Believers & Doubters: Bulletin Board

Additions to the Book List
Following is a list of recent additions to the B&D book list. Included are items from
an "Amazon recommends" list or recommended by B&D members and other
sources:

When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Choices Today. In a revised
and expanded version of The Last Word, leading biblical scholar N.T. Wright
shows how both evangelicals and liberals are guilty of misreading Scripture
and reveals a new model for understanding God’s authority and the Bible.

In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions Without Becoming a Fanatic.
Sociologists Berger (The Social Construction of Reality) and Zijderveld (The
Abstract Society) inveigh against the dogma of isms that replace humor with
certainty and thoughtfulness with blind action.

Uncommon Gratitude. The prolific Benedictine nun Chittister (The Liturgical
Year) joins the erudite archbishop of Canterbury in a series of reflections on
finding the hidden face of God in a variety of circumstances and offering
praise.

The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day. Written by an Adventist physician-
theologian, it has been described by one reviewer as "truly a magnum opus
on the Sabbath, it is this generation's most complete and insightful work on
the topic." Here's a link to a video of a presentation by the author and a panel
of commentators at Loma Linda University.

The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time. A Los Angeles
Times review of this book says: "culture critic Judith Shulevitz (Slate, the New
York Times) addresses the philosophical idea of the Sabbath from both a
personal and a collective point of view. Part history, part meditation, the book
delves into the Sabbath in Judaism and Christianity while invoking a wealth
of nonreligious sources." View her presentation at the Sixth and I Historic
Synagogue. Additional links to reviews of and interviews about the book can
be found here.

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Breathtaking in ambition, it
ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world,
following the three main strands of the Christian faith.

On Moderation: Defending an Ancient Virtue in a Modern World. Described
as a mature book from a senior scholar, On Moderation answers critics of
this misunderstood value, demonstrating its continued relevance to human
flourishing.

Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate. Walter
Brueggemann describes this book as "a frolicking commentary on the
assault that Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have mounted
against religion. The premise of his book is that 'faith is for the most part
performative rather than propositional.'"

Understanding Genesis: Contemporary Adventist Perspectives is a volume
of papers written by SDA theologians and scientists, most of whom hold
faculty appointments at Adventist colleges and universities in North America.
The various chapters provide a spectrum of views on a variety of topics,
including non-fundamentalist interpretations of the Genesis creation and
flood narratives, a consideration of theistic evolution or progressive
creationism, the validity of the evidence dating the geological column and
human prehistory, and other related topics.

Christianity for the Rest of Us. The author interviewed 350 members of
mainline churches and reports in this book, "mainline congregations are
riddled with anxiety about the powerful voice of the Religious Right in politics
and mainliners are seeking new ways of communicating their own public
theologies." Read more about the book at the author's Website and view a
brief interview with the author.

The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the
Authority of Scripture (Hardcover) by N. T. Wright. The paperback version of
this book is titled, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God -- Getting
Beyond the Bible Wars.