Our 2023 Summer Reading List

Kelsi Klembara

A Tumblin’ Down by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson (2022)

Wilson’s novel gives a portrait of a Lutheran pastor and his family living in upstate New York during a tumultuous year of their lives filled with tragedy, church conflict, and the search for forgiveness. It’s a beautiful portrayal of both the mundane, the difficult, and the joyous involved in church ministry and offers color and texture to the pastorship I haven’t witnessed in many other places. 

How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key (2023)

You can’t watch Key’s recent Mockingbird talk about How to Stay Married without laughing out loud which is why I’m excited to dive into this very personal story about infidelity, grace, and forgiveness from the author. 

Chad Bird

Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall by Mitchell Chase (2023)
Mitchell Chase’s excellent new book, digs down to roots of the problem(s) we face in our society, workplace, church, family, marriage, and individual lives. It does so through a thorough and illuminating walk through one of the most important chapters in the Bible: Genesis 3.

 But this is no myopic focus only on the third chapter of the Bible. Rather, we are shown how both the human problem (our sin) and the divine promise (the messianic Seed) reverberate from Genesis to Psalms to Revelation. The Scriptures are treated as a web of interconnected writings unified by the Spirit. The result being that Short of Glory is long of truth; it lengthens our focus from creation, through the fall, and all the way to the coming of the Seed of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent.

Brad Gray

Free to Be by James A. Nestingen and Gerhard O. Forde (1993)

This summer, I am reading Free to Be by James A. Nestingen and Gerhard O. Forde, which examines and explains the redolent truth of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism while pointing the reader to the radical freedom of the gospel of God’s grace. Through their insightful analysis, they highlight how the announcement of the gospel invites sinners living in the pressure cooker of the law to find redemption and relief in the promise of Christ for you. A note for those interested, Free to Be is currently out of print. You can easily find the student version on Amazon, but may have to snag the original on Ebay. 

Bruce Hillman

Christianity in Korea by Robert E Buswell Jr. and Timothy S. Lee (2007)

Korean Christianity is sometimes called Asia's miracle. A significant percentage of the population of South Korea is Christian, and Christianity has been an important force for social change and political change in South Korea's history. This book is a collection of essays by various authors that trace the history and development of Korean Christianity both in the past and the recent present.

A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon by Craig D. Allert (2007)

This book looks at the relationship between the church, authority, the Bible, and the formation of the Canon. The book likely argues for a greater role of tradition in interpretation, but that is yet to be seen. In any case, Allert is always engaging, erudite, and communicates well.

Whose Bible Is It? A Short History of the Scriptures by Jaroslav Pelikan (2006)

Pelikan traces the differences of the bible (some have apocryphal, some do not) throughout history to show how the Bible is uniform in one sense and different in its expressions on the other.

Sam Leanza Ortiz

The Chronicles of Narnia Complete Audio Collection by C.S. Lewis 

This summer, I’m expanding my horizons with a little bit of fantasy and going through the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia series. It’s been ages since I’ve read them, and with Here We Still Stand: C.S. Lewis & the Untamed God in a few months, this is perfect preparation. While I’m not typically an audiobook consumer, the all-star cast of narrators in this set has made this an exceptional listen.

Dan van Voorhis

A Change of Heart: A Personal and Theological Memoir by Thomas Oden (2014)

I will admit that I am reading this one “for work” as it will certainly become a Weekend Edition of my podcast. The story of Thomas Oden first came to me as I heard his life briefly described by a friend of the late theologian at the first annual Chadwick-Oden Lecture earlier this year. It is, among other things, the story of a seemingly doctrinaire theology professor who was challenged by a friend to read the Church Fathers. I knew of him as the editor of the brilliant Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series and knew that he had a kind of Damascus road moment.

Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849 by Christopher Clark (2023)

There is something about a year that can act as a totem. 1776, 1914, er… 1517. But of all the revolutionary years in the history of the modern West, my early education gave me very little on the climactic years of 1848 and 1849. Seeing this new work from Professor Clark of Cambridge with its reviews claiming strange relevance for the first quarter of our own century, it immediately jumped to the top of my list. 

Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300 by Peter Heather (2022)

“Major Reinterpretations” of a time period aren’t always my thing. I like my interpretations and re-interpretations cooked low and slow. But, I also realize publishers need to sell books and sometimes hyperbole is employed. Peter Heather is the chair of history at King’s College London and I was blown over by the number of positive reviews about this book from historians I trust and admire. The church certainly takes a major shift with Constantine and the Council of Nicea- I’m looking forward to seeing this interpretation up through the Medieval era whether “major” or not. 

Donavon Riley

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2007)

This summer, I’m re-reading Cormac McCarthy's novel, The Road. It’s a hauntingly beautiful yet profoundly bleak tale of a father and his young son navigating a post-apocalyptic landscape, struggling to find meaning and goodness in a world consumed by darkness. Against this backdrop, that’s seemingly devoid of hope and rife with danger, McCarthy explores topics of faith, morality, the nature of God, the fragility of human existence, the ultimate test of one's beliefs in the face of unimaginable suffering, and the presence of divine grace in a world seemingly abandoned by God. 

Blake Flattley

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (2003)

This is a fictional story of a young Jewish boy growing up in Brooklyn, NY. The story follows Asher’s development as an artist and the tension his pursuit of art creates between him and the Hasidic community he is part of.

Gretchen Ronnevik

Katharina and Martin Luther: the Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk by Michelle DeRusha (2018)

It’s not often that you come across a biography that has the attributes of being both scholarly and a page turner. I could not put this one down. With footnotes galore, DeRusha focuses on the Luther family and studies their marriage and household. It’s an immersive experience into the monastic life, cultural marriage norms, and even superstitions of the time. Reading about the solid marriage of two very unromantic, strong-willed people felt a lot like reading Luther’s “Freedom of the Christian” played out with real people, in narrative form.

Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (2023)

I’m on an Amor Towles kick lately, as this is his third book of his I’ve read. I love the words he uses and his sentence structures. He is one of those authors I read so maybe I can be a better author through osmosis. This book is about a man who is just released from prison, after serving time for manslaughter. After his father dies, he an his younger brother hit the road to start a new life. It’s a perfect balance of character development and great plot.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2021)

Halfway through this book, I was trying to figure out: is this fantasy, sci-fi, or is the main character hallucinating? It’s not difficult to read—I understand all the words. Yet there’s a man stranded in a vast house with statues that also has an ocean inside of the house complete with tides, and what is going on? The first half of the book bent my brain in all sorts of ways, keeping me curious but confused, and the second half was so intense that it was difficult to even stop for water breaks. A really fun summer read.