Books I Read in 2013

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Some of you may remember when I did this last year. I find it rewarding to keep track of my reading. Well, it goes hand-in-hand with keeping track of what I have not yet read. I keep a list, you see, of books that I own but that I have not yet read. And I get to cross things off that list once I read them. This supplies some motivation, at least for me. It also supplies some restraint when it comes to buying new books. Some.

In any case, I read rather more this past year than the year before. I chalk this up to the fact that in 2012 I was still very much getting used to this whole teaching thing. But this past year I felt much more confident in it and was able to spend more time with my nose in books.

Before getting to the list I want to quickly note that these are books that I read cover to cover, or at least significant chunks of (hundreds of pages), that I had not read before. While I include works of history and popular treatments of religious topics, I do not include here my fiction / literature reading. They are presented in roughly chronological order of when I finished them. Asterisks (*) indicate that I have composed a professional review of a particular book that is forthcoming with some journal. Okay – here’s the list!

  1. Barth, Epistle to the Romans
  2. Ford, Theology: A Very Short Introduction
  3. Littlejohn, Daoism: An Introduction
  4. Gollwitzer, The Way to Life: Sermons in a Time of World Crisis
  5. Miller, Finding Darwin’s God
  6. van Norden, Introducing Classical Chinese Philosophy
  7. Thiessen, Apostolic and Prophetic (*)
  8. Levering, Theology of Augustine (*)
  9. McFague, Metaphorical Theology
  10. Wiman, My Bright Abyss
  11. Cullmann, Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead?
  12. Ching, Chinese Religions
  13. Calvin, Tracts and Letters, vol. 5
  14. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me
  15. Larson, Summer for the Gods
  16. Billings & Hesselink (eds.), Calvin’s Theology and Its Reception (*)
  17. Gollwitzer, The Existence of God
  18. Bonhoeffer, Act and Being
  19. Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?
  20. Yang, An, and Turner, Handbook of Chinese Mythology
  21. Meacham, Thomas Jefferson
  22. Aldington, The Duke
  23. Ivanhoe & van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy
  24. Newbigin, The Open Secret
  25. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution
  26. Drescher, Ernst Troeltsch
  27. Barth, How I Changed My Mind
  28. Goroncy, Hallowed Be Thy Name (*)
  29. Gollwitzer, Dying and Living Lord
  30. Appold, The Reformation

Yeah, that’s right. 30 books. 30 scholarly books. I’m pretty proud of this. Let’s see if I can match it in 2014!

Some of these books will be familiar to regular DET visitors thanks to – if nothing else – posts that I have done on them. Have any of you, gentle readers, read any of these volumes? If so, use the comments section to let me know what you thought of them.

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Comments

Kevin Davis said…
What did you think of Levering on Augustine? In a nutshell. And who's the intended audience?
January 16, 2014 6:57 PM
W. Travis McMaken said…
That's a good question. And I have no idea when that review will appear.

His treatment of Augustine was competent. Figuring out the audience was tricky. It seemed like the sort of thing that would be useful to laity, or to someone with no knowledge of Augustine who needs a quick and dirty overview. But I puzzled over that.

Am I right in assuming you read it? What did you think?
January 16, 2014 7:38 PM
Kevin Davis said…
No, I haven't read it yet. I wasn't sure if it was too introductory for me. I am, after all, one of the few and proud who has actually read 'City of God'!! But there's something about Augustine that still doesn't quite "click" for me. Bizarrely, Aquinas clicks for me but not Augustine! I can't really explain it. Of course, I blame Augustine.

So, I thought about actually reading other people on Augustine -- I've never even read Brown's bio!
January 16, 2014 9:51 PM
W. Travis McMaken said…
She who has not yet read Brown's biography has only herself to blame for Augustine not clicking.

:-)

You might find the book helpful. It is an overview of various important selections from his texts.
January 16, 2014 10:53 PM
Kevin Davis said…
Ha, yes, I need Brown apparently. I'll probably have our sem library order Levering's book, if we haven't already.
January 17, 2014 9:06 AM
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