You don’t have to hang around long to figure out that I enjoy reading. And not just any old book, but I like reading things that stretch me in some way. That stretching comes in various forms. Sometimes in challenging certain assumptions and therefore causing me to re-think, clarify, or abandon previously held beliefs. Sometimes the challenge is more visceral, where it feels like I’ve been called out. You might call it a “gut check.” But my favorite stretching is when the book I’m reading requires more of me intellectually. Piper (quoting Adler) says it best,
“In [Alder’s] classic, How to Read a Book, he makes a passionate case that the books that enlarge our grasp of truth and make us wiser must feel, at first, beyond us. They must “make demands on you. They must seem to you to be beyond your capacity.” If a book is easy and fits nicely into all your language conventions and thought forms, then you probably will not grow much from reading it. It may be entertaining, but not enlarging to your understanding. It’s the hard books that count.” (God’s Passion for His Glory, 29)
So this page is going to be a collection of titles (most likely exclusively theological in nature) that have stretched me in some way or another. The links will either be to a place you can buy the book or occasionally my thoughts and reflections on it.
Currently Reading:
- Rediscovering the Triune God by Stanley Grenz
- The Mission of God by Christopher Wright
- Simply Jesus by N. T. Wright
Recently Enjoyed:
- Transforming Conversion by Gordon Smith
- Movements of Grace by Jeff McSwain
- Beyond Foundationalsim by Stanley Grenz
- Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me by Ian Cron
Some All Time Favorites: