The end of the year is upon us all and it is usually tradition for bloggers to list their favorite books of the past year. As someone who loves liturgy, who am I to break with tradition?
This list is broken up into two parts: the first is for popular level books and the second is for academic books. I realize that that is subjective so if you have a problem with it then please send your complaints scribbled on the bottom of a Nintendo Wii to my house. Otherwise your complaints fall on deaf ears!
Also, a few of these books are older, but I just got around to reading them this year. Please forgive me for being so incredibly out of style. The lists are in alphabetical order by author, five in each category, sans annotation.
Popular Level Books
Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament edited by Kenneth Berding
Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller
Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight
Unfashionable by Tullian Tchividjian
The Lost Word of Genesis One by John Walton
Academic Books
Sin: A History by Gary A. Anderson
Seeking the Favor of God: Volume 2: The Development of Pentitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism edited by Mark J. Boda, Daniel K. Falk, and Rodney A. Werline
Jesus Remembered by James D.G. Dunn
Unlocking Romans by J.R. Daniel Kirk
Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible by Karel van Der Toorn
What were some of your favorite reads in ’09?
7 December 2009 at 2.41 pm
You need to read a novel now and then.
7 December 2009 at 3.03 pm
I read several novels this year, as well as other works of non-fiction (history, science, biography), and was thinking about making a separate list for them like I did last year.
7 December 2009 at 7.23 pm
Who’s Daniel Kirk?
7 December 2009 at 11.05 pm
Nice list, though it makes me feel the procrastinator that I am. I borrowed Keller’s book from my brother-in-law but haven’t gotten to it yet. And I’ve already moved Anderson’s and Kirk’s books to my 2010 reading list.
8 December 2009 at 4.45 am
Thanks for the list, Art. Looks like I’ve got some reading to do.
Hey, Randall! This is Alex Burgess (Manlius – middle name). It’s been far too long. We’re still here in Massachusetts. Warm greetings to you and your lovely family in Japan. Oh, and Roll Tide!
Sorry, Art, to use your comment thread for reunion purposes, but perhaps it’s good for you to know how your blog can bring people back together.
8 December 2009 at 7.14 am
That’s a nice surprise! Good of you to remember, Alex! (I’m talking about the Tide, of course.)
My thanks to Art. Now I’ll do everyone the favor of taking our reunion elsewhere.
8 December 2009 at 2.59 pm
Pete,
He’s best student ever to come through the OTI class of that Enns heretic, from what I hear.
You should get a copy of his book. And if you have a website, you should post a review.
8 December 2009 at 8.48 pm
Yeah, that OTI class was indeed a baptism into the Ennsian heresy. When I read that infamous I&I book, it was, in the immortal words of that Yankee Yogi Berra, deja vu all over again. Maybe we Sox-fan, Enns-survivor guys should start a new club.
9 December 2009 at 9.27 am
The name of the new club will be “I got kicked in the teeth by pseudo-presbyterian polity over the Enn’s controversy, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”
Nick
9 December 2009 at 9.52 am
What a great idea for a t-shirt, Nick! Of course, it would be hard to explain the shirt’s message to your average inquirer.
9 December 2009 at 9.53 am
On the popular level I would recommend Joseph Hellerman’s new book When the Church Was a Family and Rabbi Reuven Hammer’s Entering Torah: Prefaces to the Weekly Torah Portion (A great devotional-type read).