Recommended Reading
Beginner
Cunningham, David S. Reading is Believing: The Christian Faith Through Literature and Film. Brazos Press, 2002
In twelve chapters, Cunningham places novels by P.D. James and films by Martin Scorsese into conversation with each phrase of the Apostles' Creed, and thus facilitates a thoughtful exchange between Christian doctrine and contemporary culture.
Cupitt, Don, Above Us Only Sky, Santa Rosa, CA, Polebridge Press, 2008
In his continuing global search for how people find meaning for life, Don Cupitt has uncovered a secular philosophy, based on the reality that surrounds us. In this book he sums up how people are giving up belief in a supernatural world and basing their understanding of life on rational beliefs, discarding the traditional doctrinal claims of religions. His philosophy is based on everyday life and how people cope with it and rejoice in it.
Cupitt, Don, Life, Life, Santa Rosa, CA, Polebridge Press, 2003
Don Cupitt has assembled over 200 common idioms in this book that show how people relate to the world and to one another. From this group of idioms he presents a common life philosophy that most people observe no matter what religious beliefs they claim to follow. He presents a philosophy that is easily observable in the people around us and in ourselves once we begin to look for it. His life-centered philosophy is a dynamic radical theology.
Curtis, C. Michael, editor. God: Stories. Houghton Mifflin, 1998
A former editor of The Atlantic Monthly, Curtis compiles an anthology of short fiction crafted by some of the world's finest modern writers, such as Flannery O'Connor and James Joyce. Each story showcases the author's arresting, imaginative model of how the sacred manifests itself in the ordinary or else how epiphanies occur in the everyday.
Funk, Robert W., Honest to Jesus: Jesus For a New Millennium, HarperSanFransisco, 1997
In Honest to Jesus, the founder of the Jesus Seminar provides the details of his historical research into the Jesus that walked the Palestinian landscape and shared a new vision of faith. He uncovers a Jesus who was unlike the Jesus of traditional Christianity. The book describes a Jesus who used parables and memorable aphorisms to describe a way of living that was much in contrast to the conventional wisdom of the day. The book includes Funk’s twenty-one theses that describe his vision for the future of Christianity.
Funk, Robert W., The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, Santa Rosa, CA, Polebridge Press, 1996
This first major report of the Jesus Seminar includes a color-coded text that demonstrates the consensus of the thinking of the Jesus Seminar Fellows about what the historical Jesus probably said. After retranslating and thoroughly discussing over 1500 sayings that have been traditionally attributed to Jesus of Nazareth, the seminar voted on each text as to its authenticity. This is an excellent text to use when beginning a study of the historical Jesus. It includes an explanation of the rationale and methodology used by the Jesus Seminar in the decision making process that produced this ground-breaking research.
Geering, Lloyd, Christianity without God, Santa Rosa, CA, Polebridge Press, 2002
Geering discusses the “death of God” philosophy in the light of conventional Christian thinking and the reality of how people relate to each other and the world. He examines the possible results of new types of thinking about religion to its effects on conventional Christian doctrine.
Geering, Lloyd, The World to Come, Santa Rosa, CA, Polebridge Press, 2003
Geering observes that we have come to the end of Christian orthodoxy and presents a new way of understanding Christianity that is relevant to people today. The certainty of traditional religious thinking is no longer so certain. New ways of exploring spiritual life will include some of the past Christian and other traditional philosophies but will contain much that is modern. He demonstrates ways we can look at the world that promote care for all of life and nature.
Hedrick, Charles W. When History and Faith Collide: Studying Jesus. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999
Hedrick provides an inductive guide leading the reader through the issues that resulted in the “quest for Jesus the historical man. It is a book written in “clear and precise prose” and intended for the beginner.
Hoover, Roy W., Profiles of Jesus, Santa Rosa, CA, Polebridge Press, 2002
The Profiles of Jesus compiles the individual ideas of several of the Fellows of the Jesus Seminar. Each profile of Jesus of Nazareth uses the data collected by the seminar but produces the image of an historical Jesus specific to the contributing scholar. The reader will not find the Jesus of Christian traditions but a first-century Jew who had a new vision for how people relate one to another and to God. Using personal insights and the profiles as raw material, readers can develop their own profile of Jesus.
Jesus Seminar, The Gospel of Jesus: According to the Jesus Seminar, Santa Rosa, CA, Polebridge Press, 1999
Using the scholarship they produced through fourteen years of collaborative research, the Fellows of the Jesus Seminar put together their own version of the story of Jesus. The gospel contains only the words and deeds of the historical Jesus. It frees the young man’s life and discourse from the interpretation and accretions of the evangelists. Making their research easily available to the common reader has been a major purpose of the seminar from its beginning and this book provides an excellent tool for people to explore the life and words of the historical person who lived, traveled and challenged people’s thinking in first century Palestine.
Laughlin, Paul A., and Glenna Jackson, Remedial Christianity: What Every Believer Should Know About the Faith but Probably Doesn’t, Santa Rosa, CA, Polebridge Press, 2000
This book is a powerful resource for anyone who seriously wants to learn about how the Bible and Christianity developed in the context of other religious beliefs. It was written as a text for college students but its concise style and good humor make the information available to all readers. It demonstrates the diversity of traditions that constituted early Christianity and it compares the doctrines and customs of Christianity to those of the other great religions.
Leaves, Nigel. The God Problem: alternatives to fundamentalism. Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 2006.
Leaves has written an eminently readable book on an important issue: how can we speak of God in a post-911, post-tsunami, postmodern world? He defines four different approaches—panentheism, non-realism, grassroots spirituality, and religious naturalism (awe and wonder at the beauty of nature)—and discusses the contribution of each to an understanding of God. Subtitled "Alternatives to Fundamentalism," the book registers Leaves' concern at the violence done in the name of religion, and focuses on those trying to to reform Christianity from within so that the world may become a more humane place. He leaves the reader to decide whether the alternatives presented match this aim. The text is clear and engaging: one need not be a theologian to read and enjoy the book, but even trained theologians will find it a well-documented, useful resource for viewing the present state of the debate.
McGrath, Alister E. Christianity: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
A jargon-free attempt to trace the development of Christianity's rich and vibrant history, McGrath's textbook serves as an introduction to the religion's biblical sources, the figure of Jesus, the evolution of Christian theology, and some of the recent issues affecting Christianity today, such as globalization.
Mesle, C. Robert. Process Theology: A Basic Introduction. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1993.
Mesle presents a lucid introduction to process theology, a theology which views everything in the universe, from subatomic particles to human and natural life, from the most distant galaxies to the immediacy of each moment, as interrelated, interconnected and interdependent—a magnificent dynamic, vibrant, and ever-evolving purposeful creation of God. In process theology, God is conceived as relationally engaged and self-invested in each moment, persuasively luring creation as a whole, as well as each individual life in its own self-actualizing freedom, towards greater oneness, harmony, goodness and beauty with all that is.
Robinson, James M. The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News. San Francisco; HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
Robinson reconstructs the historical Jesus using the earliest Gospel, the Sayings Gospel Q, as his primary authoritative source, along with clues from the four canonical Gospels and the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. Robinson’s Jesus intuits from God’s providential care of nature that God is a compassionate, loving Father of the human family and demonstrates that in his ministry, all of which has direct relevance for us today.
Intermediate
Crossan, John Dominic. The Birth of Christianity. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.
As a follow-up to his The Historical Jesus, Crossan turns his attention to reconstructing the Jesus movement in the 30’s and 40’s CE by employing insights from Galilean archaeology, cross-cultural anthropology, Judeo-Roman history and historical criticism, as well as searching through the canonical Gospels, the Sayings Gospel Q and the Gospel of Thomas for the earliest accounts of Jesus’ followers. Of significant import is Crossan’s contrast between the original Life Tradition, which focused on Jesus’ life, and the subsequent Death Tradition of Paul and the canonical Gospels, which focused on Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Daly, Mary. Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press, 1973.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Seabury, 1973.
Gay, Peter, ed. The Enlightenment. A Comprehensive Anthology. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973.
Peter Gay has collected pivotal writings form the seventeenth century reflecting the making of the Enlightenment mind. Each essay has an introduction to put the essay in context and is accompanied by a reading list.
Mates, Julian and Eugene Cantelupe, eds. Renaissance Culture. A New Sense of Order. New York: George Braziller, 1966
The editors trace the story of the renaissance in the introduction as a new ordering of life. The individual esays in the anthology, written during the period of the Renaissance, illustrate aspects of the new ordering and the spirit of the Renaissance.
Patterson, Orlando. Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982
Polka, Brayton and Bernard Zelechow, eds. The Intellectual Adventure of Man to 1600. Vol 2 of Readings in Western Civilization. Toronto: York University, 1970.
The editors have provided a selection of original essays relating to the development of Christian thought from the beginning of the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and Reformation. Introductions to each essay help to place the essay in historical context.
Robinson, John A. T. Honest to God. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963
Robinson was a high Anglican Bishop in England at the time he wrote this public declaration of his controversial views. He argued that much more than dressing faith in modern terms is required. It is necessary fundamentally to recast the categories of our theology, of God, of the supernatural, of religion itself. It is a book that aims at honesty—honesty to God and honesty about God.
Advanced
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins. New York: Crossroad, 1984.
Lamb, Matthew L. Solidarity with Victims: Toward a Theology of Social Transformation. New York: Crossroad, 1982.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Sexism and God-Talk: Toward A Feminist Theology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1983.
Schweitzer, Albert. The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede. Trans. W. Montgomery. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
Schweitzer traces the attempts to provide definitive descriptions of Jesus beginning in 1778 with Hermann Samuel Reimarus through Wilhlelm Wrede and Schweitzer himself in 1901. It is a classic work of New Testament scholarship, and effectively ended the “old quest for the historical Jesus.” After Schweitzer’s publication not a single critical “life of Jesus” appeared until Günther Bornkamm in 1956.
Young, Louise B. Exploring the Universe. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
The editor has brought together significant essays in the rise of modern science. The essays are selected to provide a solid basis for understanding the methods and nature of science. They trace the development of the principles on which space exploration has been built and provide a glimpse into the mystery and majesty of the universe.
Not rated
Buber, Martin. I and Thou. Reprint. Hesperides Press, 2006.
de Chardin, Pierre Teilhard. The Phenomenon of Man. Reprint. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008.