Four Books
As I mentioned in my post “Book Suggestions?” I was given a couple of Amazon.com gift cards for Christmas. After looking through the books suggested by you, and looking through my own wish list, I decide on the following books (in no particular order, and including a short blurb from the publisher):
- The Subversion of Christianity by Jacques Ellul
Pointing to the many contradictions between the Bible and the practice of the church, Jacques Ellul asserts in this provocative and stimulating book that what we today call Christianity is actually far removed from the revelation of God. Successive generations have reinterpreted Scripture and modeled it after their own cultures, thus moving society further from the truth of the original gospel.
- The Annabaptist View of the Church: A Study in the Origins of Sectarian Protestantism by Franklin H. Littell
(No additional information was available. Littell is also the author of The Reformers and Their Stepchildren.)
- Thirty Years That Changed the World: The Book of Acts for Today by Michael Greene
While there are many studies and commentaries on the book of Acts, few focus on the amazing achievement of the people found within its narrative. The first Christians chronicled in Acts turned the world upside down in the space of a generation. In this book Michael Green opens up the gripping story of Acts, highlighting the volcanic eruption of faith described there and comparing it to the often halfhearted Christianity of the modern Western world.
- Rediscovering the Lord’s Supper: Communion with Israel, with Christ, and Among the Guests by Markus Barth
Following his father’s classic work CHURCH DOGMATICS, Markus Barth considered the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, which, had not received a full treatment. His work resulted in an exegesis of the Lord’s Supper texts in the Synoptics, the Fourth Gospel, and the Pauline letters. His perspective sees the Lord’s supper and its accompanying Agape meal as a symbolic event that allows God’s people to commune in an atmosphere that remains open to all, including the Jews, whose Passover continues to shed light on this sacrament.
Have you read any of these books?
I read Littell’s Anabaptist View of the Church many years ago in researching a paper for a doctoral seminar I had with Dr. William Estep, author of The Anabaptist Story. I recall that it was pretty well written and insightful. It was a good resource at that time for the topic I was investigating.
You’ll enjoy Subersion of Christianity. It caused me to buy several other books by Ellul. His writing is entertaining, insightful, and makes you think.
I have also read The Anabaptist View of the Church, was well written and a lot easier to read than the Reformers and their Stephchildren (they are part of the same series)