Favorite Books on Christianity

 


The serious Protestant student of the faith will of course turn to the Bible as our ultimate source of truth about the Christian faith.  For Protestants that Bible includes the Old and the new Testaments.  For Roman Catholics and the Orthodox communions (and, increasingly, for Protestants) the Bible also includes those books “in between” the Old and the New Testaments:  the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books.  The order of those in-between books differs among their differing reading communities.

Roman Catholics may not view the Bible in quite the same way as Protestants.  For Protestants the Bible is the sine qua non of authority re the faith.  For Roman Catholics the teachings and traditions of the church, including the teaching of the Magisterium (the Pope), are also authoritative and may outrank Scriptures.

Our sisters and brothers in the Jewish faith turn to their Bible:  Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings of the Hebrew Bible.  Christians typically see the Jewish Bible as our Old Testament.  That is not quite accurate.  The Hebrew Bible was communicated in a different language, Hebrew, versus the Christian Old Testament which came to us in Greek by way of the Septuagint.  While the books of the two collections are the same in name and number, their order differs.  And, most importantly, Jewish readers see their Scriptures as complete.  Christians see our Old Testament as open-ended, pointing to and concluding with the books of the New Testament.

There are many translations of the Scriptures.  For this Protestant reader, two stand out as superior: the New International Version (NIV) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).  Both (and the Revised Standard Version) are widely (but not exclusively) used in the scholarly community.  Both are “literal” translations of the various underlying manuscripts available to us, i.e., they try for a word-by-word translation from the Hebrew and the Greek into English (or other local languages).  The NRSV additionally tries to use inclusive gender language wherever that is possible without altering the meaning of the underlying text, e.g., sisters and brothers when referring to mixed groups to whom Jesus spoke rather than merely “brothers.”

In addition to large numbers of translations of the Bible, there are also copies of the Bible written with an eye towards making the text more readable to the general public.  One of the more popular “transliterations” of the Bible is The Message by Eugene Peterson.  He sought to go directly from the Greek text to an English that would capture some of the passion, rhythm and feel of the Greek.  It is not therefore a literal translation.  Many find The Message to be a powerful way into the Bible.  But, it is not a strict translation.

There are many so-called “study” Bibles.  These are translations that include annotations to the texts and introductions to each book of the Bible by reputable scholars.  I have mostly used the HarperCollins Study Bible but there are others that are equally helpful, e.g., the New Interpreter’s Bible and the New Oxford Annotated Bible.

As a seminary student, I was overwhelmed by the volume of information I found on the Bible.  I asked the advice of one of my Professors, Sharon Ringe, for a basic and reputable resource that I could use throughout my seminary career and thereafter.  After cautioning me that the texts were expensive ($500 for the set), she recommended the New Interpreter’s Bible (NIB) commentaries (twelve volumes, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, various years in the 1990s).

Think of a commentary as a kind of vastly expanded Study Bible, but with many volumes instead a single one.  Each book of the Bible is given to a noted scholar in seminary or university who then prepares an extended discussion of the text, its content and authorship and dating, etc.  That discussion will generally include annotations for each verse or for relevant groupings of verses … the break-up of each chapter of the book into sections of text that cohere is itself part of the scholarly enterprise.

I made what I regard as one of the best investments of my life when I purchased the NIB commentaries.  I have used those commentaries both in seminary and later as invaluable aids in sermon preparation and in teaching in Bible studies.  I have also purchased the NIB series of Bible dictionaries, also a very helpful aid for the pulpit and Bible study classes.  (Note:  these commentaries and dictionaries are available in both paper and digital formats.  My advice?  Buy both!)

There are lots of good commentaries out there, not just those of the NIB.  The key thing in choosing a commentary is the reputational quality of the authors and the extent to which their commentaries are up to date.  For example, Craig Keener has now written, judging from the reviews, the “everything you ever wanted to know” four-volume commentary to end all commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles.  (I will purchase Keener’s commentary unless a generous relative offers it as a gift for birthday/Christmas.)  The Anchor series of commentaries and others are also very helpful.  One of the advantages of being a seminary student is having access to those commentary series in a well-stocked library.  Seminary students also continue to have electronic access to those libraries post-graduation…hallelujah!

Serious religious and theological books have few readers.  That means, unfortunately, that those volumes are not often discounted or offered on “sale.”  Nor are they likely to be available in electronic format (I exempt here those volumes used as texts for courses on the books of the Bible and on serious theological topics.)  These books are therefore often very expensive.

I here offer the reader some suggestions to additional books that I have found valuable in my studies and in my faith life, in no particular order of reading or importance.

The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, 2nd Ed., Donald K. McKim, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 2014.
Systematic Theology (and Greek) was a very difficult course for me in seminary.  Part of the reason for that is that theology has its own language, one that was hard for me to learn.  I continue to use this dictionary of theological terms to keep me from mis-steps in sermons and in teaching.

The Women’s Bible Commentary, 3rd Ed., Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Editors, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 2012.
Sharon Ringe spent a year trying to teach me (and a classroom of others) the New Testament in seminary.  I am grateful for her efforts and wish I retained more of what she tried to give me.  She was also one of the editors of this one-volume commentary by women scholars.  Women are often unmentioned and absent in Biblical texts.  For many that absence and resulting male focus are insuperable barriers to reading and appreciating the foundational texts of our faith.  This commentary helps…somewhat.  I have used the various editions of this commentary a lot in my work as preacher and teacher.

In God’s Time:  The Bible and The Future, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, Craig C. Hill, 2002.
Craig Hill did his level best to teach me koine Greek in seminary.  He had my sympathies then and now for his hard work in that enterprise…I am not very good in languages other than English.  He is now Dean of the Perkins School of Theology at SMU.  Those SMU Mustangs are very lucky!  This book deals with the very difficult subject of, as William F. Buckley, Jr. put it, “the ontology of the eschaton” per the Bible.  What does the Bible say about timing, sequence, and content of the coming end of days?  Most importantly for me is his Appendix entitled “Not Left Behind” which thoroughly debunks any notion that the “rapture” has a basis in the Bible.

Plato, On Timaeus, translated by Donald J. Zeyl, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis/Cambridge, 2000.
The culture of Jesus’ time was thoroughly Hellenistic.  Yes, he lived under the rule of the Roman Empire, but that Empire promoted the thought of Greek philosophers.  Yes, he was Jewish, but the Jews were a minority in a sea of folks who lived, moved, and breathed the ideas of Plato and neo-Platonic philosophers.  Those ideas inevitably had an effect on the authors and editors responsible for the writing and compilation of the books of the Bible.  One of those ideas, and a thoroughly non-Christian one at that, was the notion that human beings are divine souls trapped in frail, decaying, and dying flesh.  At death the soul is freed and flies off to its divine reward and rule.  This book is the source for that notion.  The Jewish (and traditionally the Christian) conception of human beings is that we are a mix of flesh, soul, spirit, etc., all of which God created and found to be good and very good.  The real divide in the Bible is not between body and soul in human beings but between God and God’s creatures/creation.

Christian Doctrine, Shirley C. Guthrie, Jr., Revised Edition, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 1994.
I always told my Maine congregation that everything I know about theology comes from the lyrics to stained-glass/blue-grass songs.  That is at least partly true, but the real truth is that what little I know about theology came out of a year of very tough study of systematic theology (I will ever be grateful for the patience of Prof. Kendall Soulen, my instructor).  Guthrie’s book was the text for that course of study.  So…raised a fundamentalist Baptist, later a member of United Church of Christ congregations, a student at a Methodist seminary, studying a theology text written by a Presbyterian…that’s me, ah well!  This book is clearly-written, accessible and remarkably thorough for an introductory text.  I have continued to refer to it post-graduation.

What Shall We Say?  Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith, Thomas G. Long, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K., 2011.
I had the privilege (and challenge) of spending a weekend with Emory homiletics professor Tom Long in an effort to improve my preaching.  Imagine writing and preaching a sermon to a congregation of one, and a great preacher at that …yikes!  Tom’s gentleness and competence was in evidence that weekend and certainly is on display in this small volume.  Do not be misled by the length … in this book Professor Long deals with perhaps the toughest theological subject of all…how does one reconcile the presence of suffering and evil AND the existence of a sovereign and loving god.  Hint:  one answer is that the god of the philosophers is not the God of Israel, the God about whom we learn in the Bible.  This book is invaluable…as, by the way, are Long’s books on how to preach.  Side notes:  Early in his career Tom found himself on trial in his denomination for heresy, and he later authored a paper on why Billy Graham was not a good preacher!!  Very interesting guy!

Wealth as Peril and Obligation:  The New Testament on Possessions, Sondra Ely Wheeler, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 1995.
What exactly does the Bible say about wealth and possessions?  Surely every American should be interested in that subject.  We are the wealthiest people in the history of the world and are enormously wealthy compared to the vast majority of people in the world today.  Professor Wheeler, an instructor of mine in seminary, does an admirable and thorough job of explaining what the Bible teaches on this matter.  Bottom line:  the authors of the books of the Bible are mostly very skeptical of the effects of wealth on our spiritual well-being.  Therefore, per John Wesley:  work a lot, earn a lot, give away a lot.

The Practice of Prophetic Imagination:  Preaching an Emancipating Word, Water Brueggemann, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2012.
Did you ever read a book and find that the words of the author are hitting your body like a bolt of electricity?  Well, this book did that for me.  The work of the prophet, says Brueggemann, is to stand up and shout and weep and tell the world that, despite what the ruling elites tell us, THINGS ARE NOT ALL RIGHT!!  Wow!  Brueggemann realizes that we are being given that message to keep us in line and to keep us believing that the world’s rulers are its actual rulers.  Neither is true … there is a lot that is very wrong and needs us to work on…and…God is the actual ruler of the world, not the heads of nations and principalities.

The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, Michael S. Heiser, Lexham Press, 2015.
I am including this book because I welcome comments from others about it.  I have not completed my reading of the book … each paragraph/page is dense with lots of information to absorb…but am astounded by what I have read.  Did you ever wonder what Genesis meant when we read at 3:22: “See, the man has become like one of us…”

Who is “us?”  And, what does Genesis mean when at 1:22:  “… God created humankind in his image…”  What does “image” mean?  What does it mean that we are created in God’s image?  And just, who the heck are the Nephilim, and why are they important?  Heiser offers answers to these questions, and others, that are new (to me, anyway) and just plain fascinating…and apparently well-based in scholarship…I keep an eye out for reviews taking issue with him but have yet to find one.  Professor Ben Witherington, about whom more later, has what seem to be positive comments that reflect mine in his Internet blog.

I have already indicated the depth of gratitude I feel towards Wesley Theology Seminary and its faculty while I was a student there.  Let me here single out Laurence Hull Stookey who tried to teach me about church liturgy.  He has since died but I hope he knows how desperately grateful I and so many others are to him for his diligence in educating us and putting up with us.  I will ever be embarrassed that I wrote to him that one of his prayers was “banal.”  Ah, the arrogance of the uneducated! Professor Stookey wrote three books that I have worn out three from active use:  Calendar:  Christ’s Time for the Church, Baptism:  Christ’s Act in the Church, and Eucharist:  Christ’s Feast with the Church, all published by Abingdon Press.  Those books should, in my opinion, be on the desks of every Protestant pastor in the country.  They are invaluable guides and references for questions about baptism, communion, and the church calendar.  In fact, for me as a pastor and teacher and celebrant of the sacraments, they were indispensable.

Let me recommend to the reader certain authors as well as particular books.  Read anything and everything by Luke Timothy Johnson, Ben Witherington III and N. T. Wright.  First, Luke Timothy Johnson has the most Biblical set of names I have ever seen…and he is a brilliant New Testament scholar…and his analysis of the search for the historical Jesus should put an end to that matter once and for all.

Second, Ben Witherington III is a brother graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill (go, Heels!).  His writings, his recorded lectures on YouTube, and his blog are valuable resources on any number of biblical issues.  Most particularly, he is the author of half-a-dozen biblical novels that entertainingly aid the reader in developing a familiarity with the New Testament and the era of the early church.  Ok, so he could stand some improvement in writing dialogue…give him a break, he is a Bible scholar for G-d’s sake!  His stories and the backgrounds and the underlying scholarship are a delight…how wonderful for this mystery-loving fan to read about first century church mysteries!

Finally, read N. T. Wright.  You may or may not agree with everything he has to say…and he has an enormous amount to offer, whether on YouTube lectures or in his books.  But his range and depth of knowledge is profound, and he is able to communicate as clearly as anyone I have ever heard speak.  I especially appreciate the way in which he links the message of the Old Testament and New Testament so that the reader of the Bible understands that there is a single theme throughout…God reaching out to us to be a part of God’s realm, beginning at Creation, come near in Jesus and to be accomplished in full upon our Savior’s return.