I am one of those readers who reads with a pen in hand. I almost cannot read a book unless I am underlining statements and scribbling in the margins. This slows down my reading speed significantly, but I think it helps sharpen my mind and interact with the ideas of others.
My goal is to read 4000 books in my lifetime, and these posts keep track of my progress.
One of the things I have also done in recent years on this blog is keep track of which books I read.
I own more books than I can read in a lifetime (which I find highly depressing), and so I have begun to weigh the pros and cons of any book I read. In fact, as I was reading over the “Books I must read in 2014” I was sorry to see that I only read three of them. That is why I am not writing a similar list for 2015…
Here are the 4000 books so far:
- Birth-2009 Estimate: 1500 (doesn’t count children’s books)
- 4000 Books 2010: 45
- 4000 Books 2011: 69
- 4000 Books 2012: 52
- 4000 Books 2013: 57
- 4000 Books 2014: 57
- 4000 Books 2015: See Comments Below
- Total so Far: 1780
Some of these books make it onto my “Burning Books List: The Books Every Christian Should Read.” If you haven’t read the books on this list … well, you should.
What books have you read this past year which influenced your life and theology? What books are you excited to read in 2015?
Do you like C. S. Lewis?
Do you like reading other people’s mail?
Then you will LOVE this book.
It contains some of the letters that C. S. Lewis wrote during his life. C. S. Lewis spent a couple hours each and every day for most of his adult writing career responding to the letters that people wrote to him. I think I read somewhere that he personally responded to EVERY person who wrote to him.
Can you imagine? I cannot even do that with email…
This book does not contain every letter C. S. Lewis wrote, but several hundred of them. They show some of the struggles he faced, the questions he sought answers for, and the ups and downs of his professional and personal relationships.
And, as with absolutely everything C. S. Lewis writes, the letters of C. S. Lewis are full of theological insights and poignant observations about life, church, writing, theology, relationships, and a whole variety of other topics.
He even writes several letters about *gasp* masturbation.
I highly recommend this book.
Jeremy, don’t want to put you down. Kudos if you can read 4,000 books. But couldn’t help thinking Origen wrote 6,000 books, including many works of genius such as “de Principiis”. So glad Pope Benedict rehabilitated him, even though he seems to have contradicted papal infallibility in doing so. I don’t praise Origen’s output to discourage you but to spur you to keep on writing.
He wrote 6000 books? How long were they? I define a “book” as having an average of 200 pages, or 60,000 words.
The reason I went with 4000 is because this is an average of 1 book per week for 80 years. Origen lived to be 69-70 years old. Assuming he began writing by the age of 20, this left him 50 years of writing. That’s 120 books per year, or over 2 per week. His “books” must be only a couple thousand words each to have written 6000.
Edit: I just looked it up… According to Wikipedia, “Origen wrote about 6,000 works (i.e., rolls or chapters).”
Here are some of the books on my list for 2015.
Disarming Scripture – Derek Flood
Dying to Religion and Empire – Jeremy Myers 🙂
A Living Alternative – Several contributing Anabaptist authors
Crucifixion of the Warrior God – Greg Boyd
Stricken by God – Several contributing authors
I’m currently busy with Brian Zahnd’s ‘Farewel to Mars’ as well.
I just had Disarming Scripture show up in my mailbox on Wednesday! Also, I hope to read Greg Boyd’s book (if it gets published this year) and Stricken by God.
We have a very similar reading list! (And thanks for putting my book on there! I just sent the final version to the printer this morning!)
I’m currently reading “The World’s Religions,” by Huston Smith. It is the unsurpassed classic of comparative religion. Smith explains the unique approaches and gifts of various religious traditions. For me, it is bringing to light surprising and unexpected commonalities beneath the diversity of seemingly irreconcilable religions, including Christianity.
Even if you are convinced that the Christian Bible is the one and only, verbatim literary work of God, an understanding of how the Father has called and drawn men and women from other cultures throughout history can be illuminating.
Wow, that sounds like a really good book!
Lutek, we’ve been missing you and your perspective. Nice to hear from you again.
To read 4000 books is a most commendable goal! I wish you well. (What book are you working on this week?)
“The Church” by Hans Kung
I had a strange relationship with books this year. Some of the more influencial ones were ones I didn’t even finish
The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller
A book that I really loved interacting with, even though I think I drew some different conclusions
Desiring the Kingdom by James KA Smith
For the first time in quite some time I managed to pry myself away from the non fictional category, and knock out a major work of fiction, and it turned out to be one of the more influential things I read all year.
The Brothers Karamazon by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I have stacks of stuff that I would really like to get to in the next year, but mere weeks away from meeting my first child, I have a feeling that reading may not be an area that I make a lot of headway in this year. I guess we’ll see.
Congrats on the child! I haven’t read that book by Smith. It sounds good.
Thanks
It was actually really good, even though I think being part of what will eventually be a trilogy might hurt it a bit, there kept being points that I expected him to hit that were never quite paid off, in the first book at least. His model of desire and how it interacts with the concept of liturgy was interesting.
Yes, I was funning. They were just scrolls, I think it comes to around 2,000 “works” many of themas single scroll. But still prodigious. What fascinates me about him is he began as such a literalist, castrating himself based on the “eunuchs for the kingdom of God” and “if it offends you cut it off” passages but thereafter adopted a spiritualising reading of the scriptures and wrote a book against castration.
I think of him when people say “God said it, I believe it, that settles it”. I want to ask “why haven’t you castrated yourself like Origen?” They can’t say it’s just obvious these command aren’t to be taken literally. Origen was raised Christian and was a sincere searcher of the scriptures and he took Jesus literally. So if anyone says “I don’t interpret I just believe” they’d better start cutting off body parts.
I hope to read 66 books* per year…right after I castrate myself
* The Bible
…but seriously…I have stacks of books all over. I start a book and since I read slowly and underline and write in the margins as does Jeremy, I have my interest piqued by another book and find myself reading ten books at once. The last book I read straight through was “The Mystery of the Shemitah” by Jonathon Cahn
Yeah, I feel you; same problem on my end. I’m quicker at buying books than reading them.
Thanks for your kind words, Sam. I don’t like to think of it as “my” perspective, just a collation of thoughts from many fine people, including some of yours. “We’re all in this together,” after all.
I’m sorry it took so long to reply. I didn’t see your post until I browsed the comment history just now. I need to remember to subscribe to comments properly!
Happy New Year to you, and to you Jeremy, and to everyone!
Oops! I meant to reply to you here! See below. Thank you, Sam!
I guess the “reply” button isn’t working, for some reason.
>I own more books than I can read in a lifetime (which I find highly depressing)
A) Surely some of those book purchases were purely for reference purposes.
One buys the sixty-something volume _Bible Study Textbook Series_ published by College Press, not with the expectation of reading through each volume, but rather, when studying, say 3 John, to grab Clinton Gill’s _Hereby We Know_, to see what he says about 3 John. (Roughly 15 pages.)
With Biblical software, collections are purchased/acquired purely for the value that comes from seeing what “x” says about a specific topic, or verse, and not to read the work as a whole. The ability to cut and paste from umpteen different sources, one’s sermon for Sunday morning. One of the issue with what has been dubbed FrankenSermon software, is that it takes quotes, from both the Bible, and other sources, completely out of context, and once the hearer realizes that, the sermon loses any effectiveness it might have, and the “preacher” loses any credibility s/he might have had.
B) If you go back to the original research, the four books per year average, was about _recreational_ reading, not job related reading. Furthermore, it also excluded reading for classes, regardless of the educational level of those classes. By that criteria, assuming that all the books you read in 2014 are listed at https://redeeminggod.com/4000-books-2014/ , _Game of Thrones_, and _How To Fail At Almost Everything_, are the only books that go onto your list, and from https://redeeminggod.com/4000-books/ , only _Ender’s Game_ is the only book on that page, that goes onto the list.
C) Time related constraints do come into play, even with job related reading. Not everybody can read Kaplan & Sadock _Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (Seventh Edition)_ 2000 (6,934 pages) in one week (40 hours, at 1500 words per minute, or 3 pages per minute.) Nonetheless, the data suggests that academics do far more job related reading, than other professions. Clergy appear to make more job-related book purchases per year, than other professions.
(On the flipside, one of the major book review publications, told their reviewers that they could read no more than either 100 or 200 books per year . That number included books they read for pleasure, or for other organizations, or people. Their theory was that one could not write a book review that did the book justice, if one read that many books per year, regardless of how few book reviews one wrote.)
College students reading for the classes can churn through a number of books each year. The one-semester-hour course I took a decade ago, had 4 required textbooks. Several courses I took in college had 15+ required textbooks. Then there is the material on the recommended reading list, supplemental reading list, and related topics reading list, that students get assigned.
D) None of this matters, if your personal goal is to read “x” books per year, regardless of whether the reading is for fun, work, family, or other purposes or reasons. The books that should be counted, but are skipped, are those that one reads to one’s children, aloud. _Saddle Club_, _Famous Five_, _Noddy_, etc.
All great points. I am just making this list for fun, and for my own reference sake. But you must understanding, I enjoy reading theology more than I enjoy reading fiction. So theological reading IS recreational reading for me.
>So theological reading IS recreational reading for me.
Few people find _Summna Theologica_, or _Glossa Ordinaria_ recreational content.
I do! Though I haven’t read the second, so cannot say for certain.
I wrote a full review here. Best Commentary on Exodus
3. Dynamic Transcendence: Correlation of Confessional Heritage and Contemporary Experience in a Biblical Mode of Divine Activity
This is a groundbreaking, theology-shattering book …. but it is not for the faint of heart or for the popular-level reader. He writes about the origin of Scripture and theology within culture and history and challenges us to rethink the place of Scripture and theology within our traditions.
A good book that helps us understand how the pieces of the Bible fit together. If you have read Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination, 2nd Edition
this book is very similar in theme and message.
I wrote a full review here: The Grand Paradox.
Someone told me to read all of Jim Palmer’s books. I am not glad I did.
I don’t disagree with him (in this book so much anyway), and I appreciate his willingness to say hard things and ask hard questions, but I just prefer books with more depth and content. I could never connect with what Jim was writing or how he was writing it.
My review of this book is similar to the previous one… Someone told me to read all of Jim Palmer’s books. I am not glad I did.
I don’t disagree with him (in this book so much anyway), and I appreciate his willingness to say hard things and ask hard questions, but I just prefer books with more depth and content. I could never connect with what Jim was writing or how he was writing it. He tells lots of stories, and while some people really like this, I do not.
Also, while this particular book contains an important truth about incarnating Jesus in our world today, I think Palmer started to go off the rails a little bit about what this means for the incarnation of Jesus itself 2000 years ago.
My review of this book is similar to the previous two… Someone told me to read all of Jim Palmer’s books. I am not glad I did.
I appreciate his willingness to say hard things and ask hard questions, but this book goes too far. He essentially ends up denying the divinity of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus (see page 40).
I understand what he is saying, that we are the return of Christ (p. 125), but I think he takes this idea too far.
9. The Church
by Hans Kung.
No book I have ever read on the church has so clearly and thoroughly stated what I have come to believe about the church.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this book was written by a leading Catholic professor of theology!
Of course, after writing this book (and as a result of it), Kung is a Catholic no longer, for they excommunicated him. So be warned! If you follow Kung down the rabbit hole, there will be ramifications in your personal life as well! (As there were in mine).
C. S. Lewis gives credit to MacDonald for much of his thinking and theology. So if you want to understand C. S. Lewis and how he thought, it is important to read George MacDonald.
This book contains the theological and devotional insights that MacDonald gleaned from Scripture. His theological writings often transition into prayers to God, which also makes this book worshipful.
A leading theologian told me that this book was one of the most influential books they had read about how to understand the Old Testament. That’s a glowing recommendation!
So I read it.
Having read the book, I still don’t understand what his point was or why this book was so influential. (And I read lots of scholarly books!)
A leading theologian told me this was a super influential book for him. So I read it.
This book did not help me at all. I feel like his point could have been made in about two pages. He is very, very, very wordy. So much so, that his great idea about the Crucified God as the center to life and theology and everything gets completely lost.
I have an idea I am pursuing about ancient pagan myths and the Hebrew Bible, and this book seemed like a good resource to help my research. It was a good resource.
However, don’t read this book unless you are a super geek. I’m just a plain geek, so this book was a bit too much for me. Nevertheless, I got out of it what I was looking for – evidence that Hebrew worship patterns had their origins in Canaanite religion.
A leading theologian told me that this book was one of the most influential books they had read about how to understand the Old Testament. That’s a glowing recommendation!
So I read it.
Having read the book, I still don’t understand what his point was or why this book was so influential.
I wrote a full review of the book here.
If you have no clue where the Bible came from or how we got the Bible as it is today, this classic book will provide the big picture overview and the history behind the development of the Bible.
I received all this information through various other books when I was in Bible college, but it was a good reminder and summary.
This is like two different books with different and competing ideas. the first part of the book, pages 1-113 goes to great lengths to show how God can do violent things and even command Israel to do violence in His name, while still remaining a loving and merciful God.
The second part of the book, pages 114ff, shows how Jesus lived in true non-violent enemy-love, and invites us to do the same.
I had real trouble reconciling the first part of the book with the second.
I have been doing a LOT of reading on how to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament. Of all the books I have read, this is one of my favorites.
However … I am hoping there is a solution to the problem of Old Testament violence which does not requires us to say that the Old Testament is full of errors and myths. Derek Flood has not found that solution. He explains away the violence by giving up on inspiration and inerrancy.
For example, on page 42, he attributes certain portions of the Old Testament to the devil, rather than to God.
I really think Flood has a lot of great things to say, but I am not able or ready to accept his position on the Old Testament texts.
This book contains a groundbreaking and revolutionary idea that could have been summarized in a book that was 90% shorter. Yes, he probably need the other 550 pages to help convince the scholars and prove that he had done his homework, but for those of us who just want the facts, a popular-level summary would have been fine.
If you want to skip some of the scholarly minutiae, I recommend you start reading at page 153 and then stop at around 418 or so. You will still get a lot of repetitive and unnecessary material, but this section of the book provides his main idea.
What is that idea? It is this:
God originally wanted an intimate and personal relationship with the Israelites. But they rejected Him and asked for religion instead, much like the surrounding cultures. So, much like God provided a king even though this was not His ideal, He provided laws, a priesthood, and a tabernacle, even though these were not His ideal. And ever step of disobedience in the Pentateuch caused an exponential increase in laws and regulations. At the end of the Pentateuch, Moses recognized that the law was already broken and temporary, and looked forward to the New Covenant of the Spirit based on love and liberty.
It is a masterful idea that will transform your reading of the Pentateuch. I highly recommend this book, if you can wade through all the extra details and discussion.
This is a great book, with groundbreaking information that will transform how you read the Old Testament and the New Testament, and how you understand the role of religion in society and culture. This book provides a great move forward in the discussion on non-violence.
The book suffers from two things. First, the title seems to be trying to piggyback off the book by Rick Warren than accurately describe the content in the book. Second, the book content itself is poorly organized. There is no real progression of thought within each chapter, and the chapters themselves lacked a logical flow, structure, or outline. Instead, the book seemed to follow a “stream of consciousness” approach. Each section was incredibly insightful and helpful, but one section rarely fit well with what preceded or followed it.
If you can get past that, this book will challenge everything you think you know about the violence in Scripture, the role of the church in the world, and how you view your enemies. I highly recommend this book and the ideas it contains.
This may be the most quotable book I have ever read. Every chapter is filled with super “Tweetable” zingers that are both insightful and thought-provoking at the same time.
Here are a few:
“Fear has become the glue that holds the institutional church together” (p. 112).
“Religion delights in making God look evil” (p. 130).
“We believe God is a mafia leader who pops others who get out of line” (p. 131)
“It is impossible to love people and purposefully cause them to question whether or not they will make it to heaven when they die” (p. 179)
Based on the characteristics of love as found in 1 Corinthians 13, Darin Hufford takes the reader on a journey to rediscover the love of God in a way you will rarely (if ever) hear it explained in your church.
The only drawback to the book was that I didn’t like the long stories which began each chapter. I am a very “left brain” person, and find these stories annoying. But many people will really like them.
If you want to understand the love of God for you, read this book.
A full review can be found here.
I found the content of this book insightful and compelling, but extremely difficult to read. It is not that the author used big words or fancy philosophical language, but that the book formatting kept throwing me off. I really think that with some proper book formatting, this book could reach a much wider audience.
Of course, having said that, this book tackles a very tough topic in a way that is still easier to read and understand than how this same topic is discussed within some of the “professionally formatted” books on the same topic.
Rabe’s book is a popular level summary of Girard’s mimetic theory. I believe that is a “theory of everything” and that all people, no matter what field or profession they are in, can benefit from understanding mimetic rivalry and the scapegoating mechanism. From leaders of countries to mothers trying to understand their children, mimetic theory helps us see the truth behind our actions and those of others. Rabe’s book has several excellent chapters which explains this theory in an understandable way and how it relates to our lives.
I wrote a full review here: The Unseen Realm
I wrote a full review here: Now You Can Understand Prophecy
I have been doing a lot of study over the last several years on the atonement, and this was a good introductory book on some of the major views of the atonement. The only real drawback to the book is that the various authors are not able to go into great detail on their views, but simply present more of a summary. But that is what you get in a “Four Views” book.
I like everything that Capon has written, but this book was my least favorite of them all. As usual, he has some great insights and ideas, presented with laugh-out-loud humor and typical Capon wit, but all in all, I couldn’t get into this book.
Anybody who thinks that the idea “love is the point of the Gospel” is nothing more than wishy-washy, liberal sentimentality needs to read this book. For according to one of the world’s leading scholars and theologians, love is the point of the Gospel.
I like to read fiction every now and then, and I especially like to read fiction to my wife at night. This is a series she chose, so we are working through it.
A great book with great characters, and my wife loves it!
I work with a bunch of different religions, and someone recommended I read this book. I found it entertaining and creative, though I often felt the plot wondered and meandered too much.
This is a very uneven book. I liked the ideas it contains, but some of the chapters were quite intellectual and scholarly (Hardin, Ekbald) while others were more down to earth and devotional (Williams, Miko). One or the other would be fine for a book, but it is a strange mix to put them both in one book together.
On the other hand, this mix makes this book a good book for anyone. Read the chapters that match your personality and revel in the revelation.
Altogether the book is a fine introduction to some of the issues of reading Scripture through a non-violent, Christus Victor lens.
According to The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views (see comment above) this book is the classic explanation and defense of the Christus Victor view of the atonement. I wanted to learn more about this view, so I bought and read this book.
At first, I was quite disappointed with what I read. It was not at all what I wanted or expected. Aulen wrote correctly when, near the beginning of his second chapter when he explains how he will proceed, wrote, “This method of procedure may seem surprising…” Yes, it definitely was that… and as a result, almost caused me to put down the book and stop reading. But I am glad I persevered.
By appearances, the book is little more than a long, historical survey of the doctrine of the atonement, showing how various views of the atonement have been developed over time and in response to various events within the church and the surrounding culture. This is Aulen’s “surprising” approach.
For myself, I did not want an historical survey of the doctrine of the atonement, but an explanation and defense of the Christus Victor view. But Aulen provided the second by doing the first.
Frankly, this caused me to frequently get frustrated with his approach. “Just explain the view!” I wanted to yell. But I ended up getting a decent explanation of the view and a history lesson to boot.
As it turns out, the history lesson was important, for it shows why the Christus Victor view fell out of favor among church theologians for nearly 1700 years, but is now beginning to make a bit of a comeback.
And I, for one, say this comeback is long past due.
This is one of the foundational studies of violence in Scripture and how to understand it in light of Girardian mimetic theory. I found it extremely helpful, but later books by Bailie and Heim were better still.
This book presented a non-violent reading of Scripture in light of Girard’s mimetic theory, but more than anything, this book was a defense of how the Catholic Mass could still be practiced and not be viewed as a perpetual sacrifice. As such, it might primarily be helpful for Catholics.
Of all the books I have read so far on Girard’s mimetic theory and the practice of scapegoating and how this helps us read and understand the violence of God in Scripture, this book by Bailie was the most helpful one yet.
If you want to understand the violence of Scripture, or mimetic theory, or the Christus Victor view of the atonement, or what Jesus accomplished on the cross, this is one of the books you absolutely must read.
People keep recommending I read books on writing, and for some reason, I keep reading them. So far, I have not enjoyed a single one. This book by Anne Lamott is no different. It might be more entertaining than many of the other books on writing I have read, but it still provided very little to help me in my own writing.
I suppose this is because all my writing is non-fiction and most of the the books on writing are for and from those who write fiction.
This is three books in one. My favorite was “The Third Peacock,” though the opening chapters to “Hunting the Divine Fox” were classic Capon. Everything considered, however, these three books are not some of Capon’s best. They are still worth reading though, especially if you are a fan of Capon.
This is one of the top 10 best books I have ever read. The theology of the cross which S. Mark Heim unfolds for us in this book helps us see God, Jesus, ourselves, history, culture, government, and all of Scripture in a whole new light.
Too much of Christianity thinks that Jesus died on the cross in order to pay off God and appease the wrath of God so that God could love us once again. This book reveals how terribly wrong this perspective is, and instead reveals to us that Jesus died on the cross to reveal to us what we have been doing to others (and to God) for all of human history, namely, we have been scapegoating them.
S. Mark Heim shows that Jesus died as a scapegoat to end all scapegoating. Jesus died as our sacrifice to God, to reveal to us that God does not and has never wanted sacrifices.
This is a must read book, and it is going on my list of the Best Christian Books I Have Ever Read.
See my full review here: Warning: Geeky Greek Post Ahead
This is one of the better books on Genesis 1 I have read. On my Podcast, I take a more theological/literary approach to understanding Genesis 1, but Walton’s explanation of Genesis 1 could easily be incorporated into it so that Genesis 1 is also seen as historical.
The primary problem, Walton says, with our modern interpretations of Genesis 1 is that they focus too much on material beginnings. Material beginnings are in Genesis 1, but are only in Genesis 1:1.
The rest of the accounts is not on material beginnings, but on taking the material that was created in Genesis 1:1, and making it functional (Days 1-3) for the functionaries (Days 4-6), and especially for the pinnacle of the week, and the chief functionary: mankind.
My primary question from the book was that I had trouble understanding what exactly God was “doing” (p. 65, 170) during these six days. In his view, the water and earth, the plants, the sun, moon, and stars, the animals, and even “homo” specimens (p. 169) already existed.
So other than raise up the consciousness of two of the homo specimens to the level of humans on the 6th day, what was God doing on the other five? Other than that one possible change, I just do not understand how things were different in the world after the Genesis 1 account compared to how they were before.
Walton mentioned time, weather, and food, but all of that would have existed before as well. The sun shone before, as did the moon and stars at night. The dew rose, the seasons changed, the animals and plants reproduced. So what changed? What was the difference between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 2:1?
I emailed Dr. Walton with this question, and here is his response:
“Hi Jeremy,
“God was ordering the cosmos to function for people and as sacred space. The importance is that everything has been given a function for a different reason. Think of a realtor showing a family through their just purchased house. Now the electricity, plumbing, roof, foundation, etc. are all going to work for them. It is being re-tasked. Re-organization (imagine a new president or CEO of a company) is an act of creation. One example I use is that after 62 years in existence, our graduate school recently adopted a vision statement and a mission statement. It didn’t change what we did, but it gave the grad school direction and purpose.”
So, the only real difference is that “the tenants moved in” and so now the earth has purpose and a goal.
More thought it needed, but I really like the direction in which this book sent me. I highly recommend it.
Overall, I really liked the general approach that Sailhamer took in this book, but I think it had serious exegetical flaws. His case could have been greatly strengthened if he had backed up his ideas with further footnotes from other sources.
For example, when he says that no serious scholars think that Moses was writing a polemic against the mythical creation accounts of his day (p. 88), he cites one scholarly work from 1989. In my own studies, I have encountered dozens of leading world class scholars who have written more recently on the subject who disagree (Gordon Johnston, for example).
Also, though I was intrigued by his idea that the “land” of Genesis 1 was primarily the “Promised Land,” I was not fully convinced, and did not see how this ended up making sense of Genesis 1. I do think there are word plays on “the land” in Genesis 1 and the Promised Land in the rest of the Pentateuch, but I don’t think we can say that “the land” of Genesis 1 IS the Promised Land.
There were other similar concerns with the book. All in all, Sailhamer has some great ideas, but in my opinion, they needed further refinement and support.
However you understand Genesis 1-4, C. John Collins invites you to realize that these chapters lay the foundation for all good science and philosophy, for they tell us that the world came from a good and wise Creator, who made the world for us to live in, enjoy, and rule (p. 266).
This is a good balanced book which allows the reader to see that Genesis 1-4 are historically and theologically true, even if the reader does not read these chapters as recording a chronological and scientifically precise account of how the universe began.
Can I write something heretical?
I just do not understand why so many people love Bonhoeffer. I keep trying to read his books because people recommend them to me, but I find his writing tepid and uninteresting.
I cannot even review this book properly, because I forgot what Bonhoeffer wrote immediately after I finished reading it!
As far as I can tell, the only real reason people like Bonhoeffer is because he tried to kill Hitler.
I read this book as part of my research for the “One Verse Podcast.”
It’s hard to disagree with a man who has 3 Doctorates.
And I don’t disagree … not exactly. This book is full of great insights into how to understand Genesis 1 from a scientific perspective.
It is just that this book is little more than a basic introduction to some of the issues and themes surrounding Genesis 1, and even then, some of the points made the book seem to be poorly researched and explained.
For example, on page 125, he quoted K. A. Kitchen as saying that while there are numerous analogies between Genesis 1-2 and the Babylonian Enuma Elish, there is not direct relationship between the two, and so we must abandon any attempt to see any connection or correlation.
In my own research, I have found exactly the opposite, and a large number of contemporary Bible scholars are seeing more and more correlation and connection between Genesis 1-2 and the Enuma Elish, and not only that, but also with the Egyptian and Canaanite creation stories as well.
I do think, however, that his explanation of the word “yom” (day) is spot on (pp. 49-52), as well as his explanation of the so-called “creation” of the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day (pp. 58-60). His explanations are short, but accurate.
Ultimately, this book, while good, is little more than an introduction to some of the key themes and issues surrounding the interpretation and understanding of Genesis 1 in light of modern science.
I wrote a review here.
I wrote a review here.
I wrote a full review here.
This book is, by far, one of the better books I have read dealing with the issues surrounding Genesis 1 and how to understand them in light of their original context.
Of course, maybe this is because both of the authors graduated from the same seminary I did, and so likely had some of the same classes from the same professors. I didn’t enjoy all my classes at seminary, but the one who taught me the truths about how to understand Genesis (Dr. Gordon Johnston) was one of my favorite profs there.
I read this book as part of the One Verse podcast I am publishing on Genesis 1, and found it to be further confirmation of much of what I am teaching there.
The original context of Genesis 1 is NOT the creation vs. evolution debate, and so we cannot say that this is the issue Genesis 1 addresses. Instead, the original authors and audience were concerned with how the God of Israel measured up to the gods of Egypt, Babylon, and Canaan. Genesis 1 is a polemical counter-myth to the teachings and traditions of these other religions. This doesn’t mean Genesis 1 isn’t true, but that it is more true than we ever imagined.
I highly recommend this book if you are seeking to understand Genesis 1. This book goes onto my list of books that every Christian should read.
I am a proponent of a nonviolent atonement and have written much on the topic, and so was excited to read this book.
I was quickly disturbed to find, however, that the book is little more than one long summary of a bunch of other books on the atonement, many of which I had already read.
In other words, J. Denny Weaver’s approach in this book is that he read a bunch of books on the atonement, and then wrote 5-10 pages summarizing the views and arguments of each book, which are then all compiled into this book on the atonement. You can see this simply by looking at the footnotes throughout the book.
So, for example, almost all of the footnotes from pages 52-56 comes from Beker’s book, Paul the Apostle. Then page 57 picks up with a summary of Raymund Schwager’s book, Jesus in the Drama, followed by Brondos’ book, Paul on the Cross, on pages 61-66.
This pattern pretty much continues throughout the book.
Yes, Weaver comments on the strengths and weaknesses of each book, and provides his own insights as well, all of which are helpful, but for me, the “survey of books on the subject” approach to writing makes for very dull reading.
However, if you are brand new to the subject of a nonviolent atonement, a book like this might be just what you are looking for to introduce you to the various views and available authors which are out there in this important topic.
This book was much better than The Nonviolent Atonement (see above). He still spends a lot of time doing little more than summarizing the books of other authors, but at least this shows that he did his research, and (most of all) at least he cites his sources!
For me, the book really started to get good at around page 100, when he started to pull together all of his research and draw some theological ramifications about violence and the activity of God in human history.
I also really appreciated the final chapters of the book where he wrote about practical applications for living in light of a nonviolent God. Issues such as gender, race, reconciliation, and forgiveness are important applications that all people need to consider today.
My wife and I read books out loud to each other in the evening. We are currently working through the Outlander series. This book moved much more slowly than the first book in the series, but was still very good. I felt like all the time spent in France was mostly unnecessary. Still, it has a gut-wrenching end, so we are already reading the third book to find out what happens!
Someone told me this was the best book they had ever read on the theological topic of the Kingdom of God. So I bought and read it.
I thought it was the worst book on the Kingdom of God I had ever read.
Okay… that’s an exaggeration, but I got so annoyed at the strange imagery of “skinny jeans kingdom” vs. “pleated pants kingdom” that permeates this book, I could hardly focus on anything else McKnight was saying. It is terrible imagery, and really detracted from the message of the book.
To be honest, that image is the only thing I now remember from the book. I don’t even recall what separates the two types of kingdom theologies.
This made me chuckle. What would you do if you received a pair of pleated pants and a pair of skinny jeans under the Christmas tree?
Wow, this book is dated! It desperately needs an update.
This book was written before the age of Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. He says the internet will never overtake TV. Well, it has. On page 167, he even talks about a dial-up 14.4 modem. On page 222 he says that web is terrible at giving reach and goes on to recommend that people reduce their web presence (p. 237).
Look, there are GREAT ideas in here about how marketing really can and should work so that it benefits and helps people rather than annoys and angers them, but so many of the examples and applications are obsolete, it almost makes the book obsolete….
If this book were given a modern makeover, it would be a 5-star book.
I really, really do not like “how to” books when it comes to marriage and parenting. Here is why: these books are most often written from the perspective of someone who stumbled across some strategy which works well for their relationship in their family, but rarely (if ever) really works in any other relationship or family. Nevertheless, because it works so well for them, they write a book about it.
Then the rest of us read it, and feel guilty that we are not doing what they recommend, so we try it, and then when it doesn’t work for us, we feel even more guilty.
This book was no different. Someone told me it was the best book on parenting they had ever read. They even said it was the only book on parenting they would ever recommend. So I took a chance and read it.
There were (as there always are) some useful nuggets and ideas for how to parents your kids. But overall, in my family, with my kids, these suggestions do not “work.”
And now I just feel “guilty” because I respect my friend who recommended the book to me, and it “worked” for him, but it doesn’t “work” for me, so I wonder what is wrong with me, or wrong with my kids, or wrong with our family.
I would say this, however…. IF you really want to read a book on parenting, read this one. I agree with my friend that this might be the only book on parenting I would ever recommend. It probably is, as my friend said, the best book on parenting I have ever read. It truly does have a good perspective on children and raising them up to be responsible, powerful people. But even still, I came away with more guilt and fear than I had before…
This is a fantastic book. It is going on my list of books that every Christian should read.
In a down-to-earth and intensely practical writing style, Sharon Baker shows the problem with traditional understandings of the atonement and the violence of God, and reveals an alternative way of looking at the cross of Jesus and the violence of God in the Bible.
I have been reading and studying these issues for several years now, and this book is one of the two or three books I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to begin studying the atonement or the violence of God in the Bible in more detail.
Sharon presents a view of God which allows us to see Him as completely loving and nonviolent, as one who suffers with us in our pain. Read this book and understand God in a the light of Jesus Christ!