Required Reading for Outlaw Preachers

I thought I'd start a thread on our favorite books. Of course, everyone knows about the 'usual suspects' - Brennan, Mike Yaconelli, etc... But here's an author you may not be familiar with, but absolutely should be, as he takes grace deadly seriously and helps you laugh all the way through to tears and beauty:

Robert Farrar Capon!

He's a chef, he's an Episcopal priest with a Lutheran heart, and sadly, he's dying of Alzeimer's these days...but damn, can he preach. Check him out.

Who else?

Tags: Capon, grace, outlaw, preachers, reading

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Permalink Reply by John O'Keefe on November 9, 2009 at 10:59pm

dang, we have reading homework :(

Permalink Reply by Mike Morrell on November 9, 2009 at 11:00pm

LOL - not that kind of required!

Permalink Reply by Timothy Kurek on November 10, 2009 at 12:34am

I think anything by Susan Isaacs, Jay Bakker, Brennan Manning, and Jim Belcher is a must!!!

Permalink Reply by Roger McCort on November 10, 2009 at 2:47am

C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Jim Palmer, and Francis Chan.

Probably already on most people's shelves, but just in case...

Permalink Reply by Timothy Kurek on November 11, 2009 at 3:44am

AMEN to adding Jim Palmer! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE AUTHOR/NOBODY!!!! I LOVE JIM!

Permalink Reply by Nicholas Connell on November 10, 2009 at 7:14am

Are you referring to the Kingdom, Grace, Judgment book?

Permalink Reply by Ben Buss on November 10, 2009 at 10:14am

+ Kingdom, Grace, and Judgement is good -- and if I remember correctly, it addresses ALL of the parables of Jesus. You may find Capon's view of the Parables of the Kingdom to be mostly about grace, and his view of the Parables of Judgement to be mostly about...er...grace. This volume (or trilogy if you bought it back when I did) is great assistance for a Bible study walking through the parables, especially if you sprinkle in commentary from other authors from time to time.

+ "Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace" -- this is a somewhat more surprising read as Capon captures the concept of grace as illustrated in a story about an extramarital affair. In the introduction, he writes that "No work of mine before it has ever moved me as far or as fast toward astonishment at grace as this book did -- and everything I've written since has been an expanding commentary on it."

+ "The Mystery of Christ....& why we don't get it" -- I've always viewed this as a good primer on Capon, as it is such an easy read. In it, he conveys his understanding of the mystery of Christ through stories and conversations in which he tries to clarify common misunderstandings.

Those are my top picks of the one's I've read. The books by Capon that are sitting in my pile to be read also include:
+ "The Romance of the Word: One Man's Love Affair with Theology", which is a collection of three of his classic early books that went out of print;
+ "Health, Money, and Love: & why we don't enjoy them", in which Capon apparently shows just how drunk on grace he really is.

So yes, Kingdom/Grace/Judgement is good, you don't have to start, or stop, there.

Permalink Reply by Ryan Kemp-Pappan on November 10, 2009 at 10:44am

I am reading a lot of fiction these days. I would recommend anything by Murakami, "They Shall Know Our Velocity" by Eggers, "Sabbath" by Herschel, "White Like Me" by Wise, "Petals of Blood" by Thiong'o, "Wise Blood" by O'Conner, and "How to Be Good" by Hornby.

I lean to reading Walt Wink, Stanley Hauerwas, & Paul Tillich for me theology fix. Preaching stuff I love Fred Craddock & Barbara Brown Taylor.

Permalink Reply by J. R. Daniel Kirk on November 11, 2009 at 2:16pm

Strong call on Flannery O'Connor. Her stories "Revelation," and "The Artificial N-" are also outstanding pictures of the gospel & kingdom.

For a good theology with feet on the ground, you have to read Richard Hays _Moral Vision of the New Testament_ and recent stuff by Miroslav Volf, e.g., _The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World_

Permalink Reply by Andrew Tatusko on November 13, 2009 at 6:02pm