The most-read Century book reviews
Here are the Century book reviews that got read the most online this year.
1) Tony Robinson on Nancy Tatom Ammerman: Publishers see SBNRs as a key market, while preachers either court them or put them down. As for Ammerman, she isn’t sure SBNRs exist.
2) Ralph Wood on Carol and Philip Zaleski: The proliferation of Inklings books is often prompted by Christian triumphalism. The Zaleskis have something more interesting to say.
3) Phil Jenkins on Karen Armstrong: Secularists from Voltaire to Richard Dawkins have attacked religion for its connection to violence. Armstrong flatly rejects the idea.
4) Walter Brueggemann on David Carr: Carr rereads the familiar materials of the Bible in conversation with trauma theory. This opens the way for a fresh and suggestive interpretation.
5) Katherine Willis Pershey on Lauren Winner: I read Winner's new book with the sort of joy one feels when watching someone utterly hit their stride.
6) Alexandra Brown on Frances Taylor Gench: Gench doesn't ignore difficult texts about women; she wrestles with them. That's because she is committed to the Bible as scripture.
7) Daniel José Camacho on Ta-Nehisi Coates: Coates is an atheist. But perhaps his atheism is precisely the kind that Christians in America need.
8) Valerie Weaver-Zercher on Nadia Bolz-Weber: Readers who found Pastrix to be a long, cool drink will find more refreshment here. Those who have tired of Bolz-Weber's cranky schtick will tire of it here as well.
9) Roger Owens on books by Jon Sweeney and Richard Rohr: Rohr and Sweeney, authors of two new books on St. Francis, would be united in their advice to us: forget the statue with the birds.
10) Will Willimon on Karl Ove Knausgaard: Knausgaard forced me to cancel six months of my life in order to fixate on 30 years of his.
11) Alan Van Wyk on Catherine Keller: Keller's latest book presents process theology as a maker of worlds. It's heady stuff—and very exciting.
12) James Howell on Amy-Jill Levine: Reading Levine's Short Stories by Jesus, I kept wishing she had published it earlier. It would have saved me some mistakes in the pulpit.
13) Jason Byassee on six books on preaching: My sixth-grade sex ed teacher held up a worksheet and apologized: “I know this is sort of unromantic.” Books on preaching can leave us similarly cold.
14) Sarah Morice Brubaker on Stanley Hauerwas: Longtime Hauerwas readers will not be surprised to hear that his new book is maddening—nor that some of the most maddening aspects are also the most rewarding.
15) Amy Frykholm on Karl Giberson: Giberson offers a cultural history of the Bible's first human. It's an intriguing and unsettling story.
