This year I was doing fairly well at reading books that I already owned and not buying too many new books (though we won’t speak of $3/bag day at the library book sale), and I had just gotten my TBR under 60 books. Then I spent the last three days at the The Gospel Coalition conference. It’s an excellent conference that I would highly recommend if you want solid biblical challenges to live your faith and not just frothy “you can do it!” prosperity gospel.
But bibliophiles beware: all the best Christian publishing houses are there with 2,500+ heavily discounted books, and we’re not talking “bonnet ripper” barely historical romance tripe (I don’t think there was any Christian fiction outside of the children’s tables). I had more or less controlled myself and bought only 7 or 8…and then I got 4 or 5 freebies…and then a friend/enabler told me to go pick out another $75 worth on him…and, long story short, I ended up with 20 new books.
Ten on social issues / applied theology:
…and 10 that are more straight up systematic theology, philosophy, or biblical studies:
Have you read any of these? Where would you start?
I don’t know where you should start, but I WANT you to start with “Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys”. I know nothing about the book or author but the very title gets my back up as I’m making all sorts of presumptive guesses about the content. My initial guesses are either mormonism (not likely but possible) or syncretism with a healthy dose of liberal social justice philosophy. And bonus points if I’m completely wrong 😀
As for the actual theology, my eye was drawn to “Is God a moral monster?” After reading Feinberg’s book (after reading your review) my hunger for more answers concerning God and evil has only grown.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The “Cowboys” one caught my attention by its title too. I don’t know anything about the author either. According to the back it’s about what it looks like to live as a Christian in Native American cultural context (andy why any Native American would want to be a Christian given how they were treated by “Christians” throughout US history).
“How Long O Lord?” by D. A. Carson is also about the problem(s) of evil (and at 240ish pages is much shorter than the Feinberg).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cool. Well, when you do get around to any of these, I hope you review them.
LikeLike