There is tremendous value in viewing topics, even those you have strong opinions on, from another perspective. Not necessarily with the intent of having your mind changed, though that may happen. Rather, to slightly better understand that topic from a perspective formed by the thoughts and words of those that hold them as truth, especially if it’s a topic that you
a) disagree with
and
b) have only heard it explained by those that also disagree with it.
On an unrelated note, for me to get a sticker for my library’s summer reading program, I must create a book list, so here it is:
Eight Books That Evangelicals Can Benefit from Reading (Seven with very long subtitles):
1. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible
By E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’brien
A rudimentary, though oft over-looked overview of the types of mistakes that the Western world (broad terms) commits when reading their Bible. The book is concise, clear, and full of examples of how the laypeople of different cultures read different passages of scripture vastly different from west. It also touches on the importance of understanding the context of scripture from the point of the original author and audience.
2. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
By Kristin Kobes Du Mez
An admittedly inflammatory sub-title, the book itself is more-or less a laying out of how the evangelical church became entwined with political movements over the last century. I admittedly found the early chunks of the books hard to believe, until the author reached the portion of US history that I grew up in, and found it to ring incredibly true. This will be a painful book for some evangelicals to read, but I think it’s an important one. Maybe the most important on this list, regardless of if you walk away disagreeing with most of it.
3. Trajectories of Justice: What the Bible Says about Slaves, Women, and Homosexuality
By Robert Karl Gnuse
Gnuse makes some big claims, not all of which that I don’t think hold up entirely to some basic scrutiny (the most egregious being his belief that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is simply a retelling of Judges 19 due to their extreme similarities). But he addresses some of the major splits in beliefs amongst the Christian churches in the US, providing cultural context and textual arguments that, at minimum, are worth reading and seeing how they hold up to your understanding of the Bible.
4. Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope
By Esau McCaulley
I have been loving Esau McCaulley’s books and podcast. He is a theologian and professor of New Testament Theology at Wheaton that offers perspective that I could not have had on my own. This book offers a glimpse into black Biblical interpretation and argues the value of reading the scripture from that perspective. Since I was limiting this list to seven, I’ll also add that How Far to the Promised Land, which is a more autobiographical look at McCaulley’s faith through the generations of his family, is fantastic.
5. The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
By Beth Allison Barr
Barr approaches the American Evangelical view of Biblical Womanhood from the lens of a historian and Pastor’s Wife, two worlds that come to a head. The book pinpoints significant historical and Biblical moments and how they often fail to mirror the modern evangelical opinion. Barr shares her personal experiences of having been an active member in the Southern Baptist church as well as a history professor.
6. Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate
By Justin Lee
Lee presents what is largely his own experience as someone that is gay and was trying to change that through prayer, counseling, and will-power, but finding himself unable to change that aspect of himself. As a devout Christian he had to know what that meant, and what other Christians in his position did. His upbringing and Christian background sound extremely similar to both my own, and the majority of Christians I know.
If anything, this book may simply demonstrate that there are those in the church that consider themselves both Christians and gay (a main topic of the book itself). As someone approaching the topic from that perspective, Lee does an incredible job of not attacking those that don’t share the belief that he came to. His primary focus at the end of the book is less about trying to change mindsets and more emphasizing the importance of communication and empathy for those that don’t share your views.
7. The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here
By Kaitlyn Schiess
Schiess gives examples of every side of the political party using the Bible in their campaigns to varying levels of success. Unlike the previous entry on this list (Jesus and John Wayne), she gives her take on how the church should have, and still should, respond to those instances in practical wisdom calling for unity whenever possible, and caution at all times.
8. Until Unity
By Francis Chan
Chan is such a passionate writer/speaker, and that comes through in this book. By the end I felt like I was left with a plea for unity amongst Christians with little instruction on how to fulfill it. The focus of this book is a call for unity across doctrinal lines, emphasizing the scriptures that call for just that. Maybe the least “enjoyable” book on this list, it was the catalyst for my continued reading of viewpoints from Christians outside my own circle and the idea for this list (beyond the library summer reading program). Which Christians are we called to have unity with? What doctrinal lines do we deem to be too strongly opposed to our interpretation of scripture? Chan doesn’t give those lines, but he advocates for the importance of lessening the ones we probably already hold.
