The Autumnal Reading Roadmap...

Good evening. A long time ago, in a town far far away (I was at my school-era desk in Guildford, I write to you know from my discounted Ikea table in Nottingham), I wrote a post about the books I was going to read. In the end, I did manage to wade through all of them. Mostly a long time after I intended. Unemployment has been kind to me - I've been able to catch up on reading the books I have, have been given, and had ordered. This evening's post is a roadmap of what I'm going to review next, and the things I'm reading. I was provoked to write this post after a friend asked me what I'm reading at the moment, and who is thus influencing me. This post, then, is a rather more lengthy response to that ongoing question.

I've just finished reading a number of books. I loved, read and reviewed Jay Pathak's "The Art of Neighbouring" last week, and I've also just finished and am about to review "Re-imagining Discipleship" by Anglican Rector Robert Cotton. A brief summary would be that this is liberally based but fundamentally challenging look at discipleship which I think could be very useful. I've also just finished Simon Ponsonby's "More: How you can have more of the Spirit when you already have everything in Christ", which I enjoyed too, and adds to my roster of reviews of "And The Lamb Wins" and "The Pursuit of the Holy". Thats what I've finished reading. My ongoing bedtime reading is "A History of the Church in England" by J. Moorman, which I will never review on my blog but keeps me in perspective. My other ongoing reading, again not really to be reviewed (but very likely to influence!) is Jonathan Edwards "Religious Affections", which I am finding to be very agreeable to the "Radical Middle" of my current 'Empowered Evangelical' Vineyard Context.

Thanks to my upbringing, I will always have a soft spot for Conservative Evangelicals, and will always honour and read them. Thus, I am looking forward to reviewing for Evangelicals Now a book on being a teenager called "Genuine", and am also looking forward to reading John Stott's "The Living Church", his penultimate book before "The Radical Disciple". I hope also to publish a review/recommendation of Michael Horton's superb systematic "The Christian Faith", which has served as a fantastic guide through my final year of undergraduate study and my first few months of married life. As a lighter version, I can't recommend highly enough Jim Packer's "Concise Theology", which is a great book for new Christians and those of us who are often short of time. I also can't wait to review one of my favourite books on hell - if one can have such a category - Francis Chan's superb "Erasing Hell", which is a graciously fantastic response to the furore over the Love Wins controversy. I'm also enjoying reading Mike Wilkerson's "Redemption", a book borne out of Mark Driscolls church, which seems to echo another book from there, one of my continuing favourites, Justin and Lindsay Holcomb's "Rid of My DisGrace", which I read and reviewed a while back. Also by Holcomb is an edited volume, "Christian Theologies of Scripture", which I recently finished and will review as an excellent jumping point from bible study into academia - people need a theology of Scripture!

As I grow into the man God is making me, I am also reading a fair bit from a more general Evangelical perspective, and from authors associated with the Vineyard. I'm enjoying beginning to wade through Metaxas' biography of Bonnhoeffer, and also Tony Lane's Readers Guide to Calvin's Institutes. Both of these are excellent windows into pivotal people in church history. I'm also loving Jack Deere's "Surprised by the Voice of God", but I'm going to actually review his other book, "Surprised by the Power of the Spirit", because it acts as a nice representation of a key part of my own journey with Jesus. I've also got two Tom Wright books on the go - the well known and popular "Simply Christian", and the recent and useful "For Everyone Bible Study Guide: Revelation". Its a fun set of things to be reading. Finally, the book that influenced John Wimber, George Eldon Ladd's "The Gospel of the Kingdom" is on my hitlist. I'm slowly working through Ladd's bigger "Theology of the New Testament", but this smaller book is superb.

I have an internal rule that I have to read things I've been told I'll hate, or disagree with. To that end, I'm reading (And will review) Peter Rollins' "How Not to Speak of God", as well as Steve Chalke and Alan Mann's "The Lost Message of Jesus". These two will generate interesting reviews. I'm not entirely convinced, either, by Francis Spufford's "Unapologetic", which was fun to read but a little lacking in real substance. In a completely different vein, I'm currently reading (with all my undecided but egalitarian-leaning might...) Rachel Held Evans "A Year of Biblical Womanhood". I'm enjoying it, but not convinced by it other.

There are of course other books I'm reading and will review that don't quite fit into categories. One is the important and interesting "The End of Sexual Identity", which is interesting given recent turmoil in the UK over marriage. I'm also bemused and somewhat disappointed with IVP's "The Gender Agenda", which in my opinion is a less exciting version of "How I Changed my Mind about Women in Leadership". I have a sideline interest in being an armchair scientist, so I loved Charles Foster's "The Selfish Gene", which was a God-focused, reality-engaged look at science and faith. In a similarly intelligent but faithful vein is Anthony Thiselton's 2007 Tome "The Hermeneutics of Doctrine", which was the first academic book that really invigorated and refined my personal faith. 

There are many more books on my radar, or that I've started, or that I'd like to get round to reading. I can't share them all here. 
I love reading, as my post at the start of marriage "On Reading" sought to show. I love books - check out my page of book reviews. I also love blogging and engaging with people, so please do comment. Share your reading. Share your views. Tell me when you'd like certain book reviews done, or request others! As ever, thanks for reading.