We were glad for those that shared our epic gift giving guide the other day. But even as we sent it out, I kept thinking of this book or that one, for all sorts of different folks. Giving-giving can be stressful, and we can help; books can help. And we have so many different sorts of topics and titles here.
Just the other day I was showing the brand new, rather quirky but utterly fascinating (and incredibly informative) The Infographic Bible: Visualizing the Drama of God’s Word created by Karen Sawrey (Zondervan; $34.99) and the customer was perplexed. “Who could buy a thing like that” she wondered, struck by the colorful look, creatively imagined data and, I suppose, the price tag. I admit I sort of wondered that myself; it’s awesome, but who actually buys such a book?
Send us an order and we can get it right out at our discounted priced — we’ll take the 20% off the regularly shown price – and you’ll have it by Christmas. Or, we can send something directly to your recipient, tucking in a little note on your behalf. We gift-wrap for free, too. Just let us know how we can help.
Here are some other categories that might be useful for certain folks on your gift-giving list.
FOR SOMEONE WHO LIKES EARLY ROCK AND ROLL
Why Should the Devil Have All The Good Music: Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock Gregory Alan Thornbury (Convergent) $26.00 I hope you saw my long review of this when it came out this summer. I did a big BookNotes feature on it and, happily, got a smaller review published in the big-time Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The book review editor there is a Larry Norman fan. If you know anything about the subculture of CCM, you know Norman is considered one of the grandfathers of the movement. His early days, though, were themselves legendary as he preformed with or before nearly every late 60s rock legend, from Paul McCartney to Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin. He shared his faith eagerly and helped create the vision and vibe of what was known then as “the Jesus Movement.”
Contemporary Christian rock has had its share of genius artists, brilliant performers, and sell-out wannabees not to mention a few fakes and frauds. There has been, as they say, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Greg Thornbury, himself a scholar, a cultural historian, an evangelical (and a rocker, despite his bow tie) is the perfect author to tell this story and it is right on.
It is my sense that this is a must read for anybody who likes Christian rock, and, perhaps, nearly anyone who enjoys reading good accounts of the not so halcyon days of the 60s and 70s in American pop music culture. Why Should the Devil… is a great, vivid book, highly recommended.
FOR ONE INTERESTED IN URBAN MINISTRY
Voices Rising: Women of Color Finding & Restoring Hope in the City edited by Shabrae Jackson Krieg & Janet Balasiri Singleterry (Servant Partners Press) $15.95 What a find, this recent start up publisher that is doing really good stuff on urban outreach, race, economic justice, mission. We are so glad to have found them as they are doing great books like this one. Evangelical women of color are increasingly being honored and their voices are slowly being heard in broader settings; this anthology of great writings of women of color working and living in poor urban communities is a great witness to this shift and new openness. As it says on the back cover “As the reader, you are invited to listen to the call and the need for diversity in mission and to seeing the uniqueness that women of color bring.”
There is a lovely forward to this by Sandra Maria Van Opstal who is known for her great book The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World and a great endorsement (among many, many others) from Lisa Sharon Harper. We hope you know somebody who would like this book!
Urban Ministry Reconsidered: Contexts and Approaches edited by D. Drew Smith, Stephanie Boddie, & Ronald Peters (WJK) $40.00 I need to do a major review of this as it is extraordinary. Let me just not, now, that if you know anybody who is seriously studying this topic, this is a major anthology, edited by leaders of the Metro-Urban Institute at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. These folks have decades of scholarship and practice as theologians and activists. There are chapters on poverty, housing, health, racism, missional church stuff, global insights, and lots more. It is fairly diverse theologically, mostly progressive in terms of social agenda, and pretty scholarly. It advances a number of fresh insights, offers current research and we have a few trusted friends who have done pieces in it. There is nothing like it on the market and just came out this fall. A great gift for someone you know who is deeply involved in studying this field.
Seeing Jesus in East Harlem: What Happens When Churches Show Up and Stay Put Jose Humphreys (IVP) $16.00 This great book is part of the Praxis imprint and, with the colorful cover, is immediately attractive. This is very much about a sense of place in the urban context and how our own stories and faith formation are tied to particular places. The author is a Puerto Rica pastor who has planted a multi-ethnic church in East Harlem and this book is ideal for anyone thinking practically about urban ministry.
Humphreys is pastor of Metro Hope Covenant Church and I like that the church is described as being “involved in shalom-making in the city through facilitating conversation contemplation, and action across social, economic, cultural, and theological boundaries.”
Good, good evangelically-minded activist/scholars/pastors endorse this with rave reviews, from Soong-Chan Rah to Paul Sparks (of The New Parish) who says, “Go get this amazing book!”) to Noel Castellanos.
Lisa Sharon Harper says:
A beautiful love letter to the church about how to be church in our browning, decolonizing world…Every pastor’s next must-read.
How Neighborhood Make Us Sick: Restoring Health and Wellness to our Communities Veronica Squires and Breanna Lathrop (IVP) $17.00 This long-awaited book just came today and we are thrilled to suggest it as a gift for anyone you know who is interested in urban life, or in health, wholeness, environmental safety and the like. We have long wished for a book about public health from a Christian perspective that was readable, passionate, helpful. Such a book would have to look at environmental issues, racism, poverty, and our general lack of awareness of environmental toxins. Obviously we think of the Flint, Michigan water crisis, we think of asbestos and urban fracking. But there is so much more about caring for our built environment and caring in effective ways about how some of it is literally making us sick. Buildings with mold trigger asthma; geographic lack of access to healthy food and health care increases childhood mortality. Trauma (from community violence, for instance) can cause physical changes to the body and to our resilience.
Squires and Lathrop are serving well on the front lines at the Good Samaritan Health Center in Atlanta and have been working on this topic for years. (Lathrop is a family nurse practitioner with a Master’s Degree in public health; Squires is chief administrator and is on the board for the Georgia Charitable Care Network.)
Beth started reading this the moment it came out of the box, and we are very, very grateful for publishers who do this kind of work. As Bob Lupton says on the back cover, “The time is right for an insightful, well-documented expose of the pathology in poverty neighborhoods and a roadmap for the journey towards health and wholeness. How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick is just that.”
FOR SOMEONE INTERESTED IN RACE, JUSTICE, AND SOCIAL CHANGE
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Freedom on Death Row Anthony Ray Hinton (St. Martin’s Press) $26.99 This would be an excellent gift for anyone who likes powerful memoir or even crime thrillers, although it is a righteous story about overcoming gross injustice. It is a perfect choice for anyone who has read Bryan Stevenson’s classic Just Mercy because Anthony Ray Hinton and his awful case – convicted in a sloppy trial for a crime he couldn’t have committed – figures into the dramatic plot of Stevenson’s book about this very kind of thing. His Equal Justice Initiative offers legal aid to poor folks who are incarcerated unfairly. Hinton spent decades on death row and in Just Mercy he remained in jail despite Bryan’s heroic efforts on his behalf, getting the trail reheard, appealing, appealing. This tells the story from Hinton’s view and is a simple story of his ordinary life and his extraordinary faith and courage and dignity living on death row.
Some of this is hard stuff; some is beautiful – I will never forget the pages about his book club on death row and the dead men walking and their love for one another and good books.
There is good news here: Hinton is finally released so this is an inspiration tale of endurance and freedom and goodness. There is a reason Ray has become a hero to many all over the road and why so many astute readers (like Desmond Tutu) have raved about Bryan’s role and Ray’s telling of the story. The Sun Does Shine is a book that is unforgettable and you could give it to nearly anyone who has interest in criminal reform or the long work for justice.
Burden: A Preacher, A Klansman, and a True Story of Redemption in the Modern South Courtney Hargrave (Convergent) $26.00 I hope you read my long review of this earlier this year in BookNotes. This is quite a story (and there is now a Hollywood movie about it all, directed by Andrew Heckler of Dallas Buyer’s Club fame.) This, also, is a book I couldn’t put down, an intriguing tale of life in a small Carolina town where, yep, there is a white supremacy guy who opens a KKK museum. Naturally, it attracts protests and national attention and an ill informed, poor white kid is taken in and becomes the point man running the shop.
Oh, the things we do for love, the old song goes, and Michael Burden (that’s really the man’s name) falls in love and is convinced by his equally poor white girl friend to leave these racist guys behind. The array of radical white supremacist, confederates, and neo-Nazis that used the Klan Museum as a front were mad at Burden’s betrayal so they kicked him out of the basement apartment he was using. Homeless, he and his girlfriend are taken in – get this; you can hardly believe it – by the black activist pastor who was his nemesis in protest.
The all black church was understandably skeptical of their pastor’s newfound KKK friend and Burden had some learning to do as he attempted to fit in to the black Baptist congregation. And, believe me, the story doesn’t end there! This riveting book nicely illustrates the adage about truth being stranger than fiction and how God’s redemption comes in often surprising ways. Burden is a great story and would be interesting to anyone who reads about race, about the changing south, about reconciliation and such. I agree with one reviewer who said Burden is a “mesmerizing narrative with a powerful social and political message” although it really is a very human, humane drama.
Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody James H. Cone (Orbis) $28.00 Anyone who studies black theology knows the name of James Cone, whose major work came out in the late 60s amidst the “black power” movement and the debates about which approach – King or Malcolm – were most effective and righteous in those hard days. More recently, as an older man, his popularity was broadened and renewed by his stunning last major work Christ and the Lynching Tree. This new book, published just after his death earlier this year, is an autobiography, a slim hardback (admittedly a bit pricey) but “a must read for everyone interested in discerning how to live awake in the gospel while inspiring the voice of the oppressed.” It is Cone’s own story of finding his voice, of coming up with his notions of black theology, of his life in the academy (he taught at Union in NYC) doing this significant work. It is very interesting and somewhat revealing.
The electric Cornel West has a thrilling foreword that makes the book that much more precious, and anyone following this stuff would be glad to have it. One reviewer calls Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody his “final masterpiece” and another says it is “both eloquent and unflinching,”
Listen to Willie James Jennings, the important young author of The Christian Imagination (so ably discussed, by the way, in James K.A. Smith’s Imaging the Kingdom: Reforming Public Theology) who says:
These are some of the final words of our Father, the one who brought many of us into the struggle for black theological liberation. This memoir must find its way into the hands of future generations of students who need to know that before they found ‘the struggle’ there was a theologian named Cone already deeply committed to it.
Not Your White Jesus: Following a Radical, Refugee Messiah Sheri Faye Rosendahl (WJK) $16.00 I have written about this a few times and erased it each time. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s Christmas, although I do have to think of the Jackson Brown song “The Rebel Jesus.” I do think this new little book would make a fabulous gift to just the right person. Maybe you know somebody you could gift it to. After all, it is His birthday, right?
Anybody who is tired of how it seems that Jesus has been co-opted by the far religious right, as if Jesus was a gun-toting, anti-immigrant, white power Trump-man, will find a breath of fresh air, here, maybe a life-line even. I don’t have to tell you that many justice warriors, well-meaning and often noble kids on the streets in protest of how we’ve surged to the right amidst growing poverty and racism are convinced that Christianity is not for them. This suggests – no, it nearly shouts – otherwise. Jesus was revolutionary in many ways and clearly was not white. Does this bother us? Many who are overlooked by conventional churches would find a home with Him (we know many who were despised by the religious leaders of his day found a home with Him) and this book offers a feisty reminder that Christ was not blond-haired or blue eyed and would not have supported policies of exclusion and violence or quiet support of any status quo this side of New Creation.
We have a lot of books about Jesus and many are more moderate and perhaps more balanced, maybe even more fully accurate. A good friend just re-read Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright for the third time! (It’s now out in paperback.) We’ve recently discovered the brand new almost pocket sized A Doubter’s Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics by the sharp thinker John Dickson from the UK. But this Not Your White Jesus is a radical reminder of some urgent stuff, offering heartfelt conversations and even a Bible study/reflection guide in the back to deeper our engagement with the controversial stuff Jesus taught. Even the cover is “in your face” and would be good for a disillusioned young person.
As Michael Frost says on the back, “Yes, she says things that will likely rub you the wrong way. Maybe she is just trying to be true to Jesus– the radical, brown-skinned, refugee Jesus.” Not Your White Jesus by Sheri Rosendahl is maybe not for everyone, but I bet you could have some great conversations giving it to just the right person. Maybe somebody for whom it would provide a fresh link to the church and to Christian discipleship. Maybe somebody who never really heard just how upside down the Messiah’s Kingdom really was. Why not order one and give it a try!
Once We Were Strangers: What A Friendship with a Syrian Refugee Taught Me About Loving My Neighbor Shawn Smucker (Revell) $14.99 There is more than one way to skin a cat by dad used to say, by which he meant that there can be several ways to solve a problem. If your hope is to enlighten someone about the Biblical call to peace and justice about the need to be hospitable to strangers, maybe even care for immigrants, one might not have to go full-on didactic by giving a book like the above listed James Cone or Not Your White Jesus. Yes, those will make fabulous gifts for some people but I am quite aware that either could be a real stinker at the lovely Christmas brunch table. But there’s other ways into this conversation.
Shawn Smucker is a dear man, a solid, conventional evangelical, and an excellent writer and thinker. We have touted his last two YA fantasy novels – Beth just finished both and found them hugely entertaining and thought-provoking. (Those are The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There.) We like him a lot and nearly any reader liking a good story would too.
Here is how the back cover starts this riveting, inspiring story:
In 2012, Mohammad fled his Syrian village along with is wife and four sons. Four years later he sat across from Shawn Smucker in a small conference room in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Though neither of them knew it Mohammad had arrived in Shawn’s life just in time.
I suppose this is a story of refugee resettlement, of getting involved in social service and becoming an advocate for justice. It nicely tells of how one central Pennsylvania family learned to be aware of the complexities of global concerns and why refugees risk so much to come to a new home. It is even about inter-faith conversation as a Christian and Muslim family. Many people these days would find it interesting, I’m sure.
But more than anything Once We Were Strangers is a story of friendship, and of learning to love. It is an intimate story and it is almost (almost) as simple of that. It will make a truly lovely gift to almost anyone who likes a good story about kindness and love and grace.
Peter Greer runs the amazing micro-financing ministry (globally recognized, based in Lancaster, PA.) He has seen all manner of injustice and global violence and he has seen hope and change. He is a remarkable social entrepreneur and Christian leader. Listen to him as he talks about this book by his friend Shawn Smucker and this nice new book; Greer says it offers,
A glimpse into the bridge-building, fear-silencing, life-affirming gift of cross-cultural friendship.
FOR ONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN SCIENCE (AND IS A SERIOUS READER)
The Penultimate Curiosity: How Science Swims in the Slipstream of Ultimate Questions Roger Wagner & Andrew Briggs (Oxford University Press) $45.95 This is a big, big book, big in heft (slightly glossy pages make it a bit heavy) and, more importantly, is hefty with a broad vision, suggesting, as the subtitle implies, that it is truly about ultimate questions. The one author is himself a scientist of great renown (in the UK) and the other is a painter. My, my, what a broad set of conversations about life and times, truth and knowledge, heart and mind. It has a lot of fascinating chapters about a range of topics about science and the search for meaning.
Endorsements on the back are quite notable – from Alister McGrath, an evangelical theologian with two science degrees, Malcolm Jeeves, a former President of the Royal Society of Edinburg and prolific author about faith and science, the brilliant Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (who calls it “a path-breaking account, vast in scope, thrilling in detail…”) Even Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury says, simply, “Here is magnificence.”
Impressive to me, too, is that a good friend, herself an accomplished, Harvard-trained scientist and now professor (and her husband, a theologian and cultural analysis in his own right) have said it is among their favorite books on this topic. That is what first turned us on to it, and we’d love to share our enthusiasm for The Penultimate Curiosity with you. Maybe you can share the love, buying one for somebody you know who would like just a large gift.
Understanding Scientific Theories of Origins: Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective Robert Bishop, Larry Funck, Raymond Lewis, Stephen Moshier, John Walter (IVP Academic) $75.00 Hey, this wraps up really nicely and it could find other uses if your recipient grows tired of reading a new science textbook – using it as a door stop is the standard joke for one this size, but I suspect it could hold a small child who has graduated from a highchair. At over 650 pages and slightly oversized this big textbook is simply breathtaking in scope and very, very nicely created. It just came out last week so we are among the first to see it. We are very impressed and eager to tell you about it.
The authors are each professors at Wheaton College; three are proper scientists, one specializes in both physics and the philosophy of science, and John Walton is a renowned professor of Old Testament (with a PhD from Hebrew Union College.) The five of them have team-taught a course on the theories of origins for over twenty years and they offer here both top-notch scholarship and what seems to be a warm sort of collegiality. Dipping in one can just sense the joy of learning, the excitement of big ideas, the big questions about the questions of origins, the bright evangelical perspective and the honest wrestling with the best minds, and best data, out there.
There is much more about science than this sub-topic of the debate about origins, although we do have many books on the study of origins; it is of perennial interest. We also have lots of other books more generally about Christian faith and science (not about origins and evolution.) We had to list this one, though, as it would be a delightfully surprising gift for any geeky scholar who likes this sort of resource. It looks truly wonderful.
Scientism and Secularism: Learning to Respond to a Dangerous ideology J.P. Moreland (Crossway) $16.99 One of our go-to customers and friends I call whenever we have a new science book that I want an opinion on just finished this. He quickly urged me to tell others about it. He said it was very, very clear and very, very important. I tend to agree that this philosophical worldview, a reductionism that says that the only things that matter are those things that can be empirically measured, is dangerous. That it leads to a loss of transcendence and proposes in its place a thin sort of secularism nearly denuded of wonder and ultimate value seems evident to me.
Not so, everyone. Many disagree, although the debate about this world of wonders is lively. This discussion is important for all of us, and not just for those in the sciences. In fact, another fabulously rich, brand new literary book explores this questions and makes a somewhat similar case, drawing on history — see George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles: Incarnation, Doubt and Reenchantment by historian Timothy Larsen (IVP; $16.00.)
Anyway, if you know anyone who needs to sort through the differences between science (a good, good thing) and scientism (again, the view that “the hard sciences alone have the intellectual authority to give us knowledge of reality”) this small book by J. P. Moreland cold be just the thing. Give it to anyone who enjoys a healthy respect for science but wrestles with a rigid adherence to scientism. It is a bit philosophical.
The Story of Western Science: From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory Susan Wise Bauer (Norton) $26.95 What a great gift idea this is for those who are interested in the history of the development of science in the West and who want to dip in to concise summaries of hundreds of major theories, key thinkers, chief debates, sprinkled nicely with primary source quotes. You may know the very widely read Susan Wise Bauer and her many volumes helping us all develop a well-educated mind. In this book she has arranged short and nearly chatty overviews of hundreds of important and often seminal thinkers and researchers. For each chapter she has a link to her website that offers excerpts of the primary source readings she discusses.
As the title suggests, here you get clear explanations of Aristotle and Ptolemy and learn the advanced made in those early Greco-Roman years. You can read about the chief contributions and work of Copernicus and Galileo, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton, on through Darwin and Mendel, Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould. She is balanced and insightful about what maters and what the controversies were and, even as a conventionally orthodox Christian, she doesn’t shy away from the vast implications of new discoveries, from natural selection to relativity and big bangs. Bauer guides you through them all, explaining who these discoverers were, the era in which they worked and how to appreciate the particular points she makes and the excerpts she offers. This is a college level history of science in one good volume, the best book of this sort with which we are familiar. Somebody you know is going to love it.
FOR ONE INTERESTED IN SCIENCE WHO IS NOT VERY WELL READ (YET)
Scientists of Faith: 48 Biographies of Historic Scientists and Their Christian Faith Dan Graves (Kregel) $15.99 Graves is a life long reader (with a degree in library science) so has access to resources that many of us simply don’t know about. In this nice little volume he tells the Christian testimonies of many important scientists, drawing from their own biographies and letters, showing how many of the important researchers did so out of a deep motivation to understand God’s world and worship God with their learning. It is actually very interesting to hear about so many scientists from earlier historical periods in so many fields doing good academic and scientific research. A nice gift for a high school student, perhaps, or young collegiate.
A Little Book for New Scientists: Why and How to Study Science Josh Reeves (IVP) $12.00 This is truly a pocket sized book, a perfect stocking stuffer for a sciency high school student or a young collegiate. This publisher is affiliated with the great campus ministry organization (InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, known on campus often as I-V) and they know well the struggles and joys of a young person of faith learning to use their minds for God, sensing an interest in science, and they want to help those students take up their science classes as holy callings. There is no dilemma here; science isn’t a battleground against faith (although there are some science profs who hold to a naturalistic philosophy of scientism which is itself an a priori belief which isn’t exactly scientific itself.) So there are philosophical questions about the assumptions of science and what science does and can do so this little guidebook delightful lays the groundwork for such faithful scholarship. It is short and clear and interesting, surely a blessing for one who hasn’t ever read anything like this. It’s a good start.
T
he Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions Karl Giberson & Francis Collins (IVP) $22.00 This nice hardback is often our main “go-to” book for one who wants to read about the ways to think about science from a balanced, winsome Christian worldview. There are many others, some more complex, some more strict in one way or another, but this, written almost in a Q & A format, construed by two very impressive Christians scholars. Giberson is an educator and Collins is a world-renowned geneticist, former head of the team mapping the human genome.) They do help us embrace both science and faith without compromising either – they do not reject standard views of evolution, by the way. It’s very nicely done, smart and helpful.
Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design edited by J.P. Stump with Ken Ham, Hugh Ross, Deborah Haarsma, and Stephen Meyer (Zondervan) $19.99 For some on your holiday gift list, this may not be of interest, but there are others that simply must have a book like this — they are just itching to figure this out and want each side to have a fair hearing. This “four views” point-counterpoint offers each view a good-sized chapter to present their case and then the other three views respond. This new 2018 release really offers the “state of the conversation” about origins among evangelicals. Represented are “young earth creationism”, “old earth/progressive creationism”, “evolutionary creation” and “intelligent design.” This book is fascinating!
FOR SOMEONE INTERESTED IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture, and Computer Technology Derek Schuurman (IVP Academic) $18.00 I have reviewed this more than once at BookNotes and each time suggest how very important it is. Derek has a very comprehensive and integrated Christian mindset and his worldviewish perspective informs how he thinks about his field of computer science. Consequently, it is almost a one-of-a-kind sort of book.
Of course Schuurman affirms and takes delight in the goodness of God’s world and our ability to create digital technology. He understands how sin has distorted and brought ideologies and bad thinking to bear on our science, even in his beloved field of computers. And, yet, as a Christian, he is a person of hope and renewed practices, discerning how belief in Christ’s redemption has implications for restoring this good, but damaged world of computer technology. See what a great framework he’s got – good creation/sinful brokenness/hopeful redemption — to explore the ups and downs of our life with computers. This is a must-read for anyone working in the field, the most foundational book we know. I’m sure somebody would benefit from it and be glad to find it with a real ribbon. Not digital. Ha.
Modern Technology and the Human Future: A Christian Appraisal Craig M. Gay (IVP Academic) $25.00 We will be naming this as one of the most important books of 2018 so we will be tempting you to buy it in an upcoming BookNotes. But surely you know someone who works in (or is fascinated by) modern technology. From industrial engineering to computer culture, we have come to realize that technology is not neutral. It effects us. It is – as Schuurman, above, remind us, made by God, but distorted by sin. Things are blessed and cursed, good and bad. How do we navigate all that intentionally and faithfully? This is a thoughtful, balanced, important work and we are so grateful for its robust theological vision and “in the world but not of it” Christian perspective.
Listen to what the always-wise Gordon Smith – who has written books on vocation and calling, on spirituality and prayer, on institutional intelligence in leadership, and more – says of it:
One of the most critical conversations of our day is quite simply this: How do we manage the machines and technologies that intersect our lives in a way that is consistent with our core Christian commitments? Craig Gay in this volume makes an invaluable and essential contribution, helping his readers think critically and more clearly about aspects of our daily experience that we all too easily take for granted. And part of the strength of this contribution is that Gay insists we need to think theologically about technology ― that is, to view technology and respond to technology in light of the Triune God and a biblical understanding of what it means to be the church. And, of course, to then respond to the challenge of our day in a way that is intentional, discerning, and hopeful.
You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto Jaron Lanier (Vintage) $15.00 Lanier is a programmer and the father of virtual reality technology. It is said about him that, “he was a pioneer of digital media and among the first to predict the revolutionary changes it would bring to our commerce and culture.”
Okay, we’ll cut to the chase. This pioneer and secular evangelist of computers and the admittedly genius programmer has come to realize that it isn’t as simple as that and that our obsession with digital life has significant dangerous implications. Interestingly, he says some of these concerns were nearly “baked in” to the very cake, woven into the very fabric of the earliest days of digital life. As the publisher explains Lanier “discusses the technical and cultural problems that have unwittingly arisen from programming choices that were “locked in” at the birth of the digital age.”
Give this to anyone in the computer science or IT field, to any student dabbling in this geeky stuff, to anyone who needs to consider a prophetic critique coming from deep inside the edgy digital industry itself. Jason Lanier is a persuasive and important new critic, offering what one reviewer called “a necessary corrective in the echo chamber of technology debates.”
This is not an intentionally religious book (just so you know) but think it is a valuable contribution, perhaps somewhat akin to Amusing Ourselves to Death and Technopoly by the late Neil Postman. Does that help? Who can you give one of these to? Be prepared for some 
hefty conversations!
By the way, I just have to give a quick shout-out: if you know any parents of almost any age, you should be sure they have the small but fabulous The Tech Wise Family by Andy Crouch (Baker; $14.99.) It is so very wise, thoughtful, interesting, accessible. I like that it has this balanced view that tech isn’t bad or neutral, either. It really does effect us and we must steward the gift well. It’s a gem and if your younger parents don’t have it, you should get it for them. They will thank you.
Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology Ellen Ullman (MCD/FSG) $27.00 Wow. With rave reviews in Wired and great blurbs from the likes of cultural critic Sherry Turkle (and, curiously, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Geraldine Brooks) two things, at least, are evident, and will help you determine if this would be a cool gift for somebody you care about. First, the writer knows her stuff: she is an original voice, to be sure, but she is telling a story that is nearly a memoir. She is a coder and works as a woman doing this odd, techie work. What kind of person gives us our latest digital gizmos and makes them work as they do? Who cooks up and then actually designs the digits and dots that make them flow? Ullman builds worlds with the software she builds. As we know, this is a culture-making, story-telling, soul-shaping thing, for herself and for us. As James K.A. Smith puts it (in You Are What You Love) “the things we do, do things to us.” That is, taking up the technology that Ullman gives us effects us, and shapes our worlds. Ullman knows this and tells her story with vivid grace and tons of detail. Some important reviews have said it is one of the best books of the year.
Secondly, not only is Ellen Ullman informed about the industry, her work doing software and code, she is, also, a novelist. So she knows how to write, to spin this other kind of code, the kind we find in good pages in good books. Guys like Jason Lanier (above) wisely worry about all this – even now people are talking about being post-human. But she helps us understand, the glories and the temptations. As Constance Hale writes in Wired,
Ullman comes with her tech bona fides intact (she is, after all, a seasoned software engineer). But she also comes with novel material . . . We see the seduction at the heart of programming: embedded in the hijinks and hieroglyphics are the esoteric mysteries of the human mind.
The prominent Kirkus Review says this, which I love:
Sharply written, politically charged . . . What Anthony Bourdain did for chefs, Ullman does for computer geeks.
FOR SOMEONE WHO ENJOYS THE ARTS
He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, The Faith of Art Christian Wiman (FSG) $23.00 From one of our most esteemed poets and talked about theorists of the arts we have a brand new thin hardback ruminating on aesthetics and faith and poetry and creativity and more. This is new and a bit on the highbrow end of things; the brilliant Marilynne Robinson has a blurb on the back saying that Wiman’s poetry and scholarship “have a purifying urgency that is rare in this world.”
She continues, “This puts him at the very source of theology, and enables him to say new things in timeless language, so that the reader’s surprise and assent arts one and the same.”
In speaking of his much-discussed memoir My Bright Abyss, Christian legal theorist (!) and attorney David Skeel wrote,
If the nineteenth-century English poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins were transported to early twenty-first century America, this is the kind of memoir height have written.
That quote alone might give you a clue to whom you might gift this heady, mysterious, artful new set of essays.
Images and Idols: Creativity for the Christian Life Thomas Terry & J. Ryan Lister (Moody Press) $14.99 This is a passionate youthful, visionary new book that emerges from the humble beast community, centered in the hip-hop record label with that name. It is no surprise that this carries a foreword by Christian rapper Jackie Hill-Perry. But it is not primarily about hip hop or pop culture – it is the first volume in a series of small, cool books that intend to lay out a Christian apologetic for the arts, why creativity matters, and how God is glorified when people do good, allusive, creative art work. As it shouts on the back cover – “God is reclaiming creativity for His glory and our good.”
We have lots of books on aesthetic theory and dense Christian studies about the arts – from classics by Calvin Seerveld (Rainbows for the Fallen World, for starters) and Mako Fujimura (see his Refractions, and Culture Care) and everything Square Halo Books publishes (see, for instance, their simply must-have It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God.) But this new Images and Idols is upbeat and a bit intense, cleverly created (no dust jacket) and I think would be really appreciated by any aficionado of contemporary art or who look for signs of life in popular culture.
God and Hamilton: Spiritual Themes from the Life of Alexander Hamilton & The Broadway Musical He Inspired Kevin Cloud (Deep River) $15.99 I’m going to be straight up honest with you: I haven’t seen the play and haven’t read the book. But it’s the only one of its kind and it looks pretty solid. And I am almost sure that most of you know somebody who is taken with this play. Or at least the popular soundtrack. Mike Breen – a very energetic and pop culture savvy missional church planter has a rave endorsement (“I cannot recommend it more highly!”) and it does seem to inspire people to reflect on how God works, even in “our own heroic journeys.” There’s a nice blurb on the back by one Lauren Boyd, who is in the Hamilton Broadway cast. She says,
God and Hamilton turned me inside out and revealed a side of Hamilton I had never thought to explore.
The Art of Edward Knippers – Prints and Drawings James Romaine et al (Square Halo Books) $19.99 I have talked before, often, about our respect for this remarkable niche indie publisher, a boutique press called Square Halo Books out of Lancaster, PA. Our friends there do books mostly about the arts and the interface of Christian faith and art. They’ve done the aforementioned It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God and others such as It Was Good: Making Music to the Glory of God and It Was Good: Performing Arts to the Glory of God.
They have a book about teaching art and music (Christianly) and a very good one about the artistic vision of C.S. Lewis. They’ve got one on the theology of Doctor Who called Bigger on the Inside. And more.
They have done some marvelous gifty art books, coffee table type books.Their larger sized Beauty Given By Grace:The Biblical Prints of Sadao Wantanabe ($29.99) is known all over the world. It makes a fabulous Christmas gift, by the way.
One of the important things they’ve done is publish a small set of books that are essentially introductions to some very contemporary Christian visual artists. My favorite has full color pictures – some lovely, some disturbing, some vivid, some subtle – and interviews with each of the artists talking about their creative work. It is called Objects of Grace ($19.99) and it is an excellent book to encourage modern artists to be active, doing good work and thinking well about their vocation.
They also have a small series of beautifully designed books of lots of artwork – of, by, and about particular artists. There is one complimenting the work of Mary McCleary. They did one comparing the work of Makoto Fujimura and some previously un-shown works of George Rouault. Their Square Halo Books website shows all their releases and we carry them all. They do make splendid, rare gifts.
They have three in a series called “The Art of…” which, as they say at the website, “introduces artists to the reader with a lavish amount of the artists work woven through several essays on the theological, art historical, and aesthetic merits of that work. The first three books in this series are The Art of Sandra Bowden, The Art of Guy Chase, and – just off the press —The Art of Edward Knippers: Prints and Drawings.
The Art of Edward Knippers: Prints and Drawings was edited chiefly by James Romaine, a very astute art critic and historian. Other important Christian artists have short essays in this provocative little book, including Bruce Herman, Chad Barlett, Steve Prince, Danika Bigley, and, again, James Romaine.
Knippers is legendary for his very large, very lush, oil paintings – mostly of big Bible characters, many nude, all vivid and energetic. They have drawn some controversy and that will surely be discussed whenever Knippers and his work is studied. This new volume, though, focuses on his sketches and his prints, smaller works that may not be as known. They are very artfully shown in this splendid new art book.
The essays and the artwork, the graphic design of the pages and the thoughtfulness the critics engage the prints make this an extraordinary little volume.
You may want to give these as gifts. The Art of Sandra Bowden is a very lavish hardback, with glossy pages, showing all manner of her beautiful work from her prodigious output. (It sells for $49.99.) Much of her art has a Byzantine feel, and while she is very contemporary, some have said she harkens back to medieval and Renaissance artists.
The Art of Guy Chase one is one we have enjoyed showing and reviewing in BookNotes. The late painter was playful and eccentric, postmodern and surprising. It is colorful and really interesting. What a wild and creative book The Art of Guy Chase is. It sells for $19.99.
FOR ONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN PUBLIC THEOLOGY ESPECIALLY IF THEY”VE READ SMITH’S YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE.
Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology James K.A. Smith (Baker Academic) $22.99 This is the third and final volume in the much-discussed “cultural liturgies” project, which included two previous books, the mighty and transformational Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview 
and Cultural Formation and Imagining the Kingdom: Who Worship Works ($22.99 each.) All three volumes can be purchased in a cool box set for $66.99. I have reviewed them extensively in previous BookNotes and have often said that his very popular You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Brazos Press; $19.99)was a summarizing, easier version of the big three. If you know somebody who liked the more concise You Are What You Love volume, why not spring for the boxed set, and give all three together. Or, just one, even. These are heavier, but they are very, very important and if someone you know is a Smith fan, they ought to have them. They will thank you, later, after they work through them.
FOR SOMEONE FOR WHOM YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO BUY
Here are five fascinating books that might surprise just about anyone. They are handsome and unique and special.
Four Birds of Noah’s Ark: A Prayer Book from the Time of Shakespeare Thomas Dekker, edited by Robert Hudson (Eerdmans) $17.99 Again, this is one of those books that I have talked about often this past year, and we named it a best book of last year. From the beautifully crafted design, the cover and fonts, to the back-story of how this little-known literary classic came back in to print, Four Birds is a bookseller’s dream. I think it is a book-lover’s dream, too, and many of our customers have agreed. What a joy to have and to hold. Congratulations to Eerdmans (and poet and Bible scholar Robert Hudson) for daring to bring this nearly-lost volume back to print.
As I’ve written before, Four Birds of Noah’s Ark was written amidst the Black Death in the very early 1600’s in London. Each set of prayers—beautifully crafted, Biblically-rich, theologically-mature — comes from one of the four birds, each around a constellation of concerns. It’s a curious metaphor and structure, but what is most interesting is that this prayer-book full of these four different sorts of prayers, was in print for centuries, finally going out of print in the early 20th century (1924 to be exact.) Hudson rediscovered it, edited and adapted it with just a bit with some helpful annotations; his own preface is itself glorious, by the way, and repays repeated readings. Eerdmans Publishing Co. created a handsome volume (with two color ink and lovely engravings), bringing it wonderfully back into print after this hiatus of nearly a century. I think it would make a very nice gift to any number of book lovers on your list.
Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts Marilyn McEntyre (Eerdmans) $21.99 I so enjoy this author and commend any of her books. But this is one of these compact sized hardbacks that is just so nice to hold and which is so inviting. Interestingly, it is a book that we’ve heard customer rave about – sort of a spirituality of getting things done, but with a poetic, leisurely tone. It is from a Christian perspective of course, but is perhaps the least overtly religious books she has done. That is, you could give it to all most anyone. It is a treat, a gem, a lovely little hardback.
We Need Each Other: Responding to God’s Call to Live Together Jean Vanier (Paraclete) $19.99 This is a sweet, small, hardback volume that offers the reflections of this living saint and Winner of the Templeton Prize. You may recall that Vanier is a master of writing about community and has given his life to offering care and hospitality among the mentally and physically challenged. (Henri Nouwen famously went to one of Vanier’s L’Arche communities to live with the disabled in Toronto.) This book actually came out of a retreat Vanier led in Nyahururu Kenya (a land that has been shattered by violence and bloodshed.) There is a powerful endorsing blurb on the back by Ronald Rolheiser notes how Vanier helps us get to a place of feeling accepted, loved. What a graceful little volume this is.
The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Your Life Frederick Buechner (Zondervan) $16.99 This came out to not near enough acclaim last year and we still are excited to tell people about it. These chapters were based a serious of mostly unpublished lectures given at Laity Lodge in Texas, years ago. Buechner was inviting his listeners (who I believe included some who where theologically astute, and some who maybe where not, and some artists, too, I heard.) He challenged them to pay attention to their lives, to realize that one’s very remarkable life is being played out in the ordinariness of each day. He asks us to use our imaginations and see the greatness in others, to love others. Pay attention, he says. Who wouldn’t appreciate an eloquent, careful, wordsmith telling stories and calling us to find God in the midst of our daily living? This is an important author and yet a not well known books. Maybe you could surprise someone this season by offering this as a nice little Christmas blessing.
Wisdom: Advent Devotions on the Names of Jesus (Forward Movement Press) $7.00 Okay, friends, let’s get our deep Advent on, here, and share some really interesting news. The O Antiphons are some of the Christian communities earliest prayers, dating to the eighth century monks, or earlier. They are prayers drawing on various names of Christ, starting with the names in Isaiah. You may know some of them as sung in the first phrases of each stanza of “O Come O Come Emmanuel.” (Did you know there are, I think, maybe, a zillion verses to that hymn in the ancient church? I’m only exaggerating a little.) And here is what is so interesting – the first letters of the names of Christ (Immanuel, Wisdom, Dayspring, Desire of Nations, etc) – in the initial order as prayed in the O Antiphons, were, in fact, a backward acrostics, spelling “ero cras” in Latin, which means, “tomorrow I come.” Or something like that.
And so, the ancients did the second weeks of Advent with these devotionals and songs known as the O Antiphons, honoring Christ and expressing a desire for His return.
This little book is a collection of short daily meditations offered by a variety of people, each reflecting briefly or telling a story or offering a Scriptural insight about the name of Christ for that week. It’s a late Advent kind of thing, and you could use this over the next several weeks. It might be a fun gift to share at some holiday party.
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Tis the season for gift giving! Books make great gifts! We can mail them out right away, even gift-wrap for you. And don’t forget the 12 Days and Epiphany. Etcetera. Etcetera. We trust we don’t have to convince you that Pastor Luci or Uncle Tony or sister Melissa or your dear friend at work or your kid’s friend’s parents who helped them out deserve a little something, if not under their tree, then in with the Christmas cookies or fruitcake. We think we can help. Here’s part one of a free-ranging Hearts & Minds gift-giving guide. We’ll do more in a day or so, including a handful of suggestions on books about science, for those interested in racial justice, and some about the arts. And a few novels, and a couple of kids books after that.
Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship: Year C – Volume 2 edited by Joel Green, Thomas Long, Luke Powery, Cynthia Rigby (WJK) $45.00 Volume 2 just arrived yesterday, a few days earlier than we expected, and we thrilled. We sold the new volume 1 (Advent Until Lent) that came out this fall the last few months, so this, the second, (Lent Through Pentecost) is here just in time. They follow the Revised Common Lectionary and offer ideas for sermons through careful study of the Biblical texts (as they connect with the broader Biblical story and as they connect with our contemporary culture) as well as resources for worship planning. If they don’t have Volume 1, yet, that one would make a great gift. Putting them both together (Volume 1 that came out this fall and Volume 2 that just arrived) would be even sweeter. We love wrapping up two-fers.
Learning Theology Through the Churches’ Worship: An Introduction to Christian Beliefs Dennis Okholm (Baker Academic) $24.99 We like this author a lot; with a PhD from Princeton, he how teaches theology at Azusa Pacific and is adjunct at Fuller. He previously wrote a great introduction to the meditative life cleverly called Monk Habits for Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants which is really, really good. This is designed as a textbook (he even has an appendix of really great assignments that could be given to supplement this study) but I think anyone who cares about the intersection of worship practices and good theology will adore it. Rave blurbs on the back are from Leanne Van Dyk (at Columbia), Simon Chan (Trinity Theological College), John Witvliet (of the Calvin Institute on Christian Worship), Todd Hunter, and Anglican bishop and founder of a group Okholm works with, the order of the Churches for the Sake of Others. It’s very, very nicely done.
Loving and Leaving a Church: A Pastor’s Journey Barbara Melosh (WJK) $18.00 This lovely book — a memoir about a pastor whose ministry did not particularly bear effective fruit and her sense that it was time to leave – could be a appreciated by any pastor, I suppose, but her setting is her calling in the ELCA. (She was also a college professor at George Mason University.) She writes for The Christian Century and is a very talented wordsmith. This really is a great story, poignant, moving. Listen to Richard Lischer (of Duke Divinity School, himself a great author of books on preaching (like the remarkable End of Words) and a quirky memoir of his own small church pasturing (Open Secrets) and a stunning book about the death of his son (Stations of the Heart) as he explains why this would make a great read for pastors:
Love Big, Be Well: Letters to a Small Town Church Winn Collier (Eerdmans) $16.99 I bet you recall that we’ve promoted this several times in previous BookNotes, told about it from up front almost everywhere we went last year, and, of course, awarded it one of the Best Books of 2017. So, I think there may be a few people who haven’t read it yet, so let’s go! To whom can you give this fabulous little novel? It is fiction, with a human-scale plot that unfolds as a series of letters from a down-home, literary, eloquent, thoughtful (Wendell Berry quoting) new pastor of a rather cranky, colorful (if ordinary) small church in a small town. The life of this just-out-of-retirement, seemingly jaded, old pastor who cares well for this new little flock is only part of the story. Love Big, Be Well is a novel about a church and a pastor and a place. The late, great, Eugene Peterson called it a “tour de force” although it seems to me to be a bit to gentle and witty to be that much of a force. Peterson went on to exclaim about Winn’s story that it was the best thing he ever read on pastors and their churches. I think that may be just about right. In any event, it’s a really interesting, well-written read, clearly the best novel I’ve ever read about church stuff. Pastors have loved it although anyone can enjoy it.
Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church Keith & Kristyn Getty (B+H Books) $12.99 I like these smallish, compact sized hardbacks without dust jackets — something concise and solid about them, without being “too much.” This is a perfect gift for a choir friend or praise team leader you want to thank. The Getty’s are internationally known and loved for their modern hymnody (“Through Christ Alone” and many others.) This is one of the only little books of its kind, offering a substantial, if warm, call to sing. It isn’t a heavy exposition, but it has good Bible and sound (sorry) theology.
The State of the Evangelical Mind: Reflections on the Past, Prospects for the Future edited by Todd Ream, Jerry Pattengale & Christopher Devers (IVP) $25.00 I know there is a pretty large body of folks out there who read, or at least read about, the incredibly important 1995 Eerdmans book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll. I don’t have time here to explain the history of that book nor the extraordinary impact that, through God’s grace and some serious work on many fronts, that book generated. In a way, some of our favorite publishers and authors were shaped in significant ways by Noll’s call to be more intentional and serious about developing a Christian Mind. This new book, The State of the Evangelical Mind is a multi-authored volume about the legacy of the Noll book two decades ago. It is a tribute, a sign of hope, and a challenge for those of us who want God’s people to continue to grow in hearts and minds!
Racing to the Finish: My Story Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (Thomas Nelson) $26.99 I don’t have to say much more. If you are into motor sports at all, or know anybody who loves NASCAR, this name is iconic, and, since the book just came out about a week or so ago, it is a perfect holiday gift. When he retired from professional stock car racing in 2017 he walked away as a healthy man, but had multiple racing-related concussions and was concerned about the “race-at-all-costs” culture that he was a part of, even though he “feared something was terribly wrong.” For the first time, he here tells his behind the scenes story, his notes about the physical and emotional struggled he faced, and how he wanted to end his own storied career on his own terms.
The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Maxwell King (Abrams Press) $30.00 Believe it or not, this is the first full length, major biography of the Presbyterian saint, and what a beautiful, majestic, work it is. It tells us so much, and is so interesting! The Good Neighbor looks at Fred’s growing up years, his call to ministry and years at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and involved in Western Pennsylvania Presbyterianism, his dream to found the innovative, gentle TV show, and his legendary vocation in media making a difference in the lives of the nation. This is a handsome, fascinating volume, almost 400 pages, with some wonderful pictures. As jazz great (and Fred’s friend and associate) Wynton Marsalis says, “Fred Rogers was one of a kind – an American original like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Johnny Cash. There was no one like him.” This book tells the real story with insight and care.
For those who are truly serious fans you may recall that we often recommend the insightful study of the values and politics of Fred and his show well researched and well told by near-by Elizabethtown College religion professor Mike Long. It might make a great gift for some fan on your list, too. It’s called Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers (WJK; $17.00) and it is really informative, inspired by reading his many notes and letters and remarks about many of the most influential episodes. It is remarkably revealing and should be better known!
Bathed in Prayer: Father Tim’s Prayers, Sermons, and Reflections from the Mitford Series Jan Karon (Penguin) $20.00 Of course, if they don’t have the whole batch of Mitford novels, you could always order the next one in the series your loved one needs to read. Or just buy the whole set for some lucky recipient.
What Are We Doing Here? Essays Marilynne Robinson (FSG) $27.00 Okay, I don’t want to get too highbrow or smug here, but Robinson is a Christian and a John Calvin scholar who wrote one of the great modern novels, Gilead (for which she won the Pulitzer Prize!) By the way, if you need to give a gift for one who likes good fiction, you should right away order from us Gilead, the sequel, Home, and the final in her trilogy, Lila.
How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals Sy Montgomery, illustrations by Rebecca Green (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $20.00 This is an immediately attractive book for those that like creative and whimsical design, but don’t let the colorful, child-like look confuse you, let alone dissuade you, for considering this extraordinary, thoughtful, beautifully-written book. I forget how we first discovered this – maybe from the brilliant Brain Pickings blog by the genius Maria Popova. It’s that kind of book: about nature and science and human psychology and meaning; it is full of nuance and wit, the wonder of life and startling truth. It is, as the subtitle suggests, a study of what it means to learn from a certain animal, with each chapter exploring a certain creature.
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler John Hendrix (Amulet) $16.99 I do not have to say much about this other than to announce that it is a top-rate graphic novel, complete with all the features you’d expect – good illustration, graphic design, sidebars and illuminations, all done as a modern day “cartoon” biography. It is so exceptionally well-done that it recently was award a prestigious graphic design award from professional association of graphic novelists and publishers. Want to attract a young person to the powerful, complicated story of Bonhoeffer? There is a youth version of Eric Metaxas’s lively Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr Prophet Spy that is good for serious middle schooler or younger teens, but this cool graphic novel is ideal for any who read in this genre. Brilliant!
The Battle for Bonhoeffer: Debating Discipleship in an Age of Trump Stephen R. Haynes (Eerdmans) $19.99 I hope you saw my longer essay about this book when it came out a month or so ago; it is valuable and sure to be interesting for anyone who has already read a bit by and about Bonhoeffer. It is really true that many authors and churches and movements have appropriated Bonhoeffer for their own theological agendas and social causes, and that Eric Metaxas marshaling support for President Trump by suggesting that we are in a “Bonhoeffer moment” is only the most recent and most egregious example. Haynes looks at Bonhoeffer, of course, but more, about those who read and interpret and claim him as their own. Yep, he’s critical of Metaxas and spends a lot time explaining why. For the record, I happen to like Eric and appreciate his books. But given his platform these days beyond the books, this Haynes book is very, very important.
The Power of Love: Sermons, Reflections & Wisdom to Uplift and Inspire Bishop Michael Curry (Avery) $20.00 We were happy to highlight this in our last BookNotes but just have to list it again. Michael Curry is an American Episcopalian, a black preacher who just oozes an enthusiasm for the Kingdom of God and the transforming power of love. That his great sermon about love offered during the wedding that was watched around the world went viral was a testimony to the hunger many have for some connection to God’s love and to social transformation inspired by the ways of Christ. If you know anybody that talked about that sermon last Spring, why not underscore their interest by offering this very handsome little gift book, a collection of fine sermons by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal church.
The book is small and has purple end papers, some gold ink, and a presentation page. It’s a nice little collection, but the “Power of Love” sermon preached for the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is what will make it of interest to some. It was fun announcing the release of this brand new book to Episcopalians who were gathered with Becca Stevens whose own tag line is “Love Heals.” Do you believe there is power in love? This book will remind you of the truest truths about this very thing.
Stronger Than Steel: The Wayne Alderson Story R.C. Sproul (Nancy Alderson McDonnell) $20.00 This book deserves a much longer review but I must be brief here. We think it would make a nice gift for any number of people and we are one of the few stores that stock this new edition, re-issued by Wayne Alderson’s daughter, Nancy, who continues his work as a consultant teaching about respect in the work-world.
Tenacious Solidarity: Biblical Provocations on Race, Religion, Climate, and the Economy Walter Brueggemann (Fortress) $29.00 If you know you’ve got a Brueggemann fan on your list this year, and you don’t know about this brand new book – it released just a few weeks ago! – then hearing about this book here, now, may capture your prophetic imagination. Ha! Yep, the author of that classic work, The Prophetic Imagination, published forty some years ago, is still at it. This is a heavy collection of bunches of sermons and Biblical scholarship talks and homilies and lectures (all delivered or written 2014 – 1018) that shows forth Brueggemann’s ongoing relevance as he relates Biblical teaching to these controversial topics of the day.
Inexpressible: Hesed and the Mystery of God’s Lovingkindness Michael Card (IVP) $16.00 Some days I have to pinch myself, reminding myself that we’ve got this job and get to do this work. I thought of that the other day when this beautiful new book by Mike Card – singer-songwriter, recording artists, Christian rock star, literally – showed up a few days ago. When Mike visited Hearts & Minds a few years ago we briefly talked about books he had in him, so to speak, artistic hopes, authorial dreams. He is one smart guy, and we are very, very glad to be able to announce this brand new book on the nature of God. He’s been thinking about this a while, and I am sure it will be excellent, well-informed and practical, too.
Sport, Faith, Life Brian R Bolt (Calvin College Press) $9.99 This is a small, almost pocket-sized paperback but it is mature, thoughtful, crisp, and insightful. Too many books that attempt to develop a uniquely Christian perspective on sports and athletics fall into one or two errors. Either they are merely devotional, using a muscular sort of faith writing to inspire jocks. I suppose there isn’t anything wrong with that, although some athletes I know are super smart and mature theologically, so they need more than “God will help you win” sort of devotional bromides in their daily spiritual reading. On the other hand, there are a handful of very heady Christian studies of the philosophy of athletics and they are so sociological that they don’t seem particularly relevant for ordinary athletes or sport fans. If the one sort is a little too lightweight, the other extreme includes books that are for scholars, not sportsman and women. Sport, Faith, Life is a breath of fresh air, meaty and mature yet not too heady or heavy. (It is part of a series called “shorts” which allow good scholars to do nice summaries of their work without getting too bogged down. Perfect!)
Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood Jeffrey Marx (Simon & Schuster) $24.00 Marx is a Pulitzer Prize-winning sports journalist who often writes for Sports Illustrated. He is not particularly known as a religious writer, but here he tells the story of a devout evangelical football star, Joe Ehrmann. (Ehrmann, who has since written his own book called InsideOut Coaching: How Sports Can Transform Lives) played for the Colts when they were still in Baltimore. He left his championship fame and headed off to seminary, only to start a bunch of inner city youth sports teams, which he believed would transform their lives. Marx tells the story well, and what a great story it is. Season of Life is one of the great, inspiring sports stories of our time. It’s a very nice hardback, which makes a great gift.
By the way, the award-winning Jeffery Marx’s next book was also about a Christian football player and of course we stock it and recommend it. It is called The Long Snapper: A Second Chance, a Super Bowl, a Lesson for Life (Simon & Schuster; $15.99) which was about Brian Kinchen, a 38-year-old father and Sunday school teacher who took up a position as long snapper for the New England Patriots.
After the Lights: Find Meaning Beyond College Athletics in Five Simple Steps Mark Steffey (CreateSpace) $11.99 I’ve told you about this before, but it would make a surprising little gift to any college athlete or any college athlete who has been out of school for a few years. It is a novel, written by friend who works for the CCO doing campus ministry with college athletes. It asks the question, in a fun, storytelling way, what comes next for one whose identity is too wrapped up in being a sports figure. Few college athletes really get to pursue professional sports so here Mark offers helpful principles about identity and healthy transition out of the college sports scene. This easy-to-read paperback just might be a lifeline, or at least open the door to good conversations about what comes next…
Everyday Glory: The Revelation of God in all of Reality Gerald R. McDermott (Baker Academic) $22.99 This is surely one of the best books of the year, a fabulous, solid, wise study of what we used to call “general revelation.” That is, we all know God speaks to us in the Bible, but does not the Bible itself teach that God is present in all things, that the stuff of life – starts, meals, seeds, even fish, according to Job – can speak to us? This is a book about all that, about how there is an ordinary sort of ‘earthy’ glory, a holy realization of God upholding all things in the creation, everywhere, always. Many have made this point in recent years – just think of Norman Wirzba’s concise but dense study of why we should speak of “creation” rather than “nature” – and McDermott is helpful and reliable, not drifting off to goofy pantheism or overly mystical sentiment.
Hey, by the way, how about that beautiful Van Gogh cover? You could buy Steve Garber’s thoughtful Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good (IVP; $17.00) and give them as a pair. I’m not even kidding! It is a wise and eloquent volume about keeping on, about taking up our callings in a messy world and is one of my most often-mentioned books. It isn’t simplistic, and the rich cover matches it
Stretch Marks I Wasn’t Expecting: A Memoir on Early Marriage and Motherhood Abbie Smith (Kalos Press) $15.95 We’ve mentioned Abbie a few other times this year, naming this book when we could, because we are thrilled to know her, to name her as a faithful friend of the bookstore, and because she is a fine, fine thinker and fine writer. (An early book thrilled us as it explored how college students serve God even in the classroom by thinking Christianly in their majors, and another about sexuality written when she was a passionate, single young adult.) Now she and her husband are stewards of a beautiful, intimate retreat center run by a historic United Methodist Church in Cha and now she talks candidly about their life together in this recent memoir.
Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts Brene Brown (Random House) $28.00 I assume most readers have heard of Brene Brown, the popular social science researcher who has done dramatic books about vulnerability, resilience, hope, recovery from hard stuff, shame, even a spirituality of daring. Maybe you’ve seen her TED talks, or read Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, The Gifts of Imperfection or Braving the Wilderness. It would be a fair guess to suggest that you know somebody who has a BB book on her gift list. We stock them all and could send any of them out, right away.
Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory Tod Bolsinger (IVP) $22.00 It isn’t every book we get to announce as a new one more than once but this book – in part because it is very, very good and increasingly respected and cited – was out in paperback last year. In a rare move, the publisher (for some good, technical reasons about getting it reviewed and taken seriously in serious places) re-issued it in hardback! (Usually, a hardcover comes first and is then replaced by a cheaper paperback.) Canoeing the Mountains has had a buzz unlike any other book on leadership I can think of in recent years and we are glad. The new hardback does include a study guide, so it has some value added. It is a must read for leaders in any setting and we are grateful for this astute young theologian who has written a superb, insightful book about navigating change as a leader. You should give this to somebody you know.
The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us From Drowning Aaron Niequist (Waterbrook) $19.99 What a book! You may recall our longer review of this earlier, but it is a wild and passionate invitation to participate… using the image of a River, Niequist invites us to join this River (what Jesus called “The Kingdom of God”) and get wet. This book is, playfully following the metaphor, a guide for learning to swim in the wild, moving, eternal current.
An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation Martin Laird (Oxford University Press) $18.95 Doesn’t the title just sound like it would appeal to someone on your list? This is a compact hardback, just beautiful to hold and handle, and it is mature, thoughtful writing that brings to mind the mystery and depth of Thomas Merton. Some of our customers just loved his first book in this set, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation and then read the handsome companion volume, A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation, both published by Oxford University Press ($18.95 each.) This new one, An Ocean of Light looks very special.
Finding Holy in the Suburbs: Living Faithfully in the Land of Too Much Ashley Hales (IVP) $16.00 This nice paperback book is just on fire, blazing with good ideas, thoughtful analysis, touching stories, good pastoral advice, deeply rooted in pastoral care and a great fluency in spirituality and good literature, too. (Hales is a pastor’s wife and public speaker and has a PhD in English from Edinburgh; it isn’t surprising that she has written in Books & Culture, The Englewood Review and other solid journals.)
Honey From the Rock: Daily Devotions from Young Kuyper Abraham Kuyper (Lexham Press) $39.00 I hope you know that although Abraham Kuyper is legendary for being a late 19th century/early 20th century Dutch civic leader and tireless activist for Christian causes (he started a newspaper, a university, a system of Christian schools, studied the sciences, Islam, the arts, encouraged neo-Calvinist philosophers, and formed a unique political party through which he became Prime Minister) he was a deeply spiritual man who who had an intimate sort of piety. Besides his public theology and civic writings, his beloved devotional Near Unto God remains a lovely, mature classic of warm-hearted Bible exposition. Now, for the first time, in a translation by James A. De Jon, we have this massive collection of Kuyper’s early devotional writings, writings that Rich Mouw has called “spiritual sweetness.”
I suppose the publisher made this a massive size (7.4 x 2.4 x 10.2 inches and 600 big pages) so that it can match the volumes being released in the hefty, on-going Kuyper translation project. From his several volumes of public theology exploring common grace to his Pro Rege works to first-time translations on Islam, education, the church, and more, this on-going series is beautiful, but the books are large. We have them, and will continue to stock them as they are released over the next few years. I suppose this big new devotional volume is made to take its place alongside those.
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate Peter Wohllenben (Greystone) $24.95 This book was translated from the German and became a surprising, break-out best seller during the holiday season of 2016, and was a healthy seller throughout the world in 2017. We have been pleased to stock it, and sell a few here and there. It is a handsome, sturdy, smallish hardback that is charmingly beautiful, full of natural history and provocative science and poetic wisdom about the living nature of trees. Did you know their roots communicate, even help each other? The sub- subtitle on the bottom says this work reveals “Discoveries from a Secrete World” and so it does. Wohlleben is brilliant and is know for his other “mysteries of nature” books such as The Inner Life of Animals and The Secret Wisdom of Nature. Given that Christians read a Sacred Book that tells us, in poetic language, that “trees clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:12) our ears should perk up when a major New York Times bestseller documents the language of creation. Of course, if you have a friend that is utterly secularized, they might have a bit of wonder restored by learning about our “joyous entanglement in the ancient and ever-new web of being” that one reviewer called “paradigm-smashing.”
Renewal in Love: Living Holy Lives in God’s Good Creation Michael Lodahl & April Cordero Maskiewicz (Beacon Hill Press/Foundary) $14.99 We have so many books on environmental stewardship, creation-care, green theology, climate change, farming, and the like, that if you know anyone for whom you’d like to gift such a book, I’m sure we can find just the right thing. This one is nice, serious but curious, in that it is a call to holiness (Beacon Hill is related to the Nazarene denomination) and shimmers with warm Wesleyan theology and spirituality. Along with so many others these days, Lodahl & Maskiewicz are asking “what is our salvation for?”
Water at the Roots: Poems and Insights of a Visionary Farmer Philip Britts (Plough Publishing) $16.00 I am not being cheap when I suggest that this is an ideal gift for anyone who likes Wendell Berry. Or anybody who farms and appreciates good words. Or anybody who likes very handsomely designed books of prose and poetry. Britts lived from 1917-1949 and was an idealistic, spiritually-motivated, British agrarian. He resisted the injustices of modernity, he cared for his land, and he wrote prose and poetry of the sort that lead the lively evangelical organic farmer Joel Salatin to exclaim “One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read! Alive with profound spiritual and practical insights, Britt’s words are timeless.”\
7 Men and 7 Women – And the Secret of Their Greatness Eric Metaxas (Thomas Nelson) $19.99 These collections of very inspiring, informative, well-done short biographies of seven men and seven women were initially published as two separate books. We’ve sold, and still have, them both as single volumes, each in paperback. This great paperback, though, is a combo of both books in one nice, new book. This unique edition combines these two popular books of fourteen individuals who changed the course of history and shaped the world in astonishing way. It would make a nice gift for almost anyone who enjoys history or biography.
Moral Leadership for a Divided Age: 14 People Who Dared to Change Our World David Gushee & Colin Holtz (Brazos Press) $25.99 What a great, urgent read – informative and inspiring – and what a great gift this would make. Who among us doesn’t desire to have greater capacity to offer moral guidance in whatever space we find ourselves? Who doesn’t want to know a bit about how great change has happened in the past and how leaders have marshaled their leadership abilities to speak to the issues of the day? There are books about leadership and there are books about social change and there are books about character formation but this bring it all together as Gushee – himself an ethicist who has learned to speak out and pay up with integrity in aces – and his co-writer studies great moral leaders, their character and their ability to lead.
The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue Collar Conservatism Henry Olsen (Broad Street) $27.99 This is not the place – and at your Christmas party it may not be either – to debate the merits of the controversial but well-loved Ronald Reagan. If you have any conservative politicos on your list (or, for that matter, anyone trying to figure out the appeal of our orange-haired Presidente) this book really could be a great gift. It has a rave, rave review on the back by none other than J.D. Vance (of Hillbilly Elegy.) A not-so-blue-collared guy, the elegant George F. Will, who one simply must respect for his smart, articulate, grace, says “With this nuanced portrait of Ronald Reagan’s political evolution and maturation, Henry Olsen challenges many of his fellow conservatives to rethink, as Reagan did, the art of the possible in the America that the New Deal made.” Other raves from The National Review crew come from Jonah Goldberg and Reihan Salam. This book has garnered a lot of advance praise and we think you may know someone who would enjoy it.
The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis Alan Jacobs (Oxford University Press) $29.95 This isn’t exactly a collection of straight biographies, but it looks at significant articles and speeches written by an unique array of Christian intellectuals after World War II. What an interesting scholarly bit of research to explore these several scholars and what they did and said in the mid-1940s as they pondered the future of the West. This book by Alan Jacobs that came out in the summer is surely one of the most significant books of this year.
Leadership: In Turbulent Times Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster) $30.00 Dr. Doris K. Goodwin is nearly the dean of great historical biography and she has done much extraordinary work, painstakingly researched but retold in lively, entertaining prose, that has been widely recognized and awarded. (She famously earned the Pulitzer Prize for her thrilling Lincoln book Team of Rivals, which was later made into a popular film.) Here, in her most recent, she explores how four great Presidents handled the leadership challenges life and history threw at them. She asks the same sorts of questions of each, discovers how they came to realize their own leadership abilities, explains their context and struggles, and illustrated how each responded. The President she examines include Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson
The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels Jon Meacham (Random House) $30.00 This is a major book by one of our preeminent popular historians. Meacham, too, has earned the Pulitzer Prize and has done several Ne3w York Times bestsellers. A gift of a big book by him would surely be appreciated.
Last Call for Liberty: How America’s Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat Os Guinness (IVP) $27.00 I think this should be a popular Christmas gift this year, and one that we hope is widely shared and widely read. This could be listed in other gift-giving categories as it could be interesting to so many folks. It really is about current affairs, our own critical time, and what we in America (and particularly, Christians in America) can do to understand more deeply and advocate more effectively for a robust, deep loyalty to the great ideals of the American experiment. We are in a time that Guinness fears is the gravest crisis sine the Civil War. Those concerns about our current situation will find it valuable.
Pagans and Christians in the City: Culture Wars from the Tiber to the Potomac Steven D. Smith, with a foreword by Robert George (Eerdmans) $48.00 Here is a new, very lively book by an esteemed, conservative legal theorist that not only has a foreword by the brilliant Princeton prof Robert George, but carries endorsements from Douglas Laycock (of University of Virginia Law School and perhaps the leading scholar on the history of religious freedom questions), the wonderful John Inazu (we’ve often lauded his book Principled Pluralism ) and Anthony Kronman of Yale Law School. It is wide ranging – one reviewer said it “canvasses a broad landscape of history, law, political theory, and religion…”
Grateful: The Transforming Power of Giving Thanks Diana Butler Bass (HarperOne) $26.99 Diana is an important religious scholar and historian and a progressive theological critic of the status quo, the Christian right, and those forces that align faith and injustice. I have read all her books from her fascinating memoir of her faith journey through various sorts of Episcopal churches and her good studies of congregational life to the tremendous book about down-to-Earth spirituality called Grounded.
A Book for Hearts & Minds: What You Should Read and Why – a Festschrift Honoring the Work of Hearts & Minds Bookstore edited by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books) $18.99 I suppose most H&M friends and mail or fans already know about this but forgive me for tooting this horn just a bit and suggesting that it would make a nifty gift. (Heck, Beth and I could even sign our little part.) It is a remarkable book, sort of modeled (we’re told) after the sometimes-epic BookNotes where I name my favorite must-reads on a given topic. Here you get NT Wright listing (just for us) his most recommended New Testament books, annotations of cookbooks by Andi Ashworth, the fabulously interesting Karen Prior Swallow offering great novels, Image Journal founder, Gregory Wolfe naming memoirs, and so many more. From friends like Brad Frey and Steve Garber to nationally known writers as diverse as Dave Gushee and Calvin Seerveld, this collection has something for everyone. And it does help support our project here – moving them out into the world would be a real help. So let us know how many you’d like! Your curious book lover friends will be amazed.
I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life Anne Bogel (Baker) $14.99 Wowie, I’d think this could be given to almost anyone who loves books, or anyone who knows that you love books. Anne Bogel is a very popular blogger (she was the creator of Modern Mrs. Darcy) and does the podcast What Should I Read Next? Anyway, this is a thin, compact hardback and makes a perfect stocking stuffer or thank you gift. (Have you thanked those who recommended good books to you lately?) It has tons of substance, oodles of fun stories appealing to anyone who loves the reading life, and some great book suggestions. It has some nice, pastel artwork, so I suppose it is designed more for women readers, but if a guy is a true bibliophile, they’ll love it, too. Trust me. What a lovely little gift and book lover’s delight. And, might I add, it would be ideal to nurture the passion and skills of reading widely for teens or college age young adults, too. It is amazing how many who are even taking classes at universities aren’t real book lovers. This book can help give ‘em the bug.
On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books Karen Swallow Prior (with a foreword by Leland Ryken) Brazos Press $19.99 I am sure you’ve seen the many columns we’ve done touting this book earlier this fall. We described her lovely visit here to the shop and the lecture, reading, and conversation that ensued. If you follow her on social media you may have realized she has many, many fans and this book has become one of the most talked about book within the religious publishing world this year. It would make a great gift to anyone who studies serious literature or for anyone who, with a bit of scholarly awareness, is interested in classic virtue formation. How many people talk about Aristotle and Jane Eyre? Aquinas and Charles Dickens, Hauerwas and Cormac McCarthy? What thoughtful evangelical scholar explains the value of Gatsby and Endo and moves easily from Bunyan to Huck Finn to Flannery O’Connor.
Educated: A Memoir Tara Westover (Random House) $28.00 I do hope you’ve heard of this or have seen at least one the author’s many interviews; we reviewed it at length this fall. It was hard to put down and is surely the memoir of the year that so many are talking about, not unlike the way Hillbilly Elegy swept the country a few years ago. The short version is that Westover was nearly held captive as a worker and homeschooled on the farm in rural Idaho where her parents were fierce survivalists and fundamentalist, apocalyptic Mormons. She was beat by her brother, her education mishandled, her normal desires as a girl often ridiculed and forbidden. (She couldn’t take dance lessons because the leotards were too worldly.) In odds against all odds she ends up getting to college and eventually – it’s a long story – to Oxford and Harvard. It is a brave and revealing story, a reflection on faith and family and hope and reconciliation. What a story, what a writer, what a woman. This book is a fine, fine memoir and, in one reviewers opinion, will “find a place alongside modern classic memoirs like Wild and The Glass Castle. It’s that special.”
Why Religion? A Personal Story Elaine Pagels (HarperOne) $27.99 Pagels is a respected religion scholar at Princeton University, described as “a preeminent academic whose impressive scholarship has earned her international respect.” Not a Christian believer, she has become nationally known for her work writing about the Gnostic gospels and other topics on the margins of convention. All who have heard her – include a month ago on NPR’s Fresh Air – agree that she is an extraordinary person and many who have read her life story in this engaging memoir report it is one of the best books of this genre they’ve ever encountered. It has been called “searing,” “soul-affirming,” “mesmerizing,” “stirring,” “brilliant,” and “tender”, as she writes about loss (she experienced unimaginable anguish when she lost her young son and a year later her beloved husband died) and spiritual struggle and her own religion’s enduring appeal. This is not a born-again testimony but it could be just the right book for somebody you know.
A Sojourner’s Truth: Choosing Freedom and Courage in a Divided World Natasha Sistrunk Robinson (IVP) $16.00 What a book this would be to give to anyone needing the voice of a mentor and leader, but particularly if one needs the voice of a woman, a black woman, who has navigated successful leadership. Natasha Robinson tells of her journey in this book that is part memoir, part handbook for Christian living, and part astute cultural observation and analysis. As a graduate of the US Naval Academy and a former Marine Corps officer, Natasha has nearly twenty years of leadership and mentoring experience in the military, government, church, seminary, and nonprofit sectors. She has seen some stuff, shall we say. She also has a degree from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and is an internationally known speaker. She works with several leadership development groups and mentors many.
Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life David Giffels (Scribner) $24.00 I can’t say too much about this, but it is just what it says, a gripping, at times funny, deeply affecting memoir about a guy whose dad taught him carpentry skills and, in a good effort to reconnect, they two of them build the older man’s casket. What a story! There are rave reviews all over on this, from Jim Sheeler (the powerful author of Final Salute) and Chuck Klosterman. Kirkus Reviews said, “A lifetime’s worth of workbench philosophy in a heartfelt memoir about the connection between father and son.” Oh, and there’s that bit about dad dying and they are building his coffin. What a book!
The Wondering Years: How Pop Culture Helped Me Answer Life’s Biggest Questions Knox McCoy (Thomas Nelson) $16.99 I suppose this is a gift for anyone who likes pop culture, but it is so rooted in a particular era of pop culture, and so written as a memoir that I’m listing it here – good for anybody that likes to listen in as someone narrates their own coming of age and figuring stuff out. On the back it asks, “What do you get when you mix pop culture, faith, and a hint of nostalgia?” Sure, pop culture is a powerful window into the human experience, into the values and stories told in any given place and time. For this guy, this collection of hilarious stories shows that he grew up in the 1980s. He runs something called The Popcast Media Group and in this new book he really tells his own story, although also has just lots of random reflections on various pop culture themes. Although not restricted to it, offers lots of shout outs to tons of stuff from his era – from Pee Wee Herman to “Alex vs. Pat” to Legally Blond to Dawson’s Creek and Cosmo Kramer and Harry Potter.
Because I Come from a Crazy Family: The Making of a Psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell, MD (Bloomsbury) $28.00 We have enjoyed showing this to folks of all sorts – biography and memoir lovers, psychology students, those who know Hallowell as the ground-breaking, leading scholar who documented ADD and ADHA – his book Driven to Distraction has been a bestseller for decades and shaped a conversation for a generation.
Well: Healing Our Beautiful, Broken World from a Hospital in West Africa Sarah Thebarge (FaithWords) $20.00 Few people have written as passionately and clearly with such a storyteller’s knack to engage readers as Sarah Thebarge. We respected her first memoir called The Invisible Girls: A Memoir, the amazing story of her getting cancer and finding a new lease on life as she joined together caring from Somali refugees in her new hometown in Seattle. It won a number of awards that year, including Notable Book from World in 2013. About it, theologian and novelist Randy Alcorn said:
A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L’Engle Sarah Arthur (Zondervan) $19.99 If you don’t know this author, maybe you should pick this up for yourself. If you know anyone who enjoys her memoirs, Bible studies, books about aesthetics and the arts, memoirs, poetry, or extraordinary fiction – A Wrinkle in Time and Swiftly Tilting Planet just for starters – this wonderfully rendered reflection on her life is a great read. Not a biography as such, it is a reflection and evaluation of her spiritual legacy, as the sub-title says. Sarah Arthur is herself a L’Engle-esque writer; she has done workshops with organizations dedicated to the memory of C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, the Calvin College Festival of Faith and Writing, and more. She has gifted literate Christian readers with a number of good books, most recently a trilogy of “literary guides to prayer” (buy Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany if you want to dip in now – you won’t regret it! We have plenty!)
On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom David I. Smith (Eerdmans) $22.00 For years we have tried to find the very best books that integrate a Christian philosophy of learning and teaching and make them available so that school teachers who are Christians can more overtly practice a way of teaching that is grounded in Christian convictions. Some of these good books emerge from the movement of alternative Christian schools and we often tell educators to just try to apply them in their own settings. There are some really, really good ones, but they are sometimes a bit academic and rigorous. Busy public school teachers maybe just can’t imagine themselves wading through such volumes, although some do.
Even Better Than Eden: Nine Ways the Bible’s Story Changes Everything About Your Story Nancy Guthrie (Crossway) $16.99 If the great ending of the Bible story includes the promise of restoration and a removal of all grief (Revelation 21:4) what does this vision of hope mean for how we read the Bible and how we see history and our own lives as they take shape within the unfolding of God’s promises? That’s a mouthful, but if you know anyone who wants an easy-to-read but profound view of the role of the Bible as worldview-shaping and identity forming and world-shaking as we move towards the city that is “better than Eden” this fine book could be a great gift. Nancy Guthrie is a very good Bible teacher and this is a really handsome and rewarding book.
The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy Timothy Keller (Viking) $20.00 There is a reason Keller is sometimes considered as a contemporary C.S. Lewis. He is Biblically sound and rigorous, culturally engaged (he has hosted anti-racism workshops at the church, done good event in New York around civility, and has written several books about justice and social service.) Yet, he is deeply centered on the first things of the gospel and is clear in his Bible teaching that all of Scripture points us to Christ. This new little hardback picks up these lasting themes — Jonah runs from God, of course, but more to the point, hated certain ethnicities in a certain city. There is much food for thought here as Keller offers a gospel-centered but socially-aware reading of this ancient story. How he links it to Jesus, too, is a bit surprising, making this a lively and compelling read. Just came out about a month ago, so it would make a swell gift.
By the way, speaking of Keller, I have been re-reading many of the entries in his year-long devotion, done with his wife, Kathy, called The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms (Viking; $19.95.) It is so good, and would make a perfect gift for some of the people on your list. There are gold-gilded edges, a nice ribbon marker, some classy touches (such as two color printing.) It is a compact sized so there isn’t that much content on the pages, and it feels like a classic, classy prayer book. I like what they do with the Psalter and wanted to remind you of it.
Paul: A Biography N. T. Wright (HarperOne) $29.99 Okay, I’ll just say it. We are huge fans and even friends with Tom Wright and we are very big on getting his books known. Some think he’s too conservative, some think he’s too liberal, and to those who have heard this, I’d say it is mostly nonsense. Sure, not everyone will agree with all of his methods or conclusions, but he simply ought not be dismissed so easily. Plus, he not only brings some very fresh thinking to the conversation, he is a fine, fine writer. In our 36 years of bookselling, there has been no Biblical scholar that has thrilled us more.
For THREE DAYS ONLY (this deal only lasts until Thursday night, December 6th 2018, at midnight) we’ll give you a free book by the fabulously energetic and funny and serious speaker,
Funeral for a Stranger is a wonderful collection of some excellent miscellaneous essays. Becca is an excellent writer, a master of the short form, a good writer and born storyteller… some of her other books are devotional in nature, collections of short reflections and strong, prayerful meditations. Funeral… covers all sorts of territory and is sure to thrill anyone who likes good writing, spiritual ruminations on life and times, love and life. As a justice activist she brings a bit of bite at times but as a pastor and congregational leader she knows how to offer good words for the spiritual journey. It is an excellent book. And you can get it free.
OR, if you’d rather, as we’ve said, we can send for free an earlier book, Sanctuary: Unexpected Places Where God Found Me. Again, this is Becca Stevens in her wheelhouse, offering artfully written creative meditations, short reflections that bring us into that quiet place of soul sanctuary with God. It is a great read with each entry a story of a place (often a surprising place) where she discovered God’s presence afresh. The Funeral for a Stranger one includes various sorts of thoughtful essays and they are a delight to read and very insightful. Sanctuary has equally moving stories and meditations but the pieces are shorter and arranged as a daily devotional, each one about the spirituality of the ordinary and meeting God in some particular episode or place.
The Power of Love: Sermons, Reflections & Wisdom to Uplift and Inspire Bishop Michael Curry (Avery) $20.00 What a great little gift book this would make, ideal to give to unchurched folks, even. Who didn’t hear about the extraordinary sermon preached at the 2018 Royal Wedding? It certainly went viral. That sermon about Christian love is here along with other important messages delivered by this energetic black preacher. Rev. Curry (who has a little paperback about robust discipleship called Crazy Christians and a memoir called Songs My Mama Taught Me) is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. One of the great talks reproduced here is a message he gave to their annual conference called “The Good Life” and it is good for anyone! Another was given at the National Cathedral – “Welcome to the Movement.”
On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity & Getting Old Parker J. Palmer (Berret Koehler) $19.95 What a handsome, compact, beautifully written, nearly serene study of wholehearted living as we move into older age, becoming mentors and guides to others. Parker Palmer is nearly a public intellectual and has written about contemplative living, about public civility, about higher education. I hope you know his book about education, and certainly his wonderful book about vocation. As the Quaker gentleman and activist ages, gracefully, he is ruminating on the lightness of being and yet the gravity of the era. If you liked Rohr’s Falling Upward this would thrill you, I’m sure. Rohr, in fact, calls it “a generous gift to all of us.”
The Magnificent Journey: Living Deep in the Kingdom James Bryan Smith (formatio/IVP) $22.00 We love having especially attractive books to prop up on a nice shelf when we’re out and about, and we featured this, right next to Smith’s previous one called The Magnificent Story, which also has a striking die cut cover. You may know of James Bryan Smith who writes books about spirituality and spiritual disciplines – think Ruth Haley Barton or Richard Foster or Dallas Willard. His previous trilogy continues to sell well (The Good and Beautiful God, The Good and Beautiful Life, and The Good and Beautiful Community) and these two new ones are equally good.
Moral Leadership for a Divided Age: 14 People Who Dared to Change Our World David Gushee & Colin Holtz (Brazos Press) $25.99 What a great, urgent read – informative and inspiring – and what a great gift this would make. Who among us doesn’t desire to have greater capacity to offer moral guidance in whatever space we find ourselves? Who doesn’t want to know a bit about how great change has happened in the past and how leaders have marshaled their leadership abilities to speak to the issues of the day? There are books about leadership and there are books about social change and there are books about character formation but this bring it all together as Gushee – himself an ethicist who has learned to speak out and pay up with integrity in aces – and his co-writer studies great moral leaders, their character and their ability to lead.
Adam Hearlson (Eerdmans) $24.00 Hearlson is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and I thought these pastors who tend to be progressive politically would love this reminder that to say “yes” to God in worship necessarily means a “no” to other rulers, other regimes, other claims on our ultimate allegiance. Surely we can’t forget (or think we know enough about) Barman and Bonhoeffer and others who worshipped well with a high Christology and saw the subversive power of that worship to delegitimize the principalities and powers.
Everybody Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People Bob Goff (Thomas Nelson) $16.99 Okay, we announce this everywhere we go, tell folks about it hither and yon, and love explaining that it is fun and funny and adventurous and full of capers and stories and some pretty clear-headed ideas about God’s love and follow Jesus, bit by bit. Since Becca Stephens was doing heavy talks about the prophetic power of love and justice work, it seemed more than appropriate to shout out to Goff. It’s a great book for older Christian who need fresh shot in the arm, recalling what it’s all about, and it’s ideal for those not quite up for heady theological reading. Like his wonderful, popular Love Does, the new Everybody Always is a great book for anyone.
Love Heals Becca Stevens (Thomas Nelson) $15.99 Do you recall us sharing about this fabulously artful, very handsome book? It was one of our grand titles that we pushed when it first came out and we were so pleased to be able to say it was lush and lovely – full color photos of flowers and dishes and natures scenes – and, yes, thistles – and yet it has exceptional substance. Her work at Thistle Farms – offering dignity and jobs to women off the street, freed from domestic violence or trafficking or drugs – animates her deep, deep conviction that love is the answer. Yes, their teashop and Thistle Farms essential oils and hand lotions and international gifts are branded with the saying “love heals” but for them it is gospel truth. This book is about hope and community and justice and grace and goodness and beauty.
Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling Becca Stevens (Jericho Books) $15.00 What a read! This is her memoir, a ground-breaking story about her own life, losing her father (a beloved Episcopal priest himself), her abuse in the church she now loves, and her transformation as she learned to serve others and live in hope. Yep, she speaks truth, here, and it is a very good book.
The Way of Tea and Justice: Rescuing the World’s Favorite Beverage from Its Violent History Becca Stevens (Jericho Books) $16.00 I wished Becca could have been at the clergy retreat longer as I’d have loved to hear her tell some of this story. We read – and promoted (hear! hear!) – this book when it first came out. It’s a nice paperback now. As I announced in my little book pitch at the clergy event last week, there are a number of good books on fair trade coffee which has sort of lead the way to helping consumers think about ethically sourcing their shopping choices. But there hasn’t been as much written about what we might call fair trade tea and here Becca tells a story both inspiring and daunting. What a story, how informative, how interesting – a justice-oriented travelogue.
Letters from the Farm: A Simple Path for a Deeper Spiritual Life Becca Stevens (Morehouse Publishing) $18.95 What a great idea for a book. These are letters Rev. Becca sent out to various folks; to be honest, I don’t know (or even care) if they are real letters or a device to arrange a book of spiritual guidance. It’s a classic form – you know, even the always wise and eloquent Eugene Peterson has such a book, which, frankly, isn’t as substantial as this. So it’s a set of letters all about encouragement in the way of love. Some of these are about social issues – extolling the reader to greater care and action – and others are gentle, luscious, lovely.
Bathed in Prayer: Father Tim’s Prayers, Sermons, and Reflections from the Mitford Series Jan Karon (Penguin) $20.00 When we announced this a month ago a few customers were just tickled – what fun! This is a collection of various sermons and prayers by the fictional Father Tim of the beloved Jan Karon Mitford novels. Ms. Karon adds some of her own reflections about the inspirational parts of the stories and her own hopes and prayers. This is a lovely, real, book of devotion and prayer, even if from the pen of a storyteller. What fun.
Why Religion?: A Personal Story Elaine Pagels (Ecco/HarperCollins) $27.99 Maybe this didn’t sell that well at the Episcopal gig because I didn’t push it as much as I might have; I guess we assumed they would naturally be interested, especially after that fascinating NPR Fresh Air interview a week or two ago. I suppose I’m just not that interested, to be honest, about her admittedly significant work on everything from Adam and Eve to the history of ideas about Satan. She’s known as a scholar of Gnosticism (a heresy I despise) and here she tells her own faith journey, such as it may be. She is a major intellectual in our time, so the book should sell well.
Why Study the Past? The Quest for the Historical Church Rowan Williams (Eerdmans) $18.00 I suppose I shouldn’t assume that every Episcopalian or liturgically sensible, globally-minded Christian likes the former Archbishop of Canterbury, but, man – this shoulda flown off the shelves! What a great little book — rich, deep, mature, about history and historiography, about why the past matters, about how older eras of the church should be informing us in some way (but maybe not others?)
The Jesus Heist: Recovering the Gospel From the Church C. Andrew Doyle (Church Publishing) $18.00 Okay, I dig this guy, and I like this book. I wish I had pushed it harder among my mainline denominational friends this year – we announced it when it came out a year ago and have taken it to various events. Look, we need to own up to this weird place we are in these days. (I don’t mean to caricature or offend.) When I was coming up into Christian leadership – the last quarter of the 20th century — the debate was between liberal theologians who created boring churches that didn’t believe much of anything, certainly nothing worth giving one’s life to, and evangelical churches that were passionate and sure and earnest and right about the first things of the gospel but too often dumb and shallow and oddly politically reactionary. Alas, now the books coming out of “liberal” theological traditions are more Biblical than much coming out of the hip evangelical culture. Oh, how the times have changed. So here, a progressive Bishop of a liberal denomination asks us to flip the script of many Bible stories and see what Jesus is really doing, inviting us to come to a deeper trust in His revolutionary Kingdom. This is what is good about mainline churches – they can preach a non-fundamentalist call back to Jesus and bitch about how we’ve missed Him in all our religiosity and get away with it. Yep, on both the right and left, evangelical and mainline, it seems Jesus has been too often ignored, the gospel domesticated, Jesus hijacked, if not stolen. I love the title of this.
Today is a Baptism Day Anna V. Ostenson Moore, illustrated by Peter Krueger (Church Publishing) $13.95 Not sure how this happened but I intended to rave about this from up front at our retreat and celebrate Church Publishing (an Episcopalian publishing house) doing great books just like this. Alas, we forgot to take it and left a whole big stack of them back at the shop. So, we announce it here, wanting you to know it is really interesting, a captivating, poetic sort of read full of mainline church theology, innovative, creative pictures (of all kinds of people and all kinds of families, thanks be to God!)
Home By Another Way: A Christmas Story Barbara Brown Taylor, illustrated by Melanie Cataldo (Flyway Books) $18.00 I’m sure you know we’ve touted this before – it came out earlier this fall and we were just thrilled to see a popular sermon by the always eloquent Barbara Brown Taylor re-told as a children’s sermon, and lavishly illustrated with an amazing, creative, whimsical, passionate artists.
My Advent Calendar Christmas Book Antonia Jackson & Krisztina Hallai Nagy (Lion Press) $7.99 Lion Press from the UK is a favorite (favourite) children’s publisher and we were glad to discover this little gem. It is a fairly standard little book telling the story of the nativity except the cover of the book is itself a 23-day, open-a-flap-a-day Advent Calendar. The entire Christmas story is here, from annunciation to the flight to Egypt and it’s fine. But the joy is opening the little flaps and awaiting each day’s surprise. The book is 6.5″ x 6″ and the advent flaps are small. We have more conventional Advent calendars, by the way, Give us a call if we can tell you about some.
A Jesus Christmas: Exploring God’s Amazing Plan for Christmas Barbara Reaoch (The Good Book Company) $9.99 I like the cool, slightly contemporary look and design of Good Book Company products and this little family workbook is no exception. Ms. Reaoch is known in “Bible Study Fellowship” for those that know that great ministry, and it should convince you that she is careful about Bible study, about application, about seeing how all things cohere in the message of Christ’s gospel. These short daily studies can help your family get excited about a fresh way to prepare for Christmas by taking a look at one of the serpent’s lies (from Genesis 3) and the ways in which the glorious truths of God’s redemptive plan play out. Joni Eareckson Tada says it is “just what fathers 
and mothers are looking for.” I hope that is true. Donald Whitney writes, “If you have young children and you want to make this Christmas more of a ‘Jesus Christmas’ than last year, try this book.” It includes space for family journaling, too. Nicely done, for sure.
The Shepherd Who Couldn’t Sing Alan Barker, illustrations by Thea Baker (SPCK) $9.00 I really like the illustrations that are rich and warm, creative without being eccentric. There are fabric patterns through-out that are striking, and some water-color washes that are very artful. So I’m a fan of this paperback — even its paper stock and size (about 9 x 10) seems just right. The story is fun; it is about Jake the shepherd boy on the hills of Bethlehem who, er, can’t sing. Can he find his voice and join in the angels given the momentous good news he has just witnessed? He is so brave about so many things but he is afraid of singing! The author tells us at the end that it was inspired by Caedmon who learned to sing. (He even gives a little song to sing to the tune of Frere Jacques called, of course “Jake’s Song.”) Jake’s plight is a creative way into the Bible story, but it raises this other concern, of not being afraid to sing, to find one’s voice in the choir, to stand up and sing-out. Nice.
A Very Noisy Christmas Tim Thornborough, illustrations by Jennifer Davison (The Good Book Company) $4.99 This is another winner from The Good Book Company, a gospel-centered company that provides really attractive books that are clear about gospel truth. We stock all of their children’s books. This one is really inexpensive, has artwork that features non-European-looking characters, whimsical as they are. It is designed to be read out loud, it playfully instructs you (even by the size and shape of the particular font) to whisper some sentences and to really shout out other parts. Fun! Most parents and children will get a kick out of doing this together (probably over and over!) How loud can you shout? How quietly can you whisper? The first Christmas was both quiet and noisy, after all (and the birth of Jesus is worth shouting about!)
Home By Another Way Barbara Brown Taylor, illustrations by Melanie Cataldo (Flyaway Books) $18.00 When one of our most beloved and interesting preachers and writers teams up with an excellent, talented illustrator to re-tell one of her famous seasonal sermons, you’d expected it to be much anticipated and much discussed. And this certainly is. Surely one of the most beautifully-illustrated children’s books of the year, it is great addition to the library of anyone who collects Christmas books. It’s a bit odd, even funny at times, but so many holiday books are. It’s part of the fun, I think, re-telling and re-imagining these great, classic stories. And how she puts us right onto the quirky camel rides of these three mystics from the East.
This story is about the wise men and their journey to meet the Christ child (and, of course, their anxiously freighted meeting with the dangerous Herod.) Some have found it a bit unusual, describing the characters in such odd detail. Others have thought it unfortunate how small of a role the holy family plays, but, again, it gets at that story by way of describing in artful prose the journey of the wise guys. And yet, wordsmith that Taylor is, she tells of how their lives are touched as they hold the baby close. This encounter will surely transform their lives even if the teller of the tale does not spell it out for us. That is BBT’s theory about preaching, I believe — don’t say too much, allow some time for “I wonder” type questions, don’t be too didactic: the power is in the story, after all. So this ought not be the only book to read to children about Christmas; obviously. And — please — realize it is to be read after Christmas, of course. The imaginative story is a fascinating one, glorious in its own way, 
drawing on a famous old sermon by the former Episcopal pastor.
The Sleepy Shepherd: A Timeless Retelling of the Christmas Story Stephen Cottrell, illustrations by Chris Hagan (SPCK) $10.00 Kudos to our friends at InterVarsity Press for picking up some of these SPCK British books from overseas and making them easily available in the States. This is a fun and funny story and I like it not only because the writing is good but because the art is a bit more eccentric and zesty than some. I don’t always think young children resonate with mature modernist or abstract art, but this is wildly creative without obscuring the content of the story. It does what good art can do — revealing something formerly missed. If only to generate a fresh and invigorated gaze, this book is just so interesting.
Grace Comes at Christmas: Gracias Viene en la Navidad M. J. McCluskey, illustrations by Sierra Mon Ann Vidal (Balboa Press) $15.95 We are especially excited to tell you about this new English/Spanish bi-lingual book, and we recommend it for a couple of reasons. Not least is that we know the author, a friend and customer who is a local Lutheran congregant and respected community volunteer. And a bundle of good energy, which she uses to make her corner a bit brighter, like the cat — named, Grace, of course (did I mention she is Lutheran?) — who is the star of this sweet holiday story. The story unfolds as we learn what happens to the little kitten who finds herself alone in a freezing field on Christmas Eve. You might imagine what occurs when she sees a light on the top of the hill and hears music (although there are toils and dangers throughout until the lovely, hospitable climax.)
That Baby in the Manger Anne E, Neuberger, illustrations by Chloe E. Pitkoff (Paraclete Press) $15.99 This was a best seller for us last year so we wanted to name it again. It is paperback with colorful, somewhat modern art, which makes it a beautiful sight to behold. It is just creative enough to provide allusive nuance to the portrayal but it isn’t odd or disorienting. That is, it is just a great visual treat. The story is more than a treat, it is nothing short of a profound blessing, nearly prophetic in its gentle but potent truth-telling.
The Birth of Jesus Read-Along Regina Brundidge-Fuller, illustrations by Jeff West (Urban Spirit!) $6.99 We have bunches of inexpensive re-tellings of Bible stories and of course the Christmas story ones are as popular as any. It is so cool that at this time of year it isn’t uncommon to give out books about Jesus, and, to children, books about the birth of Jesus. Yes! Of course, it is a complicated matter to find books that retell the story well and that have illustrations that are well done and wise. For those that care about these things, we have this (and a few others) unique one published by Urban Spirit! who does ministry out of Atlanta, As you can see, most of the characters in these illustrations are black. (Interestingly, the angels are multi-ethnic, and Herod seems to be white, naturally.) I do not want to say these are only for the African American market – nearly every church nursery in American has Bible stories of Jesus or Bible characters looking white. Why not supplement your church or family library with something like this. Certainly is is designed for African American children, but we’re happy to suggest it to all sorts of families and churches. They are well done.
A Savior Is Born: Rocks Tell The Story of Christmas created by Patti Rokus (Zondervan) $17.99 I suppose this isn’t just a children’s book as the curious, artful presentation will make it an attractive coffee table book for anyone, or a unique gift for a person who might enjoy such a book. My wife collects little pebbles many places she goes as both memory stones and as decoration. It isn’t uncommon to find a few smooth stones or a pile of small rocks on a window sill or by my sock drawer. I’m sure she isn’t the only one who is intrigued by the aesthetic revelation of small stones. And so, I’m sure many will enjoy this simple book showing the Christmas story created by stones.
We have for several years promoted a breathtaking book with bi-lingual English and Arabic text about immigrants, where all the artwork is made with stones. It is called Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey and was inspired by the stone artwork of Syrian artist Nizar Ali Badr, discovered by chance by Canadian children’s writer Margriet Ruurs. (Orca Books; $20.00.) That is nearly miraculous and very poignant.
Coloring Advent: An Adult Coloring Book for the Journey to Bethlehem Christopher D. Rodkey and Jess & Natalie Turri (Chalice Press) $12.99 Speaking of adult books that kids can appreciate, this is pitched as an adult coloring book, and for good reason. As we explained a year ago (and, again, as we did with the sequel, Coloring Lent) Chris Rodkey is a friend and neighbor and a scholar/activist/pastor of a UCC church here in D-town. We are theologically dissimilar in many ways but I so admire his eagerness to do creative stuff and speak with theological depth into the issues of the day. And so, you should know that this coloring book is very intentionally created out of his progressive/radical sort of deeply theological worldview. It follows the lectionary readings for Advent, and so is very, very Biblical. There are little devotional sentences on each page which are footnoted so you can explore more of why the art is created as it is, and why the paraphrase of the lectionary texts are done as they are. Coloring Advent is ecumenical and provocative and is unlike any other more conventional adult coloring book, but, at the end of the day, it is designed for your own slow, creative, engagement with Sacred Scripture by way of working on your own sacred art.
By the way, although, again, mostly for adults but suitable for some older kids, see the new Coloring Women of the Bible (Chalice Press; $14.99) also lovingly done by Rev. Chris Rodkey and Natalie Turri. It has some vital theological interpretation, brave portrayal of complicated Scriptural stories, and a section of pages to color the feminine images of God from the Bible. There is no other coloring book like it, that’s for sure; it would be fascinating to have younger teens or youth do it. I’ll write more about this later as it makes a great small gift (especially when paired with a pack of colored pencils.) Cheers.
Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ Fleming Rutledge (Eerdmans) $30.00 This is without a doubt the most talked about book about Advent in our memory, and for good reason. This sturdy 400+ page paperback volume is laden with Mrs. Rutledge’s legendary, richly theological, provocative (but always orthodox), meaty but persuasive sermons. There are some essays here, some Bible studies, other writings and sermons galore, for every special day of the season (and then some. As a serious Episcopalian, she’s included some special days I’ve never even heard of!) A few of the sermons are recent, some older, typed up from her old manuscripts — a labor of love! Those of us who have heard the Reverend Rutledge preach know how good she is. Those of us who have heard her lecture or met her in person know how gracious and interesting she is. Those who have read her books – from the extraordinary The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ to her excellent collections of sermons (one on preaching the Old Testament, one of sermons on Romans, one that is a general collection, one a study of Tolkien, one on the last words of Christ) – all know how wise and interesting and informative and valuable they are.
The Art of Advent: A Painting a Day from Advent to Epiphany Jane Williams (SPCK) $15.00 My, my, this may be our favorite Advent book this year! We had many customers who loved her publisher’s similar The Art of Lent which we heartily recommended last Spring. This one, like that one, is a square-sized, small paperback, about 150 pages, making it a truly delightful gem to carry in a purse or backpack or to give as a simple gift. But, yet, it is rich, with full-color artwork for each day of Advent. The art is reproduced nicely, the paper is glossy but still lighter weight. It is such a great little volume to hold and glance through.
By the way, there are plenty of masterpieces shown here. There are those great artworks that you might expect for a holiday book – from da Vinci’s The Virgin and the Child with Saint Anne to medieval classics like Francesca’s odd The Nativity and (thanks be to God) the spectacular Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner.
Wounded in Spirit: Advent Art and Meditations David Bannon (Paraclete) $29.99 This glorious full-size hardback book (with a wonderful foreword by Philip Yancey) is the most beautiful devotional book of the season. Each meditation is paired with a moving reproduction of classic art, nicely reproduced on rich, glossy paper. In this mature and artful presentation, it reminds us of the early (now out of print) Paraclete classic God With Us. (That is still available in the “readers edition” that omits the artwork and remains one of our best-sellers in recent years with its literary ruminations and poetry and mature reflections.) Like that one, this is a treasure to behold.
Blue Christmas: Devotions of Light in a Season of Darkness Todd Outcalt (Upper Room Books) $9.99 This little paperback is so good and so useful. As it says on the back of the Wounded in Spirit volume, “Christmas is difficult for many of us. While others are expressing joy, we’re re-living painful memories and reminders of loss.”
Come Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional Paul David Tripp (Crossway) $17.99 Crossway released this in a sturdy hardback, with some slight aesthetic touches of colored ink at spots, I suppose, so that it can be used with delight over and over. It’s that kind of book, written by a gospel-drenched, clearly Christ-focused pastor and counselor. You may know his yearlong devotional New Morning Mercies or his many self-help books that help us appropriate the gospel into our own struggling lives, marriages, parenting, and such. Come Let Us Adore Him came out last year, but many missed hearing about it so we wanted to highlight it again. As one reviewer says, it does well what we should want in such a book – it offers solid theology that yields to profound devotion and doxology. (By the way, there is at the end of each daily reading a suggestion for further study and some guidance for parents of younger children.)
Home for Christmas: Tales of Hope & Second Changes Justine Coleman (Abingdon) $16.99 Wow. This unique book is a very fine, short, stand-alone study with four good chapters – maybe you could use it as a family, or in a small group, but it’s good for individual reading, too. There is also a DVD ($39.99) for a Sunday school class or Adult Education forum (and, of course, a Leader’s Guide ($12.99) for those leading conversations about the DVD curriculum) and a youth edition book ($9.99.)This is really an amazing study and we simply do not know anything else like it.
more recent Barking with the Choir; anybody who recommends those is worth reading, right?)
A Vintage Christmas: A Collection of Stories and Poems (Thomas Nelson) $17.99 We are always on the lookout for holiday anthologies that include must-read seasonal pieces and a few surprising or lesser known works. This is a trim sized hardback that feels nice in the hand and looks nice. It includes stories and sketches and poems by Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, L.M. Montgomery, Christina Rossetti, Anne Bronte, Samuel Coleridge, and more. Do you know the letter Mark Twain wrote from Santa to his three-year old daughter? The poems range from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Christmas Bells” to the amazing “Ring Out Wild Bells” (from In Memoriam) by Tennyson to a Joyce Kilmer (you know her poem about trees) one called “Wartime Christmas.”
Advent for Everyone: Luke N.T. Wright (WJK) $16.00 Who wouldn’t want to hear what Tom Wright offers as a daily devotional through the Gospel of Luke? The wider church uses Luke in this year’s lectionary (Year C) so this is perfect. (By the way, last year Tom released a similar daily devotional, also called Advent for Everyone, that studied the Epistles. We highly recommend that, too!) Here he shares incisive Bible commentary for each day through the Saturday after the Fourth Sunday in Advent and offers a thought-provoking question for either personal or small group question. You get his original translation of the text, too, as you’d find in his “For Everyone” commentaries.
Advent: The Gift of New Hope Christopher L. Webber (Abingdon) $9.99 This is the 2018 edition of the “Scriptures for the Church Seasons” study which is a five-week Advent study based on the Revised Common Lectionary. This is designed for small group use and there are leader helps included in each chapter. It interacts with the given Year C Old Testament, Gospel and Epistle texts. Nothing like it in print.
Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ Timothy Keller (Penguin) $15.00 This was out in hardback last year and we are very glad that it is now available in a trim sized, less costly paperback. You could buy a bunch, and maybe you should! What solid, no-nonsense, serious-minded, warm-hearted, Scripture study this is! Of course, Keller is known as a thoughtful and engaging pastor of a large, culturally-aware and socially-involved PCA church in New York. (I know, he is too conservative for some, and too liberal for others, too intellectual for many. Trust me, this is a great book for any thoughtful reader of any persuasion!)
Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation Madeleine L’Engle (Convergent) $15.00 Oh my, if Tim Keller is a bit left brainy, this is smart, but rather right-brained, if you will, as you might expect from an artist and creative fiction and non-fiction writer. It is said that this lovely, literary work by a master spiritual writer “contemplates the mystery and the majesty of the Incarnation.” Bright Evening Star, just now out in a new paperback edition, is a deeply personal narrative by a dear woman and thoughtful scholar and beloved novelist pointing us towards the still-point of the holiday, which she calls “a time of awed silence.”
(even when they are doing the daily tasks of waiting on folks here at the shop.) Beth and I get a lot of love from those who see us out at events but we couldn’t do it without Amy and Diana and Patti and volunteer Debi. (And some people think it is “Byron’s bookstore.” Not at all.)
they think about culturally engaged, Biblically faithful, whole-life discipleship for those transitioning out of high school and into young adulthood (and maybe college) we talked together about vocation and calling, Kingdom and church, the Bible and life, creation and new creation, and life and learning. Al Wolter’s 
Reformational Worldview
Self Reliance 
Becoming a Community Where Faith Flourishes Beyond High School 
which is full of inspiring and visionary college commencement speeches called 
PC(USA) church to read together, a serious study called 
and I as a gift honoring our 35
If you read BookNotes regularly you know about the two wonderful author events we held this fall. People drove from far and wide to hear nationally-known historian John Fea, lecturing and discussing his important 
Good Life Through Great Books 
By the way, we had not heard of Rohadi Nagassar and since his book
Speaking of books that captured much of the vision and energy of that Praxis Gathering, I’d want to celebrate (as I do many places we go) the extraordinary book by Praxis speaker Christiana Rice (co-authored by Michael Frost) called 
While our daughter Stephanie – small town gal who is comfortable in the big city and a very ecumenical lay theologian in her own right – held forth staffing the Philadelphia Praxis gig, I left to fly to Denver, Colorado (and saw our other daughter who lives there.) What a blast to borrow my old CCO friend Craig Johnston’s convertible to tool around the city after serving his organization, the Colorado Christian Business Alliance at their annual conference. I am still telling folks about the three keynote speakers at their conference on faith and work, equipping business people to take up their work as holy callings, to think Christianly about business and management and work and calling and career and all of that. There are a lot of folks out there thinking about how Christ’s Lordship and Kingdom should shape 
their businesses. I was very moved (and really, really enjoyed hanging out with) Joel Manby author of 
I’ve reviewed, John Van Sloten. His most recent book is the fabulous 
Zooming back from there we packed up two of our larger fall events, our beloved, annual 
creation/fall/redemption/restoration. I’m glad he highlighted creative books like 
The Story of Us 
Jordon is more theologically conservative than either Rob Bell (What Is the Bible?) or Rachel Held Evans (Inspired) or Peter Enns (The Bible Tells Me So) but noted how he enjoyed much of their insights into how the Bible works as a story
Theological, and Pastoral Perspectives 
Lisa did three workshops, too, on her lovely book on prayer, 
small town pastor) by Winn Collier (Eerdmans; $16.99.) We told about some kids books, some basic spirituality stuff, and some of this years important books for this crew such as Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks 
If any of this is new to you, by the way, I’d suggest reading the very impressive book by one of our biggest supporters and one of my best friends, the amiable, super-smart Michael Schutt. It’s called 
So he came to CLS to learn about lawyers – he even goes to the local circuit court to watch appeals, just to study up and learn how better to love the law and serve his parishioners. How about that! Mounts has written a devotional (which started out, again, for his own lawyer friends) called 
One of our big sellers at the CLS conference was the very new book by Os Guinness called 
years. I enjoyed, and was challenged, hearing him again (of course) and was jazzed selling his books to a big crowd at Springton Lake Presbyterian Church in Newtown Square, a bit outside of Philadelphia. His concerns about the sustainable future of the American experiment is almost palpable and reading this book carefully could be an important project. Each chapter is essentially a question, a challenging, asking us how we intend to nurture the roots and ideas that sustain our liberty. This is no simplistic screed against Trump or the fake news or whatever other symptom we have of our eroding moral center. Regardless of your own opinions of the issues of the day, this deep dive with challenge and inform you.
David Koyzis seriously studies this question of the role of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution in our current political lives as profoundly as anyone in his 
For what it is worth, a very important historical study of all this that was written in the late 1800s by Groen Van Prinsterer, the political mentor of Dutch Christian social thinker (and founder of a Christian democratic political party in Holland) Abraham Kuyper. The significant Unbelief and Revolution (Lexham Press; $15.99) just came out in a newly translated, revised edition. I read these essays in the mid-1970s and I know I didn’t understand it much then, so I’m going to give ’em a go again, soon. It would be a valuable addition to those who have read Guinness and Koyzis. Kudos to Lexham for re-doing this older book and for what I’m told is a great translation by Harry Van Dyke. (Lexham also just this week released a huge volume of devotionals written by the younger Abraham Kuyper called Honey From the Rock so you can imagine we’re thrilled about that, too. It’s a large book and sells for $39.99 so our 30% off just might make it do-able, eh?)
By the way, that evening at Springton Lake Mr. Guinness happily shared the stage with one of the most artful, interesting contemporary acoustic rock shows I’ve seen in a while; part worship, part avant-garde folk pop, 
Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing
The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy 
Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice 
Keep Christianity Weird: Embracing the Discipline of Being Different 
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been 
Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are Vanishing–And How We Can Revive Them 
The Dangers of Christian Practice: On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin 
Eternity is Now in Session: A Radical Rediscovery of What Jesus Really Taught about Salvation, Eternity, and Getting to the Good Place 
Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World 
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness 
Pei (IVP; $17.00.) It really is the next thing to read in this topic. Pei, an Asian-American, tells of his own experiences, but expertly adds the findings of research of the social sciences. Pei is an organizational consultant and here describes “key challenges ethnic minorities face in majority culture organizations, unpacking the historical forces at play and what both minority and majority cultures need to know in order to work together fruitfully.” Kudos to IVP for doing this kind of important, helpful publishing.
Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections Between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships
The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves
For instance, there was a workshop on the opioid crisis. Among other things, we highly recommend 
about the indicting, scholarly resource
I wish I could have talked to folks about Randy Woodley and his very weighty
recommended the excellent 
One of the books that was recommended, among many, at this workshop was one that is a fine collection of spiritual practices and good ideas for thoughtful Christian families. Written out of the context of a mainline denominational church by Traci Smith, this pastor, a Princeton grad, sees these good ideas bearing fruit in ordinary church families. We really liked her earlier edition (
Lamott, 
Bathed in Prayer: Father Tim’s Prayers, Sermons, and Reflections from the Mitford Series Jan Karon (Putnam) $20.00 I loved tilting my head a little and noting with a smile just how curiously nifty this idea is: yep, it is a real prayerbook from the soul and writing of a fictional character. I trust you know of the much-loved Mitford series and Father Tim’s sermons and prayers in those novels. Author Jan Karon tells for the first time some of her own story, too, sharing reflections and prayers as well. Pretty nice, eh? Father Tim’s prayers were a blessing to many in fictional Mitford, so why not for you, too. Stranger things have happened.
The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy Timothy Keller (Viking) $20.00 I trust I don’t have to tell you how much we respect this urbane and thoughtful Presbyterian pastor and thinker. Fortune magazine named him as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” and Newsweek suggested he is a “C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century.” At any rate, this is a nice, brief, engaging study of Jonah. He’s a master at showing the gospel of grace even in the Older Testamented stories and here he offers a provocative thesis suggesting that Jesus had Jonah in mind when he told the story of the Prodigal Son. In this new volume Keller brings questions of race and anger and living with difference and encountering “the other” into play — there was talk about calling it “Jonah and the City” as he reflects on how we love our neighbors well. Highly recommended!
Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at it’s Worst Ed Stetzer (Tyndale) $16.99 Stetzer — who on the video I think I call Brian, thinking of the Stray Cats dude, I guess — is an important missional writer and here he takes on the “culture of outrage” and how we can be more forbearing and gracious and hopeful rather than contribute to the high-volume drama and over-reaction that is epidemic these days. This is a really good analysis and vital reminder of how we ought to engage the culture around us. Blurbs on the back are from our friend Karen Swallow Prior and from important voices such as Samuel Rodriguez, the President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Bryan Loritts (I’m eager to read his brand new Insider, Outsider: My Journey as a Stranger in White Evangelicalism and My Hope for All of Us.)
White Picket Fences: Turning Toward Love in a World Divided by Privilege Amy Julia Becker (NavPress) $15.99 I really, really like the word-smithing writing style of this fine author; she has two previous books written as a mother of a special needs child. Here she writes with nuance and grace about the notion of privilege. In my little video announcement I not only assure you how much I like this, but quote from the lovely endorsement on the back from her friend Andy Crouch.
Whole & Reconciled: Gospel, Church, and Mission in a Fractured World Al Tizon (Baker Academic) $22.99 I spent some of my few moments on the video saying how much I liked Al, name-dropping him as an old friend, great music-lover, a guy who has visited our store. He used to work with Evangelicals for Social Action and here channels a 21st century sort of vision, drawing on his early friendship with Ron Sider and the wholistic “word and deed” Kingdom theology of Lausanne to offer a vision of whole-life discipleship, an exhortation for all of us to work for the reconciliation of a broken world. It carries endorsements by important voices such as Christopher J.H. Wright (of John Stott’s Langham Partnership) and the current director of ESA, Nikki Toyama-Szeto, and his North Park colleague Soong-Chan Rah. A wonderful forward is by Ruth Padilla DeBorst and his old boss Ron Sider has a very good Afterword. Whole & Reconciled is one of the great books of 2018 and we highly recommend it.
Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship – Year C, Volume 1 edited by Joel Green, Thomas Long, Luke Powery & Cynthia Rigby (Westminster John Knox) $45.00 I suggested in my little pitch in the video that this is in the tradition — almost a sequel — to the multi-volume series for lectionary preachers called Feasting on the Word. It is a bit different, though, offering a diverse world of scholars, teachers, and preachers, to weigh in on how the given lectionary text is connected to the bigger Biblical story (the Scriptural connection, placing the text in conversation with the meta-narrative and the unfolding context of the story of God) and on how the text can be related (connected) to the issues of the day. I like these connections offered, making this a useful tool for preachers and educators. Further, it offers worship resources for coherent worship planning inspired by the connectivity of the text that Sunday. Very nicely done. Blurbs on the back include high praise from Barbara Brown Taylor, Walter Brueggemann, Donyelle McCray (of Yale Divinity School) and Duke’s famous preacher and author Richard Lischer.
you about soon — a whole batch of very important new books came into the store. Coming back in our rented truck felt like Christmas with new releases awaiting from Brene Brown (a thoughtful Christian friend of mine calls Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. [Random House; $28.00] a “game changer”) and a new novel by Barbara Kingsolver, provocatively called Unsheltered (Harper; $29.99) and a serious new one by Lauren Winner, The Dangers of Christian Practice: On Wayward Gifts, 
Characteristic Damage, and Sin published by Yale University Press ($28.00.)
Speaking of friends, Lancaster-based writer Shawn Smucker just released Once We Were Strangers: What Friendship with a Syrian Refugee Taught Me about Loving My Neighbor (Revell; $14.99.) Our staff back here at the shop knew I was eager to see it and texted me a photo of the cover the day it arrived.
Even more exciting to me is a major, major work in the on-going series by IVP Academic called “Studies in Theology & The Arts” entitled 
And, just yesterday — we haven’t even unpacked our road-tripping book vans, yet — we got the brand new book by Ben Sasse called Them: Why We Hate Each Other — and How to Heal (St. Martin’s Press; $28.99.) I’m sure you can guess that I’m a fan of this call to civility and am sure we want to commend it to you and yours.
Almost Everything: Notes on Hope 
She declares that “Chocolate with 81% cacao is not actually a food. It’s best use is as bait in snake traps. Also, a shim to balance the legs of a wobbly chair. It was never meant to be considered an edible. “ But then she preaches: “Don’t let others make you feel unsophisticated if you reach middle age preferring Hershey’s Kisses. So many of your better people do. Also, always carry a handful of Kisses in your backpack or purse to give away. People will like you more.”
It isn’t every day that we get to announce a handsome twentieth anniversary edition of a book that we think is among the most important and beautiful and influential of our lifetimes. I am thrilled to announce (again) a new, expanded edition of The Call: Finding and Fulfilling God’s Purpose for Your Life by Os Guinness (Thomas Nelson; $16.99.) It is a book we esteem greatly and is in the handful of “must reads” that I often cite as central to our own story here. We hope you know it, and sincerely hope you enjoy my brief rumination.
Dr. Guinness, by the way, has another brand new book entitled Last Call for Liberty: How America’s Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat (IVP; $27.00) which details an urgent challenge for us to be clear about the importance of freedom in our fraying civic culture, but I will tell you more about that later. For now, I want to express my deep appreciation for Guinness and his large body of work and remind you about why I so value this new edition of his most-read, classic book, The Call.
Os became known within evangelical circles as an eloquent and elegant speaker and a hefty thinker who was reliable and inspiring as a cultural critic and as a deeply spiritual leader; in all this, he was trusted, and his passions are uncompromising as he proclaims an historic orthodox faith. He has been used by God to stimulate hearts and minds for deeper considerations of the issues of the day and shows how a solid Biblical theology would inform us as we reject both the liberal stream of watered-down faith and the conservative steam of anti-intellectual, legalistic fundamentalism. That he tutored with students and friends of C.S Lewis, served alongside Francis and Edith Schaeffer, earned a PhD from Oxford, worked for the BBC, spent considerable time learning from sociologist Peter Berger while a senior fellow researching for the Brookings Institution, gave him a distinguished intellectual orientation and considerable gravitas. That he studied well and taught us about the deeper, subterranean roots of ideas and the practical forces and trends and practices of the culture but also cared deeply about injustices like race and poverty made him a particular asset to those trying to be, as we often said, “radical Christians.”
Having said all that, I want to remind you that The Call was one of the first contemporary, popular level books that developed the implications of this most important (but routinely misunderstood) theological doctrine, that of “calling” (and its related theme, “vocation.”) There is a huge renaissance of books on faith, calling, discernment, vocation, work, and serving God in varying spheres of society these days, and nearly all owe their moment to a series of talks Guinness did in the 1990s (including at York First Presbyterian Church) and the celebrated release of this seminal book in 1998. I do not think I am alone and I do not think I am wrong to suggest that the faith and work movement, the rise of marketplace ministry courses, the popular spread of conferences and workshops using the language of vocation and Christian views of work-a-day routines owe their existence in our time to how God was pleased to use this book as it was embraced by key leaders within the thoughtful end of the evangelical world.
the things I’m most proud of, although I still wish I could have found a talk of Guinness’s to put in there. Voices similar to Guinness are compiled – Steve Garber, Amy Sherman, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Richard Mouw, Claudia Beversluis, Erica Young Reitz, and the always inspirational wonder, civil rights activist, Dr. John Perkins!) Each of us in Serious Dreams are saying stuff to encourage young adults in that little anthology that mirrors much of what Guinness is doing here; I suspect strongly that each contributor had read it. I advise any young adults wanting some inspiring talks, homilies to get you going, friends on the printed page to help you along to pick up Serious Dreams. But to be really clear about their future and to be instructed well, for life, they should dig in and study Guinness’s remarkably substantive and formative book. I would rather you buy his book than my book!
You should know three quick things about The Call. Guinness is a master of making good points, offering a few sub-points, showing the threats or dangers or counters to those points, and summarizing each. For those that like sort of logical teaching, detail upon detail, close expression, bit by bit, this will thrill you with the sheer weight of fine content. Some of his legendary talks and other vital books are nearly byzantine in their expertly designed structure, but it always works. And, of course, there are well-placed quotes from fabulously interesting figures from Winston Churchill to Dorothy Sayers, from John Calvin to John Wesley, from Kafka to Carnegie.
WM. B. EERDMANS
The Battle for Bonhoeffer: Debating Discipleship in an Age of Trump Stephen R. Haynes (Eerdmans) $19.99 I haven’t read this yet but you may guess right from the start what it is about, and many Hearts & Minds friends are going to be interested. Yep, it is – among other things – about Eric Metaxas and his own work on and recent use of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German Lutheran who called us to “the cost of discipleship” and was executed for his resistance to the Nazi regime. You may know (I hope you do) Mr. Metaxas’ exceptionally readable, evangelically-minded, major biography entitled Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich (Thomas Nelson; $19.99.) Like his previous Wilberforce bio (Amazing Grace) and his more recent book on Luther, Eric has brought the drama, historical background, arcane details and big picture vision of major historical characters to a popular level with his captivating prose and robust storytelling. (His smaller, but thrilling, 7 Great Men and 7 Great Women are coming out in a single volume later this fall!) Metaxas is a clear, colorful writer, a passionate thinker, and his Bonhoeffer book is massive; that’s a good thing, in this case, as there is so much to say, and he says it so well that many a reader wished it wasn’t over, even after 600 pages! There are a lot of books out there by and about Bonhoeffer and there is little doubt that Metaxas’s has sold more than any other.
book has small details that are in error, but, given a relatively generous reading, is he mostly right and is he readable? If he’s significantly wrong, of course, then its popularity and vivid readability isn’t good, as it captivates readers and pulls them into a wrong-headed story. (On the other hand, while I’m at it, we surely know that a book can be pristinely perfect and if it is tedious or arcane or haughty or boring – as most books about Bonhoeffer are, if you ask me – then its accuracy or bold insight isn’t that valuable, since nobody reads it anyway.) Accuracy, wisdom, and enjoyable readability must combine to make a truly great book and I want to know the opinions of scholars who really care about Bonhoeffer; it is my hope that this new paperback by Haynes will be a helpful guide to some of this. I am less interested in those who are spiteful or jealous or who are in principle in opposition to evangelical faith, ruling Eric’s book out a priori. I am told that Haynes helps us sort through all this.
So this new Eerdmans book is asking about all of that, how the great life of a great thinker and faithful pastor might motivate us to be faithful within the quandaries and challenges of our own civic life these days.
Being Human: Bodies, Minds, Persons Rowan Williams (Eerdmans) $12.00 Many of our BookNotes readers will at least know who Rowan Williams is. For those that might not yet be familiar with him, he’s a very important British theologian, an Anglican priest and thinker who a few years ago was the worldwide Anglican communion’s closest equivalent to a figurehead, their Archbishop of Canterbury. After being the 104th leader to be elected to Archbishop of the Church of England (from 2002 – 2012) Williams has become the Master of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge. He has written widely, in varied themes from St. Augustine to contemporary politics, from linguist theory to contemplative spirituality to the study of history and why it matters. It is amazing the sorts of things he is able to write about and everyone who relates to him is impressed with his humility and congeniality and his deep knowledge of the broad, global, Christian tradition. He is a pastor/scholar and a globally recognized public intellectual.
A few years ago Eerdmans started a little series of books by Rowan Williams and Being Human is the third in the trilogy. The first two were quite popular and remain good sellers in the right circles, ideal for those who want a succinct, intellectually stimulating introduction to basic Christian truths as understood within the broadly mainline denominations. The first was Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (Eerdmans; $10.00) and the second was Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life (Eerdmans; $10.00.) This brand new third volume – Being Human — continues this style of gracious, engaging prose about the things that matter most.
Religion & American Culture: A Brief History George M. Marsden (Eerdmans) $30.00 Yep, we shelled out a lot of dough to order these for our store, but I am convinced that any bookstore worth its salt should have cultural studies and history and anything written by George Mardsen, Christian historian par excellence. (Indeed, Professor John Fea calls him “one of our generation’s greatest American religious historians.”)
Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ Fleming Rutledge (Eerdmans) $30.00 I wish I had more time to spend some time with this so I could tell you the glories of it. I’m afraid I am going to have to be very brief, because I just can’t imagine how to explain this other than the bare basics.
theological rigor is seen in the remarkable work The Crucifixion, her fascinating (and very Biblical) preaching is seen in a large collection of sermons on Romans, while yet another draws on the old saying about preaching with the newspaper in the other hand; it is simply called The Bible and the New York Times and only a preacher as eloquent and elegant and as bold and cultured as Rutledge could pull it off
