Jason has tagged me for the Best Contemporary Theology meme, which is asking for my top three best theology books written between in the last 25 years. This is difficult. On there must be something from Colin Gunton and Stanley Hauerwas and I think something from John Zizioulas.
1. The One, the Three and the Many: God, Creation and the Culture of Modernity*
2. The Peaceable Kingdom**
3. Being As Communion (and I'm looking forward to reading John's new book Communion and Otherness)
Other books that I think might or should become important are Sam Well's Improvisation and John Colwell's Promise and Presence. Like Jason, I also think Self and Salvation by David Ford is great and looking forward to its sequel or sorts Christian Wisdom
*Other important Gunton books are Actuality of Atonement and A Brief Theology of Revelation
**Because Hauerwas writes essays rather than books, it's hard to choose one book. The Peaceable Kingdom is probably his most book-like book.
I know your point re: Hauerwas. I opted for With the Grain of the Universe for this reason.
Posted by: Richard | January 14, 2007 at 07:31 PM
Andy,
I, too, agree with your point about Hauerwas. I naturally wanted to include him somewhere (I think he is doing amazing work), but which one of his many volumes to include as *the* best work? I opted for his Matthew Commentary (which I have only worked through a few chapters of, thus far), but felt that I could make a case for almost any other, particularly the ones you two have named. A tough call but I'm glad to see him nominated by others.
Oh, and I will at some time make good on explaining what I meant about Gunton, Andy. My judgement might have seemed slightly harsh, and I didn't mean that -- and I did include him in the 'best' category and think he was worth including.
Posted by: Jason | January 16, 2007 at 08:40 AM