Best books of 2012

I didn't read so many new books this year. To be honest I've been content to fritter away most of my time reading Augustine and Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Augustine. So the best book I read this year I guess was Antony and Cleopatra, maybe The Tempest. But there were some terrific new books published in the past year, including some experimental works that altered the usual forms of scholarly writing. Here's my selection of the best of the year:

Theology

Marilynne Robinson, When I Was a Child I Read Books (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). If you only want to read one religious book this year, read this one.

Paula Fredriksen, Sin: The Early History of an Idea (Princeton) 

Robin Jensen, Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity (Baker)

Medi Ann Volpe, Rethinking Christian Identity: Doctrine and Discipleship (Wiley-Blackwell)

Prayer and spirituality

Anne Lamott, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers (Riverhead). If you don't want to read even one religious book this year, read this one.

Poetry

Louise Glück, Poems 1962-2012 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings (Penguin)

Literary criticism

Maureen McLane, My Poets (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Actually this book defies genre: it's a unique concoction of literary-critical memoir-poetical writing. Very good it is too. Perhaps my favourite new book overall this year.

Essays

Ali Smith, Artful (Penguin). Or maybe this one's my favourite: another genre-bending book, a wondrous quartet of fictionalised essays. This easily wins for cover of the year too (pictured above).

Memoir

Joan Didion, Blue Nights (Vintage)

Novel

Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies (Henry Holt). All right, it's a big book and I've barely even started. But I know a good book when I see it. Though as a rule I prefer small books to big ones.

Short stories

Alice Munro, Dear Life: Stories (Knopf). These small stories, for instance.

Sermons

Fleming Rutledge, And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament (Eerdmans)

Diaries

Susan Sontag, As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Best books (films, music, TV, websites) of 2011

OK folks, it must be time for a round-up of some highlights from the past year – mainly books, but also music, TV, films, and websites:

 

Theology:

• Denys Turner, Julian of Norwich, Theologian (Yale University Press). An exciting theological reading of Julian of Norwich, collapsing the divide between mysticism and systematic theology.
• Lewis Ayres, Augustine and the Trinity (Cambridge University Press). A deep reading and thoroughgoing reevaluation of Augustine's De Trinitate.
• Ralph Wood, Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God (Baylor University Press). An exploration of the darker side of Chesterton's religious imagination.
• Geoffrey Rees, The Romance of Innocent Sexuality (Cascade Books). A sort of meta-critique of the contemporary sexuality debates, and a retrieval of the good old Augustinian doctrine of original sin.

Theological memoir: 

• Margaret Miles, Augustine and the Fundamentalist's Daughter (Cascade Books). One of my all-round favourites of the past year – a delightful autobiographical narrative that follows the structure of the 13 books of Augustine's Confessions. More than an autobiography, it's really an autobiographical commentary on the Confessions. I read this on the way home from San Francisco after AAR, and it reminded me why theology matters.
• Eberhard Busch, Meine Zeit mit Karl Barth: Tagebuch 1965-1968 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht). Eberhard Busch's diaries from the last years of Barth's life are crammed full with insight and incident. An enormous contribution to Barth studies.
• Eugene Peterson The Pastor: A Memoir (HarperOne). I'm awarding this one preemptively, since I haven't actually read it yet. I've dipped into it, and it looks like a beautiful memoir – I hope to get to it soon.

Theology translations: 

• Erik Peterson, Theological Tractates, translated by Michael Hollerich (Stanford University Press). A very important contribution to English-language theology. This collection includes some of Peterson's most brilliant and influential essays.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theological Education Underground, 1937-1940, translated by Victoria Barnett (Fortress Press). Letters, journal entries, sermons, and lecture notes from Bonhoeffer's time in the Finkenwalde seminary. As the young folks say: epic.
• Sergius Bulgakov, Relics and Miracles: Two Theological Essays, translated by Boris Jakim (Eerdmans). This sounds like a quirky topic – but actually, this little book offers penetrating reflection on the doctrine of creation, the theology of the body, and a theology of transcendence and materiality. Definitely one of the most profound pieces of doctrinal writing that I read all year. Light-years ahead of most of the tosh that gets written about the doctrine of creation.

Edited collections:

• Donald MacKinnon, Philosophy and the Burden of Theological Honesty: A Donald MacKinnon Reader, edited by John McDowell (T&T Clark). MacKinnon was a master of the short, punchy essay – the kind of thing you read in half an hour, and then spend the rest of your life thinking about. It's great to have more of his essays available in this form. 
• Nicholas Wolterstorff, Hearing the Call: Liturgy, Justice, Church, and World (Eerdmans). A fabulous, spirited collection of short pieces exploring the intersections between liturgy and justice.
• Sarah Coakley and Paul Gavrilyuk, eds., The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity (Cambridge University Press). An important contribution to theologies of spirituality and theologies of the body. Taste and see! 

Popular theology:

• Rob Bell, Love Wins (HarperOne). I've recommended this book to several people, and I've talked to people who found it enormously helpful. In spite of all the kerfuffle surrounding it, it's really an excellent little book. Even my wife read it – twice! No theologian could ask for more.
• N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus (HarperOne). I haven't read this yet – but again, it looks like just the kind of book to recommend to people. It's a shame we don't have more theologians who can write in this kind of attractive plain speech.

Reference work:

• Hilarion Alfeyev, Orthodox Christianity: Volume I: The History and Canonical Structure of the Orthodox Church (St Vladimir's Seminary Press). The first volume of a massive new reference work, by the prodigiously learned Russian scholar. Just think of it: a single-author reference work! It's a feat of Herculean proportions!

Novels: 

• Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (Knopf). A tender, hurtful meditation on time and memory.
• Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife (Random House). A spell-binding first novel from this young Serbian writer. It's a delightful story, told in gorgeous prose. First sentence: "In my earliest memory, my grandfather is bald as a stone and he takes me to see the tigers."
• José Saramago, Cain (Houghton Mifflin). Translated posthumously, this is Saramago's irreverent and funny re-telling of the Pentateuch. It's not one of his best books, but it's – well, its Saramago.

Children's novel (chosen by my daughter):

• Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest (Yearling). My daughter loved this book so much that I've started reading it too. Here's a few lines from the first chapter: "The seven-forty-five evening train was going to be right on time.... Being a paying customer this time, with a full-fledged ticket, I didn't have to jump off, and I knew that the preacher would be waiting for me. But as anyone worth his salt knows, it's best to get a look at a place before it gets a look at you."
  

Poetry:

• Francis Webb, Francis Webb: Collected Poems (UNSW Press). A major publishing event, collecting the luminous work of this tragic, strangely neglected religious poet. Read it, and you'll understand why Sir Herbert Read called Webb "one of the most unjustly neglected poets of the century."
• Kevin Hart, Morning Knowledge (University of Notre Dame Press). Poems of grief, loss, faith, and love, surrounding the death of a father.

Literary criticism:

• Harold Bloom, The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life (Yale University Press). I'll be the first to admit that Bloom can be more than a little annoying. But his great virtue is his enormous – really, his megalomaniacal – love of reading. And that infectious love comes booming through in this boisterous swansong about a life lived through literature.
• Nathaniel Philbrick, Why Read Moby-Dick? (Viking). Quirky, concise, lucid, brimming with energy and personality – and it's all about Moby-Dick. What more could you want?

Best fine edition:

• Oscar Wilde, Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act, illustrated by Barry Moser (University of Virginia Press). A lavishly produced book, with Barry Moser's wonderfully dark and vivid engravings.

Art book:

• Matt Kish, Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page (Tin House Books). After following Matt's blog for years, it was a joy to see the published version of this whale-sized art project.

History:

• Elisheva Carlebach, Palaces of Time: Jewish Calendar and Culture in Early Modern Europe (Harvard University Press). Another beautifully produced book, full of sumptuous colour illustrations, and crowded with strange and improbable facts about the history of calendars. An enchanting book.

Philosophy:

• Giorgio Agamben, The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government (Stanford University Press). A magisterial essay on the political impact of the doctrine of the economic trinity. Somehow I've always found Agamben's writing – that gentle blend of history, philosophy, theology, Jewish mysticism, and sheer sleight of hand – as soothing as a lullaby.

Best new book series:

• Princeton University Press's Lives of Great Religious Books. What a great concept for a book series! So far I've only read Garry Wills' biography of Augustine's Confessions – and it was a real treat, especially the opening chapter on the practice of writing in antiquity.

Best older books I read this year:

• Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948; Mariner). It's true – somehow I'd never got around to reading this before. What a book! What a writer! What a life! Not so much a life as a one-man Broadway show, a runaway steam train, a carnival of sin and grace. Absolutely tremendous.
• Mark Van Doren, Shakespeare (1939; New York Review Books Classics). One of the most beautiful, precise, elegantly crafted pieces of literary criticism I've ever read.

Albums: 

• Tom Waits, Bad As Me. Nobody is as bad as Tom Waits. Or as good.
• PJ Harvey, Let England Shake. A blistering, rich, eloquent, disturbing provocation about warfare and the violence underlying contemporary society.
• Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues. Fleet Foxes: enough said.
• We Are Augustines, Rise Ye Sunken Ships. A pretty compelling rock debut. I discovered them by accident because I thought it had something to do with Saint Augustine. But I kept on listening long after I realised my mistake.

Television: 

• Australian: Cloudstreet (Showcase). Wonderful mini-series about two working-class families sharing a house in Perth. It's a poignant family drama punctuated by moments of magic realism. Geoff Morrell's Lester Lamb is one of the grandest TV characters I've seen in years – a character of Dickensian proportions. (Honourable mention: ABC's The Slap, another excellent Aussie series.)
• American: Boardwalk Empire (HBO). Only halfway through this at the moment, but I'm loving it – a smart, classy series about organised crime during 1920s Prohibition.
• British: The Hour (BBC). Utterly gripping edge-of-your-sofa suspense about a 1950s current affairs show. Ben Whishaw is captivating as the slovenly genius Freddie Lyons.

Films:

• Australian: Brendan Fletcher, Mad Bastards. A raw piece of storytelling about three generations of indigenous Australians. The film used non-professional actors from indigenous communities, and the result feels gritty and confrontingly authentic.
• American: Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life. This beautifully filmed cosmic/domestic epic is a sort of visual commentary on the Book of Job, a cinematic theodicy in answer to the dark Manichean theology of Lars von Trier's Antichrist.
• European: Lars von Trier, Melancholia. The end of the world has never been lovelier.

Web:

• Religion site: ABC Religion & Ethics. Scott Stephens' work on this site has catapulted public discourse about theology and religion to completely new levels of depth and sophistication.  
• Innovative site: Bibledex. A video for every book of the Bible. Why didn't someone think of it sooner?
• Blogs: Women in Theology and An und für sich. These team-blogs have produced some of the most fruitful and sustained discussions about theology in the past year. I've learned so many interesting new things from these discussions. When I only have time to lurk at a couple of blogs, those tend to be the ones I go to – and then I head over to Jason's relentlessly productive Per Crucem ad Lucem.

Essential anime for theologians

A guest-post by Steve Wright, a PhD student in Sydney – he recently introduced me (and my kids) to the incredibly rich and magical world of anime films, so I asked him for a post on the topic...

Anime is simply Japanese for "animation". These are a far cry from the Warner Bros. cartoons of your childhood. Grab some takoyaki and ramune (maybe some sake), set the language options to Japanese with English subtitles (avoid English dubs at all costs), and prepare to whisper in quiet amazement: "sugoi da na..."

• Howl's Moving Castle
• Paranoia Agent
• Tokyo Godfathers
• Tekkonkinkreet
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• Ghost in the Shell
• Fullmetal Alchemist
• Haibane Renmei
• Akira
• Grave of the Fireflies

Some 2010 highlights

OK folks, time for a round-up of some of the highlights of 2010:

Best albums

1. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – I admit it, this album is obscene, misogynistic, aggressive (occasionally murderous), and generally morally depraved. It’s outrageously scandalous and hilariously funny in equal measure. It’s also a tour de force: a work of breathtaking musical intensity and lyrical inventiveness, with brilliant rhymes of Dylanesque proportions. Probably one of the best pop albums I’ve ever heard.
2. Bob Dylan, The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 9)
3. Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
4. Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz
5. The National, High Violet
6. Joanna Newsom, Have One on Me

Best films

1. The Social Network
2. A Prophet
3. The King’s Speech
4. Toy Story 3
5. Monsters
6. Chico and Rita

* Worst trends: 3D movies. (Honestly, two-dimensional black and white is far more immersive.)
** Most overrated: Inception. (I enjoyed it on the whole. But if you want a film that convincingly explores the texture of dreaming, see Waking Life; and if you want a film that compelling explores the relation between perception and reality, see Blowup.)

Best TV shows

American: Mad Men, Season 4 (Not as good as the first three seasons, but it's still the best show on television.)
British: Rev
Australian: Rake

Best books

Theology – John Flett, The Witness of God: The Trinity, Missio Dei, Karl Barth, and the Nature of Christian Community (Eerdmans); and Angel F. Mendez Montoya, The Theology of Food: Eating and the Eucharist (Wiley-Blackwell)

Biography – Avril Pyman, Pavel Florensky: A Quiet Genius: The Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Russia's Unknown da Vinci (Continuum)

Translations – Johannes Heckel Lex Charitatis: A Juristic Disquisition on Law in the Theology of Martin Luther (Eerdmans); and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (Bonhoeffer Works Volume 8) (Fortress)

Political philosophy – Eric Nelsen, The Hebrew Republic: Jewish Sources and the Transformation of European Political Thought (Harvard UP)

Memoir – Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir (Eerdmans)

Literary criticism – Robert Alter, Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible (Princeton UP); and G. Douglas Atkins, T. S. Eliot and the Essay (Baylor UP)

Literature – I didn't read much new fiction this year, since I’ve been devoting myself to Latin American fiction. So my personal highlight of the year was reading (nearly) all the works of Roberto Bolaño – his big novel 2666 is a masterpiece, an epic of despair, that challenges the whole genre of the novel, and The Savage Detectives is also a stunning novel. Another highlight for me has been the huge new edition of the The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard.

Addendum: Jason's post reminds me that I forgot to mention Ernst Käsemann, On Being a Disciple of the Crucified Nazarene: Unpublished Lectures and Sermons (Eerdmans) – definitely one of the year's publishing highlights.

Best films of 2009

Here’s my pick of the year’s best films. To be fair, I should say that the best filmmaking of 2009 lay in the first half of Avatar and the first half of District 9. But both these films were irredeemably flawed: District 9 quickly forgot its own stunning documentary style, degenerating into an increasingly mindless and preposterous shoot-em-up; while Avatar’s brilliantly imagined fantasy world was sadly eclipsed by James Cameron’s astonishing inability to unimagine the necessity of military violence. This is a real shame, since both of these could have been among the greatest films of the decade, if only they had been half as long! But anyways, I’ve still included both these films on the list, but not in the top places. Here are my top 10:

1. Mary and Max (Adam Elliot, Australia and US)
2. Antichrist (Lars von Trier, Denmark)
3. Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer, US)
4. Avatar 3D (James Cameron, US)
5. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, South Africa)
6. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, US)
7. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)
8. Brüno (Larry Charles, US)
9. Samson and Delilah (Warwick Thornton, Australia)
10. Mao’s Last Dancer (Bruce Beresford, Australia and China)

Worst film (my wife forced me to go see it, and it was a damaging experience): Twilight Saga: New Moon

Best TV series of 2009

OK, here’s my pick of the year’s best 10 TV series. I should emphasise that the #1 show is light years ahead of the rest…

1. Mad Men, season 3 (AMC)
2. True Blood, season 2 (HBO)
3. Flight of the Conchords, season 2 (HBO)
4. In Treatment, season 2 (HBO)
5. Little Dorrit (BBC)
6. Glee (Fox)
7. The Librarians, season 2 (ABC)
8. Mumbai Calling (BBC)
9. United States of Tara (Showtime)
10. East West 101, season 2 (SBS) – full disclosure, I haven't actually seen this season yet, but it's an awesome show. I'm sure it will deserve a place in the list.

Best albums of 2009

Here's my pick of the year's 20 best albums:

1. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. jj, jj N°2
3. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
4. Iron & Wine, Around the Well
5. M. Ward, Hold Time
6. The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love
7. Lisa Mitchell, Wonder
8. The Mountain Goats, Life of the World to Come
9. The Avett Brothers, I and Love and You
10. Girls, Album
11. Dan Deacon, Bromst
12. The Flaming Lips, Embryonic
13. Florence and the Machine, Lungs
14. Fever Ray, Fever Ray
15. Antony & the Johnsons, The Crying Light
16. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
17. Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Twice Born Men
18. David Bazan, Curse Your Branches
19. Ben Harper, White Lies for Dark Times
20. YACHT, See Mystery Lights

Most theologically interesting albums: M. Ward, Hold Time; and The Mountain Goats, Life of the World to Come (in this latter album, each song is based on a Bible verse)
Best live album: Tom Waits, Glitter and Doom
Best covers album: Bob Dylan, Christmas in the Heart
Best debut album: jj, jj N°2
Best compilation: Dark Was the Night
Best children’s album: Butterflyfish, Ladybug
Most disappointing album: Bob Dylan, Together through Life

Best songs of 2009

Here's my pick of the 20 best songs of the year, with a limit of one song per artist (otherwise half the list would be Animal Collective…).

1. Animal Collective, “My Girls” (Just as “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was the theme song of the 60s, and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the theme song of the 90s, so “My Girls” could serve as the theme of the noughties: "I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls...")
2. jj, “Things Will Never Be the Same Again”
3. The Mountain Goats, “Psalm 40:2”
4. Grizzly Bear, “Two Weeks”
5. Girls, “Lust for Life”
6. The Decemberists, “The Rake’s Song”
7. Iron & Wine, “Kingdom of the Animals”
8. Lisa Mitchell, “Valium”
9. Florence and the Machine, “Dog Days Are Over”
10. Fever Ray, “If I Had a Heart”
11. My Chemical Romance, “Desolation Row”
12. Bob Dylan, “Must Be Santa”
13. Dan Deacon, “Snookered”
14. M. Ward, “Shangri-La”
15. The Antlers, “Kettering”
16. Sweet Billy Pilgrim, “Kalypso”
17. The Flaming Lips, “Silver Trembling Hands”
18. The Avett Brothers, “I and Love and You”
19. Mewithoutyou, “Allah, Allah, Allah”
20. YACHT, “Psychic City”

Best theology books of 2009

Over the next week I’ll post some roundups of the year’s highlights. Here’s my selection of the best (mainly theological) books of 2009:

• Theology: David Kelsey, Eccentric Existence: A Theological Anthropology, 2 vols. (WJK)
• Biblical studies (NT): Douglas Campbell, The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Eerdmans)
• Biblical studies (OT): John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel's Life (IVP)
• Systematic theology: T. F. Torrance, Incarnation and Atonement (IVP)
• Essay collection (single author): John Milbank, The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology (Cascade)
• Essay collection (multi-author): Oliver Crisp and Michael Rea (eds), Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology (Oxford UP)
• New edition: Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 31 vols. (T&T Clark)
• Critical edition: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 12 (Fortress)
• Teaching resource: Eugene Rogers, The Holy Spirit: Classic and Contemporary Readings (Wiley-Blackwell)
• Reference work: Herman J. Selderhuis (ed.), The Calvin Handbook (Eerdmans)
• Translation: Elsie Ann McKee (trans.), Institutes of the Christian Religion: 1541 French Edition (Eerdmans)
• Theological history: John Witte Jr., The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered (Cambridge UP)
  
• Commentary: Douglas Harink, 1 & 2 Peter (Brazos)
• Journal issue: 25-year special issue of Modern Theology (Wiley-Blackwell)
• Essay: Sarah Coakley, "Is There a Future for Gender and Theology? On Gender, Contemplation, and the Systematic Task," Criterion 47:1 (2009)
• Political thought: John Gray, Gray's Anatomy (Allen Lane)
• Literary criticism: Annabel Patterson, Milton's Words (Oxford UP)
• Biography: Rupert Shortt, Rowan's Rule: The Biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Eerdmans)
• Novel: Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America (Penguin)
• Children’s novel: Kate DiCamillo, The Magician's Elephant (Candlewick)
• And finally, the year's best theology book cover (T&T Clark; painting by Oliver Crisp):
  

The top ten films of 2008

Following on the heels of last week’s Oscars, let me offer my own top ten films of 2008:

1. The Visitor
2. Let the Right One In
3. WALL-E
4. Tell No One
5. Man on Wire
6. Slumdog Millionaire
7. Gran Torino
8. The Dark Knight
9. The Band’s Visit
10. In Bruges

And the award for the year’s most overrated film goes to the unbearably pretentious Benjamin Button.

The best of 2008

Well, the year is drawing to a close: we left Princeton yesterday, and we’re spending the week in snow-white Vancouver before heading back to red-hot Australia. So if you’ll allow me another moment of nostalgia, here are some of my highlights from 2008:

• Best novel: Marilynne Robinson, Home
• Best book of poetry: Rowan Williams, Headwaters
• Best film: The Visitor
  
• Best Australian film: The Black Balloon
  
• Best TV show: John Adams (HBO)
  
• Best online superhero musical tragicomedy: Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
  
• Best theology book (in English): Nate Kerr, Christ, History and Apocalyptic
• Best theology book (in German): Günter Thomas, Neue Schöpfung
  
• Best work of literary criticism: Rowan Williams, Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction
  
• Best book on politics: Ian Hunter, The Secularisation of the Confessional State: The Political Thought of Christian Thomasius
• Best book on history: Quentin Skinner, Hobbes and Republican Liberty
  
• Best journalistic piece: Chris Hedges, “The Best and the Brightest Have Led America Off a Cliff”
  
• Best food: fresh tomatoes and watermelons in Rome
  
• Best place for kids: Cotsen Children’s Library in Princeton (a wonderful, magical place for kids to read and play)
  
• Best vacation: a lovely overnight stay in Soho, New York (incidentally, this little holiday for my wife and me was the generous gift of an F&T reader!)
  
• Best live music: seeing Bob Dylan in New York
• Best surprise: receiving a painting of Karl Barth from Oliver Crisp!
  
• Best new discovery: the works of William Stringfellow – I’m completely obsessed with Stringfellow at the moment; try to talk to me about anything else, and I’ll be sure to slip Stringfellow into the conversation somehow...
  

Best albums of 2008

Here’s my list of the top 15 albums of 2008:

15. Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
14. Female Tribute to Tom Waits (bootleg compilation)
13. She & Him, Volume One
12. Nine Inch Nails, Ghosts I-IV
11. Blind Pilot, 3 Rounds and a Sound
10. Welcome Wagon, Welcome to the Welcome Wagon
9. Sigur Rós, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
8. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
7. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
6. Cat Power, Jukebox
5. Sun Kil Moon, April
4. TV on the Radio, Dear Science,
3. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Bob Dylan, Tell Tale Signs

(Drumroll...) and the best album of the year is...

1. Juno: Music from the Motion Picture – a perfect album in every way; the true apotheosis of the soundtrack genre.

Twenty great clergymen in novels

by Kim Fabricius

1. William Collins in Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
2. Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
3. Father Mapple in Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
4. Obadiah Slope in Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers (1857)
5. Charles François-Bienvenu Myriel in Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862)
6. Edward Casaubon in George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871)
7. Father Zossima in Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
8. Jean Marie Latour in Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
9. The young curate in Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest (1936)
10. The unnamed priest in Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory (1940)
11. Father Paneloux in Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)
12. Hazel Motes in Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952)*
13. Stephen Kumalo in Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country (1948)
14. Dean Jocelin in William Golding, The Spire (1964)
15. Sebastião Rodrigues in Endo Shusaku, Silence (1966)
16. William of Baskerville in Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose (1983)
17. Oscar Hopkins in Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda (1988)
18. Clarence Wilmot in John Updike, In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996)
19. Nathan Price in Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible (1998)
20. John Ames in Marilynne Robinson, Gilead (2004)

* Okay, Hazel Motes is not a clergyman, but there’s just got to be a place for him: call him an anti-clergyman! And for a great charlatan preacher, there is Elmer Gantry in Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry (1927).

Essential digitised texts for theologians

A publisher recently got in touch with me with a query about creating a digitised library of key theological texts. If you could have a digitised collection of about 30 key theological works (multi-volume works are fine), which books would you choose? (This can include historical theology, practical theology, etc – but no biblical studies, commentaries, etc).

Anyway, here’s a rough list of some of my suggestions – please add your own ideas as well, and I’ll pass all this on to the publisher. Thanks!

• Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom (3 vols)
• J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines
• Adolf von Harnack, History of Dogma (7 vols)
• Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition (5 vols)
• Augustine, Works
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae
• Calvin, Institutes
• Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics
• Friedrich Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith
• Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (new edition, 14 vols)
• Otto Weber, Foundations of Dogmatics (2 vols)
• Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God
• Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith
• Eberhard Jüngel, God as the Mystery of the World
• David Tracy, Blessed Rage for Order
• George Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine
• Hans Frei, Theology and Narrative: Selected Essays
• Hans Urs von Balthasar, Trilogy (15 vols): Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, Theo-Logic
• John Milbank, Theology and Social Theory
• Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church
• Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology (3 vols)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom
  
• Rowan Williams, On Christian Theology
• David Bentley Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite
• Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology (2 vols)
• Kathryn Tanner, Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity
• John Webster, Confessing God
• Bruce McCormack, Orthodox and Modern (forthcoming)

Theology highlights of 2007

Best theology book (academic): Rowan Williams, Wrestling with Angels: Conversations in Modern Theology (Eerdmans, 2007) – an extremely important collection of essays; this is Williams at his best.

Best theology book (popular): Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief (WJKP, 2007) – a beautiful, compelling and exquisitely elegant account of Christian belief, all organised around the very simple and very beautiful idea that God is the one whom we can trust.

Best book (New Testament): Susan Eastman, Recovering Paul's Mother Tongue: Language and Theology in Galatians (Eermans, 2007)

Best book (Old Testament): Rudolf Smend, From Astruc to Zimmerli: Old Testament Scholarship in Three Centuries (Mohr Siebeck, 2007)

Best theology journal: Modern Theology. This journal really stood out from the rest in 2007; it published an impressive range of groundbreaking articles, e.g. Philip Ziegler on Bonhoeffer; Kenneth Oakes on Barth and de Lubac; Kevin Hector on pneumatology; Jeffrey McCurry on Rowan Williams and Augustine; Merold Westphal on Jean-Luc Marion; Frederiek Depoortere on Žižek; Oliver Crisp on Robert Jenson; and Daniel Barber on John Howard Yoder.

Best journal article: Hugh Nicholson, “The Political Nature of Doctrine: A Critique of Lindbeck in Light of Recent Scholarship,” Heythrop Journal 48:6 (2007), 858-77.

Best conference paper: Douglas Harink, “The Time of the Gospel and the History of the World” (a brilliant SBL paper presented in San Diego, November 2007 – a copy is available online here)

Best theology blog: Inhabitatio Dei

Best new blog: The Immanent Frame

Best TV episode: The final episode of The Sopranos

Best new TV show: East West 101 (a terrific new Aussie crime show)

Best comedy scene: the Chasers’ APEC motorcade stunt (I adore these guys: wonderfully anarchic Aussie comedy)

Best film: I’m Not There (admittedly I didn’t get to see many new films in 2007 – but I loved this one)

Best novel: Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns (Riverhead, 2007)

Best song: Bob Dylan, “Huck’s Tune” (2007) – from the Lucky You soundtrack; you can hear the song at YouTube. This is such a great song that I’ll end with an excerpt from the lyrics:

        “I count the years and I shed no tears,
        I’m blinded to what might have been.
        Nature’s voice makes my heart rejoice;
        Play me the wild song of the wind.

        I found hopeless love in the room above
        When the sun and the weather were mild;
        You’re as fine as wine, I ain’t handin’ you no line,
        I’m gonna have to put you down for a while.”

Top books on the resurrection

Here are my top eight books on the resurrection (limited to books written within the past century, and to one book per author):

1. Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans
2. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus – God and Man
3. Rudolf Bultmann, various essays
4. J. Louis Martyn, Galatians
5. Robert W. Jenson, God after God: The God of the Past and the God of the Future, Seen in the Work of Karl Barth
6. Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope
7. Alain Badiou: Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism
8. Edward Schillebeeckx, Jesus: An Experiment in Christology

Update: See also Halden’s alternative list – he also includes a book by Alan Lewis which I haven’t read yet; looks like I’ll have to get a copy.

Top ten books on ethics

Andy lists his 10 indispensable books on Christian ethics. It’s good to see that Bonhoeffer wasn’t forgotten.

A dogmatics for every occasion

An imaginative dogmatics: Origen, De principiis
A majestic dogmatics: Calvin, Institutes
An informative dogmatics: Donald Bloesch, “Christian Foundations”
An encyclopaedic dogmatics: Pannenberg, Systematic Theology
An intricate dogmatics: Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith
A patient dogmatics: Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae
A deep dogmatics: Tillich, Systematic Theology
A legalistic dogmatics: W. G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology
A dogmatics for worshippers: Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology
A dogmatics for the oppressed: Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation
A dogmatics for theorists: D. B. Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite
A cultural dogmatics: Langdon Gilkey, Message and Existence
A boring dogmatics: Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology
An energetic dogmatics: Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology
A sleep-inducing dogmatics: Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology
A nightmare-inducing dogmatics: Herman Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics
A traditional dogmatics: Thomas Oden, Systematic Theology
An untraditional dogmatics: Gordon Kaufman, Systematic Theology
A cheerful dogmatics: Barth, Church Dogmatics
A mystical dogmatics: Matthias Scheeben, Mysteries of Christianity

25 great Christ-figures from novels

Kim and I got together and compiled a list of our favourite Christ-figures from novels. Here’s our top 25, listed in chronological order:

1. Don Quixote: Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605, 1615)
2. Dinah Morris: George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859)
3. Prince Myshkin: Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot (1869)
4. Jim: Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (1885)
5. Billy Budd: Herman Melville, Billy Budd (begun c.1886)
6. Gerassim: Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886)
7. Benjy: William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)
8. Gandalf: J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1937-49)
9. Jim Casey: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
10. The priest: Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory (1940)
11. John Singer: Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
12. Tarrou: Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)
13. Stephen Kumalo: Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country (1948)
14. Aslan: C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
15. Santiago: Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
16. Simon: William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954)
17. Himmelfarb: Patrick White, Riders in the Chariot (1960)
18. Asher Lev: Chaim Potok, My Name Is Asher Lev (1972)
19. Hazel: Richard Adams, Watership Down (1972)
20. Krishna: Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1986)
21. Oscar: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda (1988)
22. Owen Meany: John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)
23. Harold and Raymond McPheron: Kent Haruf, Plainsong (1999) and Eventide (2004)
24. Vianne Rocher: Joanne Harris, Chocolat (1999)
25. Nakata, tracer of lost cats: Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (2003)

Twelve great filmic Christ figures

by Kim Fabricius

Here is an even dozen of my favourite filmic Christ figures. By “Christ figure” I mean a protagonist who fulfils the following criteria:

• The character comes from another world/environment.
• The character is “other”, alien, strange.
• The character transcends his/her/its surroundings.
• The character is salvific, i.e. bestows blessings like inspiration, liberation, transformation, reconciliation, justice, healing to other people or a community.
• The character arouses opposition and/or suffers.
• And, crucially – it eliminates a host of famous potentials – the character does not maim or kill, i.e. is fundamentally non-violent (there go westerns like Shane and science fiction flicks like Terminator 2).
• To narrow the field further, the character cannot be biblical, or even religious (so no priests or nuns), nor historical (e.g. Ghandi or Schindler), nor come from an animated film (sorry, Shrek!).

Here they are, then:

1. Luke – Cool Hand Luke (1967)
2. Randle McMurphy – One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
3. Rocky – Rocky (1976)
4. ET – ET (1982)
5. Babette – Babette’s Feast (1987)
6. Edward – Edward Scissorhands (1990)
7. The groundhog (totemically) – Groundhog Day (1993)
8. Andy Dufresne – The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
9. Forrest Gump – Forrest Gump (1994)
10. Babe – Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
11. John Coffey – The Green Mile (1999)
12. Amélie – Amélie (2001)

Okay, now point out to me my poor judgement and egregious omissions!