11 Replies to “Best of 2009”

  1. “Breathing Space” by Heidi Neumark — memoirs of an Anglo Lutheran pastor of a Hispanic/African-American church in the South Bronx. It’s beautifully written & inspiring [I dog-eared countless pages as potential sermon illustrations and countless more as stories that feed MY soul!]

    “People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States” by Michael Emerson

    The above two books were written in 2003 & 2006, respectively, but they were new to me!

    As far as new publications go, I am currently enjoying “Accompany Them with Singing” by Tom Long (about Christian funerals) — I had waited for this to come out and am loving it now that it’s here! It spurs my thinking about current funeral practices.

    I can’t wait to see your list and that of the other commenters!

  2. The Advent Calendar by Steven Croft. Can be read each day or all in one go if you can’t wait like me. All the themes are there but in new ways. Can be read by children (perhaps teenagers) too.

    Why Go To Church by Timothy Radcliffe. This is one to be read and re-read. It is all about the Eucharist and how we are nourished by each part and would make a great Lent course or group study guide. Although written from a Roman Catholic perspective there is something here for everyone and so easy to read too.

    Words by the Way by Ann Lewin takes you through the church year with poetry and prose and advice and prayers. This has been a great resource and will be used and borrowed from over the years.

  3. Anything currently hot off the press by John Knox 😉 This last year have been rather immersed in ‘The Order of Excommunication and of Public Repentance’ and ‘The Order of the General Fast’… PhD’s are such fun.

    A non-Knox book I keep coming back to is Eugene Peterson’s Under the Unpredictable Plant. So much of what he’s saying in it just resonates, especially the comments he makes on the rise of ‘career-ism’ mindset within the context of ministry.

  5. This was my year for exploring my Evangelical past, apparently. Or else a lot of good and interesting books appeared about the subject this year and no other.

    The three that really affected me were:

    The Fall of the Evangelical Nation by Christine Wicker

    which gives a statistical view of the state of Evangelicalism in the U.S.

    The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose, which was the best non-fiction book I read this year. A Brown University student spends a year at Liberty University to try to understand conservative Christianity from the inside. Really fascinating and so well written.

    and Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical
    Edited by Hannah Faith Notess

    Essays from women who were brought up Evangelical and how it has shaped them, and where they are now. Very moving.

    Finally, I also really liked David Dark’s book The Sacredness of Questioning Everything.

    And I want to see your list too!

  6. Published this year? Or read this year?

    Favorites read this year are all by men, which is unusual for me.

    Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference by Philip Yancey
    Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
    Blankets by Craig Thompson

    But actually most referenced is Feasting on the Word, a new multivolumne preaching reference.

  8. Read this year…

    “Saving Paradise” by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Parker.

    “The First Paul” by Marcus Borg & John Dominic Crossan

    “The God We Never Knew” by Marcus Borg.

  9. – “Crazy for God” and “Patience with God” by Frank Schaeffer. Former speaker and organizer for the religious right who walks away from money & fame from conscience. He writes a wonderful hysterically funny memoir about being the child of famous evangelical parents, and wisely about politics and religion. He is one of the helpful few trying to capture a middle way between fundamentalist Christianity and fundamentalist atheism. Also doing this are…
    – Karen Armstrong “The Case for God” Is our Karen ever bad? I don’t think so!
    – Samir Selmanovic: “It’s Really All About God: Confessions of A muslim atheist Jewish Christian”. Gets a bit redundant, but good.

    Two very fine, respectful humanist skeptics: Jennifer Michael Hecht, “Doubt: a History” and Greg Epstein, “Good without God.” Personally helpful to me in connecting with my humanists.

  10. In Between really blew me away. I’ve been recommending ever since reading it.

    I read another memoir at about the same time which counterpointed Morrison-Reed’s book: The Beautiful Struggle, by Ta-Nehesi Coates.

    I’m about halfway through Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire. Current affairs are always a slog for me.

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