What Should I be Reading?

As a Christian ethicist, I’m especially interested in books which connect the riches of the Christian theological tradition with the challenges we each face in our personal, professional, and civic engagements in the modern world. This is especially true today, in an age characterized by deep discontents and pessimism about our global future and our political present. In times such as these, what can Christians and the Church offer? What hope can we bring? Often, we find reminders of hope not only in endlessly scrolling through news feeds or scanning the news, but in deep, sustained theological reflection. I need the reminder to look up from the momentary challenges of my own life to think alongside other brothers and sisters in Christ through their writing.

In each of these books, which reflect on economics, education, politics, Scripture, loneliness, prayer, and worship, I have found reminders of the hope we have through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each reminds me that in Christ we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and provides an example of what it means to put on Christ (Romans 13:14).

1. The Good News of Church Politics by Ross Kane

2. Bearing Witness: What the Church Can Learn from Early Abolitionists by Daniel Lee Hill

3. Praying the Stations of the Cross: Finding Hope in a Weary Land by Katherine Sonderegger and Margaret Adams Park

4. The Anti Greed Gospel by Malcolm Foley

5. The Vice of Luxury by David Cloutier

6. The Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian Remembrance by Erik Varden

7. Feasts for the Kingdom: Sermons for the Liturgical Year by Khalid Anatalios

8. Called into Questions: Cultivating the Love of Learning Within the Life of Faith by Matthew Lee Anderson

9. Self World and Time: Ethics as Theology by Oliver O’Donovan

10. Jesus Changes Everything: A New World Made Possible by Stanley Hauerwas