As many of you know, I love reading. So each year, I commit to reading as much and as widely as possible and (as a means of remembering everything I’ve read and holding myself accountable to my reading goals) I track the books I’ve read each year. (Click here to see what I read in 2019)
Now, a couple of notes before my list. First, I read a fair amount of churchworld and theology, so don’t read this as a “what you should read” list. Second, I continue to push myself to read more fiction, so those works are separated from non-fiction in my reckoning.
Third, please note a couple of special markers. My favorite books (and the one’s I recommend you consider reading) are marked with an asterisk and hyperlinked. Additionally, the books I’d read prior to this year but re-read are marked with a [re-read] notation.
Finally, my goal the past several years has been to read 150 books (~3/week). There were moments this year when I was not sure that was going to be possible (I worked more hours in 2020 than in 2019, at least in part due to COVID). However, I’m pleased to say that this year’s list of books read includes 170 titles completed.
So, without further ado, what I read in 2020 (presented in chronological order of reading):
Non-Fiction
- Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl
- The Name of God is Mercy, Pope Francis
- Crazy Busy, DeYoung*
- Talking to Strangers, Gladwell*
- How to Lead in a World of Distraction, Scroggins*
- The Rise of Rome, Everitt
- The Parables of Jesus, Jeremias
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Kondo
- Short Stories by Jesus, Levine
- Something Needs to Change, Platt
- The Benedict Option, Dreher*
- Hope in the Dark, Groeschel
- The Point of It All, Krauthammer
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Maxwell
- Unfreedom of the Press, Levin
- Color Outside the Lines, Hendricks
- The Case for Jesus, Pitre*
- The Infinite Game, Sinek
- Cur Deus Homo, Anselm [re-read]
- The Secret Lives of Color, St. Clair*
- Preaching Parables to Postmoderns, Stiller
- Our Father, Pope Francis
- Who Was Jesus?, Morgan
- Fifty Great American Places, Glass
- Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, Lamott
- The Joy of Discipleship, Pope Francis
- The Parables of Jesus, Schottroff [re-read]
- Speaking Parables, Buttrick
- Preaching the Parables, Blomberg
- A Diary of Private Prayer, Baillie [re-read]
- The Devil in the White City, Larson*
- The Right Side of History, Shapiro
- Divine Direction, Groeschel
- The Big Short, Lewis
- You Are Not Special, McCullough Jr.*
- Love Does, Goff
- I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Channing Brown
- Everything Happens for a Reason an Other Lies I’ve Lived, Bowler*
- Purple Cow, Godin
- The Liturgy of the Ordinary, Warren *
- Erasing Hell, Chan and Sprinkle
- How to Hide an Empire, Immerwahr*
- K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Kepner
- Parables for Preachers: Year A, Reid [re-read]
- Out of the Treasure: The Parables in the Gospel of Matthew, Lambrecht [re-read]
- Failing Forward, Maxwell
- Sitting at the Feed of Rabbi Jesus, Spangler and Tverberg
- Planting: Principles for Starting New Churches, Bustle and Crocker
- Follow Me, Platt
- The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, Maxwell
- Charis: God’s Scandalous Grace for Us, Sprinkle*
- Liar’s Poker, Lewis
- Death on a Friday Afternoon, Neuhaus
- Rooting for Rivals, Greer and Horst*
- The Explicit Gospel, Chandler and Wilson
- The Road to Character, Brooks
- The 5 Levels of Leadership, Maxwell
- Passion: The Bright Light of Glory, Giglio et al
- Range, Epstein
- The Bomb, Kaplan
- 360 Degree Reading, Esler
- The Oxford Handbook of Prayer, ed. Appleton
- Boundaries: Updated and Expanded, Cloud and Townsend
- The Clash of Civilizations, Huntington
- Streams of Living Water, Foster
- The Externally Focused Church, Rusaw and Swanson
- Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times, Steinke
- Euthyphro, Plato [re-read]
- Apology, Plato
- Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis, George
- Crito, Plato
- Phaedo, Plato
- Leading Change, Kotter [re-read]
- The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius
- 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, McKnight
- The Apostles’ Creed: Together We Believe, Chandler
- The Creed, Bauman [re-read]
- Finding the Right Hills to Die On, Ortlund*
- Surprised by Scripture, Wright*
- Call Sign Chaos, Mattis
- A Little Book for New Preachers, Kim
- The Lean Startup, Ries
- Friendship, Denworth
- The Lost Art of Scripture, Armstrong
- To Be a Christian, Approved Edition*
- Dark Agenda, Horowitz
- The MVP Machine, Lindbergh
- 1, 2, 3 John (NAC), Akin
- Old Testament Legends, James
- The Great Bridge, McCulloch
- A Brief History of Time, Hawking
- United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity, Newbell
- 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus For Everyone, Wright
- The First One Hundred Years of Christianity, Schnelle
- Educated, Westover*
- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass
- Waco: A Survivor Story, Thibodeau
- The Splendid and the Vile, Larson*
- Inspired, Held Evans
- The Next Evangelism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity, Rah
- Canoeing the Mountains, Bolsinger*
- Jesus among Other Gods, Zacharias
- The History Buff’s Guide to the Presidents, Flagel
- Until Every Child Is Home, Chipman
- You’ll Get Through This, Lucado
- The Church of Mercy, Pope Francis
- Gospel Allegiance, Bates*
- Crossing the Ling: Culture, Race, and Kingdom, Burns
- Just Mercy, Stevenson*
- God is Not Great, Hitchens
- The Drama of Scripture, Bartholomew and Goheen [re-read]*
- Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living, Tippett
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Comer*
- The Screwtape Letters, Lewis [re-read]*
- Compassion and Conviction, Giboney, Wear, and Butler*
- Genesis: A Translation and Commentary, Alter
- Happiness in This Life, Pope Francis
- Genesis 1-15 (WBC), Wenham
- The Shame and the Sacrifice: The Life and Martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Robertson
- The Soul of Science, Pearcey and Thaxton
- An Unconventional God, Levison
- Raising White Kids, Harvey
- Boundaries for Leaders, Cloud
- Recreatable, Scott [re-read]
- Survive or Thrive, Dodd
- The New Testament: A Translation, Hart
- 3000 Questions about Me, Piccadilly
- The Need for Creeds Today, Fesko
- God Wins, Galli
- Isaiah: Life Change, NavPress
- Boomerang: The Power of Effective Guest Follow Up, Smith and Hofmeyer
- Isaiah (TOTC), Motyer [re-read]
- The Book of Isaiah, Young
- Isaiah: NIVAC, Oswalt [re-read]
- The History of the Ancient World, Wise Bauer
- Letters to a Young Pastor, Peterson and Peterson*
- Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends, VanHoozer
- The Maxwell Daily Reader, Maxwell
- The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, Butterfield*
- The Forgotten God, Chan
Fiction
- Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
- Dave Berry’s Greatest Hits, Barry
- Thrawn: Alliance, Zahn
- Lost Stars, Gray
- Beowulf, trans. Gummere
- Thrawn: Treason, Zahn
- New Dawn, Miller
- Tarkin, Luceno
- Remembering, Berry*
- Lords of the Sith, Kemp
- Star Wars: Aftermath, Wendig
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling [re-read]
- Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, Rice
- World War Z, Brooks
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling [re-read]
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling [re-read]
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling [re-read]
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling [re-read]
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling [re-read]
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling [re-read]
- The End of October, Wright
- The Magician’s Nephew, Lewis [re-read]
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis [re-read]
- Prince Caspian, Lewis [re-read]
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lewis [re-read]
- The Horse and His Boy, Lewis [re-read]
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Collins
- The Silver Chair, Lewis [re-read]
- The Last Battle, Lewis [re-read]
- A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings, Martin
- Till We Have Faces, Lewis
If you read one article this weekend, look at
Did God command Israel to commit atrocities when conquering the Promised Land? Does He approve when people go to war in His name? Is the God of the Old Testament truly a homicidal maniac, as some have said?
The final step of this process brings the historical insights of what the Shepherd of Hermas indicates about the teaching authority of woman into conversation with contemporary conversations about women in the church. Here, several factors play out. First, we must recognize that the Shepherd is not canonical, but it was extremely popular for large swaths of early Christians. That is, this was not some one-off work of a heretic that stands merely as something for Christians to reject; many Christians have found this work insightful and (in some sense) useful for their own lives. Second, the Shepherd comes from Rome, where we know Paul’s letters to the Corinthians were well known, indicating that Hermas’s community (at least) held the call for Grapte to teach and Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 in conjunction. 
As an application of this approach, I want to quickly examine conceptions of women which appear in the early Christian writings known as the Apostolic Fathers. To keep this example as brief as possible, consider one instance where a female character appears in the apocalyptic account known as the Shepherd of Hermas (c. 100-150 CE).4 In Vision 2.4.3, Hermas records being told by an angel the following: “And so, you will write two little books, sending one to Clement and the other to Grapte. Clement will send his to the foreign cities, for that is his commission. But Grapte will admonish the widows and orphans. And you will read yours in this city, with the presbyters who lead the church.” 
Once our historiographical assumptions are clarified, we may then turn to the task of integrating historical insight and context into theology. I suggest three steps for this process. First, discern what Christian X says about topic Y, on their own terms and considering their own context. This is the chief purpose of history: to discover what a person (or movement) in the past did and thought, why they did or thought those things, and (in the history of the Church) how they interpreted and lived out the Scriptures and Great Tradition of the faith. 
When approaching theological concepts from a historical angle, the issue of historiography must be addressed as a matter of primary important.2 That is, before we make appeals to, for example, what Ignatius of Antioch’s Epistles say about bishops or Thomas Aquinas’s articulation of the beatific vision, we must first answer the question of how to best examine and understand the history of Christianity. Particularly helpful on this topic are the four historiographical models outlined by Kenneth Parker: successionism, supercessionism, developmentalism, and appercessionism.3 
Several months ago, I was privileged to present a paper at a regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. There is nothing quite like the amassed scholarship of these conferences, the gathering of minds eager to pursue knowledge and discuss the finer points of theology, biblical interpretation, and Christian praxis. Of course, it would not truly be a meeting of evangelicals (evangelicals gathered at a Southern Baptist seminary, to wit) without some disagreement over the role that history plays in the tasks of theology. 