Ten Books For Understanding Evangelicalism

May 5, 2017May 4, 2017 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

My copy of Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who Is There, purchased c. 1972.

In a review of Carl F. H. Henry’s classic The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism the other day, I mentioned a conversation in which I wondered aloud how many of those who leave evangelicalism understand the rich, if imperfect, part of the Christian family they are leaving. My own sense is that often, though not always, they are responding to distortions or downright contradictions of historical evangelicalism. I recognize that for some it is a matter of leaving the incredibly painful, and may well be warranted, but I sense for others, it is wondering whether the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. I won’t try to answer that, but would propose that it might first be important to appraise the grass on the evangelical side of the fence.

The friend I was talking with asked me about some books he might consider. This is a kind of expansion on my response. I suggest two kinds of books here. Some are histories, which go back to Great Britain as well as our own national beginnings. The others are “classics”–books that for many of us shaped an evangelical outlook. At the end, I provide links to some other lists–mine is hardly exhaustive–but rather a starting point.

Histories:

David W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain. London: Routledge, 1988. The history of Wesley to John Stott is covered here, as well as Bebbington’s crucial delineation of four evangelical distinctives: biblicism, crucicentrism, conversionism and activism.

Donald W. Dayton and Douglas M Strong, Rediscovering an Evangelical Heritage, 2nd edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2014. An updated edition of a study of the pre-Civil War nineteenth century roots of evangelicalism in the United States and the combination of piety, preaching, and social reform characteristic of this movement in this period. (From my review).

George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. This book looks at the retrenchment of evangelicalism into fundamentalism in the U.S. post Civil War, with the rise of Darwinism, European biblical scholarship, and the “social gospel” associated with theologically liberal Christianity. The new edition tracks this movement since the 1970’s in its more politically engaged form.

Mark A. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1995. Noll explores the historical reasons for the lack of evangelical influence in the academy, the arts, and “high” culture. This book served as a kind of rallying cry for a group of us involved in launching a national ministry effort with graduate students and faculty.

Brian Stanley, The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013. This is part of InterVarsity’s “History of Evangelicalism” series (all worth reading) that covers the post-World War II rise of modern or neo-evangelicalism–the evangelicalism of Billy Graham and John Stott, and an increasingly global leadership. Here is my review of the book.

Classic Formative Works:

Charles W. Colson, Born Again. Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2008 (revised edition). The biography of White House aide and Watergate conspirator Charles Colson and his conversion to a socially engaged evangelical faith that led to launching Prison Fellowship, and a career as an influential social commentator within the evangelical community.

J. I. Packer, Knowing God. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993 (revised edition). This was a classic for many of us that explored how we may know God, the attributes of God, and benefits of knowing God. You read a few pages, and then had to stop, think, and worship.

Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who is There. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1998 (revised edition). Schaeffer was the prophet of L’Abri whose analysis of a culture that had moved further and further from God gave us a framework to make sense of our times.

Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005 (revised edition). Sider was one of the voices that re-awakened the slumbering social conscience of evangelicals, challenging the privatized versions of the Bible with it social teaching, as well as exposing American Christians to the challenge of global hunger.

John R. W. Stott, Basic Christianity. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012 (revised edition). This was a book that taught many of us the basics of our faith and how to explain it to others.

The histories, I think, are even-handed, showing both the best and the worst. Likewise, the “classic” works I’ve selected are not without their flaws, but are representative of books that reflect some of the “best” of evangelicalism and were important in shaping the outlook of many of us.

The list is hardly exhaustive. My friend said, “there is only so much I can read. But as I researched this post, I came along a few other lists you might visit:

The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals. A list published in 2006 by Christianity Today.

10 of the Best Books About Evangelical Christianity. I appreciate Kyle Roberts inclusion of Amos Yang’s work and also Soong Chan Rah’s The Next Evangelicalism.

Five Great Books on Evangelical Christianity. Thomas Kidd narrows it down even more and includes Michael Emerson and Christian Smith’s Divided by Faith–a very important book!

What all these do is go beyond the media soundbites which rarely do justice to any religious tradition. Whether you are an evangelical or someone diffident about this identity, or you are just trying to understand this group of people who seem to be so much in the news, these lists should help. Happy reading!

A Reading List of Books on Science and Religion

September 29, 2016September 25, 2016 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

where-the-conflict-lies

Yesterday, I reviewed Fraser Fleming’s new book, The Truth About Science and Religion, which I thought a quite helpful exploration of the interaction of science and faith and the important questions to which each contribute understanding. I thought I might follow this up with a far from exhaustive list of the books reviewed on this topic at Bob on Books, and before that in my Goodreads reviews, which might give the interested reader further resources to explore this topic. It is Fleming’s, as well as my own, view that science and faith need not be at war with each other, but rather may be seen as partners in exploring some of the most important questions of meaning and how we understand our place in the cosmos. What follows is a brief list, in the chronological order the reviews appeared, of books I’ve reviewed over the past several years, with a brief summary of the gist of each book.

What Your Body Knows About God, Rob Moll. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. Explores how our neurophysiology enables us to connect to God and others and how spiritual practices, liturgies, and opportunities to serve enable us to physically as well as spiritually thrive. Review.

Private Doubt, Public Dilemma by Keith Thomson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. This book, drawn from Thomson’s 2012 Terry Lectures, explores the conflict between religion and science through a look at two men who struggled with this conflict, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Darwin, considering how they handled scientific findings that conflicted with their beliefs and the public aftermath and expresses hope for a different engagement in the future. Review.

Minds, Brains, Souls and Gods, Malcolm Jeeves. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2013. A discussion, cast in the form of a conversation, of the latest findings in psychology and neuroscience, and their implications for what it means to be human and for what it means to believe in God. Written for the thoughtful undergraduate, it is helpful for students in these fields and others concerned about the implications of neuroscience research for faith. Review.

The God of Nature, Christopher C. Knight,. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007. Develops the idea of incarnational naturalism to explain God’s relation to the world. Review.

God and the Natural World, Walter H. Conser Jr. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1993. This book is a valuable study of a number of nineteenth century American “mediation theologians” who believed it possible to construct a harmonious understanding of the relationship of Christianity and science. Review.

Mapping the Origins Debate, Gerald Rau. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012. Rau identifies six models of origins in theological and scientific discussion, lays them out considering how each addresses four major aspects of origins, and shows that the differences arise from differing presuppositions. Review.

The Evolution of Adam, Peter Enns. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2012. Explores the question of reconciling evolution and the idea of a historical Adam. Review.

Minding God, Gregory R. Peterson. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002. This book explores the findings of the cognitive sciences and the significance of these findings for our understanding of God, the world, and the nature of being human, including the nature of consciousness, our understanding of human freedom and human fallenness. Review.

Where the Conflict Really Lies, Alvin Plantinga. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Plantinga contends that conflicts between science and faith are actually superficial and attributable to methodological naturalism and that in reality there is a deep consonance between science and faith. Challenging going, but probably the most important work on this list. Review.

The Language of God, Francis Collins. New York: Free Press, 2007. Sharing both his own spiritual journey and work on the Human Genome Project, Collins argues for an end to the “warfare” between science and faith. Review.

The Wonder of the Universe, Karl W. Giberson. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012. A good introduction to fine tuning arguments that suggest that the nature of the universe, if not proving God, certainly is consonant with the idea of a purposeful, intelligent Creator. Review.

I would also commend the suggests for further reading and extensive bibliography in Fleming’s book, a most helpful resource for any interested in this topic!

Books That Have Changed Your Life

October 21, 2014October 21, 2014 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Last Thursday, I had the privilege of spending a wonderful luncheon with a group of believing faculty and staff at The Ohio State University. What made the luncheon wonderful was not simply the good food from our Faculty Club buffet line. Nor was it simply the charming personalities around the table. It was rather hearing from one another about books that had been formative in our spiritual journeys. With the organizers permission, I am sharing the list* (to which I contributed a few titles). I’ve added Amazon links so you can learn more about any titles that sound interesting.

Title, Author(s)

Four Portraits, One Jesus, Mark Strauss

Names of God, Mary Foxwell Loeks

Women at Southern: A Walk Through Psalms, Jaye Martin, Alyssa Caudill, and Sharon Beougher (link is to a blog with ordering information, one of our staff contributed to this book)

Tales of the Kingdom, David and Karen Mains

Tales of Resistance, David and Karen Mains

Tales of Restoration, David and Karen Mains

Death by Suburb, David L. Goetz

The Parable of Joy, Michael Card

How to Know God Exists, Ray Comfort

Origins, Ariel Roth

The Radical Disciple, John Stott

Praying the Psalms, Thomas Merton

The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas

The Insanity of God, Nik Ripken and Gregg Lewis

The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Cross of Christ, John Stott

Knowing God, J. I. Packer

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoffer

Daring to Draw Near, John White

Life of the Beloved, Henri J. M. Nouwen

The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman

Christianity: The Faith that Makes Sense, Dennis McCallum

The Question of God, Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr.

A Skeptic’s Search for God, Ralph O. Muncaster

One of the delights in such times is what you learn about people by the books they share. For one person, it is the chronicle of their seminary journey. For another, their journey to faith. For a third, it is their love for prayer. With another, it was the story of books read aloud to children and grandchildren that had drawn a family into the common narrative of the kingdom.

The other delight of course is having your attention called to books that you might want to read. The Robe is one of those classics I’ve never read. Death by Suburb sounds like it explores the realities we’ve lived with for the last 25 years in suburban Columbus. The Question of God is a book I own but haven’t read that is going to get moved onto the TBR pile.

This is one of the simplest things to organize. You just invite a group of friends to lunch (or brownies, as we did last January, described in my post “Books and Brownies“) and talk about the books that have meant the most to you or shaped your life. It might be that you could gather people around different themes (like “books I’d take on a vacation”, or books I hated as a kid and wouldn’t be without as an adult”).

(Books on this list are not endorsed by the Fellowship of Christian Faculty and Staff or The Ohio State University but simply by those recommending the books!)

What books have changed your life?

*Thanks go to Paul Post for typing up and posting the list!

Teddy’s Rules

July 6, 2014 / rtrube54 / 4 Comments

I knew that Teddy Roosevelt was a bookworm. I knew he read at least a book a day and sometimes more (I average about one every three to four days which people think kind of freaky). And he was the President of the United States while doing this! Bookriot recently posted Teddy Roosevelt’s 10 Rules for Reading. Here they are without the commentary, courtesy of the Bookriot post:

1. “The room for choice is so limitless that to my mind it seems absurd to try to make catalogues which shall be supposed to appeal to all the best thinkers. This is why I have no sympathy whatever with writing lists of the One Hundred Best Books, or the Five-Foot Library. It is all right for a man to amuse himself by composing a list of a hundred very good books… But there is no such thing as a hundred books that are best for all men, or for the majority of men, or for one man at all times.”

2. “A book must be interesting to the particular reader at that particular time.”

3. “Personally, the books by which I have profited infinitely more than by any others have been those in which profit was a by-product of the pleasure; that is, I read them because I enjoyed them, because I liked reading them, and the profit came in as part of the enjoyment.”

4. “The reader, the booklover, must meet his own needs without paying too much attention to what his neighbors say those needs should be.”

5. “He must not hypocritically pretend to like what he does not like.”

6. “Books are almost as individual as friends. There is no earthly use in laying down general laws about them. Some meet the needs of one person, and some of another; and each person should beware of the booklover’s besetting sin, of what Mr. Edgar Allan Poe calls ‘the mad pride of intellectuality,’ taking the shape of arrogant pity for the man who does not like the same kind of books.”

7. “Now and then I am asked as to ‘what books a statesman should read,’ and my answer is, poetry and novels – including short stories under the head of novels.”

8. “Ours is in no sense a collector’s library. Each book was procured because some one of the family wished to read it. We could never afford to take overmuch thought for the outsides of books; we were too much interested in their insides.”

9. “[We] all need more than anything else to know human nature, to know the needs of the human soul; and they will find this nature and these needs set forth as nowhere else by the great imaginative writers, whether of prose or of poetry.”

10. “Books are all very well in their way, and we love them at Sagamore Hill; but children are better than books.”

What this all boils down to it seems to me is to read what you love, don’t read what you don’t like, and don’t worry about what others think. It is interesting to me to see his preference for poetry, and especially novels, which many might deprecate as not serious enough for presidential material, yet I think he is spot on in recognizing how critical an understanding of human nature is to leadership. To gain that insight through an enjoyable diversion seems all the better!

I’m not sure I would be as hard on reading lists as Roosevelt is–I just use them as starters in getting ideas of what to read. I would also add that often books lead to books. One book refers to another author, whose book I am then intrigued to read, or to a subject or person or place I’d like to learn about. What I value in Roosevelt’s list is its absolute unpretentiousness! Snobby readers strike me as the greatest hindrance to aspiring readers who don’t share their tastes.

My wife is an artist and we are members of a local art league that has a plein air painters group. My wife loves doing this and I love going with her and sketching (doodling might be more accurate). But I share my work along with the rest and I am so grateful for the unpretentiousness of this group toward one who knows very little about drawing. They seem glad that I would try my hand at this and are kind to this rank beginner.

Perhaps we booklovers need to learn a lesson from my artist friends, and from Teddy Roosevelt. Actually, I suspect the danger for both booklovers and artists is to get caught up in matters of current tastes and styles and other sorts of things to the point that we no longer read or draw or paint for the love of it – but somehow to be “with” it – whatever “it” is. And because we no longer act like we are loving it, those with any sense (particularly the children who matter even more!) will think there is nothing in books worth loving. But to share a book one loves that is appropriate for the age of the child can be magic for both!

Books and Brownies

January 25, 2014 / rtrube54 / 7 Comments

For a booklover, it doesn’t take much to make a magical evening. Just get together 25 or so friends, bake up some brownies, bring some milk, and spend the evening talking about books that have had an impact on your life and led to greater spiritual understanding. Last night, my friends in the Christian Graduate Student Alliance gathered for just such an evening. Since the stories surrounding the books belong to them, I won’t share them here. But I will observe that when friends share about books, you not only discover books you’d like to read, but you also get to know your friends better. That is part of the magic!

So here is the list, unedited, and in the order they were shared:

1. Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage.

2. David Peterson, Engaging with God.

3. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.

4. Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter.

5. Christena Cleveland, Disunity in Christ.

6. National Scrabble Association, Official Tournament and Club Word List. (I think this was shared for fun, although as someone who likes Scrabble, I thought it interesting. Turns out it costs a small fortune!)

7. Marilynne Robinson, Gilead.

8. C. S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia.

9. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love.

10. Peter Kreeft, Between Heaven and Hell.

11. Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life.

12. Walter Wangerin, The Book of the Dun Cow. (Available currently at .99 on Kindle)

13. Walter Wangerin, The Book of Sorrows. (I discovered this has been retitled as The Second Book of the Dun Cow: Lamentations).

14. Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender. (Available in various editions and for .99 on Kindle)

15. C. S. Lewis, Pilgrim’s Regress.

16. Wm. Paul Young, The Shack.

17. Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart.

18. Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy.

19. Stephen Prothero, God is Not One.

20. Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do.

21. Paul Babiak, and Robert D. Hare, Sharks in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work.

22. Jean Vanier, Becoming Human.

23. Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun.

24. The Bible.

25. Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying ®Wife.

26. Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying® Woman.

I’ve included Amazon links to all except the Bible (which is in so many translations, and hopefully already on your shelves).

I learned of some books that I’d forgotten or was unaware of that I’d like to read–Wangerin’s books, Paul Miller’s book on prayer, which is already sitting on my Kindle, the book by Bain on college teachers and the book by Cleveland, whose material I’ve appreciated in blog form.

I’d love to hear about similar nights others have done. As I said, it was a wonderful and enriching way to spend a cold winter’s night with some friends.