Well, 2020 happened.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll take a look back at the books I read over the past year and highlight some favourites. I usually read about a book a week—a practice I’ve maintained since I returned to Seminary in 2000. My reading journal, which began in a paper notebook in 2000, moved online in 2008. You can read my thoughts on all the books I’ve read since 2008 (if you want to). I actually increased my pandemic reading quite a bit—to around 75 books. However, I’m going to keep this list to the 52 reviews I posted in 2020. I’ll cover the remainder next year.

You may notice something odd this year. I’ve started to work through my “to read” pile alphabetically. This habit has forced me to read books I thought were important but never got around to. I’m still at it—currently reading Ellul’s Propaganda.

A couple notes before we begin. The categories are not perfect but they’ll do the job. I do read odd books from time-to-time that don’t fit in any one category. All the books are linked to my book reviews if you’re curious. Finally, for the OCD among us, each section is alphabetized by the author’s last name.

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Fiction

• The Great Tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes
• Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
• The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
• The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
• Amazing Spider-Man: The Goblin Lives by Stan Lee and Johnny Romita
• Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson
• The Fall of Gondolin by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• A Peculiar Peril by Jeff VanderMeer
• Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer

This was a tough decision. I reread The Hobbit out loud to my kids this year and The Fall of Gondolin reinvigorated my love for Tolkien. Fall is a fascinating look at posthumanism. In the end, however, it doesn’t get any better than Dead Astronauts. VanderMeer breaks every rule of grammar in creating a weird-fiction masterpiece where even the plot disintegrates.

A quick comment about Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books. When I heard that Amazon was funding a live-action series of one of my favourite epic fantasy worlds, I decided to reread them—this time in audiobook form while out running.

Biography

• Two Sisters in the Spirit by Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Church Fathers by Pope Benedict XVI
• Rumours of Glory by Bruce Cockburn
• Martin Luther by Scott H. Hendrix
• A Jew Today by Elie Wiesel

This was an easy decision. Von Balthasar’s dual biography of Carmelite sisters Thérèse of Lisieux and Elizabeth of the Trinity was deep and insightful. Opportunities for meditation abound on almost every page.

Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, History

• The Future of Faith by Harvey Cox
• Phenomenology by Shaun Gallagher
• The Apostolic Fathers I by G. P. Goold
• The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

The Righteous Mind stood out in this category. Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains why people think the way they think and why you can’t change people by arguing with the elephant (you’ll have to read it to figure this one out). This book has ramifications for almost every field of study, but it’s especially relevant for practical theology. I wrote about some of these implications in the review and discussed others with Dr. Peter Neumann on the MCS Spotlight podcast.

Admittedly, this category is a bit of a catch-all. Although it’s like comparing apples to oranges, The Apostolic Fathers would be the runner up.

Theology

• A Phenomenology of Pentecostal Leadership by Truls Åkerlund
• The Art of Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter
• The Shape of Practical Theology by Ray S. Anderson
• Constructing Pneumatological Hermeneutics in Pentecostal Christianity by Kenneth J. Archer and L. William Oliverio, Jr., eds.
• Salvation by Allegiance Alone by Matthew W. Bates
• A History of Prophecy in Israel by Joseph Blenkinsopp
• A Fundamental Practical Theology by Don S. Browning
• The Bible Makes Sense by Walter Brueggemann
• From Judgment to Hope by Walter Brueggemann
• The Blackwell Companion to Jesus by Delbert Burkett, ed.
• The Praxis of Suffering by Rebecca S. Chopp
• Resistance by John B. Cobb, Jr., ed.
• Jesus According to the New Testament by James D. G. Dunn
• Faithful Presence by David E. Fitch
• The Drama of Ephesians by Timothy G. Gombis
• Jesus and the Undoing of Adam by C. Baxter Kruger
• God’s Quest by Lyman C. D. Kulathungam
• Mere Discipleship by Alister E. McGrath
• The Crucified God by Jürgen Moltmann
• The Case for Jesus by Brant Pitre
• Imagining the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith
• Spirit, Scripture, and Theology by Roger Stronstad
• God and Human Wholeness by Kent L. Yinger

This category is obviously the closest to my heart! My number one pick will have to be Salvation by Allegiance Alone for its significance in reframing what the New Testament authors understood by the word “faith.” That said, Fitch’s Faithful Presence on the way believers embody the faith, Gombis’ deep yet readable work on The Drama of Ephesians, and Browning’s legendary Fundamental Practical Theology were close runners-up.

Spiritual Formation & Church Leadership

• Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• The Book that Breathes New Life by Walter Brueggemann
• The Threat of Life by Walter Brueggemann
• Multiply by Francis Chan
• Making Small Groups Work by Henry Cloud and John Townsend
• How to Make Big Decisions Wisely by Alan Ehler
• Soul Keeping by John Ortberg
• Divine Eros by Symeon the New Theologian
• Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God by Brian Zahnd

With respect to every book in this category, this decision wasn’t even close. Bonhoeffer’s Letter and Papers from Prison is a candid glimpse into the mind of one of the most significant theological figures of the twentieth century. In fact, if I had to choose a favourite read from the whole year, this would be it.

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So there you have it—everything I read in 2020 categorized and considered. Have you read any of these books? What do you think? What would you recommend? Feel free to let me know in the comments.

If you’re interested in these sort of things, this is the third year I’ve written a post like this. Here are the previous two:

• 2018: A Reading Retrospective
• 2019: A Reading Retrospective