Hi! Stephen Webb has asked for a summary of this/recent years ¢â‚¬â„¢ best books. Challenging! I try to read a couple a week, and do a review or two each fortnight.

A very brief selection:

For devotions I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve been trawling through the US Presbyterian Book of Common Worship and The Upper Room ¢â‚¬â„¢s A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants. Reading Eugene Peterson ¢â‚¬â„¢s Bible translation The Message straight through was inspiring. And spiced with some insights from Pat Robson ¢â‚¬â„¢s The Celtic Heart.

Fiction:   I ¢â‚¬â„¢m catching up with titles I should have read a long time ago. This year included J D Salinger ¢â‚¬â„¢s Catcher in the Rye ¢â‚¬“ full of wisdom for a troubled young man. (Like:  ¢â‚¬ËœThe mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one ¢â‚¬â„¢… ¢â‚¬â„¢).

Political Science? You can ¢â‚¬â„¢t do better than Noam Chomsky ( ¢â‚¬Ëœthe world ¢â‚¬â„¢s greatest public intellectual ¢â‚¬â„¢, opines the Observer).   Try his Interventions:    ¢â‚¬ËœWorld and US public opinion has little effect on US official policy ¢â‚¬â„¢. [1]

Ministry to the Marginalized: best recent title is Yvette Flunder ¢â‚¬â„¢s Where the Edge Gathers. ( ¢â‚¬ËœOur churches and society are still places of heteroprivilege ¢â‚¬â„¢;  ¢â‚¬ËœTransgendered people are at the  ¢â‚¬Å“edge of the edge ¢â‚¬  ¢â‚¬â„¢). [2]

Brian McLaren is amazing: writes commonsense theology but without ever having attended one single seminary class (you might like to debate why that can be). His 2010 book Naked Spirituality is a classic  ¢â‚¬“ a simple overview of traditional, time-proven Spiritual Disciplines. His mate Richard Rohr also publishes a book a year. Falling Upward (making sense of the second half of life) is worth reading twice, but if you want a better taste of Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s  ¢â‚¬Ëœsimplicity the other side of complexity ¢â‚¬â„¢ try his latest one  ¢â‚¬“ Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps.

Islam? Best recent book on their prophet  ¢â‚¬“ Peter Cotterell ¢â‚¬â„¢s Muhammed: The Man Who Transformed Arabia, where he disputes some of Karen Armstrong ¢â‚¬â„¢s (1991) views. Speaking of disputes, read Miroslav Volf ¢â‚¬â„¢s Allah: A Christian Response where he says Muslims and Christians actually worship the same God, even though they might disagree about their respective God ¢â‚¬â„¢s attributes (but, writes Volf, didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t Arminians and Calvinists do likewise?).   If you want the case against that idea, visit Anglican (Melbourne-based) scholar Mark Durie ¢â‚¬â„¢s Blog.

Because I work with pastors, I ¢â‚¬â„¢m trying to write a Blog summarizing the best wisdom I can find for them [3]. I reckon The Alban Institute has produced the best stuff, like Roy Oswald ¢â‚¬â„¢s Clergy Self-Care: Finding a Balance for Effective Ministry (1991).

Finally (for now), best sermons in print?   John Claypool ¢â‚¬â„¢s, I reckon. Like his The First to Follow: The Apostles of Jesus (you can get it and others from The Book Depository).

[1] http://jmm.org.au/articles/28422.htm

[2] http://jmm.org.au/articles/28412.htm

[3] Naughtily titled Pastoral Leadership for Dummies: http://pastordummies.blogspot.com/

[4] 1000+ book reviews here: http://jmm.aaa.net.au

Rowland Croucher

November 2011