I'm looking for a Christmas present

[Poiuyt]

My girlfriend is a liberal Christian and said that she always enjoys getting books as gifts. I know that she is an admirer of Jim Wallis and Matthew Fox (though I don't know what titles she has read). Are there any new books by these authors or any others that she might enjoy?

Thanks!

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. If she's willing to think a bit more deeply, books by Girard, Brueggemann, and Trible are great.

Girard comes from a more academic philosophical and anthropological bent in his theology. Does a lot work on violence on scapegoating, ritual violence, and mimetic desire. "Violence and the Sacred" is a great book.

Brueggemann also very scholarly, but easy to read - though very dense stuff, so it's slow reading because it's so packed with stuff - and wonderful stuff. He's an emeritus professor of Old Testament, so concentrates on that, but his big current issue is the OT prophets, and how liberals MUST begin to be like them, and use their imaginations to out-imagine the bullshit of the rightwing and the bullshit of Pharaoh (which term he uses to represent to anyone or any thing who is in power for themselves, and not for the glory of God). His book on this subject comes out in January, and will be called " The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word".

One of his best for a kind of practical theology is probably "The Prophetic Imagination".

Also good would be "Deep Memory, Exuberant Hope: Contested Truth in a Post-Christian World", "The Threat of Life: Sermons on Pain, Power, and Weakness", and "Finally Comes The Poet".

And Phyllis Trible's "Texts of Terror" might be very interesting to your fiance - Trible was Old Testament professor at Union Seminary in NYC (probably the most academically liberal seminary in the world). In this book she explores four stories of terror from the Old Testament - the unnamed woman in Judges 19 who gets raped repeatedly and dismemberd; the rape of Tamar; and two others. She asks "Why are these in the Bible?" and "Since they're in the Bible, we have to take them seriously - but how?" It's fucking wonderful! Truly a wonderful - though somewhat emotionally difficult - book. The thing I most appreciate about Trible, besides her excellent writing and excellent scholarship, is that she never throws out stuff from the sacred Scripture, no matter how bothersome it might be - she accepts it as Holy Writ, and wrestles with it, and finds a way to bring a new branch of life out of that dead stump. And she succeeds brilliantly.

[Poiuyt]

2. Thanks!

Those are good suggestions. I'll check them out.

Thanks!

[elshiva]

3. What about John Shelby Spong?

His most recent book is called "Sins of the Scripture," and I think it is one of his best.
It goes over controversial passages. He has a great sense of humor and is easy to read.