A friend of mine gave a list of the top 10 books he read in 2023. I thought about doing that… but I am not really good at identifying best books versus those that are less outstanding. Instead, I will list the books that have accumulated this year for reading. Hopefully, I will finish at least most of these before the end of 2024.

1. Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables by Phil Vischer. 100% Read. I wanted to include this since I was given this book for Christmas. I found the book very valuable for someone in ministry. In many ways I can relate to Vischer in terms of background— except for his fascination with Walt Disney. I was always a Looney Toons fan myself. He provides a good example, I believe, of the American Evangelical fascination with the false belief that “Bigger is Better.”
2. When Death Is Not Theoretical: The Readiness of the Music Group ‘Queen’ for Living with Freddie Mercury’s Dying by Robert Charles Powell. 100% Read. This is a short book (monograph). I have enjoyed Powell’s writing on the Clinical Pastoral Education movement and the life of Anton Boisen. I was given a copy of this book so I read it as 2024 started. It is interesting looking at how theology and dying had bearing on “Queen” in their music and lyrics. A challenge I had is that I am not really a fan of this group, knowing them mostly on only their most culturally pervasive songs.
3. Ambassador’s of Reconciliation: God’s Mission through Missions for All edited by Geoff Hartt, Michael Ortiz and Manuel Bohm. 6% read. This book was sent to members of the Evangelical Missiological Society.
4. The Finality of Christ by Lesslie Newbigin. 30% read. A classic, being published in 1969.
5. Impact of Colonization on Missions in Africa by Adesegun Olayiwola. 15% read. Olayiwola has written considerably on mission topics from the African (especially West African) perspective.
6. Four Portraits, One Jesus by Mark L. Strauss. 5% read. I have only read some individual sections of this book… but it is more like a textbook, so I probably will never read it cover to cover. Still, it seems like a good book to expand my understanding of the gospels. Also, I do believe that Jesus provides an excellent model for Christian missions… so that also adds to the importance for me.
7. Four Views on the Church’s Mission, edited by Jason Sexton and Stanley Gundry. 25% read. This is one of those 4-view (or 5-view) type books. The book may be a bit hampered in that the perspectives are not hugely different. Still, for Evangelical Christians, they may not find value in a Liberationist or a Conciliar perspective.
8. When Good Things Become Addictions: Gaining Freedom from Our Compulsions by Grant Martin. 12% recent. I read a chapter of this book back in 2012 on Religious Abuse. I decided to purchase the whole book (used since it is no longer being published) and hope to read the rest of it as well.
9. Customs and Cultures: The Communication of the Christian Faith by Eugene Nida. 6% read. Another classic missions work— published in 1954. So far in my reading, the book follows the pattern of a lot of older works in Cultural Anthropology. That is, it is chock full of little cultural vignettes. That makes the book entertaining… but much like Fraser’s “The Golden Bough” there is the risk of the stories leading to losing sight of the message. I will see where it goes.
10. The Global Gospel: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World by Mischke, Werner. 20% read. So far, a good book on Honor and Shame in culture and missions.
11. Introducing Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective by Brian M. Howell and Jenell Paris. 1% I meant to read this before teaching my latest Cultural Anthropology class, but only just started when I got distracted into other things. Hope to do better this year.
12. Asian Christian Theology: Evangelical Perspectives, edited by Timoteo Gener and Stephen Pardue. 10% read. It seems as if it has only been in just the last few that Evangelical theologians in the Philippines has begun to do more than just “parrot” what American theologians say. There is a LONG way to go, but at least this book embraces a start. (The book is not just Filipino Christian Theology but the primary editor is a Filipino theologian)

I also hope to read a couple of books that haven’t been published yet.

A. Tom Steffen has a book on “Character Theology” coming out in 2024. 

B. Robert Charles Powell has one or two more books on his (ultimately) 7-volume series on the history of the Clinical Pastoral movement, that are supposed to come out this year.