Gift for former pastor father
March 30, 2011 8:38 AM   Subscribe

Giftfilter: looking for thoughtful, challenging, and not-standard-evangelical Christian books, fiction or nonfiction for my former pastor father.

My father is a former Evangelical Friends (sort of Quaker, only grafted into the Evangelical movement) pastor. I'm, well, more or less an atheist. Nevertheless, we have a tradition where I buy him religious books which challenge his preconceptions about what his faith has to be (not interested in challenging the faith itself). He's had enough Phillip Yancey and Ted Dekker for one lifetime, and it's a way of meeting him halfway on the whole religion thing, so it's important to both of us. Unfortunately, I'm running out of things I've read to expose him to, so I need a bit of help coming up with a new list.

Previous successes: he absolutely loved Marilynne Robinson's work and liked Hopkin's and Merton's poetry. He also liked The History of Christian Thought.
posted by kittenmarlowe to Religion & Philosophy (26 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
I like The Screwtape Letters.
posted by shortyJBot at 8:41 AM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


I would like to recommend a novel, "A Prayer For Owen Meany" by John Irving. This novel is literally the only book that has ever given me a feeling that there is something legitimate in Christianity.
posted by grizzled at 8:50 AM on March 30, 2011


Best answer: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions and Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok
Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary
Hannah’s Child
Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
A Community of Character
Moral Vision of the New Testament
Politics of Jesus
How (Not) to Speak of God
Purity of Heart is To Will One Thing

Hopefully some of those work. They're from a variety of strands of Christianity, so you could pick and choose what you think your father would enjoy reading. I'll post more if I think of any.
posted by pecknpah at 8:51 AM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Best answer: A real challenge (and great novels): Shusako Endo's Silence and The Samurai.
posted by thomas j wise at 8:54 AM on March 30, 2011




I like Matthew Fox. I've read The Reinvention of Work, but have listened to Unitarian sermons were inspired by his other books, too. I really like his ideas, but I find his writing somewhat dense.
posted by lagreen at 8:59 AM on March 30, 2011


Hmm. How would the comparative-religion approach work?

Meaning: sometimes reading texts from things that are not one's own belief system can yield interesting perspectives on one's own belief system. If not, at least you've gotten a taste of what others believe, and that means you've gotten a taste of what makes them tick, and that's never a bad thing.

That said: Bill Moyers once did a PBS series about the Book Of Genesis, where he picked about 6 or 7 stories from the Book of Genesis and devoted each episode to each of those stories -- and had a roundtable of religous thinkers from all of the Abrahamic religions to discuss their reactions to each story. The book tie-in was a transcript of each episode; it's fascinating.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:59 AM on March 30, 2011


There are a bunch of people challenging evangelical preconceptions from more confessional directions. Michael Horton has quite the bibliography. Mark Noll (who wrote The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, mentioned above) does a lot of this too. Both are definitely orthodox, but definitely not mainstream evangelical, though of the two, Noll definitely comes closer.

Both are academics, Horton at Westminster Seminary in California, Noll at the History Department at Notre Dame. Horton's works are going to be more self-consciously theological, while Noll is really an American historian specializing in church history.
posted by valkyryn at 9:02 AM on March 30, 2011


Best answer: The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers, Thich Nhat Hanh
posted by jardinier at 9:05 AM on March 30, 2011


Has he read C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy? I'm a Humanist, but Lewis is most definitely a Christian and I found his views on spirituality and also the willingness to accept people from different cultures very, very interesting.
posted by jillithd at 9:06 AM on March 30, 2011


Dorothy Day [a founder of the Catholic Worker]: The Long Loneliness.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:13 AM on March 30, 2011




Best answer: Is your father a former pastor in the "retired" sense or in the "left the church" sense?

Some recommendations that might work either way.

Mere Churchianity by the late Michael Spencer (The Internet Monk). Your description: "religious books which challenge his preconceptions about what his faith has to be (not interested in challenging the faith itself)" pretty much matches Spencer's work.

If he likes Marilynne Robinson and Merton, he might like Kathleen Norris's Cloister Walk, which has features of each of those (Monks AND Presbyterians in one book).

As a Christian interested in reading about other religious, I found What Makes You Not a Buddhist by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse to be quite interesting. Since it's about (surprise!) why you're not a Buddhist, it doesn't read as apologetical (and patronizing) as some works by Thich Nhat Hanh, et al. do to me.

You might consider getting him a subscription to First Things magazine.

Both are definitely orthodox, but definitely not mainstream evangelical, though of the two, Noll definitely comes closer.

As far as I know, Noll is a mainstream evangelical. He used to be a professor at Wheaton. What's not mainstream about him? (I don't think being Reformed instead of Arminian puts you outside of the mainstream.)

posted by Jahaza at 9:24 AM on March 30, 2011 [2 favorites]


Two I'd recommend in comparative religion:
Pema Chödrön's The Places That Scare You
Karen Armstrong's The Great Transformation (but anything by Karen Armstrong is an interesting read)
posted by likeso at 9:27 AM on March 30, 2011


Waiting for God by Simone Weil. This Jew found it incredibly beautiful and thought-provoking.
posted by thebergfather at 10:05 AM on March 30, 2011


I really enjoyed The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Phillip Pullman. It's very clever and about as blasphemous as you'd expect from that author.
posted by teraspawn at 10:22 AM on March 30, 2011


Seconding John Irving and C.S. Lewis. Also, The Sparrow by Doria Russell was science fiction with a religious theme. A deep, intriguing novel.
posted by pentagoet at 10:28 AM on March 30, 2011


Response by poster: He's retired--still attends the church he last pastored at. He's definitely familiar with Lewis (and loves the Space Trilogy especially).

Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone! It will help fill out the gift list for quite awhile!
posted by kittenmarlowe at 10:41 AM on March 30, 2011


Anything by Randy Alcorn? He writes both fiction and nonfiction fwiw.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 11:22 AM on March 30, 2011




maybe your father would enjoy Michael Ward's recent book on 'Planet Narnia'; alternatively, for non-standard evangelicalism, perhaps some of N. T. (Tom) Wright's recent work, such as Surprised by Hope.
posted by davemack at 1:24 PM on March 30, 2011


You both might enjoy Towing Jehovah. God's deceased body (a very corporeal two miles of it) has fallen into the ocean, prompting varied reactions to the news that there once was a God and there isn't one anymore (...maybe). It's irreverant, obviously, but rather gentle about it, and is both funny and thought-provoking in places.
posted by hippugeek at 5:54 PM on March 30, 2011


Best answer: Check out LibraryThing's work-specific pages for recommendations.

For instance, the Screwtape Letters produces, beyond Lewis:

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
Knowing God by J. I. Packer
Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton


Perelandra, on the other hand, produces:

Phantastes by George MacDonald
Lilith by George MacDonald
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
The Tolkien Reader by J. R. R. Tolkien
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
Smith of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin


There's also Lewis's own choices to take into account. He was, unsurprisingly, a huge George MacDonald fan.

(Has your father read Inferno and Escape from Hell by Niven & Pournelle?)

And, to contribute to the "comparative religion" effort as a Mormon, let me also put forth the classic Jesus the Christ. It's old-timey in tone, and fairly academic.
posted by SMPA at 6:08 PM on March 30, 2011


Desert Ascent by Simon Parke and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.
posted by belladonna at 6:19 PM on March 30, 2011


Best answer: Please allow me to recommend the works of Frederick Buechner, especially Wishful Thinking and Whistling In the Dark. Both were immensely valuable to me in my college years, when I was working out my agnostic/Christian beliefs, and remain great food for thought today.
posted by Shotgun Shakespeare at 11:41 PM on March 30, 2011


I am being rocked by Gilead by Marilyn Robinson right now. Every paragraph is just beautiful and perfectly constructed.

I work in the faith-based organizing and policy world, and have enjoyed reading Jim Wallis' books, particularly God's Politics and The Soul of Politics.

Maybe your father would enjoy a subscription to a magazine like Sojourners or America (which is Catholic/Jesuit, but a great weekly read).
posted by elmer benson at 1:27 PM on March 31, 2011


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