Books

Kayla McCanny said:

Any Christian book readers out there? What are you reading or have read you enjoy. Is it Christian fiction or non Christian fiction?

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On the non-fiction side, I've gone through a book or two on theology. Notable is C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, a book on the Calvinism vs. Arminianism, Grace, Faith, and Free Will by Robert Picirilli, and N.T. Wright's Surprised By Hope, a book presenting Resurrection as the biblical Christian hope (contrasted with the "going to heaven when you die" narrative most laymen have). Wright not only researches his material well, but he also knows how to write for both laymen and scholars. Wright led to multiple works on what's called "The New Perspective on Paul", by Wright, Richard Hays (whose mom was a friend of mine), J.D.G. Dunn, Krister Stendahl, and notably Pamela Eisenbaum's provocative Saint Paul Was Not a Christian, a book on Paul from a Jewish perspective by a Jewish scholar who taught at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. I've read multiple works by Steve Brown (while cutting my teeth on the now-defunct Key Life Forums), notably When Your Rope Breaks (it was breaking at the time) and his controversial Three Free Sins. Brown describes himself as a "Five-Point Calvinist", but he has compassion for the lost (unlike John MacArthur, whom I can no longer read). I'm currently grinding through a book brother Matthias recommended by Clark Pinnock, and yes, I bought Epi's book on spirituality (hey, the Kindle version was on sale for only 2 bucks). That one's queued up in my "books to be read", along with another N.T. Wright book and another C.S. Lewis. It's hard to focus on serious reading these days with so much eye candy on the internet.

Kayla McCanny said:

Any Christian book readers out there? What are you reading or have read you enjoy. Is it Christian fiction or non Christian fiction?

Click to expand...

On the Christian fiction side, three books had a significant impact on me. The first I read in college, and a lot of people would not consider it part of the Christian Fiction genre. It was a collaboration between science fiction writers Larry Niven (who wrote a lot of good hard sci-fi that I enjoyed, which is why I bought this book) and Jerry Pournelle, who I think is Catholic and provided the theological background. The book, titled Inferno, was about a science fiction writer (hey, you write what you know about) who dies and goes to the Hell Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote about in the Divine Comedy back in the 11th century. What struck me was how it portrayed God as both just (the punishments in Dante's conception Hell are weirdly ... appropriate), and yet merciful, even to souls in Hell. The authors' understanding of God allows for repentance in Hell, though only a few would do so. (Brother @St.SteVen would agree.)

One Christmas, my brother sent me Frank Peretti's book Piercing the Darkness. I chided him for sending me the sequel to a book I hadn't read. It was about angels and demons and spiritual warfare and the redemption of one really messed-up young lady. I found the characters to be quite engaging, and I was struck by how it portrayed God as being very active in the lives of those characters. Which for some reason had a profound effect on my own spirituality in way that I can't explain. I tried reading the original This Present Darkness, and to be honest, it wasn't that good at all. The author himself said that he was dismayed that the reaction to his book in Evangelical circles was that all we need to live holy lives is to bind a few demons and have a few good exorcisms. I appreciate the honesty of his self-assessment. I've since read a few more of his books; there was one good one, and the rest were "meh". I don't know why this one resonated with me so.

Father Joseph Girzone wrote a book called Joshua about Jesus coming to a small town and engaging with the citizens - and with the Catholic bureaucracy. Father Girzone's portrayal of Joshua's (Jesus's) compassion was quite striking, though I don't see how this conception of Jesus would ever get himself crucified as a heretic, sorcerer, and rebel against the state. I've read pretty much the whole Joshua series, and I wound up wishing that Girzone's characters didn't all speak in stilted sentences. (Every one!) The sequels weren't as good as the original, unlike Peretti whose sequel was better than the original.

Other Christian fiction writers I've read are Ted Dekker; he's kinda hard to read. I read the entire Left Behind series by LeHaye and Jenkins (before our new pastor had them quietly removed them from the church library and had them thrown in the trash as heresy). There were a couple others who were so unmemorable, I can't remember who wrote them or what they were about.

When reading "Christian Fiction", It should meet the standards of any good literature with character development and dialogue and the like. No free points for being "Christian". Well, maybe a few....