My top ten books on theology and ministry (1)
To launch what might be a new mini-series on the weblog, my good friend James Blandford-Baker offers his top ten books on theology and ministry that shaped his own thinking and practice. James is Vicar of St Andrew's, Histon, and Priest-in-Charge of St Andrew's, Impington, as well equally being Rural Dean of North Stowe in Ely Diocese.
This list was compiled in response to a question from 1 of our ordinands who asked nigh my top five most helpful books in theology and ministry. It'southward a question that quite a few folk take asked me over the years, mainly because so many clergy find it difficult to continue up with their reading and only want to read books that are actually helpful. I've been helped greatly by fellow members of the Grove Biblical Grouping, many of whom are active biblical scholars. I tin't read everything they recommend but some of the texts that become mentioned regularly are in this list. The books called are those that I return to time and time again and which have personally helped me in my ministry.
K E Bailey, Poet and Peasant & Through Peasant Optics: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke (Thousand Rapids, MU: Eerdmans, 1983). Bailey's seminal piece of work on the parables of Jesus in Luke. Annihilation by Bailey is worth reading but this one I return to time and again in preaching and teaching. His latest book, on Psalm 23, is reviewed by Grove Biblical Grouping member Richard Briggs here.
R Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Bystander Testimony (Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2006). A 'bombshell' volume in which Bauckham relentlessly undermines the hopeless speculations of the form critics and restores faith in the gospels as eyewitness testimony with feature thoroughness and insight. If you lot don't have time to read this and so he published the central issues in the Grove Biblical series No 48 (of course he did!)
Due north T Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God: Book two (London: SPCK, 1996). Probably Wright'due south best book. I read it every summer. Wright provides the crucial interpretative keys that enable us to read the gospels in (something close to) their original context.
West Brueggemann, Genesis (Interpretation, Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1982). Brueggemann is always worth reading but this is among his all-time books. Refreshing insight into reading Genesis, especially the creations and 'fall' narratives (and if you lot read it yous'll discover why 'fall' has inverted commas around information technology).
R Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics (T&T Clark: Edinburgh, 1997). Hands the most readable book on biblical ideals. Understandable, disarming and challenging from 1 of the best New Testament commentators around today (his commentary on 1 Corinthians is also excellent).
V J Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered: An Epistle from the Masai (London: SCM Press, 1982). This remains an boggling story of what doing genuinely contextual mission looks like. Unsurpassed equally a narrative of missional meet.
J B Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers (Leicester: Apollos, 1990). I bought this when at college equally it was going inexpensive in a sale. Reading the messages of Ignatius and writing an essay on them convinced me of the principal need always to engage with the original texts earlier reading what someone else has said.
Southward P Walker, Leading out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership (The Undefended Leader Book i, Carlisle: Piquant Editions Ltd, 2007). I think all books on leadership are intimidating (especially ones from America!). This is the exception to that rule. A book that will genuinely encourage you lot in your role as a Christian leader, won't tell you to go to the gym every morning at five.30am, and won't make you feel tired and exhausted just by reading information technology. Full of wisdom and insight. The second volume in the series is also good but don't carp with the third which goes off on a completely unlike subject field!
R Stark, The Ascension of Christianity (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996). Stark is an American sociologist who has studied the commencement four centuries of Christian history. His insights into why the church grew and carried on growing should challenge the Western church building today. We could do a lot worse than replicate the faithful discipleship of the early on Christians. [Ed: this is a very unlike apply of sociology of religion from what we take seen in the C of Due east recently…]
Northward T Wright, New Heavens, New Earth: The Biblical Picture of Christian Hope (Grove Biblical Book B11, Cambridge: Grove Books, 1999). Ok, so there had to be a Grove Volume in the list somewhere and if anyone should be allowed two books in a listing it has to be Tom Wright. This transformed my understanding, my preaching and my funeral ministry…and brought genuine hope and comfort to many in the face of death. That's recommendation enough.
What would your top 10 be? And whose listing would you similar to run across? Include suggestions in the comments below.
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