Summer Reading Plans

Summer doesn’t technically start for three weeks, but since my kids are out of school and it is 107 degrees in Phoenix right now (!!), I’ve been thinking, along with many others, about summer reading. So I’m going to share a handful of books that I hope to read this summer, and I’m interested in hearing suggestions from you as well.

I love reading good novels. Sometimes I feel guilty reading them, especially “secular” novels that express values inconsistent with Christian faith and practice. However, I believe that reading stories, especially well-written stories that deal with the unpredictability of life—whether pain, joy, or confusion—and the complexities of what it means to be human—whether insecurity, loving and being loved, or searching for ultimate meaning—can bring insight into our own lives and hearts, as well as give us a deeper and broader perspective of the lives of our non-Christian neighbors.

Writing for Christianity Today, Amy Julia Becker observes, “Good novels—whatever world-view they profess—challenge us to love others better. They disrupt comfortable assumptions about reality. And, to the degree that these books state something true about the world around us, even if that truth is about God’s apparent absence, they also invite us to know God better by loving our neighbor all the more.” So with that in mind I’m embarking on summer novels guilt-free!

There are a few novels that I hope to read. First, Middlemarch by George Eliot. I read Adam Bede in high school and appreciated Eliot’s writing, especially her exploration of faith and love. My wife loved Middlemarch, and last week David Brooks identified it as one of his favorites. So I’m looking forward to diving in.

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Second, That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis. I know that for many, Lewis doesn’t quite “count”—either as fiction or, certainly, as someone who gives us any perspective on life from a “non-Christian” point of view. Fair enough, but the truth is that I’ve been avoiding this third installment of the Space Trilogy since high school. Recently, however, a friend whose literary and theological judgment I respect described it as his favorite in the trilogy, so now is the time!

Third, John Wilson of Books and Culture had great things to say about Ayelet Waldman’s new novel Love and Treasure, calling it “irresistible.” I like Waldman’s writing, and, again, John Wilson is a “credible witness” when it comes to books.

Finally, the Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez died earlier this year, and aside from a short story in a Spanish class in college (making second year Spanish students read magical realism isn’t quite fair . . .) I haven’t read anything by him, so I picked up Love in the Time of Cholera. I’ve heard that the story isn’t quite as depressing as the title suggests, so hopefully it will be an appropriate vacation read (I made the mistake of bringing Cormac McCarthy’s The Road to the beach a couple of years ago—a mistake I don’t intend to repeat.).

In addition to fiction, I plan to read a handful of books that I hope will help me in pastoral ministry. In April the Christian Century asked a group of Christian leaders and authors, “What is one book pastors should read?” L. Gregory Jones, the Dean at Duke Divinity School, whose work on both forgiveness and Christian leadership I’ve enjoyed over the years, suggested Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Rule. Written toward the end of the fifth century by the Bishop of Rome (i.e., the Pope), Jones describes Gregory’s work as “a timeless and very timely resource for parish ministry.”

Also, on the recommendation of Scot McKnight, I’m excited to read Center Church by Tim Keller. I’ve read (and listened to) a lot of Keller over the years, and in addition to his more theological writings, I have appreciated his insights on the ministry of the local church. McKnight describes Center Church as “probably the most important book on pastoring a church in the last decade.”

Finally, Christianity Today’s 2013 Book of Year for “The Church / Pastoral Leadership” went to Reading for Preaching: The Preacher in Conversation with Storytellers, Biographers, Poets, and Journalists by Cornelius Plantinga. The CT review said Plantinga “believes that preachers who read widely—novels, mysteries, biographies, poetry, and so on—are likely to become better at their craft.” Hence this list . . .

In addition to reading the books listed above, I hope to spend quite a bit of time reading what many theologians have called “the book of nature.” This means spending time outside—whether in the desert, the forest, or at the ocean—marveling at the beauty of God’s handiwork. I look forward to affirming the Psalmist’s cry, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1) as well as “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4). In the end, I hope and pray that reading compelling stories, seeking encouragement in my vocation, and experiencing the overwhelmingly diverse and beautiful creation might draw me nearer to the God who creates and sustains the physical world as well as endowing his human creatures with wisdom, creativity, and skill, while thanking him for the many ways of knowing him, and offering myself to be a blessing to this beautiful yet broken world.