I've just tossed off this little list... Anyone else want to try/comment?

THE BEST BOOKS I’VE EVER READ

My journey as a Christian, lover/husband, father, and pastor/teacher/
evangelist has covered different terrains during threescore and ten
years. Here’s a rough chronological journey listing books that
influenced me ‘at the time’. Remember, I’m not ‘back there’, stuck
where-I-was. I was brought up in a ‘gentle fundamentalist’ church (Open
or Plymouth Brethren) and I’m still ‘evangelical’ but now also somewhat
‘progressive’ and ‘catholic’, conservative about a few things but also
radical, encouraging individual initiative but also committed to social
justice, compassion and community. As Richard Rohr says in his latest
book (Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality) we must incorporate -
not reject - Torah/tradition, Prophetic/dissenting perspectives and
Wisdom/mysticism – all of these - into a full and complete life of
faith, hope and love...

Another caveat: My calling is to minister mainly to practising pastors
and to ex-pastors, so this list is slanted towards ‘pastoral theology’
rather than, say, academic theology, or missiology etc. Other gaps in
this list include social issues like homosexuality, corporate worship,
counselling, pastoral leadership/management - important areas but which
would require many more words/titles. I’ve also majored on recommending
authors who were pastors for a substantial period of their lives as well
as being well-read scholars (Sangster, Claypool, Peterson, Rohr,
McLaren, Barbara Brown Taylor etc.). A longer list compiled half a
decade ago can be found here: http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/8073.htm .

1. THE BIBLE. As a youngster I was captivated by the wonderful stories
of God’s grace in the Bible (KJV), and also its magnificent poetry (eg.
Isaiah 40, which as a teenager I learned off by heart). I knew more
about ‘dispensational prophecy’ than the apostles did, and read the
Bible through several times. (The most readable recent translation:
Eugene Peterson’s The Message. The best for study and corporate worship:
the NRSV.)

2. ADVENTURE STORIES – especially R M Ballantyne’s; and the William,
Biggles and Deerfoot books - gave me as a child a love of reading for
pleasure.

3. THE KNEELING CHRISTIAN (by ‘An Unknown Christian’) instilled in me
the conviction that genuine Christian commitment is nothing if not
fervent. BIOGRAPHIES – of people like George Muller, William Carey,
Hudson Taylor, C H Spurgeon and the Ecuador Martyrs – inspired me in my
formative years to ‘be the best I can be’ for God and others.

4. C S LEWIS (especially Mere Christianity) and JOHN STOTT (Basic
Christianity) were helpful in my accepting orthodox Christian tenets as
‘believable’.

6. MILLAR’S SCM COMMENTARY ON LUKE and (later) WALTER BRUEGGEMANN’S ON
THE PSALMS (among others, eg, Abraham Heschel) encouraged me to believe
that expounding the Scriptures can be instructive, and interesting and
challenging.

7. W E SANGSTER’S sermons, books on homiletics, and magnum opus The
Pure in Heart (on spirituality) were wonderful ‘integrative’ elements in
my formation as a young pastor. Two decades later Richard Foster’s
Celebration of Discipline and later again his Streams of Living Water
helped in the quest for an overview of historical/ecumenical spirituality.

7. I got JOHN CLAYPOOL’S sermons once a month by mail for many years,
and stopped everything to read them: he’s still the best ‘writing
preacher’ in the English language, I reckon. His Tracks of a Fellow
Struggler – sermons on Job while his 9 year old daughter Laura Lue was
dying of leukemia – has comforted many in their grief. Following
Claypool, I think Barbara Brown Taylor’s sermons delight me the most.

8. Three Catholic authors who have enriched/inspired: THOMAS MERTON (his
best - New Seeds of Contemplation), DOM HELDER CAMARA (especially A
Thousand Reasons for Living), and HENRI NOUWEN (start with either The
Wounded Healer or Creative Ministry).

9. My favourite contemporary author is RICHARD ROHR. Start (slowly) with
his latest book Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, then
Everything Belongs: the Gift of Contemplative Prayer.

10. For young/new Christians no one beats BRIAN McLAREN. His best, I
think, is A Generous Orthodoxy. For those enquiring about Christianity
give them Finding Faith: A Search for What is Real.

11. Interfaith? Remember the dictum ascribed to Zwi Werblowsky: ‘There
are some things about a given religion which can only be understood from
inside and some things about the same religion which can only be
understood from outside.’ Now here’s a surprise choice perhaps: begin
with KHALED HOSSEINI’S The Kite Runner. It gives us brilliant insights
into the lives of Muslim families in Afghanistan (and should help soften
some of our bigotry about Islam).

12. The number one issue in western theology is the current ‘Jesus
Quest’. Conservatives will like CRAIG EVANS’ Fabricating Jesus (2007)
or BEN WITHERINGTON’S What Have they done With Jesus? (2006), but I
would suggest that a wider stance should be explored – most easily with
the dialogues TOM WRIGHT had with MARCUS BORG on The Meaning of Jesus
(2000) and JOHN DOMINIC CROSSAN on The Resurrection of Jesus (2006).

13. Christianity and Social Justice? Start with JIM WALLIS’S Seven Ways
to Change the World (2008).

14. Finally, anything by EUGENE PETERSON is excellent (though there’s
quite a bit of repetition in his various writings). His Take and Read:
Spiritual Reading, an Annotated List is a good guide, and his recent
books on Spiritual Theology – Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (2005)
and The Jesus Way (2007) – are an excellent summary/miscellany of his ideas.

Ponder: ‘Beware of the man of one book’ (Thomas Aquinas). ‘The failure
to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most
fatal tendency - the belief that the here and now is all there is.’
(Allan Bloom ).

In another article I’ll look at best/favourite blogs and websites.

Rowland Croucher

April 2008

--

Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/ (20,000 articles 4000 humor)

Blogs - http://rowlandsblogs.blogspot.com/

Justice for Dawn Rowan - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

Funny Jokes and Pics - http://funnyjokesnpics.blogspot.com/