1. One book that has changed your life. John H. Yoder’s Originial Revolution: Essays on Christian Pacifism. I read it just after 9/11/2001, while I trying to think christianly about a response to ‘terrorism.’ I would have to say, that book marked a ‘conversion’ in my faith. I liked Original Revolution better than most of Politics of Jesus (except that last chapter of PJ is some of the best theology I’ve read). And I would recommend it to anyone—it’s a short read, not too much academic language.

2. One book that you have read more than once. Chaim Potock’s My Name is Asher Lev. I don’t know how may times I’ve read it. And I love it every time.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island. I’ll go with Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics. I know it’s a multi-volume (12?) ‘book,’ but I think it should count. I know the answer should be “the Bible.” But if I’m alone on a desert island, I don’t have any community with which to read the bible—so, it’s just bible and me, and that is no way to read faithfully. Well, Barth’s Dogmatics provides more biblical exegesis than any other theology I’ve read (Origen might be a rival on this score), and, more importantly, Barth illumines a hermeneutic that comes from his exegesis, and helps him exegete faithfully. So Barth gives me an attempt to think ecclesially about the Bible, and the Bible itself. I win on all fronts!

4. One book that made you laugh. I can’t think of any right now. I know, I’m lame.

5. One book that made you cry. I cried at the end of Northern Lights, the first book of Philip Pullman’s trilogy: His Dark Materials. Lyra’s sorrow at the loss of her friend was too much for me to bear.

6. One book that you wish had been written. Jesus and Me: Revolution and Betrayal, by Judas Iscariot.

7. One book that you wish had never been written. C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. I’ve just never understood all the fuss about the book. I think the idea of a “mere Christianity” is a bad one. It’s one rooted in protestant liberalism—cut from the same cloth as Adolf von Harnack’s What is Christianity? and Marcus Borg’s attempt to resurrect von Harnack (The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering the Life of Faith).

8. One book you are currently reading. Harry J. Huebner’s new book, Echoes of the Word: Theological Ethics as Rhetorical Practice. I don’t understand why the book isn’t listed on Amazon yet.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read. Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. I bought it last year at the AAR, and I’ve picked it up a number of times. I’ve read bits and pieces of it. But I still need to make the time commitment and read the whole thing through. I have decided that I cannot buy any books at this year’s AAR without first finishing Jameson’s book.

1. One book that changed your life: Can God be Trusted?: Faith and the Challenge of Evil, John G. Stackhouse Jr. One of those books that came along at a crucial time in my life and helped immensely with the vexing problem of evil.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Watership Down, Richard Adams. Just writing this makes me want to go pick it up again.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: Probably the Bible, since you get a 66 for 1 deal, but what translation? My Hebrew’s nearly forgotten and I never got around to Greek, so TNIV.

4. One book that made you laugh: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency), Alexander McCall Smith.

5. One book that made you cry: Don’t laugh, but, well, real fans will understand. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6), J.K. Rowling.

6. One book that you wish had been written: 1,001 Homemade Gifts that Aren’t Cheesy, but Don’t Require a Carpentry Degree

7. One book that you wish had never been written: A toss up between Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days and The Five Gospels: What did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the AUTHENTIC Words of Jesus. Both have fanned far too much unfounded FUD.

8. One book you’re currently reading: Sexuality and the Christian Body: Their Way into the Triune God, Eugene Rogers.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South, Albert J. Raboteau. It came highly recommended and it’s been on my shelf for over a year, but I haven’t got to it yet.

10. Now tag five people: Isaac, what does a newlywed Mennonite pastor read? Anyone else, have at it.