The theological periodicals to which I subscribe regularly review books. I add ones that pique my interest to my “Must Read” list. (Probably like you, it’s an ever-expanding list, so that I may never read all of them!) Here are three faith-enriching books that I highly recommend.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Annie Dillard
Dillard is a Christian and prolific, award-winning writer; Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1975. It’s a narrative memoir based on a year of living by Tinker Creek in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. On practically every page, I learned something that I didn’t know because of her keen observations, varied insights and deft use of relevant studies and books to comment on nature, life and God. She writes: “There are lots of things to see…unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with them…cast broadside from a generous hand.” However, she adds: “Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won’t see it.” So, Dillard calls us and shows us how to “keep our eyes open.” Indeed, it has opened my eyes much wider, especially to the manifold wonders of God’s creation.
You Need a Better Gospel: Reclaiming the Good News of Participation with Christ
Klyne Snodgrass
Snodgrass argues that most Christians and churches today need “a better gospel” because theirs “is not grasped as the life-shattering, life-transforming, life-creating reality that it is.” As examples, he cites the prevalence of the prosperity gospel and the customary language in many churches of inviting Jesus into one’s heart. These and other “false gospels” are marginally biblical at best and patently fraudulent and embarrassing at worst. His antidote is for Christians and churches to reclaim the gospel of participation with Christ, defined as “participating in the life of Christ and of God through the Spirit and being transformed by it.” It’s the “real gospel” because it’s the “driving concern of all Scripture” and has been the church’s gospel “down through the ages.” The bulk of the book is his defense of that argument in church history and in the Bible. I’ve preached a sermon here that explored participation with Christ (also known as union with Christ), a belief that’s part of our Reformed/Presbyterian tradition.
The Jesus Storybook Bible
Sally Lloyd-Jones
I read this children’s Bible to my children when they were little, and they loved it! Appropriate for children age four to ten, its illustrations by an award-winning illustrator are fabulous—so bright, colorful and original—and the prose is lively and lovely. It’s not the entire Bible but instead some of the most memorable stories in the Old and New Testaments, and its emphasis throughout is on God’s love. Indeed, it tells the story of God’s love for the world and us expressed supremely in Jesus. I still read from it to pre-kindergarten and elementary-school children, including students in our Day School during its chapel time. I highly recommend this one-of-kind Bible for children, grandchildren or other children in your life.
Grace and peace,
Will
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