Recent reading

I don't get a lot of time for reading from about the middle of September until the end of April, as churchland gets really busy during that time. However, if I'm lucky enough to get a summer relatively free from pastoral emergencies I can usually count on getting some good reading done during the warm months. Here's what I've been reading lately:

Stuart Murray: The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith. This book is based on the question 'What would Anabaptism look like with its Mennonite/Amish/Hutterite clothing stripped away?' The lion's part of the book is based around the seven core convictions of the Anabaptist Network in the UK, with a historical chapter toward the end for those who are new to the Anabaptist story. Since (despite Doug Chaplin's objections) I'm happy to identify myself as an 'Anabaptist Anglican', this book was a great read for me.

Christopher Hitchens: God is Not Great. This summer I'm especially interested in reading about atheism (pro and con), and so the amalgam known as 'Ditchkins' (Hitchens and Dawkins)is of course particularly important right now. I found this book to be far too 'over the top' for me. The subtitle tells it all: 'How religion poisons everything'. Really? Everything? I also have serious questions about the accuracy of the book. I'm not an expert in many of the areas Hitchens writes about, but I do know a fair bit about New Testament scholarship. In his chapter on the New Testament I identified at least fifteen glaring errors. This does not bode well for the accuracy of the rest of the book. Hitchens is a journalist dabbling in science, philosophy, theology, biblical scholarship etc., but he needs to do his homework better if he wants to make a convincing case.

Peter Hitchens: The Rage Against God. The subtitle of this book is 'How atheism led me to faith', and it is the autobiographical sections of this book that are the most enjoyable reading. But Peter is of course Christopher's brother, and the tension between them on the subject of Christianity is never far from the surface. In the middle of the book Peter details three areas where he thinks atheism's arguments (read, 'Christopher's arguments') fail: (1) 'Are conflicts fought in the name of religion really about religion?' (2) 'Is it possible to determine right and wrong without God?' and (3) 'Are atheist states actually not atheist?'

Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion. This is a far more formidable book than Hitchens' 'God is Not Great'. Dawkins is a scientist at the top of his game, and when he argues on the basis of things he really knows about (biology, evolution, natural selection etc.) he is extremely persuasive. However, for large parts of the book he strays into philosophy (eg. in discussing 'Why is there anything at all?' and the question of right and wrong and where it comes from), and there his arguments are far weaker. Still, I found this a very enjoyable read and I learned a great deal about science.

Francis S. Collins: The Language of God. Collins was until recently director of the human genome project and is a world class geneticist; the title of the book is taken from a remark Bill Clinton made with regard to those who had mapped the human genome learning 'the language of God'. The book is partly biographical, partly philosophical, and partly scientific. Collins is concerned, firstly, to defend belief in God from the arguments of atheism, and secondly, to defend the theory of evolution from the arguments of fundamentalism. In the process he teaches us a great deal about DNA and human genetics. I found this a very enjoyable book.

I've now started to read Terry Eagelton's Reason, Faith, and Revolution. Other books in my pile for the summer include Sam Harris' The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell, William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, Anthony Flew's There is a God, Lucy Moore's Messy Church, James Alison's On Being Liked, and Andrew Marin's Love is an Orientation. We'll see how far I get!