Theology books meme

Sam tagged me with this ages ago (and I actually did a very similar exercise very early on in my blogging life which can be found by clicking here) but it's an interesting exercise in its own right and as a comparison with others, so here goes ...

Rules:

i. List the most helpful book you've read in this category;
ii. Describe why you found it helpful; and
iii. Tag five more friends and spread the meme love.

1. Theology

Biblical narrative in the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur: a study in hermeneutics and theology
By Kevin J. Vanhoozer - "by making words and sentences mean all they can, Ricoeur hopes to bring back to language its capacity for meaningfulness." I was excited by Ricoeur's linking of Biblical narrative with the creation of possibility as well as the description of actuality.

2. Biblical Theology

The Book of God by Gabriel Josipovici - Josipovici unpacks both the fragmented form of scripture and the implications for interpretation of scripture being fashioned in this form.

3. God

The One, the Three and the Many by Colin Gunton - an exploration of the implications of God in relation within himself as Trinity through the transcendentals – relationality, substantiality and perichoresis – which Gunton argues underpin all pattern and connection within the created order.

4. Jesus

Jesus and the Victory of God by N. T. Wright - a compelling account of how Jesus understood his mission; how he believed himself called to remake Israel around himself. Wright's focus on acted-out parables is significant both biblically and in terms of contemporary mission.

5. Old Testament

Old Testament Theology: Essays on Structure, Theme and Text by Walter Brueggemann - the first of Brueggemann's books that I read and it remains my favourite for its exploration of the dialectic of the Old Testament between its core/majority/structure legitimating testimony and counter/minority/pain embracing testimony.

6. New Testament

The New Testament and the People of God by N.T. Wright. I agree with Paul Trathen on this. As he wrote, "it helped me to understand Jesus as 'a one-man Temple/Land/Torah-replacement movement', ie. what Israel had been waiting for!"

7. Morals

I see Satan fall like lightning by René Girard - "Girard brings our attention to three facts without which we will never make sense of our lives, our world or our faith, namely: the role violence has played in cultural life, the role mimesis plays in psychological and social life, and the role the Bible plays in revealing both of these things and showing us how to deal with them."

8. (Church) History

The Descent of the Dove by Charles Williams - an idiosyncratic history of the work of the Holy Spirit in Church history identifying acts of substitution and co-inherence deriving from and in the pattern of the sublim co-inherence of the incarnation.

9. Biography

St Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton - again Paul Trathen and I are in agreement, "a loving portrait of a generous man by a writer with a tremendous gift to write character well." Chesterton's description of Francis' life also sheds unexpected light on the paintings of Marc Chagall - the two inhabit the same perspective of life, seeing the world turned upside down.

10. Evangelism

Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture by Lesslie Newbigin - the twin dogmas of Incarnation and the Trinity form the starting point for a way of understanding reality as a whole, a way that leads out into a wider, more inclusive rationality than the real but limited rationality of the reductionist views that try to explain the whole of reality in terms of the natural sciences.

11. Prayer

Love & Fame by John Berryman - The 'Eleven Addresses to the Lord' are contemporary conversational prayer at its achingly honest best.

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John Berryman - There Sat Down, Once, a Thing on Henry's Heart.