Book recommendations

I received an off blog message from someone asking me to recommend books. This was the question.

Can you recommend any books that might help me understand your understanding of our faith – it seems so attractive, so open, compassionate and real.

Oddly enough, I find that quite a tricky question. Even though I review holy books regularly for a magazine, it is only rarely that I find one sent to me which seems to answer the question.

I recently gave a very good review to David Winter’s new book about basic spiritual practices, The Road Well Travelled. That would not be a bad starting place. (This is probably what I would recommend now where once I would have said, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster).

There are a few new books floating around which are using the “Inclusive” label which is so very current. Amongst them there is The Inclusive God by Steven Shakespeare and Hugh Rayment-Pickard.

For anyone who is an Evangelical who wonders how on earth people can envisage a thoughtful, biblical (and fun) theology which does not depend on a narrow view of the atonement, you could try Matthew Fox’s Original Blessing. It isn’t a particuarly easy read for someone not used to a bit of theology, but it is the kind of book that you can dip into. I recommend particularly the appendices.

Although it is long in the tooth now, I suggested to someone recently that they had a go at Honest to God, John Robinson’s attempt to make sense of God when certainties started to crumble. The best bits for me are those which deal with Paul Tillich’s notion that we can find God in the depths of our being rather than imagining God up there in the heights of heaven.

At one time when I was doing a lot of thinking about who I was, I got a lot out of Jung and the Christian Way by Christopher Bryant, though this is quite hard to find now.

For anyone thinking about liturgy, Richard Giles’s books are entertaining. Even though I agree with him less now than I used to do, I still think they are well worth a go. Re-pitching the Tent is all about church buildings and how they can be reordered for worship and mission. Creating Uncommon Worship is all about the Eucharist.

Anyone else want to chime in with a recommendation?