I closed out the year reading some wonderful books! Leadership in Turbulent Times is a great study in presidential leadership by a noted historian. Mary Leiderleitner’s Women in God’s Mission is a book I recommend men read to understand both the gift women are to God’s mission, and the challenges they face in serving. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a classic rendering of the confrontation of African tribal culture with the unholy alliance of Christian missions and imperialism. Kurt Schaefer’s study of “household codes” in 1 Peter is a delightful piece of biblical scholarship by an economist! Stephen Cottrell’s The Sleepy Shepherd is a delightful Christmas story for the whole family. In reading Adam Bede, I concluded that I am finally old enough to appreciate George Eliot. The re-packaged edition of D. A. Carson’s expositions of Matthew 5-10 is a treasure. My final “read” for the year was Alice Fryling’s Mirror for the Soul, a clear and insightful Christian reflection on the Enneagram. Here’s the full list, and not a loser on it. The titles link to the publisher’s website, and the word “Review” to my full review of the book.
Leadership in Turbulent Times, Doris Kearns Goodwin. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018. A study of how four presidents led the nation during turbulent times, tracing their awakening leadership ambitions, the adversity that formed their character, and lessons from how they led. Review
Women in God’s Mission, Mary T. Lederleitner. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2018. An account of research into the many ways women are leading in God’s mission around the world, the distinctive traits in their service and leadership, the challenges they experience around gender discrimination, and the conditions under which they do their best work. Review
Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, Marilee Adams (Foreword by Marshall Goldsmith). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2015. Builds on the insight that the kinds of questions we ask shape our actions, and focuses on learning to ask “learner” rather than “judger” questions. Review
The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest, John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017. Explores the biblical accounts of the Israelite conquest of Canaan, looking closely at the ancient Near East context and arguing that this was not a divinely commanded genocide or Holy War. Review
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe. New York: Penguin, 1994 (originally published 1959). First of a trilogy portraying the confrontation of Igbo tribal culture and Christian missions and British colonialism. Review
Amazing Jewish Heroes Down Through the Ages, David Richard Goldberg. Springfield, NJ: Gefen Publishing House, 2017. A collection of brief biographical sketches on eleven Jewish heroes from ancient to modern times. Review
Husband, Wife, Father, Child, Master, Slave, Kurt C Schaefer. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2018. In contrast to many biblical scholars who argue that the “household codes” of scripture do indeed, for various reasons, affirm cultural role expectations, this work argues that Peter’s version is actually a subtle satire that opposes the cultural norms of Greco-Roman culture. Review
Faith for This Moment, Rick McKinley. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2018. Explores what it means to live as a Christian in a polarized and secularized society, drawing on the idea of exile in scripture and proposing practices that sustain faithfulness in exile. Review
Finding Favour in the Sight of God (New Studies in Biblical Theology), Richard P. Belcher, Jr. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018. A study of the message and theology of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes concluding with an exploration of Jesus and wisdom. Review
You Welcomed Me. Kent Annan. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2018. Describes the global refugee crisis, the opportunities that the church has to extend welcome, and the fears and misunderstandings that prevent us from doing so. Review
The Sleepy Shepherd, Stephen Cottrell, illustrated by Chris Hagan. London, SPCK, 2018. The story of a shepherd boy who constantly fell asleep and slept through the angels’ announcement of the birth of the king in Bethlehem. Review
Adam Bede, George Eliot. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 (first published 1859). A tale centering around the love of Adam Bede, a woodworker, for Hetty Sorrel, a dairy maid who is eventually tried for murder of her infant child, conceived in an affair with the local squire, Arthur Donnithorne. Review
Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World, D. A. Carson. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2018 (originally published as two separate works 1978, 1987). An expository study of Matthew 5-10 that focuses on the call to a distinctive life for the disciples of Jesus. Review
Mirror for the Soul, Alice Fryling. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press/Formatio, 2017. An explanation from a Christian perspective of the Enneagram and its use in spiritual formation, helping us to live out of our gifting, recognize our blind spots, and experience the grace of God. Review
Best of the Month: Always a tough choice for me. This month’s goes to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership in Turbulent Times. I think we are in such times, and it seems this is a good book to inform the choices we make at the ballot box for those who lead our communities, states, and nation in the next years. If their were a list of required readings for citizens, I would recommend this book for the list.
Best Quote of the Month: Alice Fryling offers one of the best explanations of the difference between “false self” and “true self” in this statement:
“The false self is the person we think we should be but are not. It is the person we want others to think we are. The false self perpetuates the illusion that we are able to love perfectly, to be wise and all-knowing, and to be in control of life. The false self thrives on success and achievement. The problem is not that the false self is a bad person. The problem is that the false self is a façade. It is an imitation of God that we “use” to impress others. The false self languishes in pretense and in grasping for abilities and gifts that are not ours to have. The true self, on the other hand, truly expresses the gifts God has given us to love well” (p. 25).
Current Reads: I had just begun Upton Sinclair’s Between Two Worlds a month ago. I’m almost finished with it. Sinclair writes stemwinders–long but fascinating. This one chronicles the post World War 1 years–the failures of Versailles, the efforts to forget the war in the roaring 20’s, the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, and the lead up to the stock market crash of 1929–all through the travels and love affairs of Lanny Budd. I just finished Tara Westover’s Educated, a stunning book that has been on a number of best book lists of 2018. Look for my review tomorrow. Greg Laurie and Ellen Vaughn’s Jesus Revolution took my back to my own Jesus movement roots. Jeremy Begbie’s A Peculiar Orthodoxy is a collection of articles by Begbie on theology and the arts. I’m finally getting around to Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth, which explores the intergenerational impact of an affair on the two affected families. John Teter’s The Power of the 72 effervesces with the love Teter has for mobilizing people to share their faith. Future reads include George M. Marsden’s Religion and American Culture; Sarah C. William’s Perfectly Human, a book about which I’ve heard rave reviews; and Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M. Shaw’s Intersectional Theology, a theological exploration of how we think about the intersection of different identities around race, gender, and class.
This list alone suggests that there will be many good books for us to discuss in 2019. I hope you have a happy new year of reading!
By the way, in case you missed them, here are my posts on “best books” of 2018:
Bob on Books 