These are just a few books that have influenced me in the last few years–a couple of them are classics. I occasionally review some books on this blog. View my reviews here.
If you’re a Goodreads user and want to snoop on my reading habits, check me out there. I occasionally update my personal reading list and #goals (poetry, business books, you name it).
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When the Church Was Young by Marcellino D’Ambrosio
A great introduction to early church fathers, told in an easy-to-read storytelling fashion but without losing some theological or mystical insights important to their work and life.
New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
One of my all time “top 5” favorite Christian books which I have read over and over, and from which I am still gleaning insight. This is the classic book on contemplation. Some of my favorite essays include “Things in their Identity” and “The Moral Theology of the Devil”, which continue to feel fresh and necessary as when they were first written.
Mystical Union by John Crowder
This book and its author kind of rocked my little theological world and heart. I wish I had found it years ago; the subtitle, “Stuff they never told you about the finished work of the Cross,” is not kidding. Read my full review.
Jesus and the Undoing of Adam by C. Baxter Kruger
This slim volume is a very readable introduction to Christology—theology that starts and ends in Christ. I’ve been in several live and online classes with C. Baxter Kruger, and his work has really opened my eyes to understand the beauty of Jesus Christ within. This is more than just head knowledge. His writing is deeply experiential and passionate. He reacquaints readers with the early church fathers in their writings on Christ and the Trinity, and helps us understand how modern evangelicalism came to suffer from a legalized view of God in contrast to the early church and the apostles.
Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright
I was given this book when it was first published in the UK back in 2007, before the author nearly exploded in North America as the preeminent theologian. And it’s no wonder–N. T. Wright is an immensely readable scholar, even for layfolks (like me). This book singlehandledly revived conversation about the (literal) resurrection. It also explores/debunks some concepts of heaven and kingdom, freeing them from entrenched evangelical ideas about heaven as being over there in the sweet by and by.
Kingdom Grace, Judgement by Robert F. Capon
If you’re bored spitless by Christian books or just need a shot of grace, this book will give you enough to sink into for a good long reading spell. It’s actually 3 books in one—Robert Capon’s treatment of all Jesus’ parables in the gospels. I wish more pastors and teachers would read this book before they expound simple explanations of Jesus’ mysterious riddles. Capon is brilliant at skewering religion in all its forms—which, as you might see, Jesus was also skewering.
Unspoken Sermons: Series I, II, III by George MacDonald
My one desert island book. I own a limited edition that my husband and I have read over and over to each other in the evenings. One has to let George MacDonald speak for himself—these sermons have on full display a masterful imagination on the beauty of Jesus’ relationship with his good Father.
Reversed Thunder by Eugene Peterson
The Revelation (the book in the Bible) has been used as the “grist of eschatological morality mills,” to use a Robert Capon phrase, for far too long, and there have been some theologians and Bible interpreters that are trying to reclaim its truth from the ashes of those mills. I read this early book by Eugene Peterson (translator of The Message) many years ago—and it was the first I know of to strip Revelation of its “interpretation” trappings and celebrate the sheer beauty of language in apocalyptic literature. A lovely read.