In no particular order…
1. On the Shortness of Life (Seneca)
This is a collection of letters written by Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca. In the various letters written to his friends and family, Seneca addresses the meaning and purpose of human life. According to Seneca, far too many people claim that life is too short. In all actuality life is long and full of meaning in one knows how to live it.
This is a fictional story of a young boy named Pi who is stranded at sea with an orangutan, hyena, zebra, and Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. For the sake of preserving the joy of reading this novel for the first time I will leave my description at this: This book is a linguistic/religious commentary on what constitutes Truth.
3. Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)
This Russian novel is deeply philosophical in nature. Through the main character Raskolnikov, Dostoyevsky explores the question of whether or not man can transcend societal and moral laws for the “greater good” of society.
This novel tells the story of the Trask family and their settlement in the Salinas Valley of California. Through tragic events, the protagonist, Adam Trask, experiences a spiritual death and loss of self. From this nadir, Adam begins to question if his life is destined or if he has the ability to shape his destiny. Woven into the story is Steinbeck’s exploration of the ultimate nature of humanity, Good or Evil, and our potential to overcome Evil with Good.
This is an investigation into the life of Christopher McCandless and the “Alaskan journey” which eventually led to his death. McCandless was undoubtedly a controversial figure who left behind a great education, sold all of his possessions, donated his savings to charity, and left his friends and family behind to escape into the wild. Krakauer does a good job of telling the entire story and seeking to understand McCandless’s motivation and purpose in his dangerous journey.
6. Where Men Win Glory (Krakauer)
At first, this book appears to be a simple recantation on the life and death of Pat Tillman who gave up a lucrative professional football career to join the army. I passed this book by several times at the library simply because I felt that Tillman was unjustly used as a propaganda ploy by the U.S. government and did not want to read such a book. As it turns out, this is mostly true, but Krakauer sets out to shed light on the true Tillman, a complex individual of high character and often seemingly conflicting values. As it turns out, Tillman’s death was the result of friendly fire and the military and government went to extreme ends to hide this fact from his family and the public.
I just recently got into Vonnegut. Through his fantastical sci-fi style and a heavy dose of black satire, Vonnegut delivers a powerful moral commentary on society. This book in particular tackles the self-destructive nature of humans and our compulsion to manipulate and control through the forces of politics and religion.
8. Slaughterhouse-five (Vonnegut)
In this rich novel, Vonnegut explores (to name only a few) questions of the nature of time, free-will or fatalism, and humanity’s response to the aforementioned. Semi-autobiographical in nature, Slaugtherhouse-five recounts the story of Billy Pilgrim, an awkward, time-traveling man who is drafted into WWII and taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge. Billy’s POW group is stationed in Dresden, Germany when it is fire bombed. Unable to control his location in time, Billy frequently drifts in an out of the present to other events in his past and future. Knowing all that will happen in his life, Billy develops a fatalistic wordlview, though it is unclear if Vonnegut feels the same. Poo-tee-weet?
9. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Newbigin)
This is a heavy theological investigation of the place and purpose of Christianity in an increasingly global and pluralistic society. The work opens by leveling the playing field of all beliefs/sciences by arguing that to know anything begins with accepting some premise on faith. From this foundation grows a system of belief or a lens through which to view the world. After setting this stage, Newbigin then argues, though in a rather inclusivistic manner, that Christianity is the most meaningful lens through which to make sense of the world.
10. Jesus for President (Claiborne)
Because it is the background from which I come, evangelical Christian issues are of great interest to me. I find the contemporary Church to be rather broken and confused on a whole gamut of issues. Here author/activist Shane Claiborne tackles the Churches marriage to political parties and American interest. Advocating for neither right nor left, Claiborne calls for a radically different way to view the Kingdom of God in its relation to the Kingdom of this world. A good read for anyone intrigued by the meeting of religion, politics, and culture.
