Here are my ten favourite books from this year. There wasn’t a theme that emerged this year. It’s more of an eclectic mix of theology, psychology, science, apologetics, social commentary, and ancient Church Fathers. In alphabetical order:
The Experience Machine (Andy Clark)
Did you know there are up to four times more neurons that flow from your brain to your eyeballs then there are neurons that send information from your eyes up to your brain? If your eyes are designed to send accurate signals of what’s really “out there” back to your brain for processing, then why does the brain send so much information back to your eyes? Andy Clark is a leading scholar on the philosophy of mind and he says it’s because your brain is actually a prediction machine, constantly generating and forecasting what it expects to encounter out there in the world. The brain is constantly testing and refining these predictions against the sensory input it receives, learning to make better predictions in the future. What we consciously perceive is not a direct printout of sensory data but instead the brain’s best guess, or in Clark’s words: a “controlled hallucination.” I don’t know if he’s right or not, but if you want a book that will make you think (about the way you think) this could be the one.
Participation and Atonement (Oliver Crisp)
Crisp is an analytic theologian, which means he’s extremely precise and deliberate. There’s no: “it’s just the vibe.” For example, you’ll get discussion of acceptilation versus acceptation. He sits within the Reformed tradition, but is also an eclectic theologian, often highlighting edge-cases and minority reports within Reformed theology. Here he turns that level of precision towards the atonement. He distinguishes between motifs, metaphors, doctrines, models, mechanisms, and theories of atonement (most authors write as if they’re all synonyms. See what I mean about the extreme precision?). He then analyses and critiques some of the main atonement views (Moral Exemplarism, Ransom, Satisfaction, and Penal Substitution) before turning to his own constructive view of the atonement. He calls it “the representationalist union account”, where the atonement is a vicarious, reparative, and penitential act of representation. The bottom line is: Crisp seems to be trying to rescue Penal Substitution from its recent critics. His work is interesting (if you like that sort of stuff), ambitious, helpful, but ultimately unconvincing.
The Next Conversation (Jefferson Fischer)
Conversations are hard, especially when they move into difficult territory, whether difficult people or difficult topics. Fischer is a trial lawyer and so as you might imagine has a lot of difficult conversations with a lot of difficult people. He also coaches his clients how to answer when under pressure during a trial. He brings all that experience to this book. His advice is easy to read, digest, and implement. He’s not technical or academic. He doesn’t spend long discussing whys, theories, or abstract thoughts. He’s concrete and practical. You can implement these things the minute after you’ve read them. Fascinating and fun.
When in Romans (Beverly Roberts Gaventa)
What was interesting about this book is that Gaventa forces us to sit and rethink what we think Paul is on about in Romans. Some of us might confidently assert what we think is happening in Paul’s letter, but most of us probably know a few key verses, but aren’t totally sure about how they fit into the whole or even if they mean what we think they mean. Gaventa wants us to sit and soak “in Romans” and get a feel for the big picture and put away all our trite, simplistic answers. I don’t think I agree with every conclusion she offers, but the process of not assuming and allowing space for re-thinking was fun and helpful.
Strange Religion (Nijay Gupta)
Christianity in the West is becoming more disconnected from the surrounding cultures assumptions and attitudes. What we think is becoming increasingly strange to others. Strange Religion is about how the first Christians were so different and weird compared to the Greco-Roman world around them. Not only did they think that a shamed and crucified criminal was the King of the world, but they were oddly oriented towards the future and they seemed to disregard social status. Their religiosity wasn’t just external and pragmatic, but they emphasised an actual relationship with the divine. Their worship had a distinct lack of fire and ash and there weren’t any priests. But it was exactly this strangeness that was compelling. For a book written by a historian and a scholar, this was surprisingly easy to read.
Making Numbers Count (Chip Heath et al)
How do you make talking about numbers and statistics interesting? The answer is: with a lot of intentional effort. Heath and Starr break it down with loads of examples and specifics. Every example is a before-and-after so you can see and feel the difference their changes make. If you’re a person who deals with numbers and statistics (and presenting those things) then learning how to do it in a way that is helpful, truthful, and achieves your goals would be a valuable investment.
The Way We Are (Hugh Mackay)
I’ve been a fan of Hugh Mackay since way back in 2007 with his book Advance Australia … Where? They tell me Mackay is our most highly respected social researcher, and I believe them because a) I don’t think I can name any others, and b) his writing is clarifying, insightful, and often profound. This book felt less like the result of careful research and listening and more just what Mackay reckons. But I enjoy hearing what people as brilliant and thoughtful as Mackay think about our society. The most interesting parts for me were his reflections on poverty in modern Australia, his dissection of the complex legacy of the Baby Boomers, reflections on religion in modern Australia, and his call for a reinvigoration of kindness.
On God and Christ (Gregory Nazianzus)
In my ongoing project to read Christian books from the earliest centuries, this year I dove into Nazianzus’ Five Theological Orations (sermons). Reading the Patristics is always a challenge: they think differently, assume different things, and don’t have 2000 years of theological reflection to learn from. So there’s a distance you feel that is helpful. And there’s a rawness to their theological reflections that you need to grapple with. That’s not a criticism of them; what they have produced is amazing. They’re clearly geniuses, and everyone stands on their shoulders. Reading them feels like watching them do theology in real time. I didn’t love every oration equally, but all of them were worth reading.
Possessed by God (David Peterson)
Spiritual Formation is having a renewed moment in the sun, and like everything it’s both good and bad and the results are mixed. This book published thirty years ago focuses on how the Bible uses terms like “sanctification” (which is different to how Reformed theology uses the term), and traces holiness and transformation through the scriptures. How does the Bible use words like “renewal” and “growth”? Not the easiest read in the world, but certainly achievable for the pastor and interested layperson.
The Middle-Sized Church (Lyle Schaller)
Every time I read a Schaller book I’m reminded of just how ahead of his time he was. This book was written in 1985 but it could have been released this year. However, there is also a dated and forty-year-old quaintness that you need to grapple with. This is the third book in Schaller’s “size” trilogy (The Multiple Staff and the Larger Church and The Small Church is Different! are the first two). Middle-sized churches are paradoxes. They’re too big to be small but too small to be big. They have more idiosyncrasies than either small or large churches do; two mid-sized churches will be more wildly different that two small or large churches. Congregation members think they’re smaller than they actually are. They’re awkward to govern, lead, finance, and structure. Schaller dissects all this and more in his characteristic style with lots of concrete examples.
