What I’ve Been Reading Lately

Hope you’re all enjoying a great summer!

Well, every couple of months I share with folks what I’ve been reading (because I get asked a lot). So, for what its worth, here’s my annotated book list for the last several months. Someone responded to my enthusiasm over a book on my last list by purchasing it on Amazon only to find out it was way over their head (and quite expensive). So I’ll inform readers about the level of difficulty of each book by rating each on a four star system. One star means “very easy and accessible to all” and four stars means “very scholarly and probably only of interest to scholars.”

Origin: Homilies on Joshua. Tran. B. J. Bruce. This is the main writing in which Origen famously allegorizes Old Testament violence. While this mode of exegesis (and thus this way of explaining Old Testament violence) is wildly implausible today, Origen’s piety and brilliance shines through on every page. I think this ancient saint and scholar still has a lot to teach us. **

R. B. Tollington, ed. Selections From the Commentaries and Homilies of Origen. This 1929 selection of passages from Origen’s writings is a very handy way of getting into the thought and heart of this church father. (By the way, despite my deep admiration for Origen, I will in a later work [The Myth of the Blueprint] argue that his thought is profoundly influenced by Middle Platonism, with unfortunate consequences down the road for Christian Theology). **

M. Volf, Exclusion & Embrace. Miroslav is a fantastic writer and thinker. I would describe this book as a probing theological analysis of Jesus’ call to love “the other” as oneself (and therefore as belonging to one’s own tribe). His chapter on violence is especially profound (even though I don’t agree with him entirely). ***

N. Wolterstorff, Divine Discourse. A superb philosophical analysis of what it means to affirm that “God speaks.” I was so impressed with this work I decided to use parts of it as a springboard to discuss my own hermeneutics in The Crucifixion of the Warrior God. ****

H. Zinn, A People’s History of the United States. Haven’t yet finished the whole thing (it’s THICK) but this is a marvelous MUST READ for all American Christians. The version most of us were fed is so “white washed” (pun intended). ***

S. Baker, Razing Hell. I read a pre-published version of this work at the request of the publisher to endorse it (though the publisher never told me who or where to send the endorsement!). This is a popular level investigation into the nature of God’s wrath. Sharon, who I met several months ago at Messiah college, does an excellent job of showing how God’s wrath is really an expression of God’s love. Basically, the fire of God’s wrath is the fire of God’s passionate love being refused. YES! **

T. Keller, The Prodigal God. My friend Julie Ross gave me this little book and said I HAVE to read it. I’m so glad she did. Keller beautifully captures the scandalously loving heart of God in the parable of “the Prodigal God” (usually mislabeled “the Prodigal Son”). I plagiarized Keller extensively in a recent sermon (though I of course gave him credit). *

P. Enns, Inspiration and Incarnation. This book got my friend Peter into a good bit of hot water among conservative evangelicals. Peter adopts an incarnational model of inspiration to show how evangelicals can accommodate the findings of the historical-critical approach to Scripture. I am less confident of biblical criticism than Peter and I have a more stringent understanding of biblical infallibility than he, but I loved the bold integrity with which this book confronts an assortment of important issues. ***

J. Goldingay, Theological Diversity and the Authority of the Old Testament. A solid, honest, conservative, scholarly handling of the challenge of finding theological unity throughout the Old Testament while also embracing it’s radical diversity. Because it compliments a central aspect of my own work on Old Testament violence (in my forthcoming book, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God), I was especially interested in Goldingay’s analysis of how God accommodates his ideals to meet his people where they are. ****

J. Nugent, Old Testament Contributions to Ecclesiology. John graciously sent me his doctoral dissertation when he learned of my work wrestling with Old Testament violence. Thanks John! I honestly read only those sections that seemed pertinent to my own work, but it ended up being quite a bit. This is a very informative assessment of everything John Howard Yoder (one of my heroes) wrote about the Old Testament. ****

B. Childs, Biblical Theology. Brevard Child’s is, in my opinion, one of the most insightful and helpful Old Testament scholars in the last half of the twentieth century. This is a short and accessible introduction to his thought. What I like most about Child’s thought is it allows us to affirm a robust view of biblical authority without needing to be paranoid about the findings of biblical criticism. This is, in essence, the approach I’m taking in The Crucifixion of the Warrior God. ***

Hector Avalos, Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence. Avalos tries to argue that the religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is intrinsically violent. The book does a nice job of collecting together the violent material in the Bible and throughout Church history, but I think his basic thesis is indefensible. Especially weak is his attempt to argue that the theology of Jesus and the New Testament is as violent as the Old Testament. ***

R. Schwartz, The Curse of Cain. In this nicely written book, Schwartz argues that at the root of all violence is an “Us verses Them” process of identity formation, and that the pattern for this in western culture was laid out in Scripture. In the end, she argues that any form of monotheism that depicts God as commanding singular, absolute allegiance is going to tend to absolutize the “Us versus Them” dynamic and inspire violence. Her case is strong, especially in showing the negative effect biblical monotheism has had in western culture throughout history.  This book reinforced a foundational conviction of mine: The only ideal that cannot be used to justify violence against enemies is the ideal of self-sacrificial love that unconditionally forbids violence toward enemies. Any religion that doesn’t put the principle of love and non-violence ahead of ALL other principles will sooner or later justify violence.***

And finally…..

P. Nobel, The Canonical Approach. I have read parts of this work on several occasions in the past, but last month decided to read it cover to cover since it was important to a chapter I’m working on in my book. This is, in my opinion, the best single overview and critical assessment of the thought of Brevard Child’s. ****

That’s it. Happy summer reading y’all!

Greg