Read Books: They Make You Smarter

Wade‘s back from his hiatus, and has some book recommendations:

Here are several books I’ve just read or am about to finish.

1. What Would Jesus Deconstruct? I loved this book. Caputo is sharp, funny, and able to explain deconstruction in a constructive way.

2. The Reason for God. This is a great book for me to read. I’m a doubter and every so often I need to read a book like this to help me doubt my doubts.

3. The Fidelity of Betrayal. I think Peter Rollins is a brilliant writer, thinker, and storyteller. If you loved How (Not) to Speak of God, you will love this as well. If you hated it, then you’ll hate this one even more. His discussion of Judas as one who faithfully betrays Jesus will either set your wheels to spinning or cause you to skid off the road.

Deconstruction is an interesting topic, and I haven’t spent enough time studying it, but I may have to take a look at What Woud Jesus Deconstruct?.  I was pretty impressed with The Reason for God, but I think my problem is the opposite of Wade’s – I may feel a little too secure with the common Evangelical and general Christian practice and belief.

I found this in the Publishers Weekly review of How (Not) to Speak of God:

In the first half of this powerful but frustratingly opaque book, debut author Rollins summarizes some of the theological ideas that the so-called emerging church is currently exploring: the importance of doubt and silence, the limits of apologetics, and the idea that God is concealed even as God is revealed. He skillfully scrutinizes Christian teaching though the lens of postmodern (especially deconstructionist) theory, and argues that Christians should both affirm their views of God and recognize that those views are inadequate. (emphasis mine)

Those are some key lines because one of the pitfalls of theology – conservative, liberal, or anywhere in between – is that we tend to think we’ve explained God in His fullness. But how could we be able to?  We can try to explain the fullness of the part of God that has been revealed(even then we’d be remiss to think we actually achieved it), but what of the unrevealed?

I’m curious about The Fidelity of Betrayal, but I’d have to know more about it to comment.  And I will, once I finish The Cross of Christ (and it’s impossibly small type), Surprised by Hope (which I began ambitiously on a weekend trip…bad plan), and God in the Flesh (I keep losing it; I read 10 pages, then it disappears for a week or two).