2023 round up: my favorite books
I read a lot of books in 2023...here are some of my favorites:
2023 marks the first full year that I have not been in the classroom. It felt odd—disruptive even—to be absent from this space. I miss the lectures, the conversations, the thrill of revelation. Every day I learned something new.
Although it can’t replace the classroom, I still hold on to a key part of any classroom experience: books. I love books.
While I try my best to keep stacks and shelves of books contained in my office, they inevitably spill out into the rest of the house—a book of poetry on the couch, a novel on the dining room table, a theological tome waiting in an enclosed patio that is too cold to use in December.
I, admittedly, also love buying books even when I have 10 stacked on a coffee table that I have yet to read. But the utter joy of a new book in my hands is too good to pass up.
I read a lot of books in 2023. More than I can count. Below, in no particular order, are five of my favorites:
Christian Wiman, Every Riven Thing (Macmillan, 2014)
Wiman was recommended to me by a few friends in the latter half of the year. Since picking up a few books, I have not been able to put Wiman down. Navigating life in, out, and between faith, both his essays and prose beckon you to bring your whole self to the page as a reader. It is engaging, provocative, and beautiful.
God goes, belonging to every riven thing he’s made
sing his being simply by being
the thing it is:
stone and tree and sky,
man who sees and sings and wonders why
John West, Lessons and Carols: A Meditation on Recovery, (Eerdmans, 2023)
A collection of short stories and vignettes, Lessons and Carols is an unforgettable book about love, loss, and honoring those we meet along the way. Structured around the liturgy of lessons and carols, it tells a compelling, messy story of finding meaning, purpose, and love.
We smoke another cigarette while he gesticulates through a story about nothing and I am laughing and smiling with him. So, it is love, after all, that humbles me—the only surface that reflects the invisible divine. The only medium that transmits the sound of the spirit.
Kevin Hector, Christianity as a Way of Life: A Systematic Theology (Yale University Press, 2023)
So much of my own writing is indebted to Kevin Hector, a highly respected Professor of Theology and of the Philosophy of Religions at UChicago. Christianity as a Way of Life marks his first attempt at a systematic theology—a genre often known for its dry, esoteric jargon. Hector, though, offers an accessible systematic theology that is grounded in the lived reality—the practices—of Christians today.
…We can understand Christianity as a way of life…namely, a set of practices designed to transform one's way of perceiving and being in the world.
Andrew Whitehead, American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church (Brazos, 2023)
American Idolatry, written by sociologist Andrew Whitehead, seeks to frame the rejection of Christian nationalism beyond partisan platforms by appealing to the life and teachings of Jesus. In this book, Whitehead offers a compelling and pastoral word for the Christian church today.
Christians can and should celebrate the good elements of their country's history and makeup while striving to make things better…The question concerns how we define and express patriotism and to what ends.
Karen Swallow Prior, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023)
I had the joy of first meeting Karen earlier this year. Against the backdrop of institutional failure and personal attacks, Karen shared a pre-release copy of The Evangelical Imagination. Intending to only give it a quick glance while waiting at the airport later that day, I pulled the book out of my bag. An entire flight later, I landed in Milwaukee with the book still in my hand. It is a fascinating and innovative approach to identifying how the evangelical tradition arrived at its present state.
Our attraction to beauty is ultimately life-giving because this desire—this hunger and thirst—leads us to the true, eternal source of all Beauty,' who is also the source of the True and the Good.
Great list!
One of the best things about the end of the year is when book round ups come out! Thanks for this amazing list!