Four good books

 

Here are four good books:

 

Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller.  It's a sometimes irreverent, but spiritual and 'real' approach to Christianity from someone searching for a genuine experience and expression of Christianity.

 

God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong, and the Left Doesn't Get it, Jim Wallis.  Jim pushes past liberal/ conservative dichotomies to find the message of the Gospel and how it speaks to current challenges we face as a nation.  I particularly like the way Jim challenges the way the church has allowed itself to be co-opted by political parties and calls us to remember the lessons Jesus taught.

 

Simply Christian.  NT Wright.  Sort of in the tradition of CS Lewis' Mere Christianity, Wright tries to get us to the core of what it means to be a Christian.  I think he does a remarkable job of thoughtfully and powerfully articulating his own experience and the gospel.

 

A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren.  If you are familiar with the emergent movement, you've heard of McLaren.  You may have heard of him anyway.  This book, very much like the prior three, comes at Christianity from a little different perspective.  McLaren celebrates the best from many strands of Christianity, and compels his readers to be open to new ways of thinking and particularly living the Gospel.

 

Happy reading.  Please let me know if you read one of these and what you think are good books.