Category: Recommendations and Reviews
Here are a couple books that I recently read, which I highly recommend to you.
The Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright is fantastic. Something inside me wants to say it is the most stimulating theological work I have ever read, and right near the top of the list of the most important books. Part of the reason I enjoyed it so was that he tackled some issues that I have been pouring over for the last several years, and he came to (mostly) the same conclusions that I did. It's always nice to find someone who, independently of you, has followed the same clues and arrived at the same solution of the same problem, especially if that someone is a someone of influence. I must say, at this point, that I am not entirely sure where Dr. Wright is on other major doctrines of the Christian faith; he has certainly roused the hornets in some areas of theology. I have heard others express serious concern over his view of justification. So don't take this as an unqualified endorsement of N.T. Wright. This book, however, I cannot recommend more strongly.
It's not a quick read, but for a theologian Wright has a graceful pen. The issues are complex and some of it will seem tedious if you are not well acquainted with a few of the current scholarly debates. Nevertheless, the overall focus and explanation of Christ's resurrection and ours is a (too-often neglected) pursuit which yields delicious fruit. Wright does a masterful job of leading that journey.
As with everything by Lewis, the essays here taste like honey and set the cognitive wheels to turning. The opening article, which gives its name to the title, is worth the price of the book; but those that follow are also filled with wonderful insights. If you have been a Christian for more than ten years and have not availed yourself of the brain-food of C.S. Lewis' non-fiction, then you are missing out on some good eating, my friend. (If you haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia by now, well, I just don't know what to tell ya.) Much briefer than Wright, but no less worthy, this collection will make you think (in a good way).