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

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andrew Tatusko on November 13, 2009 at 5:57pm

These are my top seven transformative books in my theology:

Calvin O. Schrag - The Resources of Rationality
Simone Weil - Waiting for God
H.R. Niebuhr - The Meaning of Revelation
Mary Douglas - Purity and Danger
Peter Berger - The Sacred Canopy
Soren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death
Augustine - Confessions

It's an odd bunch, but they all are books I have read and re-read at different points of every year for the past decade. So much truth there and I am still sorting through all of it.

Props to Von Rad's Genesis commentary as well as a book called Jesus in the Gospels by Rudolph Schnackenburg. Must haves for one's preaching resources.

Permalink Reply by Carol Howard Merritt on November 14, 2009 at 1:22pm

I have to give a nod to the Outlaw Preacher, Nadia Bolz-Weber. Her book Salvation on a Small Screen is funny and smart. She uses a wonderful setting to make some important critiques of commercialized Christianity.

Permalink Reply by Mike Morrell on November 14, 2009 at 5:48pm

Very good point! As an endorser on that tome, I heartily agree.

Permalink Reply by Roger McCort on November 14, 2009 at 6:26pm

Let me add Rob Bell's Sex God to the list. I think it had some important stuff to say about grace and the idea that God loves you for who you are.

Permalink Reply by Khad Young on November 18, 2009 at 4:28am

The absolute best text on grace I have ever read outside the Bible itself is Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians.

Hands down.

My list (in some order I do not yet fully understand):

The Bible,
“Mere Christianity” by C. S. Lewis,
“What’s So Amazing About Grace?” by Philip Yancey,
“When Bad Christians Happen to Good People” by Dave Burchett,
“Commentary on Galatians” by Martin Luther,
“Messy Spirituality” by Michael Yaconelli,
“The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel,
“Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller,
“Searching For God Knows What” by Donald Miller,
“Sex God” by Rob Bell,
“He Chose the Nails” by Max Lucado,
“Son of a Preacher Man” by Jay Bakker,
everything C. S. Lewis wrote

Permalink Reply by Andrew Tatusko on November 18, 2009 at 9:11pm

see, i've tried bell a few times, but i could not inhale. i honestly got bored.

Permalink Reply by Khad Young on November 19, 2009 at 4:31pm

I say move on. Better to be reading *something* than nothing because what you are trying to get through bores you to tears. I've put down many books (and subsequently picked up many others) because of this philosophy.

If you don't absolutely love what you're reading, you should be reading something else.

Permalink Reply by Mike Morrell on November 19, 2009 at 4:37pm

Also, I prefer listening to Bell's books. Voice inflection is everything with him. Jesus Wants to Save Christians audio is his best, I think.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Rensch on November 18, 2009 at 1:20pm

Mike - thanks for tip on Robt Capon. After reading that went to Stanford Univ Library and checked out From Noon to Three. Copy is 1982 but I don't think had ever been opened.

It is very powerful and all, every word, is about grace.

2/3 done now. The only thing a bit similar is the later portions of Updike's excellent novel A Month of Sundays, the portrait of the woman named Frankie. Thanks so much for the tip.

Capon's many books need to be brought back into print.

Jeff R

Permalink Reply by Guy and Christine Coe on December 1, 2009 at 3:39pm

Try "The Upside-Down Kingdom" by Donald Kraybill. It's not what we're "rebelling from" that matters as much as what we're "rebelling to!" Kraybill outlines a pretty wild vision of the kingdom in sociological terms, and reminds us to pay close attention to "the least of these."

Enjoy!

Permalink Reply by Sean Ferrell on August 31, 2010 at 11:23am

I will second that about Capon. Brennan Manning quotes him in the Ragamuffin Gospel. Capon is an Episcopal priest. I had the pleasure of meeting him in seminary. His writing is a wild ride and quite entertaining. He's more theological for the theologically oriented than Manning, who is more for the general public, but a fantastic addition to any library.

Permalink Reply by Cody Stauffer on February 3, 2011 at 7:55pm

Silence by Shusaku Endo, and Deep River by same. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott. Got to have some fiction that speaks louder than non.