So, here goes:
1. One book that changed your life:
John Piper, Desiring God. Introduced to me while in seminary, Piper moved me out of a strictly “DO” Christianity toward a “LOVE” Christianity. The idea that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him still haunts me.
2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Mike Wittmer, Heaven is a Place on Earth. I’ve read it several times already in one year. We are reading through it in my small group experience, Oasis, and it will be the main textbook for my class on worldview at Malone College.
3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
I presume that we can't say "The Bible," because all of us would probably say that. So, assuming that I'm allowed a Bible and just one more book, I think I'd take the New Bible Commentary (21st Century Edition). My passion is Bible commentaries: I own at least a couple commentaries on each book of the Bible. And since I can't take my entire library, at least I can take one concise, albeit abbreviated, commentary that features many of today's best evangelical scholars giving their two cents on the text. I love wrestling with the Bible, and love (maybe as much, if not more!) wrestling with biblical scholars. You see, the Bible usually pins me down, but I like the thought of pinning a scholar down every now and then! And while all alone on that desert island, I'd be able to spend my time with 66 commentators, "talking and debating" about the most important of subjects!
4. One book that made you laugh:
William Goldman, The Princess Bride. The author of the book was also the writer of the screenplay for the movie, and he offers one laugh after another. “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” If you liked the movie, you'll love the book.
5. One book that made you cry:
Jeffrey Archer, The Eleventh Commandment. This has nothing to do with the Bible. It is the best thriller/espionage novel I’ve ever read. When the protaginist, CIA assassin Connor Fitzgerald, is marked for death by the head of the CIA, he must somehow escape a Russian execution. What happens in that made me cry—it was quite moving.
6. One book you wish had been written:
HT to Michael Kruse on this: We need a four views book on Christian approaches to politics. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve ordered a book that may be what the doctor ordered! J. Budziszewski’s new book Evangelicals in the Public Square: Four Formative Voices on Political Thought and Action. (It covers the views of Carl F. H. Henry, Abraham Kuyper, Francis Schaeffer, and John Howard Yoder)
7. One book you wish had never been written:
The Scofield Reference Bible.
8. One book you’re currently reading:
Greg Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation.
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Stan Grenz, The Social God and Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei.
10. Tag 5 others:
Byron Borger, Rick Bennett, Byron Harvey, dlw, Brother Maynard
technorati: emerging church, spiritual formation
Piper is the Anti-Boyd.
ReplyDeleteI got tagged earlier, but thanks...
dlw
I checked out Budziszewski. It seems a tilted selection(selecting people who are dead), all made with an underlying agenda.
ReplyDeleteI am totally against the notion of natural law as it is commonly used by many. There is nothing "natural" about much of the understandings that govern our social-economic-political relations, though we do need to grapple with these understandings to infer what is right praxy and there can be wisdom in cultural conservatism.
However, often times "natural law" just ends up doing linguistic gymnastics to set out the "socially constructed" cultural aspects of how we work out our conflicts as "natural" or something all good Christians ought to defend/support.
dlw
dlw
ReplyDeleteYes,
Piper and Boyd have and are still going at it about Open Theism!
I really like the selections that Budziszewski made. Henry, Kuyper, Schaeffer, and Yoder are four evangelicals who have approached the issue of politics from different angles. Each had a unique contribution, and if we learn from these four, I think, we are moving toward a more holistic political theory.
yeah, they are different.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it will be an early Kuyper or a later Kuyper.
I'd still watch for Bud's agenda... I'm not a big fan of Elshtain either.
dlw
Good choices, Bob.
ReplyDeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteI ruined my copy of Michael Wittmer's, "Heaven is a Place on Earth", by marking the daylights out of it. I won't mark a book anymore, throughout its pages.
The book on four evangelical views in politics does look most intriguing.
Thanks.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteDesiring God by Piper was very meaningful to me as well. I recall reading it and seeing part of the heart of God that I had missed.
Byron H-
ReplyDeleteYou get an "A" for being on time with the assignment. We'll let the readers decide if your get an "A" for your selections!
Byron H-
ReplyDeleteBy the way, you're looking younger these days. You've got that Ferris Bueller look going on.