Recommended Reading Meme

Ben Meyers of the "Faith and Theology" blog is participating in a Recommended Reading Meme begun by Aaron Ghiloni. The rule stated by Aaron is this:

There is one rule: these are not necessarily your favourite books, but titles you habitually mention to a range of potential readers.

With that in mind here are a few that I recommend both to parishioners and to the blogosphere -- in no order of preference.

• Granger Westberg, Good Grief (Fortress press) --- This is just one that as a pastor I have to mention. It is not new but it is still the best book on grief out there. My copies always disappear.
• Mark Toulouse, G9d in Public: Four Ways American Christianity and Public Life Relate. (WJK Press, 2006) -- Mark's book is I think the most important treatment of the relationship of church and public life out there. It is a must read and I tell everyone I can about it.
• Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us (Harper, 2006) -- I keep sharing this because it's a word of hope to we Mainliners. The future is promising, if only we'll listen.
• Jurgen Moltman, The Church in the Power of the H0ly Spirit (Fortress) -- I can't name them all, so I'll share the one I read first. Moltmann is the man!!
• Ronald Numbers, The Creationists (University of California Press) -- With so much on the line, this is the most important treatment of the Creationist movement. Numbers is as fair and objective as a historian can be who has something at stake in the conversation.
• Stephen Prothero, Religious Literacy, (Harper, 2007) -- Whether you agree or not with his solutions, his analysis of our current state of religious ignorance must be taken seriously.

I could add more, but I think that'll do it for now! If you've got your own list, why not add it here or on your own blog -- I sort of stumbled on to the meme reading Faith and Theology so I tag everyone who stumbles on to this.