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Falling Upward, Richard Rohr (Jossey-Bass)
Rohr speaks of life as something that comes in halves. These halves are not chronological but rather postures toward living. In the first half, we’re busy making something of our life, pulling together our identity, etc. In the second half, we recognize that releasing ourselves into grace is the way of wisdom. We discover that “falling, losing, failing, transgression, and sin are the pattern, I am sorry to say. Yet they all lead toward home.”
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Revelation for Everyone and Early Christian Letters for Everyone, N.T. Wright (WJK)
It’s rare to find a commentary set that is accessible but also nuanced and rich. Wright’s Everyone series hits the mark. It’s a fabulous resource for pastors but also a wonderful guide for new Christians getting oriented to the biblical text and the biblical story.
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Where Mortals Dwell, Craig Bartholomew (Baker Academic)
Our society has lost its rootedness. While many of us yearn for a return to a more local, embedded (one could say incarnational) way of living, we don’t know how to move there — and we don’t know what the Bible has to say about this yearning. Bartholomew offers a gift to the Church by demonstrating how the particulars of place are wedded to the biblical narrative and to Christian life.
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Winn Collier is pastor of All Souls, a Baptist congregation in Charlottesville, Va., the author of three books and a columnist. (www.winncollier.com)