Theology nerds unite! I know you love books but which ones? I am totally interested in your answers so post them here, facebook, or link to the post. My wish-list is ready…..
1. A book you get excited just looking at
2. Your favorite book by your favorite living theologian
3. A classic you can’t leave behind
4. Best book to cross your eyes in 2011
5. Favorite book to give a budding theology nerd
6. A book you can’t wait for!
Here’s my response…..
1. Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Theology and the Kingdom of God
2. John Cobb’s Transforming Christianity and the World: A Way Beyond Absolutism and Relativism
3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship (or the Cost of Discipleship)
4. Terrence Tilley’s The Disciples’ Jesus: Christology as Reconciling Practice
5. Elizabeth A. Johnson’s Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God
6. Philip Clayton & Steven Knapp’s The Predicament of Belief: Science, Philosophy, and Faith
HT: Rachel who reads books normal people read….
1. A book you get excited just looking at: “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler
2. Your favorite book by your favorite living theologian: “A Christian Natural Theology” by John Cobb
3. A classic you can’t leave behind: “She Who Is” by Elizabeth Johnson
4. Best book to cross your eyes in 2011: “Apocalypse Now and Then” by Catherine Keller
5. Favorite book to give a budding theology nerd: “Let Your Life Speak” by Parker Palmer
6. A book you can’t wait for: “The Predicament of Belief” by Philip Clayton
1. “The Cross In Our Context” by Douglas John Hall
2. “The Crucified God” by Jurgen Moltmann
3. Bonhoeffer’s “Ethics”
4. “Spirit & Trauma” by Shelly Rambo
5. “The Promise of Despair” by Andrew Root
6. “Love’s Availing Power: Imaging God, Imagining the World” by Paul Sponheim
Here’s a blog I posted on the best books I read in 2010 that relates to many of your questions:
http://www.patheos.com/community/carlgregg/2011/01/01/best-books-read-in-2010/
1) The Beauty of the Infinite, by David Bentley Hart
2) On Thinking the Human, by Robert Jenson
3) Augustine’s Confessions
4) Visible Words, by Robert Jenson
5) Ascension and Ecclesia, by Douglas Farrow
6) Brian Conrad’s book about Galois Representations attached to modular forms, but that’s not a theological book…
Some seriously sweet books already mentioned.
Brian named my second favorite Cobb book!
If I had a category for “The book that almost got you to switch theological camps” then D.B. hart’s ‘Beauty of the Infinite” would have been it.
1.) “The Poet, the Warrior, the Prophet,” Rubem Alves
2.) “The Future of Creation,” Jürgen Moltmann (this is such an underrated book…the chapter on transcendence alone is worth it)
3.) “Confessions,” St. Augustine (close, close tie with “The Complete Works of Pseudo-Dionysius”)
4.) “The Theological and the Political,” Mark Lewis Taylor
5.) “Philosophy and Theology,” John Caputo
6.) Catherine Keller, “The Cloud of the Impossible”
1. A book you get excited just looking at: Faith Without Illusions by Andrew Byers
2. Your favorite book by your favorite living theologian: Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf
3. A classic you can’t leave behind: Foundations of Christian Faith by Karl Rahner
4. Best book to cross your eyes in 2011: The Prophets by Abraham Heschel
5. Favorite book to give a budding theology nerd: Evangelical Theology by Karl Barth
6. A book you can’t wait for: (old one I’m excited about reading) Renewing the Center by Stanley Grenz
@Alex. Exclusion and Embrace almost made my list. Thanks for sharing.
@Blake….I haven’t read that Molty book. Now I need too!
1. “The Silence of God: The Answer of the Buddha” by Raimundo Pannikar
2. “Divine Empathy: A Theology of God” by Edward Farley
3. “Fear and Trembling” by Soren Kierkegaard
4. “Places of Redemption: Theology for a Worldly Church” by Mary McClintock Fulkerson
5. “Models of God” by Sallie McFague
6. I have too many books waiting on me to finish them, but I am open to suggestion
Thanks, Tripp!
Just posted my responses here: http://theologoholic.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/re-theology-nerd-book-survey/
I’ve just had some scotch and figured that this would be a good time to write down some books. Trippy, I’m gonna give a tit for every one of your tats–a phrase that I’m now thinking could be taken in far too many un-kosher ways.
As I said earlier, I’m tempted to write down Bible for everyone of these as I have no interest in being left behind this Saturday. Since, however, Jesus can see through lies, here are my picks.
1) The Challenge of Jesus, N.T. Wright: Wright may not like what I do theologically with Jesus, be he’s still got a great interpretation.
2) God as Mystery of the World: Eberhard Juengel: I suppose I would’ve chosen Dalfeth’s Christology if I could read German better.
3) Concerning Christian Freedom, Luther: almost had to choose some Anselm instead. It still happens, however, that Luther rocks house.
4) Radikale Theologie, Ingolf Dalferth: I can only read that thing really slowly, but I get pretty happy when he talks about how doing radical theology doesn’t mean capitalizing Radical and ignoring theology.
5) Church Dogmatics, volume III, Karl Barth: gotta learn the truth (Tripp) before you can learn anything else
6) Re-Imaging Election: Divine Election as Representing God to Others and Others to God, Suzanne McDonald: I’ll be reviewing it later this summer. Looks phenomenal.
These are some sweet recommendations. Usually tell my new theology nerd friends to get Philip and Tripp’s “transforming Christian Theology.” it’s about as good an intro as it gets.
1. A book you get excited just looking at: Global Dictionary of Theology (Dyrness and Karkkaninen)
2. Your favorite book by your favorite living theologian: The Weakness of God (Caputo)
3. A classic you can’t leave behind: The Peaceable Kingdom (Hauerwas)
4. Best book to cross your eyes in 2011: The Nature of Doctrine ( Linbeck)
5. Favorite book to give a budding theology nerd: Christology: a global introduction (Karkkainen)
6. A book you can’t wait for: Philip Clayton’s new one
I’m just about finished my Bachelor of Theology, but I’ve spent so much time studying the course work that I haven’t really been able to get a good overview of theology. So I resolved at the beginning of the year to start working my way through some of the classics and also get up to speed with where the fun stuff is going on today. In other words, I decided it was time to put my theonerd on and get jinky with it.
1) A book, the mere sight of which gets my heart racing: Funnily enough, my NRSV, but not for the acceptable reasons. It’s pretty low quality as binding and workmanship goes, but the typeface is delicious and I find myself reading the thing for aesthetic pleasure. Oh, and God.
2) Favourite book by favourite theologian: I’m undecided who my favourite is, so allow me to indulge myself here. My first candidate would probably be Tom Wright, and my favourite Tom Wright book would be Surprised by Hope. Alternatively, I might say Arise, Sun of Righteousness by Jürgen Moltmann. He has better (or more established) work that I haven’t read yet, but I really enjoyed that one. Oh, what the heck, I’ll give you a third: Theology in the Context of Science by John Polkinghorne. I find Polkinghorne’s work somewhat repetitive, but this book gave me a good grasp of natural theology.
3) A classic I would insist on taking to my hypothetical desert island: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (one volume edition, of course!) I think those books helped me understand theology better than anything else, so they count.
4) Best book to cross my eyes in 2011: The Mind of God by Paul Davies. Brilliant book that gave me permission (I felt) to take natural theology seriously.
5) Favourite book to give a budding theology nerd: Well, I am a budding theology nerd and I’m going to start hunting for all the books that have been suggested in this thread. If anyone wants to suggest anything, I’d love something that simply outlines the major thinkers, their contributions and the major areas of interest in theology today. Failing that, does anyone have a suggestion for a podcast that might do the trick?
6) A book that I’m tempted to move to the top of my To Read pile: In Whom we Live and Move and Have our Being, a collection edited by Philip Clayton and Arthur Peacocke. I used a couple of essays from this in a paper I wrote last year. I just borrowed it from the library again and I want to read the whole thing properly. Process thought intrigues me. If you’d asked me a day or two ago I would have answered ‘God of the Possible’ by Greg Boyd. Open theism looks rather fascinating, but I did move this book to the top of the pile, so it doesn’t really count any more, does it?
1. A book you get excited just looking at: Adventures of Ideas (Whitehead)
2. Your favorite book by your favorite living theologian: Way of Blessing, Way of Life (Clark Williamson)
3. A classic you can’t leave behind: Fear and Trembling (Kierkegaard)
4. Best book to cross your eyes in 2011: How (Not) To Speak of God, (Peter Rollins)
5. Favorite book to give a budding theology nerd: Dynamics of Faith (Paul Tillich)
6. A book you can’t wait for: Thinking with Whitehead (Isabelle Stengers)
Tripp,
first of all i love this survey idea… it had given me several great new book recommendations. make sure you continue these kinds of posts… because there are several of us theology nerds out there who like these kinds of things. haha. there were more books that i wanted to add to this list and if you asked me again in 6months SOME of them might change. here are my thoughts…
1. the courage to be – paul tillich
2. exclusion and embrace – miroslav volf
3. God in search of man – abraham joshua heschel
4. the song of the bird – anthony de mello
5. philosophy and theology – john d. caputo
6. christian origins and the question of God vol. 4 (full dress study on paul currently in progress) – n.t. wright
1. A book you get excited just looking at: “The Named God and The Question Of Being: A Theo-ontology” by Stanley Grenz
2. Your favorite book by your favorite living theologian: “Beyond Liberalism and Foundationalism” by Nancey Murphy
3. A classic you can’t leave behind: “The Nature Of Doctrine” by George Lindbeck
4. Best book to cross your eyes in 2011: “The Orthodox Heretic” by Peter Rollins
5. Favorite book to give a budding theology nerd: “Dynamics Of Faith” by Paul Tillich
6. A book you can’t wait for: “The New Russian Dostoevsky Readings for the Twenty-First Century”
Carol Apollonio (ed.) (this counts right!?)
1. A book you get excited just looking at – A Timbered Choir: Sabbath Poems by Wendell Berry. Not exactly theology, but always inviting and interesting.
2. Your favorite book by your favorite living theologian – Community of Character (Hauerwas)
3. A classic you can’t leave behind – either Life Together or Discipleship (Bonhoeffer)
4. Best book to cross your eyes in 2011 – Migrations of the Holy (Cavanaugh)
5. Favorite book to give a budding theology nerd – For the Life of the World – Alexander Schmemann
6. A book you can’t wait for! – A really old one on the top of the pile now – Life of Antony by Athanasius
These are some seriously great responses! Thanks for sharing your nerdiness with me.
Now I am trying to get over multiple Lindbeck references but I will keep my post-liberal hatin’ elsewhere.
Tripp – you better check yo self
before you wreck yo self! ;p
OK – I’ve had a couple of days to think about it … so here is my second attempt:
1. A book you get excited just looking at: Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism ( by Nancey Murphy)
2. Your favorite book by your favorite living theologian: She Who Is (by Elizabeth Johnson)
3. A classic you can’t leave behind: Theology of Culture (by Paul Tillich)
4. Best book to cross your eyes in 2011: Theology and the Kingdom of God (by Wolfhart Pannenberg)
5. Favorite book to give a budding theology nerd: What Would Jesus Deconstruct? (by John Caputo)
6. A book you can’t wait for: Philip Clayton’s new one
What an improvement BO!!!! Pannenberg!!!! YES!!!!!
1) “Depth of the Riches” S. Mark Heim (a truly creative theologian)
2) “The Way of Jesus Christ” by Jurgen Moltmann (hard call, because I love most of his work)
3) “The Politics of Jesus” by John Howard Yoder
4) “Christ in a Pluralistic Age” by John Cobb (close 2nd: “Jesus the Liberator” by Jon Sobrino)
5) “Transforming Christian Theology” by Philip Clayton & Tripp Fuller
6) Hmmm…I would say Philip’s new one but that’s been said here before. I’ll go with Elizabeth Johnson’s ecological Christology she’s currently working on.
1. Hans Urs von Balthasar ‘Mysterium Paschale’
2. Jürgen Moltmann ‘The Crucified God’ (narrowly beat Rowan Williams ‘Grace and Necessity’)
3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer ‘Letters and Papers from Prison’
4. Jacques Ellul ‘La subversion du christianisme’
5. Jozef Zycinski ‘God and Evolution: fundamental questions of Christian evolutionism’
6. A full-blown systematics from a Celtic Christian/emergent perspective (any candidates out there?)
1) Christ the Representative – Dorthee Solle
2) God of the Oppressed – James Cone
3) Sisters in the Wilderness – Delores Williams
4) Ethics – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
5) Jesus: God and Man – Wolfhart Pannenberg
6) The Cross and the Lynching Tree – James Cone
Wow! These additions keep getting better.
PS Jeremy knows how to get added to my RSS head….tell me he gives his budding theology nerd friends Pannenberg’s “Jesus: God and man”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was my second choice only because he doesn’t address the people younger students would know like Borg, Wright, Ehrman, etc. Otherwise it is the most amazing Christology on the planet!! That’s it I’m gonna read it right now…….