Reviewed and recommended books of 2012: January

1. The Hyphenateds: How Emergence Christianity is Re-Traditioning Mainline Practices:

all the authors are hyphenated in that they combine/meld/weave/smash their own tradition into creative synergy/tension with emergence Christianity. Nathan Frambach, for example, coins the term "Luthermergent." He sees himself as an interested observer cataloging this Luthermergence. Bolz-Weber and Phil Snyder are, each in their own way, signally embedded in the emergence itself as Lutherans who both benefit from, and struggle with, the way they are as hyphenateds. I recommend you read the book in its entirety in order to hear the narrative in the voice of the authors. Hearing their collective voices (some hopeful, some angry, some aloof, some prophetic) gives a better sense than anything I've read recently of what this emergence, if it is anything at all, is like. 

2. Three great sci-fi authors published collections essays this year, and I recommend all three highly. William Gibson's Distrust That Particular Flavor, , and In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood. And Neal Stephenson's Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing. All three collections offer insight into the intellectual process backside of, or accompanying, the creative fiction they each write.

3. The first English translation of the bible to seriously contend with the NRSV for a place in the public reading of Scripture in the liturgy: CEB Common English Thinline Bible with Apocrypha DecoTone Black

4. A collection of post-humous essays by the incredible and faithful New Testament scholar Don Juel, Shaping the Scriptural Imagination: Truth, Meaning, and the Theological Interpretation of the Bible

5. James Cone's The Cross and the Lynching Tree

. Read the full review here: http://lutheranconfessions.blogspot.com/2012/03/cross-and-lynching-tree-by-james-h-cone.html