Over the last month I’ve read ten recently published books. My April list of recommended reads features four books published in 2020 and six published in 2021.
- (5+) Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way and Presence by Diana Butler Bass (HarperOne, 2021)
- (4.5) Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage by Anne Lamott (Riverhead Books, 2021)
- (4.5) Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues by David Bradford and Carole Robin (Currency, 2021)
- (4.5) Acting on Faith: Stories of Courage, Activism and Hope Across Religions edited by Diane Faires Beadle and Jamie Lynn Haskins (Chalice Press, 2020)
- (4.0) The Pulpit and the Paper: A Pastor’s Coming of Age in Newsprint by Robert W. Lee (Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2020)
- (4.0) Skip the Line: The 10,000 Experiments Rule and Other Surprising Advice for Reaching Your Goals by James Altucher (Harper Business, 2021)
- (4.0) A Burning in my Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson by Winn Collier (Waterbrook, 2021)
- (4.0) From Burned Out to Beloved: Soul Care for Wounded Healers by Bethany Dearborn Hiser (IVP, 2020)
- (3.5) Leading Things You Didn’t Start: Winning Big When You Inherit People, Places, and Possibilities by Tyler Reagin (Waterbrook, 2021)
- (3.5) Shepherding the Seasons: Stories from a Life with Two Flocks by Catherine Foote (The Pilgrim Press, 2020)
Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.
Her work has been featured many times on So What Faith, including reviews or ratings of several of her books. Diana Butler Bass was recognized as one of the top three authors during the first decade of So What Faith; and Christianity After Religion was named one of the top two books of the year in 2012, and one of the top five books of the 2010s.
Freeing Jesus
Freeing Jesus is the first book published in 2021 to receive a rating of 5+ stars on So What Faith.
Nearly a decade ago, Diana Butler Bass had a unique encounter with Jesus while in the National Cathedral. For the first time in her life, she heard Jesus speaking directly to her, using five powerful words: “Get me out of here.”
Freeing Jesus is an invitation to meet Jesus again for the first time by encountering many Jesuses. Readers, regardless of their location on the theological continuum, will be inspired to get Jesus out of the unhelpful confines they (and/or their tradition) have constructed for him.
Diana Butler Bass reflects on her own experiences of Jesus by rediscovering the Jesuses who had the greatest impact on her life: friend, teacher, Savior, Lord, way, and presence (while also mentioning other, even more personal Jesuses: Lover, Word, Wisdom, and Sustenance).
Quotes
There are books you read once, finish, and place on a bookshelf (physical or virtual) to perhaps open again some day. Freeing Jesus, however, is a book that reads you, and a book that beckons you to revisit passages and even pages that warrant further consideration.
Three quotes provide a glimpse of the wisdom within:
- We teach our children to be friends and then we ourselves forget the teaching. Surely the playground is not Eden, but it may well be one of the few places where we still strive to create a community of friends who know freedom, trust, and mutual joy (p.21).
- The cross is, of course, the most familiar symbol of Christianity. But the circle best illustrates my experience of Jesus – around tables, altars, and campfires; in classrooms and church rooms; at rallies and protests (p.200).
- We know Jesus through our experience. There is no other way to become acquainted with one who lived so long ago and who lives in ways we can barely understand through church, scripture, and good works, and in the faces of our neighbors (p.202).