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Christmas Reading Suggestions

Scot McKnight, The Hum of Angels: Listening for the Messengers of God Amon Us. Waterbrook.

Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. Vintage; and The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom.

Terry Glasprey, 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know: The Fascinating Story Behind Great Works of Art, Literature, Music and Film. Baker

Michael Rota, Taking Pascal’s Wager: Faith, Evidence and the Abundant Life. IVP Academic

Marina Nemat, Prisoner of Teran: a Memoir. Penguin (International Bestseller)

Tim Keller, Making Sense of God: an Invitation to the Skeptical.

Sandra Maria Van Opsal, The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World. IVP

Steven Backhouse, Kierkegaard: A Single Life. Zondervan

Stephen Bauman, Matthew Soerens & Issam Smier, Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis. Moody

Miraslov Volf, Flourishing: why we need religion in a globalized world. Yale University Press

Jonathan Sacks, Not in the Name of God: Confronting Religious Violence. Schocken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrLoWt2tfqg Piano Guys Christmas

Pastors and Christian Leaders

Christopher Wright, How to Preach and Teach the Old Testament for All its Worth. Zondervan 2017

Kevin Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority after Babel: Retrieving the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant Christianity. Brazos

Oliver O’Donovan, Entering into Rest: Ethics as Theology, Volume 3

Gordon T. Smith, Institutional Intelligence: How to Build an Effective Organization.

Preston Manning, Faith, Leadership and Public Life: Leadership Lessons from Moses to Jesus.

Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels. Baylor University Press.

Reflection:

Perhaps you will attend a Handel’s Messiah concert at this time of year to revive your sense of wonder at the nature of the Christmas celebrations. You want to rise above the pressures of wants from your kids and the consumeristic greed, the stresses of entertainment. One of the grand pieces in this phenomenal production is the oratorio “Unto Us a Child is Born”. This powerful, stirring  piece of music is based on a prophetic passage in the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 9: 2-7, rooted in a poem delivered 600 years before the birth of Christ. Christians have taken this as a predictor of the coming Messiah. They own it as a statement about the prophetic child, a royal agent. He would be a Wonderful Counsellor, someone filled with wisdom about how life and relationships work; a Mighty God, a champion with authority to bring change for the good into the world; Everlasting Father, someone benevolent who knew the end from the beginning, who had a unique, eternal perspective on our lives and our troubles;  a Prince of Peace, someone who would sort out the injustices and remove oppression, who will level the playing field, and promote reconciliation. It speaks of the presence of Yahweh with his people, a presence of renewal and reformation, in a time of transition to a new cultural ethos. This prophetic child would bring Light, Joy, Freedom, and Peace.