Beth Jones
book recommendations for Christians, from experts, for folks outside of their fields
Updated: Sep 7
I've got one of my favorite things for you: book recommendations!
I've asked some of the most interesting people I know--experts in a number of fields and subfields of interest to Christians--to recommend the one book they most wish folks outside of their field had read.
(Some recommended more than one book; professor types are sometimes bad at following instructions, and they love books, ....)
Dr. Derwin L. Gray
Co-founder & Lead Pastor of Transformation Church
Field: New Testament in Context
Recommends: Ken Boa, Conformed to His Image, Revised Edition: Biblical, Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation
Don't miss Dr. Gray's books, including How to Heal Our Racial Divide: What the Bible Says, and the First Christians Knew, about Racial Reconciliation
Dr. Daniel Lee Hill
Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at Truett Seminary
Fields: Theological Studies, Theological Anthropology, Ecclesiology, Public Life
Recommends: Derek Walcott, White Egrets, Toni Cade Bambara, Gorilla, My Love, and Ellen Charry, God and the Art of Happiness
Don't miss Dr. Hill's book, Gathered on the Road to Zion
Aundi Kolber, MA, LPC, NCC
Licensed Professional Counselor
Field: Counseling and mental health
Recommends: Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Don't miss Kolber's Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode--and into a Life of Connection and Joy
Dr. Nijay Gupta
Professor of Theology, Northern Seminary
Field: New Testament Studies
Recommends: (especially for students) Michael F. Bird, Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible, (and especially for academics), John M.G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift
Don't miss Dr. Gupta's books, including Paul and the Language of Faith
Dr. Elesha Coffman
Associate Professor of History, Baylor
Field: American Religious History
Recommends: Kristen Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne
Don't miss Dr. Coffman's work, including The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline
Professor of Christian Spirituality and Ministry, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Field: Spirituality
Recommends: Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation
Don't miss Dr. Owens's books, including Everyday Contemplative: The Way of Prayerful Living
Dr. Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner
Professor of English emerita, Wheaton college, Poetry Editor, Christian Century
Field: Literature & Poetry
Recommends: Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov and Wisława Szymborska's View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems
Don't miss Dr. Baumgaertner's poetry, including From Shade to Shine: New Poems
Professor of Pastoral Theology and Intercultural Studies, Knox College
Field: Pastoral Theology
Recommends: Shirley Guthrie, Christian Doctrine
Don't miss Rev. Dr. Acolatse's work, including Powers, Principalities, and the Spirit: Biblical Realism in Africa and the West
Associate Professor of History, Baylor University
Field: Medieval, Women's, & Church History
Recommends: Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe: New Approaches to European History, Lisa Bitel, Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400-1100; Merry E. Wiesner Hanks, Gender in History: Global Perspectives, Judith Bennett, History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism, and Larissa Tracy, Women of the gilte Legende: A Selection of Middle English Saints' Lives
Don't miss Dr. Barr's work, including The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
Dr. Madison Pierce
Associate Professor of New Testament at Western Theological Seminary
Field: New Testament Studies
Recommends: David Moffitt, Atonement and the Logic of the Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews (a crucial read, Dr. Pierce notes, because "it addresses several significant misunderstandings of Hebrews that come when we harmonize it with Paul too quickly.")
Don't miss Dr. Pierce's work, including Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews: The Recontextualization of Spoken Quotations of Scripture
Dr. Lindsey Hankins
Assistant Professor of Theology; Historical Theology, George Fox University
Fields: Theology, Thomas Aquinas
Recommends: Frederick Bauerschmidt, Thomas Aquinas: Faith, Reason, and Following Christ (for those interested in Aquinas but not sure where to start), Janet Soskice, The Kindness of God: Metaphor, Gender, and Religious Language (for those interested in feminist theology).
Dr. Hankins's published work is forthcoming; I can promise you won't want to miss it when it becomes available.
Dean of the Chapel, Asbury Theological Seminary
Field: Preaching
Recommends: Alyce McKenzie, Novel Preaching: Tips from Top Writers on Crafting Creative Sermons
Don't miss Rev. LaGrone's books, including Broken & Blessed: God Changes the World One Person and One Family At A Time
Dr. Christopher Hays
President of ScholarLeaders International
Field: New Testament
Recommends: Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament
Don't miss Dr. Hays's work, including Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism
Associate Professor of Old Testament, Biola University
Field: Old Testament Studies
Recommends: J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology; Sandra Richter, Stewards of Eden: What Scriptures Says about the Environment and Why It Matters; Christopher Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative
Don't miss Dr. Imes's work, including Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters
Dr. Brian Howell
Professor of Anthropology, Wheaton College
Field: Cultural Anthropology
Recommends: Andrew Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith (for those interested in how people can think about the relationship of Christianity and culture), Philippe Bougois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (not a "Christian" book but one that can transform how we understand poverty, crime, violence, and race and immigration in the U.S.).
Don't miss Dr. Howell's work, including Short-Term Mission: An Ethnography of Christian Travel Narrative and Experience
Dr. Scott R. Swain President, Professor of Systematic Theology, RTS Orlando
Field: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Recommends: R. B. Jamieson and Tyler R. Wittman, Biblical Reasoning: Christological and Trinitarian Rules for Exegesis
Don't miss Dr. Swain's work including The Trinity: An Introduction (Short Studies in Systematic Theology)
Associate Professor of Art History, Wheaton College
Field: Art History
Recommends: Thomas Pfau, Incomprehensible Certainty: Metaphysics and Hermeneutics of the Image
Don't miss Dr. Milliner's work, including The Everlasting People: G. K. Chesterton and the First Nations
Dr. Ingrid Faro
Visiting Professor of Old Testament, Northern Seminary
Fields: Old Testament and Semitic Languages
Recommends: Rebekah Eklund, Practicing Lament; Sandra Glahn, Sandra (editor), Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible; Catherine L. McDowell, The Image of God in the Garden of Eden; Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible.
Don't miss Dr. Faro's work, including Evil in Genesis.
Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary
Field: New Testament Studies
Recommends: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship.
Don't miss Dr. McKnight's work, including A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing
Professor of Old Testament, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
Field: Old Testament
Recommends: Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi, Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation.
Don't miss Dr. Schlimm's work, including 70 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know
Dr. Joy J. Moore
Professor of Biblical Preaching Luther Seminary
Field: Homiletics
Recommends: Stanley Hauerwas, A Community of Character
Don't miss Dr. Moore's work, including at Working Preacher.
Associate Professor of Theology, Gordon College
Fields: Historical Theology, Early Christianity
Recommends: Elizabeth A. Clark, Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity
Don't miss Dr. Hughes's work, including (with Lynn H. Cohick), Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries
Dr. J. Warren Smith
Professor of Historical Theology at Duke Divinity School
Field: Patristics
Recommends: Hans Boersma, Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis the Early Church
Don't miss Dr. Smith's work, including The Lord's Prayer: Confessing the New Covenant.
