During the last month, I read ten great new books (published in 2019 or 2020):
- (5.0) Saving God from Religion: A Minister’s Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age by Robin R. Meyers (Convergent Books, 2020)
- (4.5) Materiality as Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World by Walter Brueggemann (Westminster John Knox Press , 2020)
- (4.5) Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement edited by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ejiris Dixon (AK Press, 2020)
- (4.5) High on God: How Megachurches Won the Heart of America by
James Wellman Jr., Katie Corcoran, Kate Stockly (Oxford University Press, 2020) - (4.0) Reclaiming Church: A Call to Action for Religious Rejects by J. J. Warren (Abingdon Press, 2020)
- (4.0) Unbinding Christianity: Choosing the Values of Jesus over the Beliefs of the Church by Jan Linn (Universal-Publishers, 2020)
- (4.0) Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America by Conor Dougherty (Penguin Press, 2020)
- (4.0) You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy (Celadon Books, 2019)
- (3.5) Journeying in the Wilderness: Forming Faith in the 21st Century by
Terri Martinson Elton (Fortress Press, 2020) - (3.0)Unfailing Grace: How Adversity Magnifies the Grace Within, Showing the Beauty of This Tapestry of Life by Julie Carrick (Paper Raven Books, 2019)
So What?
Robin Meyers retired from pastoral ministry earlier this year after serving for 35 years as Senior Pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church – a congregation located in Oklahoma City, OK and affiliated with the United Church of Christ. Additionally, he is Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at Oklahoma City University. Meyers has appeared on this blog several times in the past, including mentions of two of his previous books
- Spiritual Defiance: Building a Beloved Community of Resistance (Yale University Press, 2015)
- The Underground Church: Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus (Jossey-Bass, 2012) [also named one of my top books of 2012)
Saving God from Religion: A Minister’s Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age is filled with relatable stories from Meyer’s own experiences of growing up as a preacher’s kid and serving in ministry for four decades. Together these accounts show Meyers as conversant with the latest advances in science, cognizant of the post-modern emphasis on experience, and committed to a Christianity that builds on the experiences of the early church.
Saving God is a must read for anyone interested in progressive Christianity. Now is the time to let go of dated and unhelpful images of God while simultaneously re-imagining God as Ultimate Mystery. The entry (and re-entry) points are infinite and journey is ongoing.