Have you ever visited your local bookstore’s religion section only to find books that just don’t seem to get you or your faith? Does it seem like the religion section is flooded with self-help books disguised as an easy to grasp faith? Are you tired of hearing your Calvinist friend talk about Tim Keller’s newest book?
Maybe you are in need of a progressive book intervention. Maybe your shelves need to be re-born (get it?) to find new life in today’s world. Maybe you need to find books that put words to what you’ve been feeling for years.
Before we get to the top 10 books for progressive spirituality, here are a few things to look out for when shopping for a book on progressive spirituality.
- Does the book embrace mystery? Whether it is the mystery of God or the mysteries of faith, books on progressive spirituality generally embrace mystery as a characteristic of the journey.
- Does the book encourage questions and doubts? Questions and doubts serve as the antidote for certainty, which is sure to kill progressive explorations. Frederick Buechner once said, “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith.” If the book embraces doubts and questions, it is probably a good sign that it’s worth your while.
While this is not an exhaustive list of ways to identify books about progressive spirituality, it is a start. Feel free to comment below on other markers of progressive books.
Let’s get to the countdown:
10. Days of Awe and Wonder: How to be a Christian in the 21st Century, Marcus Borg
One Sentence Summary: Christian faith does not require us to check our brains at the door of the church.
Why It’s a Must-Read: Compiled just after his death, this book gives insight into the heart and mind of Marcus Borg who was often critiqued for not being Christian (people can get so protective of what is considered Christian). This book is very readable because it is a compilation of sermons and lectures. In it, Borg offers ways to reconstruct a progressive faith after faith crisis or other deconstruction. Read this if you’ve recently discovered progressive Christianity or are beginning to put words to this new type of faith.
9. Christ of the Celts, John Philip Newell
One Sentence Summary: Look deep within the Christian tradition to find meaningful ways to engage with faith today.
Why It’s a Must-Read: Aside from every J.P. Newell book being a must-read, this one is exceptional. Somehow, he figures out how to challenge every problematic doctrine in the popular Christianity with grace, offering historical alternatives and spiritual depth for Christians today. Read this if you want to ground your spirituality in a unique and marginal tradition.
8. Living Buddha, Living Christ, Thich Nhat Hanh
One Sentence Summary: Christianity and Buddhism are more closely related than you thought.
Why It’s a Must-Read: As one of the most important mystics in our time, Thich Nhat Hanh offers a mystical reading of Christianity to highlight that at the heart of both Christianity and Buddhism, there are similar aims and practices. He shows us a meaningful way to engage with both faiths, offering progressive Christians a model for interfaith relations and dialogue. Read this if you are wondering what it might look like to engage in interfaith dialogue without compromising your own faith.
7. Learning to Walk in the Dark, Barbara Brown Taylor
One Sentence Summary: God can be found in profound ways in times of uncertainty through literal and spiritual darkness.
Why It’s a Must-Read: Another mainstay author in progressive spirituality, Barbara Brown Taylor is a writer who invites you to get lost in her words (in the best way possible). This book deconstructs the idea that darkness is bad and light is good. It patiently walks the reader through embracing mystery, darkness, and quiet in a world that encourages certainty, light, and noise. Read this if you’ve ever been told that you live in darkness or if you have journeyed through difficult wilderness that has caused you to ask, “Where is God?”
6. Why Did Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammed Cross the Road, Brian McLaren
One Sentence Summary: Progressive Christians can be leaders in learning from other religions to engage more fully in the multi-faith world.
Why It’s a Must-Read: Brian McLaren takes readers on a journey to understand the three faiths in a more personal way. It humanizes in ways that simple introduction to religion books cannot. McLaren challenges Christians, particularly progressive folks, to break down the walls that separate us from people of different faiths. This is one of the best introductions to interfaith dialogue available for progressives today.
5. What is the Bible?, Rob Bell
One Sentence Summary: The Bible is essential for understanding the heart of the human story as we work for progress in our world.
Why It’s a Must-Read: Some people think that progressives don’t take the Bible seriously. In this book, Rob Bell offers ways for progressive people of faith to read the Bible in ways that not only take it seriously, but in ways that offer more depth, tradition, and ethical implications than many other readings of the Bible. If you think your grandmother judges you for not believing the Bible, this is one you need to intentionally read in front of her!
4. Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor
One Sentence Summary: God can be found throughout the world if Christians wake up to the presence that is everywhere.
Why It’s a Must-Read: Another great work from Barbara Brown Taylor, this one encourages Christians to get out of their Christian bubbles: out of the church, out of their safe homogenous groups, and out of their Bibles. It teaches us how to find God in the world, looking to ordinary objects and events for Divine guidance and presence. This book will make you want to get out and wake up in ways you could have never imagined.
3. Love Wins, Rob Bell
One Sentence Summary: God is too loving to allow one’s eternal well-being to come down to an abstract prayer.
Why It’s a Must-Read: People either love or hate this book (hint: most progressives love it). In it, Rob Bell challenges the commonly held idea that Christians go to heaven and everyone else goes to hell in the afterlife. How does an eternal judgment and impending doom reflect a loving God? This book basically says, it doesn’t; a loving God would never participate in the capricious choice that we’ve given to God. Some say he erases hell, but what he actually does is questions the notion of a loving God who would have a hell in the first place. This book is not about hell, but about God.
2. A New Kind of Christianity, Brian McLaren
One Sentence Summary: Christianity in the 21st century is going to be shaped around relevant questions that help us continue to evolve and develop as humans.
Why It’s a Must-Read: In one of the most comprehensive books on progressive Christianity (McLaren uses the term “emergent” Christianity in this book), McLaren ushers readers through the big questions of faith. In doing so, he shows that it is questions that are at the heart of faith rather than answers. If Christianity is going to survive for two thousand more years, it must begin asking better questions.
1. Divine Dance, Richard Rohr
One Sentence Summary: The Trinity (God is three in one and one in three) is the basis for Christian spirituality, showing us that relationships are at the heart of the journey.
Why It’s a Must-Read: Not only does Richard Rohr tackle one of the most complicated Christian doctrines in an approachable way, he makes it seem fun! This book is a beautiful exploration of the ways Christianity can be reconstructed around the idea of relationships. Rohr even reimagines the ideas of sin and redemption in light of the relationships modeled for us in the Trinity. If you are up for a little bit of an intellectual challenge, this is a wonderful read.
What are your favorite books on progressive spirituality?
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