Books on Select Subjects

The following list represents books that I’ve found helpful on a range of theological and biblical subjects. I’ve categorized each by my perception of their level of difficulty as follows:

  • Popular Level *
  • Mid-level **
  • Difficult ***

Reading the Bible Well – Hermeneutics and Epistemology:

  • Scripture as Communication – Jeannine Brown **
  • Living and Active: Scripture in the Economy of Salvation – Telford Work ***
  • New Testament Exegesis – Gordon Fee *
  • Truth and Method – Hans-Georg Gadamer ***
  • Whose Community? Which Interpretation? – Merold Westphal **
  • The Art of Biblical Narrative – Robert Alter **
  • Hermeneutics: An Introduction – Anthony Thistleton **
  • The Hermeneutics of Doctrine – Anthony Thistleton ***
  • Inspiration and Incarnation – Peter Enns **
  • The Bible Tells Me So – Peter Enns *
  • How the Bible Actually Works – Peter Enns *
  • How to Read the Bible – James Kugel **
  • Blue Parakeet – Scot McKnight *
  • Longing to Know – Esther Lightcap-Meek **
  • Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-critical Philosophy – Michael Polanyi ***
  • The Tacit Dimension – Michael Polanyi **
  • Reading the Bible with Rene’ Girard: Conversations with Steven Berry – Edited by Michael Hardin **
  • Original Blessing: Putting Sin in Its Rightful Place – Danielle Shroyer *
  • The Universal Christ – Richard Rohr **

General and Systematic Theology:

  • Theology for the People of God – Stanley Grenz **
  • Systematic Theology – (Vol. 1 Ethics, Vol. 2 Doctrine, Vol. 3 Witness) – James McClendon ***
  • Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology – Daniel L. Migliore **
  • The Doctrine of God: A Global Introduction – Veli-Matti Karkkainen **
  • Dualities: A Theology of Difference – Michelle Voss Roberts ***
  • The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability – Nancy Eisland **
  • Vatican II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents – Austin Flannery ed. ***
  • Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith: The Church as Communion – Joseph Ratzinger **
  • Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology – Michael Fishbane ***

Biblical Studies:

  • God’s Empowering Presence – Gordon Fee **
  • Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible – Jon D. Levenson **
  • The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son – Jon D. Levenson **
  • Creation and the Persistence of Evil – Jon D. Levenson **
  • Honor, Patronage, Kinship and Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture – David deSilva **
  • Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes – Kenneth Bailey **
  • The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as Christian Scripture – Brevard Childs ***
  • Genesis for Normal People – Peter Enns *
  • The Prophets: Abraham Heschel **

Salvation, Atonement and Hell/Heaven – Life After Death:

  • Razing Hell – Sharon Baker *
  • Executing God – Sharon Baker *
  • The Day the Revolution Began – N.T. Wright ***
  • Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World – Okholm & Philips – editors **
  • Surprised by Hope – N.T. Wright **
  • Evil and the Justice of God – N.T. Wright **
  • The One by Whom Scandal Comes – Rene’ Girard ***
  • I See Satan Fall Like Lightning – Rene’ Girard ***
  • The Crucified God – Jurgen Moltmann ***

Theology and Science:

  • Alone in the World: Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology – J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen ***
  • The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder – William P. Brown ***
  • Saving Darwin – Karl W. Giberson **
  • The Wonder of the Universe: Hints of God in Our Fine Tuned World – Karl W. Giberson **
  • The Trinity and an Entangled World – John Polkinghorne ***
  • Theology in the Context of Science – John Polkinghorne ***
  • The God of Hope and the End of the World – John Polkinghorne ***
  • Bodies and Souls or Spirited Bodies? – Nancy Murphy ***
  • It Keeps Me Seeking: The Invitation from Science, Philosophy & Religion – Briggs, Halvorson, Steane.

Devotional Reading:

  • Becoming Whole and Holy – Jeannine K. Brown, Carla M. Dahl, Wyndy Corbin Reuschling **
  • The Sin of Certainty – Peter Enns *
  • Subversive Spirituality – Eugene Peterson **
  • A Long Obedience in the Same Direction – Eugene Peterson **
  • Run with the Horses – Eugene Peterson **
  • Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith – Kathleen Norris **
  • Dakota: A Spiritual Geography – Kathleen Norris **
  • Journey – Kathleen Norris **
  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard **
  • Prayer of Heart and Body: Meditation and Yoga as Christian Spiritual Practice – Thomas Ryan **
  • Chasing the Dragon – Jackie Pullinger *
  • The Continuing Conversion of the Church – Darrell Guder **
  • Streams of Living Water – Richard Foster *
  • Celebration of Discipline – Richard Foster *
  • The Return of the Prodigal – Henry Nouwen **
  • The Wounded Healer – Henry Nouwen **
  • Traveling Mercies – Anne Lamott *
  • The Orphean Passages – Walter Wangerin **
  • The Myth of Certainty – Daniel Taylor **
  • Praying with the Church – Scot McKnight **
  • Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies – Marilyn McEntyre**
  • Your Story Matters – Leslie Leyland Fields *
  • The Map is Not the Journey – Richard Dahlstrom*
  • Voices in the Stones: Life Lessons in the Native Way – Kent Nerburn*
  • Materiality as Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World – Walter Brueggemann*

Contemporary/Controversial Issues, etc.:

  • Race: A Theological Account – J. Kameron Carter ***
  • God is a Black Woman – Christena Cleveland*
  • Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair – Kwon and Thompson **
  • Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates **
  • How to be an Anti-Racist – Ibram X. Kendi **
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness – Michelle Alexander **
  • Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption – Bryan Stevenson **
  • God of the Oppressed – James Cone **
  • The Cross and the Lynching Tree – James Cone **
  • Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism – Drew G. I. Hart *
  • Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God – Kelly Brown Douglas *
  • Bible Gender Sexuality – James V. Brownson ***
  • A Letter to My Congregation – Ken Wilson **
  • Living In Color – Randy Woodley **
  • No Future without Forgiveness – Desmond Tutu **
  • The Twenty-piece Shuffle: Why the Poor and Rich Need Each Other – Greg Paul **
  • Just Peacemaking: the new paradigm for the ethic of peace and war – Glen Stassen ed. **

Church Leadership/Self Awareness, etc.:

  • Vision Lost and Found – Tim Stevens *
  • Making Vision Stick – Andy Stanley *
  • Five Smooth Stones – Eugene Peterson **
  • The Contemplative Pastor – Eugene Peterson **
  • Under the Unpredictable Plant – Eugene Peterson **
  • Necessary Endings – Henry Cloud **
  • Daring Greatly – Brene’ Brown*
  • Rising Strong – Brene’ Brown*
  • Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Staff and Team on the Same Page – Larry Osborne *
  • Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue – Edwin Friedman **
  • A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix – Edwin Friedman **
  • The Power of Servant Leadership – Robert Greenleaf **
  • Emotionally Healthy Church – Pete Scazzero *
  • The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective – Richard Rohr & Adreas Ebert **
  • Preaching in the Inventive Age – Doug Pagitt *
  • Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership – Samuel Rima *
  • In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction – Gabor Mate’ *
  • The Path Between Us – Suzanne Stabile *
  • the Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture* – Gabor Mate’