Reading Stuff

Back from summer time off from posting makes me realize that I haven't done this in a while.  Summertime is reading time for me.  A pastor's reading has to be broad enough and deep enough to sustain a number of interests, but it is also utilitarian--enough to benefit the people I care about.  I read a foot-high stack of older and newer books by N.T. Wright, some re-reads of what captured me a decade ago--Jesus and the Victory of God, plus The New Testament and the People of God ( don't have the third of the trilogy yet)--and the flood of new offerings since a few years ago: Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, Paul, How God Became King, and Simply Jesus.  An orgy of N.T. Wright.  Thanks, Tom, for a wonderful summer!  So I thought I should post the pastor's next stack for now, and a bit of why those books are there:
The Holy Longing: The Search for A Christian Spirituality, by Ronald Rolheiser.  Suggested by a spiritual renewal covenant group that I've now committed to for the next two years.  Rolheiser's thesis is a back-to-basics cheer for Christian spiritual practices that are in danger of being eclipsed in our era by non-specific "spirituality."  A life following Jesus has some specific contours, content that is particular and peculiar, and not to be shied away from.
A Door Set Open: Grounding Change in Mission and Hope, by Peter L. Steinke.  Steinke's latest offering through Alban is another encouragement for pastors deep in the throws of pastoral care with a congregation in perpetual stress because of perpetual change--pretty much the whole of the mainline church in North America. Although I'm inclined to take encouragement wherever I can find it, I am a bit disappointed with this book because there is not an original thought in it.  I'm annoyed by authors who because of their own reputation can sell books by simply quoting other well-known authors. This one could have used a good editor.
Sabbath in the Suburbs: a Family's Experiment with Holy Time, by MaryAnn McKibben Dana.  A rising star among Presbyterian circles and a very talented writer and preacher, MaryAnn is a colleague in the area.  I'm looking forward to reading this, just received yesterday.  McKibben Dana is also part of the NEXT Church movement within presby circles--people to watch because of their great passion and youth. I'm rooting for them from the generation over-the-hill, that can sometimes be guilty of the been-there, done-that reaction.
Stilling the Storm: Worship and Congregational Leadership in Difficult Times, by Kathleen S. Smith.  Another Alban title that has captured my attention because I have taken a renewed interest in renewing worship.  Smith is from the talented group running the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, whose conference is an aspiration of mine.  It's just that January in Michigan is a tough venue!  All those folks must REALLY be interested in order to clear their schedules to come.
Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation, by Stephanie Spellers, handed to all the members of one of the committees on which I serve. The bane of pastors in a connectional church governance system is that we have to be at least as well-read as everyone else in the system.  But the book looks good and the referring committee member picked up the cost of it, so I'm not averse to reading it. Spellers, now an Episcopal priest, has a background in journalism, so it should at least be well-written.

Last but not least--FICTION!  Pnin, by Vladimir Nobokov.  The October selection of a bookclub that I've just joined.  Even pastors have to have some pleasures.  I'm interested to see a portrayal of the academic life, one that I've left behind in the past several years, but one in which I maintain an interest.  Nobokov taught at my alma mater for a time, but I never crossed paths with him.  They say that Pnin is based more upon Cornell than Wellesley.

Time to start reading!


Notice--among all these authors, not one politico!