I got a lot of books for my birthday and I am looking foward to reading them (please note that my reading of these books is not an endorsement of any of these authors):
1) The Jesus of Suburiba: Have we Tamed the Son of God to Fit our Lifestyle? – Mike Erre. Mike is the pastor down at Rock Harbor in Costa Mesa. I went to their church a lot while I was down at Azusa Pacific and I really enjoyed it.
2) Jesus wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile – Rob Bell and Don Golden. This was a gift for my birthday from my friend Wes. I have never actually finished a Rob Bell book yet. I started both Velvet Elvis and Sex God, but didn’t have time finish them. Because I didn’t own them, I was never able to come back to them.
3) The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant – J.D. Crossan. Crossan is the most liberal of my authors I am reading right now. I started reading this book at Archives earlier last semester. I really enjoyed the first two pages, and am interested to see where Crossan lands at the end of this book. Sarah was with me when I was first reading it and, as a good girlfriend, logged it in her memory and bought it for me all the way from China.
4) Surprised by Hope – N.T. Wright. I am also interested to read this gift from Sarah (two books must mean that she really loves me). I loved “The Challenge of Jesus” when I first read it.
5) The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation – Arthur Ferrill. I was reading about the fall of Rome on wikipedia and his theory sounded very intersting, so I bought the book.
On top of all my reading for my credential classes, I don’t know when I’m going to have time to read all of these, but I look forward to some interesting interaction with these texts here on the blog…
Danny is a credentialed social science teacher in California, but is especially interested in students with special education (always the person first and the disability second). He is pursuing his education specialist credential at Cal State Northridge with help from President Obama who has given lots of money to teachers in residency willing to work for three years in Title 1 Schools. Please know that his thoughts are always forming and are subject to change at a moment's notice.
Danny,
Sounds like a well-rounded reading list…wow. I liked Scot McKnight’s A NEW VISION FOR ISRAEL. It, like NT Wright’s stuff, looks at Jesus in his 1st century Second Temple Judaism culture.
God bless!
John