books: subversive wisdom

Inline image 1
I was once critiqued by a professor for not thinking more practical about Stanley Hauerwas' theological work. My retort was that Stanley doesn't even know what his stuff looks like in practice–he's decidedly a thinker, not a practitioner. Don't get me wrong, I deeply appreciate the work of Stanley Hauerwas, he's had a profound impact on me. But I've always had a deep appreciation for the writings of people who live out their thoughts and convictions in real, visceral and earthy ways. These are people that don't live in the world of ideas but in the world of ideas applied. It's risky, it often requires deep sacrifice but such a pen offers a well of wisdom the theorists don't drink from.

My friend, Bert Newton of Pasadena Mennonite, is one of those. Bert lives out his convictions in real and risky ways. This Christian activist has a new book out entitled, Subversive Wisdom: Sociopolitical Dimensions of John's Gospel. Here's a description from the publisher Wipf & Stock:

Subversive Wisdom makes the case that in the Gospel of John, Jesus walks and talks like Lady Wisdom of the Hebrew Scriptures. In John, Jesus is Wisdom incarnate, speaking and demonstrating the subversive wisdom of the way of the cross; he is a sort of trickster, confusing and frustrating his enemies, acting in ways counter to convention, and driving out the "ruler of this world" through the upside-down logic that comes "from above."

Pick up Bert's book. I'm looking forward to reading it, myself.

A Common Humanity author Lane Van Ham in San Diego

Media_httpecximagesam_mwjis
via amazon.com

A new book on the subject of faith and immigration has recently come out entitled A Common Humanity by Lane Van Ham. Lane's father, Lee Van Ham has been an advocate for biblical justice and economics in San Diego for a long time. Lee is working with Friends of Friendship Park to bring Lane to San Diego this Thursday, January 5. Event information is here. See you there?

books: Street Crossers

Media_httpwwwstreetcr_xaryj
via streetcrossers.com

Yesterday, Rick Shrout's new book Street Crossers showed up in the mail. Chapter Two profiles yours truly. But don't be discouraged to pick it up because of that. It also profiles several people in the missional/organic/emerging church planting world that I highly respect and they have wonderful stories to tell. You should pick it up. I'd love to hear your thoughts and I'm sure Rick would too.

(That's now four books that I'm written about in... maybe I should think about writing my own.)

Neil Cole's latest book...

Media_httpecximagesam_durcv
via amazon.com

My school work has lead me to ask a lot of questions about Christian leadership as of lately. I've read a lot of stuff that didn't deserve publishing. Just rubbish some of it. (Yes, I just typed the word "rubbish") Maybe it's because of this that I'm really looking forward to getting this book, Journeys to Significance, in the mail soon. The founder of CMA, Neil Cole's a good writer and an even better man. This book takes a different "spin" than his previous work. I don't particularly like the title, but I have an idea of its content having heard Neil talk about this book long before he wrote it. And that sounded good. If you're reading it, please share your thoughts.