Brad Hightower tagged me for a book meme. Here are my answers:
1. Total number of books I own or have owned:
Far too many! I’m trying to cut back on the book-buying habit, particularly now that I have access to the City University of New York libraries (I’m a CUNY faculty member). But I probably buy 2-5 new books a month, if you include paperback novels. I supposed I’ve owned books numbering in the thousands, but haven’t nearly kept them all.
2. Last book I bought:
Violence, Hospitality and the Cross, by Hans Boersma. This is a very thoughtful study of theories of the Atonement. Boersma does an excellent job, in my estimation, of tying together the Moral Influence, Christus Victor, and Substitutionary models of the Atonement in a way that’s sensitive to concerns about divine violence yet faithful to scripture and Christian tradition.
3. Last book I read:
The First Crusade: A New History by Thomas Asbridge. Some thoughts stemming from that book are here.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me:
The Bible. In particular, Genesis 1-2, the Psalms and Paul’s pastoral epistles. This is too obvious, though, so I won’t really count it as one on the list.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. For me, Aslan embodies the riches and depths of God’s character — both His love and justice — and Narnia puts flesh and bones on the hope and longing for God’s presence.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I love the way Lewis portrays sin. He challenges us to look beyond rules to reality and reminds us that obedience to God leads to fullness of the good things God has planned for the people He loves.
Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern World, by Stan Grenz and John Franke. There is much that is debatable about Grenz and Franke’s conclusions, but this book got me thinking about faith and epistemology in ways that I think have been spiritually and intellectually profitable for me.
Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism, by George Marsden. This book, years ago now, helped me better understand my fundamentalist roots, which was a key for me in moving towards a more mature and thoughtful faith.
The Creationists, by Ronald Numbers. As I think about it, it’s odd that this book strikes me right now as one that “means alot” to me. This book is a history of the “creation science” movement from a non-Christian perspective. I haven’t read it in years, but I read it at a time when I was separating somewhat from my fundamentalist background, and it helped me understand that some of the things I had absorbed about the relationship between scripture and science weren’t essential to a vibrant, orthodox faith. Actually, I’d rather include this as a group of literature, including some books by Hugh Ross and others, that explore constructive ways to reconcile a high view of scripture with truth observed in general revelation.
I have to cheat and add one more book: Green Mars and the rest of the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Not only is Robinson’s Mars Trilogy glorious science fiction, it’s also deeply descriptive of many ways in which people adapt to and thrive in new environments today. (If any of my readers might be intersted in reading Robinson, I should warn them that there are scenes here and there in Robinson that are a bit racy — but overall it’s great reading.)
5. Two major books when I was a kid:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I read it during math class sophomore year in high school. It fired my imagination like nothing else. I read it again this year after watching the films (and the DVD commentaries, special features, ect….). The arc of redemption running through the entire tale is wonderful. I’m not sure I realized it when I was 13, but I think the redemptive aspects of the story are what raise it to the level of a classic.
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. I loved science fiction as a kid and I still love it. I, Robot was one of the first great sci-fi works that I consumed on summer vacations at the beach.