Books i've found helpful

Moffit has tagged me with a meme

i) What is a book you have found helpful in each category

ii) Why did you find it helpful

iii) tag 5 more people
My comments aren't great, but if I dont do it now, I wont do it

Theology
Theology through the Theologians- Colin Gunton
This book managed to easily introduce me to Colin Gunton’s thought (ie. I could read it), the practice of historical theology, and some really helpful perspectives on all sorts of theological topics, especially christology, pneumatology and the church.


Biblical Theology
Days are Coming, Symphony of Scripture- Mark Strom
Somehow this book manged to be deeper, more detailed, better applied, more engaging and shorter than Graeme Goldsworthy’s biblical theology. It made me realise that biblical theology applied to today and that I needed to know the Old Testament to understand Jesus.

God
Jurgen Moltmann
The Crucified God
I know others have put this under Jesus, but this book really made me think hard about what it means for a crucified Jesus to be God. It made me critique my own view of Jesus and my own tradition.


Jesus
Richard Bauckham
God Crucified
The great thing about Bauckham is that his books are short and to the point. Want to know how Jesus fits into a biblical picture of God, read this



Old Testament
Awed to heaven, rooted in earth
The prayers of Walter Brueggemann

So Brueggemann is a bit wacky sometimes. I love his Old Testament soaked prayers though. He somehow manages to make the Old Testament texts urgently relevant for contemporary life by being attentive to their very strangeness and letting them unsettle us.
Brueggemanns poetic approach to language also opened up the bible, so that I could use it’s language and not abstract conceptualisations of it.

New Testament
Jesus and the Victory of God
Moffit gave me this book when I was half way through Old Testament 1 at SMBC. We were up to the exile. Need I say any more. Well, yes, probably. This book put the pieces together about Jesus in a way that simply makes better sense than anything else I have read.

Morals
Improvisation: The drama of christian ethics-Sam Wells
Sam is a student and collegue of Hauerwas. I picked this book up before I came to college, standing in Koorong, and was attrracted by the fact that 1. He had my last name. 2. The book mentioned improvisation.
It was a pleasant surprise when the book turned out to be good.
Wells works through an NT Wright like five act structure of redemption and approaches ethics as improvisation within the bounds of this script and tradition.

Church History
Nicaea and it’s Legacy- Lewis Ayers
I haven’t read that much church history. This book reminded me that the world is an incredibly complex place, that people can’t be labelled as goodies and baddies very easily (though often are), and of God’s grace in it all.
Biography
Yeah, like plenty of others, not a massive biography reader. Some stuff about Richard Wurmbrand that a friend gave me was pretty influential. I vaguely remember reading a Spurgeon biography and a McCheyne bio too

Evangelism
Hmm books on it. Chappo’s Know and tell the gospel. umm I guess Tom Sine’s book the New Conspirators. umm, well probably the christianity explained handbook is the most influential book

Prayer

Prayer and Spiritual warfare- CH Spurgeon.
This book rules.
rules.
rules.
How was it helpful.
How to pray biblically and mean it