A few days ago I looked at my Goodreads app to see what books I have logged in this calendar year. 2020 was my record (thanks to the pandemic), with this year being 32 books read (as of writing this). In the past I have written a compilation/list of all the books but I thought that this year I would compile a top 5 list in no particular order.
These are books that have helped to shift my heart, mind or soul in some capacity. I am always looking for the next “shift” and so when I find a good read that causes that, I then want to suggest that reading to anyone that is interested.
So if you are interested, here you go!
John’s Top 5 of 2021
- Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church by Diane Langberg – Most likely the best book I have ever read on power, authority and abuse in Church settings. Dr. Langberg is a master and I absolutely learned much from this book about silencing, scapegoating, closed vs open systems, bystander effect, trauma, spiritual abuse, guilt-tripping, etc. Health and unhealthy exist on a continuum, not as states of being, and every Church system has degrees of health and unhealth… but if there is no formal means of feedback or self-critique, then you can be certain that a culture will turn toxic while “looking kind.”
- Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It by Brian McLaren – Brian beat me to the punch. I have always been a fan of developmental stages to better map out how people change and grow throughout their lifetime and faith. This book is about his own personal formula of “stages of faith”. I have already offered this as a suggestion to people in the midst of faith deconstruction. So helpful.
- A Larger Hope? Volume 1: Universal Salvation from Christian Beginnings to Julian of Norwich by Ilaria Ramelli and That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell and Universal Salvation by David Bentley Hart – I put these two books together because they take on the same subject matter and I read them right next to each other. As a church historian, I enjoy learning what each epoch of Christianity taught and believed. It is fascinating to me that the first 500 years of the church (and small segments since) have been sympathetic to the idea that God has actually reconciled “all things” (Colossians 1) and that “Christ will return for the restoration of all things as foretold by the prophets” (Acts 3:21).
- Integral Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve by Paul Smith – Spiral Dynamics is a game changer of a framework. It is a theory of how people shift through predictable worldviews throughout their lifetime, and sometimes get stuck in them. What makes this interesting is that unless you are careful, your Christianity will take the shape of your worldview rather than the other way around. Paul then outlines a possible interpretation of Christianity and Church membership as things that actually help you progress/grow through your stages of worldview development rather than get stuck in them. If you are open-minded, this will be an interesting read. If you are close-minded, then this might actually explain to you why you are!
- Teilhard de Chardin on the Gospels: The Message of Jesus for an Evolutionary World by Louis Savary – Savary has been going through the works of Teilhard for years, but this one changed the way that I thought about the Gospels. Reflecting on the greek word, “Metanoeo” (as being “I change my mind” rather than “repent or I punish myself”), Savary gives a compelling understanding of the Gospels as being documents that invite us to endlessly learn/unfold/blossom. Honestly, the chapter on “Metanoeo” is likely worth the price of the book itself.
Honorable Mentions:
- Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation by John Philip Newell
- The Change Code: A Practical Guide to Making a Difference in a Polarized World by Monica Bourgeau
- When Everything’s on Fire: Faith Forged from the Ashes by Brian Zahnd