On Episode 378 we talk through various book recommendations made by our listeners. Obviously we could only mention a selection during the episode – so here’s the complete list. (Comments are by those listeners who recommended them. Obviously we haven’t read all of these so don’t take this as an official endorsement!)
- An Altar in the World | Barbara Brown Taylor
- The Badly Behaved Bible | Nick Page
‘Love the way Nick writes with humour and not being precious. It was very liberating to read a book that respects the Bible while not worshipping it as a relic (even though some bits are relics …).’ - Benedictus | John O’Donohue
‘A rich treasure trove of blessings/prayers for various stages of life and states of heart.’ - Between Noon and Three | Robert Farrar Capon
‘A blend of fiction and theology that uses a parable of an affair as a provocative way to explore unconditional grace. Not for the faint hearted!’ - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse | Charlie Mackesy
‘It’s full of simple but profound wisdom that stays with you long after you’ve finished reading.’ - Changing Our Mind | David Gushee
- Comedy Sex God | Pete Holmes
‘Incredibly funny auto-biographical writing from one of the funniest comedians out there right now (if not mildly triggering for those of us who endured evangelical purity culture!)’ - Death of Omnipotence | Tom Jay Oord.
‘So helpful in de-bugging an omnipotent God from both a scriptural and experiential perspective.’ - Devotions | Mary Oliver
‘This book of poems has been a steady thread of wonder, quiet worship & inspiration. Whilst other books helped find a path through thickets of doubt, Devotions continues to steady and ground me in a loving presence.’ - Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever | Lamorna Ash
- The Evangelical Universalist | Gregory MacDonald aka Robin Parry
- Every Job a Parable | John Van Sloten
‘John writes beautifully about several different jobs that people do, and how they each reflect some aspect of God. Every job can be a reflection of God and tell a story of what it means to be like God. A person leading a toddler group isn’t just doing risk assessments and coordinating volunteers to turn up, they are creating and sustaining a place where people can live and grow and flourish. Just as God created the world and in it we can live and are sustained.’ - Faith after Doubt | Brian McLaren
- Faith in the Fog | Jeff Lucas
- Faith Unravelled | Rachel Held Evans
‘The subtitle is ‘How a girl who knew all the answers learned to ask questions’. This girl did too! (TBH I find all of RHE’s writing is helpful.)’ - Falling Upwards | Richard Rohr
‘A short book but every line invites deep thought. It really helped me move on from “doing things as expected” to living out faith more authentically and reflectively.’ - Finding Your Hidden Treasure | Benignus O’Rourke.
‘… an accessible, wise and encouraging guide to silent prayer. I’ve found myself returning to it again and again.’ - For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain | Victoria MacKenzie
‘A fictionalised telling of the lives and meeting of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe… I found it very touching, particularly the image of Julian being constrained in the four walls of her cell, connected to the world and the church by the windows in her walls and at the same time solitary and separate in her cell.’ - The Gender Agenda | Goddard & Hendry
- Hunting Magic Eels | Richard Beck
- Kissing Fish | Roger Wolsey
‘A little American but it serves as a great introduction to non-evangelical Christianity. It’s subtitle is Christianity for people who don’t like Christianity.’ - Know Doubt | John Ortberg
This book gave me permission to question and even doubt without the attached guilt. It’s written from the heart including many personal stories. It is ultimately a celebration of ultimate hope and faith amidst the doubts.
- Learning to Walk in the Dark | Barbara Brown Taylor
- Letters to the Church | Francis Chan
‘This book really challenged me about the consumerist nature of church and the mindset of “what can I get out of church?” It also raises important questions about the mega-church model and the performance-driven style that can characterise some worship services.’ - Life Of The Beloved | Henri Nouwen
- The Lost Message of Paul | Steve Chalke
‘This was when I first realised that ‘Penal Sustitutionary Atonement’ was a thing… but not the only thing, and that there are more ways to understand the gospel than I had realised.’ - Love Means Love | David Runcorn
- Love Wins | Rob Bell
- Making Sense of the Bible | Adam Hamilton
- Morning & Evening | C.H. Spurgeon
‘The historical context and rich language stimulate thought and self-examination.’ - A New Kind of Christian | Brian Mclaren
‘The original disruptor for me which I’m currently rereading. It gave me permission to ask questions and search for a faith that was healthy and hopeful.’ - Outlaw Christian | Jacqueline A Bussie
‘An amazing book about being a Christian even when you break the rules!! She examines real life from a Christian perspective and often finds Christianity wanting, but as with Ortberg affirms that faith can be real and yet outside of the accepted norms.’ - The Post Evangelical | Dave Tomlinson
- The Ragamuffin Gospel
‘…places love firmly at the core of the Christian experience and urges the replacement of feelings with a relationship with Christ regardless of the outcome. Loving others has become a mantra.’ - Reimagining the Landscape of Faith | Charles and Mary Hippsley.
‘It really helped me to understand that our faith map and journey is far more expansive than we might start out and rather than losing our way when we feel we’ve reached the edge, it’s often just another part of our exploration.’ - Religious Refugees | Mark Karris
- The Return of the Prodigal Son | Henri Nouwen
‘This spoke to me about finding home in God’s indescribable, grace-filled love being so much more important than focusing on my failings, what I do or how I expect God to intervene.’ - Seven Days That Divide The World | John Lennox
- Speaking Christian | Marcus Borg
‘It’s a kind of reclamation yard for Christian jargon. It’s rediscovering, from a progressive perspective, the good uses to which words like God, sin, salvation, born again etc. can be put even though or understanding may have changed from the conservative evangelical worldview we might be shedding. I love it.’ - There are Rivers in the Sky | Elif Shafak
It’s a novel, but it’s based around a drop of water and the different things it sees through history as it becomes ‘reincarnated’ time and again, and re-emerges as rain, river, tears et. It’s a beautiful book, and it helped me re-understand the divine. In everyone, essential to life, often not thought about, in different spaces through time, constantly reincarnated. - The True Wilderness | H.A. Williams
‘Basically a book of very readable and radical sermons of his from Gt St Mary’s in Cambridge in the 60s.’ - Unapologetic | Francis Spufford
‘Subtitled ‘Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make emotional sense’, this is almost an anti-apologetics book that resonated deeply with me. Includes Spufford’s definition of sin as the “human propensity to bongo things up (HPTFTU).’ - Unforming, De-Westernising Christian Formation | Cindy S. Lee
- Universal Christ | Richard Rohr
‘Sat in the garden and wept my way through it one summer. Gave me a new vision that mabye, just mabye…God is bigger, more loving, more GOOD, than anyone had ever let on. I’m not sure I fully understand (or even agree) with everything he says, but he’s a spiritual genius who has opened up the divine to me in a way I’ll forever me grateful for.’ - Velvet Elvis | Rob Bell
‘One of the first books I read back in my twenties. Having read it again recently, I realised just how foundational it has been to my thinking and faith journey.’ - The Wemmicks | Max Lucado
‘A wonderful collection of stories that speaks into the realities of life. It explores our search for appreciation and recognition from others, while reminding us that our true value is found in our relationship with God.’ - What is the Bible? | Rob Bell
- When faith gets shaken | Patrick Regan.
- The Wild Places | Robert Macfarlane
- The Wrong Messiah | Nick Page
- You are what you love | James K A Smith
‘He talks about what our “vision of the good life” is like – our telos. And argues that we are not “brains on sticks” but that we are “teleological beings”, governed by our fundamental desires and loves.’