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Rowland and Jan Croucher wrote:
"The best Bible? I'd go for the HarperCollins NRSV Study Bible (with the
Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books). The NRSV is generally considered by
thoughtful scholar-pastors to be the best of all the translations today, not
least because it's non-sexist."
Pardon me if this seems like a silly question, but is there much difference between NIV and NRSV? I'm presently studying Theology through Coolamon and they recommend NRSV. My church uses NIV though, and this is the translation I use personally. I'm interested in the lists view on this. Thanks.
Leo Perizzolo
-------Original Message-------
Date: 08/18/04 12:13:33
Subject: 100 Books Every Pastor/Leaderr Should Read?
What would you say are the100 essential books a literate Christian -
particularly a pastor - should read? This list is grossly incomplete: I'd
appreciate your help in refining it!
Any response has to be personal/subjective of course. But as a
counselor-of-clergy I know the time-constraints they're under. And I'm also
coming from my own specialist field of Practical Theology (rather than, say,
academic theology). I don't buy the excuse that pastors and Christian
leaders are 'too busy to read': our task as pastor/teachers is to drink in
the wisdom of the ages and pass it on to others. There's hardly anything -
except prayer - which is more important. And there is a great need for 'lay'
people to be more theologically literate (but while the church is plagued
with clericalism they may not have too many opportunities to share what they
learn with others... Pity). The best recommended reading list available
today is Eugene Peterson's excellent guide Take and Read: Spiritual Reading,
an Annotated List. It's well worth buying as a start to this quest.
I won't generally mention the publishers: a good theological bookshop has
all that info on their computers. And there's Google, Amazon.com and ABE
Books.
The best Bible? I'd go for the HarperCollins NRSV Study Bible (with the
Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books). The NRSV is generally considered by
thoughtful scholar-pastors to be the best of all the translations today, not
least because it's non-sexist. Best parts of the Bible? For me they would be
Psalm 27, Isaiah 40, the Sermon on the Mount, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Peter and
the Book of Revelation.
Best Prayer Book? Either the New Zealand or Australian Anglican Prayer
Books. They both have morning and evening prayers for each day, and I think
are brilliant!
The little-known Roget's Thesaurus of the Bible (A.Colin Day, Marshall
Pickering) is excellent if you're looking for Biblical sources of various
themes.
If you want to start with a basic one-volume Bible Commentary and the
companion Dictionaries/ Encyclopedias of the Bible/Theology/Psychology/
Apologetics etc., get the Baker series edited by George Elwell and others.
But if you're going to be a serious student of the Scriptures, you'll need
the six-volume Anchor Bible Dictionary, and the multi-volume New
Interpreters' Bible Commentaries. You get more value for the dollar/pound in
Dictionaries of this-and-that than buying books on individual themes, in my
opinion. I'd highly recommend anything by Gordon Fee - particularly his How
to Read the Bible For All Its Worth. I attended a course he taught in Hong
Kong last year, and would rate him the best Pentecostal expositor of the
Bible in the English language.
I'm asking various biblical scholars for their recommendations for the best
contemporary commentary for each book of the Bible (particularly as raw
material for preaching, rather than for pure academic scholarship), if you
could only afford one. For the Psalms, get Walter Brueggemann's The Message
of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary. I agree with Eugene Peterson: this
is the best introduction to the Psalms as spirituality. (Buy anything by
Walter Brueggemann: he's the best popular speaker/writer on the Old
Testament today. And he's marvelous to listen to on tape as well). On the
Book of Revelation: I shared a conference recently with someone doing their
PhD on Revelation, who said 'Don't buy anything written before 1990!' His
recommendations: Aune (the best), Boring, Harrington or Beale's
commentaries. You should get a set of William Barclay's commentaries on the
New Testament - they're quite commonly found in Op/Charity shops. (But in
Third World countries you can get 'em cheap: I bought a whole set in India
for about $10 Australian).
Just one book on preaching? Buy the excellent Concise Encyclopedia of
Preaching (William Willimon / Richard Lischer editors). Anything by William
Willimon on preaching is worth reading. Michael Duduit (ed.) Handbook of
Contemporary Preaching is good. The best collection of sermons I've seen is
Thomas Long & Cornelius Plantinga's A Chorus of Witnesses: Model Sermons for
Today's Preacher (although it's weighted towards American and European
preachers: I'd have added a few more British ones). John Claypool and
Barbara Brown Taylor - both American Episcopalians - are the best
contemporary writing preachers in my view: buy anything by these authors.
Fred Craddock is also worth buying: he's supposed to be the 'father of
modern preaching'. Best sermons ever preached? I'd put James Stewart's 'The
Wind of The Spirit' up there, and A J Gossip's 'But When Life Tumbles In,
What Then?' (preached when his wife died) and John Claypool's 'Tracks of a
Fellow- Struggler' (preached when his nine-year- old daughter was dying of
leukemia). And Karl Barth's sermons from Basel Prison (easier to read than
his theological writings).
Many recommend John Henry Newman's University Sermons but I confess I
haven't read them yet.
Spirituality. Start by getting Richard Foster's three classics - Celebration
of Discipline, Prayer, and his latest Streams of Living Water (which says
there are six answers to the question 'How can we know God?). From there, if
you have to limit the number of spiritual classics, make sure you get The
Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Little Flowers of St. Francis, The Cloud
of Unknowing, and perhaps Teresa of Avila's autobiography (I can still
remember the suburban park where I read that!). (Many would include Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress which I think is corny, or Brother Lawrence's Practising
the Presence of God which is too much 'out of this world'). Three modern
ones: Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation (Merton is a bit wordy in
other books, and his Seven Story Mountain is quite bigoted against
Protestants! And you can read my review of the latest Merton book - 'The
Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals' where you can wonder about his
love-affair with a woman!), Dom Helder Camara's A Thousand Reasons for
Living. (Dom Helder Camara - my hero - died at the age of 90 in August
1999), and Henri Nouwen's The Wounded Healer (anything by Nouwen is good).
For selected readings see Foster's Devotional Classics: Selected Readings
for Individuals and Groups.
A generation ago W.E.Sangster wrote similarly: get his magnum opus The Pure
in Heart if ever you see it in a secondhand bookshop. His thesis: whatever
your Christian denomination, the more like Jesus you strive to be the more
you'll resemble others with a similar quest! The American Franciscan Richard
Rohr integrates academic theological scholarship with social justice and
spirituality better than anyone I know. Start with his chapters in Richard
Rohr and others, Grace in Action, then read his studies on the Sermon on the
Mount - Jesus' Plan for a New World. I reckon he's the best modern prophet
(in the English language). Buy anything by him - and get his tapes in a
Catholic bookshop: he's a brilliant speaker! Never heard of him? Shame
(probably 'cos you're not Catholic - or catholic!). Put his name into a
Google search of the John Mark Ministries site: I have his permission to
republish anything's he written.
For a good 'missionary' approach to spirituality, get Stanley Jones' Growing
Spiritually: it's still fresh after a generation. Jewish spirituality: you
can't go past Abraham Heschel, particularly his Quest for God: Studies in
Prayer and Symbolism. Prayer from an Eastern Orthodox perspective - you
can't go past Anthony Bloom's Living Prayer and School for Prayer. For some
spiritual exercises, buy Anthony de Mello's Sadhana: a Way to God. He was
the most outstanding spiritual director of his era in India. For more
exercises, buy just about anything published by The Upper Room (in
Nashville, U.S.A.). They have now published a Spiritual Formation Bible.
Theology. I'd start with my little book Recent Trends Among Evangelicals
(it's on our website -) for a brief introduction to what's happening to the
thinking of people like me. The most popular 'evangelical' in the last
half-century has been John Stott: maybe start with Authentic Christianity
(quotes from most of his books). Two modern books about evangelicals - Dave
Tomlinson's The Post Evangelical and Mark Noll's The Scandal of the
Evangelical Mind. Then go to Matthew Fox's classic Original Blessing: A
Primer in Creation Spirituality. Fox says Augustine's shadow has caused the
Fall/Redemption paradigm to be prominent in Western theological thinking,
but this was not the primary paradigm of Jesus and the prophets and the
saints. You might not agree with Fox's later theological developments (but
read his Autobiography for an interesting description of his thinking), but
this one I believe is ground-breaking. If you want a shorter version of
Fox's thesis, read it in about 40 pages in the Introduction to his book on
Meister Eckhart - Breakthrough. Or (you lazy person) in one page in the
article 'Creation-Centred Spirituality' in the SCM's Dictionary of Christian
Spirituality.
Best modern Protestant theologian? Jurgen Moltmann. Get his little book
Jesus Christ for Today's World for starters, then read his best book, The
Crucified God. The two Karls - Protestant Karl Barth and Catholic Karl
Rahner - together with Hans Kung are ground-breaking but a bit ponderous:
read some summaries of their thinking in Dictionaries of Theology. A classic
about theology and social justice is, of course, Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral
Man and Immoral Society. I was also moved by Donal Dorr's Spirituality and
Justice. Two challenging books on the same theme: Robert McAfee Brown's
Creative Dislocation and Spirituality and Liberation.
Apologetics. A good recent evangelical apologist is the UK's Alister
McGrath. His book Bridge-Building: Effective Christian Apologetics is as
good as any. Of course, no list would be complete without C.S.Lewis' Mere
Christianity: the greatest work on apologetics written in English in the
last century.
Pastoral Theology. Here the best author in the English language is Eugene
Peterson, who says pastoral leadership is not about 'running the church',
its only about helping people as their Spiritual Director to know God. You
might start with The Contemplative Pastor or Under the Unpredictable Plant -
then you'll want to buy other titles by this excellent writer. If you want
to buy your pastor a gift, spend $100 and buy her/him the whole Mastering
Ministry series published by Multnomah/ Christianity Today: excellent wisdom
from a range of (non-Catholic) pastoral leaders.
The best book on Christian community is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life
Together - a classic. For a good book integrating some management ideas
(like accountability, performance appraisals, managing change etc.) with
church leadership you can't go past Paul Beasley-Murray's A Call to
Excellence: An Essential Guide to Christian Leadership. America's best
church strategist has been Lyle Schaller (though he's weak on theology in my
view). The two current writers-in- vogue are of course Bill Hybels and Rick
Warren (his The Purpose-Driven Church is excellent. And of course every
evangelical/pentecostal/fundamentalist church has done the 40-days of
reflection and prayer with The Purpose-Driven Life). George Barna is
America's leading church-researcher, and publishes a book about 'trends'
each year. User-friendly Churches is interesting, but non-Americans will
have to de-Americanise it! The best introduction to counseling is still Gary
Collins' Christian Counseling: a Comprehensive Guide. Larry Crabb is
excellent, too. And in the last few years there have been several books on
Boundaries issues by Henry Cloud and John Townsend.
Church History. I'll try to find out what's recommended these days, but the
best overview I've read is Gavin White's How the Churches Got to Be the Way
They Are. Hilarious!
Charismatic Renewal. Most of the fuss about baptism in the Spirit and
tongues etc. is now over, but you'll want a few introductions to the general
subject. Start with David Watson's One in the Spirit, also Robert Hillman's
27 Spiritual Gifts. I also found Charles Hummell's Fire in the Fireplace
excellent.On healing you still can't go past Francis McNutt's two books
Healing and Power to Heal. The challenge for the church today is to combine
the ancient / biblical notions of redemptive suffering and divine healing:
the devil's job is to separate what God has joined.
Auto/biographies. The very best biography written about a pastor in the last
century, in my view, is still Paul Sangster's biography of his father,
titled Doctor Sangster. W.E.Sangster combined godliness, a charismatic
personality, administrative gifts, (Wesleyan) scholarship, brilliant
preaching and writing to be, probably, the greatest Methodist since Wesley.
Sheila Cassidy's Audacity to Believe is powerful: she's an Australian-born
doctor who was tortured during the time the Allende government was
overthrown in Chile. (Her book Prayer for Pilgrims is also one of the best
little books on prayer I've ever read). Then of course there's the very
funny The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass aged 37 3/4.
Popular Christian books. Buy anything by the dynamic Australian speaker and
author Michael Frost. If you can only afford one, get his Jesus the Fool.
Y'all should have read Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled. Then read his
later book In Search of Stones (where he repents of the idea that adultery
is sometimes O.K.).
Psychology. One of the best popularizers of psychological research is the
University of Pennsylvania's Martin Seligman. Begin with What You Can Change
and What You Can't (includes a whole chapter on dieting, where he says most
diets are a waste of money, and simply make you more discouraged). You then
might want to read his best-seller, Learned Optimism. Ernest Becker's The
Denial of Death is on most intellectuals' lists: a quite brilliant book. Two
books on the the men's movement: the classic Iron John by Robert Bly
(everything else is derivative), and the best Australian book by far -
Manhood by Steve Biddulph. My thesis in talks to men's groups: the inability
of our culture to produce men from boys, fathers from sons, is the root
cause of most of our social problems!
Novels etc. Here are three you must read: Dominique laPierre's City of Joy
(the movie is a bit trashy), Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (the movie is
excellent), James McBride's The Color of Water - about poverty in India,
Ireland and New York respectively. McCourt's sequel to Angela's Ashes -
'Tis - is even more earthy than his first book (partly because he spent a
time in the U.S. army!). For a recent (1999) blockbuster with an
evangelistic theme read John Grisham's The Testament.
The (American) English best wordsmith? In my view it's John Updike: I'm
ploughing (sorry, plowing) through his massive Odd Jobs at the moment. Best
American humorist? Garrison Keillor, compere of The Prairie Home Companion
radio show. Start with his Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon
Stories. His most famous story is 'Gospel Birds' - in another book, about a
wandering evangelist who'd trained birds to be clever, and used this gimmick
to attract crowds. (Keillor was brought up in a Brethren-type church; these
days he's agnostic, but very funny). The greatest novels ever written are,
by general consent, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and
Punishment, and The Idiot, and Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
And of course William Shakespeare tops most lists of the greatest writer in
any language (pity that for some of us he was spoiled by our school English
teachers!).
Current Affairs. Michael Medved's Hollywood Vs America says the
entertainment industry has broken faith with its audience (he is or was the
film critic for the New York Post). John Ralston Saul's The Unconscious
Civilization says our Western societies are only superficially based on the
rights of the individual and a commitment to democracy. See my review. It's
in the genre of Fullbright's The Arrogance of Power - and the writings of
intelligent conspiracy theorists like Noam Chomsky, Ivan Illich, Franz Fanon
et. al. A popular and controversial contemporary writer in this genre is
John Pilger (start with his Hidden Agendas).
Rowland Croucher
~~~
Shalom!
Rowland Croucher
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