole family — some of these will make you laugh and some might just make you think. Although the very professional water colors are perfect for kids, this almost could be a whimsical gift book for adults who want to use the stories for further conversation or cultural apologetics. As the alway brilliant Kenneth Boa says of it, Frog’s Rainy-Day Story “wonderfully contrasts the wisdom of this world with the wisdom of the Word.”

What Boa is alluding to is more than the stories, actually, because at the end of each story there is a “wisdom of the world” quote (often by someone well known from popular culture or scholarship) contrasted and compared with Bible quotes. What a useful resource to invite reflection and conversation; heck, you might not even agree with the upshot of the story and what lesson is supposed to be learned. All the better for a learning resource, eh? There’s even a hefty glossary in the back. Like I said the author put a lot of effort into this labor of love.

Listen to Marty Machowski, himself a very popular gospel-focused children’s writer:

Written with the whimsy of Aesop, these engaging fables will challenge your family toward deeper thought. The marvelous illustrations will delight children and adults alike and bid them return again and again.

Candle Walk: A Bedtime Prayer to God Karin Holsinger Sherman (Church Publishing) $17.95  OUR SALE PRICE = $14.36  This is a bit quirky and we like to highlight some unique ones for those interested in harder to find books of children’s spirituality. As the solid Publishers Weekly writes, Candle Walk,

“…prepares kids for sleep by taking them on a walk through the woods and inviting them to experience the Compline, a centuries old practice of contemplative evening prayer.”

It has a degree of whimsy — outdoor animals and insects are reading the Scriptures — and the art is sometimes even silly, but the point is to not only formalize the classic bedtime prayer or to have a time of intersession, but to create a ritual which can illuminate, as one reviewer put it, “God’s peace, protection, and love.”

The author has worked in ecological activism and is trained in spiritual direction, so she knows creation care and Anglican monastic spirituality. Here is how the publisher describes the book, as a child’s introduction to Compline:

Share the beauty of nature and bedtime prayer with a special child In this bedtime book, join in a candlelit wander through the woods, listening attentively to the river, trees, stars, and moths singing verses from scripture. This beautifully illustrated picture book invites families to enter into a calm, contemplative quieting-down based on a centuries-old practice of evening prayer from the Christian liturgical tradition. Like the beloved Office of Compline, the book helps children “complete” their day and prepare for sleep, fulfilling a hunger for a bedtime prayer that is not simply intercessory, but offers an opportunity to practice listening and contemplation. Appropriate for toddlers and school-children alike, Candle Walk is a wonderful way to prepare children for sleep, assured of the nearness of God.

Love Does for Kids Bob Goff and Lindsey Goff Viduchich, illustrated by Michael Lauritano (Tommy Nelson) $16.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59  Oh man, you know I’ve talked about this before and can’t say enough about it. The hand-sized hardback is comprised of great stories from our best-selling, exceptionally popular book by Bob Goff called Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World, re-told by his elementary school teacher daughter in a style a kid can enjoy. Yep, these are the best capers and Christ-like adventures and goofy escapades from Goff’s first book, written for children ages 6 – 10 or any elementary grade. What fun! What a great gift for a boy or girl.

Here is what the publisher has written to explain more about it:

In the same way that Love Does has struck a deep chord with adults, kids will experience God in new and thrilling ways and see that living out our faith certainly isn’t boring! With this book, children will laugh, dream, and be inspired to make a difference for God, and they’ll learn to:

• • take ownership of their mistakes and forgive others for their mistakes.
  • never give up–no matter how scared they are.
  • put their faith into action by spending time with–and acting more like–Jesus.

Kids everywhere will love Bob and Lindsey’s stories about how love does. With childlike faith, enthusiasm, and great whimsy, young hearts will feel instantly connected to a love that acts as much as it feels. Children will walk away with a sense of wonder at how great God is and will feel empowered to do things that will make a tangible difference in the world.

As a little boy with a big personality and even bigger dreams, Bob Goff had lots of questions, and they didn’t go away when he grew up. It wasn’t until he learned just how big and wild and wonderful God is that he began to find answers. Once Bob learned about the deep goodness of God, he began to learn about the great power God gives His kids when they live a life full of love for others.

Bob and Lindsey invite kids to get to know God better and to see the world as a place designed to be changed as we put our faith in action.

Emblems of the Infinite King: Enter the Knowledge of the Living God J. Ryan Lister, illustrated by Anthony M. Benedetto (Crossway) $24.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99  Wow, this is an amazing looking book, created by the leaders of the hip-hop record label Humble Beast. (Perhaps you’ll recall us talking about Ryan Lister’s cool adult book on a theology of the arts, Images and Idols.)  The artist involved here, Anthony Benedetto, is the cofounder of Nova Nimbus, a multidisciplinary creative studio so this isn’t a kiddie book. Emblems of the Infinite King is stunning — black and gold graphics, sometimes with reverse print (white print on black pages) with embossed gold edges and a black ribbon marker — which offers, in the words of Randy Alcorn,”a sound systematic theology conveyed to kids in a vibrant and accessible way.” It playfully uses the compelling notion of an ancient key and offers creative storytelling to bring theology to life. It has been called “strikingly imaginative” even as it pulls readers into the Throne Room of the great King to explain eight key core truths.

This exploration of the grand story of redemption is unlike anything you’ve seen and we’re happy to suggest it to families with kids from 10 or so up through middle school or even high school if they like this sort of vibe.

SIX FOR OLDER KIDS OR TEENS

Sawdust in His Shoes Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Plough Publishing) $9.95  OUR SALE PRICE = $7.96 Space does not permit us to describe this in detail, but the fact that the thoughtful Plough Publishing (of Bruderhof fame) chose to find and re-publish this older classic (by a three-time Newberry Award winner) should be all you need to know; they are careful, literary, and esteem high-quality literature that has some sort of humane story and helpful values.

When this youthful book — what we now call YA fiction — was reviewed in the New York Times in 1950, they said:

“A good book for children is a good book for any age, and Sawdust in His Shoes belongs in that rare category.”

In those same mid-20th century years, the very respected Kirkus Review called Sawdsust “a good, hearty, full-blooded yarn, appealing to both boys and girls.” A story about an outside who becomes a hero — of course they’d love it. A coming of age tale set in the heyday of the three ring circus? Well, kids may not know much about that, making this all the more alluring as they learn about Joe Lang, a kid of a third generation circus family and a star bareback rider, sent away to a vocational school after his parents die. Will the old clown Mo Shapely become his guardian? When I say this book has acrobatics, I mean it literally. It’s amazing. Sensitive kids or those looking for something other than fantasy-adventure, will adore it. And like that TImes quote, channeling C.S. Lewis, maybe it would be good for anyone, of any age.

Forward Me Back To You Matali Perkins (Farrar Straus Giroux) $17.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39  I’m not sure why, but it is a special delight to find a book that is getting some advanced buzz from the mainstream (secular?) YA establishment and then to discover that the author is a person of faith and that her story includes a plot line of great concern to many Christian readers. Obviously, many good books have no overt religious themes, nor should they, but when one comes up on a publishing house not affiliated with the religious publishing world, well, it is good.  Forward Me Back to You is just such a book and we hope our readers might support it.

Mitali Perkins has written many award winning, respected, ambitious books for young readers. (You Bring the Distant Year won bunches of awards a few years ago.)  She was born in India and has resided in both South Asia and Africa, but now in in the US. Her global awareness has equipped her to write realistically about some hard stuff in our sad world — human trafficking.

Here is how the book’s flap sets it all up:

Katrina King is the reigning teen jiu-jitsu champion of Northern California, but she’s having trouble fighting off the secrets of her past. Robin Thornton was adopted from an orphanage in India and is reluctant to take on his future. If he can’t find his roots, how can he possibly pick a college. Robin and Kat meet in the most unlikely of circumstances and find themselves signing up for a summer service trip to Kolkata to work with survivors of human trafficking. As bonds build among the travelers, both teens discover that justice and healing are entwined, like the pain in their past their hopes for the future.

We respect this author a lot and think this handsome hardback could be just the think for a thoughtful young teen who likes good, contemporary stories.

On the Come Up Angie Thomas (B+B) $18.99 OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19  I’m surprised we don’t have more customers asking about this — it came out this summer to some good acclaim, the eagerly anticipated (at least in some quarters) follow up to the YA phenomenon, The Hate U Give. That novel won some of the most coveted teen book awards there are — long-listed for the National Book Award, a Coretta Scot King Honor Book, a Boston-Globe Horn Book award winner, a Michael Printz honor book, and more.

In case you aren’t aware, The Hate U Give (which was made in to a movie which I did not see) was riveting, well told in the voice of a black teen, about police brutality and systemic racism in America. One reviewer wrote that it was “fearlessly honest and heartbreakingly human.” The famous John Green (The Fault in Our Stars) said,

“Angie Thomas has written a stunning, brilliant, gut-wrenching novel that will be remembered as a classic of our time.”

Well, that’s about her previous one. The newer one is On the Come Up, about sixteen year old Bri, the daughter of a deceased rap star who herself wants to become a rapper.

“For all the struggle in this book, The New York Times Book Review wrote:

“Thomas rarely misses a step as a writer. Thomas continues to hold up that mirror with grace and confidence. We are lucky to have her, and lucky to know a girl like Bri.”

I suspect these YA books about rough urban life and high school aren’t for everyone. But I also think some teens will find them to be a real blessing, giving voice to issues they are thinking about, experiencing in their own ways. There’s a lot of heart and hope in On the Come Up.

The Faithful Spy: A True Story – Graphic Novel John Hendrix (Amulet/Abrams) $16.99  OUR SALE PRICE – $13.59  We’ve recommended this before — oh yes! The Faithful Spy: A True Story is an expertly done graphic novel that anyone interested in the genre will appreciate. And it is about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer! John Hendrix is an accomplished and fascinating Christian author and artist and we can’t say enough about this colorful, serious story about the German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and his efforts to stop Hitler’s campaign of terror. 175 pages, including hand-written text. Impressive.

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness  Andrew Peterson (Waterbrook) $15.99  OUR SALE PRICE = $12.70  This is the first installment of the popular Wingfeather Saga created by singer-songwriter, writer, recording artist, Rabbit Room founder, poet and all around creative thinker, Andrew Peterson. On the front cover of this swashbuckling fantasy it says this: Adventure. Peril. Lost Jewels. and the Fearsome Toothy Cows of Skree. Well, look out for that! This has been very popular this year (and, in a month or so, the first two Wingfeather Saga books will be re-issued in hardcover, which is a bit unusual, a sign of how they are catching on in a big way.) Great for Middle School readers, and up to at least younger teens.

We have the second Peterson Wingfeather Saga volume, too, of couse —North! Or Be Eaten: Wild Escapes, a Desperate Journey, and the Ghastly Fangs of Dang Andrew Peterson (Waterbrook) $15.99 OUR SALE PRICE = $12.70 What a blast — this is sequel to Dark Sea of Darkness and equally adventurous, good stuff, thoughtful wise, even.  We listed these curiously fascinating and well written fantasy stories here since they aren’t little children’s picture books. Teens and older fantasy lovers everywhere would like them but I think they are ideal for Middle School readers and younger teens.  Flee, now, and watch those ghastly fangs of dang. Nobody wants to get eaten by fangs of dang.

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The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work Steven Garber (IVP) regularly $20.00 (hardback with full color photographs.) OUR SALE PRICE = $16.00

This is a BookNotes post I’ve been eager to share as it is an announcement about a forthcoming book that is about to be released and, although it has an official 2020 publication date, will be here by mid-December. You can PRE-ORDER it now on sale as a Christmas gift and we promise to get it to you (or directly to your recipient) in plenty of time for gift giving on Christmas day.

Like those artsy Hollywood films that are released in December so they can qualify for that year’s Academy Awards, we just might count this as a 2019 release and will therefore surely name it as one of the very best books of the year. Then, I can name it again next year as one of the best of 2020, too. Believe me, I will. It’s that good.

Author Steve Garber is a very dear friend and an esteemed teacher and writer who is deeply respected by almost everybody who knows him. He smiles a lot, loves great movies and novels and pop music (and seems to have crossed paths in meaningful ways with smart bands such as the guys in Jars of Clay and respected visual artists like Mako Fujimura and so many more) and has talked about deep things with writers as diverse as rock poet Billy Corgan to the late urbane novelist Tom Wolfe to the great rural Wendell Berry. I say this not to name-drop or brag but to impress upon you that this quiet professor and skillful writer is a very, very interesting person who has been named as an influence upon important influencers. He talks about “conversations with consequence” and sometimes convenes gatherings with old theologians and modern makers, with writers and justice activists, with older scholars and young moms. He connects chefs and rock stars and poets and pastors. He cares about faithful Biblical thinking and beautiful, meaningful work in the world. He enjoys long walks outdoors. Like one of his mentors, Francis Schaeffer, he believes in honest answers to honest questions. With his sharp intellect and big picture of God’s work in the world and his patient capacity for long conversations over cups of hot tea, I have heard more than one informed person say he’s the closest thing to a combo of Edith and Francis Schaeffer we have these days.

The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work is a collection of shorter essays, reflections, reports, if you will, of Steve’s travels and conversations, often (although not only) on the questions that come up when ordinary folks are trying hard to relate their Christian faith to their work, to their jobs and their responsibilities in society. He shares much about his anguish over this broken world and yet shares good glimmers of hope, stories of goodness and wonder and of those making a difference in constructive ways. The Seamless Life is a perfect introduction to Steve’s writing for at least three reasons.

First, it’s accesible and the entries are relatively short. These pieces capture his eloquence and unique way with words – he’s got some distinctive styles that are signature formulations – without being overly dense. I think his writing style is spectacularly interesting and moving, tender and at times so poignant, yet without ever being sentimental or shallow. Unlike some authors who turn up the prose to make it artsy, but aren’t writing about stuff that deserves such weighty words, Garber’s intensity as a writer matches his seriousness as a thinker and bears witness to his life lived with quiet zeal and utter integrity and a nerdy sort of sincere passion.

But here’s what is so good about this new book: as a collection of stand-alone pieces, many reporting on places he’s visited or people he’s met, the chapters are short and often nearly punchy; he meanders through history and the meaning of words or places he’s visited but quickly gets to the point. One need not wade through long arguments and complex analysis to get to the writerly pay-off. I hope you enjoy the genre of essays, and appreciate how this collection carries the benefits of this short-form approach, even if they are sometimes memoiristic — reportage, testimony. He has honed his writing craft and has so very much to say, but brings the insight easily, here, with a really nice touch. Some of these chapters were first published as Facebook posts but as anyone who follows Steve on social media will attest, one long Facebook post from Steve is worth a whole book from a less profound author. These shorter essays are a great “gateway” to his longer books — accessible and interesting and handsomely offered, with pictures. Even if they are not exactly succinct or concise, they are relatively brief.

Secondly, it covers a lot of ground, interestingly. The entries in The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work are, besides being somewhat shorter than the weighty chapters in Fabric of Faithfulness or Visions of Vocation, a bit more diverse in content than those previous books. Both of those books are extraordinarily interesting and he brings in authors and artists and stories of unsung people he knows. He’s a born storyteller; he loves to hold up the work and witness of others to help us all be inspired to live more creatively and faithfully in-but-not-of this broken, broken, already-but-not-yet world. Yet, still, the movies and stories and exemplars in the other books are arranged to illustrate the big points of the book, so, interesting as they are, they are mostly connected to that particular theme and illustrative. In The Seamless Life, however, Garber covers more topics which allows him to introduce to us even more of his friends, his favorite writers, his discoveries about family and friendship and church and more. The stories are front and center. In a way, these pieces are just more of the same we’ve come to expect from Steve but the scope is a bit more broad, and the short form allows him to dip in to this topic or that, tell this episode or quote that lyric with even more personality and obvious wisdom. It makes for very inspiring and interesting and energetic reading, urgent reports from the road. I don’t want to overstate this, but it is almost devotional, doxological.

If you, like me, ever quote Steve’s previous two books, photocopy pages, cite certain stories or episodes, you will love The Seamless Life. It is eminently readable, quotable, and in that sense, very useful for those in ministry, who teach or preach or post. You can confidently give out this book as a gift even to those readers who you fear might not stick with his excursions into Michael Polanyi’s philosophy of science or Lesslie Newbigin’s view of truth or the political theory of Vaclav Havel (in Fabric) or the critique of the eroding influence of capitalism a la Wendell Berry or the notion of “proximate justice” (in Visions.) Not that either of those two previous books are too academic (they are not written for the scholarly market, even though Fabric was most interested in how lasting faith is developed in the young adult years within the context of higher education) and not that Seamless is overly light or cheap. Garber can’t write a cheap phrase and is always profound, even in his gentle storytelling and good humor. But The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work is an easier read than his previous two and so it’s great to give out, sure to please anyone interested in faith and public life, about honestly weaving together worship and work, wishing for a life that ties together, coherently, seamlessly, a long obedience in the same direction, hard as that may be for us frail humans.

Thirdly, it helpfully revisits some of his previous concerns working them out in real places, reporting back from the journey. Please realize that Seamless… is not a greatest hits album, since that beloved genre offers a collection of previously recorded stuff, a compilation. This handsome hardback volume has the charm and familiarity of such a device, but is not culled from the two earlier books; it is absolutely not rehash. If you’ve read Fabric of Faithfulness or Visions of Vocation, it just sort of feels like you’ve heard some of this before. Which is to say, if you appreciated his two previous books – and let us be clear, some think his books are the most important books they’ve ever read – you will adore these shorter ruminations, revisiting themes and topics and concerns and passions that thread their way through his earlier books, his many classes and speaking engagements, his very life. These are Garber’s eloquent but short-form reports from the road. And what an interesting road he’s been on!

(By the way, Visions of Vocation has been translated into Mandarin Chinese, into the language spoken in Indonesia, and, just recently, into Slovak. Steve has travelled to these places to teach and mentor and celebrate with those who have found enduring wisdom and sturdy, thoughtful value in his work. Did I mention that the photos and pieces in A Seamless Life are mostly reports from the road? Did I mention what a very interesting road he has been on? I sometimes think of him as a global Frodo…and he invites us to follow along.)

If Fabric of Faithfulness and Visions of Vocation taught us anything it is that to live out an enduring faith, seamlessly and coherently, bearing some of the weight of the hurting world as we must, and our personal brokenness, as we do, we need models and mentors. If you want a glimpse of a life well lived, culturally aware and spiritually rooted, realistic and morally serious, knowing more about Steve Garber will be edifying and perhaps life changing for you. Even more than his previous books,­­­ The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work tells more of Steve’s own story. He tells of his parents and grandparents, the geographies and places he has loved, writes sweetly about his beloved wife of many decades and his children (now grown) and ponders his various careers and callings, letting us in a bit more, telling great anecdotes about others, but also about himself. If you like his books or classes or legendary Facebook posts, you simply must read this. If it is a great gateway introduction for those who haven’t read him yet, it is also a perfect follow up and follow through to those who have been introduced to his good work in the previous books. Indeed, you will smile knowing a bit more about some of the folks that are mentioned in those previous volumes (like Hans of Elevation Burger and Bruno and Jay from the Mars Corporation Jubilee project.) Man, this is good stuff, and this new book delights to invite you into deeper membership of this broader circle of Garber’s friends and comrades.

I have read the soon-to-be-released manuscript of The Seamless Life and offered a heart-felt and glowing endorsement, which, I am told, may be inside the front cover. I count that as a great honor and I will copy that intentionally breathy endorsement below, along with others written by more important leaders, that I trust you will find informative and compelling, persuading you to care about this wonderfully written collection of shorter reports by my friend Steve Garber. You should know, too, that this hardback is designed almost like a gift book with full color photographs taken by Steve, often informally, it seems, capturing more of the embodied, real-world texture of these reports and stories and episodes of his life in the real world. I was unsure if reproducing these pictures (and doing the book in hardback) would be effective, but the more I think about it, the more glad I am about this. It really does create a reminder that these essays emerged from real places; this is not abstracted idealism. Garber has cared for a lifetime about places and cultures and people and institutions, in their beauty and sadness, so real shots of the scenes truly is apropos. I think you’ll agree that it’s a very nice touch.

I will tell you more about the various strengths of these essays later, but for now, we wanted to give you these reasons to pre-order this right away. The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work has been announced as a January 2020 publication, but we have been told that it will be released early and we will have it soon. We can send it out promptly to you (or to another address for you) if you pre-order. We invite you to be among the first to get and give it. Send an order our way today by using the “order here” link below which takes you to our secure website order form page.

“The Seamless Life is a scrumptious feast for mind and heart, meticulously prepared in bite-size pieces of timeless wisdom, transforming truth, and life-giving grace. The depth and beauty of the poetic words as well as each breathtaking photograph point longing hearts to a God well loved and a life well lived. Steve Garber is a remarkably good man with a rare gift of storytelling. This may be his finest work. I highly recommend it.”

Tom Nelson, senior pastor of Christ Community Church, Leawood, Kansas, and author of Work Matters and The Economics of Neighborly Love