Jake's One Book Meme

Jake, at The Blah Blah, just got tagged with the One Book Meme. But since a book meme doesn't really make sense to post on an mp3 blog, I offered to let him guest post here. Here is how Jake responded:

1. One book that changed your life:The Cross and the Switchblade, by David Wilkerson - He goes into the inner-city gangs of New York with the gospel, almost gets killed, and changes kids' lives. What more could you ask for?

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:Disciples are Made, Not Born by Walter A. Henrichsen - I didn't choose to read it multiple times (but it is very good). I was in a number of groups that used this book about making disciples.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:The Ultimate Guide to US Army Survival SKills - 962 pages of pure survival goodness.

4. One book that made you laugh:Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road, by Donald Miller - It takes a little time to get rolling, but once the story picks up speed, you'll laugh as Donald and his buddy road trip half-way across America and find God in Oregon.

5. One book that made you cry:A Walk Across America, by Peter Jenkins - a great, encouraging, well-written true-life story that will make you laugh, cry, and want to travel the world. I cried hardest when his dog died, for whatever that's worth.

6. One book that you wish had been written:A Foundational Retrospective History of Egalitarian Cross-Cultural Movements among Endangered Hybrid Systematic Elves of Upper Norway. Either that or some really well-written, engaging novels based on Biblical stories and characters, some books that bring everything to life.

7. One book that you wish had never been written:The Koran (not even deserving of an Amazon.com link) - This book has destroyed so many people's lives. I couldn't think of a better one to permanently delete.

8. One book you’re currently reading:Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire, by Brother Andrew - amazing stories and inspiring stuff about Christians making surviving in Muslim territory.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock, by Andrew Beaujon - a non-Christian journalist's perspective on the Christian music scene.

10. Now tag five people:Mudpuppy, Man of Steel, WorshipCity, Jaybrams, Matt

One Book Meme

I begged Bryan L to tag me with the "One book meme" that started a year-and-a-half-ago. I'm like the pathetic kid on the playground, running up to whoever is it and yelling, "Tag me, tag me!" just to get some attention. (This will all change January 1 when I join the cool kids at Wordpress. Then people will tag me without me asking. Oh yes, they will tag me.)

1. One book that changed your life:
N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (1992)

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Stanley Grenz & Roger Olson, Who Needs Theology? (1996)

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
John Lofty Wiseman, SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea (2004)

4. One book that made you laugh:
Anders Henriksson, Non Campus Mentis: World History According to College Students (2001)

5. One book that made you cry:
John Perkins, Let Justice Roll Down (1976)

6. One book that you wish had been written:
The author of Matthew, I Acts (Matthew's version of the history of the early church, with Luke's version becoming II Acts)

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon (1830)

8. One book you’re currently reading:
Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine (2005)

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
David Bentley Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite (2004)

10. Now tag five people:
I tag Jessie, J.K., Brian, Tom, and Daniel

An Evangelical Standard: Five Books

A few years ago, before I had decided to go to seminary, I was talking with a friend, Scott Anderson, who had gotten his M.Div. from Trinity (where I'm going now). Of course, we got to talking about books, and I wanted some book recommendations. I asked him to recommend five books to me. I have been thinking about this list the past few days. It seems like a standard sort of evangelical list, though not at all the list I would produce now. It became sort of a point of departure for me in thinking through what I think is important.

Here was his list (produced from memory):

1. Christian Theology, by Millard Erickson. For Scott, this is the standard Evangelical theology, laying a solid foundation while interacting with non-evangelical positions.

2. "A good volume on church history." I was a little irritated by this one, since I wanted a specific recommendation. Perhaps we might fill in Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley.

3. One book of the Bible. "You should pick a book of the Bible, and study it until you understand it thoroughly." Again, I was a little annoyed with this recommendation, since it wasn't really a specific book. But I understand the thrust behind it - we should have some depth in our biblical knowledge, not just breadth.

4. A Theology of the New Testament, by G.E. Ladd. We should know how the Bible fits together.

5. The Hermeneutical Spiral, by Grant Osborne. It is not enough to read the Bible, but we must understand the complex issues involved in interpreting it. I have had Osborne for a couple classes now, but I still haven't read this book. He mentioned a few years ago that he was revising it for a second edition, so I decided to wait. The second edition is out now, so I suppose I should get with the program.


What five books would you recommend in a similar situation? The audience is an educated Christian without seminary training.

My Slender Apparatus

"What are those ministers to do who have a slender apparatus? By a slender apparatus I mean that they have few books, and little or no means wherewith to purchase more. This is a state of things which ought not to exist in any case."

Charles Spurgeon, Letters to My Students

I love books. I preached a message several years ago that I titled, "Read Books," and I believe that reading is an important spiritual discipline. There are a couple of interesting blog posts related to reading. T.B. Vick has an obsession with books, and a bookseller in Kansas City has a particularly morbid way to promote reading. Though I wouldn't say my apparatus is particularly "thin," I am becoming more and more frustrated at just how many books I need to buy but just can't afford. Ben Meyer's list of must-read theology books is only adding to my frustration. What am I to do?

Spurgeon gives seven suggestions to those with a slim apparatus:

1. Purchase only the very best. "If he cannot spend much, let him spend well."


2. Master those books you have. "A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books which he has merely skimmed, lapping at them, as the classic proverb puts it "As the dogs drink of Nilus."


3. Do a little judicious borrowing. By judicious, Spurgeon means that you must return your books to their lenders if you hope to borrow more. Libraries are my friend. (I just feel like I can't thoroughly digest a book without being able to make notes in the margin.)


4. Spend much time with the most important book, the Bible. It is so easy to become consumed with books about the Bible that we fail to turn to the Bible itself. One goal of theological reading should be that when we return to the biblical text we are able to read with greater understanding.


5. Make up for lack of books by much thought. "Without thinking, reading cannot benefit the mind."


6. Keep your eyes open. Be observant of your world.


7. Learn from people around you:

• Study yourself. "Study the Lord's dealings with your own souls, and you will know more of His ways with others."


• Read other people. "A man who has had a sound practical experience in thing of God Himself, and watched the hearts of his fellows, other things being equal, will be a far more useful man than he who knows only what he has read."


• Learn from experienced saints.


• Learn from inquirers


• Learn from those who are about to die.

And we might well add reading blogs.

A Book Meme

Halden at Inhabitatio Dei tagged everyone who reads his blog with this book meme.


How many books do you own?: About 1000.

Last book I read: The Epistemology of Religious Experience by Keith Yandell

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: (In the order I read them)
Harold Netland, Encountering Religious Pluralism
Richard Shweder, Why Do Men Barbecue?: Recipes for Cultural Psychology
Kevin Vanhoozer, First Theology
N.T. Wright, The Last Word
Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology (which I'm currently reading)

And now to tag five people: Freely I received; freely I give. If you read this consider yourself "tagged".

New Testament Historical Fiction

I just finished a great book for gaining a deeper understanding of the gospels, Shadow of the Galilean, by Gerd Theissen. It is a fictional narrative following an upper-class Jew in the first century as he seeks to find out information about various religious movements in Israel, culminating in a search for Jesus. Theissen is a well-respected critical New Testament scholar, and every chapter is intended to give the reader an insight into a particular aspect of the culture. Often those insights are particularly important for understanding the gospels because they are not intuitively understood from a twenty-first century perspective. For instance, he helps to show the humanness and motivation of the Pharisees, which is all-too-easily lost in modern gospel re-presentations (Mel Gibson, for instance). He also makes sure that the reader understands how Jesus' teachings have a deep political resonance when set in the context of the first century. The narrative format allows evangelicals to easily appropriate his insights into the gospels without stumbling over points Theissen thinks are inauthentic -- there is plenty of ambiguity which allows the reader to decide what does or does not seem authentic. I will not be able to read the gospels again without reflecting on the insights gleaned from this book.