Usually at the end of the year I post a list of the books I read that year. I’m a tad late this year, but this is mostly for my own benefit anyway. But it’s always fun to post the list and see if others have read the same books or have suggestions that this list might spark.
As for favorites, I very much enjoyed diving into books on Theopoetics and Social Trinitarianism. Both were topics I needed to research for writing projects and the ideas have captured my imagination. Those approaches to theology (which overlap quite a bit) make sense to me and will be frameworks I will be returning to. As for the fiction I read my favorite this year was Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches. It is one of those books that so thoroughly draws you into its narrative that it takes a moment to reorient yourself to reality once you look up from its pages. Maybe it’s because her career started as an academic or because it is her first novel (and firsts are always the most well written, but obvious reasons), but it was one of the most well-written works of popular fiction I have read in a long time. I am currently devouring its sequel and eagerly await the announcement of the third book’s publication date. For similar (but opposite) reasons, I wouldn’t recommend the Hendees’ Noble Dead series. The first two books were okay for that genre (fantasy/vampire hunter), but obviously once they got the contract for the multiple book series the writing quality plummeted. I know that writers once they are expected to pump out that book a year don’t have the time to construct as engaging of a novel as they did to first catch an agents’s/publisher’s eye, but sometimes it is just far too obviously bad.
But enough complaining, here’s the list. I would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations!
Non-fiction
The Poetics of Imagining by Richard Kearney
Theopoetic by Amos Wilder
Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation by Ivone Gebara
Standing by Words: Essays by Wendell Berry
Poetic Theology: God and the Poetics of Everyday Life by William Dyrness
On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process by Catherine Keller
The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event by John Caputo
After the Death of God by John Caputo and Gianni Vattimo
Anatheism: Returning to God After God by Richard Kearney
The Way of Transfiguration: Religious Imagination As Theopoiesis by Stanley Hopper
The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei by Stanley Grenz
God for Us: The Trinity & Christian Life by Catherine Mowry LaCugna
After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity by Miroslav Volf
The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and “Women’s Work” by Kathleen Norris
Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa by Mercy Amba Oduyoye
Aspergirls: Empowering Females with Asperger Syndrome by Rudy Simone
Ethics of Hope by Jurgen Moltmann
The Trinity and the Kingdom by Jurgen Moltman
Writing in the Dust: After September 11 by Rowan Williams
Wealth as Peril and Obligation: The New Testament on Possessions by Sondra Wheeler
Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
Adam and Eve: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender Ed. Kristen Kvam
Heaven and Hell in Narrative Perspective by Andrew Perriman
Spiritual Landscapes: Images of the Spiritual Life in the Gospel of Luke by James Resseguie
The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed by Bruce Epperly
Making a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology by Monica Coleman
Unladylike: Resisting the Injustice of Inequality in the Church by Pam Hogeweide
Fiction
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Dark Currents: Agent of Hel by Jaqueline Carey
Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard
Gabriel’s Rapture by Sylvain Reynard
Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L. James
Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James
Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James
Dhampir by Barb & J.C. Hendee
Thief of Lives by Barb & J.C. Hendee
Sister of the Dead by Barb & J.C. Hendee
Traitor to the Blood by Barb & J.C. Hendee
Rebel Fay by Barb & J.C. Hendee
Child of a Dead God by Barb & J.C. Hendee
Saints Astray by Jacqueline Carey
Insurgent Veronica Roth
Bridge of Dreams Anne Bishop