Since we often get asked to recommend good books, we thought we would let you know what various member of our staff team are reading right now. These are current and available titles which we think worthwhile to check out.
Practice Resurrection – Eugene H. Peterson
“There is no question that bringing men and women to new birth in Christ is essential. But, argues Eugene Peterson, isn’t it obvious that growth in Christ is equally essential? Yet the American church does not treat Christian growth and character formation with equivalent urgency. We are generally uneasy with the quiet, obscure conditions in which growth takes place. Building maturity in Christ is too often relegated to footnote status in the text of our lives. In Practice Resurrection Peterson brings the voice of Scripture — especially Paul’s letter to the Ephesians — and the voice of the contemporary Christian congregation together in understanding what is involved in the practice of becoming mature — growing up to the “stature of Christ.”
Journey to the Common Good – Walter Brueggemann
In this timely volume, respected author and theologian Walter Brueggemann turns his discerning eye to the most critical yet basic needs of a world adapting to a new era, an era defined in large part by America’s efforts to rebuild from an age of terror even as it navigates its way through an economic collapse. Yet in spite of these great challenges, Brueggemann calls us to journey together to the common go od through neighborliness, covenanting, and reconstruction.
The Wisdom of Each Other: A Conversation Between Spiritual Friends – Eugene H. Peterson
An illuminating example of friendship as a vital way God answers our need for guidance, encouragement, affirmation, and correction. Most of the time, what we need to help us through the struggles in our lives is not the advice of an expert but the wisdom of a friend. Through this series of eloquent letters written to a life-long friend, author Eugene Peterson demonstrates friendship as a means to Christian maturity. The topics covered in this warm and highly personal correspondence are broad and varied, but one thing comes through with constancy and clarity: there is great value in a wise, experienced friend to help us see more clearly and to strengthen our growth in faith and godliness.
Life After Death: The Evidence – Dinesh D’Souza
Is death the end? Or, as bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza argues, do the latest discoveries in physics and neuroscience, the most convincing philosophical deductions, and the most likely conclusions from anthropology and biology lend increasing credibility to the prospect of life after death? Life After Death: The Evidence presents a reasoned, scientifically based case that life after death is more than possible, it is highly probable. Indeed it has far more evidence on its side than atheistic arguments about death marking our complete and utter extinction. Provocative, and combining a mastery of the arguments from philosophy, physics, and biology with an incisive analysis of how the world’s major religions have viewed the afterlife, D’Souza shows why we can expect that what Shakespeare called the “undiscovered country” will be discovered by us all.
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy – Eric Metaxas
From the New York Times bestselling author of Amazing Grace, a groundbreaking biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the greatest heroes of the twentieth century, the man who stood up to Hitler. A definitive, deeply moving narrative, Bonhoeffer is a story of moral courage in the face of the monstrous evil that was Nazism. After discovering the fire of true faith in a Harlem church, Bonhoeffer returned to Germany and became one of the first to speak out against Hitler. As a double-agent, he joined the plot to assassinate the Fuhrer, and was hanged in Flossenberg concentration camp at age 39. Since his death, Bonhoeffer has grown to be one of the most fascinating, complex figures of the 20th century. Bonhoeffer presents a profoundly orthodox Christian theologian whose faith led him to boldly confront the greatest evil of the 20th century, and uncovers never-before-revealed facts, including the story of his passionate romance.
