 |
All is Grace: A Ragamuffin’s Memoir, Brennan Manning and John Blase (David C. Cook). Brennan Manning has been a voice for the radical truth of God’s grace, a gift that flows freely into all the broken places of the human heart. Of course, Brennan has been honest enough along the way to let us know that this conviction is no abstraction, but emerges from his personal story of being a broken man whose entire life has been in desperate need of grace. Brennan is in poor health, and this will be his last book. In fact, writer John Blase’s artful pen nurtured this work along. Some will be disturbed by Brennan’s admissions, how he’s “broken every one of the ten commandments,” particularly since his commandment-breaking was not all reference to only ancient history. But this story really is all about grace. And that’s a story we need to hear.
 |
Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor, Ben Witherington III (Eerdmans). Most of us will spend a large portion of the hours of our life working. Yet few of us have any notion of what this has to do with God. Riddled with theological dualism (separating physical activity from supposed spiritual activity) as well as the misguided belief that physical labor is a result from sin in Eden, we are unable to see how our work joins in God’s good purposes for the world. Witherington helps us see anew God’s intentions for us to participating in bringing order to God’s world. As a result, Witherington helps us re-imagine the powerful ways our vocations join God’s commitment to making all things new.
 |
Gungor, Ghosts Upon the Earth (Brash Records). If you’re one of those persons who’s begun to question whether musicians in the overtly Christian genre can create original, imaginative music that’s theologically rich and artistically nuanced, you must listen to Gungor, a Denver-based husband/wife duo who does all this and more. Of course, Gungor aren’t the only ones creating this kind of art, but they are some of the best.
Winn Collier (www.winncollier.com) is pastor of All Souls, a Baptist congregation in Charlottesville, Va., the author of three books and a columnist.