Great Books for Thinking About Faith

This week on Kingdom Bloggers, we are talking about contemporary authors. I decided to recommend some authors who stimulate thinking about issues of faith, theology, and our unique journeys of belief. We need to think more and react less! For a scriptural reference on this, read The Epistle of James, chapter 3. I am also a great believer in humor and the healing power of laughter! 

Carolyn Custis James, Half the Church, When Life and Beliefs Collide, Book of Ruth, Lost Women of the Bible. 

I have been a fan of Carolyn's since I heard her speak at a conference in 2005 encouraging the crowd to encourage women to step up to the plate in ministry and careers.  In Half the Church, she offers a healthy discussion of why men and women should be partnering in ministry, in marriage, in life, in business, etc., instead of...well, dwelling on much of the division we have known for years. The other main issue in this book is the call to rescue our global sisters from sexual trafficking, prostitution, and abuse--and giving them a reason to trust and to live: Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of believers who care enough to do something about this crisis. I wrote a six-week study based on Half the Church for my 2012 summertime “Stories on the Porch” I host for women (no offense to men; my porch can only fit so many J), and it stimulated great discussion and challenged our thinking.  Carolyn's other books are excellent as well, and highly recommended.

 Philip Yancey, Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church.

    This is one of the most important books on faith I have read, and I wish I had known about it ten years ago when it was first published. Back then, I had an aversion to reading contemporary Christian authors for a few reasons, including the relentless marketing of the “same-old same-old” stuff, a growing unsettling about authors of a certain gender, type and age telling me how to think, what to believe, etc., and zero free time raising three young children.

       The funny thing is, Yancey is exactly one of those authors I avoided, certain he had nothing original or pertinent to say to me. So, my own stubbornness and assumptions got in the way of “listening” to him.

     The book is comprised of 13 chapters, each focusing on a person who profoundly impacted Yancey’s faith (usually in times of doubt and struggle) through personal engagement, research or studying the writings and life of past authors/thinkers (persons like Martin Luther King, G. K. Chesterton, Ghandi, Annie Dillard, Dr. Paul Brand). Soul Survivor will challenge and convict believers about their understanding of some prominent Christians, and will hopefully remind us that truly authentic Christians can love and serve Christ while also living flawed lives--because we all are flawed and broken, and in need of redemption. Yancey received a lot of hate mail over his early essays on Martin Luther King, C. Everett Koop, and Ghandi--most of it from evangelical Christians.

     Yancey survived a fundamentalist, racist, hypocritical church as he grew up, but his faith would have withered and died if not for the authentic, loving, sacrificial people God put in his path to challenge his own assumptions about the Church.

      The book also spoke to me because of its support of the power of art and literature (novels, poems, stories) to draw people to Christ.

Rhoda Janzen, Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?

No doubt some of the content of this honest memoir will bug (read: offend) some people, but this book is not about theology. It is about the personal journey of a woman raised as a Mennonite who left faith behind for 25 years, but who could not escape God’s whisper of love to her. Janzen is an English professor, and her spot-on storytelling and wit are treasures.   Her previous memoir, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, should probably be read first (which I have not done yet!).  A friend gave the second one to me as a gift, so I plunged ahead--no regrets! J

The Kingdom of God...In Your Face!

The kingdom of God is NOW. Raw. Real. As Dr. Sean McDonough says, it is in your face! One of the most exciting things about life as a Christian is to see the in-breaking of the Kingdom of Heaven into time. Since I can’t write anything as compelling and intelligent and moving as Dr. McDonough, one of my favorite professors at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I thought I would share his chapel message from last year about our limited understanding of the powerful reality of God’s Kingdom.
Click on this link to view his talk, "The Kingdom of God":  https://vimeo.com/32333683. Please don't miss this!

Three Books for Thee

I sometimes feel like a dunce when I am asked to list my favorite foods, shops, authors, or in this case, books. My brain stutters and I have a tough time answering. I think it is because I don’t want to be held to any proclamation--my favorite dinner today could be my least favorite next week. And having a favorite implies that you are categorizing all the others as “second-best” (like when one of your children insists you have a favorite child and wants you to name him or her out loud).

I will put aside this neurosis for today and name my current choices for books that have informed, challenged and inspired me.

Hands down, Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is one of the best books I have read. Don’t be put off by its length--it will hold you in its grip until you finish. When I began the book, I knew only a little about Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a bit of his writing, some misinformation from other theologians, and from a great 2000 film, Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace). Too often we can easily dismiss people because they do something we see as wrong, or hypocritical, or even stupid, instead of looking at the whole picture of that person’s life (I once heard someone say that the sixteenth-century theologian John Calvin was a “jerk”).

Bonhoeffer was a complex human being who loved God fully, openly, and sacrificially. He became a pastor and theologian against his family’s wishes. He is described as lovable and difficult. As a 37 year-old, he falls in love with a 17 year-old. He and his family knew the dangers of Hitler long before the rest of world and he tried tirelessly to inform the outside world. He believed that a true Christian must love God and seek justice, and was horrified by German churches’ passivity regarding Nazism. Bonhoeffer, after living in safety in London for two years, returned to Germany to conduct a seminary in secret, and was constantly harassed by the Nazis. Through his well-placed family, he became a spy within Abwehr, a German intelligence agency that was actually the center of the resistance) and was later executed by the Nazis in 1945.

Metaxas does a masterful job of handling a very complex, compelling story, managing to weave Bonhoeffer’s developing theology, deep love for God, and his own humanity throughout a text that informs about Hitler’s rise. This book convicted and challenged me about my own faith and the need for ever-growing obedience to our call as Christians, which must include compassion, mercy and sacrifice for others.

Two other books that are well worth the read are Lauren Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, which will enlarge the reader’s understanding of the other war in WW II, the war in the Pacific, as the author unfolds the true story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini (another complex individual with amazing resilience--and whose later life is just as difficult and then transformed!); and, because I love art and story, David McCullough’s The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, my favorite book (and a gift from my sister Ann for my birthday last June!) of 2011.

This is a fabulous, excellent, get-the-artsy-juices-flowing book: you will learn more about French history in the 1800's, side by side with American history, (rather than how we learned in school--in isolation from other countries); you will want to run, not walk, to every piece of art and sculpture you have seen by Sargent, Cassatt, Healy, Catlin, Saint-Gaudens, because you have learned the back-story of many creations; and you will wish you were at the Exposition in Paris in 1889 when Thomas Edison was the rage, the Eiffel Tower was new, and 6,000 pieces of art were on display, and something new called a toy car by Peugeot was displayed.

Seriously Peter?! You call that a tip...

I really wanted to agree with Andrea and answer Peter to this question, but...

Peter is one of my favorite people in the Bible because, well, we have a lot of things in common. The biggest being we both react before we think at times. That being said...I'll say John the Disciple would be my choice.

Now, I love the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. But, John's story of Jesus is not only unique by content (90% unique to the other three), I believe the insights of John are also unique to the others who were around Christ during His entire ministry. The Bible is clear about John being one of the 'inner circle' of Jesus. John is also referred to as the beloved one which points to a special relationship with Him.

So what did John know that maybe the other disciples didn't?

That would be the driving question in my conversation with him. John undoubtedly fully understood the relationship of Jesus in the Trinity. Right out the gate in John 1:1, he tries to give us a glimpse of that deeper understanding by saying Jesus always was and always will be. I must confessed...the concept still baffles me a bit, but then again...I'm not meant to completely understand the ways of God. I'm cool with that, but I know John could get me at least a little closer in my quest.

God revealed things to John about the end times that had to be completely astonishing to him. We'd spend a good deal of time on that subject. I don't fear end times in any way, but I am very curious about how matters of eschatology are going down. No way I can be in that boat alone.

Next to possibly Mary, I believe John knew Jesus better than any other human has, including Paul. Now there's absolutely no biblical basis for what I'm about to say, but I can't help but thing John shared much of his insight with Paul at some point. Sure, we know that John was well into his church building when Paul got his life changing face-to-face with Jesus, but that doesn't exclude them from an undocumented chat session or two swapping stories about the awesomeness of God walking among us.

Wow. John could really tie up a few lose ends for me personally. While it wouldn't change the way I feel about my Lord and Savior...I'd sure have yet another thing or two to smile about daily.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. God bless your weekend too!

I Always Get the Same Answer

Having spent the last five years of my life in academic Biblical studies and theology, I am tempted to bore all of you with some deep theological language and issues. I remember when I first started this academic journey I couldn’t seem to understand the meaning of a lot of terms. In my first semester and for some time beyond that, no matter how many times I saw the word ontological I would freeze in my tracks. I would run for a dictionary. I would look it up again. Now I can use the term in a complete sentence and even think to use the word. My first day in a New Testament class, the professor told us to go home and prepare a pericope outline for the book of Mark. I had no idea what he was talking about and really stressed over that assignment.

So I use big words sometimes. Sometimes I know what they mean and how to use them, other times not so much. If I were going to ask some of the big questions I have theologically, I would ask about the atonement, theodicy, the incarnation or the Trinity. In reality, I like that type of mental activity. I guess I better since I spend so much time doing it.

I think if the question were phrased, what questions would like to ask God? I think my questions would be around these deep theological questions. But that’s not the question for today. The question is what question have I asked Jesus? That’s a totally different question. Jesus is my Savior. He is my redeemer friend. He is the one who I cry out to from the deepest parts of my soul. Yeah, I know about the Trinity. Remember it was one of my deep theological questions. Nevertheless, in spite of being a theological nerd, I still see Jesus in a slightly different light. He was human (that's the incarnation part). The scripture says:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Hebrews 4:15

So in the non-nerd part of me, when you talk about Jesus it’s just different.

I have asked Jesus why it is that I am in South Dakota. I don’t like it here. I don’t understand why or what purpose He had in having me come here. It just seems wrong, totally wrong for me. Yet, here I am.

I have asked Jesus why He called me and now I sit. Why did He gift me in preaching and teaching and give me precious few opportunities to use my gifts? These questions are followed with internal scrutiny of things I may have done wrong. Of course, I have done things wrong at times but that never seems to be the answer. If it were, I could fix it. I could repent. I could change. I keep asking.

I have asked God why my precious granddaughter had to die and why my children often make poor choices. (Here is the story of the granddaughter’s death.) I ask Him why we experience pain and troubles (that’s the theodicy part).

My biggest question right now is, why do you never give me a choice between two good things? Why do I always have to chose between two choices that are both bad? I am facing some decisions right now. Neither choice is good.


Jesus has never really given me any good answers to these questions. Jesus is sometimes difficult like that. Most of the time, He is just silent. When He does answer, He says:

 Joyce, just trust Me.