Shelf Life
This edition of Shelf Life first appeared in the September 2006 edition of In Touch Magazine. For reprint permission contact the Director of Public Relations at 1-800-251-6227.
Recommended Reading from Bruce Guenther. Bruce is Associate Prof. of Church History at MB Biblical Seminary’s Langley, B.C campus.
The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath, by Mark Buchanan (W. Publishing Group, 2006)
A timely book to read during a sabbatical – chock full of thoughtful and provocative meditations on work, time, rest, legalism, freedom and listening. The author, a Baptist pastor in Duncan, BC whose style is a combination between Philip Yancey and Eugene Peterson, carefully and prayerfully leads one towards discovering the liberating gift of sabbath.
Divorcing Marriage: Unveiling the Dangers in Canada’s New Social Experiment, edited by Daniel Cere and Douglas Farrow (McGill-Queen’s Univ. Press, 2004)
This book offers a sobering look at the implications of same-sex marriage on a society. The contributors represent a diverse range of backgrounds, and exemplify the wisdom of working together with others towards a common cause.
A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology: Biblical, Historical, Constructive, by Thomas N. Finger (InterVarsity Press, 2004)
Offers an impressively thorough and scholarly explanation of Anabaptist theology from the sixteenth century to the present. Ecumenically sensitive and historically nuanced, it is encyclopedic in scope, and helpful in understanding the contours of an Anabaptist theological identity.
The Heartbreaker, by Susan Howatch (Little, Brown, 2003)
The story features the life of Gavin, a high-flying male prostitute in the financial heart of London, who desperately looks for a way to escape his tangled world of prostitution, pornography and violence. This novel is vintage Howatch, a prolific British author whose slate of characters always includes some Christians, often clergy, and who seamlessly weaves aspects of psychology, spirituality, and theology into intense, suspenseful mystery thrillers. This book will not be for everyone; if it were a movie the novel would carry a mature audience warning – yet it delivers one of the most powerfully haunting explorations of human nature, grace, and the redemptive calling of the church I have ever read.
Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling, by James Sire (InterVarsity Press, 2000)
Sire sees “thinking,” the act of loving God with the intellect as befits one’s ability, as an integral part of every Christian’s calling, and as a way of bringing glory to God. This represents a refreshing balance to those who separate ideas from practice, and make a virtue of giving priority to the “practical.” He uses Nicholas Wolterstorff to state that “the church needs scholars to assist her in the task of seeing precisely how the biblical vision applies to our present social realities and to assist her in the task of interpreting this social reality of ours.”